Nineteen-year-old Hwang was watching the protests in Georgia on Tuesday night’s news when the images on TV suddenly changed – the spotlight was on his country after South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol announced martial law.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing,” said the student, who wished to be identified only by his surname.

By Wednesday afternoon, he was among the protesters standing before the National Assembly, still stunned about what had happened the night before.

“It’s important for me to be here to show that we are against what Yoon tried to do,” Hwang said.

In a little less than six hours, Yoon was forced to walk back his shock announcement after lawmakers scrambled to block it.

But those were chaotic hours, sparking protests, fear and uncertainty in the country that had elected him.

On Tuesday night, at 23:00 local time (14:00 GMT) President Yoon, seated in front of blue creaseless curtains, made an unexpected address to the nation.

He said he was imposing martial law to protect the country from “anti-state” forces that sympathised with North Korea. The embattled leader is in a deadlock over a budget bill, dogged by corruption scandals and investigations into his cabinet members.

What followed was a sleepless night for Seoul.

Shortly after Yoon’s announcement, police lined the white metal gates outside the National Assembly building in the heart of Seoul, the building that the country’s tourism authorities have framed as “the symbol of Korean democracy”.

The military then announced that all parliamentary activity was suspended under martial law. But neither that nor the heavy security presence stopped thousands from gathering in front of the assembly in concern and fury.

It is easy to forget that South Korea – now a vibrant democracy – had its last brush with authoritarianism in the not-too-distant past – it only emerged from military rule in 1987. Martial law was last imposed in 1979.

This was “a move I never expected to see in the 21st century in South Korea,” university student Juye Hong told BBC World Service’s OS programme from Seoul.

Soon after Yoon’s shock announcement, the opposition’s Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, hosted a live stream urging people to assemble at the National Assembly and protest there.

He also asked his fellow lawmakers to make their way to the assembly to vote down the order.

Hundreds of South Koreans responded.

Tensions rose quickly as a sea of dark, puffy winter coats pushed up against lines of police in neon jackets, chanting “no to martial law”.

And as vehicles arrived with military units, crowds blocked them. One woman lay defiantly between the wheels of a vehicle.

In stark contrast, there was a façade of normalcy across the rest of Seoul. Still, confusion enveloped the city.

“The streets look normal, people here are certainly bewildered,” John Nilsson-Wright, an associate professor at the University of Cambridge, told BBC World Service from Seoul.

The policeman he spoke to was “as mystified as I am,” he added.

• The president’s gamble backfired: What was he thinking?
• What is martial law and why was it declared?
• Woman who grabbed South Korean soldier’s gun speaks to BBC
• How two hours of martial law chaos unfolded

It was a sleepless night for some. “At first I was excited at the thought of not going to school today,” 15-year-old Kwon Hoo told the BBC in Seoul on Wednesday. “But then overwhelmingly the sense of fear settled in, that kept me up all night.”

“No words can express how afraid I am that things might turn out like North Korea for our people,” a South Korean who did not want to be named told BBC OS.

Meanwhile, word was spreading that special forces had been deployed to the assembly building. Helicopters were heard overhead as they circled the skies before landing on the parliament’s roof.

Reporters jostled in the crowd outside the gates, clicking away with their cameras.

As concerns grew that the government might restrict the media, journalists in Seoul stayed in touch with one another, exchanging advice on how to stay safe.

Ahn Gwi-ryeong, the 35-year-old spokesperson for the opposition Democratic Party found herself facing down soldiers at gunpoint. A video of the moment, where she is tugging at the barrel of a soldier’s rifle, has since gone viral.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything intellectual or rational, I was just like, ‘We have to stop this, if we don’t stop this, there’s nothing else,’’ she told the BBC.

“To be honest, I was a bit scared at first when I first saw the martial law troops. I thought, ‘Is this something that can happen in 21st century Korea, especially in the National Assembly?”

“After such a storm last night, it was hard to get back to reality,” she added, recalling the previous night. “I felt like I was witnessing the regression of history.”

As Ahn was confronting the soldiers, the clock was ticking for opposition lawmakers, who rushed to get into the assembly to block the order. Once that happened, the president would have to withdraw it.

But first, MPs and their aides had to get inside. Some crawled through the legs of security forces, others shoved and screamed at armed soldiers; many frantically clambered over fences and walls.

Lee Seong-yoon from the Democratic Party told the BBC that he had to scale a 1.5m (4.9ft)-high fence to enter the building, with the police blocking him even after he had shown them identification that proved he was a lawmaker.

Another opposition MP, Hong Keewon, said that protesters helped to hoist him over the wall. He had been asleep when Yoon made the announcement – when his wife woke him, he raced to parliament.

“Democracy is strong here,” Hong said. “The military needs to listen to us, to the constitution, and not to the president.”

Lawmakers who made it into the building huddled together, only slightly calmer than the people outside. Hastily, they barricaded the entrances with whatever they could find: cushioned benches, long tables, sofas.

Some tried to push back soldiers who had made their way into the assembly building.

By 01:00 local time, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik submitted a resolution requesting martial law to be lifted.

With that, less than two hours after Yoon’s shock declaration, 190 lawmakers who gathered, including some from Yoon’s party, voted unanimously to block it.

After the vote, opposition leader Lee told reporters that this was “a decisive opportunity to break the vicious cycle and return to normal society”.

By 04:30, Yoon was back on TV, in front of the same blue curtains, saying he would withdraw martial law. But this would only be made official, he said, when he could assemble enough of his cabinet to lift the order.

The announcement was met with cheers outside the assembly. In the hours before dawn, more people emerged from the building, from behind the barricades they had haphazardly put together.

With holes in the doors and broken windows, the stately building already bears scars of the night when South Koreans saved their democracy.

Schools, local businesses and banks opened as usual on Wednesday morning – and flights continued to land uninterrupted in South Korea’s buzzing capital.

But public anger – and the political fallout – was not spent.

As the sun rose on Wednesday, thousands gathered to call for Yoon’s resignation. The president is also facing impeachment proceedings.

“We are a strong democracy…But Korean people want to be safe – President Yoon must resign or be impeached,” Yang Bu-nam, a Democratic Party politician, told the BBC.

A man who was cleared of murdering a British woman during a break-in at her home in Australia has been sentenced to 18 months detention for burglary and assault in relation to the case.

Emma Lovell, 41, who emigrated from Ipswich, was fatally stabbed after confronting two intruders in a suburb north of Brisbane on 26 December 2022.

One of them has been jailed for murder, and the other, who was 17 at the time and cannot be named for legal reasons, was acquitted of the murder charge but was convicted of burglary in company and assault occasioning bodily harm in company at the Supreme Court of Queensland.

The teenager, now 19, has been sentenced but was released from detention having been on remand for nearly two years, ABC in Australia reports.

Another teenager admitted murder earlier this year in relation to the break-in and was jailed in May this year for 14 years.

Ms Lovell’s best friend, Christina Lofthouse, told the BBC: “I feel sad that justice really hasn’t been served for Emma and that her family are having to deal with this.

“Even more so that the other one is taking it to the appeal court next month as they believe the sentence is too long.”

Mother-of-two Mrs Lovell left Suffolk in 2011 with her daughters and her husband Lee, who was also injured in the attack.

The latest sentencing hearing was told by prosecutor David Nardone that the second teenager’s criminal history was lengthy.

The previous judge-only trial heard the defendant, who suffered cognitive impairments, did not stab anyone himself, but had just been released on bail, in connection with unrelated offences, on the day of the break-in.

In sentencing, Judge Michael Copley recorded a conviction for three of 21 offences including those related to the Lovell home break-in.

Mr Lovell said he felt “pretty let down” following the sentencing, reported Channel 9.

Police in the Canadian city of Vancouver said two people were stabbed and a suspect was shot dead by officers.

The incident took place on Wednesday morning, when officers responded to a report of a knife-wielding man who had stolen alcohol in a restaurant.

The two people injured in the attack were taken to hospital. Their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Police have not identified the dead suspect.

In a statement, Vancouver Police said a caller “reported a man had stolen alcohol and was armed with a knife” inside a restaurant near the city’s central library.

When officers arrived, they found the armed suspect inside a nearby convenience store.

The suspect, who has not been identified, was then shot and taken into custody.

Police officers and first responders attempted to administer aid to the suspect, who later died in the hospital.

The incident is under investigation.

Video seen by the Canadian Press reportedly shows police firing over the counter of a convenience store and yelling “move over” as they aim their weapons.

Another video appears to show first responders performing chest compressions on the suspect.

The French government has collapsed after Prime Minister Michel Barnier was ousted in a no-confidence vote.

MPs voted overwhelmingly in support of the motion against him – just three months after he was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron.

Opposition parties had tabled the motion after the former Brexit negotiator controversially used special powers to force through his budget without a vote.

It marks the first time the country’s government has collapsed in a no-confidence vote since 1962.

The development will further France’s political instability, after snap elections in summer led to no single group having a majority in parliament.

MPs were required to either vote yes or abstain from Wednesday’s vote, with 288 votes needed for the motion to pass. A total of 331 voted in support of the motion.

Barnier is now obliged to present the resignation of his government, and the budget which triggered his downfall is defunct.

However, he is likely to stay on as caretaker prime minister while Macron chooses a successor.

Both the left and far right had tabled motions of no-confidence after Barnier pushed through reforms to social security by invoking presidential decree on Monday, after failing to win enough support for the measures.

The left-wing alliance New Popular Front (NFP), which won the most seats in the parliamentary elections, had previously criticised Macron’s decision to appoint centrist Barnier as prime minister over its own candidate.

Alongside the far-right National Rally (RN), it deemed Barnier’s budget – which included €60bn (£49bn) in deficit reduction – unacceptable.

Marine Le Pen, the RN leader, said the budget was “toxic for the French”.

Ahead of the vote, Barnier told the National Assembly that voting him out of office would not solve the country’s financial problems.

“We have reached a moment of truth, of responsibility,” he said, adding that “we need to look at the realities of our debt”.

“It is not a pleasure that I propose difficult measures.”

In an interview with French broadcaster TF1 on Wednesday, Le Pen said there was “no other solution” than to remove Barnier.

Asked about the French president’s prospects, she replied: “I am not asking for the resignation of Emmanuel Macron.”

However, Le Pen added that “if we do not respect the voice of voters and show respect for political forces and respect for elections”, then pressure on the president will “obviously be stronger and stronger”.

Macron, who has returned to France following a state visit to Saudi Arabia, is due to give a televised speech to the nation on Thursday evening.

He is not directly affected by the result of the vote, as France votes for its president separately from its government.

Macron had said he would not resign whatever the outcome of Wednesday’s vote.

He is expected to name a new prime minister swiftly to avoid the embarrassment of a non-existent government – not least because US President-elect Donald Trump is due in Paris this weekend for the reopening of the Notre-Dame cathedral.

No new parliamentary elections can be held until July, so the current deadlock in the Assembly – where no group can hope to have a working majority – is set to continue.

The price of Bitcoin has for the first time broken past the $100,000 mark, hitting a new record high.

The value of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency has been boosted by hopes US President-elect Donald Trump will adopt crypto-friendly policies.

The milestone was reached hours after Trump said he would nominate former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Paul Atkins to run the Wall Street regulator.

Mr Atkins is seen as being far more pro-cryptocurrency than the current head of the SEC, Gary Gensler.

The $100,000 milestone prompted celebrations from cryptocurrency fans around the world.

Bitcoin’s wildly fluctuating value has always attracted interest, with its backers reacting with delight when it has passed previous price thresholds – and defiance during its slumps.

But this particular landmark has been especially keenly anticipated. For weeks charts, memes and predictions have swirled around social media about when the price would hit the figure thought to be one of the holy grails of the crypto world.

Millions of viewers even tuned in to online watch parties as the price hovered close to $100k.

The value of a single bitcoin is one of the barometers of optimism in the cryptocurrency industry which is now estimated to be worth $3.3tn, according to analysis firm Coin Market Cap.

Trump’s election victory last month was the catalyst for the latest surge.

The president-elect has vowed to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet” – a remarkable turnaround given as recently as 2021 he was calling Bitcoin a “scam.”

Also remarkable is just how Bitcoin’s price has rocketed. A valuation of $100k represents a 40% increase on election day in the U.S. and more than double the price it started the year at.

But there’s lots more to Bitcoin than the dizzying changes in its value.

From its enigmatic inventor to the bringing down of the so-called Crypto King, it’s a story with many twists and turns, which has seen the making – and losing – of huge fortunes.

So here’s the BBC’s list of the seven wildest moments – so far – in Bitcoin’s tumultuous history.

1. The mysterious creator of Bitcoin

Despite its enormous profile, no-one actually knows for sure who invented Bitcoin. The idea for it was posted on internet forums in 2008 by someone calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto.

They explained how a peer-to-peer digital cash system could work to enable people to send virtual coins over the internet, just as easily as sending an email.

Satoshi created a complex computer system that would process transactions and create new coins using a huge network of self-appointed volunteers around the world who used special software and powerful computers.

But he – or they – never revealed their identity, and the world has never worked it out.

In 2014, Japanese-American man Dorian Nakamoto was pursued by reporters who thought he was the elusive Bitcoin creator, but it proved to be a false lead caused by some mistranslated information.

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright said it was him in 2016 – but after years of legal battles, a High Court judge concluded he was not Satoshi.

Earlier this year, a Canadian Bitcoin expert called Peter Todd strongly denied being Satoshi, while in London this month a British man, Stephen Mollah, claimed he was – but no-one believed him.

2. Making history with pizza

Bitcoin now underpins a two trillion-dollar cryptocurrency industry – but the first recorded transaction using it was the purchase of pizza.

On 22 May 2010, Lazlo Hanyecz, offered $41 worth of Bitcoin on a crypto forum in return for two pizzas.

A 19-year-old student obliged and the day went down in history for fans of the currency as #BitcoinPizza day.

A source of memes for those in crypto community, it also showcased the power of Bitcoin – an internet money that could genuinely buy items online.

Criminals must have been watching too, because within a year the first darknet marketplace was launched selling drugs and other illegal goods in exchange for Bitcoin.

The deal looks pretty bad for Lazlo now too. If he had held onto those coins they would now be worth hundreds of millions of dollars!

3. Becoming legal tender

In September 2021, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, central America, made Bitcoin legal tender.

Hairdressers, supermarkets and other shops had to accept Bitcoin by law, alongside its main currency, the US dollar.

Many Bitcoin enthusiasts and reporters visited the area, briefly boosting tourism to the country.

While President Bukele hoped the move would increase investment in his country and cut costs for citizens exchanging money, it did not become as popular as he hoped.

He is still hoping it will take off but for now the US dollar still remains king in the country.

As well as the huge amount of public money President Bukele spent on trying to make people embrace Bitcoin he also, controversially, bought more than 6,000 bitcoins over the past few years.

The president spent at least $120m buying up bitcoins at various prices in the hope of making a profit for his cash-strapped country.

It started to look good for him in December 2023 when, for the first time, his stash skyrocketed in value.

A website built by Dutch software engineer Elias Zerrouq is tracking the country’s Bitcoin holdings and currently estimates that the coins have risen 98% in value.

4. Kazakhstan’s crypto boom and bust

In 2021, Kazakhstan became a hotspot for Bitcoin mining – the process of crunching through the complex calculations that underpin crypto transactions.

These days it takes warehouses full of the latest computers running all day and all night, but the reward is brand new bitcoins for those companies that take part.

Warehouses of computers require lots of power – and many businesses moved to Kazakhstan where electricity was abundant thanks to huge coal reserves.

At first the government welcomed them with open arms as they brought investment.

But too many miners arrived and put huge strain on the electricity grid, putting the country at risk of blackouts.

Within a year, Kazakhstan’s Bitcoin mining industry went from boom to bust as the government imposed restrictions and increased taxes to curb the growth.

Around the world it is estimated that the Bitcoin network uses as much electricity as a small country, raising concerns about its environmental impact.

5. Bitcoins in the rubbish dump

Imagine having a crypto wallet worth more than $100m (£78m) – and then accidentally throwing away a hard drive containing the login details.

That’s what James Howells, from south Wales, says happened to him

The very nature of crypto means that recovery is not as easy as resetting your password. With no banks involved – there is no customer support helpline.

Unfortunately for him, his local council in Newport refused to let him access the landfill site where he says the device ended up – even after he offered to donate 25% of his Bitcoin stash to local charities if they let him.

He told the BBC: “It was a penny dropping moment and it was a sinking feeling.”

6. Crypto King fraudster

No one has lost as much Bitcoin as former billionaire crypto mogul, Sam Bankman-Fried. The founder of the massive crypto firm FTX was nicknamed the Crypto King and loved by the community.

FTX was a cryptocurrency exchange that allowed people to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

His empire was worth an estimated $32bn and he was flying high until everything came crashing down within days.

Journalists had discovered that Bankman-Fried’s company was financially shaky and had been illegally transferring FTX customer funds to prop up his other company, Alameda Research.

Just before his arrest at his luxury apartment complex in the Bahamas in December 2022 he spoke to reporters. He told the BBC: “I don’t think I committed fraud. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was.”

After being extradited to the US he was found guilty of fraud and money laundering and was jailed for 25 years.

7. Investment bank boom

Despite all the turmoil, Bitcoin continues to attract attention from investors and big companies.

In fact, in January 2024, some of the biggest financial firms in the world added Bitcoin to their official asset lists as Spot Bitcoin ETFs. These are like stocks and shares, linked to the value of Bitcoin but you don’t have to personally own any.

Customers have been pouring billions into these brand new products. Companies including Blackrock, Fidelity and GrayScale, have also been buying up Bitcoins in their thousands, pushing up its value to record highs.

It is a huge milestone for crypto with some fans believing that Bitcoin is finally being taken as seriously as the mysterious Satoshi imagined.

Nonetheless, few would back against more wild moments as the Bitcoin story continues to unfold.

New York City police officers are using facial recognition technology and a discarded cell phone to identify the man who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson Wednesday morning.

Thompson, 50, was fatally shot in the back just before 07:00 EST (12:00 GMT) outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

The attacker fled the scene without taking any of Thompson’s belongings. Police believe he was targeted in a pre-planned killing.

Here’s what we know about the suspect and the investigation.

The shooting took place at about 06:45 EST (11:45 GMT) in a busy part of Manhattan close to Times Square and Central Park. Thompson had been scheduled to speak at an investor conference later in the day.

According to police, the suspect – who was clad in a black face mask and cream jacket – appeared to be waiting for Thompson for five minutes outside the Hilton hotel where he was expected to speak.

Thompson, who arrived on foot, was shot in the back and leg, and later was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

• NYPD hunts gun-wielding assailant who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO outside hotel
• FULL COVERAGE: The shooting of CEO Brian Thompson
• Who was Brian Thompson?

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny have revealed that the suspect’s weapon appeared to malfunction, but that he was able to quickly fix it and continue shooting.

Video shows him fleeing the scene on foot; he was last spotted in Central Park on an electric bicycle

So far, the investigation into Thompson’s killing has centred on a few clues that police are using to identify the suspect.

Police revealed the suspect was photographed at a nearby Starbucks just minutes before the shooting.

While he is masked in the image, police sources told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that the mask is pulled down far enough so that his eyes and part of his nose can be seen.

With that, investigators are using facial recognition software to try to find a match.

Additionally, police are testing three bullet casings and three live rounds found at the scene for DNA.

A cell phone was discovered in an alley along the suspect’s escape route. Police say they are “working through” the phone.

Investigators also said they would search Thompson’s room at the nearby Marriott, which is down the street from where the incident took place.

Investigators have so far not identified a motive in the killing, although police did note that the assailant fled without taking any of Thompson’s belongings.

In an interview with MSNBC, Thompson’s wife said that there had “been some threats” against him earlier, although she was unable to provide details.

“I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him,” she said.

According to police in Thompson’s hometown of Maple Grove, Minnesota, there had previously been one suspicious incident at his home in 2018.

The incident was cleared with no criminal activity detected. No additional details were provided.

Antibiotics are hailed as medical saviours.

But they are increasingly facing a crafty adversary: bacteria that mutate and adapt and outwit the very drugs designed to defeat them and cure the infections they cause.

These antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” directly caused 1.14 million deaths worldwide in 2021, according to The Lancet, a medical journal. Antibiotics – which are considered to be the first line of defence against severe infections – did not work on most of these cases.

India is among the countries hardest hit by “antimicrobial resistance”. In 2019 alone, antibiotic-resistant infections caused around 300,000 deaths. They alone are responsible for the deaths of nearly 60,000 newborns each year.

But some hope is on the horizon. A number of promising locally-developed new drugs show potential to combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens. They also offer a game-changing solution to preserve last-resort treatments.

Enmetazobactam, developed by Chennai-based Orchid Pharma, is the first antimicrobial invented in India to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This injectable drug treats severe conditions like urinary tract infections (UTIs), pneumonia and bloodstream infections by targeting bacteria’s defence mechanisms rather than the bacteria itself.

Bacteria often produce enzymes, like beta-lactamase, to destroy antibiotics. Enmetazobactam binds tightly to those enzymes, neutralising them and allowing the antibiotic to kill the bacteria effectively.

To put it simply, the drug immobilises the bacteria’s “weapon” without triggering resistance easily. This also preserves the effectiveness of other antibiotics, including carbapenems, which are the reliable “last line of defence” drugs.

Trials across 19 countries – the drug has been approved by global regulators – with more than 1,000 patients have shown its effectiveness. “The drug has shown remarkable potency against these bacteria that have evolved over the years. It is administered via intravenous [IV] infusion in hospitals, specifically for critically ill patients, and is not available over the counter,” Dr Maneesh Paul, the lead co-inventor of the drug, told the BBC.

Mumbai-based Wockhardt is testing a new antibiotic, called Zaynich, for severe drug-resistant infections. Developed over 25 years, the drug is currently in Phase-3 trials and expected to launch next year.

Dr Habib Khorakiwala, founder chairman of Wockhardt, has described Zaynich as a “ground-breaking, one-of-its-kind new antibiotic designed to combat all major superbugs”. It was administered on compassionate grounds to 30 critically ill patients in India who were unresponsive to any other antibiotics. Remarkably, all survived. “This would make India proud,” Dr Khorakiwala said.

Also in Phase-3 testing is Wockhardt’s Nafithromycin, trademarked as MIQNAF, a three-day oral treatment for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia with a 97% success rate. Existing treatments to the disease have resistance as high as 60%. Its trials are set to conclude next year and once it’s approved, the company says it could be launched commercially by late next year.

A 30-member Bengaluru-based biopharma firm Bugworks Research has partnered with Geneva-based non-profit Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership, or GARDP, to develop a new class of antibiotics for treating serious drug-resistant infections. Currently in early Phase-1 trials, the drug is five-to-eight years from market readiness.

“Antibiotics are becoming less effective, but big money is in drugs for cancer, diabetes and other conditions, not antibiotics,” Anand Anandkumar, CEO of Bugworks, told the BBC. “There’s little innovation because antibiotics are kept as a last-resort option. Big pharma isn’t focusing on antibiotic resistance. We’ve been funded by different organisations, but less than 10% of our funding comes from India.”

But that needs to change. A 2023 drug resistance surveillance report by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which analysed nearly 100,000 bacterial cultures from 21 specialised care hospitals around India, highlighted worrying trends in antibiotic resistance.

E.coli (Escherichia coli), commonly found in the intestines of humans and animals after consumption of contaminated food, was the most frequently isolated pathogen.

This was followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae, which can cause pneumonia and also infect the blood, cuts in the skin and the lining of the brain to cause meningitis. Coming close was the rise of the multidrug-resistant pathogen called Acinetobacter baumannii, which attacks the lungs of patients on life support in critical care units.

The survey found antibiotic effectiveness against E.coli had consistently sharply declined while Klebsiella pneumoniae showed an alarming rise in drug resistance. Doctors found that some of the main antibiotics were less than 15% effective in treating infections caused by these pathogens. Most worrying was the rising resistance to carbapenems, a critical last-resort antibiotic.

“It’s like playing whack-a-mole with bacteria. They evolve at an incredibly fast pace, and we’re always playing catch-up. You get rid of one, another pops up. We need more innovation and to learn from past mistakes,” Dr Manica Balasegaram, executive director of GARDP, told the BBC.

Not surprisingly, GARDP is focussing on India. It’s collaborating with Hyderabad-based Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services to produce zoliflodacin, a novel oral antibiotic for gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease which is showing increasing resistance to antibiotics. GARDP has also partnered with Japan’s pharma company Shionogi to distribute cefiderocol – a breakthrough FDA-approved antibiotic for tough infections like UTIs and hospital-acquired pneumonia – in 135 countries, with plans for production in India.

But this is only one part of the story. Doctors say drug prescription practices in India urgently need reform. The widespread use of broad-spectrum antibiotics – they target many bacteria types but can kill good bacteria, cause side-effects and increase antibiotic resistance – fuels drug resistance by encouraging the emergence of drug resistant bacterial mutants.

Instead, say doctors, narrow-spectrum antibiotics should be prioritised. But hospitals often lack antibiograms – microbiology-based antibiotic guidelines – forcing doctors to prescribe “broadly and blindly”.

“I am definitely excited that we will have these new drugs. But what is also important is that we should create mechanisms that they should not be misused the way we have previously done with [what were once also] blockbuster drugs. Improper and irresponsible use will compromise the longevity of these new drugs,” warns Dr Kamini Walia, a scientist at ICMR.

The rapid mutation of bacteria, which can evolve in a matter of hours, underscores the urgency of a holistic approach. This includes reducing infections through better water, sanitation and hygiene, improving vaccine uptake, strengthening hospital infection control policies, educating physicians and deterring self-medication by patients. “Combating antimicrobial resistance is a complex, multi-faceted challenge tied to healthcare equity and systemic accountability,” says Dr Walia.

The message is clear: without urgent action, we risk a future where even relatively minor infections could become untreatable.

France’s government has toppled, after opposition parties in the French parliament backed a vote of no-confidence against Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who used special powers to force through a social security budget on Monday.

That the country is in turmoil – political and economic – is not only of grave concern to French citizens.

These are times of deep global instability.

And France, together with Germany, is traditionally seen as the EU’s “motor” in terms of ideological and political horsepower.

But that motor is spluttering, to put it mildly.

France is not alone in being riven and distracted by domestic political disputes. Germany will hold a snap general election in February after its bickering coalition government recently collapsed.

The EU as a whole is affected.

What of that determined show of strength and unity Europe aimed to maintain in the face of an expansionist, aggressive Kremlin?

And how will Europe fulfil its promise to remain steadfast by Ukraine’s side, if soon-to-be-again President Donald Trump reduces or even stops the flow of military aid to Kyiv?

France is, after all, Europe’s only large military power, along with the UK.

Trump’s return to the White House fills the EU and Europe more widely with anxiety.

How might his pent-up resentment over the US trade deficit with Europe and over European (insufficient) defence spending, explode into political realities?

At this key moment in geopolitics, leadership in the EU is sorely missing. The bloc is beginning to feel rudderless, with the rise of more autocratic, Russia-sympathising leaders in Hungary, Slovakia and Romania – and French and German focus weakened and distracted.

For France, there’s no real end to the political instability in sight.

President Emmanuel Macron will appoint a new prime minister, but even then parliament will remain divided between three mutually-loathing political blocs, able to hold each other hostage over much-needed reforms and a new budget.

And here is another reason why what happens in France matters beyond its borders: It’s the second largest economy in the eurozone. Its budget deficit is ballooning way beyond EU norms. French government debt is similarly eyebrow-raising.

This is unsettling for French taxpayers worried about the cost of living, and uncomfortable for the rest of the eurozone, fearing the knock-on effects of damage to their currency’s reputation if Big Beast France appears out of control.

Big Beast Germany, meanwhile, the EU’s largest economy, is also in trouble. Its once booming export industry so dented (even before the import tariffs threatened by Trump as of January 2025) that it risks pulling central and eastern European neighbours, long used by Germany as a factory floor, into its economically depressed orbit.

In all of this, Macron seeks to present himself as an island of calm.

While his prime minister took to French television on the eve of the no-confidence vote to warn of economic instability, appealing to French lawmakers to put country before party politics and support him and his cost-saving budget, Macron took a markedly different tone.

“We shouldn’t scare people with these things, we have a strong economy,” he said.

“France is a rich, solid country, which has made a lot of reforms and is sticking to them, which has stable institutions, a stable constitution.”

Macron was speaking from Saudi Arabia, where he wrapped up a three-day visit before flying back to Paris just ahead of the vote.

And he, too, is in the firing line.

The gridlock in the French parliament is the result of a snap election he called in France this summer and in which his party, Renaissance, took quite a beating.

Under French law, no new parliamentary elections can be held for at least a year, meaning potentially no new cost-saving budget until late summer/autumn 2025, even if new elections were to produce a clear political result – something not indicated in public opinion polls.

And so, among Macron’s now numerous political opponents, there are increasing calls for him to resign. They claim this would break the political deadlock in France.

A cynic might suggest they are hoping for a fresh French president from their own political grouping.

Macron describes the idea of an early presidential vote – his full term runs out in 2027 – as “political fiction”. He insists he was voted into office by the French public to serve their interests.

But one political figure with good reason to push for his speedy political exit is a woman described as his long-term political nemesis: the serial presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen of the hard right nationalist National Rally Party.

She is under investigation for the alleged embezzlement of EU public funds – something she denies. If found guilty, though, she could be barred from holding political office for five years. This would mean having to sit out a 2027 French presidential election.

The verdict on her case is expected to be announced at the end of March.

If Macron resigned now, a presidential election would have to be called in 30 days, giving Le Pen the chance to stand and – she hopes this time – to win.

Politically, socially, economically, there is a lot riding in and outside France on what happens next.

Authorities in Romania have revealed details of what appears to be a major attempt to interfere in the country’s presidential elections using the social media platform TikTok, and with a series of cyber-attacks.

Romania’s domestic intelligence service says there are signs the effort was “co-ordinated by a state-sponsored actor”.

Calin Georgescu, a far-right Nato-sceptic who has previously praised Vladimir Putin, was almost unknown in Romania until he won the first round of voting in the presidential elections two weeks ago.

Now Romanian intelligence says his sudden and surprise surge in popularity is down to a “highly organised” and “guerrilla” campaign on social media, sharing identical messaging and using influencers.

They say it was conducted from “external locations” to bypass controls.

A separate intelligence assessment says that Romania has been identified as an “enemy state” by Moscow and a priority target for what it calls “aggressive hybrid actions”.

The politically explosive information – which has landed just days before the second round of voting – comes from declassified documents published this evening by the outgoing president, Klaus Iohannis.

They reveal how paid content supporting Georgescu was promoted on TikTok, without being marked as election campaigning – in violation of the platform’s own rules and of Romanian electoral law. Other candidates’ content was subject to closer controls.

Georgescu has always said he spent “zero” on election promotion, denying he was even campaigning.

But the intelligence documents identify one TikTok account which they say made payments of $381,000 (£299,819; €361,872) in just one month from 24 October – to users who were promoting Georgescu.

Georgescu claims the release of the documents is a coordinated attempt to block his candidacy.

“I think it’s the first time in the history of the world when a state is organising an action against a candidate to stop him from running,” he said in a TV interview on Wednesday.

He also denied knowing any of the influencers or funders mentioned in the reports.

The documents released in this highly unusual move were all papers drawn up for a meeting of the security council following the first round of the presidential election.

They also reveal that access data for electoral websites was stolen from legitimate users and published online “on cyber-crime platforms originating from Russia”.

Separately, the intelligence agencies report some 85,000 attempted hacks in an attempt to access electoral data and change content – including on election day. The report says the cyber-attackers used advanced methods to remain anonymous, working in a way and on a scale “typical of state-sponsored actors”.

An investigation is ongoing to discover who was responsible and whether there was any impact on the election.

Russia has denied any interference in Romania’s election process.

Far-right frontrunner Georgescu is due to face reformist candidate Elena Lasconi in a second round vote on Sunday.

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu – who came 3rd in the presidential race – has now announced he will “fully endorse” Elena Lasconi.

But that’s assuming the vote goes ahead. The prosecutor’s office is now examining the new documents.

“I hope that, based on the evidence published today, the state authorities will take appropriate action, and all those responsible will be held accountable,” Ciolacu said.

He added that people’s votes have shown they want the “continuation of Romania’s European development path”.

A pro-EU protest has been called for Thursday evening.

Commenting on the protest, Georgescu warned against possible unrest, citing the “Maidan” in Ukraine – the revolution of 2014 that ousted a pro-Russian president.

“Please stay at home with your family. We need social tranquillity. God will not let Romania down,” Georgescu said.

A Georgian opposition leader has been dragged from his party office by police and others have been physically attacked, after the prime minister vowed that organisers of a week of pro-EU protests, which he called “violent actions”, would face justice.

Nika Gvaramia, 48, a leader from one of four opposition groups, was carried by his arms and legs by police from his party HQ in a side street next to parliament in the capital Tbilisi.

Other leaders were later ambushed after they met at a hotel and decided to push for a general strike.

Nightly demonstrations have been held since last Thursday, after ruling party Georgian Dream said it was halting the country’s bid to start talks on joining the EU.

More than 330 protesters have been arrested and rights groups say many have been beaten in detention, however authorities started going after opposition leaders after a strident briefing from Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze.

“Politicians who organised violence but hid in offices will not be able to evade responsibility for the events that have unfolded over the past days,” he warned, accusing protesters of spreading “liberal fascism”.

Protests had initially erupted late in October after a contested election that monitoring groups said was marred by a string of violations.

But they burst into life last Thursday when Kobakhidze’s increasingly authoritarian Georgian Dream party said it was suspending the country’s bid to start talks on joining the EU. Two days later, the US suspended Georgia’s long-sought strategic partnership.

Georgian Dream has enacted increasingly authoritarian laws targeting civil society and LGBT groups as well as freedom of speech, and opposition parties accuse the party of moving Georgia back into the sphere of influence of neighbour Russia.

Georgia’s interior ministry says more than 100 officers have been hurt by fireworks, rocks and other projectiles, but the country’s ombudsman for human rights has accused the police of exercising brutality and torture toward protesters.

In the early hours of Monday, Nika Gvaramia who is one of the leaders of Coalition for Change, told the BBC that the protesters had no other option but to take to the streets, because the alternative was the elimination of their country, “not just in Russia’s zone of influence but some kind of puppet territory”.

He also predicted that his party HQ would soon be raided by Georgia’s authorities, and that took place less than 36 hours later.

Other opposition leaders met for an hour during the evening in a hotel in Tbilisi’s central Liberty Square, and decided to step up co-operation and push for a general strike in the wider general public.

“It’s a total campaign of terror against free speech, against freedom of opinion, against democracy,” Levan Tsutskiridze of Strong Georgia told the BBC.

Another leader of Coalition for Change, Zurab Girchi Japaridze, said it was not a pleasant feeling, realising that more arrests could come: “You think you’re prepared for this but you never are.”

As they left the meeting, some leaders came under attack in Liberty Square and two were seen being detained by waiting police, including opposition figure and world champion wrestler Zurabi Datunashvili.

In all, the opposition said 11 members had been arrested, including a Strong Georgia leader Aleko Elisashvili and two colleagues. The United National Movement said five members from its youth office had been taken away too.

Authorities also raided the home of an activist from Daitove, a large anti-government Facebook group that helps detained protesters, and then moved to the home of its co-founder Nancy Woland. They also targeted activists from other movements.

Gvaramia, 46, was taken initially to a detention centre of the outskirts of Tbilisi where many of the 300 detained protesters have been held, and then on to another detention centre in Marneuli, south of the capital, reports say.

The former head of an opposition TV channel, Gvaramia spent 13 months in jail for abuse of authority, but he was pardoned in June 2023 by pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili.

Amnesty International said at the time the charges against him were groundless and politically motivated.

Georgian Dream has been stung by a series of resignations, including ambassadors to the US, Czech Republic, the Netherlands and other countries. The deputy foreign minister has also stepped down, but so far they have steered clear of speaking publicly.

Tea Maisuradze posted on X that it had been honour to serve Georgia’s interests, “fostering European and Euro-Atlantic integration” and she made clear she remained committed to Georgia’s future as part of the European Union.

Late on Wednesday night, Irakli Shaishmelashvili, who headed a unit in the interior ministry’s special tasks department, and was therefore heavily involved in forcing the dispersal of protests, stepped down from his job citing family reasons.

The only other reason he gave came from two emojis – a Georgian and an EU flag.

Police in India say they have reached out for information to Elon Musk’s Starlink after they allegedly found drug smugglers using its satellite internet device to navigate Indian waters and reach the country’s shore.

Starlink claims to provide superfast broadband “almost anywhere on Earth”.

But it does not yet have permission to provide coverage in India or India’s territorial waters.

Last week, the Indian Coast Guard said they found the device on a Myanmar boat they seized near the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

This was the biggest such drug bust by the Coast Guard, authorities said. They reportedly seized 6,000kg (13,227 lb) of methamphetamine from the boat. Police estimated it was worth $4.25bn (£3.35bn).

Police in the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar say they have arrested six Myanmar nationals in the case.

Starlink has been aiming to launch services in India since 2021, but regulatory hurdles have delayed its arrival. The company also faces stiff competition from Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio.

Hargobinder S Dhaliwal, police chief of the Andaman islands, said last week’s incident put authorities on alert because the use of Starlink’s mini device had bypassed legal channels.

The company’s website describes the device as “a compact, portable kit that can easily fit in a backpack”.

The drug smugglers started using Starlink from the time their journey began from Myanmar, Mr Dhaliwal said in a press statement on Monday.

“They directly operated [phones] with satellite, creating a Wi-Fi hotspot,” he added.

Andaman police say they have since written to Starlink, asking for details of the device, including who bought it, when and how it’s been used since its purchase.

They are also investigating the involvement of any local or foreign syndicates in transporting the drug.

The BBC has contacted Starlink for their response.

Chiung Yao, arguably the world’s most popular Chinese language romance novelist, has died in an apparent suicide.

The 86-year-old’s body was found in her home in New Taipei City on Wednesday, local media report. Emergency services said she took her own life, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

Chiung Yao started writing at 18 and published more than 60 novels, many of which were adapted into movies and TV series and remained popular for decades.

She was also a successful screenwriter and producer. One of her most famous works was the TV drama My Fair Princess, which launched the careers of big name stars.

She was born Chen Che in Sichuan, China in 1938. Chiung Yao is her pen name.

A post on her Facebook account on Wednesday read: “Goodbye, my loved ones. I feel lucky that I have met and known you in this life”. It was not immediately clear if the post was published before or after her body was found.

Chiung Yao asked young people “not to give up on life easily” and to confront death only when “you live until 86 or 87”. She asked her followers not to be sad for her.

She has not been active in recent years. However, she made headlines in 2017 after her dispute with her stepchildren over how to care for her then ailing husband came into public view.

Chiung Yao spent part of her childhood in mainland China as her family moved across the country during the Sino-Japanese War.

The family moved to Taiwan in 1949 after the Chinese Communist Party took control of the mainland.

Chiung Yao’s debut novel Outside The Window, which was inspired by her own love story with her high school teacher, was hugely popular.

Her TV drama My Fair Princess, a Cinderella story set in the 18th century Qing Dynasty, is regarded as one of the most popular Chinese-language drama shows of all time.

It launched the careers of big names in entertainment, including Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing. Fan would go on to become one of the biggest stars in China, until she was fined for tax fraud in 2018.

The show’s main actors, Ruby Lin and Zhao Wei, became household names to Chinese audiences.

Lin has remained active as an actor and producer in Taiwan. However Zhao has been silent in recent years after her billionaire friend, Alibaba founder Jack Ma, got into trouble with the authorities in Beijing.

One of the biggest questions on people’s minds in Seoul on Wednesday is: what was the president thinking?

In a late-night address that threw South Korea’s parliament into chaos and tested the country’s commitment to democracy, President Yoon Suk Yeol declared that he was imposing martial law.

Less than 24 hours later, his political future is on the brink, with protests on the streets and impeachment proceedings against him under way.

So, what happened?

• What is martial law and why was it declared?
• Woman who grabbed South Korean soldier’s gun speaks to BBC
• How two hours of martial law chaos unfolded

Martial law was last introduced in South Korea in 1979, sparked by the assassination of the then-military ruler in a coup. Today’s South Korea, however, is a far cry from that, and the repressive years that followed.

It is a stable, prosperous democracy – yet Yoon claimed he was introducing military rule to save the country from dark forces. He called the opposition-controlled National Assembly a “den of criminals” that was “attempting to paralyse” the government.

Hours later, he was forced to back down as furious protesters and lawmakers gathered outside the National Assembly – the MPs made it inside and voted down the order.

His shock declaration was, in fact, a bid to get the kind of grip on power that has eluded him since he won the presidency in 2022 by the slimmest margin in South Korea’s history.

And barely a month has passed since then without controversy.

In late 2022, he was criticised for his government’s response to the horrific crowd crush during Halloween, which killed 159 young people in Seoul.

Then there were calls to investigate his wife after she was caught accepting a Dior handbag as a gift – a scandal that is always hovering close to the headlines.

In April this year, his party was defeated in parliamentary elections, leaving him in a lame-duck position. This week alone he has been locked in a political battle with opposition lawmakers over the country’s budget.

Even before he told South Koreans he was suspending their rights, his approval rate was below 20%.

There are some clues in Yoon’s address as to what he was thinking.

What was immediately evident was that he was frustrated with the opposition-controlled parliament. In his Tuesday night address, he called the assembly where they exercise their mandate a “monster that destroys the liberal democratic system”.

The reference to a threat from North Korea and “anti-state forces” suggests he was also hoping to garner support from the kind of right-wing conservatives in South Korea who label liberal politicians “communists”.

But the president misread his country and its politics.

His declaration was a chilling reminder of a period many in South Korea have tried to forget. On television, newsreaders were seen shaking.

In 1980, when pro-democracy activists, many of them students, took to the streets of the city of Gwangju to protest at martial law, the army responded with violence and around 200 people were killed.

While martial law lasted three years – 1979 to 1981 – there had been military rule for decades before, and it continued until 1987. And in those years South Korea was rife with suspicion, when anti-government activists were dubbed Communist spies and arrested or killed.

Yet, during his election campaign Yoon praised authoritarian general Chun Doo-hwan and said he had managed government affairs well – except for his suppression of pro-democracy activists.

He was later forced to apologise and said he “certainly did not defend or praise Chun’s government”.

But it does provide some insight into the president’s view of what constitutes power.

There have been rumours in South Korean political circles for months that Yoon was considering imposing martial law. In September, opposition leaders and party members declared it was a possibility. Most dismissed it as too extreme an option.

But he may well have been driven by something more: the fear of prosecution.

Park Geun-hye, the country’s first female leader, was jailed after being found guilty of abuse of power and corruption. Her predecessor, Lee Myung-bak, was investigated over allegations he was involved in stock price manipulation. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison for corruption and bribery in 2020.

Another former president, Roh Moo-hyun, took his own life in 2009 while under investigation for allegedly receiving millions in bribes.

In South Korea, prosecutions have almost become a political tool – a threat for the opposition to wield. It may partly explain why President Yoon took such drastic action.

Whatever his motives, Yoon’s career will struggle to recover from this. He is also facing calls to resign, and some local media reported that members of his own People Power Party were discussing expelling him from the party.

South Korea is a stable democracy – but it is a noisy one. And it refused to accept another authoritarian diktat.

President Yoon will now face the judgement of a parliament and a people after they rejected the most serious challenge to the country’s democracy since the 1980s.

South Korea’s president shocked the country on Tuesday night when, out of the blue, he declared martial law in the Asian democracy for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Yoon Suk Yeol’s drastic decision – announced in a late-night TV broadcast – mentioned “anti-state forces” and the threat from North Korea.

But it soon became clear that it had not been spurred by external threats but by his own desperate political troubles.

Still, it prompted thousands of people to gather at parliament in protest, while opposition lawmakers rushed there to push through an emergency vote to remove the measure.

Defeated, Yoon emerged a few hours later to accept the parliament’s vote and lift the martial law order.

Now, lawmakers will vote on whether to impeach him over what the country’s main opposition has called his “insurrectionary behaviour”.

• The president’s gamble backfired: What was he thinking?
• Woman who grabbed South Korean soldier’s gun speaks to BBC
• How two hours of martial law chaos unfolded

Yoon has acted like a president under siege, observers say.

In his address on Tuesday night, he recounted the political opposition’s attempts to undermine his government before saying he was declaring martial law to “crush anti-state forces that have been wreaking havoc”.

His decree temporarily put the military in charge – with helmeted troops and police deployed to the National Assembly parliament building where helicopters were seen landing on the roof.

Local media also showed scenes of masked, gun-toting troops entering the building while staffers tried to hold them off with fire extinguishers.

Around 23:00 local time on Tuesday (14:00 GMT), the military issued a decree banning protests and activity by parliament and political groups, and putting the media under government control.

But South Korean politicians immediately called Yoon’s declaration illegal and unconstitutional. The leader of his own party, the conservative People’s Power Party, also called Yoon’s act “the wrong move”.

Meanwhile, the leader of the country’s largest opposition party, Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Party, called on his MPs to converge on parliament to vote down the declaration.

He also called on ordinary South Koreans to show up at parliament in protest.

“Tanks, armoured personnel carriers and soldiers with guns and knives will rule the country… My fellow citizens, please come to the National Assembly.”

Thousands heeded the call, rushing to gather outside the now heavily guarded parliament. Protesters chanted: “No martial law!” and “strike down dictatorship”.

Local media broadcasting from the site showed some scuffles between protesters and police at the gates. But despite the military presence, tensions did not escalate into violence.

And lawmakers were also able to make their way around the barricades – even climbing fences to make it to the voting chamber.

Shortly after 01:00 on Wednesday, South Korea’s parliament, with 190 of its 300 members present, voted down the measure. President Yoon’s declaration of martial law was ruled invalid.

Martial law is temporary rule by military authorities in a time of emergency, when civil authorities are deemed unable to function.

The last time it was declared in South Korea was in 1979, when the country’s then long-term military dictator Park Chung-hee was assassinated during a coup.

It has never been invoked since the country became a parliamentary democracy in 1987.

But on Tuesday, Yoon pulled that trigger, saying in a national address he was trying to save South Korea from “anti-state forces”.

Yoon, who has taken a noticeably more hardline stance on North Korea than his predecessors, described the political opposition as North Korea sympathisers – without providing evidence.

Under martial law, extra powers are given to the military and there is often a suspension of civil rights for citizens and rule of law standards and protections.

Despite the military announcing restrictions on political activity and the media, protesters and politicians defied those orders. And there was no sign of the government seizing control of free media – Yonhap, the national broadcaster, and other outlets kept reporting as normal.

Yoon was voted into office in May 2022 as a hardline conservative, but has been a lame duck president since April when the opposition won a landslide in the country’s general election.

His government since then has not been able to pass the bills they wanted and have been reduced instead to vetoing bills passed by the liberal opposition.

He has also seen a fall in approval ratings – hovering around lows of 17% – as he has been mired in several corruption scandals this year, including one involving the First Lady accepting a Dior bag, and another around alleged stock manipulation.

Just last month he was forced to issue an apology on national TV, saying he was setting up an office overseeing the First Lady’s duties. But he rejected a wider investigation, which opposition parties had been calling for.

Then this week, the opposition proposed slashing a major government budget bill – which cannot be vetoed.

At the same time, the opposition also moved to impeach cabinet members and several top prosecutors- including the head of the government’s audit agency – for failing to investigate the First Lady.

The opposition Democratic Party has moved to impeach Yoon.

Parliament will have to vote by Saturday on whether to do this.

The impeachment process is relatively straightforward in South Korea. To succeed, it would require support from more than two-thirds of the 300-member National Assembly – at least 200 votes.

Once an impeachment is approved, a trial is held before the Constitutional Court – a nine-member council that oversees South Korea’s branches of government.

If six of the court’s members vote to sustain the impeachment, the president is removed from office.

If this happens, it wouldn’t be the first time that a South Korean president has been impeached. In 2016, then-President Park Geun-hye was impeached after being accused of helping a friend commit extortion.

In 2004 another president, Roh Moo-hyun, was impeached and suspended for two months. The Constitutional Court later restored him to office.

Yoon’s rash action stunned the country – which views itself as a thriving, modern democracy that has come far since its dictatorship days.

Many see this week’s events as the biggest challenge to that democratic society in decades.

Experts contend it may be more damaging to South Korea’s reputation as a democracy than even the 6 January riots in the US.

“Yoon’s declaration of martial law appeared to be both legal overreach and a political miscalculation, unnecessarily risking South Korea’s economy and security,” one expert, Leif-Eric Easley at Ewha University in Seoul said.

“He sounded like a politician under siege, making a desperate move against mounting scandals, institutional obstruction and calls for impeachment, all of which are now likely to intensify.”

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s future is hanging in the balance after a chaotic night during which he dramatically declared martial law and then withdrew it just as suddenly, plunging the country into turmoil.

Yoon, who won the top job by a whisker in 2022, was already deeply unpopular and under growing pressure since losing parliamentary elections in April, regarded as a vote of confidence on his time in office.

He’s been plagued by personal problems too. Last month he apologised in a televised address to the nation for a string of controversies surrounding his wife that included allegedly accepting a luxury Dior handbag and stock manipulation.

Now he’s facing demands that he resign and lawmakers have said they will move to impeach him.

• The president’s gamble backfired: What was he thinking?
• What is martial law and why was it declared?
• Woman who grabbed South Korean soldier’s gun speaks to BBC
• How two hours of martial law chaos unfolded

Tuesday night’s short-lived attempt to impose martial law took everyone by surprise.

It sent lawmakers scrambling to the National Assembly in Seoul to vote against the order. Outside, police had assembled as thousands of protesters gathered in fury.

The same crowd erupted in cheers when Yoon backtracked within hours and declared he would withdraw the martial law order.

That he would play such a high-stakes game, and then back off so easily, came as a surprise to South Koreans and the rest of the world.

Yoon was a relative newcomer to politics when he won the presidency. He had risen to national prominence for prosecuting the corruption case against disgraced former President Park Geun-hye in 2016.

In 2022, the political novice narrowly beat his liberal opponent Lee Jae-myung by less than 1% of the vote – the closest result the country has seen since direct elections started to be held in 1987.

At a time when South Korean society was grappling with widening divisions over gender issues, Yoon appealed to young male voters by running on an anti-feminism platform.

People had “high hopes” for Yoon when he was elected, said Don S Lee, associate professor of public administration at Sungkyunkwan University. “Those who voted for Yoon believed that a new government under Yoon will pursue such values as principle, transparency and efficiency.”

Yoon has also championed a hawkish stance on North Korea. The communist state was cited by Yoon on Tuesday night when he tried to impose martial law.

He said he needed to protect against North Korean forces and “eliminate anti-state elements”, even though it was apparent from the outset that his announcement was less about the threat from the North and more about his domestic woes.

Yoon is known for gaffes, which haven’t helped his ratings. During his 2022 campaign he had to walk back a comment that authoritarian president Chun Doo-hwan, who declared martial law and was responsible for massacring protestors in 1980, had been “good at politics”.

Later that year he was forced to deny insulting the US Congress in remarks made after meeting US President Joe Biden in New York.

He was caught on a hot mic and seen on camera seemingly calling US lawmakers a Korean word that can be translated as “idiots” or something much stronger. The footage quickly went viral in South Korea.

Yoon has had some success in foreign policy, notably improving ties in his country’s historically fraught relationship with Japan.

Yoon’s presidency has been mired in scandal. Much of it centred around his wife Kim Keon Hee, who was accused of corruption and influence peddling – most notably allegedly accepting a Dior bag from a pastor.

In November, Yoon apologised on behalf of his wife while rejecting calls for an investigation into her activities.

But his presidential popularity remained wobbly. In early November, his approval ratings tumbled to 17%, a record low since he took office.

In April, the opposition Democratic Party won the parliamentary election by a landslide, dealing a crushing defeat for Yoon and his People Power Party.

Yoon was relegated to a lame duck president and reduced to vetoing bills passed by the opposition, a tactic that he used with “unprecedented frequency”, said Celeste Arrington, director of The George Washington University Institute for Korean Studies.

This week, the opposition slashed the budget the government and ruling party had put forward – and the budget bill cannot be vetoed.

Around the same time, the opposition was moving to impeach cabinet members, mainly the head of the government audit agency, for failing to investigate the first lady.

With political challenges pushing his back against the wall, Yoon went for the nuclear option – a move that few, if any, could have predicted.

“Many observers worried in recent weeks about a political crisis because of the confrontation between the president and the opposition-controlled National Assembly,” said Dr Arrington, “though few predicted such an extreme move as declaring martial law.”

President Yoon’s declaration of martial law was a “legal overreach and a political miscalculation”, according to Leif-Eric Easley, professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.

“With extremely low public support and without strong backing within his own party and administration, the president should have known how difficult it would be to implement his late-night decree,” Dr Easley told the BBC.

“He sounded like a politician under siege, making a desperate move against mounting scandals, institutional obstruction, and calls for impeachment, all of which are now likely to intensify.”

Yoon has drawn ire from politicians on both sides, as hastily-gathered lawmakers – including some from Yoon’s party – voted to lift martial law on Tuesday night. The opposition Democratic Party is trying to impeach Yoon, and even Yoon’s own party leadership has demanded the president’s withdrawal from the party. Yoon’s senior aides offered to resign en masse on Wednesday, Yonhap news agency reported.

Opposition leader Lee is projecting optimism, telling reporters that Yoon’s “illegal declaration of martial law” is a “decisive opportunity to break the vicious cycle and return to normal society”.

The repercussions of Tuesday night are set to ripple beyond South Korea’s borders. Yoon’s announcement has rattled South Korea’s allies. Officials in the US, a key ally, said they were caught off guard by Yoon’s announcement, and are urging South Korea to resolve the crisis “in accordance with the rule of law”. Japan says that it is monitoring the situation in South Korea with “exceptional and serious concerns”.

Meanwhile, North Korea, which has ratcheted up tensions with the South in recent months, may “attempt to exploit divisions in Seoul,” said Dr Easley.

Anger is still sweeping South Korea. On Wednesday protesters streamed onto the streets condemning Yoon. One of the country’s largest labour unions with over one million members is calling on workers to go on strike until he resigns.

It is unclear what Yoon plans to do. He has yet to make a public appearance since the fiasco.

“He was increasingly unpopular for the way he has dealt with the problems that have been raised with his own conduct and the conduct of the first lady,” former South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha told the BBC Newsday programme. “The ball is in the president’s court to find a way out of this corner that he has put himself in.”

But no matter how Yoon chooses to play it, his botched martial law declaration may already be shaping up to be the last straw that breaks his shaky presidency.

A chaotic night in South Korea produced scenes most thought were consigned to the nation’s history.

One in particular has caught the attention of many: a woman confronting soldiers who were sent to block lawmakers from entering the National Assembly.

Footage of Ahn Gwi-ryeong, 35, a spokesperson for the opposition Democratic Party, grabbing the weapon of a soldier during the commotion has been shared widely online.

“I didn’t think… I just knew we had to stop this,” she told the BBC Korean Service.

Ahn made her way to the assembly building as soldiers descended on it, shortly after the president declared martial law across South Korea.

Like many in South Korea’s younger generation, the word “martial law” was foreign to her. It was last declared in 1979.

When Ahn first heard the news, she admitted “a sense of panic took over”.

• Fear, fury and triumph: Six hours that shook South Korea
• The president’s gamble backfired: What was he thinking?
• What is martial law and why was it declared?
• How two hours of martial law chaos unfolded

When martial law is declared, political activities like rallies and demonstrations are banned, strikes and labour actions are prohibited, and media and publishing activities are controlled by the authorities. Violators can be arrested or detained without a warrant.

Shortly after the declaration of martial law, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung called on lawmakers to gather in the National Assembly and hold a vote to annul the declaration.

Arriving at the assembly building just past 23:00 local time, Ahn recalled turning off office lights to avoid detection as helicopters circled overhead.

By the time she reached the main building, soldiers were engaged in a stand-off with officials, aides and citizens.

She said: “When I saw the armed soldiers… I felt like I was witnessing the regression of history.”

Ahn and her colleagues were desperate to prevent the troops from entering the main building, where the vote would be held.

They locked the revolving doors from the inside and piled furniture and other heavy objects in front of the doors.

When the military began advancing, Ahn stepped forward.

“Honestly, I was scared at first,” she said, adding: “But seeing such confrontation, I thought, ‘I can’t stay silent’.”

The assembly passed the resolution calling for the lifting of martial law at around 01:00. All 190 members who were present voted to repeal it.

At 04:26, President Yoon announced he was reversing his decision.

After the chaos subsided, Ahn slept for a short time inside the assembly building.

She continued: “I was actually a little scared to go outside the assembly in the morning because there didn’t seem to be any taxis running, and after such a storm last night, it was hard to get back to reality.”

During her conversation with the BBC, Ahn was wearing the same black turtleneck and leather jacket she had been wearing in the footage from the night before.

At times, she was overcome with emotion.

“It’s heartbreaking and frustrating that this is happening in 21st century Korea,” she said.

France’s political crisis is worse than normal political crises.

Normally when a democratic country passes through turbulence, there is some prospect of the turbulence coming to an end.

Not today in Paris. If anything, the downfall of Michel Barnier – toppled in parliament by a no-confidence motion – threatens to set a pattern for what lies ahead.

For if Barnier – a moderate of the centre-right with a reputation for courtesy and compromise – was unable to pass a budget, then who else can?

The original cause of the crisis has not gone away. It is the division since July of the National Assembly into three roughly equal blocs, none of which is prepared to deal with another.

As a result the two blocs that make up the opposition will always be able to unseat the one bloc that forms a government.

• French government collapses in no-confidence vote

Add to that a mood of near-insurrection on some opposition benches – plus an ideological push for ever more generous spending pledges, despite stark warnings about the national debt – and the idea of a return to serene central politics seems very distant.

For many it is a crise de régime which is being played out, with the very future of the Fifth Republic institutions in jeopardy.

The Fifth Republic was created to concentrate power in the hands of Charles de Gaulle at a time of national crisis. And ever since De Gaulle, presidents have tried – and generally failed – to emulate his stature.

Macron certainly liked to compare himself with le grand Charles.

But when De Gaulle had a similar government crisis in 1962, he went to the people and received a huge popular mandate in the next election.

Macron has done the reverse. He has had his vote – the botched election in July – and lost it. Power has now shifted out of his hands into those of the putative prime minister, answerable to parliament.

But just as the country reverts to being more of a parliamentary system, the Assembly itself has proved incapable of action.

As more than one commentator has pointed out, France – with its monarchical instincts and top-down conception of power – has never developed a culture of compromise.

So the three blocs in the Assembly today – installed by the voters after Macron’s dissolution in June – have proved incapable of creating a constructive environment for government.

As the veteran journalist Eric Brunet said after viewing the debate this evening on BFMTV: “What we have just seen is jaw-droppingly French.

“No pragmatism. Just ideology. All the speeches were about values, about extremes. Our whole discourse is disconnected from reality. It is typically, singularly French.”

Some see it as the culmination of years of France refusing to face economic reality – governments of all colours having given way to calls for ever-growing public spending. The result is a deficit and a debt which can only be addressed by cuts, which no government can ever get passed.

According to Nicolas Beytout, of the pro-business L’Opinion newspaper, this is the start of a series of crises which – counterintuitively – the country actually needs. Because only by being brought face-to-face with the economic abyss, will voters, parties – the country – accept the tough decisions that lie ahead.

Beytout predicts that any new prime minister will face the same problems as Barnier, and like him fail.

“A new government needs time, which it won’t have. It needs a majority, which it won’t have. And it needs the determination to see through the necessary reduction in state spending – which it won’t have.

“So I expect to see several more motions of censure, and several more falls of government – before eventually we start to wake up.”

A war of words between Bangladesh and neighbour India is threatening to spiral out of control following protests and counter-protests over the alleged ill-treatment of Hindu minorities in the country.

Diplomatic relations between the neighbours and once-close allies have been prickly since August, when former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled Bangladesh after a public uprising (she is currently in India).

The latest trigger was the arrest of a Hindu monk last week, which set off protests in India by activists from Hindu organisations and politicians including members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On Monday, in an embarrassment for India, dozens of protesters forced their way into the consulate building of Bangladesh in the north-eastern city of Agartala and vandalised it.

Hours later, hundreds of students and activists protested in Dhaka against the storming of the consulate.

The Indian government has distanced itself from the attack, calling it “deeply regrettable”.

“Diplomatic and consular properties should not be targeted under any circumstances,” India’s foreign ministry said in a statement, adding that it was stepping up security for Bangladesh’s diplomatic buildings in the country. Police have arrested seven people in connection with the incident.

But Dhaka is livid.

The Bangladesh foreign ministry described the attack as “heinous” and called on Delhi to undertake a thorough investigation and “to prevent any further acts of violence against the diplomatic missions of Bangladesh”.

“It is very unfortunate and it’s an unacceptable situation… Hindu extremists broke into the premises, pulled down the flag stand and desecrated the [Bangladeshi] flag. Our officers and other staff were extremely scared,” Touhid Hossain, foreign affairs adviser to the interim government in Bangladesh, told the BBC.

Bangladesh officials say the protests in India – some have happened near the countries’ border – have been triggered by disinformation and heated coverage of the issue by several Indian media outlets.

“Unfortunately, Indian media has gone berserk over the issue. They are trying to portray Bangladesh in the darkest possible light. I don’t know why they are doing it and how it will benefit either Bangladesh or India, I fail to understand,” Mr Hossain, the de facto foreign minister, said.

Experts in India, however, say that it is natural that developments in Bangladesh will have ramifications in the neighbouring country.

“Feelings are running high in India. Bangladesh should first address the lawlessness there, particularly the attack on minorities,” Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty, a former Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, told the BBC.

• Sheikh Hasina poses a Bangladesh conundrum for India
• Bangladesh leader’s ‘megaphone diplomacy’ irks India

For India, Bangladesh is not just any neighbouring country. It’s a strategic partner and ally crucial to India’s border security, particularly in the north-eastern states. The two countries also share close cultural and linguistic ties.

Hindus constitute less than 10% of Bangladesh’s 170 million population. Leaders of the community have long spoken of discrimination and hate attacks against them by Islamists and some political parties.

In the aftermath of the chaotic overthrow of Hasina in August, many of her supporters were targeted, including those from religious minorities traditionally seen as backing her.

After weeks of relative calm, the situation has become tense again in the aftermath of the arrest of the Hindu leader, Chinmoy Krishna Das.

He was arrested on charges of sedition, among others, after holding a protest demanding minority rights in Chittagong in October. There, he was accused of raising a saffron flag – the colour is associated with Hinduism – above the Bangladeshi national flag.

Last week, a court in Chittagong denied bail to him, spurring clashes that led to the death of a Muslim lawyer. Dozens of people have been arrested in connection with the killing and violence.

On Tuesday, the monk’s bail hearing was pushed to 2 January after no lawyer turned up to represent him.

Chinmoy Das was earlier associated with the religious organisation Iskcon. But Hrishikesh Gauranga Das, a senior official of Iskcon in Dhaka, told the BBC that the monk was expelled from the organisation earlier this year on disciplinary grounds.

“Some students complained that Chinmoy Das misbehaved with them. So, we sent letters asking for his cooperation to investigate the matter. But he refused to cooperate”, the official said.

Chinmoy Das is in jail and unavailable for comment but a supporter told the BBC that the allegations were false and arose from “an internal feud between Iskcon leaders in Dhaka and Chittagong”.

The supporter, Swatantra Gauranga Das, also denied that Chinmoy Das had disrespected the Bangladeshi national flag.

The flare-up over the arrest has added to the tense atmosphere in Bangladesh.

Hrishikesh Gauranga Das said that minorities in Bangladesh are “living in fear”.

“They don’t know what will happen. The government is trying [to provide security] but it’s difficult to control most people”, he said.

He said three Iskcon temples suffered minor damages after they were vandalised by miscreants in recent days.

The interim government in Bangladesh says it’s aware of the sensitivities and that it gives equal treatment to all communities.

“We have deployed additional forces to provide security to Iskcon and Hindu temples and where religious minorities live. There may have been some stray incidents but there are no orchestrated attacks on minorities,” said Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus.

But religious tensions are not new to the region and activists on both sides are worried that if inflammatory speeches and protests continue, the situation could spiral out of control.

Hasina’s stay in India has already become a major irritant in bilateral ties and the escalating protests in both countries are likely to deteriorate the atmosphere.

Experts point out that India and Bangladesh are neighbours who need each other and it’s time for the rhetoric to be toned down.

The protests have also impacted ordinary people who travel from Bangladesh to India for business, tourism or for medical treatment.

When Muhammad Inayatullah was crossing into India earlier this week to meet his friends, he saw a demonstration by Hindu activists at the Petrapole border in the Indian state of West Bengal.

“It’s not nice to hear people shouting slogans against your country when you cross the border,” Mr Inayatullah told BBC Bengali.

• Listen to Fergal read this article

Every single person in his platoon knew someone who was killed. Yuval Green, 26, knew at least three. He was a reservist, a medic in the paratroops of the Israel Defence Forces, when he heard the first news of the 7 October Hamas attack.

“Israel is a small country. Everyone knows each other,” he says. In several days of violence,1,200 people were killed, and 251 more abducted into Gaza. Ninety-seven hostages remain in Gaza, and around half of them are believed to be alive.

Yuval immediately answered his country’s call to arms. It was a mission to defend Israelis. He recalls the horror of entering devastated Jewish communities near the Gaza border. “You’re seeing… dead bodies on the streets, seeing cars punctured by bullets.”

Back then, there was no doubt about reporting for duty. The country was under attack. The hostages had to be brought home.

Then came the fighting in Gaza itself. Things seen that could not be unseen. Like the night he saw cats eating human remains in the roadway.

“Start to imagine, like an apocalypse. You look to your right, you look to your left, all you see is destroyed buildings, buildings that are damaged by fire, by missiles, everything. That’s Gaza right now.”

One year on, the young man who reported for duty on 7 October is refusing to fight.

Yuval is the co-organiser of a public letter signed by more than 165 – at the latest count – Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) reservists, and a smaller number of permanent soldiers, refusing to serve, or threatening to refuse, unless the hostages are returned – something that would require a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

In a country still traumatised by the worst violence in its history, those refusing for reasons of conscience are a minority in a military that includes around 465,000 reservists.

There is another factor in play for some other IDF reservists: exhaustion.

According to Israeli media reports, a growing number are failing to report for duty. The Times of Israel newspaper and several other outlets quoted military sources as saying that there was a drop of between 15% to 25% of troops showing up, mainly due to burnout with the long periods of service required of them.

Even if there is not widespread public support for those refusing to serve because of reasons of conscience, there is evidence that some of the key demands of those who signed the refusal letter are shared by a growing number of Israelis.

A recent opinion poll by the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) indicated that among Jewish Israelis 45% wanted the war to end – with a ceasefire to bring the hostages home – against 43% who wanted the IDF to fight on to destroy Hamas.

Significantly, the IDI poll also suggests that the sense of solidarity which marked the opening days of the war as the country reeled from the trauma of 7 October has been overtaken by the revival of political divisions: only 26% of Israelis believe there is now a sense of togetherness, while 44% say there is not.

At least part of this has to do with a feeling often expressed, especially among those on the left of the political divide, that the war is being prolonged at the behest of far-right parties whose support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs to remain in power.

Even the former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, a member of Netanhayu’s Likud Party, dismissed by the prime minister last month, cited the failure to return the hostages as one of the key disagreements with his boss.

“There is and will not be any atonement for abandoning the captives,” he said. “It will be a mark of Cain on the forehead of Israeli society and those leading this mistaken path.”

Netanyahu, who along with Gallant is facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, has repeatedly denied this and stressed his commitment to freeing the hostages.

The seeds of Yuval’s refusal lie back in the days soon after the war began. Then the deputy speaker of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), Nissim Vaturi, called for the Gaza Strip to be “erased from the face of the Earth”. Prominent rabbi Eliyahu Mali, referring generally to Palestinians in Gaza, said: “If you don’t kill them, they’ll kill you.” The rabbi stressed soldiers should only do what the army orders, and that the state law did not allow for the killing of the civilian population.

But the language – by no means restricted to the two examples above – worried Yuval.

“People were speaking about killing the entire population of Gaza, as if it was some type of an academic idea that makes sense… And with this atmosphere, soldiers are entering Gaza just a month after their friends were butchered, hearing about soldiers dying every day. And soldiers do a lot of things.”

There have been social media posts from soldiers in Gaza abusing prisoners, destroying property, and mocking Palestinians, including numerous examples of soldiers posing with people’s possessions – including womens’ dresses and underwear.

“I was trying to fight that at the time as much as I could,” says Yuval. “There was a lot of dehumanising, a vengeful atmosphere.”

His personal turning point came with an order he could not obey.

“They told us to burn down a house, and I went to my commander and asked him: ‘Why are we doing that?’ And the answers he gave me were just not good enough. I wasn’t willing to burn down a house without reasons that make sense, without knowing that this serves a certain military purpose, or any type of purpose. So I said no and left.”

That was his last day in Gaza.

In response, the IDF told me that its actions were “based on military necessity, and with accordance to international law” and said Hamas “unlawfully embed their military assets in civilian areas”.

Three of the refusers have spoken to the BBC. Two agreed to give their names, while a third requested anonymity because he feared repercussions. All stress that they love their country, but the experience of the war, the failure to reach a hostage deal led to a defining moral choice.

One soldier, who asked to remain anonymous, was at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport when news started coming in about the Hamas attacks. He recalls feeling shock at first. Then a ringing sensation in his ears. “I remember the drive home… The radio’s on and people [are] calling in, saying: ‘My dad was just kidnapped, help me. No-one’s helping me.’ It was truly a living nightmare.”

This was the moment the IDF was made for, he felt. It wasn’t like making house raids in the occupied West Bank or chasing stone-throwing youths. “Probably for the first time I felt like I enlisted in true self-defence.”

But his view transformed as the war progressed. “I guess I no longer felt I could honestly say that this campaign was centered around securing the lives of Israelis.”

He says this was based on what he saw and heard among comrades. “I try to have empathy and say, ‘This is what happens to people who are torn apart by war…’ but it was hard to overlook how wide this discourse was.”

He recalls comrades boasting, even to their commanders, about beating “helpless Palestinians”. And he heard more chilling conversations. “People would pretty calmly talk about cases of abuse or even murder, as if it was a technicality, or with real serenity. That obviously shocked me.”

The soldier also says he witnessed prisoners being blindfolded and not allowed to move “for basically their entire stay… and given amounts of food that were shocking”.

When his first tour of duty ended he vowed not to return.

The IDF referred me to a statement from last May which said any abuse of detainees was strictly prohibited. It also said three meals a day were provided, “of quantity and variety approved by a qualified nutritionist”. It said handcuffing of detainees was only carried out “where the security risk requires it” and “every day an examination is carried out… to make sure that the handcuffs are not too tight”.

The UN has said reports of alleged torture and sexual violence by Israeli guards were “grossly illegal and revolting” and enabled by “absolute impunity”.

Michael Ofer-Ziv, 29, knew two people from his village who were killed on 7 October, among them Shani Louk whose body was paraded through Gaza on the back of a pickup truck in what became one of the most widely shared images of the war. “That was hell,” he says.

Michael was already a committed left-winger who advocated political not military solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But, like his comrades, he felt reporting for reserve duty was correct. “I knew that the military action was inevitable… and was justified in a way, but I was very worried about the shape it might take.”

His job was to work as an operations officer in a brigade war room, watching and directing action relayed back from drone cameras in Gaza. At times the physical reality of the war hit home.

“We went to get some paper from somewhere in the main command of the Gaza area,” he remembers. “And at some point we opened the window… and the stench was like a butchery… Like in the market, where it’s not very clean.”

Again it was a remark heard during a discussion among comrades that helped push him towards action. “I think the most horrible sentence that I heard was someone who said to me that the kids that we spared in the last war in Gaza [2014] became the terrorists of October 7, which I bet is true for some cases… but definitely not all of them.”

Such extreme views existed among a minority of soldiers, he says, but the majority were “just indifferent towards the price… what’s called ‘collateral damage’, or Palestinian lives”. He’s also dismayed by statements that Jewish settlements should be built in Gaza after the war – a stated aim of far-right government ministers, and even some members of Netanyahu’s Likud party.

Figures suggest there is a growing body of officers and troops within the IDF who come from what is called a ‘National Religious’ background: these are supporters of far-right Jewish nationalist parties who advocate settlement and annexation of Palestinian lands, and are firmly opposed to Palestinian statehood. According to research from the Israeli Centre for Public Affairs, a non-governmental think tank, the number of such officers graduating from the military academy rose from 2.5% in 1990 to 40% in 2014.

Ten years ago, one of Israel’s leading authorities on the issue, Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, warned about what he called the ‘religification’ of the army. “Within this context, messages about Jewish superiority and demonisation of the enemy are fertile ground for fostering brutality and releasing soldiers from moral constraints.”

The decisive moment for Michael Ofer-Ziv came when the IDF shot three Israeli hostages in Gaza in December 2023. The three men approached the army stripped to the waist, and one held a stick with a white cloth. The IDF said a soldier had felt threatened and opened fire, killing two hostages. A third was wounded but then shot again and killed, when a soldier ignored his commander’s ceasefire order.

“I remember thinking to what level of moral corruption have we got… that this can happen. And I also remember thinking, there is just no way this is the first time [innocent people were shot]… It’s just the first time that we are hearing about it, because they are hostages. If the victims were Palestinians, we just would never hear about it.”

The IDF has said that refusal to serve by reservists is dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and Prime Minister Netanyahu insists it is “the most moral army in the world”. For most Israelis, the IDF is the guarantor of their security; it helped found Israel in 1948 and is an expression of the nation – every Israeli citizen over 18 who is Jewish (and also Druze and Circassian minorities) must serve.

The refusers have attracted some hostility. Some prominent politicians, like Miri Regev, a cabinet member and former IDF spokeswoman, have called for action. “Refusers should be arrested and prosecuted,” she has said.

But the government has so far avoided tough action because, according to Yuval Green, “the military realised that it only draws attention to our actions, so they try to let us go quietly.” For those starting their national service and who refuse, sanctions are tougher. Eight conscientious objectors – not part of the reservists group – due to begin their military service at 18 years old have served time in military prison.

The soldiers I spoke with described a mix of anger, disappointment, pain or ‘radio silence’ from their former comrades.

“I strongly oppose them [the refusers],” says Major Sam Lipsky, 31, a reservist who fought in Gaza during the current war but is now based outside the Strip. He accuses the refusers group of being “highly political” and focused on opposing the current government.

“I don’t have to be a Netanyahu fan in order to not appreciate people using the military, an institution we’re all meant to rally behind, as political leverage.”

Maj Lipsky is a supporter of what he views as Israel’s mainstream right – not the far right represented by government figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister who has been convicted of inciting racism and supporting terrorism, and finance minister, Belazel Smotrich, who recently called for the population of Gaza to be halved by encouraging “voluntary migration”.

Maj Lipsky acknowledges the civilian suffering in Gaza and does not deny the imagery of dead and maimed women and children.

As we speak at his home in southern Israel, his two young children are sleeping in the next room. “There’s no way to fight the war and to prosecute a military campaign without these images happening,” he says. He then uses an expression heard in the past from Israeli leaders: “You can’t mow the lawn without grass flying up. It is not possible.”

He says the blame belongs to Hamas who went to “randomly slaughter as many Jews as possible, women, children, soldiers”.

The imperative of fighting the war has postponed a deepening struggle over the future character of the Jewish state. It is, in large part, a conflict between the secularist ideals held by people like Michael Ofer-Zif and Yuval Green, and the increasingly powerful religious right represented by the settlements movement, and their champions in Netanyahu’s cabinet, including figures like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Add to that the lingering, widespread anger over the government’s attempts to dilute the power of the country’s judiciary in 2023 – it led to mass demonstrations in the months before October 7 – and the stage is set for a turbulent politics long after the war ends.

On both sides it is not unusual to hear people talk of a struggle for the soul of Israel.

Maj Lipsky was packing to return to military duty on the evening I met him, sure of his duty and responsibility. No peace until Hamas was defeated.

Among the refusers I spoke with, there was a determination to stand by their principles. Michael Ofer-Ziv may leave Israel, unsure whether he can be happy in the country. “It just looks less and less likely that I will be able to hold the values that I hold, wanting the future that I want for my kids to live here, and that is very scary,” he says.

Yuval Green is training to become a doctor, and hopes that a settlement can be reached between peacemakers among the Israeli and Palestinian people. “I think in this conflict, there are only two sides, not the Israeli side and the Palestinian side. There is the side that supports violence and the side that supports, you know, finding better solutions.” There are many Israelis who would disagree with that analysis, but it won’t stop his mission.

A chaotic night in South Korea produced scenes most thought were consigned to the nation’s history.

One in particular has caught the attention of many: a woman confronting soldiers who were sent to block lawmakers from entering the National Assembly.

Footage of Ahn Gwi-ryeong, 35, a spokesperson for the opposition Democratic Party, grabbing the weapon of a soldier during the commotion has been shared widely online.

“I didn’t think… I just knew we had to stop this,” she told the BBC Korean Service.

Ahn made her way to the assembly building as soldiers descended on it, shortly after the president declared martial law across South Korea.

Like many in South Korea’s younger generation, the word “martial law” was foreign to her. It was last declared in 1979.

When Ahn first heard the news, she admitted “a sense of panic took over”.

• Fear, fury and triumph: Six hours that shook South Korea
• The president’s gamble backfired: What was he thinking?
• What is martial law and why was it declared?
• How two hours of martial law chaos unfolded

When martial law is declared, political activities like rallies and demonstrations are banned, strikes and labour actions are prohibited, and media and publishing activities are controlled by the authorities. Violators can be arrested or detained without a warrant.

Shortly after the declaration of martial law, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung called on lawmakers to gather in the National Assembly and hold a vote to annul the declaration.

Arriving at the assembly building just past 23:00 local time, Ahn recalled turning off office lights to avoid detection as helicopters circled overhead.

By the time she reached the main building, soldiers were engaged in a stand-off with officials, aides and citizens.

She said: “When I saw the armed soldiers… I felt like I was witnessing the regression of history.”

Ahn and her colleagues were desperate to prevent the troops from entering the main building, where the vote would be held.

They locked the revolving doors from the inside and piled furniture and other heavy objects in front of the doors.

When the military began advancing, Ahn stepped forward.

“Honestly, I was scared at first,” she said, adding: “But seeing such confrontation, I thought, ‘I can’t stay silent’.”

The assembly passed the resolution calling for the lifting of martial law at around 01:00. All 190 members who were present voted to repeal it.

At 04:26, President Yoon announced he was reversing his decision.

After the chaos subsided, Ahn slept for a short time inside the assembly building.

She continued: “I was actually a little scared to go outside the assembly in the morning because there didn’t seem to be any taxis running, and after such a storm last night, it was hard to get back to reality.”

During her conversation with the BBC, Ahn was wearing the same black turtleneck and leather jacket she had been wearing in the footage from the night before.

At times, she was overcome with emotion.

“It’s heartbreaking and frustrating that this is happening in 21st century Korea,” she said.

Dayane Leite never wanted to become a sex worker but at the age of 17 her husband died of a heart attack and she couldn’t pay for the funeral.

Her home town, Itaituba in Brazil’s northern Para state, is at the heart of the country’s illegal gold-mining trade, so a friend suggested raising the money by having sex with miners, deep in the Amazon.

“Going to the mines is a roll of the dice,” she says.

“The women are seriously humiliated there. They may be slapped in the face and yelled at.

“I was sleeping in my bedroom and a guy jumped through the window and put a gun to my head. And if they pay, they want to own the women.”

Dayane successfully gathered the money for the funeral, and at the age of 18 she had her first child. For the last 16 years, like many women in Itaituba, she has been returning periodically to the mines to work as a cook, a washerwoman, a barmaid and a sex worker.

She now has a family of seven to support.

“I’m not going to say that all the women in the city do it, but a fair share of them do sex work. So it’s kind of normal. We don’t really care,” says Natalia Cavalcante, who became a sex worker in a remote mining settlement at 24. Four years later, after marrying the owner of a bar, she became the madam of a brothel – a job she only gave up recently, to look after her nieces in the city.

Life in mining villages in the rainforest is harsh – most consist of just a dirt track, saloon bars and a church. But the miners themselves live even further out, in shacks made of wood and canvas, surrounded by snakes and jaguars, and in total darkness once the generator is switched off. Women working as cooks have to live in these camps, alongside the men.

The miners appear in the village whenever they have found gold and have money to spend, Natalia adds. Sometimes they have to be persuaded to have a shower before sex, women say.

Running a brothel is illegal under Brazilian law, but Natalia says she took no commission, she just employed bar staff and rented out rooms.

Young women would contact her asking for work, and she sometimes lent them money for the journey, a seven-hour drive from Itaituba.

Asked whether she had misgivings about involving other women in the work, she replied: “Sometimes I think: ‘I’ve been through that, and I know it’s not that nice.’ But then I think: ‘The girl has a family, sometimes a child to raise. Many of the girls who go have one or two children.’ So we accept it.”

Even before marrying, Natalia had made a lot of money.

She now has her own house in Itaituba, a motorbike, and considerable quantities of gold that she sometimes received as payment for sex, two or three grams at a time. Her goal is to study, to become a lawyer or an architect.

Some women in Itaituba, nicknamed Gold Nugget City, have set themselves up in business with the money they made, she says.

But it’s a big risk to venture as a woman into the violent and lawless mining settlements.

While the environmental harm of the mines is well known, the human cost – which the UN says includes violence, sexual exploitation and trafficking – goes largely unreported.

A dealer in precious metals told the BBC that the illegal gold from these mines would typically be relabelled as gold from a licensed mining co-operative, before being exported and turned into jewellery and components for mobile phones, or other electronic goods.

The three largest customers of Brazilian gold are Canada, Switzerland and the UK. More than 90% of all exports to Europe are from areas where illegal mining occurs, according to the Instituto Escolhas think tank.

It’s not unknown for women to be murdered in mining villages. The dead body of 26-year-old Raiele Santos was found last year in the room where she had been living near the Cuiú-Cuiú gold mine, 11 hours’ drive from Itaituba.

Her elder sister, Railane, says a man had offered her money for sex and she had refused, so he found her later and beat her to death.

“A lot of women die on a daily basis, a lot of women,” Railane says.

“I was born in the mines, I grew up in the mines, and now I’m afraid to live in the mines.”

A man has been arrested in connection with Raiele’s murder, but has not yet been tried. He denies all the charges against him.

The land covered by Brazil’s illegal gold mines more than doubled in the 10 years to 2023, to 220,000 hectares – an area larger than Greater London. No-one knows how many women work in this area, or even how many illegal miners there are. The Brazilian government says the latter figure could be anywhere from 80,000 to 800,000.

Under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the government has taken steps to close illegal mines and to stop dealers buying the gold they produce, but high gold prices continue to drive many men to try their luck.

Dayane wants to stop working in the mining areas because of the risks and the toll the hardship takes on her body, but she is planning what she hopes will be one last trip. Her goal is to earn enough in two or three months to open a snack bar on her return, though she realises she may not succeed.

Whenever she is alone, walking in the forest, she will worry about her children, she says.

“I will keep trying, until I can’t any more,” she says. “Because I think that one day, my children will say: ‘My mum worked so hard. She went through what she went through for us, and she never gave up.’”

BBC 100 Women names 100 inspiring and influential women around the world every year. Follow BBC 100 Women on Instagram and Facebook. Join the conversation using #BBC100Women.

Namibia’s governing party, Swapo, has retained its hold on power after more than 30 years, however its grip has been loosened – the latest African country where incumbents have had a difficult time this year.

According to official results, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the Swapo candidate, won the presidential election with 57% of the vote, becoming the country’s first female leader.

Opposition parties have refused to accept the outcome after the polls were marred by logistical problems and irregularities.

Other important questions that have yet to be answered include how it was possible that Swapo increased its share of the presidential vote when in the parliamentary election it recorded its worst-ever performance, losing 12 of its 63 seats and only just holding on to its parliamentary majority.

Swapo is not alone in suffering a major electoral setback.

This year has been an “annus horribilis” for those governments in sub-Saharan Africa that have had to face voters at the ballot box.

In almost every election held in the region this year under reasonably democratic conditions, the governing party either lost a significant number of seats or lost power completely.

This trend has been driven by a combination of factors:

• the economic downturn
• growing public intolerance of corruption
• and the emergence of increasingly assertive and well-coordinated opposition parties.

The trend is likely to continue into 2025.

One of the most striking aspect of the elections that have taken place in 2024 is that many have resulted in landslide defeats for governments that have previously appeared to have a strong grip on power – including in countries that have never before experienced a change at the top.

The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that had ruled the country since independence in 1966 was crushed in October’s general elections.

As well as losing power, the BDP went from holding 38 seats in the 69-strong parliament to almost being wiped out.

After winning only four seats, the BDP is now one of the smallest parties in parliament, and faces an uphill battle to remain politically relevant.

There was also a landslide defeat for the governing party in Mauritius in November, where the Alliance Lepep coalition, headed by Pravind Jagnauth of the Militant Socialist Movement, won only 27% of the vote and was reduced to just two seats in parliament.

With the opposition Alliance du Changement sweeping 60 of the 66 seats available, Mauritius has experienced one of the most complete political transformations imaginable.

Senegal and the self-declared republic of Somaliland also saw opposition victories.

In the case of Senegal, the political turnaround was just as striking as in Botswana, albeit in a different way.

Just weeks ahead of the election, the main opposition leaders Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Ousmane Sonko were languishing in jail as the government of President Macky Sall abused its power in a desperate bid to avert defeat.

After growing domestic and international pressure led to Faye and Sonko being released, Faye went on to win the presidency in the first round of voting, with the government’s candidate winning only 36% of the vote.

Even in cases where governments have not lost, their reputation and political control have been severely dented.

Like Swapo, South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) retained power but only after a bruising campaign that saw it fall below 50% of the vote in a national election for the first time since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.

This forced President Cyril Ramaphosa to enter into a coalition government, giving up 12 cabinet posts to other parties, including powerful positions such as Home Affairs.

As a result, a region that is known more for governments that manage to hold on to power for decades has seen 12 months of vibrant, intensely contested, multiparty politics.

The only exceptions to this have been countries where elections were seen as neither free nor fair, such as Chad and Rwanda, or in which governments were accused by opposition and rights groups of resorting to a combination of rigging and repression to avert defeat, as in Mozambique.

Three trends have combined to make it a particularly difficult year to be in power.

In Botswana, Mauritius and Senegal, growing citizen concern about corruption and the abuse of power eroded government credibility.

Opposition leaders were then able to play on popular anger at nepotism, economic mismanagement and the failure of leaders to uphold the rule of law to expand their support base.

Especially in Mauritius and Senegal, the party in power also undermined its claim to be a government committed to respecting political rights and civil liberties – a dangerous misstep in countries where the vast majority of citizens are committed to democracy, and which have previously seen opposition victories.

The perception that governments were mishandling the economy was particularly important because many people experienced a tough year financially.

High food and fuel prices have increased the cost of living for millions of citizens, increasing their frustration with the status quo.

In addition to underpinning some of the government defeats this year, economic anger was the main driving force that triggered the youth-led protests in Kenya that rocked President William Ruto’s government in July and August.

This is not an African phenomenon, of course, but a global one.

Popular discontent over inflation played a role in the defeat of Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party in the UK and the victory of Donald Trump and the Republican Party in the United States.

What was perhaps more distinctive about the transfers of power in Africa this year was the way that opposition parties learned from the past.

In some cases, such as Mauritius, this meant developing new ways to try and protect the vote by ensuring every stage of the electoral process was carefully watched.

In others, it meant forging new coalitions to present the electorate with a united front.

In Botswana, for example, three opposition parties and a number of independent candidates came together under the banner of the Umbrella for Democratic Change to comprehensively out-mobilise the BDP.

A similar set of trends could make life difficult for Ghana’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Saturday’s election, and will also cause the Malawian government of President Lazarus Chakwera major problems when general elections come around in 2025.

If Ghana does see a transfer of power, sub-Saharan Africa will have experienced five opposition victories in 2024 – more than any other year in its history.

That so many governments are being given an electoral bloody nose against a backdrop of global democratic decline that has seen a rise in authoritarianism in some regions is particularly striking.

It suggests that Africa has much higher levels of democratic resilience than is often recognized, notwithstanding the number of entrenched authoritarian regimes that continue to exist.

Civil society groups, opposition parties and citizens themselves have mobilised in large numbers to demand accountability, and punish governments that have failed both economically and democratically.

International governments, organizations, and activists looking for new ways to defend democracy around the world should pay more attention to a region that is often assumed to be an inhospitable environment for multiparty politics, yet has seen more examples of democratic bounce-back than other regions of the world.

• Why voters fall out of love with liberation movements
• What’s on the minds of Ghanaian voters explored in seven charts
• Children shot dead after joining pot-banging protests in Mozambique

A multi-billion-dollar money laundering operation that formed when UK gangs were struggling to offload cash during lockdown has been uncovered by the National Crime Agency.

Discovering the Russian-speaking network embedded in the UK’s street drugs market is the biggest success against money laundering in a decade, say investigators.

The global operation, based in Moscow, has been taking dirty money from crime gangs for a fee, and allowing them to exchange it for untraceable cryptocurrency, protecting drugs profits from detection. The network has also been used by the Russian state to fund espionage.

The network stretches across 30 countries, and 84 people have so far been arrested, including 71 in the UK, the NCA and its partners told reporters at a briefing earlier this week.

UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis said the operation “exposed Russian kleptocrats, drug gangs and cyber criminals – all of whom relied on the flow of dirty money”.

On Wednesday, the United States Treasury sanctioned the key figures at the top of the network.

Ekaterina Zhdanova, the head of a Moscow-based cryptocurrency network called Smart, has been identified as being at the heart of the operation. She was previously sanctioned by US authorities in November 2023 for allegedly moving money for Russian elites.

Bradley Smith, Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence for the US Treasury, said the country “remains committed to disrupting any effort by Russia to use digital assets or other illicit financial schemes to accrue, store, and transfer their ill-gotten gains”.

Rob Jones, director general of operations at the NCA, said the thread connecting Russian elites, crypto-rich cyber criminals and UK drugs gangs had been “invisible until now”.

“We have identified and acted against the Russians pulling the strings at the very top,” he continued, adding that the NCA had now made it “extremely difficult” for the key players to operate.

The trail that led to the enormous and complicated network was spotted during the 2021 pandemic lockdown, as drugs gangs across Europe struggled to move piles of cash from street sales into the legitimate economy.

That, in turn, made it harder for them to buy in more produce, such as cocaine from South America.

The NCA says two cryptocurrency networks based in Moscow, known as Smart and TGR, offered a solution.

Both were sitting on large piles of cryptocurrency from ransomware attacks. That’s a form of online extortion in which a gang paralyses an organisation’s computer systems until it pays a fee to regain control.

TGR and Smart took the profits from those attacks and struck a deal with British drugs networks, giving them an almost instantaneous way of converting dirty street money into a useable asset.

In return for taking on the risk of receiving the cash, the Russian-led network charged commission. Its network of couriers would launder the cash, pushing it through seemingly legitimate businesses like construction firms in the UK and elsewhere, or using mules to fly it in baggage to Dubai.

Ultimately, the cash re-entered the economy as it was paid into bank accounts as seemingly legitimate profits.

In effect, Smart and TGR were mimicking a legitimate bank, by charging a small fee for providing a network to move money from country to country.

The first clue came when police stopped Fawad Saiedi, a drugs profits courier, in 2021. He was carrying £250,000 in his car.

He later admitted co-ordinating the move of £15.6m of dirty money and he was jailed for more than four years.

As the NCA dug deeper, they found he had been working for Ekaterina Zhdanova, the head of the Smart cryptocurrency exchange service in Moscow.

The NCA then detected an identical pattern around the country of links between people involved in the drugs trade and those involved in crypto. They also saw further links to the notorious Kinahan drugs cartel that has its origins in Dublin and a base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Drug profits couriers identical to Saiedi’s operation were collecting cash from gangs after setting up a simple system to ensure they could trust each other and make the transfers happen quickly.

As soon as the cash was confirmed as passed to a courier, the equivalent in cryptocurrency, provided by the Russian Smart and TGR networks, was sent to a drug gang’s secret online accounts. That crypto in turn could then be used to buy cocaine in bulk from South American cartels.

Investigators identified one group of couriers collecting cash from 55 different British locations over four months on behalf of at least 22 gangs – and signs of identical schemes elsewhere in Europe.

Another UK-based courier network was run by Semen Kuksov, the son of a Russian oil executive. He and his associates collected more than £12m in drugs cash in just 10 weeks to be exchanged for virtual currency. Last February, he was jailed for almost six years.

So far, the NCA and its partners have seized £20m in cash, relating to an estimated £700m in drugs sales – and the vast majority of the arrests and charges so far are of couriers like Saiedi and Kuksov.

Rob Jones from the NCA said: “If you’re somebody now wanting to move money from a drug deal, which has been responsible for real harm in the UK, you’re going to think twice, because you don’t know whether that courier has been compromised.

“You don’t know whether we’re following them, and you don’t know where those proceeds of crime are going to end up.

“We are anticipating where this trade will go next, and we will be ahead and waiting.”

Wednesday’s US sanctions are the final stage in exposing the network, by targeting the people at the top.

The US office of Foreign Assets Control said it had sanctioned the head of TGR, Russia-born Ukrainian national George Rossi, also known as Georgy, and his second in command, Elena Chirkinyan, a Russian national.

Rossi has presented himself as being a legitimate businessman based in London, but his whereabouts are unclear.

The US Treasury says Ekaterina Zhdanova and other members of the TGR network used cryptocurrency and British financial services to move £2m into the UK to buy property for a Russian national, who has not been publicly named. The NCA has not revealed whether it has taken action to seize that property.

However, Zhdanova’s alleged role in assisting sanctioned individuals is just one part of what the NCA says are her links to Moscow.

Investigators say that, in 2022, the Russian state used the Smart and TGR crypto-exchange services to move funds for espionage.

Then, in 2023, the NCA says the scheme helped the state-controlled Russia Today media platform, banned in the UK, move cash into the country for one of its operations.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are reportedly engaged in fierce battles with rebels on the outskirts of the major city of Hama.

A monitoring group said on Tuesday evening that the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and its allies were “at the gates of Hama”, but on Wednesday it said the military had retaken several villages in a counter-attack backed by intense air strikes.

Syrian state media also said troops had pushed back the rebels north of the city, but the rebels denied losing any ground there.

Hama is 110km (70 miles) south of Aleppo, which the rebels captured last week after launching a surprise offensive from their stronghold in the north-west.

The state-run Sana news agency and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group, both reported intense fighting on Wednesday morning around Jabal Zain al-Abadin, a hill about 5km (3 miles) north-east of Hama.

The SOHR said the clashes came after government forces launched a counter-attack, during which they were able to push the rebels back almost 10km from the city and recapture two villages near the hill.

A spokesman for the rebel’s “Military Operations Division” accused the military of spreading rumours to raise the morale of its troops and insisted rebels were still in control of all locations they had recently taken.

An affiliated news channel meanwhile said that five more villages east of Hama had been captured, as well as a base of the 25th Special Mission Forces Division.

On Tuesday, the SOHR reported that there had been “major displacement” from Hama, which is home to about 1 million people, after the rebels reached the city’s outskirts and several civilians were injured by their shellfire.

Wassim, a delivery driver who lives in the city, told AFP news agency: “The sounds were really terrifying, and the continuous bombing could be clearly heard”.

But he added: “I’ll stay home because I have nowhere else to flee to.”

The SOHR has said that more than 600 people have been killed, including 107 civilians, and tens of thousands have been displaced since the start of the rebel offensive last Wednesday.

The United Nations has expressed alarm at the sudden escalation of Syria’s devastating, 13-year civil war and warned that the situation is “extremely fluid and dangerous”.

“If we do not see de-escalation and a rapid move to a serious political process, involving the Syrian parties and the key international players, then I fear we will see a deepening of the crisis,” special envoy Geir Pedersen told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

“Syria will be in grave danger of further division, deterioration, and destruction.”

President Assad has vowed to “crush” the rebels and accused Western powers of trying to redraw the map of the region, while his key allies Russia and Iran have offered their “unconditional support”.

Russian warplanes have intensified their strikes on rebel-held areas in recent days, Iran-backed militias have sent fighters to reinforce the government’s defensive lines around Hama, and Iran has said it is ready to send additional forces to Syria if asked.

Turkey, which supports the Syrian opposition but has denied reports that it is involved in the HTS-led offensive, has urged Assad to engage in a political process with the opposition to bring an end to Syria’s 13-year civil war.

Turkish-backed rebel factions have meanwhile capitalised on the government’s retreat in the north by launching a separate offensive on a pocket of territory near Aleppo that was controlled by a Kurdish-led militia alliance, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

More than half a million people have been killed since the civil war erupted in 2011 after Assad’s government cracked down violently on peaceful pro-democracy protests.

Before the start of the rebel offensive, the government had regained control of Syria’s main cities with the help of Russia, Iran and Iran-backed militias. However, large parts of the country remained out of its control.

The rebels’ last stronghold was in Aleppo and Idlib provinces, which border Turkey and where more than four million people were living, many of them displaced from government-held areas.

The enclave was dominated by HTS, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, US, Turkey and other countries because it was al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria until it formally broke ties in 2016.

A number of allied rebel factions and jihadist groups were also based there, along with Turkish-backed SNA factions and Turkish forces.

In 2020, Turkey and Russia brokered a ceasefire to halt a push by the government to retake the region. That led to an extended lull in violence, but sporadic clashes, air strikes and shelling continued.

HTS and its allies said last Wednesday that they had launched an offensive to “deter aggression”, accusing the government and allied Iran-backed militias of escalating attacks on civilians in the north-west.

But it came at a time when the government’s allies were preoccupied with other conflicts.

The Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, which was crucial in helping push back rebels in the early years of the war, has suffered recently from Israel’s offensive in Lebanon.

Israeli strikes have also eliminated Iranian military commanders in Syria and degraded supply lines to pro-government militias there.

Russia has also been also distracted by the war in Ukraine.

Mr Pedersen estimated that the rebels now had de facto control over territory containing an estimated 7 million people, including 2 million in Aleppo city.

The world’s oldest known wild bird has laid an egg at the approximate age of 74, US biologists say.

Wisdom, a Laysan albatross, was filmed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) at the Midway Atoll national wildlife refuge in the Pacific Ocean with her latest partner looking after the egg.

Members of the species usually only live for 12-40 years, but Wisdom was tagged in 1956 when she was about five.

Her last offspring hatched in 2021. She is thought to have had more than 30 chicks in her lifetime.

The USFWS said on X that Wisdom was with a new partner this year and that her previous partner Akeakamai had not been seen for several years.

The species generally mates for life but she is already thought to have outlived at least three mates.

Jon Plissner, supervisory wildlife biologist at the refuge, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Wisdom was one of two to three million Laysan albatrosses who travel to Midway to breed.

He said biologists were unaware of any other birds even close to her age, the oldest being 45.

“It’s really been remarkable,” he said. “Wisdom seems to pique the interest of people across the world. We wait each year with bated breath for her return.”

He said Wisdom still appeared to have the energy and instincts to raise another chick, and that there was a 70-80% chance of the egg hatching.

Albatross parents share incubation duties and, once the chick hatches, feeding duties.

Wisdom was first identified and tagged in 1956 after laying an egg. Laysan albatrosses are not known to breed before the age of five.

Midway Atoll is part of the Hawaiian archipelago but does not fall within the US state of Hawaii and is described as an unincorporated territory of the US.

The wildlife refuge is home to the largest colony of albatross in the world.

French nuclear firm Orano says the military authorities in Niger have taken control of its uranium mining operations in the West African country.

After seizing power in a coup in July last year, Niger’s military rulers said they would revamp rules regulating the mining of raw materials by foreign companies.

In June, they withdrew Orano’s permit to exploit one of the world’s largest uranium deposits. Orano then suspended production.

This marks another escalation in the unravelling relationship between France and Niger, following the expulsion of French troops from its former colony.

Niger’s authorities have not commented on Orano’s statement.

The country accounts for about 5% of global uranium output, making it one of the world’s top 10 producers of a vital raw material in the generation of nuclear power.

Before the coup, Niger accounted for 15-20% of France’s uranium imports.

Orano has for months been warning of interference in the running of its local unit, Somair, in which Niger has a 36.6% stake.

The company said it had been struggling to export uranium because Niger’s border with Benin was closed for security reasons.

A total of 1,150 tonnes of uranium concentrate from 2023 and 2024 stocks haven’t been exported, according to Orano. This is worth about $210m (£165m).

Orano said it intended to “defend its rights before the competent bodies” but also wanted to work with “all stakeholders to re-establish a stable and sustainable mode of operation”.

Niger’s military rulers have made it clear they were not happy with the way foreign companies had been awarded licences and believe that the country should earn more from the minerals found under its soil.

It is possible that with France sidelined, Russian and Turkish firms will get a chance to invest.

In November, Niger’s Minister of Mines Colonel Abarchi Ousmane told a Russian news agency, that France’s lack of recognition of the military rulers had also affected relations between the two countries.

“The French state, through its head of state, has declared that it does not recognise the current authorities in Niger. Does it seem possible to you that we, the state of Niger, would allow French companies to continue extracting our natural resources?” he said.

Niger achieved independence from France in 1960 and the former colonial power managed to secure exclusive access to Niger’s uranium supply through various agreements.

But since the coup, military leader Abdourahamane Tiani has been adamant about wrestling power from the West.

• Why Russia’s Africa propaganda warrior was sent home
• How has Niger changed since the coup?
• Ecowas in crisis: Why West Africa’s united front is in tatters

Rescuers are likely to need an extra day of digging to find a missing woman who is believed to have fallen into a mine when a sinkhole opened in Pennsylvania, with police saying the search is likely to have now entered the recovery phase.

“Unless it’s a miracle, most likely this is [a] recovery [effort],” Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Stephen Limani said.

Elizabeth Pollard, 64, was reported missing by family members after she went out to search for her cat on Monday night.

Officials believe she could have fallen into a 30-ft (9m) deep sinkhole connected to a mine in the town of Marguerite, that may have opened up below her as she was searching for her cat.

Speaking at a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Mr Limani said oxygen levels in the mine had lowered since they first started searching it.

“I know we have a lot of hopes, and maybe there is still a glimmer of hope, but based off of oxygen levels being a little lower, even though we’ve pumped oxygen into the mine, it’s lower than what you would want for someone to try and sustain their life. It’s been difficult,” he said.

The two-day search operation for Mrs Pollard was hampered Wednesday as rescuers said the abandoned mine had become too dangerous to send people in to search underground.

“Because of the fragile state of the mine, we’ve had to change what we were trying to do,” Mr Limani said.

“We were trying to basically suction the removal of dirt and debris and rocks, and even using water to try and soften the debris up or even push it out of our way to [now] where we have to dig out a massive area, more than four times the size of the area that we had originally done, to try and secure the mine so we can access it to try and go in there and recover her.”

Cameras and electronic devices like microphones have been sent down into the mine, but rescuers have found no sign of Mrs Pollard so far.

Mr Limani said they had, however, spotted what appeared to be a shoe for a second time in the dirt and mud.

• What are sinkholes and what causes them?

In an interview earlier on Wednesday with CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner, Mrs Pollard’s son, Axel Hayes, said he was going through a range of emotions.

“I’m upset that she hasn’t been found yet, and I’m really just worried about whether she’s still down there, where she is down there, or she went somewhere and found somewhere safer,” Mr Hayes said.

“Right now, I just hope she’s alive and well, that she’s going to make it, that my niece still has a grandmother, that I still have a mother that I can talk to.”

The family has been notified of the move to a recovery operation.

Mrs Pollard’s car was found parked behind Monday’s Union Restaurant in the town of Marguerite, 40 miles (65km) east of Pittsburgh, early Tuesday morning.

Her five-year-old granddaughter was inside, officials said, adding that the girl was cold but not hurt.

Officials believe that the sinkhole opened up as Mrs Pollard was standing on top of it while looking for her cat, named Pepper. They hope that she is sheltering in an underground “void”.

“The sinkhole, it appears that it was most likely created during the time, unfortunately, that Mrs Pollard was walking around,” Mr Limani said Tuesday.

“We don’t see any evidence of any time where that hole would have been there prior to deciding to walk around and look for her cat.”

At one point, more than 100 people were assisting in the rescue.

Temperatures, which have been below freezing the last several days, are much warmer inside the hole than they are at the surface.

Authorities had also not detected any dangerous gases that are sometimes found in abandoned mines.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been released from jail for three weeks on medical grounds, according to her lawyer.

Mostafa Nili said officials had suspended his client’s jail sentence on doctor’s advice after Ms Mohammadi underwent surgery to remove a tumour.

Her family and supporters have called for her to be freed permanently, describing the temporary release as “too little, too late”.

The 52-year-old women’s rights activist has been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since 2021.

Following her temporary release, a video was posted on Ms Mohammadi’s Instagram account showing her sitting up on a stretcher and being wheeled out of an ambulance.

In the footage, she shouts “Woman, Life, Freedom” – the slogan of the 2022-2023 protest movement that rocked the Islamic authorities.

Images on social media showed Ms Mohammadi’s right leg heavily strapped. She also clutched a picture of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman whose custody death in September 2022 sparked the protests.

Ms Mohammadi’s husband Taghi Rahmani told reporters his wife “came out in a good state of mind, a combative state despite her very fragile state of health”.

Her 18-year-old son Ali Rahmani said they had a phone exchange that was brief but intense.

“She was able to tell me that she loves me,” he added.

“The first thing she told me was that she’d left Evin prison without the compulsory veil.”

The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, called on Iranian authorities to “permanently end her imprisonment and ensure that she will get adequate medical treatment for her illnesses”.

A UN Human Rights Office spokesman in Geneva described the temporary release as “important”.

It reiterated its call “for the immediate and unconditional release of Ms Mohammadi” along with other Iranian men and women “detained or imprisoned for the legitimate exercise of their freedom of expression and other human rights”.

Mr Nili wrote on X that, based on the advice of an examining doctor, the public prosecutor had suspended her jail sentence for three weeks and she had been released from prison.

In a statement, the Narges Mohammadi Foundation said she underwent surgery last month after doctors discovered a bone lesion in her right leg suspected of being cancerous.

She was then transferred back to prison after just two days. The group said that was done “against her doctor’s advice and request from her legal team, even though she was unable to walk or even sit”.

Since then, Ms Mohammadi has seen a “rapid development of bedsores and intensified pain in her back and legs”.

The foundation called the 21-day suspension “inadequate” and said a minimum of three months is crucial for her recovery.

Unlike a medical furlough, which would have allowed the recovery period to count towards her prison term, this suspension means she will be required to serve an additional 21 days after returning to prison, the foundation added.

Ms Mohammadi won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for her campaigning against the oppression of women in Iran.

Her teenage children accepted the prize in Oslo on her behalf and read a speech which had been smuggled out of prison.

“I write this message from behind the high, cold walls of a prison. The Iranian people, with perseverance, will overcome repression and authoritarianism,” Ms Mohammadi said.

In 2016, she was sentenced to 16 years in prison, but was later released on bail. She then launched a campaign to stop solitary confinement and published two books and a documentary film.

She was arrested again in 2021 and has been in prison since.

Ms Mohammadi has been arrested a total of 13 times, tried five times, and sentenced to more than 32 years imprisonment and 154 lashes, according to her foundation.

A monument in honour of the late leader of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been unveiled in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The statue of Prigozhin and his right-hand man Dmitru Utkin, who both died in a plane crash last year, was erected in the capital Bangui.

The statue shows Prigozhin in bullet-proof clothing holding a walkie-talkie next to his colleague who holds an AK-47 rifle.

Fighters from the Wagner Group have been in CAR since 2018, when they were invited by President Faustin-Archange Touadéra to help tackle rebel groups.

The group’s subsidiaries went on to win contracts to operate gold and diamond mines.

They are also operating in several other African countries but their most significant presence is in CAR.

A statement by the CAR national police said the monument was “part of the bilateral relationship” between CAR and Russia.

The ceremony to unveil the statues was attended by Defence Minister Rameau Claude Bireau and top military officials.

• Why Wagner is winning hearts in the Central African Republic
• Wagner in Africa: How the Russian mercenary group has rebranded

Prigozhin and Utkin died alongside others on 23 August 2023, after their private jet came down north-west of Moscow, killing all those on board.

It came two months after their aborted mutiny in Russia. The Kremlin denied speculation it was to blame for the crash.

The Wagner Group has since been renamed Corps Africa, although it continues to operate under the Wagner name in CAR.

President Touadéra has defended their continued presence in the country.

“It was said that 80% of the territory was occupied by armed groups. Today, thanks to this co-operation, these figures are completely reversed,” he told the BBC in an interview last December.

Even before the inauguration of the Prigozhin statue, Russia’s role in the country was already immortalised by a statue in Bangui, of Russian troops shielding a woman and her children.

CAR has one of the world’s poorest populations despite being rich in diamonds, gold, oil and uranium.

It has been almost continuously unstable since independence from France in 1960.

Violence has subsided in recent years, although fighting does still occasionally erupt between rebels and the Wagner-backed national army.

Critics say President Toudera’s government is supported by the Russian mercenaries and other groups in exchange for exploiting the country’s resources.

Prigozhin founded Wagner in 2014, initially working mostly in the Middle East and Africa before being deployed to Ukraine at the start of 2022.

• Why Russia’s Africa propaganda warrior was sent home
• A year after mutiny, Kremlin controls Wagner remnants
• Putin offers African countries Russia’s ‘total support’

The mother of the only British-Israeli hostage being held by Hamas has described her increasing fears for her daughter’s life after more than 400 days in captivity.

Emily Damari, 28, was taken by Hamas from her home in southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

“I fear that she’s dead,” her mother Mandy told the BBC in her first television interview. “And if she’s not dead, she’s not getting enough food to eat, she’s not able to wash herself, drink water, she could be ill.”

“She’s suffering from gunshot wounds to her hand and her leg… I worry every day, I worry every second because in the next second, she could be murdered, just because she’s there.”

Mandy Damari, who was born in Surrey, called on the British government to do more to ensure humanitarian supplies go to the hostages while negotiations continue for their release.

She also welcomed US President-elect Donald Trump’s statement that there would be “hell to pay” if the hostages were not released before he takes office in January, saying: “It made me a bit more optimistic”.

Hamas gunmen shot Emily and killed her dog when they attacked Kibbutz Kfar Aza almost 14 months ago.

Mandy also hid as Hamas stormed her home and was only saved when one of the bullets jammed the lock of the room she was hiding in.

About 1,200 people were killed that day, while Emily and 250 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

The US, Egypt and Qatar have spent months working on a deal to secure the release of the 97 remaining hostages in return for a ceasefire in Gaza. But the negotiations have stalled, with Hamas and Israel blaming each other for the impasse.

Without directly mentioning Hamas or Gaza, Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday: “Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire world, in the Middle East – but it’s all talk, and no action!”

“If the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against humanity,” he warned.

Mrs Damari said the post “gave me a bit of hope that maybe someone does really care about what’s going on there”.

“Someone has to do something and take strong action to get them released. And that’s the strongest thing I’ve heard anyone say for a long time.”

She said she hoped Trump would do everything in his power to get her daughter and the other hostages released.

Mrs Damari – who describes her daughter as a Spurs football fan who loves coming to the UK to visit family, go shopping and visit pubs – is disappointed with the British government.

She is currently in the UK meeting political leaders, including the prime minister.

But she described the government’s recent decision to back a draft UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza as not doing enough to ensure the release of the hostages. The draft did demand their release, but it was vetoed by the US, which said it did not make that a precondition for a ceasefire.

“I felt really like they were stabbing me in the heart. There was no prerequisite to release the hostages… It was basically signing a death warrant for her [Emily], because if there’s a ceasefire with no release of the hostages, the hostages will stay there forever,” Mrs Damari said.

She now wants them to do more.

“I really need the British government if they are not able to get her released immediately, at least to get her humanitarian aid or a sign of life, and let me know what’s happening with that, because I’m desperate for a sign of life.”

She added: “We talk about humanitarian aid all the time to Gaza, but I don’t hear about humanitarian aid for the hostages who are held in despicable conditions. I’m desperate to get humanitarian aid into her, for someone to see her. It’s a human right to allow to allow people to see what’s happening to her.”

Mrs Damari initially did not speak out publicly about her daughter because she trusted the governments and negotiators to get her released. But now she wants the British public to understand a dual citizen is being held.

“She is the only British hostage being held… and I want people to help me to get her out, to be her voice because she can’t call out for herself. She has no voice.”

More than 44,500 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched a military campaign in response to the 7 October attack, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The French government has collapsed after Prime Minister Michel Barnier was ousted in a no-confidence vote.

MPs voted overwhelmingly in support of the motion against him – just three months after he was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron.

Opposition parties had tabled the motion after the former Brexit negotiator controversially used special powers to force through his budget without a vote.

It marks the first time the country’s government has collapsed in a no-confidence vote since 1962.

The development will further France’s political instability, after snap elections in summer led to no single group having a majority in parliament.

MPs were required to either vote yes or abstain from Wednesday’s vote, with 288 votes needed for the motion to pass. A total of 331 voted in support of the motion.

Barnier is now obliged to present the resignation of his government, and the budget which triggered his downfall is defunct.

However, he is likely to stay on as caretaker prime minister while Macron chooses a successor.

Both the left and far right had tabled motions of no-confidence after Barnier pushed through reforms to social security by invoking presidential decree on Monday, after failing to win enough support for the measures.

The left-wing alliance New Popular Front (NFP), which won the most seats in the parliamentary elections, had previously criticised Macron’s decision to appoint centrist Barnier as prime minister over its own candidate.

Alongside the far-right National Rally (RN), it deemed Barnier’s budget – which included €60bn (£49bn) in deficit reduction – unacceptable.

Marine Le Pen, the RN leader, said the budget was “toxic for the French”.

Ahead of the vote, Barnier told the National Assembly that voting him out of office would not solve the country’s financial problems.

“We have reached a moment of truth, of responsibility,” he said, adding that “we need to look at the realities of our debt”.

“It is not a pleasure that I propose difficult measures.”

In an interview with French broadcaster TF1 on Wednesday, Le Pen said there was “no other solution” than to remove Barnier.

Asked about the French president’s prospects, she replied: “I am not asking for the resignation of Emmanuel Macron.”

However, Le Pen added that “if we do not respect the voice of voters and show respect for political forces and respect for elections”, then pressure on the president will “obviously be stronger and stronger”.

Macron, who has returned to France following a state visit to Saudi Arabia, is due to give a televised speech to the nation on Thursday evening.

He is not directly affected by the result of the vote, as France votes for its president separately from its government.

Macron had said he would not resign whatever the outcome of Wednesday’s vote.

He is expected to name a new prime minister swiftly to avoid the embarrassment of a non-existent government – not least because US President-elect Donald Trump is due in Paris this weekend for the reopening of the Notre-Dame cathedral.

No new parliamentary elections can be held until July, so the current deadlock in the Assembly – where no group can hope to have a working majority – is set to continue.

New York City police officers are using facial recognition technology and a discarded cell phone to identify the man who shot and killed UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson Wednesday morning.

Thompson, 50, was fatally shot in the back just before 07:00 EST (12:00 GMT) outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

The attacker fled the scene without taking any of Thompson’s belongings. Police believe he was targeted in a pre-planned killing.

Here’s what we know about the suspect and the investigation.

The shooting took place at about 06:45 EST (11:45 GMT) in a busy part of Manhattan close to Times Square and Central Park. Thompson had been scheduled to speak at an investor conference later in the day.

According to police, the suspect – who was clad in a black face mask and cream jacket – appeared to be waiting for Thompson for five minutes outside the Hilton hotel where he was expected to speak.

Thompson, who arrived on foot, was shot in the back and leg, and later was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

• NYPD hunts gun-wielding assailant who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO outside hotel
• FULL COVERAGE: The shooting of CEO Brian Thompson
• Who was Brian Thompson?

NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny have revealed that the suspect’s weapon appeared to malfunction, but that he was able to quickly fix it and continue shooting.

Video shows him fleeing the scene on foot; he was last spotted in Central Park on an electric bicycle

So far, the investigation into Thompson’s killing has centred on a few clues that police are using to identify the suspect.

Police revealed the suspect was photographed at a nearby Starbucks just minutes before the shooting.

While he is masked in the image, police sources told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that the mask is pulled down far enough so that his eyes and part of his nose can be seen.

With that, investigators are using facial recognition software to try to find a match.

Additionally, police are testing three bullet casings and three live rounds found at the scene for DNA.

A cell phone was discovered in an alley along the suspect’s escape route. Police say they are “working through” the phone.

Investigators also said they would search Thompson’s room at the nearby Marriott, which is down the street from where the incident took place.

Investigators have so far not identified a motive in the killing, although police did note that the assailant fled without taking any of Thompson’s belongings.

In an interview with MSNBC, Thompson’s wife said that there had “been some threats” against him earlier, although she was unable to provide details.

“I just know that he said there were some people that had been threatening him,” she said.

According to police in Thompson’s hometown of Maple Grove, Minnesota, there had previously been one suspicious incident at his home in 2018.

The incident was cleared with no criminal activity detected. No additional details were provided.

Sweden has a global reputation for championing gender equality, so why are young women embracing a social media trend that celebrates quitting work?

Vilma Larsson, 25, previously had jobs in a grocery store, a care home and a factory. But she quit work a year ago to become a stay-at-home-girlfriend, and says she’s never been happier.

“My life is softer. I am not struggling. I am not very stressed.”

Her boyfriend works remotely in finance, and while he spends his days on his laptop, she’s at the gym, out for coffee, or cooking. The couple grew up in small towns in central Sweden, but now travel a lot, and are spending the winter in Cyprus.

“Every month he gives me a salary from his money that he made. But if I need more, I’ll ask him. Or if I need less, I don’t – I just save the rest,” explains Ms Larsson.

She shares her lifestyle on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, where she’s amassed 11,000 followers. Some of her posts have had almost 400,000 likes, although she says she’s not making an income from her content.

She uses the hashtags “hemmaflickvän” and “hemmafru” (Swedish for stay-at-home girlfriend and housewife) and describes herself as a “soft girl” – an identity that embraces a softer, more feminine way of living rather than focussing on a career.

The soft girl lifestyle has been a microtrend on social media in different parts of the world since the late 2010s. But in Sweden – with five decades of policies designed to promote dual income households behind it – the concept’s recent popularity has sparked both surprise and division.

Ungdomsbarometern – Sweden’s largest annual survey of young people – first put the national spotlight on Swedes embracing the soft girl trend a year ago, after it became a popular choice when 15 to 24-year-olds were asked to predict trends for 2024.

Another study released by Ungdomsbaromatern this August suggested it was even becoming an aspiration among younger schoolgirls, with 14% of seven to 14-year-olds identifying as soft girls.

“It’s about leaning away from this ‘girl boss’ ideal that we’ve seen for a lot of years, where there are very, very high demands for success in every aspect of life,” explains Johanna Göransson, a researcher for Ungdomsbarometern.

There is no official data on the number of young “soft girls” quitting work altogether and living off their partners like Ms Larsson, and Ms Göransson says it is likely to be a small proportion.

But it’s nevertheless become a major talking point in Sweden, from opinion pieces in broadsheet newspapers, to panel discussions at Almedalen – a huge annual cross-party political event – and on Swedish public service television.

Gudrun Schyman – the co-founder and former leader of Sweden’s feminist party Feministiskt initiativ – says she’s taken part in recent debates on the issue. She believes women living off their partners wealth is “very dangerous”, and “a step backwards” for gender equality.

Ms Schyman argues that young Swedes have been influenced by the country’s right-wing coalition government, which collaborates with the nationalist Sweden Democrats party, as well as the “broader development” of populism in Europe and the United States.

She also thinks there’s a lack of awareness about life in Sweden before it embraced policies designed to promote gender equality, such as heavily subsidised childcare and shared parental leave. “Young women today don’t carry the history of how women had to fight for their rights – the right to work, the right to have a salary, and the right to economic independence.”

At the other end of the political spectrum, the Sweden Democrats party has been positive towards the soft girls trend.

“I think that people should get to decide over their own life,” says Denice Westerberg, national spokesperson for the party’s youth wing. “And if you have that economic possibility to do that [live off a partner] then good for you.

“We still live in a country with all the opportunities to have a career. We still have all the rights, but we have the right to choose to live more traditionally.”

Aside from ideological debates, discussions have focussed on the social and cultural factors that could be influencing young women to quit work – or at least aspire to a softer lifestyle.

Sweden has a reputation for work life balance – most employees get six-weeks holiday a year, and less than 1% work more than 50 hours a week.

Still, Ungdomsbaromatern’s research suggests rising stress levels amongst young people, and Ms Göransson believes soft girls trend may be an extension of recent global work trends such as “quiet quitting”, which encourages employees not to overextend themselves.

Meanwhile, the Generation Z age group (the cohort born between 1997 and 2012) are making, and being influenced by, social media content that celebrates leisure time rather than career goals.

“Work doesn’t really feature that much if you look at lifestyle content on social media today, it’s much more about exercise and wellness,” explains Ms Göransson. “And if that’s the picture young people have of what a normal life looks like, then, of course, maybe you’re not so excited about spending eight hours in an office a day.”

But perhaps the biggest talking point is whether the trend is a response to the limitations of Sweden’s pioneering gender equality policies.

Alongside Slovenia, Sweden has the highest proportion of working mothers in Europe, yet government statistics suggest women in heterosexual couples still do a larger share of housework and childcare than men.

They also take 70% of state-funded parental leave, and are more likely to go on sick leave for stress. Meanwhile, although the income gap between men and women remains lower than the EU average of 12.7%, it has stalled at around 10% since 2019.

Ms Larsson – who wants to have children in the future – says her decision to become a stay-at-home girlfriend is partly due to watching older women struggle to juggle a career and homelife.

“I think a lot of women feel burned out from their work,” she says. “And I just think of my mother and her mother, my grandma, and my sister, everyone. They’re always so stressed.”

At Sweden’s state-funded Gender Equality Agency, Peter Wickström, head of the department for policy analysis and monitoring, also believes the soft girl trend can be viewed as a “rational reaction” to the perceived “demands” experienced by young women.

Shoka Åhrman, an economist at one of Sweden’s largest pension funds, SPP, says she does not believe enough Swedish girlfriends or wives will quit work for it to have an impact on the country’s economy.

However, she is working to raise awareness amongst Swedish women that leaving the labour force (as well as going part time) could impact their personal finances, from savings and pensions, to salary levels if they return to work.

Ms Åhrman hopes the current soft girl debates will serve as a wake-up call to both politicians and businesses alike that there is still work to be done to address ongoing structural inequalities in Sweden.

“I think the source of it, which is mental health issues, burnouts and all that, is what’s more worrying, because that affects not only the few younger girls today that want to stay home as soft girls,” she says.

Antibiotics are hailed as medical saviours.

But they are increasingly facing a crafty adversary: bacteria that mutate and adapt and outwit the very drugs designed to defeat them and cure the infections they cause.

These antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” directly caused 1.14 million deaths worldwide in 2021, according to The Lancet, a medical journal. Antibiotics – which are considered to be the first line of defence against severe infections – did not work on most of these cases.

India is among the countries hardest hit by “antimicrobial resistance”. In 2019 alone, antibiotic-resistant infections caused around 300,000 deaths. They alone are responsible for the deaths of nearly 60,000 newborns each year.

But some hope is on the horizon. A number of promising locally-developed new drugs show potential to combat antibiotic-resistant pathogens. They also offer a game-changing solution to preserve last-resort treatments.

Enmetazobactam, developed by Chennai-based Orchid Pharma, is the first antimicrobial invented in India to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This injectable drug treats severe conditions like urinary tract infections (UTIs), pneumonia and bloodstream infections by targeting bacteria’s defence mechanisms rather than the bacteria itself.

Bacteria often produce enzymes, like beta-lactamase, to destroy antibiotics. Enmetazobactam binds tightly to those enzymes, neutralising them and allowing the antibiotic to kill the bacteria effectively.

To put it simply, the drug immobilises the bacteria’s “weapon” without triggering resistance easily. This also preserves the effectiveness of other antibiotics, including carbapenems, which are the reliable “last line of defence” drugs.

Trials across 19 countries – the drug has been approved by global regulators – with more than 1,000 patients have shown its effectiveness. “The drug has shown remarkable potency against these bacteria that have evolved over the years. It is administered via intravenous [IV] infusion in hospitals, specifically for critically ill patients, and is not available over the counter,” Dr Maneesh Paul, the lead co-inventor of the drug, told the BBC.

Mumbai-based Wockhardt is testing a new antibiotic, called Zaynich, for severe drug-resistant infections. Developed over 25 years, the drug is currently in Phase-3 trials and expected to launch next year.

Dr Habib Khorakiwala, founder chairman of Wockhardt, has described Zaynich as a “ground-breaking, one-of-its-kind new antibiotic designed to combat all major superbugs”. It was administered on compassionate grounds to 30 critically ill patients in India who were unresponsive to any other antibiotics. Remarkably, all survived. “This would make India proud,” Dr Khorakiwala said.

Also in Phase-3 testing is Wockhardt’s Nafithromycin, trademarked as MIQNAF, a three-day oral treatment for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia with a 97% success rate. Existing treatments to the disease have resistance as high as 60%. Its trials are set to conclude next year and once it’s approved, the company says it could be launched commercially by late next year.

A 30-member Bengaluru-based biopharma firm Bugworks Research has partnered with Geneva-based non-profit Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership, or GARDP, to develop a new class of antibiotics for treating serious drug-resistant infections. Currently in early Phase-1 trials, the drug is five-to-eight years from market readiness.

“Antibiotics are becoming less effective, but big money is in drugs for cancer, diabetes and other conditions, not antibiotics,” Anand Anandkumar, CEO of Bugworks, told the BBC. “There’s little innovation because antibiotics are kept as a last-resort option. Big pharma isn’t focusing on antibiotic resistance. We’ve been funded by different organisations, but less than 10% of our funding comes from India.”

But that needs to change. A 2023 drug resistance surveillance report by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which analysed nearly 100,000 bacterial cultures from 21 specialised care hospitals around India, highlighted worrying trends in antibiotic resistance.

E.coli (Escherichia coli), commonly found in the intestines of humans and animals after consumption of contaminated food, was the most frequently isolated pathogen.

This was followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae, which can cause pneumonia and also infect the blood, cuts in the skin and the lining of the brain to cause meningitis. Coming close was the rise of the multidrug-resistant pathogen called Acinetobacter baumannii, which attacks the lungs of patients on life support in critical care units.

The survey found antibiotic effectiveness against E.coli had consistently sharply declined while Klebsiella pneumoniae showed an alarming rise in drug resistance. Doctors found that some of the main antibiotics were less than 15% effective in treating infections caused by these pathogens. Most worrying was the rising resistance to carbapenems, a critical last-resort antibiotic.

“It’s like playing whack-a-mole with bacteria. They evolve at an incredibly fast pace, and we’re always playing catch-up. You get rid of one, another pops up. We need more innovation and to learn from past mistakes,” Dr Manica Balasegaram, executive director of GARDP, told the BBC.

Not surprisingly, GARDP is focussing on India. It’s collaborating with Hyderabad-based Aurigene Pharmaceutical Services to produce zoliflodacin, a novel oral antibiotic for gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted disease which is showing increasing resistance to antibiotics. GARDP has also partnered with Japan’s pharma company Shionogi to distribute cefiderocol – a breakthrough FDA-approved antibiotic for tough infections like UTIs and hospital-acquired pneumonia – in 135 countries, with plans for production in India.

But this is only one part of the story. Doctors say drug prescription practices in India urgently need reform. The widespread use of broad-spectrum antibiotics – they target many bacteria types but can kill good bacteria, cause side-effects and increase antibiotic resistance – fuels drug resistance by encouraging the emergence of drug resistant bacterial mutants.

Instead, say doctors, narrow-spectrum antibiotics should be prioritised. But hospitals often lack antibiograms – microbiology-based antibiotic guidelines – forcing doctors to prescribe “broadly and blindly”.

“I am definitely excited that we will have these new drugs. But what is also important is that we should create mechanisms that they should not be misused the way we have previously done with [what were once also] blockbuster drugs. Improper and irresponsible use will compromise the longevity of these new drugs,” warns Dr Kamini Walia, a scientist at ICMR.

The rapid mutation of bacteria, which can evolve in a matter of hours, underscores the urgency of a holistic approach. This includes reducing infections through better water, sanitation and hygiene, improving vaccine uptake, strengthening hospital infection control policies, educating physicians and deterring self-medication by patients. “Combating antimicrobial resistance is a complex, multi-faceted challenge tied to healthcare equity and systemic accountability,” says Dr Walia.

The message is clear: without urgent action, we risk a future where even relatively minor infections could become untreatable.

Dayane Leite never wanted to become a sex worker but at the age of 17 her husband died of a heart attack and she couldn’t pay for the funeral.

Her home town, Itaituba in Brazil’s northern Para state, is at the heart of the country’s illegal gold-mining trade, so a friend suggested raising the money by having sex with miners, deep in the Amazon.

“Going to the mines is a roll of the dice,” she says.

“The women are seriously humiliated there. They may be slapped in the face and yelled at.

“I was sleeping in my bedroom and a guy jumped through the window and put a gun to my head. And if they pay, they want to own the women.”

Dayane successfully gathered the money for the funeral, and at the age of 18 she had her first child. For the last 16 years, like many women in Itaituba, she has been returning periodically to the mines to work as a cook, a washerwoman, a barmaid and a sex worker.

She now has a family of seven to support.

“I’m not going to say that all the women in the city do it, but a fair share of them do sex work. So it’s kind of normal. We don’t really care,” says Natalia Cavalcante, who became a sex worker in a remote mining settlement at 24. Four years later, after marrying the owner of a bar, she became the madam of a brothel – a job she only gave up recently, to look after her nieces in the city.

Life in mining villages in the rainforest is harsh – most consist of just a dirt track, saloon bars and a church. But the miners themselves live even further out, in shacks made of wood and canvas, surrounded by snakes and jaguars, and in total darkness once the generator is switched off. Women working as cooks have to live in these camps, alongside the men.

The miners appear in the village whenever they have found gold and have money to spend, Natalia adds. Sometimes they have to be persuaded to have a shower before sex, women say.

Running a brothel is illegal under Brazilian law, but Natalia says she took no commission, she just employed bar staff and rented out rooms.

Young women would contact her asking for work, and she sometimes lent them money for the journey, a seven-hour drive from Itaituba.

Asked whether she had misgivings about involving other women in the work, she replied: “Sometimes I think: ‘I’ve been through that, and I know it’s not that nice.’ But then I think: ‘The girl has a family, sometimes a child to raise. Many of the girls who go have one or two children.’ So we accept it.”

Even before marrying, Natalia had made a lot of money.

She now has her own house in Itaituba, a motorbike, and considerable quantities of gold that she sometimes received as payment for sex, two or three grams at a time. Her goal is to study, to become a lawyer or an architect.

Some women in Itaituba, nicknamed Gold Nugget City, have set themselves up in business with the money they made, she says.

But it’s a big risk to venture as a woman into the violent and lawless mining settlements.

While the environmental harm of the mines is well known, the human cost – which the UN says includes violence, sexual exploitation and trafficking – goes largely unreported.

A dealer in precious metals told the BBC that the illegal gold from these mines would typically be relabelled as gold from a licensed mining co-operative, before being exported and turned into jewellery and components for mobile phones, or other electronic goods.

The three largest customers of Brazilian gold are Canada, Switzerland and the UK. More than 90% of all exports to Europe are from areas where illegal mining occurs, according to the Instituto Escolhas think tank.

It’s not unknown for women to be murdered in mining villages. The dead body of 26-year-old Raiele Santos was found last year in the room where she had been living near the Cuiú-Cuiú gold mine, 11 hours’ drive from Itaituba.

Her elder sister, Railane, says a man had offered her money for sex and she had refused, so he found her later and beat her to death.

“A lot of women die on a daily basis, a lot of women,” Railane says.

“I was born in the mines, I grew up in the mines, and now I’m afraid to live in the mines.”

A man has been arrested in connection with Raiele’s murder, but has not yet been tried. He denies all the charges against him.

The land covered by Brazil’s illegal gold mines more than doubled in the 10 years to 2023, to 220,000 hectares – an area larger than Greater London. No-one knows how many women work in this area, or even how many illegal miners there are. The Brazilian government says the latter figure could be anywhere from 80,000 to 800,000.

Under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the government has taken steps to close illegal mines and to stop dealers buying the gold they produce, but high gold prices continue to drive many men to try their luck.

Dayane wants to stop working in the mining areas because of the risks and the toll the hardship takes on her body, but she is planning what she hopes will be one last trip. Her goal is to earn enough in two or three months to open a snack bar on her return, though she realises she may not succeed.

Whenever she is alone, walking in the forest, she will worry about her children, she says.

“I will keep trying, until I can’t any more,” she says. “Because I think that one day, my children will say: ‘My mum worked so hard. She went through what she went through for us, and she never gave up.’”

BBC 100 Women names 100 inspiring and influential women around the world every year. Follow BBC 100 Women on Instagram and Facebook. Join the conversation using #BBC100Women.

The price of Bitcoin has for the first time broken past the $100,000 mark, hitting a new record high.

The value of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency has been boosted by hopes US President-elect Donald Trump will adopt crypto-friendly policies.

The milestone was reached hours after Trump said he would nominate former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Paul Atkins to run the Wall Street regulator.

Mr Atkins is seen as being far more pro-cryptocurrency than the current head of the SEC, Gary Gensler.

The $100,000 milestone prompted celebrations from cryptocurrency fans around the world.

Bitcoin’s wildly fluctuating value has always attracted interest, with its backers reacting with delight when it has passed previous price thresholds – and defiance during its slumps.

But this particular landmark has been especially keenly anticipated. For weeks charts, memes and predictions have swirled around social media about when the price would hit the figure thought to be one of the holy grails of the crypto world.

Millions of viewers even tuned in to online watch parties as the price hovered close to $100k.

The value of a single bitcoin is one of the barometers of optimism in the cryptocurrency industry which is now estimated to be worth $3.3tn, according to analysis firm Coin Market Cap.

Trump’s election victory last month was the catalyst for the latest surge.

The president-elect has vowed to make the US “the crypto capital of the planet” – a remarkable turnaround given as recently as 2021 he was calling Bitcoin a “scam.”

Also remarkable is just how Bitcoin’s price has rocketed. A valuation of $100k represents a 40% increase on election day in the U.S. and more than double the price it started the year at.

But there’s lots more to Bitcoin than the dizzying changes in its value.

From its enigmatic inventor to the bringing down of the so-called Crypto King, it’s a story with many twists and turns, which has seen the making – and losing – of huge fortunes.

So here’s the BBC’s list of the seven wildest moments – so far – in Bitcoin’s tumultuous history.

1. The mysterious creator of Bitcoin

Despite its enormous profile, no-one actually knows for sure who invented Bitcoin. The idea for it was posted on internet forums in 2008 by someone calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto.

They explained how a peer-to-peer digital cash system could work to enable people to send virtual coins over the internet, just as easily as sending an email.

Satoshi created a complex computer system that would process transactions and create new coins using a huge network of self-appointed volunteers around the world who used special software and powerful computers.

But he – or they – never revealed their identity, and the world has never worked it out.

In 2014, Japanese-American man Dorian Nakamoto was pursued by reporters who thought he was the elusive Bitcoin creator, but it proved to be a false lead caused by some mistranslated information.

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright said it was him in 2016 – but after years of legal battles, a High Court judge concluded he was not Satoshi.

Earlier this year, a Canadian Bitcoin expert called Peter Todd strongly denied being Satoshi, while in London this month a British man, Stephen Mollah, claimed he was – but no-one believed him.

2. Making history with pizza

Bitcoin now underpins a two trillion-dollar cryptocurrency industry – but the first recorded transaction using it was the purchase of pizza.

On 22 May 2010, Lazlo Hanyecz, offered $41 worth of Bitcoin on a crypto forum in return for two pizzas.

A 19-year-old student obliged and the day went down in history for fans of the currency as #BitcoinPizza day.

A source of memes for those in crypto community, it also showcased the power of Bitcoin – an internet money that could genuinely buy items online.

Criminals must have been watching too, because within a year the first darknet marketplace was launched selling drugs and other illegal goods in exchange for Bitcoin.

The deal looks pretty bad for Lazlo now too. If he had held onto those coins they would now be worth hundreds of millions of dollars!

3. Becoming legal tender

In September 2021, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, central America, made Bitcoin legal tender.

Hairdressers, supermarkets and other shops had to accept Bitcoin by law, alongside its main currency, the US dollar.

Many Bitcoin enthusiasts and reporters visited the area, briefly boosting tourism to the country.

While President Bukele hoped the move would increase investment in his country and cut costs for citizens exchanging money, it did not become as popular as he hoped.

He is still hoping it will take off but for now the US dollar still remains king in the country.

As well as the huge amount of public money President Bukele spent on trying to make people embrace Bitcoin he also, controversially, bought more than 6,000 bitcoins over the past few years.

The president spent at least $120m buying up bitcoins at various prices in the hope of making a profit for his cash-strapped country.

It started to look good for him in December 2023 when, for the first time, his stash skyrocketed in value.

A website built by Dutch software engineer Elias Zerrouq is tracking the country’s Bitcoin holdings and currently estimates that the coins have risen 98% in value.

4. Kazakhstan’s crypto boom and bust

In 2021, Kazakhstan became a hotspot for Bitcoin mining – the process of crunching through the complex calculations that underpin crypto transactions.

These days it takes warehouses full of the latest computers running all day and all night, but the reward is brand new bitcoins for those companies that take part.

Warehouses of computers require lots of power – and many businesses moved to Kazakhstan where electricity was abundant thanks to huge coal reserves.

At first the government welcomed them with open arms as they brought investment.

But too many miners arrived and put huge strain on the electricity grid, putting the country at risk of blackouts.

Within a year, Kazakhstan’s Bitcoin mining industry went from boom to bust as the government imposed restrictions and increased taxes to curb the growth.

Around the world it is estimated that the Bitcoin network uses as much electricity as a small country, raising concerns about its environmental impact.

5. Bitcoins in the rubbish dump

Imagine having a crypto wallet worth more than $100m (£78m) – and then accidentally throwing away a hard drive containing the login details.

That’s what James Howells, from south Wales, says happened to him

The very nature of crypto means that recovery is not as easy as resetting your password. With no banks involved – there is no customer support helpline.

Unfortunately for him, his local council in Newport refused to let him access the landfill site where he says the device ended up – even after he offered to donate 25% of his Bitcoin stash to local charities if they let him.

He told the BBC: “It was a penny dropping moment and it was a sinking feeling.”

6. Crypto King fraudster

No one has lost as much Bitcoin as former billionaire crypto mogul, Sam Bankman-Fried. The founder of the massive crypto firm FTX was nicknamed the Crypto King and loved by the community.

FTX was a cryptocurrency exchange that allowed people to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

His empire was worth an estimated $32bn and he was flying high until everything came crashing down within days.

Journalists had discovered that Bankman-Fried’s company was financially shaky and had been illegally transferring FTX customer funds to prop up his other company, Alameda Research.

Just before his arrest at his luxury apartment complex in the Bahamas in December 2022 he spoke to reporters. He told the BBC: “I don’t think I committed fraud. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was.”

After being extradited to the US he was found guilty of fraud and money laundering and was jailed for 25 years.

7. Investment bank boom

Despite all the turmoil, Bitcoin continues to attract attention from investors and big companies.

In fact, in January 2024, some of the biggest financial firms in the world added Bitcoin to their official asset lists as Spot Bitcoin ETFs. These are like stocks and shares, linked to the value of Bitcoin but you don’t have to personally own any.

Customers have been pouring billions into these brand new products. Companies including Blackrock, Fidelity and GrayScale, have also been buying up Bitcoins in their thousands, pushing up its value to record highs.

It is a huge milestone for crypto with some fans believing that Bitcoin is finally being taken as seriously as the mysterious Satoshi imagined.

Nonetheless, few would back against more wild moments as the Bitcoin story continues to unfold.

South Korea’s president shocked the country on Tuesday night when, out of the blue, he declared martial law in the Asian democracy for the first time in nearly 50 years.

Yoon Suk Yeol’s drastic decision – announced in a late-night TV broadcast – mentioned “anti-state forces” and the threat from North Korea.

But it soon became clear that it had not been spurred by external threats but by his own desperate political troubles.

Still, it prompted thousands of people to gather at parliament in protest, while opposition lawmakers rushed there to push through an emergency vote to remove the measure.

Defeated, Yoon emerged a few hours later to accept the parliament’s vote and lift the martial law order.

Now, lawmakers will vote on whether to impeach him over what the country’s main opposition has called his “insurrectionary behaviour”.

• The president’s gamble backfired: What was he thinking?
• Woman who grabbed South Korean soldier’s gun speaks to BBC
• How two hours of martial law chaos unfolded

Yoon has acted like a president under siege, observers say.

In his address on Tuesday night, he recounted the political opposition’s attempts to undermine his government before saying he was declaring martial law to “crush anti-state forces that have been wreaking havoc”.

His decree temporarily put the military in charge – with helmeted troops and police deployed to the National Assembly parliament building where helicopters were seen landing on the roof.

Local media also showed scenes of masked, gun-toting troops entering the building while staffers tried to hold them off with fire extinguishers.

Around 23:00 local time on Tuesday (14:00 GMT), the military issued a decree banning protests and activity by parliament and political groups, and putting the media under government control.

But South Korean politicians immediately called Yoon’s declaration illegal and unconstitutional. The leader of his own party, the conservative People’s Power Party, also called Yoon’s act “the wrong move”.

Meanwhile, the leader of the country’s largest opposition party, Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Party, called on his MPs to converge on parliament to vote down the declaration.

He also called on ordinary South Koreans to show up at parliament in protest.

“Tanks, armoured personnel carriers and soldiers with guns and knives will rule the country… My fellow citizens, please come to the National Assembly.”

Thousands heeded the call, rushing to gather outside the now heavily guarded parliament. Protesters chanted: “No martial law!” and “strike down dictatorship”.

Local media broadcasting from the site showed some scuffles between protesters and police at the gates. But despite the military presence, tensions did not escalate into violence.

And lawmakers were also able to make their way around the barricades – even climbing fences to make it to the voting chamber.

Shortly after 01:00 on Wednesday, South Korea’s parliament, with 190 of its 300 members present, voted down the measure. President Yoon’s declaration of martial law was ruled invalid.

Martial law is temporary rule by military authorities in a time of emergency, when civil authorities are deemed unable to function.

The last time it was declared in South Korea was in 1979, when the country’s then long-term military dictator Park Chung-hee was assassinated during a coup.

It has never been invoked since the country became a parliamentary democracy in 1987.

But on Tuesday, Yoon pulled that trigger, saying in a national address he was trying to save South Korea from “anti-state forces”.

Yoon, who has taken a noticeably more hardline stance on North Korea than his predecessors, described the political opposition as North Korea sympathisers – without providing evidence.

Under martial law, extra powers are given to the military and there is often a suspension of civil rights for citizens and rule of law standards and protections.

Despite the military announcing restrictions on political activity and the media, protesters and politicians defied those orders. And there was no sign of the government seizing control of free media – Yonhap, the national broadcaster, and other outlets kept reporting as normal.

Yoon was voted into office in May 2022 as a hardline conservative, but has been a lame duck president since April when the opposition won a landslide in the country’s general election.

His government since then has not been able to pass the bills they wanted and have been reduced instead to vetoing bills passed by the liberal opposition.

He has also seen a fall in approval ratings – hovering around lows of 17% – as he has been mired in several corruption scandals this year, including one involving the First Lady accepting a Dior bag, and another around alleged stock manipulation.

Just last month he was forced to issue an apology on national TV, saying he was setting up an office overseeing the First Lady’s duties. But he rejected a wider investigation, which opposition parties had been calling for.

Then this week, the opposition proposed slashing a major government budget bill – which cannot be vetoed.

At the same time, the opposition also moved to impeach cabinet members and several top prosecutors- including the head of the government’s audit agency – for failing to investigate the First Lady.

The opposition Democratic Party has moved to impeach Yoon.

Parliament will have to vote by Saturday on whether to do this.

The impeachment process is relatively straightforward in South Korea. To succeed, it would require support from more than two-thirds of the 300-member National Assembly – at least 200 votes.

Once an impeachment is approved, a trial is held before the Constitutional Court – a nine-member council that oversees South Korea’s branches of government.

If six of the court’s members vote to sustain the impeachment, the president is removed from office.

If this happens, it wouldn’t be the first time that a South Korean president has been impeached. In 2016, then-President Park Geun-hye was impeached after being accused of helping a friend commit extortion.

In 2004 another president, Roh Moo-hyun, was impeached and suspended for two months. The Constitutional Court later restored him to office.

Yoon’s rash action stunned the country – which views itself as a thriving, modern democracy that has come far since its dictatorship days.

Many see this week’s events as the biggest challenge to that democratic society in decades.

Experts contend it may be more damaging to South Korea’s reputation as a democracy than even the 6 January riots in the US.

“Yoon’s declaration of martial law appeared to be both legal overreach and a political miscalculation, unnecessarily risking South Korea’s economy and security,” one expert, Leif-Eric Easley at Ewha University in Seoul said.

“He sounded like a politician under siege, making a desperate move against mounting scandals, institutional obstruction and calls for impeachment, all of which are now likely to intensify.”

Republicans will hold a narrow majority in the US House of Representatives next year, after Democrats won the final uncalled race in California on Tuesday.

A slender win for Democratic candidate Adam Gray in California’s 13th congressional district leaves his party on 215 seats in the lower chamber of Congress, compared with the Republicans’ 220.

The trifecta of House, Senate and presidency – last achieved at the start of Donald Trump’s first term in 2017 – will give the president-elect significant power to enact his agenda on the economy, immigration and other key issues.

But with a narrow House majority Republicans could still struggle to secure enough votes for some actions.

A majority is achieved in the 435-seat chamber when a party wins 218 seats – which the Republicans surpassed.

The final congressional race to be called in the country was in California’s Central Valley – nearly a month after America went to the polls on 5 November. It is not unusual for some contests to take days or weeks to be called.

The race ended in victory for Gray over the Republican incumbent John Duarte, by a margin of fewer than 200 votes, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

Gray said it showed the area was “ready for independent and accountable leadership that always puts the Valley’s people ahead of partisan politics”.

In the presidential contest, Trump beat Kamala Harris in all seven closely watched swing states – handing him a decisive advantage as he mounted a comeback unmatched by any previously defeated president in modern times.

• Republicans win House in major boost for Trump
• US election results in full
• How big was Trump’s win exactly?
• Who has joined Trump’s top team?

Trump has vowed swift action in his first 100 days in office, including the start of mass deportations of unlawful migrants in the US.

And with the next mid-term elections set for 2026, the president-elect is expected to enjoy at least two years of limited congressional oversight.

The election results also leave Democrats with less leverage to challenge policies they disagree with, though narrow margins mean Republicans in the Senate could still struggle to secure enough votes for some actions.

The House majority could be further eaten away with Trump’s selection of a number of Republican lawmakers for key jobs in his incoming administration- notable Elise Stefanik and Michael Waltz.

There is already one vacancy after the resignation of Trump ally Matt Gaetz from the House.

Gaetz left Congress after being lined up to be the next attorney general – only to withdraw after days of debate over whether a committee should release a report on sexual misconduct allegations against him. He denied wrongdoing.

• How Trump’s new recruits will be vetted
• What he can and can’t do on day one
• How undocumented migrants feel about deportations
• Can RFK Jr make America healthy again?
• The rise and fall of Matt Gaetz, in eight wild days

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of 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.

A chaotic night in South Korea produced scenes most thought were consigned to the nation’s history.

One in particular has caught the attention of many: a woman confronting soldiers who were sent to block lawmakers from entering the National Assembly.

Footage of Ahn Gwi-ryeong, 35, a spokesperson for the opposition Democratic Party, grabbing the weapon of a soldier during the commotion has been shared widely online.

“I didn’t think… I just knew we had to stop this,” she told the BBC Korean Service.

Ahn made her way to the assembly building as soldiers descended on it, shortly after the president declared martial law across South Korea.

Like many in South Korea’s younger generation, the word “martial law” was foreign to her. It was last declared in 1979.

When Ahn first heard the news, she admitted “a sense of panic took over”.

• Fear, fury and triumph: Six hours that shook South Korea
• The president’s gamble backfired: What was he thinking?
• What is martial law and why was it declared?
• How two hours of martial law chaos unfolded

When martial law is declared, political activities like rallies and demonstrations are banned, strikes and labour actions are prohibited, and media and publishing activities are controlled by the authorities. Violators can be arrested or detained without a warrant.

Shortly after the declaration of martial law, opposition leader Lee Jae-myung called on lawmakers to gather in the National Assembly and hold a vote to annul the declaration.

Arriving at the assembly building just past 23:00 local time, Ahn recalled turning off office lights to avoid detection as helicopters circled overhead.

By the time she reached the main building, soldiers were engaged in a stand-off with officials, aides and citizens.

She said: “When I saw the armed soldiers… I felt like I was witnessing the regression of history.”

Ahn and her colleagues were desperate to prevent the troops from entering the main building, where the vote would be held.

They locked the revolving doors from the inside and piled furniture and other heavy objects in front of the doors.

When the military began advancing, Ahn stepped forward.

“Honestly, I was scared at first,” she said, adding: “But seeing such confrontation, I thought, ‘I can’t stay silent’.”

The assembly passed the resolution calling for the lifting of martial law at around 01:00. All 190 members who were present voted to repeal it.

At 04:26, President Yoon announced he was reversing his decision.

After the chaos subsided, Ahn slept for a short time inside the assembly building.

She continued: “I was actually a little scared to go outside the assembly in the morning because there didn’t seem to be any taxis running, and after such a storm last night, it was hard to get back to reality.”

During her conversation with the BBC, Ahn was wearing the same black turtleneck and leather jacket she had been wearing in the footage from the night before.

At times, she was overcome with emotion.

“It’s heartbreaking and frustrating that this is happening in 21st century Korea,” she said.

The regular British army could be wiped out in as little as six months if forced to fight a war on the scale of the Ukraine conflict, a defence minister has warned.

Alistair Carns said a rate of casualties similar to that prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to the army being “expended” within six to 12 months.

He said it illustrated the importance of having reserves in order to be able to fight in a “war of scale”.

Official figures show the army had 109,245 personnel on 1 October, including 25,814 volunteer reservists.

Carns, a former Royal Marines colonel who is also a reservist, said Russia was suffering losses of around 1,500 soldiers, killed or wounded, a day.

“In a war of scale – not a limited intervention, but one similar to Ukraine – our army for example on the current casualty rates would be expended, as part of a broader multinational coalition, in six months to a year,” he added.

In a speech on reserves at the Royal United Services Institute defence think tank in London, Carns, the minister for veterans and people, said: “That doesn’t mean to say we need a bigger army, but it does mean we must be able to generate depth and mass rapidly in the event of a crisis.

“The reserves are critical, absolutely central, to that process.

“Without them we cannot generate mass, we cannot meet the plethora of defence tasks and challenges that we require, and we cannot seamlessly integrate the very best experts into the heart of our armed forces.”

Speaking separately at the same think tank, the head of the armed forces said it was important to note there was only a “remote” chance that Russia would launch a “significant direct attack or invasion” on the UK, or other Nato member.

Admiral Sir Tony Radakin added that Russia “knows the response would be overwhelming, whether conventional or nuclear”.

But he added that it showed the need for nuclear deterrence to be “kept strong and strengthened,” warning that the world was entering a “third nuclear age” following the Cold War and subsequent period of disarmament.

This new age would be defined by the “almost total absence of the security architectures that went before,” and more countries having nuclear weapons.

He added that China’s increasing nuclear weapons stockpile meant the United States could face a “two-peer challenge” from Beijing and Moscow, with both countries possessing significant arsenals.

Army reservists serve in their spare time, getting paid to train outside their main jobs.

Carns said the reality of wars such as the one being fought in Ukraine was that they were “attritional in nature”.

He also said the UK needed to “catch up with Nato allies” by placing a greater emphasis on its reserves.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said the UK’s armed forces were “amongst the best in the world and offer a 24/7 defence of the UK, operating alongside our allies and partners to prepare for any event”.

“The Strategic Defence Review will look at the threats we face and the capabilities we need so that our Armed Forces are better ready to fight, more integrated and more innovative,” they added.

“Our Reserves are an essential and extremely valued element of the Armed Forces and the contributions they make to our resilience and our ability to call on additional personnel when required are vital.”

Earlier, the prime minister’s official spokesman said the Budget had “invested billions of pounds into defence”.

Last month, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff Lieutenant General Sir Rob Magowan told MPs on the Defence Select Committee: “If the British Army was asked to fight tonight, it would fight tonight.

“I don’t think anybody in this room should be under any illusion that if the Russians invaded eastern Europe tonight, then we would meet them in that fight.”

Earlier on Wednesday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged Nato’s European members to step up their defence spending ahead of Donald Trump’s return to the White House.

The US president-elect has accused European countries of relying on American taxpayers for their security.

At a meeting of Nato’s foreign ministers in Brussels, Lammy said “the time to act is now” – although the UK government has yet to set out its own plans for increasing its spending on defence to 2.5% of national output.

He highlighted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its involvement in conflicts around the world, including the Middle East.

“In the United Kingdom, we are at 2.3%, heading to 2.5% as soon as we can get there, and we urge all allies across the Nato family to get serious about defence spending.

“All of our populations require us to understand the tremendous security challenges that we are facing at this time,” he added.