The five remaining members of the infamous “Bali Nine” drug ring have returned home after serving nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the return of Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen, and Michael Czugaj in a statement on Sunday. He said he was “pleased to confirm” they “have returned to Australia.”

He thanked Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto “for his compassion”.

The high-profile case began in 2005 when Indonesia caught nine young Australians trying to smuggle 8.3kg (18lb) of heroin out of Bali strapped to their bodies.

The eight men and one woman were arrested at an airport and hotel in Bali after a tip-off from Australian police.

The case made news worldwide when two of the gang’s ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed by firing squad in 2015 – sparking a diplomatic row between neighbours Indonesia and Australia.

After the executions, Australia recalled its ambassador to Indonesia, although he returned to Jakarta five weeks later.

Other members of the Bali Nine were handed either 20 years or life terms in prison.

The case put a spotlight on Indonesia’s strict drug laws, some of the most stringent in the world.

One of the nine, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died of cancer in prison in 2018. Shortly afterwards, Renae Lawrence, then 41, the only woman among the group, had her sentence commuted after spending almost 13 years in prison and returned to Australia the same year.

With no media present, the five took a flight on Sunday from Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport to Darwin, in northern Australia, on the Australian airline Jetstar, Indonesia’s senior law minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra told The Associated Press.

Mahendra said they were moved as “prisoners,” and “once repatriated,” they came under the jurisdiction of the Australian government. The Indonesian president had not granted them a pardon.

“The men will have the opportunity to continue their personal rehabilitation and reintegration in Australia,” Australia’s government said.

It expressed “deep appreciation” to Indonesia for allowing them to return home on humanitarian grounds.

Australian broadcaster ABC has reported that the men are effectively free to live unhindered in Australian society.

The Albanese government previously negotiated the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain, journalist Cheng Lei from China, and economist Sean Turnell from a Myanmar jail.

Albanese acknowledged that the men had committed grave crimes, but said it was time for them to return home after serving 19 years in Indonesian jails.

Two Russian oil tankers with 29 crew members on board have been heavily damaged in the Black Sea, triggering an oil spill, authorities in Russia have said.

Footage released by Russia’s Southern Transport Prosecutor’s Office showed one of the tankers broken in half and sinking amid a heavy storm, with streaks of oil visible in the water.

At least one crew member was reportedly killed. The second ship was said to have drifted after sustaining damage.

The incident took place in the Kerch Strait, which separates Russia from Crimea – the Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered a working group to be set up to deal with the incident, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev – and authorities are investigating for criminal negligence.

A rescue and clean-up operation is said to be under way involving tugboats, helicopters and more than 50 personnel.

“Today, as a result of a storm in the Black Sea, two tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, sank,” Russia’s federal sea and inland water transport agency, Rosmorrechflot, wrote in a statement.

“There were crews of 15 and 14 people on board the ships. The accident resulted in a spill of oil products,” it continued.

The oil tankers are able to carry about 4,200 tonnes of oil each.

The full extent of the oil spill and the exact fate of both ships remains unclear.

In 2007, another oil tanker – Volgoneft-139 – split in half during a storm while anchored off the Kerch Strait, spilling more than 1,000 tonnes of oil.

Russian oil imports have been heavily sanctioned by allies of Ukraine since the Kremlin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia has been accused of using a so-called ghost fleet of tankers, which are often poorly maintained and lack proper insurance, to move oil and circumvent sanctions.

France’s Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte has been struck by the worst cyclone to hit the islands in nearly a century.

At least 11 people were reportedly killed when Cyclone Chido made landfall on Saturday, causing wind gusts of more than 225km/h (140mph), with fears the death toll could rise.

French President Emmanuel Macron said France would “be there” for the people of Mayotte, while French officials said 250 firefighters and security personnel would be sent to the islands, with some having already arrived.

France’s interior minister Bruno Retailleau said “all makeshift homes have been completely destroyed” and he feared a “heavy” death toll.

One local news source reported that 11 people were killed and 246 injured, based on a hospital report.

AFP reported a higher death toll – at least 14 – citing a security source.

Located north-west of Madagascar, Mayotte is an archipelago comprised of one main island, Grand-Terre, and several smaller ones.

Most of the island’s 300,000 or so inhabitants live in shacks with sheet metal roofs, and tens of thousands of people have lost their homes.

Electricity, water and internet connections are all down. The government in Paris has sent a military transport plane with supplies and emergency workers.

The territory’s Pamandzi airport “suffered major damage, especially to the control tower,” acting French Transport Minister Francois Durovray wrote on X.

Air traffic “will be restored initially with military aid planes. Ships are on the way to ensure resupply,” he added.

Even before the cyclone hit with full force on Saturday morning, there were reports of trees being uprooted, roofs being ripped off buildings and power lines being downed.

The head of Mayotte’s firefighters’ union, Abdoul Karim Ahmed Allaoui, told the BFM news channel on Saturday morning that “even emergency responders are locked down”.

He continued: “There’s no mobile phone service and we can’t reach people on the island. Even buildings built to earthquake standards haven’t held up.

“The emergency services command centre has been evacuated and is functioning at partial capacity.”

Interior Minister Retailleau wrote in a statement on X: “I offer my full support to the people of Mayotte. The state and local emergency services are fully mobilized. 110 civil security personnel and firefighters have already been sent and are on site. A second dispatch will be made tomorrow with 140 additional personnel.”

French Prime Minister François Bayrou, who took up the post on Friday, said the cyclone was of “exceptional severity” and he was being updated on the situation “hour by hour”. He has held an emergency meeting in Paris with ministers.

Mayotte was initially placed under a purple alert – the highest level – and a “strict lockdown for the whole population, including emergency services” was imposed. It has since been lowered to red to allow emergency services to leave their bases.

Retailleau said the island had not experienced such severe weather since 1934.

After hitting Mayotte, the storm intensified overnight as it crossed the Mozambique Channel.

The coastal city of Pemba has been battered by heavy rains and winds gusting up to 185km/h (115mph).

Videos on social media showed parts of Pemba city were flooded, trees uprooted and some homes damaged.

The cyclone is now moving inland, with heavy rains reported in neighbouring Nampula province.

While the winds are expected to ease, heavy rain and flooding are also predicted for southern Malawi and later Zimbabwe.

Seven tourists in Fiji have been sent to hospital with suspected alcohol poisoning and are reported to be in a critical condition.

It is believed they drank cocktails at a resort bar on Saturday night local time and shortly afterwards, displayed nausea, vomiting and neurological symptoms.

Four of the seven are Australian, with ages ranging from 18 to 56, according to local media reports citing the health ministry.

The incident comes weeks after the deaths of six tourists in the South East Asian nation of Laos because of suspected methanol poisoning.

The tourists in Fiji, who were reportedly staying at a resort on the Coral Coast, were initially taken to Sigatoka Hospital.

They were all later transferred to Lautoka Hospital, according to the Fiji Times.

Two Australian families in Fiji are receiving consular assistance, an Australian foreign ministry spokesperson told the BBC.

It was November 2011, and Gisèle Pelicot was sleeping too much.

She spent most of her weekends in a slumber. She was annoyed, because during the week she worked hard as a supply chain manager, and her time off was precious.

Yet she could not seem to stay awake, often drifting off without even realising it and waking hours later with no memory of having gone to bed.

Despite this, Gisèle, 58, was happy. She counted herself lucky to have her husband of 38 years, Dominique, by her side. Now their three children Caroline, David and Florian were grown, the couple were planning to soon retire and move to Mazan, a village of 6,000 people in France’s idyllic southern region of Provence, where Mr Pelicot could go on bike rides and she could take Lancôme, their French bulldog, on long walks.

She had loved Dominique since they met in the early 1970s. “When I saw that young man in a blue jumper it was love at first sight,” Gisèle would reflect, much later. They both had complicated family histories marked by loss and trauma, and had found peace with one another. Their four decades together had hit rough patches – frequent financial troubles and her affair with a colleague in the mid-1980s – but they had made it through.

Years later, when asked by a lawyer to sum up their relationship, she said: “Our friends used to say we were the perfect couple. And I thought we would see our days through together.”

By that point, Gisèle and Dominique were sitting on opposite sides of a courtroom in Avignon, not far from Mazan: she surrounded by their children and her lawyers, and he, dressed in grey, prison-issue clothes, in the defendants’ glass box.

He was facing the maximum jail term for aggravated rape and was rapidly becoming known in France and beyond as – in his own daughter’s words – “one of the worst sexual predators of the last 20 years”.

But in 2011, when Gisèle felt she was sleeping too much, she couldn’t have guessed that was how things would play out.

She had no idea that, in his late 50s and nearing retirement, her husband Dominique Pelicot had been spending a lot of time on the internet, often talking to users on open forums and chatrooms where sexual material – often extreme or illegal – was freely available.

In court, he would later pinpoint that phase as the trigger for his “perversion” after a childhood trauma of rape and abuse: “We become perverted when we find something that gives us the means: the internet.”

Sometime between 2010 and 2011, a man claiming to be a nurse sent Mr Pelicot photos of his wife, drugged with sleeping pills to the point of unconsciousness. He also shared precise instructions with Mr Pelicot so that he could do the same to Gisèle.

At first he hesitated – but not for long.

Through trial and error he realised that with the right dosage of pills he could plunge his wife into a sleep so deep nothing would wake her. They had been lawfully prescribed by his doctor, who thought Mr Pelicot suffered from anxiety due to financial troubles.

He would then be able to dress her in lingerie she refused to wear, or put her through sexual practices she would have never accepted while conscious. He could film the scenes, which she would not have allowed while awake.

Initially, he was the only one raping her. But by the time the couple had settled in Mazan in 2014, he had perfected and expanded his operation.

He kept tranquilisers in a shoebox in the garage, and switched brands because the first tasted “too salty” to be surreptitiously added to his wife’s food and drink, he said later.

On a chatroom called “without her knowledge” he recruited men of all ages to come and abuse his wife.

He would film them too.

He told the court his wife’s unconscious state was clear to the 71 men who came to their house over the course of a decade. “You’re just like me, you like rape mode,” he told one of them in the chat.

As the years went by, the effects of the abuse Ms Pelicot was subjected to at night increasingly began to seep into her waking life. She lost weight, clumps of hair fell out and her blackouts became more frequent. She was riddled with anxiety, certain that she was nearing death.

Her family became worried. She had seemed healthy and active when she had visited them.

“We’d ring her but most of the time it was Dominique who picked up. He would tell us Gisèle was asleep, even in the middle of the day,” said her son-in-law Pierre. “But it seemed likely because she was doing so much [when she was with us], especially running after the grandchildren.”

Sometimes, Gisèle came close to having suspicions. Once, she had noticed the green colour of a beer her husband had handed her, and hastily poured it down the sink. Another time, she noticed a bleach stain she couldn’t recall making on a new pair of trousers. “You’re not drugging me by any chance, are you?” she remembered asking him. He broke down in tears: “How can you accuse me of such a thing?”

Mostly, though, she felt lucky to have him with her as she navigated her health issues. She developed gynaecological problems, and underwent several neurological tests to determine if she was suffering from Alzheimer’s or a brain tumour, as she feared, but the results didn’t explain the increasing tiredness and the blackouts.

Several years later, during the trial, Dominique’s brother Joel, a doctor, was asked how it was possible that medical professionals had never put the clues together and understood Gisèle was a victim of the little-known phenomenon of chemical submission – drug-facilitated rape. “In the field of medicine we only find what we’re looking for, and we look for what we know,” he replied.

Gisèle only felt better when she was away from Mazan – an oddity she barely noticed.

It was on her return from one of these trips, in September 2020, that Dominique told her, in floods of tears: “I did something stupid. I was caught filming under women’s clothes in a supermarket,” she recalled during the trial.

She was very surprised, she said, because “in 50 years he had never behaved inappropriately or used obscene words towards women”.

She said she forgave him but asked him to promise her he would seek help.

He acquiesced, “and we left it at that”, she said.

But Dominique must have known the end was near.

Soon after he was arrested in the supermarket, police confiscated his two phones and his laptop, where they would inevitably find more than 20,000 videos and photos of his wife being raped by him and others.

“I watched those videos for hours. It was troubling. Of course it had an impact on me,” Jérémie Bosse Platière, the director of the investigation, told the court.

“In 33 years in the police, I’d never really seen that sort of thing,” his colleague Stéphane Gal said. “It was sordid, it was shocking.”

His team was tasked with tracking down the men in the videos. They cross-checked the faces and names of the men carefully logged by Dominique alongside facial recognition technology.

They were eventually able to identify 54 of them, while another 21 remained nameless.

Some of the men who were unidentified said in conversations with Dominique that they were also drugging their partners. “That, for me, is the most painful part of the case,” Mr Bosse Platière said. “To know that there are some women out there who could still be victims of their husbands.”

On 2 November 2020, Dominique and Gisèle had breakfast together before heading to a police station, where Mr Pelicot had been summoned in relation to the upskirting incident. She was asked by a policeman to follow him into another room. She confirmed Dominque was her husband – “a great guy, a good man” – but denied ever taking part in swinging with him, or engaging in threesomes.

“I will show you something you won’t like,” the police chief warned her, before showing her a picture of a sexual act.

At first, she didn’t recognise any of the two people.

When she did, “I told him to stop… Everything caved in, everything I built for 50 years”.

She was sent home in a state of shock, accompanied by a friend. She had to tell her children what had happened.

Recalling that moment, Gisèle said that her “daughter’s screams are forever etched in my mind”. Caroline, David and Florian came down to Mazan and cleared out the house. Later, photos of a seemingly drugged Caroline were also found on Dominique’s laptop, although he has denied abusing her.

David, the eldest child, said they no longer had any family photos because they “got rid of everything linked to my father there and then”. Within days, Gisèle’s life was reduced to a suitcase and her dog.

Meanwhile, Dominique admitted to his crimes and was formally arrested. He thanked police for “relieving him of a burden”.

He and Gisèle wouldn’t meet again until they sat facing one another in the Avignon courtroom in September 2024.

By then, the story of the husband who drugged his wife for a decade and invited strangers to rape her had started to ripple across the world, aided by Gisèle’s unusual and remarkable decision to waive her anonymity and open the trial to the public and the media.

“I want any woman who wakes up one morning with no memories of the night before to remember what I said,” she stated. “So that no more women can fall prey to chemical submission. I was sacrificed on the altar of vice, and we need to talk about it.”

Her legal team also successfully pushed for the videos taken to be shown in court, arguing they would “undo the thesis of accidental rape” – pushing back against the line of defence that the men had not meant to rape Gisèle as they didn’t realise she was unconscious.

“She wanted shame to change sides and it has,” a woman who came to watch the trial in Avignon said in November. “Gisèle turned everything on its head. We weren’t expecting a woman like this.”

Medical examiner Anne Martinat Sainte-Beuve said that in the wake of her husband’s arrest, Gisèle was clearly traumatised but calm and distant – a coping mechanism often employed by survivors of terrorist attacks.

Gisèle herself has said that she is “a field of ruins” and that she fears the rest of her life may not be enough to rebuild herself.

Ms Sainte-Beuve said she had found Gisèle “exceptionally resilient”: “She turned what could have destroyed her into strength.”

Days before the trial started, the Pelicots’ divorce was finalised.

Gisèle has gone back to her maiden name. She went by the name Pelicot for the trial so that her grandchildren could be “proud” of being related to her and not ashamed of being associated to Dominique.

She has since moved to a village far from Mazan. She sees a psychiatrist but doesn’t take any medication, because she no longer wants to ingest any substance. She continues to go on long walks, but is no longer tired.

In the early days of the trial, Caroline’s husband Pierre took the stand.

A defence lawyer asked him about the Mazan years, when Gisèle was suffering from memory loss and her husband was dutifully accompanying her to unfruitful medical appointments. How could the family not have realised what was happening?

Pierre shook his head.

“You are forgetting one thing,” he said. “You cannot imagine the unimaginable.”

If you’ve been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

At least three people have been killed and dozens more wounded after an explosive was thrown into a crowd at a festival in Thailand.

The attack took place shortly before midnight local time on Friday at the Red Cross Doi Loyfa fair, held annually in the Umphang district in the northern Tak province.

Two suspects are being held in custody, but no charges have been pressed, the Associated Press and local media report, citing Thai police.

At least 48 people have been wounded, six of whom are critically injured, police said.

Police were alerted to the incident at 23:30 local time (16:30 GMT) on Friday.

In a statement, the Umphang rescue team said the explosive was thrown and landed at the foot of an outdoor stage where people had been dancing.

Some of the wounded were taken to a nearby hospital, it added.

Several reports suggest the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Footage said to be from the scene, posted on social media, shows scenes of panic as emergency workers and festivalgoers tend to the wounded.

One video appears to show at least two people lying in close proximity being given CPR, as crowds rush around them in a state of confusion.

The camera then pans to a person cutting the trousers off a man to reveal a wound on his leg pouring out blood.

Images taken in the aftermath, shared by the rescue team, show a cordon in place around an area strewn with rubbish and strung with lights.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra shared her condolences to the families of those killed and injured in the bombing in a post on X.

She said she had ordered the police and security agencies to investigate the cause of the explosion and help those affected. She also directed an increase in police officers to oversee all festival events.

According to the Bangkok Post, between 8,000 and 9,000 people attended the week-long festival this year, and the attack took place on the penultimate night of the event.

Umphang is the southernmost district in Thailand’s northern Tak province, which shares a border with Myanmar to the west.

The US has made “direct contact” with the HTS rebels who now control Syria after toppling the Assad regime, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

It is the first acknowledgement of direct US interaction with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which the US currently still designates as a terrorist organisation.

Blinken told reporters the US has been in contact in particular over the fate of the missing American journalist, Austin Tice.

Blinken was speaking in Jordan after talks with representatives from several Arab countries, Turkey, and Europe to discuss the future of Syria.

Officials agreed to support a peaceful transition process in the country, with Jordan’s foreign minister saying that regional powers did not want to see it “descend into chaos”.

A joint communique called for an inclusive Syrian government that respects the rights of minorities and does not offer a base for “terrorist groups”.

The talk both inside and outside Syria after the tumultuous events of recent weeks has been of the vital importance of setting up new governance that represents all Syrians.

HTS was not present at the meeting in Jordan.

There, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein expressed concern over Syria’s future shared across the Middle East and beyond.

He said regional players did not want to see another Libya – referring to the chaos that ensued after Colonel Gaddafi’s removal from power.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said existing Syrian institutions must be preserved and reformed.

“Never allow terrorism to take advantage of the transition period. And we have to coordinate our efforts and learn from the mistakes of the past,” Fidan said according to Reuters news agency.

• Trump says Syria ‘not our fight’. Staying out may not be so easy
• US military flies freed captive Travis Timmerman out of Syria
• Former Syria prison head charged with torture in US

Meanwhile, Israel has launched dozens more air strikes against Syria, according to a war monitor, despite regional condemnation.

Israel has previously said it was taking action to “destroy strategic capabilities” that threaten it.

The UN Secretary General has said he is “particularly concerned” about the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria.

HTS, Syria’s most powerful rebel group, was set up under a different name, Jabhat al-Nusra, in 2011 as a direct al-Qaeda affiliate. It was considered to be one of the most effective and deadly groups opposing President Assad.

It was proscribed as a terrorist group by the UN, the US, Turkey, and other countries – and currently remains so.

Its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, who previously used the name Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, cut ties with al-Qaeda in 2016. He has recently pledged tolerance for different religious groups and communities.

But the group’s violent jihadist past has left some doubting whether it will live up to such promises.

Missing from the talks in Jordan was any representative from Syria. The foreign ministers from eight Arab countries who did attend the meeting said they wanted to ensure that Syria was unified and not split along sectarian lines.

Also absent were the two countries that gave financial support to Assad which enabled him to survive in power for so long – Iran and Russia.

Assad’s downfall followed a 13-year civil war, which started after he crushed pro-democracy protests. The fighting killed more than half a million people, displaced millions more, and embroiled international powers and their proxies.

The shadow of all the outside forces that battled over Syria for so long hangs heavy over its future.

Syria’s next leaders will need cohesion not just inside the country but outside, too, if there is to be any real hope for the Syrian people to build on the freedom they have experienced in the past week.

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan is known for some of India’s most popular films, including Lagaan and 3 Idiots.

So great is his appeal, he can barely walk down the street without getting mobbed by fans.

What’s less well known is that he secretly quit films during the Covid pandemic in order to spend more time with his loved ones.

“I told my family I’m done with acting and films,” he tells BBC News.

“I [didn’t] want to produce or direct or act. I just wanted to be with the family.”

You’d imagine a major star like Khan deciding to quit the industry would have sent shockwaves through India, a nation that is fully obsessed with films.

But, he explains, his decision went unnoticed at the time because so few movies were being made due to the pandemic.

“No-one knew about it,” he says.

Fans can breathe a sigh of relief, though.

Khan didn’t quit for long. And now he’s back and is promoting Laapataa Ladies – or Lost Ladies – a film he’s produced. It is India’s official pick for the Oscars in the best international feature film category.

Khan says it was his children who convinced him to go back to work.

“They were like, ‘But we can’t spend 24 hours with you. So get real and get a life.’ So they gently nudged me back into the films,” he says.

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• Alia Bhatt: The young Bollywood star taking on Hollywood

At 59, Khan has worked as an actor, director and producer for three decades.

He’s known as one of the three “Khans of Bollywood” – the others being fellow megastars Shah Rukh and Salman.

Known for tackling social issues, Aamir’s films are widely acclaimed as well as breaking box office records.

He is also no stranger to the Oscars. Lagaan, a film about cricket set in the 19th Century during the British Empire, was nominated for best foreign language film in 2002.

Khan is now trying to make history with Laapataa Ladies. If it succeeds, it would be the first Indian film to win the coveted international prize. He will find out whether it has made the shortlist on Tuesday.

Khan said he’s “not quite sure how seriously” to take awards. “Cinema is so subjective,” he says.

But he admits a win would mean a lot to India.

“I think Indians are so film crazy and we’ve been dying to win the Academy Award for an Indian film, which hasn’t happened till now. So the country will go ballistic. They’ll just go mad if we win,” he says.

“So just for the people of our country and for our country, I would be really happy if we win the award.”

Set in rural India, Laapataa Ladies tells the story of a young man bringing the wrong bride home. Meanwhile, his wife ends up lost, having to fend for herself.

It’s a satire looking at the treatment of women, including touching on the sensitive topic of domestic violence.

Khan describes the plot as “a bit Shakespearean”, with its focus on humour and mistaken identities.

But, he adds, it’s saying “a lot of important things about women’s issues, their independence, their right to decide for themselves what they want to do”.

It was these issues that drew him to the film in the first place, he explains.

“Every now and then you get an opportunity as a creative person to actually also sensitise people about certain issues that we face in society,” he says.

“Women all over the world have been subjected to a lot of challenges in their lives. Women have a raw deal in life. So I felt that here is a story which really brings that out well in such a nice way, which is why I wanted to produce it.”

Khan was also “very keen” that his ex-wife, Kiran Rao, should direct the film.

The pair, who married in 2005, announced their separation in 2021. But they have remained close, both professionally and personally.

“I think the reason I chose Kiran was because I knew that she would be very honest with it and that’s what I wanted,” he says.

“We get along really well. We really love each other, we respect each other.

“Our relationship may have changed slightly – but that doesn’t mean what we feel for each other has gone down or something.”

That’s not to say it’s all been plain sailing, however.

Khan admits there were arguments on set.

“We can’t make a film without an argument. So we argue every point and we have strong opinions,” he says.

“But our sensibilities are very similar. We are not talking about fundamental things. We are just trying to sometimes convince the other person a better way of conveying something.”

Bollywood produces hundreds of films every year and has a huge following among Indians globally.

The sway the films and stars have on their fans’ imagination cannot be overstated.

It has had recent success at the Academy Awards, with Naatu Naatu from RRR winning best original song and The Elephant Whisperers awarded best documentary short film.

But victory in the international film category has so far eluded it, something Khan attributes to the competition.

“India has made really great films over the years. Occasionally it’s a matter of the right film not getting sent or the best film not getting sent,” he says.

“But otherwise we have to understand that the films you’re competing against – you’re not competing against five or six films, you’re competing against almost 80 or 90 films, which are the best in the world.”

As to whether a Bollywood film could one day scoop the best overall film award, Khan says it is “possible”.

But Indian film-makers would first need to start making movies for a global market, he adds.

“I’ve never really looked at an international audience,” he says. “We have such a large audience of our own that it doesn’t come in to our mind.

“That will only happen when Indians start making films for a world audience. I don’t think we have the bandwidth for it right now.”

For now, Khan is focusing on a range of projects alongside Laapataa Ladies, which also include his next film Sitaare Zameen Par, due for release in 2025.

Looking further out, he’s hoping to make one film a year, while his “dream project” is to take on Mahabharat – the ancient Indian epic.

But since unretiring from film, he is determined to do things differently. Again, this was influenced by his children.

“My son said, ‘You’re an extreme person’,” he says.

“He said, ‘You’re like a pendulum. You only did films, films, films. And now you want to swing to the other side and do no films and be with family, family, family. There is a middle place also you can think about’.”

Khan says his son told him to “try and bring some balance” into his life.

“And I thought he was right. So since then, that’s what I’ve been trying to do – living a balanced life where I’m working really hard, in fact I’m doing much more work that I ever did, but I don’t work after 6 o’clock any more.”

Khan says he has also started therapy in recent years, inspired by his daughter Ira, who works in mental health.

“I think that’s something that’s really helped me. That’s really helped me understand myself better.

“I’m actually finding that balance between work and a personal life. So I feel that I’ve reached that space now.”

ABC News has agreed to pay $15m (£12m) to US President-elect Donald Trump to settle a defamation lawsuit after its star anchor falsely said he had been found “liable for rape”.

George Stephanopoulos made the statements repeatedly during an interview on 10 March this year while challenging a congresswoman about her support for Trump.

A jury in a civil case last year determined Trump was liable for “sexual abuse”, which has a specific definition under New York law.

As part of Saturday’s settlement, first reported by Fox News Digital, ABC will also publish a statement expressing its “regret” for the statements by Stephanopoulos.

According to the settlement, ABC News will pay $15m as a charitable contribution to a “Presidential foundation and museum to be established by or for Plaintiff, as Presidents of the United States of America have established in the past”.

The network also agreed to pay $1m towards Trump’s legal fees.

Under the settlement, the network will post an editor’s note to the bottom of its 10 March 2024 online news article about the story.

It will say: “ABC News and George Stephanopoulos regret statements regarding President Donald J Trump made during an interview by George Stephanopoulos with Rep. Nancy Mace on ABC’s This Week on March 10, 2024.”

An ABC News spokesperson said in a statement the company was “pleased that the parties have reached an agreement to dismiss the lawsuit on the terms in the court filing”.

In 2023, a New York civil court found Trump sexually abused E Jean Carroll in a dressing room at a department store in 1996. He was also found guilty of defaming the magazine columnist.

Judge Lewis Kaplan said the jury’s conclusion was that Ms Carroll had failed to prove that Trump raped her “within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law”.

Judge Kaplan noted that the definition of rape was “far narrower” than how rape is defined in common modern parlance, in some dictionaries and in criminal statutes elsewhere.

In a separate case, also presided over by the same judge, a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3m to Ms Carroll for additional defamatory statements.

During the 10 March broadcast, Stephanopoulos asked South Carolina Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace how she could endorse Trump.

The anchor falsely said “judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape”.

Stephanopoulos repeated the claim 10 times throughout the broadcast.

Ahead of the ruling, a federal magistrate judge had ordered Trump and Stephanopoulos to give sworn evidence at depositions next week.

Trump has also sued CBS, the BBC’s US broadcast partner, for “deceptive conduct” over an interview with Kamala Harris.

In 2023, a judge threw out his defamation lawsuit against CNN, in which he alleged the network had likened him to Adolf Hitler.

He has also had lawsuits filed against the New York Times and the Washington Post dismissed.

Israel will close its embassy in Dublin over “the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government”, its foreign minister has said.

Gideon Saar said the Republic of Ireland had crossed “every red line”.

In a statement, he said Israel’s ambassador to Dublin had been recalled in the past following what it called Ireland’s “unilateral decision to recognise a Palestinian state”.

He added that the decision followed Ireland’s announcement of its support for South Africa’s legal action against Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing the country of “genocide”.

Mr Saar said: “The actions and anti-Semitic rhetoric used by Ireland against Israel are rooted in the de-legitimisation and demonisation of the Jewish state, along with double standards.

“Israel will invest its resources in advancing bilateral relations with countries worldwide according to priorities that also take into account the attitudes and actions of these states toward Israel.”

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Simon Harris said the decision by Israel to close its Irish embassy is “deeply regrettable”.

He also rejects that Ireland is anti-Israel.

Tánaiste (Irish deputy prime minister) Micheál Martin has said there are no plans to close its embassy in Israel.

Martin said he had been informed by the government of Israel of its decision to close its embassy in Dublin.

He said: “I believe firmly in the importance of maintaining diplomatic channels of communication and regret that this decision has been taken.”

“Ireland’s position on the conflict in the Middle East has always been guided by the principles of international law and the obligation on all states to adhere to international humanitarian law.”

He said the continuation of the war in Gaza and the “loss of innocent lives is simply unacceptable and contravenes international law.”

He added: “It represents the collective punishment of the Palestinian people in Gaza. We need an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza.”

Mr Martin said Ireland and Israel will continue to maintain diplomatic relations, adding: “Inherent in that is the right to agree and disagree on fundamental points.

On 7 October last year, Hamas launched an attack in southern Israel killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

In retaliation, Israel launched a massive operation inside the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of eliminating Hamas.

So far, at least 44,875 people have been killed and more than 100,000 injured – mostly civilians, the Hamas-run health ministry says. The UN regards these figures as reliable.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been discharged from hospital after undergoing emergency surgery for a brain bleed, doctors said.

The 79-year-old appeared alongside his medical team at a news conference at Sírio-Libanês hospital in São Paulo.

“This here is not an interview, this is simply a session to say thanks. To thank, firstly, God, who has looked after me in a very generous manner,” he said.

Lula was taken to hospital on Monday after he had complained of a severe headache.

Doctors performed a craniotomy on the president, a procedure in which part of the bone is surgically removed from the skull to treat the bleed and relieve the pressure. The bone is then replaced.

The brain bleed, or intracranial haemorrhage, was caused by a blow to the head he sustained when he fell in his bathroom at the presidential residence in October, according to a hospital statement.

“Thank you very much for the prayers,” Lula added on Sunday. “And for those who only have hate, you’re forgiven. I am here, alive, whole, and with more desire to work.”

On Tuesday, doctors said the president was in a stable condition following the surgery and was conscious.

Lula was “lucid” and conversing with medical staff, they added.

They also insisted that he had not sustained any brain injury and was not experiencing and after-effects from the surgery.

Asked when he would return to the capital, doctors had said that if everything went well, they expected Lula to be back in Brasilia “next week”.

While Lula was in hospital, Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin took on some of the president’s commitments.

The doctors said the bleeding was a result of the fall Lula had sustained in October.

They explained that it was not unusual for problems from a blow to the head to appear “months later”.

Lula had slipped in the bathroom in the Alvorada Palace on 19 October and hit the back of his head. On Sunday, he explained he had been cutting his toe nails at the time and had been sitting down.

He went on to have five stitches. On his doctors’ advice, the president cancelled his planned trip to Russia for a summit of the Brics countries.

He returned to full duties days later.

Lula has been in power since January last year after narrowly beating the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, in a bitterly fought election.

During the election campaign, he often joked that he had “the energy of a 30-year-old”.

Five people have died in shootings in northern France, including near a migrant camp, and a 22-year-old man has turned himself in to police, according to French media.

Four people – including two security guards and two men staying in the camp – were fatally shot in Loon-Plage, a stretch of coastline near Dunkirk, the city’s chief prosecutor Charlotte Huet said in a statement, as reported by French media.

The gunman also confessed to an earlier shooting in the nearby town of Wormhout, the prosecutor added.

Dunkirk’s Mayor Patrice Vergriete said the motive behind the attacks “remains unknown”.

Several firearms were found in the suspect’s car and he was previously unknown to police, the prosecutor’s statement said.

All five murders were reportedly committed within less than two hours in the Dunkirk area.

According to the prosecutor, a 29-year-old man was killed with “several gunshots” at 15:15 local time (14:15 GMT) outside his house in Wormhout, a village just south of the city.

About 45 minutes later, two security guards aged 33 and 37 were killed near a port in Loon-Plage, just west of Dunkirk, Huet added.

Minutes later, two other men aged 19 and 30 were also shot dead. They were staying in the nearby migrant camp, the prosecutor said.

BBC News has contacted local authorities for comment.

Mayor Vergriete described the incident as a “tragedy” and said “an individual coldly murdered several people” in the area.

Xavier Bertrand, head of the region’s assembly, confirmed on X that five people had died in a “tragic event”.

French media reported a large emergency services presence close to a migrant camp, though it is unclear if the shootings took place inside a settlement.

Loon-Plage is home to several temporary settlements housing migrants. It is near to Calais and the Strait of Dover, which is the narrowest part of the Channel.

Similar camps along France’s northern coast have been used by people attempting to reach the UK via small boats.

Hollywood actor Jamie Foxx’s birthday dinner was cut short after he was involved in an altercation at a Beverly Hills restaurant, leaving him needing stitches, his representative said.

The Django Unchained and Ray star was celebrating his 57th birthday on Friday.

Someone at another table “threw a glass that hit him in the mouth” and the matter is now in “law enforcement’s hands,” a representative for Foxx told the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

They added that the actor “had to get stitches and is recovering”.

Officials from Beverly Hills Police Department confirmed police attended Mr Chow, a high-end Chinese restaurant, after reports of an assault with a deadly weapon.

Police found there had been a physical fight between two parties at the restaurant, and that reports of assault with a deadly weapon were unfounded. They did not elaborate on what sparked the fight.

The representative told CBS News Los Angeles that Foxx was at the restaurant for a celebration, even though police did not specifically name him.

The police were called around 10:10 p.m.

It’s unclear whether any arrests have been made and no other information was provided.

The incident comes after Foxx revealed the cause of his hospital admission in April last year.

Speaking during a Netflix special earlier this month, the actor told the audience he’d suffered a “brain bleed that led to a stroke”.

He said he had a bad headache one day and asked for an aspirin, but before he could take it he “went out (blacked out). I don’t remember 20 days”.

At the time, his daughter Corinne Foxx said he had experienced a “medical complication” but the family did not share details about his health issues.

The star won an Oscar for best actor for playing musician Ray Charles in Ray in 2005. He was also nominated for best supporting actor the same year for his role in Collateral.

His other films include Baby Driver, Annie and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

With awareness of our carbon footprints growing all the time, some people striving to lead eco-friendly lives are turning their attention to what happens when they die.

“I don’t want my last act on this planet to be a polluting act, if I can help that,” Rachel Hawthorn explains.

She is getting ready to make her own burial shroud because she is concerned about the environmental impact of traditional burials and cremations.

“I try so hard in my life to recycle and to use less, and to live in an environmentally friendly way, so I want my death to be that as well,” she adds.

A gas cremation produces the estimated equivalent carbon dioxide emissions of a return flight from London to Paris and around 80% of those who die in the UK are cremated each year, according to a report from carbon consultancy firm, Planet Mark.

But traditional burials can pollute too. Non-biodegradable coffins are often made with harmful chemicals and bodies are embalmed using formaldehyde: a toxic substance which can leach into soil.

In a recent survey from Co-op Funeralcare, conducted by YouGov, one person in 10 said they would want a more ‘eco-friendly’ funeral.

Rachel, from Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, made a burial shroud for a friend from locally-sourced wool, willow, bramble and ivy, as part of her work as an artist.

For years she has explored the themes of death, dying, grief and nature through crafts and functional objects.

But the 50-year-old sees the shroud, which can also remove the need for a coffin, as more than just artwork – and has since decided to make her own.

A common reaction from those who have seen the creation is to ask if they can touch it, to feel how soft it is.

For Rachel, it is the perfect way of helping people address the taboo topic of death.

She also works as a death doula, which involves supporting people who are dying, as well as their loved ones, to make informed funeral care choices.

“I find that when we talk about death, everybody I’ve met finds it a helpful and healthy thing, and something that is life-enriching,” she says.

“When somebody dies it is often so shocking. We just get on a treadmill of ‘this is what happens’, so I want to open up those conversations.

“I want more people to know there are options and that we don’t have to end up in a box.”

The practice of digging graves to a depth of 6ft (1.82m) dates back at least to the 16th Century and is believed to have been a precaution against plague.

When Rachel’s time comes, she wants a natural burial, which means using a biodegradable coffin or shroud in a shallower grave. The upper layers of soil contain more active microbes, so bodies can decompose in about 20 to 30 years, rather than up to 100 in a traditional grave.

Natural burial grounds are dotted across the UK and bear little resemblance to normal cemeteries – trees and wildflowers replace man-made grave markings, and no pesticides are used.

Embalming, headstones, ornaments, and plastic flowers are not allowed.

Louise McManus’ mother was buried last year at Tarn Moor Memorial Woodland, a natural site near Skipton. The funeral included an electric hearse, locally made wool coffin and flowers from her garden.

“She loved nature and being outside. She was concerned about what is happening to the environment and asked for her funeral to be as sustainable as possible,” Louise says.

Sarah Jones, the Leeds-based funeral director who organised the send-off, says demand for sustainability is growing.

Her business has expanded to four premises since opening in 2016 with a rise in sustainable funerals helping to drive that expansion.

She said from a “handful” of eco burials, such requests now make up about 20% of her business.

“More and more people are asking about it and want to make choices that are better for the planet. They often feel it reflects the life of the person who has died because it was important to them,” she says.

As with many eco-friendly industries, natural burials can cost more. Many grounds, including Tarn Moor, offer cheaper plots to locals. One in Speeton, North Yorkshire, is community-run and puts profits back into the village playground.

At Tarn Moor, a plot plus maintenance for Skipton residents costs £1,177. Non-locals are charged £1,818. The nearest council cemetery charges £1,200 for a grave while cremation costs here start at £896.

Often away from urban areas and transport links, travelling to natural grounds for funerals, or to visit a grave, can involve a higher carbon footprint than more traditional sites, Planet Mark’s report points out.

Shroud-maker Rachel recognises these challenges but hopes for long-term change. She wants to see more local natural grounds and to normalise eco-friendly deathcare, while being respectful of others’ choices.

“In times gone by, women would arrive in their marital home with their shrouds as part of their dowry and they would be kept in the bottom drawer until they were needed,” she says.

“I don’t see why people can’t have their burial shroud just ready and waiting for them.

“I think it could be that normal, but everybody does need to have their own choices around it. It doesn’t have to be a certain way.”

Former professional darts champion Kevin Painter has thrown arrows almost every day for 40 years.

Throughout his career he thrived under pressure, playing in the most prestigious competitions and taking home more than £900,000 in prize money.

But earlier this year, he went to throw a dart and it physically would not leave his hand.

“You’re in shock, I stood there for ages. I just couldn’t get my arm up to let go of the dart,” he said.

Kevin was suffering from dartitis, a mental condition where the brain stops a player from being able to release a dart.

Finding a cure would become the 57-year-old’s latest challenge.

“[Dartitis is] in the absence of any physical trauma, it’s purely psychological,” said Dr Linda Duffy, professor of psychology at Middlesex University.

From 1982 to 1987 she was ranked women’s world number one and also experienced dartitis.

“I used to combat it with extra practice. It was heard of back in the day, but not many people spoke about it,” she said.

Dartitis can affect all players, professional or amateur.

Jack Langston, a darts referee and online content creator, was 12 when he first experienced the condition.

“There was a little pause just before I threw the dart,” he said.

It was barely noticeable at first but eventually it became so bad he would take 60 seconds to throw three darts.

By the age of 13, he was forced to quit and at the time, considered his darts career to be over.

“You’re turning up and getting beat by people you know you should be beating,” he said.

“It’s so demoralising. It’s a real mental struggle.”

Every case is different, and there is no one single cause, but lots of players report it comes from a fear of missing.

“It’s brought on by anxiety and stress,” Kevin said.

“Where others have panic attacks, for me it manifested as dartitis.”

After he first experienced the condition, Kevin was introduced to a hypnotherapist.

Chris O’Connor runs Eccleston Park Hypnotherapy, the official hypnotherapy partner of the Professional Darts Players Association (PDPA).

During his sessions, the patient lies on a sofa and is guided into a trance where they are then “hit with all the confidence work and the motivation work”, Mr O’Connor said.

“It’s all about getting them to visualise an area of their life they want to improve.”

After eight sessions, it seemed Kevin’s dartitis had been cured.

He thanked Mr O’Connor and said the treatment had worked, in a video posted to social media.

But two weeks later, during a televised match at the World Senior Darts tour, the condition returned.

“I was really, really disappointed,” he said. “I thought it had gone.”

Dr Duffy admitted she is unconvinced by hypnotherapy.

“I don’t think it’ll work – ever – because throwing darts is a conscious skill. So having therapy on your unconscious movements, I don’t think is going to help it,” she said.

Perhaps due to its name, players have a tendency to view dartitis as a problem unique to the sport which therefore demands unique solutions.

But Dr Duffy emphasises “it’s just another cognitive disorder, so it should be treated that way”.

She prefers to use cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), where the player reframes dartitis as a challenge they need to overcome.

Unlike Kevin, Jack has managed to shake his dartitis and with lasting results.

In January, the 31-year-old decided to start throwing with his left hand.

“[It was] the biggest decision of my entire life playing darts,” he said.

But it worked, and within three months he was winning matches at amateur tournaments.

Alongside his better performances, Jack found another benefit – he no longer needed to drink alcohol to play.

“I used to shake if I didn’t have a beer I’d be so nervous,” he said.

“If you’d have told me a year ago I’d play darts sober, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

To help aid his recovery, Kevin has also started to drink less.

“It’s no secret everyone likes a drink when they play,” he said.

“But you have to put the effort [into the treatment]. I like to go for a walk in the mornings to clear my head.”

While reducing alcohol consumption is a welcome benefit, Dr Duffy is clear she does not think there is a link between drinking and dartitis.

“The underlying mechanisms that cause dartitis are the same things that cause any other anxiety disorder,” she said.

Kevin plans to continue his hypnotherapy treatment, hoping this time the dartitis stays away for good.

“Everyone’s been very supportive,” he said.

“I’ve spoken to so many people who have it or have had it. I wouldn’t have had those conversations if I didn’t get dartitis.”

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan is known for some of India’s most popular films, including Lagaan and 3 Idiots.

So great is his appeal, he can barely walk down the street without getting mobbed by fans.

What’s less well known is that he secretly quit films during the Covid pandemic in order to spend more time with his loved ones.

“I told my family I’m done with acting and films,” he tells BBC News.

“I [didn’t] want to produce or direct or act. I just wanted to be with the family.”

You’d imagine a major star like Khan deciding to quit the industry would have sent shockwaves through India, a nation that is fully obsessed with films.

But, he explains, his decision went unnoticed at the time because so few movies were being made due to the pandemic.

“No-one knew about it,” he says.

Fans can breathe a sigh of relief, though.

Khan didn’t quit for long. And now he’s back and is promoting Laapataa Ladies – or Lost Ladies – a film he’s produced. It is India’s official pick for the Oscars in the best international feature film category.

Khan says it was his children who convinced him to go back to work.

“They were like, ‘But we can’t spend 24 hours with you. So get real and get a life.’ So they gently nudged me back into the films,” he says.

• Can zombies and witches save Bollywood from its troubles?
• Nostalgic Indians flock to cinemas to watch old hits
• Alia Bhatt: The young Bollywood star taking on Hollywood

At 59, Khan has worked as an actor, director and producer for three decades.

He’s known as one of the three “Khans of Bollywood” – the others being fellow megastars Shah Rukh and Salman.

Known for tackling social issues, Aamir’s films are widely acclaimed as well as breaking box office records.

He is also no stranger to the Oscars. Lagaan, a film about cricket set in the 19th Century during the British Empire, was nominated for best foreign language film in 2002.

Khan is now trying to make history with Laapataa Ladies. If it succeeds, it would be the first Indian film to win the coveted international prize. He will find out whether it has made the shortlist on Tuesday.

Khan said he’s “not quite sure how seriously” to take awards. “Cinema is so subjective,” he says.

But he admits a win would mean a lot to India.

“I think Indians are so film crazy and we’ve been dying to win the Academy Award for an Indian film, which hasn’t happened till now. So the country will go ballistic. They’ll just go mad if we win,” he says.

“So just for the people of our country and for our country, I would be really happy if we win the award.”

Set in rural India, Laapataa Ladies tells the story of a young man bringing the wrong bride home. Meanwhile, his wife ends up lost, having to fend for herself.

It’s a satire looking at the treatment of women, including touching on the sensitive topic of domestic violence.

Khan describes the plot as “a bit Shakespearean”, with its focus on humour and mistaken identities.

But, he adds, it’s saying “a lot of important things about women’s issues, their independence, their right to decide for themselves what they want to do”.

It was these issues that drew him to the film in the first place, he explains.

“Every now and then you get an opportunity as a creative person to actually also sensitise people about certain issues that we face in society,” he says.

“Women all over the world have been subjected to a lot of challenges in their lives. Women have a raw deal in life. So I felt that here is a story which really brings that out well in such a nice way, which is why I wanted to produce it.”

Khan was also “very keen” that his ex-wife, Kiran Rao, should direct the film.

The pair, who married in 2005, announced their separation in 2021. But they have remained close, both professionally and personally.

“I think the reason I chose Kiran was because I knew that she would be very honest with it and that’s what I wanted,” he says.

“We get along really well. We really love each other, we respect each other.

“Our relationship may have changed slightly – but that doesn’t mean what we feel for each other has gone down or something.”

That’s not to say it’s all been plain sailing, however.

Khan admits there were arguments on set.

“We can’t make a film without an argument. So we argue every point and we have strong opinions,” he says.

“But our sensibilities are very similar. We are not talking about fundamental things. We are just trying to sometimes convince the other person a better way of conveying something.”

Bollywood produces hundreds of films every year and has a huge following among Indians globally.

The sway the films and stars have on their fans’ imagination cannot be overstated.

It has had recent success at the Academy Awards, with Naatu Naatu from RRR winning best original song and The Elephant Whisperers awarded best documentary short film.

But victory in the international film category has so far eluded it, something Khan attributes to the competition.

“India has made really great films over the years. Occasionally it’s a matter of the right film not getting sent or the best film not getting sent,” he says.

“But otherwise we have to understand that the films you’re competing against – you’re not competing against five or six films, you’re competing against almost 80 or 90 films, which are the best in the world.”

As to whether a Bollywood film could one day scoop the best overall film award, Khan says it is “possible”.

But Indian film-makers would first need to start making movies for a global market, he adds.

“I’ve never really looked at an international audience,” he says. “We have such a large audience of our own that it doesn’t come in to our mind.

“That will only happen when Indians start making films for a world audience. I don’t think we have the bandwidth for it right now.”

For now, Khan is focusing on a range of projects alongside Laapataa Ladies, which also include his next film Sitaare Zameen Par, due for release in 2025.

Looking further out, he’s hoping to make one film a year, while his “dream project” is to take on Mahabharat – the ancient Indian epic.

But since unretiring from film, he is determined to do things differently. Again, this was influenced by his children.

“My son said, ‘You’re an extreme person’,” he says.

“He said, ‘You’re like a pendulum. You only did films, films, films. And now you want to swing to the other side and do no films and be with family, family, family. There is a middle place also you can think about’.”

Khan says his son told him to “try and bring some balance” into his life.

“And I thought he was right. So since then, that’s what I’ve been trying to do – living a balanced life where I’m working really hard, in fact I’m doing much more work that I ever did, but I don’t work after 6 o’clock any more.”

Khan says he has also started therapy in recent years, inspired by his daughter Ira, who works in mental health.

“I think that’s something that’s really helped me. That’s really helped me understand myself better.

“I’m actually finding that balance between work and a personal life. So I feel that I’ve reached that space now.”

West African leaders are holding a crucial summit in Nigeria’s capital Abuja, focusing on the morale-sapping departure of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger from their 15-member bloc Ecowas.

Few think the military rulers of the three dissident states can be persuaded to pause or reverse their decision.

While faced with this blow to regional unity, West Africa is also poised to start work on a 1,028km (689 miles) highway from Ivory Coast’s main city Abidjan – through Ghana, Togo and Benin – to Nigeria’s biggest city Lagos.

Construction is supposed to start in 2026 and pledges of $15.6bn (£12.3bn) have already been mobilised from a range of funders and investors.

Just as Western Europe matched the Soviet-led communist bloc with a “Common Market” that later evolved into today’s trading powerhouse, the European Union (EU), so Ecowas may find that a drive for prosperity and growth proves to be its most effective response to the wave of military coups and nationalism that have swept across the region since 2020.

The plan to build a modern transport corridor along the West African coast was originally approved eight years ago – long before the coups that have overturned civilian rule in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Preparatory studies, led by the African Development Bank, were commissioned.

But when these were presented last month, the timing could hardly have come at a better moment for reinvigorating the battered self-confidence of Ecowas (Economic Community of West African States).

Neither traditional diplomacy, nor sanctions, nor even the threat of military intervention in Niger, had managed to push the juntas into organising elections and restoring civilian government, as required by Ecowas governance rules.

The defiant regimes declared they would leave the 15-member bloc altogether.

They have subsequently spurned the remaining members’ efforts to persuade them to stay, although the Ecowas envoy, Senegal’s new, young President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who shares their nationalistic outlook, is still trying.

Until this crisis, Ecowas was Africa’s most cohesive and politically integrated regional grouping, with a creditable record of crisis management and even the deployment of peacekeepers in troubled member states.

With the departure of Mali, Burkina and Niger, the bloc will lose 76 million of its 446 million people and more than half its total geographical land area, with the loss of vast tracts of the Sahara – a painful blow to prestige and self-belief.

The shock of the three countries’ withdrawal may boost those pushing for tougher governance and democracy rules.

Meanwhile, the ambitious coastal transport corridor project, conceived to support economic development, will also serve a political purpose – demonstrating the remaining member countries’ capacity to work together and accelerating the trade growth and investment attraction of coastal urban West Africa, already the most prosperous part of this vast region.

And just as the EU’s wealth and dynamism proved a powerful attraction for former communist states, perhaps rising prosperity across Ecowas will eventually entice the now disenchanted further north states into rejoining the bloc.

Construction of the proposed four-to-six lane motorway is forecast to create 70,000 jobs, with completion ambitiously targeted for 2030.

And the plan is to acquire a sufficiently broad strip of land along the route to later accommodate a new railway line, linking the big port cities along the Gulf of Guinea. Existing rail routes extend inland, but there is no rail line along the coast.

The road will connect many of West Africa’s largest cities – Abidjan, with 8.3 million people, Accra (4 million), Lomé (2 million), Cotonou (2.6 million) and Lagos, estimated at close to 20 million or perhaps even more.

Several of the cities are key gateway ports for the flow of trade in and out of the region.

Already the bureaucratic hassles and risks of petty corruption that have so often complicated life for drivers passing from one country to the next are beginning to wane.

At many border crossings, modern one-stop frontier posts, where officials from both countries work side by side to check passports and transit documents, have replaced the assorted huts where drivers and passengers queued at a succession of counters while one set of border police and customs officers after another laboriously worked their way through the formalities.

And now the proposed highway and rail line promise to further speed the flow of trade and travel between the coastal economies, boosting competitiveness and integration and transforming the region’s attraction for investors – just as the EU transformed trade and development across the European continent.

And that process of economic and administrative integration of course had enormous political consequences.

It acted as a powerful incentive for countries still outside the bloc to improve economic governance, strengthen democracy and tackle corruption, in the hope of qualifying for membership.

Perhaps Ecowas can emulate this precedent, and lure the dissident states into re-joining, particularly if flagship projects such as the transport corridor give a real fillip to growth.

For not only do Mali, Niger and Burkina face severe development and security challenges, but they are also all landlocked, and heavily dependent on their coastal neighbours, through transport, trade and labour migration.

Huge volumes of trade, formal and informal, flow across the borders.

Livestock from the three countries in the Sahel is exported on the hoof to feed city dwellers in Dakar, Abidjan and Lagos.

Onions and potatoes grown in Niger’s arid climate are prized by coastal household shoppers, while Ivorian, Ghanaian and Nigerian manufactured goods are exported in the opposite direction.

Millions of Burkinabès and Malians are settled in Ivory Coast, a mainstay of the workforce for its cocoa plantations.

Moreover, the coup leaders are not pulling out of the West African CFA franc, an eight-country single currency, backed by France, that hampers competitiveness but provides a solid defence against inflation and monetary instability.

Yet these deep ties between the Sahelian countries and coastal West Africa were not sufficient to deter the military regimes in Mali, Burkina and Niger from announcing their withdrawal from Ecowas.

Hostility to the bloc, which they portray as bullying and arrogant, has paid political dividends, boosting their popularity at home. And Morocco talks of opening up an alternative trade corridor to its Atlantic ports, which could broaden the options.

But if the remaining Ecowas countries can accelerate their own drive for prosperity, pruning back trade barriers and pressing forward with breakthrough projects such as the coastal highway and rail line, then gradually they may salve today’s political bruises and mistrusts and draw the Sahel states back into a reunified West African regional identity.

• How a uranium mine became a pawn in the row between Niger and France
• Why West Africa’s united front is in tatters
• Bola Tinubu’s U-turn on Niger sanctions received with relief

Mystery continues to swirl after nearly a month of drone sightings over New Jersey, sparking fear among residents and furious debate about what the flying objects are – and if they are drones at all.

US authorities have been unable to provide definitive answers, saying only that the objects are not believed to pose a danger to the public or national security.

On Thursday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that available images suggested that many of the reported drone sightings were actually manned aircraft.

But some lawmakers have criticised the government’s handling of the drones and the lack of information available to the public.

Here’s what we know.

Dozens of drone sightings have been reported over New Jersey since 18 November, according to local authorities.

The drones were initially spotted near the Raritan river, a waterway which feeds into the Round Valley Reservoir – the largest in New Jersey, the Associated Press reported.

The sightings soon spread to other parts of the state, including New Jersey’s coast.

Some of the flights were spotted near Picatinny Arsenal – a sensitive military research facility – as well as near President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in the town of Bedminster, New Jersey.

In nearby New York City, several drones were reported flying over the Bronx on 12 December, a police official told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

Officers who responded to the incident saw the drones flying overhead, but they disappeared soon afterwards.

Drones have also been reported in other parts of the state, according to New York State Police.

Police in Connecticut have also confirmed that “suspicious drone activity” has taken place in various parts of the state. A drone detection system has been deployed around the towns of Groton and New London.

• FBI investigates possible drones seen over Trump golf course

In Maryland, former Republican Governor Larry Hogan claimed he saw what appeared to be “dozens” of drones over his residence in Davidsonville, about 25 miles (40km) from Washington DC.

“Like many who have observed these drones, I do not know if this increasing activity over our skies is a threat to public safety or national security,” he wrote on X. “But the public is growing increasingly concerned and frustrated with the complete lack of transparency and the dismissive attitude of the federal government.”

In late November, the United States Air Force also confirmed that unidentified drones were spotted over three US airbases in the UK: RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and RAF Feltwell in Norfolk.

UK defence sources told the BBC that suspicion had fallen on a “state actor” being responsible for the incursions.

In October, the Wall Street Journal also reported that mysterious drones were seen for 17 days near US military facilities in Virginia.

In a call with reporters, officials from several US agencies attempted to assure people that the drones were not the work of a foreign actor or a national security threat.

“I think there has been a slight overreaction” an official from the FBI said.

While downplaying public concern, the authorities were keen to reiterate that investigations into the drone sightings were still underway.

“We certainly understand why people are concerned. That’s one of the reasons we’re devoting significant resources,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.

“At the same time, it’s important to understand that we don’t have any current evidence that there’s a threat to public safety” the DHS added.

Both federal and state authorities have said that they do not believe the drones are dangerous or pose a threat to US national security.

Following a briefing with the Department of Homeland Security on 11 December, New Jersey assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia said the drones appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio.

Fantasia said the drones are up to 6ft (1.8m) in diameter, travel with lights turned off and “operate in a co-ordinated manner”.

Her comments stand in stark contrast to the White House, which has suggested that these are “manned aircraft”.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security also said that the majority of sightings appear to be lawful, manned flights.

None have been reported in restricted airspace, the statement added.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a statement on Friday saying more and more people are using drones, meaning more people are noticing them in the sky.

It added that while drones can be flown in most locations below 400ft (121m), drones can’t be flown within controlled airspace around an airport without FAA authorisation; over designated, national security-sensitive facilities; in certain military bases, infrastructure and national landmarks; and in airspace covered by temporary flight restrictions.

If the objects are confirmed to be drones – which at this point is unconfirmed – it is unclear who might be operating them.

Citing anonymous “high sources”, New Jersey Republican representative Jeff Van Drew said that they were coming from an Iranian “mothership” in the Atlantic.

The Pentagon swiftly dismissed the comment, saying “there is no truth to that”.

“There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States,” deputy spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.

Another lawmaker, Illinois Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi – who is on a congressional committee that looks at China’s Communist Party – told media outlet NewsNation that there is a “non-trivial” chance that China could be involved.

“It’s definitely a possibility and the likelihood that they can then access data that is collected by these drones is very high,” he said.

The Pentagon and White House have both insisted that there is no foreign origin for the objects.

Van Drew and other lawmakers have pushed back on those denials.

“Here’s the deal: they don’t know what it is. They don’t know what it’s about,” Van Drew told Fox News. “They have no idea where it comes from, but they know what it’s not about? That’s nonsense.”

In a separate incident across the country, a northern California man was charged on 11 December with flying a drone over and taking pictures of Vandenberg Space Force Base, located near Santa Barbara.

The incident is alleged to have taken place on 30 November, according to prosecutors.

The man, 39-year-old Chinese national Yinpiao Zhou was arrested just before he boarded a flight to China. He appeared in court on Tuesday and no plea was was taken.

There has been no suggestion that the incident is related to the spate of reported drone sightings on the east coast.

Several lawmakers have suggested that the drones should be shot down and analysed to determine their origin and intentions.

Among them is President-elect Donald Trump, who took to his Truth Social media platform to suggest that drones couldn’t be flying without the government’s knowledge.

“Let the public know, and now,” he wrote. “Otherwise, shoot them down”.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has also established temporary flight restrictions prohibiting drone flights over Bedminster and Picatinny.

In a statement, the FAA also warned that drone operators who conduct unsafe or dangerous operations could face fines of up to $75,000 (£59,000) and have their drone pilot certificates revoked.

In a letter to US President Joe Biden published on 13 December, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy urged federal agencies to “work together” to solve the mystery, as well as push Congress to extend counter-drone capabilities to local law enforcement.

Some residents have suggested they may take action against the drones themselves – something authorities have strongly warned against doing, as it is illegal.

“A good shotgun will fix that problem,” a man commented on a video of a drone on social media.

It was a defining moment of the fall of the Syrian regime – rebels freeing inmates from the country’s most notorious prison. A week on, four men speak to the BBC about the elation of their release, and the years of horror that preceded it.

Warning: This article contains descriptions of torture

The prisoners fell silent when they heard the shouting outside their cell door.

A man’s voice called: “Is there anyone in there?” But they were too afraid to answer.

Over years, they had learnt that the door opening meant beatings, rapes and other punishments. But on this day, it meant freedom.

At the shout of “Allahu Akbar”, the men inside the cell peered through a small opening in the centre of the heavy metal door.

They saw rebels in the prison’s corridor instead of guards.

“We said ‘We are here. Free us,'” one of the inmates, 30-year-old Qasem Sobhi Al-Qabalani, recalls.

As the door was shot open, Qasem says he “ran out with bare feet”.

Like other inmates, he kept running and didn’t look back.

“When they came to start liberating us and shouting ‘all go out, all go out’, I ran out of the prison but I was so terrified to look behind me because I thought they’d put me back,” says 31-year-old Adnan Ahmed Ghnem.

They did not yet know that Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad had fled the country and that his government had fallen. But the news soon reached them.

“It was the best day of my life. An unexplainable feeling. Like someone who had just escaped death,” Adnan remembers.

Qasem and Adnan are among four prisoners the BBC has spoken to who were released this week from Saydnaya prison – a facility for political prisoners nicknamed the “human slaughterhouse”.

All gave similar accounts of years of mistreatment and torture at the hands of guards, executions of fellow inmates, corruption by prison officials, and forced confessions.

We were also shown inside the prison by a former inmate who had a similar account, and heard from families of missing people held at Saydnaya who are desperately looking for answers.

We have seen bodies found by rebel fighters in the mortuary of a military hospital, believed to be Saydnaya detainees, that medics say bear signs of torture.

Rights group Amnesty International, whose 2017 report on the prison accuses authorities of murder and torture there, has called for “justice and reparations for crimes under international law in Syria”, including its treatment of political prisoners.

Saydnaya prison, a sprawling complex located atop a hill of barren land and surrounded by barbed wire, was established in the early 1980s and for decades has been used to hold opponents of the Assad family regime.

It has been described as the country’s main political prison since the 2011 uprising, when the Turkey-based Association of Detainees and The Missing in Saydnaya Prison says it effectively became a “death camp”.

The prisoners we spoke to say they were sent to Saydnaya because of real or perceived links with the rebel Free Syrian Army, their opposition to Assad, or simply because they lived in an area known to oppose him.

Some had been accused of kidnapping and killing regime soldiers and convicted of terrorism.

All said they had given confessions under “pressure” and “torture”.

They were given lengthy sentences or sentenced to death. One man said he had been detained at the prison for four years but had not yet been to court.

The men were held in the prison’s main Red Building, for opponents of the regime.

Qasem says he was arrested while passing through a road block in 2016, accused of terrorism with the Free Syrian Army, and sent for short stints at several detention facilities before being transferred to Saydnaya.

“After that door, you are a dead person,” he says softly in an interview at his family home in a town south of Damascus, as relatives gather around sipping coffee and nodding in grim captivation.

“This is where the torture began.”

He recalls being stripped naked and told to pose for a photograph before being beaten for looking at the camera.

He says he was then put onto a chain with other inmates and led, with their faces staring at the ground, to a tiny solitary confinement cell where he and five other men were crammed in and given uniforms to wear but deprived of food and water for several days.

They were then taken to the prison’s main cells, where the rooms have no beds, a single lightbulb and a small toilet area in the corner.

When we visited the prison this week, we saw blankets, clothes and food strewn on the floors of cells.

Our guide, a former inmate from 2019-2022, walked us through the corridors searching for his cell.

Two of his fingers and a thumb were chopped off at the prison, he says.

Finding scratch marks on a cell wall that he believes he made, he knelt down and began to cry.

About 20 men would sleep in each room, but the inmates tell us it was difficult to get to know each other – they could speak only in hushed voices and knew that guards were always watching and listening.

“Everything was banned. You’re just allowed to eat and drink and sleep and die,” says Qasem.

Punishments at Saydnaya were frequent and brutal.

All of the people we spoke to described being beaten with different implements – metal staffs, cables, electric sticks.

“They would enter the room and start to beat us all over our bodies. I would stay still, watching and waiting for my turn,” Adnan, who was arrested in 2019 on accusations of kidnapping and killing a regime soldier, recalls.

“Every night, we would thank God that we were still alive. Every morning, we would pray to God, please take our souls so we can die in peace.”

Adnan and two of the other newly released inmates said they were sometimes forced to sit with their knees towards their foreheads and a vehicle tyre placed over their bodies with a stick wedged inside so they couldn’t move, before beatings were administered.

Forms of punishment were varied.

Qasem says he was held upside down by two prison officers in a barrel of water until he thought he was going to “choke and die”.

“I saw death with my own eyes,” he says. “They would do this if you woke up in the night, or we spoke in a loud voice, or if we had a problem with any of the other prisoners.”

Two of the prisoners released this week and the former inmate at Saydnaya described witnessing sexual assaults by guards, who they said would anally rape inmates with sticks.

One man said inmates would offer oral sex to the guards in their desperation for more food.

Three described guards jumping on their bodies as part of the abuse.

In a hospital in central Damascus, we were introduced to 43-year-old Imad Jamal, who grimaced in pain at each touch from his mother who was tending to him at his bedside.

Asked to describe his time in Saydnaya, he smiled and responded slowly in English: “No eat. No sleep. Hit. Cane. Fighting. Sick. Everything not normal. Nothing normal. Everything abnormal.”

He says he was detained in 2021 under what he described as a “political arrest” because of the area he was from.

Speaking again in Arabic, he says his back was broken when he was made to sit on the ground with his knees against his chest as a guard jumped from a ledge on top of him as a punishment for stealing medication from another inmate to give to a friend.

But for Imad, the hardest thing about life in the prison was the cold. “Even the wall was cold,” he says. “I became a breathing corpse”.

There were few things to look forward to in the prison, but three of the inmates said anything positive was met afterwards with punishment.

“Every time we had a shower, every time we had a visitor, every time we went out into the sun, every time we left the cell door we would be punished,” says 30-year-old Rakan Mohammed Al Saed, who says he was detained in 2020 on allegations of killing and kidnapping from his former days in the rebel Free Syrian Army but had never faced trial.

He bares his broken teeth, saying they were knocked out when he was hit in the mouth by a guard with a stick.

All of the men we spoke to said they believed people in their cells had been executed.

Guards would come in and call names of people who would be led away and never seen again.

“People wouldn’t be executed in front of us. Every time they would call names at 12am, we knew that those people were going to be killed,” Adnan says.

Others gave similar accounts, explaining there was no way of them knowing what happened to these men.

Qasem’s father and other relatives say the family were made to pay prison officials more than $10,000 to stop him from being executed – at first to be converted to life in prison and then to a 20-year sentence.

Qasem says his treatment by guards improved a bit after this.

But, his dad says, “they refused any amount to let him free”.

Families sent loved ones money for food in the prison but they say corrupt officials would keep much of it and give the inmates only limited rations.

In some of the cells, inmates would pool all of the food together. But it wasn’t enough.

Adnan found the hunger even harder than the beatings. “I would go to sleep and wake up hungry,” he says.

“There was a punishment that we received one month where one day they would pass us a slice of bread, the next day half a slice, until it was a tiny crumb. Then it was nothing. We got no bread.”

Qasem says one day guards covered the face of his cell’s de-facto leader with yoghurt and made others lick it off.

The men said the behaviour of guards was as much about inflicting humiliation as pain.

All described losing significant amounts of weight in the prison because of malnourishment.

“My biggest dream was to eat and be full,” Qasem says.

His family paid officers bribes for visitation rights. He would sometimes be brought down on a wheelchair because he was too weak to walk, his father says.

Diseases were rife and the inmates had no way of stopping them from spreading.

Two of the men we spoke to who were released on Sunday say they had contracted tuberculosis in Saydnaya – one said medication was frequently withheld as a form of punishment.

But Adnan says the “diseases from fear” were even worse than the physical ones.

At a hospital in Damascus this week, an official said brief medical checks of the detainees that were sent there had found “mainly psychological problems”.

These accounts paint a picture of a place with no hope, only pain.

The prisoners spent much of their time in silence with no access to the outside world, so it is no surprise that they say they knew nothing of the rebel Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) rapid advance in Syria until they were broken free that morning.

Qasem said they could hear what sounded like a helicopter taking off from the prison grounds before the men’s shouts in the corridors. But in the windowless cell they couldn’t be sure.

Then the doors opened, and the freed inmates began running as fast as they could.

“We ran out of the prison. We ran from fear too,” Rakan says, his thoughts on his young children and wife.

At one point in the chaos, he says, “I was hit by a car. But I didn’t mind. I got up and carried on running.”

He says he will never go back to Saydnaya again.

Adnan, too, says he couldn’t look back at the prison, as he ran crying towards Damascus.

“I just kept going. I can’t describe it. I just headed for Damascus. People were taking us from the road in their cars.”

He now fears each night when he goes to sleep that he will wake in the prison, and find it was all a dream.

Qasem ran to a town called Tal Mneen. It was there that a woman who provided the freed prisoners with food, money and clothing told them: “Assad has fallen”.

He was brought to his hometown where celebratory gunfire rang out and his tearful family embraced him.

“It’s like I am born again. I can’t describe it to you,” he says.

At least four people were injured after a tornado struck northern California on Saturday afternoon, according to local authorities.

The twister flipped over several cars and brought down power lines in Scotts Valley, located around 55 miles (89km) south of San Francisco, police said.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the tornado was categorised as an EF1, one of the weakest classifications, and that it lasted around five minutes.

Earlier on Saturday, residents of San Francisco had been issued a tornado warning for the first time ever as thunderstorms swept through the region.

In Scotts Valley, the tornado touched down at 13:39 local time (21:39 GMT) on Saturday, police said.

The local fire service said at least four people had been injured and at least two of them had been taken to hospital, BBC’s US partner CBS News reported.

Police closed a road overnight to allow for repair work to be done and debris cleared.

Wind speeds were estimated to have peaked at around 90mph (145km/h), the NWS said.

The weather agency also said the twister had been around 30 yards (27m) wide and travelled for a quarter of a mile (400m) before subsiding.

Earlier on Saturday, a tornado warning was issued to residents of San Francisco just before 06:00 local time (14:00 GMT).

The warning was for parts of downtown San Francisco and northern San Mateo County.

More than one million residents were woken in San Francisco and its suburbs to alerts on their mobile phones, warning them to “take shelter now”.

Winds of up to 60mph (96km/h) ripped through the area, the NWS said.

But a few minutes later, NWS Bay Area said the warning was over and the storm had moved out of the city’s downtown.

The city last saw a tornado in 2005, though that struck without any clear radar signature, so no warning was issued in that case, NWS meteorologist Roger Glass told AP news agency.

Nearby San Mateo County was last issued a tornado warning in 2011.

The warning came after a powerful storm passed through overnight – trees were toppled and there were major power cuts.

As of Sunday, more than 50,000 customers were still without power along the northern and central California coast, according to the PowerOutage website.

NWS Bay Area warned that residents should steer clear of the seaside over the weekend, with a coastal flood advisory in place until Monday.

San Francisco’s tornado alert came just a week after the city saw its first ever tsunami warning.

The brief advisory was issued for northern California and southern Oregon following a magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit off the northern coast of the state.

It was later rescinded, and no injuries were reported.

Isak Andic, the billionaire founder of high street fashion chain Mango, died in an accident on Saturday while exploring caves near Barcelona.

Spanish media reported the 71-year-old fell down a ravine to his death while hiking in caves that are part of a mountain range.

Andic was with his son and other family members when he fell, according to the El Pais newspaper, triggering a large emergency response.

The Turkish-born businessman founded Mango with the help of his brother, Nahman, in Barcelona in 1984 and the chain now operates almost 3,000 outlets in 120 countries. Forbes estimated Andic’s net worth to be $4.5bn (£3.6bn).

Andic reportedly fell down a 150-metre ravine while hiking in an area of the Montserrat mountains known for its deep caves.

Police were called at around 13:00 local time (12:00 GMT), and a helicopter and specialised mountain unit was sent to the scene, El Pais reported.

Mango CEO Toni Ruiz said in a statement: “His departure leaves a huge void but all of us are, in some way, his legacy and the testimony of his achievements.

“It is up to us, and this is the best tribute we can make to Isak and which we will fulfil, to ensure that Mango continues to be the project that Isak aspired to and of which he would feel proud.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez confirmed Andic died in an accident at the Salnitre de Collbató caves.

“All my love and recognition for your great work and business vision, which has turned this Spanish firm into a world leader in fashion,” Sanchez said.

The president of Catalonia’s government, Salvador Illa Roca, said he was “dismayed by the loss” and described Andic as a “committed businessman” who “contributed to making Catalonia great and projecting it to the world”.

Andic moved to north-eastern Spain’s Catalonia region in the 1960s with his family and was a non-executive chairman of the company when he died. Mango had a turnover of €3.1bn (£2.6bn) in 2023.

He was seen as having a rivalry with Zara founder Amancio Ortega, another Spanish fashion billionaire.

The brand’s popularity in the UK was boosted in 2011 when British model Kate Moss was announced as the face of Mango.

An OpenAI researcher-turned-whistleblower has been found dead in an apartment in San Francisco, authorities said.

The body of Suchir Balaji, 26, was discovered on 26 November after police said they received a call asking officers to check on his wellbeing.

The San Francisco medical examiner’s office determined his death to be suicide and police found no evidence of foul play.

In recent months Mr Balaji had publicly spoken out against artificial intelligence company OpenAI’s practices, which has been fighting a number of lawsuits relating to its data-gathering practices.

In October, the New York Times published an interview with Mr Balaji in which he alleged that OpenAI had violated US copyright law while developing its popular ChatGPT online chatbot.

The article said that after working at the company for four years as a researcher, Mr Balaji had come to the conclusion that “OpenAI’s use of copyrighted data to build ChatGPT violated the law and that technologies like ChatGPT were damaging the internet”.

OpenAI says its models are “trained on publicly available data”.

Mr Balaji left the company in August, telling the New York Times he had since been working on personal projects.

He grew up in Cupertino, California, before going to study computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.

A spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement cited by CNBC News that it was “devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time”.

US and Canadian news publishers, including the New York Times, and a group of best-selling writers, including John Grisham, have filed lawsuits claiming the company was illegally using news articles to train its software.

OpenAI told the BBC in November its software is “grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that are fair for creators and support innovation”.

BBC Action Line, , or contact Samaritans.

If you’re in the US, call 988, or contact Lifeline.

The world’s biggest iceberg is on the move again after being trapped in a vortex for most of the year.

A23a is 3,800 sq km (1,500 sq miles), which is more than twice the size of Greater London, and is 400m (1,312ft) thick. It broke free of Antarctica in 1986 though soon became stuck just off the coast.

The depth of the iceberg meant its bottom became lodged on the floor of the Weddell Sea, part of the Southern Ocean, where it remained static for more than 30 years.

It began to move northwards in 2020 but, since the spring, has been spinning on the spot after it was caught in a rotating column of water near the South Orkney Islands.

On Friday the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) said it was now drifting further north.

Dr Andrew Meijers, an oceanographer at the BAS, said: “It’s exciting to see A23a on the move again after periods of being stuck.

“We are interested to see if it will take the same route the other large icebergs that have calved off Antarctica have taken.”

• A23a: Tracking the world’s biggest iceberg as it drifts towards oblivion

It is thought A23a will eventually leave the Southern Ocean and enter the Atlantic Ocean where it will encounter warmer waters and likely break up into smaller icebergs and eventually melt.

Dr Meijers and the BAS are examining the impact of icebergs on local ecosystems after they pass through them.

A year ago researchers aboard the RRS Sir David Attenborough collected data from the water around A23a.

Laura Taylor, a biogeochemist who was part of the crew, said: “We know that these giant icebergs can provide nutrients to the waters they pass through, creating thriving ecosystems in otherwise less productive areas.

“What we don’t know is what difference particular icebergs, their scale, and their origins can make to that process.”

Former US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi has had hip replacement surgery after injuring herself while on an official trip to Luxembourg, her office says.

“Earlier this morning, Speaker Emerita Pelosi underwent a successful hip replacement and is well on the mend,” her spokesman Ian Kreger said in a statement.

Pelosi, 84, was airlifted by the US military to a hospital in Germany after she reportedly tripped and fell on stairs while attending an official event on Friday.

The California Democratic congresswoman was travelling with a bipartisan delegation of lawmakers to Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge.

Pelosi thanked both US military staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and medical staff at Hospital Kirchberg in Luxembourg.

“Speaker Pelosi is enjoying the overwhelming outpouring of prayers and well wishes and is ever determined to ensure access to quality health care for all Americans,” the statement added.

She has withdrawn from the rest of the events she had scheduled for the trip.

In an earlier statement on Friday, Mr Kreger said Pelosi was looking forward to returning home to the US soon and was continuing to work from hospital.

The delegation she was travelling with in Luxembourg is scheduled to take part in anniversary events along with veterans, their families and military officials.

One of the congressmen on the trip, Michael McCaul, said he was disappointed Pelosi would not be able to join the delegation’s weekend events.

“But she is strong, and I am confident she will be back on her feet in no time,” the Texas Republican said.

Pelosi has been a prominent figure in US politics over a career stretching seven presidential administrations.

She first served as House speaker from 2007-11, a post second in line to the presidency after the vice-president, then regained the job in 2019 after her party took back control of the chamber.

She resigned as Speaker in 2023, but continues to serve in the House and remains a highly influential voice within the Democratic Party.

Last month, she was elected to another two-year term.

She is not the only member of Congress to be injured in a fall this week.

Outgoing Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, 82, suffered a sprained wrist and cuts to his face at the US Capitol.

A lawyer for rapper Jay-Z has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him, along with Sean “Diddy” Combs, of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2000, after inconsistencies emerged in her allegation.

An Alabama woman, named in the legal action by the pseudonym Jane Doe, has accused the musicians of drugging and attacking her at a house party following the MTV Video Music Awards.

She claimed she spoke with one celebrity at the party, though his representative said he was on tour at the time. Her father told NBC News he cannot recall driving five hours to pick her up after the alleged assault, as she says.

In an interview with NBC, the woman acknowledged making “some mistakes” in her accusation, but said she stood by her claim.

Rape support providers say it is common for victims of such assaults to misremember some details, especially if they have been allegedly drugged.

• Why sexual assault survivors forget details
• Jay-Z accused with Diddy in lawsuit of raping girl, 13, in 2000
• The charges against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs explained

The litigation is part of dozens of sexual assault lawsuits filed against Mr Combs, who is in custody awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges in New York. He was denied bail a third time last month. Mr Combs denies all the allegations.

Jay-Z’s attorney, Alex Spiro, asked the court to dismiss Jane Doe’s case, saying in a statement to the BBC: “It is stunning that a lawyer would not only file such a serious complaint without proper vetting, but would make things worse by further peddling this false story in the press.”

The rapper, whose real name is Shawn Carter, issued a statement to the BBC saying the lawyer, Tony Buzbee, had filed the legal action “in pursuit of money and fame”.

“This incident didn’t happen and yet he filed it in court and doubled down in the press,” his statement said.

“True Justice is coming. We fight FROM victory, not FOR victory. This was over before it began. This 1-800 lawyer doesn’t realize it yet, but, soon.”

A lawyer for Mr Combs said in a statement sent to the BBC: “Today, for the second time this week, a Buzbee plaintiff has been exposed. This is the beginning of the end of this shameful money grab.”

Warning: This story contains details that some readers may find distressing.

Mr Buzbee said his firm was continuing to vet his client’s claims.

The woman says in the lawsuit a waitress offered her a drink at the party that made her feel “woozy”, so she went into a room to lie down.

Soon afterwards, the legal action says, Mr Combs and Mr Carter entered the room with a female celebrity, described as Celebrity B.

The legal action says Mr Carter held her down and raped her, before Mr Combs did the same, all while Celebrity B watched.

However, photos from that evening show Jay-Z and Mr Combs at a different location to the one described by the accuser. It is not clear if their whereabouts for the entire evening have been accounted for.

The woman claimed in her allegation that she had spoken with musicians Benji and Joel Madden, who she said were among a number of celebrities at the house party. She does not accuse them of any wrongdoing.

But a representative for the Maddens told NBC the brothers were on tour in the Midwest during the VMAs that year.

The woman’s father told NBC he doesn’t remember driving more than five hours to pick up his daughter after her alleged ordeal.

“I feel like I would remember that, and I don’t,” he said.

The woman’s lawyer, Mr Buzbee, told NBC that his client stands by her claim.

“Our client remains fiercely adamant that what she has stated is true, to the best of her memory,” he said.

“We will continue to vet her claims and collect corroborating data to the extent it exists.

“Because we have interrogated her intensely, she has even agreed to submit to a polygraph. I’ve never had a client suggest that before.”

The woman, who is now 38 and a mother-of-two, told NBC in the interview from Houston, Texas: “You should never let what somebody else did ruin or run your life.

“I just hope I can give others the strength to come forward like I came forward.”

Erinn Robinson, director of media relations for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), said “trauma like rape can have both short- and long-term effects on the brain that influence decision making and memory.”

“Recall of memories may be fragmented, and details may not be recalled in the right order,” she told the BBC.

Ms Robinson said these effects are common and said police departments are trained to deal with such cases in order to reduce the likelihood of allegations being dismissed because the victim’s memory seems disjointed or inconsistent.

A map shown during the draw for the 2026 Fifa World Cup has been criticised by Ukraine as an “unacceptable error” after it appeared to exclude Crimea as part of the country.

The graphic – showing countries that cannot be drawn to play each other for geopolitical reasons – highlighted Ukraine but did not include the peninsula that is internationally recognised to be part of it.

Crimea has been under Russian occupation since 2014 and just a handful of countries recognise the peninsula as Russian territory.

Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhy said that the nation expects “a public apology”.

Fifa said it was “aware of an issue” and the image had been removed.

Writing on X, Tykhy said that Fifa had not only “acted against international law” but had also “supported Russian propaganda, war crimes, and the crime of aggression against Ukraine”.

He added a “fixed” version of the map to his post, highlighting Crimea as part of Ukraine’s territory.

Among the countries that cannot play each other are Ukraine and Belarus, Spain and Gibraltar and Kosovo versus either Bosnia and Herzegovina or Serbia.

The Ukrainian Football Association has also sent a letter to Fifa secretary-general Mathias Grafström and UEFA secretary-general Theodore Theodoridis over the matter.

“We appeal to you to express our deep concern about the infographic map [shown] on December 13, 2024,” the letter reads.

“Taking into account a number of official decisions and resolutions adopted by the Fifa Council and the UEFA executive committee since 2014… we emphasize that today’s version of the cartographic image of Ukraine… is completely unacceptable and looks like an inconsistent position of Fifa and UEFA.”

The 2026 World Cup will start on 11 June that year in Mexico City and end on 19 July in New Jersey.

The expanded 48-team tournament will last a record 39 days.

Ukraine were placed in Group D alongside Iceland, Azerbaijan and the yet-to-be-determined winners of France’s Nations League quarter-final against Croatia.

Two Russian oil tankers with 29 crew members on board have been heavily damaged in the Black Sea, triggering an oil spill, authorities in Russia have said.

Footage released by Russia’s Southern Transport Prosecutor’s Office showed one of the tankers broken in half and sinking amid a heavy storm, with streaks of oil visible in the water.

At least one crew member was reportedly killed. The second ship was said to have drifted after sustaining damage.

The incident took place in the Kerch Strait, which separates Russia from Crimea – the Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow in 2014.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered a working group to be set up to deal with the incident, headed by Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Savelyev – and authorities are investigating for criminal negligence.

A rescue and clean-up operation is said to be under way involving tugboats, helicopters and more than 50 personnel.

“Today, as a result of a storm in the Black Sea, two tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, sank,” Russia’s federal sea and inland water transport agency, Rosmorrechflot, wrote in a statement.

“There were crews of 15 and 14 people on board the ships. The accident resulted in a spill of oil products,” it continued.

The oil tankers are able to carry about 4,200 tonnes of oil each.

The full extent of the oil spill and the exact fate of both ships remains unclear.

In 2007, another oil tanker – Volgoneft-139 – split in half during a storm while anchored off the Kerch Strait, spilling more than 1,000 tonnes of oil.

Russian oil imports have been heavily sanctioned by allies of Ukraine since the Kremlin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia has been accused of using a so-called ghost fleet of tankers, which are often poorly maintained and lack proper insurance, to move oil and circumvent sanctions.

It was November 2011, and Gisèle Pelicot was sleeping too much.

She spent most of her weekends in a slumber. She was annoyed, because during the week she worked hard as a supply chain manager, and her time off was precious.

Yet she could not seem to stay awake, often drifting off without even realising it and waking hours later with no memory of having gone to bed.

Despite this, Gisèle, 58, was happy. She counted herself lucky to have her husband of 38 years, Dominique, by her side. Now their three children Caroline, David and Florian were grown, the couple were planning to soon retire and move to Mazan, a village of 6,000 people in France’s idyllic southern region of Provence, where Mr Pelicot could go on bike rides and she could take Lancôme, their French bulldog, on long walks.

She had loved Dominique since they met in the early 1970s. “When I saw that young man in a blue jumper it was love at first sight,” Gisèle would reflect, much later. They both had complicated family histories marked by loss and trauma, and had found peace with one another. Their four decades together had hit rough patches – frequent financial troubles and her affair with a colleague in the mid-1980s – but they had made it through.

Years later, when asked by a lawyer to sum up their relationship, she said: “Our friends used to say we were the perfect couple. And I thought we would see our days through together.”

By that point, Gisèle and Dominique were sitting on opposite sides of a courtroom in Avignon, not far from Mazan: she surrounded by their children and her lawyers, and he, dressed in grey, prison-issue clothes, in the defendants’ glass box.

He was facing the maximum jail term for aggravated rape and was rapidly becoming known in France and beyond as – in his own daughter’s words – “one of the worst sexual predators of the last 20 years”.

But in 2011, when Gisèle felt she was sleeping too much, she couldn’t have guessed that was how things would play out.

She had no idea that, in his late 50s and nearing retirement, her husband Dominique Pelicot had been spending a lot of time on the internet, often talking to users on open forums and chatrooms where sexual material – often extreme or illegal – was freely available.

In court, he would later pinpoint that phase as the trigger for his “perversion” after a childhood trauma of rape and abuse: “We become perverted when we find something that gives us the means: the internet.”

Sometime between 2010 and 2011, a man claiming to be a nurse sent Mr Pelicot photos of his wife, drugged with sleeping pills to the point of unconsciousness. He also shared precise instructions with Mr Pelicot so that he could do the same to Gisèle.

At first he hesitated – but not for long.

Through trial and error he realised that with the right dosage of pills he could plunge his wife into a sleep so deep nothing would wake her. They had been lawfully prescribed by his doctor, who thought Mr Pelicot suffered from anxiety due to financial troubles.

He would then be able to dress her in lingerie she refused to wear, or put her through sexual practices she would have never accepted while conscious. He could film the scenes, which she would not have allowed while awake.

Initially, he was the only one raping her. But by the time the couple had settled in Mazan in 2014, he had perfected and expanded his operation.

He kept tranquilisers in a shoebox in the garage, and switched brands because the first tasted “too salty” to be surreptitiously added to his wife’s food and drink, he said later.

On a chatroom called “without her knowledge” he recruited men of all ages to come and abuse his wife.

He would film them too.

He told the court his wife’s unconscious state was clear to the 71 men who came to their house over the course of a decade. “You’re just like me, you like rape mode,” he told one of them in the chat.

As the years went by, the effects of the abuse Ms Pelicot was subjected to at night increasingly began to seep into her waking life. She lost weight, clumps of hair fell out and her blackouts became more frequent. She was riddled with anxiety, certain that she was nearing death.

Her family became worried. She had seemed healthy and active when she had visited them.

“We’d ring her but most of the time it was Dominique who picked up. He would tell us Gisèle was asleep, even in the middle of the day,” said her son-in-law Pierre. “But it seemed likely because she was doing so much [when she was with us], especially running after the grandchildren.”

Sometimes, Gisèle came close to having suspicions. Once, she had noticed the green colour of a beer her husband had handed her, and hastily poured it down the sink. Another time, she noticed a bleach stain she couldn’t recall making on a new pair of trousers. “You’re not drugging me by any chance, are you?” she remembered asking him. He broke down in tears: “How can you accuse me of such a thing?”

Mostly, though, she felt lucky to have him with her as she navigated her health issues. She developed gynaecological problems, and underwent several neurological tests to determine if she was suffering from Alzheimer’s or a brain tumour, as she feared, but the results didn’t explain the increasing tiredness and the blackouts.

Several years later, during the trial, Dominique’s brother Joel, a doctor, was asked how it was possible that medical professionals had never put the clues together and understood Gisèle was a victim of the little-known phenomenon of chemical submission – drug-facilitated rape. “In the field of medicine we only find what we’re looking for, and we look for what we know,” he replied.

Gisèle only felt better when she was away from Mazan – an oddity she barely noticed.

It was on her return from one of these trips, in September 2020, that Dominique told her, in floods of tears: “I did something stupid. I was caught filming under women’s clothes in a supermarket,” she recalled during the trial.

She was very surprised, she said, because “in 50 years he had never behaved inappropriately or used obscene words towards women”.

She said she forgave him but asked him to promise her he would seek help.

He acquiesced, “and we left it at that”, she said.

But Dominique must have known the end was near.

Soon after he was arrested in the supermarket, police confiscated his two phones and his laptop, where they would inevitably find more than 20,000 videos and photos of his wife being raped by him and others.

“I watched those videos for hours. It was troubling. Of course it had an impact on me,” Jérémie Bosse Platière, the director of the investigation, told the court.

“In 33 years in the police, I’d never really seen that sort of thing,” his colleague Stéphane Gal said. “It was sordid, it was shocking.”

His team was tasked with tracking down the men in the videos. They cross-checked the faces and names of the men carefully logged by Dominique alongside facial recognition technology.

They were eventually able to identify 54 of them, while another 21 remained nameless.

Some of the men who were unidentified said in conversations with Dominique that they were also drugging their partners. “That, for me, is the most painful part of the case,” Mr Bosse Platière said. “To know that there are some women out there who could still be victims of their husbands.”

On 2 November 2020, Dominique and Gisèle had breakfast together before heading to a police station, where Mr Pelicot had been summoned in relation to the upskirting incident. She was asked by a policeman to follow him into another room. She confirmed Dominque was her husband – “a great guy, a good man” – but denied ever taking part in swinging with him, or engaging in threesomes.

“I will show you something you won’t like,” the police chief warned her, before showing her a picture of a sexual act.

At first, she didn’t recognise any of the two people.

When she did, “I told him to stop… Everything caved in, everything I built for 50 years”.

She was sent home in a state of shock, accompanied by a friend. She had to tell her children what had happened.

Recalling that moment, Gisèle said that her “daughter’s screams are forever etched in my mind”. Caroline, David and Florian came down to Mazan and cleared out the house. Later, photos of a seemingly drugged Caroline were also found on Dominique’s laptop, although he has denied abusing her.

David, the eldest child, said they no longer had any family photos because they “got rid of everything linked to my father there and then”. Within days, Gisèle’s life was reduced to a suitcase and her dog.

Meanwhile, Dominique admitted to his crimes and was formally arrested. He thanked police for “relieving him of a burden”.

He and Gisèle wouldn’t meet again until they sat facing one another in the Avignon courtroom in September 2024.

By then, the story of the husband who drugged his wife for a decade and invited strangers to rape her had started to ripple across the world, aided by Gisèle’s unusual and remarkable decision to waive her anonymity and open the trial to the public and the media.

“I want any woman who wakes up one morning with no memories of the night before to remember what I said,” she stated. “So that no more women can fall prey to chemical submission. I was sacrificed on the altar of vice, and we need to talk about it.”

Her legal team also successfully pushed for the videos taken to be shown in court, arguing they would “undo the thesis of accidental rape” – pushing back against the line of defence that the men had not meant to rape Gisèle as they didn’t realise she was unconscious.

“She wanted shame to change sides and it has,” a woman who came to watch the trial in Avignon said in November. “Gisèle turned everything on its head. We weren’t expecting a woman like this.”

Medical examiner Anne Martinat Sainte-Beuve said that in the wake of her husband’s arrest, Gisèle was clearly traumatised but calm and distant – a coping mechanism often employed by survivors of terrorist attacks.

Gisèle herself has said that she is “a field of ruins” and that she fears the rest of her life may not be enough to rebuild herself.

Ms Sainte-Beuve said she had found Gisèle “exceptionally resilient”: “She turned what could have destroyed her into strength.”

Days before the trial started, the Pelicots’ divorce was finalised.

Gisèle has gone back to her maiden name. She went by the name Pelicot for the trial so that her grandchildren could be “proud” of being related to her and not ashamed of being associated to Dominique.

She has since moved to a village far from Mazan. She sees a psychiatrist but doesn’t take any medication, because she no longer wants to ingest any substance. She continues to go on long walks, but is no longer tired.

In the early days of the trial, Caroline’s husband Pierre took the stand.

A defence lawyer asked him about the Mazan years, when Gisèle was suffering from memory loss and her husband was dutifully accompanying her to unfruitful medical appointments. How could the family not have realised what was happening?

Pierre shook his head.

“You are forgetting one thing,” he said. “You cannot imagine the unimaginable.”

If you’ve been affected by the issues in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line.

An OpenAI researcher-turned-whistleblower has been found dead in an apartment in San Francisco, authorities said.

The body of Suchir Balaji, 26, was discovered on 26 November after police said they received a call asking officers to check on his wellbeing.

The San Francisco medical examiner’s office determined his death to be suicide and police found no evidence of foul play.

In recent months Mr Balaji had publicly spoken out against artificial intelligence company OpenAI’s practices, which has been fighting a number of lawsuits relating to its data-gathering practices.

In October, the New York Times published an interview with Mr Balaji in which he alleged that OpenAI had violated US copyright law while developing its popular ChatGPT online chatbot.

The article said that after working at the company for four years as a researcher, Mr Balaji had come to the conclusion that “OpenAI’s use of copyrighted data to build ChatGPT violated the law and that technologies like ChatGPT were damaging the internet”.

OpenAI says its models are “trained on publicly available data”.

Mr Balaji left the company in August, telling the New York Times he had since been working on personal projects.

He grew up in Cupertino, California, before going to study computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.

A spokesperson for OpenAI said in a statement cited by CNBC News that it was “devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news today and our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones during this difficult time”.

US and Canadian news publishers, including the New York Times, and a group of best-selling writers, including John Grisham, have filed lawsuits claiming the company was illegally using news articles to train its software.

OpenAI told the BBC in November its software is “grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that are fair for creators and support innovation”.

BBC Action Line, , or contact Samaritans.

If you’re in the US, call 988, or contact Lifeline.

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan is known for some of India’s most popular films, including Lagaan and 3 Idiots.

So great is his appeal, he can barely walk down the street without getting mobbed by fans.

What’s less well known is that he secretly quit films during the Covid pandemic in order to spend more time with his loved ones.

“I told my family I’m done with acting and films,” he tells BBC News.

“I [didn’t] want to produce or direct or act. I just wanted to be with the family.”

You’d imagine a major star like Khan deciding to quit the industry would have sent shockwaves through India, a nation that is fully obsessed with films.

But, he explains, his decision went unnoticed at the time because so few movies were being made due to the pandemic.

“No-one knew about it,” he says.

Fans can breathe a sigh of relief, though.

Khan didn’t quit for long. And now he’s back and is promoting Laapataa Ladies – or Lost Ladies – a film he’s produced. It is India’s official pick for the Oscars in the best international feature film category.

Khan says it was his children who convinced him to go back to work.

“They were like, ‘But we can’t spend 24 hours with you. So get real and get a life.’ So they gently nudged me back into the films,” he says.

• Can zombies and witches save Bollywood from its troubles?
• Nostalgic Indians flock to cinemas to watch old hits
• Alia Bhatt: The young Bollywood star taking on Hollywood

At 59, Khan has worked as an actor, director and producer for three decades.

He’s known as one of the three “Khans of Bollywood” – the others being fellow megastars Shah Rukh and Salman.

Known for tackling social issues, Aamir’s films are widely acclaimed as well as breaking box office records.

He is also no stranger to the Oscars. Lagaan, a film about cricket set in the 19th Century during the British Empire, was nominated for best foreign language film in 2002.

Khan is now trying to make history with Laapataa Ladies. If it succeeds, it would be the first Indian film to win the coveted international prize. He will find out whether it has made the shortlist on Tuesday.

Khan said he’s “not quite sure how seriously” to take awards. “Cinema is so subjective,” he says.

But he admits a win would mean a lot to India.

“I think Indians are so film crazy and we’ve been dying to win the Academy Award for an Indian film, which hasn’t happened till now. So the country will go ballistic. They’ll just go mad if we win,” he says.

“So just for the people of our country and for our country, I would be really happy if we win the award.”

Set in rural India, Laapataa Ladies tells the story of a young man bringing the wrong bride home. Meanwhile, his wife ends up lost, having to fend for herself.

It’s a satire looking at the treatment of women, including touching on the sensitive topic of domestic violence.

Khan describes the plot as “a bit Shakespearean”, with its focus on humour and mistaken identities.

But, he adds, it’s saying “a lot of important things about women’s issues, their independence, their right to decide for themselves what they want to do”.

It was these issues that drew him to the film in the first place, he explains.

“Every now and then you get an opportunity as a creative person to actually also sensitise people about certain issues that we face in society,” he says.

“Women all over the world have been subjected to a lot of challenges in their lives. Women have a raw deal in life. So I felt that here is a story which really brings that out well in such a nice way, which is why I wanted to produce it.”

Khan was also “very keen” that his ex-wife, Kiran Rao, should direct the film.

The pair, who married in 2005, announced their separation in 2021. But they have remained close, both professionally and personally.

“I think the reason I chose Kiran was because I knew that she would be very honest with it and that’s what I wanted,” he says.

“We get along really well. We really love each other, we respect each other.

“Our relationship may have changed slightly – but that doesn’t mean what we feel for each other has gone down or something.”

That’s not to say it’s all been plain sailing, however.

Khan admits there were arguments on set.

“We can’t make a film without an argument. So we argue every point and we have strong opinions,” he says.

“But our sensibilities are very similar. We are not talking about fundamental things. We are just trying to sometimes convince the other person a better way of conveying something.”

Bollywood produces hundreds of films every year and has a huge following among Indians globally.

The sway the films and stars have on their fans’ imagination cannot be overstated.

It has had recent success at the Academy Awards, with Naatu Naatu from RRR winning best original song and The Elephant Whisperers awarded best documentary short film.

But victory in the international film category has so far eluded it, something Khan attributes to the competition.

“India has made really great films over the years. Occasionally it’s a matter of the right film not getting sent or the best film not getting sent,” he says.

“But otherwise we have to understand that the films you’re competing against – you’re not competing against five or six films, you’re competing against almost 80 or 90 films, which are the best in the world.”

As to whether a Bollywood film could one day scoop the best overall film award, Khan says it is “possible”.

But Indian film-makers would first need to start making movies for a global market, he adds.

“I’ve never really looked at an international audience,” he says. “We have such a large audience of our own that it doesn’t come in to our mind.

“That will only happen when Indians start making films for a world audience. I don’t think we have the bandwidth for it right now.”

For now, Khan is focusing on a range of projects alongside Laapataa Ladies, which also include his next film Sitaare Zameen Par, due for release in 2025.

Looking further out, he’s hoping to make one film a year, while his “dream project” is to take on Mahabharat – the ancient Indian epic.

But since unretiring from film, he is determined to do things differently. Again, this was influenced by his children.

“My son said, ‘You’re an extreme person’,” he says.

“He said, ‘You’re like a pendulum. You only did films, films, films. And now you want to swing to the other side and do no films and be with family, family, family. There is a middle place also you can think about’.”

Khan says his son told him to “try and bring some balance” into his life.

“And I thought he was right. So since then, that’s what I’ve been trying to do – living a balanced life where I’m working really hard, in fact I’m doing much more work that I ever did, but I don’t work after 6 o’clock any more.”

Khan says he has also started therapy in recent years, inspired by his daughter Ira, who works in mental health.

“I think that’s something that’s really helped me. That’s really helped me understand myself better.

“I’m actually finding that balance between work and a personal life. So I feel that I’ve reached that space now.”

The five remaining members of the infamous “Bali Nine” drug ring have returned home after serving nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese confirmed the return of Matthew Norman, Scott Rush, Martin Stephens, Si Yi Chen, and Michael Czugaj in a statement on Sunday. He said he was “pleased to confirm” they “have returned to Australia.”

He thanked Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto “for his compassion”.

The high-profile case began in 2005 when Indonesia caught nine young Australians trying to smuggle 8.3kg (18lb) of heroin out of Bali strapped to their bodies.

The eight men and one woman were arrested at an airport and hotel in Bali after a tip-off from Australian police.

The case made news worldwide when two of the gang’s ringleaders, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, were executed by firing squad in 2015 – sparking a diplomatic row between neighbours Indonesia and Australia.

After the executions, Australia recalled its ambassador to Indonesia, although he returned to Jakarta five weeks later.

Other members of the Bali Nine were handed either 20 years or life terms in prison.

The case put a spotlight on Indonesia’s strict drug laws, some of the most stringent in the world.

One of the nine, Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen, died of cancer in prison in 2018. Shortly afterwards, Renae Lawrence, then 41, the only woman among the group, had her sentence commuted after spending almost 13 years in prison and returned to Australia the same year.

With no media present, the five took a flight on Sunday from Bali’s Ngurah Rai International Airport to Darwin, in northern Australia, on the Australian airline Jetstar, Indonesia’s senior law minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra told The Associated Press.

Mahendra said they were moved as “prisoners,” and “once repatriated,” they came under the jurisdiction of the Australian government. The Indonesian president had not granted them a pardon.

“The men will have the opportunity to continue their personal rehabilitation and reintegration in Australia,” Australia’s government said.

It expressed “deep appreciation” to Indonesia for allowing them to return home on humanitarian grounds.

Australian broadcaster ABC has reported that the men are effectively free to live unhindered in Australian society.

The Albanese government previously negotiated the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain, journalist Cheng Lei from China, and economist Sean Turnell from a Myanmar jail.

Albanese acknowledged that the men had committed grave crimes, but said it was time for them to return home after serving 19 years in Indonesian jails.

Hollywood actor Jamie Foxx’s birthday dinner was cut short after he was involved in an altercation at a Beverly Hills restaurant, leaving him needing stitches, his representative said.

The Django Unchained and Ray star was celebrating his 57th birthday on Friday.

Someone at another table “threw a glass that hit him in the mouth” and the matter is now in “law enforcement’s hands,” a representative for Foxx told the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

They added that the actor “had to get stitches and is recovering”.

Officials from Beverly Hills Police Department confirmed police attended Mr Chow, a high-end Chinese restaurant, after reports of an assault with a deadly weapon.

Police found there had been a physical fight between two parties at the restaurant, and that reports of assault with a deadly weapon were unfounded. They did not elaborate on what sparked the fight.

The representative told CBS News Los Angeles that Foxx was at the restaurant for a celebration, even though police did not specifically name him.

The police were called around 10:10 p.m.

It’s unclear whether any arrests have been made and no other information was provided.

The incident comes after Foxx revealed the cause of his hospital admission in April last year.

Speaking during a Netflix special earlier this month, the actor told the audience he’d suffered a “brain bleed that led to a stroke”.

He said he had a bad headache one day and asked for an aspirin, but before he could take it he “went out (blacked out). I don’t remember 20 days”.

At the time, his daughter Corinne Foxx said he had experienced a “medical complication” but the family did not share details about his health issues.

The star won an Oscar for best actor for playing musician Ray Charles in Ray in 2005. He was also nominated for best supporting actor the same year for his role in Collateral.

His other films include Baby Driver, Annie and The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

At least three people have been killed and dozens more wounded after an explosive was thrown into a crowd at a festival in Thailand.

The attack took place shortly before midnight local time on Friday at the Red Cross Doi Loyfa fair, held annually in the Umphang district in the northern Tak province.

Two suspects are being held in custody, but no charges have been pressed, the Associated Press and local media report, citing Thai police.

At least 48 people have been wounded, six of whom are critically injured, police said.

Police were alerted to the incident at 23:30 local time (16:30 GMT) on Friday.

In a statement, the Umphang rescue team said the explosive was thrown and landed at the foot of an outdoor stage where people had been dancing.

Some of the wounded were taken to a nearby hospital, it added.

Several reports suggest the blast was caused by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Footage said to be from the scene, posted on social media, shows scenes of panic as emergency workers and festivalgoers tend to the wounded.

One video appears to show at least two people lying in close proximity being given CPR, as crowds rush around them in a state of confusion.

The camera then pans to a person cutting the trousers off a man to reveal a wound on his leg pouring out blood.

Images taken in the aftermath, shared by the rescue team, show a cordon in place around an area strewn with rubbish and strung with lights.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra shared her condolences to the families of those killed and injured in the bombing in a post on X.

She said she had ordered the police and security agencies to investigate the cause of the explosion and help those affected. She also directed an increase in police officers to oversee all festival events.

According to the Bangkok Post, between 8,000 and 9,000 people attended the week-long festival this year, and the attack took place on the penultimate night of the event.

Umphang is the southernmost district in Thailand’s northern Tak province, which shares a border with Myanmar to the west.

Mystery continues to swirl after nearly a month of drone sightings over New Jersey, sparking fear among residents and furious debate about what the flying objects are – and if they are drones at all.

US authorities have been unable to provide definitive answers, saying only that the objects are not believed to pose a danger to the public or national security.

On Thursday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that available images suggested that many of the reported drone sightings were actually manned aircraft.

But some lawmakers have criticised the government’s handling of the drones and the lack of information available to the public.

Here’s what we know.

Dozens of drone sightings have been reported over New Jersey since 18 November, according to local authorities.

The drones were initially spotted near the Raritan river, a waterway which feeds into the Round Valley Reservoir – the largest in New Jersey, the Associated Press reported.

The sightings soon spread to other parts of the state, including New Jersey’s coast.

Some of the flights were spotted near Picatinny Arsenal – a sensitive military research facility – as well as near President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in the town of Bedminster, New Jersey.

In nearby New York City, several drones were reported flying over the Bronx on 12 December, a police official told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

Officers who responded to the incident saw the drones flying overhead, but they disappeared soon afterwards.

Drones have also been reported in other parts of the state, according to New York State Police.

Police in Connecticut have also confirmed that “suspicious drone activity” has taken place in various parts of the state. A drone detection system has been deployed around the towns of Groton and New London.

• FBI investigates possible drones seen over Trump golf course

In Maryland, former Republican Governor Larry Hogan claimed he saw what appeared to be “dozens” of drones over his residence in Davidsonville, about 25 miles (40km) from Washington DC.

“Like many who have observed these drones, I do not know if this increasing activity over our skies is a threat to public safety or national security,” he wrote on X. “But the public is growing increasingly concerned and frustrated with the complete lack of transparency and the dismissive attitude of the federal government.”

In late November, the United States Air Force also confirmed that unidentified drones were spotted over three US airbases in the UK: RAF Lakenheath and RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk and RAF Feltwell in Norfolk.

UK defence sources told the BBC that suspicion had fallen on a “state actor” being responsible for the incursions.

In October, the Wall Street Journal also reported that mysterious drones were seen for 17 days near US military facilities in Virginia.

In a call with reporters, officials from several US agencies attempted to assure people that the drones were not the work of a foreign actor or a national security threat.

“I think there has been a slight overreaction” an official from the FBI said.

While downplaying public concern, the authorities were keen to reiterate that investigations into the drone sightings were still underway.

“We certainly understand why people are concerned. That’s one of the reasons we’re devoting significant resources,” the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.

“At the same time, it’s important to understand that we don’t have any current evidence that there’s a threat to public safety” the DHS added.

Both federal and state authorities have said that they do not believe the drones are dangerous or pose a threat to US national security.

Following a briefing with the Department of Homeland Security on 11 December, New Jersey assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia said the drones appear to avoid detection by traditional methods such as helicopter and radio.

Fantasia said the drones are up to 6ft (1.8m) in diameter, travel with lights turned off and “operate in a co-ordinated manner”.

Her comments stand in stark contrast to the White House, which has suggested that these are “manned aircraft”.

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security also said that the majority of sightings appear to be lawful, manned flights.

None have been reported in restricted airspace, the statement added.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a statement on Friday saying more and more people are using drones, meaning more people are noticing them in the sky.

It added that while drones can be flown in most locations below 400ft (121m), drones can’t be flown within controlled airspace around an airport without FAA authorisation; over designated, national security-sensitive facilities; in certain military bases, infrastructure and national landmarks; and in airspace covered by temporary flight restrictions.

If the objects are confirmed to be drones – which at this point is unconfirmed – it is unclear who might be operating them.

Citing anonymous “high sources”, New Jersey Republican representative Jeff Van Drew said that they were coming from an Iranian “mothership” in the Atlantic.

The Pentagon swiftly dismissed the comment, saying “there is no truth to that”.

“There is no Iranian ship off the coast of the United States, and there’s no so-called mothership launching drones towards the United States,” deputy spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.

Another lawmaker, Illinois Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi – who is on a congressional committee that looks at China’s Communist Party – told media outlet NewsNation that there is a “non-trivial” chance that China could be involved.

“It’s definitely a possibility and the likelihood that they can then access data that is collected by these drones is very high,” he said.

The Pentagon and White House have both insisted that there is no foreign origin for the objects.

Van Drew and other lawmakers have pushed back on those denials.

“Here’s the deal: they don’t know what it is. They don’t know what it’s about,” Van Drew told Fox News. “They have no idea where it comes from, but they know what it’s not about? That’s nonsense.”

In a separate incident across the country, a northern California man was charged on 11 December with flying a drone over and taking pictures of Vandenberg Space Force Base, located near Santa Barbara.

The incident is alleged to have taken place on 30 November, according to prosecutors.

The man, 39-year-old Chinese national Yinpiao Zhou was arrested just before he boarded a flight to China. He appeared in court on Tuesday and no plea was was taken.

There has been no suggestion that the incident is related to the spate of reported drone sightings on the east coast.

Several lawmakers have suggested that the drones should be shot down and analysed to determine their origin and intentions.

Among them is President-elect Donald Trump, who took to his Truth Social media platform to suggest that drones couldn’t be flying without the government’s knowledge.

“Let the public know, and now,” he wrote. “Otherwise, shoot them down”.

The US Federal Aviation Administration has also established temporary flight restrictions prohibiting drone flights over Bedminster and Picatinny.

In a statement, the FAA also warned that drone operators who conduct unsafe or dangerous operations could face fines of up to $75,000 (£59,000) and have their drone pilot certificates revoked.

In a letter to US President Joe Biden published on 13 December, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy urged federal agencies to “work together” to solve the mystery, as well as push Congress to extend counter-drone capabilities to local law enforcement.

Some residents have suggested they may take action against the drones themselves – something authorities have strongly warned against doing, as it is illegal.

“A good shotgun will fix that problem,” a man commented on a video of a drone on social media.

When Bashar al-Assad was toppled on Sunday, it turned the page on not only his 24-year presidency but on more than 50 years of his family ruling Syria.

Before Assad took office in 2000, his late father Hafez was president for three decades.

Now, with rebels led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir-al Sham (HTS) forming a transitional government, the future of the deposed president, his wife and their three children is uncertain.

They are now in Russia, where they have been offered asylum, but what lies ahead for them?

Russia was a staunch ally of Assad during Syria’s civil war and has two key military bases in the Middle Eastern country.

In 2015, Russia launched an air campaign in support of Assad that turned the tide of the war in the government’s favour.

A UK-based monitoring group reported that more than more than 21,000 people, including 8,700 civilians, were killed in Russian military operations over the following nine years.

However, distracted by its war in Ukraine, Russia was either unwilling or unable to help Assad’s government stop the rebel’s lightning offensive after it began in late November.

Hours after rebel forces seized control of Damascus, it was reported by Russian state media that Assad and his family had arrived in Moscow and that they would be granted asylum on “humanitarian grounds”.

But when Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about Assad’s whereabouts and asylum claim by reporters on Monday, he said: “I have nothing to tell you… right now. Of course, such a decision [on granting asylum] cannot be made without the head of state. It is his decision.”

The Assads’ ties to Russia, specifically Moscow, are well-documented.

A 2019 investigation by the Financial Times found that Assad’s extended family had purchased at least 18 luxury apartments in the Russian capital, in a bid to keep tens of millions of dollars out of Syria during the civil war.

Meanwhile, Assad’s eldest son, Hafez, is a PhD student in the city – with a local newspaper reporting just last week about the 22-year-old’s doctoral dissertation.

Amid the chaos at the weekend, Russian state TV reported that officials in Moscow were in talks with “the Syrian armed opposition” to secure Russia’s bases and diplomatic missions.

Assad is married to a dual British-Syrian national, Asma, who was born and raised in west London to Syrian parents.

She attended school and university in London before becoming an investment banker.

Asma moved to Syria full-time in 2000 and married Assad around the time he succeeded his father as president.

Dr Nesrin Alrefaai, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), told BBC News that Asma “holds a British passport, so could return to the UK” instead of remaining in Russia.

“However, the USA [has] imposed sanctions on her father, Dr Fawaz al-Akhras, who is also reported to be in Russia,” she said – suggesting Asma may want to stay put in Moscow for now.

In a report by the Mail Online, neighbours were quoted as saying Asma’s father, a cardiologist, and mother Sahar, a retired diplomat, wanted to be in Moscow to “console” their daughter and son-in-law.

Assad and his wife have three children: Hafez, the PhD student, Zein and Karim.

A 2022 US State Department report to Congress said the extended Assad family’s net worth was between $1bn (£790m) and $2bn (£1.6bn) – though it noted that it was difficult to estimate because their assets are “believed to be spread out and concealed in numerous accounts, real estate portfolios, corporations, and offshore tax havens”.

According to the report, Bashar and Asma maintained “close patronage relationships with Syria’s largest economic players, using their companies to launder money from illicit activities and funnel funds to the regime”.

It also said that Asma had “influence over the economic committee that manages Syria’s ongoing economic crisis” – and had made key decisions on Syria’s “food and fuel subsidies, trade and currency issues”.

She also exerted influence over the Syria Trust for Development, through which most foreign aid for reconstruction in regime-held areas was channelled.

In 2020, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo alleged that Asma had “become one of Syria’s most notorious war profiteers” with the help of her husband and her family.

Another senior Trump administration official described her as the “business head of the family” and an “oligarch” who had been competing with Bashar’s cousin Rami Makhlouf.

He is one of Syria’s richest men and the family rift became public knowledge after he posted videos on social media complaining about his treatment.

Following the fall of the Assad dynasty, Amnesty International’s secretary general Agnès Callamard said Syrians had been subjected to what she called “a horrifying catalogue of human rights violations that caused untold human suffering on a vast scale”.

This includes “attacks with chemical weapons, barrel bombs, and other war crimes, as well as murder, torture, enforced disappearance and extermination that amount to crimes against humanity”.

She called on the international community to ensure that people suspected of breaking international law and other serious human rights violations must be investigated and prosecuted for their crimes.

On Tuesday, the Islamist rebel leader in Syria said any of the ousted regime’s senior officials found to have been involved in torturing political prisoners would be named.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani also said his so-called Syrian Salvation Government would seek to repatriate officials it identified who fled to another country.

In France, investigative judges have sought an arrest warrant for Assad for alleged complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes, in connection with a deadly chemical attack in Syria in 2013 under the legal concept of universal jurisdiction.

Russia does not extradite its own nationals – a legal process whereby someone is returned to another country or state to face trial for a suspected crime.

Assad is unlikely to leave Russia to go to a country where he could be extradited back to Syria or any other that might charge him with a crime.

Seven tourists in Fiji have been sent to hospital with suspected alcohol poisoning and are reported to be in a critical condition.

It is believed they drank cocktails at a resort bar on Saturday night local time and shortly afterwards, displayed nausea, vomiting and neurological symptoms.

Four of the seven are Australian, with ages ranging from 18 to 56, according to local media reports citing the health ministry.

The incident comes weeks after the deaths of six tourists in the South East Asian nation of Laos because of suspected methanol poisoning.

The tourists in Fiji, who were reportedly staying at a resort on the Coral Coast, were initially taken to Sigatoka Hospital.

They were all later transferred to Lautoka Hospital, according to the Fiji Times.

Two Australian families in Fiji are receiving consular assistance, an Australian foreign ministry spokesperson told the BBC.