Dominique Pelicot has been jailed for 20 years after drugging his ex-wife Gisèle, raping her and inviting dozens of strangers to also abuse her over nearly a decade.

The 72-year-old was found guilty of all charges by a judge in Avignon in southern France, and cried in court as he was sentenced to the maximum term.

He was on trial with 50 other men – all of whom were found guilty of at least one charge, although their jail terms were less than what prosecutors had demanded.

Gisèle and her children looked emotionless as the verdicts were read out, occasionally glancing at the defendants and resting their heads against the wall.

The convictions bring to an end France’s largest ever rape trial, which over the course of three months has shocked the country and the world.

Speaking outside court following the verdicts and flanked by her family, Gisèle Pelicot, 72, said the trial had been a “very difficult ordeal”.

But she said she “never regretted” the decision to make the trial public “so society could see what was happening”.

Gisèle Pelicot’s decision to waive her automatic right to anonymity was highly unusual, and meant this trial has been held in full view of the public. French and global media followed the case with growing interest and hundreds of journalists were present in court on Thursday.

Gisèle herself attended almost every day of the trial, appearing in the same courtroom as her husband of 50 years, who she has now divorced.

Gisèle also gave her “profound” thanks to her supporters and said she had “confidence” in there being a “better future” where men and women can live in mutual respect.

In court on Thursday, Dominique Pelicot – who had already confessed to his crimes – was found guilty of aggravated rape.

He was also found guilty of the attempted aggravated rape of the wife of one of his co-accused, Jean-Pierre Marechal. Marechal – who has been described as Dominique’s “disciple” as he drugged and raped his own wife for years and invited Dominque to do the same – was jailed for 12 years.

Dominique Pelicot was also found guilty of taking indecent images of his daughter, Caroline Darian, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine.

Caroline – who was in court on Thursday – previously told the trial she felt she was the “forgotten victim” as, unlike her mother’s case, there was no record of the abuse she is convinced was inflicted on her. Dominique denied drugging and abusing his daughter.

After the verdicts, Dominique’s lawyer said her client was “somewhat dazed” by his sentence and would consider whether to appeal. He has 10 days to decide whether to do so.

Of the 50 co-defendants, 46 were found guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape, and two guilty of sexual assault. Several of them have already spent some years in jail as they were arrested when police conducted their initial investigation in 2021, and will therefore walk out relatively soon.

Most of the men on trial had denied that what they did was rape.

They argued they did not realise Gisèle Pelicot was unconscious and therefore did not “know” they were raping her – an argument which sparked a nationwide discussion about France’s legal definition of rape.

Their jail terms range from between three and 15 years – less than what prosecutors had demanded.

In a statement to AFP news agency, the Pelicot children said they were “disappointed” by the “low sentences”.

For almost a decade from 2011, Dominique Pelicot drugged his ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot and raped her, and recruited dozens of men online to have sex with her while she was unconscious.

His crimes were discovered in 2020, when police arrested him over a separate charge of filming up the skirts of women in a supermarket.

Police seized his devices and found thousands of videos on his laptop, with evidence of around 200 rapes carried out.

Investigators used the videos to track down his co-accused, although they were unable to identify an additional 21 men.

Dominique Pelicot admitted the charges in 2020.

The trial sparked a discussion on whether the issue of consent should be added to France’s legal definition of rape, as in other European countries.

Currently rape in France is defined as “any act of sexual penetration committed against another person by violence, constraint, threat or surprise” – meaning prosecutors must prove intent to rape.

Many of the defendants argued they did not realise Gisèle Pelicot had not consented, claiming they were “tricked” by Dominique Pelicot, and believed they were going to the couple’s house for a threesome involving a fantasy that the woman would be asleep.

The trial also shone a light on the issue of chemical submission – drug-induced sexual assault.

Most of the 50 men all come from towns and villages in a 50km (30 mile) radius of the Pelicots’ home village of Mazan.

They include firefighters, lorry drivers, soldiers, a journalist and a DJ, and have been described by defence lawyers as being “ordinary people” – earning them the nickname Monsieur-Tout-Le-Monde (Mr Everyman).

The trial also brought sexual violence against women into the spotlight in France, with many praising Gisèle Pelicot for her bravery in opening up the full details of the case to the public.

She previously said she was determined to make “shame swap sides” from the victim to the rapist – a phrase that has been repeated and used by her supporters.

Gisèle’s lawyer Stéphane Babonneau earlier told the BBC that his client did not want to be considered an icon.

But Gisèle’s message to women was that “they have a strength in them that they can’t even imagine and that they need to trust themselves,” he added.

An American citizen has pleaded guilty to helping run what has been described as the first known secret police station in the US on behalf of the Chinese government.

Prosecutors say Chen Jinping and his co-defendent Lu Jianwang opened and operated the station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighbourhood in early 2022 on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

At least 100 such stations have been reported worldwide across 53 countries, with rights groups accusing China of using the outposts to threaten and monitor Chinese nationals abroad.

But China has denied that they are police stations, saying they are “service stations” providing administrative services to nationals overseas.

The outpost, which occupied an entire floor above a ramen stall, did provide basic services like renewing Chinese citizens’ driver licenses, but it also helped Beijing identify pro-democracy activists living in the US, say federal authorities.

Matthew Olsen, an assistant attorney general in the US Department of Justice, called the attempt to operate the undeclared overseas police station “a clear affront to American sovereignty and danger to our community that will not be tolerated”.

The station was closed in the autumn of 2022 after the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation.

But Chen and Lu destroyed text messages they exchanged with an MPS official when they learned of the probe, prosecutors said.

The men, who are both American citizens, were arrested in April last year.

On Wednesday, Chen, 60, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an agent for China, and faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced next year.

Chen’s acknowledgement of guilt is a “stark reminder of insidious efforts taken by the [Chinese] government to threaten, harass, and intimidate those who speak against their Communist Party,” Robert Wells, an executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch said in a statement.

Lu, 59, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Prosecutors have accused him of harassing a purported Chinese fugitive to return to China and for helping to locate a pro-democracy activist in California on behalf of the Communist Party.

At the time of Chen’s arrest, authorities said it marked the first time the US has brought criminal charges in relation to such police outposts.

Mr Olsen said US authorities would “continue to pursue anyone who attempts to aid China’s efforts to extend their repressive reach into the United States”.

In September, Linda Sun, a former aide in the New York governor’s office, was charged with using her position to serve Chinese government interests. She was said to have received benefits, including travel, in return.

Last year, 34 officers from the MPS were also charged with using fake social media accounts to harass Chinese dissidents in the US and spread official Chinese government propaganda.

The People’s Republic of China has a “magic weapon”, according to its founding leader Mao Zedong and its current president Xi Jinping.

It is called the United Front Work Department – and it is raising as much alarm in the West as Beijing’s growing military arsenal.

Yang Tengbo, a prominent businessman who has been linked to Prince Andrew, is the latest overseas Chinese citizen to be scrutinised – and sanctioned – for his links to the UFWD.

The existence of the department is far from a secret. A decades-old and well-documented arm of the Chinese Communist Party, it has been mired in controversy before. Investigators from the US to Australia have cited the UFWD in multiple espionage cases, often accusing Beijing of using it for foreign interference.

Beijing has denied all espionage allegations, calling them ludicrous.

So what is the UFWD and what does it do?

The United Front – originally referring to a broad communist alliance – was once hailed by Mao as the key to the Communist Party’s triumph in the decades-long Chinese Civil War.

After the war ended in 1949 and the party began ruling China, United Front activities took a backseat to other priorities. But in the last decade under Xi, the United Front has seen a renaissance of sorts.

Xi’s version of the United Front is broadly consistent with earlier incarnations: to “build the broadest possible coalition with all social forces that are relevant”, according to Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

On the face of it, the UFWD is not shadowy – it even has a website and reports many of its activities on it. But the extent of its work – and its reach – is less clear.

While a large part of that work is domestic, Dr Ohlberg said, “a key target that has been defined for United Front work is overseas Chinese”.

Today, the UFWD seeks to influence public discussions about sensitive issues ranging from Taiwan – which China claims as its territory – to the suppression of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang.

It also tries to shape narratives about China in foreign media, target Chinese government critics abroad and co-opt influential overseas Chinese figures.

“United Front work can include espionage but [it] is broader than espionage,” Audrye Wong, assistant professor of politics at the University of Southern California, tells the BBC.

“Beyond the act of acquiring covert information from a foreign government, United Front activities centre on the broader mobilisation of overseas Chinese,” she said, adding that China is “unique in the scale and scope” of such influence activities.

China has always had the ambition for such influence, but its rise in recent decades has given Beijing the ability to exercise it.

Since Xi became president in 2012, he has been especially proactive in crafting China’s message to the world, enouraging a confrontational “wolf warrior” approach to diplomacy and urging his country’s diaspora to “tell China’s story well”.

The UFWD operates through various overseas Chinese community organisations, which have vigorously defended the Communist Party beyond its shores. They have censored anti-CCP artwork and protested at the activities of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. The UFWD has also been linked to threats against members of persecuted minorities abroad, such as Tibetans and Uyghurs.

But much of the UFWD’s work overlaps with other party agencies, operating under what observers have described as “plausible deniability”.

It is this murkiness that is causing so much suspicion and apprehension about the UFWD.

When Yang appealed against his ban, judges agreed with the then secretary of state’s report that Yang “represented a risk to national security” – citing the fact that he downplayed his ties with the UFWD as one of the reasons that led them to that conclusion.

Yang, however, maintains that he has not done anything unlawful and that the spy allegations are “entirely untrue”.

Cases like Yang’s are becoming increasingly common. In 2022, British Chinese lawyer Christine Lee was accused by the MI5 of acting through the UFWD to cultivate relationships with influential people in the UK. The following year, Liang Litang, a US citizen who ran a Chinese restaurant in Boston, was indicted for providing information about Chinese dissidents in the area to his contacts in the UFWD.

And in September, Linda Sun, a former aide in the New York governor’s office, was charged with using her position to serve Chinese government interests – receiving benefits, including travel, in return. According to Chinese state media reports, she had met a top UFWD official in 2017, who told her to “be an ambassador of Sino-American friendship”.

It is not uncommon for prominent and successful Chinese people to be associated with the party, whose approval they often need, especially in the business world.

But where is the line between peddling influence and espionage?

“The boundary between influence and espionage is blurry” when it comes to Beijing’s operations, said Ho-fung Hung, a politics professor at Johns Hopkins University.

This ambiguity has intensified after China passed a law in 2017 mandating Chinese nationals and companies to co-operate with intelligence probes, including sharing information with the Chinese government – a move that Dr Hung said “effectively turns everyone into potential spies”.

The Ministry of State Security has released dramatic propaganda videos warning the public that foreign spies are everywhere and “they are cunning and sneaky “.

Some students who were sent on special trips abroad were told by their universities to limit contact with foreigners and were asked for a report of their activities on their return.

And yet Xi is keen to promote China to the world. So he has tasked a trusted arm of the party to project strength abroad.

And that is becoming a challenge for Western powers – how do they balance doing business with the world’s second-largest economy alongside serious security concerns?

Genuine fears over China’s overseas influence are playing into more hawkish sentiments in the West, often leaving governments in a dilemma.

Some, like Australia, have tried to protect themselves with fresh foreign interference laws that criminalise individuals deemed to be meddling in domestic affairs. In 2020, the US imposed visa restrictions on people seen as active in UFWD activities.

An irked Beijing has warned that such laws – and the prosecutions they have spurred – hinder bilateral relations.

“The so-called allegations of Chinese espionage are utterly absurd,” a foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday in response to a question about Yang. “The development of China-UK relations serves the common interests of both countries.”

Some experts say that the long arm of China’s United Front is indeed concerning.

“Western governments now need to be less naive about China’s United Front work and take it as a serious threat not only to national security but also to the safety and freedom of many ethnic Chinese citizens,” Dr Hung says.

But, he adds, “governments also need to be vigilant against anti-Chinese racism and work hard to build trust and co-operation with ethnic Chinese communities in countering the threat together.”

Last December, Di Sanh Duong, a Vietnam-born ethnic Chinese community leader in Australia, was convicted of planning foreign interference for trying to cosy up to an Australian minister. Prosecutors argued that he was an “ideal target” for the UFWD because he had run for office in the 1990s and boasted ties with Chinese officials.

Duong’s trial had centred around what he meant when he said the inclusion of the minister at a charity event would be beneficial to “us Chinese” – did he mean the Chinese community in Australia, or mainland China?

In the end, Duong’s conviction – and a prison sentence – raised serious concerns that such broad anti-espionage laws and prosecutions can easily become weapons for targeting ethnic Chinese people.

“It’s important to remember that not everyone who is ethnically Chinese is a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party. And not everyone who is involved in these diaspora organisations is driven by fervent loyalty to China,” Dr Wong says.

“Overly aggressive policies based on racial profiling will only legitimise the Chinese government’s propaganda that ethnic Chinese are not welcome and end up pushing diaspora communities further into Beijing’s arms.”

A Labour minister has been named in an investigation into claims her family embezzled up to £3.9bn (Tk 590 billion) from infrastructure projects in Bangladesh.

Tulip Siddiq, 42, who as the Treasury’s Economic Secretary is responsible for tackling corruption in UK financial markets, is alleged to have brokered a deal with Russia in 2013 that overinflated the price of a new nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.

The allegation is part of a wider investigation by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) into Siddiq’s aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed as prime minister of the country in August.

A source close to Siddiq said these were “trumped up charges”.

The source also said the allegations were “completely politically motivated” and designed to damage her aunt.

Conservative shadow home office minister Matt Vickers said: “The fact Labour’s anti-corruption minister is reportedly embroiled in a corruption case is the latest stain on Keir Starmer’s judgement.

“It is high time she came clean. The British public deserve a government that is focused on their priorities, not distracted by yet another scandal.”

Downing Street said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had confidence in Siddiq, and she will continue her responsibility as the minister overseeing anti-corruption efforts.

Siddiq has “denied any involvement in the claims” accusing her of involvement in embezzlement, according to the prime minister’s official spokesman.

But she has recused herself – or stepped back – from any political decisions involving Bangladesh, the spokesman added.

The investigation is based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a senior political opponent of Hasina.

The BBC understands that Siddiq has not had any contact with the ACC as part of the investigation.

The ACC is also investigating several of Hasina’s family members, including Siddiq’s mother Sheikh Rehana Siddiq, and senior officials from her government.

Hasina, who was in charge of Bangladesh for more than 20 years, was seen as an autocrat whose government ruthlessly clamped down on dissent.

Since fleeing the country Hasina has been accused of multiple crimes by the new Bangladeshi government.

Hasina is wanted by Bangladesh’s International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) for her alleged involvements in “crimes against humanity” that took place during the demonstrations, in which hundreds were killed.

Arrest warrants have also been issued for 45 others, including former government ministers who also fled the country.

Syed Faruk, who runs the UK branch of Hasina’s Awami League party, said the claims were “fabricated”.

Siddiq was elected MP for Hampstead and Highgate in 2015, the north London constituency neighbouring Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s seat of Holborn and St Pancras.

Corruption allegations and convictions against top leaders of ousted governments are not new in Bangladesh.

Hasina’s main predecessor as prime minister, Khaleda Zia faced similar charges, which she also dismissed as politically motivated. As did ex-president Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who seized power as head of the army during a bloodless coup in 1982.

The Bangladeshi judiciary’s independence has long been questioned.

Government changes often bring judicial reshuffles, with ruling parties regularly accused of targeting political opponents.

Court documents seen by the BBC show Hajjaj has accused Siddiq of mediating and coordinating meetings for the Bangladeshi officials with the Russian government to build the £10bn Rooppur Power Plant Project.

It is claimed that the deal inflated the price of the plant by £1bn, according to the documents – 30% of which was allegedly distributed to Siddiq and other family members via a complex network of banks and overseas companies.

In total, Hajjaj alleges £3.9bn was siphoned out of the project by Hasina’s family and minister.

Footage from 2013 appears to show Siddiq attended the deal’s signing by Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, recorded by the Associated Press.

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At least 100 North Korean soldiers have been killed in fighting in the Ukraine war since entering combat on the Russian side earlier this month, a South Korean MP has said.

Lee Sung-kwon, speaking to reporters after parliament was briefed by the country’s National Intelligence Service, said another 1,000 had been injured.

He said the casualties included high-ranking officials, and could be explained by the troops lack of familiarity with the terrain, and with drone warfare.

The first reports of North Korean casualties came earlier this week. It emerged in October that the North had sent 10,000 troops to help Russia’s war effort.

On Monday a US Pentagon spokesman said North Koreans had been killed, without giving a number, and a day later an unnamed US official said that there had been “several hundred” killed or wounded.

The BBC has not independently verified the claims.

The North Korean troops, none of whom will have any previous combat experience, are believed to have spent their first weeks in Russia in training and then in support roles.

The casualties are thought to have occurred in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainians are defending a small area of territory captured during a surprise incursion in August.

Last Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had begun to use a “significant number” of North Koreans in its assaults in Kursk.

They are not thought to have been deployed in Ukraine itself, where Russian troops have been advancing in eastern parts of the country in recent months.

Lee Sung-kwon said there were reports of preparations for additional deployment, and that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could oversee training.

He quoted intelligence officials as saying the high number of casualties could be attributed to an “unfamiliar battlefield environment, where North Korean forces are being utilised as expendable frontline assault units, and their lack of capability to counter drone attacks”.

“Within the Russian military, complaints have reportedly surfaced that the North Korean troops, due to their lack of knowledge about drones, are more of a burden than an asset,” he added.

Neither Russia nor the North have acknowledged the troop deployments, but a North Korean statement on Thursday carried by state news agency KCNA said the country’s alliance with Moscow was “deterring the US and the West’s ill-intended extension of influence”.

British YouTuber Yung Filly has pleaded guilty to reckless driving in Australia while on bail over rape allegations.

The 29-year-old, whose real name is Andrés Felipe Valencia Barrientos, admitted to driving at almost 60km/h (37mph) over the speed limit on a Perth highway last month.

He is yet to enter a plea on eight sexual assault charges, over allegations he attacked a woman in his Perth hotel room after performing at a nightclub in September.

Barrientos is best known for his work with the YouTube collective Beta Squad, and has presented shows on BBC Three.

Barrientos appeared in Perth Magistrates Court on Thursday, where his lawyer said her client would enter a plea of guilty to the driving offence, which resulted in his car being impounded.

The case was adjourned until 30 January, to be heard alongside Barrientos’ other charges, which include four counts of sexual penetration without consent, three counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count of choking.

The rapper was on tour in Australia performing his music when the alleged incident occurred. His bail conditions bar him from leaving the state of Western Australia or posting about the case on social media.

Barrientos is a popular media figure in the UK, winning a Mobo Award for best media personality in 2021. He has also appeared on ITV’s Soccer Aid and Channel 4’s Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer.

For the uninitiated, sorting one’s rubbish can be a convoluted process in Japan – a country that boasts one of the world’s strictest waste disposal rules.

But in the city of Fukushima, things are about to get even tougher.

Starting in March, the city government will go through bags of rubbish that fall afoul of regulations – such as those which have not been sorted correctly, or which exceed size limits – and in some cases publicly identify their owners.

The new regulations, passed in a municipal meeting on Tuesday, comes amid Japan’s long push to enhance its waste management system.

While many cities in Japan open rubbish bags to inspect them, and some allow for the disclosure of offending businesses, Fukushima is believed to be the first city that plans to disclose the names of both individuals and businesses.

In a statement to the BBC, the Fukushima Waste Reduction Promotion Division said that waste which had not been properly disposed has previously led to scattered rubbish and the proliferation of crows.

“The improper disposal of waste is a major concern as it deteriorates the living environment of local residents,” said the department.

Waste which is not properly sorted also leads to more landfill, the department added, “which imposes a burden on future generations”.

“Therefore, we consider waste sorting to be very important.”

Last year, Fukushima reported over 9,000 cases of non-compliant rubbish.

Currently, instead of collecting rubbish that does not comply with disposal rules, workers usually paste stickers on the bags informing residents of the violation. Residents would then have to take them back inside, re-sort it and hope they get it right the next time collectors come around.

Under Fukushima’s new rules, if the rubbish remains unsorted for a week, city workers can go through it and try to identify the offenders via items such as mail. The violators will be issued a verbal warning, followed by a written advisory, before the last resort: having their names published on the government website.

Amid privacy concerns, Fukushima authorities said that the inspection of the rubbish would be carried out in private.

Japanese cities each have their own guides on how to dispose of rubbish. In Fukushima, rubbish bags have to be placed at collection points every morning by 0830 – but cannot be left out from the night before.

Different types of waste – separated into combustibles, non-combustibles, and recyclables – are collected according to different schedules.

For items that exceed stipulated dimensions, like household appliances and furniture, residents have to make an appointment for them to be collected separately.

Fukushima’s mayor, Hiroshi Kohata, said that the new rules were meant to promote waste reduction and proper disposal methods.

“There is nothing illegal about publicising malicious waste generators who do not abide by the rules and do not follow the city’s guidance and advisory,” the Mainichi quoted authorities as saying.

Rubbish is taken very seriously in Japan, where since the 1990s the government has made it a national goal to shift away from landfills, reduce waste and promote recycling. Local authorities have introduced their own initiatives in line with this goal.

Residents in Kamikatsu, a Japanese town with an ambitious zero-waste goal, proudly sort their rubbish into 45 categories. Kagoshima prefecture has made it mandatory for residents to write their names on their rubbish bags. And last year the city of Chiba piloted an AI assistant to help residents dispose their rubbish properly.

Ravichandran Ashwin, one of cricket’s most celebrated spinners, stunned the cricketing world on Wednesday by announcing his retirement, leaving fans and experts alike grappling with the abruptness of his decision.

Known for his innovative bowling and razor-sharp cricketing mind, 38-year-old Ashwin’s departure in the middle of a Test series against Australia has sparked admiration and debate in equal measure.

Tributes poured in from around the globe, with team-mates, cricket legends and fans hailing his contributions to the sport.

Yet, the timing of his retirement also raised some eyebrows.

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar praised Ashwin’s stellar career but expressed concern over his decision to retire midway through a crucial overseas series. With two matches still to be played, such a move could disrupt team selection dynamics, he said.

Mid-series retirements aren’t unprecedented in Indian cricket.

In 2014, MS Dhoni also exited Test cricket abruptly, stepping down as India captain and player during a series in Australia. Ashwin’s decision, however, has invited speculation: Was it age, fatigue, form, or frustration with team selection that led to his exit?

Ashwin, India’s leading spinner, had found himself sidelined on this tour, with Washington Sundar playing the first Test and Ravindra Jadeja the third, despite Ashwin featuring in the second.

Perhaps sensing he was no longer the first-choice spinner, he saw limited prospects ahead, even if India reached the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s in June.

Regardless of the circumstances, Ashwin leaves behind an extraordinary legacy.

With 537 Test wickets in 106 Tests and six centuries to his name, he ranks among the greatest all-rounders in cricket history.

His artistry with the ball, including his mastery of the ‘doosra’ and the ‘carrom ball redefined off-spin bowling, inspiring generations of cricketers worldwide.

Ashwin’s career statistics place him among the all-time greats.

He is the fourth-highest wicket-taking spinner, behind only Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708) and compatriot Anil Kumble (619), and seventh in the list of all wicket-takers.

Ashwin’s 37 five-wicket hauls put him behind only Muralitharan, who has 67.

Ashwin is also among just five bowlers post World War Two who have averaged five or more wickets per Test, the others being Muralitharan, Dennis Lillee, Richard Hadlee and Yasir Shah.

More compellingly, of nine bowlers with 500-plus Test wickets, Ashwin’s strike rate (50.73 balls per wicket) is the best.

These are remarkable numbers for a player once seen as a white-ball specialist, rising to prominence with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting in 2009.

Ashwin’s IPL success was instant, leading to his international debut for India in 2010 in ODIs and T20s.

He was part of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad under MS Dhoni, serving as Harbhajan Singh’s understudy. His white-ball exploits bolstered his reputation, but Ashwin’s true greatness unfolded in Test cricket.

When selected for his Test debut against West Indies in November 2011, sceptics claimed his inclusion was influenced by then chief of the Indian cricket board N Srinivasan, who also owned the CSK franchise in the IPL.

Ashwin silenced critics with a stellar nine-wicket haul, being named man of the match and cementing his place in the team within a year.

Spin bowling has been India’s pride for decades, led by legends such as Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, whose artistry secured historic series wins in the 1970s.

Anil Kumble, with 619 wickets, proved that India’s spin dominance extended to the modern era, followed by Harbhajan Singh, Ashwin, and Jadeja.

Together, Ashwin and Jadeja have amassed 856 wickets and over 6,500 runs, cementing India’s dominance across formats.

Ashwin’s thirst for excellence was evident early in his career, learning alongside Sri Lanka legend Muralitharan at CSK.

He constantly evolved, adding variations like the ‘carrom ball’ and occasional leg-spin to outfox batters.

An engineer by qualification, he showed strong expertise for working on different angles and lengths to confound batsmen, preparing in advance for key batsmen and contests.

During the 2020 pandemic, Ashwin fine-tuned his skills in Chennai, preparing to counter Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne in Australia. His efforts paid off.

He was successful in stifling the prolific run-scoring of the two Australians, and also made vital contributions with bat to help India pull off a memorable triumph.

Originally an opener, Ashwin’s batting remained underrated but effective. With 3,503 runs, including six centuries, he established himself as a genuine all-rounder, often stepping up in critical moments.

A fiercely independent thinker, Ashwin challenged cricketing conventions.

He famously ran out England’s Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end during the 2019 IPL, sparking global debate but compelling the cricket world to reassess the ‘spirit of the game’.

His efforts led to the removal of the term ‘Mankading’, which referred to a bowler running out a non-striker for leaving the crease too early – a rule associated with former India captain Vinoo Mankad, who faced decades of criticism for using it.

An outstanding series against England earlier this year seemed to rejuvenate Ashwin’s career. Despite modest returns in three Tests against New Zealand, his $1.16m IPL contract with CSK signalled his enduring value.

In November, Ashwin headed to Australia as India’s premier spinner, aiming to complete a hat-trick of series wins Down Under. Yet, by year’s end, his sudden retirement left unanswered questions and a void that will be hard to fill.

Human Rights Watch has accused Israel of committing “acts of genocide” in Gaza by deliberately depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water.

It says Israel’s actions include intentionally damaging water and sanitation infrastructure.

The campaign group says this has probably caused thousands of deaths, which it says is also tantamount to “committing the crime against humanity of extermination”.

Israel rejected HRW’s report as “propaganda”.

In a post on X, the Israeli foreign ministry’s spokesman said the group was “once more spreading its blood libels… The truth is the complete opposite of HRW’s lies”.

The 179-page report says that “since October 2023, Israeli authorities have deliberately obstructed Palestinians’ access to the adequate amount of water required for survival in the Gaza Strip”.

It says Israel intentionally damaged infrastructure, including solar panels powering treatment plants, a reservoir, and a spare parts warehouse, while also blocking fuel for generators.

It says Israel also cut electricity supplies, attacked repair workers and blocked the entry into Gaza of repair materials.

“This isn’t just negligence,” said HRW executive director Tirana Hassan. “It is a calculated policy of deprivation that has led to the deaths of thousands from dehydration and disease that is nothing short of the crime against humanity of extermination, and an act of genocide.”

The report is based on interviews with dozens of Palestinians from Gaza, including water authority officials, sanitation experts and healthcare workers, as well as satellite imagery and data from October 2023 to September 2024.

Israel launched a major military offensive in Gaza after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

At least 45,129 people have been killed in Gaza since the offensive began, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry. It does not put a figure on the number who have died as a result of lack of access to water or other such causes.

The HRW report notes that to constitute the crime of genocide, alleged actions require evidence of intent. It says the findings, including statements made by senior Israeli officials, “may indicate such intent”.

But, rejecting HRW’s allegations on X, Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein said Israel had facilitated “the continuous flow of water and humanitarian aid into Gaza, despite operating under constant attacks of Hamas terror organisation”.

He said water pipelines and pumping and desalination facilities remained operational, and that water tankers had repeatedly delivered supplies into Gaza through Israeli crossings.

“This report is full of lies that are appalling even when compared to HRW’s already low standards,” he added.

The HRW report is the latest in a series of accusations by rights groups and others that Israel is committing genocide in its campaign in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) – the UN’s top court – is also currently examining a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of genocide.

The Genocide Convention of 1948, passed in the wake of the Nazi Holocaust of European Jewry, defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

Israel has vehemently denied such allegations as “wholly unfounded” and driven by antisemitism. It says it has not intentionally harmed civilians in Gaza, and that it is fighting only against Hamas.

At least 13 people have died and two more are missing after an Indian navy speedboat ploughed into the side of a passenger ferry off the coast of Mumbai, officials say.

Three navy personnel are among the dead, while more than 100 people have been rescued, Maharashtra state chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said.

Footage of the incident posted online shows the speedboat circling before colliding with the ferry, which later capsized.

The Indian navy said there had been an “engine malfunction”. An inquiry has been ordered to find out what led to the collision, according to local media reports.

The privately owned ferry was making its way to the Elephanta Caves, a popular tourist destination, when it was hit by the speedboat at about 16:00 local time (11:30GMT) on Wednesday.

Search and rescue operations for the two final missing passengers were still ongoing at lunchtime on Thursday.

“A navy craft undergoing engine trials lost control and collided with a passenger ferry,” the navy said, adding that it regretted the “tragic loss” of life.

Gautam Gupta told The Times of India that he initially thought the speedboat was performing stunts and was filming it from the deck when it crashed into the ferry.

Another passenger who was on board told the media that he had swum for 15 minutes before another boat came to their rescue.

Arif Bamane, who was one of the first rescuers at the scene, said cries for help were coming from all directions.

The situation was horrific, he said, and those on board were unable to process what had happened.

Survivors told local media that ferry staff had not provided any instructions following the collision, leaving passengers to scramble to safety on their own.

A navy official, who did not want to be named, told the BBC that ferries and speedboats follow clearly marked paths and there is enough space in the harbour to avoid potential collisions.

The exact details of what happened will become clear once the naval speedboat is recovered, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered condolences to the families of the victims of the incident and called the incident saddening.

He also announced 200,000 rupees ($2,352; £1,869) for the families of the deceased, as well as 50,000 rupees for those injured in the accident.

This is the second such incident in a month. The first occurred on 22 November, when two people were reported missing after a submarine collided with a fishing trawler off the coast of Goa.

Crouched alone on the floor, in a tiny, windowless cell, Nasim could hear what sounded like other prisoners being tortured. The guard would bang on the door and say: “Can you hear that beating? Get ready, you’re next.”

She was “interrogated for 10 to 12 hours every day” and repeatedly threatened with execution.

The bare cell, no more than two metres across, had no bed or toilet. Four months in solitary confinement was the 36-year-old hairdresser’s introduction to Iran’s notorious Evin prison. The only people she saw were her interrogators. She thought that she would “die and no-one would know”.

We have pieced together accounts from multiple reliable sources to build a picture of everyday life for Nasim and other women, who are currently being held in Evin prison.

Many were among the tens of thousands of people arrested in connection with the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Mahsa had been arrested for allegedly breaking Iranian laws that require women to wear the hijab and she died in police custody.

While people have spoken about conditions in Evin after they have been released, it is rare to get details of inmates’ lives while they are still inside.

What we have heard reveals not only brutality, but a place of complex contrasts where the prisoners continue to campaign for women’s rights and defiantly challenge restrictions imposed on them. There are surprising moments too – one inmate, occasionally allowed time alone with her husband, has even got pregnant.

Nasim – who loves rap music and make-up – was taken into custody in April 2023 after joining protests with her friends, one of whom was killed in the government crackdown. She survived interrogations “by thinking about those who died on the street”. People who saw Nasim when she came out of solitary confinement have described cuts and bruises on her body and how she was tortured to make false confessions.

Rezvaneh was also arrested following the protests, along with her husband, in 2023. They both ended up in Evin, which has separate sections for men and women. Her interrogators said they would kill her husband and “hit him so much that he would turn black like coal, and purple like an aubergine”.

After solitary confinement, interrogations and humiliation, Nasim was moved to the women’s wing, that houses about 70 people, including Rezvaneh, most of whom were arrested on political charges.

It is where the British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcilffe, who was allowed to return to the UK in 2022, spent nearly four years of her sentence.

Most of the women there have been sentenced because of their activism, for offences including spreading propaganda, drawing arms against the regime, and endangering national security.

They live in four crowded cells with up to 20 people in each one and bunk beds stacked three- high.

Living together in cramped quarters often causes friction, and sometimes fights – both physical and verbal – break out. But the women also forge tight bonds.

In winter, “everyone is freezing” and the women “walk around with hot water bottles” to stay warm. In summer, they swelter in the heat.

There is a small kitchen area with a couple of hobs where – if they have enough money to buy food from the prison shop – they can cook for themselves to supplement the basic prison meals that are brought to their cells.

A dark, dirty area at the end of a corridor serves as a place to smoke. A small cemented yard with a little area for plants and a volleyball net provides a bit of outside space.

They can wear their own clothes and are free to move around their living quarters which have two bathrooms. Every evening, they queue to use the toilet and brush their teeth.

It was here, after she had been in prison for about four months, that Rezvaneh found out she was pregnant.

She had struggled with infertility for years and had given up on ever having a baby. But according to Evin’s rules, she and her husband – who is still a prisoner in the men’s wing – were occasionally allowed to meet in private and, on one of these occasions, she conceived.

When she realised she was pregnant she “cried for several days”.

She found “the worst thing was the mental pressure and tensions inside the prison”. Finding a quiet place in the crowded cells, where people spend most of their days sitting on their beds, was a constant challenge.

The prison food left her craving apple juice, bread, and meat, which were hard to get hold of. When she could get some meat from the prison shop it was at least twice the price of meat on the outside.

The prison eventually allowed her to have an ultrasound scan at four months, and doctors told her she was having a girl.

As she listened to “each heartbeat the sense of hope became stronger”. But she was afraid that the conditions in prison would endanger the baby’s health. Rezvaneh was not just concerned about her diet – she has epilepsy and needed to avoid stress. Prison doctors told her she had a high risk of miscarriage.

Vida, a journalist, loves to paint. She uses bedsheets for canvases and paints portraits of the other women.

One, which was smuggled out of Evin, is of Kurdish prisoner Pakhshan Azizi who travelled to Kurdish areas of Iraq and Syria to help victims of the Islamic State group. Pakhshan has been sentenced to death, following charges of using arms to fight the Iranian regime, and there is great concern this sentence could be carried out soon.

Vida has been warned not to draw anything with a hidden meaning. On one of the walls in the yard she painted crumbling bricks with a green forest behind them. The authorities sprayed over it.

In a corridor she painted a picture of an Iranian cheetah running. Some of the women “kept saying how much good energy they got from it”. But one night the authorities “went and painted over it” and restricted Vida’s access to painting supplies.

One of her murals has been left intact though – huge, blue ocean waves on the walls of the corridor where the women go to smoke.

Getting medical care has been a constant battle for the women. One of the inmates, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, has life-threatening heart and lung conditions.

But in prison she has had to fight long and hard for access to a doctor. Relatives said that officials repeatedly blocked treatment because she refused to wear a headscarf to a medical appointment. The authorities only relented after fellow prisoners went on hunger strike for two weeks. Narges was released for 21 days at the start of December on medical grounds.

Behind bars, she and the others have carried out protests, pushing the boundaries and continuing to fight for their rights. Although the law requires them to wear headscarves, many refuse. And after a long fight with the authorities, the women were allowed curtains around the beds so they could have some privacy, out of view of CCTV cameras.

One of the toughest things for the women is waiting to hear their sentences. Nasim’s interrogators had threatened her with the death penalty and she had to wait nearly 500 days to find out her fate.

She found solace in her fellow prisoners – who she has described as sisters who give her life and act as “a balm on the wounds” of her wings.

Every morning, one of her friends pulls aside the bed curtain and makes her get up for breakfast.

“Each day we think of something to do, so by the end of the day we can tell ourselves, ‘We lived today,'” one of our sources explains.

Others spend their time reading poetry, singing, playing homemade card games and watching TV – there are two televisions where they can watch Iranian channels showing drama, documentaries and football.

It is these small things that kept Nasim going while she waited for her sentence, under the constant threat of execution. When the sentence finally came, she was given six years in prison, 74 lashes and 20 years in exile in a small town far from Tehran. She had been charged with distributing propaganda and drawing arms against the Islamic Republic.

Despite the severity of the sentence, Nasim felt she could breathe again, and embrace the life she thought she had lost.

Three other women in the wing have been sentenced to death for drawing arms against the regime or affiliation to armed groups. However one of them has had her sentence overturned.

More than 800 people were executed in Iran last year – the highest number in eight years, according to Amnesty International. Most were for crimes involving violence and drugs. A handful were women.

So every Tuesday, the women protest against executions, chanting in the prison yard, refusing to move all night and staging hunger strikes. The campaign has spread through jails across Iran, gaining international support. On the anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s death the women in Evin burned headscarves.

There have been repercussions – sometimes the guards raid their cells and women have been beaten and injured. They can also be taken for further interrogations, put back in solitary confinement or have phone calls and visits blocked. Most of the guards are women and “sometimes they are kind, sometimes they are cruel and hard-hearted, depending on what orders they receive from a higher authority”, says one of our sources.

The Iranian government routinely denies allegations of human rights violations, saying conditions inside Evin prison meet all necessary standards and prisoners are not mistreated.

As Rezvaneh’s due date approached, the prison authorities allowed her to temporarily leave prison for the birth. In October, she had a baby girl.

But her joy and relief at the safe arrival of her daughter is mingled with fear, sadness and anger. Her husband was not allowed out of prison with her, although she has been able to take their daughter to visit him in Evin.

And because of the stress, Rezvaneh has struggled to produce breastmilk. She is expecting to be recalled to Evin prison soon with her baby daughter to serve the rest of her five-year sentence – if she’s not granted an early release, that could be nearly four years.

Babies are usually allowed to stay with their mothers in jail until the age of two. After that they are often sent to a close relative, or if that is not possible, they might be placed in a children’s home.

But rather than stop the inmates, one prisoner has said the challenges they face have made her “braver and stronger,” supporting their belief that “the future is clear: to fight, even in prison”.

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

You can watch the BBC 100 Women on the BBC World Service YouTube channel.

Angelina Jolie is notoriously private.

But in a new interview with BBC News, the Hollywood star spoke candidly about her experience of working on set with her eldest sons, saying they saw “the pain” she usually hides from them.

The actress is starring in a new biopic, titled Maria, about opera singer Maria Callas.

Two of Jolie’s six children with ex-husband Brad Pitt, Maddox and Pax, took on roles as production assistants on the film.

“The character [Callas] has a lot of pain and they’ve of course seen me go through a lot of things, but they hadn’t experienced me expressing a lot of the pain that usually a parent hides from a child,” she said.

“So they were there to witness some of that, but then we would hug or they would bring me cups of tea.”

Jolie added that it was “a new way” of finding out how to be honest with her children about her feelings, “in an even greater way”.

Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, the film focuses on Callas’s final years, in the 1970s, when she was living in Paris.

With Jolie taking on acting roles relatively infrequently in recent years, the film has provided something of a comeback narrative for her and could lead to an Oscar nomination for best actress.

Callas was a US-born Greek soprano, and one of opera’s best-known singers.

In Maria, a blend of Jolie’s own voice and original recordings by Callas are used in the singing scenes.

The actress learnt to sing opera for the role, something she describes as “very physically demanding”.

Training took around seven months, she said.

“We started with regular singing classes and it was challenging in many ways, but when the opera classes began, what it requires with your breathwork and your body and just the force of what you push through yourself, it’s just a very different physicality.”

Jolie, whose previous film credits include Changeling, Maleficent, Salt, and Mr & Mrs Smith, said she hasn’t sung before, and was “actually quite shy about singing”.

“It was probably one of the areas in my life that I was hesitant,” she said.

But she indicated that it was also something she enjoyed.

“One of the greatest privileges of being an actor is you often are supported by a crew to try something and explore something you’ve never done and this certainly was most challenging,” she said.

Jolie’s sons Maddox, 23, and Pax, 21, have worked on a number of productions with her before, including her film Without Blood.

Both of them accompanied her at the New York City premiere of Maria in September, alongside their younger sister Zahara.

Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016. The pair were engaged in a custody battle that resulted in Pitt being awarded joint custody in 2021.

The Hollywood stars also share daughters Shiloh and Vivienne, and another son Knox.

On the set of the film, both Maddox and Pax were “very busy”, director Pablo Larraín said. “They were good professionals,” he added.

Jolie said that during filming, Pax recorded a lot of her singing practice “so he was with me in my early horrible days,” she laughed.

“It’s always good for your children to watch your mum not do something easily, but swear and fight and fail and have to try again,” she said.

“So that’s an important and beautiful thing.”

Maria is the third in a trilogy of films about high-profile, complex women from Larraín, following his movies about Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Diana.

The film has received mixed reviews, although critics have generally praised its central performance.

“Jolie is absolutely spellbinding as Maria Callas, imbuing her with grace and resolve,” said Sophia Ciminello of AwardsWatch. “She doesn’t disappear into the role, she transcends.”

Time’s Stephanie Zacharek was less keen on her performance, however, saying Jolie “plays her subject as haughtily cool and deeply insecure, but captures none of her imperious charisma”.

Hailed as La Divina, “The Divine One”, Maria Callas began singing at 14 years old.

One of her most famous performances was as Tosca, in Covent Garden, in 1964.

But vocal decline, possibly caused by dramatic weight loss, led to the premature end of her career.

She spent her last years living largely in isolation, and died of a heart attack aged 53.

Larraín said he hoped his film honoured Callas’s desire to popularise the art form.

“If this movie bring attention to opera from one to hundred to a million, it will be a success,” he said.

“I don’t know if there is an art form as strong as opera,” Jolie added.

“The way it connects to the soul and the body, so of course it’s for everybody.”

The father of 19-year-old Holly Bowles, who died of suspected methanol poisoning in Laos last month, has said he was in “disbelief” when he realised his daughter would not pull through.

Speaking to the BBC, Shaun Bowles described Holly as “everything you’d want your daughter to be”.

The Australian teenager had been travelling across South East Asia with her best friend Bianca Jones when they fell ill after drinking alcohol thought to be contaminated with methanol, a toxic substance sometimes added to bootleg drinks.

They were among six foreign tourists to die over a few days in the small, riverside tourist town of Vang Vieng.

“They were having an unbelievable time, just having so much fun, doing what two 19-year-old girls should be doing,” Shaun Bowles told the BBC’s Today Programme.

The grieving process, he said, has been made more manageable by the fact that he is “best friends” with Bianca’s father, Mark.

Together, Mark and Shaun had travelled through Thailand on their own backpacking trip 25 years ago.

“It’s just bizarre to be going through the same thing with your best friend. Just being together and just talking helps us get through the days,” he said.

Holly and Bianca had planned their trip to celebrate their graduation from school.

Since they’d been away, Shaun had spoken to his daughter every few days, while Holly’s mother, Sam, had spoken to her “every second”.

“They were just having an absolute blast,” he said.

The two teenagers were taken to hospital after they failed to check out of the Nana Backpacker hostel, where they were staying, and were found unresponsive.

Shaun and his family received news they were unwell through a friend – and the two mothers flew out to Thailand that night.

“When you’re getting second hand information… it was really hard to process exactly what sort of condition that they were in,” said Shaun.

He and Bianca’s father, Mark, flew out the next day, by which point the girls were in a hospital in Udon Thani, over the border from Laos in Thailand.

Bianca died on 21 November, and Holly a day later.

“She was just full of life. She was confident, she was loving, she was just a true friend of people. She was everything you want your daughter to be,” said Shaun.

Now, Shaun says, his focus is on raising awareness of methanol poisoning to other young people backpacking through South East Asia.

“We absolutely want whoever is responsible for this brought to account and brought to justice, and we’re going to do everything that we can to make sure that is the case,” he says.

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

Eight people have been arrested in connection with the case.

Could this egg-shaped structure be what the future home of Indian astronauts in space looks like?

The Hab-1 – short for Habitat-1 – is Indian space agency Isro’s first-ever “analog mission” which means simulation of space conditions to prepare astronauts for real space missions. It was recently tested for three weeks in the high Himalayan mountains of Ladakh.

Space architect Aastha Kacha-Jhala, from Gujarat-based firm Aaka, told the BBC that these simulations help identify and address issues astronauts and equipment might face before space missions.

Built with space-grade Teflon and insulated with industrial-use foam, Hab-1 has a bed, a stowaway tray which can be pulled out and used as a workstation, storage space to keep supplies and emergency kits, a kitchenette for heating meals and a toilet. An astronaut in simulation spent three weeks holed up in the facility.

“Hab-1 is designed keeping in mind that space is going to be very limited on the Moon or Mars,” Ms Kacha-Jhala says. “The astronaut will also have very limited water so we designed a dry toilet. We also put in place a system for a proper disposal of waste and ensured that the habitat remained odour-free.”

She is now in talks with Isro to build India’s first permanent simulation space facility in Ladakh.

The mission comes at a time when India is preparing to send its first astronauts into space.

Isro’s Gaganyaan mission plans to place three astronauts into low-Earth orbit at an altitude of 400km (248 miles) for three days. If all goes according to plan, the mission will launch sometime next year. India also plans to set up its first space station by 2035 and send a man to the Moon by 2040.

Nasa, European Space Agency, Russia, China and other countries and private firms with space programmes run dozens of simulation missions and two of the four Indian astronauts selected for the Gaganyaan mission are being trained at Nasa at the moment.

“Once we have our own simulation mission, we won’t have to depend on foreign space agencies to train our astronauts,” says Prof Subrat Sharma, Dean of Research Studies at Ladakh University which collaborated on the project.

• Gaganyaan: India names astronauts for maiden space flight

Ladakh, he told the BBC, was chosen for the experiment because “from a geographical perspective, its rocky, barren landscape and soil have similarities with the material and rocks found on Mars and some parts of the lunar terrain which make it ideal for space research”.

The soil samples collected during the mission are being tested by the university to see if astronauts will be able to use locally-sourced materials to build homes in space.

The Himalayan region on the India-China border is located at a height of 3,500 metres (11,483ft) and has extreme climatic conditions and thin air. In a day, the temperature here can shift from a maximum of 20C to a minimum of -18C.

It’s no match for Mars (where temperatures can go below -153C) or Moon (where -250C is the norm in some deep craters), but still, it’s a test of human endurance. And as Prof Sharma says, “since you can’t go to space to test every time, you need these facilities where space-like conditions can be created”.

Also, he adds, Ladakh is one region of India where barren land stretches for miles and miles, “giving you the feeling of being alone on the planet”.

And that’s exactly how the simulation astronaut, who spent three weeks confined in the capsule in the icy cold desert, felt.

• Chandrayaan-3: India makes historic landing near Moon’s south pole

“I was isolated from the human environment. Every move that I made was scheduled, when to wake up, what to do when and when to sleep? A 24×7 camera monitored every move and sent data about my activities and health to the back office,” the 24-year-old who did not want to be named told me.

“The initial few days,” he said, “were great, but then it began to feel repetitive and it started to get to me. It started impacting my daily performance. My sleep schedule was affected a little and my concentration deteriorated.”

The simulation astronaut wore biometric devices to monitor his sleep pattern, heart rate and stress levels. His blood and saliva were tested daily to see how he was coping.

Scientists say simulating psychological factors to see how they would impact humans in space is one of the most important parts of the mission.

With space agencies from across the world aiming to send astronauts to the Moon and set up permanent bases there in the coming years, simulation missions are expected to play a crucial role in research and training.

• Why it costs India so little to reach the Moon and Mars
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In April, a team of scientists and engineers began trials in Oregon to prepare Nasa’s robot dog – Lassie – to walk on the Moon’s surface. In July, four volunteers emerged after spending a year at an “analog” facility, specially built in Texas to simulate life on Mars.

And according to the Economist magazine, Nasa hopes to 3D-print a base using only materials found on the Moon’s surface, while China and Russia are collaborating on their own plans.⁠

India doesn’t want to be left behind. Prof Sharma says once the data gathered in Ladakh is analysed, it “will help us develop medical technology to deal with the needs of our astronauts when they face a problem in space”.

“We need to know how our bodies will function on the Moon where days and nights are a lot longer than on Earth. Or in space where there’s not enough oxygen” he says.

The People’s Republic of China has a “magic weapon”, according to its founding leader Mao Zedong and its current president Xi Jinping.

It is called the United Front Work Department – and it is raising as much alarm in the West as Beijing’s growing military arsenal.

Yang Tengbo, a prominent businessman who has been linked to Prince Andrew, is the latest overseas Chinese citizen to be scrutinised – and sanctioned – for his links to the UFWD.

The existence of the department is far from a secret. A decades-old and well-documented arm of the Chinese Communist Party, it has been mired in controversy before. Investigators from the US to Australia have cited the UFWD in multiple espionage cases, often accusing Beijing of using it for foreign interference.

Beijing has denied all espionage allegations, calling them ludicrous.

So what is the UFWD and what does it do?

The United Front – originally referring to a broad communist alliance – was once hailed by Mao as the key to the Communist Party’s triumph in the decades-long Chinese Civil War.

After the war ended in 1949 and the party began ruling China, United Front activities took a backseat to other priorities. But in the last decade under Xi, the United Front has seen a renaissance of sorts.

Xi’s version of the United Front is broadly consistent with earlier incarnations: to “build the broadest possible coalition with all social forces that are relevant”, according to Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

On the face of it, the UFWD is not shadowy – it even has a website and reports many of its activities on it. But the extent of its work – and its reach – is less clear.

While a large part of that work is domestic, Dr Ohlberg said, “a key target that has been defined for United Front work is overseas Chinese”.

Today, the UFWD seeks to influence public discussions about sensitive issues ranging from Taiwan – which China claims as its territory – to the suppression of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang.

It also tries to shape narratives about China in foreign media, target Chinese government critics abroad and co-opt influential overseas Chinese figures.

“United Front work can include espionage but [it] is broader than espionage,” Audrye Wong, assistant professor of politics at the University of Southern California, tells the BBC.

“Beyond the act of acquiring covert information from a foreign government, United Front activities centre on the broader mobilisation of overseas Chinese,” she said, adding that China is “unique in the scale and scope” of such influence activities.

China has always had the ambition for such influence, but its rise in recent decades has given Beijing the ability to exercise it.

Since Xi became president in 2012, he has been especially proactive in crafting China’s message to the world, enouraging a confrontational “wolf warrior” approach to diplomacy and urging his country’s diaspora to “tell China’s story well”.

The UFWD operates through various overseas Chinese community organisations, which have vigorously defended the Communist Party beyond its shores. They have censored anti-CCP artwork and protested at the activities of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. The UFWD has also been linked to threats against members of persecuted minorities abroad, such as Tibetans and Uyghurs.

But much of the UFWD’s work overlaps with other party agencies, operating under what observers have described as “plausible deniability”.

It is this murkiness that is causing so much suspicion and apprehension about the UFWD.

When Yang appealed against his ban, judges agreed with the then secretary of state’s report that Yang “represented a risk to national security” – citing the fact that he downplayed his ties with the UFWD as one of the reasons that led them to that conclusion.

Yang, however, maintains that he has not done anything unlawful and that the spy allegations are “entirely untrue”.

Cases like Yang’s are becoming increasingly common. In 2022, British Chinese lawyer Christine Lee was accused by the MI5 of acting through the UFWD to cultivate relationships with influential people in the UK. The following year, Liang Litang, a US citizen who ran a Chinese restaurant in Boston, was indicted for providing information about Chinese dissidents in the area to his contacts in the UFWD.

And in September, Linda Sun, a former aide in the New York governor’s office, was charged with using her position to serve Chinese government interests – receiving benefits, including travel, in return. According to Chinese state media reports, she had met a top UFWD official in 2017, who told her to “be an ambassador of Sino-American friendship”.

It is not uncommon for prominent and successful Chinese people to be associated with the party, whose approval they often need, especially in the business world.

But where is the line between peddling influence and espionage?

“The boundary between influence and espionage is blurry” when it comes to Beijing’s operations, said Ho-fung Hung, a politics professor at Johns Hopkins University.

This ambiguity has intensified after China passed a law in 2017 mandating Chinese nationals and companies to co-operate with intelligence probes, including sharing information with the Chinese government – a move that Dr Hung said “effectively turns everyone into potential spies”.

The Ministry of State Security has released dramatic propaganda videos warning the public that foreign spies are everywhere and “they are cunning and sneaky “.

Some students who were sent on special trips abroad were told by their universities to limit contact with foreigners and were asked for a report of their activities on their return.

And yet Xi is keen to promote China to the world. So he has tasked a trusted arm of the party to project strength abroad.

And that is becoming a challenge for Western powers – how do they balance doing business with the world’s second-largest economy alongside serious security concerns?

Genuine fears over China’s overseas influence are playing into more hawkish sentiments in the West, often leaving governments in a dilemma.

Some, like Australia, have tried to protect themselves with fresh foreign interference laws that criminalise individuals deemed to be meddling in domestic affairs. In 2020, the US imposed visa restrictions on people seen as active in UFWD activities.

An irked Beijing has warned that such laws – and the prosecutions they have spurred – hinder bilateral relations.

“The so-called allegations of Chinese espionage are utterly absurd,” a foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday in response to a question about Yang. “The development of China-UK relations serves the common interests of both countries.”

Some experts say that the long arm of China’s United Front is indeed concerning.

“Western governments now need to be less naive about China’s United Front work and take it as a serious threat not only to national security but also to the safety and freedom of many ethnic Chinese citizens,” Dr Hung says.

But, he adds, “governments also need to be vigilant against anti-Chinese racism and work hard to build trust and co-operation with ethnic Chinese communities in countering the threat together.”

Last December, Di Sanh Duong, a Vietnam-born ethnic Chinese community leader in Australia, was convicted of planning foreign interference for trying to cosy up to an Australian minister. Prosecutors argued that he was an “ideal target” for the UFWD because he had run for office in the 1990s and boasted ties with Chinese officials.

Duong’s trial had centred around what he meant when he said the inclusion of the minister at a charity event would be beneficial to “us Chinese” – did he mean the Chinese community in Australia, or mainland China?

In the end, Duong’s conviction – and a prison sentence – raised serious concerns that such broad anti-espionage laws and prosecutions can easily become weapons for targeting ethnic Chinese people.

“It’s important to remember that not everyone who is ethnically Chinese is a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party. And not everyone who is involved in these diaspora organisations is driven by fervent loyalty to China,” Dr Wong says.

“Overly aggressive policies based on racial profiling will only legitimise the Chinese government’s propaganda that ethnic Chinese are not welcome and end up pushing diaspora communities further into Beijing’s arms.”

As the ink was drying on one of the world’s biggest trade deals, signed in Uruguay this month, and hailed as a milestone for the global economy, anger was brewing thousands of miles away in France.

Under the agreement between the EU on one hand, and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay on the other, tariffs will be greatly reduced and the amounts of imports and exports allowed will be increased.

The deal would affect almost 800 million people.

It comes as a marked contrast to Donald Trump’s plans to greatly increase protectionism when he returns to the White House next month.

The deal still needs to be approved by the 27 EU member states, and France is planning to block it, due to fears that it will harm its farming sector.

Alix Heurtault, a 34-year-old French farmer, says she is worried about her future if the planned agreement goes ahead.

“I fear that the deal will mean making ends meet becoming even more difficult for farmers like me,” she says.

As a result, she is crossing her fingers that the French government will be able to stop it.

The planned trade agreement will mean more South American beef, chicken and sugar coming to the EU, and at lower prices. While in the opposite direction, the likes of European cars, clothing and wine would have more access to the Mercosur zone.

For France to block the deal it will need to persuade at least three other EU countries, representing at least 35% of the total population to join it. Ireland, Poland and Austria are also opposed, but Italy will likely need to also come on board to achieve the required population quota.

And with the media giving very conflicting reports about Italy’s position, we’ll have to wait and see which way the Italians go when the vote is held some time in 2025.

In the meantime, French farmers are continuing to put pressure on Paris to not back down. French President Emmanuel Macron is listening, and has described the trade deal as “unacceptable in its current form”.

Ms Heurtault grows sugar beet, wheat and barley on a 150-hectare farm in the small village of Villeneuve-sur-Auvers located 60km (37 miles) south of Paris.

She says that the deal would see French farmers badly hit in order to help EU manufacturers. “It feels like we’re a bargaining chip. Farmers in the Mercosur countries [the name of the Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay block] have less restrictions regarding pesticides and lower labour costs.”

Ms Heurtault’s view is widely held across the French farming sector, which has been holding regular protests in recent months.

A few weeks ago some 200 farmers dumped bales of straw in front of the Grand Palais museum and exhibition centre in Paris.

They lit up red flares, and chanted slogans like “We are feeding you, show us some respect”.

The protest was held to coincide with an annual meeting of commodities importers and exporters taking place at the venue.

Stéphane Gallais, a cattle farmer and the national secretary of farmers’ union Confédération Paysanne, which had organised the event, explained why it was being held.

“Today’s demonstration is a stance against free trade, especially the EU-Mercosur agreement that we’ve been opposing since it was first discussed in the late 1990s,” he said.

While France is opposed to the trade deal, other EU nations, such as Germany, Spain and Portugal are strongly in favour of it.

Proponents welcome the fact it would be a marked contrast to Trump’s threats of increased protectionism.

“It would be a good signal at a time when we have movement in the opposite direction towards economic fragmentation and protectionism, especially with free-trade sceptic US President Donald Trump re-elected,” says Uri Dadush, a research professor for trade policy at the University of Maryland in the US.

Prof Dadush adds that while European farmers will be negatively impacted, he says this will be very limited.

“The deal is a threat for European farmers, as the world’s most competitive agricultural sector gets access to their market, but we’re talking about a tiny amount of liberalisation spread out over a long period of time,” he says.

He points out that under the agreement the Mercosur nations would still have limits on what they can export to the EU. Such as their proposed initial increased annual quota of beef exports still only accounting for less than 1% of EU consumption of the meat.

Prof Dadush adds that “the deal is an opportunity to push for much needed market-orientated reform in the heavily-subsidised EU agricultural sector, and Mercosur’s highly-protected factory sector”.

Chris Hegadorn, adjunct professor for global food policies at Paris-based university Sciences Po, and former secretary of the UN’s Committee on World Food Security, says the agreement would overall be beneficial to Europe – including its farmers.

“It obviously depends on the subcategory you’re looking at, but French cheese and wine producers will benefit,” he says.

He adds that it will also improve health and environmental standards in the Mercosur countries, and increase ties with the EU at a time when “China is also trying to get a foothold in Latin America”.

But David Cayla, lecturer for economics at Angers University in western France and member of the left-wing collective “The Dismayed Economists”, doubts the EU will be able to enforce higher standards in Latin American countries.

“It’s impossible to control their implementation,” he says. “Our farmers will only face increased competition from countries with a better climate and more fertile soils.

“But we need to protect European agriculture – that’s also a question of food sovereignty,” he emphasizes, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic showed how quickly worldwide supply chains could collapse in times of crisis.

Antoine Gomel, who in 2017 took over his family’s 24-hectare chicken and beef farm in a small village near Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France, says that opposing the trade deal is about saving the French countryside.

“Farms keep disappearing leaving our villages deserted – the deal will only accelerate that,” says the 42-year-old.

“But farms are crucial to cohesion in the countryside, not least as they create jobs. People in France and abroad increasingly vote for the far right because they feel disorientated and alone.

“Farms can contribute to bringing them back together, by literally anchoring them.”

Back in front of the Grand Palais in Paris, cleaners were sweeping away the remaining straw from the protesters.

Farmer Stéphane Gallais was still nearby, watching them. “The EU-Mercosur deal is highly detrimental and it would be really symbolic if EU member states didn’t ratify it,” he said.

Russia is moving a large amount of military equipment in Syria, signalling preparations for a partial withdrawal, analysts say.

Satellite images reveal a build-up of military vehicles at a Russian-controlled port and airbase in western Syria.

Transport aircraft also appear to have arrived and departed the country in recent days.

BBC Verify has also geolocated videos showing extensive columns of Russian military trucks moving north towards these bases.

The Institute for the Study of War suggests this indicates preparations for a reduction or complete withdrawal of Russian forces.

The Washington-based think tank added that moving military vehicles to its bases may be a precautionary measure while Moscow negotiates with the new government in Damascus.

Russia had a significant military presence in Syria during Bashar al-Assad’s rule – helping him stay in power after the outbreak of the civil war in 2011.

Its two most significant bases are the port at Tartous, established by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and then expanded and modernised by Russia in 2012, and the airbase at Hmeimim, which has been operational since 2015 and was used to launch air strikes across Syria in support of Assad.

Both have become key strategic bases for Russia – giving it easier access to the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea.

However, the fall of Assad has raised questions about Russia’s future presence in Syria. Moscow is seeking to negotiate with the new regime.

On Monday, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said there have been “no final decisions” and that Russia was “in contact with representatives of the forces that now control the situation in [Syria]”.

BBC Verify has been monitoring Hmeimim air base activity by using Planet Labs satellite imagery. There are signs of sustained activity, involving sizeable military transport planes. Two large Antonov An-124 aircraft, which may be used to move assets out of Syria, were seen at the base on Friday. They had left by Tuesday, but two large planes were again in the base by Wednesday morning.

Further imagery taken by Maxar Technologies on Sunday shows dozens of military vehicles parked at the airfield near a Russian-made Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane, which could be used for evacuations.

BBC Verify tracked one large Russian Antonov An-124 from Tuesday on plane tracking website Flightradar24. Its publicly available tracker showed it in Russian airspace, travelling in the direction of Syria. It then disappeared from Flightradar24 off the Syrian coast, west of Hmeimim air base, likely because its public tracker was switched off. It can next be seen heading back north six hours later.

David Heathcote, intelligence manager at McKenzie Intelligence, said the rapid collapse of the Assad government meant it was unlikely Russia had a plan to evacuate resources.

He described the activity at Hmeimim air base as “unusual”, suggesting that Russia was storing some resources in the base and preparing to withdraw some equipment and personnel from Syria.

Tayfun Ozberk, a former naval officer and defence analyst, agreed that the imagery indicated “early stages of a Russian withdrawal from Syria, with clear signs of an air-based evacuation.”

“The presence of Il-76 aircraft, the absence of Russian vessels at Tartous, and the organised pre-staging of vehicles and equipment support this conclusion,” Mr Ozberk said.

BBC Verify reported last week how Russian warships had left the port at Tartous, with analysts suggesting they were being stationed in international waters for the time being.

Those vessels have not returned – but more than 100 military vehicles have arrived at the base in recent days, satellite images show.

Mr Heathcote said it was likely the vehicles were being prepared for evacuation, although this was unlikely to be immediate due to the absence of loading ramps and cranes.

Recent footage also showed large columns of Russian vehicles on the move – indicating they’ve been redirected from other Russian outposts across the country.

BBC Verify geolocated the videos to a major highway, suggesting they were moving north towards the bases.

An 80-second video published on X shows a long line of Russia vehicles, geolocated to 30km (18.6 miles) south of Homs. Another video showed a column of Russian vehicles on the same highway further south, 70km (43 miles) outside Damascus.

“Russia is now withdrawing units and military equipment that were deployed in nearly a hundred strongholds across the country before the fall of Damascus,” said Anton Mardasov, a non-resident scholar in the Middle East Institutes Syria programme.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

A Google Street View image of a man loading a large white plastic bag into the boot of his car has helped unravel a murder case in a northern Spanish town, police say.

The Google app allows users to see images of streets around the world – filmed by cars mounted with cameras.

It captured the exact moment the body of the victim was allegedly being removed.

Two people were arrested last month, accused of being responsible for the disappearance and murder of a man in October last year. His dismembered remains were found in a cemetery last week.

This was the first time in 15 years that the Google car had been to the town of Tajueco, in the northern province of Soria.

Officials say another photo sequence shows the blurred silhouette of someone transporting a large white bundle in a wheelbarrow.

However, police said the images were not “decisive” in solving the case.

The male victim, said by El Pais newspaper to be a 33-year-old Cuban national, was reported missing in October 2023 after a relative received text messages from the victim’s phone which he found suspicious.

The relative told police they said the victim had met a woman, was leaving Spain and would be getting rid of his phone.

On 12 November this year, police arrested a woman said to be the missing man’s partner and a man said to be her ex-partner.

Earlier this month, a severely decomposed torso, thought to be the victim’s, was dug up in a nearby cemetery.

The accused have been remanded in custody and the investigation continues.

Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has become the latest billionaire to meet Donald Trump at his Florida resort.

He was seen entering Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday night on his way to dinner with the president-elect, in video posted on social media.

The business magnate has pledged $1m (£780,000) to Trump’s inauguration fund, one of a number of donations pledged by tech bosses.

Mr Bezos also has large business interests with the US government through several of his companies, including Amazon’s cloud computing division and Blue Origin, his space exploration company.

Others who have travelled to Mar-a-Lago recently include Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew and Apple’s Tim Cook.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is also scheduled to meet Trump on Thursday.

The meetings come as Trump has both threatened and praised tech companies, accusing some of censorship and threatening to crack down on some of their business practices.

Amazon will stream Trump’s 20 January inauguration on its Prime Video service, which will count as another $1m donation in-kind to his inauguration fund, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US news partner.

Mr Zuckerberg of Meta – the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – has pledged $1m to the fund, as has OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman.

The tech boss closest to Trump – Tesla, SpaceX and X owner Elon Musk – funnelled more than $250m to election efforts backing Trump, according to public records.

Musk was also present at the Bezos-Trump dinner, saying later it had been a “great conversation”.

Trump has picked Mr Musk and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to head an effort to slash government spending. In the 2024 budget year, Mr Musk’s SpaceX has US government contracts worth $3.8bn, according to government database USASpending.gov.

• Trump buoyant as big business and former foes fall in line

Mr Bezos also has significant business with the government.

Amazon Web Services was awarded a 10-year, $10bn contract with the National Security Agency in 2021. In 2023, Nasa announced a $3.4bn contract with Blue Origin to build a lunar lander for a planned mission to the moon.

Just days before the November election, the Washington Post announced that it would not be endorsing a candidate for the first time in decades.

Mr Bezos explained the decision by saying endorsements create a perception of bias.

“Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one,” he wrote in the Post.

Mr Musk and other business leaders such as financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald’s CEO Howard Lutnick – Trump’s pick for commerce secretary – have been part of Trump’s inner circle since before the election.

But other tech leaders and billionaires have had a more distant relationship.

Trump was suspended from Facebook after the Capitol riot following his loss in the 2020 election, and later reinstated.

This time around, Mr Zuckerberg appears to have changed tack.

Rapper Megan Thee Stallion has filed a request for a restraining order against Tory Lanez, who’s currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for shooting her.

Lanez, real name Daystar Peterson, shot Grammy winner Megan, 29, in the feet during an argument after a party in 2020.

In court documents filed in Los Angeles, Megan accuses him of continuing to harass her online from behind bars and subjecting her to “repeated trauma and re-victimisation”.

Lanez’s lawyers told BBC Newsbeat the claims were “ridiculous” and the “truth will be revealed” in court.

Megan’s lawyers have asked a judge to prevent Lanez from harassing her via third parties.

They accuse blogger Milagro Elizabeth Cooper, known online as Milagro Gramz, of being a “mouthpiece” and “puppet” sharing misinformation about the case on behalf of the jailed Canadian rapper.

The filing from Megan’s lawyers alleges Lanez, 32, discussed payments to Milagro with his dad, Sonstar Peterson, from prison, but his lawyers say any payments to the blogger from Sonstar had nothing to do with Lanez or his case.

Milagro’s representatives declined to comment on the filing when contacted by Newsbeat but said a response to be heard in a separate lawsuit would “speak for itself”.

Lanez was found guilty of three charges at a trial last year – negligent discharge of a firearm, assault with a semi-automatic firearm, and carrying a loaded and unregistered firearm.

The court heard he and Megan, real name Megan Pete, had a row after leaving a party hosted by Kylie Jenner in the Hollywood Hills on 12 July 2020.

When Megan demanded to be let out of the car they were in, Lanez shot at her feet while ordering her to “dance”.

Lanez has continued to maintain his innocence and shortly after he was jailed in August 2023 claimed he had been wrongly convicted.

In an Instagram post he wrote: “I refuse to apologise for something I did not do.”

The sentencing judge also criticised Lanez for trying to “intimidate Ms Pete and silence her truths from being heard”.

The trial divided the hip-hop community with artists taking sides. After Lanez was found guilty by a jury, 50 Cent apologised for posts he’d shared suggesting Megan had lied about being shot.

But he wasn’t alone – Megan said in court she had not known “a single day of peace” since the attack due to online speculation.

She initially told police she’d hurt her feet by stepping on glass and later said she lied because she didn’t want to “get in more trouble”.

Responding to the restraining order petition, Lanez’s lawyers again cast doubt on Megan’s side of the story.

“It is important to consider the pattern of behaviour we are seeing,” they said in a statement.

“When someone has openly admitted to lying on major public platforms… at what point do we, as a society, stop believing the narrative they are pushing?”

In October, Megan released a documentary charting her struggles with anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts in the aftermath of the shooting and the trial.

In their appeal for a restraining order, Megan’s lawyers allege Lanez tried to disrupt the documentary’s release with an appeal – something his lawyers dismissed as “ludicrous”.

“[He] was simply complying with legal deadlines, as required by the courts,” they say.

Megan’s representatives say the “only recourse she now has is to seek a civil harassment restraining order against [Lanez] to end his ongoing campaign of harassment.”

A court hearing on the order is due to take place on 9 January.

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

An Indian woman who says she was trafficked to Pakistan more than two decades ago has finally returned home – 18 months after her grandson spotted her in a YouTube video.

Hamida Banu said she had spent the last 22 years “as a living corpse”, trapped in the neighbouring country and unable to contact her family.

Ms Banu was tricked into going to Pakistan after accepting what was supposed to be a job in Dubai back in 2002.

Both India and Pakistan – which share a frosty bilateral relationship – conducted extensive checks on her identity before her Indian nationality was confirmed in October.

“I was deceitfully taken to Pakistan by promising Dubai. I tolerated [the separation] for 23 years,” the 75-year-old told journalists after crossing into India at a land border.

• Hamida Banu: Missing India woman found in Pakistan ‘can’t wait to go home’

Back in 2002, Ms Banu financially supported her four children after her husband’s death by working as a cook in Qatar, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

She was approached by a recruitment agent who said she could help arrange a job in Dubai. The agent asked her to pay 20,000 rupees ($250; £200).

But, as Ms Banu recalled in her 2022 video interview, instead of Dubai, she was brought to Hyderabad city in Pakistan and was detained in a house for three months.

She later married a street vendor in Karachi, who died during the Covid-19 pandemic. She told BBC Punjabi that her husband never troubled her.

Her story made headlines in July 2022 after Indian journalist Khalfan Shaikh happened to watch the YouTube interview conducted by Pakistani social media activist Waliullah Maroof and shared it on his platform.

It reached Ms Banu’s family in India when her grandson – who she had never met – saw it.

Mr Shaikh and Mr Maroof then arranged a call between Ms Banu and her Indian family.

“How are you? Did you recognise me? Where were you all these years?” Ms Banu’s daughter Yasmin was seen asking in the video call.

“Don’t ask me where I was, and how I have been. I missed you all so much. I didn’t stay here willingly, I had no other choice,” Ms Banu replied.

After she reached India on Monday, Ms Banu recalled the 2022 video that helped her connect with her family after years.

“My video was shared two years ago. I was not sure if I would reach India,” she said. “But the Indian embassy called me one year ago, saying you can go back.”

Speaking to BBC Punjabi, Ms Banu said she was happy to be back with her children and siblings. “I have brothers, sisters, children there [in India], but I don’t want to be a burden on anyone.”

A US government shutdown could be two days away after President-elect Donald Trump called on Republican lawmakers to reject a cross-party funding bill.

Trump urged Congress to scrap the deal and pass a streamlined bill. His intervention followed heavy criticism of the bill by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Congressman Steve Scalise, the Republican House Majority Leader, indicated on Wednesday night that the bill was dead after Trump denounced it.

The short-term funding bill will need to be passed by Congress by the end of week to prevent many federal government offices from shuttering beginning on Saturday.

The bill, known as a continuing resolution, is required because Congress never passed a budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which began on 1 October.

Unless Congress acts, government services ranging from the National Parks Service to Border Patrol will begin closing this weekend.

In posts on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump threatened to help unseat “any Republican that would be so stupid as to” vote in favour of the current version of the bill, which was unveiled on Tuesday by House and Senate leaders.

“If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF,” he said.

He also called, in a joint statement with incoming vice-president JD Vance, for Congress to raise the debt ceiling, which determines how much the government can borrow to pay its bills, and limit the bill to focusing just on temporary spending and disaster relief.

• Why government shutdowns seem to only happen in US
• What happens during a US government shutdown?

The 1,500-page bill included more than $110bn (£88bn) in emergency disaster relief and $30bn (£23bn) in aid to farmers. It also included the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009, federal funds to rebuild a bridge that collapsed in Baltimore, healthcare reforms, and provisions aimed at preventing hotels and live event venues from deceptive advertising.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement after Trump came out against the bill, saying: “Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country.”

“Triggering a damaging government shutdown would hurt families,” President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman continued, adding: “A deal is a deal. Republicans should keep their word.”

When asked by CNN on Wednesday night whether the existed deal had officially been scrapped, Congressman Scalise said: “Yes”.

He added that “there is no new agreement right now” and that “there’s still a lot of negotiations and conversations going on”.

It is not clear how Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to proceed.

Mr Musk, who Trump has tasked with cutting government spending in his future administration, lobbied heavily against the existing deal.

On Wednesday night, Mr Musk posted on X: “Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed.”

There have been 21 US government shutdowns or partial shutdowns over the past five decades – the longest of which was during Trump’s first term when the government was shuttered for 35 days.

For the uninitiated, sorting one’s rubbish can be a convoluted process in Japan – a country that boasts one of the world’s strictest waste disposal rules.

But in the city of Fukushima, things are about to get even tougher.

Starting in March, the city government will go through bags of rubbish that fall afoul of regulations – such as those which have not been sorted correctly, or which exceed size limits – and in some cases publicly identify their owners.

The new regulations, passed in a municipal meeting on Tuesday, comes amid Japan’s long push to enhance its waste management system.

While many cities in Japan open rubbish bags to inspect them, and some allow for the disclosure of offending businesses, Fukushima is believed to be the first city that plans to disclose the names of both individuals and businesses.

In a statement to the BBC, the Fukushima Waste Reduction Promotion Division said that waste which had not been properly disposed has previously led to scattered rubbish and the proliferation of crows.

“The improper disposal of waste is a major concern as it deteriorates the living environment of local residents,” said the department.

Waste which is not properly sorted also leads to more landfill, the department added, “which imposes a burden on future generations”.

“Therefore, we consider waste sorting to be very important.”

Last year, Fukushima reported over 9,000 cases of non-compliant rubbish.

Currently, instead of collecting rubbish that does not comply with disposal rules, workers usually paste stickers on the bags informing residents of the violation. Residents would then have to take them back inside, re-sort it and hope they get it right the next time collectors come around.

Under Fukushima’s new rules, if the rubbish remains unsorted for a week, city workers can go through it and try to identify the offenders via items such as mail. The violators will be issued a verbal warning, followed by a written advisory, before the last resort: having their names published on the government website.

Amid privacy concerns, Fukushima authorities said that the inspection of the rubbish would be carried out in private.

Japanese cities each have their own guides on how to dispose of rubbish. In Fukushima, rubbish bags have to be placed at collection points every morning by 0830 – but cannot be left out from the night before.

Different types of waste – separated into combustibles, non-combustibles, and recyclables – are collected according to different schedules.

For items that exceed stipulated dimensions, like household appliances and furniture, residents have to make an appointment for them to be collected separately.

Fukushima’s mayor, Hiroshi Kohata, said that the new rules were meant to promote waste reduction and proper disposal methods.

“There is nothing illegal about publicising malicious waste generators who do not abide by the rules and do not follow the city’s guidance and advisory,” the Mainichi quoted authorities as saying.

Rubbish is taken very seriously in Japan, where since the 1990s the government has made it a national goal to shift away from landfills, reduce waste and promote recycling. Local authorities have introduced their own initiatives in line with this goal.

Residents in Kamikatsu, a Japanese town with an ambitious zero-waste goal, proudly sort their rubbish into 45 categories. Kagoshima prefecture has made it mandatory for residents to write their names on their rubbish bags. And last year the city of Chiba piloted an AI assistant to help residents dispose their rubbish properly.

An American citizen has pleaded guilty to helping run what has been described as the first known secret police station in the US on behalf of the Chinese government.

Prosecutors say Chen Jinping and his co-defendent Lu Jianwang opened and operated the station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighbourhood in early 2022 on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

At least 100 such stations have been reported worldwide across 53 countries, with rights groups accusing China of using the outposts to threaten and monitor Chinese nationals abroad.

But China has denied that they are police stations, saying they are “service stations” providing administrative services to nationals overseas.

The outpost, which occupied an entire floor above a ramen stall, did provide basic services like renewing Chinese citizens’ driver licenses, but it also helped Beijing identify pro-democracy activists living in the US, say federal authorities.

Matthew Olsen, an assistant attorney general in the US Department of Justice, called the attempt to operate the undeclared overseas police station “a clear affront to American sovereignty and danger to our community that will not be tolerated”.

The station was closed in the autumn of 2022 after the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation.

But Chen and Lu destroyed text messages they exchanged with an MPS official when they learned of the probe, prosecutors said.

The men, who are both American citizens, were arrested in April last year.

On Wednesday, Chen, 60, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an agent for China, and faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced next year.

Chen’s acknowledgement of guilt is a “stark reminder of insidious efforts taken by the [Chinese] government to threaten, harass, and intimidate those who speak against their Communist Party,” Robert Wells, an executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch said in a statement.

Lu, 59, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Prosecutors have accused him of harassing a purported Chinese fugitive to return to China and for helping to locate a pro-democracy activist in California on behalf of the Communist Party.

At the time of Chen’s arrest, authorities said it marked the first time the US has brought criminal charges in relation to such police outposts.

Mr Olsen said US authorities would “continue to pursue anyone who attempts to aid China’s efforts to extend their repressive reach into the United States”.

In September, Linda Sun, a former aide in the New York governor’s office, was charged with using her position to serve Chinese government interests. She was said to have received benefits, including travel, in return.

Last year, 34 officers from the MPS were also charged with using fake social media accounts to harass Chinese dissidents in the US and spread official Chinese government propaganda.

Dominique Pelicot has been jailed for 20 years after drugging his ex-wife Gisèle, raping her and inviting dozens of strangers to also abuse her over nearly a decade.

The 72-year-old was found guilty of all charges by a judge in Avignon in southern France, and cried in court as he was sentenced to the maximum term.

He was on trial with 50 other men – all of whom were found guilty of at least one charge, although their jail terms were less than what prosecutors had demanded.

Gisèle and her children looked emotionless as the verdicts were read out, occasionally glancing at the defendants and resting their heads against the wall.

The convictions bring to an end France’s largest ever rape trial, which over the course of three months has shocked the country and the world.

Speaking outside court following the verdicts and flanked by her family, Gisèle Pelicot, 72, said the trial had been a “very difficult ordeal”.

But she said she “never regretted” the decision to make the trial public “so society could see what was happening”.

Gisèle Pelicot’s decision to waive her automatic right to anonymity was highly unusual, and meant this trial has been held in full view of the public. French and global media followed the case with growing interest and hundreds of journalists were present in court on Thursday.

Gisèle herself attended almost every day of the trial, appearing in the same courtroom as her husband of 50 years, who she has now divorced.

Gisèle also gave her “profound” thanks to her supporters and said she had “confidence” in there being a “better future” where men and women can live in mutual respect.

In court on Thursday, Dominique Pelicot – who had already confessed to his crimes – was found guilty of aggravated rape.

He was also found guilty of the attempted aggravated rape of the wife of one of his co-accused, Jean-Pierre Marechal. Marechal – who has been described as Dominique’s “disciple” as he drugged and raped his own wife for years and invited Dominque to do the same – was jailed for 12 years.

Dominique Pelicot was also found guilty of taking indecent images of his daughter, Caroline Darian, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine.

Caroline – who was in court on Thursday – previously told the trial she felt she was the “forgotten victim” as, unlike her mother’s case, there was no record of the abuse she is convinced was inflicted on her. Dominique denied drugging and abusing his daughter.

After the verdicts, Dominique’s lawyer said her client was “somewhat dazed” by his sentence and would consider whether to appeal. He has 10 days to decide whether to do so.

Of the 50 co-defendants, 46 were found guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape, and two guilty of sexual assault. Several of them have already spent some years in jail as they were arrested when police conducted their initial investigation in 2021, and will therefore walk out relatively soon.

Most of the men on trial had denied that what they did was rape.

They argued they did not realise Gisèle Pelicot was unconscious and therefore did not “know” they were raping her – an argument which sparked a nationwide discussion about France’s legal definition of rape.

Their jail terms range from between three and 15 years – less than what prosecutors had demanded.

In a statement to AFP news agency, the Pelicot children said they were “disappointed” by the “low sentences”.

For almost a decade from 2011, Dominique Pelicot drugged his ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot and raped her, and recruited dozens of men online to have sex with her while she was unconscious.

His crimes were discovered in 2020, when police arrested him over a separate charge of filming up the skirts of women in a supermarket.

Police seized his devices and found thousands of videos on his laptop, with evidence of around 200 rapes carried out.

Investigators used the videos to track down his co-accused, although they were unable to identify an additional 21 men.

Dominique Pelicot admitted the charges in 2020.

The trial sparked a discussion on whether the issue of consent should be added to France’s legal definition of rape, as in other European countries.

Currently rape in France is defined as “any act of sexual penetration committed against another person by violence, constraint, threat or surprise” – meaning prosecutors must prove intent to rape.

Many of the defendants argued they did not realise Gisèle Pelicot had not consented, claiming they were “tricked” by Dominique Pelicot, and believed they were going to the couple’s house for a threesome involving a fantasy that the woman would be asleep.

The trial also shone a light on the issue of chemical submission – drug-induced sexual assault.

Most of the 50 men all come from towns and villages in a 50km (30 mile) radius of the Pelicots’ home village of Mazan.

They include firefighters, lorry drivers, soldiers, a journalist and a DJ, and have been described by defence lawyers as being “ordinary people” – earning them the nickname Monsieur-Tout-Le-Monde (Mr Everyman).

The trial also brought sexual violence against women into the spotlight in France, with many praising Gisèle Pelicot for her bravery in opening up the full details of the case to the public.

She previously said she was determined to make “shame swap sides” from the victim to the rapist – a phrase that has been repeated and used by her supporters.

Gisèle’s lawyer Stéphane Babonneau earlier told the BBC that his client did not want to be considered an icon.

But Gisèle’s message to women was that “they have a strength in them that they can’t even imagine and that they need to trust themselves,” he added.

A Labour minister has been named in an investigation into claims her family embezzled up to £3.9bn (Tk 590 billion) from infrastructure projects in Bangladesh.

Tulip Siddiq, 42, who as the Treasury’s Economic Secretary is responsible for tackling corruption in UK financial markets, is alleged to have brokered a deal with Russia in 2013 that overinflated the price of a new nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.

The allegation is part of a wider investigation by Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) into Siddiq’s aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed as prime minister of the country in August.

A source close to Siddiq said these were “trumped up charges”.

The source also said the allegations were “completely politically motivated” and designed to damage her aunt.

Conservative shadow home office minister Matt Vickers said: “The fact Labour’s anti-corruption minister is reportedly embroiled in a corruption case is the latest stain on Keir Starmer’s judgement.

“It is high time she came clean. The British public deserve a government that is focused on their priorities, not distracted by yet another scandal.”

Downing Street said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had confidence in Siddiq, and she will continue her responsibility as the minister overseeing anti-corruption efforts.

Siddiq has “denied any involvement in the claims” accusing her of involvement in embezzlement, according to the prime minister’s official spokesman.

But she has recused herself – or stepped back – from any political decisions involving Bangladesh, the spokesman added.

The investigation is based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a senior political opponent of Hasina.

The BBC understands that Siddiq has not had any contact with the ACC as part of the investigation.

The ACC is also investigating several of Hasina’s family members, including Siddiq’s mother Sheikh Rehana Siddiq, and senior officials from her government.

Hasina, who was in charge of Bangladesh for more than 20 years, was seen as an autocrat whose government ruthlessly clamped down on dissent.

Since fleeing the country Hasina has been accused of multiple crimes by the new Bangladeshi government.

Hasina is wanted by Bangladesh’s International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) for her alleged involvements in “crimes against humanity” that took place during the demonstrations, in which hundreds were killed.

Arrest warrants have also been issued for 45 others, including former government ministers who also fled the country.

Syed Faruk, who runs the UK branch of Hasina’s Awami League party, said the claims were “fabricated”.

Siddiq was elected MP for Hampstead and Highgate in 2015, the north London constituency neighbouring Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s seat of Holborn and St Pancras.

Corruption allegations and convictions against top leaders of ousted governments are not new in Bangladesh.

Hasina’s main predecessor as prime minister, Khaleda Zia faced similar charges, which she also dismissed as politically motivated. As did ex-president Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who seized power as head of the army during a bloodless coup in 1982.

The Bangladeshi judiciary’s independence has long been questioned.

Government changes often bring judicial reshuffles, with ruling parties regularly accused of targeting political opponents.

Court documents seen by the BBC show Hajjaj has accused Siddiq of mediating and coordinating meetings for the Bangladeshi officials with the Russian government to build the £10bn Rooppur Power Plant Project.

It is claimed that the deal inflated the price of the plant by £1bn, according to the documents – 30% of which was allegedly distributed to Siddiq and other family members via a complex network of banks and overseas companies.

In total, Hajjaj alleges £3.9bn was siphoned out of the project by Hasina’s family and minister.

Footage from 2013 appears to show Siddiq attended the deal’s signing by Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, recorded by the Associated Press.

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A US government shutdown could be two days away after President-elect Donald Trump called on Republican lawmakers to reject a cross-party funding bill.

Trump urged Congress to scrap the deal and pass a streamlined bill. His intervention followed heavy criticism of the bill by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Congressman Steve Scalise, the Republican House Majority Leader, indicated on Wednesday night that the bill was dead after Trump denounced it.

The short-term funding bill will need to be passed by Congress by the end of week to prevent many federal government offices from shuttering beginning on Saturday.

The bill, known as a continuing resolution, is required because Congress never passed a budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which began on 1 October.

Unless Congress acts, government services ranging from the National Parks Service to Border Patrol will begin closing this weekend.

In posts on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump threatened to help unseat “any Republican that would be so stupid as to” vote in favour of the current version of the bill, which was unveiled on Tuesday by House and Senate leaders.

“If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF,” he said.

He also called, in a joint statement with incoming vice-president JD Vance, for Congress to raise the debt ceiling, which determines how much the government can borrow to pay its bills, and limit the bill to focusing just on temporary spending and disaster relief.

• Why government shutdowns seem to only happen in US
• What happens during a US government shutdown?

The 1,500-page bill included more than $110bn (£88bn) in emergency disaster relief and $30bn (£23bn) in aid to farmers. It also included the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009, federal funds to rebuild a bridge that collapsed in Baltimore, healthcare reforms, and provisions aimed at preventing hotels and live event venues from deceptive advertising.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement after Trump came out against the bill, saying: “Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country.”

“Triggering a damaging government shutdown would hurt families,” President Joe Biden’s spokeswoman continued, adding: “A deal is a deal. Republicans should keep their word.”

When asked by CNN on Wednesday night whether the existed deal had officially been scrapped, Congressman Scalise said: “Yes”.

He added that “there is no new agreement right now” and that “there’s still a lot of negotiations and conversations going on”.

It is not clear how Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to proceed.

Mr Musk, who Trump has tasked with cutting government spending in his future administration, lobbied heavily against the existing deal.

On Wednesday night, Mr Musk posted on X: “Your elected representatives have heard you and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed.”

There have been 21 US government shutdowns or partial shutdowns over the past five decades – the longest of which was during Trump’s first term when the government was shuttered for 35 days.

Dominique Pelicot has been found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging his ex-wife, Gisèle, raping her and inviting dozens of men to also abuse her over nearly a decade, along with other charges.

Pelicot had admitted the charges against him.

He was on trial with 50 other men, the majority of whom denied charges of rape. The court in the French city of Avignon found 47 of the men guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape, and two guilty of sexual assault.

The defendants now have 10 days to appeal.

Most of the 50 come from towns and villages in a 50km (30 mile) radius of the Pelicots’ own village of Mazan.

Among them are firefighters, lorry drivers, soldiers, security guards, a journalist and a DJ.

Here is a list of the men convicted. BBC had not previously fully named the defendants due to French law.

1. Dominique Pelicot: Guilty of aggravated rape on his ex-wife, Gisèle. Also guilty of the attempted aggravated rape of the wife of one of the co-accused, Jean-Pierre Marechal, Cillia, and taking indecent images of his daughter, Caroline, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine. Sentenced to 20 years. He is 72.
2. Jean-Pierre Marechal: Guilty of attempted rape and aggravated rape of his wife, as well as drugging her. Sentenced to 12 years. The only one of the 51 who was not accused of raping or attempting to rape Gisèle, the 63-year-old admitted to following Dominique Pelicot’s lead, drugging his own wife for five years, raping her and inviting Dominique to rape her too.
3. Charly Arbo: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 13 years. He is 30 years old.
4. Cyrille Delville: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. He is a father-of-two.
5. Christian Lescole: Guilty of aggravated rape. Acquitted of having child abuse imagery. Sentenced to nine years. He is a volunteer firefighter and father of two daughters. He has been in jail since 2021.
6. Lionel Rodriguez: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 44-year-old was an employee in the same supermarket where Dominique Pelicot got caught upskirting in 2020, leading to the rape investigation.
7. Nicolas Francois: Guilty of aggravated rape and having child abuse imagery. Sentenced to eight years and banned from working in jobs with children for several years. He is a 43-year-old freelance journalist.
8. Jacques Cubeau, 73, lorry driver: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to five years. He is a divorced father-of-two.
9. Patrice Nicolle: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 55-year-old father-of-two is an electrician.
10. Thierry Parisis: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. He is 54.
11. Simoné Mekenese: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to nine years. The 43-year-old construction worker and father-of-six lived next door to the Pelicots.
12. Nizar Hamida: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 10 years. The 40-year-old had worked as a hairdresser, builder and delivery driver.
13. Boris Moulin: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. He is a 37-year-old delivery driver.
14. Jerome Vilela: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 13 years. The 46-year-old former firefighter and supermarket employee is divorced with two children. He has been in jail since 2021.
15. Didier Sambuchi: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to five years. The 68-year-old is a retired lorry driver and father-of-two.
16. Quentin Hennebert: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to seven years. The 34-year-old former prison guard now works as an ambulance driver.
17. Philippe Leleu: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to five years of which two are suspended. He is a 62-year-old gardener.
18. Jean-Luc LA: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 10 years. The 46-year-old has four children. He has been in jail since 2023.
19. Fabien Sotton: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 11 years. He has three children. His criminal record includes domestic violence and sexual assault of a minor. He has been in jail since 2021.
20. Karim Sebaoui: Guilty of aggravated rape and having child abuse imagery. Sentenced to 10 years. The 40-year-old is an unmarried IT specialist.
21. Joan Kawai: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 10 years. He went to the Pelicots’ the same night his daughter was born. He has been in jail since 2021.
22. Jean-Marc LeLoup: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to six years. The 74-year-old is a retired driver.
23. Andy Rodriguez: Guilty of attempted rape and aggravating factors. Sentenced to six years. The 37-year-old has already spent several months in jail on domestic violence charges.
24. Vincent Coullet: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 10 years. He is 43 years old and already detained for domestic violence.
25. Adrien Longeron: Guilty of aggravated rape and child abuse imagery. Sentenced to six years. The 34-year-old was jailed in 2020 for raping and stalking three former girlfriends.
26. Hughes Malago: Guilty of attempted rape and two aggravating factors. Sentenced to five years. The 39-year-old is a tiler and biker.
27. Ahmed Tbarik: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 54-year-old plumber who set up his own business, as well as a boxing club, had been married for 30 years when he went to the Pelicots’ home.
28. Husamettin Dogan: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to nine years. The 43-year-old builder is married and has a child. He had precedents for drug trafficking.
29. Romain Vandevelde: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 15 years. He is 63 and HIV-positive. He has been in jail since 2021.
30. Joseph Cocco: Guilty of aggravated sexual assault. Sentenced to three years. He is a 69-year-old divorced father of one.
31. Saifeddine Ghabi: Acquitted of rape and attempted rape. Guilty of sexual assault. Sentenced to three years. The 37-year-old lorry driver is a father-of-three.
32. Jean Tirano: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. He is a 52-year-old roofer.
33. Mohamed Rafaa: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 70-year-old worked as a DJ and club manager. He has been in jail since 2021.
34. Ludovick Blemeur: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to seven years. The 39-year-old former firefighter and warehouse worker had a three-month-old baby daughter when he visited the Pelicots.
35. Patrick Aron: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to six years, but walks free today as he has medical issues and will need to be placed in a special jail, according to the judge. The 60-year-old was married for 25 years with two kids.
36. Abdelali Dallal: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years, but walks free today due to medical issues and will need to be placed in a special jail, according to the judge. He is 47.
37. Grégory Serviol: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 33-year-old is a painter and decorator.
38. Cedric Grassot: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 12 years. The 50-year-old is a delivery driver.
39. Cendric Venzin: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to nine years. The 44-year-old worked a series of odd jobs and at the time he was arrested in 2022 was managing a hotel in Corsica.
40. Mahdi Daoudi: Guilty of mass rape and drugging. Sentenced to eight years. The 36-year-old is married.
41. Thierry Postat: Guilty of aggravated mass rape and drugging, and possession of child pornography. Sentenced to 12 years, and banned from working with children for life. The 61-year-old refrigeration specialist is divorced with three grown children. He has been in jail since 2021.
42. Florian Rocca: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to seven years. The father of three daughters was already convicted of theft, driving without a license and drug-related offences.
43. Dominique Davies: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 13 years. The 45-year-old is a lorry driver.
44. Cyprien Culieras: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to six years. He is 45 and has eight prior convictions.
45. Mathieu Dartus: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to seven years. The 53-year-old former baker raised two children after his wife died.
46. Cyril Beaubis: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to nine years. The 47-year-old is a lorry driver.
47. Paul-Koikoi Grovogui: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. He is 31.
48. Omar Douiri: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years. The 36-year-old was married and employed by a cleaning company.
49. Redouane Azougagh: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to nine years. The 40-year-old father of four kids from two different wives has prior convictions for domestic violence.
50. Hassan Ouamou: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to 12 years. The 30-year-old is currently on the run in Morocco and has told investigators he has no intention of returning to France.
51. Redouane El Farihi: Guilty of aggravated rape. Sentenced to eight years.

• Here’s what you need to know about the Pelicot trial
• Follow live updates
• How an ordinary woman shook attitudes to rape in France
• New name, no photos: Gisèle Pelicot removes all trace of her husband

An American citizen has pleaded guilty to helping run what has been described as the first known secret police station in the US on behalf of the Chinese government.

Prosecutors say Chen Jinping and his co-defendent Lu Jianwang opened and operated the station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighbourhood in early 2022 on behalf of China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

At least 100 such stations have been reported worldwide across 53 countries, with rights groups accusing China of using the outposts to threaten and monitor Chinese nationals abroad.

But China has denied that they are police stations, saying they are “service stations” providing administrative services to nationals overseas.

The outpost, which occupied an entire floor above a ramen stall, did provide basic services like renewing Chinese citizens’ driver licenses, but it also helped Beijing identify pro-democracy activists living in the US, say federal authorities.

Matthew Olsen, an assistant attorney general in the US Department of Justice, called the attempt to operate the undeclared overseas police station “a clear affront to American sovereignty and danger to our community that will not be tolerated”.

The station was closed in the autumn of 2022 after the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation.

But Chen and Lu destroyed text messages they exchanged with an MPS official when they learned of the probe, prosecutors said.

The men, who are both American citizens, were arrested in April last year.

On Wednesday, Chen, 60, pleaded guilty to conspiring to act as an agent for China, and faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced next year.

Chen’s acknowledgement of guilt is a “stark reminder of insidious efforts taken by the [Chinese] government to threaten, harass, and intimidate those who speak against their Communist Party,” Robert Wells, an executive assistant director of the FBI’s National Security Branch said in a statement.

Lu, 59, has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. Prosecutors have accused him of harassing a purported Chinese fugitive to return to China and for helping to locate a pro-democracy activist in California on behalf of the Communist Party.

At the time of Chen’s arrest, authorities said it marked the first time the US has brought criminal charges in relation to such police outposts.

Mr Olsen said US authorities would “continue to pursue anyone who attempts to aid China’s efforts to extend their repressive reach into the United States”.

In September, Linda Sun, a former aide in the New York governor’s office, was charged with using her position to serve Chinese government interests. She was said to have received benefits, including travel, in return.

Last year, 34 officers from the MPS were also charged with using fake social media accounts to harass Chinese dissidents in the US and spread official Chinese government propaganda.

The People’s Republic of China has a “magic weapon”, according to its founding leader Mao Zedong and its current president Xi Jinping.

It is called the United Front Work Department – and it is raising as much alarm in the West as Beijing’s growing military arsenal.

Yang Tengbo, a prominent businessman who has been linked to Prince Andrew, is the latest overseas Chinese citizen to be scrutinised – and sanctioned – for his links to the UFWD.

The existence of the department is far from a secret. A decades-old and well-documented arm of the Chinese Communist Party, it has been mired in controversy before. Investigators from the US to Australia have cited the UFWD in multiple espionage cases, often accusing Beijing of using it for foreign interference.

Beijing has denied all espionage allegations, calling them ludicrous.

So what is the UFWD and what does it do?

The United Front – originally referring to a broad communist alliance – was once hailed by Mao as the key to the Communist Party’s triumph in the decades-long Chinese Civil War.

After the war ended in 1949 and the party began ruling China, United Front activities took a backseat to other priorities. But in the last decade under Xi, the United Front has seen a renaissance of sorts.

Xi’s version of the United Front is broadly consistent with earlier incarnations: to “build the broadest possible coalition with all social forces that are relevant”, according to Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund.

On the face of it, the UFWD is not shadowy – it even has a website and reports many of its activities on it. But the extent of its work – and its reach – is less clear.

While a large part of that work is domestic, Dr Ohlberg said, “a key target that has been defined for United Front work is overseas Chinese”.

Today, the UFWD seeks to influence public discussions about sensitive issues ranging from Taiwan – which China claims as its territory – to the suppression of ethnic minorities in Tibet and Xinjiang.

It also tries to shape narratives about China in foreign media, target Chinese government critics abroad and co-opt influential overseas Chinese figures.

“United Front work can include espionage but [it] is broader than espionage,” Audrye Wong, assistant professor of politics at the University of Southern California, tells the BBC.

“Beyond the act of acquiring covert information from a foreign government, United Front activities centre on the broader mobilisation of overseas Chinese,” she said, adding that China is “unique in the scale and scope” of such influence activities.

China has always had the ambition for such influence, but its rise in recent decades has given Beijing the ability to exercise it.

Since Xi became president in 2012, he has been especially proactive in crafting China’s message to the world, enouraging a confrontational “wolf warrior” approach to diplomacy and urging his country’s diaspora to “tell China’s story well”.

The UFWD operates through various overseas Chinese community organisations, which have vigorously defended the Communist Party beyond its shores. They have censored anti-CCP artwork and protested at the activities of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. The UFWD has also been linked to threats against members of persecuted minorities abroad, such as Tibetans and Uyghurs.

But much of the UFWD’s work overlaps with other party agencies, operating under what observers have described as “plausible deniability”.

It is this murkiness that is causing so much suspicion and apprehension about the UFWD.

When Yang appealed against his ban, judges agreed with the then secretary of state’s report that Yang “represented a risk to national security” – citing the fact that he downplayed his ties with the UFWD as one of the reasons that led them to that conclusion.

Yang, however, maintains that he has not done anything unlawful and that the spy allegations are “entirely untrue”.

Cases like Yang’s are becoming increasingly common. In 2022, British Chinese lawyer Christine Lee was accused by the MI5 of acting through the UFWD to cultivate relationships with influential people in the UK. The following year, Liang Litang, a US citizen who ran a Chinese restaurant in Boston, was indicted for providing information about Chinese dissidents in the area to his contacts in the UFWD.

And in September, Linda Sun, a former aide in the New York governor’s office, was charged with using her position to serve Chinese government interests – receiving benefits, including travel, in return. According to Chinese state media reports, she had met a top UFWD official in 2017, who told her to “be an ambassador of Sino-American friendship”.

It is not uncommon for prominent and successful Chinese people to be associated with the party, whose approval they often need, especially in the business world.

But where is the line between peddling influence and espionage?

“The boundary between influence and espionage is blurry” when it comes to Beijing’s operations, said Ho-fung Hung, a politics professor at Johns Hopkins University.

This ambiguity has intensified after China passed a law in 2017 mandating Chinese nationals and companies to co-operate with intelligence probes, including sharing information with the Chinese government – a move that Dr Hung said “effectively turns everyone into potential spies”.

The Ministry of State Security has released dramatic propaganda videos warning the public that foreign spies are everywhere and “they are cunning and sneaky “.

Some students who were sent on special trips abroad were told by their universities to limit contact with foreigners and were asked for a report of their activities on their return.

And yet Xi is keen to promote China to the world. So he has tasked a trusted arm of the party to project strength abroad.

And that is becoming a challenge for Western powers – how do they balance doing business with the world’s second-largest economy alongside serious security concerns?

Genuine fears over China’s overseas influence are playing into more hawkish sentiments in the West, often leaving governments in a dilemma.

Some, like Australia, have tried to protect themselves with fresh foreign interference laws that criminalise individuals deemed to be meddling in domestic affairs. In 2020, the US imposed visa restrictions on people seen as active in UFWD activities.

An irked Beijing has warned that such laws – and the prosecutions they have spurred – hinder bilateral relations.

“The so-called allegations of Chinese espionage are utterly absurd,” a foreign ministry spokesperson told reporters on Tuesday in response to a question about Yang. “The development of China-UK relations serves the common interests of both countries.”

Some experts say that the long arm of China’s United Front is indeed concerning.

“Western governments now need to be less naive about China’s United Front work and take it as a serious threat not only to national security but also to the safety and freedom of many ethnic Chinese citizens,” Dr Hung says.

But, he adds, “governments also need to be vigilant against anti-Chinese racism and work hard to build trust and co-operation with ethnic Chinese communities in countering the threat together.”

Last December, Di Sanh Duong, a Vietnam-born ethnic Chinese community leader in Australia, was convicted of planning foreign interference for trying to cosy up to an Australian minister. Prosecutors argued that he was an “ideal target” for the UFWD because he had run for office in the 1990s and boasted ties with Chinese officials.

Duong’s trial had centred around what he meant when he said the inclusion of the minister at a charity event would be beneficial to “us Chinese” – did he mean the Chinese community in Australia, or mainland China?

In the end, Duong’s conviction – and a prison sentence – raised serious concerns that such broad anti-espionage laws and prosecutions can easily become weapons for targeting ethnic Chinese people.

“It’s important to remember that not everyone who is ethnically Chinese is a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party. And not everyone who is involved in these diaspora organisations is driven by fervent loyalty to China,” Dr Wong says.

“Overly aggressive policies based on racial profiling will only legitimise the Chinese government’s propaganda that ethnic Chinese are not welcome and end up pushing diaspora communities further into Beijing’s arms.”

The de facto leader of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has said the country is exhausted by war and is not a threat to its neighbours or to the West.

In an interview with the BBC in Damascus, he called for sanctions on Syria to be lifted.

“Now, after all that has happened, sanctions must be lifted because they were targeted at the old regime. The victim and the oppressor should not be treated in the same way,” he said.

Sharaa led the lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime less than two weeks ago. He is the leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the rebel alliance, and was previously known by his nom de guerre of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani.

He said HTS should be de-listed as a terrorist organisation. It is designated as one by the UN, US, EU and UK, among many others, as it started as a splinter group of al-Qaeda, which it broke away from in 2016.

Sharaa said HTS was not a terrorist group.

They did not target civilians or civilian areas, he said. In fact, they considered themselves to be victim of the crimes of the Assad regime.

He denied that he wanted to turn Syria into a version of Afghanistan.

Sharaa said the countries were very different, with different traditions. Afghanistan was a tribal society. In Syria, he said, there was a different mindset.

He said he believed in education for women.

“We’ve had universities in Idlib for more than eight years,” Sharaa said, referring to Syria’s north-western province that has been held by rebels since 2011.

“I think the percentage of women in universities is more than 60%.”

And when asked whether the consumption of alcohol would be allowed, Sharaa said: “There are many things I just don’t have the right to talk about because they are legal issues.”

He added that there would be a “Syrian committee of legal experts to write a constitution. They will decide. And any ruler or president will have to follow the law”.

Sharaa was relaxed throughout the interview, wearing civilian clothes, and tried to offer reassurance to all those who believe his group has not broken with its extremist past.

Many Syrians do not believe him.

The actions of Syria’s new rulers in the next few months will indicate the kind of country they want Syria to be – and the way they want to rule it.

Ravichandran Ashwin, one of cricket’s most celebrated spinners, stunned the cricketing world on Wednesday by announcing his retirement, leaving fans and experts alike grappling with the abruptness of his decision.

Known for his innovative bowling and razor-sharp cricketing mind, 38-year-old Ashwin’s departure in the middle of a Test series against Australia has sparked admiration and debate in equal measure.

Tributes poured in from around the globe, with team-mates, cricket legends and fans hailing his contributions to the sport.

Yet, the timing of his retirement also raised some eyebrows.

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar praised Ashwin’s stellar career but expressed concern over his decision to retire midway through a crucial overseas series. With two matches still to be played, such a move could disrupt team selection dynamics, he said.

Mid-series retirements aren’t unprecedented in Indian cricket.

In 2014, MS Dhoni also exited Test cricket abruptly, stepping down as India captain and player during a series in Australia. Ashwin’s decision, however, has invited speculation: Was it age, fatigue, form, or frustration with team selection that led to his exit?

Ashwin, India’s leading spinner, had found himself sidelined on this tour, with Washington Sundar playing the first Test and Ravindra Jadeja the third, despite Ashwin featuring in the second.

Perhaps sensing he was no longer the first-choice spinner, he saw limited prospects ahead, even if India reached the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s in June.

Regardless of the circumstances, Ashwin leaves behind an extraordinary legacy.

With 537 Test wickets in 106 Tests and six centuries to his name, he ranks among the greatest all-rounders in cricket history.

His artistry with the ball, including his mastery of the ‘doosra’ and the ‘carrom ball redefined off-spin bowling, inspiring generations of cricketers worldwide.

Ashwin’s career statistics place him among the all-time greats.

He is the fourth-highest wicket-taking spinner, behind only Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708) and compatriot Anil Kumble (619), and seventh in the list of all wicket-takers.

Ashwin’s 37 five-wicket hauls put him behind only Muralitharan, who has 67.

Ashwin is also among just five bowlers post World War Two who have averaged five or more wickets per Test, the others being Muralitharan, Dennis Lillee, Richard Hadlee and Yasir Shah.

More compellingly, of nine bowlers with 500-plus Test wickets, Ashwin’s strike rate (50.73 balls per wicket) is the best.

These are remarkable numbers for a player once seen as a white-ball specialist, rising to prominence with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting in 2009.

Ashwin’s IPL success was instant, leading to his international debut for India in 2010 in ODIs and T20s.

He was part of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad under MS Dhoni, serving as Harbhajan Singh’s understudy. His white-ball exploits bolstered his reputation, but Ashwin’s true greatness unfolded in Test cricket.

When selected for his Test debut against West Indies in November 2011, sceptics claimed his inclusion was influenced by then chief of the Indian cricket board N Srinivasan, who also owned the CSK franchise in the IPL.

Ashwin silenced critics with a stellar nine-wicket haul, being named man of the match and cementing his place in the team within a year.

Spin bowling has been India’s pride for decades, led by legends such as Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, whose artistry secured historic series wins in the 1970s.

Anil Kumble, with 619 wickets, proved that India’s spin dominance extended to the modern era, followed by Harbhajan Singh, Ashwin, and Jadeja.

Together, Ashwin and Jadeja have amassed 856 wickets and over 6,500 runs, cementing India’s dominance across formats.

Ashwin’s thirst for excellence was evident early in his career, learning alongside Sri Lanka legend Muralitharan at CSK.

He constantly evolved, adding variations like the ‘carrom ball’ and occasional leg-spin to outfox batters.

An engineer by qualification, he showed strong expertise for working on different angles and lengths to confound batsmen, preparing in advance for key batsmen and contests.

During the 2020 pandemic, Ashwin fine-tuned his skills in Chennai, preparing to counter Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne in Australia. His efforts paid off.

He was successful in stifling the prolific run-scoring of the two Australians, and also made vital contributions with bat to help India pull off a memorable triumph.

Originally an opener, Ashwin’s batting remained underrated but effective. With 3,503 runs, including six centuries, he established himself as a genuine all-rounder, often stepping up in critical moments.

A fiercely independent thinker, Ashwin challenged cricketing conventions.

He famously ran out England’s Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end during the 2019 IPL, sparking global debate but compelling the cricket world to reassess the ‘spirit of the game’.

His efforts led to the removal of the term ‘Mankading’, which referred to a bowler running out a non-striker for leaving the crease too early – a rule associated with former India captain Vinoo Mankad, who faced decades of criticism for using it.

An outstanding series against England earlier this year seemed to rejuvenate Ashwin’s career. Despite modest returns in three Tests against New Zealand, his $1.16m IPL contract with CSK signalled his enduring value.

In November, Ashwin headed to Australia as India’s premier spinner, aiming to complete a hat-trick of series wins Down Under. Yet, by year’s end, his sudden retirement left unanswered questions and a void that will be hard to fill.

A teacher and a teenage student have been identified as the two victims killed in a school shooting in Wisconsin.

Erin West, 42, and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara were shot on Monday morning at a private Christian school in Madison.

They were pronounced dead at the scene, the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office said.

Investigators are still trying to establish why the suspect, Natalie Rupnow, 15, opened fire on schoolmates and staff before turning the gun on herself.

A statement posted on a local funeral site described Rubi Vergara as a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family.

“She was an avid reader, loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band. She shared a special bond with her beloved pets, Ginger (cat) and Coco (dog).”

West was a substitute teaching coordinator, the school’s communication director, Barbara Wiers, said in a statement to Associated Press.

“Our hearts are heavy with these losses,” she said.

Angel Brube, a seventh grader who was at the school during the shooting, told CNN he knew West well, describing her as “kind and caring”.

Rupnow had two handguns but police say they do not know how she obtained them and they have not said who bought them.

No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting.

Finding Rupnow’s motive is a top priority, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said on Tuesday.

“But at this time it appears that the motive was a combination of factors,” he told reporters.

In a separate development on Wednesday, police in California issued a gun violence restraining order against a 20-year-old man they say was in contact with Rupnow.

He was planning to attack a government building, according to court documents, and shared his plan with the 15-year-old in Wisconsin.

Two other students who were shot on Monday remain in a critical condition while four other people suffered minor injuries.

At least 100 North Korean soldiers have been killed in fighting in the Ukraine war since entering combat on the Russian side earlier this month, a South Korean MP has said.

Lee Sung-kwon, speaking to reporters after parliament was briefed by the country’s National Intelligence Service, said another 1,000 had been injured.

He said the casualties included high-ranking officials, and could be explained by the troops lack of familiarity with the terrain, and with drone warfare.

The first reports of North Korean casualties came earlier this week. It emerged in October that the North had sent 10,000 troops to help Russia’s war effort.

On Monday a US Pentagon spokesman said North Koreans had been killed, without giving a number, and a day later an unnamed US official said that there had been “several hundred” killed or wounded.

The BBC has not independently verified the claims.

The North Korean troops, none of whom will have any previous combat experience, are believed to have spent their first weeks in Russia in training and then in support roles.

The casualties are thought to have occurred in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainians are defending a small area of territory captured during a surprise incursion in August.

Last Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had begun to use a “significant number” of North Koreans in its assaults in Kursk.

They are not thought to have been deployed in Ukraine itself, where Russian troops have been advancing in eastern parts of the country in recent months.

Lee Sung-kwon said there were reports of preparations for additional deployment, and that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could oversee training.

He quoted intelligence officials as saying the high number of casualties could be attributed to an “unfamiliar battlefield environment, where North Korean forces are being utilised as expendable frontline assault units, and their lack of capability to counter drone attacks”.

“Within the Russian military, complaints have reportedly surfaced that the North Korean troops, due to their lack of knowledge about drones, are more of a burden than an asset,” he added.

Neither Russia nor the North have acknowledged the troop deployments, but a North Korean statement on Thursday carried by state news agency KCNA said the country’s alliance with Moscow was “deterring the US and the West’s ill-intended extension of influence”.

Ravichandran Ashwin, one of cricket’s most celebrated spinners, stunned the cricketing world on Wednesday by announcing his retirement, leaving fans and experts alike grappling with the abruptness of his decision.

Known for his innovative bowling and razor-sharp cricketing mind, 38-year-old Ashwin’s departure in the middle of a Test series against Australia has sparked admiration and debate in equal measure.

Tributes poured in from around the globe, with team-mates, cricket legends and fans hailing his contributions to the sport.

Yet, the timing of his retirement also raised some eyebrows.

Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar praised Ashwin’s stellar career but expressed concern over his decision to retire midway through a crucial overseas series. With two matches still to be played, such a move could disrupt team selection dynamics, he said.

Mid-series retirements aren’t unprecedented in Indian cricket.

In 2014, MS Dhoni also exited Test cricket abruptly, stepping down as India captain and player during a series in Australia. Ashwin’s decision, however, has invited speculation: Was it age, fatigue, form, or frustration with team selection that led to his exit?

Ashwin, India’s leading spinner, had found himself sidelined on this tour, with Washington Sundar playing the first Test and Ravindra Jadeja the third, despite Ashwin featuring in the second.

Perhaps sensing he was no longer the first-choice spinner, he saw limited prospects ahead, even if India reached the World Test Championship (WTC) final at Lord’s in June.

Regardless of the circumstances, Ashwin leaves behind an extraordinary legacy.

With 537 Test wickets in 106 Tests and six centuries to his name, he ranks among the greatest all-rounders in cricket history.

His artistry with the ball, including his mastery of the ‘doosra’ and the ‘carrom ball redefined off-spin bowling, inspiring generations of cricketers worldwide.

Ashwin’s career statistics place him among the all-time greats.

He is the fourth-highest wicket-taking spinner, behind only Muttiah Muralitharan (800), Shane Warne (708) and compatriot Anil Kumble (619), and seventh in the list of all wicket-takers.

Ashwin’s 37 five-wicket hauls put him behind only Muralitharan, who has 67.

Ashwin is also among just five bowlers post World War Two who have averaged five or more wickets per Test, the others being Muralitharan, Dennis Lillee, Richard Hadlee and Yasir Shah.

More compellingly, of nine bowlers with 500-plus Test wickets, Ashwin’s strike rate (50.73 balls per wicket) is the best.

These are remarkable numbers for a player once seen as a white-ball specialist, rising to prominence with the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) starting in 2009.

Ashwin’s IPL success was instant, leading to his international debut for India in 2010 in ODIs and T20s.

He was part of the 2011 World Cup-winning squad under MS Dhoni, serving as Harbhajan Singh’s understudy. His white-ball exploits bolstered his reputation, but Ashwin’s true greatness unfolded in Test cricket.

When selected for his Test debut against West Indies in November 2011, sceptics claimed his inclusion was influenced by then chief of the Indian cricket board N Srinivasan, who also owned the CSK franchise in the IPL.

Ashwin silenced critics with a stellar nine-wicket haul, being named man of the match and cementing his place in the team within a year.

Spin bowling has been India’s pride for decades, led by legends such as Bishan Singh Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, and Srinivas Venkataraghavan, whose artistry secured historic series wins in the 1970s.

Anil Kumble, with 619 wickets, proved that India’s spin dominance extended to the modern era, followed by Harbhajan Singh, Ashwin, and Jadeja.

Together, Ashwin and Jadeja have amassed 856 wickets and over 6,500 runs, cementing India’s dominance across formats.

Ashwin’s thirst for excellence was evident early in his career, learning alongside Sri Lanka legend Muralitharan at CSK.

He constantly evolved, adding variations like the ‘carrom ball’ and occasional leg-spin to outfox batters.

An engineer by qualification, he showed strong expertise for working on different angles and lengths to confound batsmen, preparing in advance for key batsmen and contests.

During the 2020 pandemic, Ashwin fine-tuned his skills in Chennai, preparing to counter Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne in Australia. His efforts paid off.

He was successful in stifling the prolific run-scoring of the two Australians, and also made vital contributions with bat to help India pull off a memorable triumph.

Originally an opener, Ashwin’s batting remained underrated but effective. With 3,503 runs, including six centuries, he established himself as a genuine all-rounder, often stepping up in critical moments.

A fiercely independent thinker, Ashwin challenged cricketing conventions.

He famously ran out England’s Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end during the 2019 IPL, sparking global debate but compelling the cricket world to reassess the ‘spirit of the game’.

His efforts led to the removal of the term ‘Mankading’, which referred to a bowler running out a non-striker for leaving the crease too early – a rule associated with former India captain Vinoo Mankad, who faced decades of criticism for using it.

An outstanding series against England earlier this year seemed to rejuvenate Ashwin’s career. Despite modest returns in three Tests against New Zealand, his $1.16m IPL contract with CSK signalled his enduring value.

In November, Ashwin headed to Australia as India’s premier spinner, aiming to complete a hat-trick of series wins Down Under. Yet, by year’s end, his sudden retirement left unanswered questions and a void that will be hard to fill.