Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh has died at the age of 92.

Singh was one of India’s longest-serving prime ministers and he was considered the architect of key liberalising economic reforms, as premier from 2004-2014 and before that as finance minister.

He had been admitted to a hospital in the capital Delhi after his health condition deteriorated, reports say.

Among those who paid tribute to Singh on Thursday were Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wrote on social media that “India mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders”.

Modi said that Singh’s “wisdom and humility were always visible” during their interactions and that he had “made extensive efforts to improve people’s lives” during his time as prime minister.

Priyanka Gandhi, the daughter of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and a Congress party member, said that Singh was “genuinely egalitarian, wise, strong-willed and courageous until the end”.

Her brother Rahul, who leads Congress, said he had “lost a mentor and guide”.

Singh was the first Indian leader since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after serving a full first term, and the first Sikh to hold the country’s top post. He made a public apology in parliament for the 1984 riots in which some 3,000 Sikhs were killed.

But his second term in office was marred by a string of corruption allegations that dogged his administration. The scandals, many say, were partially responsible for his Congress party’s crushing defeat in the 2014 general election.

Singh was born on 26 September 1932, in a desolate village in the Punjab province of undivided India, which lacked both water and electricity.

After attending Panjab University he took a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge and then a DPhil at Oxford.

While studying at Cambridge, the lack of funds bothered Singh, his daughter, Daman Singh, wrote in a book on her parents.

“His tuition and living expenses came to about £600 a year. The Panjab University scholarship gave him about £160. For the rest he had to depend on his father. Manmohan was careful to live very stingily. Subsidised meals in the dining hall were relatively cheap at two shillings sixpence.”

Daman Singh remembered her father as “completely helpless about the house and could neither boil an egg, nor switch on the television”.

Singh rose to political prominence as India’s finance minister in 1991, taking over as the country was plunging into bankruptcy.

His unexpected appointment capped a long and illustrious career as an academic and civil servant – he served as an economic adviser to the government, and became the governor of India’s central bank.

In his maiden speech as finance minister he famously quoted Victor Hugo, saying that “no power on Earth can stop an idea whose time has come”.

That served as a launchpad for an ambitious and unprecedented economic reform programme: he cut taxes, devalued the rupee, privatised state-run companies and encouraged foreign investment.

The economy revived, industry picked up, inflation was checked and growth rates remained consistently high in the 1990s.

Manmohan Singh was a man acutely aware of his lack of a political base. “It is nice to be a statesman, but in order to be a statesman in a democracy you first have to win elections,” he once said.

When he tried to win election to India’s lower house in 1999, he was defeated. He sat instead in the upper house, chosen by his own Congress party.

The same happened in 2004, when Singh was first appointed prime minister after Congress president Sonia Gandhi turned down the post – apparently to protect the party from damaging attacks over her Italian origins. Critics however alleged that Sonia Gandhi was the real source of power while he was prime minister, and that he was never truly in charge.

The biggest triumph during his first five-year term was to bring India out of nuclear isolation by signing a landmark deal securing access to American nuclear technology.

But the deal came at a price – the government’s Communist allies withdrew support after protesting against it, and Congress had to make up lost numbers by enlisting the support of another party amid charges of vote-buying.

A consensus builder, Singh presided over a coalition of sometimes difficult, assertive and potentially unruly regional coalition allies and supporters.

Although he earned respect for his integrity and intelligence, he also had a reputation for being soft and indecisive. Some critics claimed that the pace of reform slowed and he failed to achieve the same momentum he had while finance minister.

When Singh guided Congress to a second, decisive election victory in 2009, he vowed that the party would “rise to the occasion”.

But the gloss soon began to wear off and his second term was in the news mostly for all the wrong reasons: several scandals involving his cabinet ministers which allegedly cost the country billions of dollars, a parliament stalled by the opposition, and a huge policy paralysis that resulted in a serious economic downturn.

LK Advani, a senior leader in the rival BJP party, called Singh India’s “weakest prime minister”.

Manmohan Singh defended his record, saying his government had worked with “utmost commitment and dedication for the country and the welfare of its people”.

Singh adopted the pragmatic foreign policies pursued by his two predecessors.

He continued the peace process with Pakistan – though this process was hampered by attacks blamed on Pakistani militants, culminating in the Mumbai gun and bomb attack of November 2008.

He tried to end the border dispute with China, brokering a deal to reopen the Nathu La pass into Tibet which had been closed for more than 40 years.

Singh increased financial support for Afghanistan and became the first Indian leader to visit the country for nearly 30 years.

He also angered many opposition politicians by appearing to end relations with India’s old ally, Iran.

A studious former academic and bureaucrat, he was known for being self-effacing and always kept a low profile. His social media account was noted mostly for dull entries and had a limited number of followers.

A man of few words, his calm demeanour nevertheless won him many admirers.

Responding to questions on a coal scandal involving the illegal allocation of licences worth billions of dollars, he defended his silence on the issue by saying it was “better than thousands of answers”.

In 2015 he was summoned to appear in court to answer allegations of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and corruption related offences. An upset Singh told reporters that he was “open for legal scrutiny” and that the “truth will prevail”.

After his time as premier, Singh remained deeply engaged with the issues of the day as a senior leader of the main opposition Congress party despite his advancing age.

In August 2020, he told the BBC in a rare interview that India needed to take three steps “immediately” to stem the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic, which had sent the country’s economy into a recession.

The government needed to provide direct cash assistance to people, make capital available for businesses, and fix the financial sector, he said.

History will remember Singh for bringing India out of economic and nuclear isolation, although some historians may suggest he should have retired earlier.

“I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter, the opposition parties in parliament,” he told an interviewer in 2014.

Singh is survived by his wife and three daughters.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN staff were at Yemen’s international airport in Sanaa on Thursday during Israeli air strikes which are reported to have killed at least six people.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said they were about to board a plane when the attacks began.

Houthi-run Saba news agency said three people were killed at the airport and 30 injured. It said another three people were killed and 10 wounded in the western Hodeidah province.

The Iran-backed rebel group described the attacks – which also hit power stations and ports – as “barbaric”. Israel’s military said it carried out “intelligence-based strikes on military targets”.

It is unclear whether the fatalities were civilians or Houthi rebels.

In a statement on X, Dr Tedros said he was in Yemen “to negotiate the release of UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation” in the country. He provided no further details about who the UN detainees were.

Referring to the strikes on Sanaa’s airport, he said: “The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge – just a few meters from where we were – and the runway were damaged.

“We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” Dr Tedros added.

UN Secretary General António Guterres called the strikes “especially alarming”.

“I regret the recent escalation between Yemen and Israel, and remain deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region.” he wrote on X.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its “fighter jets conducted intelligence-based strikes on military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast and inland Yemen”.

It targeted “military infrastructure” at Sanaa’s airport as well as the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, and sites in the Al-Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports on the west coast, the IDF said.

In comments shortly after the strikes, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it would “continue to cut off the terror arm of the Iranian axis of evil until we complete the job”, adding “we are only just starting with [the Houthis]”.

Early on Friday, the IDF reported that one missile fired from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthis’ supreme revolutionary committee, called Thursday’s strikes on Yemen “barbaric” and “aggressive”.

He said that “confrontations with American and Israeli arrogance” will continue until the conflict in Gaza stops.

Several people injured by the strikes at the airport in Sanaa told Houthi-run broadcaster Al Masirah that the runway was struck three times before the airport’s control tower was also hit.

One man, who identified himself as Dr Abbas Rajeh, said the police hospital he works in treated 10 patients after the attacks – one had already died, another was in critical condition, and others had minor injuries or broken bones.

Iran described the strikes as a “clear violation of international peace and security”.

Houthi rebels have been attacking Israel since the first months of the Gaza war, which began in October 2023.

A Houthi missile strike injured more than a dozen people in Israel last week.

Israel has carried out intermittent strikes against Houthis in retaliation.

Earlier this week, Israel’s defence minister said the country was preparing to “strike hard” at the Houthis, warning it would “decapitate” the group’s leadership.

The Houthis are an armed political and religious group backed by Iran. The group has ruled large parts of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since ousting the internationally recognised government in 2015.

South Korea’s opposition lawmakers have filed a motion to impeach the country’s prime minister and acting leader Han Duck-soo, less than two weeks after parliament voted to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol.

This comes after Han refused to appoint constitutional court judges nominated by the main opposition Democratic Party (DP).

“Han has revealed himself to be an acting insurrectionist, not an acting president”, DP’s floor leader Park Chan-dae said on Thursday.

The opposition has also accused Han of aiding Yoon’s martial law attempt on 3 Dec. Han earlier apologised for failing to block it.

Han also vetoed several opposition-led bills, including one that proposed a special investigation into Yoon’s short-lived martial law declaration.

The impeachment motion is expected to be put to a vote in the next 24 to 72 hours.

For it to succeed, 151 out of 300 MPs must vote for it.

The DP currently holds 170 of the 300 seats in parliament. The opposition bloc together holds 192 seats.

Opposition parties had been hoping Han would not stand in their way while acting as the country’s caretaker president, and that he would allow bills to pass.

But instead he has held firm, deepening the political strife.

On Tuesday, Han concluded a cabinet meeting without reviewing the two opposition-sponsored bills that called for special counsel investigations into the martial law declaration and corruption allegations involving first lady Kim Keon Hee.

He said he did not put them on the agenda so as to give the ruling and opposition parties more time to reach a compromise.

But DP’s floor leader Park Chan-dae slammed him for “buying time and prolonging the insurrection”.

“We’ve clearly warned that it’s totally up to Prime Minister Han Duck-soo whether he would go down in history as a disgraceful figure, as a puppet of rebellion plot leader Yoon Suk Yeol, or a public servant that has faithfully carried out the orders by the public,” Park said in a televised party meeting.

And on Thursday, Han said he would not appoint the three judges the opposition-dominated National Assembly had nominated to the constitutional court – which is deliberating whether Yoon should be impeached – unless the rival parties reach a consensus.

To this, Park said “it has become clear that Han Duck-soo is neither qualified nor willing to defend the constitution”, adding that the opposition would “immediately” table the impeachment bill.

Han’s ruling People Power Party said the opposition’s threats have interfered with Han’s “legitimate exercise of authority”, while a senior official at the prime minister’s office criticised the threats as “extremely regrettable”.

Han stepped in as caretaker president after Yoon was ousted from office earlier this month. If lawmakers vote for Han to be impeached, finance minister Choi Sang-mok will be next in line.

This latest development in the country’s political turmoil comes as Seoul Constitutional Court is deliberating on whether Yoon should be permanently barred from office.

The court is expected to hold its first public hearing later this week.

It is unclear if Yoon himself will take the stand during the hearings, but protesters have vowed to keep up their calls for Yoon’s removal during court proceedings.

Yoon is also under investigation for alleged insurrection over his failed attempt to put the country under martial law.

He has refused to accept several summons delivered to him, and investigators have warned that they may issue an arrest warrant if he continues to be unresponsive.

Several senior officials – including former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, former interior minister Lee Sang-min and army chief Park An-su – are also being investigated.

At least three people have died in a bus crash in Norway, police say.

The accident happened at around 13:30 local time (12:30GMT) in the Hadsel district on the country’s north-western coast.

The bus came off the road and ended up partially in the Åsvatnet lake, the authorities said in a press release.

It is thought to have been carrying 58 people at the time of the crash – many of whom, police say, are foreign nationals.

As well as the fatalities, police said four people had been seriously injured.

Three people have been taken to Stokmarknes Hospital by rescue helicopter, while other passengers have been taken to a nearby school.

Everyone has now been removed from the vehicle, according to local media.

The Norwegian Red Cross said on social media that it was sending teams to help with a “serious bus accident” on the E10 road.

Fire, ambulance and police teams have also been working at the scene.

There have been reports of heavy snowdrifts and strong winds in the area, which has made rescue efforts difficult.

Public broadcaster NRK reported that the bus had been travelling from the town of Narvik to the Lofoten archipelago.

The mayor of the nearby Vågan district, Vidar Thom Benjaminsen, said a “crisis team” had been set up, and that a local hotel had been allocated for family members and as a reception centre.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said the crash was “a very serious situation” and that his thoughts were with everyone affected.

Ukrainian forces have captured an injured North Korean soldier who was sent to support Russia’s war, South Korea’s spy agency confirmed Friday.

The soldier is believed to be the first North Korean prisoner of war captured since December, when Pyongyang deployed forces to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The confirmation comes after a photo purporting to show the wounded soldier circulated on Telegram.

North Korea has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia, according to Kyiv and Seoul – though Moscow and Pyongyang have neither confirmed nor denied their presence.

Over 3,000 North Korean troops have died or been wounded while fighting in Kursk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday.

He added that the collaboration between Moscow and Pyongyang heightens the “risk of destabilisation” around the Korean peninsula.

Two people taking part in Australia’s annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race have died in separate incidents, according to police.

Both crew members died in separate incidents after being hit by a boom – the large pole attached horizontally to the bottom of a sail.

The event’s organisers said the incidents happened on the Flying Fish Arctos and Bowline.

The first boats are expected to arrive in the city of Hobart, in Tasmania, later on Friday or early on Saturday. Several have already retired due to bad weather.

New South Wales (NSW) police said the first incident was reported to officers just before midnight on Thursday local time (12:50 GMT) by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in the country’s capital, Canberra.

Just over two hours later, at 02:15 on Friday, NSW police were told that crew aboard the second boat were giving CPR to the second person, which also had not worked.

Flying Fish Arctos had been sailing approximately 30 nautical miles east/south-east of the NSW town of Ulladulla, the organisers said.

Bowline, meanwhile, was approximately 30 nautical miles east/north-east of the town of Batemans Bay, also in NSW.

“Our thoughts are with the crews, family and friends of the deceased,” the organisers said in a statement.

“The Sydney to Hobart is an Australian tradition, and it is heart-breaking that two lives have been lost at what should be a time of joy,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The race, which began on Thursday, has continued.

It is not the first time there have been fatalities during the race, which was first held in 1945.

Six people, including British Olympic yachtsman Glyn Charles, died in 1998 after raging storms hit competitors.

The Russian government has cautioned against promoting “hypotheses” about the cause of the crash of a Russia-bound passenger plane that killed 38 people in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

Some aviation experts suggested that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane had been hit by air defence systems over the Russian republic of Chechnya and pro-government media in Azerbaijan quote officials as saying a Russian missile was responsible.

Before it went down near the Kazakh city of Aktau, the plane was diverted across the Caspian Sea, from its destination in Chechnya to western Kazakhstan.

Twenty nine of the 67 people on board survived. Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning on Thursday for the victims of the crash.

“This is a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people,” President Ilham Aliyev said on Thursday.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It would be wrong to put forward any hypotheses before the investigation’s conclusions. We, of course, will not do this, and no-one should do this. We need to wait until the investigation is completed.”

The chief prosecutor in Kazakhstan said later that the investigation had not yet come to any conclusions.

But some commentators in Azerbaijani media say that Azerbaijan expects Russia to admit shooting down the plane.

Several TV channels, which are under strict control of the Azerbaijani government, on Thursday started broadcasting interviews with experts who have openly spoken about the possibility that Russia was responsible.

AnewZ channel said a preliminary investigation had concluded that the plane had been hit by shrapnel from a surface-to-air missile from Russia’s Pantsir-S defence system.

Another pro-government website, Caliber, quoted government sources as saying that no-one was claiming the plane had come under attack intentionally, but that Baku expected an apology from Russia.

When asked about the reports, the chief prosecutor’s office in Baku told the BBC that every version was being investigated.

As they try to avoid annoying Russian President Vladimir Putin, it will be very difficult for the Azerbaijani government to blame Russia directly unless it admits to shooting down the plane.

It seems that the investigation committee comprised of Azerbaijani and Kazakh officials possibly already have evidence for this, but they are waiting for Russia to announce it first.

Moscow will then have to answer questions such as why Russia did not close its airspace if there was military activity, and why it did not let the plane land as soon as possible – instead of directing it towards Aktau for landing.

The Embraer 190 aircraft took off from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Wednesday morning. It was due to fly to Grozny in Chechnya but it was diverted because of fog, the airline said.

A surviving passenger told Russian TV he believed the pilot had tried twice to land in dense fog over Grozny before “the third time, something exploded… some of the aircraft skin had blown out”.

The plane was redirected to Aktau airport, some 450km (280 miles) to the east. Footage shows the aircraft heading towards the ground at high speed 3km (1.9 miles) short of the runway, before bursting into flames as it lands.

Kazakh authorities have recovered the flight data recorder and an investigation is under way. Shortly after the crash, reports from Russian state-controlled TV said the most likely cause was a strike from a flock of birds.

But that kind of collision typically results in the plane gliding towards the nearest airfield, aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia told Reuters news agency. “You can lose control of the plane, but you don’t fly wildly off course as a consequence,” he said.

Justin Crump of risk advisory company Sibylline said the pattern of damage inside and outside the plane indicated that Russian air defence active in Grozny may have caused the crash.

“It looks very much like the detonation of an air defence missile to the rear and to the left of the aircraft, if you look at the pattern of shrapnel that we see,” he told BBC Radio 4.

Chechnya has already been hit by Ukrainian drone strikes this month and authorities in neighbouring Ingushetia said the Russian region had been targeted for the first time since the war in Ukraine began.

A shopping centre was hit when a drone was shot down in nearby North Ossetia, killing one woman, reports said.

Those on board were mostly Azerbaijani nationals, but there were also some passengers from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Video footage showed survivors crawling out of the wreckage, some with visible injuries.

The injured were taken to hospital. On Thursday, Azerbaijan’s Azertac news agency said seven were in a good enough condition to fly back to Baku.

Azerbaijan Airlines told reporters that the plane had been fully serviced in October and had no technical malfunctions.

Embraer, a Brazilian manufacturer and a smaller rival to Boeing and Airbus, has a strong safety record.

A woman dances in the spotlight, the glittering tassels on her dress shivering and swaying in tandem with her moves.

But it’s her arms that catch the light; they wave, spin and whip through the air at breath-taking speed, almost like the blades of a fan.

These are the opening visuals of a recently released web series on Amazon Prime Video called Waack Girls, a drama centred around six women who learn a new dance form to become their city’s first all-female waacking crew.

Not many know about the dance and so the women have to fight hard – against society and their families – to be taken seriously. But waacking ends up being the gift that keeps on giving.

Directed by Sooni Taraporevala, the series has been released at a time when many Indian cities – big and small – are witnessing a renewed interest in waacking.

“I was fascinated by the dance style and the importance it gives to self-expression,” says Taraporevala about why she made the series.

Workshops and underground waacking jams – events where dancers battle it out with their moves – are mushrooming in several cities and international waacking legends are visiting the country to teach the dance.

Recently, Archie Burnett, who was a club dancer in New York in the 1970s and 80s and is a respected figure in the waacking community, visited India for a jam.

Dancers hope that the web series will give waacking more visibility in the country and show people that there’s more to dance than classical forms, hip-hop and Bollywood.

Waacking has a history steeped in the LGBTQ+ liberation movement and the freedom championed by disco music.

The dance style emerged in the gay clubs of Los Angeles in the 1970s, when there was a lot of stigma surrounding homosexuality. Gay men used waacking to express themselves on the dance floor and push back against the hate and discrimination they experienced.

Consequently, the dance style developed swift, sharp and forceful movements – much like how action heroes in comic books beat up their villains, accompanied by sound-effects like “ka-pow” and “bam”.

“Waacking comes from the onomatopoeic word ‘whack’ and is reminiscent of [the effects] found in comic books,” says Tejasvi Patil, a Mumbai-based dancer who has been waacking for more than a decade.

The dance style also drew inspiration from the drama of Hollywood and its glamorous leading ladies. Dramatic poses, quick footwork and striking arm movements are characteristic of waacking but dancers have continued to add new moves to the repertoire of steps, as celebrating individuality and self-expression are at the heart of the form.

And because of its core ethos, waacking continues to be a tool of empowerment and self-expression for India’s LGBTQ+ community.

“In fact, many people explore their sexual identity through the dance style because it allows space for introspection and expression,” says Ayushi Amrute, who has been waacking since 2012 and is a frequent host of Red Bull’s Your House Is Waack – a waacking jam for dancers across the country.

“Another important factor is that the waacking community always strives to be a safe space, so that people feel comfortable expressing themselves,” she adds.

When Amrute was introduced to waacking by her dance teacher, the style was virtually unknown in India. Her teacher encouraged her to watch videos and reach out to dancers abroad to learn more about the style.

“We [the handful of Indian dancers who began waacking over a decade ago] learnt waacking the hard way; by doing our own research, learning about the history of the dance and connecting with dancers in countries where waacking was popular,” says Amrute.

Patil remembers learning waacking the same way. But things are remarkably different today. In the past five years or so, the dance style has picked up in popularity, with more youngsters flocking to classes to learn it.

Patil, who teaches dance, says that she encourages her students to stay true to the ethos of the style – unabashed self-expression.

When it comes to music, India is still finding its soundscape for the style, she adds. Songs by disco queen Donna Summer and American pop legend Diana Ross are still popular, as are tracks from the 1983 film Staying Alive.

Bollywood had its own disco era too, with songs like Koi Yahan Nache Nache and Aap Jaisa Koi becoming chart-toppers in the 1980s, but they don’t often find space in today’s waacking jams.

For Waack Girls, Taraporevala brought in indie artists to create an album of original soundtracks, which Patil says has created a brand new and promising soundscape for waackers in India.

“I think the time is right for people to embrace who they are fully,” says Patil, “and waacking is the perfect platform to showcase what you find.”

Ko Wen-je, once a rising star in Taiwanese politics and a presidential contender, was indicted Thursday on corruption charges.

The 65-year-old is accused of accepting half a million dollars in bribes involving a real estate dealing during his term as mayor of Taipei, as well as misreporting campaign finances during his run for president in January.

Prosecutors are seeking up to 28.5 years in prison.

Ko’s indictment deals a crucial blow to the political movement he represents, which has struck a chord with voters looking for an alternative to the ruling Democratic People’s Party and main opposition Kuomintang.

Ko, who denied the corruption allegations, was arrested in September and held in detention.

Prosecutors said Thursday that he was among 11 people who were being prosecuted. Several other members of his Taiwan People Party have also been charged for misappropriating political donations.

A dark horse in January’s presidential election, Ko won more than 25% of the vote – not far behind ruling party candidate Lai Ching-te’s 40%.

Observers said at the time that even though Ko came in last among the three presidential hopefuls, his sizable showing pointed to voters’ demand for a more pluralistic political landscape beyond the two main parties.

Ko rose to prominence by branding himself as a third choice beyond the two main parties. He criticised the DPP for fanning tensions with Beijing, which sees the self-governed island as its territory, but also blamed the KMT for being too deferential.

After supporting protesters during the anti-Beijing Sunflower Movement in 2014, Ko was elected Taipei mayor as an independent candidate.

He won a second term in 2018, but his politics appeared to shift and he expanded Taipei’s relationship with mainland China.

Long known as a wildcard in Taiwanese politics, Ko has courted controversy with his brash rhetoric and quirky campaign ideas. He has been described as a “gaffe machine” and starred in a rap video in his 2018 re-election bid.

After his defeat at the presidential polls, he vowed not to give up on his political career and was expected to seek the presidency again in 2028. But it remains to be seen if his party can recover from the wave of prosecutions.

Ko’s arrest has triggered protests from his allies and supporters, who accused the DPP of using the charges to suppress its opponents.

Billionaire Elon Musk has hailed Twitter as a bastion for freedom of expression ever since he acquired the social media site two years ago. But over the course of 2024, X, as it is now called, has evolved from what felt like a communal town square into a polarised hub where views and posts seem even more controversial.

​​Certain profiles that have shared misleading takes on politics and the news, some of which have been accused of triggering hate, have recently shot to prominence.

All of this matters because X might not have as many users as some other major social media sites, but it does seem to have a significant impact on political discussions. Not only is it a place where certain high-profile politicians, governments and police forces share statements and views – but now its owner Mr Musk has directly aligned himself with Donald Trump, a relationship that could redefine how the bosses of other social media giants deal with the next US President.

So, what’s behind this new wave of change? Has there been a shift in the demographic of people using X over the last year – or could it be the result of deliberate decisions made by those in charge?

Two months ago, Inevitable West didn’t exist on X. Now the profile, which calls itself a “Defender of Western values and culture”, has amassed 131,600 followers (a number that is rapidly growing). It is racking up around 30 million views each day collectively among all of its posts, according to its creator. Mr Musk has even responded to Inevitable West’s posts on X.

Their recent posts, which often feature news alert-style captions, include a faked video showing Trump telling the British Prime Minister he is going to “invade your country and make Britain Great Again”.

There have also been several posts in support of far-right activist Tommy Robinson, as well as some debunked claims about the farmer’s protests in the UK and a knife attack in Southport, in which three children were killed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop.

​​Inevitable West denies accusations of pushing disinformation and inciting abuse or violence. “The purpose of my X account is to be the voice for the silent majority of the Western world,” its creator told me. They refused to share their identity with me when we corresponded, but claim to be “Gen Z” and “not Russian”.

“Uncensored information and opinions will inevitably lead [to] the US and entire West and Europe moving further right, [which is] proven by Donald Trump getting elected and surges in Europe’s far right,” they argued. “Globally, it would mean corrupt politicians and leaders would get found out.”

They appear to see the rise of their account as the “death” of what they would call the “MSM” or Mainstream Media. That’s perhaps no surprise given that, following the US Election, Mr Musk himself told X users: “You are the Media Now”.

When Mr Musk first acquired Twitter, he emphasised the need to house all political opinions and push back against censorship by social media companies and governments.

Changes – including mass layoffs and alterations to moderation policies on issues like political misinformation – started immediately.

There have also been various alterations to the nature of feeds including the creation of two separate sections: “Following”, which features accounts you follow, and “For You”, which is algorithmically curated, as on TikTok.

Over the course of 2024, however, there have been another wave of alterations that appear to have transformed it further. The block function has been changed, meaning that if you block an account you won’t be protected from that profile viewing what you post. Likes, meanwhile, have been made private.

The site still features crowd-sourced community notes used to factcheck or rebuff what posts say – and users are able to pay for blue ticks, which were previously given free of charge as a sign authenticating that the person was who they said they were.

• What to X-pect from Elon Musk in 2025

Now, though, it is necessary to pay to subscribe to X Premium to receive a checkmark. (There are three tiers of subscription – in the UK, the Premium Tier currently costs around £10 a month).

Premium profiles are entitled to more privileges and prominence – and can make money from the engagement they get from other checkmarked profiles. From October, X changed its rules so that instead of basing revenue for individual accounts around ads, it now takes into account likes, shares and comments from other Premium accounts.

Of course other social media sites allow users to make money from posts and let them share sponsored content – this is not uncommon – but most major sites have rules that allow them to de-monetise or suspend profiles that post misinformation.

X does not have rules to de-monetise accounts over these kinds of posts, although it does allow users to add community notes to misleading or false tweets. And it does not allow “misleading media” like manipulated or synthetic videos that “may result in widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety or cause serious harm”.

According to Inevitable West, X can now become a job. They told me when they were posting around seven times a day they could accrue a minimum of “$2,500 a month”.

They say they know of another account making “$25,000” each month – that account allegedly has 500,000 followers and posts “roughly 30” times a day.

Change can sometimes come about when a website alters the algorithms (or recommendation systems) in some way, for example in order to boost and benefit certain posts. What’s unclear is whether or not that may be the case here?

Certainly, I’ve observed a difference in the variety of posts recommended on the “For You” feed compared with that a year ago.

This is something I analysed through an “Undercover Voter project”, in which I created and ran social media accounts belonging to more than 20 fictional characters, based in the US and UK, which reflect views from across the political spectrum.

These characters have profiles on the main sites including X, allowing me to interrogate what different accounts were recommended on social media. The accounts are private and do not message real people or have friends.

Regardless of the different political views their accounts express, I observed that in the last six months of this year their feeds have become dominated by divisive posts, and tend to feature more in support of Trump or in opposition to politicians and people across the world who are not seen to be aligned with the US president elect.

However, all of this seems to be the consequence of the environment and the various changes to the wider site, rather than solely a simple tweak to the algorithm.

Andrew Kaung, who was previously an analyst on user safety at TikTok and has also worked at Meta, has spent years observing how these recommendation systems can be updated and changed. “What we’ve seen on X is not just about algorithms changing, it is also informed by the lack of safety mechanisms in the name of free speech,” he says.

Nina Jankowicz is former Executive Director on the Disinformation Governance Board of the United States, which was set up in 2022 to advise the Department of Homeland Security on issues including Russian disinformation and later disbanded after public backlash over concerns including around freedom of expression and transparency. She argues that X’s algorithms now “privilege divisive and misleading rhetoric” and suggests that users who post less controversial content have found a reduction in the views.

“The consequence is that the platform that touts itself as a public square is an extraordinarily artificial environment, a true black mirror of the most worrying parts of human nature.”

I messaged dozens of other large accounts, who describe the growing influence they’re able to have on the site, often unexpectedly.

“I never really intended to become an influencer,” admits one profile called Andi, who says he’s based in New York. “But I figure since I have this platform I should try to use it to advance my own causes.”

He describes how he shared a meme of squirrel – after learning about a squirrel that was euthanised over concerns it could have rabies – which now has 45 million views. Andi compares his reach to that of popular podcaster Joe Rogan, who has 14.5 million followers on X.

“But I am no Joe Rogan, so it’s really special that something I post can get almost as much viewership.”

Andi and other X accounts I’ve corresponded with believe that the changes to X are a good thing, as they now have a reach they could have never anticipated.

​​Earlier this month, an attack at a German market, which killed five people and injured more than 200, was widely debated on X. Much of the discussion centred around the suspect, a German resident originally from Saudi Arabia. German prosecutors have said the investigation is ongoing, but suggested one potential motive for the attack “could have been disgruntlement with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany”.

Inevitable West was among those who commented: “Raid the mosques. Ban the Quran. Carry out mass deportations. Our patience has officially expired.”

​​The account has been accused of inflaming hate with posts about issues including immigration and religion. Other users said this could incite violence. But the profile responded by saying that they were “actually inciting safety”.

When questioned on this, Inevitable West told me that they’d say the same about other religions. Separately, they also said they would never delete their own posts – even when they turn out to be untrue.

Meanwhile, their content is being seen by feeds around the world.

Allegations of bias in moderation methods have long been levelled at Twitter, both before and since Mr Musk acquired the company, alongside questions about whether the site previously limited freedom of expression.

I spoke to Twitter insiders about this for a Panorama investigation which aired in 2023, and they told me that, in their view, the company was going to struggle to protect users from trolling, state-coordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation, putting this down to, among other things, mass layoffs.

At the time, X did not respond to the points raised. Afterwards, Mr Musk tweeted a BBC article about the Panorama episode with the caption: “Sorry for turning Twitter from nurturing paradise into a place that has… trolls”. He also declared, “trolls are kinda fun”.

Separately, Mr Musk had said he had “no choice” but to reduce the company’s workforce because of financial losses.

Lisa Jennings Young, former head of content design at X who worked there until 2022, says: “I feel like we’re all living through a vast social experiment [on humanity].”

It doesn’t have a specified goal, she says. Instead, in her view, it is “not a controlled social science experiment [but one] we’re all a part of”. No one really knows what the final result could be, she argues.

Some X users tell me that they have recently decided to migrate to other social media platforms, including Bluesky, which started in 2019 as an experimental “de-centralised” social media site created by former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey. It now has more than 20 million users.

It is difficult to determine exactly how many real users have chosen to leave X – or indeed if it has grown.

Elon Musk and X did not respond to the points raised in this article, nor to requests for an interview.

X says that its priority is to protect and defend the user’s voice and it has guidelines about hate, which say that users “may not target others with abuse or harassment or encourage other people to do so”.

An X spokesperson previously told the BBC: “X has in place a range of policies and features to protect the conversation surrounding elections. We will label content that violates our synthetic and manipulated media policy, and remove accounts engaged in platform manipulation or other serious violations of our rules.”

The site also told the European Commission in November: “[X] strives to be the town square of the internet by promoting and protecting freedom of expression.”

Since the 2024 US presidential election, X has cemented its place as the home of political updates about the new Trump administration.

Mr Musk endorsed Trump as a candidate as far back as July. He has now been offered a government position, leading a new advisory team called the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

Sam Freeman, a former Meta employee who now works as an expert in Trust and Safety for a company called Cinder, believes that this will have a broader effect on other social media bosses too. He predicts them “needing to have a more personal relationship with the incoming administration”, particularly if they feel increasing pressure over regulation and online safety.

Mark Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook (now Meta) and has since acquired Instagram, recently had dinner with Trump at his home in Mar-a-Lago.

The President-elect had taken aim at Mr Zuckerberg on previously occasions, accusing his website and others of bias. “Facebook, Google and Twitter, not to mention the Corrupt Media, are sooo on the side of the Radical Left Democrats,” Trump once wrote.

Could the dinner indicate a softening of relations? Certainly it suggests that Mr Zuckerberg considers that being at least somewhat in close proximity to Trump could be in his interest.

So, it seems, does TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who was also reported to have met Trump at Mar-a-Lago as the social media company fights plans by US authorities to ban the app.

The US government claims TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has links to the Chinese state. Both TikTok and ByteDance deny this. The Supreme Court is due to hear legal arguments from TikTok in January.

In the the UK, the Online Safety Act will soon be enforced, under which companies will have to make commitments to the regulator Ofcom about how they will tackle illegal content and posts that are harmful to children. In Australia, politicians have gone a step further and approved plans to ban children under 16 from using social media.

Ultimately though – given how many social media giants are based in the US – it is the approach of the American government and president that could have the greatest impact.

“I see Trump’s feelings towards a platform dictating the way his administration views them,” argues Mr Freeman.

The question that remains is what Trump’s views on this really are – and whether he will demand accountability in a different way from these sites in the future, or not at all.

The ramifications, whichever way it goes, will no doubt be far-reaching.

Syria’s new rebel-led authorities say supporters of ousted President Bashar al-Assad have killed 14 interior ministry troops in an “ambush” in the west of the country.

They say 10 other troops were wounded in the fighting on Tuesday near the Mediterranean port of Tartous, a stronghold of Assad’s minority Alawite Muslim sect.

The clashes with pro-Assad loyalists are the first direct challenge to the authority of Syria’s de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa.

Assad’s presidency fell to rebel forces led by al-Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) faction just over two weeks ago.

Security forces launched an operation in Tartous province on Thursday, according to state news agency Sana, in a bid to “restore security, stability and civil peace”.

Sana reported that the forces had “neutralised… a number of remnants of Assad’s militias” in the Tartous countryside, and that it was pursuing others.

Reports say the security forces had earlier been ambushed as they tried to arrest a former officer in connection to his role at the notorious Saydnaya prison, close to the capital, Damascus.

The UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said three “armed men”, which it did not identify, were also killed in the clashes.

The SOHR added that the security forces later brought in reinforcements.

On Thursday, it said the former officer, Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, had been arrested together with 20 other people.

The claim has not been independently verified.

In a separate development, the Syrian authorities imposed an overnight curfew into Thursday in the central city of Homs, state media reported.

Reports say this followed unrest over a video purportedly showing an attack on an Alawite shrine.

The interior ministry said the footage was old, dating back to a rebel offensive on Aleppo in late November, and the violence was carried out by unknown groups.

The SOHR said one demonstrator was killed and five wounded in Homs.

The former rebels now in charge of Syria are grappling with the challenge of providing safety and stability across the country.

Syrians are looking to them to protect the rights of people from a variety of backgrounds as well as providing justice for those who lost relatives under the Assad dictatorship.

Demonstrations have also been reported in Alawite-dominated areas including the cities of Tartous and Latakia, and Assad’s hometown of Qardaha.

Alawites are an offshoot of Shia Islam to which many of the former regime’s political and military elite belonged, including Assad’s family.

The Alawite community is fearful of revenge, with members blamed for the torture and killing in Syria under Assad.

Former officers are refusing to hand over weapons and locals in some towns suggest they want to fight back, which appears to have been the case in Tartous.

There have been calls from Alawite religious leaders for a general amnesty for Alawites – but this is unlikely because of the many alleged war crimes conducted by its members.

Although al-Sharaa has bolstered security in Alawite towns and cities in an attempt to maintain order, if his forces do launch a campaign to arrest Assad loyalists, they risk further destabilising an already fragile country.

Tens of thousands of people were tortured to death in prisons in Syria, and thousands of families are still waiting for answers and for justice.

Syrians are calling for those responsible to be held to account – the very thing that members of the Alawite are worried about.

The HTS-led lightning offensive that started from Syria’s north-east and spread across the country ended more than 50 years of rule by the Assads.

Assad and his family were forced to flee to Russia.

HTS has since promised to protect the rights and freedoms of many religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.

The group is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU, the UK and others.

On Tuesday, protests broke out in the country over the burning of a Christmas tree, prompting fresh calls for the new authorities to protect minorities.

Winter winds in the US have delivered deadly surf conditions to western states and reports of tornadoes to Texas, as parts of the US faced severe weather over the holidays.

With waves as high as 30ft (9.1m) in some areas of California, the US National Weather Service issued a high surf advisory for the US West Coast through Sunday and cautioned inexperienced surfers and swimmers to stay out of the water.

The weather is blamed for multiple injuries and at least one death after a man was found under debris on the coast. The public was told to be vigilant and to “never turn your back on the ocean”.

Meanwhile, storms across parts of Texas prompted tornado sightings and flight delays on Thursday.

On the West Coast, the NWS warned of possibly “life threatening conditions” for swimmers as storms continued to rock the California coast.

“Stay off jetties, piers, and other waterside infrastructure,” the National Weather Service warned in a release on Thursday.

California has faced days of dangerous surf conditions.

A wharf in Santa Cruz, California, collapsed after it was struck by strong waves earlier this week.

In a separate incident, the Marina Police Department responded to reports that an adult man had been swept out to sea on Monday. Rescue officials were forced to call off an air and sea search due to dangerous conditions.

Farther up the Pacific Coast, the US states of Washington and Oregon are also under heavy surf advisories until Friday afternoon.

Down in Texas, the winter winds brought reports of tornadoes.

Jimmy George, the emergency management coordinator for El Campo, Texas, told the BBC that a tornado touched down near his small town of 12,000 people that sits about an hour outside of Houston.

Mr George saw the tornado at a distance while on a highway, he said, and locals had reported additional sightings of the same weather event.

There were no injuries reported but three barns in the area were damaged, said Russell McDougall, an emergency official in Wharton County, Texas.

Local media reported a second tornado in the area, but the BBC was not able to independently verify this.

The National Weather Service had warned residents in the Houston area and parts of southeast Texas of the potential for thunderstorms and tornadoes. An NWS spokesperson could not immediately verify the El Campo tornado, as such reports can take several days to officially confirm.

More than 100 flights were delayed at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport due to weather, the AP reported.

The storm system was expected to pass by Thursday night.

The US East Coast, meanwhile, continued to enjoy a snow-dusted Christmas.

New York City experienced its first so-called “white Christmas” – when more than an inch of powder is recorded on the ground – since 2009.

While snow caused minor travel woes for some on the roadways, it was not the main trouble for Morris County, New Jersey – a suburban area outside near Manhattan.

Drivers there faced a large sinkhole that opened up next to the I-80 highway in Morris County, which prompted traffic delays.

Boxing Day, 2004.

When the earthquake struck at 06:30 (01:00 GMT), I was on a ferry, headed towards Havelock – an island in the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar.

Known for its silver sand and clear blue waters, the Radhanagar beach there had recently been crowned “Asia’s Best Beach” by Time magazine.

My best friend from college and her family had lived in Port Blair, the capital of the archipelago, for a decade and a half, but this was my first visit to the islands, where I had arrived on Christmas Eve.

We had planned to spend three days in Havelock and in the morning we packed snacks and sandwiches, gathered excited children and headed out to catch the ferry from Phoenix Bay jetty in Port Blair.

Not wanting to miss out on anything, I was standing on the front deck, looking around, when disaster struck.

Just as we pulled out from the harbour, the boat lurched and suddenly the jetty next to where we had boarded crumpled and fell into the sea. It was followed by the watchtower and an electricity pole.

It was an extraordinary sight. Dozens of people standing alongside me watched open-mouthed.

Thankfully, the jetty was deserted at the time so there were no casualties. A boat was due to leave from there in half an hour but the travellers were yet to arrive.

A member of the boat’s crew told me it was an earthquake. At the time I didn’t know, but the 9.1 magnitude quake was the third most powerful ever recorded in the world – and remains the biggest and most destructive in Asia.

Occurring off the coast of northwest Sumatra under the Indian Ocean, it unleashed a devastating tsunami that killed an estimated 228,000 people across more than a dozen countries and caused massive damage in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and Thailand.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands, located just about 100km north of the epicentre, suffered extensive damage when a wall of water, as high as 15 metres (49 ft) in places, hit land just about 15 minutes later.

The official death toll was put at 1,310 – but with more than 5,600 people missing and presumed dead, it’s believed that more than 7,000 islanders perished.

While on the boat, however, we were oblivious to the scale of destruction around us. Our mobile phones didn’t work on the water and we only got snippets of information from the crew. We heard about damage in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Maldives – and the southern Indian coastal town of Nagapattinam.

But there was no information about Andaman and Nicobar – a collection of hundreds of islands scattered around in the Bay of Bengal, located about 1,500km (915 miles) east of India’s mainland.

Only 38 of them were inhabited. They were home to 400,000 people, including six hunter-gatherer groups who had lived isolated from the outside world for thousands of years.

The only way to get to the islands was by ferries but, as we later learnt, an estimated 94% of the jetties in the region were damaged.

That was also the reason why, on 26 December 2004, we never made it to Havelock. The jetty there was damaged and under water, we were told.

So the boat turned around and started on its return journey. For a while, there was speculation that we might not get clearance to dock at Port Blair for safety reasons and might have to spend the night at anchor.

This made the passengers – most of them tourists looking forward to sun and sand – anxious.

After several hours of bobbing along in rough seas, we returned to Port Blair. Because Phoenix Bay had been closed following the morning’s damage, we were taken to Chatham, another harbour in Port Blair. The jetty where we were dropped had huge, gaping holes in places.

The signs of devastation were all around us as we headed home – buildings had turned into rubble, small upturned boats sat in the middle of the streets and roads had great gashes in them. Thousands of people had been turned homeless when the tidal wave flooded their homes in low-lying areas.

I met a traumatised nine-year-old girl whose house was filled with water and she told me she had nearly drowned. A woman told me she had lost her entire life’s possessions in the blink of an eye.

Over the next three weeks, I reported extensively on the disaster and its effects on the population.

It was the first time a tsunami had wreaked such havoc in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the scale of the tragedy was overwhelming.

Salt water contaminated many sources of fresh water and destroyed large tracts of arable land. Getting vital supplies into the islands was tough with jetties unserviceable.

The authorities mounted a huge relief and rescue effort. The army, navy and air force were deployed, but it took days before they could get to all the islands.

Every day, navy and coast guard ships brought boatloads of people made homeless by the tsunami from other islands to Port Blair where schools and government buildings were turned into temporary shelters.

They brought stories of devastation in their homelands. Many told me they had escaped with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

One woman from Car Nicobar told me that when the earthquake struck, the ground started to spew foamy water at the same time as the waves came in from the sea.

She and hundreds of others from her village had waited for rescuers without food or water for 48 hours. She said it was a “miracle” that she and her 20-day-old baby had survived.

Port Blair was almost daily jolted by aftershocks, some of them strong enough to start rumours of fresh tsunamis, making scared people run to get to higher ground.

A few days later, the Indian military flew journalists to Car Nicobar, a flat fertile island known for its enchanting beaches and also home to a large Indian air force colony.

The killer tsunami had completely flattened the base. The water rose by 12 metres here and as most people slept, the ground was pulled away from under their feet. A hundred people died here. More than half were air force officers and their families.

We visited Malacca and Kaakan villages on the island which also bore the brunt of nature’s fury, forcing residents to take shelter in tents along the road. Among them were families torn apart by the tidal wave.

A grief-stricken young couple told me they had managed to save their five-month-old baby, but their other children, aged seven and 12, were washed away.

Surrounded by coconut palms on all sides, every house had turned into rubble. Among the personal belongings strewn about were clothes, textbooks, a child’s shoe and a music keyboard.

The only thing that stood – surprisingly intact – was a bust of the father of the Indian nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at a traffic roundabout.

A senior army officer told us his team had recovered seven bodies that day and we watched their mass cremation from a distance.

At the air force base, we watched as rescuers pulled a woman’s body from the debris.

An official said that for every body found in Car Nicobar, several had been swept away by the waves without leaving a trace.

After all these years, I still sometimes think about the day I hopped on the ferry to go to Havelock.

I wonder what would have happened if the tremors had come a few minutes earlier.

And what would have happened if the wall of water had hit the shore while I waited on the jetty to board our ferry?

On Boxing Day, 2004, I had a close call. Thousands who perished were not so lucky.

How well do you remember the stories and people in the news this year?

Test your memory of 2024 in our four-part Christmas quiz – 52 questions for 52 weeks of the year.

Part two covers April to June. Part three is on Saturday 28 December.

Room for some more? Part one covered January to March.

Or have a go at something from the archives.

Boxing Day, 2004.

When the earthquake struck at 06:30 (01:00 GMT), I was on a ferry, headed towards Havelock – an island in the Indian archipelago of Andaman and Nicobar.

Known for its silver sand and clear blue waters, the Radhanagar beach there had recently been crowned “Asia’s Best Beach” by Time magazine.

My best friend from college and her family had lived in Port Blair, the capital of the archipelago, for a decade and a half, but this was my first visit to the islands, where I had arrived on Christmas Eve.

We had planned to spend three days in Havelock and in the morning we packed snacks and sandwiches, gathered excited children and headed out to catch the ferry from Phoenix Bay jetty in Port Blair.

Not wanting to miss out on anything, I was standing on the front deck, looking around, when disaster struck.

Just as we pulled out from the harbour, the boat lurched and suddenly the jetty next to where we had boarded crumpled and fell into the sea. It was followed by the watchtower and an electricity pole.

It was an extraordinary sight. Dozens of people standing alongside me watched open-mouthed.

Thankfully, the jetty was deserted at the time so there were no casualties. A boat was due to leave from there in half an hour but the travellers were yet to arrive.

A member of the boat’s crew told me it was an earthquake. At the time I didn’t know, but the 9.1 magnitude quake was the third most powerful ever recorded in the world – and remains the biggest and most destructive in Asia.

Occurring off the coast of northwest Sumatra under the Indian Ocean, it unleashed a devastating tsunami that killed an estimated 228,000 people across more than a dozen countries and caused massive damage in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and Thailand.

The Andaman and Nicobar islands, located just about 100km north of the epicentre, suffered extensive damage when a wall of water, as high as 15 metres (49 ft) in places, hit land just about 15 minutes later.

The official death toll was put at 1,310 – but with more than 5,600 people missing and presumed dead, it’s believed that more than 7,000 islanders perished.

While on the boat, however, we were oblivious to the scale of destruction around us. Our mobile phones didn’t work on the water and we only got snippets of information from the crew. We heard about damage in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Maldives – and the southern Indian coastal town of Nagapattinam.

But there was no information about Andaman and Nicobar – a collection of hundreds of islands scattered around in the Bay of Bengal, located about 1,500km (915 miles) east of India’s mainland.

Only 38 of them were inhabited. They were home to 400,000 people, including six hunter-gatherer groups who had lived isolated from the outside world for thousands of years.

The only way to get to the islands was by ferries but, as we later learnt, an estimated 94% of the jetties in the region were damaged.

That was also the reason why, on 26 December 2004, we never made it to Havelock. The jetty there was damaged and under water, we were told.

So the boat turned around and started on its return journey. For a while, there was speculation that we might not get clearance to dock at Port Blair for safety reasons and might have to spend the night at anchor.

This made the passengers – most of them tourists looking forward to sun and sand – anxious.

After several hours of bobbing along in rough seas, we returned to Port Blair. Because Phoenix Bay had been closed following the morning’s damage, we were taken to Chatham, another harbour in Port Blair. The jetty where we were dropped had huge, gaping holes in places.

The signs of devastation were all around us as we headed home – buildings had turned into rubble, small upturned boats sat in the middle of the streets and roads had great gashes in them. Thousands of people had been turned homeless when the tidal wave flooded their homes in low-lying areas.

I met a traumatised nine-year-old girl whose house was filled with water and she told me she had nearly drowned. A woman told me she had lost her entire life’s possessions in the blink of an eye.

Over the next three weeks, I reported extensively on the disaster and its effects on the population.

It was the first time a tsunami had wreaked such havoc in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the scale of the tragedy was overwhelming.

Salt water contaminated many sources of fresh water and destroyed large tracts of arable land. Getting vital supplies into the islands was tough with jetties unserviceable.

The authorities mounted a huge relief and rescue effort. The army, navy and air force were deployed, but it took days before they could get to all the islands.

Every day, navy and coast guard ships brought boatloads of people made homeless by the tsunami from other islands to Port Blair where schools and government buildings were turned into temporary shelters.

They brought stories of devastation in their homelands. Many told me they had escaped with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

One woman from Car Nicobar told me that when the earthquake struck, the ground started to spew foamy water at the same time as the waves came in from the sea.

She and hundreds of others from her village had waited for rescuers without food or water for 48 hours. She said it was a “miracle” that she and her 20-day-old baby had survived.

Port Blair was almost daily jolted by aftershocks, some of them strong enough to start rumours of fresh tsunamis, making scared people run to get to higher ground.

A few days later, the Indian military flew journalists to Car Nicobar, a flat fertile island known for its enchanting beaches and also home to a large Indian air force colony.

The killer tsunami had completely flattened the base. The water rose by 12 metres here and as most people slept, the ground was pulled away from under their feet. A hundred people died here. More than half were air force officers and their families.

We visited Malacca and Kaakan villages on the island which also bore the brunt of nature’s fury, forcing residents to take shelter in tents along the road. Among them were families torn apart by the tidal wave.

A grief-stricken young couple told me they had managed to save their five-month-old baby, but their other children, aged seven and 12, were washed away.

Surrounded by coconut palms on all sides, every house had turned into rubble. Among the personal belongings strewn about were clothes, textbooks, a child’s shoe and a music keyboard.

The only thing that stood – surprisingly intact – was a bust of the father of the Indian nation, Mahatma Gandhi, at a traffic roundabout.

A senior army officer told us his team had recovered seven bodies that day and we watched their mass cremation from a distance.

At the air force base, we watched as rescuers pulled a woman’s body from the debris.

An official said that for every body found in Car Nicobar, several had been swept away by the waves without leaving a trace.

After all these years, I still sometimes think about the day I hopped on the ferry to go to Havelock.

I wonder what would have happened if the tremors had come a few minutes earlier.

And what would have happened if the wall of water had hit the shore while I waited on the jetty to board our ferry?

On Boxing Day, 2004, I had a close call. Thousands who perished were not so lucky.

In the vineyards of Bordeaux, the unspeakable has become the drinkable. Wine without alcohol has arrived.

The heresy of yesterday is now – thanks to science and economic crisis – the opportunity of today.

Wine estates which would have torched their grapes rather than submit to such ignominy, are now openly contemplating the booze-free bottle.

And developers are moving ahead fast, creating wines that are deliberately designed to get the best from the de-alcoholisation process.

“When we started a few years ago, what we were making was frankly rubbish,” says Bordeaux oenologist Frédéric Brochet, who has helped create the Moderato range of no-alcohol wines.

“But we have made great progress. And today we are getting nearer and nearer to our goal. I think it is going to be a revolution in the wine world.”

Bordeaux has just seen the launch of its first ever – wine shop – dedicated solely to no-alcohol wines, reflecting a shift in perceptions which has taken many in the industry by surprise.

“We only opened four weeks ago, and already we are getting wine-growers from the area coming in and asking about the non-alcohol market,” says Alexandre Kettaneh, who owns Les Belles Grappes with his wife Anne.

“They don’t know anything about how to do it, but they can see it is coming and want to be part of it.”

Several things have happened to make the moment opportune.

First of all, the French wine world is in deep difficulty. Domestic consumption continues to fall and the Chinese market is not what it was. US President-elect Donald Trump is threatening new levies. Prized ancient vineyards across France are being grubbed up.

Second, consumption habits are shifting, especially among the young. Supermarkets now give more space to beer than they do to wine. Most 20-somethings have never had the habit of wine – and they are also far more health-conscious than their elders.

The non-alcohol lifestyle is spreading. Currently 10% of the French beer market is alcohol-free. In Spain it is 25%.

And third – the technology has improved by leaps and bounds.

In the past – and still today for cheaper brands – the method has simply been to boil away the alcohol and then add compensatory flavours. The result – especially for reds – is at best mediocre. Such drinks cannot even call themselves wine, but “beverages based on de-alcoholised wine”.

Now though, there are new methods of low-temperature vacuum distillation, and of “capturing” aromas for putting back into the de-alcoholised wine. The result is wines that can legally call themselves wines, and are beginning to hold their own among discerning consumers.

“With reds, you need to be prepared for an experience which will not be the same as a traditional wine with alcohol. We cannot pretend we can replicate, yet, the full mouth-feel,” says Fabien Marchand-Cassagne of Moderato.

“But what you will get is a genuine wine moment. Bouquet, tannins, fruits, balance – it is all there to be enjoyed.”

At the Clos De Bouard estate near Saint-Emilion, fully a third of sales are now of the chateau’s two – soon to be three – non-alcoholic brands. Owner Coralie de Bouard first glimpsed the possibilities when she was asked in 2019 to develop a non-alcoholic wine for the Qatari owners of PSG football club.

“My family wouldn’t talk to me for a year, such was my ‘treason’. And even today I get hate mail from wine-growers saying I am ruining the market,” she says.

“But now my father congratulates me and says I am the locomotive in the wine train. And if we are surviving today in these difficult times, it is because we have shifted towards the no-alcohol market.”

“For the purists it’s been very difficult to accept,” says Bernard Rabouy, a wine-grower for the Bordeaux Families cooperative.

“But we have to evolve. The fact is that the customers aren’t where they used to be. So we have to go and get them or they will go somewhere else.”

Promoters of alcohol-free wine make much of the notion that it allows non-drinkers – who used to feel excluded – to join in the wine-banter. And it is true that the rituals of opening, sniffing, describing and comparing are now open to all.

“What we want to do is try to bring back the France of our youth – when everyone sat around the dinner table and drank wine, and it was a real moment of sharing,” says Anne Kattaneh.

“And these days the only way we are going to be able to do that is if non-alcoholic wines are part of the culture.”

“The idea that the wine world was always as it is now, is rubbish,” says oenologist Brochet.

“Things evolve. Once upon a time the barrel was an innovation. The cork was an innovation; grape varietals were an innovation. And now this is a new one – which could help save the industry and the wonderful landscape and culture that goes with it.

“As [poet] Paul Valery said – what is tradition, but an innovation that succeeded?”

Money, success, power, beauty – it often seems as if celebrities have everything they could possibly want.

So it’s just as well they also get tangled up in their fair share of mishaps, blunders and own goals every year.

Here’s a light-hearted look at some of 2024’s biggest flops and fails.

It was supposed to be a triumphant return, but critics and fans complained Katy Perry’s latest album 143 sounded dated and showed little artistic growth.

The music video for Woman’s World, which saw Perry join a group of dancers wearing tiny outfits on a construction site, was criticised for being regressive, although Perry later said it was supposed to be satirical.

Matters were only made worse when the singer attracted the attention of the Spanish government for shooting the video for follow-up single Lifetimes in ecologically-sensitive sand dunes in the Balearic Islands.

But many fans defended the album, which wasn’t as bad as some reviews made out, and Perry’s accompanying tour has been a huge success.

Making a sequel to 2019’s Joker, which grossed more than $1bn (£790m), was something Hollywood found simply irresistible.

Unfortunately, the resulting film, Joker: Folie à Deux, was something audiences found entirely resistible.

Making the film a musical was a bold swing, but the tonal handbrake turn alienated the fans and critics who adored the Oscar-winning original.

Folie à Deux managed to scrape over the $200m (£158m) mark, but that was barely enough to cover its production budget, let alone marketing costs.

It wasn’t the only movie flop of the year – audiences were also unenthusiastic about Madame Web, The Fall Guy, Kraven the Hunter, Megalopolis, Borderlands, Argylle, Unstoppable and Furiosa: A Mad Max Story.

Ticketmaster attracted a storm of controversy after making use of so-called “dynamic pricing” for UK dates on the Oasis reunion tour, which raised the cost of a ticket by £200 due to the predictable demand.

Charging fans £350 per ticket was a dubious PR move for a band famous for their working class roots, and the Gallagher brothers wisely distanced themselves from the strategy.

But Ticketmaster argued prices are set by artists and promoters. Dynamic pricing was later ditched for the band’s US tour dates.

Meanwhile, 50,000 fans who’d paid inflated prices on secondary platforms in order to secure tickets faced having them cancelled. A total omnishambles for everyone involved.

When BBC weather presenter Kawser Quamer was asked in February about her plans for the weekend, she cheerfully explained she was attending her niece’s surprise birthday party.

Host Annabel Tiffin said that all sounded very lovely, but presumably the party was no longer a surprise, having just been announced on live TV. “Oh goodness me,” replied an alarmed Quamer, “I’ve spoiled the surprise!”

The glorious mishap made its way across the Atlantic, going viral and featuring on Jimmy Kimmel Live.

But Quamer handled it beautifully, and even managed to convince her niece she was talking about a different relative, keeping the surprise element intact.

Chaos is a term which could be applied to a lot of entries in this list, but one of the biggest casualties of the year was Kaos itself.

Just a month after the first series of Jeff Goldblum’s Greek mythology drama was released, Netflix announced it would not return for a second.

Streamers can tell quickly if something is a hit or not by measuring viewing figures and completion rates. Their data even gives them the prospective ratings of the following months based on the first.

But although fans campaigned for its return, ultimately Kaos was Kancelled.

Manchester’s hottest new live venue finally opened this year, but only after several attempts. There was a string of cancellations due to various technical problems, including a ventilation unit falling from the ceiling.

Shows by Peter Kay, Olivia Rodrigo, Take That and others were cancelled or moved, before the venue finally opened with a successful concert from rock band Elbow.

The problems did at least bring one delightful moment: A Radio 4 newsreader announcing the delay of a gig by US rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie.

Flops don’t come much bigger than a debate performance which was so poor, it brought down an entire presidential campaign.

Joe Biden seemed distant and frail when he took part in a televised live debate in June, struggling to finish some of his sentences and keep pace with Donald Trump.

Biden tried to stay in the race, but the pressure on him became too high as figures including Democrat fundraiser George Clooney publicly called for him to stand down, leading to Kamala Harris replacing him as the candidate.

A barnstorming performance from Celine Dion sadly wasn’t enough to rescue this soggy croissant of an opening ceremony, which was badly hampered by rain.

Organisers took the event outside of the traditional stadium setting and had performers spread out across Paris instead, which was both a security nightmare and challenging for spectators.

The spread meant things felt somewhat disjointed and it was hard for the ceremony to build any momentum.

Meanwhile, some viewers were upset by a scene involving drag queens which many interpreted as a reference to the Last Supper, but artistic director Thomas Jolly said was a reference to pagan gods.

Hot on the heels of the disastrous Willy Wonka experience was an unofficial Bridgerton ball, where fans of the Netflix series were invited to dress up and “step into the enchanting world of the Regency era”.

Unfortunately, they were greeted with disappointing food and drab decor, with one violinist and a pole dancer for entertainment. Creators blamed “organisational challenges” and said they “sincerely apologised”.

We anticipate the event being eviscerated in Lady Whistledown’s next newsletter.

This year’s Eurovision Song Contest was, frankly, a disaster from start to finish.

A row about Israel’s participation prompted security concerns, put all the entrants in an awkward position and even led to the head of Eurovision being booed during the grand final.

Dutch singer Joost Klein was disqualified at the last minute due a backstage incident where a woman’s video camera was knocked to the ground.

Winner Nemo even accidentally broke the Eurovision trophy after placing it on stage, leaving the Swiss entrant with bandages after sustaining deep cuts to the thumb.

Host city Malmo said they would refuse to stage the event again if Sweden won, saying they wouldn’t have the “strength and stamina”.

And to top it all off, the UK languished in 18th place.

Laura Kuenssberg withdrew from an interview with Boris Johnson in October after mistakenly sending her briefing notes to the former prime minister himself, resulting in what she called a few “red faces”.

ITV took over and Johnson later told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Matt Chorley his originally scheduled interview had “blown up on the launch pad”.

Elsewhere, thousands of viewers complained to Ofcom in August when Home Secretary Yvette Cooper was interviewed on Good Morning Britain by her own husband, Ed Balls, about the violent unrest in parts of the UK.

ITV’s chief executive later noted it was a fluid news morning and the team had short notice that Cooper was coming on. She said the interview was impartial and fair but it wouldn’t happen again.

Another daytime presenter, Lorraine Kelly, became the subject of a viral X account which monitored her show attendance throughout the year (hovering just below 60%, if you’re interested).

Over on Strictly Come Dancing, which had already had a fairly appalling year before this series even started, fans were puzzled by some unusual on-screen encounters between singer Wynne Evans and his partner Katya Jones.

Viewers spotted Jones apparently refusing to high-five Evans, and later moving his hand away from her waist.

The show’s welfare team checked in on them after concerns were raised, but the pair apologised for what they said was actually just a “very silly inside joke” between them.

When Oppenheimer was named best film at February’s Baftas, the prize was collected by actor Cillian Murphy, director Christopher Nolan, producer Emma Thomas… and a random man standing silently in the background.

The intruder was actually YouTuber Lizwani, who managed to infiltrate the event and make it all the way to the stage during the night’s biggest moment.

But the fact he was standing quietly and respectfully meant few viewers even noticed anything was wrong. Bafta have since tightened security.

A month later, there was more awkwardness when Oppenheimer was named best picture at the Oscars, in an announcement fumbled by Al Pacino.

Pacino dispensed with the traditional “And the Oscar goes to…”

Instead, he stumbled through proceedings before announcing somewhat abruptly: “My eyes see Oppenheimer.”

There was a delayed reaction from the audience and orchestra, who weren’t entirely sure if Pacino was finished or if they had heard the winner correctly.

But Scarface redeemed himself later in the year by revealing his delightful Shrek phone cover, courtesy of his young daughter. All was forgiven.

When one fan affectionately edited a promotional poster for Wicked to resemble the musical’s original Broadway illustration, actress Cynthia Erivo said it erased her contribution to the film, because her eyes were hidden under her witch’s hat.

A barrage of memes followed as fans lightly poked fun at her reaction, with many social media users jokingly trying to avoid any further erasure by attaching pictures of Erivo to posts which had nothing to do with her.

The original fan clarified that the altered film promo was intended to be “an innocent fan edit to pay homage to the original Broadway poster”.

But Erivo handled the backlash like a pro, making light of the situation and telling ET: “For me it was just like a human moment of wanting to protect little Elphaba. I probably should have called my friends.”

When Rishi Sunak called a general election in May, the then-prime minister made the announcement outdoors despite it bucketing with rain.

Being in the open air also allowed an anti-Tory activist to disrupt the announcement by blasting music from a nearby speaker.

But Sunak gamely stuck it out, later commenting that he was “not a fair-weather politician” and confirming he’d be taking an umbrella on the campaign trail.

Live tours and concerts were disrupted this year for all kinds of reasons.

Jennifer Lopez cancelled her live shows after reports of poor ticket sales, although she said it was so she could spend time with family and friends.

Tenacious D’s tour fell apart after one member made some ill-advised comments about Donald Trump.

And Madonna’s fans became increasingly frustrated with her lateness.

Elsewhere, Adele repeatedly swore at an audience member in Las Vegas who she thought had shouted “Pride sucks”. It transpired the fan had actually shouted “work sucks” after the singer discussed her working week. Oops.

So fair play to Kate Nash for not only keeping her show on the road, but funding her tour by selling pictures of her bottom online, helpfully bringing publicity to the issues of high tour costs and poor streaming royalties in the process.

Inviting a stranger to stay in your home might seem like the opposite of a relaxing holiday, but for some travellers house exchanges are worth taking the leap of faith.

“It’s just like dating for homes,” Liz Barlow tells me.

Aged 70, the semi-retired management consultant has 31 home swaps under her belt and estimates she has saved more than £20,000 by staying in other people’s homes free of charge.

She and her husband Ivan Greenaway, 72, first began swapping their home in 2015 – but not without reservations.

Liz distinctively remembers thinking: “Will someone wreck my home? Steal my things?

“It’s a big thing to begin with, until you’ve done it.”

Their first swap took the couple to a detached bungalow in Australia, before a trip to South Africa, where they stayed in a clifftop house full of quirky wooden furniture.

But it is a house nestled in the middle of an Alaskan forest that Liz, from North Yorkshire, still dreams about.

“It was just stunning sitting on the deck, looking out at the trees,” she says.

“The two weeks we had, they had a heatwave.

“We went to the local state fair, the rodeo and, on my birthday, we went walking with reindeer – it was fantastic.”

For Liz and Ivan, swapping homes means immersing themselves in someone else’s way of life, something that can come with some unusual requests.

“When we stayed in Alaska, the [homeowner] told us what she wanted us to save if there was an earthquake,” Liz recalls.

“It wasn’t her family pictures, it wasn’t her jewellery, it was her quilting.”

The idea of home exchanges dates back to the 1950s, when teachers began looking for options to travel cheaply during their summer breaks, but for most people it was the 2006 rom-com The Holiday that brought it to the public’s attention.

It was the story of Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet swapping homes for the festive season that inspired Rebecca Pyatt to take the leap while she was teaching in the Seychelles in 2017.

“It just gives you a taste of going on holiday but experiencing other people’s lives and culture,” the 35-year-old says.

“You can go to hotels in Paris and Rome but it’s a bit artificial and you don’t really get to experience what it’s like living there.”

Rebecca managed to capture some of that Hollywood magic herself when she and her friends stayed in the same home used by cast members during the filming of the James Bond film Spectre in Mexico.

“It was a huge house, right on the beach and it had an infinity pool and its own chef,” Rebecca, who lives in Honley, West Yorkshire, says.

“It was incredible. The master bedroom was absolutely enormous and had a balcony and an open plan bathroom, you could see over the sea.”

Unlike with Airbnb, she says the process to actually start swapping is much slower, with a lot of time dedicated to building a profile.

“You’ll get more offers once you’ve been on the platform for longer,” she says.

“You can’t just book because someone has availability, everyone is within their rights to say no.”

While she has not had any negative experiences, Rebecca says there is always a risk of exchanges falling through last-minute.

Websites such as HomeExchange often offer members assistance with replacement exchanges or alternative accommodation if things do not go to plan.

Like many other travel firms, the company has seen an increase in business since the end of pandemic restrictions and now has 200,000 active members globally of which 5,600 are UK-based.

Public relations manager Jessica Poillucci said: “When travel returned we saw more and more people turning to home swapping.

“The cost of living crisis and inflation made travel feel unaffordable, and we saw a shift from Instagram-centred travel to people wanting to experience places like locals, home swapping offered a perfect solution.”

For people like Liz and Rebecca, home exchanges are based on mutual trust and “believing in the goodness of people”.

Rebecca says she is not concerned about theft or damage as “the benefits outweigh the risks”.

“The amount of money we save is probably a lot more than we would have to spend on repairs,” she says.

“I don’t have anything particularly sentimental, it’s all materialistic, it can be replaced when it gets broken.”

However, Charlotte Hindle, who runs travel media firm North East South West together with journalist Simon Calder, says home exchanges are her “idea of a nightmare”.

“It’s really hard inviting somebody into your home,” she says.

“I find it much better in terms of Airbnb, it’s a separate room or property that you can control and it doesn’t have your personal things around.”

To make the process smoother and safer, she advises people take stock of items within a home and consider insurance policies and risks.

“You don’t want to be in a situation where you are accused of taking something,” she says.

“If you didn’t know the people, you’d have to look at all the checks and balances in terms of safety.

“When was their boiler last serviced? Or when were their electrics portable appliance tested (PAT)?

“If it’s just your personal home you can sometimes let these things slide.”

Unlike simply booking a hotel room with a few clicks, home exchanges can be quite labour intensive, according to photographer Kate Abby.

“It does involve a lot of work leading up to it, such as extra cleaning beyond what you would normally do,” Kate, who lives in Pateley Bridge, near Ripon, says.

“When you go on holiday you can just shut your door and leave your bed unmade.”

But, the 53-year-old says, compared to more conventional travel methods, home exchanges give her family the opportunity to divert from more typical holiday destinations.

“Sometimes we go to places we wouldn’t have necessarily gone to because you are limited by choice,” she says.

“We went to a valley in the North York Moors, which isn’t far from where I live, and I’d never been and I wouldn’t have chosen it, but it was very lovely.”

Home exchanges may not be for everyone but for avid swappers like Kate, Rebecca and Liz, they offer a chance to go on holidays they would not be able to afford otherwise.

“We’ve been to see the brown bears fishing the salmon out of a river in Alaska, we saw beluga whales in Hudson Bay, Canada,” Liz says.

“We’ve had some fantastic experiences.”

A pistol, rifle and deactivated World War One machine gun were among the items lost or stolen from Ministry of Defence facilities over the past two years.

Figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats show more than 700 phones, laptops, computers and USB sticks also went missing over the period.

The party’s defence spokesperson Helen Maguire said the losses were “deeply concerning”, especially “at this time of heightened global security tensions”.

The government said it has “robust policies and procedures to prevent losses and thefts”.

The number of firearms lost or stolen from MoD facilities in 2023, under the previous Conservative government, were revealed in response to a written parliamentary question by the Lib Dems.

A deactivated World War Two Luger Pistol and Sten submachine gun were both lost in June 2023.

In July 2023 an SA80 rife was also lost, along with a deactivated World War One German machine gun the following month, although both have subsequently been found.

Meanwhile, a Glock 19 Pistol was stolen in December 2023.

In his response, Minister for the Armed Forces Luke Pollard said the security of firearms was taken “very seriously” by the department, with all losses and thefts “fully and rigorously investigated”.

Figures for firearms which have been lost or stolen in 2024 are not available.

The number of phones which have gone missing from the department has risen from 101 in 2023 to 159 in 2024, while for USB sticks the figure was 20 in 2023 and 125 in 2024.

However, the number of laptops lost or stolen has fallen from 176 in 2023 to 138 in 2024.

Some 25 computers were also lost or stolen in the past year.

The government said proportionate security controls were used to protect electronic devices according to the nature of information they can hold.

The Lib Dems called for an urgent inquiry into how the items were misplaced and what was being done to reduce losses and thefts.

Maguire said: “The government is more butterfingered than Goldfinger when it comes to national security.

“The loss of these crucial resources is deeply concerning – especially at this time of heightened global security tensions.

“Sensitive national safety information may end up in the wrong hands, while precious public money is spent on replacements in the meantime. And the theft of dangerous weapons should seriously raise alarm bells when it comes to security.”

An MoD spokesperson said: “We take the security of defence assets extremely seriously and have robust policies and procedures to prevent losses and thefts.

“If any assets are reported lost or missing due to suspected criminal activity, we take the necessary steps to investigate, prosecute and recover the items.”

A court in Turkey has sentenced the owner and architect of a hotel which collapsed in an earthquake in 2023, killing 72 people, to jail.

The owner of the Isias Grand, Ahmet Bozkurt, and architect Erdem Yilmaz, were each given 18 years and five months, the official Anadolu news agency reported. Bozkurt’s son, Mehmet Fatih, was sentenced to 17 years and four months, it said.

The hotel, in the south-eastern city of Adiyaman, was hosting a school volleyball team from Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus and a group of tourist guides when the quake hit last February.

The three men were convicted of “causing the death or injury of more than one person through conscious negligence”, Anadolou said.

Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Unal Ustel said the sentences were too lenient and that authorities would appeal, AFP new agency reported.

“Hotel owners did not get the punishment we had expected,” Ustel said. “But despite that, everyone from those responsible in the hotel’s construction to the architect was sentenced. That made us partially happy.”

More than 50,000 people died in Turkey and Syria in the quake on 6 February 2023.

Some 160,000 buildings collapsed or were badly damaged, leaving 1.5 million people homeless.

The Turkish government said a few weeks later that hundreds of people were under investigation and nearly 200 people had been arrested, including construction contractors and property owners.

A group of 39 people, including boys and girls, teachers and parents from Famagusta Turkish Education College, had travelled to Adiyaman for a volleyball tournament when the earthquake struck.

Four parents were the only survivors among them. They managed to dig themselves out of the rubble, while 35 others including all the children were killed.

The volleyball group had picked the seven-storey Isias Grand, along with as many as 40 tourist guides who were there for training.

It was one of Adiyaman’s best-known hotels but it collapsed in moments.

The Isias had been operating since 2001 but, according to scientific analysis, gravel and sand from the local river had been mixed with other construction materials to form the columns supporting the building.

The sheer scale of building collapses in the earthquake prompted widespread criticism of the Turkish government for encouraging a construction boom while failing to enforce building regulations, which had been tightened after earlier disasters.

Pope Francis has called for negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to end the war triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In his traditional Christmas Day address, the Pope said “boldness [was] needed to open the door” to dialogue “in order to achieve a just and lasting peace” between the two sides.

His appeal followed a major Russian attack the same day on Ukraine’s energy facilities, which Ukraine said involved at least 184 missiles and drones.

Earlier this year, Ukraine strongly rejected a call by the pontiff for Kyiv to negotiate an end to the war and have “the courage to raise the white flag”.

His Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) message also touched on other conflicts.

Speaking to thousands of people gathered in St Peter’s Square, the 88-year-old Pope declared: “May the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine,” and beyond.

“I invite every individual, and all people of all nations… to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions,” he said.

Reiterating the Christmas Day message he delivered last year, Pope Francis also called for a ceasefire in Gaza and the freeing of hostages held by Hamas.

“I think of the Christian communities in Israel and Palestine, particularly in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave,” he said.

He asked that “the doors of dialogue and peace be flung open”.

The war in Gaza began after the territory’s Hamas rulers attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. Gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took another 251 back to Gaza as hostages. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s offensive, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry says.

Earlier this week, the Pope twice described Israel’s attacks as “cruelty”, earning a sharp rebuke from Israel which called the remarks “particularly disappointing”.

Pope Francis also said his thoughts were with the Christian communities in Lebanon and Syria, where rebels recently overthrew Syrian President Bashar al-Assad after 24 years in power. Syria’s Christian population has dwindled since the start of the war in 2011, and reports suggest it now stands at a fraction of its pre-war total of approximately 1.5 million.

Syria’s minorities have expressed fear about their future in the country since Islamist rebels took over – though the leading rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, has said all faiths will be protected.

The little town of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank has good reason to consider itself the capital of Christmas but this year it does not feel like it.

There are very few visitors at what is typically a peak time. There are not the usual cheerful street decorations nor the giant Christmas tree in front of the Nativity Church, built over the spot where it is believed that Jesus was born.

Public celebrations of Christmas have been cancelled for a second year because of the war in Gaza. Palestinian Christians are only attending religious ceremonies and family gatherings.

“This should be a time of joy and celebration,” comments Reverend Dr Munther Isaac, a local Lutheran pastor. “But Bethlehem is a sad town in solidarity with our siblings in Gaza.”

At his church, the Nativity scene shows baby Jesus lying in a pile of rubble. In the run-up to Christmas, a prayer service focused on the catastrophic situation in Gaza.

“It’s hard to believe that another Christmas has come upon us and the genocide has not stopped,” Isaac said in his strongly worded sermon. “Decision makers are content to let this continue. To them, Palestinians are dispensable.”

Israel strongly denies accusations of genocide in Gaza and judges at the UN’s top court have yet to rule in a case alleging genocide, brought by South Africa.

Many Bethlehemite Christians I meet feel despair and question what they see as the failure of other Christian communities around the world to speak out.

Close ties between members of the tiny Palestinian Christian community mean many locals have families and friends in Gaza.

“My mum told me that what we see on television doesn’t capture one per cent of what’s happening,” says theologian, Dr Yousef Khouri, who is originally from Gaza City.

His parents and sister are among a few hundred Christians who have spent much of the past 14 months sheltering in two Gazan churches.

“They are subjected like the entire Gaza strip to starvation. Of course, almost non-sleep because of bombardment, because of all the drones hovering above their heads and the lack of medical attention and services,” he says.

“We’ve lost friends and relatives.”

In Gaza, more than 45,000 people have been killed in the war that was unleashed in response to the Hamas attacks on southern Israel. Figures come from the Hamas-run health ministry but are considered reliable by the UN and others. The assault on 7 October 2023 killed some 1,200 people – Israelis and some foreigners – and led to about 250 being taken hostage.

Tensions have risen in the West Bank in parallel to the war. Israel has imposed new restrictions on Palestinians’ movements and cancelled tens of thousands of permits for workers who used to cross into Jerusalem or Jewish settlements each day.

The economy is in dire straits especially in Bethlehem, which relies heavily on tourism which has almost entirely stopped. Guides stand idly by the Nativity Church, feeding the pigeons.

“If there [are] tourists, all the people will work: hotels, transportation, accommodation, all of them,” says one guide, Abdullah. “But [if] there [are] no tourists, there is no life in Bethlehem city.”

“I am broke! No business! For more than one year we stay home,” exclaims Adnan Subah, a souvenir seller on Star Street.

“My son is a tour guide in the church, we stay home, all my kids stay. No jobs, no business, no tourists.”

Many local Christian and Muslim families have emigrated in the past year. With the constant threat of violence and expansion of settlements on lands where Palestinians have long sought an independent state of their own, there is increased fear and uncertainty over the future.

But a community group in Bethlehem is trying to make a difference: packing up food parcels for those in need. There is no governmental assistance here, and volunteers have been collecting donations – including from those in the diaspora.

“As you know Christmas is the spirit of giving and love and joy. And we hope with this parcel we can give some hope and joy to the families in our area,” says Wael Shaer, the head of the Palestine Lions Club.

I follow Wael making his first delivery to a woman living in an apartment nearby. Her husband is sick and out of work. She gratefully opens the box of supplies that she is given and takes an envelope of cash.

She and Wael exchange a customary holiday greeting wishing each other a peaceful year ahead.

“Mission accomplished!” Wael tells me as we head off.

“Spreading a little cheer at Christmas.”

A suspect accused of killing a woman by setting her on fire on a subway train has been charged with murder in a New York court.

Sebastian Zapeta allegedly set the unidentified woman’s clothes on fire, and then fanned the flames by waving a shirt around her, which caused the flames to fully engulf her, according to the criminal complaint.

The 33-year-old faces charges of first and second degree murder, as well as arson for the attack on Monday. He will remain in custody until his next court appearance on Friday.

Wearing a white jumpsuit over a black hooded sweatshirt, Mr Zapeta did not speak when he was formally charged in court on Tuesday.

The suspect’s attorney did not speak to reporters after the arraignment.

Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described Sunday’s incident as “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being”.

She said the woman was on a stationary F train in Brooklyn when she was approached by a man who used a lighter to ignite her clothing – which became “fully engulfed in a matter of seconds”.

Although officers extinguished the flames, the victim died at the scene.

Officials say they have police body camera footage and surveillance footage from inside the subway as well as witness statements.

Officers said the woman, who they have not named, was in a subway carriage at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station at about 07:30 local time (12:30 GMT) when the man approached her.

The victim was “motionless” when she was set on fire, but detectives were still establishing whether or not she was asleep. “We’re not 100% sure,” said the NYPD’s Joseph Gulotta.

There was no interaction between the pair before the attack, Mr Gulotta said, adding that police did not believe they knew each other.

Describing how police were alerted to the incident, Ms Tisch said: “Officers were on patrol on an upper level of that station, smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate”.

“What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames.”

An immigration official said that Mr Zapeta entered the US illegally in 2018 and was detained and deported. The official said he subsequently unlawfully re-entered the US.

The man got off the train as police officers on patrol in the station rushed to the fire, but he did not flee immediately.

“Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car,” Ms Tisch said.

She explained that police were therefore able to obtain “very clear, detailed” pictures of him from the responding officers’ body worn cameras. The images were circulated by the New York Police Department (NYPD).

Later, three high school-aged New Yorkers called 911 to report they had recognised the suspect on another subway train, Ms Tisch told reporters.

The man was located after officers boarded the train and walked through the carriages.

He was arrested at Herald Square station – which is located near the Empire State Building in Manhattan. He was found with a lighter in his pocket, Ms Tisch said.

“I want to thank the young people who called 911 to help,” Ms Tisch added. “They saw something, they said something and they did something.”

A biodiversity hotspot in a remote part of South Africa has become the hub of an illegal trade in protected plant species, with organised crime groups capitalising on overseas demand.

“They’ve not just stolen our land or our plants, they’ve stolen our heritage as well,” a livestock farmer angrily tells the BBC, as she expresses dismay at the social and ecological crisis that the poaching has caused.

Most of the plants in question are a variety known as succulents, named for their ability to hold water and survive in arid climates.

Many of the world’s succulent species are only found in the Succulent Karoo desert, which spans South Africa and Namibia.

Succulent species range in size, shape and colour – some look like small multi-coloured buttons and some look like cacti, sprouting colourful flowers at certain times of the year.

While these varieties can be cultivated in nurseries, global demand is also fuelling the poaching of these plants from the wild which are then smuggled and sold online to buyers in the US, Europe and East Asia.

In Kamieskroon, a small town in the centre of South Africa’s Namaqualand region, the rolling hills have become a haven for poachers.

Some of the species are highly localised, and so can be wiped out by just a small amount of poaching.

“In South Africa, we know already of seven species that has been wiped out completely and there are certainly more species that will go extinct very soon,” says Pieter van Wyk, a nursery curator at the /Ai /Ais-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park.

It is hard to obtain figures for how many plants are being poached, but the non-governmental organisation Traffic reports that 1.6 million illegally harvested succulents were seized by South Africa’s law enforcement agencies between 2019 and 2024. This only represents the contraband that was detected, so the true figure is likely to be far higher.

The South African government is well aware of the problem, and unveiled a strategy in 2022 to combat poaching. It includes running community programmes about the need to protect the environment.

According to Mr Van Wyk and other conservationists, plant poaching has been booming since the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020.

With international traders unable to travel to South Africa during that time, they turned to local people to collect succulents for them and post them out of the country.

Mr Van Wyk says this coincided with an increase in global demand.

“People had more time to try to find something to keep busy with, and plants were one of the only things that in your house, could connect you to the outside world.”

This has been seized upon by organised crime syndicates who hire teams of plant poachers and then market the wild plants on social media and e-commerce platforms.

“The syndicates saw this as an opportunity of making something viral… telling a wide as possible public: ‘We have this super-strange looking thing that comes from the African continent’,'” Mr Van Wyk says.

“Then the public just loses their heads and they say: ‘I want to buy one’, and [the syndicates] arrange for the species to be poached,” he adds.

The uptick in organised crime activity in the region is having knock-on effects on local communities.

“This is a low-income area, people are not rich here, and people will exploit opportunities for income,” explains Malinda Gardiner from Conservation South Africa.

Expressing a similar view, the livestock farmer whom the BBC spoke to says there is always an influx of money in her community when poaching takes place.

“When we see young men going up in the mountain areas, we know they’re poachers,” adds the farmer, who asks not to be identified for fear of reprisals.

“They use screwdrivers to uproot the succulents and they carry backpacks and sacks to keep the stolen plants.”

A few days after that, there is an outbreak of binge drinking and illegal activity.

“When they get the money, there’s more drugs, more alcohol, children are neglected because mummy is drunk, daddy is drunk, there’s no food,” adds the farmer.

Ms Gardiner worries that the tensions will have longer-term effects.

“Small communities here really need each other… but this brings distrust. It brings a split in the communities as well,” she says.

Mr Van Wyk’s assessment is starker: “People are being abused and enslaved by syndicates and buyers.”

Attempts are being made to raise awareness among buyers about the importance of understanding where a plant might have come from.

China has become a major source of demand for wild succulents in the last few years, but an internet campaign there to educate people about the illegal succulent trade has seen some results.

The Clean Internet for Conophytum campaign was launched in March 2023 by the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation.

According to the foundation’s deputy secretary-general Linda Wong, they have seen an 80% reduction in online adverts for conophytum – a type of succulent – with an unknown source, and buyers are starting to ask questions about where plants being sold online have come from.

“The key is awareness. Once people know, they want to take action. They want to take responsibility to consume those plants and enjoy their beauty in a very responsible way,” she tells the BBC.

Conservationists advise customers all over the world to ask about the origin of a plant, and under no circumstances should they buy those advertised as wild.

Traffic and the UK’s Kew Gardens recently announced that they were teaming up with eBay to develop new ways of preventing the sale of wild succulents on its platform.

In South Africa, Mr Van Wyk says more should be done to promote the cultivation of succulents that can be grown and harvested legally, to reduce the demand for poaching.

“We as a country need to say that: ‘We have this resource, and there are other countries that are majorly benefiting from this, why aren’t we?'” he tells the BBC.

Mr Van Wyk now runs a nursery at the /Ai /Ais-Richtersveld Transfrontier Park which looks after plants that have been confiscated by law enforcement, and he says they have received more than 200,000 so far.

“It’s obviously stressful seeing things disappearing. But if you study these plants, it brings so much joy and pleasure and you just forget about all the nonsense that’s happening in the world,” Mr Van Wyk says.

• Rare plants hidden in toys – and other trafficking tactics
• Inside South Africa’s ‘ruthless’ gang-controlled gold mines
• Young workers drive South Africa’s video games industry
• Why South Africans are flocking to a Chinese hospital ship

At least three people died when armed men in Haiti opened fire at journalists, police and medical staff during a briefing to announce the reopening of the country’s biggest public hospital.

Two journalists and a police officer were reportedly shot dead, while others were wounded in Tuesday’s attack in the general hospital in the capital Port-au-Prince.

The site had been recaptured by Haiti’s government in July, after being occupied and destroyed by gangs.

The Viv Ansanm gang alliance, which controls much of the city, has owned up to the attack.

Pictures posted online appear to show several people injured or dead inside the building.

Journalists were waiting for the arrival of Health Minister Lorthe Blema when the shooting began.

Journalists Markenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean were killed during the attack, Robest Dimanche, spokesman for the Online Media Collective, told AFP news agency.

Other journalists were wounded, he added.

An officer was also killed, police spokesman Lionel Lazarre told AFP.

“It felt like a terrible movie,” Dieugo André, a photojournalist who witnessed the violence, was quoted as saying by The Haitian Times.

“I have the blood of several injured journalists on my clothes.”

In an online video claiming the attack, the Viv Ansanm gang alliance said it had not authorised the reopening of the hospital, which they occupied and destroyed in March.

The head of Haiti’s presidential transitional council, Leslie Voltaire, said: “We express our sympathy to all the victims’ families, in particularly to the Haiti National Police and all the journalists’ associations.

“We guarantee them that this act will not remain without consequences.”

People in Haiti continue to suffer with unbearable levels of gang violence, despite the installation of a new transition government in April and the deployment of an international force led by Kenyan police officers six months ago.

Haiti has been engulfed in a wave of gang violence since the assassination in 2021 of the then-president, Jovenel Moïse.

An estimated 85% of Port-au-Prince is still under gang control.

The UN says that as many as 5,000 people have been killed in violence in Haiti this year alone, and the country is now on the verge of collapse.

A court in Turkey has sentenced the owner and architect of a hotel which collapsed in an earthquake in 2023, killing 72 people, to jail.

The owner of the Isias Grand, Ahmet Bozkurt, and architect Erdem Yilmaz, were each given 18 years and five months, the official Anadolu news agency reported. Bozkurt’s son, Mehmet Fatih, was sentenced to 17 years and four months, it said.

The hotel, in the south-eastern city of Adiyaman, was hosting a school volleyball team from Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus and a group of tourist guides when the quake hit last February.

The three men were convicted of “causing the death or injury of more than one person through conscious negligence”, Anadolou said.

Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Unal Ustel said the sentences were too lenient and that authorities would appeal, AFP new agency reported.

“Hotel owners did not get the punishment we had expected,” Ustel said. “But despite that, everyone from those responsible in the hotel’s construction to the architect was sentenced. That made us partially happy.”

More than 50,000 people died in Turkey and Syria in the quake on 6 February 2023.

Some 160,000 buildings collapsed or were badly damaged, leaving 1.5 million people homeless.

The Turkish government said a few weeks later that hundreds of people were under investigation and nearly 200 people had been arrested, including construction contractors and property owners.

A group of 39 people, including boys and girls, teachers and parents from Famagusta Turkish Education College, had travelled to Adiyaman for a volleyball tournament when the earthquake struck.

Four parents were the only survivors among them. They managed to dig themselves out of the rubble, while 35 others including all the children were killed.

The volleyball group had picked the seven-storey Isias Grand, along with as many as 40 tourist guides who were there for training.

It was one of Adiyaman’s best-known hotels but it collapsed in moments.

The Isias had been operating since 2001 but, according to scientific analysis, gravel and sand from the local river had been mixed with other construction materials to form the columns supporting the building.

The sheer scale of building collapses in the earthquake prompted widespread criticism of the Turkish government for encouraging a construction boom while failing to enforce building regulations, which had been tightened after earlier disasters.

Former Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh has died at the age of 92.

Singh was one of India’s longest-serving prime ministers and he was considered the architect of key liberalising economic reforms, as premier from 2004-2014 and before that as finance minister.

He had been admitted to a hospital in the capital Delhi after his health condition deteriorated, reports say.

Among those who paid tribute to Singh on Thursday were Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who wrote on social media that “India mourns the loss of one of its most distinguished leaders”.

Modi said that Singh’s “wisdom and humility were always visible” during their interactions and that he had “made extensive efforts to improve people’s lives” during his time as prime minister.

Priyanka Gandhi, the daughter of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and a Congress party member, said that Singh was “genuinely egalitarian, wise, strong-willed and courageous until the end”.

Her brother Rahul, who leads Congress, said he had “lost a mentor and guide”.

Singh was the first Indian leader since Jawaharlal Nehru to be re-elected after serving a full first term, and the first Sikh to hold the country’s top post. He made a public apology in parliament for the 1984 riots in which some 3,000 Sikhs were killed.

But his second term in office was marred by a string of corruption allegations that dogged his administration. The scandals, many say, were partially responsible for his Congress party’s crushing defeat in the 2014 general election.

Singh was born on 26 September 1932, in a desolate village in the Punjab province of undivided India, which lacked both water and electricity.

After attending Panjab University he took a master’s degree at the University of Cambridge and then a DPhil at Oxford.

While studying at Cambridge, the lack of funds bothered Singh, his daughter, Daman Singh, wrote in a book on her parents.

“His tuition and living expenses came to about £600 a year. The Panjab University scholarship gave him about £160. For the rest he had to depend on his father. Manmohan was careful to live very stingily. Subsidised meals in the dining hall were relatively cheap at two shillings sixpence.”

Daman Singh remembered her father as “completely helpless about the house and could neither boil an egg, nor switch on the television”.

Singh rose to political prominence as India’s finance minister in 1991, taking over as the country was plunging into bankruptcy.

His unexpected appointment capped a long and illustrious career as an academic and civil servant – he served as an economic adviser to the government, and became the governor of India’s central bank.

In his maiden speech as finance minister he famously quoted Victor Hugo, saying that “no power on Earth can stop an idea whose time has come”.

That served as a launchpad for an ambitious and unprecedented economic reform programme: he cut taxes, devalued the rupee, privatised state-run companies and encouraged foreign investment.

The economy revived, industry picked up, inflation was checked and growth rates remained consistently high in the 1990s.

Manmohan Singh was a man acutely aware of his lack of a political base. “It is nice to be a statesman, but in order to be a statesman in a democracy you first have to win elections,” he once said.

When he tried to win election to India’s lower house in 1999, he was defeated. He sat instead in the upper house, chosen by his own Congress party.

The same happened in 2004, when Singh was first appointed prime minister after Congress president Sonia Gandhi turned down the post – apparently to protect the party from damaging attacks over her Italian origins. Critics however alleged that Sonia Gandhi was the real source of power while he was prime minister, and that he was never truly in charge.

The biggest triumph during his first five-year term was to bring India out of nuclear isolation by signing a landmark deal securing access to American nuclear technology.

But the deal came at a price – the government’s Communist allies withdrew support after protesting against it, and Congress had to make up lost numbers by enlisting the support of another party amid charges of vote-buying.

A consensus builder, Singh presided over a coalition of sometimes difficult, assertive and potentially unruly regional coalition allies and supporters.

Although he earned respect for his integrity and intelligence, he also had a reputation for being soft and indecisive. Some critics claimed that the pace of reform slowed and he failed to achieve the same momentum he had while finance minister.

When Singh guided Congress to a second, decisive election victory in 2009, he vowed that the party would “rise to the occasion”.

But the gloss soon began to wear off and his second term was in the news mostly for all the wrong reasons: several scandals involving his cabinet ministers which allegedly cost the country billions of dollars, a parliament stalled by the opposition, and a huge policy paralysis that resulted in a serious economic downturn.

LK Advani, a senior leader in the rival BJP party, called Singh India’s “weakest prime minister”.

Manmohan Singh defended his record, saying his government had worked with “utmost commitment and dedication for the country and the welfare of its people”.

Singh adopted the pragmatic foreign policies pursued by his two predecessors.

He continued the peace process with Pakistan – though this process was hampered by attacks blamed on Pakistani militants, culminating in the Mumbai gun and bomb attack of November 2008.

He tried to end the border dispute with China, brokering a deal to reopen the Nathu La pass into Tibet which had been closed for more than 40 years.

Singh increased financial support for Afghanistan and became the first Indian leader to visit the country for nearly 30 years.

He also angered many opposition politicians by appearing to end relations with India’s old ally, Iran.

A studious former academic and bureaucrat, he was known for being self-effacing and always kept a low profile. His social media account was noted mostly for dull entries and had a limited number of followers.

A man of few words, his calm demeanour nevertheless won him many admirers.

Responding to questions on a coal scandal involving the illegal allocation of licences worth billions of dollars, he defended his silence on the issue by saying it was “better than thousands of answers”.

In 2015 he was summoned to appear in court to answer allegations of criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and corruption related offences. An upset Singh told reporters that he was “open for legal scrutiny” and that the “truth will prevail”.

After his time as premier, Singh remained deeply engaged with the issues of the day as a senior leader of the main opposition Congress party despite his advancing age.

In August 2020, he told the BBC in a rare interview that India needed to take three steps “immediately” to stem the economic damage of the coronavirus pandemic, which had sent the country’s economy into a recession.

The government needed to provide direct cash assistance to people, make capital available for businesses, and fix the financial sector, he said.

History will remember Singh for bringing India out of economic and nuclear isolation, although some historians may suggest he should have retired earlier.

“I honestly believe that history will be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter, the opposition parties in parliament,” he told an interviewer in 2014.

Singh is survived by his wife and three daughters.

The Russian government has cautioned against promoting “hypotheses” about the cause of the crash of a Russia-bound passenger plane that killed 38 people in Kazakhstan on Wednesday.

Some aviation experts suggested that the Azerbaijan Airlines plane had been hit by air defence systems over the Russian republic of Chechnya and pro-government media in Azerbaijan quote officials as saying a Russian missile was responsible.

Before it went down near the Kazakh city of Aktau, the plane was diverted across the Caspian Sea, from its destination in Chechnya to western Kazakhstan.

Twenty nine of the 67 people on board survived. Azerbaijan held a national day of mourning on Thursday for the victims of the crash.

“This is a great tragedy that has become a tremendous sorrow for the Azerbaijani people,” President Ilham Aliyev said on Thursday.

In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “It would be wrong to put forward any hypotheses before the investigation’s conclusions. We, of course, will not do this, and no-one should do this. We need to wait until the investigation is completed.”

The chief prosecutor in Kazakhstan said later that the investigation had not yet come to any conclusions.

But some commentators in Azerbaijani media say that Azerbaijan expects Russia to admit shooting down the plane.

Several TV channels, which are under strict control of the Azerbaijani government, on Thursday started broadcasting interviews with experts who have openly spoken about the possibility that Russia was responsible.

AnewZ channel said a preliminary investigation had concluded that the plane had been hit by shrapnel from a surface-to-air missile from Russia’s Pantsir-S defence system.

Another pro-government website, Caliber, quoted government sources as saying that no-one was claiming the plane had come under attack intentionally, but that Baku expected an apology from Russia.

When asked about the reports, the chief prosecutor’s office in Baku told the BBC that every version was being investigated.

As they try to avoid annoying Russian President Vladimir Putin, it will be very difficult for the Azerbaijani government to blame Russia directly unless it admits to shooting down the plane.

It seems that the investigation committee comprised of Azerbaijani and Kazakh officials possibly already have evidence for this, but they are waiting for Russia to announce it first.

Moscow will then have to answer questions such as why Russia did not close its airspace if there was military activity, and why it did not let the plane land as soon as possible – instead of directing it towards Aktau for landing.

The Embraer 190 aircraft took off from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on Wednesday morning. It was due to fly to Grozny in Chechnya but it was diverted because of fog, the airline said.

A surviving passenger told Russian TV he believed the pilot had tried twice to land in dense fog over Grozny before “the third time, something exploded… some of the aircraft skin had blown out”.

The plane was redirected to Aktau airport, some 450km (280 miles) to the east. Footage shows the aircraft heading towards the ground at high speed 3km (1.9 miles) short of the runway, before bursting into flames as it lands.

Kazakh authorities have recovered the flight data recorder and an investigation is under way. Shortly after the crash, reports from Russian state-controlled TV said the most likely cause was a strike from a flock of birds.

But that kind of collision typically results in the plane gliding towards the nearest airfield, aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia told Reuters news agency. “You can lose control of the plane, but you don’t fly wildly off course as a consequence,” he said.

Justin Crump of risk advisory company Sibylline said the pattern of damage inside and outside the plane indicated that Russian air defence active in Grozny may have caused the crash.

“It looks very much like the detonation of an air defence missile to the rear and to the left of the aircraft, if you look at the pattern of shrapnel that we see,” he told BBC Radio 4.

Chechnya has already been hit by Ukrainian drone strikes this month and authorities in neighbouring Ingushetia said the Russian region had been targeted for the first time since the war in Ukraine began.

A shopping centre was hit when a drone was shot down in nearby North Ossetia, killing one woman, reports said.

Those on board were mostly Azerbaijani nationals, but there were also some passengers from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Video footage showed survivors crawling out of the wreckage, some with visible injuries.

The injured were taken to hospital. On Thursday, Azerbaijan’s Azertac news agency said seven were in a good enough condition to fly back to Baku.

Azerbaijan Airlines told reporters that the plane had been fully serviced in October and had no technical malfunctions.

Embraer, a Brazilian manufacturer and a smaller rival to Boeing and Airbus, has a strong safety record.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN staff were at Yemen’s international airport in Sanaa on Thursday during Israeli air strikes which are reported to have killed at least six people.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said they were about to board a plane when the attacks began.

Houthi-run Saba news agency said three people were killed at the airport and 30 injured. It said another three people were killed and 10 wounded in the western Hodeidah province.

The Iran-backed rebel group described the attacks – which also hit power stations and ports – as “barbaric”. Israel’s military said it carried out “intelligence-based strikes on military targets”.

It is unclear whether the fatalities were civilians or Houthi rebels.

In a statement on X, Dr Tedros said he was in Yemen “to negotiate the release of UN staff detainees and to assess the health and humanitarian situation” in the country. He provided no further details about who the UN detainees were.

Referring to the strikes on Sanaa’s airport, he said: “The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge – just a few meters from where we were – and the runway were damaged.

“We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave,” Dr Tedros added.

UN Secretary General António Guterres called the strikes “especially alarming”.

“I regret the recent escalation between Yemen and Israel, and remain deeply concerned about the risk of further escalation in the region.” he wrote on X.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its “fighter jets conducted intelligence-based strikes on military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast and inland Yemen”.

It targeted “military infrastructure” at Sanaa’s airport as well as the Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations, and sites in the Al-Hudaydah, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports on the west coast, the IDF said.

In comments shortly after the strikes, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it would “continue to cut off the terror arm of the Iranian axis of evil until we complete the job”, adding “we are only just starting with [the Houthis]”.

Early on Friday, the IDF reported that one missile fired from Yemen was intercepted before crossing into Israeli territory.

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthis’ supreme revolutionary committee, called Thursday’s strikes on Yemen “barbaric” and “aggressive”.

He said that “confrontations with American and Israeli arrogance” will continue until the conflict in Gaza stops.

Several people injured by the strikes at the airport in Sanaa told Houthi-run broadcaster Al Masirah that the runway was struck three times before the airport’s control tower was also hit.

One man, who identified himself as Dr Abbas Rajeh, said the police hospital he works in treated 10 patients after the attacks – one had already died, another was in critical condition, and others had minor injuries or broken bones.

Iran described the strikes as a “clear violation of international peace and security”.

Houthi rebels have been attacking Israel since the first months of the Gaza war, which began in October 2023.

A Houthi missile strike injured more than a dozen people in Israel last week.

Israel has carried out intermittent strikes against Houthis in retaliation.

Earlier this week, Israel’s defence minister said the country was preparing to “strike hard” at the Houthis, warning it would “decapitate” the group’s leadership.

The Houthis are an armed political and religious group backed by Iran. The group has ruled large parts of western Yemen, including the capital Sanaa, since ousting the internationally recognised government in 2015.

Two people taking part in Australia’s annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race have died in separate incidents, according to police.

Both crew members died in separate incidents after being hit by a boom – the large pole attached horizontally to the bottom of a sail.

The event’s organisers said the incidents happened on the Flying Fish Arctos and Bowline.

The first boats are expected to arrive in the city of Hobart, in Tasmania, later on Friday or early on Saturday. Several have already retired due to bad weather.

New South Wales (NSW) police said the first incident was reported to officers just before midnight on Thursday local time (12:50 GMT) by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in the country’s capital, Canberra.

Just over two hours later, at 02:15 on Friday, NSW police were told that crew aboard the second boat were giving CPR to the second person, which also had not worked.

Flying Fish Arctos had been sailing approximately 30 nautical miles east/south-east of the NSW town of Ulladulla, the organisers said.

Bowline, meanwhile, was approximately 30 nautical miles east/north-east of the town of Batemans Bay, also in NSW.

“Our thoughts are with the crews, family and friends of the deceased,” the organisers said in a statement.

“The Sydney to Hobart is an Australian tradition, and it is heart-breaking that two lives have been lost at what should be a time of joy,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The race, which began on Thursday, has continued.

It is not the first time there have been fatalities during the race, which was first held in 1945.

Six people, including British Olympic yachtsman Glyn Charles, died in 1998 after raging storms hit competitors.

Billionaire Elon Musk has hailed Twitter as a bastion for freedom of expression ever since he acquired the social media site two years ago. But over the course of 2024, X, as it is now called, has evolved from what felt like a communal town square into a polarised hub where views and posts seem even more controversial.

​​Certain profiles that have shared misleading takes on politics and the news, some of which have been accused of triggering hate, have recently shot to prominence.

All of this matters because X might not have as many users as some other major social media sites, but it does seem to have a significant impact on political discussions. Not only is it a place where certain high-profile politicians, governments and police forces share statements and views – but now its owner Mr Musk has directly aligned himself with Donald Trump, a relationship that could redefine how the bosses of other social media giants deal with the next US President.

So, what’s behind this new wave of change? Has there been a shift in the demographic of people using X over the last year – or could it be the result of deliberate decisions made by those in charge?

Two months ago, Inevitable West didn’t exist on X. Now the profile, which calls itself a “Defender of Western values and culture”, has amassed 131,600 followers (a number that is rapidly growing). It is racking up around 30 million views each day collectively among all of its posts, according to its creator. Mr Musk has even responded to Inevitable West’s posts on X.

Their recent posts, which often feature news alert-style captions, include a faked video showing Trump telling the British Prime Minister he is going to “invade your country and make Britain Great Again”.

There have also been several posts in support of far-right activist Tommy Robinson, as well as some debunked claims about the farmer’s protests in the UK and a knife attack in Southport, in which three children were killed during a Taylor Swift-themed dance workshop.

​​Inevitable West denies accusations of pushing disinformation and inciting abuse or violence. “The purpose of my X account is to be the voice for the silent majority of the Western world,” its creator told me. They refused to share their identity with me when we corresponded, but claim to be “Gen Z” and “not Russian”.

“Uncensored information and opinions will inevitably lead [to] the US and entire West and Europe moving further right, [which is] proven by Donald Trump getting elected and surges in Europe’s far right,” they argued. “Globally, it would mean corrupt politicians and leaders would get found out.”

They appear to see the rise of their account as the “death” of what they would call the “MSM” or Mainstream Media. That’s perhaps no surprise given that, following the US Election, Mr Musk himself told X users: “You are the Media Now”.

When Mr Musk first acquired Twitter, he emphasised the need to house all political opinions and push back against censorship by social media companies and governments.

Changes – including mass layoffs and alterations to moderation policies on issues like political misinformation – started immediately.

There have also been various alterations to the nature of feeds including the creation of two separate sections: “Following”, which features accounts you follow, and “For You”, which is algorithmically curated, as on TikTok.

Over the course of 2024, however, there have been another wave of alterations that appear to have transformed it further. The block function has been changed, meaning that if you block an account you won’t be protected from that profile viewing what you post. Likes, meanwhile, have been made private.

The site still features crowd-sourced community notes used to factcheck or rebuff what posts say – and users are able to pay for blue ticks, which were previously given free of charge as a sign authenticating that the person was who they said they were.

• What to X-pect from Elon Musk in 2025

Now, though, it is necessary to pay to subscribe to X Premium to receive a checkmark. (There are three tiers of subscription – in the UK, the Premium Tier currently costs around £10 a month).

Premium profiles are entitled to more privileges and prominence – and can make money from the engagement they get from other checkmarked profiles. From October, X changed its rules so that instead of basing revenue for individual accounts around ads, it now takes into account likes, shares and comments from other Premium accounts.

Of course other social media sites allow users to make money from posts and let them share sponsored content – this is not uncommon – but most major sites have rules that allow them to de-monetise or suspend profiles that post misinformation.

X does not have rules to de-monetise accounts over these kinds of posts, although it does allow users to add community notes to misleading or false tweets. And it does not allow “misleading media” like manipulated or synthetic videos that “may result in widespread confusion on public issues, impact public safety or cause serious harm”.

According to Inevitable West, X can now become a job. They told me when they were posting around seven times a day they could accrue a minimum of “$2,500 a month”.

They say they know of another account making “$25,000” each month – that account allegedly has 500,000 followers and posts “roughly 30” times a day.

Change can sometimes come about when a website alters the algorithms (or recommendation systems) in some way, for example in order to boost and benefit certain posts. What’s unclear is whether or not that may be the case here?

Certainly, I’ve observed a difference in the variety of posts recommended on the “For You” feed compared with that a year ago.

This is something I analysed through an “Undercover Voter project”, in which I created and ran social media accounts belonging to more than 20 fictional characters, based in the US and UK, which reflect views from across the political spectrum.

These characters have profiles on the main sites including X, allowing me to interrogate what different accounts were recommended on social media. The accounts are private and do not message real people or have friends.

Regardless of the different political views their accounts express, I observed that in the last six months of this year their feeds have become dominated by divisive posts, and tend to feature more in support of Trump or in opposition to politicians and people across the world who are not seen to be aligned with the US president elect.

However, all of this seems to be the consequence of the environment and the various changes to the wider site, rather than solely a simple tweak to the algorithm.

Andrew Kaung, who was previously an analyst on user safety at TikTok and has also worked at Meta, has spent years observing how these recommendation systems can be updated and changed. “What we’ve seen on X is not just about algorithms changing, it is also informed by the lack of safety mechanisms in the name of free speech,” he says.

Nina Jankowicz is former Executive Director on the Disinformation Governance Board of the United States, which was set up in 2022 to advise the Department of Homeland Security on issues including Russian disinformation and later disbanded after public backlash over concerns including around freedom of expression and transparency. She argues that X’s algorithms now “privilege divisive and misleading rhetoric” and suggests that users who post less controversial content have found a reduction in the views.

“The consequence is that the platform that touts itself as a public square is an extraordinarily artificial environment, a true black mirror of the most worrying parts of human nature.”

I messaged dozens of other large accounts, who describe the growing influence they’re able to have on the site, often unexpectedly.

“I never really intended to become an influencer,” admits one profile called Andi, who says he’s based in New York. “But I figure since I have this platform I should try to use it to advance my own causes.”

He describes how he shared a meme of squirrel – after learning about a squirrel that was euthanised over concerns it could have rabies – which now has 45 million views. Andi compares his reach to that of popular podcaster Joe Rogan, who has 14.5 million followers on X.

“But I am no Joe Rogan, so it’s really special that something I post can get almost as much viewership.”

Andi and other X accounts I’ve corresponded with believe that the changes to X are a good thing, as they now have a reach they could have never anticipated.

​​Earlier this month, an attack at a German market, which killed five people and injured more than 200, was widely debated on X. Much of the discussion centred around the suspect, a German resident originally from Saudi Arabia. German prosecutors have said the investigation is ongoing, but suggested one potential motive for the attack “could have been disgruntlement with the way Saudi Arabian refugees are treated in Germany”.

Inevitable West was among those who commented: “Raid the mosques. Ban the Quran. Carry out mass deportations. Our patience has officially expired.”

​​The account has been accused of inflaming hate with posts about issues including immigration and religion. Other users said this could incite violence. But the profile responded by saying that they were “actually inciting safety”.

When questioned on this, Inevitable West told me that they’d say the same about other religions. Separately, they also said they would never delete their own posts – even when they turn out to be untrue.

Meanwhile, their content is being seen by feeds around the world.

Allegations of bias in moderation methods have long been levelled at Twitter, both before and since Mr Musk acquired the company, alongside questions about whether the site previously limited freedom of expression.

I spoke to Twitter insiders about this for a Panorama investigation which aired in 2023, and they told me that, in their view, the company was going to struggle to protect users from trolling, state-coordinated disinformation and child sexual exploitation, putting this down to, among other things, mass layoffs.

At the time, X did not respond to the points raised. Afterwards, Mr Musk tweeted a BBC article about the Panorama episode with the caption: “Sorry for turning Twitter from nurturing paradise into a place that has… trolls”. He also declared, “trolls are kinda fun”.

Separately, Mr Musk had said he had “no choice” but to reduce the company’s workforce because of financial losses.

Lisa Jennings Young, former head of content design at X who worked there until 2022, says: “I feel like we’re all living through a vast social experiment [on humanity].”

It doesn’t have a specified goal, she says. Instead, in her view, it is “not a controlled social science experiment [but one] we’re all a part of”. No one really knows what the final result could be, she argues.

Some X users tell me that they have recently decided to migrate to other social media platforms, including Bluesky, which started in 2019 as an experimental “de-centralised” social media site created by former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey. It now has more than 20 million users.

It is difficult to determine exactly how many real users have chosen to leave X – or indeed if it has grown.

Elon Musk and X did not respond to the points raised in this article, nor to requests for an interview.

X says that its priority is to protect and defend the user’s voice and it has guidelines about hate, which say that users “may not target others with abuse or harassment or encourage other people to do so”.

An X spokesperson previously told the BBC: “X has in place a range of policies and features to protect the conversation surrounding elections. We will label content that violates our synthetic and manipulated media policy, and remove accounts engaged in platform manipulation or other serious violations of our rules.”

The site also told the European Commission in November: “[X] strives to be the town square of the internet by promoting and protecting freedom of expression.”

Since the 2024 US presidential election, X has cemented its place as the home of political updates about the new Trump administration.

Mr Musk endorsed Trump as a candidate as far back as July. He has now been offered a government position, leading a new advisory team called the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

Sam Freeman, a former Meta employee who now works as an expert in Trust and Safety for a company called Cinder, believes that this will have a broader effect on other social media bosses too. He predicts them “needing to have a more personal relationship with the incoming administration”, particularly if they feel increasing pressure over regulation and online safety.

Mark Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook (now Meta) and has since acquired Instagram, recently had dinner with Trump at his home in Mar-a-Lago.

The President-elect had taken aim at Mr Zuckerberg on previously occasions, accusing his website and others of bias. “Facebook, Google and Twitter, not to mention the Corrupt Media, are sooo on the side of the Radical Left Democrats,” Trump once wrote.

Could the dinner indicate a softening of relations? Certainly it suggests that Mr Zuckerberg considers that being at least somewhat in close proximity to Trump could be in his interest.

So, it seems, does TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who was also reported to have met Trump at Mar-a-Lago as the social media company fights plans by US authorities to ban the app.

The US government claims TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has links to the Chinese state. Both TikTok and ByteDance deny this. The Supreme Court is due to hear legal arguments from TikTok in January.

In the the UK, the Online Safety Act will soon be enforced, under which companies will have to make commitments to the regulator Ofcom about how they will tackle illegal content and posts that are harmful to children. In Australia, politicians have gone a step further and approved plans to ban children under 16 from using social media.

Ultimately though – given how many social media giants are based in the US – it is the approach of the American government and president that could have the greatest impact.

“I see Trump’s feelings towards a platform dictating the way his administration views them,” argues Mr Freeman.

The question that remains is what Trump’s views on this really are – and whether he will demand accountability in a different way from these sites in the future, or not at all.

The ramifications, whichever way it goes, will no doubt be far-reaching.

A woman dances in the spotlight, the glittering tassels on her dress shivering and swaying in tandem with her moves.

But it’s her arms that catch the light; they wave, spin and whip through the air at breath-taking speed, almost like the blades of a fan.

These are the opening visuals of a recently released web series on Amazon Prime Video called Waack Girls, a drama centred around six women who learn a new dance form to become their city’s first all-female waacking crew.

Not many know about the dance and so the women have to fight hard – against society and their families – to be taken seriously. But waacking ends up being the gift that keeps on giving.

Directed by Sooni Taraporevala, the series has been released at a time when many Indian cities – big and small – are witnessing a renewed interest in waacking.

“I was fascinated by the dance style and the importance it gives to self-expression,” says Taraporevala about why she made the series.

Workshops and underground waacking jams – events where dancers battle it out with their moves – are mushrooming in several cities and international waacking legends are visiting the country to teach the dance.

Recently, Archie Burnett, who was a club dancer in New York in the 1970s and 80s and is a respected figure in the waacking community, visited India for a jam.

Dancers hope that the web series will give waacking more visibility in the country and show people that there’s more to dance than classical forms, hip-hop and Bollywood.

Waacking has a history steeped in the LGBTQ+ liberation movement and the freedom championed by disco music.

The dance style emerged in the gay clubs of Los Angeles in the 1970s, when there was a lot of stigma surrounding homosexuality. Gay men used waacking to express themselves on the dance floor and push back against the hate and discrimination they experienced.

Consequently, the dance style developed swift, sharp and forceful movements – much like how action heroes in comic books beat up their villains, accompanied by sound-effects like “ka-pow” and “bam”.

“Waacking comes from the onomatopoeic word ‘whack’ and is reminiscent of [the effects] found in comic books,” says Tejasvi Patil, a Mumbai-based dancer who has been waacking for more than a decade.

The dance style also drew inspiration from the drama of Hollywood and its glamorous leading ladies. Dramatic poses, quick footwork and striking arm movements are characteristic of waacking but dancers have continued to add new moves to the repertoire of steps, as celebrating individuality and self-expression are at the heart of the form.

And because of its core ethos, waacking continues to be a tool of empowerment and self-expression for India’s LGBTQ+ community.

“In fact, many people explore their sexual identity through the dance style because it allows space for introspection and expression,” says Ayushi Amrute, who has been waacking since 2012 and is a frequent host of Red Bull’s Your House Is Waack – a waacking jam for dancers across the country.

“Another important factor is that the waacking community always strives to be a safe space, so that people feel comfortable expressing themselves,” she adds.

When Amrute was introduced to waacking by her dance teacher, the style was virtually unknown in India. Her teacher encouraged her to watch videos and reach out to dancers abroad to learn more about the style.

“We [the handful of Indian dancers who began waacking over a decade ago] learnt waacking the hard way; by doing our own research, learning about the history of the dance and connecting with dancers in countries where waacking was popular,” says Amrute.

Patil remembers learning waacking the same way. But things are remarkably different today. In the past five years or so, the dance style has picked up in popularity, with more youngsters flocking to classes to learn it.

Patil, who teaches dance, says that she encourages her students to stay true to the ethos of the style – unabashed self-expression.

When it comes to music, India is still finding its soundscape for the style, she adds. Songs by disco queen Donna Summer and American pop legend Diana Ross are still popular, as are tracks from the 1983 film Staying Alive.

Bollywood had its own disco era too, with songs like Koi Yahan Nache Nache and Aap Jaisa Koi becoming chart-toppers in the 1980s, but they don’t often find space in today’s waacking jams.

For Waack Girls, Taraporevala brought in indie artists to create an album of original soundtracks, which Patil says has created a brand new and promising soundscape for waackers in India.

“I think the time is right for people to embrace who they are fully,” says Patil, “and waacking is the perfect platform to showcase what you find.”

A pistol, rifle and deactivated World War One machine gun were among the items lost or stolen from Ministry of Defence facilities over the past two years.

Figures uncovered by the Liberal Democrats show more than 700 phones, laptops, computers and USB sticks also went missing over the period.

The party’s defence spokesperson Helen Maguire said the losses were “deeply concerning”, especially “at this time of heightened global security tensions”.

The government said it has “robust policies and procedures to prevent losses and thefts”.

The number of firearms lost or stolen from MoD facilities in 2023, under the previous Conservative government, were revealed in response to a written parliamentary question by the Lib Dems.

A deactivated World War Two Luger Pistol and Sten submachine gun were both lost in June 2023.

In July 2023 an SA80 rife was also lost, along with a deactivated World War One German machine gun the following month, although both have subsequently been found.

Meanwhile, a Glock 19 Pistol was stolen in December 2023.

In his response, Minister for the Armed Forces Luke Pollard said the security of firearms was taken “very seriously” by the department, with all losses and thefts “fully and rigorously investigated”.

Figures for firearms which have been lost or stolen in 2024 are not available.

The number of phones which have gone missing from the department has risen from 101 in 2023 to 159 in 2024, while for USB sticks the figure was 20 in 2023 and 125 in 2024.

However, the number of laptops lost or stolen has fallen from 176 in 2023 to 138 in 2024.

Some 25 computers were also lost or stolen in the past year.

The government said proportionate security controls were used to protect electronic devices according to the nature of information they can hold.

The Lib Dems called for an urgent inquiry into how the items were misplaced and what was being done to reduce losses and thefts.

Maguire said: “The government is more butterfingered than Goldfinger when it comes to national security.

“The loss of these crucial resources is deeply concerning – especially at this time of heightened global security tensions.

“Sensitive national safety information may end up in the wrong hands, while precious public money is spent on replacements in the meantime. And the theft of dangerous weapons should seriously raise alarm bells when it comes to security.”

An MoD spokesperson said: “We take the security of defence assets extremely seriously and have robust policies and procedures to prevent losses and thefts.

“If any assets are reported lost or missing due to suspected criminal activity, we take the necessary steps to investigate, prosecute and recover the items.”

Ticking is the predominant sound inside Bala Muhammad’s tiny watch-repair shop, tucked away on a bustling street in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna.

It is like a time capsule from a different era with numerous clocks hanging on the wall and small tables at the entrance full of his tools and watches in various states of repair.

His shop is on one of Kaduna’s busiest shopping streets – sandwiched between building material suppliers.

Until a few years ago, he had a steady stream of customers dropping by to get their watches fixed or get a new battery fitted.

“There were times I get more than 100 wristwatch-repair jobs in a day,” the 68-year-old, popularly known as Baba Bala, told the BBC.

But he worries that his skills – taught to him and his brother by their father – will die out.

“Some days there are zero customers,” he says, blaming people using their mobile phones to check the time for the decline in his trade.

“Phones and technology have taken away the only job I know and it makes me very sad.”

But for more than 50 years, the boom in watches allowed the family to make a good living.

“I built my house and educated my children all from the proceeds of wristwatch repairing,” he says.

His father would travel all over West Africa for six months at a time – from Senegal to Sierra Leone – fixing timepieces.

At one stage Baba Bala was based in the capital, Abuja, where many of the country’s elite live – and he made a good living tending to the watches of the wealthy.

He reckons his best customers were top officials of the state-owned oil firm Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC).

Some had Rolexes – these can vary wildly in price but an average one costs around $10,000 (£8,000).

He says they are beautiful – and encapsulate his love for all watches from Switzerland. He himself owns a Longines, another prestigious Swiss brand, which he only removes when he sleeps.

“If I step out of my house and I forgot it, I have to go back for it. I will not be without it – that is how important it is to me.”

At his shop, he keeps a beautiful big framed photo of his father, Abdullahi Bala Isah, taken as he looked up from his work bench a few years before his death in 1988.

Isah was a renowned horologist and his contacts in Freetown and Dakar would call him to take a trip when they had enough watches for him to tend to.

He would also make regular visits to Ibadan, a metropolis in the south-west of Nigeria – a literary hub and home to the country’s first university.

Baba Bala says no-one in the family knows where his father learnt his expertise – but it would have been at the time of British colonial rule.

He himself was born four years before Nigeria’s independence in 1960.

“My father was a popular wristwatch repairer and his skill took him to many places. He taught me when I was young and I am proud to have followed his footsteps.”

Baba Bala started taking a close interest in understanding the intricacies of what the wheels and levers inside a watch do when he was 10 – and was delighted to discover that as he got older it became a good source of pocket money.

“When my fellow students were broke in secondary school, I had money to spend at the time because I was already repairing wristwatches.”

He remembers his skill even impressed one of his teachers: “He had issues with some of his wristwatches and had taken them to several places and they couldn’t do them. When he was told about me I was able to fix all three of the watches by next day.”

At one point, watches were seen as important as clothes in Nigeria and many people felt lost without one.

Kaduna used to have a dedicated area where many watch-sellers and repairers set up their businesses.

“The place has been demolished and is now empty,” say Baba Bala mournfully, adding that most of his colleagues are either dead or have given up on the business.

One of those who admitted defeat was Isa Sani.

“Going to my repair shop daily meant sitting down and getting no work – that’s why I decided to stop going in 2019,” the 65-year-old told the BBC.

“I have land and my children help me to farm on it – that is how I am able to get by these days.”

He laments: “I don’t think wristwatches will ever make a comeback.”

The youngsters working at the building supply shops next to Baba Bala agree.

Faisal Abdulkarim and Yusuf Yusha’u, both aged 18, have never owned watches as they have never seen a need for them.

“I can check the time on my phone whenever I want to and it’s always with me,” one said.

Dr Umar Abdulmajid, a communications lecturer at Yusuf Maitama University in Kano, believes things may change.

“Conventional wristwatches are no doubt dying and with it jobs like wristwatch repairs too, but with the smartwatch I think they could make a comeback.

“The fact a smartwatch can do much more than just show you the time means it could continue to attract people.”

He suggests old watch-repairers learn how to grapple with this new technology: “If you don’t move with the times you get left behind.”

But Baba Bala, who returned from Abuja to Kaduna to set up his shop about 20 years ago as he wanted to be nearer his growing family, says this does not interest him.

“This is what I love doing, I consider myself a doctor for sick wristwatches – plus I am not getting any younger.”

His tight-knit family remain loyal to his profession – his wife and all his five children wear watches and often pop in to visit him at the shop, where some of the timepieces on display are forgotten relics from old customers.

“Some brought them many years ago and didn’t return for them,” he says.

But Baba Bala refuses to give up and still opens up daily – his eldest daughter, who runs a successful clothes boutique nearby, helps him with bills when his business is slow.

Without much to keep him busy – or the chatter and gossip of his customers, Baba Bala says he now often listens to his radio for company, enjoying the Hausa language programmes on the BBC World Service.

In the afternoon his youngest son, Al-Ameen, comes to visit after school – the only one of his children to show an interest in learning the art of watch-repairing. But he would not encourage him to take it up as a profession.

He is pleased that the 12-year-old has told him he wants to be a pilot – continuing the family tradition of seeing more of the world.

In a cockpit, he would be faced with many watch-like dials – not unlike his dad’s workshop.

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Syria’s new rebel-led authorities say supporters of ousted President Bashar al-Assad have killed 14 interior ministry troops in an “ambush” in the west of the country.

They say 10 other troops were wounded in the fighting on Tuesday near the Mediterranean port of Tartous, a stronghold of Assad’s minority Alawite Muslim sect.

The clashes with pro-Assad loyalists are the first direct challenge to the authority of Syria’s de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa.

Assad’s presidency fell to rebel forces led by al-Sharaa’s Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) faction just over two weeks ago.

Security forces launched an operation in Tartous province on Thursday, according to state news agency Sana, in a bid to “restore security, stability and civil peace”.

Sana reported that the forces had “neutralised… a number of remnants of Assad’s militias” in the Tartous countryside, and that it was pursuing others.

Reports say the security forces had earlier been ambushed as they tried to arrest a former officer in connection to his role at the notorious Saydnaya prison, close to the capital, Damascus.

The UK-based monitoring group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said three “armed men”, which it did not identify, were also killed in the clashes.

The SOHR added that the security forces later brought in reinforcements.

On Thursday, it said the former officer, Mohammed Kanjo Hassan, had been arrested together with 20 other people.

The claim has not been independently verified.

In a separate development, the Syrian authorities imposed an overnight curfew into Thursday in the central city of Homs, state media reported.

Reports say this followed unrest over a video purportedly showing an attack on an Alawite shrine.

The interior ministry said the footage was old, dating back to a rebel offensive on Aleppo in late November, and the violence was carried out by unknown groups.

The SOHR said one demonstrator was killed and five wounded in Homs.

The former rebels now in charge of Syria are grappling with the challenge of providing safety and stability across the country.

Syrians are looking to them to protect the rights of people from a variety of backgrounds as well as providing justice for those who lost relatives under the Assad dictatorship.

Demonstrations have also been reported in Alawite-dominated areas including the cities of Tartous and Latakia, and Assad’s hometown of Qardaha.

Alawites are an offshoot of Shia Islam to which many of the former regime’s political and military elite belonged, including Assad’s family.

The Alawite community is fearful of revenge, with members blamed for the torture and killing in Syria under Assad.

Former officers are refusing to hand over weapons and locals in some towns suggest they want to fight back, which appears to have been the case in Tartous.

There have been calls from Alawite religious leaders for a general amnesty for Alawites – but this is unlikely because of the many alleged war crimes conducted by its members.

Although al-Sharaa has bolstered security in Alawite towns and cities in an attempt to maintain order, if his forces do launch a campaign to arrest Assad loyalists, they risk further destabilising an already fragile country.

Tens of thousands of people were tortured to death in prisons in Syria, and thousands of families are still waiting for answers and for justice.

Syrians are calling for those responsible to be held to account – the very thing that members of the Alawite are worried about.

The HTS-led lightning offensive that started from Syria’s north-east and spread across the country ended more than 50 years of rule by the Assads.

Assad and his family were forced to flee to Russia.

HTS has since promised to protect the rights and freedoms of many religious and ethnic minorities in Syria.

The group is designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU, the UK and others.

On Tuesday, protests broke out in the country over the burning of a Christmas tree, prompting fresh calls for the new authorities to protect minorities.

Tributes have been paid to Baby Driver actor Hudson Meek, who died after falling from a moving vehicle in Alabama.

The 16-year-old actor also appeared in TV series including the NBC drama Found and did video game and commercial voice-overs.

Meek fell from a vehicle in Vestavia Hills, a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, on 19 December, authorities said. He sustained blunt force trauma in the fall and died of his injuries two days later.

“His 16 years on this earth were far too short, but he accomplished so much and significantly impacted everyone he met,” his mother Lani Wells Meek posted on Facebook.

“Please pray for our family and friends as we all process this sudden and tragic loss,” she said.

Meek was a second-year student at Vestavia Hills High School.

His obituary said that Meek “was an organ donor, and his family is comforted by knowing that he will continue to help others for years to come”.

The obituary called him “confident, convicted in his beliefs, spontaneous, and quick-witted” and noted that he played football, enjoyed the outdoors and had visited all 50 US states.

Acting Out Academy, a performing arts academy in Vestavia Hills, released a statement after his death: “We are all devastated at the loss of one of AOA’s first and brightest stars. May you shine forever Hud. You will be deeply missed.”

The Vestavia Hills Police Department is investigating how the fatal incident occurred, according to local reports.

Two people taking part in Australia’s annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race have died in separate incidents, according to police.

Both crew members died in separate incidents after being hit by a boom – the large pole attached horizontally to the bottom of a sail.

The event’s organisers said the incidents happened on the Flying Fish Arctos and Bowline.

The first boats are expected to arrive in the city of Hobart, in Tasmania, later on Friday or early on Saturday. Several have already retired due to bad weather.

New South Wales (NSW) police said the first incident was reported to officers just before midnight on Thursday local time (12:50 GMT) by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority in the country’s capital, Canberra.

Just over two hours later, at 02:15 on Friday, NSW police were told that crew aboard the second boat were giving CPR to the second person, which also had not worked.

Flying Fish Arctos had been sailing approximately 30 nautical miles east/south-east of the NSW town of Ulladulla, the organisers said.

Bowline, meanwhile, was approximately 30 nautical miles east/north-east of the town of Batemans Bay, also in NSW.

“Our thoughts are with the crews, family and friends of the deceased,” the organisers said in a statement.

“The Sydney to Hobart is an Australian tradition, and it is heart-breaking that two lives have been lost at what should be a time of joy,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

The race, which began on Thursday, has continued.

It is not the first time there have been fatalities during the race, which was first held in 1945.

Six people, including British Olympic yachtsman Glyn Charles, died in 1998 after raging storms hit competitors.