Investigators have finished extracting data from one of the black boxes from the fated Jeju Air plane that crashed on Sunday, South Korea’s transport ministry has said.

The data from the cockpit voice recorder will now be converted into an audio file, while a second black box – a flight data recorder – will be sent to the United States for analysis.

Investigators hope data on the flight and voice recorders will provide insights about the crucial moments leading up to the tragedy.

Some 179 people died after the plane crashed into a structure and exploded, making it the deadliest plane crash on South Korean soil.

Investigators say it is not feasible to locally decode the flight data recorder, which was damaged in the crash and is missing a crucial connector.

South Korean experts will be involved in the analysis process in the US, they said, adding that they are in discussion with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on when to hand over the flight data recorder.

NTSB has deployed officials to the crash site in South Korea’s Muan county to help investigate the cause of the plane crash.

The Boeing 737-800 plane was travelling from Bangkok when it crash-landed at Muan International Airport on Sunday and slid into a wall off the end of the runway, bursting into flames and killing everyone on board except two crew members.

Many questions remain unanswered and investigators are looking at the role a bird strike or weather conditions may have played.

They are also examining the concrete wall at the end of the runway, which some experts say could have exacerbated the impact of the crash.

The passengers on flight 7C2216 were aged between three and 78 years old, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, according to Yonhap news agency. Two Thai nationals are among the dead and the rest are believed to be South Korean, authorities have said.

It had taken officials days to identify the bodies through fingerprints or DNA – with saliva samples collected from family members – as many of them have been severely damaged.

But on Wednesday, acting president Choi Sang-mok announced that all 179 victims on board the flight have now been identified.

New Year’s Day celebrations across the country have been cancelled or scaled down out of respect for the victims and their family, and authorities have announced a seven-day period of national mourning.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Jeju Air CEO Kim Yi-bae said that the airline was preparing emergency compensation for the victims’ families and would cover funeral costs.

He also said that a pre-flight inspection of the plane had found “no issues”. Investigations into the cause of the crash were ongoing.

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni have filed competing lawsuits that ramp up a battle over allegations of what happened on the set of their film, It Ends With Us.

Lively filed a lawsuit in New York against the actor and his publicity team on Tuesday, alleging sexual harassment on the set of the film and a scheme to “destroy” her reputation.

Baldoni, meanwhile, has filed a lawsuit against The New York Times, which first reported Lively’s legal complaint, accusing journalists of working with the actress to damage his reputation and ignoring evidence which contradicted her claims.

The newspaper has denied his allegations and said their original story was “meticulously and responsibly reported”.

Lively’s legal case includes many of the same accusations which appeared in her civil rights complaint, often a precursor to a lawsuit, which was filed in California in December.

She asks for compensatory damages, including “lost wages” and money for “mental pain and anguish”. She does not specify a monetary amount.

In his own lawsuit against The New York Times, first reported by Variety, Baldoni claims libel and fraud. He accuses journalists of working with the actress to “damage” his reputation, and not giving his team appropriate time to respond to a “bombshell story”.

Baldoni’s lawsuit alleges that the Times relied on “‘cherry picked’ and altered communications “stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead”.

In a statement, the New York Times told BBC News its report was “based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article”.

“We published their [Baldoni and his team’s] full statement in response to the allegations in the article as well.”

• Blake Lively’s claims put spotlight on ‘hostile’ Hollywood tactics
• Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively: What you need to know

Baldoni was dropped by his talent agency after the claims were published in the newspaper. His lawsuit asks for a jury trial and damages of $250m (£199m).

The actor’s lawyer Bryan Freedman told CBS News that the newspaper “aided and abetted” a “smear campaign designed to revitalise Lively’s… floundering public image”.

Baldoni’s lawsuit includes many of the same text messages and communications listed by Lively, which she used to accuse his team of orchestrating a social media campaign to alter public opinion against her.

In her own lawsuit, Lively accuses Baldoni and his team of attacking her public image following a meeting to address “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behaviour”.

In the meeting, she is said to have laid out 30 demands relating to alleged misconduct to ensure they could continue to produce the film, which included not describing genitalia on set and not adding any intimate scenes beyond the ones Lively had previously approved.

Lively’s legal team further accused Baldoni and his film studio Wayfarer of leading a “multi-tiered plan” to wreck her reputation, which included social media manipulation and using friendly journalists to further certain narratives.

Baldoni’s lawyers have previously told the BBC that the allegations made by Lively are “categorically false” and said they hired a crisis manager because Lively had threatened to derail the film unless her demands were met.

BBC News has contacted representatives for Lively, Baldoni and The New York Times for further comment.

It Ends With Us was released last summer, and sees Lively play a woman in a relationship with a charming but abusive boyfriend, played by Baldoni.

The film is based on a best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover. The 45-year-old author has said her inspiration was the domestic abuse endured by her mother.

Police are investigating after a Tesla Cybertruck filled with fuel canisters and firework mortars exploded outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The driver was killed and seven people were injured, police said without naming any of the individuals involved. Officials said all injuries were minor.

The truck was rented in Colorado and arrived in the city Wednesday morning, less than two hours before the detonation, police said. Parked in front of the hotel near a glass entrance, the vehicle started to smoke, then exploded.

In an evening address, President Joe Biden said the White House was tracking the incident and law enforcement was investigating “whether there’s any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans”, which left 15 dead early on New Year’s Day.

In an afternoon press conference, Sheriff Kevin McMahill showed dramatic footage of the explosion and photos of the aftermath, including several fuel canisters along with large fireworks in the truck bed.

Footage showed the truck parked directly in front of the entrance of the hotel. The truck sits idle for several seconds before exploding – bursts of multi-coloured fireworks shooting in multiple directions.

Another video showed investigators using a black fire-retardant tarp to put out the blaze and the charred remains of the truck bed. An array of gas and fuel canisters were left behind along with the remnants of more than a dozen firework mortars.

The fire occurred around 08:40 PT (15:40 GMT), just hours after a man drove a truck with an Islamic State (IS) group flag into the crowd in New Orleans. At least 15 people died and dozens were injured.

Mr McMahill of the Las Vegas Police Department said the authorities were examining whether the incident could be connected to the one in New Orleans, where improvised explosive devices were found near the scene.

He said they were also investigating whether it might be linked to President-Elect Donald Trump, who owns the hotel, or Elon Musk, who owns Tesla.

“Obviously, a Cybertruck, the Trump Hotel, there’s lots of questions that we have to answer as we move forward,” he said.

The FBI also said the agency was looking into whether the incident might be an act of terrorism, but the authorities said they currently had not confirmed the identity of the driver, who died in the vehicle. Authorities also said thus far, they had found no evidence that this incident was related to IS.

“I know everybody’s interested in that word, and trying to see if we can say, ‘Hey, this is a terrorist attack.’ That is our goal, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” FBI special agent in charge Jeremy Schwartz told reporters at a news conference.

The sheriff noted that both vehicles appeared to be rented from Turo, an app-based car rental company.

A Turo spokesperson said in a statement that the company was working with authorities in Las Vegas and New Orleans to help with the investigation. The spokesperson noted both renters appeared to not have a criminal background that would have “identified them as a security threat”.

“We are heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families,” the statement reads.

The authorities say they do have the name of the person who rented the vehicle but have not officially confirmed it was the person driving the vehicle.

“As you can imagine, with an explosion here on an iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep our community safe,” he said during a news conference.

Mr McMahill said there was no longer a threat to the Las Vegas community.

Biden was briefed on both the attack in New Orleans and the Las Vegas explosion.

“We’re tracking the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas,” said the president in an evening address.

“Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there’s any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans.”

Fire department officials said emergency responders had quickly worked to extinguish the vehicle fire.

They added that the public should stay away from the area. The hotel was evacuated, with most of the guests moving to a different location.

It is owned in part by President-elect Donald Trump’s company. In a post on X, Trump’s son, Eric Trump, said a “reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochère of Trump Las Vegas”.

“The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism,” he said.

Stephen Ferlando told the Washington Post that he had witnessed the incident from his hotel room on the 53rd floor of the Trump Tower. He told the outlet there was “definitely an explosion” and that the windows had begun to shake.

The Trump Hotel spans 64 floors with around 1,300 suites, according to its website.

Trump recently named Musk to co-lead a presidential advisory commission, the Department of Government Efficiency, after the two became close during Trump’s campaign.

“I must say that the situation is changing dramatically,” Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, declared at his end-of-year news conference in December. “There is movement along the entire front line. Every day.”

In eastern Ukraine, Moscow’s war machine is gradually churning mile by mile through the wide open fields of the Donbas, enveloping and overwhelming villages and towns.

Some civilians are fleeing before the war reaches them. Others wait until the shells start exploding all around them before packing what belongings they can carry and boarding trains and buses to safety further west.

Russia is gaining ground more quickly than at any time since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, despite Kyiv’s impressive record of well-publicised asymmetric attacks against its powerful neighbour.

As the invasion reaches the end of its third year, at an estimated cost of a million people, killed or wounded, Ukraine appears to be losing.

In distant Washington, meanwhile, the unpredictable Donald Trump, not famous for his love of Ukraine or its leader, is about to take over in the White House.

It feels like an inflection point. But could 2025 really be the year when this devastating European conflict finally comes to a close – and if so what could the endgame look like?

Trump’s promise to end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office is a typically grandiose boast, but it comes from a man who has clearly lost patience with the war and America’s costly involvement.

“The numbers of dead young soldiers lying on fields all over the place are staggering,” he has said. “It’s crazy what’s taking place.”

But the incoming US administration faces twin challenges, according to Michael Kofman, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“First, they’re going to inherit a war on a very negative trajectory, without a tremendous amount of time to stabilise the situation,” he said in December. “Second, they’re going to inherit it without a clear theory of success.”

The president-elect offered some clues during recent interviews about how he intends to approach the war.

He told Time Magazine he disagreed “vehemently” with the Biden administration’s decision, in November, to allow Ukraine to fire US-supplied long-range missiles at targets inside Russia.

“We’re just escalating this war and making it worse,” he said.

On 8 December, he was asked by NBC News if Ukraine should prepare for less aid.

“Possibly,” he replied. “Probably, sure.”

But to those who fear, as many do, that America’s new leader is inclined to walk away from Ukraine, he offered hints of reassurance. “You can’t reach an agreement if you abandon, in my opinion,” he has said.

The truth is: Trump’s intentions are far from clear.

And for now, Ukrainian officials reject all talk of pressure, or the suggestion that Trump’s arrival necessarily means peace talks are imminent.

“There’s a lot of talk about negotiations, but it’s an illusion,” says Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the head of President Zelensky’s office.

“No negotiation process can take place because Russia has not been made to pay a high enough price for this war.”

For all Kyiv’s misgivings about negotiating while Russian forces continue their inexorable advance in the east, it’s clear that President Zelensky is anxious to position himself as the sort of man Trump can do business with.

The Ukrainian leader was quick to congratulate Trump on his election victory and wasted little time sending senior officials to meet the president-elect’s team.

With the help of France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Zelensky also secured a meeting with Trump when the two men visited Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral.

“What we’re seeing now is a very smart strategy exercise by President Zelensky,” his former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told the US Council on Foreign Relations in December.

Zelensky, he said, was “signalling constructiveness and readiness to engage with President Trump.”

With little obvious sign that the Kremlin is making similar gestures, the government in Kyiv is clearly trying to get ahead of the game.

“Because Trump hasn’t fully explained how he’s going to go about it, Ukrainians are trying to give him some ideas that he may present as his own,” says Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House.

“They know how to work with that ego.”

Even before the US election, there were signs that Zelensky was looking for ways to bolster Ukraine’s appeal as a future partner for a president-elect like Trump who is both instinctively transactional and reluctant to continue underwriting wider European security.

As part of his “Victory Plan”, unveiled in October, Zelensky suggested that battle-hardened Ukrainian troops could replace US forces in Europe after the war with Russia ends. And he offered the prospect of joint investments to exploit Ukraine’s natural resources, including uranium, graphite and lithium.

Such strategic resources, Zelensky warned, “will either strengthen Russia or Ukraine and the democratic world”.

But other elements of the Ukrainian leader’s Victory Plan – Nato membership and its call for a “comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” – seem to have met with a lukewarm response among Kyiv’s allies.

Nato membership in particular remains a sticking point, as it has been since well before Russia’s full-scale invasion.

For Kyiv, it’s the only way to guarantee the country’s future survival, against a rapacious Russian enemy bent on subjugating Ukraine.

But despite declaring last July that Ukraine was on an “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including Nato membership” the alliance is divided, with the US and Germany not yet in favour of issuing an invitation.

President Zelensky has indicated that if an offer of membership was extended to the whole country, within Ukraine’s internationally-recognised borders, he would be willing to accept that it would apply, initially, only to territory under Kyiv’s control.

This, he told Sky News in November, could end the “hot stage” of the war, allowing a diplomatic process to address the question of Ukraine’s final borders.

But, he said, no such offer had yet been made.

If not Nato, then what? With the possibility of Trump-led peace talks looming and Ukraine losing ground on the battlefield, the international debate is all about shoring up Kyiv’s shaky position.

“It’s critical to have strong, legal and practical guarantees,” Andriy Yermak, head of President Zelensky’s office, told Ukraine’s public broadcaster on 12 December.

Ukraine’s recent past, he said, had left a bitter legacy. “Unfortunately, from our experience, all the guarantees we had before did not result in security.”

Without concrete mechanisms akin to the sort of collective defence concept embodied by Article 5 of Nato’s founding treaty, observers fear there will be nothing to prevent another Russian attack.

“Zelensky understands that he cannot just have a naked ceasefire,” Orysia Lutsevych says.

“It has to be a ceasefire plus. It would be suicide for Zelensky just to accept a ceasefire and not to have any answer how Ukraine is protected.”

In European policy forums, experts have been looking at ways in which Europe might help to shoulder this heavy responsibility.

Ideas have included the deployment of peacekeepers in Ukraine (a proposal first floated last February by Macron), or the involvement of the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force, which pulls together forces from eight Nordic and Baltic countries, plus the Netherlands.

But Kofman is sceptical. “Security guarantees that don’t have the United States involved in them as one of the guarantors is like a donut with a giant missing middle in it.”

It’s a view echoed in Kyiv.

“What alternative could there be? There are no alternatives today,” says Mr Podolyak.

Pieces of paper, like the 1994 Budapest Memorandum (about Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders) or 2014-15 Minsk agreements (which sought to end the Donbas War) are worthless, he argues, without the added threat of military deterrence.

“Russia must understand that as soon as they start aggression, they will receive a significant number of strikes in response,” he says.

In the absence of agreement on Ukraine’s long term future, its allies are doing what they can to bolster its defences.

In December, Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, said “everything” was being looked at, including the supply of additional air defence systems, in part to protect the country’s battered energy infrastructure from a renewed wave of coordinated Russian missile and drone attacks.

With Ukraine continuing to experience severe shortages of manpower, the UK Defence Secretary John Healey said the government might be willing to send British troops to Ukraine to help with training.

For its part, the departing Biden administration seems determined to deliver as much congressionally approved military assistance as it can to Ukraine before leaving office, although reports suggest it may run out of time to send everything.

On 21 December it was reported that Trump would continue to supply military aid to Ukraine, but would demand that NATO members dramatically increase their defence spending.

Kyiv’s allies have also continued to ratchet up sanctions on Moscow, in the hope that Russia’s war-time economy, which has proved stubbornly resilient, may finally break.

“There’s been deep frustration that sanctions haven’t just shattered the Russian economy beyond repair,” a US congressional source said, on condition of anonymity.

After multiple rounds of sanctions (fifteen from the EU alone), government officials have grown wary of predicting their successful impact.

But recent indicators are increasingly alarming for the Kremlin. With interest rates at 23%, inflation running above 9%, a falling rouble and growth expected to slow dramatically in 2025, the strains on Russia’s economy have rarely seemed more acute.

Putin is putting on a brave face. “The sanctions are having an effect,” he said during his end of year news conference, “but they are not of key importance.”

Along with Russia’s staggering losses on the battlefield – western officials estimate that Moscow is losing an average of 1,500 men, killed and wounded, every day – the cost of this war could yet drive Putin to the negotiating table.

But how much more territory will Ukraine have lost – and how many more people will have been killed – by the time that point is reached?

Chinese car maker BYD saw its sales jump at the end of last year, as it competes with Tesla to be the world’s best-selling electric vehicle (EV) maker of 2024.

The company says it sold 207,734 EVs in December, taking its annual total to 1.76 million, as subsidies and discounts helped attract customers.

It comes as Tesla is due to announce its own quarterly sales figures later on Thursday.

The US electric car maker maintained a slim lead in EV sales over BYD in the previous quarter but the Shenzhen-based firm has been narrowing the gap.

BYD’s total vehicle sales jumped more than 41% in 2024, year-on-year. The surge was powered mainly by sales of its hybrid cars.

The company has benefited from a rise in car sales in its home market, as intense competition drove down prices and government subsidies encouraged consumers to replace their old cars with EVs or other more fuel efficient options.

BYD sells 90% of its cars in China, where its been extending its lead over foreign brands like Volkswagen and Toyota.

The rise of BYD and other Chinese EV makers contrasts with the challenges faced by some legacy car makers, which have been struggling in major Western markets.

Last month, Honda and Nissan confirmed that they were holding merger talks, as the two Japanese firms seek to fight back against competition from the Chinese car industry.

Also in December, Volkswagen announced it had reached a deal with the IG Metall trade union which will avert plant closures in Germany and avoid immediate compulsory redundancies.

The German motor industry giant had previously warned it might have to shutter plants in the country for the first time in a bid to cut costs.

Earlier in the month, the boss of car making giant Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, quit with immediate effect following a boardroom clash.

His abrupt exit from the company – which owns brands including Vauxhall, Jeep, Fiat, Peugeot and Chrysler – came two months after Stellantis issued a profit warning.

In the third quarter of 2024, BYD saw its revenues soar, beating Tesla’s for the first time.

It posted more than 200bn yuan ($28.2bn, £21.8bn) in revenues between July and September – a 24% jump from the same period last year, and more than Elon Musk’s company whose quarterly revenue was $25.2bn.

However, Tesla still sold more electric vehicle (EVs) than BYD.

Chinese car makers have been trying to boost sales of their EVs outside the country but have faced pushback in some major markets.

In October, European Union tariffs of up to 45.3% on imports of Chinese-made EVs came into force across the bloc.

The US has also imposed a 100% duty on EVs from China and President-elect Donald Trump is expected to impose further tariffs on imports.

Meanwhile, BYD has been expanding its foothold in emerging economies.

Last month, it faced a setback in Brazil – its largest overseas market – with authorities halting the construction of a BYD factory, saying workers lived in conditions comparable to “slavery”.

BYD said it had cut ties with the construction firm involved and remained committed to a “full compliance with Brazilian legislation”.

A gunman has shot dead at least 10 people, including two children, in southern Montenegro on Wednesday, police say.

At least some of the deaths happened inside a restaurant in the Cetinje area following a verbal argument between guests, according to a police official quoted by public broadcaster RTCG.

It was later confirmed that the attacker had killed himself.

The government has declared three days of national mourning from Thursday with Prime Minister Milojko Spajic describing the shooting as a “terrible tragedy”.

The gunman killed members of his own family, two of the restaurant owner’s children and also the owner, according to Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic.

Mr Saranovic called the incident a “consequence of disturbed interpersonal relations”, according to AFP news agency.

Four people were in a life-threatening condition in hospital after being seriously wounded in the shooting, the agency reported the prime minister as saying.

The attacker, named as Aleksandar Martinović, 45, fled the scene but later fatally injured himself after being surrounded by police who asked him to drop his weapon, a police official said.

Mass shootings are comparatively rare in the small Balkan nation.

New CCTV footage exclusively obtained by BBC News reveals how a burglar stole more than £10m worth of jewellery and designer handbags from a London mansion.

The images show a masked man stuffing handfuls of jewellery into a backpack after creeping into the multi-million pound property.

A family spokesperson, who was inside the home when the theft was carried out, said the intruder moved “like a cat” but appears to have almost been thwarted when his apparent escape route was blocked.

The stolen goods belong to Hong Kong socialite Shafira Huang, who was not at the St John’s Wood house at the time, and a reward of up to £1.5m has been offered as the hunt for the thief continues.

Csaba Virag, a spokesman for Ms Huang’s family, said the thief had initially attempted to enter via a second floor window at around 17:00 GMT on 7 December.

Marks that look like they were made with a screwdriver or crowbar were left behind.

When that did not work, the intruder then climbed onto the roof, where he would have seen two housekeepers leaving the grounds, before lowering himself into a large concrete gutter to enter the house via a bathroom window which was also on the second storey.

The bathroom belonged to a live-in governess, Mr Virag said, who he was holding a meeting with in a basement room of the five storey property when the theft occurred.

“She would have been in that room and there would have been a confrontation, which is quite scary,” he said.

Mr Virag said the intruder would have had to climb down onto a sink from the window, but moved “like a cat” to avoid making any marks on it or disturbing the cosmetic products it was littered with. Around £300 in cash on a desk in the room was left untouched.

The family spokesman said he heard a banging during that meeting but put it down to the strong winds outside.

“Retrospectively, I can put two and two together, which at the time you don’t really think,” he said.

Mr Virag said he believes the noise could have been a staff entrance door banging in the draft created when the intruder opened the window, and that the thief closed the window quickly to avoid being given away.

The intruder was then captured on CCTV cameras moving around the house above them, struggling to open cases containing expensive jewellery before putting items into his bag.

Time stamps on one CCTV image released by the family indicate he narrowly avoided bumping into the maid when they walked through the same hallway seconds apart.

Asked if the thief left the house the same way as he came in, Mr Virag said he did, but added “I believe it was not his intention”.

The thief had entered a “high risk” part of the house and appears to have tried to leave via a rarely used guest room at the back of the property, Mr Virag said.

He continued: “[He] tried to open the window from the inside but we have the safety on the sash window.

“The stoppers only allow you to pull it down 8cm and if you don’t have the right tool to unscrew the pins, you can’t. He tried but couldn’t succeed.”

As well as jewellery, Hermes Crocodile Kelly handbags and £15,000 in cash were also taken.

The thief, who police believe may have been armed, is believed to be a white man in his late 20s to 30s.

“We urge anyone who was in the area of Avenue Road, NW8, and saw anything suspicious to please come forward,” the Metropolitan Police’s Det Con Paulo Roberts said.

“Also, if you have seen this jewellery since, someone has offered to sell you it, or you have any further information, then please also contact the police or Crimestoppers anonymously.”

A £500,000 reward has been offered for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.

A second reward of 10% of the value of any recovered items has been offered by the homeowners for information that leads to the retrieval of the stolen jewellery – which could total as much as £1.5m, the Metropolitan Police confirmed.

The burglary was carried out on Avenue Road, which links the Swiss Cottage and Regent’s Park areas of the capital and is home to some of the city’s most expensive properties.

Ms Huang, who lives in the mansion with her property developer husband, had been a prolific social media user but has since made her profiles private.

From the end of the Roman occupation through the Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions – a new way of testing DNA in ancient bones could force a rethink of key moments in Britain’s early history, say researchers.

Scientists could already track big alterations in DNA that occur over thousands or millions of years, helping us learn, for example, how early humans evolved from ape-like creatures.

Now researchers can identify subtler changes over just hundreds of years, providing clues as to how people migrated and interacted with locals.

They are using the new method to analyse human remains found in Britain, including from the time when Romans were replaced by an Anglo-Saxon elite from Europe.

Prof Peter Heather, from Kings College London, who is working on the project with the developers of the new DNA technique at the Francis Crick Institute in London, said the new technique could be “revolutionary”.

While the project will analyse the DNA of more than 1,000 ancient human remains of people who lived in Britain during the past 4,500 years, researchers have homed in on the time after the Romans left as a particularly interesting era to study.

What happened in this period more than 1,500 years ago is unclear from written and archeological records. Historians are divided in their views about the scale and nature of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, whether it was large or small, hostile or co-operative.

“It is one of the most contested and therefore one of the most exciting things to work on in the whole of British history,” according to Prof Heather.

“[The new method] will allow us to see the type of relations that are being found with the native population,” he said. “Are they co-operative, is there interbreeding, are the locals able to make their way into the elite?”

They are optimistic about the success of the technique, known as Twigstats, after testing it on human remains found in mainland Europe between the years 1 and 1,000 CE.

Much of what they gleaned from the DNA about the spread of the Vikings into Scandinavia tallied with historical records.

This result, published in the journal Nature, confirmed the method worked while showing how powerful it could be at shedding new light on accepted facts when findings didn’t match what was written in the history books.

“That was the moment we got really excited,” said Dr Leo Speidel, who developed the technique with his group leader Dr Pontus Skoglund. “We could see that this could really change how much we can find out about human history.”

The problem the researchers were trying to overcome is that a human’s genetic code is extremely long – consisting of 3 billion separate chemical units.

Spotting the small genetic changes in that code which occur over a few generations, for example, as a result of new arrivals interbreeding with the local population, is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The researchers solved the problem by, as it were, taking away the haystack and leaving the needle in plain sight – they found a way to identify the older genetic changes, disregard them and look only at the most recent alterations.

They combed the genetic data of thousands of human remains from an online scientific database, then calculated how closely they were related to each other, which chunks of DNA were inherited from which groups and when.

This created a family tree with older changes appearing in earlier branches, and more recent changes showing up in newer ‘twigs’, hence the name Twigstats.

Each of the people whose remains will be studied have their own tales to tell and soon scientists and historians will be able to hear their stories, said Dr Skoglund.

“We want to understand many different epochs in European and British history, from the Roman period, when the Anglo-Saxons arrived, through the Viking period and see how this shapes the ancestry and diversity of this part of the World,” he said.

As well as showing up interbreeding with different populations, embedded in the ancient DNA are hugely important details on how people coped with key historical moments, such epidemics, shifts in diet, urbanisation, and industrialisation.

The technique can potentially be applied to any part of the world for which there are a large collection of well preserved human remains.

Prof Heather wants to use it to investigate what he describes as one of European history’s biggest mysteries: why central and eastern Europe changed from being Germanic speaking to Slavic speaking, 1,500 years ago.

“Historical sources show what was the case before and what was the case after, but there is nothing about what happened in between,” he said.

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They are smiling now as they play together in the sand at al-Mawasi tent camp in southern Gaza, but the children of the Masri family have survived horrific events.

“Their lives were in danger, they were exposed to so much killing and destruction,” says their grandmother, Kawther al-Masri.

An Israeli bombing six weeks ago struck their home in the northern town of Beit Lahia, killing the parents of one-year-old Jamal and the mother and two young sisters of his cousins Maria, Jana and Zeina, aged from two to nine. The girls’ father was arrested by Israeli forces more than a year ago.

When the children were pulled from the rubble, they were injured and alone.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, more than 14,500 children have reportedly been killed, thousands more injured and an estimated 17,000 have been left unaccompanied or separated from the family members who would ordinarily care for them.

Some are too young to know their names and remain unidentified.

In a chaotic situation amid bombings and mass displacement, the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, has managed to reunite just 63 children with their parents or guardians. Last month, the BBC followed the story of the four Masri cousins.

“The happiness of their return is indescribable, but it’s overshadowed with sadness – they came back without their parents,” Kawther al-Masri told us.

Initially, the news that reached Kawther in mid-November was that all of her loved ones who had remained in the family’s house in northern Gaza had been killed. But she says that after she prayed, word reached her that three of her grandchildren were still alive.

She immediately knew that she had to bring them to her. “I longed for them,” she explains. “Honestly, I wished I could go to the North and fetch them, but God’s will is above everything.”

For more than a year now, Israel has divided the northern third of the Gaza Strip from the southern two-thirds along the line of a valley, Wadi Gaza. Humanitarian workers have to carry out special co-ordination to cross the Israeli military zone bisecting the territory.

After Kawther collected the documents she needed, Unicef carried out its own welfare checks and went through a laborious process to arrange to move the Masri children.

As the four bereaved cousins underwent medical treatment, distant relatives had looked after them. Unicef filmed their emotional goodbye before it took the children away in armoured vehicles.

The short distance from Gaza City to Deir al-Balah where the convoy was heading now involves crossing an Israeli checkpoint, it takes a long time to drive and can be very risky as the war rages on. Yet Unicef says it is prioritising child reunifications.

“The challenges are multiple,” says Rosalia Bollen, a Unicef spokeswoman. “But we’re talking here about highly vulnerable children.”

“These are stories of loss – of deep mental trauma and physical trauma and for these children to recover. The fact that they’ve been reunified with one or both parents, or a family member, is extremely, extremely important.”

Kawther describes an agonising wait on the day the children were due to arrive until finally Unicef telephoned. She hadn’t seen her grandchildren for 14 months.

“I didn’t know who to hug first!” she exclaims. “The first one I hugged was Jana and then Zeina. I kissed her and hugged her.”

“My son’s children used to call me ‘Kuko’ and although Zeina couldn’t speak the last time I saw her, she knew this was my nickname. She kept asking: ‘Are you Kuko? Are you the one I came here for?’ And I told her I was. She felt safe.”

The story of the Masri family is not uncommon. They were split up in the early days of the war.

A week after the 7 October 2023 Hamas assault which killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel, the Israeli military ordered 1.1 million people in northern Gaza to move south, signalling that it planned to start a ground invasion.

Kawther and most of her children quickly packed up and moved to Rafah, but transportation for her two sons, Ramadan and Hamza, fell through. They ended up staying behind with their wives – one of whom was pregnant – and small children.

In November 2023, Hamza was arrested by Israeli forces in Beit Lahia. His close relatives insist that he and they are farmers with no political affiliations. The BBC has been unable to get information from the Israeli authorities about what happened to Hamza.

Israel has detained thousands of Gazans during the war, saying they are suspected of terrorism.

“This has been our fate,” Kawthar tells us despairingly. “We lost our homes, our land and our loved ones, and we were divided between the North and the South.”

With so many people unaccounted for, many turn to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for help. It takes detailed information and cross-checks this with sources it can access, such as hospital lists and names of returned detainees.

More than 8,300 cases have been reported to the organisation but only about 2,100 have been closed. Of these, only a small number have led to family reunifications.

“People are in limbo – they don’t know whether their family member is alive, whether they are injured or in hospital, whether they are trapped under rubble or whether they will see them again,” says Sarah Davies from the ICRC.

Doctors and staff at hospitals also play a part in trying to connect their patients with loved ones.

Nearly a year ago, the BBC filmed a newborn baby who had been delivered by Caesarean section after her mother was killed in an Israeli air strike. Medics called the little girl “the daughter of Hanna Abu Amsha” and kept information about her in the hope her relatives could track her down.

Recently, the nursery at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al-Balah told us that the baby was eventually handed over to her father and was doing well.

Days after the Masri family’s reunion, a local journalist working with the BBC visited Kawther and her grandchildren in the al-Mawasi displaced people’s camp where they now live in a tent. With aid in short supply, Unicef had given them help to get extra food and medication.

The girls also had warm jackets – some protection against the cold temperatures which have led to several babies dying of hypothermia, including at the camp on the coast, close to the city of Khan Younis.

While Kawther is relieved to have the children with her, she still does not feel they are safe. She worries about how to care for them and their mental health.

“They are in shock,” she says. “No matter how much we try to distract the girls and avoid talking of the war, every now and then they wander off in thought.”

“When night falls, they are afraid. They say: ‘There’s a plane, there’s a strike.’ They ask me: ‘Is it dawn yet?’ and only when morning comes, they start to feel reassured.”

Kawther says she desperately hopes for a ceasefire and for her grandchildren to rebuild their lives. Not to become part of a lost generation.

Navy personnel from Devon and Cornwall were dispatched to watch Russian vessels sailing near the British coast.

The Royal Navy said Devonport-based HMS Somerset’s crew was recalled on Christmas Day before it sailed two days later as RFS Soobrazitelny and her two support ships MV Sparta II and MV General Skobelev sailed across the English Channel.

Airborne support was provided during the mission by the Type 23 frigate’s Merlin helicopter, which was provided by 814 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Culdrose, the navy added.

A navy spokesperson said the shadowing operation lasted five days and ended on New Year’s Eve.

HMS Somerset’s commanding officer Cdr Joel Roberts said the crew, consisting of nearly 200 people, was always prepared to protect the UK, even during holiday periods.

“As the UK is an island nation, at all times of the year the Royal Navy maintains units at very high readiness to conduct operations in support of the UK’s national objectives,” he said.

Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard, who is MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said the crew involved had shown great “professionalism” during the operation.

“I would like to thank the crew of HMS Somerset for their dedication after readying themselves for action at short notice during the Christmas period, and promptly setting sail from Devonport to keep the UK safe,” he said.

XX

On New Year’s Day, Russian gas stopped flowing through Ukraine.

Kyiv is calling it a “historic” day as its refusal to extend a transit agreement with Russia’s Gazprom has halted the return flow of cash to fund the full-scale invasion of Ukraine

But in neighbouring Moldova, the move threatens to cause a crisis.

In Transnistria, a separatist region of eastern Moldova loyal to Moscow, the year began with only hospitals and critical infrastructure being heated, not houses.

“The hot water was on until about 2am, I checked. Now it’s off and the radiators are barely warm,” Dmitry told the BBC by phone from his flat in the enclave.

“We still have gas, but the pressure is very low – just what’s left in the pipes.”

“It’s the same everywhere.”

Transnistria split from the rest of Moldova in a short war as the Soviet Union fell apart. It still has Russian troops on its soil and an economy that’s fully dependent on Russian gas, for which the authorities in Tiraspol pay nothing.

“They just have a file, where it says how much the debt is each month,” explains Jakub Pieńkowski, of the Polish Institute of International Affairs, PSIM. “But Russia is not interested in asking for this money.”

Suddenly, that lifeline via Ukraine has been cut.

In some Transnistrian towns, the authorities are setting up “heating points” and there are hotlines for help finding firewood. Families have been advised to gather in one room for warmth and seal cracks in the windows and doors with blankets.

New Year’s Day in the enclave brought sunshine but the temperature overnight is forecast to fall below 0C.

“It’s chilly now inside the flat,” local resident Dmitry says. “And we don’t know what frost January will bring.”

The electricity is still flowing, for now.

But Transnistria’s main power plant in Kurchugan is already being fuelled by coal instead of Russian gas and the authorities say there’s only enough of that for 50 days.

That means problems for the rest of Moldova, which gets 80% of its electricity from Kurchugan.

The government in Chisinau says it has enough gas to heat the country until spring and it will switch to buying electricity from Europe, but that means a giant hike in costs.

A state of emergency was introduced last month and businesses and citizens have been told to reduce consumption with the country braced for power cuts.

The abrupt halt in gas via Ukraine affects Slovakia and Hungary, too.

Both have governments sympathetic to Moscow that have been far slower than others in the EU to wean themselves off Russian fuel and stop funding Russia’s war. Paying more for alternative supplies will squeeze their budgets.

But Moldova is poorer and less stable – a prolonged crisis could have serious economic and political consequences.

That may well be what Moscow wants.

Russia could supply its allies in Transnistria via Turkey, albeit at a higher cost, which would mean electricity for all Moldova.

Instead, Gazprom claims it has halted supplies because Chisinau is almost $700m in debt. The Moldovan government says an international audit put the true amount at around $9m which has mostly been repaid.

“We’re treating this not as an energy crisis but a security crisis, induced by Russia to destabilise Moldova both economically and socially,” Olga Rosca, foreign policy adviser to Moldova’s president, told the BBC.

“This clearly is a shaping operation ahead of parliamentary elections in 2025, to create demand for a return of pro-Russian forces to power.”

Relations between Moldova and Moscow are tense.

Once part of the USSR, the country has begun talks to join the EU and turned even more firmly away from Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

President Maia Sandu was re-elected last year despite evidence of a massive campaign against her led from Moscow.

It hasn’t stopped.

Before her inauguration, Russia’s external SVR intelligence agency issued a bizarre statement falsely claiming she planned to take back Transnistria by force to restore energy supplies. It painted the president as “frenzied” and “emotionally unstable”.

Analyst Jakub Pieńkowski agrees that the Kremlin is exploiting Kyiv’s decision to ban the transit of Russian gas.

“It’s a reason to make some political and social issues in Moldova,” he argues. “Electricity prices have already risen about six times in three years and people are angry.”

As the humanitarian situation in Transnistria worsens, pressure on Chisinau will grow. But Tiraspol is refusing all help, even generators.

“They will create a narrative of Chisinau freezing Transnistria into submission,” Olga Rosca believes.

And even if Tiraspol opts to buy gas from elsewhere, the hit to its economy could be disastrous.

“The prices here would shoot up, including for heating and food. But pensions here are tiny, and there’s no work,” Dmitry told me, from Bendery in the buffer zone on the edge of Transnistria.

He says people there are barely “clinging on” as it is. Now life elsewhere in Moldova will also get harder.

“Russia can wait for the elections and then parties who are not pro-EU will probably win,” Jakub Pieńkowski predicts.

“Because Maia Sandu can talk about EU accession, but what use is that if people don’t have money for electricity or gas?”

“This is the aim for Russia.”

US officials say hackers linked to the Chinese government are responsible for breaching security at major telecommunications companies and US agencies.

The latest hack, announced on Monday, targeted the US Department of the Treasury, which called the infiltration a “major incident”.

Officials said the hackers were able to access employee workstations and some unclassified documents. China denies involvement.

It’s the latest in a string of cyber-attacks that have emerged in recent months against US and other Western targets.

The treasury department hack followed news in late October that the two major US presidential campaigns were targeted.

The FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) said the hack targeting the White House campaigns was carried out “by actors affiliated with the People’s Republic of China”.

In September, reports surfaced of an operation that managed to breach security at top telecommunications firms.

The White House recently said at least nine companies were hacked, including telecoms giants AT&T and Verizon.

And earlier in the year, in March, seven Chinese nationals were charged with running a hacking operation that lasted at least 14 years and targeted foreign critics of China, businesses and politicians.

Operations linked by Western governments to China have also targeted the UK’s Electoral Commission, and the UK and New Zealand parliaments.

While full details have yet to be revealed, the hacks appear to be the work of several different units – each, US authorities say, linked to the Chinese state.

The hacking groups are given nicknames by security firms. For instance the group behind the telecoms hack is most commonly known by Salt Typhoon, the name given to it by researchers at Microsoft. Other firms have dubbed it Famous Sparrow, Ghost Emperor and Earth Estrie.

Salt Typhoon is thought to be behind the telecoms hack. A separate group, nicknamed Volt Typhoon, has been accused of breaking into critical infrastructure organisations for potential disruption attacks.

The seven Chinese citizens charged with hacking were linked by US justice department officials to an operation known as Zirconium or Judgment Panda.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre says the same operation targeted UK parliamentarians’ emails in 2021.

The most recent hacks seem to have been aimed at powerful individuals and collecting data that could benefit the Chinese government.

Among others, they targeted the phones of President-elect Donald Trump, Vice-President-elect JD Vance, and people working for Vice-President Kamala Harris’s campaign.

The hackers have also accessed a database of phone numbers subject to law enforcement wiretaps – knowledge that experts say could be used to discover which foreign spies are under surveillance.

And millions of Americans may have had their data breached by the attacks on telecoms companies.

Richard Forno, assistant director of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Cybersecurity Institute, said the Chinese efforts were being directed at a variety of targets.

“It’s more generic information gathering, let’s see what we can get into, and see what we can find,” he said.

US lawmakers of both parties have expressed concern about the hacks.

Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, called Salt Typhoon’s activities the “worst telecom hack in our nation’s history”.

Brendan Carr, Trump’s pick for chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said an intelligence briefing about the hack was “deeply, deeply concerning”.

“The information I heard, it made me want to basically smash my phone at the end of it,” he told CNBC.

FBI Director Christopher Wray recently said that Salt Typhoon’s hack of telecoms companies was China’s “most significant cyber-espionage campaign in history”.

He previously said China’s hacking programme was bigger “than [that of] every other major nation combined”.

In addition to charges laid against the seven Chinese nationals, earlier this month US authorities warned China Telecom Americas, the US subsidiary of one of China’s largest communications companies, that it is a national security threat.

The company has 30 days to respond, and could ultimately face a ban.

In May, the UK sanctioned two individuals and Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company Ltd, which it said was linked to Judgment Panda.

Trump’s incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz has said that foreign hackers must face “higher costs and consequences”.

Mr Forno, of the UMBC Cybersecurity Institute, said the hacks were probably years in the making.

“China traditionally takes a very long and strategic view of how they conduct their espionage and intelligence operations,” he said. “The US tends to be much more reactive and much more interested in immediate and visible results.”

China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a news briefing that the accusations were “baseless” and “lacking evidence”.

“China consistently opposes all forms of hacking and firmly rejects the dissemination of false information targeting China for political purposes,” Mao said.

A Chinese embassy spokesman said in a statement: “The US needs to stop using cybersecurity to smear and slander China, and stop spreading all kinds of disinformation about the so-called Chinese hacking threats.”

At the age of 60, Nigerian businessman and healthcare professional Ken Okoroafor achieved his childhood dream of obtaining the revered title of “Leopard Slayer”.

Jubilant crowds thronged as he was inducted into the prestigious and male-only Igbuu Society in his hometown of Oguta, in south-eastern Nigeria.

In ancient times, slaying a leopard was not just an act of bravery but a ritualistic feat that conferred societal prestige.

To become a “Leopard Slayer”, known as an “Ogbuagu” in the Igbo language, a man had to present a leopard – hunted and killed by himself – to the local king. Its meat was then shared amongst 25 villages around Oguta.

Over time, the practice evolved, and people no longer needed to hunt the leopard themselves.

My mother recalls the carcass of a leopard lying in their living room back in 1955 when her father took the title. It had been captured for him by a professional hunter.

She remembers eating leopard meat twice in the past: “It tastes wild and a bit salty.”

Conservation concerns then ended the use of leopards as they became scarce in the region. The last known leopard sacrifice occurred in 1987.

Once widespread across Nigeria, leopards now tend to be only found in a few national parks, where they are protected.

Today, the financial equivalent – a substantial but undisclosed sum – is distributed among the family heads in the 25 villages, maintaining the communal spirit of the tradition.

“In Oguta when you join this society, you get respect and you join them in most of the decision making in the town,” said Mr Okoroafor, who has lived in the US for decades but returned to his roots to become an Ogbuagu.

“That attracted me. It’s something I’ve been hoping to join since I was a little boy.”

The first recorded use of money as a substitute goes back to 1942 when a man named Mberekpe Ojirika caught a leopard for the ceremony, but then his mother passed away.

Tradition stipulated that Ojirika had to mourn for six months and could not continue with the ritual. When he later tried to find another leopard, he failed.

Understanding the difficulty, his relative, the Eze Igwe – the traditional king of Oguta – allowed him to pay four shillings instead of providing a leopard.

“From that time, you now had a choice to use money or a leopard,” said 52-year-old Victor Aniche, the current secretary of the Igbuu Society, and a grandson of Ojirika.

“When I did my own in 2012, someone offered to bring me a live leopard from northern Nigeria. They had one to sell to me. But I couldn’t imagine having an endangered animal killed,” said Mr Aniche, a mechanical engineer and Cambridge University alumnus.

But today the path to becoming an Ogbuagu is still rigorous, involving three elaborate stages.

The Igbuu Society – of which there are around 75 current members – is as old as Oguta itself, tracing its roots back over four centuries to the town’s founding by migrants from the ancient Benin Kingdom.

Despite their ethnic Igbo classification, the people of Oguta maintain a distinct identity. Their dialect, customs and traditions set them apart with a local and diaspora population estimated by various sources to be close to 200,000.

Many of those wanting to become an Ogbuagu choose to go through their ceremonies during the festive Christmas season, allowing families and diaspora communities to come together, often drawing large crowds.

On 21 December, Zubby Ndupu, a petrophysicist who works in Nigeria’s oil sector, began his first stage to becoming a “Leopard Slayer”, known as “Igbu Agu” – when the hunt is re-enacted.

The day started at 09:00, with the Ogbuagu gathering in a large tent at Mr Ndupu’s home. They greeted each other with the clinking of their gold-coloured swords and exchanged pleasantries.

Although the Eze Igwe does not attend public events, he sent a representative to join the ceremony.

The Ogbuagu sat in order of hierarchy, determined by the date they became full members.

Women were not allowed to touch the Ogbuagu, enter the gathering or participate in the ceremony, but I watched from nearby.

The Ogbuagu feasted on traditional dishes such as goat meat pepper soup, nsala soup – made from catfish – pounded yam and palm wine.

During the ceremony, Mr Ndupu was called forward by the secretary: a palm frond was tied to his wrist, chalk marks were drawn on his hand, and he was given a brand-new gold-coloured sword engraved with his name.

He then moved around the gathering, greeting each Ogbuagu and clinking his sword against theirs four times.

In the afternoon, after the feasting, Mr Ndupu was led in a procession from his home. The “Leopard Slayers” walked in hierarchical order, with the newest initiate, Mr Ndupu, positioned at the end of the line.

The group proceeded to the Eze Igwe’s palace, where they presented money for the leopard to the king.

The second stage, known as “Iga Aji”, is a spiritual segment conducted privately at the initiate’s home – with members of the Igbuu Society in attendance.

During this phase, the initiate is presented with a red sash, symbolising royalty, along with sacred beads and feathers.

After receiving his red sash, Mr Okoroafor went around greeting his kinsfolk, who had gathered in tents outside. They celebrated him with cheers of “Ogbuagu!” as they feasted and drank.

The final stage, “Ipu Afia Agu”, is a grand feast that marks the initiate’s full membership. The celebration begins at the home of the initiate’s mother and later moves to his own residence.

This is the most expensive stage, often involving livestock, basins of fish and crates of liquor to entertain hundreds of guests.

After a recent gathering at his mother’s home, Pascal Okey Adizua, a 60-year-old car dealer from Maryland in the US, was paraded through town with a symbolic, fake leopard skin held high.

Accompanied by the Ogbuagu, chanting women and vibrant music, his new status was celebrated with dancing, singing and feasting shared by all.

Mr Adizua had completed his first stage in 2023 but chose to wait until this last December to complete the second and third stages so his daughters – two doctors and a nurse – could attend.

“My children are all done with school. The last boy is the only one in university. A lot of my friends came from the US,” said Mr Adizua, who has lived abroad for 21 years.

Both Mr Adizua and Mr Okoroafor, who completed their second and third stages in December, can now savour the unmatched prestige that comes with Igbuu membership.

“Leopard Slayers” are addressed by their title “Ogbuagu” throughout Igboland – and beyond.

In Oguta, they alone may stand and greet the king without bowing. Their presence commands respect at all events like weddings where they are given seats of honour.

Ceremonial beads worn on the right wrist distinguish the Ogbuagu, symbolising their status. At traditional events, they must wear specific attire.

“The title ‘Ogbuagu’ is a name of praise,” explains Mr Aniche. “If you can go into the forest, stalk and kill a leopard, you are a warrior.”

Leadership in Igbuu follows a strict hierarchy, where seniority is based on how long one has been a member, not age. The longest-serving member holds the highest leadership position. The current leader is Emmanuel Udom, now in his early 80s.

In addition to the president, who oversees the group’s affairs and meetings, Igbuu members nominate and elect officials to handle the daily operations and administration. Mr Aniche has served as secretary for the past four years.

“We have members in their mid-40s all the way to their 90s,” said Mr Aniche.

Some prominent Ogbuagu include the late Chukwudifu Oputa, one of Nigeria’s most respected Supreme Court judges; Alban Uzoma Nwapa, a Swedish-Nigerian musician better known by his stage name Dr. Alban, and the late Gogo Nwakuche, a successful entrepreneur and husband of the late renowned novelist Flora Nwapa.

The Igbuu Society is highly selective. Applicants must own property, have a verifiable income, be married or have been married, and maintain an unblemished reputation.

Descendants of slaves, known as “ohu”, are not allowed to join. These are people whose ancestors were owned by others, either through war or purchase – a remnant of a social order that some are now working to abolish.

“We are saying now that it is time for this obnoxious, outdated, useless system to be done away with, so that we can be one,” said Oduenyi Nduka, a former secretary of Igbuu who is also the king’s spokesperson.

“If you go to America, some of our sons are married to black Americans, even some Ogbuagu. Those black Americans are products of the same system, so what is the problem at home?”

He explained that the traditional process of abolishing the ohu system has already begun, with consultations taking place between families that once owned slaves. This is expected to lead to the enactment of traditional rituals that will officially declare them free of the ohu status.

“Once that is done, the Igbuu will call a meeting and begin to accept them,” Mr Nduka said.

Despite its prestige, some criticise the Igbuu, claiming it benefits only the ego of its members.

At every ceremony I attended, there was at least one person in the crowd murmuring about how the thousands of dollars spent could be better used for developing the town or funding scholarships.

But Mr Aniche disagrees: “Igbuu is not a society where you come to achieve; it is a society you come to because you have already achieved.

“The Ogbuagu have brought more development to Oguta than others. They are the biggest employers of labour.”

Mr Aniche also pointed out that the money spent on feasting and other ceremony requirements circulates back into the local economy.

Today, the Igbuu Society’s membership spans the globe, with nearly half of its members residing in the diaspora. Yet, whether in Europe or the US, Oguta men remain deeply connected to their roots.

“I come back about three times every year because I love the tradition of Oguta,” said Mr Adizua. “With all the stress in the diaspora, I like to come home to unwind.”

For Mr Okoroafor, the journey from a young boy dreaming of the leopard hunt to an esteemed Ogbuagu was well worth the wait.

“Oguta is a beautiful town that has a lot of people who excelled in different areas,” he said, his voice filled with pride.

“The last time I was home was 2016 but now that I am an Ogbuagu, I will come home more regularly.”

• ‘My Nigerian great-grandfather sold slaves’
• Nigerians shimmy and shake at ‘Africa’s biggest party’
• Celebrating 50 years of marriage in Nigeria’s ‘divorce capital’

From busy freeways to classic-car street racing, Los Angeles has long been considered the capital of American car culture. Can it change in time for the Olympics?

With nearly year-round sunny skies, some say LA is the ideal place for cycling.

“It is the perfect community for runners and cycling and outdoors, yet as a generality we are hooked on our vehicles, we are hooked on the need to have speed,” said Damian Kevitt, the executive director of Streets Are For Everyone (Safe).

But until recently, it was cars – and not pedestrians or cyclists – that ruled the roads.

Spreading over 460 square miles (1,200 sq km), Los Angeles is known for its never-ending sprawl, and its traffic jams.

While cities like New York and Boston have embraced mass transit, in LA it never quite caught on – only about 7% of Angelenos take transit to work, according to Neighborhood Data for Social Change.

And while LA weather would be the envy of any Amsterdam cyclist, only about 1% bikes to work.

But with hundreds of thousands of spectators expected to attend the city for the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympic Games, something has to be done to make getting around the city easier.

Los Angeles adopted the “Twenty-eight by ’28” transport plan in 2017 to expand mass transit options before the summer Olympics. Since then, miles and miles of new bike lanes have been popping up.

“This is long overdue,” Mr Kevitt said.

A cyclist who lost his leg in 2013 after a car hit him as he rode his bike in Griffith Park, Kevitt thinks more people will commute using their own bikes or rentable Metro city bikes once the streets are safer and bike lanes are more connected to each other.

LA voters in 2024 overwhelmingly supported a ballot measure to require the city to build more bike lanes and more walkable, livable spaces in Los Angeles.

But will car-loving Angelenos embrace bike culture? Some are actively fighting the changes, grumbling that bike lanes only worsen traffic for cars in the city of stars.

“What do you mean we voted for it? Not here! Not me!” said Darin Drabing, the president and CEO of Forest Lawn Cemetery, who is fighting against bike lanes near the cemetery because he thinks it will increase traffic during his commute and funerals.

“Everywhere I’ve seen [it] implemented, they failed,” he said. “All it does is increase congestion and frustration for people.”

Some do fail.

While protected bike lanes have transformed Olympic host cities like Paris and London, politicians are currently trying to rip out bike lanes in Toronto that have been a part of the city’s streets for almost a decade (they are being sued by cyclists to stop that plan).

In Los Angeles County, the city of Glendale recently voted to remove some bike lanes after complaints about increased traffic.

And new protected bike lanes are creating frustration along Hollywood Boulevard, where automobile traffic is now limited to one lane in each direction for several miles. But it’s also causing others to commute by bike occasionally instead of driving.

Cyclist Mimi Holt used to ride her bike in Seattle then quit riding for nearly 20 years out of fear of speeding drivers on LA’s busy streets.

“In LA people drive so fast, it’s so utterly terrifying,” she said.

When her doctor told her she was pre-diabetic, she decided to risk the roads to get more exercise, and said since getting back on two wheels, she feels much younger.

She said she can’t wait for the city’s “islands of bike lanes” to be connected to one another.

“If only there was a connecting path, I would be on them all the time,” Ms Holt said, adding that she would get rid of her car if cycling safely everywhere were an option in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city and the LA 2028 Olympic committee were making great progress towards a “transit first” Olympics, as she calls it, after she initially sparked controversy by championing a “car-free” Games.

But with over 100 miles (160km) of bike lanes planned, advocates worry the process is taking too long.

So far, just five of the “Twenty-eight by ’28” projects have been completed and 23 are in progress – and not all of them are expected to be completed in time for the Games.

Los Angeles has already secured $900m (£717m) from the Biden administration to help mostly with rail projects. But it will take more to make the city’s transit dreams come true by 2028.

Mayor Bass and other city leaders have written a letter to the Trump transition team requesting $3.2bn in federal funding for “the largest and most spectacular sporting event held in American history”.

President Trump was supportive of LA’s Olympic bid during his first presidency, telling officials not to forget to invite him.

Mayor Bass said they haven’t had a response yet to the letter, but she said she’s hopeful President-elect Trump will be supportive despite his frequent tensions with other California political leaders, such as Governor Gavin Newsom and congresswoman Nancy Pelosi.

Some people, like Ms Holt, love the idea of ditching their cars, for a variety of reasons.

“I can barely afford my car. Insurance is really expensive, gas is really expensive and it’s not good for the environment,” Ms Holt said at a meeting to view proposed bike paths all over Los Angeles.

But while many Angelenos rely on mass transit to get to work and school, many others who live here have never taken a bus or ventured underground to the subway, which is often portrayed as crime-infested and dystopian in the media.

And many locals think the idea of a car-free Games is absurd.

“That’s a wonderful dream,” said Shivon Ozinga, a Burbank resident opposed to additional bike lanes near her neighborhood. She said the city is too vast, sprawling and reliant on cars to change.

“I can’t imagine it happening in that short amount of time given our car culture here.”

But Mayor Bass can imagine a transportation revolution and said she believes the transit changes in Los Angeles will be lasting long beyond the Olympic Games and the 2026 World Cup.

“As a bike rider, I certainly hope so,” she said.

Until a few days ago, 10-year-old Sushila Meena lived an ordinary life, far from the public eye, in a small village in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.

But everything changed when legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar shared a video on social media of her playing cricket, bringing her into the media spotlight.

He praised her bowling action and said it had “shades of” former Indian bowler Zaheer Khan – who was known for his accuracy, swing, clever variations with the ball and a distinct bowling action.

The video was an instant hit and while it has been viewed by millions and shared by tens of thousands of people, there’s an ironic twist – the girl does not recognise the cricket icon who made her famous.

“I don’t know who he [Sachin Tendulkar] is,” Sushila says, explaining that her family doesn’t own a television and she has never watched cricket.

However, she is grateful to him.

Sushila, who is from a poor tribal family, is now being recognised and appreciated by everyone she meets. From politicians to social activists and even distant relatives, everyone now wants a picture with her.

Sushila struggles to find the right words to describe this new reality. She simply smiles and poses for photographs, still baffled by her newfound fame.

But as soon as she dons her school uniform and steps onto the field with a rubber ball in hand, the shy girl transforms into someone fearless, strong and focused.

“Once the ball is in my hand, all I can think about is getting the batter out,” she says.

Her classmate Asha, who is often on the other side with a bat in her hand, describes Sushila’s bowling as “difficult”.

“Her ball turns unexpectedly and then suddenly hits the wicket,” she says.

At home, Sushila’s mother Shantibai is proud of what her daughter has achieved.

She says that while many are eager to meet her, not everyone has been supportive.

A few have questioned the parents for allowing their daughter to play cricket instead of doing household chores.

Such opinions are common in parts of rural India, where girls are often expected to stay at home and discouraged from pursuing sports or activities outside the traditional gender roles.

“I don’t say anything to them, nor do I listen to what they are saying,” Shantibai says.

“I will never stop her from playing cricket.”

Everyone in Sushila’s school plays cricket and the credit for it goes to their teacher, Ishwarlal Meena.

“I started encouraging students to play cricket when I joined in 2017,” he says. “A fun activity is needed to keep them engaged at school – otherwise, they will stay at home.”

Mr Meena says that initially, he and other teachers would form teams and make the students play with them. Soon everyone wanted to join in.

Even though he has taken on the role of their coach, Mr Meena has no formal cricket training. He watches YouTube videos to learn and teach new techniques to the students.

Once he had enough students, Mr Meena created a social media account to showcase their cricketing talent. Slowly people started reacting to his videos – some even gave tips on form and techniques.

Sushila is not the first student from the school to become an internet sensation.

Last year, another student, Renuka Pargi, went viral for her batting skills. She is currently enrolled at a private cricket academy – which also pays all her expenses – in Rajasthan state’s capital, Jaipur.

But the school and the students here need more than just social media attention.

Sushila’s village and her school remain in poor condition.

“People come, they make big promises, but nothing changes,” Mr Meena says.

He adds that the school offers education only until primary level.

“Once they cross grade five, the cricket will stop. They will have no opportunities,” he points out.

Local government officials say they will see what can be done to provide better facilities to the village and its students. The forest department has sent some officials to do a survey and check if some land can be given to the school to extend its cricket field.

But nothing has happened until now.

Meanwhile, Sushila’s home is flooded with gifts. There are bats everywhere, even though she is a bowler.

Her teacher says no one has got her a proper cricket ball yet. They are much harder than the rubber ball she currently practises with and are needed to play higher levels of the sport.

When asked what she will do with so many bats, Sushila says shyly that she “will try to use them”.

Meanwhile, the big question in the village is whether Sushila’s viral fame will end up like the gifts she receives – a lot of attention and excitement, but ultimately making no real difference to her life.

When I meet Willem Dafoe on Zoom to discuss his latest movie Nosferatu, we get on to mortality fast.

The four-time Oscar-nominated actor is talking to me for Radio 4’s Today programme about Robert Eggers’ remake of the 1922 silent film of the same name, which was an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

Nosferatu is the tale of a terrifying vampire who is infatuated with a haunted young woman called Ellen, played by Lily-Rose Depp.

The story that unfolds involves a lot of death. Where creatures that feed on human blood are concerned, that’s pretty standard. But Dafoe, who plays a vampire-hunting professor of the occult in the film, tells me in real life too “we’re all somewhere considering death all the time”.

For him, that’s one explanation for the popularity of vampire stories.

Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula has been adapted numerous times, and vampires in general are never far from our screens.

Dafoe rationalises the enduring appeal of the subgenre like this: “It’s a very interesting proposition to have the undead visit the living, and it becomes something of a meditation of the dark side of things versus the light”.

Even if we don’t know it, he muses, all of us are always addressing this type of conflict in some form.

An interview with Dafoe is never dull; he’s a thoughtful and intelligent actor, who, for the best part of 50 years, has combined big Hollywood successes (Spiderman movies, John Wick, Born on the Fourth of July) with the arthouse films he relishes.

He dropped out of university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to join an experimental theatre company but, since those early days, his voracious work ethic and intense appeal as perhaps the greatest living character actor have seen him in more than 130 films. His debut, Heaven’s Gate, was in 1980. Seven years later, he was first nominated for an Oscar for the Vietnam war film Platoon.

Dafoe was crucified as Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ and cut off his ear as Van Gogh in At Eternity’s Gate. He spent six hours a day in the prosthetics make-up chair to morph into a reclusive scientist in Poor Things, and he has even been a version of a vampire himself, in Shadow of the Vampire.

While the original 1922 silent movie by F.W. Murnau pioneered some early special effects, including superimposing the image of Nosferatu on to a ship to create a frightening ghostly glow, Eggers goes for an earthy take, grounded in history and reality.

There were 2,000 real live rats on set.

It’s perfect for Dafoe, who tells me he doesn’t like to work too much with computer-generated imagery (the green screen and other visual effects that have become integral to filmmaking).

“You need to earn the authority to pretend, and through the technology, that gets lost”.

Don’t expect well-trodden vampire movie fare in this Nosferatu. Count Orlok doesn’t have the symmetrical fanged teeth we’re used to. This vampire isn’t a suave seducer in a high-collared black cloak.

Dafoe says Eggers wanted to get back to “a time when people actually believed in vampires”. To do this, “he went for a much more folk-based vampire”.

The actor believes this is “why this Orlok in the movie is so very different to anything we’ve ever seen before”.

The film is packed with talent popular with Gen Z (Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Emma Corrin). The cast – and the status of the 1922 original in the film firmament – means Eggers’ movie had achieved a cult-like following even before its release.

In the US, that was on Christmas Day. I asked whether Dafoe thought a movie about a bloodsucking, diseased creature and the horror he unleashes on a 19th Century German town was the perfect antidote to a day of family festivities.

He pointed to “the shadow side” of these occasions, “a time when some people fall into depression because they fall out of that happiness”.

It’s true that his film work offers up both sides – the joy and the pain of life, the extremes of being human and everything in-between.

He tells me that if you don’t recognise there is a shadow side to life, “you’re going to become a victim of it some day”.

As I look at him on the computer screen, it’s impossible not to reflect on how expressive his face is – a face that could be carved from the earth.

He tells me he only realised it when he started being photographed on the red carpet.

“Man, they get some ugly pictures of me. They get some grotesque pictures and they get some nice pictures”.

He puts that down to his face having “range”.

“I never think about my face,” he goes on. “If I ever do, it’s really just to tell it to calm down”.

A number of ceremonies and services will be held to mourn the passing of US President Jimmy Carter, who has died aged 100.

The former president will be honoured at a state funeral on 9 January in Washington before he is buried in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, alongside his wife, Rosalynn, who died last year at age 96.

Carter passed away on Sunday, two years after entering into hospice care.

Here’s what to know about the funeral plans.

A state funeral is a national remembrance event marking the life of Americans who have made a huge contribution to public life.

Most presidents receive the honour if their family agrees.

It usually lasts seven to 10 days and includes ceremonies in the hometown of the deceased, as well as in Washington.

The last president to receive a state funeral was George HW Bush in 2018.

Two years later, former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg became the first woman to lie in state at the US Capitol.

When astronaut Neil Armstrong died in 2012, there were calls for a state funeral, but his family instead chose a private ceremony in Ohio.

The memorial events for Carter – a Democrat who served as president from 1977 to 1981- will be in three parts.

They will start in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, before moving to Washington and then back to the southern state.

On 4 January, a motorcade will drive through Carter’s small hometown of Plains and stop by his childhood home before proceeding to Atlanta, via the state capitol, for a public service at the Carter Presidential Center.

Carter’s remains will be at the presidential library on 5 January and 6 January.

He will be flown to the nation’s capital on 7 January, where the ceremonies will begin at the US Navy Memorial before a horse-drawn procession to the US Capitol.

For two days he will lie in state at the US Capitol Rotunda, where the public will be able to pay their respects.

His life will be commemorated at Washington National Cathedral on 9 January in a service attended by several former presidents.

Biden will be delivering the eulogy at Carter’s Washington DC funeral, after the 39th president asked him to in March 2023, according to Biden.

Former presidents and first ladies typically attend funerals of their predecessors, so First Lady Jill Biden and others like former President Barack Obama could be in attendance. Hillary and Bill Clinton are also expected to be there.

President-elect Donald Trump has confirmed he will attend. He did not go to Rosalynn Carter’s funeral last year, but his wife Melania did, along with other former first ladies.

Trump did attend the Washington service for Republican George HW Bush. There were five living presidents, including Carter, in attendance.

• Four president sat (awkwardly) in one row

The US federal government will be closed on 9 January for a national day of mourning, President Biden said in an executive order.

Financial markets will be closed that day too, including the New York Stock Exchange.

US flags are flying at half-mast on all federal buildings for 30 days.

Police in New York City have named a woman who was set on fire and burned to death last week on a subway train in Brooklyn.

Debrina Kawam, 57, of New Jersey, has been identified as the victim of the seemingly random 22 December attack that burned her body beyond recognition.

Sebastian Zapeta, 33, is accused of starting the blaze with a lighter while Ms Kawam was asleep. He allegedly fanned the flames with a shirt and then watched the fire grow from a bench outside the subway car.

Last week, a grand jury indicted Mr Zapeta, who claims to have no memory of the incident, on four counts of murder and one count of arson.

Julie Bolcer, a spokesperson for New York City’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner, said the death was ruled a homicide and caused by “thermal and inhalational injuries”. She made the identification public on Tuesday.

“The identity was confirmed by the medical examiner yesterday through fingerprint analysis, following a multi-agency effort with our partners in law enforcement,” she said.

It took authorities more than a week to identify Ms Kawam’s body.

At a press conference on Tuesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said that Ms Kawam had recently spent time at a city homeless shelter.

“It really reinforces what I’ve been saying, people should not be living on our subway system, they should be in a place of care. And no matter where she lived, that should not have happened,” he said.

Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said at a press conference early in the investigation that authorities had worked to collect DNA evidence and fingerprints from Ms Kawam’s remains.

“It’s a priority for me, for my office, for the police department to identify this woman, so we can notify her family,” Mr Gonzalez said.

False and unverified information about her, including a fake AI-generated picture, had circulated online in the aftermath of the attack.

There was also an outpouring of support, including a vigil held for the then-unidentified victim last week.

Police say that Ms Kawam was motionless, apparently asleep, on a stationary subway train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue Station in Brooklyn early on 22 December when Mr Zapeta allegedly approached her with a lighter.

The pair never interacted, and police believe they did not know each other.

Jessica Tisch, New York’s police commissioner, said that the smell of smoke drew police officers and Metropolitan Transit Authority personnel to the fire and they extinguished the flames.

“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.

Authorities declared Ms Kawam dead at the scene.

Ms Tisch described the incident as “one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being”.

In a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, prosecutor Ari Rottenberg said Mr Zapeta told investigators that he had been drinking and did not remember the incident, but did identify himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire being lit.

The suspect, who is originally from Guatemala, was deported from the US in 2018 and later re-entered the country illegally, immigration authorities said.

He is due back in court on 7 January, prosecutors said.

Despite a decline in crime rates on New York City’s subway, the incident is one of a string of attacks that has raised concerns for riders on America’s largest mass transit system.

The subway safety issue arose again on Tuesday afternoon when someone was pushed on to the tracks in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighbourhood in front of an oncoming subway, according to New York City police.

The unidentified male victim was admitted to hospital with a head injury, authorities said. Police later detained a suspect, according to local media.

The FBI says it has discovered more than 150 bombs during a raid on a farm in Virginia – thought to be the largest such cache seized by the law-enforcement agency in its history.

Brad Spafford was arrested on 17 December in Isle of Wight County, 180 miles (290km) south of Washington DC, after a tip-off that he was stockpiling weapons and homemade ammunition on the property he shares with his wife and two young children.

Investigators say some of the devices were found in a bedroom in an unsecured backpack labelled “#nolivesmatter” – an apparent reference to a far-right, anti-government movement.

A lawyer for Mr Spafford denied he is a danger to the community and is seeking his client’s release from pre-trial detention.

The suspect has so far only been charged with possessing an unregistered short-barrelled rifle, though investigators say more charges are likely.

Investigators said on Tuesday that the bombs were “preliminarily assessed as the largest seizure by number of finished explosive devices in FBI history”.

Mr Spafford had allegedly used photos of US President Joe Biden for target practice and expressed hope that Vice-President Kamala Harris would be assassinated.

He had recently sought qualifications in sniper-rifle shooting at a local range, according to the court papers.

The charging document says an unnamed neighbour reported that Mr Spafford had continued to build bombs even after losing three fingers on his right hand in 2021 “while working with a homemade explosive device”.

The neighbour, who used to work in law enforcement, wore a recording device during a visit to Mr Spafford’s 20-acre farm earlier this year, investigators say.

The evidence gathered by the neighbour led FBI agents to search the property, where they found explosives scattered around a home, according to the charging document.

An initial FBI assessment found the devices to be “pipe bombs”. The majority were in a detached garage, and were sorted by colour. Some were labelled “lethal”.

Several bombs were found loaded into a wearable vest, said the court papers.

More bombs “were found completely unsecured in a backpack” in the home. The exterior of the backpack was labelled “#nolivesmatter”, said the court papers.

Nolivesmatter is a movement that promotes extremist ideology, targeted attacks, mass killings, and criminal activity, and has encouraged members to engage in self-harm and animal abuse, according to the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness.

In addition to the pipe bombs, investigators say they found a jar of a highly volatile explosive called HMTD, which the FBI notes is so unstable it can be exploded merely by a temperature change and does not require a detonator to explode.

The jar of HMTD was labelled “Dangerous” and “Do Not Touch”, and was being stored in a freezer next to food that was accessible to the children, according to the court papers.

The neighbour also told investigators that Mr Spafford had discussed fortifying the property with a turret for a 50-calibre firearm on the roof.

Mr Spafford, who worked at a machine shop, had also said that missing children in the news had been taken by the federal government to be trained as school shooters, according to the court papers.

A lawyer for Mr Spafford said on Tuesday that the government’s claim he was dangerous was “rank speculation and fear mongering”, because the suspect had no criminal record.

“There is not a shred of evidence in the record that Mr Spafford ever threatened anyone and the contention that someone might be in danger because of their political views and comments is nonsensical,” the lawyer wrote.

The federal judge overseeing the case ordered that Mr Spafford be released with electronic monitoring.

However, that decision is on hold as the government seeks to keep the suspect in pre-trial detention.

A court in South Korea has issued an arrest warrant against suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol over his attempt to impose martial law on 3 December.

The warrant comes after Yoon, who is being investigated for abusing his power and inciting an insurrection, ignored three summonses to appear for questioning over the past two weeks.

Yoon’s legal team has called the warrant “illegal and invalid” and said they would challenge it in court.

South Korea has been in political crisis since the short-lived martial law declaration, with Yoon and a successor both impeached by the opposition-dominated parliament.

Yoon is South Korea’s first sitting president to face arrest.

Investigators have until 6 January to execute the warrant that was approved by a court in the capital Seoul, and can request an extension.

It is unclear, however, if investigators will be able to execute the warrant as they may be thwarted by his security team and protesters.

The presidential security service had earlier blocked investigators from entering the presidential office grounds and Yoon’s private residence to conduct court-approved searches.

In the past, South Korean authorities have given up arrest attempts against prominent politicians after their aides and supporters have physically blocked the police.

On Monday, Yoon’s legal team said that investigators had no authority to arrest him, as declaring martial law was within the president’s constitutional authority.

Yoon had earlier defended his decision to declare martial law and vowed to “fight to the end” – though he also said that he would not avoid his legal and political responsibilities.

His lawyer, Yun Gap-geun, said that Yoon’s failure to comply with the earlier three summonses was due to “legitimate concerns”.

Yoon’s whereabouts are not publicly known, but he has been banned from leaving the country.

While he has been suspended from presidential duties since 14 December after lawmakers voted to impeach him, he can only be removed from office if his impeachment is upheld by the country’s constitutional court.

There are currently only six judges on the constitutional court’s nine-member bench. This means a single rejection would save Yoon from being removed.

Opposition lawmakers had hoped the nomination of three additional judges would improve the odds of Yoon getting impeached, but their proposal was vetoed by prime minister Han Duck-soo last week.

The opposition has since then voted to impeach Han, who had stepped in as acting leader after Yoon was suspended.

Now, they are threatening to do the same to finance minister Choi Sang-mok, who currently serves as both acting president and acting prime minister.

On Tuesday Choi appointed two new judges but said a third would require consensus among opposition and governing parties.

The victims of a recent £10m jewellery raid on a London mansion have offered rewards totalling £1.5m to help catch the thief and recover their stolen items.

Some of the jewellery stolen from the house on exclusive Avenue Road, near Primrose Hill, is reported to belong to Shafira Huang.

As well as a £500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the thief, the house owners are offering 10% of the value of any recovered jewellery for information that leads to its retrieval – which could total as much as £1.5m, the Metropolitan Police confirmed.

A spokesperson for the family told the Metro they believed the heist on 7 December was a “pre-planned professional job”.

“Everyone is OK, but only by 63 seconds a member of staff would have been in direct confrontation with the robber had they entered the room slightly earlier,” the spokesperson said.

“I can categorically say that all windows in the house were closed.”

The spokesperson added: “They are an absolutely lovely family. Time is a great healer but obviously it’s a shock.”

Among the items taken, totalling £10.4m, were distinctive pieces such as two De Beers butterfly diamond rings, pink sapphire earrings shaped like butterflies from Katherine Wang, and a gold, diamond and sapphire Van Cleef necklace.

In addition to the jewellery, £150,000 of designer handbags and £5,000 in cash were stolen in the raid.

Many of the missing items are unique in their design, and therefore easily identifiable, the Met Police said.

The Met Police believes the house was targeted between 17:00 and 17:30 GMT by a man who climbed in through a second-floor window.

The suspect is described as white, aged in his late 20s to 30s, and is said to have worn a dark hoodie, cargo pants and grey baseball cap and had kept his face covered.

Avenue Road, where the raid took place, links the Swiss Cottage and Regent’s Park areas and has some of the most expensive properties in London.

Police are investigating after a Tesla Cybertruck filled with fuel canisters and firework mortars exploded outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The driver was killed and seven people were injured, police said without naming any of the individuals involved. Officials said all injuries were minor.

The truck was rented in Colorado and arrived in the city Wednesday morning, less than two hours before the detonation, police said. Parked in front of the hotel near a glass entrance, the vehicle started to smoke, then exploded.

In an evening address, President Joe Biden said the White House was tracking the incident and law enforcement was investigating “whether there’s any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans”, which left 15 dead early on New Year’s Day.

In an afternoon press conference, Sheriff Kevin McMahill showed dramatic footage of the explosion and photos of the aftermath, including several fuel canisters along with large fireworks in the truck bed.

Footage showed the truck parked directly in front of the entrance of the hotel. The truck sits idle for several seconds before exploding – bursts of multi-coloured fireworks shooting in multiple directions.

Another video showed investigators using a black fire-retardant tarp to put out the blaze and the charred remains of the truck bed. An array of gas and fuel canisters were left behind along with the remnants of more than a dozen firework mortars.

The fire occurred around 08:40 PT (15:40 GMT), just hours after a man drove a truck with an Islamic State (IS) group flag into the crowd in New Orleans. At least 15 people died and dozens were injured.

Mr McMahill of the Las Vegas Police Department said the authorities were examining whether the incident could be connected to the one in New Orleans, where improvised explosive devices were found near the scene.

He said they were also investigating whether it might be linked to President-Elect Donald Trump, who owns the hotel, or Elon Musk, who owns Tesla.

“Obviously, a Cybertruck, the Trump Hotel, there’s lots of questions that we have to answer as we move forward,” he said.

The FBI also said the agency was looking into whether the incident might be an act of terrorism, but the authorities said they currently had not confirmed the identity of the driver, who died in the vehicle. Authorities also said thus far, they had found no evidence that this incident was related to IS.

“I know everybody’s interested in that word, and trying to see if we can say, ‘Hey, this is a terrorist attack.’ That is our goal, and that’s what we’re trying to do,” FBI special agent in charge Jeremy Schwartz told reporters at a news conference.

The sheriff noted that both vehicles appeared to be rented from Turo, an app-based car rental company.

A Turo spokesperson said in a statement that the company was working with authorities in Las Vegas and New Orleans to help with the investigation. The spokesperson noted both renters appeared to not have a criminal background that would have “identified them as a security threat”.

“We are heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families,” the statement reads.

The authorities say they do have the name of the person who rented the vehicle but have not officially confirmed it was the person driving the vehicle.

“As you can imagine, with an explosion here on an iconic Las Vegas Boulevard, we are taking all of the precautions that we need to take to keep our community safe,” he said during a news conference.

Mr McMahill said there was no longer a threat to the Las Vegas community.

Biden was briefed on both the attack in New Orleans and the Las Vegas explosion.

“We’re tracking the explosion of a Cybertruck outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas,” said the president in an evening address.

“Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there’s any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans.”

Fire department officials said emergency responders had quickly worked to extinguish the vehicle fire.

They added that the public should stay away from the area. The hotel was evacuated, with most of the guests moving to a different location.

It is owned in part by President-elect Donald Trump’s company. In a post on X, Trump’s son, Eric Trump, said a “reported electric vehicle fire occurred in the porte cochère of Trump Las Vegas”.

“The safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Las Vegas Fire Department and local law enforcement for their swift response and professionalism,” he said.

Stephen Ferlando told the Washington Post that he had witnessed the incident from his hotel room on the 53rd floor of the Trump Tower. He told the outlet there was “definitely an explosion” and that the windows had begun to shake.

The Trump Hotel spans 64 floors with around 1,300 suites, according to its website.

Trump recently named Musk to co-lead a presidential advisory commission, the Department of Government Efficiency, after the two became close during Trump’s campaign.

“I must say that the situation is changing dramatically,” Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, declared at his end-of-year news conference in December. “There is movement along the entire front line. Every day.”

In eastern Ukraine, Moscow’s war machine is gradually churning mile by mile through the wide open fields of the Donbas, enveloping and overwhelming villages and towns.

Some civilians are fleeing before the war reaches them. Others wait until the shells start exploding all around them before packing what belongings they can carry and boarding trains and buses to safety further west.

Russia is gaining ground more quickly than at any time since it launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, despite Kyiv’s impressive record of well-publicised asymmetric attacks against its powerful neighbour.

As the invasion reaches the end of its third year, at an estimated cost of a million people, killed or wounded, Ukraine appears to be losing.

In distant Washington, meanwhile, the unpredictable Donald Trump, not famous for his love of Ukraine or its leader, is about to take over in the White House.

It feels like an inflection point. But could 2025 really be the year when this devastating European conflict finally comes to a close – and if so what could the endgame look like?

Trump’s promise to end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office is a typically grandiose boast, but it comes from a man who has clearly lost patience with the war and America’s costly involvement.

“The numbers of dead young soldiers lying on fields all over the place are staggering,” he has said. “It’s crazy what’s taking place.”

But the incoming US administration faces twin challenges, according to Michael Kofman, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“First, they’re going to inherit a war on a very negative trajectory, without a tremendous amount of time to stabilise the situation,” he said in December. “Second, they’re going to inherit it without a clear theory of success.”

The president-elect offered some clues during recent interviews about how he intends to approach the war.

He told Time Magazine he disagreed “vehemently” with the Biden administration’s decision, in November, to allow Ukraine to fire US-supplied long-range missiles at targets inside Russia.

“We’re just escalating this war and making it worse,” he said.

On 8 December, he was asked by NBC News if Ukraine should prepare for less aid.

“Possibly,” he replied. “Probably, sure.”

But to those who fear, as many do, that America’s new leader is inclined to walk away from Ukraine, he offered hints of reassurance. “You can’t reach an agreement if you abandon, in my opinion,” he has said.

The truth is: Trump’s intentions are far from clear.

And for now, Ukrainian officials reject all talk of pressure, or the suggestion that Trump’s arrival necessarily means peace talks are imminent.

“There’s a lot of talk about negotiations, but it’s an illusion,” says Mykhailo Podolyak, advisor to the head of President Zelensky’s office.

“No negotiation process can take place because Russia has not been made to pay a high enough price for this war.”

For all Kyiv’s misgivings about negotiating while Russian forces continue their inexorable advance in the east, it’s clear that President Zelensky is anxious to position himself as the sort of man Trump can do business with.

The Ukrainian leader was quick to congratulate Trump on his election victory and wasted little time sending senior officials to meet the president-elect’s team.

With the help of France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Zelensky also secured a meeting with Trump when the two men visited Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame cathedral.

“What we’re seeing now is a very smart strategy exercise by President Zelensky,” his former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told the US Council on Foreign Relations in December.

Zelensky, he said, was “signalling constructiveness and readiness to engage with President Trump.”

With little obvious sign that the Kremlin is making similar gestures, the government in Kyiv is clearly trying to get ahead of the game.

“Because Trump hasn’t fully explained how he’s going to go about it, Ukrainians are trying to give him some ideas that he may present as his own,” says Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House.

“They know how to work with that ego.”

Even before the US election, there were signs that Zelensky was looking for ways to bolster Ukraine’s appeal as a future partner for a president-elect like Trump who is both instinctively transactional and reluctant to continue underwriting wider European security.

As part of his “Victory Plan”, unveiled in October, Zelensky suggested that battle-hardened Ukrainian troops could replace US forces in Europe after the war with Russia ends. And he offered the prospect of joint investments to exploit Ukraine’s natural resources, including uranium, graphite and lithium.

Such strategic resources, Zelensky warned, “will either strengthen Russia or Ukraine and the democratic world”.

But other elements of the Ukrainian leader’s Victory Plan – Nato membership and its call for a “comprehensive non-nuclear strategic deterrence package” – seem to have met with a lukewarm response among Kyiv’s allies.

Nato membership in particular remains a sticking point, as it has been since well before Russia’s full-scale invasion.

For Kyiv, it’s the only way to guarantee the country’s future survival, against a rapacious Russian enemy bent on subjugating Ukraine.

But despite declaring last July that Ukraine was on an “irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including Nato membership” the alliance is divided, with the US and Germany not yet in favour of issuing an invitation.

President Zelensky has indicated that if an offer of membership was extended to the whole country, within Ukraine’s internationally-recognised borders, he would be willing to accept that it would apply, initially, only to territory under Kyiv’s control.

This, he told Sky News in November, could end the “hot stage” of the war, allowing a diplomatic process to address the question of Ukraine’s final borders.

But, he said, no such offer had yet been made.

If not Nato, then what? With the possibility of Trump-led peace talks looming and Ukraine losing ground on the battlefield, the international debate is all about shoring up Kyiv’s shaky position.

“It’s critical to have strong, legal and practical guarantees,” Andriy Yermak, head of President Zelensky’s office, told Ukraine’s public broadcaster on 12 December.

Ukraine’s recent past, he said, had left a bitter legacy. “Unfortunately, from our experience, all the guarantees we had before did not result in security.”

Without concrete mechanisms akin to the sort of collective defence concept embodied by Article 5 of Nato’s founding treaty, observers fear there will be nothing to prevent another Russian attack.

“Zelensky understands that he cannot just have a naked ceasefire,” Orysia Lutsevych says.

“It has to be a ceasefire plus. It would be suicide for Zelensky just to accept a ceasefire and not to have any answer how Ukraine is protected.”

In European policy forums, experts have been looking at ways in which Europe might help to shoulder this heavy responsibility.

Ideas have included the deployment of peacekeepers in Ukraine (a proposal first floated last February by Macron), or the involvement of the British-led Joint Expeditionary Force, which pulls together forces from eight Nordic and Baltic countries, plus the Netherlands.

But Kofman is sceptical. “Security guarantees that don’t have the United States involved in them as one of the guarantors is like a donut with a giant missing middle in it.”

It’s a view echoed in Kyiv.

“What alternative could there be? There are no alternatives today,” says Mr Podolyak.

Pieces of paper, like the 1994 Budapest Memorandum (about Ukraine’s post-Soviet borders) or 2014-15 Minsk agreements (which sought to end the Donbas War) are worthless, he argues, without the added threat of military deterrence.

“Russia must understand that as soon as they start aggression, they will receive a significant number of strikes in response,” he says.

In the absence of agreement on Ukraine’s long term future, its allies are doing what they can to bolster its defences.

In December, Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, said “everything” was being looked at, including the supply of additional air defence systems, in part to protect the country’s battered energy infrastructure from a renewed wave of coordinated Russian missile and drone attacks.

With Ukraine continuing to experience severe shortages of manpower, the UK Defence Secretary John Healey said the government might be willing to send British troops to Ukraine to help with training.

For its part, the departing Biden administration seems determined to deliver as much congressionally approved military assistance as it can to Ukraine before leaving office, although reports suggest it may run out of time to send everything.

On 21 December it was reported that Trump would continue to supply military aid to Ukraine, but would demand that NATO members dramatically increase their defence spending.

Kyiv’s allies have also continued to ratchet up sanctions on Moscow, in the hope that Russia’s war-time economy, which has proved stubbornly resilient, may finally break.

“There’s been deep frustration that sanctions haven’t just shattered the Russian economy beyond repair,” a US congressional source said, on condition of anonymity.

After multiple rounds of sanctions (fifteen from the EU alone), government officials have grown wary of predicting their successful impact.

But recent indicators are increasingly alarming for the Kremlin. With interest rates at 23%, inflation running above 9%, a falling rouble and growth expected to slow dramatically in 2025, the strains on Russia’s economy have rarely seemed more acute.

Putin is putting on a brave face. “The sanctions are having an effect,” he said during his end of year news conference, “but they are not of key importance.”

Along with Russia’s staggering losses on the battlefield – western officials estimate that Moscow is losing an average of 1,500 men, killed and wounded, every day – the cost of this war could yet drive Putin to the negotiating table.

But how much more territory will Ukraine have lost – and how many more people will have been killed – by the time that point is reached?

New CCTV footage exclusively obtained by BBC News reveals how a burglar stole more than £10m worth of jewellery and designer handbags from a London mansion.

The images show a masked man stuffing handfuls of jewellery into a backpack after creeping into the multi-million pound property.

A family spokesperson, who was inside the home when the theft was carried out, said the intruder moved “like a cat” but appears to have almost been thwarted when his apparent escape route was blocked.

The stolen goods belong to Hong Kong socialite Shafira Huang, who was not at the St John’s Wood house at the time, and a reward of up to £1.5m has been offered as the hunt for the thief continues.

Csaba Virag, a spokesman for Ms Huang’s family, said the thief had initially attempted to enter via a second floor window at around 17:00 GMT on 7 December.

Marks that look like they were made with a screwdriver or crowbar were left behind.

When that did not work, the intruder then climbed onto the roof, where he would have seen two housekeepers leaving the grounds, before lowering himself into a large concrete gutter to enter the house via a bathroom window which was also on the second storey.

The bathroom belonged to a live-in governess, Mr Virag said, who he was holding a meeting with in a basement room of the five storey property when the theft occurred.

“She would have been in that room and there would have been a confrontation, which is quite scary,” he said.

Mr Virag said the intruder would have had to climb down onto a sink from the window, but moved “like a cat” to avoid making any marks on it or disturbing the cosmetic products it was littered with. Around £300 in cash on a desk in the room was left untouched.

The family spokesman said he heard a banging during that meeting but put it down to the strong winds outside.

“Retrospectively, I can put two and two together, which at the time you don’t really think,” he said.

Mr Virag said he believes the noise could have been a staff entrance door banging in the draft created when the intruder opened the window, and that the thief closed the window quickly to avoid being given away.

The intruder was then captured on CCTV cameras moving around the house above them, struggling to open cases containing expensive jewellery before putting items into his bag.

Time stamps on one CCTV image released by the family indicate he narrowly avoided bumping into the maid when they walked through the same hallway seconds apart.

Asked if the thief left the house the same way as he came in, Mr Virag said he did, but added “I believe it was not his intention”.

The thief had entered a “high risk” part of the house and appears to have tried to leave via a rarely used guest room at the back of the property, Mr Virag said.

He continued: “[He] tried to open the window from the inside but we have the safety on the sash window.

“The stoppers only allow you to pull it down 8cm and if you don’t have the right tool to unscrew the pins, you can’t. He tried but couldn’t succeed.”

As well as jewellery, Hermes Crocodile Kelly handbags and £15,000 in cash were also taken.

The thief, who police believe may have been armed, is believed to be a white man in his late 20s to 30s.

“We urge anyone who was in the area of Avenue Road, NW8, and saw anything suspicious to please come forward,” the Metropolitan Police’s Det Con Paulo Roberts said.

“Also, if you have seen this jewellery since, someone has offered to sell you it, or you have any further information, then please also contact the police or Crimestoppers anonymously.”

A £500,000 reward has been offered for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.

A second reward of 10% of the value of any recovered items has been offered by the homeowners for information that leads to the retrieval of the stolen jewellery – which could total as much as £1.5m, the Metropolitan Police confirmed.

The burglary was carried out on Avenue Road, which links the Swiss Cottage and Regent’s Park areas of the capital and is home to some of the city’s most expensive properties.

Ms Huang, who lives in the mansion with her property developer husband, had been a prolific social media user but has since made her profiles private.

Chinese car maker BYD saw its sales jump at the end of last year, as it competes with Tesla to be the world’s best-selling electric vehicle (EV) maker of 2024.

The company says it sold 207,734 EVs in December, taking its annual total to 1.76 million, as subsidies and discounts helped attract customers.

It comes as Tesla is due to announce its own quarterly sales figures later on Thursday.

The US electric car maker maintained a slim lead in EV sales over BYD in the previous quarter but the Shenzhen-based firm has been narrowing the gap.

BYD’s total vehicle sales jumped more than 41% in 2024, year-on-year. The surge was powered mainly by sales of its hybrid cars.

The company has benefited from a rise in car sales in its home market, as intense competition drove down prices and government subsidies encouraged consumers to replace their old cars with EVs or other more fuel efficient options.

BYD sells 90% of its cars in China, where its been extending its lead over foreign brands like Volkswagen and Toyota.

The rise of BYD and other Chinese EV makers contrasts with the challenges faced by some legacy car makers, which have been struggling in major Western markets.

Last month, Honda and Nissan confirmed that they were holding merger talks, as the two Japanese firms seek to fight back against competition from the Chinese car industry.

Also in December, Volkswagen announced it had reached a deal with the IG Metall trade union which will avert plant closures in Germany and avoid immediate compulsory redundancies.

The German motor industry giant had previously warned it might have to shutter plants in the country for the first time in a bid to cut costs.

Earlier in the month, the boss of car making giant Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, quit with immediate effect following a boardroom clash.

His abrupt exit from the company – which owns brands including Vauxhall, Jeep, Fiat, Peugeot and Chrysler – came two months after Stellantis issued a profit warning.

In the third quarter of 2024, BYD saw its revenues soar, beating Tesla’s for the first time.

It posted more than 200bn yuan ($28.2bn, £21.8bn) in revenues between July and September – a 24% jump from the same period last year, and more than Elon Musk’s company whose quarterly revenue was $25.2bn.

However, Tesla still sold more electric vehicle (EVs) than BYD.

Chinese car makers have been trying to boost sales of their EVs outside the country but have faced pushback in some major markets.

In October, European Union tariffs of up to 45.3% on imports of Chinese-made EVs came into force across the bloc.

The US has also imposed a 100% duty on EVs from China and President-elect Donald Trump is expected to impose further tariffs on imports.

Meanwhile, BYD has been expanding its foothold in emerging economies.

Last month, it faced a setback in Brazil – its largest overseas market – with authorities halting the construction of a BYD factory, saying workers lived in conditions comparable to “slavery”.

BYD said it had cut ties with the construction firm involved and remained committed to a “full compliance with Brazilian legislation”.

Fifteen people were killed and at least 35 injured after a man apparently inspired by the Islamic State group drove into large crowds in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the early hours of New Year’s Day, authorities have said.

Here’s what we know so far about what happened and the perpetrator.

At 03:15 local time on New Year’s Day, a Ford pick-up truck rammed into crowds gather on Bourbon Street in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter.

CCTV footage shows a white, Ford F-150 Lightning vehicle driving onto the pavement to get around a police car before hitting pedestrians.

Police described the act as “very intentional”, adding that the attacker – identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar – was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did”.

“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could”, said New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick.

Jabbar was also armed and fired on law enforcement, injuring two officers. He was then killed by police gunfire.

Whit Davis, from Shreveport, Louisiana, told the BBC that he was held in a bar with a large group in the aftermath of the attack while police secured the scene.

When they left, they “were walking past dead and injured bodies all over the street”, he said.

• Latest updates: Police identify New Orleans attack suspect

The FBI has named the assailant as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an Army veteran and US citizen from Texas.

A flag associated with the Islamic State group was found in the vehicle he was driving and the FBI said it was investigating what affiliations Jabbar may have had with terrorist groups.

Suspected improvised explosive devices were also found in the area.

A long gun with a “suppressive device” on it – acting as a silencer – was also recovered.

According to a now-removed LinkedIn profile, Jabbar had worked in various roles in the US Army, including in human resources and IT, before he was discharged. He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010.

In a YouTube video posted in 2020, Jabbar said his time in the military had taught him “the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting i’s and crossing t’s to make sure that things go off without a hitch”.

He studied at George State University from 2015 to 2017, graduating with a degree in Computer Information Systems.

He was married twice. His first marriage ended in 2012 and his second lasted from 2017 to 2022.

He also appears to have worked in real estate, holding a license that expired in 2021. He had a criminal record, relating to traffic offences and theft.

The pick-up truck he was driving was electric and believed to have been rented in Texas via an app called Turo.

In an evening address, President Joe Biden said the FBI had briefed him on the attack. The suspect uploaded videos to social media “mere hours before the attack” indicating that he was inspired by the Islamic State and expressing a “desire to kill”, Biden said.

The FBI said they believe the suspect had help in carrying out his attack, particularly in placing suspected explosive devices.

CBS reports that law enforcement has not yet released evidence of those accomplices.

Earlier reports said authorities were reviewing video footage, but CBS reported that the footage had been determined to only show bystanders.

Police said 15 people were killed and at least 35 injured. None have been publicly named.

The University of Georgia’s president said one of its students was critically injured, while the Israeli government said two nationals were among those hurt.

Police said it appeared that the victims were mainly locals from New Orleans, even though many tourists were visiting for New Year celebrations and the now-postponed Sugar Bowl, part of the American football college play-offs.

It was due to kick off later on Wednesday evening at the Caesar Superdome, which is not far from scene of the attack.

Bourbon Street is a well-known nightlife and tourist hotspot that is filled with restaurants, bars and clubs with live music.

It is within New Orleans’ French Quarter, a lively area that attracts tourists and locals, especially to celebrate New Year.

It was established by the French in 1718, and the original grid of streets designed back then is at the heart of what draws visitors to the city.

Every year, upwards of a million people flock to its famous Mardi Gras carnival and parade in the spring, famous for the strings of colourful beads worn by party-goers.

A gunman has shot dead at least 10 people, including two children, in southern Montenegro on Wednesday, police say.

At least some of the deaths happened inside a restaurant in the Cetinje area following a verbal argument between guests, according to a police official quoted by public broadcaster RTCG.

It was later confirmed that the attacker had killed himself.

The government has declared three days of national mourning from Thursday with Prime Minister Milojko Spajic describing the shooting as a “terrible tragedy”.

The gunman killed members of his own family, two of the restaurant owner’s children and also the owner, according to Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic.

Mr Saranovic called the incident a “consequence of disturbed interpersonal relations”, according to AFP news agency.

Four people were in a life-threatening condition in hospital after being seriously wounded in the shooting, the agency reported the prime minister as saying.

The attacker, named as Aleksandar Martinović, 45, fled the scene but later fatally injured himself after being surrounded by police who asked him to drop his weapon, a police official said.

Mass shootings are comparatively rare in the small Balkan nation.

From the end of the Roman occupation through the Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions – a new way of testing DNA in ancient bones could force a rethink of key moments in Britain’s early history, say researchers.

Scientists could already track big alterations in DNA that occur over thousands or millions of years, helping us learn, for example, how early humans evolved from ape-like creatures.

Now researchers can identify subtler changes over just hundreds of years, providing clues as to how people migrated and interacted with locals.

They are using the new method to analyse human remains found in Britain, including from the time when Romans were replaced by an Anglo-Saxon elite from Europe.

Prof Peter Heather, from Kings College London, who is working on the project with the developers of the new DNA technique at the Francis Crick Institute in London, said the new technique could be “revolutionary”.

While the project will analyse the DNA of more than 1,000 ancient human remains of people who lived in Britain during the past 4,500 years, researchers have homed in on the time after the Romans left as a particularly interesting era to study.

What happened in this period more than 1,500 years ago is unclear from written and archeological records. Historians are divided in their views about the scale and nature of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, whether it was large or small, hostile or co-operative.

“It is one of the most contested and therefore one of the most exciting things to work on in the whole of British history,” according to Prof Heather.

“[The new method] will allow us to see the type of relations that are being found with the native population,” he said. “Are they co-operative, is there interbreeding, are the locals able to make their way into the elite?”

They are optimistic about the success of the technique, known as Twigstats, after testing it on human remains found in mainland Europe between the years 1 and 1,000 CE.

Much of what they gleaned from the DNA about the spread of the Vikings into Scandinavia tallied with historical records.

This result, published in the journal Nature, confirmed the method worked while showing how powerful it could be at shedding new light on accepted facts when findings didn’t match what was written in the history books.

“That was the moment we got really excited,” said Dr Leo Speidel, who developed the technique with his group leader Dr Pontus Skoglund. “We could see that this could really change how much we can find out about human history.”

The problem the researchers were trying to overcome is that a human’s genetic code is extremely long – consisting of 3 billion separate chemical units.

Spotting the small genetic changes in that code which occur over a few generations, for example, as a result of new arrivals interbreeding with the local population, is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

The researchers solved the problem by, as it were, taking away the haystack and leaving the needle in plain sight – they found a way to identify the older genetic changes, disregard them and look only at the most recent alterations.

They combed the genetic data of thousands of human remains from an online scientific database, then calculated how closely they were related to each other, which chunks of DNA were inherited from which groups and when.

This created a family tree with older changes appearing in earlier branches, and more recent changes showing up in newer ‘twigs’, hence the name Twigstats.

Each of the people whose remains will be studied have their own tales to tell and soon scientists and historians will be able to hear their stories, said Dr Skoglund.

“We want to understand many different epochs in European and British history, from the Roman period, when the Anglo-Saxons arrived, through the Viking period and see how this shapes the ancestry and diversity of this part of the World,” he said.

As well as showing up interbreeding with different populations, embedded in the ancient DNA are hugely important details on how people coped with key historical moments, such epidemics, shifts in diet, urbanisation, and industrialisation.

The technique can potentially be applied to any part of the world for which there are a large collection of well preserved human remains.

Prof Heather wants to use it to investigate what he describes as one of European history’s biggest mysteries: why central and eastern Europe changed from being Germanic speaking to Slavic speaking, 1,500 years ago.

“Historical sources show what was the case before and what was the case after, but there is nothing about what happened in between,” he said.

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Japanese toilets – equipped with music players, automatic flushes, and heated seats – are clearly not afraid of making a splash with their innovative designs.

But these cutting edge seats have an unlikely nemesis: toilet paper.

Toto, a top Japanese toilet bowl maker, said last week that users should refrain from wiping their seats with toilet paper, as it risks creating micro scratches on the surface.

The company’s advice came after a series of posts on social media complaining about scratches and discolouration.

A Toto representative told Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun that its bidet toilet seats are made of plastic resin due to the material’s “resistance to detergents and its ability to be molded into complex shapes”.

However, wiping the seat with toilet paper or dry cloth can cause small, invisible scratches where dirt may accumulate, leading to discolouration.

But Toto is not the only manufacturer that has advised users against using toilet paper to wipe its toilet seats.

Similar recommendations have previously been issued by cleaning experts and also published on lifestyle sites.

Instead of dry toilet paper, people recommend using soft cloth soaked in tap water or detergent. They also advise against using thinners, nylon or metal scrubbers, or abrasives – all of which could damage the surface of the toilet seat.

The company said that while it was looking into more scratch-resistant materials, “there are no plans to change the material at this time.”

The Washlet, Toto’s flagship bidet toilet, includes features like an automatic lid, an air dryer and pressure controls for the bidet’s water stream.

Japanese toilets, with their thoughtful designs viewed as an extension of the country’s hospitality culture, have become an unlikely tourist attraction for foreigners and a source of pride at home.

Investigators have finished extracting data from one of the black boxes from the fated Jeju Air plane that crashed on Sunday, South Korea’s transport ministry has said.

The data from the cockpit voice recorder will now be converted into an audio file, while a second black box – a flight data recorder – will be sent to the United States for analysis.

Investigators hope data on the flight and voice recorders will provide insights about the crucial moments leading up to the tragedy.

Some 179 people died after the plane crashed into a structure and exploded, making it the deadliest plane crash on South Korean soil.

Investigators say it is not feasible to locally decode the flight data recorder, which was damaged in the crash and is missing a crucial connector.

South Korean experts will be involved in the analysis process in the US, they said, adding that they are in discussion with the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on when to hand over the flight data recorder.

NTSB has deployed officials to the crash site in South Korea’s Muan county to help investigate the cause of the plane crash.

The Boeing 737-800 plane was travelling from Bangkok when it crash-landed at Muan International Airport on Sunday and slid into a wall off the end of the runway, bursting into flames and killing everyone on board except two crew members.

Many questions remain unanswered and investigators are looking at the role a bird strike or weather conditions may have played.

They are also examining the concrete wall at the end of the runway, which some experts say could have exacerbated the impact of the crash.

The passengers on flight 7C2216 were aged between three and 78 years old, although most were in their 40s, 50s and 60s, according to Yonhap news agency. Two Thai nationals are among the dead and the rest are believed to be South Korean, authorities have said.

It had taken officials days to identify the bodies through fingerprints or DNA – with saliva samples collected from family members – as many of them have been severely damaged.

But on Wednesday, acting president Choi Sang-mok announced that all 179 victims on board the flight have now been identified.

New Year’s Day celebrations across the country have been cancelled or scaled down out of respect for the victims and their family, and authorities have announced a seven-day period of national mourning.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Jeju Air CEO Kim Yi-bae said that the airline was preparing emergency compensation for the victims’ families and would cover funeral costs.

He also said that a pre-flight inspection of the plane had found “no issues”. Investigations into the cause of the crash were ongoing.

Navy personnel from Devon and Cornwall were dispatched to watch Russian vessels sailing near the British coast.

The Royal Navy said Devonport-based HMS Somerset’s crew was recalled on Christmas Day before it sailed two days later as RFS Soobrazitelny and her two support ships MV Sparta II and MV General Skobelev sailed across the English Channel.

Airborne support was provided during the mission by the Type 23 frigate’s Merlin helicopter, which was provided by 814 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Culdrose, the navy added.

A navy spokesperson said the shadowing operation lasted five days and ended on New Year’s Eve.

HMS Somerset’s commanding officer Cdr Joel Roberts said the crew, consisting of nearly 200 people, was always prepared to protect the UK, even during holiday periods.

“As the UK is an island nation, at all times of the year the Royal Navy maintains units at very high readiness to conduct operations in support of the UK’s national objectives,” he said.

Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard, who is MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said the crew involved had shown great “professionalism” during the operation.

“I would like to thank the crew of HMS Somerset for their dedication after readying themselves for action at short notice during the Christmas period, and promptly setting sail from Devonport to keep the UK safe,” he said.

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