One of India’s wealthiest temples has apologised after six people were killed and dozens more injured in a crush as they queued for tickets to a festival which attracts hundreds of thousands each year.

The incident took place on Wednesday night after thousands gathered in the temple town of Tirupati in southern Andhra Pradesh state.

Visuals showed a swell of people jostling while the tickets were being distributed at counters set up by temple authorities.

Officials in the state have said strict action will be taken against temple employees who are found responsible for the tragedy.

BR Naidu, chairman of the temple’s trust, said that the crush was caused by “overcrowding”.

“It is an unfortunate incident,” he told local media on Wednesday.

Bhanu Prakash Reddy, a board member of the trust, apologised for the incident.

“To distribute tokens, we opened 91 counters… it is unfortunate that the stampede happened,” he said. “This has never happened in the history of the temple. I sincerely seek an apology from the devotees.”

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has expressed his sorrow over the incident – he is due to visit the site later on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “pained” by the incident and assured those affected that the state government would offer them “all possible assistance”.

The Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh is one of Hinduism’s most sacred shrines. Dedicated to Hindu god Sri Venkateswara – popularly known as Balaji – the temple owns assets worth tens of billions of dollars and is one of the richest in India.

It attracts nearly 24 million devotees from India and abroad every year.

Its 10-day Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan is considered a highly auspicious event by devotees as they believe they can get a glimpse of the divine gates of heaven.

Hundreds of thousands attend the festival every year, with the temple saying it was prepared to receive 700,000 people this time.

On Wednesday, thousands gathered to receive tickets for the festival – which begins on 10 January – at more than 90 counters set up by the temple.

As the gates for the counters opened, people rushed towards the counters, leading to chaos, an eyewitness told the Times of India newspaper, adding that there were just four police personnel there.

Several reports say the police had a difficult time managing the crowd.

Authorities say those injured in the crush were rushed to a government-run hospital for treatment.

Accidents are routinely reported at religious events in India, as huge crowds gather in tight spaces with little adherence to safety measures.

Last year, more than 120 people were crushed to death at a religious event in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The Chinese government has expanded a list of products that people can trade in to get a discount of as much as 20% on new goods as the country tries to boost its flagging economy.

The list now includes items like microwave ovens, dishwashers, rice cookers and water purifiers.

State-backed trade-in schemes already covered televisions, phones, tablets and smart watches as well as electric and hybrid vehicles.

The world’s second largest economy has been facing several challenges, including weak consumer demand and a deepening property crisis.

On Wednesday, officials said 81 billion yuan (£8.9bn; $11bn) had been earmarked this year for the consumer goods trade-in scheme.

China’s top economic planning body has said the schemes, which were launched in March, have already produced “visible effects”.

According to the country’s Ministry of Commerce, the policies have boosted sales of big ticket items such as home appliances and cars.

But some economists have questioned whether the schemes will be enough to significantly increase consumer demand.

China-based economist Dan Wang said “the measure is far from being enough to boost consumption.”

“While it has supported sales of some listed goods, such as cars and appliances, it hasn’t driven an overall uptick in spending,” said Harry Murphy Cruise, head of China economics at Moody’s Analytics.

In recent months, China has been pushing ahead with more measures to support its domestic economy as the country’s exporters face growing challenges.

In December, a key meeting of China’s leaders stressed the need for “vigorous” efforts to boost consumer spending.

That came as President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to return to the White House this month, threatened to impose a 60% tariff on Chinese-made products.

China is due to announce its 2024 economic growth figures next week, which Beijing has said it expects will be around 5%.

Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal and Adam Brody are among the celebrities who have lost homes in the deadly wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area.

More than 1,000 structures have been destroyed as six separate blazes burn in and around the city, which is dotted with film stars’ mansions.

Some of the worst devastation was in the scenic enclave of Pacific Palisades, where a wind-whipped inferno exploded from several hundred acres to more than 15,000 in size since Tuesday.

A swathe of the neighbourhood, which is a haven of hillside streets nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and winding down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean, was reduced to ash.

• Follow live updates on the LA wildfires
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• Timelapse shows rapid spread of Palisades wildfire
• Oscar nominations postponed because of LA fires
• In maps: Thousands of acres on fire in LA
• What it’s like inside LA’s real life apocalypse movie

Actor James Woods, who starred in films including Nixon and Casino, broke down in tears on CNN as he described losing his Pacific Palisades property.

“One day you’re swimming in the pool and the next day it’s all gone,” he told the network.

He wiped away tears as he described how his wife’s eight-year-old niece offered them her piggybank to help rebuild their house.

Actor Crystal said in a statement that he and his wife Janice were “heartbroken” by the loss of their Pacific Palisades home where they had lived since 1979.

The When Harry Met Sally star said in a statement: “We raised our children and grandchildren here.

“Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away.

“We are heartbroken of course but with the love of our children and friends we will get through this.”

Hotel heiress Paris Hilton said she had lost her home in Malibu.

She wrote in an Instagram post: “Sitting with my family, watching the news, and seeing our home in Malibu burn to the ground on live TV is something no one should ever have to experience.

“This home is where we built so many precious memories… My heart and prayers are going out to every family affected by these fires.”

A home reportedly belonging to Brody, who stars in hit Netflix show Nobody Wants This, and Gossip Girl star wife Leighton Meester, was also destroyed.

The Hills stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, who are married, also lost their home in the blaze.

“I’m watching our house burn down on the security cameras,” Pratt posted.

Montag said: “So our house is on fire and we were able to get out in time, but I keep going over and over in my mind of the things I should’ve got, but we’re out safe and that is the most important thing, and Spencer is behind me.”

In a later post, she said while tearing up that she was “so sad our house has gone” and they had lost “everything we worked so hard for”.

Singer and This Is Us actress Mandy Moore posted a video of the scene of destruction as she evacuated. “Grateful for my family and pets getting out last night before it was too late (and endless gratitude to friends for taking us in and bringing us clothes and blankets).

“Honestly, I’m in shock and feeling numb for all so many have lost, including my family. My children’s school is gone.

“Our favourite restaurants, levelled. So many friends and loved ones have lost everything too. Our community is broken but we will be here to rebuild together.”

TV host Ricki Lake told followers she had lost her “dream home”, adding: “I grieve along with all of those suffering during this apocalyptic event.”

Actors Sir Anthony Hopkins, John Goodman, Anna Faris and Cary Elwes also reportedly lost their homes.

Miles Teller, best known for his role in Top Gun: Maverick, and his wife, Keleigh Sperry, reportedly lost their home in the Pacific Palisades.

Posting on Instagram, Sperry shared a picture of the fires and a broken heart emoji.

She urged people to leave bowls of water for animals left behind as they evacuate their homes.

Other stars forced to flee include Star Wars’ actor Mark Hamill and Schitt’s Creek actor Eugene Levy.

In a post on Instagram, Hamill called the blaze the “most horrific” since 1993, when 18,000 acres burned, destroying 323 homes in Malibu.

He said he had evacuated his Malibu house “so last-minute there [were] small fires on both sides of the road”.

Levy described to local media “black and intense” smoke over Temescal Canyon.

“I couldn’t see any flames but the smoke was very dark,” he told the Los Angeles Times.

Jamie Lee Curtis said her home was safe but the situation was “gnarly”.

“Obviously, there have been horrific fires in many places,” she said. “This is literally where I live. Everything the market, I shop in, the schools my kids go to. Friends – many, many, many friends – now have lost their homes.”

Actor Cameron Mathison also shared a clip of his house reduced to smouldering ruins. “We are safe. But this is what’s left of our beautiful home,” the General Hospital star wrote.

“Our home where our kids were raised and where they wanted to raise their own someday.”

Legendary songwriter Diane Warren, who composed classic hits including If I Could Turn Back Time and I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing, also lost her home.

She posted a picture of the beachfront near her house, saying that the property she’s had for close to three decades was gone.

Actor Steve Guttenberg, known for Police Academy, stayed to help firefighters by moving cars to clear a path for incoming fire trucks.

He urged fellow Pacific Palisades residents to leave the keys in their abandoned cars so they could be moved.

Meanwhile, the Palisades Charter High School – used in the 1976 horror classic Carrie – has been devastated.

The Oscar nominations have been postponed by two days because of the fires, and other star-studded events were also cancelled.

Film premieres for Unstoppable, Better Man and Wolfman have been called off, as has the Screen Actors Guild Awards live ceremony, while the Oscar nominations event was postponed.

Meanwhile, a new blaze broke out on Wednesday night, the Sunset fire, in the Hollywood Hills, near where the world-famous Hollywood sign nestles in the hillside.

It had all the hallmarks of a cold-blooded, professional assassination.

Next to a well-known temple in Bangkok’s historic royal quarter a man is seen on a security camera video parking his motorbike, removing his helmet, so that his face was clearly visible, and walking calmly across the road.

A few minutes later shots are heard. Another man falls to the ground.

The assassin walks quickly back to his motorbike, appearing to throw something away as he does, and drives off.

The victim was Lim Kimya, a 73-year-old former parliamentarian from the main Cambodian opposition party, the CNRP, which was banned in 2017. He had been hit in the chest by two bullets, according to the Thai police. He had just arrived in Bangkok with his wife on a bus from Cambodia.

A police officer attempted to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

“He was courageous, with an independent mind,” Monovithya Kem, daughter of the CNRP leader Kem Sokha, told the BBC.

“No-one but the Cambodian state would have wanted to kill him.”

Lim Kimya had dual Cambodian and French nationality, but chose to stay in Cambodia even after his party was outlawed. The CNRP – Cambodia National Rescue Party – was an amalgamation of two earlier opposition parties, and in 2013 came close to defeating the party of Hun Sen, the self-styled “strongman” who ruled Cambodia for nearly 40 years before handing over to his son Hun Manet in 2023.

After his close call in the 2013 election Hun Sen accused the CNRP of treason, shutting it down and subjecting its members to legal and other forms of harassment. In 2023 Kem Sokha, who had already spent six years under house arrest, was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

High-level political assassinations, though not unknown, are relatively rare in Cambodia; in 2016 a popular critic of Hun Sen, Kem Ley, was gunned down in Phnom Penh and in 2012 environmental activist Chut Wutty was also murdered.

From the security camera video the Thai police have already identified Lim Kimya’s killer as an ex-Thai navy officer, now working as a motorbike taxi driver. Finding him should not be difficult.

Whether the killing is fully investigated, though, is another matter.

In recent years dozens of activists fleeing repression in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand have been sent back after seeking sanctuary, or in some cases have been killed or disappeared. Human rights groups believe there is an unwritten agreement between the four neighbouring countries to allow each other’s security forces to pursue dissidents over the border.

Last November Thailand sent six Cambodian dissidents, together with a young child, back to Cambodia, where they were immediately jailed. All were recognised by the United Nations as refugees. Earlier in the year Thailand also sent a Vietnamese Montagnard activist back to Vietnam.

In the past Thai anti-monarchy activists have been abducted and disappeared in Laos, it is widely presumed by Thai security forces operating outside their own borders. In 2020 a young Thai activist who had fled to Cambodia, Wanchalerm Satsaksit, was abducted and disappeared, again it is assumed by Thai operatives.

The Cambodian authorities did little to investigate, and announced last year that they had closed the case. It is possible the same will now happen in the case of Lim Kimya.

“Thailand has presided over a de facto ‘swap arrangement’,” says Phil Robertson, director of the Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates in Thailand.

“Dissidents and refugees are traded for political and economic favours with its neighbouring countries. The growing practice of transnational repression in the Mekong sub-region needs to be stopped in its tracks.”

When the US and UK-educated Hun Manet succeeded his father as Cambodia’s prime minister there was some speculation over whether he might rule with a lighter hand. But opposition figures are still being prosecuted and jailed, and what little space was left for political dissent has been almost completely closed.

From his semi-retirement the figure of Hun Sen still hovers over his son’s administration; he is now calling for a new law to brand anyone trying to replace him as a terrorist.

Thailand, which lobbied hard for, and won, a seat on the UN Human Rights Council this year, will now be under pressure to show that it can bring those behind such a brazen assassination on the streets of its capital to justice.

Ashish Chauhan dreams of pursuing an MBA at an American university next year – a goal he describes as being “stamped in his brain”.

The 29-year-old finance professional from India (whose name has been changed on request) hopes to eventually work in the US, but says he now feels conflicted amid an immigration row sparked by President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters over a long-standing US visa programme.

The H-1B visa programme, which brings skilled foreign workers to the US, faces criticism for undercutting American workers but is praised for attracting global talent. The president-elect, once a critic, now supports the 34-year-old programme, while tech billionaire Elon Musk defends it as key to securing top engineering talent.

Indian nationals like Mr Chauhan dominate the programme, receiving 72% of H-1B visas, followed by 12% for Chinese citizens. The majority of H-1B visa holders worked in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, with 65% in computer-related jobs, in 2023. Their median annual salary was $118,000 (£94,000).

Concerns over H-1B visas tie into broader immigration debates.

A Pew Research report shows that US immigration rose by 1.6 million in 2023, the largest increase in more than 20 years. Immigrants now comprise over 14% of the population – the highest since 1910. Indians are the second-largest immigrant group – after Mexicans – in the US. Many Americans fear this surge in immigration could harm job prospects or hinder assimilation.

India has also surpassed China as the leading source of international students, with a record 331,602 Indian students in the US in 2023-2024, according to the latest Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. Most rely on loans, and any visa freeze could potentially devastate family finances.

“My worry is that this [resistance to H-1B visas] could also spark animosity towards the Indians living there. But I can’t park my ambitions, put my life on hold and wait for the volatility to subside because it’s been like this for years now,” Mr Chauhan says.

Efforts to restrict the H-1B programme peaked under Trump’s first term, when he signed a 2017 order increasing application scrutiny and fraud detection. Rejection rates soared to 24% in 2018, compared to 5-8% under President Barack Obama and 2-4% under President Joe Biden. The total number of approved H-1B applicants under Biden remained similar to Trump’s first term.

“The first Trump administration tightened H-1B visas by increasing denial rates and slowing processing times, making it harder for people to get visas in time. It is unclear whether that will happen again in the second Trump administration,” Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration scholar at Cornell Law School, told the BBC.

“Some people like Elon Musk want to preserve the H-1B visas, while other officials in the new administration want to restrict all immigration, including H-1Bs. It is too early to tell which side will prevail.”

Indians have a long relationship with the H-1B visa. The programme is also the reason for the “rise of Indian-Americans into the highest educated and highest earning group, immigrant or native in the US”, say the authors of The Other One Percent, a study on Indians in America.

US-based researchers Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur and Nirvikar Singh noted that new Indian immigrants spoke different languages and lived in different areas than earlier arrivals. Hindi, Tamil and Telugu speakers grew in number, and Indian-American communities shifted from New York and Michigan to larger clusters in California and New Jersey. The skilled visa programme helped create a “new map of Indian-Americans”.

The biggest draw of H-1B visas is the opportunity to earn significantly higher salaries, according to Mr Chauhan. The US offers higher pay, and for someone who is the first in their family to achieve professional qualifications, earning that much can be life-changing. “The fascination with H-1Bs is directly tied to the wage gap between India and the US for the same engineering roles,” he says.

But not everybody is happy with the programme. For many, the H-1B programme is an aspirational pathway for permanent residency or a US green card. While H-1B itself is a temporary work visa, it allows visa holders to live and work in the US for up to six years. During this time, many H-1B holders apply for a green card through employment-based immigration categories, typically sponsored by their employers. This takes time.

More than a million Indians, including dependents, are currently waiting in employment-based green card categories. “Getting a green card means signing up for an endless wait for 20-30 years,” says Atal Agarwal, who runs a firm in India that uses AI to help find visa options globally for education and jobs.

Mr Agarwal moved to the US after graduating in 2017 and worked at a software company for a few years. He says getting the H-1B visa was fairly straightforward, but then it seemed he had “reached a dead end”. He returned to India.

“It’s an unstable situation. Your employer has to sponsor you and since the pathway to a green card is so long, you are basically tied to them. If you lose your job, you only get 60 days to find a new one. Every person who is going on merit to the US should have a pathway to a green card within three to five years.”

This could be one reason that the visa programme has got tied up with immigration. “H-1B is a high-skilled, worker mobility visa. It is not an immigration visa. But it gets clubbed with immigration and illegal immigration and becomes a sensitive issue,” Shivendra Singh, vice president of global trade development at Nasscom, the Indian technology industry trade group, told the BBC.

Many in the US believe the H-1B visa programme is flawed. They cite widespread fraud and abuse, especially by major Indian IT firms which are top recipients of these visas. In October, a US court found Cognizant guilty of discriminating against over 2,000 non-Indian employees between 2013 and 2022, though the company plans to appeal. Last week, Farah Stockman of The New York Times wrote that “for more than a decade, Americans working in the tech industry have been systematically laid off and replaced by cheaper H-1B visa holders”.

Mr. Singh of Nasscom argues that H-1B visa workers are not underpaid, as employers must pay them above the prevailing or actual wage of comparable US workers in the area. Companies also invest tens of thousands of dollars in legal and government fees for these costly visas.

Also, it has not been a one-way traffic: Indian tech giants have hired and supported nearly 600,000 American workers and spent over a billion dollars on upskilling nearly three million students across 130 US colleges, according to Mr Singh. The Indian tech industry has prioritised US worker hiring and they bring employees on H-1B visas only when they are unable to find locals with the skills they need, he said.

India is working to ensure the H-1B visa programme remains secure as Trump prepares to take office later this month. “Our countries share a strong and growing economic and technological partnership, and the mobility of skilled professionals is a vital component of this relationship,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told journalists last week.

So what should students aspiring for jobs in the US do? “Any immigration changes in the US will take time to implement. Students should pick the best college for them, wherever that may be. With good immigration counsel, they will be able to figure out what to do,” says Mr Yale-Loehr.

For now, despite the political turbulence in the US, Indian interest in H-1B visas remains steadfast, with students resolute in pursuing the American dream.

For years, a controversial invader has been gradually taking over Australia’s beloved beaches.

Swallowing up the sand, blocking ocean views and turning the shore into an irksome maze, is a sea of large beach tents, called cabanas in Australia.

“It’s chockers [crowded]. They’re all over the place,” Sydneysider Claire, 30, told the BBC.

For her – and most Australians – cooling off on a sweltering day means a solid drive to the coast, plus an eternity trying to find a parking space. Now, the cabana craze means there’s another battle waiting for them on the beach.

Polyester covers flap in the breeze as far as the eye can see. Some are empty, set up at the crack of dawn and then abandoned for hours on end, until the owners actually want to use them.

“The sheer amount of space that people are taking up… [when] you’re just trying to find a free square inch of sand to lay your towel, it can just be a little bit frustrating,” Claire says.

She’s not alone in her irritation. Several summers of simmering tension has, in the first days of 2025, exploded into a full-on turf war, sparking debate about Australian culture and beach etiquette.

A row over the acceptable use of cabanas has dominated social media, spawned a wave of opinion pieces and television segments, and even dragged in the prime minister.

Self-described haters say entitled cabana crews are hogging public space and disrespecting other beachgoers.

“When you’re… polluting the beach with your four cabanas next to each other, where is Guncle [Gay Uncle] Nic going to go,” anti-cabana crusader and TikToker Nic Salerno said on TV talk show The Project.

“I just want my space on the beach, guys.”

But the pro-cabana mob say seeking protection from Australia’s vicious sun isn’t a crime – and it’s every man for himself.

Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and many supporters – including national charity, the Cancer Council – argue the new trend should actually be celebrated.

“My partner and I have a cool cabana because we both burn extremely easily and we don’t want to die of skin cancer by 30, hope this helps,” one person wrote, responding to a TikTok rant.

No one is discounting the importance of sun safety, the cabana critics counter, but they say that’s just a convenient excuse for many of the people using the beach tents.

Half the time they’re not even sitting under the shade covers, they claim, and there’s no need for two people to whip out an entire tent for an hour or two, when sun cream and a hat will do just fine.

Other cabana devotees are more forward about their motivations. Breakfast television presenter Davina Smith admitted that for her, it is about nabbing “the prime piece of real estate” on busy beaches.

She is one of the people who pitch their cabana castles in the early morning to reserve territory for her family later that day.

“There’s a lot of research that goes into this. You get up early, you’ve got to watch the tides. You can’t just plonk it there and walk away… you invest in it,” Smith argued on Nine’s Today programme.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among the hordes irked by the trend: “That’s not on,” he told the same show.

“One of the great things about Australia, unlike some parts of the world, you go and you got to pay to go to the beach. Here, everyone owns the beach… And that’s a breach of that principle, really.”

Even lifeguards have opinions on the matter, with some telling local media the cabana camps can make it hard for them to do their jobs.

There are a number of cultural quirks which mean Cabanagate has Australians more worked up than a magpie in spring.

Firstly, the country loves to think of itself as an egalitarian society – the land of a “fair go” – and that extends to the use of one of its most precious national assets.

“Australian beaches, they always have been seen as shared spaces, democratic spaces where social hierarchies dissolve…. [they’re] seen as a great equaliser,” says Ece Kaya, a researcher at the University of Technology Sydney.

And Australians are “fiercely” protective of that ideal: “They see it as a birthright,” says Chris Pepin-Neff, who studies Australian beach culture.

They point to the backlash in 1929 when beachgoers at Sydney’s Coogee Beach were forced to pay for access to the only part of the water covered by shark nets. More recently, a bid to rent out part of Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach to an exclusive beach club was met with a huge outcry.

And while the use of sprawling cabanas is a relatively new phenomenon, there’s long been “enormous class tension” around the use of the country’s coastline, Dr Pepin-Neff adds.

A lack of infrastructure, affordable housing and community attitudes tend to lock ordinary Australians out of waterfront areas, while those natural assets are often monopolised by those lucky enough to live there.

“And there’s a perception that it’s encroaching even further, [so] that an average family can’t even get a spot at the beach.”

But they say there’s no real data on who is using cabanas and why. They also argue there’s many good reasons people might use them. Maybe they’ve travelled a long way so they plan to stay at the beach longer, or they may have a disability or young children they need to cater for, he says.

“There is a balance between a free and open beach that everybody can use, and making sure that you’re respectful.”

They offer no defence for the “land bankers” though: “As a Sydneysider, I think that is abusing the privilege… that is not a fair go.”

As the debate intensifies though, there are some calls for a truce to restore the peace to Australian shores.

Beachkit Australia founder Rowan Clark, who sells equipment including cabanas, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper even he thinks cabana lovers should be more courteous.

“They should only allow set up at the rear of the beach in a line,” he said. “Once this is exhausted, then no more of this style of shade should be allowed.”

Others want authorities to rein it in, like some have in the United States. There are suggestions councils could limit how many cabanas can be set up on their beaches, and where.

But Sydney resident Claire, for all her wrath, worries that this could tip the scales in the other direction and exclude other people from using the beach.

“You don’t want to get too precious about it, obviously… it’s just the beach, first world problems right?

“I think in general, we should just try to be considerate of one another.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Russia is closely monitoring the situation, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military action to take Greenland from Denmark.

Peskov said the Arctic was in Russia’s “sphere of national and strategic interests and it is interested in peace and stability there”.

Trump’s remarks on Greenland – a largely autonomous Danish territory – have drawn a warning from European leaders.

EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas has stressed that “we have to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Greenland”, and Germany’s Olaf Scholz has made clear that “borders must not be moved by force”.

Trump said earlier this week that the US needed both Greenland and the Panama Canal “for economic security”, and refused to rule out using either economic or military force in taking them over.

He also referred to the border with Canada as an “artificially drawn line”. Denmark and Canada are both close Nato allies of the US.

Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s claims were a matter for the US, Denmark and other nations, but Russia was watching the “rather dramatic” situation surrounding his remarks. “We are present in the Arctic zone, and we will continue to be present there,” he said.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to dampen concern about the president-elect’s remarks during a visit to Paris: “The idea is… obviously not a good one, but maybe more important, it’s obviously one that’s not going to happen.”

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy also played down Trump’s comments, but he acknowledged the “intensity of his rhetoric and the unpredictability sometimes of what he said can be destabilising”.

About 56,000 people live in Greenland, and it is home to US as well as Danish military bases. It also has considerable untapped mineral and oil wealth.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede has been pushing for independence, although the territory’s economy relies heavily on Danish subsidies.

Both he and the Danish leader have emphasised that it is “not for sale” and that its future is in the hands of Greenlanders themselves.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said Copenhagen has a clear interest in ensuring that the US – “absolutely its closest ally” – plays a key role at a time of rising tensions in the North Atlantic, particularly involving Russia.

Facing a major foreign policy crisis, she has called a meeting of other political parties at her office on Thursday evening.

The European Commission said Trump’s threat to Greenland was “extremely theoretical” and “wildly hypothetical”, considering he was not yet in office.

However, it has confirmed that Greenland, as an overseas territory, does come under a mutual assistance clause requiring all EU states to come to its aid in case of attack.

The Kremlin ridiculed the European response, suggesting it was reacting “very timidly… almost in a whisper”.

Last week, Greenland’s leader said the territory should free itself from “the shackles of colonialism”, although he made no mention of the US.

A former Greenland foreign minister, Pele Broberg, who now heads the biggest opposition party, told the BBC that most Greenlanders he talked to believed the US was vital for their defence and safety.

“We are part of the North American continent, that’s why the defence of the US is in such a great place with regards to Greenland, because we create a buffer zone that doesn’t need to be militarised.”

He has called for a “free association agreement” with the US covering trade and defence which would give Greenland independence but hand the US responsibility for security.

Trump’s allies have reinforced his views on Greenland.

Keith Kellogg, chosen by Trump to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, said a lot of the president-elect’s remarks on Greenland made sense, “putting the United States in a position of global leadership”.

Republican congressman Mike Walz told Fox News that the issue was “not just about Greenland, this is about the Arctic”, because Russia was trying to take control of the polar region, with its mineral and natural resources.

“Denmark can be a great ally, but you can’t treat Greenland, which they have operational control over, as some kind of backwater – it’s in the Western hemisphere.”

The US is Denmark’s biggest export market and sales increased in the first 11 months of 2024 to 326bn kroner (£36bn; $45bn) – a 17.3% share of the country’s total exports.

Earlier this week, Trump said he would impose tariffs on Denmark if it rejected his offer to buy Greenland.

Former Prime Minister Liz Truss has sent a legal “cease and desist” letter to Sir Keir Starmer demanding he stop saying she “crashed the economy”.

Her lawyers argue the claim made repeatedly by Sir Keir is “false and defamatory”, and harmed her politically in the run-up to losing her South West Norfolk seat in the general election.

Truss was the UK’s shortest-serving PM, forced to resign after just 49 days in office when borrowing costs soared in the aftermath of her government’s mini-budget.

The prime minister’s spokesman suggested Truss should also write to “millions of people up and down the country” who, he said, had seen their mortgage bills pushed up by her economic policies.

Sir Keir “absolutely stands by” his language about the previous government’s record, the spokesman told reporters.

Responding on X, Truss said: “I know Keir Starmer won’t repeat his allegations that I crashed the economy because he knows it’s a lie.”

Earlier, Commons leader Lucy Powell told MPs “we won’t cease and desist from telling the truth that they [the Conservatives] crashed the economy”.

Also speaking in the Commons, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones said the previous Conservative government had “ruined the lives of people across this country” through their “hubris” and “recklessness”.

It comes as the pound fell to its lowest level in over a year and government borrowing costs have surged to their highest level in 16 years.

Economists have warned these rising costs could force further tax rises or cuts in spending as the government tries to meet its self-imposed rule not to borrow to fund day-to-day spending.

Responding to an urgent question in the Commons, Jones insisted there was “no need for an emergency intervention” in financial markets.

Movements in borrowing costs were being driven by “a wide range of international and domestic factors,” he said.

Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride said Labour’s tax rises would be “swallowed up by the higher borrowing costs at no benefit to the British people”.

A “cease and desist” letter usually represents a warning that the recipient will face legal action if they continue the allegedly unlawful activity.

In the letter sent to Sir Keir on Thursday, Truss’s lawyers say his statements about their client are “false and misleading”.

“Their publication is not only extremely damaging but also grossly defamatory and indefensible… It would be hard to avoid a conclusion that they were made maliciously,” the letter adds.

Truss’s lawyers say they are seeking “an amicable basis on which you will agree to cease repetition of what is clearly a factually incorrect and defamatory statement about our client.

“This request is made in the context of the basic levels of civility which is due between senior politicians, and we trust that you will respond accordingly.”

The letter argues that the movements in financial markets during Truss’s tenure in No 10 should not be classified as an economic crash.

The weeks following the mini-budget delivered by Truss’s chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in September 2022, which included wide-ranging tax cuts, saw sharply adverse market reaction, and mortgage costs soared.

But in a video posted on X after Downing Street’s comments, Truss said Labour, the Bank of England and “the media establishment smeared my budget and forced a reversal”.

“Now, they’ve plunged the country into economic crisis,” she added.

During the Conservative Party conference last October, the former prime minister said it would be “economic illiteracy” to suggest that tax rises from Labour – at that point anticipated in Rachel Reeves’ upcoming first Budget – were a result of her economic inheritance.

Last July, shortly after Labour took office, civil servants changed documents describing the mini-budget as “disastrous” after she complained they showed “flagrant” political bias.

Briefing notes on the King’s Speech, which sets out the government’s programme of new laws – published earlier on the government website – said the former PM’s approach had damaged the UK’s financial credibility.

The Cabinet Office said the documents had been “corrected and updated”.

Many black staff members at London’s world-famous Harrods department store would leave the shop floor before Mohamed Al Fayed toured the premises, former employees have told the BBC.

Staff would be given a warning before he appeared, says a former security guard, which was followed by a “beeline of certain people, certain races”, leaving the floor.

“The level of racism was very clear,” said “Henry” (not his real name).

A former member of the store’s HR team, Lisa, told the BBC Al Fayed would “pick on” people negatively and that those “hidden” would also include “overweight” people.

These accounts follow a BBC documentary and podcast broadcast in September which included claims from more than 20 women that Mohamed Al Fayed sexually assaulted or raped them.

Harrods responded to the latest claims about racism by referring us to a previous statement in which it said it was “utterly appalled” by the abuse allegations made against Al Fayed, adding that it was a “very different organisation to the one owned and controlled” by him.

In November, the Met Police said it had launched a new investigation after 90 alleged new victims had come forward.

Henry told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Clare McDonnell that before Al Fayed’s daily walks around the store, there was a five-minute warning announced on guards’ radios.

He said black people, and also other staff who didn’t fit a certain look, would then leave the shop floor, in a “robotic” movement.

“It seemed very much like the protocol that [they] would disappear,” he added.

He said the staff would leave the building via an underground tunnel, connecting the main store to an office across the road. Henry said they would then file back once Al Fayed had gone.

Another former staff member, who wishes to remain anonymous, also told the BBC that many black members of staff went to stock-rooms or “on tea breaks” when Al Fayed was visiting the shop floor. They also said that some women were sent to put on make-up.

Henry said the only staff who stayed on the shop floor were “young, thin, blonde”, although some non-white door guards also remained.

Since the BBC’s investigation was broadcast, we have heard scores of accounts of Al Fayed – who died in 2023 aged 94 – favouring women with these traits.

Lisa confirmed that security would “warn” staff members when Al Fayed was about to arrive – but “not the girls that he would like”.

Those who left the shop floor “were good at their jobs”, she said. “We didn’t want to keep losing staff.”

The BBC has been told that staff were frequently sacked.

Jon Brilliant, who worked in Al Fayed’s private office for 18 months, previously told the BBC that within Harrods there was surveillance, sackings and a culture designed to keep top managers from trusting or communicating with one another.

Henry agreed there was a culture of “paranoia, fear and bullying” while he worked as a security guard there.

During his initial training, he said he had been warned not to invest in a monthly travel pass because “you could be here today and you [could] be gone today”.

Another former member of Harrods HR staff, Anna, said when she worked for the men’s tailored suit division she was told not to employ anyone who was black, because “the customers wouldn’t like it”.

Once, she said, the best candidate was a Caribbean man, who was “head and shoulders above anyone else”.

“I just sat there thinking, ‘What a waste of my time and your time. I cannot employ you because of the colour of your skin.'”

Anna said she recorded that in his recruitment notes, and was reprimanded for doing so.

Lisa said on one occasion, Al Fayed “came right up to my face” and used a racist word to describe the type of people he didn’t want her to hire.

A number of employment tribunals, successfully brought by people claiming racial discrimination, took place during Al Fayed’s ownership of Harrods.

Henry said he didn’t witness any sexual assault when he worked at the store, but there was “hearsay” amongst staff.

“I had lots of people tell me things, I suspected a lot of things, I saw some things, but who am I going to tell?” he said. “You can suspect all you want, but without having some proof… it’s not evidence in court.”

Al Fayed was accused of racism by Vanity Fair in 1995, an allegation he vehemently denied. It sparked a libel lawsuit that the billionaire later agreed to drop, as long as further evidence the magazine had gathered in preparation for a trial was locked away.

Many years after leaving his post, Henry said he still feared reprisals from people in the former chairman’s security team.

“Just a few things I said to you could cost me my life – and if not my life, my livelihood,” he said.

Despite these fears, he said other members of Harrods security staff should come forward to the authorities.

“If they have daughters, they have granddaughters, they have a mother, they should tell [what they know]… but I can assure you those people would keep their mouths shut.”

The statement received from Harrods also said: “These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms. We also acknowledge that during this time his victims were failed and for this we sincerely apologise.”

It added: “While we cannot undo the past, we have been determined to do the right thing as an organisation, driven by the values we hold today, while ensuring that such behaviour can never be repeated in the future.”

BBC Action Line here

If you have information about this story that you would like to share please get in touch. Email MAFinvestigation@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.

The pound has fallen to its lowest level in over a year, while UK borrowing costs hit their highest for 16 years.

Economists have warned that the rising costs could lead to further tax increases or spending cuts as the government tries to meet its self-imposed rule not to borrow to fund day-to-day spending.

In response to an urgent question in the Commons, Treasury minister Darren Jones said there was “no need for an emergency intervention” and markets “continue to function in an orderly way”.

But shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: “Higher debt and lower growth are understandably now causing real concerns among the public, among businesses and in the markets.”

Jones said: “It is normal for the price and yields of gilts to vary when there are wider movements in global financial markets, including in response to economic data,” adding that the government’s decision to only borrow for investment was “non-negotiable”.

But Stride said: “The government’s decision to let rip on borrowing means that their own tax rises will end up being swallowed up by the higher borrowing costs at no benefit to the British people.”

The pound fell by 0.9% to $1.226 against the dollar on Thursday, while borrowing costs jumped earlier in the day but calmed by mid-afternoon.

Sterling typically rises when borrowing costs increase but economists said wider concerns about the strength of the UK economy had driven it lower.

The government generally spends more than it raises in tax. To fill this gap it borrows money, but that has to be paid back – with interest.

One of the ways it can borrow money is by selling financial products called bonds.

Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at asset manager Allianz, told the BBC’s Today programme the rise in borrowing costs means the amount of interest the government pays on its debt goes up and “eats up more of the tax revenue, leaving less for other things”.

Mr El-Erian added that it can also slow down economic growth “which also undermines revenue”.

“So the chancellor, if this continues, will have to look at either increasing taxes or cutting spending even more – and that’s going to impact everyone,” he said.

The government has said it will not divulge anything on spending or taxes ahead of the official borrowing forecast from its independent forecaster due in March.

At the end of last year, revised figures showed the economy had zero growth between July and September.

It was the latest in a series of disappointing figures, including a rise in inflation in the year to November with prices rising at their fastest pace since March.

In December, the Bank of England said the economy was likely to have performed worse than expected in the last three months of 2024.

At the same time, it held interest rates at 4.75% citing “heightened uncertainty in the economy”.

Globally, there has been a rise in the cost of government borrowing in recent months sparked by investor concerns that US President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to impose new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China would push up inflation.

The cost of government borrowing in the US has seen a similar rise to that of the UK.

“It may be a global sell-off, but it creates a singular headache for the UK chancellor looking to spend more on public services without raising taxes again or breaking her self-imposed fiscal rules,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.

Some may be wondering about the impact of higher gilt yields on the mortgage market, particularly after what happened after Liz Truss’s mini-Budget in September 2022.

Although yields are higher now than they were then, they have been creeping up slowly over a period of months, whereas in 2022 they shot up over a couple of days.

That speedy rise led to lenders quickly pulling deals while they tried to work out what interest rate to charge.

But the picture is too complex to make a direct comparison between Truss and Reeves, said Simon French, chief economist at Panmure Gordon.

“The major driver of yields going higher under Truss was UK policy. It was a combination of the mini-Budget, which was her fault, and the energy crisis, which wasn’t her fault. But the mini-Budget was the biggest factor.

“This time, there is global anxiety about the level of debt pushing yields up everywhere, not least the US, which is not Reeves’ fault. But there’s also a dim view on the growth impact from her Budget, which is slowing rather than accelerating the economy. That is her fault.”

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Much of the heart of Hollywood is blanketed in thick smoke. You can barely see the tops of the towering palm trees that line streets here.

It is utter chaos on the streets near the fire. People are using sweatshirts to cover their faces so they can breathe. Many are carrying bags and suitcases looking for a place to go.

Some are wearing pyjamas, clearly taken by surprise.

The Sunset fire broke out at around 18:00 (02:00 GMT) local time on Wednesday, covering much of Hollywood in thick smoke and forcing an evacuation order. By midnight local time the fire covered an area of 60 acres.

While driving in Hollywood, I saw many people running away from their homes with whatever belongings they could carry.

As I pulled over, some of them responded to me in fear and anxiety.

“Are you here to help people? Where do I go?” Anna Waldman asked as I got out of my car.

“Where is it safe?”

Above us, sirens had gone off and helicopter blades were whipping.

As I helped her get to a safe area, she told me she was walking her dogs and had planned to stop by a grocery store when she smelled heavy smoke.

She went back home, looked out her windows, and watched the fire move quickly through the Hollywood Hills to within a block from her home.

She packed what she could: food, clothes, blankets, food for her three small dogs.

“I can’t believe this,” she said in exhaustion.

Makayla Jackson, 26, held her two-year-old son Ramari on the corner of a street as they waited for a ride. They had been evacuated from a homeless shelter that was in danger of burning.

“They just told us to get out and go,” she told me.

She said she was heading toward Hollywood High School, where more help was being offered.

• Follow live updates on this story
• In maps: Thousands of acres on fire in LA
• Paris Hilton among celebrities to lose homes
• What role is climate change playing?

Many of the roads near the blaze, such as the iconic Hollywood Boulevard, which includes the Hollywood Walk of Fame, are gridlocked with traffic.

Some are even driving on the wrong side of the road to escape.

The inferno could be seen from nearby freeways, lighting up the dark with bright red hues.

On the outskirts of the legendary city though, it is as though nothing is happening. People are eating dinner, shopping and going about their evenings.

Have you been affected by the fires in California? Get in touch here.

Out-of-control wildfires are ripping across parts of Los Angeles, leading to at least five deaths, burning down hundreds of buildings, and prompting more than 130,000 people to flee their homes in America’s second-largest city.

Despite the efforts of firefighters, the biggest blazes remain totally uncontained – with weather conditions and the underlying impact of climate change expected to continue fanning the flames for days to come.

More than 137,000 people have been forced to leave their homes – many of them simply carrying whatever belongings they can.

Police say at least five people have died, and their bodies found near the Eaton fire – but their cause of death is not yet known.

Like the even larger Palisades fire, the Eaton fire remains totally uncontained.

Meanwhile, the Sunset fire that has been menacing the well-known Hollywood Hills area has started to shrink but is not yet contained. Evacuation orders for the Hollywood Hills West area have been lifted.

Nearly 2,000 structures are known to have been destroyed – including houses and schools, and businesses on the iconic Sunset Boulevard. A fire ecologist has told the BBC that “entire neighbourhoods… have been wiped out”.

Among the celebrities who have lost their homes are Leighton Meester and Adam Brody, who attended the Golden Globes just days ago, and Paris Hilton.

The insurance industry fears this could prove to be one of the costliest wildfire outbreaks in US history, with insured losses expected above $8bn (£6.5bn) due to the high value of properties in the paths of the blazes.

There is a glimmer of hope for firefighters, as the fire weather outlook for southern California has been downgraded from “extremely critical” to “critical”.

But BBC weather forecaster Sarah Keith-Lucas says there is no rain forecast in the area for at least the next week, meaning conditions remain ripe for fire.

Power has been cut to swathes of the city, and traffic jams have built up. Adding to the disruption, a number of schools and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have been forced to close.

A political row about the city’s preparedness has erupted after it emerged that some firefighters’ hoses have run dry – an issue seized upon by US President-elect Donald Trump.

• Follow live updates
• ‘Where do I go?’ Chaos as people flee flames
• In pictures: Dramatic scenes from west LA
• The celebrities who have lost their homes

There are at least five fires raging in the wider area, according to California fire officials early on Thursday:

• Palisades: The first fire to erupt on Tuesday and the biggest fire in the region, which could become the most destructive fire in state history. It has scorched a sizable part of land, covering more than 17,200 acres, including the upscale Pacific Palisades neighbourhood
• Eaton: It has struck the northern part of Los Angeles, blazing through cities such as Altadena. It’s the second biggest fire in the area, burning around 10,600 acres
• Hurst: Located just north of San Fernando, it began burning on Tuesday night and has grown to 855 acres, though firefighters have had some successlimited in containing it
• Lidia: It broke out on Wednesday afternoon in the mountainous Acton area north of Los Angeles and grew to cover almost 350 acres. Authorities say it has been 40% contained
• Sunset: It broke out Wednesday evening in Hollywood Hills, growing to about 20 acres in less than an hour. It covered around 43 acres but is now starting to shrink

The earlier Woodley and Olivas fires have now been contained, according to local fire authorities.

• In maps: Thousands of acres on fire
• Watch: Fires reach Hollywood, with fears for iconic sign

Officials have pointed to high winds and drought in the area, which has made vegetation very dry and easy to burn.

The probable impact of climate change has also been cited – although the exact circumstances remain unclear.

Some 95% of wildfires in the area are started by humans, according to David Acuna, a battalion chief at the Californian Fire Service, although officials are yet to state how they think the current fires started.

An important factor that has been cited in the spread of the blazes is the Santa Ana winds, which blow from inland towards the coast. With speeds of more than 60mph (97 km/h), these are believed to have fanned the flames.

• What are the Santa Ana winds?

Although strong winds and lack of rain are driving the blazes, experts say climate change is altering the background conditions and increasing the likelihood of such fires.

US government research is unequivocal in linking climate change to larger and more severe wildfires in the western United States.

“Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.

And following a very warm summer and lack of rain in recent months, California is particularly vulnerable.

Fire season in southern California is generally thought to stretch from May to October – but the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has pointed out earlier that blazes had become a perennial issue. “There’s no fire season,” he said. “It’s fire year.”

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Acuna said the Palisades Fire represented only the third occasion in the past 30 years that a major fire had broken out in January.

• How climate change is stoking the fires
• A simple guide to climate change

Have you been affected by the fires in California? Get in touch here.

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Deadly wildfires have devastated parts of the city of Los Angeles and the wider county, destroying many homes and businesses, as well as schools and places of worship.

Here are some of the most striking images of places seen before and after the wildfires tore through them.

• Follow live: New wildfire sweeps through Hollywood Hills
• What’s the latest on the fires, and what caused them?
• In maps: Thousands of acres on fire in LA
• What role is climate change playing?

This affluent suburb is among those that have been the hardest hit, with many residents being unable to gather much or anything of value before they were had to flee.

Below are images showing the destruction some businesses have suffered.

The Palisades Charter High School is among landmarks in the Pacific Palisades area to have been damaged in the fires.

The well-known school counts celebrities including Will.i.am and Forest Whitaker among its alumni, and has been a filming location for Hollywood hits including Carrie, Teen Wolf and Freaky Friday.

Read more about what happened to the school here.

Houses that sit along parts of the major state highway have also been hit by the Palisades fire, including in the city of Malibu.

Satellite imagery below shows what the coastline looked like before and after the fires took hold.

The Eaton Fire has destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in Altadena, which lies behind the mountains north of Los Angeles.

Below you can see the damage the fire caused to one home, as well as a wider look at the full extent of the damage the neighbourhood has suffered.

In nearby Pasadena, a Jewish temple was among the buildings lost to the Eaton Fire.

According to its website, the temple’s congregation has more than 100 years of history in the area.

Wildfires are raging in several areas of Los Angeles, with high winds and extremely dry conditions fuelling their progress across thousands of acres of land.

Firefighters are so far unable to contain them, with one fire official telling the BBC on Thursday that they are still rapidly expanding.

The largest fire, in the Pacific Palisades area where many celebrities live, is the most destructive fire in the history of Los Angeles. More than 1,000 buildings have been destroyed.

It’s a rapidly changing situation – these maps and pictures chart how the fires have spread, where they are located and what they look like from space.

On Wednesday, a fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills area, overlooking Hollywood.

Many of the roads near the fire were blanketed with thick smoke and Hollywood Boulevard, home to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was gridlocked with traffic as people tried to leave.

Five fires continue to grow in the Los Angeles area:

• Palisades fire: The largest active fire is burning between Santa Monica and Malibu. Burnt area: more than 17,000 acres. At least 30,000 people evacuated.

• Eaton fire: Second largest fire burning north of Pasadena. Burnt area: more than 10,000 acres. At least five deaths reported.

• Hurst fire: To the north east of the city. Burnt area: 850 acres.

• Lidia fire: Reported in the hills north of Los Angeles. Burnt area: 350 acres.

• Sunset fire: Reported in the historic Hollywood Hills area near many famous landmarks, including the Hollywood sign. Burnt area: 50 acres.

Two fires have been contained:

Woodley fire: Small fire reported in local parkland. Burnt area: 30 acres.

Olivas fire: Small fire first reported in Ventura county about 50 miles (80km) east of Los Angeles. Burnt area: 11 acres.

• Follow latest updates on the LA wildfires
• What’s the latest on the fires, and what caused them?
• Watch: Smoke billows as thousands evacuate in LA
• Timelapse shows rapid spread of Palisades wildfire
• Watch: Inside a neighbourhood totally lost in inferno
• Pacific Palisades: The celebrity LA area ravaged by wildfire

The map above shows how rapidly the Palisades fire spread, intensifying in a matter of hours. At just after 14:00 on Tuesday it covered 772 acres and within four hours it had approximately tripled in size.

It now covers more than 17,000 acres and thousands of people have been forced to evacuate the area, as more than 1,400 firefighters try to tackle the blaze.

To give an idea of the size of the Palisades fire, we have superimposed it on to maps of New York and London.

As you can see by 23:00 PST, 8 January, (07:00 GMT, 9 January), it was comparable in size with an area stretching from Clapham to Greenwich in the UK’s capital, or with large areas of lower Manhattan and Queens.

Another indication of the scale of the Palisades fire comes from Nasa’s Earth Observatory.

The images captured on Tuesday show a huge plume of smoke emanating from California and drifting out to sea.

The Palisades fire is not the only one to have a devastating effect on neighbourhoods of Los Angeles.

Theses images show the extent of the destruction caused by the Eaton fire in the neighbourhood of Altadena.

The Jewish Temple in Pasadena was destroyed by the Eaton fire. The Centre’s website says it has been in use since 1941 and has a congregation of more than 400 families.

The gruesome murder of Indian journalist Mukesh Chandrakar has shone a spotlight on the dangers of reporting from some of the country’s most volatile regions.

Chandrakar’s body was found last week in a septic tank in a compound owned by a contractor he had implicated in a story about corruption in Chhattisgarh state. Police have arrested the contractor and two others in connection with the 33-year-old’s murder.

Chhattisgarh, a mineral-rich state, has witnessed an armed conflict for more than three decades and attacks by Maoist rebels on security forces are common. The Maoists, who are active in several Indian states, say they are fighting for communist rule and greater rights for tribal people and the rural poor.

Chandrakar’s killing was condemned by Indian media watchdogs. People who knew him commended his bravery and resilience, with many saying he cared deeply about people and would go to great lengths to report on an important story.

His death also sparked discussions about the challenges faced by independent reporters, often working as stringers or freelancers, in states like Chhattisgarh, where employment opportunities are few and the balance of power is constantly shifting between the state, insurgent groups and powerful mining corporations.

Chandrakar was born in Basaguda, a remote village in the state, and dabbled in odd jobs before he pivoted to journalism in his 20s.

His childhood was difficult; he lost his father when he was still a child and was raised by his mother, who worked hard to make ends meet. He also grew up in the shadow of violence as militia and rebel groups fought for power in the state.

To help support his family, he initially collected mahua flowers, which are used to make a liquor popular among tribespeople, and later worked in a garage.

His friend Ganesh Mishra told the BBC that Chandrakar discovered journalism through conversations with friends and began working as one in 2013. He learnt on the job, gleaning tips from fellow journalists, and gradually developed a passion for reporting.

He worked as a reporter with mainstream media outlets before launching his own YouTube channel, Bastar Junction. At the time of his death, the channel had around 165,000 subscribers, a number that has since grown by about 10,000.

Bastar is a hilly district in Chhattisgarh which is full of dense forests and is part of India’s ‘red corridor’, a nickname for the regions most affected by the Maoist insurgency.

Watching the videos, Chandrakar’s journalism comes across as slightly melodramatic and sometimes straying from the rigours of traditional reporting, such as not always giving all parties a right of reply. However, his videos highlighted stories frequently overlooked by mainstream media – reports of innocent villagers killed in crossfire between Maoist rebels and soldiers, or tribal men wrongfully accused of being insurgents and imprisoned by the police.

His channel captured the hardships faced by locals in Bastar’s remote villages, where even basic necessities are scarce.

One video showed villagers swimming across a river with groceries in tow due to the lack of a bridge; another documented a key road mined with explosives, allegedly planted by Maoists to target security forces. His stories gave locals a platform to voice their grievances and hold public officials accountable.

Chandrakar used to also work as a “stringer” for news organisations, where his job involved providing outstation journalists with information about a story or sometimes, even chaperoning them through Maoist strongholds.

Most media outlets pay such freelance reporters poorly, and despite doing much of the ground work, they often don’t receive proper recognition or a byline.

A journalist who Chandrakar helped cover a particularly sensitive story told the BBC about how he had helped him cross Maoists camps and police check-posts to access regions deep inside forests.

“It would have been impossible to access the terrain without him,” the person, who wanted to remain anonymous, said.

He described Chandrakar as a person who was passionate about new experiences, loved the chase and felt proud when his actions led to change.

“He was also a deeply aspirational person. He didn’t want to be defined by his difficult life; he wanted to rise above that,” he said.

It’s perhaps this trait of Chandrakar’s that has led to some speculation about the actual cause of his death. Police say that two of the people arrested for his murder are related to him, one of whom is a contractor.

There are whispers about Chandrakar’s lifestyle, which some colleagues found puzzling given the poor salaries of local journalists. In a tribute, his close friend and fellow journalist, Dipankar Ghose, acknowledged the complexities of working in a profession where survival often meant navigating difficult choices.

“For me, Mukesh was the personification of bravery. I’m not going to pretend that in a universe where media organisations he [Chandrakar] worked for didn’t even pay for his petrol let alone a stable salary, sustenance wasn’t a problem, and therefore some wires weren’t crossed. But Mukesh loved journalism with a passion,” he wrote as part of a lengthy post praising Chandrakar on X.

Manisha Pande, managing editor at Newslaundry, an independent news platform, speaks about the challenges facing journalists in many small towns and cities across the country.

“There are many passionate and even fearless young journalists who are the first to uncover and report stories from their regions. But as a profession, we haven’t figured out how to make journalism financially sustainable for them,” she says.

Chandrakar’s murder is still under investigation, and more details about his death are expected to emerge in the coming days. However, his work continues to serve as an inspiration to many.

“I have lost a friend who was like a family member and Bastar has lost a good journalist,” Mr Mishra says. “His journalism impacted many and so his loss is deeply felt deeply by all”.

At 20 years old, Pierre Poilievre already had a roadmap for Canada.

Canada’s Conservative Party leader – now 45 – laid out a low-tax, small government vision for the country in an essay contest on what he would do as prime minister.

“A dollar left in the hands of consumers and investors is more productive than a dollar spent by a politician,” he stated.

Poilievre is one step closer to making his vision a reality, and even gave a nod to the essay in a recent interview with conservative psychologist and commentator Jordan Peterson.

For months, Poilievre’s Conservatives have enjoyed a large lead over the struggling Liberals in national surveys, suggesting they would win a majority government if an election were held today.

Now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he’s standing down, and with an election likely to be called soon, Poilievre is promising a return to “common sense politics”.

For Canadians frustrated with a sluggish economy and a housing and affordability crisis, he is offering an alternative to what he has labelled as Trudeau’s “authoritarian socialism”.

A win would make him part of a wave of populist leaders on the right who have toppled incumbent governments in the west.

While it has invited comparisons to Donald Trump – and he has fans like Elon Musk and others in the US president-elect’s orbit – Poilievre’s story is very much a Canadian one.

Poilievre was born in Canada’s western province of Alberta to a 16-year-old mother who put him up for adoption. He was taken in by two school teachers, who raised him in suburban Calgary.

“I have always believed that it is voluntary generosity among family and community that are the greatest social safety net that we can ever have,” he told Maclean’s Magazine in 2022, reflecting on his early life.

“That’s kind of my starting point.”

As a teenager, Poilievre showed an early interest in politics, and canvassed for local conservatives.

Poilievre was studying international relations at the University of Calgary when he met Stockwell Day, who served as a cabinet minister under former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

At the time, Day was seeking the leadership of the Canadian Alliance – a right-wing party with Alberta roots that became part of the modern-day Conservatives in a 2003 merger – and he tapped Poilievre to help with campus outreach.

“He impressed me from the start,” Day told the BBC in an interview. “He seemed to be a level-headed guy, but full of energy and able to catch people’s attention.”

Day’s leadership bid was successful, and he set out for Ottawa with Poilievre as his assistant. Some time after, Poilievre walked into his office on a cold winter night to ask his opinion about potentially running for office.

Poilievre went on to win a seat in Ottawa in 2004 at the age of 25, making him one of the youngest elected Conservatives at the time. He has held that seat since.

In Ottawa, Poilievre was given the nickname Skippy by peers and foes alike due to to his youthful enthusiasm and sharp tongue.

He built a reputation for being “highly combative and partisan”, said Randy Besco, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto.

Behind the closed doors of Conservative caucus meetings, Poilievre showed his diplomatic side, Day said.

“Pierre was always good at saying, ‘Okay, you know what? I hadn’t thought of that,’ or he would listen and say: ‘Have you thought of this?'” said Day.

Still, confrontational politics became a cornerstone of Poilievre’s public persona. After becoming Conservative leader in 2022, he would target Trudeau with biting remarks as a way to connect with disaffected voters.

It has landed him in trouble at times. In April, he was expelled from the House of Commons for calling the prime minister a “wacko”.

Poilievre told the Montreal Gazette in June that he is a fan of “straight talk”.

“I think when politesse is in conflict with the truth, I choose the truth,” he said. “I think we’ve been too polite for too long with our political class.”

His combative style has also been divisive, and he has been criticised for oversimplifying complex issues for political gain.

While Canadians have been open to the opposition leader’s message as a change from Trudeau’s brand of progressive politics, just over half of them hold an unfavourable opinion of him, according to the latest polls.

Poilievre has also had to shift his sights since Trudeau’s resignation announcement, to get ahead of the inevitable match-up between him and the next Liberal leader.

The Conservative leader has been described as a “soft” populist for his direct appeals to everyday Canadians and criticism of establishment elites, including corporate Canada.

He came out in support of those who protested vaccine mandates during the 2021 “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations that gridlocked Ottawa for weeks.

He has pledged to deliver “the biggest crackdown on crime in Canadian history”, promising to keep repeat offenders behind bars.

On social matters, Poilievre has rarely weighed in – something Prof Besco said is typical of senior Conservatives, who see these topics as “a losing issue”.

While Poilievre voted against legalising gay marriage in the early 2000s, he recently said it will remain legal “full stop” if he is elected.

The Conservatives also do not support legislation to regulate abortion, though they allow MPs to vote freely on the issue.

“I would lead a small government that minds its own business,” Poilievre said in June.

Amid a public debate in Canada in recent months on immigration, the party has said it would tie levels of newcomers to the number of new homes built, and focus on bringing in skilled workers.

Poilievre’s wife, Anaida, arrived in Canada as a child refugee from Caracas, Venezuela.

The Conservative leader has pushed for the integration of newcomers, saying Canada does not need to be a “hyphenated society”.

One of his major promises – to cut Trudeau’s national carbon pricing programme, arguing it is a financial burden for families – has raised questions over how his government would tackle pressing issues like climate change.

Canada also faces the threat of steep tariffs when Trump takes office later this month, with the US-Canada relationship expected to be a major challenge.

Poilievre has pushed back at Trump’s comments suggesting Canada become a 51st US state, vowing to “put Canada first”.

He has not stepped much into foreign policy otherwise, with his messaging focused instead on restoring “the Canadian dream”.

Above all, Poilievre says he wants to do away with “grandiosity” and “utopian wokesim” that he believes has defined the Trudeau era, in favour of the “the things that are grand and great about the common people”.

“I’ve been saying precisely the same thing this entire time,” he told Mr Peterson.

“They have already tortured me and repressed me, but they will not silence me. My voice is the only thing I have left.”

This is how Juan, a young man aged around 20, begins his story. He alleges he was physically and psychologically tortured by Venezuelan security forces after being detained in connection with the presidential elections on 28 July.

He was one of many hundreds of people arrested during protests after the electoral authorities – which are dominated by government loyalists – announced that the incumbent, Nicolás Maduro, had won.

The National Electoral Council (CNE) did not make the voting tallies public and the Venezuelan opposition has described the official result as fraudulent, pointing out that the voting tallies it got hold of with the help of election observers suggest an overwhelming victory for its candidate, Edmundo González.

Juan was released from prison in mid-November, days after Maduro called on judicial authorities to “rectify” any injustices in the arrests.

The BBC spoke to him via video call. For his own safety, we have decided to withhold some of the details of his case and have changed his name.

The young man alleges that many of the detainees are mistreated, given “rotten food” and that the most rebellious are locked up in “torture chambers”.

He showed the BBC documents and evidence that corroborate his story, which coincides with other testimony and with the complaints of non-governmental organisations.

Juan, an anti-government political activist, says the election campaign and the days leading up to the election were “marked by hope” and many people were keen to vote for change.

But the announcement of Maduro’s victory shortly after midnight that Sunday turned what for many was a celebratory mood into confusion and anger.

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest against a result they decried as fraudulent.

The opposition and international organisations say what followed was police repression which caused the deaths of more than 20 protesters.

Maduro and some of his officials in turn have blamed the opposition, the “extreme right” and “terrorist” groups for the deaths.

Gonzalo Himiob of Venezuelan non-governmental organisation Foro Penal says people were arrested for as little as “celebrating the opposition’s declaration of Edmundo González as the winner, or for posting something on social media”.

“We also have cases of people who were not even protesting, but for some reason they were near a protest and they were arrested,” he added.

Juan says that is what happened to him.

The young political activist says he had been running an errand when a group of hooded men intercepted him, covered his face and beat him, accusing him of being a terrorist.

“They planted Molotov cocktails and petrol on me, and then took me to a detention centre,” he continued.

He was held in a prison in the interior of Venezuela for several weeks until he was transferred to Tocorón, a notorious high-security prison about 140km south-west of the capital, Caracas.

There he would go through what he describes as the worst experience of his life.

“When we arrived at Tocorón, they stripped us, beat us, and insulted us. We were forbidden to raise our heads and look at the guards; we had to lower our heads to the floor,” Juan recounts.

Juan was assigned a small cell measuring three metres by three metres, which he had to share with five other people.

There were six beds arranged in three bunk beds, and in one corner there was a septic tank and “a pipe that served as a shower”. That was the bathroom.

“In Tocorón I felt more like I was in a concentration camp than in a prison,” says the young man. He describes the beds as “concrete tombs” with a very thin mattress.

“They tortured us physically and psychologically. They wouldn’t let us sleep, they were always coming to ask us to get up and line up,” he explains.

“They would wake us up around 05:00 to line up behind the cell. The guards would ask us to show our passes and numbers.”

He adds that at around 06:00 they would turn on the water for six minutes so they could bathe.

“Six minutes for six people and just one shower, with very cold water. If you were the last one there and you didn’t have time to take off the soap, you were left covered in soap for the rest of the day,” he says.

Then, he adds, they waited for breakfast, which sometimes arrived at 06:00 and other times at 12:00.

Dinner was sometimes at 21:00, and sometimes at 02:00.

“Apart from waiting for meals, there was nothing else to do. We could only walk around inside the small cell and tell stories. We also talked about politics, but in low voices, because if the guards heard us, they would punish us.”

Juan says that many of his fellow inmates were depressed and acted like zombies.

“They gave us rotten food – meat scraps like you would give to chickens or dogs or sardines that had already expired.”

Some detainees were routinely beaten or made to “walk like frogs” with their hands on their ankles, he says.

He describes “punishment cells” where those considered the most rebellious would be sent, or those who dared to talk about politics or ask to make a phone call to relatives.

Juan says that he had been in one of the punishment cells in Tocorón, and that he had only received one meal every two days.

“It’s a very dark cell, one metre by one metre. I was very hungry. What kept me going was thinking about all the injustices that were happening and that one day I would get out of there,” he says.

Another torture cell is known as “Adolfo’s bed”, Juan says, named after the first person who died there.

“It’s a dark, oxygen-deprived room the size of a vault. They put you in there for a few minutes until you can’t breathe and you faint or start banging on the door in desperation. They put me in there and I lasted just over five minutes. I thought I was going to die,” he recalls.

The young man says that in this prison, inmates have 10 minutes to exercise outside three times a week, but many just stay in their cells.

Foro Penal’s Gonzalo Himiob describes the conditions in Tocorón as “deplorable” and says that detainees’ fundamental rights, such as having access to a lawyer of the detainee’s choosing, are being violated.

“They all have public defenders – the government knows that if it allows access to a private attorney who is not a public official, he or she can document all the due process violations that are occurring.”

In October, United Nations (UN) experts reported serious human rights violations committed in the run-up to the presidential election and during the protests that followed, including political persecution, excessive use of force, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions by state security forces and related civilian groups.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is currently investigating the Venezuelan government for possible crimes against humanity.

The Venezuelan government denies the accusations and says this investigation “responds to the intention of instrumentalising the mechanisms of international criminal justice for political purposes”.

The BBC requested an interview with the Public Prosecutor’s Office about the allegations of mistreatment and torture of detainees, but had not received a response by the time of publication.

Juan was released in November, but according to Foro Penal’s figures, there were still 1,794 political prisoners in Venezuela as of 30 December.

According to Juan, many of those detained in Tocorón have pinned their hopes on one date: that of the presidential inauguration on 10 January 2025.

It is the day that opposition candidate Edmundo González, who has been living in exile in Spain, has said that he will return to Venezuela and take up office as president.

He bases his claim to the presidency on official voting tallies the opposition managed to gather with help of election observers.

These tallies, which amount to 85% of the total, have been uploaded to a website and reviewed by independent observers who say that they suggest an overwhelming victory for González.

On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden met González and called him the “true winner” of the Venezuelan election.

However, it is not clear how González, for whom the authorities have issued an arrest warrant, plans to enter Venezuela or who would swear him in given that the National Assembly is dominated by Maduro loyalists.

Nevertheless, Juan says that the prisoners held in Tocorón are hoping against hope that Friday will see a change of government and their release from jail.

Meanwhile, the Maduro government has labelled any talk of a political transition as “a conspiracy” and has threatened that anyone who backs a change of leader “will pay for it”.

Juan admits feeling a certain sense of guilt for being free when hundreds of his “comrades are still suffering” in prison.

But he says he is determined to return to the streets to show his support for Edmundo González on 10 January.

“I no longer fear the Venezuelan government,” he explains.

“They already accused me of the worst crimes, such as terrorism, even though I’m just a young man who has done nothing more than love his country and help those around him.”

“I’m not afraid,” Juan repeats, before admitting that he has left some written testimony in a safe place “in case something happens to me”.

Out of the many mourning former President Jimmy Carter, not everyone can say he saved their life.

Rocky Sickmann was a 22-year-old US Marine stationed at the American embassy in Tehran, Iran, when he and 51 other Americans were taken hostage by Iranian revolutionaries on 4 November, 1979.

It defined his life – as well as much of Carter’s presidency.

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“For the first 30 days I’m sitting in this room handcuffed and blindfolded, thinking the Vietnam war had just ended, and nobody cared about these thousands of veterans coming home,” said the 67-year-old. “Who’s going to care about the Iran hostages?”

He said that at the time, he wasn’t even sure how much President Carter cared. It was a sentiment echoed by much of the American public. Many blamed Carter for his failure to bring the hostages home for over a year.

Political historians say part of the reason Carter lost to Ronald Reagan in a landslide – and served only one term as president – was because of his handling of the hostage crisis.

Minutes after Reagan was sworn in, the hostages were released, although the deal had been in the works during Carter’s presidency.

Mr Sickmann said that Carter deserves to be forever admired for his relentless attempt to bring them home.

“He was a good man who wanted diplomacy. I found out after how deeply involved he was. He knew my parents. He took care of them, he would meet them in DC.”

When Mr Sickmann finally got to meet Carter himself, he wasn’t exactly dressed for the occasion.

He laughs: “We met him in our pyjamas! How do you meet your commander-in-chief dressed like that!”

Rocky was flown out with the other hostages to Wiesbaden, Germany, a year after they had been taken hostage. The day after they got there, Carter greeted them personally.

“It was a very exciting day because he used to be in the Marines and he said to meet us was the happiest day of his life.”

The meeting was captured in a photograph, which Carter would send to Sickmann 10 months after he had been voted out of the White House. It was signed: ‘To my friend, Rocky Sickmann”.

But it was not the last time that Mr Sickmann saw him. Just 10 years ago, he ran into Carter at a baseball game in Georgia. He had an usher pass the former president a note.

“He reads it – all of a sudden he gets up and he stands up and he turns around. I stand up and we waved at each other.”

Like Carter, Mr Sickmann went on to focus on charitable work. He said he was inspired by the former president to set up Folds of Honor, which provides scholarships to families of Americaʼs fallen or disabled military and first responders.

“President Carter was a good Christian man, married to his wonderful wife, and continued his life of service. I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good as him but I hope to be able to do the same thing.”

The charity was set up to honor the 8 US service men who were killed trying to rescue the hostages. In 1980, the mission, dubbed Eagle Claw, failed disastrously after three helicopters malfunctioned. It was the last straw for Carter politically – although he won the Democratic nomination, he was wiped out in the election by Ronald Reagan that year.

But while the Iran hostage crisis would be a dark mark on Carter’s political legacy, Mr Sickmann said he owes his life to Jimmy Carter.

“Morning, noon, and night, for 444 days, I never prayed so hard in my life, hoping that God was on our side,” he said.

“But also President Carter kept us alive. He kept us in front of the world, making sure that people were praying for us (too).”

Elon Musk’s online attacks on former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown over grooming gangs draw on a baseless claim about a Home Office memo supposedly issued 17 years ago, research by BBC Verify has established.

A wave of social media posts – including some amplified by Mr Musk – allege that a 2008 Home Office document advised police not to intervene in child grooming cases because victims had “made an informed choice about their sexual behaviour”.

But BBC Verify has carried out extensive searches of Home Office circulars issued across that period and found no evidence that any document containing this advice exists.

Brown – who was prime minister in 2008 – has called the allegations “a complete fabrication” and the Home Office says there “has never been any truth” to them.

Social media posts referencing a memo and using either the phrase “informed choice” or a variation like “lifestyle choice” have circulated for several years with some gaining traction.

But that intensified dramatically since the start of the year, with posts repeating the claim generating tens of millions of views in the past week after Mr Musk amplified several of them on his social media platform, X.

In one post, which has received over 25 million views, Mr Musk alleged that “Gordon Brown sold those little girls for votes” while reposting another user, June Slater, using words that were apparently a variation of the memo claim.

The original unfounded claim about a Home Office circular to police seems to stem from an interview Nazir Afzal – the former Crown Prosecution Service chief prosecutor for north-west England – gave to the BBC on 19 October 2018. He now admits that he had not seen any such circular himself, despite apparently stating its existence as fact.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, he told presenter Carolyn Quinn at the time:

“You may not know this, but back in 2008 the Home Office sent a circular to all police forces in the country saying ‘as far as these young girls who are being exploited in their towns and cities we believe they have made an informed choice about their sexual behaviour and therefore it’s not for you police officers to get involved in”.

Although the programme is no longer available to listen to on the BBC’s website, a version has been uploaded to YouTube. BBC Verify has also accessed the programme through the BBC’s in-house archives to confirm the audio is genuine.

The first post referencing Mr Afzal’s claim appears to have been made one month after his interview, BBC Verify has found. But the first post to gain considerable traction was in July 2019.

Since then posts with versions of the claim have circulated occasionally on X and other platforms, with some posts from larger accounts in 2024 getting more attention, before intensifying massively in recent days.

Speaking to BBC Verify, Mr Afzal clarified his position admitting that he has never seen any circular with the form of words that he used in his 2018 interview.

Instead he now says he was referring to police officers who had told him some officers had misinterpreted instructions in a circular sent by the Home Office.

Mr Afzal pointed us to Home Office circular 017/2008 which is about the police’s powers under the 1989 Children’s Act.

However, the words “informed choice” do not appear anywhere in the text, nor is the circular about child grooming gangs.

It does contain, however, a section on how to judge significant harm to a child. “It is important always to take account of the child’s reactions, and his or her perceptions, according to the child’s age and understanding,” it reads.

It seems difficult to understand how any police officer could misconstrue this section in the way Mr Afzal described in his 2018 interview

He told BBC Verify he was “paraphrasing what I thought that meant to them”, when he gave his Radio 4 interview.

Asked how officers could have interpreted circular 17/2008 in this way, Mr Afzal said:

“You’re right, it doesn’t stack up. It doesn’t give an excuse or explanation, but I can’t give you any other circular.”

BBC Verify also asked Mr Afzal if he could put us in touch with any of the officers that may have misinterpreted the circular in way he described, but he was unable to do this.

Mr Afzal’s claim was not a one off. One year before his 2018 interview, Mr Afzal wrote an article for the International Business Times where he also stated the claim as fact:

“The term “child prostitute” was used extensively to describe them and it should be noted both that the Home Office in a circular to police in 2008 used that term and spoke of girls making an “informed choice” to engage in this behaviour. Parliament only finally removed the term from all laws a couple of years ago.”

Despite interest in the claim going back several years we have been unable to identify any individual who is able to provide evidence of any circular to this effect.

The purpose of the circulars – or memos – is to provide police forces with guidance, policy updates and administrative instructions.

The Home Office says all memos and circulars to police forces are published online in the National Archives. They are also kept in the library of the College of Policing website.

BBC Verify searched all the circulars for 2008 and could find no reference to “informed choice” or “child prostitute” or any phrase similar to the one cited in the social media posts.

Of the 32 circulars listed on the National Archives website for 2008, only one – 017/2008 – falls under the category “child abuse”. We have also searched circulars for 2007, 2009 and 2010 and found no references to “informed choice”. We also searched for other phrases in Mr Afzal’s original statements and variations from later social media posts – for example “get involved”, “sexual behaviour” and “lifestyle choice” – and found no occurrences.

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There have been several Freedom of Information requests regarding a supposed memo or circular with the “informed choice” phrase, but no police force has found any trace of such a communication.

We were able to find a circular from 2009 that links to a webpage that further links to a document on child sexual exploitation released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families that mentions the phrase “informed choice”. It is not an instruction to police and the context it appears in is emphasising situations where local agencies might need to report sexual activity in order to protect children “unable to make an informed choice”.

There were circulars in 2007 and 2010 that contained the phrase “child prostitute”. The first was in connection with some technical changes to offences like “controlling a child prostitute”. The second again dealt with technical changes but this circular on prostitution also said: “In short, any steps taken, whether relating to criminal proceedings or not, should be designed to protect the child from continuing sexual exploitation and abuse.”

The term “child prostitute” was taken out of the law in 2015 as it could imply that children could consent to abuse.

Circulars and memos are received by senior individuals in each police force, former Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary Simon Bailey told BBC Verify.

“They would’ve gone to crime registrars and the head of the crime and they would’ve cascaded the guidance,” he said.

If there was any doubt about how to interpret the guidance a force would have gone back to the Home Office to seek clarity, Mr Bailey added.

“And even going back 17 years, I cannot believe the Home Office would’ve sent out a circular of that nature.”

In a statement to BBC Verify, the Home Office said it had never instructed police not to go after grooming gangs:

“There has never been any truth in the existence of a Home Office circular telling police forces that grooming gangs should not be prosecuted, or that their victims were making a choice, and it is now clear that the specific circular which was being referred to does absolutely no such thing.”

Jacqui Smith – now Baroness Smith – was the Labour Home Secretary in 2008. She told BBC Verify: “It is categorically wrong that the Home Office or I instructed police forces not to prosecute grooming gangs or not to protect young girls.”

A spokesperson for Gordon Brown said: “There is no basis for such allegations at all. They are a complete fabrication. There is no foundation whatsoever for alleging that Mr Brown sent, approved or was in anyway involved with issuing a circular or statement to the police because it did not happen.”

BBC Verify has attempted to speak to those who repeated the claim on X and had their posts amplified by Mr Musk.

In one post, Mr Musk alleged that “Gordon Brown committed an unforgivable crime against the British people” and shared a video clip from campaigner Maggie Oliver appearing on GB News.

In the clip, Ms Oliver alleged: “Gordon Brown sent out a circular to all the police forces in the UK saying ‘do not prosecute these rape gangs, these children are making a lifestyle choice’.”

Ms Oliver said that she based her claim on what Mr Afzal said:

“My knowledge of this comes from what Nazir Afzal said publicly in 2018 in his BBC interview.”

BBC Verify also reached out to June Slater, whose post was also amplified by Mr Musk. She told us she had not seen the memo, but her claim was also based on what Mr Afzal and Ms Oliver had previously said:

“I thought he was a reliable source as is Maggie Oliver.”

Asked if he regretted the misinformation that had stemmed from his statements, Mr Afzal told BBC Verify:

“I regret that people have interpreted what I interpreted and that it’s sort of got lost in translation.”

BBC Verify also contacted the Police Federation, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the College of Policing about the alleged circular.

The NPCC referred us to the Home Office’s statement while the College of Policing said it was not aware of any circular.

While there is no evidence for the existence of the circular, the performance of the police and other institutions in protecting victims and investigating abuse has been heavily criticised during this period.

Prof Alexis Jay – who carried out the independent inquiry into child abuse – said some victims would never recover from their experiences.

“We heard time and time again how allegations of abuse were ignored, victims were blamed and institutions prioritised their reputations over the protection of children.”

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

A surge in cases of the flu-like human metapneumovirus (HMPV) in China has raised fears of another Covid-style pandemic.

Images of hospitals overrun with masked patients have circulated widely on social media, but health experts say HMPV is not like Covid, and point out it has been around for many years.

They say China and other countries are simply experiencing the seasonal increase in HMPV typically seen in winter.

First identified in the Netherlands in 2001, HMPV spreads through direct contact between people, or when someone touches a contaminated surface.

The virus leads to a mild upper respiratory tract infection for most people.

It is usually almost indistinguishable from flu.

Symptoms for most people include a cough, a fever and blocked nose.

The very young, including children under two, are most vulnerable to the virus.

It also poses a greater risk to those with weakened immune systems, including the elderly and those with advanced cancer, according to Hsu Li Yang, an infectious diseases specialist in Singapore.

If infected, a “small but significant proportion” of immunocompromised people can develop more severe disease where the lungs are affected, with wheezing, breathlessness and symptoms of croup.

“Many will require hospital care, with a smaller proportion at risk of dying from the infection,” Dr Hsu said.

Like many respiratory infections, HMPV is most active during late winter and spring.

This is because viruses survive better in the cold, and can pass more easily from one person to another as people spend more time indoors with closed windows.

In northern China, the current HMPV spike coincides with low temperatures that are expected to last until March.

Many other countries in the northern hemisphere – including the US – are also experiencing a growth in rates of HMPV, said Jacqueline Stephens, an epidemiologist at Flinders University in Australia.

“While this is concerning, the increased prevalence is likely the normal seasonal increase seen in winter,” she said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is monitoring rates of flu-like illness across the Northern hemisphere, and said it has not received any reports of unusual outbreak patterns in China or elsewhere.

It said Chinese authorities have confirmed that the health care system is not overwhelmed and there have been no emergency declarations or responses to date.

The incidence of HMPV in the UK has risen steadily since October 2024.

The UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) does not publish the number of cases recorded.

However its latest data shows the percentage of people testing positive for the disease rose sharply in the third week of December and remained at that higher level the following week.

But the UKHSA says this is completely in line with normal seasonal trends, and the level of the disease being seen in GP surgeries and hospitals is as expected.

Fears of a Covid-style pandemic are overblown, experts say, noting that such events are typically caused by new viruses, which is not the case with HMPV.

The disease is already globally present and has been around for decades. This means people across the world have “some degree of existing immunity due to previous exposure”, Dr Hsu said.

“Almost every child will have at least one infection with HMPV by their fifth birthday and we can expect to go onto to have multiple reinfections throughout life,” said Paul Hunter, a medical professor at University of East Anglia in England.

“I don’t think there are currently any signs of a more serious global issue.”

However, health officials recommend taking sensible precautions to avoid catching HMPV and other respiratory illnesses:

• wearing a mask in crowded places
• avoiding crowds where possible if you are at higher risk of more severe illness
• washing your hands regularly
• disposing of tissues securely

People may also wish to consider getting vaccinated against other respiratory conditions such as the flu.

In the UK, pregnant women and adults aged 75 to 79 are advised to get the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine.

RSV is a common infection that causes coughs and colds, but can sometimes be serious for babies and older adults.

For years, a controversial invader has been gradually taking over Australia’s beloved beaches.

Swallowing up the sand, blocking ocean views and turning the shore into an irksome maze, is a sea of large beach tents, called cabanas in Australia.

“It’s chockers [crowded]. They’re all over the place,” Sydneysider Claire, 30, told the BBC.

For her – and most Australians – cooling off on a sweltering day means a solid drive to the coast, plus an eternity trying to find a parking space. Now, the cabana craze means there’s another battle waiting for them on the beach.

Polyester covers flap in the breeze as far as the eye can see. Some are empty, set up at the crack of dawn and then abandoned for hours on end, until the owners actually want to use them.

“The sheer amount of space that people are taking up… [when] you’re just trying to find a free square inch of sand to lay your towel, it can just be a little bit frustrating,” Claire says.

She’s not alone in her irritation. Several summers of simmering tension has, in the first days of 2025, exploded into a full-on turf war, sparking debate about Australian culture and beach etiquette.

A row over the acceptable use of cabanas has dominated social media, spawned a wave of opinion pieces and television segments, and even dragged in the prime minister.

Self-described haters say entitled cabana crews are hogging public space and disrespecting other beachgoers.

“When you’re… polluting the beach with your four cabanas next to each other, where is Guncle [Gay Uncle] Nic going to go,” anti-cabana crusader and TikToker Nic Salerno said on TV talk show The Project.

“I just want my space on the beach, guys.”

But the pro-cabana mob say seeking protection from Australia’s vicious sun isn’t a crime – and it’s every man for himself.

Australia is the skin cancer capital of the world, and many supporters – including national charity, the Cancer Council – argue the new trend should actually be celebrated.

“My partner and I have a cool cabana because we both burn extremely easily and we don’t want to die of skin cancer by 30, hope this helps,” one person wrote, responding to a TikTok rant.

No one is discounting the importance of sun safety, the cabana critics counter, but they say that’s just a convenient excuse for many of the people using the beach tents.

Half the time they’re not even sitting under the shade covers, they claim, and there’s no need for two people to whip out an entire tent for an hour or two, when sun cream and a hat will do just fine.

Other cabana devotees are more forward about their motivations. Breakfast television presenter Davina Smith admitted that for her, it is about nabbing “the prime piece of real estate” on busy beaches.

She is one of the people who pitch their cabana castles in the early morning to reserve territory for her family later that day.

“There’s a lot of research that goes into this. You get up early, you’ve got to watch the tides. You can’t just plonk it there and walk away… you invest in it,” Smith argued on Nine’s Today programme.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among the hordes irked by the trend: “That’s not on,” he told the same show.

“One of the great things about Australia, unlike some parts of the world, you go and you got to pay to go to the beach. Here, everyone owns the beach… And that’s a breach of that principle, really.”

Even lifeguards have opinions on the matter, with some telling local media the cabana camps can make it hard for them to do their jobs.

There are a number of cultural quirks which mean Cabanagate has Australians more worked up than a magpie in spring.

Firstly, the country loves to think of itself as an egalitarian society – the land of a “fair go” – and that extends to the use of one of its most precious national assets.

“Australian beaches, they always have been seen as shared spaces, democratic spaces where social hierarchies dissolve…. [they’re] seen as a great equaliser,” says Ece Kaya, a researcher at the University of Technology Sydney.

And Australians are “fiercely” protective of that ideal: “They see it as a birthright,” says Chris Pepin-Neff, who studies Australian beach culture.

They point to the backlash in 1929 when beachgoers at Sydney’s Coogee Beach were forced to pay for access to the only part of the water covered by shark nets. More recently, a bid to rent out part of Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach to an exclusive beach club was met with a huge outcry.

And while the use of sprawling cabanas is a relatively new phenomenon, there’s long been “enormous class tension” around the use of the country’s coastline, Dr Pepin-Neff adds.

A lack of infrastructure, affordable housing and community attitudes tend to lock ordinary Australians out of waterfront areas, while those natural assets are often monopolised by those lucky enough to live there.

“And there’s a perception that it’s encroaching even further, [so] that an average family can’t even get a spot at the beach.”

But they say there’s no real data on who is using cabanas and why. They also argue there’s many good reasons people might use them. Maybe they’ve travelled a long way so they plan to stay at the beach longer, or they may have a disability or young children they need to cater for, he says.

“There is a balance between a free and open beach that everybody can use, and making sure that you’re respectful.”

They offer no defence for the “land bankers” though: “As a Sydneysider, I think that is abusing the privilege… that is not a fair go.”

As the debate intensifies though, there are some calls for a truce to restore the peace to Australian shores.

Beachkit Australia founder Rowan Clark, who sells equipment including cabanas, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper even he thinks cabana lovers should be more courteous.

“They should only allow set up at the rear of the beach in a line,” he said. “Once this is exhausted, then no more of this style of shade should be allowed.”

Others want authorities to rein it in, like some have in the United States. There are suggestions councils could limit how many cabanas can be set up on their beaches, and where.

But Sydney resident Claire, for all her wrath, worries that this could tip the scales in the other direction and exclude other people from using the beach.

“You don’t want to get too precious about it, obviously… it’s just the beach, first world problems right?

“I think in general, we should just try to be considerate of one another.”

Indian authorities say they have arrested a Canadian man at Delhi airport for carrying a crocodile skull in his luggage.

The 32-year-old man was at the airport on Monday to catch his flight to Canada when he was first stopped during security check.

“Upon examination, a skull with sharp teeth, resembling the jaw of a baby crocodile, weighing approximately 777g (1.71lb), was discovered wrapped in a cream-colored cloth,” Delhi customs said in a statement on Thursday.

The man was arrested and the skull was handed over to the Department of Forests and Wildlife, they said.

Officials said the possession of crocodile skull violated India’s wildlife protection law and its Customs Act.

An analysis of the skull by the Department of Forests and Wildlife found that it belonged to a species protected under India’s Wildlife Protection Act.

“The texture, tooth pattern, well-developed bony palate, and nostrils confirmed the item as the skull of a baby crocodile,” they said.

A forest official told the Times of India newspaper that the man had allegedly bought the skull from Thailand.

“The man did not possess the mandatory permission required to carry wildlife items,” forest officer Rajesh Tandon said.

The man also told officers he had not hunted or killed the crocodile, the Hindustan Times reports.

Further tests are being carried out to identify the exact sub-species of the animal.

Meanwhile, Delhi customs says a case has been registered against the man and an investigation is under way.

Last year, a 32-year-old Canadian woman was stopped at Delhi airport after she was found to have horns of an unidentified animal in her luggage. The woman told officials she had picked them up during a trek in the northern Ladakh region and decided to take them back as a souvenir.

The Chinese government has expanded a list of products that people can trade in to get a discount of as much as 20% on new goods as the country tries to boost its flagging economy.

The list now includes items like microwave ovens, dishwashers, rice cookers and water purifiers.

State-backed trade-in schemes already covered televisions, phones, tablets and smart watches as well as electric and hybrid vehicles.

The world’s second largest economy has been facing several challenges, including weak consumer demand and a deepening property crisis.

On Wednesday, officials said 81 billion yuan (£8.9bn; $11bn) had been earmarked this year for the consumer goods trade-in scheme.

China’s top economic planning body has said the schemes, which were launched in March, have already produced “visible effects”.

According to the country’s Ministry of Commerce, the policies have boosted sales of big ticket items such as home appliances and cars.

But some economists have questioned whether the schemes will be enough to significantly increase consumer demand.

China-based economist Dan Wang said “the measure is far from being enough to boost consumption.”

“While it has supported sales of some listed goods, such as cars and appliances, it hasn’t driven an overall uptick in spending,” said Harry Murphy Cruise, head of China economics at Moody’s Analytics.

In recent months, China has been pushing ahead with more measures to support its domestic economy as the country’s exporters face growing challenges.

In December, a key meeting of China’s leaders stressed the need for “vigorous” efforts to boost consumer spending.

That came as President-elect Donald Trump, who is due to return to the White House this month, threatened to impose a 60% tariff on Chinese-made products.

China is due to announce its 2024 economic growth figures next week, which Beijing has said it expects will be around 5%.

Supporters of Mozambique’s opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane have been injured as police tried to break up the crowds who had come to meet him after his return from self-imposed exile on Thursday.

He left the country saying he thought his life was in danger following October’s disputed presidential election that sparked deadly protests.

Mondlane landed at the main airport in the capital, Maputo, amid tension and heavy security, with thousands having gathered to welcome him.

His return came ahead of next week’s swearing-in of Daniel Chapo as president. He was the candidate of the ruling Frelimo party, and was confirmed as the winner of October’s poll by the constitutional court.

The final official results from declared by the country’s highest court just over a fortnight ago gave Chapo 65% of the vote and Mondlane, in second place, with 24%.

Frelimo has been in power for the past five decades since independence from Portugal.

• Children shot dead after joining pot-banging protests in Mozambique

After having emerged from the airport building, video shows Mondlane kneeling on the ground with a Bible in his hand being cheered by supporters.

The 50-year-old Pentecostal preacher began to pray and then said that he had won the election.

“I, Venancio Mondlane, president-elect by the Mozambican people… elected by the genuine will of the people – swear on my honour to serve the Mozambican homeland and its people,” he declared.

He said he was returning to be closer to the protest movement that has seen weeks of nationwide demonstrations in which dozens of people have been killed.

On Thursday, two people were shot and injured near one of the capital’s main roads following a brief rally held by Mondlane.

Witnesses said that as the police were trying to disperse the crowd shots were fired. The two injured were then taken to a nearby private clinic.

There are other unconfirmed reports of fatalities.

In his first comments Mondlane said that he was ready to talk about how to resolve the tension over the disputed poll, which he says was stolen from him.

“I’m here in the flesh to say that if you want to negotiate… I’m here,” he said.

He added that he had come back to speak out against “atrocities” which he said were being committed against his supporters and to defend himself against allegations of criminal responsibility.

He also said he would “continue fighting for this country and preventing the continuation of the current situation”.

Mondlane has been organising protests through broadcasts on Facebook, but over the weekend announced his impending return, saying they “don’t need to chase me anymore”.

In a defiant message he said: “If [the authorities] want they can kill me, but the fight will continue”.

Ahead of his landing, the airport was heavily guarded with police officers trying to prevent Mondlane’s supporters from reaching the area.

Mondlane said his return was “a unilateral decision” that did not result from any political agreement. He has previously said he would install himself as president on 15 January.

Since the October election, waves of protests have left more than 270 people including protesters, children and members of the security forces dead, according to rights groups.

The protests and the violent crack down by security forces have tested the country’s stability and there have been concerns that would worsen should anything happen to Mondlane.

• Why Africa’s governing parties are having a tough time in elections
• Fresh faces in Mozambique’s poll as independence-era leaders bow out
• The poet who caught the eye of Mozambique’s freedom fighters

A former police officer who led a grooming investigation in Oxford has said a similar type of sexual abuse is still happening, warning that the “guys we couldn’t catch are still out there”.

Simon Morton, former senior investigating officer for Thames Valley Police, told the BBC that perpetrators in the area are operating in plain sight and are “influencing and arranging others to do the same thing”.

He added that it is “obvious” grooming is “happening in every city around the country” – a claim supported by another police source.

His comments come as a Tory amendment to the government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which would have forced a national inquiry into grooming gangs, was voted down on Wednesday evening.

The government has already said it would adopt the recommendations made in 2022 by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), led by Professor Alexis Jay.

Mr Morton led Operation Bullfinch, then the biggest criminal investigation in Oxford’s history, which resulted in the convictions of 21 men for offences spanning the late 1990s to the late 2000s.

He said calls for a new public inquiry are “pointless” and would be a waste of money.

“We’ve done the public inquiry. Every single investigation has been thoroughly reinvestigated and checked. We’ve had seven years worth of Prof Jay and her team looking at child sex exploitation and made the recommendations.

“Let’s get it going. Don’t waste your money on more pointless inquiries,” he added.

That is a view echoed by a child sexual abuse survivor, who cannot be named, who said the focus in recent days has been misplaced with much of the debate surrounding whether there should be a public inquiry, rather than on what can be done to help victims.

“It’s naïve to think [grooming] is not still happening and the political debate is not focused on the problem but on trying to outdo one another,” she told the BBC.

“My life has been destroyed by this. People need to focus on us and how to stop this and not on scoring points.”

On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced those who cover up or fail to report child sexual abuse could face professional or criminal sanctions under a new offence to be introduced this year.

But Mr Morton said survivors of abuse often don’t trust anyone – including the police or social services.

He claimed perpetrators have been driven underground by the recent publicity about abuse but are still active.

Mr Morton said feelings of fear and shame often lead victims to cover up for their abuser by refusing to testify against them.

“When we did this investigation, we spoke to lots of girls and there were even more offenders or suspects,” he said.

“We weren’t able to turn some of the girls to talk to us and tell us their story. We took nine men to court, and we had only a small amount of victims come and give evidence. It was much bigger than that.”

In response to Mr Morton’s allegations, Thames Valley Police said that information uncovered during Operation Bullfinch, which was launched in 2011 to investigate allegations of historical sexual abuse, led to “24 convictions with sentences totalling over 250 years’ imprisonment”.

“There are now more police officers and detectives working in child abuse investigation and the management of sexual offenders and a new dedicated team monitor all investigations into missing people and identify patterns or underlying issues,” it said.

The force added that the exploitation of children “is and continues to be a priority”.

Reforms recommended after a serious case review were all adopted by Thames Valley Police, the statement added, and the way it deals with child sexual exploitation cases is “notably different” now compared to during the Operation Bullfinch period.

The force said “group-based offending” makes up “just over 5% of child sexual exploitation offences in the Thames Valley area”, which it said was in line with national rates.

A judge has thrown out a man’s attempt to sue a council to recover from a rubbish tip a Bitcoin hard drive that is now worth about £598m.

James Howells had argued that his former partner had mistakenly dumped the hard drive containing a Bitcoin wallet in 2013, and he wanted to access the site and recover the cryptocurrency.

But Newport council asked a High Court judge to strike out Mr Howells’ legal action to access the landfill or get £495m in compensation.

Judge Keyser KC said there were no “reasonable grounds” for bringing the claim and “no realistic prospect” of succeeding at a full trial.

During the hearing in December the court heard how Mr Howells had been an early adopter of Bitcoin and had successfully mined the cryptocurrency.

As the value of his missing digital wallet soared, Mr Howells organised a team of experts to attempt to locate, recover and access the hard drive.

He had repeatedly asked permission from the council for access to the site, and had offered it a share of the missing Bitcoin if it was successfully recovered.

Mr Howells successfully “mined” the Bitcoin in 2009 for almost nothing, and says he forgot about it altogether when he threw it out.

The value of the cryptocurrency rose by more than 80% in 2024.

But James Goudie KC, for the council, argued that existing laws meant the hard drive had become its property when it entered the landfill site. It also said that its environmental permits would forbid any attempt to excavate the site to search for the hard drive.

The offer to donate 10% of the Bitcoin to the local community was encouraging the council to “play fast and loose” by “signing up for a share of the action,” said Mr Goudie.

In a written judgement the judge said: “I also consider that the claim would have no realistic prospect of succeeding if it went to trial and that there is no other compelling reason why it should be disposed of at trial.”

The landfill holds more than 1.4m tonnes of waste, but Mr Howells said he had narrowed the hard drive’s location to an area consisting of 100,000 tonnes.

Mr Howells has speculated that, by next year, the Bitcoin on his hard drive could be worth £1bn.

He told BBC Wales outside the court hearing in Cardiff last December that he believed in his case and was willing to take it all the way to Supreme Court.

Bitcoin is often described as a cryptocurrency, a virtual currency or a digital currency and is a type of money that is completely virtual – there are no physical coins or notes.

You can use it to buy products and services, but not many shops accept Bitcoin and some countries, including China and Saudi Arabia, have banned it altogether.

One of India’s wealthiest temples has apologised after six people were killed and dozens more injured in a crush as they queued for tickets to a festival which attracts hundreds of thousands each year.

The incident took place on Wednesday night after thousands gathered in the temple town of Tirupati in southern Andhra Pradesh state.

Visuals showed a swell of people jostling while the tickets were being distributed at counters set up by temple authorities.

Officials in the state have said strict action will be taken against temple employees who are found responsible for the tragedy.

BR Naidu, chairman of the temple’s trust, said that the crush was caused by “overcrowding”.

“It is an unfortunate incident,” he told local media on Wednesday.

Bhanu Prakash Reddy, a board member of the trust, apologised for the incident.

“To distribute tokens, we opened 91 counters… it is unfortunate that the stampede happened,” he said. “This has never happened in the history of the temple. I sincerely seek an apology from the devotees.”

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has expressed his sorrow over the incident – he is due to visit the site later on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “pained” by the incident and assured those affected that the state government would offer them “all possible assistance”.

The Tirupati temple in Andhra Pradesh is one of Hinduism’s most sacred shrines. Dedicated to Hindu god Sri Venkateswara – popularly known as Balaji – the temple owns assets worth tens of billions of dollars and is one of the richest in India.

It attracts nearly 24 million devotees from India and abroad every year.

Its 10-day Vaikuntha Dwara Darshan is considered a highly auspicious event by devotees as they believe they can get a glimpse of the divine gates of heaven.

Hundreds of thousands attend the festival every year, with the temple saying it was prepared to receive 700,000 people this time.

On Wednesday, thousands gathered to receive tickets for the festival – which begins on 10 January – at more than 90 counters set up by the temple.

As the gates for the counters opened, people rushed towards the counters, leading to chaos, an eyewitness told the Times of India newspaper, adding that there were just four police personnel there.

Several reports say the police had a difficult time managing the crowd.

Authorities say those injured in the crush were rushed to a government-run hospital for treatment.

Accidents are routinely reported at religious events in India, as huge crowds gather in tight spaces with little adherence to safety measures.

Last year, more than 120 people were crushed to death at a religious event in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

The announcement of this year’s Oscar nominations has been delayed by two days because of the deadly wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area.

It had been scheduled for Friday 17 January, but the stars and films up for Academy Awards will now be revealed on 19 January.

The voting for the nearly 10,000 Academy members, which opened on 8 January, has also been extended by two days, until Tuesday 14 January.

Former Oscars host Billy Crystal is among the celebrities who have lost homes in this week’s blaze, as well as Paris Hilton, James Woods and Miles Teller.

In a letter sent to members on Wednesday, Academy CEO Bill Kramer said: “We want to offer our deepest condolences to those who have been impacted by the devastating fires across Southern California.

“So many of our members and industry colleagues live and work in the Los Angeles area, and we are thinking of you.”

• Follow live updates on the LA wildfires
• ‘Heartbroken’ celebrities lose homes in wildfires

The latest blaze broke out in the Hollywood Hills, close to Hollywood Boulevard and the Hollywood Walk of Fame, late on Wednesday afternoon.

The fires have caused havoc for LA residents, as well as the area’s film and TV industry since Tuesday.

Conan O’Brien is set to host the 2025 Oscars ceremony at the Dolby Theater on Hollywood Boulevard on 2 March.

Against that backdrop, the Critics Choice Awards, held in Santa Monica, has also been moved, from 12 January to 26 January.

Joey Berlin, chief executive of the Critics Choice Association, said: “This unfolding tragedy has already had a profound impact on our community.

“All our thoughts and prayers are with those battling the devastating fires and with all who have been affected.”

The Bafta Tea Party, a networking event hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, has been cancelled.

The event had been due to take place The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills on Saturday 11 January.

Elsewhere, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) nominations, will now not take place as planned on Thursday 9 January.

Hacks star Jean Smart has made a public request for TV networks and streamers to “seriously consider not televising” forthcoming awards shows, given the circumstances.

She asked broadcasters to donate “the revenue they would have garnered to victims of the fires and the firefighters” instead.

Thursday’s New York premiere of Cameron Diaz and Jamie Foxx’s comedy Back in Action has been cancelled as a show of solidarity.

“We recognise many in our industry and their loved ones are currently affected and our thoughts are with them at this time,” Netflix said in a statement on Wednesday.

Ben Affleck was seen helping his ex-wife and near neighbour Jennifer Garner and their children move home away from the fires; while another of his exes, Jennifer Lopez, saw the Tuesday premiere of her movie, Unstoppable, cancelled by Amazon MGM Studios.

Universal Studios scrapped the premiere of Wolf Man on the same day, while Paramount and Max did the same for Wednesday’s premieres of the Robbie William biopic Better Man and The Pitt, repsectively.

And comedian Margaret Cho wrote on Instagram that she had cancelled her weekend gigs in LA, urging everyone to “stay safe”.

The ongoing fires have caused a glut of TV productions to be halted, after FilmLA – which gives permits to shoots in Los Angeles – issued an alert advising that “personnel resources ordinarily available to support film production may not be available during the local state of emergency”.

The affected shows include season two of Fallout, plus Abbott Elementary and Grey’s Anatomy.

NBCUniversal said it had also suspended filming on TV shows Loot, Ted, Suits: LA, Happy’s Place and the Golden Globe-winning Hacks.

Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the CBS game show The Price Is Right and late-night series After Midnight are among the unscripted shows that have also paused production, with repeats being shown instead.

America’s Got Talent also said on Instagram that Sunday’s scheduled auditions had been postponed, noting how a new audition date will be announced soon.

“Your safety is our top priority,” it added.

Out-of-control wildfires are ripping across parts of Los Angeles, leading to at least five deaths, burning down hundreds of buildings, and prompting more than 130,000 people to flee their homes in America’s second-largest city.

Despite the efforts of firefighters, the biggest blazes remain totally uncontained – with weather conditions and the underlying impact of climate change expected to continue fanning the flames for days to come.

More than 137,000 people have been forced to leave their homes – many of them simply carrying whatever belongings they can.

Police say at least five people have died, and their bodies found near the Eaton fire – but their cause of death is not yet known.

Like the even larger Palisades fire, the Eaton fire remains totally uncontained.

Meanwhile, the Sunset fire that has been menacing the well-known Hollywood Hills area has started to shrink but is not yet contained. Evacuation orders for the Hollywood Hills West area have been lifted.

Nearly 2,000 structures are known to have been destroyed – including houses and schools, and businesses on the iconic Sunset Boulevard. A fire ecologist has told the BBC that “entire neighbourhoods… have been wiped out”.

Among the celebrities who have lost their homes are Leighton Meester and Adam Brody, who attended the Golden Globes just days ago, and Paris Hilton.

The insurance industry fears this could prove to be one of the costliest wildfire outbreaks in US history, with insured losses expected above $8bn (£6.5bn) due to the high value of properties in the paths of the blazes.

There is a glimmer of hope for firefighters, as the fire weather outlook for southern California has been downgraded from “extremely critical” to “critical”.

But BBC weather forecaster Sarah Keith-Lucas says there is no rain forecast in the area for at least the next week, meaning conditions remain ripe for fire.

Power has been cut to swathes of the city, and traffic jams have built up. Adding to the disruption, a number of schools and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have been forced to close.

A political row about the city’s preparedness has erupted after it emerged that some firefighters’ hoses have run dry – an issue seized upon by US President-elect Donald Trump.

• Follow live updates
• ‘Where do I go?’ Chaos as people flee flames
• In pictures: Dramatic scenes from west LA
• The celebrities who have lost their homes

There are at least five fires raging in the wider area, according to California fire officials early on Thursday:

• Palisades: The first fire to erupt on Tuesday and the biggest fire in the region, which could become the most destructive fire in state history. It has scorched a sizable part of land, covering more than 17,200 acres, including the upscale Pacific Palisades neighbourhood
• Eaton: It has struck the northern part of Los Angeles, blazing through cities such as Altadena. It’s the second biggest fire in the area, burning around 10,600 acres
• Hurst: Located just north of San Fernando, it began burning on Tuesday night and has grown to 855 acres, though firefighters have had some successlimited in containing it
• Lidia: It broke out on Wednesday afternoon in the mountainous Acton area north of Los Angeles and grew to cover almost 350 acres. Authorities say it has been 40% contained
• Sunset: It broke out Wednesday evening in Hollywood Hills, growing to about 20 acres in less than an hour. It covered around 43 acres but is now starting to shrink

The earlier Woodley and Olivas fires have now been contained, according to local fire authorities.

• In maps: Thousands of acres on fire
• Watch: Fires reach Hollywood, with fears for iconic sign

Officials have pointed to high winds and drought in the area, which has made vegetation very dry and easy to burn.

The probable impact of climate change has also been cited – although the exact circumstances remain unclear.

Some 95% of wildfires in the area are started by humans, according to David Acuna, a battalion chief at the Californian Fire Service, although officials are yet to state how they think the current fires started.

An important factor that has been cited in the spread of the blazes is the Santa Ana winds, which blow from inland towards the coast. With speeds of more than 60mph (97 km/h), these are believed to have fanned the flames.

• What are the Santa Ana winds?

Although strong winds and lack of rain are driving the blazes, experts say climate change is altering the background conditions and increasing the likelihood of such fires.

US government research is unequivocal in linking climate change to larger and more severe wildfires in the western United States.

“Climate change, including increased heat, extended drought, and a thirsty atmosphere, has been a key driver in increasing the risk and extent of wildfires in the western United States,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.

And following a very warm summer and lack of rain in recent months, California is particularly vulnerable.

Fire season in southern California is generally thought to stretch from May to October – but the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has pointed out earlier that blazes had become a perennial issue. “There’s no fire season,” he said. “It’s fire year.”

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Acuna said the Palisades Fire represented only the third occasion in the past 30 years that a major fire had broken out in January.

• How climate change is stoking the fires
• A simple guide to climate change

Have you been affected by the fires in California? Get in touch here.

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Wildfires are raging in several areas of Los Angeles, with high winds and extremely dry conditions fuelling their progress across thousands of acres of land.

Firefighters are so far unable to contain them, with one fire official telling the BBC on Thursday that they are still rapidly expanding.

The largest fire, in the Pacific Palisades area where many celebrities live, is the most destructive fire in the history of Los Angeles. More than 1,000 buildings have been destroyed.

It’s a rapidly changing situation – these maps and pictures chart how the fires have spread, where they are located and what they look like from space.

On Wednesday, a fire broke out in the Hollywood Hills area, overlooking Hollywood.

Many of the roads near the fire were blanketed with thick smoke and Hollywood Boulevard, home to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, was gridlocked with traffic as people tried to leave.

Five fires continue to grow in the Los Angeles area:

• Palisades fire: The largest active fire is burning between Santa Monica and Malibu. Burnt area: more than 17,000 acres. At least 30,000 people evacuated.

• Eaton fire: Second largest fire burning north of Pasadena. Burnt area: more than 10,000 acres. At least five deaths reported.

• Hurst fire: To the north east of the city. Burnt area: 850 acres.

• Lidia fire: Reported in the hills north of Los Angeles. Burnt area: 350 acres.

• Sunset fire: Reported in the historic Hollywood Hills area near many famous landmarks, including the Hollywood sign. Burnt area: 50 acres.

Two fires have been contained:

Woodley fire: Small fire reported in local parkland. Burnt area: 30 acres.

Olivas fire: Small fire first reported in Ventura county about 50 miles (80km) east of Los Angeles. Burnt area: 11 acres.

• Follow latest updates on the LA wildfires
• What’s the latest on the fires, and what caused them?
• Watch: Smoke billows as thousands evacuate in LA
• Timelapse shows rapid spread of Palisades wildfire
• Watch: Inside a neighbourhood totally lost in inferno
• Pacific Palisades: The celebrity LA area ravaged by wildfire

The map above shows how rapidly the Palisades fire spread, intensifying in a matter of hours. At just after 14:00 on Tuesday it covered 772 acres and within four hours it had approximately tripled in size.

It now covers more than 17,000 acres and thousands of people have been forced to evacuate the area, as more than 1,400 firefighters try to tackle the blaze.

To give an idea of the size of the Palisades fire, we have superimposed it on to maps of New York and London.

As you can see by 23:00 PST, 8 January, (07:00 GMT, 9 January), it was comparable in size with an area stretching from Clapham to Greenwich in the UK’s capital, or with large areas of lower Manhattan and Queens.

Another indication of the scale of the Palisades fire comes from Nasa’s Earth Observatory.

The images captured on Tuesday show a huge plume of smoke emanating from California and drifting out to sea.

The Palisades fire is not the only one to have a devastating effect on neighbourhoods of Los Angeles.

Theses images show the extent of the destruction caused by the Eaton fire in the neighbourhood of Altadena.

The Jewish Temple in Pasadena was destroyed by the Eaton fire. The Centre’s website says it has been in use since 1941 and has a congregation of more than 400 families.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Russia is closely monitoring the situation, after US President-elect Donald Trump refused to rule out military action to take Greenland from Denmark.

Peskov said the Arctic was in Russia’s “sphere of national and strategic interests and it is interested in peace and stability there”.

Trump’s remarks on Greenland – a largely autonomous Danish territory – have drawn a warning from European leaders.

EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas has stressed that “we have to respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Greenland”, and Germany’s Olaf Scholz has made clear that “borders must not be moved by force”.

Trump said earlier this week that the US needed both Greenland and the Panama Canal “for economic security”, and refused to rule out using either economic or military force in taking them over.

He also referred to the border with Canada as an “artificially drawn line”. Denmark and Canada are both close Nato allies of the US.

Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s claims were a matter for the US, Denmark and other nations, but Russia was watching the “rather dramatic” situation surrounding his remarks. “We are present in the Arctic zone, and we will continue to be present there,” he said.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken sought to dampen concern about the president-elect’s remarks during a visit to Paris: “The idea is… obviously not a good one, but maybe more important, it’s obviously one that’s not going to happen.”

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy also played down Trump’s comments, but he acknowledged the “intensity of his rhetoric and the unpredictability sometimes of what he said can be destabilising”.

About 56,000 people live in Greenland, and it is home to US as well as Danish military bases. It also has considerable untapped mineral and oil wealth.

Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede has been pushing for independence, although the territory’s economy relies heavily on Danish subsidies.

Both he and the Danish leader have emphasised that it is “not for sale” and that its future is in the hands of Greenlanders themselves.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said Copenhagen has a clear interest in ensuring that the US – “absolutely its closest ally” – plays a key role at a time of rising tensions in the North Atlantic, particularly involving Russia.

Facing a major foreign policy crisis, she has called a meeting of other political parties at her office on Thursday evening.

The European Commission said Trump’s threat to Greenland was “extremely theoretical” and “wildly hypothetical”, considering he was not yet in office.

However, it has confirmed that Greenland, as an overseas territory, does come under a mutual assistance clause requiring all EU states to come to its aid in case of attack.

The Kremlin ridiculed the European response, suggesting it was reacting “very timidly… almost in a whisper”.

Last week, Greenland’s leader said the territory should free itself from “the shackles of colonialism”, although he made no mention of the US.

A former Greenland foreign minister, Pele Broberg, who now heads the biggest opposition party, told the BBC that most Greenlanders he talked to believed the US was vital for their defence and safety.

“We are part of the North American continent, that’s why the defence of the US is in such a great place with regards to Greenland, because we create a buffer zone that doesn’t need to be militarised.”

He has called for a “free association agreement” with the US covering trade and defence which would give Greenland independence but hand the US responsibility for security.

Trump’s allies have reinforced his views on Greenland.

Keith Kellogg, chosen by Trump to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, said a lot of the president-elect’s remarks on Greenland made sense, “putting the United States in a position of global leadership”.

Republican congressman Mike Walz told Fox News that the issue was “not just about Greenland, this is about the Arctic”, because Russia was trying to take control of the polar region, with its mineral and natural resources.

“Denmark can be a great ally, but you can’t treat Greenland, which they have operational control over, as some kind of backwater – it’s in the Western hemisphere.”

The US is Denmark’s biggest export market and sales increased in the first 11 months of 2024 to 326bn kroner (£36bn; $45bn) – a 17.3% share of the country’s total exports.

Earlier this week, Trump said he would impose tariffs on Denmark if it rejected his offer to buy Greenland.

Paris Hilton, Billy Crystal and Adam Brody are among the celebrities who have lost homes in the deadly wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area.

More than 1,000 structures have been destroyed as six separate blazes burn in and around the city, which is dotted with film stars’ mansions.

Some of the worst devastation was in the scenic enclave of Pacific Palisades, where a wind-whipped inferno exploded from several hundred acres to more than 15,000 in size since Tuesday.

A swathe of the neighbourhood, which is a haven of hillside streets nestled against the Santa Monica Mountains and winding down to beaches along the Pacific Ocean, was reduced to ash.

• Follow live updates on the LA wildfires
• What’s the latest on the fires, and what caused them?
• Timelapse shows rapid spread of Palisades wildfire
• Oscar nominations postponed because of LA fires
• In maps: Thousands of acres on fire in LA
• What it’s like inside LA’s real life apocalypse movie

Actor James Woods, who starred in films including Nixon and Casino, broke down in tears on CNN as he described losing his Pacific Palisades property.

“One day you’re swimming in the pool and the next day it’s all gone,” he told the network.

He wiped away tears as he described how his wife’s eight-year-old niece offered them her piggybank to help rebuild their house.

Actor Crystal said in a statement that he and his wife Janice were “heartbroken” by the loss of their Pacific Palisades home where they had lived since 1979.

The When Harry Met Sally star said in a statement: “We raised our children and grandchildren here.

“Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away.

“We are heartbroken of course but with the love of our children and friends we will get through this.”

Hotel heiress Paris Hilton said she had lost her home in Malibu.

She wrote in an Instagram post: “Sitting with my family, watching the news, and seeing our home in Malibu burn to the ground on live TV is something no one should ever have to experience.

“This home is where we built so many precious memories… My heart and prayers are going out to every family affected by these fires.”

A home reportedly belonging to Brody, who stars in hit Netflix show Nobody Wants This, and Gossip Girl star wife Leighton Meester, was also destroyed.

The Hills stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, who are married, also lost their home in the blaze.

“I’m watching our house burn down on the security cameras,” Pratt posted.

Montag said: “So our house is on fire and we were able to get out in time, but I keep going over and over in my mind of the things I should’ve got, but we’re out safe and that is the most important thing, and Spencer is behind me.”

In a later post, she said while tearing up that she was “so sad our house has gone” and they had lost “everything we worked so hard for”.

Singer and This Is Us actress Mandy Moore posted a video of the scene of destruction as she evacuated. “Grateful for my family and pets getting out last night before it was too late (and endless gratitude to friends for taking us in and bringing us clothes and blankets).

“Honestly, I’m in shock and feeling numb for all so many have lost, including my family. My children’s school is gone.

“Our favourite restaurants, levelled. So many friends and loved ones have lost everything too. Our community is broken but we will be here to rebuild together.”

TV host Ricki Lake told followers she had lost her “dream home”, adding: “I grieve along with all of those suffering during this apocalyptic event.”

Actors Sir Anthony Hopkins, John Goodman, Anna Faris and Cary Elwes also reportedly lost their homes.

Miles Teller, best known for his role in Top Gun: Maverick, and his wife, Keleigh Sperry, reportedly lost their home in the Pacific Palisades.

Posting on Instagram, Sperry shared a picture of the fires and a broken heart emoji.

She urged people to leave bowls of water for animals left behind as they evacuate their homes.

Other stars forced to flee include Star Wars’ actor Mark Hamill and Schitt’s Creek actor Eugene Levy.

In a post on Instagram, Hamill called the blaze the “most horrific” since 1993, when 18,000 acres burned, destroying 323 homes in Malibu.

He said he had evacuated his Malibu house “so last-minute there [were] small fires on both sides of the road”.

Levy described to local media “black and intense” smoke over Temescal Canyon.

“I couldn’t see any flames but the smoke was very dark,” he told the Los Angeles Times.

Jamie Lee Curtis said her home was safe but the situation was “gnarly”.

“Obviously, there have been horrific fires in many places,” she said. “This is literally where I live. Everything the market, I shop in, the schools my kids go to. Friends – many, many, many friends – now have lost their homes.”

Actor Cameron Mathison also shared a clip of his house reduced to smouldering ruins. “We are safe. But this is what’s left of our beautiful home,” the General Hospital star wrote.

“Our home where our kids were raised and where they wanted to raise their own someday.”

Legendary songwriter Diane Warren, who composed classic hits including If I Could Turn Back Time and I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing, also lost her home.

She posted a picture of the beachfront near her house, saying that the property she’s had for close to three decades was gone.

Actor Steve Guttenberg, known for Police Academy, stayed to help firefighters by moving cars to clear a path for incoming fire trucks.

He urged fellow Pacific Palisades residents to leave the keys in their abandoned cars so they could be moved.

Meanwhile, the Palisades Charter High School – used in the 1976 horror classic Carrie – has been devastated.

The Oscar nominations have been postponed by two days because of the fires, and other star-studded events were also cancelled.

Film premieres for Unstoppable, Better Man and Wolfman have been called off, as has the Screen Actors Guild Awards live ceremony, while the Oscar nominations event was postponed.

Meanwhile, a new blaze broke out on Wednesday night, the Sunset fire, in the Hollywood Hills, near where the world-famous Hollywood sign nestles in the hillside.

Deadly wildfires have devastated parts of the city of Los Angeles and the wider county, destroying many homes and businesses, as well as schools and places of worship.

Here are some of the most striking images of places seen before and after the wildfires tore through them.

• Follow live: New wildfire sweeps through Hollywood Hills
• What’s the latest on the fires, and what caused them?
• In maps: Thousands of acres on fire in LA
• What role is climate change playing?

This affluent suburb is among those that have been the hardest hit, with many residents being unable to gather much or anything of value before they were had to flee.

Below are images showing the destruction some businesses have suffered.

The Palisades Charter High School is among landmarks in the Pacific Palisades area to have been damaged in the fires.

The well-known school counts celebrities including Will.i.am and Forest Whitaker among its alumni, and has been a filming location for Hollywood hits including Carrie, Teen Wolf and Freaky Friday.

Read more about what happened to the school here.

Houses that sit along parts of the major state highway have also been hit by the Palisades fire, including in the city of Malibu.

Satellite imagery below shows what the coastline looked like before and after the fires took hold.

The Eaton Fire has destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses in Altadena, which lies behind the mountains north of Los Angeles.

Below you can see the damage the fire caused to one home, as well as a wider look at the full extent of the damage the neighbourhood has suffered.

In nearby Pasadena, a Jewish temple was among the buildings lost to the Eaton Fire.

According to its website, the temple’s congregation has more than 100 years of history in the area.

Many black staff members at London’s world-famous Harrods department store would leave the shop floor before Mohamed Al Fayed toured the premises, former employees have told the BBC.

Staff would be given a warning before he appeared, says a former security guard, which was followed by a “beeline of certain people, certain races”, leaving the floor.

“The level of racism was very clear,” said “Henry” (not his real name).

A former member of the store’s HR team, Lisa, told the BBC Al Fayed would “pick on” people negatively and that those “hidden” would also include “overweight” people.

These accounts follow a BBC documentary and podcast broadcast in September which included claims from more than 20 women that Mohamed Al Fayed sexually assaulted or raped them.

Harrods responded to the latest claims about racism by referring us to a previous statement in which it said it was “utterly appalled” by the abuse allegations made against Al Fayed, adding that it was a “very different organisation to the one owned and controlled” by him.

In November, the Met Police said it had launched a new investigation after 90 alleged new victims had come forward.

Henry told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Clare McDonnell that before Al Fayed’s daily walks around the store, there was a five-minute warning announced on guards’ radios.

He said black people, and also other staff who didn’t fit a certain look, would then leave the shop floor, in a “robotic” movement.

“It seemed very much like the protocol that [they] would disappear,” he added.

He said the staff would leave the building via an underground tunnel, connecting the main store to an office across the road. Henry said they would then file back once Al Fayed had gone.

Another former staff member, who wishes to remain anonymous, also told the BBC that many black members of staff went to stock-rooms or “on tea breaks” when Al Fayed was visiting the shop floor. They also said that some women were sent to put on make-up.

Henry said the only staff who stayed on the shop floor were “young, thin, blonde”, although some non-white door guards also remained.

Since the BBC’s investigation was broadcast, we have heard scores of accounts of Al Fayed – who died in 2023 aged 94 – favouring women with these traits.

Lisa confirmed that security would “warn” staff members when Al Fayed was about to arrive – but “not the girls that he would like”.

Those who left the shop floor “were good at their jobs”, she said. “We didn’t want to keep losing staff.”

The BBC has been told that staff were frequently sacked.

Jon Brilliant, who worked in Al Fayed’s private office for 18 months, previously told the BBC that within Harrods there was surveillance, sackings and a culture designed to keep top managers from trusting or communicating with one another.

Henry agreed there was a culture of “paranoia, fear and bullying” while he worked as a security guard there.

During his initial training, he said he had been warned not to invest in a monthly travel pass because “you could be here today and you [could] be gone today”.

Another former member of Harrods HR staff, Anna, said when she worked for the men’s tailored suit division she was told not to employ anyone who was black, because “the customers wouldn’t like it”.

Once, she said, the best candidate was a Caribbean man, who was “head and shoulders above anyone else”.

“I just sat there thinking, ‘What a waste of my time and your time. I cannot employ you because of the colour of your skin.'”

Anna said she recorded that in his recruitment notes, and was reprimanded for doing so.

Lisa said on one occasion, Al Fayed “came right up to my face” and used a racist word to describe the type of people he didn’t want her to hire.

A number of employment tribunals, successfully brought by people claiming racial discrimination, took place during Al Fayed’s ownership of Harrods.

Henry said he didn’t witness any sexual assault when he worked at the store, but there was “hearsay” amongst staff.

“I had lots of people tell me things, I suspected a lot of things, I saw some things, but who am I going to tell?” he said. “You can suspect all you want, but without having some proof… it’s not evidence in court.”

Al Fayed was accused of racism by Vanity Fair in 1995, an allegation he vehemently denied. It sparked a libel lawsuit that the billionaire later agreed to drop, as long as further evidence the magazine had gathered in preparation for a trial was locked away.

Many years after leaving his post, Henry said he still feared reprisals from people in the former chairman’s security team.

“Just a few things I said to you could cost me my life – and if not my life, my livelihood,” he said.

Despite these fears, he said other members of Harrods security staff should come forward to the authorities.

“If they have daughters, they have granddaughters, they have a mother, they should tell [what they know]… but I can assure you those people would keep their mouths shut.”

The statement received from Harrods also said: “These were the actions of an individual who was intent on abusing his power wherever he operated and we condemn them in the strongest terms. We also acknowledge that during this time his victims were failed and for this we sincerely apologise.”

It added: “While we cannot undo the past, we have been determined to do the right thing as an organisation, driven by the values we hold today, while ensuring that such behaviour can never be repeated in the future.”

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At 20 years old, Pierre Poilievre already had a roadmap for Canada.

Canada’s Conservative Party leader – now 45 – laid out a low-tax, small government vision for the country in an essay contest on what he would do as prime minister.

“A dollar left in the hands of consumers and investors is more productive than a dollar spent by a politician,” he stated.

Poilievre is one step closer to making his vision a reality, and even gave a nod to the essay in a recent interview with conservative psychologist and commentator Jordan Peterson.

For months, Poilievre’s Conservatives have enjoyed a large lead over the struggling Liberals in national surveys, suggesting they would win a majority government if an election were held today.

Now Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced he’s standing down, and with an election likely to be called soon, Poilievre is promising a return to “common sense politics”.

For Canadians frustrated with a sluggish economy and a housing and affordability crisis, he is offering an alternative to what he has labelled as Trudeau’s “authoritarian socialism”.

A win would make him part of a wave of populist leaders on the right who have toppled incumbent governments in the west.

While it has invited comparisons to Donald Trump – and he has fans like Elon Musk and others in the US president-elect’s orbit – Poilievre’s story is very much a Canadian one.

Poilievre was born in Canada’s western province of Alberta to a 16-year-old mother who put him up for adoption. He was taken in by two school teachers, who raised him in suburban Calgary.

“I have always believed that it is voluntary generosity among family and community that are the greatest social safety net that we can ever have,” he told Maclean’s Magazine in 2022, reflecting on his early life.

“That’s kind of my starting point.”

As a teenager, Poilievre showed an early interest in politics, and canvassed for local conservatives.

Poilievre was studying international relations at the University of Calgary when he met Stockwell Day, who served as a cabinet minister under former Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

At the time, Day was seeking the leadership of the Canadian Alliance – a right-wing party with Alberta roots that became part of the modern-day Conservatives in a 2003 merger – and he tapped Poilievre to help with campus outreach.

“He impressed me from the start,” Day told the BBC in an interview. “He seemed to be a level-headed guy, but full of energy and able to catch people’s attention.”

Day’s leadership bid was successful, and he set out for Ottawa with Poilievre as his assistant. Some time after, Poilievre walked into his office on a cold winter night to ask his opinion about potentially running for office.

Poilievre went on to win a seat in Ottawa in 2004 at the age of 25, making him one of the youngest elected Conservatives at the time. He has held that seat since.

In Ottawa, Poilievre was given the nickname Skippy by peers and foes alike due to to his youthful enthusiasm and sharp tongue.

He built a reputation for being “highly combative and partisan”, said Randy Besco, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto.

Behind the closed doors of Conservative caucus meetings, Poilievre showed his diplomatic side, Day said.

“Pierre was always good at saying, ‘Okay, you know what? I hadn’t thought of that,’ or he would listen and say: ‘Have you thought of this?'” said Day.

Still, confrontational politics became a cornerstone of Poilievre’s public persona. After becoming Conservative leader in 2022, he would target Trudeau with biting remarks as a way to connect with disaffected voters.

It has landed him in trouble at times. In April, he was expelled from the House of Commons for calling the prime minister a “wacko”.

Poilievre told the Montreal Gazette in June that he is a fan of “straight talk”.

“I think when politesse is in conflict with the truth, I choose the truth,” he said. “I think we’ve been too polite for too long with our political class.”

His combative style has also been divisive, and he has been criticised for oversimplifying complex issues for political gain.

While Canadians have been open to the opposition leader’s message as a change from Trudeau’s brand of progressive politics, just over half of them hold an unfavourable opinion of him, according to the latest polls.

Poilievre has also had to shift his sights since Trudeau’s resignation announcement, to get ahead of the inevitable match-up between him and the next Liberal leader.

The Conservative leader has been described as a “soft” populist for his direct appeals to everyday Canadians and criticism of establishment elites, including corporate Canada.

He came out in support of those who protested vaccine mandates during the 2021 “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations that gridlocked Ottawa for weeks.

He has pledged to deliver “the biggest crackdown on crime in Canadian history”, promising to keep repeat offenders behind bars.

On social matters, Poilievre has rarely weighed in – something Prof Besco said is typical of senior Conservatives, who see these topics as “a losing issue”.

While Poilievre voted against legalising gay marriage in the early 2000s, he recently said it will remain legal “full stop” if he is elected.

The Conservatives also do not support legislation to regulate abortion, though they allow MPs to vote freely on the issue.

“I would lead a small government that minds its own business,” Poilievre said in June.

Amid a public debate in Canada in recent months on immigration, the party has said it would tie levels of newcomers to the number of new homes built, and focus on bringing in skilled workers.

Poilievre’s wife, Anaida, arrived in Canada as a child refugee from Caracas, Venezuela.

The Conservative leader has pushed for the integration of newcomers, saying Canada does not need to be a “hyphenated society”.

One of his major promises – to cut Trudeau’s national carbon pricing programme, arguing it is a financial burden for families – has raised questions over how his government would tackle pressing issues like climate change.

Canada also faces the threat of steep tariffs when Trump takes office later this month, with the US-Canada relationship expected to be a major challenge.

Poilievre has pushed back at Trump’s comments suggesting Canada become a 51st US state, vowing to “put Canada first”.

He has not stepped much into foreign policy otherwise, with his messaging focused instead on restoring “the Canadian dream”.

Above all, Poilievre says he wants to do away with “grandiosity” and “utopian wokesim” that he believes has defined the Trudeau era, in favour of the “the things that are grand and great about the common people”.

“I’ve been saying precisely the same thing this entire time,” he told Mr Peterson.

The pound has fallen to its lowest level in over a year, while UK borrowing costs hit their highest for 16 years.

Economists have warned that the rising costs could lead to further tax increases or spending cuts as the government tries to meet its self-imposed rule not to borrow to fund day-to-day spending.

In response to an urgent question in the Commons, Treasury minister Darren Jones said there was “no need for an emergency intervention” and markets “continue to function in an orderly way”.

But shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: “Higher debt and lower growth are understandably now causing real concerns among the public, among businesses and in the markets.”

Jones said: “It is normal for the price and yields of gilts to vary when there are wider movements in global financial markets, including in response to economic data,” adding that the government’s decision to only borrow for investment was “non-negotiable”.

But Stride said: “The government’s decision to let rip on borrowing means that their own tax rises will end up being swallowed up by the higher borrowing costs at no benefit to the British people.”

The pound fell by 0.9% to $1.226 against the dollar on Thursday, while borrowing costs jumped earlier in the day but calmed by mid-afternoon.

Sterling typically rises when borrowing costs increase but economists said wider concerns about the strength of the UK economy had driven it lower.

The government generally spends more than it raises in tax. To fill this gap it borrows money, but that has to be paid back – with interest.

One of the ways it can borrow money is by selling financial products called bonds.

Mohamed El-Erian, chief economic adviser at asset manager Allianz, told the BBC’s Today programme the rise in borrowing costs means the amount of interest the government pays on its debt goes up and “eats up more of the tax revenue, leaving less for other things”.

Mr El-Erian added that it can also slow down economic growth “which also undermines revenue”.

“So the chancellor, if this continues, will have to look at either increasing taxes or cutting spending even more – and that’s going to impact everyone,” he said.

The government has said it will not divulge anything on spending or taxes ahead of the official borrowing forecast from its independent forecaster due in March.

At the end of last year, revised figures showed the economy had zero growth between July and September.

It was the latest in a series of disappointing figures, including a rise in inflation in the year to November with prices rising at their fastest pace since March.

In December, the Bank of England said the economy was likely to have performed worse than expected in the last three months of 2024.

At the same time, it held interest rates at 4.75% citing “heightened uncertainty in the economy”.

Globally, there has been a rise in the cost of government borrowing in recent months sparked by investor concerns that US President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to impose new tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China would push up inflation.

The cost of government borrowing in the US has seen a similar rise to that of the UK.

“It may be a global sell-off, but it creates a singular headache for the UK chancellor looking to spend more on public services without raising taxes again or breaking her self-imposed fiscal rules,” said Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell.

Some may be wondering about the impact of higher gilt yields on the mortgage market, particularly after what happened after Liz Truss’s mini-Budget in September 2022.

Although yields are higher now than they were then, they have been creeping up slowly over a period of months, whereas in 2022 they shot up over a couple of days.

That speedy rise led to lenders quickly pulling deals while they tried to work out what interest rate to charge.

But the picture is too complex to make a direct comparison between Truss and Reeves, said Simon French, chief economist at Panmure Gordon.

“The major driver of yields going higher under Truss was UK policy. It was a combination of the mini-Budget, which was her fault, and the energy crisis, which wasn’t her fault. But the mini-Budget was the biggest factor.

“This time, there is global anxiety about the level of debt pushing yields up everywhere, not least the US, which is not Reeves’ fault. But there’s also a dim view on the growth impact from her Budget, which is slowing rather than accelerating the economy. That is her fault.”

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At least five different wildfires are still raging around north west Los Angeles, with the latest one engulfing the iconic Hollywood Hills.

Five people are confirmed dead, with more than 130,000 evacuated in what have become the most destructive wildfires in LA’s history.

California fire chief David Acuna said there was “zero progress” in containing the fires because of high winds and dry conditions.

Photographers have captured dramatic scenes across the city as firefighters continue to work to control the blazes, which first erupted on Tuesday.

Ashish Chauhan dreams of pursuing an MBA at an American university next year – a goal he describes as being “stamped in his brain”.

The 29-year-old finance professional from India (whose name has been changed on request) hopes to eventually work in the US, but says he now feels conflicted amid an immigration row sparked by President-elect Donald Trump’s supporters over a long-standing US visa programme.

The H-1B visa programme, which brings skilled foreign workers to the US, faces criticism for undercutting American workers but is praised for attracting global talent. The president-elect, once a critic, now supports the 34-year-old programme, while tech billionaire Elon Musk defends it as key to securing top engineering talent.

Indian nationals like Mr Chauhan dominate the programme, receiving 72% of H-1B visas, followed by 12% for Chinese citizens. The majority of H-1B visa holders worked in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, with 65% in computer-related jobs, in 2023. Their median annual salary was $118,000 (£94,000).

Concerns over H-1B visas tie into broader immigration debates.

A Pew Research report shows that US immigration rose by 1.6 million in 2023, the largest increase in more than 20 years. Immigrants now comprise over 14% of the population – the highest since 1910. Indians are the second-largest immigrant group – after Mexicans – in the US. Many Americans fear this surge in immigration could harm job prospects or hinder assimilation.

India has also surpassed China as the leading source of international students, with a record 331,602 Indian students in the US in 2023-2024, according to the latest Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange. Most rely on loans, and any visa freeze could potentially devastate family finances.

“My worry is that this [resistance to H-1B visas] could also spark animosity towards the Indians living there. But I can’t park my ambitions, put my life on hold and wait for the volatility to subside because it’s been like this for years now,” Mr Chauhan says.

Efforts to restrict the H-1B programme peaked under Trump’s first term, when he signed a 2017 order increasing application scrutiny and fraud detection. Rejection rates soared to 24% in 2018, compared to 5-8% under President Barack Obama and 2-4% under President Joe Biden. The total number of approved H-1B applicants under Biden remained similar to Trump’s first term.

“The first Trump administration tightened H-1B visas by increasing denial rates and slowing processing times, making it harder for people to get visas in time. It is unclear whether that will happen again in the second Trump administration,” Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration scholar at Cornell Law School, told the BBC.

“Some people like Elon Musk want to preserve the H-1B visas, while other officials in the new administration want to restrict all immigration, including H-1Bs. It is too early to tell which side will prevail.”

Indians have a long relationship with the H-1B visa. The programme is also the reason for the “rise of Indian-Americans into the highest educated and highest earning group, immigrant or native in the US”, say the authors of The Other One Percent, a study on Indians in America.

US-based researchers Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur and Nirvikar Singh noted that new Indian immigrants spoke different languages and lived in different areas than earlier arrivals. Hindi, Tamil and Telugu speakers grew in number, and Indian-American communities shifted from New York and Michigan to larger clusters in California and New Jersey. The skilled visa programme helped create a “new map of Indian-Americans”.

The biggest draw of H-1B visas is the opportunity to earn significantly higher salaries, according to Mr Chauhan. The US offers higher pay, and for someone who is the first in their family to achieve professional qualifications, earning that much can be life-changing. “The fascination with H-1Bs is directly tied to the wage gap between India and the US for the same engineering roles,” he says.

But not everybody is happy with the programme. For many, the H-1B programme is an aspirational pathway for permanent residency or a US green card. While H-1B itself is a temporary work visa, it allows visa holders to live and work in the US for up to six years. During this time, many H-1B holders apply for a green card through employment-based immigration categories, typically sponsored by their employers. This takes time.

More than a million Indians, including dependents, are currently waiting in employment-based green card categories. “Getting a green card means signing up for an endless wait for 20-30 years,” says Atal Agarwal, who runs a firm in India that uses AI to help find visa options globally for education and jobs.

Mr Agarwal moved to the US after graduating in 2017 and worked at a software company for a few years. He says getting the H-1B visa was fairly straightforward, but then it seemed he had “reached a dead end”. He returned to India.

“It’s an unstable situation. Your employer has to sponsor you and since the pathway to a green card is so long, you are basically tied to them. If you lose your job, you only get 60 days to find a new one. Every person who is going on merit to the US should have a pathway to a green card within three to five years.”

This could be one reason that the visa programme has got tied up with immigration. “H-1B is a high-skilled, worker mobility visa. It is not an immigration visa. But it gets clubbed with immigration and illegal immigration and becomes a sensitive issue,” Shivendra Singh, vice president of global trade development at Nasscom, the Indian technology industry trade group, told the BBC.

Many in the US believe the H-1B visa programme is flawed. They cite widespread fraud and abuse, especially by major Indian IT firms which are top recipients of these visas. In October, a US court found Cognizant guilty of discriminating against over 2,000 non-Indian employees between 2013 and 2022, though the company plans to appeal. Last week, Farah Stockman of The New York Times wrote that “for more than a decade, Americans working in the tech industry have been systematically laid off and replaced by cheaper H-1B visa holders”.

Mr. Singh of Nasscom argues that H-1B visa workers are not underpaid, as employers must pay them above the prevailing or actual wage of comparable US workers in the area. Companies also invest tens of thousands of dollars in legal and government fees for these costly visas.

Also, it has not been a one-way traffic: Indian tech giants have hired and supported nearly 600,000 American workers and spent over a billion dollars on upskilling nearly three million students across 130 US colleges, according to Mr Singh. The Indian tech industry has prioritised US worker hiring and they bring employees on H-1B visas only when they are unable to find locals with the skills they need, he said.

India is working to ensure the H-1B visa programme remains secure as Trump prepares to take office later this month. “Our countries share a strong and growing economic and technological partnership, and the mobility of skilled professionals is a vital component of this relationship,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told journalists last week.

So what should students aspiring for jobs in the US do? “Any immigration changes in the US will take time to implement. Students should pick the best college for them, wherever that may be. With good immigration counsel, they will be able to figure out what to do,” says Mr Yale-Loehr.

For now, despite the political turbulence in the US, Indian interest in H-1B visas remains steadfast, with students resolute in pursuing the American dream.