The death of a teenage boy sparked violent protests in a city in north-west China, the BBC has confirmed through verified video.

In the videos shared on social media, protesters can be seen hurling objects at police and officers beating some demonstrators in Pucheng in Shaanxi province.

Authorities said the teenager fell to his death on 2 January in an accident at his school dormitory. But following his death allegations began spreading on social media that there had been a cover-up.

Protests erupted soon after and lasted a few days, before they were apparently quelled earlier this week. The BBC has seen no further evidence of protest in Pucheng since then.

Public demonstrations are not uncommon in China, but authorities have been particularly sensitive about them since the 2022 White Paper protests against Covid policies, which saw rare criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping.

State media has been silent on the protests in Pucheng. Any clips or mention of the demonstrations have been largely censored from Chinese social media, as is usually the case for incidents deemed sensitive by authorities.

But several videos have been leaked out of China and posted on X.

The BBC has confirmed these videos were filmed at the Pucheng Vocational Education Centre, and found no earlier versions online prior to the reported outbreak of the protests over the past few days.

When contacted by the BBC, a representative from the publicity department of the Pucheng government denied there had been protests. There was no answer when we rang an official handling media queries.

In a statement released earlier this week, local authorities said that the teenager surnamed Dang was a third-year student at the education centre in Pucheng.

Prior to his death, Dang had been woken up in the night by other students chatting in his dormitory, their statement said. He got into an argument and altercation with a boy, which was resolved by a school official.

Later that night, his body was found by another student at the foot of the dormitory block.

The statement described it as “an accident where a student fell from a height at school”. It added that the police had conducted investigations and an autopsy, and “at present exclude it as a criminal case”.

But allegations have swirled online for days that there was more to the story and that the school and authorities were hiding the truth. One account claimed, without proof, that Dang killed himself after he was bullied by the boy he’d fought with earlier.

Unverified remarks from his family have been circulating, alleging that the injuries on Dang’s body were inconsistent with the authorities’ version of events and that they were not allowed to examine his body for long.

The allegations appeared to have incensed many in Pucheng, sparking protests that drew at least hundreds of people.

Bullying has become a highly sensitive topic in China in recent years, with past cases of student deaths triggering protests. Last month, a Chinese court handed out lengthy jail sentences to two teenagers who murdered a classmate.

There are also videos posted on X on Monday, which the BBC has confirmed were filmed at the Pucheng Vocational Education Centre, showing people mourning the teenager’s death. They placed flowers and offerings at the entrance of the school, and conducted a traditional mourning ritual by throwing pieces of paper from the rooftop of a school building.

Other videos circulating online appear to show demonstrators, many of them young, storming a building and clashing with police while shouting “give us the truth”.

One verified clip shows a school official confronted by shouting protesters who shove him around. Others show destroyed offices in the compound, and protesters pushing down a barricade at the school entrance.

Other clips show protesters hurling objects such as traffic cones at groups of retreating police; and officers tackling and detaining people while beating them with batons. Some protesters are seen with blood on their heads and faces.

There is little information on what happened next, but reports on social media suggest a much larger police presence in Pucheng in recent days with no more reports of demonstrations.

Authorities have also urged the public not to “create rumours, believe in rumours, or spread rumours”.

A hardline Sri Lankan monk who is a close ally of ousted former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has been sentenced to nine months in prison for insulting Islam and inciting religious hatred.

Galagodaatte Gnanasara was convicted on Thursday for the remarks, which date back to 2016.

Sri Lanka rarely convicts Buddhist monks, but this marks the second time that Gnanasara, who has repeatedly been accused of hate crimes and anti-Muslim violence, has been jailed.

The sentence, handed down by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court, comes after a presidential pardon he received in 2019 for a six-year sentence related to intimidation and contempt of court.

Gnanasara was arrested in December for remarks he made during a 2016 media conference, where he made several derogatory remarks against Islam.

On Thursday, the court said that all citizens, regardless of religion, are entitled to the freedom of belief under the Constitution.

He was also given a fine of 1,500 Sri Lankan rupees ($5; £4). Failure to pay the fine would result in an additional month of imprisonment, the court’s ruling added.

Gnanasara has filed an appeal against the sentence. The court rejected a request from his lawyers to free him on bail until a final judgment was made on the appeal.

He was a trusted ally of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced to resign and flee abroad following mass protests over the island nation’s economic crisis in 2022.

During Rajapaksa’s presidency, Gnanasara, who also leads a Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist group, was appointed head of a presidential task force on legal reforms aimed at protecting religious harmony.

After Rajapaksa’s ouster, Gnanasara was jailed last year for a similar charge related to hate speech against the country’s Muslim minority but was granted bail while appealing his four-year sentence.

In 2018, he was sentenced to six years for contempt of court and intimidating the wife of a political cartoonist who is widely believed to have been disappeared. However, he only served nine months of that sentence because he received a pardon by Maithripala Sirisena who was the country’s president at the time.

The US has announced an increased $25m (£20.4m) reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on the day he was sworn in for a third six-year term in office.

The inauguration ceremony was overshadowed by recrimination from the international community and Venezuelan opposition leaders.

Rewards have also been offered for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

A new reward of up to $15 million for Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino has also been offered.

A woman in Australia has annulled her marriage after realising that a fake wedding ceremony she took part in for a social media stunt was in fact real.

The unknowing bride said her partner was a social media influencer who convinced her to take part in the ceremony as a “prank” for his Instagram account.

She only discovered the marriage was genuine when he tried to use it to gain permanent residency in Australia.

A Melbourne judge granted the annulment after accepting the woman was tricked into getting married, in a judgment published on Thursday.

The bizarre case began in September 2023 when the woman met her partner on an online dating platform. They began seeing each other regularly in Melbourne, where they lived at the time.

In December that year, the man proposed to the woman and she accepted.

Two days later, the woman attended an event with the man in Sydney. She was told it would be a “white party” – where attendees would wear white-coloured clothing – and was told to pack a white dress.

But when they arrived she was “shocked” and “furious” to find no other guests present except for her partner, a photographer, the photographer’s friend and a celebrant, according to her deposition quoted in court documents.

“So when I got there, and I didn’t see anybody in white, I asked him, ‘What’s happening?’. And he pulled me aside, and he told me that he’s organising a prank wedding for his social media, to be precise, Instagram, because he wants to boost his content, and wants to start monetising his Instagram page,” she said.

She said she had accepted his explanation as “he was a social media person” who had more than 17,000 followers on Instagram. She also believed that a civil marriage would be valid only if it were held in a court.

Still, she remained concerned. The woman rang a friend and voiced her worries, but the friend “laughed it off” and said it would be fine because, if it were real, they would have had to file a notice of intended marriage first, which they had not.

Reassured, the woman went through the ceremony where she and her partner exchanged wedding vows and kissed in front of a camera. She said she was happy at that time to “play along” to “make it look real”.

Two months later, her partner asked her to add him as a dependent in her application for permanent residency in Australia. Both of them are foreigners.

When she told him she could not as they were technically not married, he then revealed that their Sydney wedding ceremony had been genuine, according to the woman’s testimony.

The woman later found their marriage certificate, and discovered a notice of intended marriage which had been filed the month before their Sydney trip – before they even got engaged – which she said she did not sign. According to the court documents, the signature on the notice bears little resemblance to the woman’s.

“I’m furious with the fact that I didn’t know that that was a real marriage, and the fact that he also lied from the beginning, and the fact that he also wanted me to add him in my application,” she said.

In his deposition, the man claimed they had “both agreed to these circumstances” and that following his proposal the woman had agreed to marry him at an “intimate ceremony” in Sydney.

The judge ruled that the woman was “mistaken about the nature of the ceremony performed” and “did not provide real consent to her participation” in the marriage.

“She believed she was acting. She called the event ‘a prank’. It made perfect sense for her to adopt the persona of a bride in all things at the impugned ceremony so as to enhance the credibility of the video depicting a legally valid marriage,” he stated in the judgement.

The marriage was annulled in October 2024.

Copenhagen’s gloomy January weather matches the mood among Denmark’s politicians and business leaders.

“We take this situation very, very seriously,” said Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Donald Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland – and punish Denmark with high tariffs if it stands in the way.

But, he added, the government had “no ambition whatsoever to escalate some war of words.”

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen downplayed Trump’s own suggestion that the US might use military force to seize Greenland. “I don’t have the fantasy to imagine that it’ll ever get to that,” she told Danish TV.

And Lars Sandahl Sorensen, CEO of Danish Industry, also said there was “every reason to stay calm… no-one has any interest in a trade war.”

But behind the scenes, hastily organised high-level meetings have been taking place in Copenhagen all week, a reflection of the shock caused by Trump’s remarks.

Greenland PM Mute Egede flew in to meet both the prime minister and King Frederik X on Wednesday.

And on Thursday night, party leaders from across the political spectrum gathered for an extraordinary meeting on the crisis with Mette Frederiksen in Denmark’s parliament.

Faced with what many in Denmark are calling Trump’s “provocation,” Frederiksen has broadly attempted to strike a conciliatory tone, repeatedly referring to the US as “Denmark’s closest partner”.

It was “only natural” that the US was preoccupied by the Arctic and Greenland, she added.

Yet she also said that any decision on Greenland’s future should be up to its people alone: “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders… and it’s the Greenlanders themselves who have to define their future.”

Her cautious approach is twofold.

On the one hand, Frederiksen is keen to avoid escalating the situation. She’s been burned before, in 2019, when Trump cancelled a trip to Denmark after she said his proposal to buy Greenland was “absurd”.

“Back then he only had one more year in office, then things went back to normal,” veteran political journalist Erik Holstein told the BBC . “But maybe this is the new normal.”

But Frederiksen’s comments also speak to the Danish resolve not to meddle in the internal affairs of Greenland – an autonomous territory with its own parliament and whose population is increasingly leaning towards independence.

“She should’ve been much clearer in rejecting the idea,” said opposition MP Rasmus Jarlov.

“This level of disrespect from the coming US president towards very, very loyal allies and friends is record-setting,” he told the BBC, although he admitted Trump’s forcefulness had “surprised everybody.”

The conservative MP believed Frederiksen’s insistence that “only Greenland… can decide and define Greenland’s future” placed too much pressure on the island’s inhabitants. “It would’ve been prudent and clever to stand behind Greenland and just clearly state that Denmark doesn’t want [a US takeover].”

The Greenland question is a delicate one for Denmark, whose prime minister officially apologised only recently for spearheading a 1950s social experiment which saw Inuit children removed from their families to be re-educated as “model Danes”.

Last week, Greenland’s leader said the territory should free itself from “the shackles of colonialism.”

By doing so he tapped into growing nationalist sentiment, fuelled by interest among Greenland’s younger generations in the indigenous culture and history of the Inuit.

Most commentators now expect a successful independence referendum in the near future. While for many it would be seen as a victory, it could also usher in a new set of problems, as 60% of Greenland’s economy is dependent on Denmark.

An independent Greenland “would need to make choices,” said Karsten Honge. The Green Left MP now fears his preferred option of a new Commonwealth-style pact “based on equality and democracy” is unlikely to come about.

Sitting in his parliamentary office decorated with poems and drawings depicting scenes of Inuit life, Honge said Greenland would need to decide “how much it values independence”. It could sever ties with Denmark and turn to the US, Honge said, “but if you treasure independence then that doesn’t make sense.”

Opposition MP Jarlov argues that while there is no point in forcing Greenland to be part of Denmark, “it is very close to being an independent country already”.

Its capital Nuuk is self-governed, but relies on Copenhagen for management of currency, foreign relations and defence – as well as substantial subsidies.

“Greenland today has more independence than Denmark has from the EU,” Jarlov added. “So I hope they think things through.”

As Mette Frederiksen has the awkward task of responding firmly while not offending Greenland or the US, the staunchest rebuttal to Trump’s comments so far has come from outside Denmark.

The principle of the inviolability of borders “applies to every country… no matter whether it’s a very small one or a very powerful one,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the EU would not let other nations “attack its sovereign borders”.

Their comments gave away the deep concern within the EU about how to handle the upcoming Trump presidency. “This is not just very serious for Greenland and Denmark – it is serious to the whole world and to Europe as a whole,” MP Karsten Honge said.

“Imagine a world – which we may be facing in just a few weeks – where international agreements don’t exist. That would shake everything up, and Denmark would just be a small part of it.”

The Danish trade sector has similarly been engulfed by deep nervousness after Trump said he would “tariff Denmark at a very high level” if it refused to give up Greenland to the US.

A 2024 Danish Industry study showed that Denmark’s GDP would fall by three points if the US imposed 10% tariffs on imports from the EU to the US as part of a global trade war.

Singling out Danish products from the influx of EU goods would be near-impossible for the US, and would almost certainly result in retaliatory measures from the EU. But trade industry professionals are taking few chances, and in Denmark as elsewhere on the continent huge amounts of resources are being spent internally to plan for potential outcomes of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

As his inauguration approaches, Danes are preparing as they can to weather the storm. There is guarded hope that the president-elect could soon shift his focus to grievances towards other EU partners, and that the Greenland question could be temporarily shelved.

But the disquiet brought on by Trump’s refusal to rule out military intervention to seize Greenland remains.

Karsten Honge said Denmark would have to suffer whatever decision the US takes.

“They just need to send a small battleship to travel down the Greenland coast and send a polite letter to Denmark,” he said, only partly in jest.

“The last sentence would be: well, Denmark, what you gonna do about it?

“That’s the new reality with regards to Trump.”

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of US politics in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

The planet has moved a major step closer to warming more than 1.5C, new data shows, despite world leaders vowing a decade ago they would try to avoid this.

The European Copernicus climate service, one of the main global data providers, said on Friday that 2024 was the first calendar year to pass the symbolic threshold, as well as the world’s hottest on record.

This does not mean the international 1.5C target has been broken, because that refers to a long-term average over decades, but does bring us nearer to doing so as fossil fuel emissions continue to heat the atmosphere.

Last week UN chief António Guterres described the recent run of temperature records as “climate breakdown”.

“We must exit this road to ruin – and we have no time to lose,” he said in his New Year message, calling for countries to slash emissions of planet-warming gases in 2025.

Global average temperatures for 2024 were around 1.6C above those of the pre-industrial period – the time before humans started burning large amounts of fossil fuels – according to Copernicus data.

This breaks the record set in 2023 by just over 0.1C, and means the last 10 years are now the 10 warmest years on record.

The Met Office, Nasa and other climate groups are due to release their own data later on Friday. All are expected to agree that 2024 was the warmest on record, although precise figures vary slightly.

Last year’s heat is predominantly due to humanity’s emissions of planet-warming gases, such as carbon dioxide, which are still at record highs.

Natural weather patterns such as El Niño – where surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become unusually warm – played a smaller role.

“By far and away the largest contribution impacting our climate is greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of Copernicus, tells the BBC.

The 1.5C figure has become a powerful symbol in international climate negotiations ever since it was agreed in Paris in 2015, with many of the most vulnerable countries considering it a matter of survival.

The risks from climate change, such as intense heatwaves, rising sea-levels and loss of wildlife, would be much higher at 2C of warming than at 1.5C, according to a landmark UN report from 2018.

Yet the world has been moving closer and closer to breaching the 1.5C barrier.

“When exactly we will cross the long-term 1.5C threshold is hard to predict, but we’re obviously very close now,” says Myles Allen of the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford, and an author of the UN report.

The current trajectory would likely see the world pass 1.5C of long-term warming by the early 2030s. This would be politically significant, but it wouldn’t mean game over for climate action.

“It’s not like 1.49C is fine, and 1.51C is the apocalypse – every tenth of a degree matters and climate impacts get progressively worse the more warming we have,” explains Zeke Hausfather, a climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, a research group in the US.

Even fractions of a degree of global warming can bring more frequent and intense extreme weather, such as heatwaves and heavy rainfall.

In 2024, the world saw blistering temperatures in west Africa, prolonged drought in parts of South America, intense rainfall in central Europe and some particularly strong tropical storms hitting north America and south Asia.

These events were just some of those made more intense by climate change over the last year, according to the World Weather Attribution group.

Even this week, as the new figures are released, Los Angeles has been overwhelmed with destructive wildfires fuelled by high winds and a lack of rain.

While there are many contributing factors to this week’s events, experts say conditions conducive to fires in California are becoming more likely in a warming world.

It wasn’t only air temperatures that set new marks in 2024. The world’s sea surface also reached a new daily high, while the total amount of moisture in the atmosphere reached record levels.

That the world is breaking new records is not a surprise: 2024 was always expected to be hot, because of the effect of the El Niño weather pattern – which ended around April last year – on top of human-caused warming.

But the margin of several records in recent years has been less expected, with some scientists fearing it could represent an acceleration of warming.

“I think it’s safe to say that both 2023 and 2024 temperatures surprised most climate scientists – we didn’t think we’d be seeing a year above 1.5C this early,” says Dr Hausfather.

“Since 2023 we’ve had around 0.2C of extra warming that we can’t fully explain, on top of what we had expected from climate change and El Niño,” agrees Helge Gößling, a climate physicist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.

Various theories have been suggested to explain this ‘extra’ warmth, such as an apparent reduction in the low-level cloud cover that tends to cool the planet, and prolonged ocean heat following the end of El Niño.

“The question is whether this acceleration is something persistent linked to human activities that means we will have steeper warming in the future, or whether it is a part of natural variability,” Dr Gößling adds.

“At the moment it’s very hard to say.”

Despite this uncertainty, scientists stress that humans still have control over the future climate, and sharp reductions in emissions can lessen the consequences of warming.

“Even if 1.5 degrees is out the window, we still can probably limit warming to 1.6C, 1.7C or 1.8C this century,” says Dr Hausfather.

“That’s going to be far, far better than if we keep burning coal, oil and gas unabated and end up at 3C or 4C – it still really matters.”

Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to get exclusive insight on the latest climate and environment news from the BBC’s Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt, delivered to your inbox every week. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.

Elon Musk took his endorsement of Germany’s far-right party to the next level on Thursday, hosting a live chat with its frontwoman, Alice Weidel.

The 74-minute conversation ranged across energy policy, German bureaucracy, Adolf Hitler, Mars and the meaning of life.

The world’s richest man unequivocally urged Germans to back Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in forthcoming elections.

It’s the tech billionaire’s latest controversial foray into European politics.

There’d been a considerable build-up to this discussion as Elon Musk faced accusations of meddling in Germany’s snap election.

But the interview, conducted in English, was arguably as much a chance for the AfD to reach international audiences via Musk’s X platform.

Knowing of his close relationship with Donald Trump, Alice Weidel made sure to express her support for the US president-elect and his team.

She insisted her party was “conservative” and “libertarian” but had been “negatively framed” by mainstream media as extremist.

Sections of the AfD have been officially classed as right-wing extremist by German authorities.

A BBC News investigation last year found connections between some party figures and far-right networks, while one leading light on the party’s hard right, Björn Höcke, was fined last year for using a banned Nazi phrase – though he denied doing so knowingly.

During the conversation, Weidel declared that Hitler had in fact been a “communist”, despite the notable anti-communism of the Nazi leader, who invaded the Soviet Union.

“He wasn’t a conservative,” she said. “He wasn’t a libertarian. He was this communist, socialist guy.”

She also described Hitler as an “antisemitic socialist”.

On other matters, she and Musk chimed – and at times giggled – over Germany’s infamous bureaucracy, its “crazy” abandonment of nuclear power, the need for tax cuts, free speech and “wokeness”.

In a sometimes stilted and, at times, surprising conversation, one surreal moment came when Weidel asked Mr Musk if he believed in God.

The reply – for those who wish to know – was that he’s open to the idea as he seeks to “understand the universe as much as possible”.

Despite all the anticipation that exchange, surely, had not been on many people’s bingo card.

The AfD, which also opposes Berlin’s weapons aid to Ukraine, is polling second in Germany, with a snap federal election scheduled for 23 February.

However, it won’t be able to take power as other parties won’t work with it.

That hasn’t stopped Elon Musk from hailing Weidel as the “leading candidate to run Germany”.

He’s justified his intervention by citing his significant investments in the country – notably a huge Tesla plant just outside Berlin.

And he’s dismissed characterisation of the AfD as far-right while previously labelling the social democratic Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, a “fool”.

Scholz, whose chances of retaining the chancellery look remote, later insisted that he was “staying cool” about Elon Musk’s attacks.

But the billionaire’s interventions have sparked alarm among some leaders, who’ve warned against misinformation and undue influence.

Police say two more lynx have been spotted in the same area where a pair of the wild cats were captured on Thursday.

They were seen near Kingussie in the Cairngorms National Park.

Police Scotland have warned members of the public not to approach the animals and said officers are working with specially-trained personnel to capture them.

The force said inquiries suggested that the sighting was connected with the release of the two lynx which were captured on Thursday.

Police have urged people not to visit the area to try and see the cats.

Insp Craig Johnstone said: “Members of the public are asked not to approach the animals for their own safety and the safety of the lynx.

“Officers are working with specially trained personnel to capture them safely and humanely.

“Although it may be tempting to try to find them, take pictures or set up cameras, we are asking people not to travel into the area, particularly in the current winter weather conditions.”

The latest lynx, believed to be larger than the other two cats, were spotted at about 07:10 on Friday.

Experts from Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) along with police and Cairngorms National Park rangers are trying to capture the wild cats.

RZSS chief executive David Field said: “Two more lynx have been sighted in the same Cairngorms location where we successfully captured a pair yesterday.

“Further traps are being baited in the area and the hope is that these animals will be safely and humanely captured before being taken to Edinburgh Zoo to join the two captured yesterday in quarantine.”

Police Scotland and Cairngorm National Park Authority Rangers are also in attendance. The public are being asked to steer clear of the area as a build-up of people could disturb the animals and hamper efforts on the ground.

A Cairngorms Mountain Rescue Team drone is being used in the search.

RZSS condemns the illegal release of wild animals in the strongest possible term

The two animals trapped earlier this week have been taken into the care of the RZSS. They are now at Edinburgh Zoo.

The RZSS has condemned the illegal release of the animals as “highly irresponsible”.

Experts from the charity worked with police to humanely trap the first two cats, which are now being cared for in quarantine facilities at Highland Wildlife Park before being transferred to Edinburgh Zoo.

Some conservation groups have been campaigning to have the wild cats reintroduced to Scotland.

Those who support the idea include the Mammal Society, which has suggested rogue rewilders could be behind the releases.

The organisation said it would love to see a stable and healthy population of wild lynx thriving in the UK, and that the reintroduction of the species could “redress ecosystem imbalance and restore biodiversity to our depleted landscapes”.

The society said it understood the “frustration” which could lead to illegal releases, but that there were “no shortcuts” to achieving its goal.

“Illegal releases are irresponsible and not the answer,” it said.

The Cairngorms National Park Authority has appealed to the public to stay away from the search area.

There are four lynx species – it has not been confirmed which species the Kingussie cats are – but Eurasian lynx are the largest.

Adults are roughly the size of a Labrador dog.

Lynx died out in Britain 500 to 1,000 years ago, but similar species are still found in continental Europe, Russia and Asia.

In the wild they prey on roe deer, young red deer and also hares and rabbits.

A licence is required under the Dangerous Animals Act to keep lynx.

Local authority Highland Council said no premises in the area had applied for, or were operating under a Dangerous Wild Animal (DWA) licence.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare says lynx are mostly active at night and typically avoid humans.

It does warn that lynx, like other wild animals, could attack in self-defence if cornered.

WWF says attacks on livestock, such as sheep, are “much smaller than perceived”.

It is a landscape of hills, commercial forestry and native woodland on the edge of some of the highest mountains in the Cairngorms.

Insh Marshes, near Kingussie, is an RSPB Scotland reserve where beavers were recently released under licence.

Kingussie and the nearby village of Newtonmore are home to a total of about 1,500 people.

The area has seen heavy snowfall in recent days.

Cairngorms National Park is largest in the UK. It is twice the size of Lake District National Park.

Other animals once native to Scotland have been illegally released before.

They include wild boar and beavers.

Firefighters are battling to control huge wildfires in Los Angeles that have killed at least 10 people, devoured thousands of buildings and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

It’s a rapidly changing situation – these maps and pictures show the scale of the challenge, where the fires are and the damage they have caused.

The largest blaze, in the Pacific Palisades area is the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history. Almost 20,000 acres have now burnt.

Placing the area affected on to maps of New York and London gives a sense of how big that is, stretching from Clapham to Greenwich in the UK’s capital, or across large areas of lower Manhattan and Queens.

Five fires are currently burning in the Los Angeles area.

• Palisades fire: The largest active fire is burning between Santa Monica and Malibu. Burnt area: almost 20,000 acres. More than 5,300 structures destroyed. At least 30,000 people evacuated.

• Eaton fire: Second largest fire burning north of Pasadena. Burnt area: at least 13,690 acres. Potentially more than 4,000 structures damaged or destroyed. Five deaths reported.

• Hurst fire: To the north east of the city. Burnt area: 770 acres.

• Lidia fire: Reported in the hills north of Los Angeles. Burnt area: 394 acres.

• Kenneth fire: In the West Hills area, just north of the Palisades. Began on Thursday afternoon and has so far burned 960 acres.

But three 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.

Sunset fire: Reported in the historic Hollywood Hills area near many famous landmarks, including the Hollywood sign. Burnt area: 43 acres.

Officials say more than 10,000 structures have been destroyed by the two biggest fires – about 5,000 each in the Palisades and Eaton blazes.

As the maps below show, the fires are largely burning uninhabited areas but they have spread into populated areas and many more buildings could be at risk depending on how the infernos spread.

Among the buildings already destroyed in the Palisades blaze are many of the exclusive properties that line the Malibu waterfront.

Slide your cursor across the image below to see an aerial view of what the area used to look like and what it looks like now.

Both the Palisades and Eaton fires can be seen from space, as shown in the satellite image below.

A combination of an exceptionally dry period – downtown Los Angeles has only received 0.16 inches (0.4cm) of rain since October – and powerful offshore gusts known as the Santa Ana winds have created ripe conditions for wildfires.

Santa Ana winds flow east to west through southern California’s mountains, according to the National Weather Service.

Blowing across the deserts further inland, they create conditions where humidity drops, which dries out vegetation. If a fire does start, the winds can fan smouldering embers into an inferno in minutes.

The map below shows just 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.

The Palisades fire now covers almost 20,000 acres and thousands of people have been forced to evacuate the area, as more than 1,400 firefighters try to tackle the blaze.

The Eaton fire has also grown rapidly from about 1,000 acres on Tuesday to more than 13,000 acres, forcing thousands more people to flee.

• 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

Photographers have also been capturing the heartbreaking level of damage the fires have caused on the ground – as these before-and-after photos demonstrate.

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.

With authorities still working to contain the fires, the scope of the losses is still unfolding but they are on track to be among the costliest in US history, with losses already expected to exceed $135bn (£109.7bn).

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, so conditions remain ripe for fire.

Mel Gibson has revealed his home has been destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires while he was away recording Joe Rogan’s podcast.

The Oscar-winning film star said his Malibu property was “completely toasted” and criticised California Governor Gavin Newsom over the crisis.

At least 10 people have died in the wildfires, which have burned down thousands of buildings and prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.

A host of celebrities have told how they have lost their properties, while officials have warned more high winds could further fan the flames of the wildfires.

Gibson said he felt “ill at ease” during his visit to Austin, Texas, to appear as a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, because he knew his neighbourhood was “on fire”.

“It’s kind of devastating, it’s emotional,” Gibson said on NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas Reports.

“I’ve been relieved from the burden of my stuff because it’s all in cinders.”

The Braveheart star said he had lived at his property for about 15 years and the homes of some of his neighbours had also “gone”, including one belonging to actor Ed Harris.

Gibson said his family had followed an evacuation order and they were safe.

In the podcast with Rogan, Gibson criticised the California governor, saying Newsom claimed he was “going to take care of the forests” but “didn’t do anything”.

“I think all our tax dollars probably went for Gavin’s hair gel,” the actor said.

• Follow live updates on the LA wildfires
• What’s the latest on the fires and what caused them?
• In maps: Thousands of acres on fire in LA
• Celebrities who have lost homes in wildfires

Los Angeles is facing the worst wildfires in its history, which have consumed 31,000 acres (12,500 hectares) of land and led to the evacuation of 180,000 people.

Five wildfires are still burning across the LA areas of Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth, Hurst and Lidia.

California fire chief David Acuna told Radio 4’s Today programme that 10,000 structures are likely to have been destroyed. He also warned that winds over the coming days could lead to further destruction in the area.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump has called for Newsom, a Democrat, to resign over his handling of the crisis, saying “one of the best and most beautiful” parts of the US is “burning down to the ground”.

Newsom has defended the response and said state authorities were “throwing everything at our disposal” to protect communities.

The governor’s spokeswoman accused Trump of politicising the disaster and said Newsom was focused on protecting people and making sure firefighters have the resources they need.

US President Joe Biden said he had pledged extra federal resources to help California after “the most widespread, devastating fire” in the state’s history.

Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal are among the celebrities whose homes have been destroyed in the wildfires.

Hilton, the hotel heiress and reality TV star, shared a video of the remains of her property on social media and said “the heartbreak is truly indescribable”.

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.

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

The US Office star Rainn Wilson shared a video of his burnt-out home and said there was a “valuable lesson” to learn from the wildfires.

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

Meanwhile, actor Steve Guttenberg, a Pacific Palisades resident, helped to move parked cars to make way for fire engines.

“This is not a parking lot,” he told KTLA. “I have friends up there and they can’t evacuate.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who live in California, are understood to have invited into their home friends and loved ones who had been forced to evacuate.

In a statement on their website, Harry and Meghan said: “If a friend, loved one, or pet has to evacuate, and you are able to offer them a safe haven in your home, please do.”

The wildfires raging in Los Angeles have led to claims that officials there have mismanaged the city’s preparation for such events.

President-elect Donald Trump has pointed the finger of blame at California Governor Gavin Newsom, who he says is responsible for LA’s struggling water supply.

Others have blamed LA Mayor Karen Bass for cutting the city’s fire department budget.

BBC Verify looked into the facts behind the political fallout.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Trump said Governor Newsom “refused to sign the water restoration declaration put before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water” to put out the fires.

But the specific declaration he mentions doesn’t appear to exist.

The Governor’s press office issued a statement in response, saying: “There is no such document as the water restoration declaration – that is pure fiction.”

We’ve also searched for this document and been unable to find it.

Governor Newsom has previously opposed efforts to redirect more water to southern California.

This includes a 2020 presidential memorandum in which Trump sought to divert water away from Northern California to farmland further south.

• Anger after fire evacuation alert sent in error to millions in LA
• Jeff Bridges among celebrities to lose homes in wildfires
• LA wildfire damages set to cost record $135bn

Newsom opposed this at the time, saying he wanted to protect “highly imperilled fish species close to extinction”.

That is what Trump is referencing in his post blaming Newsom for the response to the wildfires, where he says the governor “wanted to protect an essentially worthless fish”, his press team has confirmed.

California’s attorney general ultimately blocked the measure, citing potential harm to endangered species and saying that it was not scientifically justified.

Experts say this decision isn’t impacting the efforts to tackle these wildfires.

“California is not experiencing water supply shortages at the moment, not in southern California or elsewhere,” says Daniel Swain, a Climate Scientist at the California Institute for Water Resources.

“There is plenty of water in the reservoirs for firefighting or whatever you want to do with it,” he adds.

Although southern California is currently experiencing a drought, data shows its reservoirs are almost all currently above the historic average for this time of the year. None are at significantly low levels.

Trump has also said that there was “no water for fire hydrants”.

There have been reports that certain fire hydrants have run dry.

This is down to high demand placing a heavy strain on the system, according to local officials and experts.

In Pasadena, Fire Chief Chad Augustin said the area experienced a short period of time where pressure was low on a small amount of hydrants. All issues had been resolved, he added.

“There are very localised incidents of this unfolding where the fire hydrants have had insufficient water pressure for firefighters to use them, but that’s not because LA is running out of water,” says Mr Swain.

“There are thousands of firefighters and hundred of fire engines drawing upon water, and ultimately only so much can flow through pipes at a time.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass has faced criticism over cuts to the city’s fire department budget.

For the latest financial year, the LA Fire Department (LAFD) budget was reduced by $17.6m (£14.3m).

In a memo to Mayor Bass last month, LA Fire Chief Kristin Crowley warned that the cuts had “severely limited the department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, such as wildfires”.

Mayor Bass responded to the criticism, saying: “I think if you go back and look at the reductions that were made, there were no reductions that were made that would have impacted the situation that we were dealing with over the last couple of days.”

The LAFD has an overall budget of almost $820m (£670m), and it isn’t the only department responding to the fires.

For example, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the Los Angeles County Fire Department are part of the relief efforts, along with the federal government.

“LA County has some of the most advanced and sophisticated wildfire fighting resources of any location in the world. If you had to chose one place on earth that was best place to tackle this sort of disaster, it would be LA county,” says Mr Swain.

“The disaster isn’t as bad as it is because there’s a lack of resource, the reality is there’s a limit to how effective wildland firefighting can be under extreme conditions like we experienced this week.”

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Out-of-control wildfires are ripping across parts of Los Angeles, leading to at least 10 deaths, burning down hundreds of buildings, and prompting evacuation orders for nearly 180,000 residents across the county.

Despite the efforts of thousands 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.

In LA county, some 179,000 people are under evacuation orders – many of them fleeing their homes with just the belongings they could carry.

Another 200,000 residents are under evacuation warning, meaning they may need to leave their homes soon.

More than 10,000 buildings have been razed by the fires, which are the most destructive in the history of LA. A further 60,000 are also at risk. Insured losses are expected to be above $8bn (£6.5bn) because of the high value of properties in the paths of the blazes.

A man was arrested on suspicion of starting a new fire on Thursday, but the causes of the original fires are not yet known. National Guard troops have been deployed in some parts of the city to prevent looting in evacuated areas, and there have been 20 arrests, according to police.

Celebrities who have lost their homes include Mel Gibson, Leighton Meester and Adam Brody, who attended the Golden Globes just days ago, actor James Woods and Paris Hilton.

• Follow live updates
• In pictures: Powerful images of destruction, loss and heroism
• Before and after images of LA buildings compared
• Maps and images reveal scale of LA wildfire devastation

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

• Palisades: The first fire to erupt on Tuesday and the biggest in the region, which could become the most destructive fire in state history. It has scorched a sizable part of land, covering nearly 20,000 acres, including the upmarket Pacific Palisades neighbourhood. It was 6% contained on Thursday night
• 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 nearly 14,000 acres. It is 0% contained
• Hurst: Located just north of San Fernando, it began burning on Tuesday night and has grown to 670 acres, though firefighters are beginning to contain 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 60% contained
• Kenneth: This new fire broke out on Thursday on the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It so far covers nearly 1,000 acres.

The earlier Sunset, Woodley and Olivas fires have been contained.

A political row about the city’s preparedness has erupted after it was claimed that some firefighters’ hoses ran dry, provoking criticism from US President-elect Donald Trump.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a Thursday news conference that he had not received reports that firefighters ran out of water or experienced low water pressures.

But in neighbouring Pasadena, Fire Chief Chad Augustin said the area experienced a short period of time where pressure was low on a small amount of hydrants. All issues had been resolved, he said.

He attributed the issue to multiple fire engines drawing water at the same time, as well as a loss of power lowering pressure.

Mayor Karen Bass returned to the city from a previously arranged trip to Africa to find it on fire. She has faced intense questions about the region’s preparedness, her leadership in this crisis, and the water issues.

And before the fires broke out, LA’s fire chief warned in a memo that budget cuts were hampering the department’s ability to respond to emergencies, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reports.

Dismay over the fire threat was worsened by an alert that was mistakenly sent to every mobile phone in Los Angeles on Thursday, residents say, prompting anger from some. About 10 million people live in the county.

A combination of an exceptionally dry period – downtown Los Angeles has only received 0.16 inches (0.4cm) of rain since October – and powerful offshore gusts known as the Santa Ana winds have created ripe conditions for wildfires.

Santa Ana winds flow east to west through southern California’s mountains, according to the National Weather Service.

The winds can also be responsible for the scale of destruction that follows.

Blowing across the deserts further inland, they create conditions where humidity drops, which dries out vegetation. If a fire does start, the winds can fan smouldering embers into an inferno in minutes.

Speeds of 60 to 80mph (95-130km/h) are common, but gusts of up to 100mph (160km/h) can occur.

Although the strongest wind gusts have passed through the region, forecasters have warned another “traditional Santa Ana wind event” will move in on Thursday night local time, according to CBS News.

Investigations into the cause of the fire are just beginning, but California fire chief David Acuna said there was a lack of “any conclusive evidence” that the fires were deliberately lit.

“Now that the life safety is primarily taken care of, and that we have sufficient resources to assist with that, now they’re able to start digging into the investigation and see what they can discover,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

However, power lines and other utility equipment have sparked some of the most destructive wildfires in California’s history. In 2018, the so-called Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people, many of whom died in their cars trying to flee.

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, so conditions remain ripe for fire.

• ‘Where do I go?’ Chaos as people flee flames
• What are the Santa Ana winds?
• Before and after: How wildfires tore through LA

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.

Much of the western United States including California experienced a decades-long drought that ended just two years ago, making the region vulnerable.

“Whiplash” swings between dry and wet periods in recent years created a massive amount of tinder-dry vegetation that was ready to burn.

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

“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.

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.”

• A simple guide to climate change
• Stuck in traffic as flames approached: Why LA is hard to evacuate

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

Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to get exclusive insight on the latest climate and environment news from the BBC’s Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt, delivered to your inbox every week. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.

On a clear day, the skyscrapers of Tel Aviv are visible from the hill above Karnei Shomron, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.

“I do feel different from Tel Aviv,” said Sondra Baras, who has lived in Karnei Shomron for almost 40 years. “I’m living in a place where my ancestors lived thousands of years ago. I do not live in occupied territory; I live in Biblical Judea and Samaria.”

For many settlers here, the line between the State of Israel, and the territory it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, has been erased from their narrative.

The visitors’ audio-guide at the hill-top viewpoint describes the West Bank as “a region of Israel” and the Palestinian city of Nablus as the place where God promised the land to the Jews.

But formal annexation of this territory has so far remained a dream for settlers like Sondra, even while settlements – viewed as illegal by the UN’s top court and most other countries – have mushroomed year after year.

Now many see an opportunity to go further, with the election of Donald Trump as the next US president.

“I was thrilled that Trump won,” Sondra told me. “I very much want to extend sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. And I feel that’s something Trump could support.”

There are signs that some in his incoming administration might agree with her.

Mike Huckabee, nominated as Trump’s new ambassador to Israel, signalled his support for Israeli claims on the West Bank in an interview last year.

“When people use the term ‘occupied’, I say: ‘Yes, Israel is occupying the land, but it’s the occupation of a land that God gave them 3,500 years ago. It is their land,'” he said.

Yisrael Gantz, head of the regional settlement council that oversees Karnei Shomron, says he has already noticed a change in tone from the incoming Trump administration as a result of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, which triggered the war on Gaza.

“Both here in Israel and in the US, they understand that we must apply sovereignty here,” he told me. “It’s a process. I can’t tell you it will be tomorrow. But in my eyes, the dream of a two-state solution is dead.”

US President Joe Biden has always maintained the US position in support of a future Palestinian state alongside Israel. Asked whether he was hearing something different from the incoming Trump administration, Mr Gantz replied, “Of course, yes.”

But there are also signs that Israelis lobbying for annexation of the West Bank – some of them in cabinet positions – might be disappointed in Trump’s decisions.

Their hopes have been fuelled by memories of his first term as president, during which he broke with decades of US policy – and international consensus – by recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, which were captured from Syria in 1967.

But supporting annexation of the West Bank would be a much bigger and thornier issue for Trump.

It would likely alienate Washington’s other key ally, Saudi Arabia, complicating Trump’s chances for a wider regional deal.

It could also alienate some moderate Republicans in the US Congress, concerned about the impact on West Bank Palestinians, and their future status under Israeli rule.

Settler leader Sondra Baras told me that West Bank Palestinians who did not want to live in Israel could “go wherever they want”.

Challenged on why they should leave their homeland, she said: “I’m not kicking them out, but things change. How many wars did they start? And they lost.”

“If sovereignty were to go forward, there would be a lot of yelling and screaming, absolutely,” she continued. “But at some point, you create a fact that’s irreversible.”

Shortly after Trump’s election victory last November, Israel’s far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, publicly called for annexing the Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

“2025 must be the year of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria,” he said.

Whether or not the new US president agrees, many Palestinians say discussion of formal annexation misses the point – that Israel is, in practice, already annexing territory here.

One of them is Mohaib Salameh. He leads me across the rubble of his family home, built on private Palestinian land, on the outskirts of Nablus. The building was ruled illegal by an Israeli court last year and demolished.

Israel has full control over security and planning in 60% of the West Bank on an interim basis, as outlined in the Oslo peace accords three decades ago.

While settlements are expanding, permits for Palestinian homes are almost never granted. And lawyers say demolitions like this are increasing.

“This is all part of policies to force us to leave,” Mohaib said. “It’s a policy of forced migration. What difference does it make to them [Israelis] if I build here or not? We pose no threat to them.”

Palestinians are also increasingly being forced off their land by violent Israeli settlers – who have been sanctioned by the US and UK, but largely left unchallenged by Israeli courts at home.

Activists say more than 20 Palestinian communities in the West Bank have been expelled over the past few years by increasingly violent attacks, and that settlers are now encroaching into new areas outside Israel’s interim civil control.

Mohaib told me that no US president had ever protected Palestinians, and that he doesn’t believe Donald Trump will either.

America’s next president is widely seen as a friend of Israel.

But he’s also a man who also likes closing deals – and avoiding conflicts.

The accused mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks on the US will no longer plead guilty on Friday, after the US government moved to block plea deals reached last year from going ahead.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, often referred to as KSM, was due to deliver his pleas at a war court on the Guantanamo Bay naval base in south-eastern Cuba, where he has been held in a military prison for almost two decades.

Mohammed is Guantanamo’s most notorious detainee and one of the last held at the base.

But a federal appeals court on Thursday evening halted the scheduled proceedings to consider requests from the government to abandon the plea deals for Mohammed and two co-defendants, which it said would cause “irreparable” harm to both it and the public.

A three-judge panel said the delay “should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits”, but was aimed at giving the court time to receive a full briefing and hear arguments “on an expedited basis”.

The delay means that the matter will now fall into the incoming Trump administration.

At a hearing beginning on Friday morning, Mohammed was scheduled to plead guilty to his role in the 11 September 2001 attacks, when hijackers seized passenger planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon outside of Washington. Another plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back.

Mohammed has been charged with offences including conspiracy and murder, with 2,976 victims listed on the charge sheet.

He has previously said that he planned the “9/11 operation from A-to-Z” – conceiving the idea of training pilots to fly commercial planes into buildings and taking those plans to Osama bin Laden, leader of the militant Islamist group al-Qaeda, in the mid 1990s.

Friday’s hearing was set to happen in a courtroom on the base, where family members of those killed and the press would have been seated in a viewing gallery behind thick glass.

• What happened on 9/11 and who is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

Pre-trial hearings, held at a military court on the naval base, have been going on for more than a decade, complicated by questions over whether torture Mohammed and other defendants faced while in US custody taints the evidence.

Following his arrest in Pakistan in 2003, Mohammed spent three years at secret CIA prisons known as “black sites” where he was subjected to simulated drowning, or “waterboarding”, 183 times, among other so-called “advanced interrogation techniques” that included sleep deprivation and forced nudity.

Karen Greenberg, author of The Least Worst Place: How Guantanamo Became the World’s Most Notorious Prison, says the use of torture has made it “virtually impossible to bring these cases to trial in a way that honors the rule of law and American jurisprudence”.

“It’s apparently impossible to present evidence in these cases without the use of evidence derived from torture. Moreover, the fact that these individuals were tortured adds another level of complexity to the prosecutions,” she says.

The case also falls under the military commissions, which operate under different rules than the traditional US criminal justice system and slow the process down.

The plea deal was struck last summer, following some two years of negotiations.

The full details of the deals reached with Mohammed and two of his co-defendants have not been released.

We do know that a deal means he would not face a death penalty trial.

In a court hearing on Wednesday, his legal team confirmed that he had agreed to plead guilty to all charges. Mohammed did not address the court personally, but engaged with his team as they went over the agreement, making small corrections and changes to wording with the prosecution and the judge.

If the deals are upheld and the pleas are accepted by the court, the next steps would be appointing a military jury, known as a panel, to hear evidence at a sentencing hearing.

In court on Wednesday, this was described by lawyers as a form of public trial, where survivors and family members of those killed would be given the opportunity to give statements.

Under the agreement, the families would also be able to pose questions to Mohammed, who would be required to “answer their questions fully and truthfully”, lawyers say.

Central to the prosecution agreeing to the deals was a guarantee “that we could present all of the evidence that we thought was necessary to establish a historical record of the accused’s involvement in what happened on September 11th,” prosecutor, Clayton G. Trivett Jr., said in court on Wednesday.

Even if the pleas go ahead, it would be many months before these proceedings would begin and a sentence ultimately delivered.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appointed the senior official who signed the deal. But he was travelling at the time it was signed and was reportedly caught by surprise, according to the New York Times.

Days later, he attempted to revoke it, saying in a memo: “Responsibility for such a decision should rest with me as the superior authority.”

However, both a military judge and a military appeals panel ruled that the deal was valid, and that Mr Austin had acted too late.

In another bid to block the deal, the government this week asked a federal appeals court to intervene.

In a legal filing, it said Mohammed and the two other men were charged with “perpetrating the most egregious criminal act on American soil in modern history” and that enforcing the agreements would “deprive the government and the American people of a public trial as to the respondents’ guilt and the possibility of capital punishment, despite the fact that the Secretary of Defense has lawfully withdrawn those agreements”.

Following the announcement of the deal last summer, Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, then the party’s leader in the chamber, released a statement describing it as “a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice”.

Some families of those killed in the attacks have also criticised the deal, saying it is too lenient or lacks transparency.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today Programme last summer, Terry Strada, whose husband Tom was killed in the attacks, described the deal as “giving the detainees in Guantanamo Bay what they want”.

Ms Strada, the national chair of the campaign group 9/11 Families United, said: “This is a victory for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other two, it’s a victory for them.”

Other families see the agreements as a path towards convictions in the complex and long-running proceedings and were disappointed by the government’s latest intervention.

Stephan Gerhardt, whose younger brother Ralph was killed in the attacks, had flown to Guantanamo Bay to watch Mohammed plead guilty.

“What is the end goal for the Biden administration? So they get the stay and this drags into the next administration. To what end? Think about the families. Why are you prolonging this saga?” he said.

Mr Gerhardt told the BBC the deals were “not a victory” for the families, but that it was “time to find a way to close this, to convict these men”.

Families on the base were meeting with the press when news of the delay was made public.

“It was supposed to be a time of healing. We’ll board that plane still with that deep sense of pain – there’s just no end to it,” one said.

Mohammed has been held in a military prison in Guantanamo Bay since 2006.

The prison was opened 23 years ago – on 11 January 2002 – during the “war on terror” that followed the 9/11 attacks, as a place to hold terror suspects and “illegal enemy combatants”.

Most of those held here were never charged and the military prison has faced criticism from rights groups and the United Nations over its treatment of detainees. The majority have now been repatriated or resettled in other countries.

The prison currently holds 15 – the smallest number at any point in its history. All but six of them have been charged with or convicted of war crimes.

Indian cricket fans are still reeling from the team’s crushing 1-3 defeat in the five-match Test series against Australia.

Once dominant in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with historic victories over the mighty Australians over the past decade, the tourists fell short, exposing vulnerabilities in a side long thought invincible.

The series highlighted glaring issues – Indian batters struggled, and Jasprit Bumrah was the lone bowler to trouble Australia.

The loss not only cost India the coveted Border-Gavaskar Trophy but also denied them a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, breaking their streak of back-to-back appearances in 2021 and 2023, where they lost to New Zealand and Australia respectively.

India’s recent form is troubling – they have lost six of their last eight Tests, including a shocking 0-3 home whitewash against New Zealand.

The defeats have raised questions about the team’s depth, the future of key players like captain Rohit Sharma and former skipper Virat Kohli, and their ability to rebuild.

With a team in transition and stalwarts fading, Indian Test cricket faces pressing challenges to sustain its legacy in a rapidly evolving landscape.

India’s next red-ball challenge is a five-Test series in England starting July. England’s conditions, known for dramatic shifts even within a session, will test players’ technique, skills and adaptability to the limit.

India hasn’t won a series in England since 2007, with only two prior victories (1971, 1986), highlighting the daunting task ahead. Adding to the pressure, recent failures against New Zealand and Australia leave selectors grappling with tough decisions on player selection and team combinations for this critical campaign.

The biggest headache for selectors is the form of batting stalwarts Sharma and Kohli after dismal outings in Australia and earlier against New Zealand.

Sharma managed just 31 runs in three Tests in Australia, with his poor form seeing him dropping himself for the final game. Kohli fared slightly better with 190 runs in nine innings, but 100 runs of his total came in one knock. His dismissals followed a pattern – caught in the slips or behind the stumps – pointing to a glaring technical flaw or mental fatigue under pressure.

Since January 2024, Sharma has managed just 619 runs in 16 Tests with one century. Kohli’s numbers are worse over time – averaging 32 in Tests since 2020 with only two centuries.

Once a late-blooming Test opener and blazing match-winner, Sharma now struggles to find his ideal batting position. Meanwhile, Kohli’s surreal decline – after a decade of dominance and swagger- has left cricket’s former titan in an extended slump.

From Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar to Kohli, the baton of Indian batting greatness has passed seamlessly. But a worthy successor to Kohli remains elusive.

KL Rahul has the class but lacks the hunger for consistent big scores. Rishabh Pant is a thrilling maverick, equally capable of winning or losing a match. Shubman Gill, touted as the next Big Thing, has struggled overseas despite his undeniable pedigree and needs careful nurturing.

Punjab’s young left-hander Abhishek Sharma, mentored by Yuvraj Singh, is highly rated, while Nitish Kumar Reddy impressed on debut in Australia with his fearless performances in tough situations.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, India’s top Test run-scorer in Australia this series, has been the standout among young batsmen. With panache, patience, technical assurance, and explosive strokes, he looks poised to become Kohli’s successor as the team’s talisman.

India’s talent pool is brimming across departments. Jasprit Bumrah, with his 32-wicket haul against Australia, has cemented his status as a fast-bowling colossus. Backed by Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and a dozen promising quicks, India boasts a formidable pace arsenal for all formats.

That said, Bumrah is a once-in-a-generation talent and needs careful workload management. Overburdening him, as in the Australia series, risks breakdowns that could impede the attack. Shami, after lengthy stints in rehab, also requires careful handling. Together, they form one of modern cricket’s most formidable pace pairs.

With Ravichandran Ashwin’s sudden retirement and Ravindra Jadeja’s lukewarm showing in Australia, India’s spin depth looks thin. However, Washington Sundar has shown promise on home pitches, while young spinners Ravi Bishnoi and Tanush Kotian, who joined the squad mid-series in Australia, are knocking on the doors of Test cricket.

Smarting from recent losses to New Zealand and Australia, the Indian cricket board is moving swiftly to usher in a transition. Selectors have been directed to shortlist potential Test players from the second round of the domestic Ranji Trophy, resuming 23 January.

All players, including Sharma and Kohli, are likely to be asked to play domestic cricket – a move that could help them regain form.

Managing a team in transition poses complex challenges requiring patience, empathy, and clear vision. Knee-jerk reactions or external pressure could worsen the situation instead of providing solutions.

Whether Sharma and Kohli can overcome their crisis remains to be seen, but India’s wealth of talent should lift the current gloom surrounding Indian cricket.

It’s worth recalling that in 2011, after winning the ODI World Cup, India was whitewashed 4-0 in Test series against England and Australia. Cricket seemed to hit rock bottom.

But, within months, a revival led by young talents like Kohli, Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Jadeja, Ashwin, and others saw India rise to become the world’s top team across formats, holding that position for nearly a decade.

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.

• Victims want action, child abuse inquiry chair says
• What is Starmer’s record on prosecuting grooming gangs?
• Starmer attacks those ‘spreading lies’ on grooming gangs

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?

This week saw Hollywood’s awards season kick off in style with the Golden Globes and rumours of a celebrity engagement.

But how much attention did you pay to what else had been going on in the world over the past seven days?

Quiz compiled by Ben Fell.

Fancy some more? Try last week’s quiz, have a go at something from the archives, or take on the 2024 Quiz of the Year.

Part one: January to March

Part two: April to June

Part three: July to September

Part four: October to December

A small-time Chinese actor had been missing for two days in Thailand when his girlfriend decided to ask the internet for help.

“We have no choice but to borrow the power of the internet to amplify our voices,” Wang Xing’s girlfriend wrote on the Chinese social media platform Weibo on 5 January.

The plea went viral after it was shared by some of China’s biggest celebrities, including singer Lay Zhang and actor Qin Lan.

Wang, 31, had the country’s attention – as well as that of his government.

On 7 January, Wang was rescued from a scam centre across the border, in Myanmar – news met with a wave of relief.

But the swift yet mysterious rescue has also led to questions about the fate of those who remain trapped inside the scam centres. The case is a grim reminder of the thriving criminal businesses that still entrap hundreds of thousands of people, forcing them into cybercrime.

Families of Chinese nationals who may be being held in one of these compounds have started a petition urging their government to help them too. The petition document is shared online for anyone to fill in cases of their missing ones. The number of cases has already climbed to more than 600 from the initial 174, and is still increasing.

Wang told the police that there were around 50 Chinese nationals held in the same place as him alone.

“We are desperate to know if the remaining Chinese nationals [who were] with him have been rescued,” reads one top-liked comment on Weibo.

“Other people’s lives are also lives.”

Wang went missing on 3 January in the Thai border city of Mae Sot, which has become a hub for trafficking people into Myanmar.

He had flown to Bangkok for an acting job offered to him on WeChat. The person claimed to represent a major Thai entertainment company, according to Thai police.

The actor later told reporters that he had been on a shoot in Thailand around 2018 and did not suspect this was any different. But he was picked up in a car and taken to Myanmar, where his head was shaved and he was forced to undergo training on how to scam people on phone calls.

His girlfriend wrote on Weibo that she and his brother tried to track him down and get police involved, but “there had been little results”: Chinese police had yet to register a case, while the embassy in Thailand had simply advised Wang’s family to approach the police in Mae Sot.

But as discussions of Wang’s whereabouts grew louder on Chinese social media, authorities began to act. The case was finally registered, and the embassy told the media they had attached great importance to the case.

The next day, Thai and Chinese officials announced that Wang had been rescued.

His first public appearance was alongside Thai police, but he said little, leaving officials to explain what happened.

Details of the rescue itself have been scant. Officials have not even revealed which scam centre he had been in as conflicting versions of the story spread.

One reason could be that withholding more information was part of the deal that led to his release, according to a source who has previously rescued people from scam centres who did not wish to be named.

He told the BBC that these scam centres are keen to avoid attention. That meant releasing Wang was the better option, compared to risking the whole operation because of the attention his disappearance was drawing.

Beijing too wanted to end the discussion about Wang’s case. It wants its citizens to believe it has done enough and that scam centres along its border are no longer an issue.

A joint operation by China and ethnic insurgent groups back in 2023 did seek to shut down scam centres in Myanmar’s Shan State.

But those on the ground — NGOs and independent rescuers—tell the BBC the scams are still growing, with construction expanding into even more remote regions.

These days, the area along the border with Thailand is the main centre for international scams in Myanmar, taking advantage of partnerships with the various armed groups competing for power there.

New scam compounds have been built south of the town of Myawaddy, close to the Thai border, where the worst cases of forced labour and other abuses are now being reported.

This has put huge pressure on Thailand, whose economy relies heavily on tourism, especially from China.

Wang’s case has had some Chinese wondering about how safe it is to travel to Thailand. “It feels like after this Wang Xing incident, there will be fewer people going to South East Asia, including Thailand,” reads a popular Weibo post.

His rescue may well be a success for Thai officials and a win for Beijing, but it has not ended the discussion, or the spotlight on scam compounds.

On Thursday, lines from a recent interview of his were trending on Weibo: “actor Wang Xing claims he could not eat much food in Myanmar and did not have time to use the toilet”.

His brief disappearance has only exposed how common the danger has become: others in the Chinese film industry have since shared their own accounts of being duped by scammers offering them jobs in Thailand.

Thai police are reported to be now investigating the case of another Chinese model disappeared at Thai-Myanmar border, after he was promised work in Thailand.

The China Federation of Radio and Television Association said in a statement Tuesday that “many actors” have gone abroad on fake promises of film shoots, and as a result suffered “serious damage to their personal and financial security”.

“We are very concerned about this,” the statement said.

“Please save [Wang] from danger and bring to life the story of No More Bets,” Wang’s girlfriend urged in her Weibo post – a reference to the protagonists of the 2023 movie being rescued after they were trafficked into scam centres.

Wang – like those in the film – is among a lucky minority.

Hundreds of thousands of victims from China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore remain stuck in sprawling scam compounds with little hope of rescue.

But ahead of the Lunar New Year, when throngs of Chinese tourists are expected to visit Thailand, the Thai government is eager to emphasise that the country is a safe destination. Thai police also insist that no Thais were involved in Wang’s trafficking.

Wang, freshly freed from his ordeal, has no worries about returning to Thailand, a police officer told reporters on Wednesday.

In fact, he added, Wang has promised to come back.

Alec Baldwin has filed a lawsuit against those involved in pursuing criminal charges against him over the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the film set of Rust.

The US actor is suing the defendants, including special prosecutor Kari Morrissey and Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, for malicious prosecution and civil rights violations.

Baldwin claims prosecutors were “blinded by their desire to convict [him] for all the wrong reasons”.

In a statement, Ms Morrisey said: “We look forward to our day in court.” BBC News has contacted Ms Carmack-Altwies for comment.

Baldwin’s lawsuit alleges that prosecutors intentionally concealed evidence that would absolve the actor from blame and “sought at every turn to scapegoat” him to “maliciously bring about or advance” his trial and conviction.

In a statement to BBC News, Ms Morrissey said: “In October 2023 the prosecution team became aware that Mr Baldwin intended to file a retaliatory civil lawsuit. We look forward to our day in court.”

The lawsuit was filed less than a month after Ms Morrissey withdrew an appeal over the court’s decision to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin, following the 2021 fatal shooting of Ms Hutchins on the Santa Fe film set.

Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer of the film, was pointing a gun when the revolver went off, killing the cinematographer and wounding director Joel Souza.

The actor’s involuntary manslaughter trial was upended in July when a judge threw the case out based on the misconduct of police and prosecutors over the withholding of ammunition evidence from the defence.

After the lawsuit was filed, Baldwin’s lawyers Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro said in a joint statement given to the PA news agency: “Criminal prosecutions are supposed to be about the search for truth and justice, not to pursue personal or political gain or harass the innocent.

“Kari Morrissey and the other defendants violated that basic principle, over and over, and trampled on Alec Baldwin’s rights.

“We bring this action to hold the defendants accountable for their misconduct and to prevent them from doing this to anyone else.”

Donald Trump has said that a meeting is being arranged between himself and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The US president-elect gave no timeline for when the meeting might take place.

“He wants to meet and we are setting it up,” he said in remarks at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

The Kremlin said in response that it was open to the talks, but that no details had been confirmed yet.

Trump has promised to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine soon after he takes office on 20 January and has expressed scepticism about US military and financial support for Kyiv.

“President Putin wants to meet,” he said on Thursday.

“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess.”

A spokesman for Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Friday that Kyiv expected high-level talks to take place with the Trump administration after the inauguration.

This includes an eventual meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

• How the Ukraine war could come to a close in 2025
• Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia

The president-elect has nominated Keith Kellogg, a former national security adviser and retired lieutenant-general in the US military, to be special envoy to Ukraine and Russia for his second administration.

Kellogg set out his ideas for how the US could bring about an end to the war in a research paper published by the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank, in April last year.

He proposed that Ukraine should only get further US aid if it agreed to participate in peace talks with Moscow.

The paper also suggested, however, that if Moscow refused to take part then the US should continue its aid to Ukraine.

Following Trump’s election win in November, Zelensky said he believed that, with Trump as president, the war would “end sooner” than it otherwise would have.

He said the two had had a “constructive exchange” by phone, though did not say whether Trump had made any demands regarding possible talks with Russia.

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of US politics in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

The daughter of late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos has been banned from drinking on planes and in airports after she and her husband got into a drunken brawl with another passenger on board a Jetstar flight.

Analisa Josefa Corr and James Alexander Corr caused a “disturbance” with their “disorderly behaviour” while intoxicated on a flight from Hobart to Sydney on 29 December, Australia police said.

Ms Corr has been accused of “grabbing and shaking another passenger while exiting the aircraft toilet”, police said. The pair were escorted off the flight.

They pleaded not guilty to charges of not complying with safety instructions and consuming alcohol not provided by the crew, but on Friday agreed to a booze ban while on bail.

If found guilty, they could be fined up to A$13,750 ($8,520; £6,925) for each charge.

Ms Corr has also denied a charge of assaulting a fellow passenger on board the aircraft, which carries up to two years in prison.

They have each also been asked to offer up A$20,000, which would be forfeited they breach any bail conditions.

Ms Corr, 53, is Marcos’ Australia-raised daughter with former Sydney model Evelin Hegyesi – which makes her the half-sister of the Philippines’ current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

On Instagram Ms Corr describes herself as an interior designer.

Mr Corr, 45, is a former soldier, according to Australian media.

In its statement on the case, police urged travellers to be “mindful of their behaviour at airports”.

“You don’t want to start the new year with a significant fine or worse, behind bars,” said Australian Federal Police Sergeant Luke Stockwell.

“The AFP is increasing patrols at all major airports during the holidays and will not tolerate dangerous, disruptive or abusive behaviour from travellers,” he added.

Jetstar did not directly comment on the incident, but a spokesman said the company will “never tolerate disruptive behaviour on our aircraft”.

“The safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is our number one priority,” he added.

Two 32-year-old sisters missing in Aberdeen seemed “fine” in the days running up to their disappearance, according to their brother.

Eliza and Henrietta Huszti – who are part of a set of triplets – were last seen in Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 02:12 on Tuesday.

Police have launched a major land, air and water search for the two women, who are originally from Hungary and now live in Aberdeen city centre. It is said to be out of character for them to have been out at such a time.

Their brother, Jozsef, told BBC News their mother spoke to the girls on Saturday. They had a 40-minute conversation and nothing appeared out of the ordinary.

Their sister Edit Huszti – the other triplet – said she spoke to them on a video call on New Year’s Eve and they appeared happy and cheerful.

She said the sisters were very close and did most things together.

They were described as sociable but as far as the family knows they were not very much into going out – preferring to stay at home, watching movies, with Eliza especially enjoying cooking.

She added that she believed it was quite out of character for them to be out on the streets in the early hours of the morning.

Edit said she hoped her sisters return to the family safe.

It is understood there is nothing, at this stage, to suggest it is a suspicious incident.

Both Eliza and Henrietta are described as being white, of slim build, with long, brown hair.

They moved to Scotland about seven years ago.

They are said to be part of a “close-knit” family, who do not understand what may have happened to the pair.

It is understood that Eliza works in a branch of Costa Coffee in Aberdeen.

Henrietta changed jobs a few months ago and it is not known what her current job is.

Police said the side of Victoria Bridge in the Torry area, where they were last seen, contained many commercial and industrial units and searches were ongoing there.

The search has been in the River Dee water itself, on land around the area, and also from the air.

The Police Scotland helicopter has been assisting.

Police divers and search dogs have also been called in.

Officers are urging businesses around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday.

Ch Insp Darren Bruce said: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta.

“We urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101 quoting incident number 0735 of Tuesday, 7 January, 2025.”

The death of a teenage boy sparked violent protests in a city in north-west China, the BBC has confirmed through verified video.

In the videos shared on social media, protesters can be seen hurling objects at police and officers beating some demonstrators in Pucheng in Shaanxi province.

Authorities said the teenager fell to his death on 2 January in an accident at his school dormitory. But following his death allegations began spreading on social media that there had been a cover-up.

Protests erupted soon after and lasted a few days, before they were apparently quelled earlier this week. The BBC has seen no further evidence of protest in Pucheng since then.

Public demonstrations are not uncommon in China, but authorities have been particularly sensitive about them since the 2022 White Paper protests against Covid policies, which saw rare criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping.

State media has been silent on the protests in Pucheng. Any clips or mention of the demonstrations have been largely censored from Chinese social media, as is usually the case for incidents deemed sensitive by authorities.

But several videos have been leaked out of China and posted on X.

The BBC has confirmed these videos were filmed at the Pucheng Vocational Education Centre, and found no earlier versions online prior to the reported outbreak of the protests over the past few days.

When contacted by the BBC, a representative from the publicity department of the Pucheng government denied there had been protests. There was no answer when we rang an official handling media queries.

In a statement released earlier this week, local authorities said that the teenager surnamed Dang was a third-year student at the education centre in Pucheng.

Prior to his death, Dang had been woken up in the night by other students chatting in his dormitory, their statement said. He got into an argument and altercation with a boy, which was resolved by a school official.

Later that night, his body was found by another student at the foot of the dormitory block.

The statement described it as “an accident where a student fell from a height at school”. It added that the police had conducted investigations and an autopsy, and “at present exclude it as a criminal case”.

But allegations have swirled online for days that there was more to the story and that the school and authorities were hiding the truth. One account claimed, without proof, that Dang killed himself after he was bullied by the boy he’d fought with earlier.

Unverified remarks from his family have been circulating, alleging that the injuries on Dang’s body were inconsistent with the authorities’ version of events and that they were not allowed to examine his body for long.

The allegations appeared to have incensed many in Pucheng, sparking protests that drew at least hundreds of people.

Bullying has become a highly sensitive topic in China in recent years, with past cases of student deaths triggering protests. Last month, a Chinese court handed out lengthy jail sentences to two teenagers who murdered a classmate.

There are also videos posted on X on Monday, which the BBC has confirmed were filmed at the Pucheng Vocational Education Centre, showing people mourning the teenager’s death. They placed flowers and offerings at the entrance of the school, and conducted a traditional mourning ritual by throwing pieces of paper from the rooftop of a school building.

Other videos circulating online appear to show demonstrators, many of them young, storming a building and clashing with police while shouting “give us the truth”.

One verified clip shows a school official confronted by shouting protesters who shove him around. Others show destroyed offices in the compound, and protesters pushing down a barricade at the school entrance.

Other clips show protesters hurling objects such as traffic cones at groups of retreating police; and officers tackling and detaining people while beating them with batons. Some protesters are seen with blood on their heads and faces.

There is little information on what happened next, but reports on social media suggest a much larger police presence in Pucheng in recent days with no more reports of demonstrations.

Authorities have also urged the public not to “create rumours, believe in rumours, or spread rumours”.

Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, has announced that he has quit X, where he has been posting controversial messages.

The 50-year-old army general has become increasingly involved in the political arena, in breach of military protocols, reigniting debates about his ambitions to succeed his father, who has been in power since 1986.

He recently sparked anger with a tweet in which he threatened to behead the country’s leading opposition figure, Bobi Wine.

In his last post on Friday, Gen Kainerugaba said “time has now come to leave and concentrate” on his military duties but promised to “re-converge” with his one million followers in the future.

This is not the first time Gen Kainerugaba has deactivated his X account.

In 2022, he quit the micro-blogging platform only to return days later.

• Muhoozi Kainerugaba – Uganda’s ambitious tweeting general

Critics have taken a swipe at the general over the statements he has made on social media, which touched on subjects considered taboo for a serving soldier.

In 2022, he made headlines for discussing an invasion of neighbouring Kenya, a comment that forced his father to step in and apologise.

Gen Kainerugaba’s recent post threatening to “cut off” the head of Bobi Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi, drew widespread condemnation in the country.

Although the general apologised about the post which he described as a joke, Bobi Wine said he could not take such threats lightly.

The Ugandan government downplayed the post, with a spokesperson describing Gen Kainerugaba’s social media statements as “casual” remarks that should not be interpreted as reflecting official policy.

Gen Kainerugaba’s undiplomatic outburst on social media has also angered other countries with his previous posts about siding with Russia in the invasion of Ukraine, and saying that Uganda would be on the side of Tigray in the Ethiopian civil war.

Museveni has nevertheless defended his son as a “very good general” and the army said he enjoyed the constitutionally guaranteed individual right of expression.

In his farewell message to his X followers, the general said his decision to leave the platform was guided by his faith and a renewed focus on his military duties as a general in the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF).

“It is on the instructions and blessings of my Lord Jesus Christ that I leave this social media and dedicate myself to my assignment to bring peace and security to our region,” his statement stated.

“To all my dear followers, it has been a great whirlwind and rousing journey together on these streets for the last 10 years since 2014,” he added.

He urged his followers to continue supporting his father, whom he referred to as “the greatest general of the resistance”.

Gen Kainerugaba is seen as a possible successor to his long-serving father but Museveni has denied that he is grooming him for the presidency.

The general has been holding rallies, mobilising support around the country, which has drawn criticism in some quarters.

He joined the army in 1999 and has had a meteoric rise. His ascent to power has been dubbed the “Muhoozi Project” by local media.

“I know you all love me, and that you will continue to follow me like the wind long after here,” he said in his signing off statement from X.

• How a Ugandan opposition leader disappeared in Kenya and ended up in military court
• Social media ban in Uganda raises questions over regulation in Africa
• TikToker jailed for 32 months for insulting Uganda’s president
• Top designer vows to regrow dreadlocks cut after Uganda arrest

Out-of-control wildfires are ripping across parts of Los Angeles, leading to at least 10 deaths, burning down hundreds of buildings, and prompting evacuation orders for nearly 180,000 residents across the county.

Despite the efforts of thousands 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.

In LA county, some 179,000 people are under evacuation orders – many of them fleeing their homes with just the belongings they could carry.

Another 200,000 residents are under evacuation warning, meaning they may need to leave their homes soon.

More than 10,000 buildings have been razed by the fires, which are the most destructive in the history of LA. A further 60,000 are also at risk. Insured losses are expected to be above $8bn (£6.5bn) because of the high value of properties in the paths of the blazes.

A man was arrested on suspicion of starting a new fire on Thursday, but the causes of the original fires are not yet known. National Guard troops have been deployed in some parts of the city to prevent looting in evacuated areas, and there have been 20 arrests, according to police.

Celebrities who have lost their homes include Mel Gibson, Leighton Meester and Adam Brody, who attended the Golden Globes just days ago, actor James Woods and Paris Hilton.

• Follow live updates
• In pictures: Powerful images of destruction, loss and heroism
• Before and after images of LA buildings compared
• Maps and images reveal scale of LA wildfire devastation

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

• Palisades: The first fire to erupt on Tuesday and the biggest in the region, which could become the most destructive fire in state history. It has scorched a sizable part of land, covering nearly 20,000 acres, including the upmarket Pacific Palisades neighbourhood. It was 6% contained on Thursday night
• 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 nearly 14,000 acres. It is 0% contained
• Hurst: Located just north of San Fernando, it began burning on Tuesday night and has grown to 670 acres, though firefighters are beginning to contain 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 60% contained
• Kenneth: This new fire broke out on Thursday on the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. It so far covers nearly 1,000 acres.

The earlier Sunset, Woodley and Olivas fires have been contained.

A political row about the city’s preparedness has erupted after it was claimed that some firefighters’ hoses ran dry, provoking criticism from US President-elect Donald Trump.

Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a Thursday news conference that he had not received reports that firefighters ran out of water or experienced low water pressures.

But in neighbouring Pasadena, Fire Chief Chad Augustin said the area experienced a short period of time where pressure was low on a small amount of hydrants. All issues had been resolved, he said.

He attributed the issue to multiple fire engines drawing water at the same time, as well as a loss of power lowering pressure.

Mayor Karen Bass returned to the city from a previously arranged trip to Africa to find it on fire. She has faced intense questions about the region’s preparedness, her leadership in this crisis, and the water issues.

And before the fires broke out, LA’s fire chief warned in a memo that budget cuts were hampering the department’s ability to respond to emergencies, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reports.

Dismay over the fire threat was worsened by an alert that was mistakenly sent to every mobile phone in Los Angeles on Thursday, residents say, prompting anger from some. About 10 million people live in the county.

A combination of an exceptionally dry period – downtown Los Angeles has only received 0.16 inches (0.4cm) of rain since October – and powerful offshore gusts known as the Santa Ana winds have created ripe conditions for wildfires.

Santa Ana winds flow east to west through southern California’s mountains, according to the National Weather Service.

The winds can also be responsible for the scale of destruction that follows.

Blowing across the deserts further inland, they create conditions where humidity drops, which dries out vegetation. If a fire does start, the winds can fan smouldering embers into an inferno in minutes.

Speeds of 60 to 80mph (95-130km/h) are common, but gusts of up to 100mph (160km/h) can occur.

Although the strongest wind gusts have passed through the region, forecasters have warned another “traditional Santa Ana wind event” will move in on Thursday night local time, according to CBS News.

Investigations into the cause of the fire are just beginning, but California fire chief David Acuna said there was a lack of “any conclusive evidence” that the fires were deliberately lit.

“Now that the life safety is primarily taken care of, and that we have sufficient resources to assist with that, now they’re able to start digging into the investigation and see what they can discover,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

However, power lines and other utility equipment have sparked some of the most destructive wildfires in California’s history. In 2018, the so-called Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise and killed 85 people, many of whom died in their cars trying to flee.

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, so conditions remain ripe for fire.

• ‘Where do I go?’ Chaos as people flee flames
• What are the Santa Ana winds?
• Before and after: How wildfires tore through LA

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.

Much of the western United States including California experienced a decades-long drought that ended just two years ago, making the region vulnerable.

“Whiplash” swings between dry and wet periods in recent years created a massive amount of tinder-dry vegetation that was ready to burn.

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

“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.

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.”

• A simple guide to climate change
• Stuck in traffic as flames approached: Why LA is hard to evacuate

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

Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to get exclusive insight on the latest climate and environment news from the BBC’s Climate Editor Justin Rowlatt, delivered to your inbox every week. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.

The US has announced an increased $25m (£20.4m) reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on the day he was sworn in for a third six-year term in office.

The inauguration ceremony was overshadowed by recrimination from the international community and Venezuelan opposition leaders.

Rewards have also been offered for information leading to the arrest and or conviction of Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.

A new reward of up to $15m for Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino has also been offered.

The UK also issued sanctions on 15 top Venezuelan officials, including judges, members of the security forces and military officials.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said those sanctioned were responsible for “undermining democracy, the rule of law, and human rights violations”.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy went on to describe Maduro’s regime as “fraudulent”.

A woman in Australia has annulled her marriage after realising that a fake wedding ceremony she took part in for a social media stunt was in fact real.

The unknowing bride said her partner was a social media influencer who convinced her to take part in the ceremony as a “prank” for his Instagram account.

She only discovered the marriage was genuine when he tried to use it to gain permanent residency in Australia.

A Melbourne judge granted the annulment after accepting the woman was tricked into getting married, in a judgment published on Thursday.

The bizarre case began in September 2023 when the woman met her partner on an online dating platform. They began seeing each other regularly in Melbourne, where they lived at the time.

In December that year, the man proposed to the woman and she accepted.

Two days later, the woman attended an event with the man in Sydney. She was told it would be a “white party” – where attendees would wear white-coloured clothing – and was told to pack a white dress.

But when they arrived she was “shocked” and “furious” to find no other guests present except for her partner, a photographer, the photographer’s friend and a celebrant, according to her deposition quoted in court documents.

“So when I got there, and I didn’t see anybody in white, I asked him, ‘What’s happening?’. And he pulled me aside, and he told me that he’s organising a prank wedding for his social media, to be precise, Instagram, because he wants to boost his content, and wants to start monetising his Instagram page,” she said.

She said she had accepted his explanation as “he was a social media person” who had more than 17,000 followers on Instagram. She also believed that a civil marriage would be valid only if it were held in a court.

Still, she remained concerned. The woman rang a friend and voiced her worries, but the friend “laughed it off” and said it would be fine because, if it were real, they would have had to file a notice of intended marriage first, which they had not.

Reassured, the woman went through the ceremony where she and her partner exchanged wedding vows and kissed in front of a camera. She said she was happy at that time to “play along” to “make it look real”.

Two months later, her partner asked her to add him as a dependent in her application for permanent residency in Australia. Both of them are foreigners.

When she told him she could not as they were technically not married, he then revealed that their Sydney wedding ceremony had been genuine, according to the woman’s testimony.

The woman later found their marriage certificate, and discovered a notice of intended marriage which had been filed the month before their Sydney trip – before they even got engaged – which she said she did not sign. According to the court documents, the signature on the notice bears little resemblance to the woman’s.

“I’m furious with the fact that I didn’t know that that was a real marriage, and the fact that he also lied from the beginning, and the fact that he also wanted me to add him in my application,” she said.

In his deposition, the man claimed they had “both agreed to these circumstances” and that following his proposal the woman had agreed to marry him at an “intimate ceremony” in Sydney.

The judge ruled that the woman was “mistaken about the nature of the ceremony performed” and “did not provide real consent to her participation” in the marriage.

“She believed she was acting. She called the event ‘a prank’. It made perfect sense for her to adopt the persona of a bride in all things at the impugned ceremony so as to enhance the credibility of the video depicting a legally valid marriage,” he stated in the judgement.

The marriage was annulled in October 2024.

Copenhagen’s gloomy January weather matches the mood among Denmark’s politicians and business leaders.

“We take this situation very, very seriously,” said Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of Donald Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland – and punish Denmark with high tariffs if it stands in the way.

But, he added, the government had “no ambition whatsoever to escalate some war of words.”

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen downplayed Trump’s own suggestion that the US might use military force to seize Greenland. “I don’t have the fantasy to imagine that it’ll ever get to that,” she told Danish TV.

And Lars Sandahl Sorensen, CEO of Danish Industry, also said there was “every reason to stay calm… no-one has any interest in a trade war.”

But behind the scenes, hastily organised high-level meetings have been taking place in Copenhagen all week, a reflection of the shock caused by Trump’s remarks.

Greenland PM Mute Egede flew in to meet both the prime minister and King Frederik X on Wednesday.

And on Thursday night, party leaders from across the political spectrum gathered for an extraordinary meeting on the crisis with Mette Frederiksen in Denmark’s parliament.

Faced with what many in Denmark are calling Trump’s “provocation,” Frederiksen has broadly attempted to strike a conciliatory tone, repeatedly referring to the US as “Denmark’s closest partner”.

It was “only natural” that the US was preoccupied by the Arctic and Greenland, she added.

Yet she also said that any decision on Greenland’s future should be up to its people alone: “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders… and it’s the Greenlanders themselves who have to define their future.”

Her cautious approach is twofold.

On the one hand, Frederiksen is keen to avoid escalating the situation. She’s been burned before, in 2019, when Trump cancelled a trip to Denmark after she said his proposal to buy Greenland was “absurd”.

“Back then he only had one more year in office, then things went back to normal,” veteran political journalist Erik Holstein told the BBC . “But maybe this is the new normal.”

But Frederiksen’s comments also speak to the Danish resolve not to meddle in the internal affairs of Greenland – an autonomous territory with its own parliament and whose population is increasingly leaning towards independence.

“She should’ve been much clearer in rejecting the idea,” said opposition MP Rasmus Jarlov.

“This level of disrespect from the coming US president towards very, very loyal allies and friends is record-setting,” he told the BBC, although he admitted Trump’s forcefulness had “surprised everybody.”

The conservative MP believed Frederiksen’s insistence that “only Greenland… can decide and define Greenland’s future” placed too much pressure on the island’s inhabitants. “It would’ve been prudent and clever to stand behind Greenland and just clearly state that Denmark doesn’t want [a US takeover].”

The Greenland question is a delicate one for Denmark, whose prime minister officially apologised only recently for spearheading a 1950s social experiment which saw Inuit children removed from their families to be re-educated as “model Danes”.

Last week, Greenland’s leader said the territory should free itself from “the shackles of colonialism.”

By doing so he tapped into growing nationalist sentiment, fuelled by interest among Greenland’s younger generations in the indigenous culture and history of the Inuit.

Most commentators now expect a successful independence referendum in the near future. While for many it would be seen as a victory, it could also usher in a new set of problems, as 60% of Greenland’s economy is dependent on Denmark.

An independent Greenland “would need to make choices,” said Karsten Honge. The Green Left MP now fears his preferred option of a new Commonwealth-style pact “based on equality and democracy” is unlikely to come about.

Sitting in his parliamentary office decorated with poems and drawings depicting scenes of Inuit life, Honge said Greenland would need to decide “how much it values independence”. It could sever ties with Denmark and turn to the US, Honge said, “but if you treasure independence then that doesn’t make sense.”

Opposition MP Jarlov argues that while there is no point in forcing Greenland to be part of Denmark, “it is very close to being an independent country already”.

Its capital Nuuk is self-governed, but relies on Copenhagen for management of currency, foreign relations and defence – as well as substantial subsidies.

“Greenland today has more independence than Denmark has from the EU,” Jarlov added. “So I hope they think things through.”

As Mette Frederiksen has the awkward task of responding firmly while not offending Greenland or the US, the staunchest rebuttal to Trump’s comments so far has come from outside Denmark.

The principle of the inviolability of borders “applies to every country… no matter whether it’s a very small one or a very powerful one,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned, while French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said the EU would not let other nations “attack its sovereign borders”.

Their comments gave away the deep concern within the EU about how to handle the upcoming Trump presidency. “This is not just very serious for Greenland and Denmark – it is serious to the whole world and to Europe as a whole,” MP Karsten Honge said.

“Imagine a world – which we may be facing in just a few weeks – where international agreements don’t exist. That would shake everything up, and Denmark would just be a small part of it.”

The Danish trade sector has similarly been engulfed by deep nervousness after Trump said he would “tariff Denmark at a very high level” if it refused to give up Greenland to the US.

A 2024 Danish Industry study showed that Denmark’s GDP would fall by three points if the US imposed 10% tariffs on imports from the EU to the US as part of a global trade war.

Singling out Danish products from the influx of EU goods would be near-impossible for the US, and would almost certainly result in retaliatory measures from the EU. But trade industry professionals are taking few chances, and in Denmark as elsewhere on the continent huge amounts of resources are being spent internally to plan for potential outcomes of Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

As his inauguration approaches, Danes are preparing as they can to weather the storm. There is guarded hope that the president-elect could soon shift his focus to grievances towards other EU partners, and that the Greenland question could be temporarily shelved.

But the disquiet brought on by Trump’s refusal to rule out military intervention to seize Greenland remains.

Karsten Honge said Denmark would have to suffer whatever decision the US takes.

“They just need to send a small battleship to travel down the Greenland coast and send a polite letter to Denmark,” he said, only partly in jest.

“The last sentence would be: well, Denmark, what you gonna do about it?

“That’s the new reality with regards to Trump.”

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of US politics in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Police say two more lynx have been spotted in the same area where a pair of the wild cats were captured on Thursday.

They were seen near Kingussie in the Cairngorms National Park.

Police Scotland have warned members of the public not to approach the animals and said officers are working with specially-trained personnel to capture them.

The force said inquiries suggested that the sighting was connected with the release of the two lynx which were captured on Thursday.

Police have urged people not to visit the area to try and see the cats.

Insp Craig Johnstone said: “Members of the public are asked not to approach the animals for their own safety and the safety of the lynx.

“Officers are working with specially trained personnel to capture them safely and humanely.

“Although it may be tempting to try to find them, take pictures or set up cameras, we are asking people not to travel into the area, particularly in the current winter weather conditions.”

The latest lynx, believed to be larger than the other two cats, were spotted at about 07:10 on Friday.

Experts from Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) along with police and Cairngorms National Park rangers are trying to capture the wild cats.

RZSS chief executive David Field said: “Two more lynx have been sighted in the same Cairngorms location where we successfully captured a pair yesterday.

“Further traps are being baited in the area and the hope is that these animals will be safely and humanely captured before being taken to Edinburgh Zoo to join the two captured yesterday in quarantine.”

Police Scotland and Cairngorm National Park Authority Rangers are also in attendance. The public are being asked to steer clear of the area as a build-up of people could disturb the animals and hamper efforts on the ground.

A Cairngorms Mountain Rescue Team drone is being used in the search.

RZSS condemns the illegal release of wild animals in the strongest possible term

The two animals trapped earlier this week have been taken into the care of the RZSS. They are now at Edinburgh Zoo.

The RZSS has condemned the illegal release of the animals as “highly irresponsible”.

Experts from the charity worked with police to humanely trap the first two cats, which are now being cared for in quarantine facilities at Highland Wildlife Park before being transferred to Edinburgh Zoo.

Some conservation groups have been campaigning to have the wild cats reintroduced to Scotland.

Those who support the idea include the Mammal Society, which has suggested rogue rewilders could be behind the releases.

The organisation said it would love to see a stable and healthy population of wild lynx thriving in the UK, and that the reintroduction of the species could “redress ecosystem imbalance and restore biodiversity to our depleted landscapes”.

The society said it understood the “frustration” which could lead to illegal releases, but that there were “no shortcuts” to achieving its goal.

“Illegal releases are irresponsible and not the answer,” it said.

The Cairngorms National Park Authority has appealed to the public to stay away from the search area.

There are four lynx species – it has not been confirmed which species the Kingussie cats are – but Eurasian lynx are the largest.

Adults are roughly the size of a Labrador dog.

Lynx died out in Britain 500 to 1,000 years ago, but similar species are still found in continental Europe, Russia and Asia.

In the wild they prey on roe deer, young red deer and also hares and rabbits.

A licence is required under the Dangerous Animals Act to keep lynx.

Local authority Highland Council said no premises in the area had applied for, or were operating under a Dangerous Wild Animal (DWA) licence.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare says lynx are mostly active at night and typically avoid humans.

It does warn that lynx, like other wild animals, could attack in self-defence if cornered.

WWF says attacks on livestock, such as sheep, are “much smaller than perceived”.

It is a landscape of hills, commercial forestry and native woodland on the edge of some of the highest mountains in the Cairngorms.

Insh Marshes, near Kingussie, is an RSPB Scotland reserve where beavers were recently released under licence.

Kingussie and the nearby village of Newtonmore are home to a total of about 1,500 people.

The area has seen heavy snowfall in recent days.

Cairngorms National Park is largest in the UK. It is twice the size of Lake District National Park.

Other animals once native to Scotland have been illegally released before.

They include wild boar and beavers.

A hardline Sri Lankan monk who is a close ally of ousted former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has been sentenced to nine months in prison for insulting Islam and inciting religious hatred.

Galagodaatte Gnanasara was convicted on Thursday for the remarks, which date back to 2016.

Sri Lanka rarely convicts Buddhist monks, but this marks the second time that Gnanasara, who has repeatedly been accused of hate crimes and anti-Muslim violence, has been jailed.

The sentence, handed down by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court, comes after a presidential pardon he received in 2019 for a six-year sentence related to intimidation and contempt of court.

Gnanasara was arrested in December for remarks he made during a 2016 media conference, where he made several derogatory remarks against Islam.

On Thursday, the court said that all citizens, regardless of religion, are entitled to the freedom of belief under the Constitution.

He was also given a fine of 1,500 Sri Lankan rupees ($5; £4). Failure to pay the fine would result in an additional month of imprisonment, the court’s ruling added.

Gnanasara has filed an appeal against the sentence. The court rejected a request from his lawyers to free him on bail until a final judgment was made on the appeal.

He was a trusted ally of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced to resign and flee abroad following mass protests over the island nation’s economic crisis in 2022.

During Rajapaksa’s presidency, Gnanasara, who also leads a Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist group, was appointed head of a presidential task force on legal reforms aimed at protecting religious harmony.

After Rajapaksa’s ouster, Gnanasara was jailed last year for a similar charge related to hate speech against the country’s Muslim minority but was granted bail while appealing his four-year sentence.

In 2018, he was sentenced to six years for contempt of court and intimidating the wife of a political cartoonist who is widely believed to have been disappeared. However, he only served nine months of that sentence because he received a pardon by Maithripala Sirisena who was the country’s president at the time.

Firefighters are battling to control huge wildfires in Los Angeles that have killed at least 10 people, devoured thousands of buildings and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

It’s a rapidly changing situation – these maps and pictures show the scale of the challenge, where the fires are and the damage they have caused.

The largest blaze, in the Pacific Palisades area is the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history. Almost 20,000 acres have now burnt.

Placing the area affected on to maps of New York and London gives a sense of how big that is, stretching from Clapham to Greenwich in the UK’s capital, or across large areas of lower Manhattan and Queens.

Five fires are currently burning in the Los Angeles area.

• Palisades fire: The largest active fire is burning between Santa Monica and Malibu. Burnt area: almost 20,000 acres. More than 5,300 structures destroyed. At least 30,000 people evacuated.

• Eaton fire: Second largest fire burning north of Pasadena. Burnt area: at least 13,690 acres. Potentially more than 4,000 structures damaged or destroyed. Five deaths reported.

• Hurst fire: To the north east of the city. Burnt area: 770 acres.

• Lidia fire: Reported in the hills north of Los Angeles. Burnt area: 394 acres.

• Kenneth fire: In the West Hills area, just north of the Palisades. Began on Thursday afternoon and has so far burned 960 acres.

But three 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.

Sunset fire: Reported in the historic Hollywood Hills area near many famous landmarks, including the Hollywood sign. Burnt area: 43 acres.

Officials say more than 10,000 structures have been destroyed by the two biggest fires – about 5,000 each in the Palisades and Eaton blazes.

As the maps below show, the fires are largely burning uninhabited areas but they have spread into populated areas and many more buildings could be at risk depending on how the infernos spread.

Among the buildings already destroyed in the Palisades blaze are many of the exclusive properties that line the Malibu waterfront.

Slide your cursor across the image below to see an aerial view of what the area used to look like and what it looks like now.

Both the Palisades and Eaton fires can be seen from space, as shown in the satellite image below.

A combination of an exceptionally dry period – downtown Los Angeles has only received 0.16 inches (0.4cm) of rain since October – and powerful offshore gusts known as the Santa Ana winds have created ripe conditions for wildfires.

Santa Ana winds flow east to west through southern California’s mountains, according to the National Weather Service.

Blowing across the deserts further inland, they create conditions where humidity drops, which dries out vegetation. If a fire does start, the winds can fan smouldering embers into an inferno in minutes.

The map below shows just 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.

The Palisades fire now covers almost 20,000 acres and thousands of people have been forced to evacuate the area, as more than 1,400 firefighters try to tackle the blaze.

The Eaton fire has also grown rapidly from about 1,000 acres on Tuesday to more than 13,000 acres, forcing thousands more people to flee.

• 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

Photographers have also been capturing the heartbreaking level of damage the fires have caused on the ground – as these before-and-after photos demonstrate.

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.

With authorities still working to contain the fires, the scope of the losses is still unfolding but they are on track to be among the costliest in US history, with losses already expected to exceed $135bn (£109.7bn).

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, so conditions remain ripe for fire.

The death of a teenage boy sparked violent protests in a city in north-west China, the BBC has confirmed through verified video.

In the videos shared on social media, protesters can be seen hurling objects at police and officers beating some demonstrators in Pucheng in Shaanxi province.

Authorities said the teenager fell to his death on 2 January in an accident at his school dormitory. But following his death allegations began spreading on social media that there had been a cover-up.

Protests erupted soon after and lasted a few days, before they were apparently quelled earlier this week. The BBC has seen no further evidence of protest in Pucheng since then.

Public demonstrations are not uncommon in China, but authorities have been particularly sensitive about them since the 2022 White Paper protests against Covid policies, which saw rare criticism of the Chinese Communist Party and President Xi Jinping.

State media has been silent on the protests in Pucheng. Any clips or mention of the demonstrations have been largely censored from Chinese social media, as is usually the case for incidents deemed sensitive by authorities.

But several videos have been leaked out of China and posted on X.

The BBC has confirmed these videos were filmed at the Pucheng Vocational Education Centre, and found no earlier versions online prior to the reported outbreak of the protests over the past few days.

When contacted by the BBC, a representative from the publicity department of the Pucheng government denied there had been protests. There was no answer when we rang an official handling media queries.

In a statement released earlier this week, local authorities said that the teenager surnamed Dang was a third-year student at the education centre in Pucheng.

Prior to his death, Dang had been woken up in the night by other students chatting in his dormitory, their statement said. He got into an argument and altercation with a boy, which was resolved by a school official.

Later that night, his body was found by another student at the foot of the dormitory block.

The statement described it as “an accident where a student fell from a height at school”. It added that the police had conducted investigations and an autopsy, and “at present exclude it as a criminal case”.

But allegations have swirled online for days that there was more to the story and that the school and authorities were hiding the truth. One account claimed, without proof, that Dang killed himself after he was bullied by the boy he’d fought with earlier.

Unverified remarks from his family have been circulating, alleging that the injuries on Dang’s body were inconsistent with the authorities’ version of events and that they were not allowed to examine his body for long.

The allegations appeared to have incensed many in Pucheng, sparking protests that drew at least hundreds of people.

Bullying has become a highly sensitive topic in China in recent years, with past cases of student deaths triggering protests. Last month, a Chinese court handed out lengthy jail sentences to two teenagers who murdered a classmate.

There are also videos posted on X on Monday, which the BBC has confirmed were filmed at the Pucheng Vocational Education Centre, showing people mourning the teenager’s death. They placed flowers and offerings at the entrance of the school, and conducted a traditional mourning ritual by throwing pieces of paper from the rooftop of a school building.

Other videos circulating online appear to show demonstrators, many of them young, storming a building and clashing with police while shouting “give us the truth”.

One verified clip shows a school official confronted by shouting protesters who shove him around. Others show destroyed offices in the compound, and protesters pushing down a barricade at the school entrance.

Other clips show protesters hurling objects such as traffic cones at groups of retreating police; and officers tackling and detaining people while beating them with batons. Some protesters are seen with blood on their heads and faces.

There is little information on what happened next, but reports on social media suggest a much larger police presence in Pucheng in recent days with no more reports of demonstrations.

Authorities have also urged the public not to “create rumours, believe in rumours, or spread rumours”.

Mel Gibson has revealed his home has been destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires while he was away recording Joe Rogan’s podcast.

The Oscar-winning film star said his Malibu property was “completely toasted” and criticised California Governor Gavin Newsom over the crisis.

At least 10 people have died in the wildfires, which have burned down thousands of buildings and prompted the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.

A host of celebrities have told how they have lost their properties, while officials have warned more high winds could further fan the flames of the wildfires.

Gibson said he felt “ill at ease” during his visit to Austin, Texas, to appear as a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience, because he knew his neighbourhood was “on fire”.

“It’s kind of devastating, it’s emotional,” Gibson said on NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas Reports.

“I’ve been relieved from the burden of my stuff because it’s all in cinders.”

The Braveheart star said he had lived at his property for about 15 years and the homes of some of his neighbours had also “gone”, including one belonging to actor Ed Harris.

Gibson said his family had followed an evacuation order and they were safe.

In the podcast with Rogan, Gibson criticised the California governor, saying Newsom claimed he was “going to take care of the forests” but “didn’t do anything”.

“I think all our tax dollars probably went for Gavin’s hair gel,” the actor said.

• Follow live updates on the LA wildfires
• What’s the latest on the fires and what caused them?
• In maps: Thousands of acres on fire in LA
• Celebrities who have lost homes in wildfires

Los Angeles is facing the worst wildfires in its history, which have consumed 31,000 acres (12,500 hectares) of land and led to the evacuation of 180,000 people.

Five wildfires are still burning across the LA areas of Palisades, Eaton, Kenneth, Hurst and Lidia.

California fire chief David Acuna told Radio 4’s Today programme that 10,000 structures are likely to have been destroyed. He also warned that winds over the coming days could lead to further destruction in the area.

Republican President-elect Donald Trump has called for Newsom, a Democrat, to resign over his handling of the crisis, saying “one of the best and most beautiful” parts of the US is “burning down to the ground”.

Newsom has defended the response and said state authorities were “throwing everything at our disposal” to protect communities.

The governor’s spokeswoman accused Trump of politicising the disaster and said Newsom was focused on protecting people and making sure firefighters have the resources they need.

US President Joe Biden said he had pledged extra federal resources to help California after “the most widespread, devastating fire” in the state’s history.

Paris Hilton and Billy Crystal are among the celebrities whose homes have been destroyed in the wildfires.

Hilton, the hotel heiress and reality TV star, shared a video of the remains of her property on social media and said “the heartbreak is truly indescribable”.

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.

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

The US Office star Rainn Wilson shared a video of his burnt-out home and said there was a “valuable lesson” to learn from the wildfires.

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

Meanwhile, actor Steve Guttenberg, a Pacific Palisades resident, helped to move parked cars to make way for fire engines.

“This is not a parking lot,” he told KTLA. “I have friends up there and they can’t evacuate.”

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who live in California, are understood to have invited into their home friends and loved ones who had been forced to evacuate.

In a statement on their website, Harry and Meghan said: “If a friend, loved one, or pet has to evacuate, and you are able to offer them a safe haven in your home, please do.”

The daughter of late Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos has been banned from drinking on planes and in airports after she and her husband got into a drunken brawl with another passenger on board a Jetstar flight.

Analisa Josefa Corr and James Alexander Corr caused a “disturbance” with their “disorderly behaviour” while intoxicated on a flight from Hobart to Sydney on 29 December, Australia police said.

Ms Corr has been accused of “grabbing and shaking another passenger while exiting the aircraft toilet”, police said. The pair were escorted off the flight.

They pleaded not guilty to charges of not complying with safety instructions and consuming alcohol not provided by the crew, but on Friday agreed to a booze ban while on bail.

If found guilty, they could be fined up to A$13,750 ($8,520; £6,925) for each charge.

Ms Corr has also denied a charge of assaulting a fellow passenger on board the aircraft, which carries up to two years in prison.

They have each also been asked to offer up A$20,000, which would be forfeited they breach any bail conditions.

Ms Corr, 53, is Marcos’ Australia-raised daughter with former Sydney model Evelin Hegyesi – which makes her the half-sister of the Philippines’ current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

On Instagram Ms Corr describes herself as an interior designer.

Mr Corr, 45, is a former soldier, according to Australian media.

In its statement on the case, police urged travellers to be “mindful of their behaviour at airports”.

“You don’t want to start the new year with a significant fine or worse, behind bars,” said Australian Federal Police Sergeant Luke Stockwell.

“The AFP is increasing patrols at all major airports during the holidays and will not tolerate dangerous, disruptive or abusive behaviour from travellers,” he added.

Jetstar did not directly comment on the incident, but a spokesman said the company will “never tolerate disruptive behaviour on our aircraft”.

“The safety and wellbeing of customers and crew is our number one priority,” he added.

Indian cricket fans are still reeling from the team’s crushing 1-3 defeat in the five-match Test series against Australia.

Once dominant in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, with historic victories over the mighty Australians over the past decade, the tourists fell short, exposing vulnerabilities in a side long thought invincible.

The series highlighted glaring issues – Indian batters struggled, and Jasprit Bumrah was the lone bowler to trouble Australia.

The loss not only cost India the coveted Border-Gavaskar Trophy but also denied them a spot in the World Test Championship (WTC) final, breaking their streak of back-to-back appearances in 2021 and 2023, where they lost to New Zealand and Australia respectively.

India’s recent form is troubling – they have lost six of their last eight Tests, including a shocking 0-3 home whitewash against New Zealand.

The defeats have raised questions about the team’s depth, the future of key players like captain Rohit Sharma and former skipper Virat Kohli, and their ability to rebuild.

With a team in transition and stalwarts fading, Indian Test cricket faces pressing challenges to sustain its legacy in a rapidly evolving landscape.

India’s next red-ball challenge is a five-Test series in England starting July. England’s conditions, known for dramatic shifts even within a session, will test players’ technique, skills and adaptability to the limit.

India hasn’t won a series in England since 2007, with only two prior victories (1971, 1986), highlighting the daunting task ahead. Adding to the pressure, recent failures against New Zealand and Australia leave selectors grappling with tough decisions on player selection and team combinations for this critical campaign.

The biggest headache for selectors is the form of batting stalwarts Sharma and Kohli after dismal outings in Australia and earlier against New Zealand.

Sharma managed just 31 runs in three Tests in Australia, with his poor form seeing him dropping himself for the final game. Kohli fared slightly better with 190 runs in nine innings, but 100 runs of his total came in one knock. His dismissals followed a pattern – caught in the slips or behind the stumps – pointing to a glaring technical flaw or mental fatigue under pressure.

Since January 2024, Sharma has managed just 619 runs in 16 Tests with one century. Kohli’s numbers are worse over time – averaging 32 in Tests since 2020 with only two centuries.

Once a late-blooming Test opener and blazing match-winner, Sharma now struggles to find his ideal batting position. Meanwhile, Kohli’s surreal decline – after a decade of dominance and swagger- has left cricket’s former titan in an extended slump.

From Sunil Gavaskar to Sachin Tendulkar to Kohli, the baton of Indian batting greatness has passed seamlessly. But a worthy successor to Kohli remains elusive.

KL Rahul has the class but lacks the hunger for consistent big scores. Rishabh Pant is a thrilling maverick, equally capable of winning or losing a match. Shubman Gill, touted as the next Big Thing, has struggled overseas despite his undeniable pedigree and needs careful nurturing.

Punjab’s young left-hander Abhishek Sharma, mentored by Yuvraj Singh, is highly rated, while Nitish Kumar Reddy impressed on debut in Australia with his fearless performances in tough situations.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, India’s top Test run-scorer in Australia this series, has been the standout among young batsmen. With panache, patience, technical assurance, and explosive strokes, he looks poised to become Kohli’s successor as the team’s talisman.

India’s talent pool is brimming across departments. Jasprit Bumrah, with his 32-wicket haul against Australia, has cemented his status as a fast-bowling colossus. Backed by Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and a dozen promising quicks, India boasts a formidable pace arsenal for all formats.

That said, Bumrah is a once-in-a-generation talent and needs careful workload management. Overburdening him, as in the Australia series, risks breakdowns that could impede the attack. Shami, after lengthy stints in rehab, also requires careful handling. Together, they form one of modern cricket’s most formidable pace pairs.

With Ravichandran Ashwin’s sudden retirement and Ravindra Jadeja’s lukewarm showing in Australia, India’s spin depth looks thin. However, Washington Sundar has shown promise on home pitches, while young spinners Ravi Bishnoi and Tanush Kotian, who joined the squad mid-series in Australia, are knocking on the doors of Test cricket.

Smarting from recent losses to New Zealand and Australia, the Indian cricket board is moving swiftly to usher in a transition. Selectors have been directed to shortlist potential Test players from the second round of the domestic Ranji Trophy, resuming 23 January.

All players, including Sharma and Kohli, are likely to be asked to play domestic cricket – a move that could help them regain form.

Managing a team in transition poses complex challenges requiring patience, empathy, and clear vision. Knee-jerk reactions or external pressure could worsen the situation instead of providing solutions.

Whether Sharma and Kohli can overcome their crisis remains to be seen, but India’s wealth of talent should lift the current gloom surrounding Indian cricket.

It’s worth recalling that in 2011, after winning the ODI World Cup, India was whitewashed 4-0 in Test series against England and Australia. Cricket seemed to hit rock bottom.

But, within months, a revival led by young talents like Kohli, Sharma, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Jadeja, Ashwin, and others saw India rise to become the world’s top team across formats, holding that position for nearly a decade.