Japanese TV host Masahiro Nakai, one of the country’s most recognisable faces on television, has announced that he is retiring after a sexual assault allegation that has rocked the country’s entertainment industry.

Nakai, who presented for Fuji Television, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a 2023 dinner party held by staff.

Dozens of companies have pulled their commercials from Fuji Television amid claims that the company’s staff had tried to cover up the scandal.

Nakai has denied using violence against the woman, and said on 9 January that he had “resolved” the matter with her through a settlement. But this did little to quell public anger.

In a social media statement posted on Thursday, Nakai said that he was “truly sorry for causing trouble and losses to so many people”.

“I’m really, really sorry for saying good-bye this way.”

His resignation comes days after Fuji Television president Koichi Minato confirmed that the company did not disclose Nakai’s scandal despite being aware of it long before it was reported in the media.

Vehicle makers Nissan and Toyota, as well as retail company Seven & I holdings which runs the retail 7-eleven convenience store chain, were among those that announced they were pulling advertising from Fuji Television over the scandal.

Fuji Television is expected to set up an independent committee to investigate the scandal.

Appearances of Nakai have also been scrubbed from programmes.

Nakai soared to stardom in the 1990s as the leader of Japanese boy band SMAP, one of Asia’s most successful acts. The group released more than 50 singles – many of which became chart toppers – and launched a weekly variety show on prime-time television.

After SMAP disbanded in 2016, Nakai went on to become a television host as well as one of the wealthiest celebrities in Japan.

Japan’s entertainment industry is facing a reckoning with long unspoken cases of sexual assault.

In 2023, J-pop executive Johnny Kitagawa, who by then had been dead for four years, was exposed to have sexually abused hundreds of boys and young men for decades.

His talent agency, Johnny & Associates, had managed SMAP among other boy bands.

When Zhang Junjie was 17 he decided to protest outside his university about rules made by China’s government. Within days he had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital and treated for schizophrenia.

Junjie is one of dozens of people identified by the BBC who were hospitalised after protesting or complaining to the authorities.

Many people we spoke to were given anti-psychotic drugs, and in some cases electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), without their consent.

While there have been reports for decades that hospitalisation is used in China as a way of detaining dissenting citizens without involving the courts, a leading Chinese lawyer has told the BBC that the issue – which legislation sought to resolve – has recently seen a resurgence.

Junjie says he was restrained and beaten by hospital staff before being forced to take medication.

His ordeal began in 2022, after he protested against China’s harsh lockdown policies. He says his professors spotted him after just five minutes and contacted his father, who took him back to the family home. He says his father called the police, and the next day – on his 18th birthday – two men drove him to what they claimed was a Covid test centre, but was actually a hospital.

“The doctors told me I had a very serious mental disease… Then they tied me to a bed. The nurses and doctors repeatedly told me, because of my views on the party and the government, then I must be mentally ill. It was terrifying,” he told the BBC World Service. He was there for 12 days.

Junjie believes his father felt forced to hand him over to the authorities because he worked for the local government.

Just over a month after being discharged, Junjie was once again arrested. Defying a fireworks ban at Chinese New Year (a measure brought in to fight air pollution) he had made a video of himself setting them off. Someone uploaded it online and police managed to link it to Junjie.

He was accused of “picking quarrels and troublemaking” – a charge frequently used to silence criticism of the Chinese government. Junjie says he was forcibly hospitalised again for more than two months.

After being discharged, Junjie was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. We have seen the prescription – it was for Aripiprazole, used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

“Taking the medicine made me feel like my brain was quite a mess,” he says, adding that police would come to his house to check he had taken it.

Fearing a third hospitalisation, Junjie decided to leave China. He told his parents he was returning to university to pack up his room – but, in fact, he fled to New Zealand.

He didn’t say goodbye to family or friends.

Junjie is one of 59 people who the BBC has confirmed – either by speaking to them or their relatives, or by going through court documents – have been hospitalised on mental health grounds after protesting or challenging the authorities.

The issue has been acknowledged by China’s government – the country’s 2013 Mental Health Law aimed to stop this abuse, making it illegal to treat someone who is not mentally unwell. It also explicitly states psychiatric admission must be voluntary unless the patient is a danger to themselves or others.

In fact, the number of people detained in mental health hospitals against their will has recently surged, a leading Chinese lawyer told the BBC World Service. Huang Xuetao, who was involved in drafting the law, blames a weakening of civil society and a lack of checks and balances.

“I have come across lots of cases like this. The police want power while avoiding responsibility,” he says. “Anyone who knows the shortcomings of this system can abuse it.”

An activist called Jie Lijian told us he had been treated for mental illness without his consent in 2018.

Lijian says he was arrested for attending a protest demanding better pay at a factory. He says police interrogated him for three days before taking him to a psychiatric hospital.

Like Junjie, Lijian says he was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs that impaired his critical thinking.

After a week in the hospital, he says he refused any more medication. After fighting with staff, and being told he was causing trouble, Lijian was sent for ECT – a therapy which involves passing electric currents through a patient’s brain.

“The pain was from head to toe. My whole body felt like it wasn’t my own. It was really painful. Electric shock on. Then off. Electric shock on. Then off. I fainted several times. I felt like I was dying,” he says.

He says he was discharged after 52 days. He now has a part-time job in Los Angeles and is seeking asylum in the US.

In 2019, the year after Lijian says he was hospitalised, the Chinese Medical Doctor Association updated its ECT guidelines, stating it should only ever be administered with consent, and under general anaesthetic.

We wanted to find out more about the doctors’ involvement in such cases.

Speaking to foreign media such as the BBC without permission could get them into trouble, so our only option was to go undercover.

We booked phone consultations with doctors working at four hospitals which, according to our evidence, are involved with forced hospitalisations.

We used an invented story about a relative who had been hospitalised for posting anti-government comments online, and asked five doctors if they had ever come across cases of patients being sent in by police.

Four confirmed they had.

“The psychiatric department has a type of admission called ‘troublemakers’,” one doctor told us.

Another doctor, from the hospital where Junjie was held, appears to confirm his story that police continued surveillance of patients once discharged.

“The police will check up on you at home to make sure you take your medicine. If you don’t take it you might break the law again,” they said.

We approached the hospital in question for comment but it did not respond.

We have been given access to the medical records of democracy activist Song Zaimin, hospitalised for a fifth time last year, which makes it clear how closely political views appear to be tied to a psychiatric diagnosis.

“Today, he was… talking a lot, speaking incoherently, and criticising the Communist Party. Therefore, he was sent to our hospital for inpatient treatment by the police, doctors, and his local residents’ committee. This was an involuntary hospitalisation,” it says.

We asked Professor Thomas G Schulze, president-elect of the World Psychiatric Association, to review these notes. He replied:

“For what is described here, no-one should be involuntarily admitted and treated against his will. It reeks of political abuse.”

Between 2013 and 2017, more than 200 people reported they had been wrongfully hospitalised by the authorities, according to a group of citizen journalists in China who documented abuses of the Mental Health Law.

Their reporting ended in 2017, because the group’s founder was arrested and subsequently jailed.

For victims seeking justice, the legal system appears stacked against them.

A man we are calling Mr Li, who was hospitalised in 2023 after protesting against the local police, tried to take legal action against the authorities for his incarceration.

Unlike Junjie, doctors told Mr Li he wasn’t ill but then the police arranged an external psychiatrist to assess him, who diagnosed him with bipolar disorder, and he was held for 45 days.

Once released, he decided to challenge the diagnosis.

“If I don’t sue the police it’s like I accept being mentally ill. This will have a big impact on my future and my freedom because police can use it as a reason to lock me up any time,” he says.

In China, the records of anyone ever diagnosed with a serious mental health disorder could be shared with the police, and even local residents’ committees.

But Mr Li was not successful – the courts rejected his appeal.

“We hear our leaders talking about the rule of law,” he told us. “We never dreamed one day we could be locked up in a mental hospital.”

The BBC has found 112 people listed on the official website for Chinese court decisions who, between 2013 and 2024, attempted to take legal action against police, local governments or hospitals for such treatment.

Some 40% of these plaintiffs had been involved in complaints about the authorities. Only two won their cases.

And the site appears to be censored – five other cases we have investigated are missing from the database.

The issue is that the police enjoy “considerable discretion” in dealing with “troublemakers,” according to Nicola MacBean from The Rights Practice, a human rights organisation in London.

“Sending someone to a psychiatric hospital, bypassing procedures, is too easy and too useful a tool for the local authorities.”

Eyes are now on the fate of vlogger Li Yixue, who accused a police officer of sexual assault. Yixue is said to have recently been hospitalised for a second time after her social media posts talking about the experience went viral. It is reported she is now under surveillance at a hotel.

We put the findings of our investigation to the UK’s Chinese embassy. It said last year the Chinese Communist Party “reaffirmed” that it must “improve the mechanisms” around the law, which it says “explicitly prohibits unlawful detention and other methods of illegally depriving or restricting citizens’ personal freedom”.

When Thailand’s long-awaited equal marriage law came into effect on Thursday, police officer Pisit “Kew” Sirihirunchai hoped to be among the first in line to marry his long-term partner Chanatip “Jane” Sirihirunchai.

And he was – they were the sixth couple to register their union at one of Bangkok’s grandest shopping malls, in an event city officials helped organise to celebrate this legal milestone.

Hundreds of couples across Thailand received marriage certificates on Thursday, breaking into smiles or tearing up over the moment they had dreamed of for so long.

It was a pageant of colours and costumes as district officials hosted parties with photo booths and free cup cakes – one Bangkok district was giving air tickets to the first couple who registered their marriage there.

“The rainbow flag is flying high over Thailand,” Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra wrote on Facebook from Davos where she is attending the World Economic Forum.

Activists said they were hoping to cross the 1,448-mark for registrations by the end of Thursday – 1448 is the clause in the Thai Civil Code covering the definition of marriage.

“We have been ready for such a long time,” Pisit said. “We have just been waiting for the law to catch up and support us.”

The two men have been together for seven years. Eager to formalise their relationship, they had previously been to a Buddhist monk to give them an auspicious new last name they can share – Sirihirunchai. They had also asked local officials to issue a letter of intent, which they both signed, pledging to get married.

But they said having their partnership recognised under Thai law is what they had been waiting for: “This is perfect for us. The law that protects our rights.”

Until now, official documents listed Pisit and Chanatip as brothers. That way they could be a family in the eyes of the law. A marriage certificate means LGBTQ+ couples now have the same rights as any other couple to get engaged and married, to manage their assets, to inherit and to adopt children.

They can also make decisions about medical treatment if their partner becomes ill and incapacitated, or extend financial benefits – such as Pisit’s government pension – to their spouse.

“We want to build a future together – build a house, start a small business together, maybe a café,” he adds, making a list of all that the law has enabled. “We want to build our future together and to take care of each other.”

The law, which passed in both houses of parliament in June last year before being endorsed by the Thai king in September, is a big step for LGBTQ+ rights.

Thailand remains an outlier in Asia in recognising marriage equality – only Nepal and Taiwan have legalised same-sex unions.

It’s one reason why Aki Uryu, who is Japanese, moved to Bangkok to be with her partner. She said life is difficult for the LGBTQ+ community back home: “In Thailand, I can hold hands with my partner, walk together. No one says anything. It’s just different. It feels right.”

After the two women married on Thursday, Aki said: “It is like I have started my new life.”

Watching them celebrate, along with so many other couples in a Bangkok mall, was Mr Zhang, a gay Chinese man who did not want to reveal his first name.

“We’re excited, we’re also very jealous,” he said. “Thailand is so close to China, but in another sense it’s so far away.”

And yet, even in Thailand, with its famed tolerance towards LGBTQ+ people, activists say it took a sustained campaign to win legal recognition.

“We’ve been waiting for this day for 18 years – the day everyone can recognise us openly, when we no longer need to be evasive or hide,” 59-year-old Rungtiwa Thangkanopast, who will marry her partner of 18 years in May, told the BBC earlier this week.

She had been in a marriage, arranged by her family, to a gay man, who later died. She had a daughter, through IVF, but after her husband’s death began spending time, and later helping run, one of the first lesbian pubs in Bangkok. Then she met Phanlavee, who’s now 45 and goes by her first name only.

On Valentine’s Day 2013 the two women went to the Bang Rak district office in central Bangkok to ask to be officially married – a popular place for marriage registration because the name in Thai means “Love Town”.

This was the time when LGBTQ+ couples began challenging the official view of marriage as an exclusively heterosexual partnership by attempting to get marriage certificates at district offices.

There were around 400 heterosexual couples waiting with them on that day. Rungtiwa and Phanlavee were refused, and the Thai media mocked their effort, using derogatory slang for lesbians.

Still, activists managed to persuade the government to consider changing the marriage laws. A proposed civil partnership bill was put before parliament, offering some official recognition to same-sex couples, but not the same legal rights as heterosexual couples.

A military coup in 2014 which deposed the elected government interrupted the movement. It would be another decade before full marriage equality was approved by parliament, in part because of the rise of young, progressive political parties that championed the cause.

Their message resonated with Thais – and attitudes too had changed. By this time, same-sex marriage was legalised in many Western countries and same-sex love had become normalised in Thai culture too.

Such was the shift in favour of the law that it was passed last year by a thumping majority of 400 votes to just 10 against. Even in the notoriously conservative senate only four opposed the law.

And couples like Rungtiwa and Phanleeva now have their chance to have their love for each other recognised, without the risk of public derision.

“With this law comes the legitimacy of our family,” Rungtiwa says, “We’re no longer viewed as weirdos just because our daughter isn’t being raised by heterosexual parents.”

The new law takes out gender-specific terms like man, woman, husband and wife from 70 sections of the Thai Civil Code covering marriage, and replaces them with neutral terms like individual and spouse.

However, there are still dozens of laws in the Thai legal code which have not yet been made gender-neutral, and there are still obstacles in the way of same-sex couples using surrogacy to have a family.

Parents are still defined under Thai law as a mother and a father. The law also does not yet allow people to use their preferred gender on official documents; they are still stuck with their birth gender. These are areas where activists say they will still need to keep pushing for change.

And it is especially significant for older couples, who have had to ride out the shifts in attitude.

“I really hope people will put away the old, stereotypical ideas that gay men cannot have true love,” said Chakkrit “Ink” Vadhanavira.

He and his partner Prinn, both in their 40s, have been together for 24 years.

“The two of us have proved that we genuinely love each other through thick and thin for more than 20 years,” Chakkrit said. “We have been ready to take care of each other since our first day together. We are no different from heterosexual couples.”

While Chakkrit’s parents quickly accepted their partnership, it took Prinn’s parents seven years before they could do so.

The couple also wanted to share the production business they ran together, and other assets, as a couple, so they asked Prinn’s parents to adopt Chakkrit officially, giving him the same family name. Prinn says the new law has brought welcome legal clarity to them.

“For example, right now when a same sex couple buy something together – a large item – they cannot share ownership of it,” said Prinn. “And one of us passes away, what both of us have earned together cannot be passed on to the other. That’s why marriage equality is very significant.”

Today, said Prinn, both sets of parents treat them as they would just like any other married children.

And when they had relationship problems like any other couple, their parents helped them.

“My dad even started reading gay magazines to understand me better. It was quite cute to see that.”

Officials are investigating the “mysterious” deaths of 17 people – most of them children – in the same village in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

The deaths, including those of 12 children, have occurred in the remote village of Badhal in Jammu’s Rajouri district since 7 December.

The victims initially displayed symptoms similar to food poisoning but suddenly lost consciousness, health officials said.

The village has been declared a containment zone, but officials have said that the disease does not appear to be infectious, and there is no fear of an epidemic.

Dr AS Bhatia, the chief of a local hospital, said that the first five patients – including four children – who were admitted had symptoms similar to food poisoning, including vomiting and diarrhoea. Others complained of sore throats and breathing problems.

But then, all of them would abruptly lose consciousness, he added.

The federal government has ordered an investigation. A special investigation team set up by the local administration, comprising police officers, pathologists and other specialists, has questioned dozens of people so far.

According to initial investigations, consumption of contaminated food and water may have been the cause. Residents of the village have been asked not to drink water from a local spring after a test sample showed it contained traces of pesticides.

The deaths occurred between 7 December and 19 January and the victims were members of three related families. Six of the children who died were siblings, with ages ranging from seven to 15 years. Their houses have been sealed.

Though doctors have ruled out the possibility of an infection, an administrative order says that people identified as close contacts of the three families are being moved to a government hospital in Rajouri, where their condition will be monitored. The order also asks all other residents of Badhal to only consume food and water provided by the administration.

“All edible materials in the infected households shall be seized by the authorities,” the order said.

At least 10 people have been admitted for treatment in hospitals in Rajouri, Jammu and Chandigarh city.

Dr Shuja Quadri, an epidemiologist at the Government Medical College in Rajouri, said that the disease is localised and that they have ruled out the possibility of viral, bacterial, protozoal and zoonotic infections.

Among the second cluster of patients who were admitted on 12 December, five people, including a one-year-old child, have recovered.

“This was a ray of hope for us,” Dr Bhatia said.

Lynn Ban, a celebrity jewellery designer from Singapore who starred in the Netflix reality show Bling Empire, has died a month after undergoing brain surgery following a ski accident.

Her son Sebastian confirmed her death on an Instagram post on Wednesday, where he paid tribute to his 51-year-old mum as a “best friend and the best mother”.

The accident happened in Aspen in the US on Christmas Eve.

Ban’s family did not reveal her immediate cause of death.

In a social media post on New Year’s Eve, Ban had revealed that while skiing at the top of a mountain she had fallen and “face planted”.

As she was wearing a helmet, “it didn’t seem that bad at the time and I was able to ski to the bottom,” she had said, adding that a ski patrol officer later checked for a concussion and cleared her.

But she still had “a bit of a headache” and decided to go to a hospital, on the advice of a paramedic. She then discovered she had a brain bleed, and went for an emergency craniotomy.

“In a blink of an eye… life can change,” she had written in the post, which was accompanied by a picture of her in bed with her head partially shaved. “There’s a long road of recovery ahead but I’m a survivor.”

Born in Singapore, Ban had worked in New York, London and Paris.

Her designs have been worn by pop stars Madonna, Beyonce, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Cardi B and Billie Eilish, according to her website.

On Bling Empire New York in 2023, she was part of a cast of Asian American socialites who “flaunt their fortunes — and fashions — while bringing the drama and living it up in New York City”, according to Netflix.

In his tribute, Sebastian Ban said he wanted the world to know who his mum was as a person.

“She always had a smile on her face even when times are tough during her recovery process,” he said.

“She is a fighter until the end and is the strongest woman I know,” he said.

The conservative opposition leader tipped to lead Germany following next month’s elections has promised far-reaching changes to border and asylum rules after a group of children were targeted in a deadly knife attack in Bavaria.

Friedrich Merz promised in effect to close Germany’s borders to all irregular migrants, including those with a right to protection.

A two-year-old boy of Moroccan origin and a man aged 41 were killed in Wednesday’s attack in Aschaffenburg, and several others were hurt.

An Afghan man aged 28 was due to appear in court on Thursday accused of murder and grievous harm.

Wednesday’s stabbing in Aschaffenburg is the latest in a string of violent and fatal attacks that have involved suspects who have sought asylum in Germany.

In a matter of hours, the stabbings prompted a hardened tone from Chancellor Olaf Scholz as well as Merz, the centre-right opposition leader.

Scholz promised quick action and called it an “act of terror” – although officials have not, so far, said that they believe there was a terrorist motive.

Merz, whose Christian Democrats lead the opinion polls ahead of 23 February federal elections, refused to accept that attacks in Mannheim last May, Solingen in August and Magdeburg last month, would be “the new normal”.

The Afghan suspect in yesterday’s attack arrived in Germany in 2022 and was linked to three previous acts of violence, according to Bavarian officials. He had agreed to leave Germany last month but was still receiving psychiatric treatment and living in asylum accommodation.

An investigating judge will decide whether he should be remanded in custody or placed temporarily in a psychiatric hospital.

Merz said that on his first day as chancellor he would instruct the interior ministry to take permanent control of Germany’s borders.

“We see before us the ruins of 10 years of misguided asylum and immigration policy in Germany,” he said. “We reached the limit.”

Under his party colleague, Angela Merkel, Germany welcomed more than a million refugees during Europe’s 2015-16 migrant crisis.

Criticising EU asylum rules as as “recognisably dysfunctional”, he said Germany should now “exercise its right to the primacy of national law”.

Germany has already reinstated checks on its borders to combat illegal immigration, which is allowed temporarily under the EU’s border-free Schengen rules as a “last-resort” measure, but not on permanent basis.

Merz also said it was time to significantly increase the number of places available for detention ahead of deportation.

Merz’s promise to close the borders to illegal entries on day one at the chancellery in Berlin has a Trumpian ring to it.

The US president has pushed through a flurry of executive orders and actions to tackle illegal immigration since he re-entered the White House this week.

In Germany, both the centre-left chancellor and Merz are conscious that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has been consistently polling second, has made immigration a signature issue.

AfD leader Alice Weidel has called for a vote in the German parliament next week on closing Germany’s borders and turning back irregular migrants. “The knife terror of Aschaffenburg must have consequences now,” she said on social media.

Some critics will argue that Scholz and Merz’s move to take a tougher stance now comes too late. Others will argue that a rightwards shift by mainstream parties could simply bolster the AfD’s arguments.

In any case German politics does not lend itself to a presidential-style set of day-one decrees, given the necessity of forming coalitions with other parties.

The leader of the liberal Free Democratic Party, Christian Lindner, said Merz would not be able to introduce such changes if he went into coalition with the Social Democrats or Green party.

Nancy Faeser, who is both interior minister and a party colleague of Olaf Scholz, suggested that “some people are now making largely fact-free arguments in election campaign mode”.

“I can only warn very clearly against abusing such a terrible act for populism, that only benefits the right-wing populists with their contempt for humanity,” she said.

The 41-year-old man who was killed in Wednesday’s knife attack has been praised, apparently for coming to the aid of the kindergarten group and saving the lives of other children.

Another two-year-old of Syrian origin suffered knife wounds to her neck.

A man of 72 suffered serious stab wounds and a kindergarten teacher suffered a broken arm.

The price to climb Mount Everest will soon increase for the first time in nearly a decade, as Nepal announces a sharp mark-up in permit fees.

From September, those seeking to summit the world’s tallest mountain during peak season will have to pay $15,000 (£12,180), a 36% rise on the longstanding fee of $11,000, officials said on Wednesday.

Fees for those wanting to climb outside the peak April to May period will also increase by the same percentage – meaning it will cost $7,500 during September to November, and $3,750 during December to February.

Income from permit fees is a key source of revenue for Nepal, with mountain climbing and trekking contributing more than 4% to the country’s economy.

Mountaineering experts often criticise Nepal’s government for allowing too many climbers on Everest, however, with about 300 permits to the mountain issued per year.

It is unclear if the price increase, which was under discussion since last year, will slow demand.

“The royalty (permit fees) had not been reviewed for a long time,” Narayan Prasad Regmi, director general of the Department of Tourism, told Reuters. “We have updated them now.”

Regmi did not specify how the extra revenue would be used.

The rise in permit fees came as “no surprise”, said British mountaineer Kenton Cool, who has reached the summit of Everest 18 times.

“In the grand scheme of the cost to climb Everest it won’t impact most foreign climbers,” he told the BBC.

“Hopefully, the extra revenue will be put to good use.”

In April 2024, Nepal’s Supreme Court ordered the government to limit the number of mountaineering permits issued for Everest and other peaks, saying that the mountains’ capacity “must be respected”.

The preliminary order did not set a maximum number, though.

Amid concerns about overcrowding on Everest and climbers queuing in dangerous conditions to reach the summit, the Nepalese army in 2019 began conducting an annual clean-up of the mountain, which is often described as the world’s highest garbage dump.

In that time at least five clean-ups have collected 119 tonnes of rubbish, 14 human corpses and some skeletons, according to the army – but it is estimated that a further 200 bodies remain on the mountain.

Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest.

An endangered plant known as the “corpse flower” for its putrid stink is blooming in Australia – and captivating the internet in the process, with thousands already tuned in to a livestream to witness its grand debut.

The titan arum plant, housed in the Royal Botanic Gardens of Sydney, blooms only once every few years for just 24 hours.

Affectionately dubbed Putricia, it will release a smell described as “wet socks, hot cat food, or rotting possum flesh”.

The long wait to see Putricia fully unfurl has spawned jokes and even a unique lingo in the livestream’s chat, with thousands commenting “WWTF”, or “We Watch the Flower”.

The livestream attracted more than 8,000 simultaneous viewers on Thursday, doubling within hours as the plant’s appearance slowly changed.

John Siemon, director of horticulture and living collections at the gardens, compared the spectacle to Sydney’s 2000 Olympics, saying “we’ve had 15,000 people come through the gates before it [the flower] even opened”.

“This specimen is around 10 years old. We acquired it from our colleagues in LA Botanic Garden at the age of three, and we’ve been nurturing it for the last seven years,” he told the BBC’s Newsday programme.

“[We’re] incredibly excited to have our first bloom in 15 years.”

After days of inaction, the view on the livestream markedly changed on Thursday as Putricia, comfortably ensconced behind a red velvet rope, began to open up.

As she continues to bloom, viewers can expect to see Putricia unfold a vibrant maroon or crimson skirt, known as a spathe, around her spadix which is the large spike in the middle of the plant.

The gardens has said it is “hard to predict exactly when” Putricia will bloom, but that has not stopped the thousands gathered online.

“I’m back again to see how Putricia is going and I can see she’s still taking her time like the queen she is, fair play,” wrote one commenter. “This is the slowest burlesque ever,” said another.

Yet another person wrote: “Overnight I watched, fell asleep, awoke, watched, fell asleep. I am weak, but Putricia is strong. WWTF.”

Other popular acronyms among viewers are WDNRP (We Do Not Rush Putricia) and BBTB (Blessed Be The Bloom).

The plant can only be found in the rainforests of Sumatra, Indonesia, where it is known as bunga bangkai – or “corpse flower” in Indonesian. Its scientific name is , which is derived from Ancient Greek and means “giant misshapen penis”.

When in bloom, the plant’s long yellow spadix emits a strong odour, often compared to the smell of decaying flesh, to trick pollinators into landing on what they think is rotten meat so they can move pollen between male and female specimens.

It has the world’s largest flowering structure, as it can grow up to 3m (10 feet) tall and weigh up to 150kg. The plant contains several hundred flowers in the base of its spadix.

It is endangered in the wild due to deforestation and land degradation.

Putricia is one of several titan arums in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens, which last saw one bloom 15 years ago.

But there have been other corpse flower blooms across Australia in recent years, including Melbourne and Adelaide’s botanic gardens, each time attracting thousands of curious visitors keen on having a whiff.

There are also a few housed in Kew Gardens in London, where one bloomed in June last year. The titan arum first flowered outside of Sumatra in 1889 in Kew.

The top prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) says he will seek arrest warrants against senior leaders of the Taliban government in Afghanistan over the persecution of women and girls.

Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani bore criminal responsibility for crimes against humanity on gender grounds.

ICC judges will now decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.

The ICC investigates and brings to justice those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, intervening when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute.

In a statement, Mr Khan said the two men were “criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women”.

Opposition to the Taliban government is “brutally repressed through the commission of crimes including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts”, he added.

The persecution was committed from at least 15 August 2021 until the present day, across Afghanistan, the statement said.

Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in 2016, and is now leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, he participated in Islamist groups fighting against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan.

Haqqani was a close associate of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and served as a negotiator on behalf of the Taliban during discussions with US representatives in 2020.

The Taliban government is yet to comment on the ICC statement.

The Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, 20 years after a US-led invasion toppled their regime in the fallout of the 9/11 attacks in New York, but its government has not been formally recognised by any other foreign power.

“Morality laws” have since meant women have lost dozens of rights on the country.

Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are prevented from accessing secondary and higher education – some one-and-a-half million have been deliberately deprived of schooling.

The Taliban has repeatedly promised they would be re-admitted to school once a number of issues were resolved – including ensuring the curriculum was “Islamic”. This has yet to happen.

Beauty salons have been shut down and women are prevented from entering public parks, gyms and baths.

A dress code means they must be fully covered and strict rules have banned them from travelling without a male chaperone or looking a man in the eye unless they’re related by blood or marriage.

In December, women were also banned from training as midwives and nurses, effectively closing off their last route to further education in the country.

A Seattle judge will hear a request on Thursday by four states to temporarily halt President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship in the US.

The request – filed on behalf of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon – asks for the order to be paused while the federal court considers the states’ legal challenge.

It marks the first court hearing on the executive order, signed by Trump on Monday, which seeks to end the right to citizenship for children who are born in the US to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily.

A group of 18 other Democratic-led states, along with the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco, have filed a separate challenge.

Birthright citizenship is the automatic American citizenship that is granted to anyone born in the country. It is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, making it difficult to overturn.

Trump, who has issued a range of unilateral actions since returning to the US presidency on Monday, has long vowed to make this particular change.

His executive order called on US government departments and agencies to deny the granting of citizenship to the children of migrants who are either in the US illegally or on temporary visas.

It will apply to children born on 19 February and onwards, according to legal filings in the case by the Department of Justice (DoJ).

There have been reports that the administration will enforce the order by withholding documents, such as passports, from people it deems ineligible for citizenship.

In their lawsuit, the four states challenging the order argue that the 14th Amendment and US law “automatically confer citizenship upon individuals born in the United States” and that the president does not have the power to amend the Constitution.

They add that if the order is implemented, residents of those states will “suffer immediate and irreparable harm”.

“The individuals who are stripped of their United States citizenship will be rendered undocumented, subject to removal or detention, and many will be stateless,” the lawsuit states.

The states’ lawsuit seeks to block federal agencies from acting on the order – while the request for a temporary restraining order looks to pause the president’s order while the court hears the arguments.

In response, the DoJ argues in its own papers that the case does not warrant the “extraordinary measure” of a temporary restraining order.

It also offers a different interpretation of the 14th Amendment, highlighting that the document affords US citizenship only to people born in the US “and subject to there jurisdiction thereof”, arguing that this excludes children of non-citizens who are in the US unlawfully.

The DoJ adds that Trump’s order is “an integral part” of his goal to address the country’s “broken immigration system and the ongoing crisis at the southern border”.

Thousands of people could be impacted by the order. There were 255,000 children born to undocumented mothers in the US in 2022, according to the states’ legal challenge.

The broader legal action issued against Trump’s administration will feature personal testimony from state attorneys general themselves, the AP news agency reports. William Tong, who represents Connecticut and is a US citizen by birthright, told AP the matter was personal, adding: “There is no legitimate legal debate on this question.”

Without a direct amendment to the US Constitution – which requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress, plus the approval by America’s states – experts say the issue is likely to be ultimately decided by the courts.

Thursday’s court hearing will be presided over by Judge John Coughenour, who has served in the Western District of Washington court since 1981 after he was appointed by then-president Ronald Reagan.

Trump’s birthright citizenship order is also facing a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Donald Trump has warned he will impose high tariffs and further sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin fails to end the war in Ukraine.

Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, he said that by pushing to settle the war he was doing Russia and its president a “very big favour”.

Trump had previously said he would negotiate a settlement to Russia’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022, in a single day.

Responding to the threat of harsher sanctions, the Kremlin said it remains “ready for an equal dialogue, a mutually respectful dialogue”.

“We’re waiting for signals that are yet to arrive,” said President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

He added that Russia sees nothing new in Donald Trump’s threats to impose sanctions.

“He likes these methods, at least he liked them during his first presidency.”

Putin has said repeatedly that he is prepared to negotiate an end to the war, which first began in 2014, but that Ukraine would have to accept the reality of Russian territorial gains, which are currently about 20% of its land. He also refuses to accept Ukraine joining Nato, the military alliance of Western countries.

Kyiv does not want to give up its territory, although President Volodymyr Zelensky has conceded he may have to cede some currently occupied land temporarily.

On Tuesday, Trump told a news conference he would be talking to Putin “very soon” and it “sounds likely” that he would apply more sanctions if the Russian leader did not come to the table.

But in his Truth Social post the next day, he went further: “I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR,” he wrote.

“Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”

Continuing, he wrote: “Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL’.”

• LIVE: Follow BBC’s live coverage after Trump takes office
• ANALYSIS: Six Trump executive orders to watch
• IN DEPTH: Relationship with Europe this time may be very different
• PARDONS: Jan 6 defendants get nearly everything they wanted

Trump’s former special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, said Trump’s threat of more serious sanctions on Russia “gives a signal to Vladimir Putin this is going to get worse, not better”. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he added: “We should incentivise Putin to say, ‘OK, it’s time actually to have a ceasefire.'”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the World Economic Forum on Tuesday that at least 200,000 peacekeepers would be needed under any agreement.

And he told Bloomberg that any peacekeeping force for his country would have to include US troops to pose a realistic deterrent to Russia.

“It can’t be without the United States… Even if some European friends think it can be, no, it will not be,” he said, adding that no-one else would risk such a move without the US.

While Ukraine’s leaders might appreciate this tougher-talking Trump – they have always said Putin only understands strength – the initial reaction in Kyiv to the US president’s comments suggest that it is actions people are waiting for, not words.

Trump has not specified where more economic penalties might be aimed, or when. Russian imports to the US have plummeted since 2022 and there are all sorts of heavy restrictions already in place.

Currently, the main Russian exports to the US are phosphate-based fertilisers and platinum.

Speaking to the BBC, Volker said the Russian economy could take “substantial” damage if Trump chose to preserve or strengthen the toughest US sanctions so far, which he said were only levied as Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden left office. “Russia really didn’t feel as much pressure as they could,” he commented.

On social media, there was a generally scathing response to Trump’s comments from Ukrainians. Many suggested that more sanctions would be a weak reply to Russian aggression. But the biggest question for most is what Putin is actually open to discussing with Ukraine at any peace talks.

In Moscow meanwhile, some people are seeing signs that the Kremlin may be readying Russians to accept less than the “victory” once envisaged, which included tanks rolling all the way west to the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa.

TV editor Margarita Simonyan, who is stridently pro-Putin, has begun talking of “realistic” conditions for ending the war, which she suggests could include halting the fighting along the current frontline.

That would mean the four Ukrainian regions that Putin illegally pronounced as Russian territory more than two years ago, including Zaporizhzhia, still being partially controlled by Kyiv.

Russian hardliners, the so-called “Z” bloggers, are furious at such “defeatism”.

In his BBC interview on Thursday, Trump’s former envoy Volker said he was “sceptical that there is going to be a deal per se”, adding that the first priority of the US could be to stop the fighting and then deter more attacks by Putin.

In Wednesday’s social media post, Trump also couched his threat of tariffs and tighter sanctions in words of “love” for the Russian people and highlighted his respect for Soviet losses in World War Two – a near-sacred topic for Putin.

But Trump massively overestimated the numbers and appeared to think the USSR was Russia alone. In reality, millions of Ukrainians and other Soviet citizens also lost their lives.

That said, the man who previously said he could “understand” Russia’s concerns about Ukraine joining Nato – which for Kyiv is tantamount to saying Putin was provoked – does seem to be shifting his tone.

Trump’s position matters. But after 11 years of war with Russia and a history of poor peace deals, Ukrainians are not inclined to be too hopeful.

More than 100 Reddit communities have banned users from posting links to X in protest at owner Elon Musk’s controversial arm gesture at a rally celebrating Donald Trump’s return to office.

The billionaire twice extended his arm out straight as he thanked the crowd for “making it happen.”

Critics, including some historians, said it was a Nazi salute – Mr Musk has dismissed that, saying comparisons with Hitler were “tired” and “dirty tricks.”

However many Reddit users have been unpersuaded by his response describing his actions as “hateful”, leading the moderators of scores of communities – or subreddits – to stop content being shared on X.

X has not commented but Reddit has stressed there is no sitewide ban on X links, telling the BBC in a statement it “has a longstanding commitment to freedom of speech and freedom of association”.

However the platform relies heavily on community moderation, where unpaid individuals known as Redditors decide what is – and isn’t – allowed to be published on their own corner of the website.

In many instances, those Redditors have reached a different conclusion, deciding Mr Musk’s actions were so offensive that they won’t link to content from their subreddits on X, potentially reducing traffic, engagement and – ultimately – revenue.

The biggest subreddits to have enforced the ban include basketball community r/NBA, which has 15 million members, female-focused community r/TwoXChromosomes, which has 14 million members, and American football community r/NFL, which has 12 million members.

It is worth remembering that subreddits are almost always run by fans – it does not mean that the NFL or NBA organisations are taking a stance against Musk.

The BBC has independently verified that at least 100 subreddits have banned X posts.

Of this number, more than 60 have at least 100,000 members.

But the actual number that have instituted the ban will likely be significantly higher by taking into account smaller subreddits with only a few thousand members.

And there are many more communities discussing a potential blacklisting.

The subreddits run by fans of football clubs Liverpool, Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur have all instituted the bans, as have communities for many US sports sides as well as Formula 1.

The subreddits where residents of many cities and countries gather around the world – ranging from New Jersey to South Korea – have also blocked posts to X.

And gamers are also amongst those to bring in the ban for video games including Baldur’s Gate 3 and World of Warcraft.

But while the blacklisting may have first started in some of these communities, it is popping up in a variety of places now where people gather to discuss all sorts of topics, ranging from RuPaul’s Drag Race to Disneyland and even the military.

While the vast majority of subreddits discussing a ban are in favour of it, there are some that have refused.

The moderators of the Maine community for example say they won’t institute a ban so long as “the state maintain official accounts there”.

And those running a group for people in British Columbia said they simply aren’t “doing censorship here”.

Though there are many subreddits which already disallow posts from social media, those built around professional sports in particular may have a big impact on referrals to X.

That’s because sports subreddits generally get a lot of content from links to athletes, analysts and journalists who spend a lot of time posting online.

For example, the top two most popular posts of all time on the NBA subreddits are screenshots taken from X, while three of the top ten most popular posts of all time on the AEW wrestling subreddit are screenshots from the platform.

And gaming subreddits have a similar story, with the top posts on the Animal Crossing and Kingdom Hearts communities both screenshots from X.

But that is not to say the bans will necessarily be permanent – Reddit is known for this sort of community movement to protest against wider issues, which doesn’t always work out.

In 2023, thousands of communities “went dark” to contest changes to how the platform was being run.

Some of the biggest Reddit communities then began only allowing photos and videos of comedian John Oliver, following comments from disgruntled users.

But this proved to be short-lived.

Eventually the communities mostly became publicly available again, and Reddit’s plan ultimately proved financially beneficial – the platform subsequently successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Leaders of the far-right organisations at the forefront of the Capitol riot who were released on Donald Trump’s orders say they are planning to regroup.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes defended his actions during the 6 January 2021 riot and said he was “very grateful” to President Trump for commuting his sentence.

Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison on a number of charges including seditious conspiracy, or plotting to overthrow the government.

Meanwhile, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, former head of the Proud Boys, indicated to reporters that he had rejoined the all-male group.

“We’ve made the decision four years ago not to tell the media what our structure is, but I’d suggest that the media should stop calling me ‘ex-Proud Boy,'” he told reporters as he travelled to his home in Miami on Wednesday.

Tarrio, who was serving a 22-year sentence, said members of the congressional committee who investigated the riot “need to be imprisoned.”

“I’m happy that the president’s focusing not on retribution and focusing on success, but I will tell you that I’m not going to play by those rules,” he said in an interview on Infowars. “They need to pay for what they did.”

Rhodes called for prosecution of Capitol police officers who testified against him at trial and Justice Department lawyers who pursued his case.

He alleged that officers who were at the Capitol that day – 174 of whom were injured – were responsible for the violence.

He told the BBC that he would like his group to “go back to the mission we had at the very beginning… to advocate that the police of the United States follow the Constitution and don’t violate people’s rights.”

Police officers responsible for defending the US Congress reject those allegations and say they faced an unruly mob determined to stop legal proceedings.

Rhodes said: “I didn’t go inside, nor did I instruct anyone else to. I simply stood outside and exercised my right to free speech.”

The militia leader complained he did not get a fair trial because it was held in Washington DC, where the riot took place, and jurors were local – an argument that was previously rejected in court.

While most of those who stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021 hoping to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election were not part of any official group, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys each brought dozens of supporters to Washington.

Nearly 1,600 people have been arrested or convicted of riot-related crimes, according to the US Justice Department, including 600 charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing police.

On Monday, hours after his inauguration, Trump commuted 14 sentences – including Rhodes’ – and issued a blanket pardon for the rest of the convicts and suspects.

• What are presidential pardons and who has Trump pardoned?

Members of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia founded by Rhodes in 2009, transported weapons to a hotel room in Virginia and discussed sending them across the Potomac River to Washington.

But they never put such a plan into action. While Rhodes remained outside the Capitol building that day, prosecutors said he directed members inside the building.

The Proud Boys were founded in 2016 as a politically-minded drinking club, and later became known for street brawls with far-left Antifa activists.

Shortly before the riot, Tarrio was ordered by law enforcement to remain outside Washington, and he communicated with other Proud Boys leaders from a nearby hotel.

After the Capitol riot and the arrest of the leaders, the Oath Keepers largely ceased operations while the Proud Boys fractured, retreating to their local chapters and keeping a relatively low profile.

However in recent days, their channels on the chat app Telegram have been full of celebratory chatter along with barbs and slurs directed at opponents.

Members have discussed regrouping and getting involved in efforts to deport immigrants – although the legal basis for doing so is unclear.

A number of lawmakers have criticised the pardons – including Democrats but also Republicans.

Senator Tom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said: “I’m about to file two bills that will increase the penalties up to and including the death penalty for the murder of a police officer and increasing the penalties and creating federal crimes for assaulting a police officer.

“That should give you everything you need to know about my position,” he said.

Susan Collins, the moderate Republican senator from Maine, said: “I do not support the pardons if they were given to people who committed violent crimes.”

But others were in favour.

“One-hundred percent I’m for them,” said Senator Tommy Tuberville. “Pardon every one of them. They’ve been there long enough.”

Vegetable vendor Shivnarayan Dasana had never seen so many policemen descend on his village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

The 60-year-old lives in Tarapur in the industrial town of Pithampur, known for its automobile and pharmaceutical factories. The town has been tense since containers holding 337 tonnes of toxic waste from the site of one of the world’s worst industrial disasters arrived for disposal three weeks ago.

The waste, transported from the now-defunct Union Carbide factory in the city of Bhopal – site of the 1984 gas tragedy that killed thousands – has sparked fears among locals.

They worry that disposing of it near their homes could be harmful and even cause an environmental disaster.

Protests erupted on 3 January, a day after the waste arrived in the town, escalating into stone-throwing and attempted self-immolations.

Since then, heavy police patrols near the disposal facility have turned Tarapur and surrounding areas into a virtual garrison.

The police have registered seven cases against 100 people since the protests began, but the townspeople continue to raise concerns about industrial pollution at smaller community meetings.

The toxic waste cleared from the Bhopal factory included five types of hazardous materials – including pesticide residue and “forever chemicals” left from its manufacturing process. These chemicals are so-named because they retain their toxic properties indefinitely.

Over the decades, these chemicals have seeped into the surrounding environment, creating a health hazard for people living around the factory in Bhopal.

But officials dismiss fears of the waste disposal causing environmental issues in Pithampur.

Senior official Swatantra Kumar Singh outlined the staggered process in an attempt to reassure the public.

“Hazardous waste will be incinerated at 1,200C (2,192F), with 90kg (194.4lb) test batches followed by 270kg batches over three months if toxicity levels are safe,” he said.

Mr Singh explained that a “four-layer filtering will purify smoke”, which will prevent toxins from entering the air and the residue from incineration will be “sealed in a two layer membrane” and “buried in a specialised landfill” to prevent soil and groundwater contamination.

“We’ve trained 100 ‘master trainers’ and are hosting sessions to explain the disposal process and build public trust,” said administrator Priyank Mishra.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has also defended the waste disposal, calling it both safe and necessary. He urged residents to voice their concerns legally, noting that the disposal was carried out only after orders from the high court.

Environmental experts, however, have differing views on the process.

Some like Subhash C Pandey believe the disposal poses no risk if done properly. Others, like Shyamala Mani, are calling for alternatives to incineration. She argues that incineration increases residual slag and releases harmful toxins like mercury and dioxins.

Ms Mani suggests that bioremediation, a process using micro-organisms to break down harmful substances in waste, could be a more effective and eco-friendly solution.

But residents remain sceptical.

“It’s not just waste. It’s poison,” said Gayatri Tiwari, a mother of five in Tarapur village. “What’s the point of life if we can’t breathe clean air or drink clean water?”

Pollution is an undeniable reality for the residents of Pithampur. Residents cite past groundwater contamination and ongoing health issues as reasons for scepticism.

The town’s rapid industrial growth in the 1980s led to hazardous waste build-up, contaminated water and soil with mercury, arsenic and sulphates. By 2017, the federal agency Central Pollution Control Bureau flagged severe pollution in the area.

Locals allege that many companies don’t follow the rules to dispose of non-hazardous waste, choosing to dump it in the soil or water. Tests in 2024 showed elevated harmful substances in water. Activists link this to alleged environmental violations at the disposal facility but officials have denied this.

“Water filters in our homes don’t last two months. Skin diseases and kidney stones are common now. Pollution has made life unbearable,” said Pankaj Patel, 32, from Chirakhan village, pointing to his water purifier which needs frequently replacing.

Srinivas Dwivedi, regional officer of the State Pollution Control Board, dismissed concerns, saying it’s “unrealistic” to expect pre-industrial conditions in Pithampur.

Meanwhile, in Bhopal, nearly 230km (143 miles) away from Pithampur, activists argue that the disposal process is a distraction from much larger issues.

Since the disaster, the toxic material lay in the mothballed factory for decades, polluting groundwater in the surrounding areas.

More than 1.1 million tonnes of contaminated soil remain at the Union Carbide factory site, according to a 2010 report by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute and the National Geophysical Research Institute.

“The government is making a show of disposing of 337 metric tonnes while ignoring the much bigger problem in Bhopal,” said Nityanand Jayaraman, a leading environmentalist.

“The contamination has worsened over the years, yet the government has done little to address it,” added Rachna Dhingra, another activist.

Government estimates say 3,500 people died shortly after the gas leak, with over 15,000 dying later. Activists claim the toll is much higher, with victims still suffering from the side effects of the poisoning.

“Given Pithampur’s history of pollution, residents’ fears are valid,” said Mr Jayaraman.

Officials said they are only “dealing with the waste as specified by the court’s directive”.

But the reality of Bhopal has deepened the mistrust among the people of Pithampur, who are now prepared to take to the streets again to oppose the waste disposal.

Vegetable vendor Shivnarayan Dasana said the issue goes beyond the waste itself.

“It’s about survival – ours and our children’s,” he said.

Actor and director Justin Baldoni has released out-takes from a romantic scene in his film It Ends With Us, which he says is evidence that his co-star Blake Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment are unfounded.

However, she has responded by saying the footage of the pair filming a slow dance is “damning” and corroborates her claims.

The two stars played a couple in the hit film, which came out last year, but have since become embroiled in an increasingly bitter legal battle.

Lively, 37, sued Baldoni, 40, in December, accusing him of engaging in “inappropriate and unwelcome behaviour” and a smear campaign to “destroy” her reputation. He countersued last week, claiming she had made a “duplicitous attempt to destroy” him.

• Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni: What you need to know

On Tuesday, Baldoni’s team released almost 10 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage to outlets including the Daily Mail and Variety.

It includes three takes from a scene set in a bar, and starts with a caption saying they “clearly refute” Lively’s allegations of inappropriate behaviour, and show both actors “clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism”.

Lively’s lawyers said it showed him “repeatedly leaning in toward Ms Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character”.

Every moment “was improvised by Mr Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance, and no intimacy co-ordinator present”, they said.

“Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognise Ms Lively’s discomfort.

“They will recognise her attempts at levity to try to deflect the unwanted touching. No woman should have to take defensive measures to avoid being touched by their employer without their consent.”

Releasing the video was “another example of an unethical attempt to manipulate the public”, they claimed.

Baldoni’s lawyer told the Hollywood Reporter his client was exercising “his right to publicly defend himself by putting forth actual facts and evidence”.

“Ms Lively wants very different standards to apply to her but fortunately, truth and authenticity apply to everyone and can never be wrong,” he said.

Lively’s lawsuit cited the scene as an example of how Baldoni “ignored well-established industry protocols in filming intimate scenes, and exploited the lack of controls on set to behave inappropriately”.

Her legal documents said he wasn’t speaking in character and that no sound was recorded.

“At one point, he leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘it smells so good.’

“None of this was remotely in character, or based on any dialogue in the script, and nothing needed to be said because, again, there was no sound – Mr Baldoni was caressing Ms Lively with his mouth in a way that had nothing to do with their roles.

“When Ms Lively later objected to this behaviour, Mr Baldoni’s response was, ‘I’m not even attracted to you.'”

His legal documents said Lively was “consistently unable to take direction” and that she “insisted” she wanted the characters to constantly talk, which he disagreed about.

When he tried to “encourage her to take his direction, Baldoni offered up that he and his wife often just look into each other’s eyes silently, to which she responded, ‘Like sociopaths,’ and laughed.”

Lively “continued arguing” and “continued to break character”, which was “extremely confusing for Baldoni”.

He said Lively apologised for the smell of her spray tan and body make-up. “Baldoni responded, ‘It smells good,’ and continued acting, slow dancing as he believed his character would with his partner, which requires some amount of physical touching.”

Lively joked about Baldoni’s nose, and that he should get plastic surgery, he said.

“Any suggestion that this scene was filmed in any manner other than pure professionalism by Baldoni is unequivocally countered with actual evidence,” his documents added.

“Her allegation of sexual harassment is a documented and knowingly fabricated lie.”

Lively and Baldoni, who was also the film’s director, are slow dancing in a bar and their audio was recorded. After an initial exchange in which she questions whether they are in the correct position, they dance and smile silently.

He kisses her forehead then goes to kiss her on the lips before she apparently hesitates and they continue dancing. She then seems to turn her head with their faces close together and he kisses her cheek.

She tells him: “I think we should be talking. I think it’s more romantic if we’re like… dancing and talking.” He agrees and says “the whole montage is us talking”.

She continues: “Cause it’s like the moment they kiss, then you give them the thing that they want to see.”

He replies: “That’s why almost kissing is also good.” She responds: “Yeah. But we’re still talking.”

They continue dancing affectionately, laughing and discussing the scene. He nuzzles her neck. She tells him talking is “more romantic”. He says he “just got lost” and there’s “no issue with talking most of the time” because viewers will “never know [what’s being said] in slow motion”.

He tells her “I know you and Ryan [Reynolds, her husband] talk all the time”, but he and his wife Emily like to stare at each other, joking that “you would find it terrifying”. She laughs and jokes that “I’d be like, ‘Oh no I found a sociopath'”.

He asks the camera operator to film their lips “super close”, to which she agrees but adds that they should “start talking” and “don’t give it [the kiss] to them”. He agrees they should “keep restraint”.

They keep dancing with their foreheads and noses touching, upon which she starts laughing because she feels “so nosey”. He jokes that “my nose is so big” and she laughs that the film would have to “shut down” and “deal with that”, adding: “Just kidding.”

In the next take, he appears to kiss her neck then says “Am I getting beard on you today?” She laughs and responds: “I’m probably getting spray tan on you.” He nuzzles the other side of her neck and says: “It smells good”. She adds: “Well, it’s not that, it’s my body make-up”. They continue dancing and he shouts cut.

A third take shows their feet and bodies as they dance. The opening caption says “these are all three takes filmed of the sequence”.

A song recorded for Tina Turner’s blockbuster album Private Dancer, that was presumed lost, has been rediscovered and received its first play on BBC Radio 2.

Hot For You, Baby, was cut at Capitol Studios in Hollywood and originally intended to be an album track.

But it was ultimately jettisoned in favour of era-defining pop hits such What’s Love Got To Do With It, Better Be Good To Me and the album’s title track.

Presumed missing, the master tape was recently rediscovered as her record label compiled a 40th anniversary re-release of Private Dancer.

An up-tempo rocker, full of showboating guitar chords and an extremely 1980s cowbell, Hot For You, Baby is a prime example of Turner’s raspy, physical style of soul.

The track was played on the Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Thursday, at 08:50 GMT.

Produced by John Grant, the record executive who masterminded her mid-career comeback, it was written by Australian musicians George Young and Harry Vanda.

It had already been recorded once by Scottish-Australian singer John Paul Young, the voice behind disco classic Love Is In The Air.

However, his version largely flew under the radar when it was released in 1979.

Private Dancer, released in May 1984, launched an unprecedented second act in Tina Turner’s career.

She had escaped an abusive marriage to musician Ike Turner at the end of the 1970s, but the divorce left her penniless, living off food stamps and playing ill-conceived cabaret shows to pay her debts.

The music industry had largely written her off – but in England, where pop was in thrall to American R&B, she still had some heavyweight fans.

In 1981, Rod Stewart invited Turner to play with him on Saturday Night Live; and the Rolling Stones asked her to be part of their US tour. More importantly, perhaps, David Bowie told Capitol Records that Turner was his favourite singer.

But the turning point came when she hooked up with British producers Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh, of the band Heaven 17, to record a synth-pop version of the Temptations’ 1970 hit Ball of Confusion.

A huge hit in Europe, its success persuaded Capitol to let her record an album, but they hardly threw their weight behind it.

The budget only paid for two weeks in the studio, and many of the songs Turner recorded were other artists’ cast-offs (both Cliff Richard and Bucks Fizz had turned down What’s Love Got To Do With It).

But she used her time wisely – recording all but one of Private Dancer’s songs in the UK with five different British production teams.

With the country in the grips of new wave and the new romantics, Turner was steered away from raw, fiery soul that first made her famous. But somehow, her electrifying vocals were a perfect fit for the chilly, programmed grooves she was given.

“Turner seems to completely understand the touch that each of these songs needed,” wrote Debby Miller, in a contemporaneous review of Private Dancer for Rolling Stone magazine.

In the New York Times, Stephen Holden described the record as “a landmark, not only in the career of the 45-year-old singer, who has been recording since the late 1950s, but in the evolution of pop-soul music itself”.

The album went on to sell more than 10 million copies, and earned three Grammys, including record of the year for What’s Love Got To Do With It.

Turner also performed the song on the live TV broadcast, wowing audiences with her vocals despite fighting a bad case of the flu.

A support slot on Lionel Richie’s US tour in 1984 reminded audiences of her ability to tear the roof off any venue she set foot in.

By 1985, Turner was one of the world’s biggest acts in an era of stadium superstars like Michael Jackson, Madonna and Prince.

The decision to withhold Hot For You, Baby from the original tracklist of Private Dancer makes sense. It sounds a little cheesy next to the sultry, sophisticated material that eventually populated the record.

But fans will welcome the chance to hear Turner let rip, back in her prime, with a promise to “love you all night long”.

Mark Goodier, who is currently covering the Radio 2 breakfast show, said: “To have something new to hear from Tina Turner is a treat for fans of all generations and a reminder of her unique talent.

“I’m lucky enough to have both interviewed Tina and seen her perform live. She was an outrageously good performer and at the same time a remarkable graceful lady, whose every note was shaped by her incredible life.”

As well as being released as a single, the track will feature on a new five-disc deluxe edition of Private Dancer, which is due for release in March.

The collection will also feature B-sides, remixes and live tracks, as well as a film of Turner playing Birmingham’s NEC Arena in March 1985, featuring guest appearances by David Bowie and Bryan Adams.

Turner died in 2023 at the age of 83. No cause of death was given, but she was known to be struggling with a kidney disease, intestinal cancer and other illnesses.

During his inaugural address, President Donald Trump doubled down on his assertion that China runs the Panama Canal.

“China is operating the Panama Canal and we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama and we’re taking it back,” he said.

The 51-mile (82km) Panama Canal cuts across the Central American nation and is the main link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Up to 14,000 ships use it each year as a shortcut to a journey which, before the canal was built, would have taken them on a lengthy and costly trip around the tip of South America.

The mention of Panama in his inaugural speech is not the first time he has focused on the Central American nation and its transoceanic canal.

On Christmas Day, Trump posted on social media that the “wonderful soldiers of China” were “lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal” – a claim which was swiftly denied by officials in Panama City and Beijing.

At the time, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino described the claim as “nonsense”, stressing that there was “absolutely no Chinese interference” in the canal.

Trump has also threatened to take the canal back by force, citing “exorbitant” fees being allegedly charged for US vessels to pass through it – another claim rejected by Panamanian authorities.

Following Trump’s inauguration address, President Mulino again stressed that there was “no presence of any nation in the world that interferes with our administration” of the Panama Canal.

The strategic waterway, which handles about 5% of global maritime trade volume, is operated by the Panama Canal Authority, an agency of the Panamanian government, not Chinese soldiers.

However, Mr Trump’s inaccurate claim reflects the concerns of some US officials over China’s significant investments in the canal and its surrounding infrastructure.

Historically, the US played a pivotal role in the construction and administration of the passage, which links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

After a failed attempt by the French to build it, the US secured the rights to undertake the project. The canal’s construction was completed in 1914.

It remained under US control until 1977, when then President Jimmy Carter signed a treaty to gradually hand it over to Panama, which Trump has referred to as “foolish”.

Since 1999, the Panama Canal Authority has held exclusive control over the operations of the waterway.

The treaties signed by both the US and Panama stipulated that it shall remain permanently neutral, but the US reserves the right to defend any threat to the canal’s neutrality using military force under this deal.

There is no public evidence to suggest that the Chinese government exercises control over the canal, or its military. However, Chinese companies have a significant presence there.

From October 2023 to September 2024, China accounted for 21.4% of the cargo volume transiting the Panama Canal, making it the second-largest user after the US.

In recent years, China has also invested heavily in ports and terminals near the canal.

Two of the five ports adjacent to the canal, Balboa and Cristóbal, which sit on the Pacific and Atlantic sides respectively, have been operated by a subsidiary of Hutchison Port Holdings since 1997.

The company is a subsidiary of the publicly listed CK Hutchison Holdings, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate founded by Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing.

It has port operations in 24 countries, including the UK.

Although it is not state-owned by China, says Ryan Berg, director of the Americas Program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, there have been concerns in Washington over how much control Beijing would be able to exert over the company.

A wealth of potentially useful strategic information on ships passing through the waterway flows through these ports.

“There is an increasing geopolitical tension of economic nature between the US and China,” Mr Berg says. “That kind of information regarding cargo would be very useful in the event of a supply chain war.”

CK Hutchison did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

The bids to operate those ports faced almost no competition, according to Andrew Thomas, a professor at the University of Akron who has written a book on the canal. “The US at the time didn’t really care about these ports and Hutchison faced no objection,” he says.

Chinese companies, both private and state-owned, have also strengthened their presence in Panama through billions of dollars in investments, including a cruise terminal and a bridge to be built over the canal.

This “package of Chinese activities”, as described by Mr Thomas, might have prompted Trump’s assertion that the canal is “owned” by China, but operation of those ports does not equate to ownership, he stresses.

Beijing has repeatedly said that China’s ties with Latin America are characterised by “equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness and benefits for the people”.

Panama’s strategic location means China has been vying to increase its influence in the country for years and expand its footprint on a continent that has traditionally been considered the “backyard” of the US.

In 2017, Panama broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan and established formal relations with China – a huge win for Chinese diplomacy.

Months later, Panama became the first Latin American country to join China’s signature Belt and Road Initiative, a trillion-dollar global infrastructure and investment initiative.

The Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras followed suit and also severed ties with Taipei in favour of Beijing.

China has slowly expanded its soft power by opening its first Confucius Institute in the country and providing a grant to build a railway. Chinese companies have also sponsored “media training” for Panamanian journalists.

Ayghad never thought that his dream of returning to his farmland could turn into a nightmare.

He fights his tears as he shows us a picture of his late father, smiling and surrounded by abundant olive trees in their land in Idlib province, northwestern Syria.

The picture was taken five years ago, a few months before forces linked to the former government took over their village, near the city of Saraqeb.

The city was a strategic stronghold for Syrian opposition factions for years, before forces allied with the fallen regime of Bashar al-Assad launched an offensive against rebels in Idlib province at the end of 2019.

Hundreds of thousands of residents fled their homes, as Assad forces took over several other rebel strongholds in the northwest by early 2020.

Ayghad and his father were among those displaced.

“We had to leave because of the fighting and air strikes,” Ayghad says, as the tears fill his eyes. “My father was refusing to leave. He wanted to die in his land.”

The father and son longed to return ever since. And when opposition forces regained control of their village in November 2024, their dream was about to come true. But disaster soon struck.

“We went to our land to harvest some olives,” Ayghad explains. “We went in two separate cars. My father took a different route back to our home in the city of Idlib. I warned him against it, but he insisted. His car hit a landmine and exploded.”

Ayghad’s father died instantly at the scene. Not only did he lose his dad that day, but he also lost his family’s main source of income. Their farmland, spread across 100,000 square metres, was filled with 50-year-old olive trees. It’s now been designated a dangerous minefield.

At least 144 people, including 27 children, have been killed by landmines and unexploded remnants of war since Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell in early December, according to the Halo Trust, an international organisation specialising in clearing landmines and other explosive devices.

The Syria Civil Defence – known as the White Helmets – told the BBC that many of those killed were farmers and landowners who were trying to go back to their land after the Assad regime collapsed.

Unexploded remnants of war pose a grave threat to life in Syria. They’re mainly split into two categories. The first are unexploded ordnances (UXOs) like cluster bombs, mortars and grenades.

Hassan Talfah, who heads the White Helmets team clearing UXOs in north-western Syria, explains that these devices are less challenging to clear because they are usually visible above ground.

The White Helmets say that, between 27 November and 3 January, they cleared some 822 UXOs in north-western Syria.

The bigger challenge, Mr Talfah says, lies in the second category of munition – landmines. He explains that former government forces planted hundreds of thousands of them across various areas in Syria – mainly on farmland.

Most of the deaths recorded since the Assad regime fell happened on former battle front lines, according to the White Helmets. Most of those killed were men.

Mr Talfah took us to two huge fields riddled with landmines. Our car followed his on a long, narrow and winding dirt road. It’s the only safe route to reach the fields.

Along the sides of the road, children run around the area. Hassan tells us they are from families who have recently returned. But the dangers of mines surround them.

As we get out of the car, he points to a barrier in the distance.

“This was the last point separating areas under the control of government forces from those held by opposition groups” in Idlib province, he tells us.

He adds that Assad forces planted thousands of mines in the fields beyond the barrier, to stop rebel forces from advancing.

The fields around where we stand were once vital farmlands. Today, they are all barren, with no greenery visible except for the green tops of land mines that we can see using binoculars.

With no expertise in clearing land mines, all the White Helmets can do for now is cordon these fields off, and hammer down signs along their borders warning people off.

They also spray-paint warning messages on dirt barriers and houses around the edges of the fields. “Danger – landmines ahead,” they read.

They lead campaigns to raise awareness among locals about the dangers of entering contaminated lands.

On our way back, we come across one farmer in his 30s who has recently returned. He tells us that some of the land belongs to his family.

“We couldn’t recognise any of it,” Mohammed says. “We used to plant wheat, barley, cumin and cotton. Now we cannot do anything. And as long as we cannot cultivate these lands, we will always be in poor economic condition,” he adds, clearly frustrated.

The White Helmets say they have identified and cordoned off around 117 minefields in just over a month.

They are not the only ones working to clear mines and UXOs, but it seems that there is little co-ordination between the efforts of various organisations.

There are no accurate statistics for the areas contaminated with UXOs or landmines. But international organisations, such as the Halo Trust, have drawn up approximate maps.

Halo Syria programme manager Damian O’Brien says that a comprehensive survey needs to be done for the country to understand the scale of contamination. He estimates that around a million devices would need to be destroyed to protect civilian lives in Syria.

“Any Syrian army position is quite likely to have some landmines laid around it as a defensive technique,” Mr O’Brien says.

“In places like Homs and Hama, there are entire neighbourhoods which have been almost completely destroyed. Anybody going into those structures to assess them, for either demolition or to rebuild them, needs to be aware that there may well be unexploded items in there, whether it’s bullets, cluster munitions, grenades, shells.”

The White Helmets came across a treasure trove that could aid efforts in clearing mines. In their office in the city of Idlib, Mr Talfah shows us a stack of maps and documents, left behind by government forces.

They show locations, numbers and types of mines planted in different fields across northwestern Syria.

“We will hand over these documents to the bodies that will deal with landmines directly,” Mr Talfah says.

But the local expertise currently available in Syria does not seem to be enough to combat the serious dangers that unexploded munitions pose to civilian life.

Mr O’Brien stresses that the international community needs to work alongside the new government in Syria to improve expertise in the country.

“What we need from donors is the funding, to be able to expand our capacity, which means employing more people, buying more machines and operating over a wider area,” he says.

As for Mr Talfah, clearing UXOs and raising awareness about their dangers has become a personal mission. Ten years ago, he lost his own leg while clearing a cluster bomb.

He says that his injury, and all the heart-breaking incidents he’s witnessed of children and civilians impacted by UXOs, have only fuelled his persistence to keep working.

“I never want any civilian or team member to go through what I have,” he says.

“I cannot describe the feeling I get when I clear a danger threatening the life of civilians.”

But until international and local efforts are coordinated to neutralise the danger of landmines, the lives of many civilians, especially children, remain at risk.

When Zhang Junjie was 17 he decided to protest outside his university about rules made by China’s government. Within days he had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital and treated for schizophrenia.

Junjie is one of dozens of people identified by the BBC who were hospitalised after protesting or complaining to the authorities.

Many people we spoke to were given anti-psychotic drugs, and in some cases electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), without their consent.

While there have been reports for decades that hospitalisation is used in China as a way of detaining dissenting citizens without involving the courts, a leading Chinese lawyer has told the BBC that the issue – which legislation sought to resolve – has recently seen a resurgence.

Junjie says he was restrained and beaten by hospital staff before being forced to take medication.

His ordeal began in 2022, after he protested against China’s harsh lockdown policies. He says his professors spotted him after just five minutes and contacted his father, who took him back to the family home. He says his father called the police, and the next day – on his 18th birthday – two men drove him to what they claimed was a Covid test centre, but was actually a hospital.

“The doctors told me I had a very serious mental disease… Then they tied me to a bed. The nurses and doctors repeatedly told me, because of my views on the party and the government, then I must be mentally ill. It was terrifying,” he told the BBC World Service. He was there for 12 days.

Junjie believes his father felt forced to hand him over to the authorities because he worked for the local government.

Just over a month after being discharged, Junjie was once again arrested. Defying a fireworks ban at Chinese New Year (a measure brought in to fight air pollution) he had made a video of himself setting them off. Someone uploaded it online and police managed to link it to Junjie.

He was accused of “picking quarrels and troublemaking” – a charge frequently used to silence criticism of the Chinese government. Junjie says he was forcibly hospitalised again for more than two months.

After being discharged, Junjie was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs. We have seen the prescription – it was for Aripiprazole, used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

“Taking the medicine made me feel like my brain was quite a mess,” he says, adding that police would come to his house to check he had taken it.

Fearing a third hospitalisation, Junjie decided to leave China. He told his parents he was returning to university to pack up his room – but, in fact, he fled to New Zealand.

He didn’t say goodbye to family or friends.

Junjie is one of 59 people who the BBC has confirmed – either by speaking to them or their relatives, or by going through court documents – have been hospitalised on mental health grounds after protesting or challenging the authorities.

The issue has been acknowledged by China’s government – the country’s 2013 Mental Health Law aimed to stop this abuse, making it illegal to treat someone who is not mentally unwell. It also explicitly states psychiatric admission must be voluntary unless the patient is a danger to themselves or others.

In fact, the number of people detained in mental health hospitals against their will has recently surged, a leading Chinese lawyer told the BBC World Service. Huang Xuetao, who was involved in drafting the law, blames a weakening of civil society and a lack of checks and balances.

“I have come across lots of cases like this. The police want power while avoiding responsibility,” he says. “Anyone who knows the shortcomings of this system can abuse it.”

An activist called Jie Lijian told us he had been treated for mental illness without his consent in 2018.

Lijian says he was arrested for attending a protest demanding better pay at a factory. He says police interrogated him for three days before taking him to a psychiatric hospital.

Like Junjie, Lijian says he was prescribed anti-psychotic drugs that impaired his critical thinking.

After a week in the hospital, he says he refused any more medication. After fighting with staff, and being told he was causing trouble, Lijian was sent for ECT – a therapy which involves passing electric currents through a patient’s brain.

“The pain was from head to toe. My whole body felt like it wasn’t my own. It was really painful. Electric shock on. Then off. Electric shock on. Then off. I fainted several times. I felt like I was dying,” he says.

He says he was discharged after 52 days. He now has a part-time job in Los Angeles and is seeking asylum in the US.

In 2019, the year after Lijian says he was hospitalised, the Chinese Medical Doctor Association updated its ECT guidelines, stating it should only ever be administered with consent, and under general anaesthetic.

We wanted to find out more about the doctors’ involvement in such cases.

Speaking to foreign media such as the BBC without permission could get them into trouble, so our only option was to go undercover.

We booked phone consultations with doctors working at four hospitals which, according to our evidence, are involved with forced hospitalisations.

We used an invented story about a relative who had been hospitalised for posting anti-government comments online, and asked five doctors if they had ever come across cases of patients being sent in by police.

Four confirmed they had.

“The psychiatric department has a type of admission called ‘troublemakers’,” one doctor told us.

Another doctor, from the hospital where Junjie was held, appears to confirm his story that police continued surveillance of patients once discharged.

“The police will check up on you at home to make sure you take your medicine. If you don’t take it you might break the law again,” they said.

We approached the hospital in question for comment but it did not respond.

We have been given access to the medical records of democracy activist Song Zaimin, hospitalised for a fifth time last year, which makes it clear how closely political views appear to be tied to a psychiatric diagnosis.

“Today, he was… talking a lot, speaking incoherently, and criticising the Communist Party. Therefore, he was sent to our hospital for inpatient treatment by the police, doctors, and his local residents’ committee. This was an involuntary hospitalisation,” it says.

We asked Professor Thomas G Schulze, president-elect of the World Psychiatric Association, to review these notes. He replied:

“For what is described here, no-one should be involuntarily admitted and treated against his will. It reeks of political abuse.”

Between 2013 and 2017, more than 200 people reported they had been wrongfully hospitalised by the authorities, according to a group of citizen journalists in China who documented abuses of the Mental Health Law.

Their reporting ended in 2017, because the group’s founder was arrested and subsequently jailed.

For victims seeking justice, the legal system appears stacked against them.

A man we are calling Mr Li, who was hospitalised in 2023 after protesting against the local police, tried to take legal action against the authorities for his incarceration.

Unlike Junjie, doctors told Mr Li he wasn’t ill but then the police arranged an external psychiatrist to assess him, who diagnosed him with bipolar disorder, and he was held for 45 days.

Once released, he decided to challenge the diagnosis.

“If I don’t sue the police it’s like I accept being mentally ill. This will have a big impact on my future and my freedom because police can use it as a reason to lock me up any time,” he says.

In China, the records of anyone ever diagnosed with a serious mental health disorder could be shared with the police, and even local residents’ committees.

But Mr Li was not successful – the courts rejected his appeal.

“We hear our leaders talking about the rule of law,” he told us. “We never dreamed one day we could be locked up in a mental hospital.”

The BBC has found 112 people listed on the official website for Chinese court decisions who, between 2013 and 2024, attempted to take legal action against police, local governments or hospitals for such treatment.

Some 40% of these plaintiffs had been involved in complaints about the authorities. Only two won their cases.

And the site appears to be censored – five other cases we have investigated are missing from the database.

The issue is that the police enjoy “considerable discretion” in dealing with “troublemakers,” according to Nicola MacBean from The Rights Practice, a human rights organisation in London.

“Sending someone to a psychiatric hospital, bypassing procedures, is too easy and too useful a tool for the local authorities.”

Eyes are now on the fate of vlogger Li Yixue, who accused a police officer of sexual assault. Yixue is said to have recently been hospitalised for a second time after her social media posts talking about the experience went viral. It is reported she is now under surveillance at a hotel.

We put the findings of our investigation to the UK’s Chinese embassy. It said last year the Chinese Communist Party “reaffirmed” that it must “improve the mechanisms” around the law, which it says “explicitly prohibits unlawful detention and other methods of illegally depriving or restricting citizens’ personal freedom”.

On 14 October 2023, an unusual event was held in Ukraine’s most prestigious venue, Palace Ukraine in Kyiv.

Anton Tymoshenko became the first Ukrainian stand-up comedian to give a solo performance there.

“I grew up in a village with fewer people than Palace Ukraine can hold,” he said after the concert. “So many people had told me: It’s not going to happen… stand-up comedy has not reached that level.”

It has now, to a large extent because of the full-scale invasion launched by Russia.

The invasion turned many Ukrainians away from the previously popular and lavishly promoted Russian acts and triggered a renewed interest in Ukrainian culture.

Key Ukrainian comedians say they are now making jokes to help the public deal with the grim reality of war and also help the army by raising funds.

“Stand-up comedy is a budget version of psychotherapy,” Anton Tymoshenko tells the BBC.

“I like to relieve social tension with my jokes. When that happens, that’s the best thing.”

Another popular performer, Nastya Zukhvala, says Russia’s full-scale invasion in February gave stand-up comedy in Ukraine “a boost,” albeit for darker reasons.

“The demand for comedy looks totally natural to me now because comedy supports and unites.

“It can also make reality look less catastrophic. It is a tool which can help us process this stream of depressing information,” she tells me.

“To stay optimistic or even sane, we’ve got no other choice.”

So what are the jokes that are making Ukrainians laugh?

This kind of humour is grim, says comedian Hanna Kochehura, but making fun of the danger makes it easier to cope with.

“It looks even darker from abroad, and it’s clear why. Anyone who’s in Ukraine knows that there are no safe places here,” she says.

“You never know if this air raid is going to be your last. You don’t know if a Shahed drone is going to target your house or your family’s house.

“Naturally, all our themes are related to the war. Because it’s our life now. Stand-up comedy is a frank genre where comedians speak about their own experiences or thoughts,” Ms Kochehura says.

Here’s an example – a joke from Anton Tymoshenko’s performance at Palace Ukraine:

“I never worried about a nuclear attack because I know it would mean death for rich residents of Kyiv. I live on the outskirts – but the nukes will hit central parts. Before fallout reaches me, it will have to make two changes on the metro.

“More realistically, I’ll get killed by Iranian Shahed drones. The sad thing is – did you hear the noise they make? They sound very demotivating, like the cheapest kind of death.”

“People can laugh at the news,” Anton tells me.

“If we’re not allowed to use [Western] missiles against targets in Russia — yes, that is funny because it is absurd. I build upon this absurd fact, and it becomes funny.

“Of course, Ukrainians find it funny.”

Western allies were initially reluctant to allow Ukraine to use their missiles against targets in Russia for fear of escalation. But the permission was granted after months of pleading by Kyiv: first shorter-range weapons in May 2024, then long-range missiles in November.

Joking about the war is fraught with pitfalls.

Anton Tymoshenko says he is trying not to “trigger” his audiences or add to the trauma from which they may already be suffering.

“Stand-up comedy in wartime is the most difficult type. Making jokes without offending anyone is possible to do, but that would be like joking in a vacuum,” he says.

But, it is usually possible to see where the line lies according to Nastya Zukhvala:

“I feel what other Ukrainians feel. If I find something sad or tragic, I don’t see any need to turn it into stand-up comedy.”

There’s also a very practical side to stand-up comedy in Ukraine – helping its army.

“Almost all of the comedians I know have been helping the armed forces. All of us are involved in raising funds [for the Ukrainian army]. We hold charity shows and many perform in front of the military,” says Hanna Kochehura.

Some, like Nastya Zukhvala’s husband Serhiy Lipko, a comedian himself, are in the army.

“Culture, humour or psychology – that’s all fine and well, but everything must be of practical use to the military. When so many missiles are on the way to hit you, you’re not as interested in talking about art alone,” says Mr Tymoshenko.

“My main task is holding concerts so I can raise funds for them.”

He says he has donated more than 30m hryvnyas (£580,000; $710,000) since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Japanese TV host Masahiro Nakai, one of the country’s most recognisable faces on television, has announced that he is retiring after a sexual assault allegation that has rocked the country’s entertainment industry.

Nakai, who presented for Fuji Television, was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a 2023 dinner party held by staff.

Dozens of companies have pulled their commercials from Fuji Television amid claims that the company’s staff had tried to cover up the scandal.

Nakai has denied using violence against the woman, and said on 9 January that he had “resolved” the matter with her through a settlement. But this did little to quell public anger.

In a social media statement posted on Thursday, Nakai said that he was “truly sorry for causing trouble and losses to so many people”.

“I’m really, really sorry for saying good-bye this way.”

His resignation comes days after Fuji Television president Koichi Minato confirmed that the company did not disclose Nakai’s scandal despite being aware of it long before it was reported in the media.

Vehicle makers Nissan and Toyota, as well as retail company Seven & I holdings which runs the retail 7-eleven convenience store chain, were among those that announced they were pulling advertising from Fuji Television over the scandal.

Fuji Television is expected to set up an independent committee to investigate the scandal.

Appearances of Nakai have also been scrubbed from programmes.

Nakai soared to stardom in the 1990s as the leader of Japanese boy band SMAP, one of Asia’s most successful acts. The group released more than 50 singles – many of which became chart toppers – and launched a weekly variety show on prime-time television.

After SMAP disbanded in 2016, Nakai went on to become a television host as well as one of the wealthiest celebrities in Japan.

Japan’s entertainment industry is facing a reckoning with long unspoken cases of sexual assault.

In 2023, J-pop executive Johnny Kitagawa, who by then had been dead for four years, was exposed to have sexually abused hundreds of boys and young men for decades.

His talent agency, Johnny & Associates, had managed SMAP among other boy bands.

A new, fast-moving wildfire has erupted in Los Angeles County, prompting tens of thousands of people to evacuate a region already reeling from the most destructive fires in its history.

The Hughes fire ignited 45 miles (72km) north-west of the city of Los Angeles on Wednesday morning, near Castaic Lake in a mountainous area that borders several residential areas and schools.

It grew to more than 10,000 acres in several hours on Wednesday, fuelled by winds and dry brush. No homes or businesses have been damaged, and officials expressed confidence about getting it under control.

The new fire is north of the two mammoth blazes that have destroyed a number of neighbourhoods this month.

Local news showed residents near the Hughes fire hosing down their homes and gardens with water and others rushing to evacuate.

Orange flames lined the mountains as aircraft dropped water and flame retardant.

The region is once again under a red flag warning, continuing through Thursday. This cautions of a high fire risk due to strong winds and dry, low-humid conditions.

Winds in the area were blowing at about 20-30mph (32-48km/h), but could pick up, which would fan the blaze and make it harder for air crews to operate.

Climate change has made the grasses and shrubs that are fuelling the Los Angeles fires more vulnerable to burning, scientists have said.

Rapid “whiplash”-style swings between dry and wet conditions in the region in recent years have created a massive amount of tinder-dry vegetation that is ready to catch fire.

• What role has climate played in LA fires?
• Fighting the fires from the sky
• How one street in LA went up in flames
• What might have sparked LA’s devastating fires?

About 31,000 people in the area are under a mandatory evacuation order and another 23,000 have been warned they may have to flee, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said. Nearly 500 inmates at a local jail were being evacuated, he added.

The fire continued to grow as the sun set on Wednesday, but Los Angeles County fire chief Anthony Marrone said he believed crews were making progress.

“The situation remains dynamic and the fire remains a difficult fire to contain, although we are getting the upper hand,” he said. The fire was declared 14% contained early on Thursday, according to the website of Cal Fire, California’s statewide fire agency.

A fire being 100% contained does not mean it has been extinguished, but rather that the flames have been fully encircled and the spread has been effectively stopped.

Officials said the blaze was different from the Palisades and Eaton fires, which killed at least 28 people and decimated more than 10,000 homes and businesses earlier this month.

Chief Marrone said they were benefiting from lower winds – unlike the 70-90mph winds seen during the previous fires – and having so many helicopters and planes able to fight the blaze from above.

“I think that we’ve all been on edge over the last 16 days,” he said. “We were able to amass a lot of fire resources early on to change what this fire looks like.”

Ed Fletcher, who works for Cal Fire, told the BBC the area was not highly populated and current winds were blowing the fire toward Castaic Lake, which was acting as a buffer for the Castaic area – home to about 20,000 residents.

But “if it jumps the lake, it becomes a much more dynamic situation”, he said.

One woman who fled her home told NBC 4 that she was stuck on Interstate 5, California’s primary transportation highway that runs through the state. Parts of the interstate in the area had been closed because of the fire.

“It looked like a cloud, but as you got close, it looked like we were driving into hell,” she said of the dark smoke and red flames she saw. “It was pretty terrifying.”

She acknowledged being on edge after watching the Palisades and Eaton fires burn nearby. “I don’t know why they keep popping up,” she said. “It’s definitely a scary time in this area.”

Two other fires ignited Wednesday further south, near San Diego and Oceanside. The Lilac fire was declared fully contained after burning 85 acres. Like the separate Center fire, which has covered four acres, it burned in populated areas. Evacuation orders have now been mostly lifted.

Dana Dierkes, a spokesperson for the Angeles National Forest, noted the winds and dry brush had made these recent fires much harder to fight.

“We don’t have a fire season in California. We have a fire year,” she said. “We’ve had wildfires in January before, but it’s exacerbated by the Santa Ana winds. The wind is a huge factor when we’ve had such a dry year.”

Rain is in the weekend forecast in the region, a welcome bit of news to douse the fire threat. But the anticipated rainfall is bringing new fears in the form of mudslides, flooding and landslides.

Areas touched by the recent fires are particularly at risk, because torched grounds are less absorbent.

State Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on Monday to help free up resources for flood and landslide preparation after the fires.

Crews have been filling thousands of sandbags for danger areas.

Red warnings have been issued for Northern Ireland and parts of Scotland on Friday, as the dangerous Storm Éowyn heads towards the UK.

The rare warnings for wind mean flying debris could cause a danger to life, with gusts up to 100mph (161km/h) along some exposed coasts.

Millions have been asked to stay at home – schools in a large part of Scotland and all schools in Northern Ireland have been advised to close and people have been told not to go out in both nations.

The Met Office warned people to expect damage to buildings with roofs blown off and significant disruption to travel.

• How to protect your home before, during and after a storm
• Storm names 2024-25: How do storms like Éowyn get their names?
• LIVE: NI political leaders urge people to stay at home during Storm Éowyn
• Rare red warning in Scotland ahead of Storm Éowyn
• ‘Carnage’ as mini tornado tears through village

BBC Weather says it could be the storm of the century for the Republic of Ireland.

In the UK, the Met Office warns it is very likely there will be a risk to life and people should avoid travelling in Storm Éowyn – pronounced AY-oh-win – where possible.

Red is the most serious weather warning the Met Office can issue, meaning dangerous weather is expected and people are urged to take action to keep themselves and others safe.

The red warning for the whole of Northern Ireland will be in force from 07:00 GMT to 14:00 on Friday, affecting the morning rush hour. Bus and train services have also been suspended in the country.

First minister Michelle O’Neill told reporters people can expect to receive an emergency alert on their phone this afternoon and “only to travel where it’s absolutely necessary”.

Stormont education minister Paul Givan said the decision to advise schools to close was taken to avoid any potential risk to life for children.

“Schools should put plans in place today for remote learning so that pupils can study at home,” he said.

Then as the storm moves east, a red warning is in place across Scotland’s central belt, including Glasgow and Edinburgh, from 10:00 to 17:00.

First Minister John Swinney announced in the Scottish Parliament people should not travel in areas covered by the red warning.

Schools in 18 Scottish local authorities will be closed on Friday, including Glasgow, Edinburgh, East Ayrshire, East Lothian, Fife, North and South Lanarkshire, North Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, Midlothian, East and West Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde, Argyll and Bute, Clackmannanshire Falkirk, Stirling and Angus councils.

In Edinburgh, the Scottish Parliament will also be shut to all but essential staff due to the severe weather warning.

Across the UK winds will rapidly increase from west to east on Friday morning into the afternoon with peak gusts of 80-90mph (129-145km/h).

There will likely be a large number of trees blown over with widespread disruption to travel with roads badly affected, and flights, trains and ferries will be subject to cancellations.

Power cuts are also likely, some of which could last for a number of days.

Belfast City Airport warned there may be disruption to flights.

ScotRail has confirmed all rail services in Scotland will be suspended on Friday, adding that the closure was to ensure the safety of customers and staff.

Train operators Avanti, LNER, Lumo, CrossCountry, and Grand Central and Northern have also issued warnings not to travel in the north of England and north Wales on Friday.

The AA urged drivers travelling in red weather warning areas to consider whether a journey is necessary, and if not to postpone it.

“If you do need to travel, make sure you’re prepared for what you may encounter. Expect to come across fallen branches and other debris on the roads, especially in rural areas,” roadside technician Chris Wood said.

The Irish weather forecaster Met Éireann has issued blanket red weather warnings covering all of the country – with widespread gusts in excess of 80mph expected.

Forecaster Eoin Sherlock warned of “hurricane force winds”, adding that gusts in coastal areas may even exceed these already “extraordinary” levels.

Meanwhile, an amber warning for wind is in place on Friday from 06:00 to 21:00, for the north of England, north Wales and Scotland’s central belt.

Another amber warning warning for wind on Friday starts later at 13:00 to 06:00 on Saturday, for parts of Scotland.

However, the big change to the UK’s weather begins on Thursday, as heavy rain and strong and gusty winds move across the country.

Parts of the south coast of England, South West and much of the Welsh coast are covered by a yellow weather warning for wind until 18:00 GMT on Thursday.

It is likely sea fronts will be affected by spray and large waves and power and travel disruption.

There are 12 warnings currently issued:

• red warning for wind for Northern Ireland from 07:00 until 14:00 on Friday
• red warning for wind for Scotland’s central belt from 10:00 until 17:00 on Friday
• amber warning for wind across all of Scotland, north-east England, north-west England and Northern Ireland from 06:00 to 21:00 on Friday
• amber warning for wind across parts of Scotland from 13:00 on Friday to 06:00 on Saturday
• yellow warning for wind for parts of London and the South East, South West England, Wales until 17:00 on Thursday
• yellow warning for wind across most of the country from midnight until 23:59 on Friday
• yellow warning for rain in parts of Wales, the South West and West Midlands from midnight to 09:00 on Friday
• yellow warning for wind in parts of the Midlands, east of England, London and South East England from 05:00 to 15:00 on Friday
• yellow warning for snow in parts of Scotland, in parts of the North East, North West from 06:00 until 23:59 on Friday
• yellow warning for wind in parts of Scotland from midnight until 15:00 on Saturday
• yellow warning for wind for the western side of England, all of Wales and Northern Ireland and south-west Scotland, from 08:00 until 15:00 on Sunday
• yellow warning for rain for the south-east and south-west, Wales, Midlands, East of England and North West from 08:00 on Sunday until 06:00 Monday

Storm Éowyn is the fifth named storm of the season. It has been caused by powerful jet stream winds pushing low pressure towards the UK and Ireland over the Atlantic Ocean – after a recent cold spell over North America.

Leaders of the far-right organisations at the forefront of the Capitol riot who were released on Donald Trump’s orders say they are planning to regroup.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes defended his actions during the 6 January 2021 riot and said he was “very grateful” to President Trump for commuting his sentence.

Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison on a number of charges including seditious conspiracy, or plotting to overthrow the government.

Meanwhile, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, former head of the Proud Boys, indicated to reporters that he had rejoined the all-male group.

“We’ve made the decision four years ago not to tell the media what our structure is, but I’d suggest that the media should stop calling me ‘ex-Proud Boy,'” he told reporters as he travelled to his home in Miami on Wednesday.

Tarrio, who was serving a 22-year sentence, said members of the congressional committee who investigated the riot “need to be imprisoned.”

“I’m happy that the president’s focusing not on retribution and focusing on success, but I will tell you that I’m not going to play by those rules,” he said in an interview on Infowars. “They need to pay for what they did.”

Rhodes called for prosecution of Capitol police officers who testified against him at trial and Justice Department lawyers who pursued his case.

He alleged that officers who were at the Capitol that day – 174 of whom were injured – were responsible for the violence.

He told the BBC that he would like his group to “go back to the mission we had at the very beginning… to advocate that the police of the United States follow the Constitution and don’t violate people’s rights.”

Police officers responsible for defending the US Congress reject those allegations and say they faced an unruly mob determined to stop legal proceedings.

Rhodes said: “I didn’t go inside, nor did I instruct anyone else to. I simply stood outside and exercised my right to free speech.”

The militia leader complained he did not get a fair trial because it was held in Washington DC, where the riot took place, and jurors were local – an argument that was previously rejected in court.

While most of those who stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021 hoping to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election were not part of any official group, the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys each brought dozens of supporters to Washington.

Nearly 1,600 people have been arrested or convicted of riot-related crimes, according to the US Justice Department, including 600 charged with assaulting, resisting or obstructing police.

On Monday, hours after his inauguration, Trump commuted 14 sentences – including Rhodes’ – and issued a blanket pardon for the rest of the convicts and suspects.

• What are presidential pardons and who has Trump pardoned?

Members of the Oath Keepers, an anti-government militia founded by Rhodes in 2009, transported weapons to a hotel room in Virginia and discussed sending them across the Potomac River to Washington.

But they never put such a plan into action. While Rhodes remained outside the Capitol building that day, prosecutors said he directed members inside the building.

The Proud Boys were founded in 2016 as a politically-minded drinking club, and later became known for street brawls with far-left Antifa activists.

Shortly before the riot, Tarrio was ordered by law enforcement to remain outside Washington, and he communicated with other Proud Boys leaders from a nearby hotel.

After the Capitol riot and the arrest of the leaders, the Oath Keepers largely ceased operations while the Proud Boys fractured, retreating to their local chapters and keeping a relatively low profile.

However in recent days, their channels on the chat app Telegram have been full of celebratory chatter along with barbs and slurs directed at opponents.

Members have discussed regrouping and getting involved in efforts to deport immigrants – although the legal basis for doing so is unclear.

A number of lawmakers have criticised the pardons – including Democrats but also Republicans.

Senator Tom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, said: “I’m about to file two bills that will increase the penalties up to and including the death penalty for the murder of a police officer and increasing the penalties and creating federal crimes for assaulting a police officer.

“That should give you everything you need to know about my position,” he said.

Susan Collins, the moderate Republican senator from Maine, said: “I do not support the pardons if they were given to people who committed violent crimes.”

But others were in favour.

“One-hundred percent I’m for them,” said Senator Tommy Tuberville. “Pardon every one of them. They’ve been there long enough.”

A Seattle judge will hear a request on Thursday by four states to temporarily halt President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship in the US.

The request – filed on behalf of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon – asks for the order to be paused while the federal court considers the states’ legal challenge.

It marks the first court hearing on the executive order, signed by Trump on Monday, which seeks to end the right to citizenship for children who are born in the US to parents who are in the country illegally or temporarily.

A group of 18 other Democratic-led states, along with the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco, have filed a separate challenge.

Birthright citizenship is the automatic American citizenship that is granted to anyone born in the country. It is enshrined in the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, making it difficult to overturn.

Trump, who has issued a range of unilateral actions since returning to the US presidency on Monday, has long vowed to make this particular change.

His executive order called on US government departments and agencies to deny the granting of citizenship to the children of migrants who are either in the US illegally or on temporary visas.

It will apply to children born on 19 February and onwards, according to legal filings in the case by the Department of Justice (DoJ).

There have been reports that the administration will enforce the order by withholding documents, such as passports, from people it deems ineligible for citizenship.

In their lawsuit, the four states challenging the order argue that the 14th Amendment and US law “automatically confer citizenship upon individuals born in the United States” and that the president does not have the power to amend the Constitution.

They add that if the order is implemented, residents of those states will “suffer immediate and irreparable harm”.

“The individuals who are stripped of their United States citizenship will be rendered undocumented, subject to removal or detention, and many will be stateless,” the lawsuit states.

The states’ lawsuit seeks to block federal agencies from acting on the order – while the request for a temporary restraining order looks to pause the president’s order while the court hears the arguments.

In response, the DoJ argues in its own papers that the case does not warrant the “extraordinary measure” of a temporary restraining order.

It also offers a different interpretation of the 14th Amendment, highlighting that the document affords US citizenship only to people born in the US “and subject to there jurisdiction thereof”, arguing that this excludes children of non-citizens who are in the US unlawfully.

The DoJ adds that Trump’s order is “an integral part” of his goal to address the country’s “broken immigration system and the ongoing crisis at the southern border”.

Thousands of people could be impacted by the order. There were 255,000 children born to undocumented mothers in the US in 2022, according to the states’ legal challenge.

The broader legal action issued against Trump’s administration will feature personal testimony from state attorneys general themselves, the AP news agency reports. William Tong, who represents Connecticut and is a US citizen by birthright, told AP the matter was personal, adding: “There is no legitimate legal debate on this question.”

Without a direct amendment to the US Constitution – which requires a two-thirds vote in both chambers of Congress, plus the approval by America’s states – experts say the issue is likely to be ultimately decided by the courts.

Thursday’s court hearing will be presided over by Judge John Coughenour, who has served in the Western District of Washington court since 1981 after he was appointed by then-president Ronald Reagan.

Trump’s birthright citizenship order is also facing a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Officials are investigating the “mysterious” deaths of 17 people – most of them children – in the same village in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

The deaths, including those of 12 children, have occurred in the remote village of Badhal in Jammu’s Rajouri district since 7 December.

The victims initially displayed symptoms similar to food poisoning but suddenly lost consciousness, health officials said.

The village has been declared a containment zone, but officials have said that the disease does not appear to be infectious, and there is no fear of an epidemic.

Dr AS Bhatia, the chief of a local hospital, said that the first five patients – including four children – who were admitted had symptoms similar to food poisoning, including vomiting and diarrhoea. Others complained of sore throats and breathing problems.

But then, all of them would abruptly lose consciousness, he added.

The federal government has ordered an investigation. A special investigation team set up by the local administration, comprising police officers, pathologists and other specialists, has questioned dozens of people so far.

According to initial investigations, consumption of contaminated food and water may have been the cause. Residents of the village have been asked not to drink water from a local spring after a test sample showed it contained traces of pesticides.

The deaths occurred between 7 December and 19 January and the victims were members of three related families. Six of the children who died were siblings, with ages ranging from seven to 15 years. Their houses have been sealed.

Though doctors have ruled out the possibility of an infection, an administrative order says that people identified as close contacts of the three families are being moved to a government hospital in Rajouri, where their condition will be monitored. The order also asks all other residents of Badhal to only consume food and water provided by the administration.

“All edible materials in the infected households shall be seized by the authorities,” the order said.

At least 10 people have been admitted for treatment in hospitals in Rajouri, Jammu and Chandigarh city.

Dr Shuja Quadri, an epidemiologist at the Government Medical College in Rajouri, said that the disease is localised and that they have ruled out the possibility of viral, bacterial, protozoal and zoonotic infections.

Among the second cluster of patients who were admitted on 12 December, five people, including a one-year-old child, have recovered.

“This was a ray of hope for us,” Dr Bhatia said.

Donald Trump has warned he will impose high tariffs and further sanctions on Russia if Vladimir Putin fails to end the war in Ukraine.

Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, he said that by pushing to settle the war he was doing Russia and its president a “very big favour”.

Trump had previously said he would negotiate a settlement to Russia’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022, in a single day.

Responding to the threat of harsher sanctions, the Kremlin said it remains “ready for an equal dialogue, a mutually respectful dialogue”.

“We’re waiting for signals that are yet to arrive,” said President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov.

He added that Russia sees nothing new in Donald Trump’s threats to impose sanctions.

“He likes these methods, at least he liked them during his first presidency.”

Putin has said repeatedly that he is prepared to negotiate an end to the war, which first began in 2014, but that Ukraine would have to accept the reality of Russian territorial gains, which are currently about 20% of its land. He also refuses to accept Ukraine joining Nato, the military alliance of Western countries.

Kyiv does not want to give up its territory, although President Volodymyr Zelensky has conceded he may have to cede some currently occupied land temporarily.

On Tuesday, Trump told a news conference he would be talking to Putin “very soon” and it “sounds likely” that he would apply more sanctions if the Russian leader did not come to the table.

But in his Truth Social post the next day, he went further: “I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR,” he wrote.

“Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal’, and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries.”

Continuing, he wrote: “Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way – and the easy way is always better. It’s time to ‘MAKE A DEAL’.”

• LIVE: Follow BBC’s live coverage after Trump takes office
• ANALYSIS: Six Trump executive orders to watch
• IN DEPTH: Relationship with Europe this time may be very different
• PARDONS: Jan 6 defendants get nearly everything they wanted

Trump’s former special representative for Ukraine, Kurt Volker, said Trump’s threat of more serious sanctions on Russia “gives a signal to Vladimir Putin this is going to get worse, not better”. Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he added: “We should incentivise Putin to say, ‘OK, it’s time actually to have a ceasefire.'”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the World Economic Forum on Tuesday that at least 200,000 peacekeepers would be needed under any agreement.

And he told Bloomberg that any peacekeeping force for his country would have to include US troops to pose a realistic deterrent to Russia.

“It can’t be without the United States… Even if some European friends think it can be, no, it will not be,” he said, adding that no-one else would risk such a move without the US.

While Ukraine’s leaders might appreciate this tougher-talking Trump – they have always said Putin only understands strength – the initial reaction in Kyiv to the US president’s comments suggest that it is actions people are waiting for, not words.

Trump has not specified where more economic penalties might be aimed, or when. Russian imports to the US have plummeted since 2022 and there are all sorts of heavy restrictions already in place.

Currently, the main Russian exports to the US are phosphate-based fertilisers and platinum.

Speaking to the BBC, Volker said the Russian economy could take “substantial” damage if Trump chose to preserve or strengthen the toughest US sanctions so far, which he said were only levied as Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden left office. “Russia really didn’t feel as much pressure as they could,” he commented.

On social media, there was a generally scathing response to Trump’s comments from Ukrainians. Many suggested that more sanctions would be a weak reply to Russian aggression. But the biggest question for most is what Putin is actually open to discussing with Ukraine at any peace talks.

In Moscow meanwhile, some people are seeing signs that the Kremlin may be readying Russians to accept less than the “victory” once envisaged, which included tanks rolling all the way west to the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa.

TV editor Margarita Simonyan, who is stridently pro-Putin, has begun talking of “realistic” conditions for ending the war, which she suggests could include halting the fighting along the current frontline.

That would mean the four Ukrainian regions that Putin illegally pronounced as Russian territory more than two years ago, including Zaporizhzhia, still being partially controlled by Kyiv.

Russian hardliners, the so-called “Z” bloggers, are furious at such “defeatism”.

In his BBC interview on Thursday, Trump’s former envoy Volker said he was “sceptical that there is going to be a deal per se”, adding that the first priority of the US could be to stop the fighting and then deter more attacks by Putin.

In Wednesday’s social media post, Trump also couched his threat of tariffs and tighter sanctions in words of “love” for the Russian people and highlighted his respect for Soviet losses in World War Two – a near-sacred topic for Putin.

But Trump massively overestimated the numbers and appeared to think the USSR was Russia alone. In reality, millions of Ukrainians and other Soviet citizens also lost their lives.

That said, the man who previously said he could “understand” Russia’s concerns about Ukraine joining Nato – which for Kyiv is tantamount to saying Putin was provoked – does seem to be shifting his tone.

Trump’s position matters. But after 11 years of war with Russia and a history of poor peace deals, Ukrainians are not inclined to be too hopeful.

Lynn Ban, a celebrity jewellery designer from Singapore who starred in the Netflix reality show Bling Empire, has died a month after undergoing brain surgery following a ski accident.

Her son Sebastian confirmed her death on an Instagram post on Wednesday, where he paid tribute to his 51-year-old mum as a “best friend and the best mother”.

The accident happened in Aspen in the US on Christmas Eve.

Ban’s family did not reveal her immediate cause of death.

In a social media post on New Year’s Eve, Ban had revealed that while skiing at the top of a mountain she had fallen and “face planted”.

As she was wearing a helmet, “it didn’t seem that bad at the time and I was able to ski to the bottom,” she had said, adding that a ski patrol officer later checked for a concussion and cleared her.

But she still had “a bit of a headache” and decided to go to a hospital, on the advice of a paramedic. She then discovered she had a brain bleed, and went for an emergency craniotomy.

“In a blink of an eye… life can change,” she had written in the post, which was accompanied by a picture of her in bed with her head partially shaved. “There’s a long road of recovery ahead but I’m a survivor.”

Born in Singapore, Ban had worked in New York, London and Paris.

Her designs have been worn by pop stars Madonna, Beyonce, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Cardi B and Billie Eilish, according to her website.

On Bling Empire New York in 2023, she was part of a cast of Asian American socialites who “flaunt their fortunes — and fashions — while bringing the drama and living it up in New York City”, according to Netflix.

In his tribute, Sebastian Ban said he wanted the world to know who his mum was as a person.

“She always had a smile on her face even when times are tough during her recovery process,” he said.

“She is a fighter until the end and is the strongest woman I know,” he said.

The world’s largest iceberg is on a collision course with a remote British island, potentially putting penguins and seals in danger.

The iceberg is spinning northwards from Antarctica towards South Georgia, a rugged British territory and wildlife haven, where it could ground and smash into pieces. It is currently 173 miles (280km) away.

Countless birds and seals died on South Georgia’s icy coves and beaches when past giant icebergs stopped them feeding.

“Icebergs are inherently dangerous. I would be extraordinarily happy if it just completely missed us,” sea captain Simon Wallace tells BBC News, speaking from the South Georgia government vessel Pharos.

Around the world a group of scientists, sailors and fishermen are anxiously checking satellite pictures to monitor the daily movements of this queen of icebergs.

It is known as A23a and is one of the world’s oldest.

It calved, or broke off, from the Filchner Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 1986 but got stuck on the seafloor and then trapped in an ocean vortex.

Finally, in December, it broke free and is now on its final journey, speeding into oblivion.

The warmer waters north of Antarctica are melting and weakening its vast sides that extend up to 1,312ft (400m), taller than the Shard in London.

It once measured 3,900 sq km, but the latest satellite pictures show it is slowly decaying. It is now around 3,500 sq km, roughly the size of the English county of Cornwall.

And large slabs of ice are breaking off, plunging into the waters around its edges.

A23a could break into vast segments any day, which may then hang around for years, like floating cities of ice cruising uncontrollably around South Georgia.

This isn’t the first huge iceberg to threaten South Georgia and Sandwich Islands.

In 2004 one called A38 grounded on its continental shelf, leaving dead penguin chicks and seal pups on beaches as massive ice chunks blocked their access to feeding grounds.

The territory is home to precious colonies of King penguins and millions of elephant and fur seals.

“South Georgia sits in iceberg alley so impacts are to be expected for both fisheries and wildlife, and both have a great capacity to adapt,” says Mark Belchier, a marine ecologist who advises the South Georgia government.

Sailors and fisherman say icebergs are an increasing problem. In 2023 one called A76 gave them a scare when it came close to grounding.

“Chunks of it were tipping up, so they looked like great ice towers, an ice city on the horizon,” says Mr Belchier, who saw the iceberg while at sea.

Those slabs are still lingering around the islands today.

“It is in bits from the size of several Wembley stadiums down to pieces the size of your desk,” says Andrew Newman from Argos Froyanes, a fishing company that works in South Georgia.

“Those pieces basically cover the island – we have to work our way through it,” says Captain Wallace.

The sailors on his ship must be constantly vigilant. “We have searchlights on all night to try to see ice – it can come from nowhere,” he explains.

A76 was a “gamechanger”, according to Mr Newman, with “huge impact on our operations and on keeping our vessel and crew safe”.

All three men describe a rapidly changing environment, with glacial retreat visible year-to-year, and volatile levels of sea ice.

Climate change is unlikely to have been behind the birth of A23a because it calved so long ago, before much of the impacts of rising temperatures that we are now seeing.

But giant icebergs are part of our future. As Antarctica becomes more unstable with warmer ocean and air temperatures, more vast pieces of the ice sheets will break away.

Before its time comes to an end though, A23a has left a parting gift for scientists.

A team with the British Antarctic Survey on the Sir David Attenborough research vessel found themselves close to A23a in 2023.

The scientists scrambled to exploit the rare opportunity to investigate what mega icebergs do to the environment.

The ship sailed into a crack in the iceberg’s gigantic walls, and PhD researcher Laura Taylor collected precious water samples 400m away from its cliffs.

“I saw a massive wall of ice way higher than me, as far as I could see. It has different colours in different places. Chunks were falling off – it was quite magnificent,” she explains from her lab in Cambridge where she is now analysing the samples.

Her work looks at what the impact the melt water is having on the carbon cycle in the southern ocean.

“This isn’t just water like we drink. It’s full of nutrients and chemicals, as well as tiny animals like phytoplankton frozen inside,” Ms Taylor says.

As it melts, the iceberg releases those elements into the water, changing the physics and chemistry of the ocean.

That could store more carbon deep in the ocean, as the particles sink from the surface. That would naturally lock away some of the planet’s carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to climate change.

Icebergs are notoriously unpredictable and no-one knows what exactly it will do next.

But soon the behemoth should appear, looming on the islands’ horizons, as big as the territory itself.

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.

Sainsbury’s has announced it will cut 3,000 jobs as it shuts down its remaining cafés and closes its patisserie and pizza counters.

The supermarket says the move will “simplify the business”, adding that most Sainsbury’s shoppers “do not use the cafés regularly”.

Sainsbury’s also plans to make a 20% reduction in senior management roles, saying the business faces a “particularly challenging cost environment”.

Although Sainsbury’s was already in the midst of a plan to save £1bn over the next few years, the BBC understands the rise in employer’s National Insurance contributions set out in the Budget has also been a factor in the latest restructuring plan.

In response to Sainsbury’s announcement, Downing Street said: “As we said at the Budget, difficult decisions were needed to restore economic stability, and put the public finances back on to a stable footing.”

Sainsbury’s recently reported strong Christmas trading and said it expected annual profits to surpass £1bn.

But when he unveiled the trading figures earlier this month, chief executive Simon Roberts repeated his warning about the impact of measures announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves and said there would be “tough choices”.

Sainsbury’s has said the rise in employer’s NI contributions will cost it £140m from April.

The industry trade body, the British Retail Consortium, reckons higher costs for retailers will impact investment, jobs and lead to higher prices.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the cuts by Sainsbury’s were “devastating but no surprise”, adding that the government should “undo its jobs tax”.

In the Budget, Reeves announced that the rate of National Insurance paid by employers would rise to 15% in April while the salary threshold at which payments begin would drop from £9,100 to £5,000.

The government expects the measure to raise £20bn.

Early last year, the previous Conservative government twice cut National Insurance payments made by workers, reducing the rate by 4% in total at a cost of billions of pounds.

This is the second wave of major job cuts for Sainsbury’s in just over a year. Last February, it announced 1,500 roles would go.

The supermarket group, which owns Argos and Habitat, will shut down its remaining 61 cafés and, as well as pizza and patisserie, will also dispense with its hot food counters.

Instead, it will make “the most popular items available in the aisle”.

Jobs will go from Sainsbury’s head office as part of an update of its divisions and management “to drive faster decision-making and bring costs down”.

A fortnight ago, Sainsbury’s said it would raise its average hourly pay by 5% to £12.60. But the wage increase will be introduced in two phases “to help manage a particularly tough cost-inflation environment”.

The Unite union said the job cuts were “a blatant example of profiteering on the backs of workers”.

Paul Travers, Unite’s officer for food, said the supermarket should be “ashamed” for cutting jobs while making millions of pounds in profit.

But Catherine Shuttleworth, chief executive at retail marketing firm Savvy, said Sainsbury’s cuts are “likely to be the first of many” for the retail industry.

“As expected, services to shoppers will be cut as retailers wrestle with the increased costs of labour as a result of the Budget,” Ms Shuttleworth said.

“But what’s clear from Sainsbury’s statement is that retail organisations will have to make difficult decisions at all levels of the organisation both in stores and behind the scenes in head office too.”

Yuval Raphael, who survived the 7 October attack in 2023, has been chosen to represent Israel at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.

Raphael, 24, was at the Nova musical festival when Hamas attackers killed 360 young partygoers and took 40 more hostage.

The amateur singer was attending with friends and says she survived by hiding under dead bodies inside a bomb shelter for eight hours.

Raphael has been sharing her story while competing on Israeli talent show HaKokhav HaBa (The Next Star) and winning it means she gets to compete at Eurovision in Basel, Switzerland in May.

She said after winning the show: “I can’t explain how excited and ready I am! Thank you for giving me this huge honour and trusting me to represent my country on the grand Eurovision stage in Switzerland.”

Raphael, who says she still has shrapnel in her head and leg from the festival attack, only began singing professionally last year.

During the final of the music competition, she sang a version of ABBA’s Dancing Queen, dedicating it to “all the angels” who were killed at the festival.

She also told viewers that “music is one of the strongest ingredients in my healing process” during the show.

Raphael, who is fluent in English and French as well as Hebrew, has taken part in advocacy for Israel over the last year, including speaking to the UN Human Rights Council about her experience of surviving the attack.

Her official song will be revealed in the coming weeks by Israeli public broadcaster Kan, according to the Eurovision Song Contest website.

Last year’s winner of The Next Star, Eden Golan, represented Israel at Eurovision with Hurricane, which came fifth in the competition.

The show previously selected Netta, who won Eurovision in 2018 and Noa Kirel, who came third in 2023.

Golan’s Eurovision entry was met with criticism, as it was Israel’s first time performing at Eurovision since the outbreak of its most recent war in the Middle East.

Her team were also forced to alter the lyrics and name of Golan’s song – from October Rain to Hurricane – after it was seen to break rules on political neutrality.

There were several campaigns to block Israel from taking part altogether, but the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which hosts the event, ruled Israel was allowed to compete.

Golan was booed whilst performing at a dress rehearsal for the competition, which took place in Malmo, Sweden and confined to her hotel room when she wasn’t performing, due to threats of harm to the Israeli delegation.

Israel and Gaza are currently upholding a ceasefire after 15 months of fighting, which began in October 2023 after Hamas gunmen breached Israel’s Gaza perimeter fence at multiple locations and attacked nearby Israeli communities, IDF bases and a music festival.

About 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

The IDF responded by launching an air and ground campaign in Gaza, during which more than 47,100 Palestinians have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Adele has been accused of sabotaging the sale of a £6m home she used to live in by saying it was “haunted”.

The award-winning singer rented the Grade II-listed Lock House in Partridge Green, West Sussex, in 2012.

The owner has submitted planning permission to transform the property from a single dwelling to three residential units, and the conversion of an existing garage and flat into a separate cottage.

In the submission, the owner said comments made by Adele about the 10-bedroom house being haunted during an interview had hindered the selling process.

“The first tenant, Adele, stayed for six months and blighted the property by saying it is haunted,” it said.

“This comment negatively impacted future marketing efforts and continues to affect the property’s reputation to this day.”

Discussing Lock House in an interview with Anderson Cooper on CBS when she lived at the property, Adele said: “This bit’s all quite scary, really.

“I’m not rattling around here on my own. It gives me the creeps.”

After the singer vacated the property, it was relisted for sale, but received no offers.

It was then rented to a tenant who wanted to use the property to run a bespoke dressmaking business. But it was later discovered the tenant was running a residential retreat with 11 guest bedrooms and a fitness boot camp, the application said.

According to the application, the owner has actively tried to sell the property for about 14 years.

The only offer ever received was in August 2020, but the prospective buyer withdrew after learning about the property’s supposed haunted status, it added.

Lock House was originally constructed in about 1909 before it underwent a major reconstruction programme in 1940.

In 1971, it was divided up and sold at auction in 26 separate lots. But it was subsequently bought by the church and became the Convent of the Visitation.

The current owner acquired Lock House in 2003 from a property trader, who had previously purchased it after the convent relocated to Albourne.

According to its current listing, Lock House and its 32-acre estate features 10 bedrooms, 10 bathrooms, an indoor and outdoor swimming pool, a tennis court, a helicopter pad and a cinema room.

It is up for sale for £5,995,000.

Read and celebrated across the globe, Michael Longley was born in Belfast in July 1939 and lived in the city until his death.

He went to school at Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where a lifelong enjoyment of rugby began.

In the late 1950s he moved to Dublin to study at Trinity College Dublin and it was there, in the company of fellow student poets, including Derek Mahon and Brendan Kennelly, that he became immersed in poetry.

His death was announced on Thursday at the age of 85.

At Trinity he met his future wife Edna – later a professor at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) and a notable critic and writer in her own right.

After their marriage in the mid-1960s they settled back in Belfast, where Longley joined a stellar collection of young poets who met regularly to read and talk about each other’s work.

The Belfast Group – as it became known – included Longley, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon and others.

They met in pubs close to Queen’s University and at the flat of a university lecturer, Prof Philip Hobsbaum.

“It was no way a back-scratching coterie,” Longley later recalled.

“The routine would be you’d go for a pint, and you’d have a poem in your pocket.

“And after a pint or two you’d venture to show it to, say, Seamus or Derek.”

After Heaney’s death in 2013, Longley wrote an elegy called Room to Rhyme about his friend, which was published in his later collection, Angel Hill.

Longley’s first collection, No Continuing City, had been published in 1969 – just as the Troubles started in Northern Ireland.

No Continuing City included the poem In Memoriam written in memory of Longley’s soldier father Richard, who had been wounded in World War One and later died of cancer.

Longley remained in Belfast as the Troubles worsened, writing a number of collections of poetry while working full time for the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Trips with his family to the west of Ireland prompted poetry about nature, but Longley did not avoid writing about the conflict around him.

Poems like The Ice Cream Man, Wounds, Kindertotenlieder, The Linen Workers and Dusty Bluebells reflected the suffering of victims of violence with compassion.

Though Longley was well aware, as he said in a later interview, of the “deadly danger of regarding the agony of others as raw material for your art, or your art as solace for them in their suffering”.

In a later article for the New Statesman magazine, Longley wrote: “We disliked the notion that civic unrest might be good for poetry, and poetry a solace for the brokenhearted.

“We were none of us in the front line.”

Longley and Heaney had attended some of the civil rights marches in the late 1960s.

Later, in a BBC Northern Ireland documentary he said he was “overwhelmed and flabbergasted by the ferocity” of the Troubles.

“I still find it really difficult to understand how you can shoot a neighbour simply because of his or her religion,” he said.

Longley received a number of prestigious awards for his work, including the T.S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Prize.

In 2001, he was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, and late in his career he won the Feltrinelli International Prize for Poetry awarded by Italy’s Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei.

Longley also held the post of professor of poetry for Ireland from 2007 to 2010 and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 Birthday Honours.

When Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem was abducted at night by armed men from his home in Bangladesh, his four-year-old daughter was too young to understand what was happening.

“They were dragging me away, I was barefoot,” he tells me, sobbing. “My youngest daughter was running behind me with my shoes saying ‘take, father’, as if she thought I was going away.”

He was held in solitary confinement for eight years, handcuffed and blindfolded, yet still doesn’t know where or why.

The British-trained barrister, 40, is one of Bangladesh’s so-called “disappeared”. These were critics of Sheikh Hasina, the country’s prime minister of more than 20 years, in two terms, until she was deposed last August.

Hasina’s regime ruled over the worst violence Bangladesh has seen since its war of independence in 1971 in which hundreds were killed, including at least 90 people while she clung to power on her last day in office.

Controversial in her own right, Hasina is also the aunt of Labour MP Tulip Siddiq – who resigned as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s anti-corruption minister last week after a slew of corruption allegations that she denied.

These included claims Siddiq’s family embezzled up to £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh – and that she used properties in London linked to her aunt’s allies.

The government’s ethics watchdog later found she did not break the ministerial code, but Siddiq resigned anyway.

That isn’t necessarily the end of the matter, though.

The episode raises troubling questions about Starmer’s judgement and Labour’s approach to courting the votes of people of Bangladeshi heritage.

Questions are now swirling over why Labour failed to see this coming, given the party has long known about Siddiq’s links to her scandal-hit aunt. It was 2016 when Bin Quasem’s case was first raised with her.

He and others among Bangladesh’s “disappeared” have represented an awkward tension with Siddiq’s publicly voiced views on human rights in the years since.

She long campaigned for the release from Iran of her constituent Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, for example, while showing an apparent comparative indifference in her public statements to the suffering and extrajudicial killings under her aunt’s regime in Bangladesh.

Siddiq has also previously appeared alongside her aunt at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and appeared on BBC television as a spokesperson for the Awami League, the political party Hasina has led since 1981.

Siddiq also thanked Awami League members for helping her election as a Labour MP in 2015. Two pages on her website from 2008 and 2009 setting out her links to the party were later removed.

Yet once in Parliament Siddiq told journalists that she had “no capability or desire to influence politics in Bangladesh”.

So these links weren’t a secret, but perhaps they weren’t viewed as a bad thing within Labour, not least since it has shown little sign of distancing itself from the Awami League in recent years.

Then-Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick told the Commons in 2012 that they were “sister organisations”, a warmth shared by many of his colleagues.

And Starmer – who entered Parliament in 2015 at the same time as Siddiq in her neighbouring seat – has met Hasina multiple times.

This included in 2022 when the then-Bangladeshi PM was in London for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, a meeting that Bin Quasem calls “heartbreaking and shocking”.

A Starmer ally argues it is “perfectly legitimate” for him to have met Hasina, and it did not amount to an endorsement of her policies.

The apparent attempts by Labour over the years to keep Bangladesh on side might reflect the political reality here in the UK, especially in parts of the capital city.

“You can’t succeed in east London without understanding the Bangladeshi vote”, one seasoned Labour campaigner explains.

However, those who fail to appreciate the country’s divided and volatile politics can end up offending those they are attempting to charm. “You need to carefully balance what you say and do,” the campaigner says. “If you are too overt for one [Bangladeshi] party, you’ll get criticised.”

Analysis by the FT suggests there are at least 17 UK constituencies where the voting-age Bangladeshi population is larger than the Labour majority.

Starmer’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency has at least 6,000 adult residents of Bangladeshi origin.

Might this mix of warmth and political pragmatism have clouded Starmer’s judgement from a potential corruption storm on the horizon when, shortly after winning the election in July, he appointed Siddiq as the Treasury minister responsible for leading Britain’s anti-corruption efforts?

“Starmer has blindspots for his friends and political allies,” says a Labour source. “It’s not new.”

Investigative journalist David Bergman, who has been shedding light on Siddiq’s connections to Bangladeshi politics for a decade, points out context is everything. “This was not a major story until Labour got into power, Tulip Siddiq became a minister and the Awami League government fell,” he says.

He argues someone in the party should have raised concerns many years before. “There was first a blind spot about Tulip Siddiq’s failure to respond to enforced disappearances in Bangladesh,” Bergman argues.

“Then there was a blind spot about how tied she was to the UK Awami League.”

When I put this to one Labour MP, they responded that the UK media, as well as Labour, have had a Bangladesh blind spot.

“There are some 600,000 people in the British Bangla diaspora”, they say. “It is a country with the eighth largest population on Earth yet we’ve not heard a peep [from the UK media] since the events of 5 August.”

The corruption investigations into Hasina are likely to rumble on for some time, potentially bringing further issues for Starmer’s top team to address in the months ahead while Siddiq remains a Labour MP.

For Bin Quasem, the toppling of Hasina’s regime saw him abruptly awoken in his cell, bundled into a car and dumped in a ditch, before finally being allowed to return home to his two daughters.

Toddlers when he last saw them in 2016, they are now young women. “I couldn’t really recognise them, and they couldn’t recognise me,” he tells me through tears.

“At times it’s difficult to stomach that I never got to see my daughters grow up.

“I missed the best part of life. I missed their childhood.”

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ordered the seizure of two “offensive” paintings by MF Husain, one of India’s most famous artists.

The court on Monday granted permission for the police to seize the artworks after a complaint was filed alleging that the paintings, displayed at an art gallery and featuring two Hindu deities, “hurt religious sentiments”.

Husain, who died in 2011 aged 95, often faced backlash for the depictions of nude Hindu gods in his paintings.

The Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), which hosted the exhibition, denied any wrongdoing and stated that a “detailed” police investigation found no “cognisable offence” by the gallery.

The exhibition Husain: The Timeless Modernist at DAG showcased over 100 paintings from 26 October to 14 December.

The complainant, Amita Sachdeva, a lawyer, said on X that on 4 December, she photographed the “offensive paintings” displayed at the DAG and, after researching previous complaints against the late artist, filed a police complaint five days later.

On 10 December, Ms Sachdeva reported that she visited the gallery with the investigating officer, only to discover that the paintings had been removed. She claimed that the gallery officials asserted they had never exhibited the paintings.

The paintings that Ms Sachdeva shared online depicted Hindu gods Ganesha and Hanuman alongside nude female figures. She also alleged that the Delhi police had failed to file a report.

She later petitioned the court to preserve the CCTV footage from the gallery during the period when the paintings were reportedly on display, according to media reports.

On Monday, a judge at Delhi’s Patiala House Courts said that the police had accessed the footage and submitted their report. According to the inquiry, the exhibition was held in a private space and was intended solely to showcase the artist’s original work, the judge added.

The DAG said in a statement that it had been assisting police with their inquiries. It said the exhibition had attracted about 5,000 visitors and had received “positive reviews in the press as well as from the public”.

The complainant had been the only person to raise any objection to any of the artworks in the exhibition, the gallery said.

“The complainant has herself displayed and publicised the images of the drawings over social media and television news media deliberately intending them to be viewed by a larger audience, while contending that the same images hurt her personal religious sentiments.”

Maqbool Fida Husain was one of India’s biggest painters and was called “Picasso of India” but his art often stirred controversy in the country. His works have sold for millions of dollars.

His career was marked by controversy when he was accused of obscenity and denounced by hardline Hindus for a painting of a nude goddess.

In 2006, Husain publicly apologised for his painting, Mother India. It showed a nude woman kneeling on the ground creating the shape of the Indian map. He left the country the same year and lived in self-imposed exile in London until his death.

In 2008, India’s Supreme Court refused to launch criminal proceedings against Husain, saying that his paintings were not obscene and nudity was common in Indian iconography and history.

The court had then dismissed an appeal against a high court ruling that quashed criminal proceedings against Husain in the cities of Bhopal, Indore and Rajkot, condemning the rise of a “new puritanism” in India.

The court also rejected calls for Husain, then in exile, to be summoned and asked to explain his paintings, which were accused of outraging religious sentiments and disturbing national integrity.

“There are so many such subjects, photographs and publications. Will you file cases against all of them? What about temple structures? Husain’s work is art. If you don’t want to see it, don’t see it. There are so many such art forms in temple structures,” the top court said.

Many believe there is a rising tide of illiberalism against artistic expression in India.

In October the Bombay High Court reprimanded the customs department for seizing artworks by renowned artists FN Souza and Akbar Padamsee on the grounds that they were “obscene material.”

The court ruled that not every nude or sexually explicit painting qualifies as obscene and ordered the release of seven seized artworks.

US President Donald Trump has re-designated Yemen’s Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO).

“The Houthis’ activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade,” an executive order said.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) must end relationships with partners which have made payments to Houthi entities or “criticised efforts to counter” the Iran-backed group, which could affect humanitarian organisations in Yemen.

Former President Joe Biden had lifted the designation in 2021, citing the need to mitigate one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war that escalated 10 years ago, when the Houthis seized control of the country’s north-west from the internationally-recognised government and a Saudi-led coalition supported by the US intervened in an effort to restore its rule.

The fighting has reportedly left more than 150,000 people dead and triggered a humanitarian disaster, with 4.8 million people displaced and 19.5 million – half of the population – in need of some form of aid.

Despite the dire situation, Biden relisted the Houthis as a Specially Designated Global Terrorists – less severe than an FTO – last January over their attacks on global shipping and Israel, which are linked to the war in Gaza.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted dozens of merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They have sunk two vessels, seized a third, and killed four crew members.

They have said they are acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and have claimed – often falsely – that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK.

The Houthis have not been deterred by the deployment of Western warships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to protect merchant vessels, or by multiple rounds of US and British air strikes on Houthi military targets.

Israel has also carried out air strikes against the Houthis since July in retaliation for the 400 missiles and drones that the Israeli military says have been launched at the country from Yemen, most of which have been shot down.

The Houthis’ SDGT designation required US financial institutions to freeze Houthi funds and meant its members would be banned from the US.

The FTO designation means that anyone in the US or abroad suspected of providing support or resources to the Houthis could be prosecuted by under various US laws, including those banning material support for terrorism.

Human rights groups have previously said this could prevent humanitarian organisations from operating in areas under Houthi control, where the bulk of Yemen’s population lives.

There was no immediate response from the Houthi leadership to Trump’s decision.

However, Abdul Rahman al-Ahnumi, the head of the Houthi-controlled Public Corporation for Radio and Television, said that if it harmed Yemenis they would deal with it as an “escalation and war” and “confront it with similar war and escalation”.

Rashad al-Alimi, who chairs Yemen’s internationally-recognised presidential council, thanked Trump for the designation, which he said was “key to accountability and a step toward peace and stability in Yemen and the region”.

Lynn Ban, a celebrity jewellery designer from Singapore who starred in the Netflix reality show Bling Empire, has died a month after undergoing brain surgery following a ski accident.

Her son Sebastian confirmed her death on an Instagram post on Wednesday, where he paid tribute to his 51-year-old mum as a “best friend and the best mother”.

The accident happened in Aspen in the US on Christmas Eve.

Ban’s family did not reveal her immediate cause of death.

In a social media post on New Year’s Eve, Ban had revealed that while skiing at the top of a mountain she had fallen and “face planted”.

As she was wearing a helmet, “it didn’t seem that bad at the time and I was able to ski to the bottom,” she had said, adding that a ski patrol officer later checked for a concussion and cleared her.

But she still had “a bit of a headache” and decided to go to a hospital, on the advice of a paramedic. She then discovered she had a brain bleed, and went for an emergency craniotomy.

“In a blink of an eye… life can change,” she had written in the post, which was accompanied by a picture of her in bed with her head partially shaved. “There’s a long road of recovery ahead but I’m a survivor.”

Born in Singapore, Ban had worked in New York, London and Paris.

Her designs have been worn by pop stars Madonna, Beyonce, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Cardi B and Billie Eilish, according to her website.

On Bling Empire New York in 2023, she was part of a cast of Asian American socialites who “flaunt their fortunes — and fashions — while bringing the drama and living it up in New York City”, according to Netflix.

In his tribute, Sebastian Ban said he wanted the world to know who his mum was as a person.

“She always had a smile on her face even when times are tough during her recovery process,” he said.

“She is a fighter until the end and is the strongest woman I know,” he said.