Police have arrested a maintenance worker who is suspected of helping 10 inmates break out of a New Orleans jail on Friday, Louisiana’s attorney general has announced.

The employee, identified as 33-year-old Sterling Williams, was arrested on Monday night.

Mr Williams is accused of turning off the water to the cell that was used for the escape, which involved removing a toilet from the wall. He said an inmate threatened to attack him with a “shank” – meaning makeshift knife – if he did not help, according to court documents.

Five of the inmates have been recaptured so far, Louisiana State Police said.

Police earlier said several of the detainees were facing charges of murder and other violent offences.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in her statement that Mr Williams had “admitted to agents that one of the escapees advised him to turn the water off in the cell where the inmates escaped from”.

“Instead of reporting the inmate, Williams turned the water off as directed allowing the inmates to carry out their scheme to successfully escape,” she added.

He said he was forced to help the inmates escape, telling authorities that Antoine Massey – one of the six inmates still at large – “threatened to shank him if he did not turn the water off”, according to court documents.

Mr Williams is facing 10 counts of a charge known as principal to simple escape, and another of malfeasance in office.

Murrill said the investigation was ongoing, and that authorities would “uncover all the facts eventually and anyone who aided and abetted will be prosecuted to the full extent the law allows”.

“I encourage anyone who knows anything and even those who may have provided assistance to come forward now to obtain the best possible outcome in their particular case,” she said.

Sheriff Susan Hutson earlier said the inmates had yanked a sliding door from their jail cell off its tracks in the early hours of Friday morning.

They later ripped the toilet off the wall and broke metal bars around a hole used for piping that was exposed by the missing toilet.

The group made their escape by climbing down a wall and running across a highway, the sheriff said.

The sheriff’s office released images of messages apparently left behind by the inmates.

They include the words “To [sic] Easy LoL”, with an arrow pointing to the hole in the wall, and a smiley face with its tongue out.

Another message, partially smudged, appears to tell officers to catch the inmates when they can.

The prison is located near the centre of New Orleans, around 3km (2 miles) from its famous French Quarter.

George Wendt, who starred as Norm Peterson in the popular comedy series Cheers, has died at the age of 76.

The beloved actor and comedian died peacefully in his sleep at his home early on Tuesday morning, his family said.

“George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him. He will be missed forever,” a representative told the BBC.

Wendt starred as Norm in all 275 episodes of Cheers, which ran from 1982-93. He earned six consecutive Emmy nominations for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series.

Wendt’s character Norm was a well-loved bar regular, and was one of the few characters to appear in every episode of Cheers.

His entrance into the bar was a running gag on the show, beginning with him greeting the other patrons followed by the crowd yelling his name.

Wendt reunited with some of the cast at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2024, including Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, Kelsey Grammer and John Ratzenberger.

In addition to the NBC sitcom, Wendt appeared in several movies such as Dreamscape, Forever Young and Gung Ho.

He also appeared as the father of a boy played by Macaulay Culkin in Michael Jackson’s Black or White music video, which was released in 1991.

He had been married to fellow actor Bernadette Birkett since 1978, with whom he had three children.

He was also the uncle of actor and comedian Jason Sudeikis, who is most recently known for playing the title character in the sports comedy Ted Lasso.

Wendt’s Cheers co-star Ted Danson told People magazine that he was “devastated to hear that Georgie is no longer with us”.

“I am sending all my love to Bernadette and the children,” he said. “It is going to take me a long time to get used to this. I love you, Georgie.”

Cheers Boston, the pub that inspired the hit television show, paid tribute by sharing a picture of Norm’s spot at the bar on Instagram.

“George wasn’t just an actor – he was a symbol of comfort, laughter, and that familiar feeling of walking into a place where everybody knows your name,” they said.

“To George: thank you for the laughs, the memories, and the legacy you leave behind. You’ll always have a stool at our bar.”

Actress Melissa Joan Hart reflected on the handful of times they had worked together on the show Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

“He was warm, professional and kind and our cast and crew were gifted with his presence every time. Rest in peace!” she wrote on Instagram.

“Heaven just got a little funnier”.

At just 37 hectares, the Philippines-controlled island of Pagasa – or “hope” – is barely big enough to live on. There is almost nothing there.

The 300 or so inhabitants live in a cluster of small, wooden houses. They fish in the clear, turquoise waters, and grow what vegetables they can in the sandy ground.

But they are not alone in these disputed waters: just off shore, to the west, lies an armada of ships.

These are all Chinese, from the navy, the coastguard or the so-called maritime militia – large fishing vessels repurposed to maintain Chinese dominance of this sea. As our plane approached the island we counted at least 20.

For the past 10 years, China has been expanding its presence in the South China Sea, taking over submerged coral reefs, building three large air bases on them, and deploying hundreds of ships, to reinforce its claim to almost all of the strategic sea lanes running south from the great exporting cities on the Chinese coast.

Few of the South East Asian countries which also claim islands in the same sea have dared to push back against China; only Vietnam and the Philippines have done so. The militaries of both countries are much smaller than China’s, but they are holding on to a handful of reefs and islands.

Pagasa – also known as Thitu and other names, as it is claimed by several other countries – is the largest of these.

What makes it exceptional, though, is the civilian population, found nowhere else on the islands of the South China Sea. From the point of view of the Philippines this, and the fact that Pagasa is solid land, not a partially submerged reef or sandy cay, strengthens its legal claims in the area.

“Pagasa is very important to us,” Jonathan Malaya, assistant director-general of the Philippines National Security Council, tells the BBC.

“It has a runway. It can support life – it has a resident Filipino community, and fishermen living there.

“And given the size of the island, one of the few that did not need reclaiming from the sea, under international law it generates its own territorial sea of 12 nautical miles.

“So it is, in a way, a linchpin for the Philippine presence.”

Reaching Pagasa is a two-to-three-day boat ride from the Philippines island of Palawan, or a one-hour plane ride, but both are at the mercy of frequent stormy weather.

Until they surfaced the runway two years ago, and lengthened it to 1,300m (4,600ft), only small planes could land. Now they can bring in big C130 transport aircraft. Travelling in them, as we did, is a bit like riding a bus in rush hour.

Everything has to be brought from the mainland, which is why our plane was packed, floor to ceiling, with mattresses, eggs, bags of rice, a couple of motorbikes and piles of luggage – not to mention lots of military personnel, most of whom had to stand for the entire flight.

A lot has changed in recent years. There is a new hangar, big enough to shelter aircraft during storms. They are building a control tower and dredging a small harbour to allow bigger boats to dock. We were driven around the island by some of the Philippines marines who are stationed there, though given its size it hardly seemed necessary

The Philippines seized Pagasa from Taiwan in 1971, when the Taiwanese garrison left it during a typhoon. It was formally annexed by the Philippines in 1978.

Later, the government started encouraging civilians to settle there. But they need support to survive on this remote sliver of land. Families get official donations of food, water and other groceries every month. They now have electricity and mobile phone connectivity, but that only came four years ago.

Aside from government jobs, fishing is the only viable way to make a living, and since the arrival of the Chinese flotillas even that has become difficult.

Fisherman Larry Hugo has lived on the island for 16 years, and has chronicled the increasing Chinese control of the area. He filmed the initial construction on Subi Reef, around 32km (20 miles) from Pagasa, which eventually became a full-size military air base. One of his videos, showing his little wooden boat being nearly rammed by a Chinese coastguard ship in 2021 made him a minor celebrity.

But Chinese harassment has forced him to fish in a smaller area closer to home.

“Their ships are huge compared to ours. They threaten us, coming close and sounding their horns to chase us away. They really scare us. So I no longer go to my old fishing grounds further away. I now have to fish close to the island, but the fish stocks here are falling, and it is much harder to fill our tubs like we used to.”

Realyn Limbo has been a teacher on the island for 10 years, and seen the school grow from a small hut to full-size school teaching more than 100 pupils, from kindergarten to 18 years old.

“To me this island is like paradise,” she says. “All our basic needs are taken care of. It is clean and peaceful – the children can play basketball or go swimming after school. We don’t need shopping malls or all that materialism.”

Pagasa is really quiet. In the fierce midday heat we found most people snoozing in hammocks, or playing music on their porches. We came across Melania Alojado, a village health worker, rocking a small baby to help it sleep.

“The biggest challenge for us is when people, especially children, fall ill,” she says.

“If it is serious then we need to evacuate them to the mainland. I am not a registered nurse, so I cannot perform complicated medical tasks. But planes are not always available, and sometimes the weather is too rough to travel.

“When that happens we just have to care for them as best we can.”

But she too values the tranquillity of island life. “We are free of many stresses. We get subsidised food, and we can grow some of our own. In the big city everything you do needs money.”

We saw a few new houses being built, but there really isn’t room for Pagasa to accommodate many more people. With very few jobs, young people usually leave the island once they finish school. For all of its sleepy charm, and stunning white-sand beaches, it has the feel of a garrison community, holding the line against the overpowering Chinese presence which is clearly visible just offshore.

“The Chinese at the airbase on Subi Reef always challenge us when we approach Pagasa,” the pilot says. “They always warn us we are entering Chinese territory without permission.”

Do they ever try to stop you? “No, it’s a routine. We tell them this is Philippines territory. We do this every time.”

Jonathan Malaya says his government has made a formal diplomatic protest every week to the Chinese Embassy over the presence of its ships in what the Philippines views as the territorial waters of Pagasa. This is in marked contrast to the previous administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, which avoided confrontations with China in the hope of getting more investment in the Philippines.

“I think we will get more respect from China if we hold our ground, and show them we can play this game as well. But the problem of democracies like the Philippines is policies can change with new administrations. China does not have that problem.”

Indian writer, lawyer and activist Banu Mushtaq has made history by becoming the first author writing in the Kannada language to win the International Booker prize with her short story anthology, Heart Lamp.

It is the first short story collection to win the presigious prize. Judges praised her characters as “astonishing portraits of survival and resilience”.

Featuring 12 short stories written by Mushtaq between 1990 and 2023, Heart Lamp poignantly captures the hardships of Muslim women living in southern India.

The stories were selected and translated into English from Kannada, which is spoken in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, by Deepa Bhasthi who will share the £50,000 prize.

In her acceptance speech, Mushtaq thanked readers for letting her words wander into their hearts.

“This book was born from the belief that no story is ever small; that in the tapestry of human experience, every thread holds the weight of the whole,” she said.

“In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other’s minds, if only for a few pages,” she added.

Bhasthi, who became the first Indian translator to win an International Booker, said that she hoped that the win would encourage more translations from and into Kannada and other South Asian languages.

Mushtaq’s win comes off the back of Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand – translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell – winning the prize in 2022.

Her body of work is well-known among book lovers, but the Booker International win has shone a bigger spotlight on her life and literary oeuvre, which mirrors many of the challenges the women in her stories face, brought on by religious conservatism and a deeply patriarchal society.

It is this self-awareness that has, perhaps, helped Mushtaq craft some of the most nuanced characters and plotlines.

“In a literary culture that rewards spectacle, Heart Lamp insists on the value of attention – to lives lived at the edges, to unnoticed choices, to the strength it takes simply to persist. That is Banu Mushtaq’s quiet power,” a review in the Indian Express newspaper says about the book.

Mushtaq grew up in a small town in the southern state of Karnataka in a Muslim neighbourhood and like most girls around her, studied the Quran in the Urdu language at school.

But her father, a government employee, wanted more for her and at the age of eight, enrolled her in a convent school where the medium of instruction was the state’s official language – Kannada.

Mushtaq worked hard to become fluent in Kannada, but this alien tongue would become the language she chose for her literary expression.

She began writing while still in school and chose to go to college even as her peers were getting married and raising children.

It would take several years before Mushtaq was published and it happened during a particularly challenging phase in her life.

Her short story appeared in a local magazine a year after she had married a man of her choosing at the age of 26, but her early marital years were also marked by conflict and strife – something she openly spoke of, in several interviews.

In an interview with Vogue magazine, she said, “I had always wanted to write but had nothing to write (about) because suddenly, after a love marriage, I was told to wear a burqa and dedicate myself to domestic work. I became a mother suffering from postpartum depression at 29”.

In the another interview to The Week magazine, she spoke of how she was forced to live a life confined within the four walls of her house.

Then, a shocking act of defiance set her free.

“Once, in a fit of despair, I poured white petrol on myself, intending to set myself on fire. Thankfully, he [the husband] sensed it in time, hugged me, and took away the matchbox. He pleaded with me, placing our baby at my feet saying, ‘Don’t abandon us’,” she told the magazine.

In Heart Lamp, her female characters mirror this spirit of resistance and resilience.

“In mainstream Indian literature, Muslim women are often flattened into metaphors — silent sufferers or tropes in someone else’s moral argument. Mushtaq refuses both. Her characters endure, negotiate, and occasionally push back — not in ways that claim headlines, but in ways that matter to their lives,” according to a review of the book in The Indian Express newspaper.

Mushtaq went on to work as a reporter in a prominent local tabloid and also associated with the Bandaya movement – which focussed on addressing social and economic injustices through literature and activism.

After leaving journalism a decade later, she took up work as a lawyer to support her family.

In a storied career spanning several decades, she has published a copious amount of work; including six short story collections, an essay collection and a novel.

But her incisive writing has also made her a target of hate.

In an interview to The Hindu newspaper, she spoke about how in the year 2000, she received threatening phone calls after she expressed her opinion supporting women’s right to offer prayer in mosques.

A fatwa – a legal ruling as per Islamic law – was issued against her and a man tried to attack her with a knife before he was overpowered by her husband.

But these incidents did not faze Mushtaq, who continued to write with fierce honesty.

“I have consistently challenged chauvinistic religious interpretations. These issues are central to my writing even now. Society has changed a lot, but the core issues remain the same. Even though the context evolves, the basic struggles of women and marginalised communities continue,” she told The Week magazine.

Over the years Mushtaq’s writings have won numerous prestigious local and national awards including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe Award.

In 2024, the translated English compilation of Mushtaq’s five short story collections published between 1990 and 2012 – Haseena and Other Stories – won the PEN Translation Prize.

The US has selected a design for the futuristic “Golden Dome” missile defence system, says US President Donald Trump, adding that it will be operational by the end of his time in office.

Just days after returning to the White House in January, Trump unveiled his intentions for the system, aimed at countering “next-generation” aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill – although the government has estimated it will end up costing much more than that over decades.

Officials warn that existing systems have not kept pace with increasingly sophisticated weapons possessed by potential adversaries.

President Trump also announced that Space Force General Michael Guetlein will oversee the project. Gen Guetlein is currently vice chief of space operations at Space Force.

Seven days into his second administration, Trump ordered the defence department to submit plans for a system that would deter and defend against aerial attacks, which the White House said remain “the most catastrophic threat” facing the US.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said the system would consist of “next-generation” technologies across land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors. He added that Canada had asked to be a part of the system.

During a visit to Washington earlier this year, then-Canadian defence minister Bill Blair acknowledged that Canada was interested in participating in the dome project, arguing that it “makes sense” and was in the country’s “national interest”.

He added that “Canada has to know what’s going on in the region” and be aware of incoming threats, including in the Arctic.

Trump added that the system would be “capable even of intercepting missiles launched from the other side of the world, or launched from space”.

The system is partly inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome, which the country has used to intercept rockets and missiles since 2011.

The Golden Dome, however, would be many times larger and designed to combat a wider range of threats, including hypersonic weapons able to move faster than the speed of sound and fractional orbital bombardment systems – also called Fobs – that could deliver warheads from space.

“All of them will be knocked out of the air,” Trump said. “The success rate is very close to 100%.”

US officials had previously said that the Golden Dome will have the aim of allowing the US to stop missiles at various stages of their deployment, including before they launch and while they are still in the air.

The many aspects of the system will fall under one centralised command, US defence officials have said.

Trump said on Tuesday that the programme would require an initial investment of $25bn, with a total cost of $175bn over time. The initial $25bn has been identified within his One Big Beautiful Bill on tax, which has not yet been passed.

The Congressional Budget Office, however, has estimated that the government could ultimately spend more, up to $542bn over 20 years, on the space-based parts of the system alone.

Pentagon officials have long-warned that existing systems have not kept pace with new missile technology designed by Russia and China.

“There really is no current system,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “We have certain areas of missiles and certain missile defence, but there is no system… there has never been anything like this.”

A briefing document recently released by the Defense Intelligence Agency noted that missile threats “will expand in scale and sophistication”, with China and Russia actively designing systems “to exploit gaps” in US defences.

Basic water utility fees will be waived for residents of the Japanese capital Tokyo this summer in an effort to limit the impact of extreme heat.

Some ¥36bn ($250m; £186m) has been set aside for the subsidies, which will come into effect for a four-month period.

Heatstroke claimed a record 263 lives in Tokyo last summer, said the Bureau of Public Health. Many victims did not have air conditioning or chose not to use it because of high costs.

“We are worried that people might refrain from using their air conditioners because they are concerned about living expenses [and] considered what we could do to help pay their bills,” said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

“We would like to create an environment in which all Tokyoites can live in peace even in the extremely hot weather we are expected to experience this summer,” Koike said.

By offsetting water costs, the government aims to encourage residents of the Japanese capital to use other cooling methods like air conditioning.

In more than 60% of heatstroke deaths recorded indoors last summer, the victims had not turned air conditioning on, the Tokyo Fire Department said, according to the Japan Times.

On average, base water fees in Tokyo cost between ¥860 ($6; £4.50) to ¥1,460 ($10; £7.50) per month, depending on the width of the household’s water pipe.

Additional fees – based on water usage and paid on top of base fees – will be charged at their usual rate.

Tokyo has more than 7 million households and a population of more than 14 million, according to government statistics.

Japan recorded its hottest summer on record last year.

Temperatures in June, July and August were 1.76 degrees higher than the average between 1991 and 2020, according to the Japan meteorological agency.

Between June and September, nearly 8,000 people in Tokyo were taken to hospitals for heatstroke – also a record – with a majority of deaths recorded among elderly people.

Popular video game Fortnite is now available on Apple’s app store in the US after being taken off the platform nearly five years ago.

The title was removed in August 2020 for violating Apple’s policies by launching its own in-app payment system.

This would have bypassed a 30% commission that the technology giant charges on all in-app purchases.

The move triggered a legal battle brought by Fortnite developer Epic Games, which called the fee unfair and accused Apple of running the app store as a monopoly.

In a post on X, Fortnite said it was now available on the US app store, as well as the Epic Games Store and AltStore in the European Union.

“It will show up on Search soon!” the post added.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The firm has always said its rules protect users’ security.

Wednesday’s development is being seen as a victory for Epic Games, which has been locked in a years-long legal tussle with Apple.

“This is a clear win for Epic Games. Epic has effectively forced open a door that Apple and others worked very hard to keep shut,” said Joost van Dreunen, a games business professor at NYU Stern.

“The industry has long tiptoed around platform gatekeeping, but this moment signals a shift in the balance. Creators and publishers will now have more leverage to challenge entrenched distribution models,” he added.

Fortnite became unavailable last week on app stores around the world, after an update was apparently being blocked by Apple.

Last January, the game returned to the EU app store after a four year absence, spurred by a law designed to increase competition.

Google, which also removed Fortnite from its app store in 2020 over its payment rules, lifted its ban on downloads last year.

Fortnite is hugely popular with around 400 million registered players.

The shooting and building game technically has multiple game modes. But its online battle royale is by far its most popular feature, where up to 100 players compete to be the last one standing.

The world’s tropical forests, which provide a crucial buffer against climate change, disappeared faster than ever recorded last year, new satellite analysis suggests.

Researchers estimate that 67,000 sq km (26,000 sq mi) of these pristine, old-growth forests were lost in 2024 – an area nearly as large as the Republic of Ireland, or 18 football pitches a minute.

Fires were the main cause, overtaking land clearances from agriculture for the first time on record, with the Amazon faring particularly badly amid record drought.

There was more positive news in South East Asia, however, with government policies helping to reduce forest loss.

Tropical rainforests store hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon in soils and woody trunks. But this new global record raises further questions about their resilience on a warming planet.

Many researchers are concerned some forests, such as parts of the Amazon, may be approaching a “tipping point”, beyond which they could fall into irreversible decline.

“The tipping point idea is, I think, increasingly the right one,” said Prof Matthew Hansen, co-director of GLAD laboratory at the University of Maryland, which produces the data.

Prof Hansen described the new results as “frightening”, and warned of the possible “savannisation” of the rainforest, where old-growth tropical forests die back and permanently switch to savanna.

“It’s still a theory, but I think that that’s more and more plausible looking at the data.”

A separate study, published last week, made a similar warning of possible significant dieback of the Amazon if global warming exceeds the international target of 1.5C.

This would not only threaten the vibrant array of wildlife living in these most biodiverse habitats, but would also have serious ramifications for the global climate.

Until recently, the Amazon had been doing humanity a favour, absorbing more planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) than it released.

But the burning of these forests emits huge amounts of CO2 – adding to warming rather than limiting it.

In 2023-24, the Amazon experienced its worst drought on record, fuelled by climate change and the natural warming El Niño weather pattern.

Many fires are started deliberately to clear land for agriculture, making it difficult to disentangle the two.

But the drought provided ideal conditions for fires to spread out of control, with Brazil and Bolivia most badly affected.

While only a single year, it fits the expected pattern of more intense tropical fires in a warming world.

“I think we are in a new phase, where it’s not just the clearing for agriculture that’s the main driver,” said Rod Taylor of the World Resources Institute (WRI), which is also behind the latest report.

“Now we have this new amplifying effect, which is a real climate change feedback loop, where fires are just much more intense and much more ferocious than they’ve ever been.”

In total, the record loss of the world’s old-growth (primary) tropical forests released 3.1 billion tonnes of planet-warming gases, the researchers estimate.

That’s roughly the same as the emissions of the European Union.

Countries in South East Asia, however, bucked the global trend.

The area of primary forest loss in Indonesia fell by 11% compared to 2023, for example, despite drought conditions.

This was the result of a concerted effort by governments and communities working together to enforce “no burning” laws, according to Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of the Global Forest Watch project at WRI.

“Indonesia serves as a bright spot in the 2024 data,” she said.

“Political will is a key factor of success – it’s impossible otherwise,” agreed Gabriel Labbate, head of climate change mitigation at the United Nations forests programme UNREDD, which was not involved in today’s report.

Other countries, including Brazil, have seen success in the past with similar approaches, but started to see losses increase again in 2014 following a change in government policies.

Prof Hansen said that although the progress in South East Asia was positive, the fluctuations in forest loss in Brazil show that protection policies have to be consistent.

“The key we haven’t seen yet is sustained success in reducing and maintaining low levels of conversion of these ecosystems and if you were interested in conserving the environment you have to win always and forever,” he told BBC News.

The researchers agree that this year’s UN climate summit COP30 – which is being hosted in the Amazon – will be critical for sharing and promoting forest protection schemes.

One proposal is to reward countries which maintain tropical forests through payments. The detail is still to be worked out but has promise, according to Rod Taylor.

“I think it’s an example of an innovation that addresses one of the fundamental issues that at the moment there’s more money to be made by chopping forests down than keeping them standing,” he said.

Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.

Parts of the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, often called India’s Silicon Valley are under water after heavy rainfall.

The city is on high alert for more pre-monsoon showers on Tuesday due to cyclonic formations over the Andaman Sea, according to authorities.

Three people, including a 12-year-old boy were killed in rain-related incidents on Monday.

Bengaluru is home to major global technology companies, many of whom have asked their employees to work from home due to flooded roads.

Many parts of the city received 100 mm (4in) of rain on Monday, a record since 2011.

This is “rare” for Bengaluru, CS Patil, a director at the regional weather department told news agencies.

Apart from severe water-logging and traffic disrupting daily life, heavy rainfall has also caused property damage.

In one of the city’s major IT corridors, the compound wall of a software firm – i-Zed – collapsed on Monday morning, killing a 35-year-old female employee.

Videos also showed commuters wading through knee-deep water, with several cars parked on waterlogged streets. Water has also entered houses in some parts of the city.

Authorities say the city corporation has identified 210 flood-prone areas where they were working round the clock to “rectify” the situation.

“There is no need for the people of Bengaluru to be worried,” DK Shivakumar, deputy chief minister of Karnataka state told reporters on Monday.

But officials are facing criticism on social media with many complaining about the city’s crumbling infrastructure and deluged roads.

“No other city invokes a sense of fear and helplessness for commuting during rains as Bangalore does,” a user wrote on X.

Annu Itty, who has lived in the city for eight years told the BBC that the city’s infrastructure becomes especially fragile in the monsoons.

“Ironically, it’s the newly developed areas – those built to house the booming tech sector – that face the worst flooding,” she said.

Itty, who works in public policy, says a “lack of coherent urban planning that respects environmental limits”, as well as a lack of government accountability, has left Bengaluru residents to deal with the consequences.

Karnataka, of which Bengaluru is the capital is currently run by the Congress party. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which sits in the opposition in the state has accused the local government of failing to tackle rain-related issues in the city and the state, despite spending million of rupees on its infrastructure.

The BJP has demanded the immediate release of 10bn rupees ($117m, £87.5m) for relief operations.

The state government has, however, defended itself saying these were long-standing issues.

“The issues we face today are not new. They have been ignored for years, across governments and administrations,” Shivakumar said.

Floods have been a recurring phenomenon in Bengaluru in recent years. Experts partly blame rapid construction over the city’s lakes and wetlands and poor urban planning for the crisis.

Ananda Rao, president of the Association for Information Technology (AIT) – which represents over 450 software companies – told the BBC that such frequent flooding has caused “discomfort and inconvenience” for businesses.

“Bengaluru contributes significantly in taxes – both at an individual level and property tax. There is no return on this investment,” he said, calling on the state government to work on long-term solutions to improve the city’s infrastructure.

Italy has backed President Donald Trump’s suggestion the Vatican might mediate talks on negotiating a ceasefire in Ukraine, while he appears keen to step back from the process himself.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s office said Italy was ready to “facilitate contacts and work towards peace” in Ukraine and it “viewed positively” what it said was the Pope’s willingness to host the talks at the Vatican.

In fact there’s no firm agreement yet on further discussions: last Friday’s meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul brought additional demands from Moscow, not progress.

Pope Leo said last week the Vatican was “always ready” to bring enemies together and he would “make every effort” for peace to prevail.

But the Holy See says the idea of hosting, or even mediating, talks – which Trump suggested was an option – is more a hope for now than any concrete plan.

If direct engagement does continue, Ukraine seems open to the notion of the Vatican as host.

Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X on Tuesday that he had talked to Giorgia Meloni, including about “possible platforms for talks with the Russians”.

The Italian prime minister had, he said, “as always, cool ideas”, although he has raised Turkey and Switzerland as alternative venues too.

The Kremlin might prefer to stay in Turkey. It talks about a process called “Istanbul Plus”, styling any talks as a follow-up on the deal initially discussed in Turkey shortly after the full-scale invasion.

Those terms, which included Ukraine drastically reducing its own military, would represent capitulation for Kyiv now.

But Russia has added more: the “plus” part means recognition of its annexation of four partially occupied regions of Ukraine as well as Crimea.

The actual venue matters little to the Kremlin: all it wants is for the discussion to be on Vladimir Putin’s terms.

The prospect of meaningful progress, bluntly, looks slim.

But might the Vatican lend some extra moral authority in the push for some kind of compromise?

The Catholic Church has a history of helping to mediate conflicts and it has already been involved in talks to free prisoners and return Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

Its real input there isn’t clear, though, as others have fulfilled the same role.

On the other hand, the Vatican – especially any involvement of the new Pope – would introduce a different tone to proceedings.

Its quiet style couldn’t be further from Donald Trump’s capitalised social media posts and his brutal public showdown with Zelensky in the Oval Office. And the setting already seems to have worked wonders on the men’s relationship.

It was at Pope Francis’ funeral that they were snapped deep in conversation, heads close, inside St Peter’s Basilica.

The Vatican prides itself on its diplomacy: that’s why, when others severed ties with Moscow after it began bombing Ukraine, the Catholic Church sent a cardinal envoy to talk to the Kremlin. It made no impact.

Pope Francis, like Donald Trump, always avoided openly identifying Russia as the aggressor. Vatican sources say that was to keep the door for dialogue ajar, even when it seemed hopeless.

But Francis upset Ukrainians more by suggesting that Russia had been “provoked” by Nato into its invasion. He then agreed it might be wise for Kyiv to “raise the white flag” and surrender.

For Kyiv, Pope Leo might be a preferable potential peace-broker. He is on record as bishop denouncing Russia’s invasion as an imperialist war and condemning crimes against humanity being committed by Putin’s troops.

That’s unlikely to faze the Kremlin, if the Vatican were ever to host talks.

“Putin can explain his position to the Pope, he believes it’s just. In his mind, it’s Ukraine that’s not serious about peace talks,” argued Tatiana Stanovaya, from the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre.

“I don’t believe for one second that the Pope could affect Putin’s understanding in any way.”

At this point, Russia is under no major pressure to give ground: all Donald Trump’s talk of punishing Putin for his intransigence has turned into talk of trade with Russia. Offering incentives, not threating sanctions.

It’s true that Moscow wanted a lot more.

“They want Zelensky removed and for the US and EU to stop military aid, but on this, the US has been on Ukraine’s side – from the Russian perspective,” Tatiana Stanovaya says.

So Russia is prepared to play the long game – which doesn’t involve compromise.

“If the Pope could help pressure Ukraine, Putin wouldn’t have a problem [with his involvement],” she says.

That seems to be the real issue here. It runs far deeper than whether the two sides eat meze or antipasti between hypothetical rounds of fresh talks.

England will be the first country in the world to start vaccinating people against the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhoea.

It will not be available for everyone. The focus will mainly be on gay and bisexual men with a history of multiple sexual partners or an STI.

The vaccine is 30-40% effective, but NHS England hopes it will reverse soaring numbers of infections.

There were more than 85,000 cases in 2023 – the highest since records began in 1918.

Gonorrhoea does not always have symptoms, but they can include pain, unusual discharge, inflammation of the genitals and infertility.

How many people will chose to be immunised is uncertain.

But projections by Imperial College London show that if the jab proves popular then it could prevent 100,000 cases and save the NHS nearly £8m over the next decade.

Max, a sexual health campaigner, told BBC Newsbeat he would “100%” take the vaccine after being diagnosed with gonorrhoea twice within a year.

“I think this is great that it’s been announced”, he says, adding: “It’s going to take the pressure off the clinics, it’s just a big win all round.”

Vaccination will start in August and will be offered through sexual health services.

Public Health Scotland said it was also working on plans to launch its own programme for high-risk individuals.

BBC Newsbeat has asked health bodies in Wales and Northern Ireland whether they intend to do the same.

This vaccine wasn’t designed for gonorrhoea. It’s the meningitis B vaccine currently given to babies.

But the bacteria that cause the two diseases are so closely related that the MenB jab appears to cut gonorrhoea cases by around a third.

That will require a delicate conversation in sexual health clinics as the vaccine will not eliminate the risk of catching gonorrhoea. It is normally caught while having sex without a condom.

But Prof Andrew Pollard, the chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which recommended the vaccine, said despite it only being 30% effective, it was “worth having” and could have “a huge impact” overall.

The decision is not just about the record numbers of cases. Gonorrhoea is becoming increasingly difficult to treat.

Most cases are treated with a single dose of antibiotics, but there is an 80-year history of the bacterium which causes gonorrhoea repeatedly evolving resistance to our antibiotics.

It’s happening to the current treatments too and is why some doctors are concerned gonorrhoea could one-day become untreatable.

The best way to deal with a drug-resistant infection is to never catch it in the first place.

Dr Amanda Doyle, from NHS England, said: “The launch of a world-first routine vaccination for gonorrhoea is a huge step forward for sexual health and will be crucial in protecting individuals, helping to prevent the spread of infection and reduce the rising rates of antibiotic resistant strains of the bacteria.”

The people most affected by gonorrhoea in the UK are those aged 16-to-25, gay and bisexual men, and those of black and Caribbean ancestry.

The vaccine – which costs around £8 per dose – is value for money when primarily offered to gay and bisexual men, rather than all teenagers.

However, clinicians do have the freedom to use their own judgement and offer the vaccine to people using sexual health services they think are of equally high risk.

People will be offered mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), HPV and hepatitis vaccines at the same time.

Prof Matt Phillips, president of the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV, said: “This is excellent news and a landmark moment for sexual health in England.

“Gonorrhoea diagnoses are at their highest since records began and this has the potential to help us to turn that around.”

It is not known how long the protection provided by the vaccine will last or how often booster jabs might be required.

The decision comes almost a year and a half after a vaccination programme was recommended by the UK’s JCVI.

Sexual health campaigners had criticised that long wait, but have welcomed this decision.

Katie Clark, head of policy and advocacy at the Terrance Higgins Trust, called it a “huge win”.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.

In a makeshift tent in al-Shati refugee camp, in the north of the Gaza Strip, 33-year-old Enas Abu Daqqa holds her tiny baby daughter Niveen in her arms. A fan hums constantly behind her to break the morning heat.

Enas worries that Niveen’s health might deteriorate at any point. She is only seven months old, and was born during the war with a hole in her heart.

As her mother explains how she struggled to keep her alive amid a collapsing health system in Gaza, Niveen, with her big brown eyes and tiny frame, cries and fidgets.

“The war has been very tough for her,” Enas tells the BBC. “She wasn’t gaining any weight, and she would get sick so easily.”

Niveen’s only chance to survive was to receive urgent care outside Gaza. And in early March, Jordan made that possible.

As a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel held, 29 sick Gazan children, including Niveen, were evacuated to Jordan to receive treatment in the country’s hospitals. Her mother and older sister were brought out with her.

They were the first children evacuated to Jordan after King Abdullah announced plans to treat 2,000 sick Gazan children in hospitals there during a visit to the US the previous month. These evacuations were co-ordinated with the Israeli authorities who do background checks on the parents travelling with their children.

Doctors in Jordan performed successful open-heart surgery on Niveen, and she was slowly beginning to recover.

But about two weeks into the children’s treatment, the ceasefire in Gaza collapsed when Israel resumed its offensive against Hamas, and the war was back on, in full force.

For weeks, Enas followed the news from her daughter’s hospital room in Jordan, worrying about the safety of her husband and other children who were still in Gaza.

And then late at night on 12 May, the Jordanian authorities told Enas they were sending her and her family back to Gaza the following day, as they said Niveen had completed her treatment.

Enas was shocked.

“We left while there was a ceasefire. How could they send us back after the war had restarted?” she says, frustrated.

Enas is now reunited with her husband and children in Gaza. They say Niveen did not complete her treatment before she was sent back, and they worry that her condition could get worse.

“My daughter is in a very bad condition that could lead to her death,” says Enas. “She has heart disease. Sometimes she suffocates and turns blue. She can’t continue living in a tent.”

On 13 May, Jordan announced that it had sent 17 children back to Gaza “after completing their treatment”. And the next day, a new group of four sick children were evacuated from Gaza to Jordan.

The Jordanian authorities have told the BBC that all children sent back were in good medical condition, rejecting claims that they did not complete their treatment.

The authorities noted that the kingdom was clear from the beginning about its intention to send the children back once they were better, adding that this was necessary “for logistical and political reasons”.

“Jordan’s policy is to keep Palestinians on their land, and not to contribute to their displacement outside their territory,” a foreign ministry statement sent to the BBC said. The return of the 17 children would also allow for more sick children to be evacuated from Gaza, it added.

But an official in the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza told the BBC the children still needed care, and that their return to the war endangered their lives.

This is exactly what worries 30-year-old Nihaya Bassel.

Her son, Mohammed, who is just over a year old, suffers from asthma and serious food allergies. She believes her son did not receive the full treatment he deserved.

“We’re back to living in fear and hunger, surrounded by death,” Nihaya says as her eyes fill up with tears. “How can I get this child the milk that he needs to drink? He doesn’t eat even though he’s just over a year old, because if he eats, he will immediately get sick.”

Israel imposed a strict siege on the Gaza Strip 11 weeks ago, cutting off all supplies including food, medicine, shelter and fuel. It said this and the resumed offensive were meant to put pressure on Hamas to release the hostages still held in Gaza.

International organisations warn that Palestinians living there are at “critical risk of famine”. On Monday, Israel announced it would allow a “minimal” amount of food into Gaza following US pressure. The UN welcomed the crossing of five lorries carrying aid including baby food, but called it “a drop in the ocean”.

Nihaya is now living in a small, tented area in al-Shati camp with her brother-in-law’s family. Her husband and three other children had fled there from elsewhere in northern Gaza, escaping heavy Israeli strikes as the war restarted while she was in Jordan.

“I left my children here. I left my husband here. They went through hell while I was away,” Nihaya says as she bursts into tears.

“My mind and heart were constantly with them in Gaza while I was in Jordan. All of this so that my child could get treated. Why force me back before finishing his treatment?”

As she speaks, the sounds of Israeli surveillance drones drown out her voice. Her toddler runs around next to her, at times almost stumbling into a smoky open fire in the tent that the family uses for cooking meals.

She struggles to contain her anger as she recounts her journey back to Gaza.

“We didn’t leave [till] 04:00, and didn’t arrive in Gaza till 22:45,” she says. As they reached the border crossing, Nihaya says they were harassed by Israeli security forces.

“They started cursing at us. They threatened to beat us. They took all our money. They took our mobile phones, our bags and everything,” she says, noting that they confiscated all the bags of anyone who had cash on them.

Enas said the same thing happened to her, noting that her medical supplies were confiscated too.

The Israeli army told the BBC that they confiscated “undeclared cash exceeding normal limits” from Gazans returning from Jordan due to suspicions that they would be “used for terrorism within Gaza”. It notes that the money is being held while circumstances are investigated.

It has not given a reason for why other personal belongings were confiscated.

Nihaya says she has come back from Jordan “empty-handed”; even her son’s medical records were in the bags that the Israeli security forces took away, she says.

Jordan says it has given children like Niveen and Mohammed the best healthcare it can offer, and both families acknowledge this.

But they worry that a life in one of the world’s deadliest war zones for children will just undo all the progress their children have made over the past two months.

“I got my son to a point where I was very happy to see him like that,” Nihaya says through her tears. “Now they want to bring him back to square one? I don’t want my son to die.”

The UK has suspended talks on a trade deal with Israel, summoned the country’s ambassador and imposed fresh sanctions on West Bank settlers, as Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the military escalation in Gaza “morally unjustifiable”.

The move follows warnings of starvation in Gaza after Israel launched a new military operation over the weekend.

There were fiery exchanges in Parliament with Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel, who suggested the actions would be welcomed by Hamas, but also angry calls for the government to go further.

In response, Israel’s foreign spokesman said external pressure would “not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence”.

Global experts have warned of a looming famine because the Israeli government has blockaded supplies of food, fuel and medicine to Gaza for the last 11 weeks.

Officials say the sheer scale of the humanitarian crisis after two months of blockade played a part in the latest announcements, as did growing pressure from MPs and the public.

Ministers were also responding to the lack of any clear path towards a ceasefire and a sense of frustration from the White House, with President Donald Trump sidestepping the country on his Middle East tour last week and Vice-President JD Vance postponing a trip there this week.

The Israeli government has already been warned it must end its “egregious” military expansion and “immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza” in a joint statement from the leaders of the UK, Canada and France on Monday.

Israel said it had allowed five lorries carrying humanitarian aid into the territory but the UN’s humanitarian chief said this was a “drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed”.

Later on Tuesday, the UN confirmed that, although permission had now been given to send about 100 aid trucks into Gaza, no aid had yet been distributed.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer called the current situation “intolerable”, saying “humanitarian aid needs to get in at pace”.

In the House of Commons, there were shouts of “shame” from MPs as Lammy set out how an Israeli minister had said their latest operations would be “cleansing Gaza”, “destroying what’s left” and relocating Palestinians “to third countries”.

“We must call this what it is,” he told MPs. “It is extremism, it is dangerous, it is repellent, it is monstrous, and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms.”

Lammy said Israel had suffered “a heinous attack” on 7 October 2023 and the UK had always backed the country’s right to defend itself.

However, the foreign secretary said the Israeli government had set out on a “morally unjustifiable” and “utterly counterproductive” path that would not bring hostages safely home.

Instead, he accused the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu of “isolating Israel from its friends and partners around the world”, as he announced negotiations on a free trade deal had been suspended.

The Middle East minister, Hamish Falconer, told Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotovely that the UK would not “stand by” as Israel increased military operations in Gaza.

“Today I summoned Israel’s ambassador to the FCDO,” Falconer said in a post on X.

“I made clear the UK’s opposition to expanded military operations in Gaza and rising violence and intimidation by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities in the West Bank.”

“The UK will not stand by as this happens,” he added.

Condemning settler violence, Lammy also set out sanctions, including asset freezes and travel bans, against three individuals and four companies who were “carrying out heinous abuses of human rights”.

Dame Priti said: “Strong words will do little to resolve the real challenges that are taking place and the suffering we are seeing taking place day in, day out.”

She added that it “should be the cause of concern” that the UK government’s actions had been “supported by Hamas, a terrorist organisation”.

Following the statement there were calls for the foreign secretary to go further, including from Labour backbenchers, who raised the possibility of a breach of international law.

Abtisam Mohamed, the Labour MP for Sheffield Central, said Netanyahu had made an “explicit admission that Israeli officials intend to carry out ethnic cleansing”.

Lammy said the suspension of some arms sales to Israel had ensured “none of us are complicit in any acts that breach international humanitarian law” but he had announced further measures because the war was still continuing.

Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, the Labour MP for Tooting, said the “weaponisation of food” was “morally reprehensible” and called for an arms embargo to be imposed, as well as sanctions on Israeli officials.

Lammy gave an “absolute commitment” that the UK government would take further action “if needed over the coming days and weeks”.

He also responded to calls to officially recognise the state of Palestine by confirming he was “in close dialogue” with both France and Saudi Arabia about recognition.

Diplomats told the BBC they would still prefer to use recognition of Palestine as a spur to further action, perhaps as part of a wider peace settlement, rather than a symbolic expression of anger against Israel and support for Palestinians.

Israeli foreign spokesman Oren Marmorstein responded defiantly to Lammy’s statement on X, saying the decisions on sanctions were “unjustified”.

“External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in defending its existence and security against enemies who seek its destruction,” he said.

Marmorstein also suggested the UK government had not been advancing negotiations on a trade deal “at all” before the announcement in the Commons.

“If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy – that is its own prerogative,” he added.

Meanwhile, the EU – Israel’s biggest trading partner – is to review its trade agreement with the country in light of its actions in Gaza.

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It’ll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

After more than a year and a half of the war in Gaza, Britain appears to have finally lost patience with Israel.

Speaking to MPs, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy sounded genuinely angry.

Sir Keir said the level of suffering in Gaza, especially among innocent children, was “intolerable”.

Israel’s decision to allow in a small amount of aid was, he said, “utterly inadequate”.

The prime minister added he was “horrified” by Israel’s decision to escalate its military campaign.

Lammy employed similar language, saying the situation in Gaza was “abominable”.

He condemned as “monstrous” the suggestion by Israel’s hardline finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, that Gaza should be cleansed of its civilian population.

Israel’s actions, Lammy said, were isolating Israel from friends and partners around the world and “damaging the image of the State of Israel in the eyes of the world”.

• UK steps up action against Israel over Gaza offensive
• Goodwill running out for Israel among allies
• UN says no aid yet distributed in Gaza

Nor is Britain alone in expressions of outrage or threats of concrete action.

The EU says it’s reviewing its association agreement with Israel, which governs its political and economic relationship.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said a “strong majority” of members favoured looking again at the 25-year-old agreement.

On Monday night, Britain joined France and Canada in signing a strongly worded joint statement, condemning Israel’s military action and warning of “further concrete actions” if the humanitarian situation in Gaza did not approve.

Another statement followed, signed by 27 donor countries including the UK, condemning a new Gaza aid delivery model being promoted by Israel.

The model aims to replace existing humanitarian agencies, including the UN, with civilian contractors, backed by the Israeli military.

The UN and its donors say the new model is poorly conceived and politically motivated, incapable of replacing the decades-long tried and tested international humanitarian ecosystem in Gaza.

A representative of one of the aid agencies operating in Gaza told me the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation scheme was “totally premature,” adding that Israel had never provided evidence to back up its assertion that Hamas was responsible for the widespread diversion of aid.

One western diplomat, quoted in Israel’s liberal Haaretz newspaper, described the new model as a “crazy plan and absolute madness”.

During a passionate debate in the House of Commons, Lammy clashed with his Conservative opposite number, Dame Priti Patel, who suggested Hamas was benefitting from international criticism of Israel.

Lammy accused her of refusing to confront the reality of what was happening in Gaza.

Other MPs said Britain wasn’t going far enough, with several suggesting, once again, that the time has come for Britain to recognise a Palestinian state.

The government’s view is that taking such a significant step for purely symbolic reasons wouldn’t actually change anything.

But with France possibly poised to recognise Palestine at a conference it’s co-hosting with Saudi Arabia next month, some are hoping Britain follows suit.

Even if it doesn’t, it’s clear that Israel’s supporters are increasingly exasperated, and fearful that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest military operation, dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots” is poised to heap misery on Gaza just as the area’s two million civilians face the very real prospect of starvation.

Even US President Donald Trump has expressed impatience, warning that “a lot of people are starving” as he concluded his regional tour last week.

Netanyahu’s government is losing support, even among some of Israel’s staunchest allies.

At a World Jewish Congress conference in Jerusalem, the organisation’s president Ronald Lauder challenged Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar.

“All the best things Israel does are being destroyed by Smotrich because his statement about starving the Gazans and causing destruction is broadcast all over the world,” Lauder said, asking why Netanyahu does nothing to stop him.

According to veteran Israeli journalist Ben Caspit, Sa’ar’s answer was brief.

“Duly noted.”

The four-day conflict between arch-rivals India and Pakistan this month ended with a ceasefire and both claiming victory – but it now appears that China’s defence industry might also be an unlikely winner.

The latest flare-up began on 7 May when India launched attacks on what it called “terrorist infrastructure” inside Pakistan in response to the brutal killing of 26 people, mostly tourists by militants in Pahalgam on 22 April.

Many of them were killed in the scenic valley in Indian-administered Kashmir in front of their wives and family members. Delhi accused Islamabad of supporting militant groups involved in the carnage, a charge Pakistan denied.

After India’s response – which it called Operation Sindoor – to the militant attack, tit-for-tat military manoeuvres from both sides followed, involving drones, missiles and fighter jets.

India reportedly used its French and Russian-made jets, while Pakistan deployed its J-10 and J-17 aircraft, which Islamabad co-produces with Beijing. Both sides say their jets did not cross the border and they were firing missiles at each other from a distance.

Islamabad claims that its fighter aircraft shot down at least six Indian planes, including the newly-acquired French-made Rafale fighter jets. Delhi hasn’t responded to these claims.

“Losses are a part of combat,” Air Marshal AK Bharti of the Indian Air Force (IAF) said last week when a reporter asked him about these claims. Air Marshal Bharti declined to comment on the specific claim of Pakistan downing Indian jets.

“We have achieved the objectives that we selected, and all our pilots are back home,” he added.

India said it had killed at least “100 terrorists” while targeting the headquarters of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed militant outfits based in Pakistan.

A definitive account of what really happened in the aerial battle is yet to emerge. Some media outlets reported plane crashes in the state of Punjab and Indian-administered Kashmir around the same time but the Indian government has not responded to the reports.

A Reuters report quoting American officials said Pakistan possibly had used the Chinese-made J-10 aircraft to launch air-to-air missiles against Indian fighter jets. Pakistan claiming victory after hugely relying on Chinese weapons systems in an active combat situation is being seen by some experts as a boost for Beijing’s defence industry but some also disagree with the claim.

Some of the experts have called this a “DeepSeek moment” for the Chinese weapons industry, referring to January this year when the Chinese AI start-up shook US giants with its cost-effective technology.

“The aerial fight was a big advertisement for the Chinese weapons industry. Until now, China had no opportunity to test its platforms in a combat situation,” Zhou Bo, a retired senior colonel in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, told the BBC.

The Beijing-based analyst said the outcome of the air duel showed “China has some systems that are next to none”. Shares in the Chinese Avic Chengdu Aircraft company, that manufactures fighter jets like the J-10, surged by up to 40% last week after the reported performance of the fighter jet in the India-Pakistan conflict.

Other experts, however, feel it’s too early to declare the superiority of Chinese weapons systems.

Professor Walter Ladwig from the King’s College in London said it was yet to be determined whether the Chinese jets had actually outmanoeuvred the Indian Air Force (IAF) planes, particularly the Rafale.

“In a standard military doctrine, you would suppress the enemy’s air defences and get air superiority before you struck ground targets. Instead, it appears the IAF’s mission was clearly not to provoke any Pakistani military retaliation,” he said.

Mr Ladwig thought that the Indian pilots were given instructions to fly despite the fact that the entire Pakistani air defence was on high alert and their jets were already in the sky. The IAF hasn’t given details of the mission or about its air operations strategy.

Beijing also hasn’t made any comment on reports of the J-10 taking down Indian fighter jets, including the Rafale. But unconfirmed reports of the J-10 bringing down a Western weapon system has triggered jubilation and triumphalism on Chinese social media.

Carlotta Rinaudo, a China researcher at the International Team for the Study of Security in Verona, said Chinese social media was flooded with nationalistic messages even though it’s difficult to reach a conclusion with the available information.

“At the moment perception matters way more than reality. If we see it in that way, the main winner is really China,” she said.

For China, Pakistan is a strategic and economic ally. It is investing more than $50bn (£37bn) to build infrastructure in Pakistan as part of its China-Pakistan Economic corridor.

So, a weak Pakistan is not in China’s interest.

China made a critical difference in the latest India-Pakistan conflict, says Imtiaz Gul, a Pakistani security analyst. “It took the Indian planners by sheer surprise. They didn’t probably envision the depth of co-operation in the modern warfare between Pakistan and China,” he said.

Experts say the performance of the Chinese jets in a real combat situation was keenly analysed in Western capitals as this will have cascading impact on global arms trade. The US is the world’s largest arms exporter, while China is the fourth.

China sells weapons mostly to developing countries like Myanmar and Pakistan. Previously the Chinese weapon systems were criticised for their poor quality and technical problems.

Reports said the Burmese military grounded several of its JF-17 fighter jets – jointly manufactured by China and Pakistan in 2022 – due to technical malfunctions.

The Nigerian military reported several technical problems with the Chinese made F-7 fighter jets.

Another point to be noted is that this was not the first time that India lost an aircraft to Pakistan.

In 2019, during a brief air battle between the two sides following similar Indian air strikes on suspected terrorist targets in Pakistan, a Russian-made MiG-21 jet was shot down inside Pakistani territory and the pilot was captured. He was released a few days later.

India, however, said that the pilot had ejected after successfully shooting down Pakistani fighter jets, including a US-made F-16. Pakistan has denied the claim.

Despite reports of the downing of Indian jets last week, experts like Mr Ladwig argue that India was able to hit an “impressive breadth of targets” inside Pakistan early in the morning of 10 May and this fact has gone largely unnoticed by the international media.

The Indian military said in a co-ordinated attack, it launched missiles on 11 Pakistani air bases across the country, including the strategic Nur Khan air base outside Rawalpindi, not far from the Pakistani military headquarters. It’s a sensitive target that took Islamabad by surprise.

One of the furthest targets was in Bholari, 140km (86 miles) from the southern city of Karachi.

Mr Ladwig says this time the IAF operated with standard procedures – first attacking Pakistani air defence and radar systems and then focusing on ground targets.

The Indian jets used an array of missiles, loitering munitions and drones despite the Pakistanis operating the Chinese-provided HQ 9 air defence system.

“It seems the attacks were relatively precise and targeted. The craters were in the middle of runways, exactly the ideal spot. If it were a longer conflict, how long would it take the Pakistani Air Force to get these facilities up and running again, I can’t say,” Mr Ladwig pointed out.

Nevertheless, he said, by refusing to get into the details of the mission briefing, India’s military “lost control of the narrative thread”.

In response to the Indian strikes, Pakistan said it launched missile and air strikes on several Indian forward air bases, but Delhi said the attacks caused no damage to equipment and personnel.

Realising that the situation was getting out of control, the US and its allies intervened and put pressure on both countries to stop the fighting.

But for India, experts say, the whole episode is a wake-up call.

Beijing may not comment on the details of the recent India-Pakistan conflict, but it’s keen to show that its weapon systems are fast catching up with the West.

Delhi is aware that the jets China has supplied to Pakistan are some of the earlier models. Beijing has already inducted the more advanced J-20 stealth fighter jets, that can evade radars.

India and China have a long-standing border dispute along the Himalayas and fought a brief border war in 1962 that resulted in a defeat for India. A brief border clash took place in Ladakh in June 2020.

Experts say India is acutely aware that it needs to accelerate investments in its homegrown defence manufacturing industry and speed up international buying.

For now, China’s defence industry seems to be enjoying the limelight following the claims of success of one of its aircraft in the India-Pakistan conflict.

South Africa’s president has faced tough challenges before – he was the chief negotiator for Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress (ANC) during talks to end white-minority rule in the early 1990s – but his forthcoming meeting in the White House will require all his charm.

Cyril Ramaphosa wants to mend his nation’s fractured relationship with the US – and his famous negotiating skills will be put to the test as he tries to win over the world’s most powerful leader.

US President Donald Trump and his team have been uncharacteristically quiet about the trip, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declining on Monday to provide any details – or even publicly acknowledge that the visit is taking place.

“The trade relations are what’s most important — that’s what has brought us here,” Ramaphosa said in Washington on Tuesday. “We want to come out of the United States with a really good trade deal. We want to strengthen those relations and we want to consolidate good relations between our two countries.”

The two have been at loggerheads for months, with Trump repeatedly insisting that South Africa’s Afrikaner community is facing a “genocide” – a claim amplified by his close adviser Elon Musk, the South African-born tech billionaire, even though it has been widely discredited.

Tensions ramped up days after Trump took office for his second term in January when President Ramaphosa signed into law a controversial bill allowing South Africa’s government to expropriate privately owned land without compensation in certain circumstances, when it is deemed “equitable and in the public interest”.

This only served to tarnish the image of Africa’s biggest economy in the eyes of the Trump administration – already angered by its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In February, the US president announced the suspension of critical aid to South Africa and offered to help members from the Afrikaner community, who are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers, to settle in the US as “refugees”.

South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, was also expelled in March after accusing Trump of “mobilising a supremacism” and trying to “project white victimhood as a dog whistle”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Rasool was a “race-baiting politician” who was “no longer welcome in our great country”.

The arrival of the first group of Afrikaners in the US last week further inflamed the situation, with Trump again doubling down on his claims that white farmers were being “brutally killed” and their “land is being confiscated” – which has been repeatedly denied by the South Africa government.

According to South African political analyst Anthoni van Nieuwkerk, Ramaphosa’s decision to go the White House is a “high-risk strategy”, especially given Trump’s recent hard-line stance.

Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told the BBC it was hoped the trip would “set in motion a process towards the normalisation of diplomatic relations” and “lay the foundation” for improved trade relations.

Given that it had all been confirmed at short notice, the South African delegation – which includes four senior cabinet ministers – had had little time to set up a “formal programme”, he said.

But he suggested it was likely to focus on extending the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), a 25-year-old piece of US legislation guaranteeing duty-free access to American consumers for certain goods from Africa.

South Africa is one of the largest exporters under Agoa, generating about $2.7bn (£2bn) in revenue in 2023, mostly from the sale of vehicles, jewellery and metals.

There is concern the deal may not be renewed when it comes up for review later this year or that if it is, South Africa may be excluded from the new agreement.

“In the absence of that continuation or extension of Agoa, we are ready to engage with the Trump administration over a new trade relationship framework that we believe will be mutually beneficial,” Mr Magwenya said.

On the souring of relations between Pretoria and Washington, he said South Africa hoped to have a “frank, constructive discussion about them”.

Interestingly Agricultural Minister John Steenhuisen is part of the delegation. His Democratic Alliance political party is part of South Africa’s coalition government and has been a vocal critic of the ANC’s empowerment policies, saying they lead to cronyism and corruption. The ANC denies this.

Speaking of the ICJ case, in which South Africa accused Israel in December 2023 of committing genocide against Palestinians living in Gaza – an allegation Israel denies, Mr Magwenya admitted it might “lead to a robust discussion”.

“Procedurally, we can’t withdraw that issue [and it] will remain in contention.

“However, with respect to the humanitarian crisis and its alleviation – there’s agreement there with President Trump and we will focus more on what we can do together on those areas where we agree.”

On Friday, Trump acknowledged “a lot of people are starving” in Gaza following Israel’s recent blockade of humanitarian supplies to the territory – comments that have led to a “basic amount of food” entering Gaza.

Prof Van Nieuwkerk predicts two likely scenarios playing out – the first sees “pleasant and cordial” interaction and the reset that South Africa is keen on “if rational minds prevail and if a lot of homework has been done” on both sides.

But he warns should “emotional minds prevail” and the focus be on white genocide claims, things could unravel quickly.

“If the South African delegation cannot convince the Trump administration of the right of South Africa to exercise its own policy choices domestically and internationally… then the Oval Office moment will be used by Trump to humiliate Ramaphosa and to read him the riot act,” the University of South Africa academic said.

“That second scenario is not what we want.”

He hopes that South Africa’s delegation has arrived in the US with an “enticing proposal”, adding: “The negotiations cannot start in the Oval Office, in front of the cameras. That live moment must be the conclusion of a negotiation that should have happened earlier.”

On this score, he says South Africa does have an ace up its sleeve: Ramaphosa, known for his negotiating skills and warmth.

He knows what buttons to press – and finding common ground over golf could be the swing he takes – the 72-year-old has already invited the US leader for a friendly round of golf during the G20 Summit taking place in South Africa in November.

“Whether people like Cyril Ramaphosa or not, we have to acknowledge that he was one of the key players in the transition from apartheid to democracy. He made it happen because of his personality and style,” Prof Van Nieuwkerk said.

Dr Lubna Nadvi, a political analyst based at South Africa’s University of KwaZulu-Natal, agrees the South African president has the personality to “handle the situation should things get out of hand”.

“I anticipate that this face-to-face meeting will allow for the relationship to be strengthened, for facts to be placed on the table,” she said, adding that the “propaganda” that had influenced Trump would have to be tackled.

It was important for Ramaphosa’s team to get the US to “accept that South Africa is a sovereign country and is entitled to take the decisions it wants to take”, Dr Nadvi said.

Mr Magwenya also made the point that South Africa would not be heading into Wednesday’s meeting “with a begging bowl”.

“As much as South Africa needs access to one of the world’s largest markets… the United States equally needs certain products and goods out of South Africa.”

South Africa currently exports a variety of minerals to the US, including platinum, iron and manganese, as well as precious stones, metals and fruit.

Its “geo-strategic location” also made it “attractive” to the US, Prof Van Nieuwkerk added.

Painting a worst-case scenario, the analyst said: “There are players who would like to see us fail and then step in and… displace our role in Africa. This is the price we will pay if it goes wrong in the Oval Office”.

But Mr Magwenya was at pains to explain the White House meeting was not a “sprint” to a solution.

“What it represents is the beginning of a process towards resolving the current impasse and normalising diplomatic relations,” he said.

“Whether that meeting has a negative or positive outcome, it will be nonetheless a major opportunity for us to begin towards normalising the relationship.”

• Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?
• Is it checkmate for South Africa after Trump threats?
• Do Afrikaners want to take Trump up on his South African refugee offer?
• Racially charged row between Musk and South Africa over Starlink
• South Africa and Ukraine woo each other – as relationships with Trump turn sour

I first met Nicholas Rossi – or Arthur Knight, as he insisted on being called – in February 2022 in a corridor at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

He was there to fight extradition to the US, where he was accused of rape.

Sitting in his electric wheelchair, dressed in a three-piece suit and sporting a wide brimmed hat, the raspy voice behind the oxygen mask was telling anyone who would listen that this was all a terrible misunderstanding.

His hands, meanwhile, were hoovering up reporters’ business cards.

Rossi’s departure that day set the tone for what became a familiar scene – a slapstick performance in front of the cameras during which he tipped his wheelchair onto the pavement while trying to manoeuvre into a waiting taxi.

Later that evening an unknown number flashed up on my mobile phone and I heard that same raspy voice.

“Hello Steven, it’s Arthur… do you have a minute?”

And so began an exercise in separating fact from fiction that continues three years later, which I have explored in a new podcast as part of the Strange But True Crime series on BBC Sounds.

The name Nicholas Rossi first came to wider attention in December 2021 when he was arrested on the Covid ward of a Glasgow hospital.

Staff had recognised his mugshot and distinctive tattoos from an Interpol wanted notice.

The problem for the American authorities was that the man they were seeking to extradite swore blind he was the victim of mistaken identity.

He claimed he was Arthur Knight, an Irish-born orphan who had never been to America – and said he could prove it.

A couple of weeks after our first phone-call, “Arthur” was sitting opposite me in a BBC studio, his wife Miranda by his side, telling his tale for the cameras.

He said he grew up in care in Dublin and escaped to London as a teenager. There, he sold books with his friends at Camden market, like Del Boy from the comedy Only Fools and Horses.

Years later he married Miranda in Bristol before they moved to Glasgow. He showed me their marriage certificate – accompanied by a special licence from the Anglican Church, because “I wouldn’t lie to the Archbishop of Canterbury”.

What he couldn’t produce was a birth certificate. Or a passport.

He was vague about his schooldays and couldn’t say what happened to his old friends.

At times the conversation veered as wildly as his accent – from claims he survived the London Tube bombing (he got the date wrong) to a story about once meeting Del Boy’s sidekick Rodney.

He repeatedly denied being Nicholas Rossi, but when I asked about tattoos he said he was “too tired” to show me his arms.

It was a surreal, unconvincing performance that was being watched across the Atlantic by plenty of people who recognised the main character.

“I’d know those hands anywhere,” Mary Grebinski later told me.

She’d been a college student in 2008 when Nicholas Rossi sexually assaulted her on the way to class. He was convicted and placed on the sex offenders register.

In Dayton, Ohio – the city where that attack happened – I also spoke to Rossi’s ex-wife.

Kathryn Heckendorn said she had bought him the red silk pyjamas “Arthur” had been filmed wearing outside court.

Their unhappy marriage lasted eight months. The judge who granted their divorce in 2016 said Rossi was guilty of “gross neglect of duty and cruelty” on account of his abusive behaviour.

Conversations like this helped fill in the blanks.

Nicholas Rossi was born Nicholas Alahverdian in 1987. Rossi was the name of his stepfather, who at the time was Rhode Island’s premiere Engelbert Humperdinck impersonator.

As a teenager he spent time in care and, years later, enjoyed a degree of local fame as a child welfare campaigner.

When reports of Alahverdian’s death emerged in 2020, politicians paid tribute from the floor of the Rhode Island State House.

According to an online obituary his last words were: “Fear not and run towards the bliss of the sun.”

But it didn’t take long for this deception to begin unravelling.

A priest who had been asked to arrange a memorial mass was warned by a detective not to go ahead because “Nicholas isn’t dead”.

Instead, the authorities suspected Rossi was somewhere in the UK, having fled after discovering that the FBI were investigating an alleged credit card fraud.

It was his online footprint that ultimately led police to his hospital bedside in Glasgow – ironically as the fugitive was recovering from a genuine near-death experience in the shape of Covid.

At one of his early extradition hearings the sheriff commented that advancing the case shouldn’t be “rocket science”.

But the legal process dragged on and on – in large part due to Rossi’s antics.

There were rambling courtroom monologues, questionable medical episodes and theatrical outbursts which were often directed at his own lawyers as a prelude to sacking them.

Sitting in the public gallery, it was rarely dull. Rossi’s claim that a corrupt hospital employee called Patrick tattooed him while he was in a coma was one of the more memorable exchanges.

In the end the sheriff’s conclusion was that the Arthur Knight charade was “implausible” and “fanciful”.

And yet Rossi stuck to his story – even as his extradition was approved and High Court judges refused his appeal.

He stuck to his story as US Marshalls bundled him onto a private jet and as prison guards booked him into the Utah County jail.

He stuck to his story in a Utah courtroom, until suddenly he didn’t.

In October last year I tuned in to a routine bail hearing online when, without warning, the posh English persona disappeared.

Speaking in a clear American accent he told the judge he was born Nicholas Alahverdian before his name changed to Rossi.

As he claimed to have hidden his identity to escape “death threats”, I found myself wondering why he’d chosen that specific moment for the mask to slip.

The saga continues, but the novelty has worn off.

The intrigue and farce has been stripped away while the serious allegations remain.

In August, Nicholas Rossi is due to face the first of two separate rape trials. He denies all the charges.

Flying home from his Gulf trip last week, President Donald Trump told reporters “that was a great four days, historic four days”.

Visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), he added in this trademark swagger that “the jobs and money coming into our countries, there has never been anything like it”.

Trump claimed that he was able to secure deals totalling more than $2tn (£1.5tn) for the US, but do the numbers add up?

The trip itself was an extravaganza, with the three Gulf states pulling out all the stops.

Escorts of fighter jets, extravagant welcoming ceremonies, a thundering 21-gun salute, a fleet of Tesla Cybertrucks, royal camels, Arabian horses, and sword dancers were all part of the pageantry.

The UAE also awarded Mr Trump the country’s highest civilian honour, the Order of Zayed.

The visit’s optics were striking; the region’s richest petrostates flaunted their opulence, revealing just how much of that fortune they were ready to deploy to strengthen ties with the US while advancing their own economic goals.

Before embarking on the trip, President Trump, who touts himself as a “dealmaker in chief” was clear that the main objective of the trip was to land investments worth billions of dollars. On the face of it, he succeeded.

In Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman reiterated a pledge to invest $600bn in US-Saudi partnerships. There were a plethora of deals announced as part of this, encompassing arms, artificial intelligence (AI), healthcare, infrastructure projects and science collaborations, and various security ties and initiatives.

The $142bn defence deal grabbed a lot of the attention as it was described by the White House as the largest arms deal ever.

However, there remains some doubt as to whether those investment figures are realistic.

During his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, Trump had announced that Saudi Arabia had agreed to $450bn in deals with the US.

But actual trade and investment flows amounted to less than $300bn between 2017 to 2020, according to data compiled by the Arab Gulf States Institute.

The report was authored by Tim Callen, the former International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission chief to Saudi Arabia, and now a visiting fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute.

“The proof with all of these [new] deals will be in the pudding,” says Mr Callen.

The BBC contacted the White House for comment.

In Qatar, Trump announced an “economic exchange” worth at least $1.2tn. However, in the fact sheet released by the White House deals worth only $243.5bn between the two countries were mentioned.

One of the Qatari agreements that was confirmed was Qatar Airways purchasing up to 210 passenger jets for $96bn from the beleaguered American aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

The White House said the deal would support 154,000 jobs in the US each year of their production, totalling one million jobs over the deal’s lifecycle.

Meanwhile, the UAE inked an agreement to construct the world’s largest AI campus outside the US, reportedly granting it access to 500,000 cutting edge microchips from US giant Nvidia, starting next year.

This project sits within the UAE’s broader pledge to invest $1.4tn in the US over the next decade.

As well as the challenge of delivering what is promised, another potential obstacle to these figures being realised are oil prices.

Oil prices tumbled to a four-year low in April amid growing concerns that Trump’s tariffs could dampen global economic growth. The decline was further fuelled by the group of oil producing nations, Opec+, announcing plans to increase output.

For Saudi Arabia, the fall in global oil prices since the start of the year has further strained its finances, increasing pressure to either raise debt or cut spending to sustain its development goals.

Last month, the IMF cut the forecast for the world’s largest oil exporter’s GDP growth in 2025 to 3% from its previous estimate of 3.3%.

“It’s going to be very hard for Saudi to come up with that sort of money [the $600bn announced] in the current oil price environment,” Mr Callen adds.

Other analysts note that a lot of the agreements signed during the trip were non-binding memorandums of understanding, which are less formal than contracts, and do not always translate into actual transactions. And some of the deals included in the agreement were announced earlier.

Saudi oil firm Aramco, for instance, announced 34 agreements with US companies valued at up to $90bn. However, most were non-binding memorandums of understanding without specified monetary commitments.

And its agreement to purchase 1.2 million tonnes of liquified natural gas annually for 20 years from US firm NextDecade was also included in the list of new deals, despite it first being announced months ago.

Yet the massive investments mark a continuation of the shift in the US-Gulf relationship away from oil-for-security to stronger economic partnerships rooted in bilateral investments.

Bader Al Saif, an assistant professor at Kuwait University and an associate fellow at think tank Chatham House, says that the deals indicate that US and the Gulf states are “planning the future together and that was a significant change for the relationship”.

He adds that the AI deals with the UAE and Saudi Arabia were central to this as “they clearly demonstrate that they are trying to see how to build the new global order and the new way of doing things together”.

This emphasis on AI underscores the growing strategic importance of the technology to US diplomacy. Trump was accompanied on the trip by Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang, and Elon Musk, who owns Grok AI.

And on the eve of the visit, the White House scrapped tough Biden-era restrictions on exports of the advanced US semiconductors required to best run AI systems. The rules had divided the world into tiers, with some countries enjoying broad access to its high-end chips, and others being denied them altogether.

About 120 countries, including the Gulf nations, were grouped in the middle, facing strict caps on the number of semiconductors they could import. This had frustrated countries such as Saudi Arabia, who have ambitions to become high-tech economies as they transition away from oil.

Both Saudi and the UAE are racing to build large-scale AI data centres, while Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s capital, aims to become a global AI hub.

The UAE has made visible efforts to reassure Washington – deepening partnerships with US tech firms, curbing ties with Chinese companies, and aligning more closely with American national security interests.

Mr Al-Saif says that the UAE is “betting on the Americans when it comes to AI”. “We have seen that the technological turn in the 90s came from the US anyway.”

Both camps are hailing the visit as a triumph. For the Gulf, and especially Saudi Arabia, it resets a partnership that frayed under Biden, and underscores their ambition to act as heavyweight players on the world stage.

For Trump, touting “trillions” in new investment offers a timely boost – his tariff hikes have dented global trade and pushed US output into its first quarterly dip in three years.

These Gulf deals will be sold as proof that his economic playbook is working.

At the end of the trip, Mr Trump worried that whoever succeeds him in the White House would claim credit for the deals once they come to completion.

“I’ll be sitting home, who the hell knows where I’ll be, and I’ll say, ‘I did that,'” he said.

“Somebody’s going to be taking the credit for this. You remember, press,” he said, pointing to himself, “this guy did it.”

The Spanish government has called for the removal of the listings of nearly 66,000 properties on rental platform Airbnb on the grounds that they breach regulations for tourist accommodation.

The clampdown comes as protests against over-tourism have begun ahead of the summer season. Demonstrations in the Canary Islands on Sunday attracted thousands of people.

The minister for social rights, consumer affairs and the 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, said the rental properties in question had “violated various norms regarding housing for tourist use”.

The announcement followed a Madrid court ruling that Airbnb must immediately withdraw from the market 4,984 of the properties cited by the ministry.

The properties are in six regions: Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia, Valencia, the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands.

Bustinduy’s ministry is now awaiting further judicial rulings on the other 60,000 or so properties whose listings it deems unlawful.

According to the ministry, the properties it has identified either did not provide a licence number, provided an erroneous number, or did not specify the legal status of the owner to show whether they were renting on a professional basis or as a private individual.

He described the court’s decision as “a clear victory for those who fight to protect the right to housing”.

Bustinduy added that “it can be possible to ensure that no economic interest has priority over housing and that no company, however big or powerful, is above the law”.

Housing has emerged as Spaniards’ biggest concern in recent months, due to spiralling rental costs, particularly in larger towns and cities.

Read more: Spanish fightback against record tourism

The cost of an average rental has doubled over the last decade, while salaries have failed to keep up.

Tourist apartments have been identified by many as a major cause of the problem, depriving local residents of accommodation.

Spain is the world’s second most popular tourist destination after France, with 94 million foreign visitors in 2024, a 13% rise on the previous year.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said earlier this year “there are too many Airbnbs and not enough homes”, and he promised to prevent the “uncontrolled” expansion of the use of properties for tourism.

Some local governments have also started to act against Airbnb.

Barcelona City Hall has said it will eliminate its 10,000 short-term tourist apartments by the end of 2028.

Others have taken a different approach. In recent months, Airbnb has reached agreements with local authorities in the Canary Islands, Ibiza and Murcia aimed at ensuring property owners comply with tourist rental rules.

Airbnb responded to the court ruling and Bustinduy’s announcement by insisting it would appeal against decisions linked to this case and that no evidence of rule-breaking by hosts had been provided.

It also cited a 2022 ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court which found that the responsibility for listing information lay with the host of each property, not the company, which was a “neutral intermediary” and not a real estate provider.

The firm also made a broader point about the Spanish housing problem.

“The root cause of the affordable housing crisis in Spain is a lack of supply to meet demand,” said a spokesperson. “Governments across the world are seeing that regulating Airbnb does not alleviate housing concerns or return homes to the market – it only hurts local families who rely on hosting to afford their homes and rising costs.”

Last summer, Spain saw a wave of protests against over-tourism in many popular destinations, with its impact on housing the biggest grievance.

With the number of foreign visitors to Spain fast approaching 100 million per year, the unrest is expected to continue this summer.

On Sunday, several thousand people took to the streets across the Canary Islands under the slogan “Canaries have a limit”.

In Majorca, a group called (Less tourism, more life) is preparing for similar actions, with a protest scheduled for 15 June.

Some have called it an “eyesaur”. Many more have described it as “fabulous”.

But one word Boom Boom, a seven-metre tall stainless steel dinosaur sculpture in New Zealand, could never be associated with is “boring”.

Just days after the sauropod statue was installed in Taupō Sculpture Park, in the scenic centre of New Zealand’s North Island, Boom Boom has already prompted heated debate among locals.

The artist – and the team that commissioned it – say that’s exactly the point.

The mirror-finish sculpture was commissioned by the Taupō Sculpture Trust and created by Slovenian-born artist Gregor Kregar.

Kregar said that he wasn’t “particularly surprised” by the furore that quickly surrounded his work.

“Sculpture sometimes stops people from their everyday interactions with the world,” he told the BBC from his home in Auckland. “It’s really hard to hate a sculpture of a dinosaur.”

Still, public opinion on Boom Boom is split.

“Fantastic! Getting people talking about art. Broadening the conversation,” said one commenter on a social media post announcing Boom Boom’s arrival.

But another wrote: “Public investment of $100,000 from the local ratepayers, many of who would have rather seen the money spent elsewhere in the community.”

Funding for Boom Boom was finalised in 2018, before recent hikes in Taupō District Council’s rate which is similar to a council tax.

After several years of negotiations, the work was completed and installed in the park last week.

Others still criticised the work as having no connection with Taupō, named New Zealand’s most beautiful town in the 2023 Keep New Zealand Beautiful Awards.

But Kregar said the rock that the dinosaur stands on is inspired by the volcanic history of the area.

Lake Taupō, from which the town takes its name, is a large caldera, a volcano that has collapsed in on itself. It last erupted around 1,800 years ago.

Sauropods, the inspiration for Boom Boom, are one of a few species of dinosaurs that paleontologists say lived in New Zealand.

They became extinct 66 million years ago, along with other non-avian dinosaurs.

Kregar says the spirited debate around the sculpture means Boom Boom could eventually win round “the haters”.

“You put the sculpture out there, there is reaction, people start falling in love with it, and then it becomes something that they start embracing, part of the local identity,” he said.

Kim Gillies, secretary of the Taupō Sculpture Trust, told the BBC that the decision to commission Boom Boom was not taken “lightly”, but that it was chosen because “it would help put Taupō on the map”.

Gillies added that when it comes to the art, “safe is a bit boring, right?”

No bones about it.

The European Union has proposed a two-euro flat fee on billions of small parcels sent directly to people’s homes, which mainly come from China at the moment.

The new tax would mean that packages worth less than 150 euros (£126) are no longer customs-free.

Online marketplaces, including Chinese giants Temu and Shein, would be expected to pay the fee, said EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic.

Last year, 4.6 billion such parcels entered the EU, with more than 90% coming from China.

Such a volume had created a huge workload for EU customs staff, Sefcovic said. He argued it had presented challenges in ensuring the safety and standard of goods entering the bloc was properly checked.

The proposed fee would “compensate the cost”, he told the European Parliament. Brussels also hopes some of the revenue generated will go towards the EU budget.

The two-euro fee will apply to packages sent directly to consumers, while parcels sent to warehouses would be taxed at a lower rate of 0.50 euros (£0.42).

The EU’s move comes after the US’s new tariffs on Chinese goods under President Donald Trump’s administration – which include a fee on small packages.

Following negotiations last week, the tariff on small packages worth up to $800 (£606) was revised down to 54% from 120%. However a flat fee per parcel of $100 remains.

There had been fears that the Chinese e-commerce giants could then flood the European market with cheap goods, as products originally destined for the US would have to be dumped elsewhere.

European retailers have complained before that they face unfair competition with overseas competitors, who they argue do not comply with the EU’s strict product standards.

Shein and Temu have previously said they would co-operate with regulators and consumer standards. Temu says it has 92 million users in the EU, while Shein has said it has over 130 million.

Prior to the US tariffs, platforms like Shein and Temu had relied on the so-called “de minimis” exemption to ship low-value items directly to customers in the US without having to pay duties or import taxes.

A former prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been sentenced to a decade’s forced labour for corruption.

Augustin Matata Ponyo was found guilty of embezzling about $245m (£182m) of public funds by the Congolese Constitutional Court on Tuesday, alongside Deogratias Mutombo, the former governor of the DR Congo’s central bank.

Matata’s lawyer told Reuters news agency that the ruling was unfair and politically motivated.

Part of the funds were taken from a major agricultural development intended to tackle the country’s chronic food shortages.

Matata served as prime minister of the DRC from 2012 to 2016 and now heads the country’s Leadership and Governance for Development party (LGD).

Prior to his premiership, he was finance minister and received praise from the International Monetary Fund at the time for stabilising the country’s economy.

Deogratias Mutombo, the central bank’s former governor, has also been sentenced to five years of forced labour in the same case and has not commented publicly on the ruling.

Forced labour is legal in DR Congo when mandated by a court for a criminal penalty, according to the US State Department.

Both men have been barred from public service for five years from the end of their terms of forced labour, the AFP news agency reports.

Matata, who campaigned against DRC President Felix Tshisekedi in the 2023 vote before dropping out, has consistently denied the charges.

The case has stretched over almost four years since the country’s Inspectorate General of Finance reported the theft from the Bukanga-Lonzo Agro-Industrial Park in 2020.

The park was one of Africa’s largest ever agricultural investments according to the Reuters news agency and the African Development Bank Group had expected to provide 22,000 jobs.

It was intended to provide reprieve to the 28 million people who currently face acute food insecurity in DR Congo, which has been plagued by conflict for more than 30 years, since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Loved ones of a Kent woman who died from methanol poisoning are urging the government to do more to educate young people on the risks of drinking bootleg alcohol abroad.

Twenty-eight-year-old Simone White, from Orpington, died in 2024 along with five others after consuming free shots they were offered at a hostel in Laos, south-east Asia.

The MP for Dartford raised the issue in a debate in Parliament on Tuesday, calling for compulsory education on the issue in schools.

Responding in the Westminster Hall debate, Foreign Office minister Catherine West paid tribute to Simone’s family and thanked them for raising the profile of the issue.

She said the government was acting in response to the “tragic losses”.

Amanda Dennis, a family representative, said Simone had a “zest for life”.

“She was very well educated… [and] well-travelled. She was a lovely young lady, who had a lot more to live for.”

Ms Dennis added they initially thought the lawyer would pull through, but days later they were told by hospital staff there was “no hope” of survival.

She said the family was “joining forces” with others who had lost loved ones in the same way.

“You can’t have any more young people losing their lives unnecessarily,” she said. “It’s got to stop.”

Speaking in Parliament, Dartford MP Jim Dickson praised the “courage” of Simone’s family and others who were “fighting for justice” and “trying to raise awareness so that other families don’t have to lose loved ones in the same tragic circumstances”.

In an interview with BBC South East, he said he was calling on the government to “increase the awareness among young people of a likelihood of methanol poisoning”.

He said he wanted the Foreign Office website to be “very, very clear” about the risk of bootleg alcohol in certain countries and that it “probably needs to do more”.

“Above all we think it should be in the school curriculum,” said Ms Dickson. “Young people should be being taught from a very early age that methanol poisoning is a possibility… and how to take action to avoid it.”

Mr Dickson said there were a number of ways young people could distinguish between “drink that is ok and drink that might poison them”, including avoiding “knock-off brands that are posing as mainstream brands”.

Kay Coleman, mother of Bethany who was poisoned along with Simone but survived, said they had started a petition for compulsory education on methanol poisoning in schools.

“There needs to be more awareness,” she said, adding that the “message [needs to get] across fully about the dangers” of drinking bootleg alcohol.

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Laos and we are in contact with the local authorities.”

Information on methanol poisoning in Laos is available on the Foreign Office website, they added.

Federal authorities have charged Democratic Congresswoman LaMonica McIver with two counts of assault after a confrontation with officers outside an immigration detention centre.

Alina Habba – the interim US attorney for the state and a former personal attorney to President Donald Trump – initially announced the charges in a social media post late on Monday.

Habba also said that her office would drop a trespassing case against the mayor of Newark, Ras Baraka, who is also a Democrat.

Scuffles broke out when McIver, Baraka and others paid an oversight visit to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) centre in Newark on 9 May. No injuries were reported.

The Democratic lawmakers were visiting Delaney Hall, which can hold up to 1,000 people and was touted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the first reopened immigration facility under the new Trump administration.

Videos showed increasingly heated discussion and a chaotic scene including police, Ice agents, journalists, the politicians and protesters before Mayor Baraka was arrested.

The formal complaint, unsealed on Tuesday, alleges that McIver pushed Ice agents with her forearms and joined in efforts to prevent them from arresting Mayor Baraka.

The eight-page document includes several screenshots from cameras worn by Ice officers that show McIver, in a bright red jacket, inside a crowd of politicians and law enforcement.

She is charged with two counts of assaulting, resisting, and impeding certain officers or employees.

Federal law prohibits immigration officials from blocking access to detention facilities for members of Congress seeking to conduct oversight, and grants lawmakers and designated staffers special access.

The members of Congress present on 9 May were eventually granted access and given a tour of the building.

It is unusual for US attorneys to charge sitting members of Congress, though not unprecedented.

Individual lawmakers have in the past faced charges on fraud, bribery, and campaign finance violations.

Members of Congress are occasionally arrested at protests, but those incidents are primarily symbolic and rarely lead to criminal charges.

Charging a member of Congress requires consultation or approval Department of Justice’s public integrity section in Washington DC.

That oversight exists to “avoid compromising the credibility and the public perception of the justice department, and how especially political or politically sensitive prosecutions are handled”, said John Keller.

Mr Keller resigned from the unit in February after the department moved to drop the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams – one of several high profile departures since Trump took office.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a BBC inquiry about whether the protocols set out by the agency had come into play in McIver’s case.

Matt Platkin, the New Jersey attorney general and the state’s highest-ranking law enforcement official, called the charges against McIver “an extraordinary step that requires clear evidence of criminal conduct and intent”.

Administration officials and the Democratic lawmakers opposed to the Ice facility each blamed each other for the incident.

Commenting on the case, Trump told reporters that McIver had been “out of control”, and DHS said the politicians “stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”

Tom Homan, the administration’s border czar, told reporters that there was a “right way and a wrong way” for lawmakers to check on the state of detention facilities.

McIver has denied wrongdoing and maintained she was “fulfilling our lawful oversight responsibilities.”

She called the case against her “purely political”, while leading congressional Democrats issued a statement saying the charge of assaulting, impeding or interfering with law enforcement “is extreme, morally bankrupt and lacks any basis in law or fact”.

Baraka said the videos taken during the incident “make it clear that Delaney Hall personnel opened the gate for me, and allowed me to enter the property, as well as my calm and respectful departure when asked to leave”.

In dropping the charge against the mayor, Habba, who went on to serve as a spokeswoman for Trump before he named her the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, said she would personally give Baraka a tour of the facility.

A federal judge has warned that US President Donald Trump’s administration could be held in contempt of court for deporting a group of migrants to South Sudan.

Judge Brian Murphy said the removals could violate his order last month barring the US government from sending migrants to third countries without being given “meaningful opportunity” to challenge their deportation.

In an emergency submission to the judge, immigration attorneys said a flight carrying a dozen people had landed in South Sudan on Tuesday.

It is the latest showdown between Trump and the federal courts as the Republican president seeks to deliver on a campaign pledge for mass deportations.

Attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance asked Judge Murphy on Tuesday for an emergency order to prevent the removals, which they said had included citizens of Myanmar and Vietnam.

The judge, a Biden appointee who is based in Boston, told a lawyer for the Department of Justice: “I have a strong indication that my preliminary injunction order has been violated.”

“Based on what I have been told this seems like it may be contempt”, he added, according to US media.

But the justice department lawyer, Elianis Perez, said that one of the migrants, who is Burmese, had been returned to Myanmar, not South Sudan.

She declined to disclose where the second migrant, a Vietnamese man, was deported, saying it was “classified”. She said he had been convicted of murder.

At least one rapist was also on the deportation flight, said an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security.

Judge Murphy did not order the plane to head back to the US, but said the migrants must remain in the government’s custody and be “treated humanely” pending a hearing on Wednesday.

He said this could entail the deportation flight being kept on the tarmac once it lands.

Judge Murphy issued a ruling on 18 April requiring that illegal migrants have a chance to challenge their removal to countries other than their homelands.

After reports surfaced that some migrants were going to be sent to Libya, Judge Murphy said any such move would violate his ruling.

The BBC has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

Lawyers for the Burmese man, identified only as N.M. in the court filing, said their client speaks limited English and had refused to sign a notice of removal served on him by officials at an immigration detention centre in Texas.

On Tuesday morning an attorney emailed the centre after noticing her client was no longer showing up on a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee locator, says the court filing. She was informed he had been removed from the US.

When she asked to which country her client had been removed, the email reply said: “South Sudan.”

The lawyers said another client, the Vietnamese man, identified only as T.T.P. in court papers, “appears to have suffered the same fate”.

The Vietnamese man’s spouse emailed his lawyer and said that the group of around 10 other individuals who were believed to have been deported included nationals of Laos, Thailand, Pakistan and Mexico, Reuters news agency reports.

“Please help!” the spouse said in an email. “They cannot be allowed to do this.”

The world’s youngest nation, South Sudan endured a bloody civil war soon after its independence in 2011.

The US government’s travel advisory states: “Do not travel to South Sudan due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict.”

Several countries have been asked by the Trump administration to accept migrant deportations.

Earlier this month, Rwanda confirmed it was in such talks with the US, while Benin, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini and Moldova have all been named in media reports.

The South Sudan deportation case is the latest constitutional clash between two equally powerful branches of government.

Another jurist, US District Judge James Boasberg in Washington DC, last month found “probable cause” to hold Trump officials in criminal contempt.

He ruled they had violated his order to halt deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members who had no chance to challenge their removals.

Indian writer, lawyer and activist Banu Mushtaq has made history by becoming the first author writing in the Kannada language to win the International Booker prize with her short story anthology, Heart Lamp.

It is the first short story collection to win the presigious prize. Judges praised her characters as “astonishing portraits of survival and resilience”.

Featuring 12 short stories written by Mushtaq between 1990 and 2023, Heart Lamp poignantly captures the hardships of Muslim women living in southern India.

The stories were selected and translated into English from Kannada, which is spoken in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, by Deepa Bhasthi who will share the £50,000 prize.

In her acceptance speech, Mushtaq thanked readers for letting her words wander into their hearts.

“This book was born from the belief that no story is ever small; that in the tapestry of human experience, every thread holds the weight of the whole,” she said.

“In a world that often tries to divide us, literature remains one of the last sacred spaces where we can live inside each other’s minds, if only for a few pages,” she added.

Bhasthi, who became the first Indian translator to win an International Booker, said that she hoped that the win would encourage more translations from and into Kannada and other South Asian languages.

Mushtaq’s win comes off the back of Geetanjali Shree’s Tomb of Sand – translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell – winning the prize in 2022.

Her body of work is well-known among book lovers, but the Booker International win has shone a bigger spotlight on her life and literary oeuvre, which mirrors many of the challenges the women in her stories face, brought on by religious conservatism and a deeply patriarchal society.

It is this self-awareness that has, perhaps, helped Mushtaq craft some of the most nuanced characters and plotlines.

“In a literary culture that rewards spectacle, Heart Lamp insists on the value of attention – to lives lived at the edges, to unnoticed choices, to the strength it takes simply to persist. That is Banu Mushtaq’s quiet power,” a review in the Indian Express newspaper says about the book.

Mushtaq grew up in a small town in the southern state of Karnataka in a Muslim neighbourhood and like most girls around her, studied the Quran in the Urdu language at school.

But her father, a government employee, wanted more for her and at the age of eight, enrolled her in a convent school where the medium of instruction was the state’s official language – Kannada.

Mushtaq worked hard to become fluent in Kannada, but this alien tongue would become the language she chose for her literary expression.

She began writing while still in school and chose to go to college even as her peers were getting married and raising children.

It would take several years before Mushtaq was published and it happened during a particularly challenging phase in her life.

Her short story appeared in a local magazine a year after she had married a man of her choosing at the age of 26, but her early marital years were also marked by conflict and strife – something she openly spoke of, in several interviews.

In an interview with Vogue magazine, she said, “I had always wanted to write but had nothing to write (about) because suddenly, after a love marriage, I was told to wear a burqa and dedicate myself to domestic work. I became a mother suffering from postpartum depression at 29”.

In the another interview to The Week magazine, she spoke of how she was forced to live a life confined within the four walls of her house.

Then, a shocking act of defiance set her free.

“Once, in a fit of despair, I poured white petrol on myself, intending to set myself on fire. Thankfully, he [the husband] sensed it in time, hugged me, and took away the matchbox. He pleaded with me, placing our baby at my feet saying, ‘Don’t abandon us’,” she told the magazine.

In Heart Lamp, her female characters mirror this spirit of resistance and resilience.

“In mainstream Indian literature, Muslim women are often flattened into metaphors — silent sufferers or tropes in someone else’s moral argument. Mushtaq refuses both. Her characters endure, negotiate, and occasionally push back — not in ways that claim headlines, but in ways that matter to their lives,” according to a review of the book in The Indian Express newspaper.

Mushtaq went on to work as a reporter in a prominent local tabloid and also associated with the Bandaya movement – which focussed on addressing social and economic injustices through literature and activism.

After leaving journalism a decade later, she took up work as a lawyer to support her family.

In a storied career spanning several decades, she has published a copious amount of work; including six short story collections, an essay collection and a novel.

But her incisive writing has also made her a target of hate.

In an interview to The Hindu newspaper, she spoke about how in the year 2000, she received threatening phone calls after she expressed her opinion supporting women’s right to offer prayer in mosques.

A fatwa – a legal ruling as per Islamic law – was issued against her and a man tried to attack her with a knife before he was overpowered by her husband.

But these incidents did not faze Mushtaq, who continued to write with fierce honesty.

“I have consistently challenged chauvinistic religious interpretations. These issues are central to my writing even now. Society has changed a lot, but the core issues remain the same. Even though the context evolves, the basic struggles of women and marginalised communities continue,” she told The Week magazine.

Over the years Mushtaq’s writings have won numerous prestigious local and national awards including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe Award.

In 2024, the translated English compilation of Mushtaq’s five short story collections published between 1990 and 2012 – Haseena and Other Stories – won the PEN Translation Prize.

At just 37 hectares, the Philippines-controlled island of Pagasa – or “hope” – is barely big enough to live on. There is almost nothing there.

The 300 or so inhabitants live in a cluster of small, wooden houses. They fish in the clear, turquoise waters, and grow what vegetables they can in the sandy ground.

But they are not alone in these disputed waters: just off shore, to the west, lies an armada of ships.

These are all Chinese, from the navy, the coastguard or the so-called maritime militia – large fishing vessels repurposed to maintain Chinese dominance of this sea. As our plane approached the island we counted at least 20.

For the past 10 years, China has been expanding its presence in the South China Sea, taking over submerged coral reefs, building three large air bases on them, and deploying hundreds of ships, to reinforce its claim to almost all of the strategic sea lanes running south from the great exporting cities on the Chinese coast.

Few of the South East Asian countries which also claim islands in the same sea have dared to push back against China; only Vietnam and the Philippines have done so. The militaries of both countries are much smaller than China’s, but they are holding on to a handful of reefs and islands.

Pagasa – also known as Thitu and other names, as it is claimed by several other countries – is the largest of these.

What makes it exceptional, though, is the civilian population, found nowhere else on the islands of the South China Sea. From the point of view of the Philippines this, and the fact that Pagasa is solid land, not a partially submerged reef or sandy cay, strengthens its legal claims in the area.

“Pagasa is very important to us,” Jonathan Malaya, assistant director-general of the Philippines National Security Council, tells the BBC.

“It has a runway. It can support life – it has a resident Filipino community, and fishermen living there.

“And given the size of the island, one of the few that did not need reclaiming from the sea, under international law it generates its own territorial sea of 12 nautical miles.

“So it is, in a way, a linchpin for the Philippine presence.”

Reaching Pagasa is a two-to-three-day boat ride from the Philippines island of Palawan, or a one-hour plane ride, but both are at the mercy of frequent stormy weather.

Until they surfaced the runway two years ago, and lengthened it to 1,300m (4,600ft), only small planes could land. Now they can bring in big C130 transport aircraft. Travelling in them, as we did, is a bit like riding a bus in rush hour.

Everything has to be brought from the mainland, which is why our plane was packed, floor to ceiling, with mattresses, eggs, bags of rice, a couple of motorbikes and piles of luggage – not to mention lots of military personnel, most of whom had to stand for the entire flight.

A lot has changed in recent years. There is a new hangar, big enough to shelter aircraft during storms. They are building a control tower and dredging a small harbour to allow bigger boats to dock. We were driven around the island by some of the Philippines marines who are stationed there, though given its size it hardly seemed necessary

The Philippines seized Pagasa from Taiwan in 1971, when the Taiwanese garrison left it during a typhoon. It was formally annexed by the Philippines in 1978.

Later, the government started encouraging civilians to settle there. But they need support to survive on this remote sliver of land. Families get official donations of food, water and other groceries every month. They now have electricity and mobile phone connectivity, but that only came four years ago.

Aside from government jobs, fishing is the only viable way to make a living, and since the arrival of the Chinese flotillas even that has become difficult.

Fisherman Larry Hugo has lived on the island for 16 years, and has chronicled the increasing Chinese control of the area. He filmed the initial construction on Subi Reef, around 32km (20 miles) from Pagasa, which eventually became a full-size military air base. One of his videos, showing his little wooden boat being nearly rammed by a Chinese coastguard ship in 2021 made him a minor celebrity.

But Chinese harassment has forced him to fish in a smaller area closer to home.

“Their ships are huge compared to ours. They threaten us, coming close and sounding their horns to chase us away. They really scare us. So I no longer go to my old fishing grounds further away. I now have to fish close to the island, but the fish stocks here are falling, and it is much harder to fill our tubs like we used to.”

Realyn Limbo has been a teacher on the island for 10 years, and seen the school grow from a small hut to full-size school teaching more than 100 pupils, from kindergarten to 18 years old.

“To me this island is like paradise,” she says. “All our basic needs are taken care of. It is clean and peaceful – the children can play basketball or go swimming after school. We don’t need shopping malls or all that materialism.”

Pagasa is really quiet. In the fierce midday heat we found most people snoozing in hammocks, or playing music on their porches. We came across Melania Alojado, a village health worker, rocking a small baby to help it sleep.

“The biggest challenge for us is when people, especially children, fall ill,” she says.

“If it is serious then we need to evacuate them to the mainland. I am not a registered nurse, so I cannot perform complicated medical tasks. But planes are not always available, and sometimes the weather is too rough to travel.

“When that happens we just have to care for them as best we can.”

But she too values the tranquillity of island life. “We are free of many stresses. We get subsidised food, and we can grow some of our own. In the big city everything you do needs money.”

We saw a few new houses being built, but there really isn’t room for Pagasa to accommodate many more people. With very few jobs, young people usually leave the island once they finish school. For all of its sleepy charm, and stunning white-sand beaches, it has the feel of a garrison community, holding the line against the overpowering Chinese presence which is clearly visible just offshore.

“The Chinese at the airbase on Subi Reef always challenge us when we approach Pagasa,” the pilot says. “They always warn us we are entering Chinese territory without permission.”

Do they ever try to stop you? “No, it’s a routine. We tell them this is Philippines territory. We do this every time.”

Jonathan Malaya says his government has made a formal diplomatic protest every week to the Chinese Embassy over the presence of its ships in what the Philippines views as the territorial waters of Pagasa. This is in marked contrast to the previous administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, which avoided confrontations with China in the hope of getting more investment in the Philippines.

“I think we will get more respect from China if we hold our ground, and show them we can play this game as well. But the problem of democracies like the Philippines is policies can change with new administrations. China does not have that problem.”

The US has selected a design for the futuristic “Golden Dome” missile defence system, says US President Donald Trump, adding that it will be operational by the end of his time in office.

Just days after returning to the White House in January, Trump unveiled his intentions for the system, aimed at countering “next-generation” aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill – although the government has estimated it will end up costing much more than that over decades.

Officials warn that existing systems have not kept pace with increasingly sophisticated weapons possessed by potential adversaries.

President Trump also announced that Space Force General Michael Guetlein will oversee the project. Gen Guetlein is currently vice chief of space operations at Space Force.

Seven days into his second administration, Trump ordered the defence department to submit plans for a system that would deter and defend against aerial attacks, which the White House said remain “the most catastrophic threat” facing the US.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said the system would consist of “next-generation” technologies across land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors. He added that Canada had asked to be a part of the system.

During a visit to Washington earlier this year, then-Canadian defence minister Bill Blair acknowledged that Canada was interested in participating in the dome project, arguing that it “makes sense” and was in the country’s “national interest”.

He added that “Canada has to know what’s going on in the region” and be aware of incoming threats, including in the Arctic.

Trump added that the system would be “capable even of intercepting missiles launched from the other side of the world, or launched from space”.

The system is partly inspired by Israel’s Iron Dome, which the country has used to intercept rockets and missiles since 2011.

The Golden Dome, however, would be many times larger and designed to combat a wider range of threats, including hypersonic weapons able to move faster than the speed of sound and fractional orbital bombardment systems – also called Fobs – that could deliver warheads from space.

“All of them will be knocked out of the air,” Trump said. “The success rate is very close to 100%.”

US officials had previously said that the Golden Dome will have the aim of allowing the US to stop missiles at various stages of their deployment, including before they launch and while they are still in the air.

The many aspects of the system will fall under one centralised command, US defence officials have said.

Trump said on Tuesday that the programme would require an initial investment of $25bn, with a total cost of $175bn over time. The initial $25bn has been identified within his One Big Beautiful Bill on tax, which has not yet been passed.

The Congressional Budget Office, however, has estimated that the government could ultimately spend more, up to $542bn over 20 years, on the space-based parts of the system alone.

Pentagon officials have long-warned that existing systems have not kept pace with new missile technology designed by Russia and China.

“There really is no current system,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. “We have certain areas of missiles and certain missile defence, but there is no system… there has never been anything like this.”

A briefing document recently released by the Defense Intelligence Agency noted that missile threats “will expand in scale and sophistication”, with China and Russia actively designing systems “to exploit gaps” in US defences.

Basic water utility fees will be waived for residents of the Japanese capital Tokyo this summer in an effort to limit the impact of extreme heat.

Some ¥36bn ($250m; £186m) has been set aside for the subsidies, which will come into effect for a four-month period.

Heatstroke claimed a record 263 lives in Tokyo last summer, said the Bureau of Public Health. Many victims did not have air conditioning or chose not to use it because of high costs.

“We are worried that people might refrain from using their air conditioners because they are concerned about living expenses [and] considered what we could do to help pay their bills,” said Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, according to the Asahi Shimbun.

“We would like to create an environment in which all Tokyoites can live in peace even in the extremely hot weather we are expected to experience this summer,” Koike said.

By offsetting water costs, the government aims to encourage residents of the Japanese capital to use other cooling methods like air conditioning.

In more than 60% of heatstroke deaths recorded indoors last summer, the victims had not turned air conditioning on, the Tokyo Fire Department said, according to the Japan Times.

On average, base water fees in Tokyo cost between ¥860 ($6; £4.50) to ¥1,460 ($10; £7.50) per month, depending on the width of the household’s water pipe.

Additional fees – based on water usage and paid on top of base fees – will be charged at their usual rate.

Tokyo has more than 7 million households and a population of more than 14 million, according to government statistics.

Japan recorded its hottest summer on record last year.

Temperatures in June, July and August were 1.76 degrees higher than the average between 1991 and 2020, according to the Japan meteorological agency.

Between June and September, nearly 8,000 people in Tokyo were taken to hospitals for heatstroke – also a record – with a majority of deaths recorded among elderly people.

George Wendt, who starred as Norm Peterson in the popular comedy series Cheers, has died at the age of 76.

The beloved actor and comedian died peacefully in his sleep at his home early on Tuesday morning, his family said.

“George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him. He will be missed forever,” a representative told the BBC.

Wendt starred as Norm in all 275 episodes of Cheers, which ran from 1982-93. He earned six consecutive Emmy nominations for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series.

Wendt’s character Norm was a well-loved bar regular, and was one of the few characters to appear in every episode of Cheers.

His entrance into the bar was a running gag on the show, beginning with him greeting the other patrons followed by the crowd yelling his name.

Wendt reunited with some of the cast at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2024, including Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, Kelsey Grammer and John Ratzenberger.

In addition to the NBC sitcom, Wendt appeared in several movies such as Dreamscape, Forever Young and Gung Ho.

He also appeared as the father of a boy played by Macaulay Culkin in Michael Jackson’s Black or White music video, which was released in 1991.

He had been married to fellow actor Bernadette Birkett since 1978, with whom he had three children.

He was also the uncle of actor and comedian Jason Sudeikis, who is most recently known for playing the title character in the sports comedy Ted Lasso.

Wendt’s Cheers co-star Ted Danson told People magazine that he was “devastated to hear that Georgie is no longer with us”.

“I am sending all my love to Bernadette and the children,” he said. “It is going to take me a long time to get used to this. I love you, Georgie.”

Cheers Boston, the pub that inspired the hit television show, paid tribute by sharing a picture of Norm’s spot at the bar on Instagram.

“George wasn’t just an actor – he was a symbol of comfort, laughter, and that familiar feeling of walking into a place where everybody knows your name,” they said.

“To George: thank you for the laughs, the memories, and the legacy you leave behind. You’ll always have a stool at our bar.”

Actress Melissa Joan Hart reflected on the handful of times they had worked together on the show Sabrina the Teenage Witch.

“He was warm, professional and kind and our cast and crew were gifted with his presence every time. Rest in peace!” she wrote on Instagram.

“Heaven just got a little funnier”.

Ofcom has launched investigations into two pornographic websites it believes may be falling foul of the UK’s newly introduced child safety rules.

The regulator said Itai Tech Ltd – which operates a so-called “nudifying” site – and Score Internet Group LLC had failed to detail how they were preventing children from accessing their platforms.

Ofcom announced in January that, in order to comply with the Online Safety Act, all websites on which pornographic material could be found must introduce “robust” age-checking techniques from July.

It said the two services it was investigating did not appear to have any effective age checking mechanisms.

Firms found to be in breach of the Act face huge fines.

The regulator said on Friday that many services publishing their own porn content had, as required, provided details of “highly effective age assurance methods” they were planning to implement.

• What the Online Safety Act is – and how to keep children safe online

They added that this “reassuringly” included some of the largest services that fall under the rules.

It said a small number of services had also blocked UK users entirely to prevent children accessing them.

Itai Tech Ltd and Score Internet Group LLC did not respond to its request for information or show they had plans to introduce age checks, it added.

The “nudifying” technology that one of the company’s platforms features involves the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to create the impression of having removed a person’s clothing in an image or video.

The Children’s Commissioner recently called on the government to introduce a total ban on such AI apps that could be used to create sexually explicit images of children.

Under the Online Safety Act, platforms that publish their own pornographic content were required to take steps to implement age checks from January.

These can include requiring UK users to provide photo ID or running credit card checks.

But all websites where a user might encounter pornographic material are also required to demonstrate the robustness of the measures they are taking to verify the age of users.

These could even apply to some social media platforms, Ofcom told the BBC in January.

The rules are expected to change the way many UK adults will use or encounter some digital services, such as porn sites.

“As age checks start to roll out in the coming months, adults will start to notice a difference in how they access certain online services,” said Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive, in January.

In April, Discord said it would start testing face-scanning as a way to verify some users’ ages in the UK and Australia.

Experts said it marked “the start of a bigger shift” for platforms as lawmakers worldwide look to impose strict internet safety rules.

Critics suggest such measures risk pushing young people to “darker corners” of the internet where there are smaller, less regulated sites hosting more violent or explicit material.

Police have arrested a maintenance worker who is suspected of helping 10 inmates break out of a New Orleans jail on Friday, Louisiana’s attorney general has announced.

The employee, identified as 33-year-old Sterling Williams, was arrested on Monday night.

Mr Williams is accused of turning off the water to the cell that was used for the escape, which involved removing a toilet from the wall. He said an inmate threatened to attack him with a “shank” – meaning makeshift knife – if he did not help, according to court documents.

Five of the inmates have been recaptured so far, Louisiana State Police said.

Police earlier said several of the detainees were facing charges of murder and other violent offences.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in her statement that Mr Williams had “admitted to agents that one of the escapees advised him to turn the water off in the cell where the inmates escaped from”.

“Instead of reporting the inmate, Williams turned the water off as directed allowing the inmates to carry out their scheme to successfully escape,” she added.

He said he was forced to help the inmates escape, telling authorities that Antoine Massey – one of the six inmates still at large – “threatened to shank him if he did not turn the water off”, according to court documents.

Mr Williams is facing 10 counts of a charge known as principal to simple escape, and another of malfeasance in office.

Murrill said the investigation was ongoing, and that authorities would “uncover all the facts eventually and anyone who aided and abetted will be prosecuted to the full extent the law allows”.

“I encourage anyone who knows anything and even those who may have provided assistance to come forward now to obtain the best possible outcome in their particular case,” she said.

Sheriff Susan Hutson earlier said the inmates had yanked a sliding door from their jail cell off its tracks in the early hours of Friday morning.

They later ripped the toilet off the wall and broke metal bars around a hole used for piping that was exposed by the missing toilet.

The group made their escape by climbing down a wall and running across a highway, the sheriff said.

The sheriff’s office released images of messages apparently left behind by the inmates.

They include the words “To [sic] Easy LoL”, with an arrow pointing to the hole in the wall, and a smiley face with its tongue out.

Another message, partially smudged, appears to tell officers to catch the inmates when they can.

The prison is located near the centre of New Orleans, around 3km (2 miles) from its famous French Quarter.

Vietnamese authorities have arrested a beauty queen and social media influencer for consumer fraud after she promoted a counterfeit fibre supplement.

Nguyen Thuc Thuy Tien had heavily marketed gummies said to be rich in fibre on her social media channels.

But a public backlash erupted after product tests revealed this was untrue.

A former winner of the Miss Grand International beauty competition, Ms Nguyen is a well-known personality in Vietnam and previously received accolades from the government.

Ms Nguyen had promoted Kera Supergreens Gummies along with social media influencers, Pham Quang Linh and Hang Du Muc.

Investigators said the product was the result of a joint venture between Ms Nguyen and a company set up by the two other influencers.

The influencers claimed that each of their gummies contained fibre equivalent to a plate of vegetables.

A member of the public sent the product for testing at a lab, which found that each gummy only contained 16mg of fibre, far from 200mg as claimed.

Authorities then launched an investigation, which found that sub-standard ingredients that were low in fibre were used in the manufacture of the gummies.

The product’s packaging also did not state the fibre content, nor did it state that the product contained a high level of sorbitol, which is used in laxatives.

The three influencers were fined in March, and apologised to the public.

The following month, Vietnamese authorities arrested Mr Pham and Hang Du Muc as well as officials from their company and the gummies’ manufacturer.

They were charged with producing counterfeit goods and defrauding customers.

On Monday, authorities announced the arrest of Ms Nguyen for allegedly deceiving customers.

More than 100,000 boxes of the gummies were reportedly sold before sales were halted due to the scandal.

After winning the Bangkok-based beauty pageant in 2021, Ms Nguyen became a celebrity sought after by many Vietnamese brands, and appeared on several reality TV shows.

She also received certificates of merit from the prime minister and the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union under Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for Syria’s transitional authorities to be supported, warning that the country could be only weeks away from “potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions”.

At a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he defended President Donald Trump’s decision last week to lift sanctions on Syria before meeting President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander who led the rebel offensive that overthrew Bashar al-Assad in December.

Trump’s rationale was that other countries wanted to help Sharaa’s administration and send aid but were afraid of the sanctions, Rubio explained.

There was no immediate comment from Syrian officials.

The US imposed sanctions on Syria in response to atrocities committed by forces loyal to Assad during the country’s devastating 13-year civil war, in which more than 600,000 people were killed and 12 million others were forced from their homes.

The State Department had previously insisted on several conditions being met before they were lifted, including protecting religious and ethnic minorities.

Although Sharaa has promised to do that, the country has been rocked by two waves of deadly sectarian violence in recent months.

In March, almost 900 civilians, mainly members of Assad’s Alawite sect, were killed by pro-government forces across the western coastal region during fighting between security forces and former regime loyalists, according to one monitoring group. The loyalists reportedly killed almost 450 civilians and 170 security personnel.

And at the start of May, more than 100 people were reportedly killed in clashes between gunmen from the Druze religious minority, the new security forces and allied Sunni Islamist fighters in two suburbs of the capital Damascus and the southern province of Suweida.

Even before the violence, many members of minority communities were worried about the new transitional authorities, which are dominated by Sharaa’s Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It is a former al-Qaeda affiliate still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU and the UK.

Sharaa himself also continues to be listed by the US as a “specially designated global terrorist”, although the Biden administration announced in December that the US would scrap the $10m (£7.5m) bounty offered for his arrest.

Despite Sharaa’s past, Trump took the opportunity to meet him while attending a summit of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia last week.

Afterwards, the US president told reporters that he was a “young, attractive guy”, adding: “Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter.”

“He’s got a real shot at pulling it [Syria] together,” he said, adding, “it’s a torn-up country”.

Sharaa meanwhile said Trump’s decision to lift the sanctions on Syria “was a historic and courageous decision, which alleviates the suffering of the people, contributes to their rebirth and lays the foundations for stability in the region”.

Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington DC on Tuesday, Rubio quipped that “the bad news is that the transitional authority figures… didn’t pass their background check with the FBI”.

“But on the flip side of it is, if we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we did not engage them it was guaranteed to not work out,” he added.

“In fact, it is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they’re facing, are maybe weeks, not many months, away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up.”

He did not elaborate but said Syria’s minorities were “dealing with deep internal distrust… because Assad deliberately pitted these groups against each other”.

He said the Trump decided to lift the sanctions quickly because “nations in the region want to get aid in, want to start helping them. And they can’t because they are afraid of our sanctions”.

As Rubio spoke, European Union foreign ministers agreed to also lift economic sanctions on Syria.

“We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new, inclusive and peaceful Syria,” the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X.

“The EU has always stood by Syrians throughout the last 14 years – and will keep doing so.”

The Syrian foreign ministry said the decision marked “the beginning of a new chapter in Syrian-European relations built on shared prosperity and mutual respect”.

Parts of the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, often called India’s Silicon Valley are under water after heavy rainfall.

The city is on high alert for more pre-monsoon showers on Tuesday due to cyclonic formations over the Andaman Sea, according to authorities.

Three people, including a 12-year-old boy were killed in rain-related incidents on Monday.

Bengaluru is home to major global technology companies, many of whom have asked their employees to work from home due to flooded roads.

Many parts of the city received 100 mm (4in) of rain on Monday, a record since 2011.

This is “rare” for Bengaluru, CS Patil, a director at the regional weather department told news agencies.

Apart from severe water-logging and traffic disrupting daily life, heavy rainfall has also caused property damage.

In one of the city’s major IT corridors, the compound wall of a software firm – i-Zed – collapsed on Monday morning, killing a 35-year-old female employee.

Videos also showed commuters wading through knee-deep water, with several cars parked on waterlogged streets. Water has also entered houses in some parts of the city.

Authorities say the city corporation has identified 210 flood-prone areas where they were working round the clock to “rectify” the situation.

“There is no need for the people of Bengaluru to be worried,” DK Shivakumar, deputy chief minister of Karnataka state told reporters on Monday.

But officials are facing criticism on social media with many complaining about the city’s crumbling infrastructure and deluged roads.

“No other city invokes a sense of fear and helplessness for commuting during rains as Bangalore does,” a user wrote on X.

Annu Itty, who has lived in the city for eight years told the BBC that the city’s infrastructure becomes especially fragile in the monsoons.

“Ironically, it’s the newly developed areas – those built to house the booming tech sector – that face the worst flooding,” she said.

Itty, who works in public policy, says a “lack of coherent urban planning that respects environmental limits”, as well as a lack of government accountability, has left Bengaluru residents to deal with the consequences.

Karnataka, of which Bengaluru is the capital is currently run by the Congress party. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which sits in the opposition in the state has accused the local government of failing to tackle rain-related issues in the city and the state, despite spending million of rupees on its infrastructure.

The BJP has demanded the immediate release of 10bn rupees ($117m, £87.5m) for relief operations.

The state government has, however, defended itself saying these were long-standing issues.

“The issues we face today are not new. They have been ignored for years, across governments and administrations,” Shivakumar said.

Floods have been a recurring phenomenon in Bengaluru in recent years. Experts partly blame rapid construction over the city’s lakes and wetlands and poor urban planning for the crisis.

Ananda Rao, president of the Association for Information Technology (AIT) – which represents over 450 software companies – told the BBC that such frequent flooding has caused “discomfort and inconvenience” for businesses.

“Bengaluru contributes significantly in taxes – both at an individual level and property tax. There is no return on this investment,” he said, calling on the state government to work on long-term solutions to improve the city’s infrastructure.