Thousands of Palestinians have overrun an aid distribution site in Gaza set up by a controversial US and Israeli-backed group, a day after it began working there.

Videos showed crowds walking over torn-down fences and earth berms at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) compound in the southern city of Rafah.

The group said that at one point its team fell back because the numbers seeking aid were so great. The Israeli military said troops nearby fired warning shots.

The GHF, which uses armed American security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid in Gaza, where experts have warned of a looming famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade that was recently eased.

The UN said the videos from Rafah were “heartbreaking” and that it had a detailed plan ready to get enough aid to the “desperate population” of 2.1 million.

The UN and many aid groups have refused to co-operate with GHF’s plans, which they say contradict humanitarian principles and appear to “weaponise aid”.

They have warned that the system will practically exclude those with mobility issues, force further displacement, expose thousands of people to harm, make aid conditional on political and military aims, and set an unacceptable precedent for aid delivery around the world.

Israel has said an alternative to the current aid system is needed to stop Hamas stealing aid, which the group denies doing.

The GHF announced on Monday that it had “commenced operations in Gaza” and begun giving out supplies to Palestinians at its distribution sites.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli military confirmed two sites located in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah and the Morag Corridor – an east-west military zone that separates the city from the rest of Gaza – had begun distributing food to families.

At around the same time, Israeli and Palestinian media shared pictures showing long queues of Palestinians at the Tal al-Sultan site.

But just over an hour later, they began posting videos showing thousands of men, women and children streaming into the compound. In one clip, some people are seen running and ducking as what appear to be gunshots ring out.

Witnesses described a scene of chaos as people seized food parcels and other aid from the site. They also said Israeli troops stationed nearby had opened fire.

“The situation was extremely difficult. They only allowed 50 people to cross at a time,” one man told BBC Arabic’s Middle East daily radio programme. “In the end, chaos broke out – people climbed over the gates, attacked others, and took all the [aid].”

“It was a humiliating experience,” he added. “We’ve suffered greatly from hunger. We’re just looking for a bit of sugar to make a cup of tea, and a piece of bread to eat.”

A woman said hunger and poverty had “overwhelmed everyone”.

“People are exhausted – willing to do anything, even risk their lives – just to find food and feed their children.”

A statement from the GHF acknowledged that “the needs on the ground are great” and said it had so far handed out about 8,000 food boxes – equivalent to 462,000 meals – through a partnership with local non-governmental organisations.

However, it said Palestinians had experienced several hours of delays in accessing one site “due to blockades imposed by Hamas”, without providing evidence.

“At one moment in the late afternoon, the volume of people at the SBS [Secure Distribution Site] was such that the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate. This was done in accordance with GHF protocol to avoid casualties. Normal operations have resumed,” it added.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops had fired “warning shots in the area outside the compound”.

“Control over the situation was established, food distribution operations are expected to continue as planned, and the safety of IDF troops was not compromised,” it stated.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office said Israel’s efforts to distribute aid had “failed miserably”. It also denied that Hamas had tried to stop civilians reaching the GHF’s sites.

At a news conference in New York, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said: “We have been watching the video coming out of Gaza around one of the distribution points set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. And frankly, these videos, these images, are heartbreaking.”

“We and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan supported by member states to get aid to a desperate population. We continue to stress that a meaningful scale-up of humanitarian operations is essential to stave off famine and meet the needs of all civilians wherever they are,” he added.

The US state department’s spokeswoman called the UN’s criticism “the height of hypocrisy”.

“It is unfortunate, because the issue here is giving aid to Gaza, and then suddenly it moves into complaints about style or the nature of who’s doing it,” Tammy Bruce told reporters.

Challenged by the BBC about the independence and neutrality of the GHF, Bruce acknowledged there are “some disagreements” about how the distribution of food and aid into the region is “being implemented”.

But she added: “I think that most of us would agree that this is good news… the real story here is that there’s food aid going in.”

The GHF initially plans to set up four distribution sites in southern and central Gaza where Palestinians will be able to collect food and other aid for their families. It says it aims to feed a million people – just under half the population – by the end of this week.

The sites are meant to be secured by American contractors, with Israeli troops patrolling the perimeters. To access them, Palestinians are expected to have to undergo identity checks and screening for involvement with Hamas.

UN and other aid agencies have insisted they will not co-operate with any scheme that fails to respect fundamental humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.

On Sunday night, Jake Wood resigned as the GHF’s executive director, saying the group’s system could not work in a way that would be able to fulfil those principles.

The GHF’s board rejected the criticism and accused “those who benefit from the status quo” of being more focused on “tearing this apart than on getting aid in”.

The group also alleged on Monday that Hamas had made death threats to NGOs supporting its distribution sites and attempted to block civilians from accessing the aid.

Hamas has publicly warned Palestinians not to co-operate with GHF’s system.

Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. It said the steps were meant to put pressure on the armed group to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

On 19 May, the Israeli military launched an expanded offensive that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would see troops “take control of all areas” of Gaza. The plan reportedly includes completely clearing the north of civilians and forcibly displacing them to the south.

Netanyahu also said Israel would temporarily ease the blockade and allow a “basic” amount of food into Gaza to prevent a famine, following pressure from allies in the US.

Since then, Israeli authorities say they have allowed at least 665 lorry loads of humanitarian aid, including flour, baby food and medical supplies, into Gaza.

However, more than 400 loads were on the Gazan side of the Kerem Shalom crossing awaiting distribution by the UN as of Tuesday evening, according to the Israeli military body in charge of aid co-ordination, Cogat. It called on the UN to “do its job”.

There was no immediate comment from the UN, but it said last week that its teams faced significant challenges in collecting supplies due to insecurity, the risk of looting and co-ordination issues with Israeli forces.

The head of the UN’s World Food Programme warned on Sunday that the aid was only a “drop in the bucket” of what was needed in the territory to reverse the catastrophic levels of hunger, amid significant shortages of basic foods and skyrocketing prices.

Half a million people face starvation in the coming months, according to an assessment by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response Hamas’ cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,056 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,901 over the past 10 weeks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The former head of India’s wrestling federation has been cleared in a sexual harassment case filed by a minor female wrestler.

A court in the capital, Delhi, accepted a Delhi police report, recommending the cancellation of the case against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

A former MP from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Singh still faces charges of sexual harassment and stalking in a separate case by six adult female wrestlers.

Singh has always denied these charges.

The cases against Singh made headlines in 2023 when he was charged with sexual harassment after months of protests by India’s top wrestlers.

The protests made headlines globally, especially after the police detained them as they tried to march to India’s new parliament building in Delhi.

Footage of the Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia and two-time world champion medallist Vinesh Phogat being dragged in the streets and carried off in police vans went viral, sparking criticism from top athletes and opposition politicians.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also condemned the way the wrestlers were being treated and called for an impartial inquiry into their complaints.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was criticised for not acting strongly or swiftly enough against Singh since he was a member of his party. The government had rejected the allegations.

• The man at the centre of India’s wrestling row
• India’s wrestling chief charged with sexual harassment

The wrestlers agreed to pause their protests after meeting Home Minister Amit Shah and then Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.

Thakur assured them that charges would be filed against Singh by 15 June 2023.

Seven female wrestlers, including the minor, registered complaints with the police accusing Singh of molesting and groping them at training camps and tournaments.

In the case of the minor, police had invoked the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.

Singh, denied all the allegations, accusing the wrestlers of being “politically motivated”.

Weeks later, the minor retracted her earlier statements and withdrew her allegations, reports said. Wrestler Sakshi Malik told the BBC at the time that she believed “the player was pressurised into withdrawing the charges”. Mr Singh refused to comment on the allegation, saying “let law take its course”.

On Monday, legal news site Bar and Bench reported that the police had given a report in court seeking cancellation of the case as the minor wrestler’s father said he had made a false complaint.

The prosecution lawyer said “no corroborative evidence” had been found in the allegations after a detailed investigation in the case.

Bar and Bench said the wrestler and her father had appeared before the court and expressed satisfaction with the police investigation. They also did not oppose the cancellation report.

In the aftermath of the row, Singh had stepped down as the wrestling federation chief. He was replaced by his close aide Sanjay Singh, who was later elected as the organisation’s chief, leading to the accusation that Brij Bhushan Singh was still running it by proxy. The two Singhs denied the accusation but the federal sports ministry suspended the federation in December 2023.

In 2024, the federation resumed its functions after United World Wrestling, the international, organisation governing wrestling, lifted its ban on the Indian federation. Earlier this year, The Hindu and Indian Express newspapers reported that the Wrestling Federation of India was functioning out of Singh’s address in Delhi.

Singh was also denied a ticket by the BJP to contest the 2024 general election. The party instead fielded his son Karan Bhushan Singh from Kaiserganj – the seat in the northern Uttar Pradesh state which the senior Singh had held since 1999. The junior Singh won the election.

After a driver ploughed into crowds during the Liverpool FC victory parade on Monday evening, Merseyside Police said within two hours they had arrested a “53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area”.

It was striking how quickly police shared the man’s nationality and ethnicity.

The decision shows lessons have already been learned from the Southport attacks last summer, when online speculation and disinformation filled a void after the same force released little detail about the 17-year-old they had in custody.

Usually when a suspect is arrested, police forces in England and Wales just give out the age of the person and where they were arrested.

But at 19:53 BST, the force emailed out a press release including the suspect’s age, nationality and ethnicity.

It was a clear attempt to damp down inaccurate speculation on social media that the Ford Galaxy driving into Liverpool fans was part of an Islamist terrorist attack, or was in any way linked to migrants.

• LIVE UPDATES: Child and adult seriously hurt
• WHAT WE KNOW: Man arrested, dozens injured
• WATCH: Videos show car driving through crowd

Merseyside Police acted “very, very quickly” to stamp out speculation on social media that had caused “real consternation”, Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram said.

By contrast, last summer in the aftermath of the horrific knife attack in Southport in which Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Da Silva Aguiar were killed, Merseyside Police said very little about the suspect they had arrested.

This meant that inaccurate social media speculation and deliberate disinformation about the suspect having a Muslim name and being a newly arrived migrant went unchecked.

A consequence was a riot in Southport within 36 hours of the attack focused on the local mosque, and then further rioting across England, much of it aimed at hotels housing recently arrived asylum seekers.

The Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana had in fact been born in the UK and had no direct connections to Islamism, though he had downloaded an academic study of an al-Qaeda manual.

In a report published earlier this month into last summer’s events, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services said the police service “must do more to communicate online” and “fill the information void with the truth”.

“Forces must provide a true narrative online to reach people who may be searching for information,” it added.

The report went on to say: “The police service must communicate the facts. Repeatedly, continuously and effectively as circumstances change and develop.

“If not, others will take over the narrative with overwhelming amounts of online content. And some of this may be false or harmful to the police response and the communities the police are there to protect.”

The way Merseyside Police’s communications team responded last night suggests that the force has rapidly adapted its policies since the violent disorder of last summer.

It means that a clearer picture of what had happened quickly reached people’s phones, TVs and radios and rapidly reduced the disinformation.

The problem that police forces now face is whether this new approach will lead to confusion in future.

What will a force do for example if the information about the suspect they are holding is unclear?

Even more problematically, what will a force do if they arrest someone in similar circumstances who is a recently arrived migrant or who has a clearly Muslim name?

Last night’s rapid move to correct the narrative may not be as straightforward in different circumstances.

Helen King, former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: “There will be times when police can confirm quickly. There are other times when it is unclear. These will always be complex and sensitive decisions.”

King Charles was given a heartfelt standing ovation in Canada’s Parliament in Ottawa after a historic speech in support of the country staying “strong and free”.

Outside the Senate building later, another voice from the crowd shouted: “Thanks for coming King Charles” in a voice full of emotion – as the King himself had sounded at the end of his speech.

But what was never mentioned was what the speech was really about: US President Donald Trump.

There was a promise to “protect Canadians and their sovereign rights”, but with diplomatic discretion, there was no mention of who might be threatening the country’s independence.

Claims by President Trump that Canada would be the US’s 51st state hung over this speech, but his name was never uttered.

Not when the speech talked of the virtues of “open trade” (ie not tariffs) or when it talked of a “critical moment” in which “democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, self determination and freedom” must be protected.

And there was no one named as making it necessary to guard the country’s “fundamental rights and freedoms”.

There might even have been an olive branch, with a promise by the Canadian government to do more to stop fentanyl crossing the border, a drug that was the subject of accusations by the US administration. But there was no mention of President Trump by name.

The opening of Parliament followed a general election in which Mark Carney had been brought to power on a wave of anti-Trump sentiment.

The speech was written on the advice of the Canadian government, but there was a great deal of symbolism in the King reading it out. The King of Canada was in town.

Inviting King Charles seemed to have paid off for Mr Carney, who afterwards said how well the speech had been delivered. “Our sovereignty is strong,” said Mr Carney.

From the parliamentarians inside the packed chamber to the crowds pressed up against the railings outside, the King’s visit was seen as sticking up for Canada when it was under pressure from its bigger neighbour.

Compared with openings of Parliament in Westminster, this was a more dressed-down affair. No crowns or robes, with the King looking businesslike in a suit.

Showing this really is a relaxed country, the former PM, Justin Trudeau, was wearing a pair of green trainers.

A theme of this brief royal visit has been paying respects to the First Nations people and the King noted that Parliament was meeting on the territory of the Algonquin people.

Among the parliamentarians were many representatives of First Nations communities, dressed in traditional outfits and spectacular headdresses. The speech, delivered in French and English, made a virtue of the country’s diverse roots.

Before the King’s arrival, there was an unmistakable sense of anticipation with the sober lawmakers taking a few quick selfies before the big royal moment. There was that nervous buzz ahead of something important.

There would be a long list of government plans and policies, but there was a bigger historic feel to events, with a huge media encampment outside and crowds lining the streets.

The opening of Parliament took place in Canada’s Senate, which is currently using temporary accommodation while its own building is renovated.

The building being used by the Senate used to be Ottawa’s main railway station. You could still see how the floor of the chamber had once been the station concourse.

A different type of king, Elvis Presley, had come through here on a train journey in 1957. If there were suspicious minds here about whether King Charles would stand up for Canada, he was able to put that to rest.

In the warm Ottawa sunshine, there were crowds sending their own message by turning out to see the King. Even a fleeting visit here soon shows how deeply people have been upset by their near neighbours and allies in the US.

There seemed to be a genuine sense of relief that the King was there and showing support. The King also looked pleased, standing outside the Senate, holding a quick walkabout while a motorcade of oversized black cars was waiting to drive him away. He later spoke of the “warmest of welcomes”.

He waved before he left, having a last look around, towards the crowds and towards the cameras. Was there someone south of the border watching?

The US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce responded to the speech: “I’m a fan of King Charles. And of Prince William and Princess Kate. I think they’re a great family.”

Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

North Korea has criticised the US’s plan for a futuristic “Golden Dome” missile shield, saying it could “turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field”.

The defence system, which President Donald Trump plans to unveil by the end of his term, is aimed at countering “next-generation” aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry slammed the plan as “the height of self-righteousness [and] arrogance”, state media reported.

It accused Washington of being “hell-bent… to militarise outer space” and warned that the plan might spark “a global nuclear and space arms race”.

North Korea considers Washington an adversary and has routinely condemned joint military drills between the US and South Korea.

Pyongyang probably sees the Golden Dome as a threat that can “significantly weaken” its nuclear arsenal, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP news agency.

“If the US completes its new missile defence programme, the North will be forced to develop alternative means to counter or penetrate it,” he said.

In 2022, the North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state, and it has tested a variety of ballistic and cruise missiles in recent years.

Early this year it claimed it fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead which it said “will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region”.

North Korea joins China in criticising the US’s plan. Beijing said last week that it is “seriously concerned” about the Golden Dome, which it said has “strong offensive implications”.

“The United States, in pursuing a ‘US-first’ policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself,” China’s foreign ministry said. “This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability.”

Many analysts believe an update to the US’s limited defence systems is necessary, but some warn the process of developing the Golden Dome could face technical and political challenges.

For one, its hefty price tag could suck up a large chunk of the US defence budget.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill – although the government has estimated it could end up costing 20 times that over decades.

HBO has announced the young actors who will play the lead trio in its TV series adaption of JK Rowling’s book series, Harry Potter.

Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout have been cast as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

An open casting call for the roles was announced last year, and more than 30,000 children auditioned.

Showrunner Francesca Gardiner and executive producer and director Mark Mylod said in a statement that “the talent of these three unique actors is wonderful to behold, and we cannot wait for the world to witness their magic together onscreen”.

The youngsters join John Lithgow as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, the school’s key professors being played by Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall and Paapa Essiedu, as Severus Snape.

Other confirmed actors in the series include Nick Frost as the affable groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid, Luke Thallon as professor Quirinus Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse as caretaker Argus Filch.

Further casting announcements are expected soon.

The three young actors taking on the roles played by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, who starred in the hugely successful films, are relative newcomers.

Scottish actor McLaughlin has acted in upcoming Sky comedy Grow, alongside Nick Frost and Golda Rosheuvel, and will also appear in upcoming BBC action adventure series Gifted. Stanton played Matilda in Matilda: The Musical on the West End.

The bestselling books’ author, JK Rowling, will act as an executive producer on the show, which HBO has said will be a “faithful adaptation” of her books.

The TV series, which will span at least a decade, will have more breathing space to explore the plot lines from the books without the time constraints of the film.

Filming is expected to begin in the summer at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in the UK and the first series could air as early as 2026 on HBO Max.

The Trump administration will direct US federal agencies to review Harvard University’s grants to potentially end or redistribute funding, as part of the White House’s escalating battle with America’s oldest university.

The Government Services Administration (GSA) plans to circulate a letter to agencies “asking them to identify any contracts with Harvard, and whether they can be cancelled or redirected elsewhere”, a senior White House official said.

The administration estimates about 30 contracts, collectively worth $100m (£74m), could be reviewed. It already had frozen $2.2bn in federal grants and revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol international students.

Harvard University did not immediately comment.

On its website, the university says that its “cutting-edge medical, scientific, and technological research” has historically been “supported by the federal government” and other entities.

Touting the institution’s research on cancer, heart disease, infectious diseases and obesity, the university website warns that “without federal funding, this work will come to a halt midstream”.

The White House will not revoke the funds automatically, but rather kick off a review of money Harvard receives from the federal government to determine whether that funding is critical in the eyes of the administration.

GSA will recommend each agency “terminate for convenience each contract that it determines has failed to meet its standards”, and consider reallocating those funds to other entities.

A draft of the letter accuses Harvard of engaging in discrimination and antisemitism as justification for the move.

An administration official told the BBC that potential cuts would not impact hospitals affiliated with Harvard University.

And if a federal grant was deemed critical to a particular agency’s functions, they said, that agency could make a case for continued funding.

The White House and Harvard have been locked in a political, legal and financial battle – the stakes of which have dramatically escalated over the past two months.

This is not the first time the administration has attempted to block Harvard’s funding. In April, the White House froze $2.2bn in federal funding, prompting the university to sue.

Last week, the Trump administration also revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol international students or host foreign researchers, prompting mass confusion among thousands of impacted students and another lawsuit from Harvard.

“Why cut off research funding? Sure, it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country because after all, the research funding is not a gift,” Harvard University president Alan Garber told NPR on Tuesday morning, before news broke of the latest attempt at cuts.

“The research funding is given to universities and other research institutions to carry out work – research work – that the federal government designates as high-priority work,” Mr Garber continued.

“It is work that they want done. They are paying to have that work conducted.”

One department hit by funding cuts is the Sinclair Lab at Harvard Medical School, which studies aging and seeks to find interventions for Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer, infertility, immune disorders, and more.

“We aim to understand and reverse the underlying mechanisms of aging to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases and tissue injuries,” Mr Sinclair told the BBC via email.

Under the Trump administration, the laboratory lost a National Institutes of Health grant, and researcher Kelly Rich lost a career grant to study age reversal to combat motor diseases. The White House’s move to revoke Harvard’s ability to host international researchers had affected six people — half the laboratory’s staff.

“The loss of funding not only halts ongoing experiments that cannot simply be restarted, but also jeopardizes the contributions of international scholars who are integral to the lab’s operations and the wealth of the US,” Mr Sinclair said.

Adam Nguyen, a Harvard alumnus and founder of the admissions consulting firm Ivy Link, said that the brunt of the potentially “hugely negative” impact would fall on graduate and PhD students. Academics from both the US and abroad rely on outside funding for their research, he noted.

“If you have the cuts, they’re out of a job,” Mr Nguyen said. “It’s as simple as that. There’s no money to fund their research. You’re talking about cuts, lay-offs and immediate stop-work orders for many graduate students.”

Russian forces are making gains in the Ukrainian north-eastern region of Sumy – a development that may be linked to Moscow’s attempts to create “buffer zones” along the border, Ukrainian regional authorities have said.

The head of the Sumy region Oleh Hryhorov said Russian forces have seized four villages and that fighting is continuing near other settlements in the area “with the aim of setting up a so-called ‘buffer zone'”.

Russia maintains it has captured six villages in Sumy so far.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a plan to create “security buffer zones” along the border. “Enemy firing points are being actively suppressed, the work is under way,” he said.

The buffer zones would be created to provide “additional support” to areas in Russia which border Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions, Putin said.

In a statement on Facebook on Monday, Sumy’s Hryhorov wrote: “The enemy is continuing attempts to advance with the aim of setting up a so-called ‘buffer zone’,”

He added that the villages of Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka – all in Sumy – had been occupied.

Kyiv has not yet officially stated that Russian troops are in the Sumy region and, when contacted by the BBC, Hryhorov declined to confirm the information he shared on Monday, saying only the military could comment on front-line activities.

The General Staff’s daily briefings only mentioned clashes and other military activities in “the Kursk direction” – meaning towards the border with Russia – without naming any specific locations.

The Ukrainian army’s group of forces that coordinate military activities in the region declined the BBC’s request for comment, indicating that information about the Russian advancement in the north is an extremely sensitive issue for Ukrainian authorities.

However, in his address on Monday night Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned Russia’s “preparation for new offensives” – which was largely interpreted as a reference to the events in the Sumy region.

Deep State map, a group that monitors the latest front-line developments in Ukraine, marked four Ukrainian villages as fully controlled by Russian forces even before Hyrhorov’s announcement.

Deep State’s co-founder Roman Pohorily said that Russian troops have been pushing in those areas since March.

Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets confirmed this, although he pointed out that Russia’s advance has been very slow – about 1km (0.6 miles) in the past two weeks. Mr Mashovets also said Moscow recently relocated new units from the Donbas – to Sumy region.

Colonel Vadym Mysnyk, a spokesperson for a formation of the ground forces that is involved in defending the Sumy region, said Russian forces mostly use small groups on motorbikes and buggies during their attacks.

The movement of larger armoured vehicles could be quickly spotted by drones and destroyed, Col Mysnyk explained. On the battlefield, speed and mobility are crucial.

But the Sumy region has regularly come under attack by Russian air strikes and artillery fire, with the regional administration reporting that since Saturday, Russia has dropped more than 30 guided bombs on the area.

One of the biggest attacks took place last month when ballistic missiles hit the city of Sumy killing 34 people. Several weeks later, drones hit an intercity bus killing nine people.

Russia targets residential buildings, hospitals and civilian vehicles to spread panic among the population, Col Mysnyk claimed. Russia denies that it targets civilians in strikes, saying they are aimed at military targets.

Local authorities say evacuation is taking place in 202 settlements close to the front line, which makes up a third of all territorial communities of the region.

Serhiy Grabskiy, a retired colonel and a military expert, agreed that the advances in Sumy are part of Moscow’s plan to create a buffer zone.

Grabskiy said Russia’s main strategic goal is to seize the Donbas region in the east, where the most intensive fighting is taking place.

Considering the number of troops they have, Russia “cannot concentrate major forces to go deep in the north”, Grabskiy argued.

He called the Sumy region a “zone of distraction” – as by maintaining pressure in the north, Russia forces Ukraine to spread its resources and weaken positions in key front-line areas.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War think tank also reports that any success in Sumy could be used by Putin as a leverage and justification for new territorial demands as part of future peace negotiations.

However, observers agree there is no immediate threat of a major breakthrough in the Sumy region.

Based on the speed of their gains in the region so far, it is unlikely that in the near future Russian forces could capture a major city like Sumy, which had a population of 250,000 before the invasion.

Mr Pohorily of Deep State said Ukrainian troops have managed to stabilise the front line. “It’s been almost three months since [Russia] started their operation in the Sumy region and yet, they are still at the border areas,” he said.

Col Mysnyk claimed that Ukraine has built defence lines along the entire border since 2022 and at present they’re much better prepared to stop the Russian forces than they were at the start of the Russian invasion.

But those measures may not last long if the Kremlin’s priorities change and Moscow sends greater forces to Sumy.

Swedish authorities have charged a convicted terrorist over the 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot who was burned to death in Syria.

Osama Krayem, 32 – a Swedish citizen – was on Tuesday charged with war and terrorism crimes relating to the death of Moaz al-Kasasbeh.

Krayem is currently in prison after being convicted for his role in the 2015 and 2016 terror attacks in Paris and Brussels respectively.

The BBC has contacted his lawyer for comment relating to the latest allegations. He has previously denied the charges, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported.

Krayem’s trial is expected to begin on 4 June.

“It is painful for my parents to be confronted with this event again, but we are grateful that the Swedish authorities want to give us justice,” the pilot’s brother, Jawdat al-Kasasbeh, told Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio following the announcement of the charges.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority last week announced they planned to charge a man with the “execution” of Lt Kasasbeh, along with other suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group.

Jordan confirmed the death of Lt Kasasbeh in 2015, following the circulation of a gruesome video published online by IS that appeared to show the 26-year-old being burned alive in a cage.

He was captured when his plane came down near the city of Raqqa during a mission against IS in December 2014.

At the time of Lt Kasasbeh’s death, Jordan – which was part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria during the civil war – had been attempting to secure his release as part of a prisoner swap.

Swedish prosecutors said in its statement last week the offences Krayem has now been charged with took place between 24 December 2014 and 3 February 2015.

They added an investigation had shown Krayem “armed and masked, together with others forced the pilot into a metal cage”.

“The cage was subsequently set on fire by one of the co-perpetrators, and the pilot died as a consequence of the fire.”

Krayem is originally from the Swedish city of Malmo and is thought to have travelled to Syria in September 2014 to fight for IS.

In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the November 2015 Paris terror attacks – in which 130 people were killed – and for planning a separate attack on Amsterdam airport.

A year later, he was also found guilty of terrorist murder for his role in the Brussels attacks that killed 32 people.

He has been temporarily transferred from France to Sweden in order to participate in this latest trial.

South Korea will elect a new president on 3 June to replace Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office for placing the country under martial law for six hours in December.

The winner will be tasked with managing the political and economic fallout of Yoon’s move, which plunged the country in deep turmoil and divided opinions.

The snap election is also being held as South Korea faces an unpredictable ally in US President Donald Trump – and that will shape long-running challenges such as the threat from North Korea, and Seoul’s frosty relationship with China.

Here is what you need to know as the nation of about 52 million people chooses a new president who will lead it for the next five years.

Yoon was supposed to serve as president until 2027, but his term ended in disgrace.

He shocked the nation by declaring martial law on 3 December, citing threats from “anti-state forces” and North Korea – but it soon became clear that he was spurred by his own political troubles.

A week later, he was impeached by parliament. On 4 April, a constitutional court upheld his impeachment and removed him from office permanently, setting the stage for a snap presidential election within 60 days, as required by law.

In the six turbulent months since Yoon’s martial law attempt, the country has had three acting presidents, the most recent being Lee Ju-ho, the labour minister who assumed the role one month before the election.

Lee replaced Prime Minister Han Duck Soo, who himself was impeached just weeks after taking over from Yoon as acting president. Finance minister Choi Sang-mok was acting president before Han was reinstated in March.

Yoon’s martial law laid bare the deep political divisions in the country, as those who supported his decision to impose martial law and those who opposed it took to the streets in protest.

The following months of uncertainty shook public confidence in South Korea’s economy. And this was at a time when US President Donald Trump unleashed his tariffs on America’s trading partners, with South Korean goods facing a 25% levy.

Closer to home, relations with North Korea are a persistent challenge. While 2025 has been relatively uneventful, the year before saw heightened tensions as Kim Jong Un escalated the rhetoric, and both sides spent months sending balloons and drones carrying propaganda materials across the border.

South Korea’s new leader must also balance Seoul’s relations between its biggest trading partner, Beijing, and its most important security ally, Washington.

Then there is the task of arresting the country’s declining birth rate, which is among the lowest in the world – 0.75.

Polls have placed Lee Jae-myung of the main opposition Democratic Party as the frontrunner among six candidates, followed by Kim Moon-soo from the ruling PPP.

Lee, who lost to Yoon by a razor-thin margin in 2022, is hailed by his supporters as a working class hero. He worked in a factory before he became a human rights lawyer and politician. He has promised to establish a “real Republic of Korea” with jobs and a fair society.

Kim, a former labour minister, has positioned himself as a president for the economy, promising to create a business-friendly environment.

The other candidates are Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Party, Kwon Young-guk of the Democratic Labor Party and two independents – Hwang Kyo-ahn and Song Jin- ho.

For the first time in 18 years, there is no woman running for president. The first woman to run for president was Hong Suk-Ja in 1987, but she withdrew before the vote. The election in 2012 saw four female candidates contest for the top job.

The election is scheduled on 3 June and voting precincts will be open from 06:00 local time (22:00 GMT) to 20:00. South Koreans overseas were allowed to vote early from 20 to 25 May.

Results are expected to come in after polls close and the winner will likely be known in the early hours of the following day.

When Yoon defeated Lee in 2022, he was proclaimed the winner nine hours after the close of voting, or at 04:40 the morning after election day.

That was the closest presidential contest in the country’s history, which saw Yoon win by a 0.73% difference in votes.

The new president will take office immediately and unlike many of his predecessors, will not have the advantage of a formal transition from Yoon.

Yoon faces trial for an insurrection charge as a result of his attempt to impose martial law.

In January this year he became South Korea’s first sitting president to be arrested after investigators scaled barricades and cut through barbed wire to take him into custody. He was relased from detention weeks later on a technicality.

He was also recently indicted for abuse of power, a separate charge to insurrection.

Before the election, Yoon quit his party in what analysts said was an attempt to shore up the chances of PPP’s presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo.

There were big wins for Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Eminem and Sir Rod Stewart at the American Music Awards (AMAs).

Monday’s event in Las Vegas was hosted – and in some ways dominated – by the evening’s host, singer and actress Jennifer Lopez.

There were also performances from stars including Benson Boone, Gwen Stefani and another award-winner, Janet Jackson.

Here’s some key takeaways from the ceremony.

Billie Eilish won seven prizes at the fan-voted awards show, sweeping most of the major catergories in the process, including artist and album of the year – for Hit Me Hard and Soft – as well as song of the year, Birds of a Feather.

The singer, 23, who also won the award for favourite touring artist, was not there to collect her awards in person however, as she was busy doing precisely that – being on tour in Europe.

Eminem took home the awards for favourite male hip-hop artist and favourite hip-hop album, but he wasn’t there either.

And nor was favourite female country artist-winner Beyoncé, who won favourite country album.

With many stars not in attendance, the focus fell almost fully on host Jennifer Lopez – aka J. Lo.

The star, 55, danced to a medley of hits including Eilish’s Birds of a Feather, Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso and Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em.

But she will be remembered most on the night for having locked lips both male and female dancers during her performances.

One viewer joked online that it made them “cringe”, while another said the singer had “lost the plot”. The sweat dripping emoji was used by another fan to describe the situation.

Sir Rod Stewart got a huge surprise on stage when he was presented with the lifetime achievement award by his children.

The father-of-eight seemed shocked to be introduced to the stage by five of his own grown-up kids.

“I’m absolutely flabbergasted,” said Sir Rod. “I didn’t know they were here – my children.”

The former Faces frontman, 80, thanked his bandmates, past and present, noting how when he was young he had a “burning ambition to sing”.

“That’s all I wanted to do. I didn’t want to be rich or famous. And here I am a few years later, picking up this wonderful award,” he said.

Sing is precisely what he then did, performing his 1988 track Forever Young.

Another highlight on the night for many on social media it seems was Shaboozey’s reaction to Megan Moroney declaring that the Carter Family “basically invented country music”.

The Carter Family – which featured singer June Carter who later went on to perform with her husband Johnny Cash – was an influential American folk music group that recorded and performed between the 1920s and 1950s.

Shaboozey, whose hits include A Bar Song (Tipsy), appeared to pause and give Moroney a slightly sceptical look before letting out a little laugh in response, while they were jointly presenting an award.

The Hollywood Reporter noted Shaboozey’s apparent “side eye” look soon went viral.

But you knew that already, right?

Janet Jackson, 59, collected the icon award and showed why by performing a medley of her songs including Someone to Call My Lover and All for You.

“I’m so grateful. I mean, no disrespect in any way, but I don’t consider myself an icon,” she said.

Echoing Sir Rod, she added: “My family, myself, our dream wasn’t ever to be famous; we weren’t raised like that.”

She continued: “We always had a special love for music, dancing and singing, and fame came with the result of hard work and dedication.”

Or is this look more Captain Hook?

The back-flipping pop star performed on the night and he looked resplendent in his green suit jacket and trousers while posing for pictures on the red carpet.

The 22-year-old changed into a floral purple number for his typically acrobatic live performance of recent single Mystical Magical.

Other performances on the night saw Gloria Estefan celebrate the legacy of Latin music by doing the Conga, and Gwen Stefani celebrate her noughties hits.

Other winners on the night included R&B singer SZA, Post Malone, Gracie Abrams and Becky G, as well as Kendrick Lamar and collaborators Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.

Check out the full list of winners here, and a video of the action below.

In Nigerian politics, there has long been an informal understanding: presidential appointments should carefully balance the country’s many ethnic and religious differences. Today, there are concerns that this is being ignored.

While the constitution requires regional representation in cabinet positions, the broader distribution of other prominent roles has traditionally followed a convention aimed at fostering national cohesion.

Nigeria’s fractious divisions have in the past torn the country – Africa’s most populous – apart.

Worries about fairness in presidential appointments are not new, but a chorus of criticism is growing over President Bola Tinubu’s picks, with some accusing the head of state – who has been in power for two years – of favouring people from his own Yoruba ethnic group.

The presidency vehemently denies the accusation.

There have long been fears that members of one ethnic group would come to dominate key positions – and this means that presidential appointments are closely scrutinised whenever they are announced.

There are over 250 ethnic groups in the country with Hausa-Fulanis, Igbo and Yoruba – hailing from the north, south-east and south-west respectively – being the three largest.

Critics say that Tinubu, a southern Muslim, showed signs of ignoring precedent from the onset when he picked another Muslim (although from the north) to be his running mate for the last election.

Since the return of democracy in 1999, the major parties had always put forward a mixed Muslim-Christian ticket, as the country is roughly evenly divided between followers of the two religions.

It is now Tinubu’s appointments since becoming president in May 2023 that people are focusing on.

Although there are dozens of roles for a head of state to fill, there are eight jobs that “are the most crucial for every administration”, according to political analyst and barrister Lawal Lawal.

These are the heads of the:

• central bank
• state-owned oil company, NNPC
• police
• army
• customs service
• intelligence agency
• anti-corruption agency and
• revenue service.

There is no constitutional ranking of positions, but collectively these roles control the key financial and security apparatus of the country.

Every president inherits his predecessor’s appointees, but has the prerogative to replace them.

As of April, all eight positions under Tinubu are now filled by Yorubas.

The recent appointment of former Shell boss Bayo Ojulari to head the state-owned oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), in place of a northerner turbocharged the debate about the apparent monopoly of one group in top positions.

Looking at who filled the same posts under Tinubu’s two immediate predecessors, there was no such dominance of one ethnic group at the same stage of their presidencies.

Goodluck Jonathan – who served from 2010 to 2015 – had a relatively balanced team of two ethnic Fulanis, two Hausas, one Atyap, one Igbo, one Yoruba and one Calabar.

When it came to Muhammadu Buhari – in power from 2015 to 2023 – the situation was less clear.

In the top eight he had three Hausas, two Kanuris, one Igbo, one Yoruba and one Nupe.

But in the minds of many Nigerians, Hausas, Kanuris and Nupes are all seen as northerners – and therefore there was a perception that Buhari, who is from the north, showed favouritism.

Some argue that Tinubu’s appointments have merely continued the trend, but the 100%-Yoruba make-up of the eight key positions is unprecedented.

“For a democratically elected president, I cannot remember at any point in Nigerian history where you have this high concentration of a particular ethnic group holding most of the sensitive positions,” history professor Tijjani Naniya told the BBC.

This is not just about what has happened in the past but it could have an impact on the unity and even the future of the country, the professor said.

“For me, the fear is what if the next president continues on this path and picks most of the sensitive positions from his ethnic group, it diminishes the feeling of belonging among the rest and also reduces belief in democracy,” he said.

In the last two years, many northerners, mostly Hausa-Fulanis, have looked at the apparent direction of travel with alarm.

The current men (there are no women) in charge of the NNPC, the police, customs and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) all replaced northerners.

The removal of Abdulrasheed Bawa, a Hausa, as boss of the EFCC in 2023 just two years after he was appointed was especially controversial.

He was arrested, accused of abuse of office and detained for over 100 days before the charges were dropped.

He was replaced by Ola Olukoyode, an ethnic Yoruba.

Some from the north felt Mr Bawa was unfairly treated and pushed aside to make way for Mr Olukoyode.

“The president needs to know that the Yoruba people are just a part of the country, and all appointments should be spread across all ethnic groups and regions,” social affairs analyst Isah Habibu told the BBC.

Without addressing specific cases, a Tinubu spokesperson has said the president is being fair and balanced, by taking the wider view of all appointments.

Media aide Sunday Dare did try to go into detail, saying overall, 71 northerners and 63 southerners had been appointed by Tinubu. But his 9 April post on X was later deleted, after people pointed out errors in his claim.

He promised an updated list, but more than six weeks later, it has yet to appear.

Tinubu faces critics even from within his own party.

Senator Ali Ndume is from the north and – like Tinubu – belongs to the All Progressives Congress. In one television interview he said he had gone on air to talk about the president’s appointment “wrongdoings”.

Ndume said he was shocked, describing them as “non-inclusive and not reflecting the president’s ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda, which promised to carry every section of the country along”.

Another presidential aide, Daniel Bwala, disputed the idea that some positions were more significant than others.

“All I know is that the constitutional provisions [regarding appointments] have been taken care of by the president – there’s nowhere in the constitution [where it is] mentioned top five, top 10 and the rest,” he told the BBC.

“The way we see it is that any position or appointment that one is privileged to serve in is very critical and important.

“The national security adviser is from the north-east, the chief of defence staff is from the north-west and the secretary to the federal government is from north-central.”

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, which coordinates policy on behalf of the presidency, released a statement on 12 April saying Tinubu was being fair.

“This administration is dedicated to ensuring that all regions and demographics of the country are adequately represented in its institutions and agencies,” it said.

Political analyst Mr Lawal said the president should appoint the best person for the job, irrespective of their ethnic origin – and agues that this is what Tinubu is doing.

“It’s high time Nigeria looks beyond ethnicity,” he said.

There could be a time when Nigerians no longer obsess over the ethnic origins of those in the upper echelons of government, but historian Prof Naniya says this is still some way off.

He believes it can only happen when the country gets at least four presidents in succession who give every section a sense of belonging in terms of projects and appointments.

“I think it can be done but needs the right leaders.”

• Nigeria’s spectacular horse parade closing Ramadan
• ‘I scarred my six children by using skin-lightening creams’
• ‘How I survived Nigeria attack that killed my 16 friends’
• Are Nigerians abroad widening the class divide back home?

King Charles has given a major speech at the opening of parliament in Canada in which he sought to define its place in an uncertain world and its relationship with the US.

The address in Ottawa laid out priorities for new Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose Liberals won the country’s general election in April – a campaign that was dominated by US President Donald Trump’s threats to Canada’s independence.

Charles said relationships with partners, including the US, were changing, and he stressed the sovereignty of both nations.

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s address, which was the first time a monarch has delivered the throne speech opening parliament in almost 50 years.

Carney’s invitation to King Charles, who is Canada’s ceremonial head of state, was in part a message to Trump, who has made repeated remarks undermining its sovereignty.

Tensions with Canada’s neighbour were a theme throughout, though the US president was never mentioned by name.

The speech opened with a wave of patriotism as a trade war with the US, Canada’s largest economic partner, looms. The King spoke of the “pleasure and pride” of being in the country “as we witness Canadians coming together in a renewed sense of national pride, unity, and hope”.

He expressed his “admiration for Canada’s unique identity” and its growth since the last time a sovereign opened parliament – Queen Elizabeth II in 1955. (She gave a second throne speech 20 years later).

It has become “a bold, ambitious, innovative country”.

“The Crown has for so long been a symbol of unity for Canada,” the King said. “It also represents stability and continuity from the past to the present. As it should, it stands proudly as a symbol of Canada today, in all her richness and dynamism.”

The speech concluded on a similar note: “As the anthem reminds us: The True North is indeed strong and free!”

The King’s decision to open parliament – a role traditionally left to the governor general, who is the monarch’s top representative in Canada – is seen as a symbolic show of support for the Commonwealth nation.

Another major theme of the speech is how Canada will face a world with “unprecedented challenges, generating uncertainties across the continents”.

Another nod to the US and tensions between the two countries followed:

“The system of open global trade that, while not perfect, has helped to deliver prosperity for Canadians for decades, is changing. Canada’s relationships with partners are also changing,” the King said.

The speech underscored the need for the country to reinforce its established trading relationships, notably with European allies.

During the recent election campaign, Carney repeatedly said the country was at a pivotal moment in its history.

Tuesday’s speech emphasised that “this moment is also an incredible opportunity”.

“An opportunity to think big and to act bigger. An opportunity for Canada to embark on the largest transformation of its economy since the Second World War.”

King Charles also focused directly on domestic policy and plans set out by Carney’s Liberals to address the country’s economic headwinds.

There was a commitment to speed up major national infrastructure projects and to double a loan programme that would enable more indigenous ownership of major projects.

The government also said it would introduce legislation by 1 July to remove federal barriers to internal trade within the country. According to the government, interprovincial trade and labour mobility barriers cost the country as much as C$200bn ($145bn; £107bn) each year.

Canada faces housing affordability crises as housing prices have skyrocketed across the country in the last decade.

Alongside the US-Canada relationship, it was one of the top issues on the campaign trail. Carney’s Liberals promised to double the rate of building to 500,000 new homes a year.

The speech underscored the government’s other plans to address the issue, including investing in prefabricated and modular housing, and cutting municipal development charges in half for housing with multiple units.

There was a pledge to deliver on another campaign promise – to end a goods and services tax for first-time homebuyers on houses costing less than C$1m. The King highlighted other plans to drive down costs for Canadians, including a tax cut for the lower middle-class.

Another major issue during the campaign was crime. The speech contained promises to address tougher penalties for car thefts, home invasions, human trafficking and drug smuggling.

• Why is King Charles in Canada, and what is the throne speech?
• King Charles and Queen Camilla welcomed in Ottawa amid US tensions

Canada has been under mounting pressure from the US and other Nato partners to increase its military spending, as it continues to fall short of the 2% of GDP on military spending target set out for alliance members.

Carney has committed to hitting that benchmark by 2030.

Tuesday’s speech contained commitments to “rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting” in its military; reinforcing defence relationships with European allies, including by joining Rearm Europe, a plan to dramatically increase defence spending on the continent; and to strengthen Canada’s Arctic presence.

Last week, Carney also said that “high level” talks are taking place with the US about joining its proposed “Golden Dome” missile defence system, aimed at countering futuristic threats.

A man with a rare form of blood cancer has travelled 10,000 miles to meet the stranger who saved his life.

Luke Melling, 31, from Melbourne, Australia, says he was “staring death in the face” before receiving a stem-cell transplant from Alastair Hawken, of Grantham, Lincolnshire.

The match between the pair was so perfect that the men now believe they could be distantly related, as both their families hail from Preston, Lancashire – the town they chose for their emotional first meeting.

They are sharing their story to encourage more people to join the NHS Stem Cell Donor Registry.

Three years ago, Luke, who was then 28, was desperately ill in hospital with Hodgkin lymphoma.

He had been living with the condition since he was 16 and, despite being in remission four times, the cancer kept coming back.

After exhausting all other treatments, he was told he needed a transplant of stem cells – which can be found in the bone marrow and produce essential blood cells – to survive.

But no-one in his family, and no-one in Australia, was a match, so doctors started searching global stem-cell registries for a donor.

“It was pretty much like, ‘This is it – this is the only option you have. It’s either this or you’re going to die’,” Luke says.

“Finding out that my sister wasn’t a match was terrifying – we just didn’t know if there would be anybody registered who would be a suitable match for me.”

But then, after a six-month wait, Luke was told there was hope. The register had discovered a potential donor on the other side of the world.

“When we found out we had the perfect match, that was an emotional moment,” Luke recalls. “I remember mum – she was in hysterics, crying.”

For Alastair, then 48, the phone call came out of the blue. A regular blood donor, he had signed up to the NHS registry in 2008.

When he was asked if he was still willing to donate, the father-of-three did not hesitate.

“It was no problem at all,” he says. “What can I do, where can I be? It was nice to be wanted, or to feel that I could be of use to someone.”

Before the donation, Alastair was injected with a high-strength cell-generating drug. After a couple of days he could barely move, but he was told that showed the process was working and the body was “over-generating stem cells”.

He then went to a hospital for the stem cells to be “harvested” in a process similar to blood donation, while he was fed snacks and watched television.

“There’s no discomfort,” he says. “The stem cells are taken out and packaged up, and then they’re counted in the laboratory – 85 million is what we needed for Luke, and that’s what was taken.

“I felt amazing – my body was made up of fresh stem cells – and then my [harvested] stem cells went on their journey.”

The cells were cryogenically frozen within hours to be sent to Australia, where Luke was waiting.

Luke had his transplant a month later, but all he knew about the donor was that he was a 48-year-old man from the UK.

He was not allowed to contact Alastair until two years had passed and the treatment was considered successful.

At that point, Alastair did not know whether Luke had survived.

“I just hoped. I hoped and prayed that he had,” he says.

And then an email dropped into his inbox via the stem cell registry.

“It was like all my Christmases had come at once,” Alastair recalls. “It was a really beautiful moment.”

The men were put in contact with each other and finally met in Preston on Friday.

Luke told Alastair: “To have someone like you, who is so beautiful, lovely and kind, having done all this, I’m glad it’s your cells. I just can’t thank you enough.”

For his part, Alastair, who runs a gingerbread business, describes the donation as his “legacy”.

He told Luke: “If I achieve nothing more than just seeing that smile on your face, then I’ve achieved everything I need to achieve.”

Preston was a fitting place to meet as Alastair’s grandparents lived in the town and Luke’s family also have roots there.

Luke, who is now 31 and back to full health, feels he can put the last 15 years behind him. He has even run a marathon.

“Meeting Alastair in person is a dream come true,” he says. “What do you say to the person who has given you your life back by literally giving a part of themselves?

“Me being able to get on that plane and fly across the world is possible only because of him.

“The moment I got to give him that huge hug and thank him in person is a moment I’ll never forget.”

Alastair, now 51, hopes their story will encourage others to sign up to the stem cell registry.

“Meeting Luke today really brings home just what a difference that simple act can make,” he says.

“I just wish more people would put themselves forward to be on the register to donate, whether it’s platelets or organs or blood or stem cells – that is just the gift of life.

“There’s nothing that makes you feel more complete as a human being – and when it’s a success story, like it clearly has been in our case, it makes everything all worthwhile.”

Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds latest episode of Look North here.

Nearly three weeks after Rohit Sharma’s sudden retirement from Test cricket, the Indian cricket board has ended speculation of his successor by naming Shubman Gill as India’s new captain for the upcoming five-Test series against England in June.

At 25, Gill becomes India’s 37th Test captain – and one of its youngest, after Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri.

His appointment marks a turning point for Indian cricket. The squad he leads is without batting greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, spin stalwart R Ashwin who retired six months ago, and pace spearhead Mohammed Shami, who was sidelined due to fitness concerns.

The team is rich in young batting talent but will miss the experience of Kohli and Sharma. Despite Jaspreet Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammad Siraj, the bowling attack still feels a touch raw.

Adding to Gill’s challenge: India haven’t won a Test series in England since 2007.

His appointment followed intense deliberations between chief selector Ajit Agarkar, coach Gautam Gambhir, and backchannel talks with other contenders.

Though Bumrah seemed the natural choice after serving as vice-captain in Australia, concerns over his ability to shoulder the workload of a five-Test series tipped the scales in Gill’s favour.

A prodigy from Punjab state, Gill has long carried the weight of expectation with elegance.

He burst into the spotlight in 2014, not yet 15, hammering 351 in a world-record opening stand of 587 with Nirmal Singh in the Punjab Inter-District ML Markan Trophy. It was a knock that vindicated his family’s bold move from the border village of Chak Kherewala to Mohali, seeking better training and greater exposure for the young talent.

Consistent run-getting as a junior, fast-tracked him into the under-19 ranks which is where Gill really made his first big impact.

Vice-captain of the team that played the 2017-18 U-19 World Cup, he emerged as the top run aggregator for India, highlighted by a skilful, unbeaten 102 against arch rivals Pakistan in the semi-final. In the final where India beat Australia, Gill scored a handy 31.

At the time, all eyes were on Prithvi Shaw – the U-19 captain whose Mumbai schoolboy feats drew comparisons with Tendulkar. His rise was meteoric: a Test debut century, another soon after. But by 2020, his career had begun to unravel.

Temporarily sidelined, Gill made an immediate impact on his Ranji Trophy debut with a half-century, followed by a century. Under Yuvraj Singh’s mentorship, he sharpened both his batting and game awareness.

Prolific runs pushed selectors to consider Gill as Shaw’s replacement. He debuted in Tests in Melbourne, December 2020, during India’s memorable comeback series win.

Tall and graceful, Gill’s technical precision and elegant stroke play – especially front of the wicket – set him apart as a promising young talent. Nicknamed the ‘Prince’ by his family, the title soon became his cricketing identity. Hailed as the Next Big Thing, he’s widely tipped to succeed Virat Kohli as the next generation’s leading batsman.

That promise remains unproven. Like Kohli, Gill is an all-format player, but unlike Kohli’s early dominance, Gill has yet to display the same ambition and match-winning impact – especially in Tests, where his 1,893 runs in 32 matches are solid but not outstanding.

Gill’s first captaincy, less than five years after his Test debut, comes at a crucial point in his career.

With enough international experience to elevate his batting from good to great, he now faces a stern test against England’s Bazball style of play in challenging conditions. Success here would be a major boost to his standing as a top Test player.

But it is as captain that Gill probably faces tougher challenges.

The England series kicked off India’s new World Test Championship cycle, following two finals appearances but a disappointing early exit in the last one. India’s recent Test form has been poor, with back-to-back series losses to New Zealand and Australia.

To pull India out of the current rut, Gill will have to lead the way as batter as well as captain in charge of a new-look team, whose dressing-room and dynamics he will have to understand and, perhaps, reshape.

“Gill is a young man we are investing in not just for one series, but for the next five-six years to take Indian cricket ahead,” said chief selector Ajit Agarkar.

That should be a tremendous reassurance for the new captain. While his appointment brings its share of pressure, it also carries immense hope – and an opportunity to carve his own legacy in Indian cricket history.

War-torn Sudan is now “on the brink” of a public health disaster as cholera and other deadly diseases spread, aid group, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) has warned.

In just one week, Sudan’s Health Ministry recorded that 172 people have died due to a cholera outbreak, posting on Facebook that most of the new cases are in Khartoum state.

According to local doctors, cited by Sudanese media, drone attacks have caused power outages at water purification stations, which has left people with no choice but to use unclean water.

IRC country director for Sudan Eatizaz Yousif said the civil war – now in its thrid year – “is fuelling the resurgence of cholera”.

In a statement, the IRC emphasised that cholera vaccine coverage was “low” and “essential supplies dwindling”.

The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned of reports of “thousands of suspected cholera cases” in Khartoum since the middle of last month.

Its medical co-ordinator in the country, Slaymen Ammar, stated that “the conflict has clearly compromised basic infrastructure”.

In a press release, he said that healthcare in parts of the capital was “either unavailable or unaffordable”, adding that “many of the remaining health workers had no choice but to leave” due to fighting.

Mr Ammar adds that the few remaining health facilities are overwhelmed.

As many as 500 cases of cholera were reported in just one day in the past week in Khartoum, MSF said.

Aside from the Khartoum area, cases were also cited in northern and southern Sudan, the AFP news agency reports.

Most people with cholera have mild symptoms or none at all.

However, the disease can be a fatal if it causes severe diarrhoea, requiring antibiotics and IV fluids for treatment, according to the World Health Organization.

More than 150,000 people have been killed during Sudan’s conflict, which began over two years ago when Sudan’s army and the RSF began a vicious struggle for power.

Millions have been forced from their homes and the conflict has plunged the country into what the UN calls the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

• No water, no power – Port Sudan reeling after week of attacks
• Drone attacks raise stakes in new phase of Sudan’s civil war
• WATCH: ‘They ransacked my home, and left my town in ruins’

Nepali sherpa Kami Rita, also known as “Everest Man”, has scaled Mount Everest for the 31st time, breaking his own record for the most climbs up the world’s tallest peak.

The 55-year-old, who was guiding a group of Indian army officials up the mountain, reached its 8,849m summit at 04:00 local time on Tuesday (23:15 GMT Monday).

“Kami Rita Sherpa needs no introduction. He is not just a national climbing hero, but a global symbol of Everest itself,” expedition organiser Seven Summit Treks said in a statement.

Kami Rita first summited Everest in 1994 guiding a commercial expedition and has made the peak almost ever year since.

He scaled it twice some years, like in 2023 and 2024.

His closest competitor for the Everest record is fellow Nepali sherpa Pasang Dawa, who scaled the peak 29 times – the latest attempt made last week.

Kami Rita has previously told media how his climbs are just work.

“I am glad for the record, but records are eventually broken,” he told AFP in May last year. “I am more happy that my climbs help Nepal be recognised in the world.”

Earlier this month, Kami Rita posted snippets of life on Everest, including one of the Puja ceremony, a Tibetan Buddhist ritual done before Everest expeditions to pray for a safe and successful climb.

Kami Rita’s feat comes one week after British mountaineer Kenton Cool summited Everest for the 19th time, also breaking his own record for the most climbs for a non-sherpa.

More than 500 people and their guides have climbed Everest successfully this climbing season, which is coming to an end.

Nepal issued more than 1,000 climbing permits this season – including for Everest and other peaks – according to its tourism department.

The number of Everest summit attempts has soared in recent years. However this has led to concerns around overcrowding and environmental impact.

Last year, authorities introduced a rule requiring climbers to clear up their own poo and bring it back to base camp to be disposed of.

North Korea has criticised the US’s plan for a futuristic “Golden Dome” missile shield, saying it could “turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field”.

The defence system, which President Donald Trump plans to unveil by the end of his term, is aimed at countering “next-generation” aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry slammed the plan as “the height of self-righteousness [and] arrogance”, state media reported.

It accused Washington of being “hell-bent… to militarise outer space” and warned that the plan might spark “a global nuclear and space arms race”.

North Korea considers Washington an adversary and has routinely condemned joint military drills between the US and South Korea.

Pyongyang probably sees the Golden Dome as a threat that can “significantly weaken” its nuclear arsenal, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP news agency.

“If the US completes its new missile defence programme, the North will be forced to develop alternative means to counter or penetrate it,” he said.

In 2022, the North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state, and it has tested a variety of ballistic and cruise missiles in recent years.

Early this year it claimed it fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead which it said “will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region”.

North Korea joins China in criticising the US’s plan. Beijing said last week that it is “seriously concerned” about the Golden Dome, which it said has “strong offensive implications”.

“The United States, in pursuing a ‘US-first’ policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself,” China’s foreign ministry said. “This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability.”

Many analysts believe an update to the US’s limited defence systems is necessary, but some warn the process of developing the Golden Dome could face technical and political challenges.

For one, its hefty price tag could suck up a large chunk of the US defence budget.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill – although the government has estimated it could end up costing 20 times that over decades.

Sweden-based car maker Volvo Cars says it will cut around 3,000 jobs as part of its cost-cutting measures.

The firm says the layoffs will mainly impact office-based positions in Sweden, representing about 15% of its white collar workforce.

Last month, Volvo Cars, which is owned by Chinese group Geely Holding, announced an 18 billion Swedish kronor ($1.9bn; £1.4bn) “action plan” shake-up of the business.

The global motor industry is facing a number of major challenges including US President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported cars, higher cost of materials and slower sales in Europe.

The chief executive of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson, pointed to the “challenging period” faced by the industry as a reason for the layoffs.

“The actions announced today have been difficult decisions, but they are important steps as we build a stronger and even more resilient Volvo Cars,” he said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the firm said its global sales for April fell by 11% compared to the same period last year.

Volvo Cars has its main headquarters and development offices in Gothenburg, Sweden. It has major production plants in Sweden, Belgium, China and the US.

The company was sold by US motor industry giant Ford to China’s Geely in 2010.

In 2021, Volvo said all of its cars would go electric by 2030. Last year it scaled back that ambition due to a number of issues including “additional uncertainties created by recent tariffs on EVs in various markets”.

Japanese car maker Nissan said earlier this month that it will cut another 11,000 jobs globally and shut seven factories as it shakes up the business in the face of weak sales.

Falling sales in China and heavy discounting in the US, its two biggest markets, have taken a heavy toll on earnings, while a proposed merger with Honda and Mitsubishi collapsed in February.

The latest cutbacks brought the total number of layoffs announced by the company in the past year to about 20,000, or 15% of its workforce.

In an example of the cutthroat rivalry between carmakers, Chinese electric vehicle giant BYD announced at the weekend that it would cut the prices of more than 20 of its models.

The move brings the price of its cheapest car, the Seagull EV, to as low as 55,800 yuan ($7,745; £5,700).

In response Chinese government-owned Changan and Leapmotor, which is backed by Chrysler owner Stellantis, announced their own price cuts.

Shares in Chinese car makers fell sharply after those announcements.

In April, BYD outsold Elon Musk’s Tesla in Europe for the first time, according to car industry research firm Jato Dynamics.

Tesla is struggling with increased competition and the hit to its brand following Mr Musk’s alliance with US President Donald Trump.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association said Tesla cars sales in Europe and the UK roughly halved last month, with just 7,261 new registrations in April compared with nearly 14,230 last year.

The fall came as overall Europe and UK car sales were roughly flat year-on-year, though new registrations of battery electric cars jumped more than 27% compared with April 2024.

Musk said earlier this month that the firm’s sales issues were isolated to Europe, with strong demand in other regions.

Scientists in Spain say they have discovered the oldest full human fingerprint after unearthing a rock which they say resembles a human face and suggests Neanderthals could make art.

A Neanderthal man is believed to have dipped his finger in red pigment to paint a nose on a pebble around 43,000 years ago. The rock was discovered in the San Lázaro rock shelter in Segovia, Spain.

The “strategic position” of the dot has led scientists to see it as evidence of Neanderthals’ “symbolic behaviour”, suggesting they had the ability to think about things in an abstract way.

The findings contribute to the ongoing debate on Neanderthals’ ability to make art, study co-author María de Andrés-Herrero said.

In an interview with the BBC’s Newsday, Prof de Andrés-Herrero from the University of Complutense in Madrid said excavation at the shelter began five years ago and in 2022 they found the stone below 1.5m (5 feet) of sediments from Neanderthal groups.

“At the beginning we couldn’t believe what we were looking at, because there was a bigger stone in comparison to other stones that appeared at this site, with a red dot just in the middle which looked like a human face.”

It was unclear whether the dot was made with ochre, a natural clay pigment. Once the research group was able to confirm it was a pigment, Prof de Andrés-Herrero said they contacted Spain’s scientific police to support their efforts.

This team was able to conduct deep research using multi-spectrum analysis and they identified a fingerprint.

Analysis of the pebble also suggested the fingerprint was of a male adult, according to the team’s investigations.

But archaeologist David Álvarez Alonso, the study’s co-author, said that as there were no other Neanderthal references to compare the prints to, it was difficult to say for certain.

Speaking from a news conference updating the public on the scientific development, Spanish official Gonzalo Santonja said the pebble was the oldest portable object to be painted in the European continent and “the only object of portable art painted by Neanderthals”.

Prof de Andrés-Herrero said her research group’s findings mark “an important contribution to the debate on Neanderthals’ symbolic capacity, because it represents the first known pigment-marked object in an archaeological context” and it is “clear it is a Neanderthal site”.

In addition to this, the human fingerprint was found in a non-utilitarian context, the expert added, suggesting that the dot on the pebble was intended for artistic purposes.

Prof Herrero also said it is the first time scientists have discovered a stone in an archaeological context with a red ochre dot, meaning Neanderthals brought it to the shelter.

The thinking is that one of the Neanderthals found the stone, “which caught his attention because of its fissures, and he intentionally made his mark with an ochre [pigment] stain in the middle of the object,” Prof Alonso said, quoted by Spanish news agency Europa Press.

Researchers believe the mark was not accidental because, according to their findings, the red pigment does not exist naturally in the shelter, meaning it was “intentionally brought to the shelter”.

In their paper, which was published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, researchers wrote: “The pebble from San Lázaro rock-shelter presents a series of characteristics that render it exceptional, based on which we have deemed it a visual symbol that could be considered a piece of portable art in some contexts.”

A Syrian man has admitted carrying out a knife attack in the German town of Solingen last August in which three people were killed.

“I have committed a grave crime, I am prepared to accept the verdict,” Issa al H said in a statement read out by his defence lawyers at the start of his trial in the western city of Düsseldorf.

Issa al H, whose surname was not made public because of German privacy rules, is accused of being a member of the Islamic State jihadist group, and pledging allegiance to IS in videos shortly before the attack.

The stabbings took place as Solingen was holding a three-day festival to mark its 650th anniversary and came shortly before a series of key regional elections.

In the space of a year, German cities saw a string of deadly attacks, which began in Mannheim in May 2024, when an Afghan national stabbed a police officer at a rally.

Most of the attackers were described as having migrant backgrounds and the killings played a significant part in the national debate leading up to Germany’s federal elections in February.

While most mainstream parties toughened their language on migration, the far-right AfD were seen as benefiting most from the heightened climate, coming second with almost 21% of the vote. They have since narrowed the gap with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives even further.

The man accused of the 23 August Solingen knife attack had arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2022, but because he had already registered for asylum in Bulgaria he was ordered to be deported there.

By the time German authorities tried to deport him in 2023 he had disappeared.

On Tuesday, Issa al H appeared in a high-security wing of the court in Düsseldorf wearing a blue T-shirt, and kept his head bowed for most of the time he stood in the dock.

He is accused of three murders as well as 10 counts of attempted murder and further charges of grievous bodily harm.

Prosecutors allege he approached IS contacts on jihadist social media forums before the attack and he was then given help planning it and choosing his murder weapon.

In his statement read out by his lawyers, Issa al H said: “I killed innocents, not infidels.”

One of the people wounded in the Solingen attack sat in court on Tuesday, her arm in a sling, in a reminder of the wounds he inflicted in the city.

Athanasios Antonakis, a lawyer acting on behalf of a mother and daughter who were wounded in the attack, told public broadcaster WDR that “my clients are expecting this trial will help improve the healing process”.

The EU is investigating Pornhub, Stripchat and two other pornography websites it believes may be falling foul of its online content laws.

The European Commission said the sites, which also include XVideos and XNXX, did not appear to have measures in place to safeguard children and their rights.

It said this included an apparent lack of “appropriate” age verification methods to stop children accessing adult material.

“Online platforms must ensure that the rights and best interests of children are central to the design and functioning of their services,” it said.

Pornhub’s parent company Aylo said it was aware of the investigation and “fully committed to ensuring the safety of minors online”.

“We will always comply with the law, but we hope that governments around the world will implement laws that protect the safety and security of users,” it added.

The BBC has also approached Stripchat for comment.

The Commission said its initial investigations found the four platforms had not put in place “appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors”.

It said the platforms also do not appear to be abiding by requirements for porn sites to use age verification tools to protect children from accessing adult content.

A Commission official said that “click away” pop-ups currently used by some porn sites, asking users if they are over 18, may not be an effective means of doing so.

The platforms were also found not to have put into place “risk assessment and mitigation measures of any negative effects on the rights of the child, the mental and physical well-being of users,” it said.

It comes amid wider scrutiny of online pornography services worldwide, with many regulators looking to crack down on those that do not have age verification in place.

The UK’s online safety regulator Ofcom recently announced two investigations into porn sites that did not appear to have any methods to check the age of users.

It said in early May that 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.

Pornhub is the most visited porn site in the world – and the 19th most visited on the entire web, according to data from Similarweb.

But it finds itself under increasing regulatory pressure.

It has blocked access to its site in 16 US states, including Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Texas, that passed laws requiring it to verify the age of users.

It argues age verification should take place on users’ devices, rather than on individual, age-restricted sites, to create a simpler process for regulators and enhance privacy for users.

The companies subject to the EU’s investigation were designated as very large online platforms under its Digital Services Act (DSA) in 2023.

Under the bloc’s sweeping set of digital content rules, they face tougher requirements to tackle harmful and illegal material on the platforms.

If suspected infringements of the DSA are confirmed, platforms could face further enforcement actions or, ultimately, a fines of up to 6% of their annual turnover.

The Commission said on Tuesday that Stripchat would no longer be designated a so-called VLOP, but its suspected non-compliance with its digital content rules would still be investigated.

Smaller platforms that do not meet the 45m EU user threshold must also abide by the bloc’s digital rules to safeguard children, it said.

Coordinated action by its member states will also seek to enforce requirements for smaller pornography sites.

“Our priority is to protect minors and allow them to navigate safely online,” said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.

“Together with the Digital Service Coordinators in the Member States we are determined to tackle any potential harm to young online users.”

King Charles has given a major speech at the opening of parliament in Canada in which he sought to define its place in an uncertain world and its relationship with the US.

The address in Ottawa laid out priorities for new Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose Liberals won the country’s general election in April – a campaign that was dominated by US President Donald Trump’s threats to Canada’s independence.

The King, who is Canada’s head of state, said relationships with partners, including the US, were changing, and he stressed the sovereignty of both nations.

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s address, which was the first time a monarch has delivered the throne speech opening parliament in almost 50 years.

Carney’s invitation to King Charles was in part a message to Trump, who has made repeated remarks undermining its sovereignty.

Tensions with Canada’s neighbour were a theme throughout, though the US president was never mentioned by name.

The speech opened with a wave of patriotism as a trade war with the US, Canada’s largest economic partner, looms. The King spoke of the “pleasure and pride” of being in the country “as we witness Canadians coming together in a renewed sense of national pride, unity, and hope”.

He expressed his “admiration for Canada’s unique identity” and its growth since the last time a sovereign opened parliament – Queen Elizabeth II in 1955. (She gave a second throne speech 20 years later).

It has become “a bold, ambitious, innovative country”.

“The Crown has for so long been a symbol of unity for Canada,” the King said. “It also represents stability and continuity from the past to the present. As it should, it stands proudly as a symbol of Canada today, in all her richness and dynamism.”

The speech concluded on a similar note: “As the anthem reminds us: The True North is indeed strong and free!”

The King’s decision to open parliament – a role traditionally left to the governor general, who is the monarch’s top representative in Canada – is seen as a symbolic show of support for the Commonwealth nation.

Another major theme of the speech is how Canada will face a world with “unprecedented challenges, generating uncertainties across the continents”.

Another nod to the US and tensions between the two countries followed:

“The system of open global trade that, while not perfect, has helped to deliver prosperity for Canadians for decades, is changing. Canada’s relationships with partners are also changing,” the King said.

The speech underscored the need for the country to reinforce its established trading relationships, notably with European allies, while moving forward with economic and security relationship talks with the US.

During the recent election campaign, Carney repeatedly said the country was at a pivotal moment in its history.

Tuesday’s speech emphasised that “this moment is also an incredible opportunity”.

“An opportunity to think big and to act bigger. An opportunity for Canada to embark on the largest transformation of its economy since the Second World War.”

King Charles also focused directly on domestic policy and plans set out by Carney’s Liberals to address the country’s economic headwinds.

There was a commitment to speed up major national infrastructure projects and to double a loan programme that would enable more indigenous ownership of major projects.

The government also said it would introduce legislation by 1 July to remove federal barriers to internal trade within the country. According to the government, interprovincial trade and labour mobility barriers cost the country as much as C$200bn ($145bn; £107bn) each year.

Opposition parties reacted to the Liberal government’s domestic agenda laid out in the speech, with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre saying it lacked “specific plans” on implementing some of the big commitments, like energy projects.

Canada faces housing affordability crises as housing prices have skyrocketed across the country in the last decade.

Alongside the US-Canada relationship, it was one of the top issues on the campaign trail. Carney’s Liberals promised to double the rate of building to 500,000 new homes a year.

The speech underscored the government’s other plans to address the issue, including investing in prefabricated and modular housing, and cutting municipal development charges in half for housing with multiple units.

There was a pledge to deliver on another campaign promise – to end a goods and services tax for first-time homebuyers on houses costing less than C$1m. The King highlighted other plans to drive down costs for Canadians, including a tax cut for the lower middle-class.

Another major issue during the campaign was crime. The speech contained promises to address tougher penalties for car thefts, home invasions, human trafficking and drug smuggling.

House Leader Alexandre Boulerice for the left-wing NDP said after the speech that there were “big holes” on issues like climate and women’s rights.

• Why is King Charles in Canada, and what is the throne speech?
• King Charles and Queen Camilla welcomed in Ottawa amid US tensions

Canada has been under mounting pressure from the US and other Nato partners to increase its military spending, as it continues to fall short of the 2% of GDP on military spending target set out for alliance members.

Carney has committed to hitting that benchmark by 2030.

Tuesday’s speech contained commitments to “rebuilding, rearming, and reinvesting” in its military; reinforcing defence relationships with European allies, including by joining Rearm Europe, a plan to dramatically increase defence spending on the continent; and to strengthen Canada’s Arctic presence.

Last week, Carney also said that “high level” talks are taking place with the US about joining its proposed “Golden Dome” missile defence system, aimed at countering futuristic threats.

HBO has announced the young actors who will play the lead trio in its TV series adaption of JK Rowling’s book series, Harry Potter.

Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout have been cast as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley.

An open casting call for the roles was announced last year, and more than 30,000 children auditioned.

Showrunner Francesca Gardiner and executive producer and director Mark Mylod said in a statement that “the talent of these three unique actors is wonderful to behold, and we cannot wait for the world to witness their magic together onscreen”.

The youngsters join John Lithgow as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, the school’s key professors being played by Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall and Paapa Essiedu, as Severus Snape.

Other confirmed actors in the series include Nick Frost as the affable groundskeeper Rubeus Hagrid, Luke Thallon as professor Quirinus Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse as caretaker Argus Filch.

Further casting announcements are expected soon.

The three young actors taking on the roles played by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, who starred in the hugely successful films, are relative newcomers.

Scottish actor McLaughlin has acted in upcoming Sky comedy Grow, alongside Nick Frost and Golda Rosheuvel, and will also appear in upcoming BBC action adventure series Gifted. Stanton played Matilda in Matilda: The Musical on the West End.

The bestselling books’ author, JK Rowling, will act as an executive producer on the show, which HBO has said will be a “faithful adaptation” of her books.

The TV series, which will span at least a decade, will have more breathing space to explore the plot lines from the books without the time constraints of the film.

Filming is expected to begin in the summer at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in the UK and the first series could air as early as 2026 on HBO Max.

After a driver ploughed into crowds during the Liverpool FC victory parade on Monday evening, Merseyside Police said within two hours they had arrested a “53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area”.

It was striking how quickly police shared the man’s nationality and ethnicity.

The decision shows lessons have already been learned from the Southport attacks last summer, when online speculation and disinformation filled a void after the same force released little detail about the 17-year-old they had in custody.

Usually when a suspect is arrested, police forces in England and Wales just give out the age of the person and where they were arrested.

But at 19:53 BST, the force emailed out a press release including the suspect’s age, nationality and ethnicity.

It was a clear attempt to damp down inaccurate speculation on social media that the Ford Galaxy driving into Liverpool fans was part of an Islamist terrorist attack, or was in any way linked to migrants.

• LIVE UPDATES: Child and adult seriously hurt
• WHAT WE KNOW: Man arrested, dozens injured
• WATCH: Videos show car driving through crowd

Merseyside Police acted “very, very quickly” to stamp out speculation on social media that had caused “real consternation”, Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram said.

By contrast, last summer in the aftermath of the horrific knife attack in Southport in which Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Da Silva Aguiar were killed, Merseyside Police said very little about the suspect they had arrested.

This meant that inaccurate social media speculation and deliberate disinformation about the suspect having a Muslim name and being a newly arrived migrant went unchecked.

A consequence was a riot in Southport within 36 hours of the attack focused on the local mosque, and then further rioting across England, much of it aimed at hotels housing recently arrived asylum seekers.

The Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana had in fact been born in the UK and had no direct connections to Islamism, though he had downloaded an academic study of an al-Qaeda manual.

In a report published earlier this month into last summer’s events, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services said the police service “must do more to communicate online” and “fill the information void with the truth”.

“Forces must provide a true narrative online to reach people who may be searching for information,” it added.

The report went on to say: “The police service must communicate the facts. Repeatedly, continuously and effectively as circumstances change and develop.

“If not, others will take over the narrative with overwhelming amounts of online content. And some of this may be false or harmful to the police response and the communities the police are there to protect.”

The way Merseyside Police’s communications team responded last night suggests that the force has rapidly adapted its policies since the violent disorder of last summer.

It means that a clearer picture of what had happened quickly reached people’s phones, TVs and radios and rapidly reduced the disinformation.

The problem that police forces now face is whether this new approach will lead to confusion in future.

What will a force do for example if the information about the suspect they are holding is unclear?

Even more problematically, what will a force do if they arrest someone in similar circumstances who is a recently arrived migrant or who has a clearly Muslim name?

Last night’s rapid move to correct the narrative may not be as straightforward in different circumstances.

Helen King, former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: “There will be times when police can confirm quickly. There are other times when it is unclear. These will always be complex and sensitive decisions.”

North Korea has criticised the US’s plan for a futuristic “Golden Dome” missile shield, saying it could “turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field”.

The defence system, which President Donald Trump plans to unveil by the end of his term, is aimed at countering “next-generation” aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry slammed the plan as “the height of self-righteousness [and] arrogance”, state media reported.

It accused Washington of being “hell-bent… to militarise outer space” and warned that the plan might spark “a global nuclear and space arms race”.

North Korea considers Washington an adversary and has routinely condemned joint military drills between the US and South Korea.

Pyongyang probably sees the Golden Dome as a threat that can “significantly weaken” its nuclear arsenal, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP news agency.

“If the US completes its new missile defence programme, the North will be forced to develop alternative means to counter or penetrate it,” he said.

In 2022, the North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state, and it has tested a variety of ballistic and cruise missiles in recent years.

Early this year it claimed it fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead which it said “will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region”.

North Korea joins China in criticising the US’s plan. Beijing said last week that it is “seriously concerned” about the Golden Dome, which it said has “strong offensive implications”.

“The United States, in pursuing a ‘US-first’ policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself,” China’s foreign ministry said. “This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability.”

Many analysts believe an update to the US’s limited defence systems is necessary, but some warn the process of developing the Golden Dome could face technical and political challenges.

For one, its hefty price tag could suck up a large chunk of the US defence budget.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill – although the government has estimated it could end up costing 20 times that over decades.

US President Donald Trump has issued a pardon to a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted on fraud and bribery charges.

A jury found former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins guilty of accepting more than $75,000 (£55,000) in bribes last December, in exchange for making several businessmen into law enforcement officers without them being trained.

Jenkins, a long-time supporter of Trump, was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison. He was set to report to jail on Tuesday, but due to Trump’s pardon, he will not spend a single day behind bars.

“Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network.

Trump said Jenkins was the “victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice”. The judge who presided over Jenkins’s case, Robert Ballou, was appointed by former President Joe Biden, but it was a jury trial.

Trump called Jenkins a “wonderful person” who was persecuted by “Radical Left monsters” and “left for dead”.

Jenkins was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud and seven counts of bribery concerning programmes receiving federal funds.

Prosecutors said he accepted bribes from eight people, including two undercover FBI agents. These were in the form of cash and campaign contributions. Jenkins’s position was an elected one.

The men who bribed Jenkins paid for auxiliary deputy sheriff positions so they could avoid traffic tickets and carry concealed firearms without a permit, the prosecutors said.

Although auxiliary deputy sheriffs are volunteer positions, they can have law-enforcement powers equivalent to those of paid officers.

Trump said Jenkins tried to offer evidence in his defence, but Judge Ballou “refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade”.

The acting US attorney for Virginia said at the time of Jenkins’s sentencing that the ex-sheriff violated his oath of office. He said the case proved that officials who used their positions for “unjust personal enrichment” would be held accountable.

But Jenkins appealed to Trump for help after his conviction.

“I believe if he heard the information, I know he would help if he knew my story,” he reportedly said in April on a webinar hosted by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.

Jenkins was elected sheriff of Culpeper County in 2011 and took office in January 2012. He was re-elected in 2015 and 2019.

The former policeman is the latest in a long line of Trump supporters to receive a pardon.

In January, the president issued almost 1,600 pardons or commutations to people charged over the 2021 US Capitol riots.

The US Constitution says that a president has the “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment”.

A pardon represents legal forgiveness, ends any further punishment and restores rights such as being able to vote or run for public office.

Scientists in Spain say they have discovered the oldest full human fingerprint after unearthing a rock which they say resembles a human face and suggests Neanderthals could make art.

A Neanderthal man is believed to have dipped his finger in red pigment to paint a nose on a pebble around 43,000 years ago. The rock was discovered in the San Lázaro rock shelter in Segovia, Spain.

The “strategic position” of the dot has led scientists to see it as evidence of Neanderthals’ “symbolic behaviour”, suggesting they had the ability to think about things in an abstract way.

The findings contribute to the ongoing debate on Neanderthals’ ability to make art, study co-author María de Andrés-Herrero said.

In an interview with the BBC’s Newsday, Prof de Andrés-Herrero from the University of Complutense in Madrid said excavation at the shelter began five years ago and in 2022 they found the stone below 1.5m (5 feet) of sediments from Neanderthal groups.

“At the beginning we couldn’t believe what we were looking at, because there was a bigger stone in comparison to other stones that appeared at this site, with a red dot just in the middle which looked like a human face.”

It was unclear whether the dot was made with ochre, a natural clay pigment. Once the research group was able to confirm it was a pigment, Prof de Andrés-Herrero said they contacted Spain’s scientific police to support their efforts.

This team was able to conduct deep research using multi-spectrum analysis and they identified a fingerprint.

Analysis of the pebble also suggested the fingerprint was of a male adult, according to the team’s investigations.

But archaeologist David Álvarez Alonso, the study’s co-author, said that as there were no other Neanderthal references to compare the prints to, it was difficult to say for certain.

Speaking from a news conference updating the public on the scientific development, Spanish official Gonzalo Santonja said the pebble was the oldest portable object to be painted in the European continent and “the only object of portable art painted by Neanderthals”.

Prof de Andrés-Herrero said her research group’s findings mark “an important contribution to the debate on Neanderthals’ symbolic capacity, because it represents the first known pigment-marked object in an archaeological context” and it is “clear it is a Neanderthal site”.

In addition to this, the human fingerprint was found in a non-utilitarian context, the expert added, suggesting that the dot on the pebble was intended for artistic purposes.

Prof Herrero also said it is the first time scientists have discovered a stone in an archaeological context with a red ochre dot, meaning Neanderthals brought it to the shelter.

The thinking is that one of the Neanderthals found the stone, “which caught his attention because of its fissures, and he intentionally made his mark with an ochre [pigment] stain in the middle of the object,” Prof Alonso said, quoted by Spanish news agency Europa Press.

Researchers believe the mark was not accidental because, according to their findings, the red pigment does not exist naturally in the shelter, meaning it was “intentionally brought to the shelter”.

In their paper, which was published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, researchers wrote: “The pebble from San Lázaro rock-shelter presents a series of characteristics that render it exceptional, based on which we have deemed it a visual symbol that could be considered a piece of portable art in some contexts.”

The Trump administration will direct US federal agencies to review Harvard University’s grants to potentially end or redistribute funding, as part of the White House’s escalating battle with America’s oldest university.

The Government Services Administration (GSA) plans to circulate a letter to agencies “asking them to identify any contracts with Harvard, and whether they can be cancelled or redirected elsewhere”, a senior White House official said.

The administration estimates about 30 contracts, collectively worth $100m (£74m), could be reviewed. It already had frozen $2.2bn in federal grants and revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol international students.

Harvard University did not immediately comment.

On its website, the university says that its “cutting-edge medical, scientific, and technological research” has historically been “supported by the federal government” and other entities.

Touting the institution’s research on cancer, heart disease, infectious diseases and obesity, the university website warns that “without federal funding, this work will come to a halt midstream”.

The White House will not revoke the funds automatically, but rather kick off a review of money Harvard receives from the federal government to determine whether that funding is critical in the eyes of the administration.

GSA will recommend each agency “terminate for convenience each contract that it determines has failed to meet its standards”, and consider reallocating those funds to other entities.

A draft of the letter accuses Harvard of engaging in discrimination and antisemitism as justification for the move.

An administration official told the BBC that potential cuts would not impact hospitals affiliated with Harvard University.

And if a federal grant was deemed critical to a particular agency’s functions, they said, that agency could make a case for continued funding.

The White House and Harvard have been locked in a political, legal and financial battle – the stakes of which have dramatically escalated over the past two months.

This is not the first time the administration has attempted to block Harvard’s funding. In April, the White House froze $2.2bn in federal funding, prompting the university to sue.

Last week, the Trump administration also revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol international students or host foreign researchers, prompting mass confusion among thousands of impacted students and another lawsuit from Harvard.

“Why cut off research funding? Sure, it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country because after all, the research funding is not a gift,” Harvard University president Alan Garber told NPR on Tuesday morning, before news broke of the latest attempt at cuts.

“The research funding is given to universities and other research institutions to carry out work – research work – that the federal government designates as high-priority work,” Mr Garber continued.

“It is work that they want done. They are paying to have that work conducted.”

One department hit by funding cuts is the Sinclair Lab at Harvard Medical School, which studies aging and seeks to find interventions for Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, cancer, infertility, immune disorders, and more.

“We aim to understand and reverse the underlying mechanisms of aging to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases and tissue injuries,” Mr Sinclair told the BBC via email.

Under the Trump administration, the laboratory lost a National Institutes of Health grant, and researcher Kelly Rich lost a career grant to study age reversal to combat motor diseases. The White House’s move to revoke Harvard’s ability to host international researchers had affected six people — half the laboratory’s staff.

“The loss of funding not only halts ongoing experiments that cannot simply be restarted, but also jeopardizes the contributions of international scholars who are integral to the lab’s operations and the wealth of the US,” Mr Sinclair said.

Adam Nguyen, a Harvard alumnus and founder of the admissions consulting firm Ivy Link, said that the brunt of the potentially “hugely negative” impact would fall on graduate and PhD students. Academics from both the US and abroad rely on outside funding for their research, he noted.

“If you have the cuts, they’re out of a job,” Mr Nguyen said. “It’s as simple as that. There’s no money to fund their research. You’re talking about cuts, lay-offs and immediate stop-work orders for many graduate students.”

Swedish authorities have charged a convicted terrorist over the 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot who was burned to death in Syria.

Osama Krayem, 32 – a Swedish citizen – was on Tuesday charged with war and terrorism crimes relating to the death of Moaz al-Kasasbeh.

Krayem is currently in prison after being convicted for his role in the 2015 and 2016 terror attacks in Paris and Brussels respectively.

The BBC has contacted his lawyer for comment relating to the latest allegations. He has previously denied the charges, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported.

Krayem’s trial is expected to begin on 4 June.

“It is painful for my parents to be confronted with this event again, but we are grateful that the Swedish authorities want to give us justice,” the pilot’s brother, Jawdat al-Kasasbeh, told Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio following the announcement of the charges.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority last week announced they planned to charge a man with the “execution” of Lt Kasasbeh, along with other suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group.

Jordan confirmed the death of Lt Kasasbeh in 2015, following the circulation of a gruesome video published online by IS that appeared to show the 26-year-old being burned alive in a cage.

He was captured when his plane came down near the city of Raqqa during a mission against IS in December 2014.

At the time of Lt Kasasbeh’s death, Jordan – which was part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria during the civil war – had been attempting to secure his release as part of a prisoner swap.

Swedish prosecutors said in its statement last week the offences Krayem has now been charged with took place between 24 December 2014 and 3 February 2015.

They added an investigation had shown Krayem “armed and masked, together with others forced the pilot into a metal cage”.

“The cage was subsequently set on fire by one of the co-perpetrators, and the pilot died as a consequence of the fire.”

Krayem is originally from the Swedish city of Malmo and is thought to have travelled to Syria in September 2014 to fight for IS.

In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the November 2015 Paris terror attacks – in which 130 people were killed – and for planning a separate attack on Amsterdam airport.

A year later, he was also found guilty of terrorist murder for his role in the Brussels attacks that killed 32 people.

He has been temporarily transferred from France to Sweden in order to participate in this latest trial.

The search for a former Arkansas police chief convicted of rape and murder continues after he escaped from prison on Sunday.

Grant Hardin was chief of police in Gateway, Arkansas – a small town of a few hundred residents on the state’s border with Missouri – for around four months in 2016, according to the Associated Press.

The state’s Department of Corrections said on social media that he escaped from the North Central Unit prison in Calico Rock at around 15:40 (20:40 GMT) on Sunday, where he had been incarcerated since 2017.

The department added that Hardin was no longer in his prison uniform, and was “wearing a makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement” when he escaped.

Hardin, 56, remains at large. The Department of Corrections urged anyone with information to “contact local law enforcement immediately”.

The department told the BBC that a “multitude of agencies” were involved in the search.

The Pea Ridge Police Department also issued an alert on social media, saying Hardin “has numerous connections and family in our area”.

They warned the public not to approach him, saying he is “considered armed and dangerous”.

The former prosecutor who helped put Hardin behind bars described him as a “sociopath”, KHBS 40/29 News reported.

“Prison’s not full of people who are all bad. It’s full of a lot of people who just do bad things. Grant’s different,” former Benton County prosecutor Nathan Smith told the station.

Grant Hardin pleaded guilty to first-degree murder – the intentional killing of another person – after fatally shooting 59-year-old James Appleton in 2017. He was given a 30 year prison sentence.

Mr Appleton worked in the city’s water department. He was shot and killed while speaking to his brother-in-law, then-Gateway Mayor Andrew Tillman, on 23 February 2017, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

Police later found Mr Appleton’s body inside a car.

While serving time for Mr Appleton’s murder, DNA evidence emerged linking Hardin to the long unsolved rape of Amy Harrison at Frank Tillery Elementary School in Rogers, Arkansas, in November 1997.

According to an affiliate of CBS News, Ms Harrison was raped at gunpoint while she exited a classroom to go to the bathroom.

Hardin pleaded guilty, and received a sentence of 50 years.

Before becoming Gateway’s police chief, Hardin served as an officer at the Eureka Springs Police Department (ESPD).

He resigned in October 1996 after he was informed by ESPD Chief Earl Hyatt that he was going to be fired for falsifying a police report, according to the CBS News-affiliated 5News.

“I was going to terminate him, but he resigned, and he was caught lying on a police report,” Mr Hyatt reportedly said.

Chief Hyatt also said he was not surprised at Hardin’s conviction, telling 5News: “He was just always a very violent, excessive person, and had a really bad temper.”

His escape from prison comes just weeks after an unrelated incident in which 10 inmates broke out of a prison in New Orleans, Louisiana, after breaching the wall behind a toilet.

Crowds of Palestinians have overrun a distribution site in Gaza set up by a controversial US and Israeli-backed group, a day after it began working there.

Videos showed people walking over torn-down fences and earth berms at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’s (GHF) compound in the southern city of Rafah.

The group said that at one point its team fell back because the numbers seeking aid was so great. The Israeli military said troops nearby fired warning shots.

The GHF, which uses armed American security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid in Gaza, where experts have warned of a looming famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade that was recently eased.

The UN said the videos from Rafah were “heartbreaking” and that it had a detailed plan ready to get enough aid to the 2.1 million population.

The UN and many aid groups have refused to co-operate with GHF’s plans, which they say contradict humanitarian principles and appear to “weaponise aid”.

They have warned that the system will practically exclude those with mobility issues, force further displacement, expose thousands of people to harm, make aid conditional on political and military aims, and set an unacceptable precedent for aid delivery around the world.

Israel has said an alternative to the current aid system is needed to stop Hamas stealing aid, which the group denies doing.

The GHF announced on Monday that it had “commenced operations in Gaza” and begun giving out supplies to Palestinians at its distribution sites.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Israeli military confirmed two sites located in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah and the Morag Corridor – an east-west military zone that separates the city from the rest of Gaza – had begun distributing food to families.

At around the same time, Israeli and Palestinian media shared pictures showing long queues of Palestinians at the Tal al-Sultan site.

But just over an hour later, they began posting videos showing thousands of men, women and children streaming into the compound. In one clip, some people are seen running and ducking as what appear to be gunshots ring out.

Witnesses described a scene of chaos as people seized food parcels and other aid from the site. They also said Israeli troops stationed nearby had opened fire.

“The situation was extremely difficult. They only allowed 50 people to cross at a time,” one man told BBC Arabic’s Middle East daily radio programme. “In the end, chaos broke out – people climbed over the gates, attacked others, and took all the [aid].”

“It was a humiliating experience,” he added. “We’ve suffered greatly from hunger. We’re just looking for a bit of sugar to make a cup of tea, and a piece of bread to eat.”

A woman said hunger and poverty had “overwhelmed everyone”.

“People are exhausted – willing to do anything, even risk their lives – just to find food and feed their children.”

A statement from the GHF acknowledged that “the needs on the ground are great” and said it had so far handed out about 8,000 food boxes – each meant to feed five-and-a-half people for three-and-a-half days – through a partnership with local non-governmental organisations.

However, it said Palestinians had experienced several hours of delays in accessing one site “due to blockades imposed by Hamas”.

“At one moment in the late afternoon, the volume of people at the SBS [Secure Distribution Site] was such that the GHF team fell back to allow a small number of Gazans to take aid safely and dissipate. This was done in accordance with GHF protocol to avoid casualties. Normal operations have resumed,” it added.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its troops had fired “warning shots in the area outside the compound”.

“Control over the situation was established, food distribution operations are expected to continue as planned, and the safety of IDF troops was not compromised,” it stated.

Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office said Israel’s efforts to distribute aid had “failed miserably”.

At a news conference in New York, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said: “We have been watching the video coming out of Gaza around one of the distribution points set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. And frankly, these videos, these images, are heartbreaking.”

“We and our partners have a detailed, principled, operationally sound plan supported by member states to get aid to a desperate population. We continue to stress that a meaningful scale-up of humanitarian operations is essential to stave off famine and meet the needs of all civilians wherever they are,” he added.

The US state department’s spokeswoman called the UN’s criticism “the height of hypocrisy”.

“It is unfortunate, because the issue here is giving aid to Gaza, and then suddenly it moves into complaints about style or the nature of who’s doing it,” Tammy Bruce told reporters.

The GHF initially plans to set up four distribution sites in southern and central Gaza where Palestinians will be able to collect food and other aid for their families. It says it aims to feed a million people – just under half the population – by the end of this week.

The sites are meant to be secured by American contractors, with Israeli troops patrolling the perimeters. To access them, Palestinians are expected to have to undergo identity checks and screening for involvement with Hamas.

UN and other aid agencies have insisted they will not co-operate with any scheme that fails to respect fundamental humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality.

On Sunday night, Jake Wood resigned as the GHF’s executive director, saying the group’s system could not work in a way that would be able to fulfil those principles.

The GHF’s board rejected the criticism and accused “those who benefit from the status quo” of being more focused on “tearing this apart than on getting aid in”.

The group also alleged on Monday that Hamas had made death threats to NGOs supporting its distribution sites and attempted to block civilians from accessing the aid.

Hamas has publicly warned Palestinians not to co-operate with GHF’s system.

Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. It said the steps were meant to put pressure on the armed group to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

On 19 May, the Israeli military launched an expanded offensive that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would see troops “take control of all areas” of Gaza. The plan reportedly includes completely clearing the north of civilians and forcibly displacing them to the south.

Netanyahu also said Israel would temporarily ease the blockade and allow a “basic” amount of food into Gaza to prevent a famine, following pressure from allies in the US.

Since then, Israeli authorities say they have allowed at least 665 lorry loads of humanitarian aid, including flour, baby food and medical supplies, into Gaza.

However, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme warned on Sunday that the aid was only a “drop in the bucket” of what was needed in the territory to reverse the catastrophic levels of hunger, amid significant shortages of basic foods and skyrocketing prices.

Half a million people face starvation in the coming months, according to an assessment by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response Hamas’ cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,056 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,901 over the past 10 weeks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.