The death of a 10-year-old rape victim in the eastern Indian state of Bihar after an alleged delay in medical treatment has sparked outrage in the country.

The girl died on Sunday morning at the state government-run Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) in the capital Patna.

Her uncle has alleged that the child’s condition worsened as she was kept waiting in an ambulance for around four hours on Saturday before being admitted to the hospital.

PMCH authorities have denied this, saying that claims of a delay in admission are “baseless”.

The girl’s death has made national headlines, with opposition leaders accusing the Bihar government – a coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal United (JD-U) – of gross mismanagement. The government has denied any negligence.

The girl is from the Dalit community, which is at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy. Dalits face widespread mistreatment in India despite laws in place to protect them.

Following the outrage, the National Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Women have criticised the incident and asked for the hospital’s role to be investigated.

Rape victims cannot be named under Indian law.

The girl was raped on 26 May, allegedly by a man who lived near her aunt’s house in Muzaffarpur. Police have arrested the man and are investigating the crime.

The girl went missing while she was playing outside her house. Her family members later found her lying injured near a road. Police officials have told reporters that she had several knife wounds.

She was first taken to a local hospital and then to the Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), around 85km (53 miles) from Patna.

Kumari Vibha, the superintendent of SKMCH, told BBC Hindi that the child had several injuries, including wounds on her chest and neck, but that her condition had stabilised. She was referred to PMCH as she needed reconstruction surgery on her windpipe, Ms Vibha said.

But at PMCH, the child’s uncle said, they faced a delay in admission while the child waited in the ambulance.

“They [the hospital staff] made us run around for four hours from one hospital department to another one,” he alleged. She was later admitted to the gynaecology department, he said.

The hospital has denied the allegations. IS Thakur, a top hospital official, said that the child’s family had initially admitted her to the paediatrics department but that she was sent to the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) department because of her injuries.

“Since we do not have an ICU in ENT, the child was shifted to the ICU of the gynaecology department,” he said, adding that the child was brought in an Advance Life Support ambulance, which is equipped to offer critical care.

“The allegations of a delay in getting a hospital bed are baseless,” Mr Thakur said.

The child’s plight began making news after a viral video showed members of the opposition Congress party arguing with hospital staff, demanding that she be admitted.

Opposition parties in the state have held several protests since the death.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the girl’s death was “extremely shameful” and demanded that strict action be taken against negligent officers.

“The rape victim waited for hours outside PMCH to be admitted… what is the use of the big buildings being built in the name of hospitals when there is chaos, corruption, misbehaviour, lack of resources and insensitivity all around?” the state’s main opposition party Rashtriya Janata Dal said on X.

Leaders of the BJP and JD(U) have denied any negligence. Anamika Singh Patel, a BJP spokesperson, called the girl’s death “unfortunate”.

“But I myself run a hospital and I know that getting a bed in a hospital is a process which takes time. People in our government are working responsibly,” she said.

The incident has also brought attention to the condition of Bihar’s medical infrastructure, months before the state assembly election is due to be held.

Last month, a patient at another government hospital in Patna said that a rat bit his toe while he was asleep. Hospital authorities had launched an investigation into the incident.

On Tuesday, in a scathing editorial titled Bihar’s Shame, the Times of India newspaper highlighted the sorry state of hospitals in the state. It referenced a recent report that found that only half of all ventilators in government hospitals were functional and that capital Patna had just one government doctor for 11,541 people. That ratio is much worse in rural areas.

“Who is responsible for this mess?”

The question recently echoed across India’s financial capital Mumbai as thousands of residents once again found themselves stranded, soaked and frustrated.

Heavy rains brought the city to a standstill, and this was before the monsoon had even begun in full swing. Roads turned into rivers, vehicles broke down mid-commute and low-lying neighbourhoods were waterlogged within hours.

Even a newly-built underground metro station could not withstand the heavy downpour as photos and videos of the station flooded with muddy water went viral.

The pre-monsoon deluge once again exposed the city’s fragile infrastructure and sparked widespread outrage on social media.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), one of India’s richest civic organisations responsible for maintaining Mumbai’s infrastructure, initially blamed the problem on rubbish clogging the drains and debris from metro construction, The Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

Following criticism, the BMC installed de-watering pumps in flood-prone areas and began manually clearing waste from drains to prevent further waterlogging. But for many residents, the action came too late.

The crisis is neither new – nor is it unique to Mumbai.

From Delhi in the north to Bengaluru in the south, India’s biggest cities flood every monsoon season. Roads collapse, drains overflow, infrastructure is overwhelmed and traffic grinds to a halt.

Experts blame rapid unplanned urbanisation, poor infrastructure and years of environmental neglect as the root causes of this problem.

“The pace of urban expansion has far exceeded the evolution of supporting infrastructure, particularly in water and drainage systems,” says Dikshu Kukreja, an architect and urban planner based in Delhi.

“Many cities rely on outdated systems designed decades ago. And in the process of unchecked expansion, natural drainage channels, wetlands and water bodies that once absorbed excess rainwater have been built over or neglected,” he adds.

Experts say there’s no one-size-fits-all solution as each city faces unique challenges and factors such as geography, population and climate must be considered when designing effective responses.

India receives 80% of its annual rainfall during the monsoon season, which usually starts from June and continues until September.

The monsoon is crucial for agriculture and the livelihoods of millions of Indian farmers. They rely on seasonal showers in parts of the country where proper irrigation channels are absent.

But experts say climate change has made erratic weather – such as unseasonal rains, flash floods and droughts linked to extreme heat – a more regular phenomenon, directly affecting millions of people.

This year the monsoon arrived a week early in parts of southern India, catching authorities unprepared.

“A depression developed over the eastern central Arabian Sea which was instrumental in pulling up the monsoon current,” says Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of meteorology and climate change at weather forecasting company Skymet.

In Delhi, the Minto bridge has become a symbol of the city’s annual monsoon chaos. Almost every year, after heavy rain, a bus or lorry gets stuck under the bridge – an image that highlights the city’s struggle with urban flooding.

This year, Delhi recorded its wettest May since 1901, with more than 185mm of rainfall, according to the Indian weather department.

Many residents reported damage to their property.

At least four people were killed and dozens more were injured in one of the two heavy storms that hit the city in May, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, in Bengaluru, more than 2,000kms (1,240 miles) from the capital, the problem looks different but its root cause is the same.

Once known for its network of lakes that helped manage excess rainwater, Bengaluru has seen many of these water bodies encroached upon. In their place now stand apartment complexes, business hubs and roads – leaving the city vulnerable to flooding.

“Bengaluru is made up of three major valleys through which water naturally flows. Most of the city’s lakes are located in these valleys,” explains Ram Prasad, a lake conservation activist.

These valleys were originally designated as no-construction zones but over the years, encroachment has taken place and later changes in the law permitted infrastructure projects to be built in the area, he says.

“When you convert lakes – which traditionally act as flood buffers – into built-up areas, the water has nowhere to go. So, what we’re seeing in Bengaluru today is the result of poor urban planning.”

Mr Prasad points out that Bengaluru, which sits atop a hill, was never meant to flood and the current situation is entirely man-made.

Violations of building norms, especially construction that narrows stormwater drains or builds directly over them, have only made things worse, he says.

Meanwhile, Mumbai faces natural challenges due to its geography. For example, many parts of Mumbai are low-lying and close to the sea, which makes them more vulnerable to flooding during heavy rains and high tides.

But experts say it’s human actions that have made things much worse: cutting down mangroves, which normally act like natural barriers against floods, and building on floodplains where water is supposed to drain.

“The breakdown is systemic – it begins with planning that often doesn’t account for future climate variabilities, gets exacerbated by poor execution and is compounded by weak enforcement of regulations,” Mr Kukerja says. “Political will is often reactive – responding to disasters rather than investing in long-term resilience.”

This isn’t just a big city problem. Smaller towns often suffer equally, if not more.

Over the weekend, at least 30 people died in India’s northeastern states after heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides. Tens of thousands have been affected, with rescue efforts under way.

So, can anything be done to prevent this?

“Yes,” says Mr Kukreja, but only if it is part of a long-term, co-ordinated strategy.

He suggests using mapping and real-time sensors to identify high-risk zones and alert communities. Predictive models can also help authorities plan better responses.

“But technology alone is not a fix, it needs to be paired with responsive governance and community involvement,” he said.

For India’s cities to withstand the rains, they need more than just de-watering pumps and quick fixes. They need forward-thinking planning, before the damage is done.

Portuguese and German authorities have started a new search for Madeleine McCann in Portugal, nearly two decades after her disappearance.

Madeleine was three years old when she vanished from an apartment complex in Praia da Luz in the Algarve during a family holiday on 3 May 2007.

The British toddler’s disappearance sparked a Europe-wide police investigation, and is one of the world’s highest-profile unsolved missing person cases.

On Monday, Portuguese police confirmed the search, carried out on warrants by German prosecutors, was across 21 different plots of land – between the resort Madeleine went missing from and where the prime suspect in her disappearance had been staying at the time.

The search – which covers the municipality of Lagos near Praia da Luz – is due to continue until Friday.

On Tuesday morning, a Portuguese fire engine and four vehicles carrying German police arrived on the search site – located around 3.5 miles from the resort where Madeleine was last seen.

Roads leading up to the site – which is sizable and mostly scrubland – have been closed off since Monday, while the day’s focus appears to be on disused buildings near the coast. A large, blue tent has also been erected in the same area.

Around 30 German police officers are expected to participate in the search.

Madeleine’s case was initially handled by the Portuguese authorities with the aid of the Metropolitan Police. In 2019, the British government said it would fund the Met Police inquiry, which began in 2011, until March 2020.

A year later, German investigators took the lead in the case when they identified German national Christian Brückner as the prime suspect.

The 48-year-old is currently serving a sentence in Germany for a separate crime – the rape of a 72-year-old American tourist in Portugal in 2005. He was due to be released in September, but this could be pushed back to early 2026 if he does not pay a fine he owes.

German authorities fear that if Brückner is not charged with anything, he will disappear after his release.

They suspect him of murder but have not found enough evidence to bring charges, while Brückner repeatedly denies any involvement.

Portuguese authorities have also named Brückner as a formal suspect, or “arguido”. They said they would hand over any evidence seized in the latest search to German authorities.

Met Police, which this week said it was aware of the searches being carried out by German police in Portugal, continues its investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.

The case, known as Operation Grange, has been ongoing since 2011.

Officials have not disclosed if they are conducting this latest search in Portugal based on any new information, making it appear as if they are taking one last look in places where evidence or a body could have been hidden.

German police have a European warrant, which has been approved by Portuguese prosecutors, to allow them to conduct searches on private land.

The team of German and Portuguese investigators have been given permission to search 21 plots of land between the Ocean Club resort Madeleine disappeared from and where Brückner had been staying at the time.

The previous search was two years ago, focused around a reservoir where Madeleine was last seen.

Brückner, who spent time in the area between 2000 and 2017, was found to have photographs and videos of himself near the reservoir.

On the night Madeleine disappeared, her parents had been at dinner with friends at a restaurant a short walk away while their three-year-old daughter and her younger twin siblings were asleep in the ground-floor apartment.

Her mother, Kate, discovered she was missing at around 22:00 local time.

A German documentary in 2022 found evidence that Brückner occasionally worked at the Ocean Club as a handyman, while German prosecutors have also linked his mobile phone data and a car sale to their case against him.

Last month, Madeleine’s parents marked the 18th year anniversary of her disappearance, saying their “determination to leave no stone unturned is unwavering”.

The UK government has threatened to sue former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich to make sure the money from the club’s sale goes to Ukraine.

The £2.5bn in proceeds have been frozen in a UK bank account since the sale, with Mr Abramovich sanctioned after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The UK government wants the money to be for Ukrainian humanitarian aid, but Mr Abramovich has said he wants it to go to “all victims of the war in Ukraine”.

In a joint statement, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “While the door for negotiations will remain open, we are fully prepared to pursue this through the courts if required.”

They said they wanted “to ensure people suffering in Ukraine can benefit from these proceeds as soon as possible”.

They added: “The government is determined to see the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea Football Club reach humanitarian causes in Ukraine, following Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion.

“We are deeply frustrated that it has not been possible to reach agreement on this with Mr Abramovich so far”.

The delay in releasing the funds centres on a disagreement between the UK government and his lawyers.

Mr Abramovich – a Russian billionaire who made his fortune in oil and gas – was granted a special licence to sell Chelsea following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, providing he could prove he would not benefit from the sale.

He is alleged to have strong ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, something he has denied.

He cannot access the £2.5bn sale proceeds under UK sanctions but the money still legally belongs to him.

When he announced his decision to sell the club, he said proceeds from the sale would be donated via a foundation “for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine”, which would include those in Russia.

The UK government has pushed back and argued that the funds should only be spent on humanitarian efforts inside Ukraine.

A House of Lords committee said last year said it was “incomprehensible” that Mr Abramovich’s promise to use the funds to support Ukraine remained unfulfilled, and that the assets remained frozen.

“This impasse reflects badly on both Mr Abramovich and the government, which ought to have pushed for a more binding commitment,” the report said.

Get our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Sign up here.

It was an attack of astonishing ingenuity – unprecedented, broad, and 18 months in the making.

On 1 June more than 100 Ukrainian drones struck air bases deep inside Russia, targeting nuclear-capable long-range bombers.

The scale of the operation dubbed “Spider Web” became clear almost as soon as it began, with explosions reported across several time zones all over Russia – as far north as Murmansk above the Arctic Circle, and as far east as the Amur region, over 8,000km from Ukraine.

The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the attacks had occurred in five regions of Russia – Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur – but stated planes had been damaged only in Murmansk and Irkutsk, while in other locations the attacks had been repelled.

In photos released shortly after the attack, Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), can be seen looking at a satellite map of airfields in which the bases in the locations listed by Russia are clearly identifiable.

Maliuk said the drones were smuggled into Russia inside wooden cabins mounted on the back of lorries and concealed below remotely operated detachable roofs.

The lorries were then apparently driven to locations near airbases by drivers who were seemingly unaware of their cargo; then, the drones were launched and set upon their targets.

Videos circulating online show drones emerging from the roof of one of the vehicles involved. One lorry driver interviewed by Russian state outlet Ria Novosti said he and other drivers tried to knock down drones flying out of a lorry with rocks.

“They were in the back of the truck and we threw stones to keep them from flying up, to keep them pinned down,” he said.

According to unverified reports by Russian Telegram channel Baza – which is known for its links to the security services – the drivers of the lorries from which the drones took off all told similar stories of being booked by businessmen to deliver wooden cabins in various locations around Russia.

Some of them said they then received further instructions over the phone on where to park the lorries; when they did so, they were stunned to see drones fly out of them.

In a triumphant post shared on social media on Sunday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – who directly supervised the operation – said 117 drones had been used in the daring attack that took “one year, six months and nine days” to prepare.

He also said one of the targeted locations was right next to one of the offices of the FSB Russian security services.

Russia has said it has detained people in connection with the attack, although Zelensky stated the people who had helped facilitate the operation “were withdrawn from Russian territory… they are now safe”.

In a now-deleted Telegram post, local authorities from the city of Ust-Kut in the Irkutsk region said they were looking for a Ukrainian-born 37-year-old in connection with the drone attack on the Belaya military airfield.

Images shared by the SBU show dozens of small black drones neatly stashed in wooden cabins inside a warehouse, which Russian military bloggers pinpointed to a location in Chelyabinsk.

Dr Steve Wright, a UK-based drone expert, told the BBC the drones used to hit Russian aircraft were simple quadcopters carrying relatively heavy payloads.

He added that what made this attack “quite extraordinary” was the ability to smuggle them into Russia and then launch and command them remotely – which he concluded had been achieved through a link relayed through a satellite or the internet. Zelensky said each of the 117 drones launched had its own pilot.

Dr Wright also suggested it was likely the drones were able to fly in using GPS but may have also overcome localised Russian jamming measures by manually piloting drones remotely.

Kyiv has not shared details on the origin of the drones, but since the start of the war Ukraine has become extremely efficient at manufacturing them – and it is possible the ones used in this operation were produced at home.

“Russia has had very tangible losses, and justifiably so,” said Zelensky in his nightly video address.

According to Ukraine, 41 strategic bombers were hit and “at least” 13 destroyed. Moscow has not confirmed any losses of aircraft beyond saying some planes had been damaged.

Videos verified by the BBC show damaged aircraft at the Olenegorsk air base in Murmansk and the Belaya air base in Irkutsk.

The strategic missile-carrying bombers targeted in the attack are thought to be – among others – the Tu-95, Tu-22 and Tu-160. Repairing them will be difficult and, because none are still in production, replacing them is impossible.

Radar satellite imagery shared by Capella Space reveals at least four badly damaged or destroyed Russian long-range bombers at Belaya airbase. This matches Ukrainian drone footage also showing an attack on a Tu-95 bomber.

“According to the laws and customs of war, we have worked out absolutely legitimate targets – military airfields and aircraft that bomb our peaceful cities,” said SBU head Vasyl Malyuk.

Tu-95 bombers are said to have launched a large-scale Kh-101 missile attack on Ukraine as recently as last week. Each bomber can carry eight guided cruise missiles and each missile itself carries a 400kg (882lb) warhead.

A-50 military spy planes were also reportedly targeted. They are valuable aircraft that boost Russia’s ability to both intercept Ukrainian missiles and to launch its own strikes.

It is not known how many A-50s Russia has – but in February 2024 military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov put that number at eight, so any loss or damage could be a serious blow to Moscow.

In a post on social media, the SBU said operation Spider Web cost Russia $7bn (£5.2bn).

Russian state media stayed studiously quiet on the attacks, with primetime Sunday TV shows merely quoting statements by regional authorities. By Monday morning, the story had disappeared from the bulletins.

On the internet and beyond Ukrainians celebrated, with one lauding the operation as “titanic”.

“Of course, not everything can be revealed at this moment,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, “but these are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in history books.”

A Chinese Harvard graduate’s speech calling for unity in a divided world, delivered days after the US vowed to “aggressively” revoke Chinese students’ visas, has sparked mixed reactions in the US and her home country.

“We don’t rise by proving each other wrong. We rise by refusing to let one another go,” Jiang Yurong said on Thursday, the same day a US federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s ban on foreign students at Harvard.

Her speech went viral on the Chinese internet, with some saying it moved them to tears. However, others said her elite background is not representative of Chinese students.

In the US, some have flagged her alleged links with the Chinese Communist Party.

In their efforts to restrict Harvard from enrolling foreign students, US authorities had accused the institution of “co-ordinating with the Chinese Communist Party”.

Ms Jiang, who studied international development, was the first Chinese woman to speak at a Harvard graduation ceremony.

In her address, Ms Jiang emphasised the value of Harvard’s international classrooms, noting how that taught her and her classmates to “dance through each other’s traditions” and “carry the weight of each other’s worlds”.

“If we still believe in a shared future, let us not forget: those we label as enemies – they, too, are human. In seeing their humanity, we find our own,” said Ms Jiang, who spent her final two years of school at Cardiff Sixth Form College in Wales before going to Duke University in the US for her undergraduate degree.

A conservative X account, with the handle @amuse, criticised Harvard for choosing a graduation speaker who is “a representative of a CCP-funded and monitored non-government organisation”, alleging that her father works for a non-government organisation that “serves as a quasi-diplomatic agent for the [party]”.

The account, which has 639,000 followers, has previously posted pro-Donald Trump content, such as the US leader fighting Darth Vader and sexualised imagery of former Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Some Chinese social media users, on the other hand, allege that the organisation Ms Jiang’s father works for is backed by prominent American companies and foundations.

The BBC has not independently verified these allegations.

“This is why she could get a scholarship to go to the UK for high school, and later also to Harvard,” wrote a user on China’s X-like platform, Weibo.

Others called for her to stay on in the US, with comments that reeked with sarcasm. “Such talent should be left to the United States,” one wrote. “I hope she will continue to glow abroad and stay away from us!” read another.

But Ms Jiang’s vision of a “shared humanity” also struck a chord.

“That she is able to stand on an international stage and speak the heart of Chinese students has moved me to tears,” wrote a user on Red Note, another Chinese social media platform.

Another user defended Jiang by hitting back at those who criticised her: “You may not have changed them, but they’ve heard you… As more and more people speak out like you, you will eventually move and change others.”

There are around 6,800 international students at Harvard, who make up more than 27% of its enrolments in the past academic year.

About a third of these foreign students are from China, and more than 700 are Indian.

“Who is responsible for this mess?”

The question recently echoed across India’s financial capital Mumbai as thousands of residents once again found themselves stranded, soaked and frustrated.

Heavy rains brought the city to a standstill, and this was before the monsoon had even begun in full swing. Roads turned into rivers, vehicles broke down mid-commute and low-lying neighbourhoods were waterlogged within hours.

Even a newly-built underground metro station could not withstand the heavy downpour as photos and videos of the station flooded with muddy water went viral.

The pre-monsoon deluge once again exposed the city’s fragile infrastructure and sparked widespread outrage on social media.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), one of India’s richest civic organisations responsible for maintaining Mumbai’s infrastructure, initially blamed the problem on rubbish clogging the drains and debris from metro construction, The Hindustan Times newspaper reported.

Following criticism, the BMC installed de-watering pumps in flood-prone areas and began manually clearing waste from drains to prevent further waterlogging. But for many residents, the action came too late.

The crisis is neither new – nor is it unique to Mumbai.

From Delhi in the north to Bengaluru in the south, India’s biggest cities flood every monsoon season. Roads collapse, drains overflow, infrastructure is overwhelmed and traffic grinds to a halt.

Experts blame rapid unplanned urbanisation, poor infrastructure and years of environmental neglect as the root causes of this problem.

“The pace of urban expansion has far exceeded the evolution of supporting infrastructure, particularly in water and drainage systems,” says Dikshu Kukreja, an architect and urban planner based in Delhi.

“Many cities rely on outdated systems designed decades ago. And in the process of unchecked expansion, natural drainage channels, wetlands and water bodies that once absorbed excess rainwater have been built over or neglected,” he adds.

Experts say there’s no one-size-fits-all solution as each city faces unique challenges and factors such as geography, population and climate must be considered when designing effective responses.

India receives 80% of its annual rainfall during the monsoon season, which usually starts from June and continues until September.

The monsoon is crucial for agriculture and the livelihoods of millions of Indian farmers. They rely on seasonal showers in parts of the country where proper irrigation channels are absent.

But experts say climate change has made erratic weather – such as unseasonal rains, flash floods and droughts linked to extreme heat – a more regular phenomenon, directly affecting millions of people.

This year the monsoon arrived a week early in parts of southern India, catching authorities unprepared.

“A depression developed over the eastern central Arabian Sea which was instrumental in pulling up the monsoon current,” says Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of meteorology and climate change at weather forecasting company Skymet.

In Delhi, the Minto bridge has become a symbol of the city’s annual monsoon chaos. Almost every year, after heavy rain, a bus or lorry gets stuck under the bridge – an image that highlights the city’s struggle with urban flooding.

This year, Delhi recorded its wettest May since 1901, with more than 185mm of rainfall, according to the Indian weather department.

Many residents reported damage to their property.

At least four people were killed and dozens more were injured in one of the two heavy storms that hit the city in May, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, in Bengaluru, more than 2,000kms (1,240 miles) from the capital, the problem looks different but its root cause is the same.

Once known for its network of lakes that helped manage excess rainwater, Bengaluru has seen many of these water bodies encroached upon. In their place now stand apartment complexes, business hubs and roads – leaving the city vulnerable to flooding.

“Bengaluru is made up of three major valleys through which water naturally flows. Most of the city’s lakes are located in these valleys,” explains Ram Prasad, a lake conservation activist.

These valleys were originally designated as no-construction zones but over the years, encroachment has taken place and later changes in the law permitted infrastructure projects to be built in the area, he says.

“When you convert lakes – which traditionally act as flood buffers – into built-up areas, the water has nowhere to go. So, what we’re seeing in Bengaluru today is the result of poor urban planning.”

Mr Prasad points out that Bengaluru, which sits atop a hill, was never meant to flood and the current situation is entirely man-made.

Violations of building norms, especially construction that narrows stormwater drains or builds directly over them, have only made things worse, he says.

Meanwhile, Mumbai faces natural challenges due to its geography. For example, many parts of Mumbai are low-lying and close to the sea, which makes them more vulnerable to flooding during heavy rains and high tides.

But experts say it’s human actions that have made things much worse: cutting down mangroves, which normally act like natural barriers against floods, and building on floodplains where water is supposed to drain.

“The breakdown is systemic – it begins with planning that often doesn’t account for future climate variabilities, gets exacerbated by poor execution and is compounded by weak enforcement of regulations,” Mr Kukerja says. “Political will is often reactive – responding to disasters rather than investing in long-term resilience.”

This isn’t just a big city problem. Smaller towns often suffer equally, if not more.

Over the weekend, at least 30 people died in India’s northeastern states after heavy rains triggered flooding and landslides. Tens of thousands have been affected, with rescue efforts under way.

So, can anything be done to prevent this?

“Yes,” says Mr Kukreja, but only if it is part of a long-term, co-ordinated strategy.

He suggests using mapping and real-time sensors to identify high-risk zones and alert communities. Predictive models can also help authorities plan better responses.

“But technology alone is not a fix, it needs to be paired with responsive governance and community involvement,” he said.

For India’s cities to withstand the rains, they need more than just de-watering pumps and quick fixes. They need forward-thinking planning, before the damage is done.

Mongolia’s prime minister has resigned after social media photos of his son’s lavish lifestyle sparked an anti-corruption investigation and weeks of mass protests.

Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, who has denied wrongdoing, lost a confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday.

The viral photos purport to show Oyun-Erdene’s son and the son’s girlfriend flaunting a black Dior shoulder bag and several shopping bags while on their engagement holiday.

Protesters questioned how Oyun-Erdene’s family could afford such luxurious living. Local media reported that the country’s anti-corruption body had been looking into their finances.

The photo of the Dior bag, reportedly posted by the girlfriend, had the caption: “Happy birthday to me”. Another photo purportedly showed the couple kissing in a swimming pool.

The images have been shared on social media and published by local media.

During Tuesday’s confidence vote, 44 of the 88 lawmakers who took part in the secret ballot voted for Oyun-Erdene, while 38 others voted against him. He needed the support of at least 64 of parliament’s 126 members.

“It was an honour to serve my country and people in times of difficulties, including pandemics, wars, and tariffs,” he said after the vote.

Hundreds of protesters, many of them young people, had been taking to the streets for two weeks before the vote, demanding Oyun-Erdene’s resignation.

Oyun-Erdene has rejected allegations of corruption, accusing critics of launching a smear campaign against him.

According to Transparency International, Mongolia has seen worsening corruption since Oyun-Erdene came into power. Last year, it was ranked 114th out of 180 countries in terms of government transparency.

A former communist state sanwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia has been transitioning to democracy since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Corruption is a persistent problem. Last year, US prosecutors sought to forfeit former Mongolian PM Sukhbaatar Batbold’s two New York apartments that he allegedly bought using stolen mining funds.

Batbold, who served from 2012 to 2015, denied wrongdoing.

In recent years, Mongolia has sought to build closer ties with the West, counting the United States and European countries as part of its “third neighbour” foreign policy.

The city of Tulsa, Oklahoma is preparing to award its black community a $105m (£73.8m) reparations package to address the harms caused by the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the largest and most violent racial attacks in US history.

The plan, by Monroe Nichols, Tulsa’s first black mayor, focuses on community redevelopment and does not involve direct payments to descendants or the two remaining survivors of the attack.

Nichols made the announcement on Sunday during Tulsa’s first ever official Tulsa Race Massacre Observance Day.

The funds, raised by a private trust, includes $24m for a housing fund and $60m for a cultural preservation fund focused on “reducing blight”.

“The Tulsa Race Massacre has been a stain on our city’s history… hidden from history books,” Nichols said.

That tragedy, he said, was compounded by economic harms that followed, namely the building of a highway “to choke off economic vitality”, “perpetual underinvestment” and “intentional acts of redlining”, where black people were denied home and property loans.

“Now it’s time to take the next big steps to restore,” Nichols said.

The plan is called Road to Repair and its funds will be managed by the Greenwood Trust. It seeks to have $105m in assets either secured or committed by 1 June, some of which would also go into a legacy fund for the trust to acquire and develop land.

Nichols said the proposal would not require city council approval. The council would, however, authorise the transfer of any city property to the trust, which he said was very likely.

The Greenwood Trust borrows its name from Tulsa’s Greenwood District, a once-prosperous black neighbourhood with an economy so thriving that it was dubbed Black Wall Street.

That all changed in May 1921, when a white mob burned it to the ground, destroying more than 1,000 homes and structures in less than 24 hours. An estimated 300 black residents were killed and many more injured.

The event “robbed Tulsa of an economic future that would have rivalled anywhere else in the world”, Nichols said in a phone interview.

For decades the story of the massacre was largely erased from history, but it was thrust into the spotlight in 2020 when then-President Donald Trump announced he would hold an election rally in Tulsa on 19 June, or Juneteenth, the day commemorating the end of slavery. He rescheduled the rally and his successor, Joe Biden, declared Juneteenth a national holiday.

The Tulsa reparations will be made as Trump, now back in the White House, is ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices in the US government and many major companies are abandoning or reducing their diversity initiatives.

Tulsa’s package is also the first large-scale plan that commits funds to addressing the impact of a specific racially motivated attack.

Evanston, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, became the first city to make reparations available to its black residents in 2021, by offering qualified households money for expenses such as home repairs and down payments.

Americans have long been divided over directly addressing past acts of racism, such as slavery, through paying reparations.

In May, Maryland Governor Wes Moore – the state’s first black governor – said he would veto a measure to create a commission for studying reparations in his state.

Meanwhile, California last year apologised for past discrimination against black Americans and approved some reparations initiatives, but did not offer direct financial payments.

The last two known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, Lessie Benningfield Randle and Viola Ford Fletcher, lost a long court battle seeking reparations last summer.

Fashion brand The North Face and luxury jeweller Cartier have become the latest retailers to report having customer data stolen in cyber attacks.

North Face has emailed some customers saying it discovered a “small-scale” attack in April this year.

Cartier said “an unauthorized party gained temporary access to our system”.

Both brands say data such as customers names and email addresses were taken, but financial information was not.

There has been a wave of cyber attacks on high-profile retailers in recent weeks, including Adidas, Victoria’s Secret and Harrods.

Marks and Spencer (M&S) and the Co-op had their operations severely disrupted when they were targeted in April.

The UK’s National Crime Agency has said catching the criminals responsible is their top priority.

North Face told customers the hackers it was targeted by used a technique called “credential stuffing”, where attackers try usernames and passwords stolen from another data breach, in the hope customers have reused the same passwords across multiple accounts.

They say the attackers may have been able to gain access to some users’ shipping addresses and purchase histories.

Affected customers will need to change their passwords.

North Face’s owner, VF Corporation, was hit by a separate cyber attack in December 2023.

That affected another of its brands, Vans, with its customers being warned their information may be at risk.

Cartier’s data breach, meanwhile, was a hack of its system where attackers “obtained limited client information,” according to an email to its customers seen by BBC News.

Passwords and card details were not accessed, it said.

The firm added: “We contained the issue and have further enhanced the protection of our systems and data.”

It also said it had reported the incident to the relevant authorities.

BBC News has contacted North Face and Cartier for comment.

Retailers are often targets of cyber attacks, and there have been a string of high-profile companies publicly reporting being hacked recently.

In May, Adidas said the details of people who had contacted its help desk were stolen.

Victoria’s Secret also had to take down its US website in May after a “security incident”.

The attack on Co-op left it with empty shelves, while M&S says its online services will be disrupted until July.

M&S estimates it will reduce profits for the current year by around £300m.

On Monday, it revealed its chief executive’s total pay package had grown to £7m.

Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world’s top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.

US actor Jonathan Joss has been shot dead in what his husband says was a homophobic hate crime, although police have said they have found no evidence of that.

Joss, 59, was known for voicing John Redcorn on long-running TV animation King of the Hill, and played Chief Ken Hotate in sitcom Parks and Recreation.

His husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales said a man “started yelling violent homophobic slurs” then opened fire when they were visiting their former home, which was destroyed in a fire in January.

Police in Texas said: “Despite online claims of this being a hate crime, currently the investigation has found no evidence to indicate that the Mr Joss’s murder was related to his sexual orientation.”

The shooting happened when the couple went back to the site of their old house, which “was burned down after over two years of threats from people in the area who repeatedly told us they would set it on fire”, Gonzales wrote on Facebook.

“When we returned to the site to check our mail we discovered the skull of one of our dogs and its harness placed in clear view. This caused both of us severe emotional distress. We began yelling and crying in response to the pain of what we saw,” he wrote.

“While we were doing this a man approached us. He started yelling violent homophobic slurs at us. He then raised a gun from his lap and fired.

“Jonathan and I had no weapons. We were not threatening anyone. We were grieving. We were standing side by side. When the man fired Jonathan pushed me out of the way. He saved my life.”

Gonzales added that Joss “gave me more love in our time together than most people ever get”, and that they were in the process of looking for a trailer after getting married on Valentine’s Day.

“I was with him when he passed. I told him how much he was loved.”

Officers found Joss lying near a road in San Antonio after being called to a report of a shooting, CBS reported.

A suspect, Sigfredo Alvarez Ceja, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

San Antonio Police Department’s statement added: “Investigators handle these allegations very seriously and have thoroughly reviewed all available information.

“Should any new evidence come to light, the suspect will be charged accordingly.”

Parks and Recreation actor Nick Offerman paid tribute to Joss, telling People: “The cast has been texting together about it all day and we’re just heartbroken.

“Jonathan was such a sweet guy and we loved having him as our Chief Ken Hotate. A terrible tragedy.”

King of the Hill’s creators Mike Judge, Greg Daniels and Saladin Patterson said in a statement: “Jonathan Joss brought King of the Hill’s John Redcorn to life for over a dozen seasons, including in the upcoming revival.

“His voice will be missed at King of the Hill, and we extend our deepest condolences to Jonathan’s friends and family.”

Variety said Joss was most recently seen in public on Friday during a King of the Hill panel at the ATX Television Festival in Austin, Texas.

He was present in the audience, and had previously written on Facebook about his hurt at not being invited to be on the panel.

“This show was a part of my life for many years,” he wrote in April.

“That character, that voice, that story… they were my home, my pride, my connection to something bigger than myself. To not be invited felt like being shut out of a place I helped build.”

The show, set in Texas, is about the life of propane salesman Hank Hill and his family and friends. It was created in 1997 by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels and ran for more than 250 episodes.

It is now being revived, and the new season will be available on Hulu from 4 August.

Mongolia’s prime minister has resigned after social media photos of his son’s lavish lifestyle sparked an anti-corruption investigation and weeks of mass protests.

Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene, who has denied wrongdoing, lost a confidence vote in parliament on Tuesday.

The viral photos purport to show Oyun-Erdene’s son and the son’s girlfriend flaunting a black Dior shoulder bag and several shopping bags while on their engagement holiday.

Protesters questioned how Oyun-Erdene’s family could afford such luxurious living. Local media reported that the country’s anti-corruption body had been looking into their finances.

The photo of the Dior bag, reportedly posted by the girlfriend, had the caption: “Happy birthday to me”. Another photo purportedly showed the couple kissing in a swimming pool.

The images have been shared on social media and published by local media.

During Tuesday’s confidence vote, 44 of the 88 lawmakers who took part in the secret ballot voted for Oyun-Erdene, while 38 others voted against him. He needed the support of at least 64 of parliament’s 126 members.

“It was an honour to serve my country and people in times of difficulties, including pandemics, wars, and tariffs,” he said after the vote.

Hundreds of protesters, many of them young people, had been taking to the streets for two weeks before the vote, demanding Oyun-Erdene’s resignation.

Oyun-Erdene has rejected allegations of corruption, accusing critics of launching a smear campaign against him.

According to Transparency International, Mongolia has seen worsening corruption since Oyun-Erdene came into power. Last year, it was ranked 114th out of 180 countries in terms of government transparency.

A former communist state sanwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia has been transitioning to democracy since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Corruption is a persistent problem. Last year, US prosecutors sought to forfeit former Mongolian PM Sukhbaatar Batbold’s two New York apartments that he allegedly bought using stolen mining funds.

Batbold, who served from 2012 to 2015, denied wrongdoing.

In recent years, Mongolia has sought to build closer ties with the West, counting the United States and European countries as part of its “third neighbour” foreign policy.

Elon Musk-owned electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla is “not interested in manufacturing in India”, the country’s heavy industries minister has said.

The remarks were made on Monday as the Indian government issued detailed guidelines for a scheme to promote EV manufacturing in the country.

This is the first time that India has publicly admitted that it has not been able to lure investment dollars from Musk, even after unveiling incentives for global EV giants last March.

Minister HD Kumaraswamy confirmed that Tesla would open two showrooms in India and have a retail presence.

“Mercedes Benz, Skoda-Volkswagen, Hyundai and Kia have shown interest [in manufacturing electric cars in India]. Tesla – we are not expecting from them,” Kumaraswamy said.

Another official told the Press Trust of India news agency that a Tesla representative had participated in the first round of stakeholder discussions for the manufacturing scheme but “was not part of the second and third round”.

The comments come on the back of US President Donald Trump saying in February that it would be “unfair” for the US if Tesla built a factory in India.

Over the years Tesla has had several rounds of negotiations to enter India.

• Can Tesla’s EVs win over India’s price-conscious buyers?

The company’s original plans to open a base were shelved in 2022 after the Indian government insisted that Tesla make cars locally. The carmaker had said it wanted to export to India first so that it could test demand.

In 2023, Musk said he was “trying to figure out the right timing” to invest in the Indian market.

Musk met Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this year in Washington DC where the two discussed the “immense potential” for collaboration in technology and innovation.

Last year India cut import taxes on EVs for global carmakers which committed to investing $500m (£369m) and starting local production within three years. This came after Musk complained that high import duties were preventing the carmaker from entering India.

But analysts say the Indian EV market may not be mature enough yet for Tesla to invest locally – EV sales still make up less than 3% of overall passenger vehicle sales in India, and locally made alternatives can cost half of what consumers will have to shell out for Tesla’s base model.

Charging infrastructure and local road conditions could be further deterrents.

India’s Tata Motors currently leads India’s EV market with over 60% market share. MG Motors – jointly owned by India’s JSW and a Chinese firm – is second at 22%.

Globally, Tesla has been facing growing competition from Chinese players such as BYD.

Its sales plummeted to their lowest level in three years in the first three months of 2025 after a backlash against Musk and his role in the Trump administration.

Musk announced his departure from his government role last week.

An Australian woman who cooked a toxic mushroom meal has told her murder trial she has long been a mushroom lover, but more recently developed a taste for wild fungi varieties that have “more flavour”.

Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to the murder of three relatives, and the attempted murder of another, after serving them death cap mushrooms at her home in Victoria in July 2023.

Prosecutors say she deliberately put the poisonous mushrooms in the meal but her defence team says it was a “terrible accident”.

Ms Patterson – during her second day on the witness stand – told the jury she began foraging for wild mushrooms during the Covid pandemic, years before the fatal meal.

Ms Patterson’s in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, 66, were all hospitalised after eating beef wellington at the lunch and died several days later.

Ian Wilkinson, the uncle of Ms Patterson’s estranged husband, also fell seriously ill but survived after weeks of treatment.

After telling the court she accepted that death cap mushrooms were in the food she had served, Ms Patterson described foraging for mushrooms at various locations – botanic gardens, a rail trail near her house, and on her own property.

“I mainly picked field mushrooms,” she told the court, explaining she sometimes foraged with her two children.

She recounted the first time she tried wild mushrooms, cutting off a small part before cooking it in butter.

“[It] tasted good and I didn’t get sick,” she told the jury.

The court also heard she had bought a food dehydrator in April 2023, in part because wild mushrooms had such a “small season” and she wanted to preserve them for later use.

Asked where the mushrooms for the lunch at the centre of the case came from, Ms Patterson said “the vast majority” were purchased from a supermarket in Leongatha while some had been bought a few months earlier from an Asian grocery store in Melbourne.

She couldn’t remember “the specific purchase”, but had previously bought a variety of mushrooms – shitake, porcini, enoki – from similar stores, she said. Other times, she’d purchased “wild mushroom mix” or “forest mushrooms” which didn’t specify exact contents.

These store-bought mushrooms were often put in the same container as ones she had foraged and dehydrated herself – including in the months before the lunch – she said.

Earlier Ms Patterson had stepped through changes in her dynamic with Simon Patterson and her in-laws following the couple’s separation in 2015.

“In the immediate aftermath it was difficult… but that only lasted a couple of weeks… we went back to being really good friends.”

Her relationship with her in-laws Don and Gail “never changed”, she said.

“I was just their daughter-in-law – they just continued to love me.”

However, she told the court her relationship with Simon turned tense amid conflict over finances from October 2022 onwards, and she had tried to get her in-laws to mediate.

The court was shown expletive-laden Facebook messages that Ms Patterson sent to a private group chat, which were critical of the Simon, Don and Gail.

“I needed to vent… to get my frustration off my chest,” she said, and her choice was either to tell the sheep in her paddock, or speak to what she called her “cheer squad”.

Becoming emotional, she repeatedly told the court how much she cared for Don and Gail and how she wished she “had never said that”.

She also testified about a deep mistrust of the health system, developed after medical concerns she raised about her two children were initially dismissed by clinicians.

These experiences led to her decision to discharge herself early from the hospital after the toxic lunch in 2023, despite doctor’s advice, she said.

She also experienced health anxiety and did a lot of Dr Googling – searching the web about symptoms – which at different points in time lead her to falsely suspect she had a brain tumour, MS (multiple sclerosis) and ovarian cancer.

Ms Patterson admitted that she had never been diagnosed with ovarian cancer, despite allegedly asking the lunch guests to her house to discuss the diagnosis, but said her family had a history of it.

Ms Patterson is expected to continue giving evidence on Wednesday morning, local time, when the court reopens.