“Two weeks” turned out to be two days.

On Thursday Donald Trump gave the Iranians a deadline if they wanted to avoid a US strike on their nuclear facilities, but that deadline turned out to be much shorter than expected.

Two days later, the US president announced on Saturday evening that US warplanes had bombed three nuclear sites, in an attack he said was “very successful”.

Was the “two-week deadline” for negotations a feint? A bid to lure the Iranians into a false sense of security this weekend? Or did behind-the-scenes negotiations led by Trump’s designated peacemaker Steve Witkoff collapse?

In the immediate aftermath of the strikes, little is known. But in his social media post declaring the attacks, Trump added that “now is the time for peace”.

• Follow latest on US strike on Iran

That may be an optimistic outlook, however.

Iran had warned of reprisals if the US joined Israel in attacking its sovereign territory. And while the Israelis have made considerable efforts toward degrading Iran’s military capabilities, the ayatollah still has weapons at his disposal.

Things could get messy fast.

Now the waiting game begins. How will Iran respond to attacks on three of its sites, including Fordo, seen as the crown jewel of its nuclear programme?

Trump appears to be hoping the US strikes force Iran to make greater concessions at the negotiating table, but it seems unlikely that a nation unwilling to talk while under Israeli attack will be more inclined when American bombs are also falling.

And while Trump seemed to be implying that the US attack was a singular, successful event, it will take time to determine whether the Americans actually achieved their goal of destroying the heavily fortified Iranian nuclear research facilities.

If not, then the pressure to strike again will grow – or the president will have taken a serious political risk for minimal military gain.

That risk includes domestic political concerns, along with questions of international security. The prospect of a US attack on Iran had already prompted sharp criticisms not only from Democrats but also from within Trump’s own “America First” movement.

If this attack is a one-off event, Trump may be able to smooth over the divisions within his base. But if it pulls the US into a larger conflict, the president who styles himself as a “peacemaker” could have an uprising with his ranks.

• Bitter splits in president’s circle over Iran

Saturday’s attack was an aggressive move for a president who boasted of starting no new wars during his first presidential term and who regularly railed against predecessors who had drawn the country into foreign conflicts on the campaign trail last year.

Trump has made his move. Where it goes from here is not entirely within his control.

It’s hot, dusty and feels like a desert at the Agarak border crossing between Armenia and Iran.

There are dry, rocky mountains surrounding the area – no trees, no shade. It’s not the most welcoming terrain, especially for those who have travelled long hours to reach Armenia.

A woman with a fashionable haircut, with the lower half of her head shaven, is holding her baby, while her husband negotiates a price with taxi drivers. There’s another family of three with a little boy travelling back to their country of residence, Austria.

Most of those crossing into Armenia appeared to have residency or citizenship in other countries. Many were leaving because of the conflict between Israel and Iran, now in its eighth day.

“Today I saw one site where the bombing happened,” said a father standing with a small child near the minivan that they just hired. They had travelled from the north-western town of Tabriz.

“All the people are scared, every place is dangerous, it’s not normal,” he added.

• Live updates

The conflict began on 13 June, when Israel attacked nuclear and military sites as well as some populated areas.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – a Washington-based human rights organisation that has long tracked Iran – says 657 people have so far been killed. Iran has retaliated with missile attacks on Israel, killing at least 24 people.

Israel says it has established air superiority over Tehran and has told people to leave some of its districts. In recent days, heavy traffic jams have formed on roads out of the city as some of its 10 million residents seek safety elsewhere.

Those who drove to Armenia from Tehran said the journey had taken at least 12 hours. Several told us that they did not see the Israeli strikes – but heard the sound of explosions they caused.

“It was troubling there. Every night, attacks from Israel. I just escaped from there by very hard way. There were no flights, not any other ways come from there,” said a young Afghan man with a single suitcase, who did not want to be named.

He described the situation in Tehran as “very bad”.

“People who have somewhere to go, they are leaving. Every night is like attacking, people cannot sleep, because of the sounds of explosions, the situation is not good at all,” he said.

A young woman with white headscarf and thick fake lashes said she was heading back to her country of residence, Australia.

“I saw something that is very hard, I don’t want to talk about it,” she said as she boarded a car with several others for the onward journey to the Armenian capital Yerevan.

“Someone comes and attacks your country, would you feel normal?”

Some Israeli ministers have talked up the possibility that the conflict could lead to regime collapse in Iran.

But Javad – who had been visiting the north-eastern city of Sabzevar for the summer holidays and was heading back to Germany – said he thought this was unlikely.

“Israel has no chance. Israel is not a friend for us, it’s an enemy,” he said. “Israel cannot come to our home to help us. Israel needs to change something for itself not for us.”

Some Iranians at the border however were crossing were travelling in the other direction. The previous evening, Ali Ansaye, who had been holidaying in Armenia with his family, was heading back to Tehran.

“I have no concerns, and I am not scared at all. If I am supposed to die, I will die in my country,” he said.

He said Israel was “harassing the entire world – Gaza, Lebanon and other countries”.

“How can such a small country have nuclear weapons?” he asked. “Based on which law can this country have a bomb, and Iran, which has only focused on peaceful nuclear energy and not a bomb, cannot?”

Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, although it neither confirms nor denies this.

Black smoke was still billowing from the middle of the Soroka Medical Center when we arrived, several hours after Iran’s attack on the building.

Pieces of twisted metal shrapnel – some of it apparently from the missile itself – scattered across a 200m (656ft) area in and around the hospital complex.

Vehicles carrying medical staff lined the road outside – an emergency response to a situation that many had feared would be worse.

Crowds of soldiers, police and rescue teams milled around the hospital entrances, as a stream of ministers arrived to express their outrage at the strike.

Alon Uzi was wandering around outside the hospital entrance with two bags of belongings.

He said he had been receiving treatment in the emergency department when the attack happened, and didn’t have time to reach the shelter.

“I was lying in bed, and I heard a big boom,” he told us. “And before I could do anything, there was an explosion and part of the ceiling fell and I was covered with white dust.

“There was no time to get out of bed. I was just getting ready and then I heard a whistling noise.”

Inside the emergency reception area, the air carried the tang of chemicals mixed with dust. Patients were still being evacuated on stretchers from deep inside the building, as emergency teams passed through into the surgical wards that were hit.

Medical staff told local media that patients there had recently been moved to the hospital’s emergency shelters underground. Seventy-one people have been injured, according to Israel’s ministry of health.

Professor Asher Bashiri, director of the maternity ward, said he could see the area of impact from his office.

“It looks unbelievable,” he told me. “The upper part of the building is cracked, and fire was coming from it in the first hours. Everything looks broken.”

He said they had moved all the patients to a more protected area when the war began.

“We were very, very lucky,” he said. “It could have been so much worse. But we are still living in an unbelievable situation. It’s not finished – I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, or the next day. We’re just happy that we’re alive.”

The hospital director, Shlomi Codish, said that the northern surgical building was hit and that several wards were demolished, with extensive damage to the entire hospital.

“We expect that we will be transferring over 200 patients in the next few hours to other medical centres,” he said. “We’re trying to minimise the number of people; we don’t know if buildings might collapse or if wards might collapse.”

Among the stream of ministers visiting the site today was Culture Minister Miki Zohar, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party.

“All the people need to know what we’re facing – a regime that is trying to kill innocent people,” he said. “When you’re dealing with evil, this is a different war. Believe me, we won’t stop until we win. We’re going to reply and it’s going to be very strong.”

Mr Zohar was asked about Israel’s history of bombing hospitals in Gaza – locations its army says are being used as military control centres by Hamas.

“We keep innocent people in Gaza safe as much as we can,” he said. “We call them to evacuate before we bomb. This is the big difference between Iran and us.”

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Iran’s supreme leader of committing “war crimes of the most serious kind,” saying he would be held accountable.

Netanyahu has accused Iran of deliberately targeting civilians, promising that Israel will “exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran”.

Iranian media says the centre they were targeting was at the Gav-Yam tech park, which is less than 3km (1.86 miles) away.

It was one of half a dozen sites hit by Iranian missiles on Thursday morning, a day after Donald Trump demanded Iran’s “unconditional surrender”.

It’s a reminder that both sides have the capacity to escalate this conflict, either by using different weapons – or by choosing different targets.

The US president is weighing up the decision to enter the war alongside Israel, while demanding that Iran submit to an agreement ending its nuclear enrichment, with the aim of blocking its path to a nuclear weapon.

On Wednesday, Israel said it sent 40 fighter jets to bomb targets in Iran, including an inactive nuclear reactor at Arak and a nuclear development building in Natanz, along with dozens of missile sites and radar.

After almost a week of daily attacks from both sides, this war is precariously balanced on the edge of a much wider conflict.

Israel says it has killed a senior Iranian commander who helped plan the Hamas 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in a strike on Saturday on the city of Qom.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the killing of Saeed Izadi marked a key point in the conflict. He was “one of the orchestrators” of the attack, which killed about 1,200 people and saw many others taken to Gaza as hostages, said IDF chief Eyal Zamir.

“The blood of thousands of Israelis is on his hands,” he said on Saturday, calling it a “tremendous intelligence and operational achievement.”

Iran did not report Mr Izadi’s killing and has previously denied involvement in Hamas’s attack.

• Live updates
• Targeting of Quds Force shows growing security breach

The IDF said it had killed him in a strike on an apartment in Qom, south of Tehran, in the early hours of Saturday. He had been in charge of the Palestine Corps of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’s (IRGC) Quds Force, responsible for handling ties with the Palestinian armed groups.

He was reportedly instrumental in arming and financing Hamas, and had been responsible for military co-ordination between senior IRGC commanders and Hamas leaders, the IDF said.

In April 2024, Mr Izadi narrowly survived an Israeli air strike targeting the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria – an attack that killed several high-ranking Quds Force commanders.

Israel later on Saturday also said it had killed another Quds Force commander, Behnam Shahriyari, in a drone strike as he was travelling in a car through western Iran.

He had been responsible for transporting missiles and rockets to Iran’s proxy groups across the region, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, said the IDF.

If Israeli reports are confirmed, the new assassinations represent a major blow to the IRGC.

The attacks come as the conflict between the two countries entered its ninth day, with both launching new attacks on Saturday.

Iran said Israel had targeted a nuclear facility near the city of Isfahan. Israel said it was targeting military infrastructure in south-west Iran and reported at least one impact from Iranian drones that entered its airspace.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meanwhile told reporters in Istanbul that any US involvement in the conflict would be “very very dangerous”. On Friday he told European envoys in Geneva on Friday that Iran would not resume talks over its nuclear programme until Israel’s strikes stopped.

Donald Trump has suggested US involvement in Israel’s strikes on Iran, saying Tehran had a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes if they did not negotiate on their nuclear programme.

Iranian officials say least 430 people, including military commanders, have been killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since the conflict began on 13 June. A human rights group tracking Iran, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, put the unofficial death toll at 657 on Friday.

In Israel, officials say 25 people have been killed including one of a heart attack.

The husband of Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has been unexpectedly released from prison in Belarus, along with 13 other political prisoners.

Sergei Tikhanovsky – an opposition activist himself – has been moved to Lithuania and reunited with his wife, who is living in exile in capital Vilnius, after five years in prison.

Svetlana Tikhanovskaya announced her husband’s release by posting a 10-second video of their first hug since 2020. She said it was “hard to describe” the joy in her heart.

The sudden release came as US special envoy Keith Kellogg visited Minsk, Belarus’ capital, on Saturday and held a meeting with the country’s authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.

In a statement on X, the Lithuanian foreign minister said 14 political prisoners were released and receiving care in Lithuania.

According to Tikhanovskaya’s office, five were Belarusian nationals and some were Japanese, Polish and Swedish citizens.

However, Tikhanovksy’s release is by far the most prominent.

A colourful, outspoken figure who once had a big following in Belarus on social media, he used to call on people to “stop the cockroach”, referring to Lukashenko.

Ignoring the risks from a repressive regime, the video blogger and activist would tour the country to meet people in town squares and villages to hear – and broadcast – their concerns.

In 2020, he was arrested as he began his campaign to challenge Lukashenko for the presidency in that summer’s elections.

• ‘A performance and a sham’: Belarusian opposition denounces election

He was jailed for 18 years in 2021 after a court convicted him of rallying mass protests against Lukashenko, among other charges.

His wife, Tikhanovskaya – a political novice and total unknown – stepped in to run for election in his place.

And when Lukashenko declared another landslide win, her supporters flooded the streets in the biggest protests Belarus has ever known.

They were crushed, ruthlessly, and Tikhanovskaya was forced into exile.

Maria Kolesnikova, another well-known opposition leader who was jailed after the mass protests of 2020, is still in prison, her sister confirmed.

“No, not this time,” she wrote to the BBC when asked whether Maria was among those set free. “Though it’s a huge progress. We need more releases and for that – more efforts and negotiations.”

In the video posted by Tikhanovskaya on Saturday, Tikhanovsky is smiling broadly but has lost so much weight that he is hard to recognise.

Well-built, even stocky before his arrest, he is now thin. In the video, the jacket he is wearing hangs loosely and his head has been shaved.

Franak Viacorka, senior adviser to Tikhanovskaya, described this as a “big day” and a very unexpected step.

“We didn’t expect his release, we were struggling – fighting – for his release, but it was a full surprise,” he told the BBC from Lithuania.

“We put his name on all the lists but we didn’t believe it was possible.”

He said that Tikhanovsky was “the same Sergei” he was before he was jailed.

“I felt the same energy, the same passion, though he was looking very thin,” he added.

Tikhanovskaya wrote on X “my husband is free” before thanking US President Donald Trump, Kellogg and “all European allies” for their efforts to get her husband released.

“We’re not done – 1,150 political prisoners remain behind bars,” she added. “All must be released.”

Viacorka said that as far as his team knows, nothing was offered to Belarus in return for Tikhanovsky’s release.

“I think he [Lukashenko] is in quite weak situation right now,” Viacorka said. “And he wants to improve relationship with the new American administration.”

Artyom Shraibman, of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, suggested that the meeting with Kellogg was reward enough for Lukashenko.

“It seems like the US asked for Tikhanovsky to be released as a significant concession in exchange for Kellogg’s visit and Lukashenko agreed,” he said.

The Belarusian leader has been isolated by Western politicians for many years. Neither his re-election in 2020 or this year were ever officially recognised and Belarus was placed under Western sanctions.

The freeze in relations deepened when Belarus aided Russia in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, allowing troops to cross its territory and missiles to be launched from its land.

“It’s a significant diplomatic breakthrough for Lukashenko. It helps to get him out of isolation,” Mr Shraibman said.

“I also think Lukashenko will like the opportunity to discuss issues of war and peace with such a top level envoy from the US.

“So in some form, this is a win-win.”

It is not clear whether the Trump administration is dangling the prospect of lifting some sanctions, though Lukashenko is certainly angling for that.

But this release does not mean the end of political repression in Belarus. Hundreds more people are still behind bars for nothing more than their opposition to Lukashenko’s rule.

• My opponents choose jail and exile, Lukashenko tells BBC

Other prisoners have been pardoned and released in recent months, but the repressions have not stopped.

The BBC knows of recent cases of the KGB security service demanding people collaborate with its agents and inform on others, or face arrest. They had to flee the country.

In the case of Tikhanovsky, it appears Lukashenko calculated that he had more to gain geopolitically by releasing a prominent prisoner than he would risk by letting him go.

Forced into exile in Lithuania, it’s not clear what role Tikhanovsky and his strong personality will now play within the democratic opposition, where his wife is now the internationally recognised leader.

“It introduces a certain confusion and possibly even some political mess to democratic forces”, Mr Shraibman said.

Among the other Belarusians freed on Saturday was 60-year-old Natalia Dulina, a professor of Italian at Minsk Linguistic University who has been in prison since 2022 on political charges.

On her way to a shelter in Lithuania on Saturday – now in forced exile – she told the BBC she had been moved suddenly from her prison on Friday by men in balaclavas and given no explanation.

She said they put a medical mask over her eyes and cuffed her hands before driving her to what she later learned was the KGB prison in Minsk.

“This morning, they put us in another bus – put a black balaclava on all of us, with no holes in it, and we didn’t know where they were taking us. It was really unpleasant,” Natalia said.

It was only at the border with Lithuania that she knew for sure she was being released.

“It was a total surprise. It still hasn’t sunk in,” she said.

Hundreds of thousands of Belarusians are estimated to have left their country since the brutal crackdown on widespread opposition protests in 2020.

Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in the country in the past five years for political reasons, according to human rights group Viasna.

A photo of the Prince of Wales with another generation – this time of puppies – has been posted on social media by Kensington Palace to mark his 43rd birthday.

The picture, taken by the Princess of Wales, shows Prince William with their family’s Cocker spaniel, Orla, and three of her four recently-arrived puppies.

The message for Prince William was signed online “with love”, with the initials of Catherine and their children, George, Charlotte, Louis, and “the puppies”, plus a paw print emoji.

The picture was taken in Windsor earlier this month.

There was also a message online for Prince William from the official account of the Royal Family, saying “Happy Birthday to The Prince of Wales!”, plus some celebratory emojis.

An accompanying picture, of the prince sitting on a stone wall, was taken while he visited farmers and food producers on the Duchy of Cornwall – a parcel of land William now owns – in May.

Orla was given to the royal couple by Catherine’s brother, James Middleton, in 2020, shortly after the death of their previous dog Lupo.

The dog – seen walking behind William in the picture – gave birth to four puppies in May.

Spaniels are well known for their affectionate behaviour and the picture shows the puppies clambering around the prince.

In the puppy picture, the prince looks relaxed in a pair of jeans and trainers – an informal moment after recent showcase occasions, including Trooping the Colour and the Order of the Garter procession.

He also visited a project linked to his Earthshot environmental prize which creates a type of sustainable dye that can reduce the fashion industry’s use of harmful chemicals – so colours can really be green.

Catherine did not appear at Royal Ascot earlier this week, with royal aides saying she had to find a balance in how she returned to public events. In January, the princess revealed she was in remission after her cancer diagnosis last year.

On Friday, she sent out a message about her support for children’s hospices – saying they helped families who were “heartbroken, fearful of the future and often desperately isolated”.

And now her photo has marked her husband’s birthday.

While Prince William was born in mid-summer on the longest day of the year, his father King Charles has been praising those in Antarctica experiencing the shortest day of the year.

He recorded a special message for the BBC World Service’s Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast, which sends a morale-raising message to scientists working in remote research stations in the depths of their winter.

The King praised the work of researchers tracking climate change.

A British man has been arrested in Cyprus on suspicion of spying and terror-related offences.

The BBC understands he is thought to have carried out surveillance for Iran on the RAF Akrotiri base on the island.

Local media say he is of Azerbaijani descent and has connections to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

He appeared in a district court earlier on Saturday and was detained for a further eight days. The Foreign Office said it was in contact with Cypriot authorities.

RAF Akrotiri is the UK’s most significant base in the region and has previously been used to help defend Israeli skies from attack by Iran.

Last week, it was announced that further planes would be sent there to protect existing UK assets.

In a statement, the UK Foreign Office said: “We are in contact [with] the authorities in Cyprus regarding the arrest of a British man.”

The statement was provided to the BBC following a question regarding reports in Cypriot media about the counter-terror arrest.

Police on the island said a man had been arrested on suspicion of terror-related offences and espionage. They said they would not say more for reasons of national security.

Cyprus’s ANT1 news outlet said the suspect was thought to have had RAF Akrotiri under surveillance, as well as Cyprus’s own Andreas Papandreou Air Base in the western region of Paphos since mid-April.

RAF Akrotiri is home to fast jets, reconnaissance, transport and refuelling aircraft.

At least eight people have died in a hot air balloon accident in southern Brazil, the governor of Santa Catarina state has said.

There were 21 people on board the balloon in the city of Praia Grande on Saturday morning, Jorginho Mello posted on X.

Thirteen people, including the pilot, survived and no one is missing, the state government press office reported.

Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) said it was taking “all necessary steps to investigate the condition of the aircraft and the crew”.

“According to the pilot, who is one of the survivors, a fire started inside the basket, so he started to lower the balloon, and when the balloon was very close to the ground he told people to jump,” officer Tiago Luiz Lemos, from the Praia Grande police station, told reporters at the scene.

“They started to jump, but some people did not manage to. The flames started to grow and because of the weight, the balloon began to rise again.

“It later fell because of a loss of suspension.”

The victims were two couples, a mother and daughter, an ophthalmologist, and a figure skater.

The survivors were taken to nearby hospitals.

Balloon tour company Sobrevoar Serviços Turísticos, which operated the flight, has now suspended its activities indefinitely.

It said it had complied with all regulations set by Anac and had had no prior history of accidents.

“Unfortunately, even with all necessary precautions and the efforts of our experienced pilot – who followed all recommended procedures and tried to save everyone on board – we are now faced with the pain caused by this tragedy,” the company added.

In a video also posted on X, Mello, who is on an official mission in China, said he had sent “the entire state structure” to “rescue, help and comfort the families” and was continuing to monitor the situation.

“We are in mourning, what happened is a tragedy,” he added.

“We will investigate why this happened. But the important thing now is to do everything possible to reach out to the people and the families.”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva posted on X expressing his “solidarity with the families of the victims”.

He said he had placed “the federal government at the disposal of the victims” and that “state and municipal forces ” were working on the rescue and care of the survivors.

Praia Grande, in southern Santa Catarina, is a popular tourist destination known for its ballooning activities.

Since the Sydney Opera House opened over 50 years ago, countless musical stars, world leaders and awestruck patrons have visited its iconic halls.

The outside forecourt has been blanketed by thousands of bare bodies in the name of art and, inside, an only slightly less naked Arnold Schwarzenegger even won a body-building title. There have been renovations and controversies, protests staged and history made.

And the constant, through it all, is Terry Harper.

He’s been tuning the building’s pianos for half a century, working behind the scenes to make sure the uber-technical instruments are ready for the world’s best musicians.

It’s a family legacy started by his father when the Opera House first opened in 1973 – and one that ended this week, with Terry’s retirement.

The 69-year-old still remembers the first time he stepped into the half-finished Opera House, as a wide-eyed child.

“The sails were up, but it was all very bare,” he tells the BBC, gesturing to the edges of the grand Concert Hall.

“There was nothing inside… You could see out to the harbour on both sides.”

At the time, he had no inkling he’d spend most of his life inside the iconic venue. His dad, on the other hand, no doubt had grand plans, Terry says.

By then, Liverpool emigrant Ron Harper was renowned on the Sydney music scene as both a piano tuner and a performer.

“He would take me to these nightclubs as a [kid] in my little school uniform. And I would be seeing all of these world-class acts,” Terry recalls. He rattles off a list including Welsh songstress Dame Shirley Bassey, stage icon Liza Minelli, and British TV and music darling Cilla Black – whom they even drove home after her performance one night.

“It was an interesting childhood,” Terry surmises, with a chuckle.

But it’s one which instilled in him a love of music – even if he wasn’t particularly interested in making it himself.

Somewhat ironically, Terry admits he spent about a year learning piano before giving it up, dabbling with the drums and his school choir instead.

It was in 1973, shortly after the Opera House was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II, that his father Ron got his fateful call-up.

“One day, the Sydney Symphony was rehearsing downstairs, and the piano hadn’t been tuned particularly well by whoever had been in in the morning,” Terry says. “One of the people working here knew my dad.”

Three years later, a 19-year-old Terry would join Ron under the sails, after completing a one-year piano tuning course when he left school.

He started on rehearsal pianos in the backroom, while building up his skills and confidence, before finally taking over when his dad retired a decade later.

These days, he can walk into a room and immediately know if the piano is out of tune.

“I always had a very good sense of pitch,” he says, “[but] it’s difficult to master.”

And it’s all done by ear.

Tinkling on the piano in front of him, he explains this one has 243 strings. For most of the keys, three separate steel wires combine to make the note.

“Once they start to deviate from the same frequency, they cause these things which we call beats, and that’s what we’re listening for when we’re tuning.”

“Can you hear this?” he asks, enthusiastically.

Alas, I – a music pleb – cannot.

“It’s not like tuning a guitar,” he says, offering me some solace.

The process can take up to 90 minutes, and each of the 30 pianos in the building need to be tuned basically every time they’re used.

“There’s so many strings in there that can wander out of tune, especially when you’re playing big piano concertos,” Terry explains.

“I refer to these as being F1 racing cars… They’re really gunning them.”

It can be a demanding and relentless job.

“It doesn’t stop. And it’s night times, it’s early mornings, it’s two and three times a day,” Terry says.

But the perks – which include brushing shoulders with some of the globe’s most-decorated musicians and easy access to the most sought-after tickets in town – aren’t to be scoffed at, he hastens to add.

Terry has also tuned pianos in many other notable locations – from the Royal Albert Hall and Abbey Road Studios to the BBC broadcast offices.

But none occupy a spot in his heart like the Opera House.

“For me, it’s a very happy place. It’s pretty much been my life.”

Earlier this year, after five decades, Terry decided it was time to hang up the tools.

“I got quite cozy during Covid, not having to work,” he quips.

His son couldn’t be tempted to take up the family business – “he’s into computer stuff, like all good young men are” – and so Friday also marked the end of the Harper legacy inside the Sydney Opera House.

The venue has opened a tender for a new contractor to tune their pianos – and Terry says he’s heard a rumour they could be replacing him with several tuners.

“I think somebody owes me some money… I’ve been doing the work of six people,” he teases.

Jokes aside, he admits that as his departure has crept closer, a wave of emotions came with it.

“Piano tuners, we’re fairly solitary,” he says. “We like to be in a room by ourselves with quiet, because you have to focus and listen to what you’re doing… [but] I’ve always had the camaraderie of all the people that work here.”

“I’m going to miss the place.”

At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a Russian MP came up to me.

“Are you going to bomb Iran?” he asked.

“I’m not planning to bomb anyone!” I replied.

“I mean you, the British…”

“Don’t you mean Donald Trump?”

“He’s told what to do by Britain,” the man smiled. “And by the deep state.”

It was a brief, bizarre conversation. But it showed that in St Petersburg this week there was more on people’s minds than just the economy.

Take President Vladimir Putin.

On Friday, the Kremlin leader delivered the keynote speech at the forum’s plenary session. It focused on the economy.

But it’s what the Kremlin leader said in the panel discussion afterwards that made headlines.

“We have an old rule,” Putin declared. “Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that’s ours.”

Imagine you’re the leader of a country that’s hosting an economic forum, seeking foreign investment and cooperation. Boasting about your army seizing foreign lands wouldn’t appear to be the most effective way to achieve this.

But that’s the point. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the state of the economy has been secondary to the goal of winning the war against Ukraine. That is the Kremlin’s overarching priority. True, Russia’s economy has been growing, but largely due to massive state spending on the defence sector and military-industrial complex.

• Russia fears another loss in Middle East from Iran’s conflict with Israel
• How the West is helping Russia to fund its war on Ukraine

And even this war-related growth is now petering out.

Putin didn’t sound overly concerned.

“As far as the ‘murder’ of the Russian economy is concerned, as a famous writer once said – ‘rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated,'” the Russian president declared.

But the Russian government is clearly nervous.

At the forum, Russia’s Minister for Economic Development, Maxim Reshetnikov, warned that the country’s economy was teetering “on the brink of recession”.

“We grew for two years at a fairly high pace because unused resources were activated,” said Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. “We need to understand that many of those resources have truly been exhausted.”

The St Petersburg International Economic Forum was conceived as a shiny showcase for the Russian economy. A lot of that shine has faded due to the thousands of international sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Many Western companies pulled out of Russia.

Might they return?

After all, US President Donald Trump has made it clear he wants better relations with Moscow.

“Today we had breakfast with the American Chamber of Commerce and lots of investors came from the US. We get a sense that lots of American companies want to come back,” Kirill Dmitriev, President Putin’s envoy on foreign investment, told me. We spoke on the sidelines of the St Petersburg forum.

“I think the American administration understands that dialogue and joint cooperation is better than sanctions that do not work and hurt your businesses.”

Western businesses, though, are unlikely to return in large numbers while Russia is waging war on Ukraine.

“I think it’s clear you have to have some sort of an end to the conflict before American companies are going to seriously consider going back,” said Robert Agee, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia.

“Have you asked the Trump administration to remove some sanctions from Russia?” I asked him.

“We’ve been to Washington,” he replied. “We have made an analysis of the impact of American sanctions on American businesses. We passed that on to the administration.”

“Do you accept that the idea of Western businesses returning is controversial in light of the war in Ukraine?” I asked.

“Western businesses have made decisions based on what happened three or four years ago,” replied Mr Agee. “And it’s up to them to decide whether it’s the right time to return.”

After more than three years of war and mass sanctions, Russia faces tough economic challenges: high inflation, high interest rates, reports of stagnation, recession. The problems in the economy are now openly discussed and debated.

It’s unclear how soon they will be resolved.

Columbia University activist Mahmoud Khalil has said the Trump administration failed to suppress pro-Palestinian voices, following his release from more than three months in immigration detention.

“My existence is a message” to the Trump administration, he told the BBC after returning to New Jersey from a detention centre in Louisiana. “All these attempts to suppress Pro-Palestinian voices have failed now.”

Mr Khalil was a prominent voice in the New York university’s pro-Palestinian protests last year, and his 8 March arrest sparked demonstrations in New York and Washington DC.

The US government wants to deport him, arguing his activism is detrimental to foreign policy interests.

Speaking at the airport in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday, Mr Khalil vowed to continue to advocate for Palestinian rights, and for the rights of the immigrants “who are left behind in that facility” where he was jailed in Louisiana.

He accused the White House of attempting to “dehumanise anyone who does not agree with the administration”.

He held flowers given to him by supporters, and shouted “free Palestine” as he ended his remarks. He was pushing a pram carrying his baby son, who was born while he was in prison, as he departed the news conference with his wife.

Mr Khalil was joined by New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who said his release showed that the Trump administration was losing the legal battle to deport migrants in the US who advocate for Palestinians.

In May, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who co-authored an opinion piece in her campus newspaper that was critical of Israel’s war, was released on bail after weeks in detention. Her deportation hearing is ongoing.

“The Trump administration knows that they are waging a losing legal battle,” the congresswoman said.

“They are violating the law, and they know they are violating the law. And they are trying to use these one-off examples to intimidate everyone else.”

Mr Khalil’s remarks come a day after a judge ordered him released from jail after determining he was not a flight risk or threat to his community while his immigration proceedings continued.

The Trump administration has vowed to appeal against his release, as it continues its efforts to remove him from the US.

“There is no basis for a local federal judge in New Jersey – who lacks jurisdiction – to order Khalil’s release from a detention facility in Louisiana,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement to Reuters. “We expect to be vindicated on appeal.”

A superyacht has been raised from the seabed nearly a year after it sank off the coast of Sicily, killing seven of the 22 people on board.

Italian officials said the luxury yacht – known as the Bayesian – would be held up by a crane for a series of inspections requested by the public prosecutor’s office. It will later be fully removed from the water.

The Bayesian was owned by British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who died in the incident alongside his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five others.

Last month, an ongoing investigation found that Mr Lynch and the crew were unaware of some of the boat’s vulnerabilities – including that wind speeds of over 73mph could topple it.

• Bayesian crew unaware wind speeds of over 73mph could topple yacht, report finds
• The 16 minutes that plunged the Bayesian yacht into a deadly spiral

Footage from the salvage operation shows the hull of the 56m (183ft) vessel – which looks badly damaged and covered in mud – being lifted up by cranes.

In some images, the ship’s name can be seen on the stern of the yacht as it is finally lifted above the water.

The vessel is expected to be taken to the nearby port of Termini Imerese on Monday, where Italian prosecutors investigating the sinking are based.

Previous salvage efforts to raise the boat were delayed after a diver died while working on the operation last month.

Also in May, an investigation led by the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) found that gusts of over 73mph hitting the side of the Bayesian would “likely result” in its capsize. The MAIB used modelling commissioned after the disaster to aid in its preliminary report.

It said winds of over 80mph “violently” hit the vessel during the disaster, causing it to flood within seconds.

The MAIB said its report was based on a “limited amount of verified evidence” as they did not have access to the wreck at the time.

Investigators in the UK and Italy – where criminal investigations are also under way – have said raising the vessel is crucial to fully understanding what happened.

The Bayesian had been anchored off the port of a small fishing village, Porticello, when it sank in the early hours of 19 August last year.

Witnesses at the time recalled watching it disappear within “a few minutes” during freak weather.

Among the victims were Mr Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah; Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, and his wife, Judy Bloomer, 71, who were all British nationals.

US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, and Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the vessel, also died in the sinking.

Fifteen people, including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, were rescued.

Pakistan has announced it plans to nominate US President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, citing the role that Islamabad says he played in helping to negotiate a ceasefire last month between India and Pakistan.

On X, the Pakistani government said Trump deserved the award “in recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis”.

India has denied the US served as a mediator to end the fighting last month, and says it does not want any diplomatic intervention from a third party.

Trump has often suggested he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize, whose winner this year will be named in October.

In May, Trump made a surprise announcement of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan following four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Pakistan’s government said in its post early on Saturday: “President Trump demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship through robust diplomatic engagement with both Islamabad and New Delhi, which de-escalated a rapidly deteriorating situation.

“This intervention stands as a testament to his role as a genuine peacemaker.”

There was no immediate response from Washington or New Delhi.

Trump has repeatedly said that India and Pakistan ended the conflict after a ceasefire brokered by the US, and also that he had used trade as a lever to make them agree.

Pakistan has corroborated US statements about brokering the ceasefire, but India has denied it.

Last month, Trump said he told India and Pakistan that a ceasefire was necessary in order for them to maintain trade with the US.

“I said, ‘Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys [India and Pakistan]. Let’s stop it,” he told reporters.

The Nobel move was applauded by Mushahid Hussain, a former chair of the Senate Defence Committee in Pakistan’s parliament.

“Trump is good for Pakistan,” he told Reuters. “If this panders to Trump’s ego, so be it. All the European leaders have been sucking up to him big time.”

But Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, criticised the move as “unfortunate”.

“A man who has backed Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and called Israel’s attack on Iran as ‘excellent’,” she wrote on X.

“It compromises our national dignity,” she added.

On Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had helped broker negotiations between multiple nations, but despite this: “No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do.”

Trump entered office vowing to quickly end the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars, although peace deals in both conflicts have eluded him so far.

He has frequently criticised Barack Obama for winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 after less than eight months as US president. In 2013, Trump called on the Norwegian Nobel Committee to rescind the award.

Panama has declared an emergency in its main banana-producing region, after shops were looted and buildings vandalised in ongoing protests over a pension reform.

The government says constitutional rights will be suspended for the next five days in the north-western Bocas del Toro province.

The measure restricts freedom of movement and allows the police to make arrests without a warrant.

Troubles in the region began a month ago, when the local banana workers union joined a nationwide protest against proposed pension cuts and declared a strike.

“In the face of the disruption of order and acts of systematic violence, the state will enforce its constitutional mandate to guarantee peace,” said Juan Carlos Orillac, minister of the presidency.

The measure, he added, would allow to “rescue the province” from radicals.

Protests across the Latin American nation erupted back in March over the pension reform.

In Bocas del Toro, the unrest has been largely led by workers at a Chiquita Brands banana plantation.

The confrontation escalated last month after the company sacked thousands of striking employees.

Protesters have been setting up roadblocks in the province, often clashing with police.

Earlier this week, crowds damaged one of Chiquita Brands’ facilities as well as a local airport.

Celebrities and influencers have been shocked to learn a controversial gossip website accused of allowing stalking, harassment, doxing and “relentless trolling” towards them was being run by a 41-year-old vegan influencer called Sebastian Bond.

While some public figures are used to dealing with online abuse and anonymous trolling, many, including glamour model Katie Price, say Tattle Life goes too far and is “the absolute worst platform for trolling”.

Set up in 2017, Tattle Life describes itself as a “commentary website on public business social media accounts” and its founder has operated anonymously – until recently.

Following a landmark defamation and harassment case in Northern Ireland, the elusive founder of the website was revealed.

“People shouldn’t be able to hide behind a keyboard,” Price tells the BBC, glad that its founder has been identified.

It’s estimated Tattle Life could be earning up to £180,000 a year in revenue from Google Ads, according to The Centre for Countering Digital Hate. After the BBC contacted Google the platform confirmed it had restricted adverts appearing on the gossip forum.

Model, 47-year-old Price, has hundreds of threads and anonymous comments about her looks, relationships and family, particularly her son Harvey who has multiple disabilities.

Speaking to the BBC, Price says she has had many private documents posted onto the site – called doxing – including some of her confidential mail.

“It’s absolutely horrendous, the stuff that’s posted about me on the website,” she says. “The abuse is unmanageable, especially when they involve my family.”

Price has done a number of stints at a mental health hospital as a result of the trolling on Tattle Life and says the “constant and disgusting abuse on the website” contributed to her decision to try to take her own life.

In an email to the BBC’s The State of Us podcast, which covered the story on 17 June, Tattle Life defended its business model, stating that influencers who monetise their personal lives should be open to scrutiny as it’s a totally unregulated industry. But not everyone sees it that way.

Jeremy Clarkson’s daughter Emily has recently spoken about how users on the website announced her pregnancy before she had, and says horrible comments about how she looked on her wedding day were part of the reason she went to therapy.

Influencer Carly Rowena also found herself being trolled on the platform after her young son was taken to hospital.

“People were saying it was all my fault,” she says, with many comments accusing her of profiteering from her son’s illness by continuing to post content on social media.

For the past six years, Rowena adds, a thread has existed on the website that shares details of where she lives as well as her parents’ names and address.

Caroline Hirons, a beauty expert with a large social media following, tells the BBC that it’s a “lie that this is in the public interest”.

“I’m a skincare expert, you don’t need to be posting pictures of my grandchildren,” she says.

Hirons has had private documents shared on Tattle Life as well as pictures of her children and grandchildren, some of which are still on the website.

“This is not normal trolling – the website has become a place that makes it seem like it’s OK to stalk and harass people constantly.”

Lydia Millen, who has more than 1.6m followers on Instagram, also believes anonymity shouldn’t be an option when utilising forums, comment sections or social media.

“Whilst you are entitled to your opinion, you aren’t entitled to anonymity which places you above the law,” she argues.

Millen, one of the most talked about people on the gossip website, says she has dealt with “relentless trolling” every day for the past five years, and often fears for her family’s safety.

Influencer Jen Graham agrees, suggesting people should have to verify their identity by uploading a document such as a driving licence or taking a picture of themselves.

“That way it’s traceable and someone can’t hide behind a secret identity,” she says, “and if they’re cruel then they’re punished.”

Graham says that discovering a thread about herself on Tattle Life “massively sent me under”.

“It wiped me out for a month and affected how I made my content as I was really anxious about posting.”

Katie Price has long campaigned to make online abuse a specific criminal offence and make social media users provide verified identification when opening new accounts.

“You should be able to trace these people as I imagine most people wouldn’t say this stuff if they used an account under their real name.”

Price says she has tried to take legal action against Tattle Life and reported some comments to the police, but the force have been unable to find who is behind the posts because they’re anonymous.

Tattle Life claims to have a “zero-tolerance policy to any content that is abusive, hateful, harmful and a team of moderators online 24/7 to remove any content that breaks our strict rules – often in minutes”.

Laura Rodrigo from Tattle Life told the BBC recent events have “highlighted the need to make some changes going forward”.

She said Tattle Life would improve its reporting system by giving people a ticket number and reiterated that there is a contact form on every page where anyone can report a post.

According to SimilarWeb, an internet analytics company, Tattle Life has been visited more than 11.5m times in the past month, mostly by British users.

It was a defamation and harassment lawsuit brought by Neil and Donna Sands that eventually outed Sebastian Bond, who also goes by the name of Bastian Durward.

The entrepreneurs took action against Tattle Life after suffering years of abuse, trolling and in-person stalking.

For nearly a decade no-one knew who ran the website, with its operator going under the fake name Helen McDougal.

Neil and Donna Sands were awarded £300,000 in damages and say they have received more than 1,000 messages from other celebrities and influencers who faced abuse on the platform.

An email to the BBC claiming to be from Sebastian Bond’s lawyers says he was “entirely unaware of the proceedings” brought before him and “is at a complete loss to understand how proceedings have been pursued” without his knowledge.

“Mr and Mrs Sands have only obtained ‘judgment in default’ because my client wasn’t aware of the proceedings, didn’t have an opportunity to consider a defence and the proceedings went ahead in private,” the email added.

Mr Sands says he will continue to pursue legal action against the Tattle Life community, adding: “The usernames of everyone who has attacked us on the website are listed in the court order so we will take action against all of them”.

The couple first reported abusive content on Tattle Life in February 2021, but Mr Sands told BBC News and BBC Radio 5 Live’s Nicky Campbell there are still comments of a stalking nature on the website and various threads about him keep being taken down and uploaded again.

The BBC contacted Tattle Life for comment on this specific allegation but did not receive a response.

The Centre for Countering Digital Hate says the website has been “monetising cruelty” for years through Google ads.

A spokesperson for Google said: “We don’t allow sites to engage in disruptive ad serving practices. After reviewing the site in question, we have restricted ads in accordance with our publisher policies.”

It added that that when it restricts ads a site will have little to no buyer demand.

Responsibilities on platforms to tackle illegal content and activity under the Online Safety Act came into force in March, and Ofcom says it is currently assessing platforms’ compliance with these new duties.

It has launched investigations into 13 different platforms of which Tattle Life is not one, but the regulator expects “to make further enforcement announcements in the coming months”.

It added: “those who fail to introduce appropriate measures to protect UK users from illegal content should expect to face enforcement action.”

In June 1995, a giant statue of Michael Jackson provided a surreal sight in the heart of London when it was floated on a barge down the River Thames.

This 32ft (10m) pop colossus was just one of 10 that appeared around the world to promote the superstar’s album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I.

The fibreglass titans then followed Jackson on his global tour.

Thirty years later – and 16 years after his death – the King of Pop continues to attract controversy, but some of the statues still stand defiantly in unexpected corners of the world.

Jackson’s double album was a mix of his greatest hits alongside 15 new tracks including Earth Song, which would spend six weeks at the top of the UK chart.

In America, sculptor Diana Walczak consulted with the pop star to create a clay sculpture that was digitally scanned for the album cover.

Hertfordshire-based artist Stephen Pyle, who had built sets for worldwide productions of The Phantom of the Opera, was asked by a Sony employee called Robbie Williams (not that one) to make 10 huge statues based on this album cover.

He hired sculptor Derek Howarth to craft the statue in polystyrene sections, which Mr Pyle used to make moulds and fibreglass casts.

Everything was assembled in Chris and Liz Clark’s workshop at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, where they were painted to look like stone.

The team worked without access to Ms Walczak’s prototype, which led to them looking slightly different.

Mr Pyle says: “Making 10 statues in four months was quite the challenge, but thanks to Derek, Chris, Liz and the rest of my workshop team at the time, we became quite the efficient factory for Michael Jackson monoliths!”

The fates of some of the statues is uncertain, and they may have been locked in storage or destroyed. But others have remained on show in some unlikely locations.

For many years, a King of Pop monument towered over a McDonald’s car park in the village of Best in the Netherlands.

Restaurant owner Peter Van Gelder bought the statue from Sony at a 1996 charity gala for the Ronald McDonald Children’s Fund.

“The restaurant had just opened and didn’t yet have the big yellow M,” he says. “It was my intention to put it down as an eye-catcher.”

Jackson fans began flocking to the spot, taking photos and playing his music. Crowds became so frequent that Peter had to fence off the statue to stop people climbing on it.

Each year on Jackson’s birthday, and on the day he died, it became a shrine, with fans gathering to play music, hang pictures and leave flowers.

Things changed in 2019 after HBO’s Leaving Neverland documentary levelled new allegations of child sexual abuse against Jackson.

“In the Netherlands there was not such a strong reaction and my intention was to just leave the statue there,” explained Peter.

But he said pressure from the fast food chain’s US headquarters led to its removal and storage in a “secret location”.

McDonald’s tells the BBC: “In 2019, following the documentary, it was decided to remove the statue.

“We felt and feel it is important for all guests to feel comfortable when visiting one of our restaurants.”

Peter hopes to donate the statue to a fan club, but due to its size a building permit is required. “Many have approached me but still no-one has been able to get a permit,” he says.

“The years have passed since his death and I’ve noticed that the interest in the statue is decreasing… So the Michael Jackson statue lies resting under a tarp in an insignificant shed.”

The courtyard of an abandoned club in a small town 18 miles (30km) west of Vienna is not the place you’d expect to find a towering effigy of the King of Pop.

Owner Franz Josef Zika won the statue in 1998 at a radio charity auction in aid of the Red Cross, and spent 150,000 Austrian Schillings (£9,300).

He recalls: “The big problem was when I went home and had to tell my uncle, who was the family boss, and he said, ‘You’re crazy!'”

Visitors to The Baby’O in Judenau-Baumgarten may have been surprised to find Michael Jackson in the smoking area, but Franz saw it as a great way to promote his club.

“There were also many bars next to the statue, so there was a party around Jackson,” he says.

Last year the club was forced to close after a new residential building was built nearby.

Now Franz wants to find somebody to open a small cafe or pizzeria at the venue, but needs to get rid of the pop monolith first.

He said: “I’ve been trying to sell it for two years. I would be happy if I get €25,000 (£21,000) for it.

“I’ve had some interest from Sweden and some in Hungary, but the problem is people don’t have enough money.”

What if he can’t find a buyer? “We don’t know. Maybe I’ll send it to Mars. Elon will do this for me!” he laughs.

For more than 50 years, an annual fairground event called Luna Park has taken place in Lausanne, Switzerland.

It is among these blinking lights and brightly coloured rides that another Jackson statue can be found.

It has been given slight refurbishment, with gold paint added to his faux military uniform.

Organisers tell the BBC they bought it 2008 from a man who had purchased it from Sony years earlier.

The statue has not been displayed for a few years, but they do not say why – however they stress it is not for sale.

When Jackson brought his HIStory tour to South Africa, he had one of the 10 statues with him.

Santarama Miniland, which opened in Johannesburg in the 1970s to showcase the country in miniature, is now abandoned.

Attractions have been removed and the miniature train no longer runs, but a repainted MJ monolith still stands, visible in Google Earth satellite images.

Blogger Heather Mason of 2summers.net visited the park in 2013.

She recalls: “It was quite strange to see a giant blue Michael Jackson statue in the middle of Miniland, where the general theme is for things to be smaller than life, not larger than life.

“But I certainly appreciated it! The MJ statue was the best photo op in the park.”

A fresh coat of paint and new pair of sunglasses have not made this fibreglass figure too unrecognisable.

In June 2019, Europark Idroscalo Milano unveiled the “restored” statue after a Jackson-themed flash mob.

An announcer told the gathered crowd: “This statue is dedicated to all of you, who keep on loving him through the years.”

The dramatic reveal came just months after the Leaving Neverland documentary.

A park spokesperson tells the BBC the statue was purchased at the end of the tour but remained abandoned for many years before ending up in the park.

They said the titan had its face covered for a while following allegations of child abuse because park owners at the time “did not want to show that MJ welcomed children at the park, so it was transformed almost into a robot”.

Despite the work to restore and repaint the statue, the park’s owners have now put the refurbished statue up for sale.

“I missed them so much,” says Stephanie Prado, a die-hard BTS fan who has been desperately waiting for the group to reunite after a two-and-a-half-year hiatus.

Her love for the boy band inspired her to move from Brazil to South Korea – so it was no surprise that she turned up last Friday for “BTS Festa”, a big party held every year near Seoul on the group’s anniversary.

The time she has spent waiting has moved “both slowly and really quickly”, Stephanie says, waving an ARMY bomb, the official lightstick used by BTS fans, who call themselves the ARMY.

Behind her is a huge sculpture of the lightstick, a must-have in the K-pop world.

This year’s event is special because a reunion is finally around the corner. The countdown peaked last week, when four of the seven members, RM, V, Jimin and Jung Kook, completed their military service. And the wait ends on Saturday when the last of them, Suga, is discharged.

“I hope they rest now,” Stephanie says, before adding, “but of course I also want albums, concerts, everything”.

The 18 months in the military that are mandatory for all South Korean men forced the world’s most successful boy band in recent years to hit pause in 2022. Now they are returning, some say, to a K-pop industry that is quite different to the one they knew: faced with stalled album sales, shaken by scandals and increasingly scrutinised over the excessive pressure it puts on stars.

The absence of a leading band, industry watchers say, was deeply felt.

“Without BTS, a core pillar was missing,” says Kim Young-dae, music critic and author of BTS: The Review.

“There have been concerns recently that K-pop is losing momentum. True or not, BTS could change that perception.”

There are no plans yet for all seven members to appear together, but that didn’t stop the ARMY from gathering early on a humid morning in Goyang.

The long, restless queue stretched to the subway station an hour before the gates for the BTS Festa opened. The snippets of English, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish alongside Korean threw off a local walking past who asked, “Why are there so many foreigners here?”

Inside were more queues – some people were hopping with excitement and others were sobbing after entering the “voice zone”, a phone booth where you could listen to BTS members’ messages. About half of the fans the BBC spoke to teared up talking about how much they missed BTS.

“It felt like the 18 months lasted forever,” said Vuyo Matiwane, a South African who had been visiting BTS-themed venues in Seoul, like their favourite restaurant. “I was crying at every location – it was so emotional.”

And then she watched the livestream of them being discharged, which was “overwhelming”.

Being surrounded by all things BTS made a trip halfway across the world worth it, says Fara Ala, who travelled from the Netherlands: “Breathing the same air, drinking the same water, eating the same food as BTS – that’s enough for ARMY. If you ask other ARMY, they’d say the same.”

South Korean military service is a major test for male celebrities, many of whom have to enlist at the peak of their success. In the past, it has proved fatal for some careers.

BTS is believed to have staggered it so that all seven members were missing from action for no more than six months. J-Hope, who was discharged last October, has since wrapped up a solo world tour. But the so-called curse can be hard to break.

For one, the loyalty of fans could wane as new groups debut almost every week, competing for their attention. Returning idols also face a tough transition because a military stint and a touch of maturity could dampen the essence of K-pop appeal: youthful energy.

But if anyone can break the curse, it’s BTS, Mr Kim says.

Each of them announced solo projects in the past two and half years, he explains, without hurting their popularity as a group: “It feels like their military hiatus passed by naturally. Their return feels smooth.”

Still, the industry beyond the ARMY can pose a challenge.

While BTS was on a break, the other K-pop sensation, Blackpink, has not dropped an album since September 2022, opting instead for solo releases. These were the leaders of K-pop’s third generation.

But they have been succeeded by fourth and fifth generations that have brought fresh style to the genre. The newer acts – which debuted after 2018 – lack a standout name like BTS because K-pop has become more diverse than ever. The result is a range of very popular and experimental groups.

“Most people my age like fourth generation idols these days,” says a 13-year-old fan of girl group IVE.

“Some still like third generation groups, but for teens, BTS kind of feels like they belong to an older generation. A lot of new idols debuted while BTS was away, and they have become popular.”

But the biggest challenge to BTS’ superstar status is what some see as a slowdown in K-pop.

Revenue from concerts remains strong, but album sales – a key market metric – have been declining since a peak in 2023. The slump coincides with when BTS and Blackpink were not releasing albums.

South Korean pop culture critic Park Hee Ah agrees that K-pop went through “some difficult times” while BTS was away.

There have also been several controversies, such as the headline-making dispute between hit girl group NewJeans and their agency, allegations of mistreatment by all-powerful agencies and harassment of stars by fans and trolls.

“Album sales started to drop, and some problems – like questions about companies doing the right thing – came up,” Ms Park said. Because of all of this, she adds, we did see more “deeper problems in the K-pop industry”.

That’s also why so many are looking forward to BTS’ return, hoping it will bring renewed energy – and maybe even a path forward for the industry.

“Their return will help people focus on Korea’s music scene again,” Ms Park says, adding that a BTS reunion is great not just for their fans but also for Korean soft power.

All eyes are now on the band’s next song.

“I will quickly make an album and return to the stage,” RM, the group’s leader, said on the day he was discharged.

But a new group album may not come until early next year because J-Hope still has domestic concerts scheduled, and Jin is set to hold concerts for fans across the world over the next few months. It’s also possible Suga, who landed in controversy after he was caught drunk-driving a scooter last year, may want to lie low for a little while.

For millions of fans like Stephanie though, simply knowing BTS is back together is enough – for now.

“It’ll feel like nothing ever changed. The kings are back.”

Inside London’s first romance-only bookshop, Sarah Maxwell stands in the “smut hut” – a section dedicated to her store’s more erotic titles.

Surrounded by shelves stacked with brightly coloured paperbacks – with titles including Just For the Summer, Swept Away and The Friendship Fling – young women are milling around, chatting and flicking through books.

Sarah says she wants to challenge the critics of romance fiction – often men – who diminish what she describes as “really high-quality writing” by saying “it’s just smut”.

“A lot of these books have strong world-building, amazing character development and a really good plot,” Sarah says.

A surge in romance and fantasy sales last year pushed UK fiction revenue above £1bn for the first time, according to a report released last week.

As its popularity grows, some readers and industry experts say attitudes towards romance are changing for the better, but others believe sexism keeps the genre from the mainstream.

Romance fiction spans a dizzying range of sub-genres and moods, all centred around heady love stories with a guaranteed happily ever after – or HEA to fans – lending the books a comforting, cosy atmosphere.

Romantasy – a blend of romance and fantasy – has become a reliable fixture on best-seller lists, largely due to the cult-like following it has gained among TikTok’s reading community, BookTok.

Major series like Fourth Wing and A Court of Thorns and Roses see female protagonists enter high-stakes relationships set against magical, fantastic worlds.

Many readers pick what to read based on tropes such as “enemies to lovers” and “second-chance romance”, with books marketed under these banners.

A book’s “spice level” – or how much sex can be found between the covers – is also a major factor, often focused on female pleasure, power and emotional connection.

“I’m into cowboys at the moment,” says Sky, 23 from London – a reference to “cowboy romances”, a growing sub-genre whose books take place in a western setting – often the American frontier.

Sky and another fan, Chantelle, 24 describe themselves as “very proud romance readers”. They trace their love of the genre to reading fanfiction under their desks at school, and now get their recommendations through BookTok.

But Sky and Chantelle admit not everyone reacts positively when they talk about their favourite books.

“Some people do turn their nose up, roll their eyes sometimes,” says Chantelle, “but I just don’t really care”.

Caroline, 29, admits she “sneered a bit” at romance in her early twenties.

“I used to read romances when I was a teenager,” she recalls, “but I got away from it and started reading stuff I thought was really smart.”

Then last year, Caroline picked up Emily Henry’s bestseller Book Lovers – an “enemies to lovers” story about a literary agent and a book editor, set in a picturesque small town.

“I realised I hadn’t consumed something guilt-free in my reading for a really long time,” Caroline says, “and it was just really fun”.

She’s since devoured the entire series of A Court of Thorns and Roses, a stalwart of bestseller lists and many readers’ first taste of romantasy.

“It’s nice to feel all the feelings with something that’s just going to really entertain you,” Caroline says.

Victoria, 31, has long read both romance and fantasy for much-needed escapism: “Sometimes I think we all need a little bit of a happily ever after in life.”

She says “chick-lit” stigma is still strong, but thinks attitudes are starting to change as people speak openly about their love of the genre online.

“We’re talking about it in a different way,” Victoria says. “Guilty pleasures? Do I need to feel guilty for loving something?”

Both romance and fantasy saw record sales last year, according to data gathered from more than 7,000 UK booksellers.

Romance & Sagas, as they are officially categorised, increased from £62m in 2023 to £69m in 2024, while Science Fiction & Fantasy saw an even bigger bump – from £59m to £83m.

Both categories have seen these numbers skyrocket since the pandemic, growing year-on-year – back in 2019, romance’s sales sat at £24m, and fantasy at £29m.

Women under 35 years old make up more than half of romantasy purchases, figures show.

Literary agent Rebeka Finch, 28, says the “voracious” appetite among this demographic, largely driven by BookTok, reflects broader consumer habits.

She likens romance readers to Swifties – Taylor Swift fans – known for owning multiple copies of the same album and wanting to feel a tangible connection to their favourite artist.

“They are the people that are so obsessive about books that they will buy a Kindle edition, they will have a hard back edition, they will have a paperback edition.

“They will have so many different volumes of the same book because they love it so much.”

Bookshop owner Sarah Maxwell says the demographic gave her the confidence to open Saucy Books in the middle of a high street downturn that has seen many independent bookshops suffer.

“People have this perception that’s it’s not good business,” Sarah says, but the community is “strong” and the authors prolific, providing plenty of stock.

“Millennial women have the most disposable income,” she adds. “Romance is serious business.”

Despite this commercial growth, Rebeka says broader attitudes remain derisive – particularly when it comes to “spicy” titles.

“‘That’s fairy porn’ – the amount of times that I have heard that!” Rebeka exclaims.

“Part of me wants to be like, ‘So what?’ This industry has been made for the male gaze for so long.

“It’s such a small percentage of the book and actually… it’s largely portraying fairly healthy sexual relationships.”

Within the publishing industry, attitudes are changing but mainly for commercial reasons, according to Katie Fraser, who writes for publishing magazine, The Bookseller.

Romance has been a “maligned genre” within the industry that “some people just didn’t want to be associated with,” she says. But as romance readers become an “economic force,” publishers have had to take it more seriously and invest.

“Publishing is an industry, so that’s what it ultimately boils down to,” Katie says.

Author Bea Fitzgerald, 28, says she benefitted from this commercial shift, selling her young adult fantasy rom-com Girl Goddess Queen at the peak of the romance boom.

“That sort of space opening up is what allowed me to move into the market,” she says.

Bea previously worked in publishing, and recalls seeing “a lot of books that could have been published as romance [instead] published in other literary genres because they think that it will not appeal to a certain type of audience”.

The genre is nothing new, she quips, having long been “championed” by publishers such as Mills & Boon. The difference now is that young people “like things really unapologetically”.

“They won’t just read a romance, they’ll go shout about it online, and then they’ll go to a romance convention, and they’ll talk to their friends about it.”

While the community has grown, Bea thinks critical appraisal of the genre is still lacking.

“Do we see broadsheets reviewing romance books? No. And they are just as important, literary books.”

Bea believes this is both because “the good majority” of the readers are women, and simply because the stories are happy.

“It goes in line with this sort of academic elitism that for something to be serious, it has to be a Shakespearean tragedy,” she says. “Whereas if it’s happy, it’s not serious, it hasn’t got literary merit. It obviously does – of course it does.”

It could apparently change the shape of my face, add pounds to my midriff, and even make my hair fall out.

I feel like warnings about cortisol – a stress hormone I know very little about – have hijacked my social media accounts. I see posts advising me to drink a cortisol cocktail – a blend of orange juice, coconut water and sea salt, take a range of different supplements, and massage lavender balm into my temples.

Not knowing how high my cortisol levels are makes it difficult to know whether or not I need to lower them, but now I think about it my cheeks do seem a touch more puffy than usual and my jeans have started to feel a bit tight.

Cortisol is one of several hormones that help control how our body responds to stress. Produced by the adrenal glands, it plays a vital role in everything we do – from making sure we wake up in the morning, to being able to fall asleep at night.

Without it we would die – but it’s a fine balance. Too much cortisol can also cause a plethora of health problems. So, if I’m stressed, and my body is creaking under the strain of too much cortisol, how do I fix that?

I pick up my phone, and start scrolling through my socials. Advice on one of the first posts that pops up is to turn my phone off – it’s a big stressor. And, by the way, stop doomscrolling.

I didn’t know about my cortisol levels 10 minutes ago – now I can feel them rising.

“It is very likely that we do live with higher levels of cortisol in our systems,” John Wass, Professor of Endocrinology at the University of Oxford, says, “partly because there is much more stress in the world, we can never switch off for a start.

“With smartphones, you can’t get a moment’s peace.”

But Prof Wass questions the direct link often being made on social media, between cortisol levels and changes in our body, describing that as “misleading”.

“All these changes – weight gain, face swelling – there can be so many other reasons – a bad night’s sleep, certain medications, too much salt, too much alcohol for instance,” he says. “It’s highly unlikely that cortisol levels alone are to blame – it’s a complex picture.”

As the managing director of a small technology company, in her late 20s Jasleen Kaur Carroll was at the top of her game. But she struggled to switch off and work became her life.

Eventually things became so intense – with Jasleen feeling under constant pressure – that she experienced burnout, complete physical, mental and emotional exhaustion.

“I began to feel like a zombie, like everything around me was failing,” the 33-year-old from London explains. “But I would tell myself, ‘I am Jas, I am strong, I can keep going.'”

Jasleen turned to social media for advice on how to destress and lower her cortisol levels.

“You name it, I tried it,” she says. “The cortisol cocktail, Ashwagandha tablets, turmeric, black pepper supplements, lavender balm on my forehead – anything.”

But nothing worked. Jasleen’s body began to shut down, and the stress she was under triggered a flare-up of an autoimmune condition she has called lupus, where the immune system spirals out of control and starts to mistakenly target healthy cells.

“I lost so much weight, I had severe joint pains, I was struggling to breathe because I had liquid around my lungs,” she says. “I was also warned about trying to have a baby because of how poorly I was.”

While in hospital receiving treatment for lupus, Jasleen realised that instead of trying to fix herself using social media hacks she had to stop, take time out and get help.

“I was trying to fight all the symptoms of stress,” she says. “Instead, I needed to tackle the cause.”

By having therapy she worked through trauma she had experienced in childhood and began to practice mindfulness – something which taught her to live more in the moment.

“Stress is a wonderful thing,” says therapist Neil Shah, who runs the Stress Management Society. “Hormones like adrenaline and cortisol are vital to keep us safe from a perceived threat.

“The problems come when we perceive threats everywhere – and that’s not helped by the 24/7 society we live in.”

Neil advised Jasleen to try standing outdoors, barefoot on grass. Jasleen wasn’t convinced – but she decided to give it a go.

“At that point I would have tried anything,” she says.

A day after speaking to Jasleen, I’m on a video call with a mindfulness coach from Breathworks, a charity which specialises in pain and stress management. There are 12 other participants, who all want to learn how to manage stress levels and improve their overall health.

Some studies suggest activities like mindfulness can have a positive effect on cortisol levels, helping to regulate the stress response system.

Being focussed on the moment, rather than caught up in the past or looking to the future can also help change the structure of the brain and improve stress resilience, studies have shown.

My mindfulness coach Karen Liebenguth has a warm, soothing voice. I’m sceptical when she tells me to hold a raisin and look, feel, smell, listen and – eventually – put it in my mouth.

By the time I chew it, I begin to understand that I am mindfully eating. My only thought is the raisin and its taste and texture. And, for the first time that day, my whole focus is on the present moment.

Psychology professor and stress resilience expert David Creswell says mindfulness is one of several techniques found to help some individuals lower cortisol levels – and exercise, journalling, nurturing close relationships, and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) can also all help too.

“Interestingly, each technique is training us to sometimes sit with discomfort,” Prof Creswell says. “They are like little mini stressors – which might help us deal with the big stressors life throws at us.”

Experts warn some social media “quick fixes” not only fail to address the real issues many people might be experiencing, but can also prevent those who need medical treatment seeking help.

“We are often fed simplistic solutions to a complex and potentially more serious problem,” wellbeing expert Professor Sir Cary Cooper explains.

He seems taken aback when I tell him the ingredients in the cortisol cocktail I often see being touted on social media.

“I mean, it’s not going to do any harm,” he says, “but it’s certainly not going to bring your cortisol levels down.”

Prof Carey says sudden body changes should be checked by a medical professional to make sure there are no physical health problems.

High levels of cortisol can cause weight gain around the face, upper back and stomach – which could indicate a very rare condition called Cushing’s Syndrome. The most common cause is taking high doses of steroid medicine for a long time.

Sometimes, a small, non-cancerous growth in the pituitary gland (near the brain) or adrenal glands (near the kidneys) can also cause too much cortisol to be released. These glands help control the amount of certain hormones in your body, including cortisol.

If you are stressed then there is “little point in just treating the symptoms”, Prof Carey says. “It’s all about the cause, and the cause could stem from a bad relationship, or financial worries or family problems.

“Simple fixes on social media are not going to sort that.”

Jasleen has a new job at a large digital marketing company. Despite being warned she might not be able to conceive, she gave birth to a baby girl eight months ago.

She’s determined not to repeat the burnout she experienced in the past so every morning without fail, she says, she carries out several exercises.

Each claims to stimulate the nervous system, which helps her relax and reduce her levels of stress.

“I gently tap my body, grounding myself,” Jasleen explains. “I hold an imaginary ball between my hands, and I dry brush my body, stroking my skin, visualising the blood flowing to my heart.”

Jasleen has a busy life, a successful career, and a baby girl to look after, but she says, she’s much more aware of her limits. On the whole she stays clear of socials, and her life is now “calmer”.

“There are still elements that stress me out,” Jasleen says. “But now I have a toolbox of ways to help manage it and I can embrace the chaos!”

A flashy tycoon in Zimbabwe has a nation entranced – some beguiled, others alarmed – by his habit of giving away cars along with wads of cash to those he deems patriotic – even presenting them to those he has never met.

Mercedes-Benzes, Toyota SUVs, Range Rovers are Wicknell Chivayo’s vehicles of choice for the recipients, who range from music stars, down-at-heel gospel singers, footballers, church leaders and those loyal to the ruling Zanu-PF party.

The controversial 44-year-old is himself partial to a white Royals Royce and has a fleet of personalised luxury cars, some of which he has also started giving away as he gets in newer models.

For years “Sir Wicknell”, as he calls himself, has loved to boast about his riches via Instagram – details the tabloids lap up – but while he is open about how he spends his money, he is less so about how he makes it as he faces scrutiny over the source of his wealth in a country where life is a daily struggle for most people.

In the last year or so his social media account has also been awash with posts about his donations.

They follow a similar pattern: a photo of a gleaming car with balloons tied to it – sometimes with a big bow on its bonnet – is accompanied with a message of congratulations to someone with instructions about where they should collect it, usually from one of various luxury car dealerships he uses in the capital, Harare.

“Please GO AND SEE VICTOR at EXQUISITE MOTORS, your brand new 2025 Range Rover Autobiography is FULLY PAID FOR and ready for collection,” he told top musician Jah Prayzah last month, adding that $150,000 (£111,000) in cash was also awaiting him there.

“This is just a small token of my gratitude for your IMMENSE contribution to Zimbabwean music and your patriotism in uniting thousands of people through music, preaching PEACE, preaching LOVE and preaching UNITY in every song.”

The volume of his “public gifting” has become almost frenzied – he even reposts humorous memes about it. On social media, Zanu-PF accounts have been lavishing him in praise, commending his philanthropy.

In private Sir Wicknell – as everyone knows him – has also dished out houses and study scholarships to followers of his apostolic church, the Zion Christian Church, known for their white garments and worshipping outdoors.

The softly spoken, heavy-set businessman has come to symbolise Zimbabwe’s growing “flex culture” – the desire to flash one’s wealth in person and online.

“$hopping and spending money are just some of my hobbies,” he wrote in 2013, when he first started on Instagram, next to a hotel trolley full of his purchases.

This was followed not long after by the quip: “Damn being rich is a headache at times” and a photo of his vast shoe collection as he tried to decide whether to wear a pair of Louis Vuittons or Salvatore Ferragamos.

And so it has continued, with holidays to Dubai, New York, Paris, London and business trips to Johannesburg, Shanghai and New Delhi – and most recently posts about his new private jet.

He also loves to display his proximity to power – posting photos of himself with politicians, from Zimbabwe’s late President Robert Mugabe and his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa to, more recently, other African leaders such as Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan and Kenya’s William Ruto.

“He is very hands-on with his businesses dealings, very much on the ground and keeping tabs on how every cent is spent,” a businessman, who has previously dealt with Mr Chivayo and asked to remain anonymous, told the BBC.

“It’s clear that he is politically protected,” he said.

In Cry Havoc, the late British mercenary and coup plotter Simon Mann‘s 2011 memoir of his time incarcerated in Zimbabwe’s Chikurubi Maximum Prison, the former British army officer said his “well-educated” fellow inmate Wicknell warned him never to criticise Zanu-PF.

The pair were in the same cell block – Mann serving four years for his role in a failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea in 2004 and Chivayo a couple of years for fraud.

“In Africa the unsolicited gift is massively powerful,” Mann quoted him as saying – a seemingly prophetic comment.

Between them they paid in cigarettes for the services of a prisoner, serving 94 years for armed robbery, to do their laundry. Mann said Chivayo insisted on referring to him as their “butler”.

The two remained friends with Sir Wicknell posting a smiling photo of them together in 2013 – a year that seems to have been a turning point for him.

It was when, as well as taking to Instagram, his company Intratrek Zimbabwe and a Chinese firm won a tender to build a solar power plant worth $172.8m.

But the project later became embroiled in fraud allegations – court records several years later state that Intratrek had been paid an advance to begin work on the 100MW plant in Gwanda but failed to deliver as expected to the state-owned Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC).

He in turn sued ZPC for cancelling its contact over the dispute. He won that case and was later acquitted of all the criminal charges.

Sir Wicknell is media shy, has spoken of his dislike of journalists and politely declined my request for an interview.

But on a rare outing on a breakfast radio show last year, he was asked directly how he made his money.

In bashful tones, he said his main business was government tenders secured with foreign partners in the areas of renewable energy, engineering procurement, construction and power projects. He said he also had businesses in Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania.

Late last year, his company IMC Communications was licensed as the partner for Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service provider.

On Instagram, he has been much more brash about his “Midas touch” – saying he is a “hustler” who works hard. He also attributes his success as a “self-made millionaire” to his humble background growing up Harare’s satellite township of Chitungwiza, where his family struggled after his father died when he was aged 10.

He tends to repost “throw-back” photos to his late teens when through a family friend he got a job as a wages clerk at a bus company. “I remember I was the only one my age with a cell phone in Chitungwiza,” he has said about his hard-working ethic.

An avowed Zanu-PF supporter he has previously attributed his success to the party’s empowerment policy, which was launched in 2013 and forced all companies to cede economic control to black Zimbabweans.

Some see him as a successful example of this indigenisation policy, creating a new class of black businessmen, but others believe some of his wealth is a result of corruption and murky relationships with those in power – which he vehemently denies.

Questioned in February about Sir Wicknell’s predilection for giving away cars, President Mnangagwa dismissed an accusation that the businessman was acting as his frontman. “Where would I get the money to give him?… You can’t bother me about someone who is philanthropic,” he told journalists.

The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) did launch an inquiry last year after South African investigative non-profit organisation Open Secrets alleged Chivayo had received a windfall of millions of dollars as the facilitator of a tender to supply election materials to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) in 2023.

The scandal ballooned when a leaked audio message purportedly of Mr Chivayo talking about the deal also seemed to implicate two other businessmen by consoling them for failing to get promised kickbacks, suggesting many more deals were in the pipeline as “we have them in vice-like grip”.

The fallout was spectacular. Zec denied any dealings with Mr Chivayo or the other men, all of whom denied the allegations – and a year on ZACC has not charged anyone.

Mr Chivayo said the audio must have been a deep fake, generated through sophisticated technology. He also apologised to the president for any impression the audio may have created that the first family was corrupt.

But not long afterwards, the two businessmen mentioned in the audio were arrested and charged with misappropriating around $7m in a separate case. They deny the accusations, linked to a presidential goat scheme tender, and have spent almost a year in jail waiting for the trial to begin.

This week there has been more hoo-ha about a supposed leak over a document from March about an alleged $500m contract with Mr Chivayo’s name listed as a director of a company to supply cancer treatment equipment to the Zimbabwe government for four years.

The outrage is over the fact that if it is true, it did not go through a public tendering process. The government and Mr Chivayo have dismissed the allegations, pointing out that the so-called contract touted as evidence is unsigned.

“For a whole group of opposition outfits to team up and make noise about an unsigned FAKE document is an embarrassing desperation for political relevance,” Mr Chivayo said.

The father of two, not long remarried at an elaborate wedding ceremony with more than 15,000 guests, has often said he is not interested in becoming a politician.

For him it is all about the money – and he says he is determined to see off his “haters”. Posing by his jet recently, he wore a tracksuit with a giant “B” emblazoned on his tracksuit, saying: “Take note the ‘B’ is the inevitable billionaire status coming my way against all odds.”

But his close ties with power, which have allowed him to become rich, mean he will always fly close to controversy.

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In the winter of 1956, The Times correspondent David Holden arrived on the island of Bahrain, then still a British protectorate.

After a short-lived career teaching geography, Holden had looked forward to his Arabian posting, but he hadn’t expected to be attending a garden durbar in honour of Queen Victoria’s appointment as Empress of India.

Everywhere that he went in the Gulf – Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman – he found expected traces of British India.

“The Raj maintains here a slightly phantasmal sway,” wrote Holden, “a situation rich in anomaly and anachronism… The servants are all bearers, the laundryman a dhobi, and the watchman a chowkidar,” he wrote, “and on Sundays the guests are confronted with the ancient, and agreeable, Anglo-Indian ritual of a mountainous curry lunch.”

The Sultan of Oman, educated in Rajasthan, was more fluent in Urdu than Arabic, while soldiers in the nearby state of Qu’aiti, now eastern Yemen, marched around in now-defunct Hyderabadi army uniforms.

In the words of the governor of Aden himself:

“One had an extraordinarily powerful impression that all the clocks here had stopped seventy years ago; that the Raj was at its height, Victoria on the throne, Gilbert and Sullivan a fresh and revolutionary phenomenon, and Kipling a dangerous debunker, so strong was the link from Delhi via Hyderabad to the South Arabian shore.”

Although largely forgotten today, in the early 20th Century, nearly a third of the Arabian Peninsula was ruled as part of the British Indian Empire.

From Aden to Kuwait, a crescent of Arabian protectorates was governed from Delhi, overseen by the Indian Political Service, policed by Indian troops, and answerable to the Viceroy of India.

Under the Interpretation Act of 1889, these protectorates had all legally been considered part of India.

The standard list of India’s semi-independent princely states like Jaipur opened alphabetically with Abu Dhabi, and the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, even suggested that Oman should be treated “as much a Native State of the Indian Empire as Lus Beyla or Kelat [present day Balochistan]”.

Indian passports were issued as far west as Aden in modern Yemen, which functioned as India’s westernmost port and was administered as part of Bombay Province. When Mahatma Gandhi visited the city in 1931, he found many young Arabs identifying as Indian nationalists.

Even at the time, however, few members of the British or Indian public were aware of this Arabian extension of the British Raj.

Maps showing the full reach of the Indian Empire were only published in top secrecy, and the Arabian territories were left off public documents to avoid provoking the Ottomans or later the Saudis.

Indeed, as one Royal Asiatic Society lecturer quipped:

“As a jealous sheikh veils his favourite wife, so the British authorities shroud conditions in the Arab states in such thick mystery that ill-disposed propagandists might almost be excused for thinking that something dreadful is going on there.”

But by the 1920s, politics was shifting. Indian nationalists began to imagine India not as an imperial construct but as a cultural space rooted in the geography of the Mahabharata. London saw an opportunity to redraw borders. On 1 April 1937, the first of several imperial partitions was enacted and Aden was separated from India.

A telegram from King George VI was read aloud:

“Aden has been an integral part of British Indian administration for nearly 100 years. That political association with my Indian Empire will now be broken, and Aden will take its place in my Colonial Empire.”

The Gulf remained under the purview of the Government of India for another decade, however.

British officials briefly discussed whether India or Pakistan would “be allowed to run the Persian Gulf” after independence, yet a member of the British legation in Tehran even wrote of his surprise at the “apparent unanimity” of “officials in Delhi … that the Persian Gulf was of little interest to the Government of India.”

As Gulf resident William Hay put it, “it would clearly have been inappropriate to hand over responsibility for dealing with the Gulf Arabs to Indians or Pakistanis”.

The Gulf states, from Dubai to Kuwait, were thus finally separated from India on 1 April 1947, months before the Raj was itself divided into India and Pakistan and granted independence.

Months later, when Indian and Pakistani officials set about integrating hundreds of princely states into the new nations, the Arab states of the Gulf would be missing from the ledger.

Few batted an eyelid, and 75 years on, the importance of what had just happened is still not fully understood in either India or the Gulf.

Without this minor administrative transfer, it is likely that the states of the Persian Gulf Residency would have become part of either India or Pakistan after independence, as happened to every other princely state in the subcontinent.

When British Prime Minister Clement Attlee proposed a British withdrawal from the Arabian territories at the same time as the withdrawal from India, he was shouted down. So Britain retained its role in the Gulf for 24 more years, with an ‘Arabian Raj’ now reporting to Whitehall rather than to the Viceroy of India.

In the words of Gulf scholar Paul Rich, this was “the Indian Empire’s last redoubt, just as Goa was Portuguese India’s last solitary vestige, or Pondicherry was the tag-end of French India”.

The official currency was still the Indian rupee; the easiest mode of transport was still the ‘British India Line’ (shipping company) and the 30 Arabian princely states were still governed by ‘British residents’ who had made their careers in the Indian Political Service.

The British only finally pulled out of the Gulf in 1971 as part of its decision to abandon colonial commitments east of Suez.

As David Holden wrote in July:

“For the first time since the heyday of Britain’s East India Company, all the territories around the Gulf will be at liberty to seek their own salvation without the threat of British intervention, or the comfort of British protection. This final remnant of the British Raj – for that, in effect, is what it is – has been for some years now an obvious, if in some ways charming, anachronism … But its day is over.”

Of all the national narratives that emerged after the Empire’s collapse, the Gulf states have been most successful at erasing their ties to British India.

From Bahrain to Dubai, a past relationship with Britain is remembered, but governance from Delhi is not. The myth of an ancient sovereignty is crucial to keeping the monarchies alive. Yet private memories persist, particularly of the unimaginable class reversal that the Gulf has seen.

In 2009, Gulf scholar Paul Rich recorded an elderly Qatari gentleman who “still got angry when he related to me the beating he received when as a young boy of seven or eight he stole an orange, a fruit which he had never seen before, from an Indian employee of the British agent”.

“The Indians, he said, were a privileged caste during his youth, and it gave him immense pleasure that the tables had turned and they now came to the Gulf as servants.”

Today Dubai, once a minor outpost of the Indian Empire with no gun salute, is the glittering centre of the new Middle East.

Few of the millions of Indians or Pakistanis who live there know that there was a world in which India or Pakistan might have inherited the oil-rich Gulf, just as they did Jaipur, Hyderabad or Bahawalpur.

A quiet bureaucratic decision, made in the twilight of empire, severed that link. Today, only the echoes remain.

Windrush Day has been held on 22 June since 2018, to celebrate the contribution Caribbean migrants and their families have made to the UK.

HMT Empire Windrush docked in Tilbury, Essex, in 1948, bringing hundreds of passengers from the Caribbean to the UK.

In 2018, it emerged that the government had not properly recorded the details of people granted permission to stay in the UK, and many were wrongly mistreated.

HMT Empire Windrush became a symbol of a wider mass-migration movement.

People in the Caribbean were invited to the UK to help rebuild post-war Britain.

According to the National Archives, which holds the ship’s passenger list, there were 1,027 people on board. More than 800 gave their last country of residence as somewhere in the Caribbean.

Several hundred passengers were Jamaican, but others arrived from islands including Trinidad, St Lucia, Grenada and Barbados.

These travellers – and those on other ships which came to the UK until 1971 – became known as the Windrush generation.

Many had served in the British armed forces in World War Two.

In 1948, the British Nationality Act gave people from colonies the right to live and work in Britain.

The government needed workers to help fill post-war labour shortages and rebuild the economy.

Caribbean countries were also struggling economically, and job vacancies in the UK offered an opportunity.

Many of those who came became manual workers, drivers, cleaners, and nurses in the newly established NHS.

Commemoration events have been held on 22 June every year since 2018.

In 2023, the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Windrush was marked with a series of concerts, exhibitions and seminars across the country.

King Charles, who held a reception at Buckingham Palace to mark the anniversary, hailed the Windrush generation’s “profound and permanent contribution to British life”.

This year will see events taking place around the country, including a number sponsored by the government’s Windrush Day Grant Scheme.

It is unclear how many people from the Windrush generation are still in the UK, but the number is thought to be in the thousands.

They are among more than 500,000 UK residents who were born in a Commonwealth country and arrived before 1971, according to University of Oxford estimates.

The 1971 Immigration Act gave Commonwealth citizens living in the UK indefinite leave to remain – the permanent right to live and work in the UK.

This included the Windrush generation, but also people from other former British colonies in South Asia and Africa.

However, in April 2018, it emerged that the UK Home Office had kept no records of those granted permission to stay, and had not issued the paperwork they needed to confirm their status.

It had also destroyed landing cards belonging to Windrush migrants, in 2010.

Those affected were unable to prove they were in the country legally and were prevented from accessing healthcare, work and housing.

Many were also threatened with deportation.

A review of historical cases also found that at least 83 people who had arrived before 1973 had been wrongly deported.

In April 2018, then-Prime Minister Theresa May apologised for the treatment of those affected. An inquiry was announced and a compensation scheme established.

The inquiry, which reported in March 2020, said that the scandal was both “foreseeable and avoidable”, and criticised “a culture of disbelief and carelessness” in the Home Office.

It made 30 recommendations, including:

• a full Home Office review of the UK’s “hostile environment” immigration policy
• appointing a migrants’ commissioner
• establishing a race advisory board

Inquiry author Wendy Williams warned there was a “grave risk” of similar problems happening again without government action.

Then-Home Secretary Priti Patel accepted the recommendations in full.

But in January 2023, then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman announced the Home office was dropping three of the commitments:

• to appoint a migrants’ commissioner responsible for “speaking up for migrants and those affected by the system directly or indirectly”
• to give the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration new powers
• to hold events with people affected to “listen and reflect on their stories”

The High Court later ruled that Ms Braverman acted unlawfully by dropping the measures relating to a migrants’ commissioner and the chief inspector of borders and immigration.

In June 2025, the Reverend Clive Foster was appointed as the first Windrush Commissioner – seven years after the scandal was first exposed.

A top priority will be looking at how to improve the Windrush Compensation Scheme which has been described by campaigners as “torturous”.

The Windrush Compensation Scheme was established in April 2019, and about 15,000 people were thought to be eligible.

But the scheme has been consistently criticised for processing delays, low offers, and unfair rejections reversed on appeal.

In 2021, MPs found the scheme had itself become a further trauma for those eligible. The Home Affairs Committe said many of those affected were “still too fearful of the Home Office to apply”.

In April 2023, Human Rights Watch said the scheme was “failing” victims, and repeated calls for it to be removed from the Home Office’s control.

In response, the Home Office said it was “committed to righting the wrongs of Windrush”.

In October 2024, Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced an additional £1.5m of funding to help victims apply for compensation.

As of April 2025, the scheme had paid out more than £110m.

Dua Lipa treated fans to a surprise appearance by Jamiroquai, as she played her first ever show at Wembley Stadium.

Bringing out the band’s frontman Jay Kay for a one-off performance of his 1996 hit Virtual Insanity, the star said he was “a massive trailblazer for British music”.

Their performance came half-way through a stunning two-hour show, that saw Lipa tear through hits like Physical, One Kiss, New Rules and Levitating.

”This is such a massive, massive milestone for me,” she told her 70,000 fans. “I’ve had a lump in my throat from the moment this show started.”

Some dedicated fans had camped out since Thursday to see the singer’s UK stadium debut, braving temperatures that exceeded 31C.

“It means the absolute world to me that you’re here tonight,” she told them during the show. “It feels like I’ve waited my whole life for this moment.”

Reflecting on her ascent to the top tier of pop music, the 29-year-old added: ”It’s been 10 years since our first ever London show, which happened to be about 350 people, and I dreamt of a night like this.“

“To be in front of 70,000 people. I’m so, so blown away.”

She then introduced one of her earliest singles, Hotter Than Hell, telling fans it was the track that had earned her a recording contract.

Since then, she has stockpiled an enviable selection of armour-plated hits, most of which got an airing on Friday night.

The show began with a new-agey wash of ocean sounds, that segued seamlessly into her 2024 single, Training Season.

Lipa sang the first verse slowly, over a sultry orchestral backing. But before long, the band kicked into gear, and the disco pulse barely let up for the next two hours.

In many respects, the set played like an extended remix of her triumphant Glastonbury performance last year – full of pin-sharp choreography and fiercely futuristic pop.

Her voice remains a strong point – resonant and flexible, with a hint of the rasp she inherited from her father, Albanian rock singer Dukajin Lipa.

It was particularly effective on the cascading vocal runs of Falling Forever, and the Flamenco-flavoured Maria.

Somehow, Lipa managed not to lose her breath, despite demanding, body-rolling dance routines that only occasionally recalled Jane Fonda’s 1980s keep fit videos. She leaned into the schtick with an interlude instructing her fans to “move those hips” over the intro to Physical.

Jay Kay arrived to a scream of recognition from older members of the audience, suited up in a tasseled white cowboy jacket and pink jeans.

“What a privilege and an honour to be on stage with you,” said the singer, before launching into Virtual Insanity – a song that became a hit when Dua was just one year old.

Between songs, the star spent time getting personal with fans in the front row – borrowing their phones to pose for selfies, signing records (side note: who on earth brings a vinyl record to the front row of a stadium concert?) and even appropriating one person’s scarf to accentuate her own stage outfit.

It was a simple, but personal, touch that helped to illustrate why the star has become only the second British female solo artist after Adele to headline Wembley Stadium.

Watched from the stands by her family, including fiancé Callum Turner, she wrapped up the show with a flawless four-song encore that included some of her biggest hits: New Rules, Don’t Start Now and Dance The Night.

Lipa finished with the psychedelic pop smash Houdini, ratcheting up the tension with a flurry of fireworks as she head-banged to a shredding guitar solo. Then the music suddenly stopped and she vanished in a cloud of smoke.

A powerhouse performance from a star at the top of their game, it was proof that you don’t need giant mechanical props or cutting edge video technology to pull off a compelling stadium show.

Sometimes, the right songs, the right choreography and a generous helping of feel-good energy are enough.

As an added bonus, that keeps the tickets affordable: The most expensive seats cost £155, compared to some stadium shows this summer, where prices have topped £900.

Lipa continues her Radical Optimism tour with a second night at Wembley on Saturday, followed by dates in Liverpool and London before the North American leg kicks off in September.

• Training Season
• End of an Era
• Break My Heart
• One Kiss
• Whatcha Doing
• Levitating
• These Walls
• Hotter Than Hell
• Virtual Insanity (with Jamiroquai)
• Maria
• Physical
• Electricity
• Hallucinate
• Illusion
• Falling Forever
• Happy for You
• Love Again
• Anything For Love
• Be the One

• New Rules
• Dance the Night
• Don’t Start Now
• Houdini

A Scottish schoolgirl’s message in a bottle has finally received a reply more than 30 years later – after being discovered in Norway.

Alaina Beresford, from Portknockie in Moray, sent the message in 1994 when she was 12 as part of a school project.

It washed up across the North Sea where it was found by a volunteer cleaning up a Norwegian island – who then dispatched a postcard to the delighted sender to let her know.

Alaina told BBC Scotland News she could not believe her original letter was in such good condition after three decades.

Her handwritten letter had been sent in an empty bottle of Moray Cup, a fizzy drink produced in the north east of Scotland.

It said: “Dear finder. My name is Alaina Stephen and I am 12 years of age. I come from Portknockie and I am doing a project on water so I decided to send a message in a bottle.

“My teacher’s husband took them and dropped them in the middle of the ocean.

“When you find this message, please write back with your name, hobbies, where you found the message, when, and if you could, a little information about your area. Yours sincerely, Alaina Stephen. PS I come from Scotland.”

Now, 31 years on, Alaina has received a postcard from Pia Brodtmann, telling her the good news, with pictures of the find.

It said: “My name is Pia and I am from Germany. Today I found your message in a bottle on Lisshelløya, a tiny island around Vega in Norway.

“I am here for beach cleaning as a volunteer for four months and today we cleaned Lisshelløya. On the front of the postcard you can see our workboat Nemo and our sailboat Fonn, where we live. You can also see the area around Vega. I wonder when and where your teacher’s husband threw your bottle in the ocean?”

It added: “PS I am 27 years old and I like rock climbing and sailing a lot!”

Alaina, now 42, said she was stunned when she picked up the post and noticed the postcard addressed to herself.

“I’m at the same address,” she said.

“I did live in Buckie, and another house in Portknockie for a while, but moved back in with my parents.

“I couldn’t believe it, as I had sent it when I was 12 years old, 31 years ago.”

Alaina was able to find Pia via social media, and messaged her asking to send a photo of her letter.

“I was shocked when she did, I couldn’t believe how legible it was,” she said.

“I can’t remember actually writing the message, but I do remember it was a Moray Cup bottle, and that my teacher’s husband had dropped it into the sea when he was a fisherman.

“According to my message, I had done it as part of a project on water. It was when I was in P7.”

She added: “Pia and I have been keeping in touch and hopefully we will continue to do so.”

King Charles has recorded a warm personal message to researchers in Antarctica celebrating a frozen Midwinter’s Day – the first time a monarch has given the annual broadcast.

Marking the BBC Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast‘s 70th anniversary, which sends a morale-raising message to remote research stations in the depths of their winter, the King praised the work of scientists tracking climate change.

“Each observation, measurement and calculation you undertake adds to the world’s understanding of the Earth’s fragile systems,” the King said.

Alex Rootes, who leads the UK’s Rothera research base, said it was an honour to be recognised for their work “at the cutting edge of science in a really difficult part of the world”.

While much of the UK swelters in the summer heat, Antarctica is celebrating an icy Midwinter’s Day without any sun and with driving snow.

“With the sun shying away from your horizon today, I particularly wanted to send my warmest good wishes,” said the King, who praises the researchers’ “critically important work”.

The King, a longstanding environmental campaigner, spoke of his appreciation for the scientists’ “resilience and commitment” as they tracked changes in the ice in Antarctica, examining the “role humanity plays, as we struggle to live in harmony with nature”.

The broadcast from the BBC World Service is part of the traditional Midwinter celebrations for scientists at these isolated bases.

Previous contributions have included a message from Sir David Attenborough, a quirky song from Bill Bailey – “There’s rock and roll at the South Pole” – and a comedy sketch from the cast of W1A, which claims “they’re actually moving a glacier from one place to another”.

King Charles is the first monarch to be part of this annual broadcast – with a message praising the British Antarctic Survey, which he said was “more vital than ever, telling us stories of the past, the present and possible futures”.

• Isolated for six months, scientists in Antarctica began to develop their own accent

The British Antarctic Survey has described Antarctica as a “barometer of environmental change”, as its researchers extract and analyse ice cores to see changes in climate over hundreds of thousands of years.

Mr Rootes is one of 41 researchers at Rothera who will be listening to the broadcast in Antarctica – a location so remote that it’s a thousand miles to the nearest hospital. Also in this very bespoke audience have been researchers at bases in Bird Island and South Georgia.

Mr Rootes told the BBC it was currently warmer than usual in Antarctica, at -2C, but that it can be tough to cope without any daylight, which makes it even more important to have a community celebration for Midwinter.

“At this time of year when the darkness has really closed in, it’s very easy psychologically for people to withdraw into themselves,” he said.

“It’s a really vital part of our mental health provision that people have something like this, which people really look forward to.”

The traditions for Midwinter Day are something similar to having Christmas in June, including giving presents, a big dinner and watching the same film each year.

The seasonal favourite is The Thing, a 1980s sci-fi horror film about a group of scientists in Antarctica under threat from an unknown presence. Mr Rootes says it’s now part of the ritual of the day.

This is the southern winter solstice, the shortest day in their location, more than 1,000 miles south of the southern tip of South America.

This year, there are plans at the Rothera base for a 10km (6.2 miles) fun run, if the conditions allow. It’s one way of chilling out.

The annual BBC broadcast becomes a connection with home, with messages sent by the researchers’ families and selections of their favourite music.

But Mr Rootes said the King’s message will be an important endorsement of their work, as they measure changes in marine life and the ice linked to climate change.

“It’s lovely to feel like we have the King talking to us and recognising us in this remote community,” he said.

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Hundreds of journalists for Voice of America (VOA) – most of its remaining staff – have been fired by President Donald Trump’s administration, effectively shutting down the US-funded news outlet.

The administration said the layoffs were because the agency was “riddled with dysfunction, bias and waste”.

Steve Herman, VOA’s chief national correspondent, called the dismantling of the outlet, which was set up during World War Two to counter Nazi propaganda, a “historic act of self-sabotage”.

Among those axed were Persian-language reporters who had been on administrative leave, but were called back to work last week after Israel attacked Iran.

According to the Associated Press news agency, the Persian reporters had left the office on Friday for a cigarette break, and were not allowed to re-enter the building after the termination notices went out.

“Today, we took decisive action to effectuate President Trump’s agenda to shrink the out-of-control federal bureaucracy,” Kari Lake, whom the president appointed to run VOA, said in a statement on Friday announcing the layoffs of 639 employees.

In total, more than 85% of the agency’s employees – about 1,400 staff – have lost their jobs since March.

She noted that 50 employees would remain employed across VOA, the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, and VOA’s parent company, the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

A statement issued by three VOA journalists who have been suing to stop the elimination of the network said about the latest firings: “It spells the death of 83 years of independent journalism that upholds US ideals of democracy and freedom around the world.”

The move had been expected since March when Trump ordered VOA, as well as USAGM, which oversees VOA and funds outlets such as Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia, to be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law”.

The agencies have won acclaim and international recognition for their reporting in places where press freedom is severely curtailed or non-existent, from China and Cambodia to Russia and North Korea.

But Dan Robinson, a former VOA news correspondent, wrote in an op-ed last year that the outlet had become a “hubris-filled rogue operation often reflecting a leftist bias aligned with partisan national media”.

Trump’s criticisms of VOA come as part of his broader attacks against the US media, which studies suggest American news consumers view as highly polarised.

The president has also urged his fellow Republicans to remove federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).

A wave of disinformation has been unleashed online since Israel began strikes on Iran last week, with dozens of posts reviewed by BBC Verify seeking to amplify the effectiveness of Tehran’s response.

Our analysis found a number of videos – created using artificial intelligence – boasting of Iran’s military capabilities, alongside fake clips showing the aftermath of strikes on Israeli targets. The three most viewed fake videos BBC Verify found have collectively amassed over 100 million views across multiple platforms.

Pro-Israeli accounts have also shared disinformation online, mainly by recirculating old clips of protests and gatherings in Iran, falsely claiming that they show mounting dissent against the government and support among Iranians for Israel’s military campaign.

Israel launched strikes in Iran on 13 June, leading to several rounds of Iranian missile and drone attacks on Israel.

One organisation that analyses open-source imagery described the volume of disinformation online as “astonishing” and accused some “engagement farmers” of seeking to profit from the conflict by sharing misleading content designed to attract attention online.

“We are seeing everything from unrelated footage from Pakistan, to recycled videos from the October 2024 strikes—some of which have amassed over 20 million views—as well as game clips and AI-generated content being passed off as real events,” Geoconfirmed, the online verification group, wrote on X.

Certain accounts have become “super-spreaders” of disinformation, being rewarded with significant growth in their follower count. One pro-Iranian account with no obvious ties to authorities in Tehran – Daily Iran Military – has seen its followers on X grow from just over 700,000 on 13 June to 1.4m by 19 June, a 100% increase in under a week.

It is one of many obscure accounts that have appeared in people’s feeds recently. All have blue ticks, are prolific in messaging and have repeatedly posted disinformation. Because some use seemingly official names, some people have assumed they are authentic accounts, but it is unclear who is actually running the profiles.

The torrent of disinformation marked “the first time we’ve seen generative AI be used at scale during a conflict,” Emmanuelle Saliba, Chief Investigative Officer with the analyst group Get Real, told BBC Verify.

• Iran’s secretive nuclear site that only a US bomb could hit
• US moves 30 jets as Iran attack speculation grows
• Is the UK about to get dragged into Iran-Israel conflict?

Accounts reviewed by BBC Verify frequently shared AI-generated images that appear to be seeking to exaggerate the success of Iran’s response to Israel’s strikes. One image, which has 27m views, depicted dozens of missiles falling on the city of Tel Aviv.

Another video purported to show a missile strike on a building in the Israeli city late at night. Ms Saliba said the clips often depict night-time attacks, making them especially difficult to verify.

AI fakes have also focussed on claims of destruction of Israeli F-35 fighter jets, a state-of-the art US-made plane capable of striking ground and air targets. If the barrage of clips were real Iran would have destroyed 15% of Israel’s fleet of the fighters, Lisa Kaplan, CEO of the Alethea analyst group, told BBC Verify. We have yet to authenticate any footage of F-35s being shot down.

One widely shared post claimed to show a jet damaged after being shot down in the Iranian desert. However, signs of AI manipulation were evident: civilians around the jet were the same size as nearby vehicles, and the sand showed no signs of impact.

Another video with 21.1 million views on TikTok claimed to show an Israeli F-35 being shot down by air defences, but the footage actually came from a flight simulator video game. TikTok removed the footage after being approached by BBC Verify.

Ms Kaplan said that some of the focus on F-35s was being driven by a network of accounts that Alethea has previously linked to Russian influence operations.

She noted that Russian influence operations have recently shifted course from trying to undermine support for the war in Ukraine to sowing doubts about the capability of Western – especially American – weaponry.

“Russia doesn’t really have a response to the F-35. So what it can it do? It can seek to undermine support for it within certain countries,” Ms Kaplan said.

Disinformation is also being spread by well-known accounts that have previously weighed in on the Israel-Gaza war and other conflicts.

Their motivations vary, but experts said some may be attempting to monetise the conflict, with some major social media platforms offering pay-outs to accounts achieving large numbers of views.

By contrast, pro-Israeli posts have largely focussed on suggestions that the Iranian government is facing mounting dissent as the strikes continuer

Among them is a widely shared AI-generated video falsely purporting to show Iranians chant “we love Israel” on the streets of Tehran.

However, in recent days – and as speculation about US strikes on Iranian nuclear sites grows – some accounts have started to post AI-generated images of B-2 bombers over Tehran. The B-2 has attracted close attention since Israel’s strikes on Iran started, because it is the only aircraft capable of effectively carrying out an attack on Iran’s subterranean nuclear sites.

Official sources in Iran and Israel have shared some of the fake images. State media in Tehran has shared fake footage of strikes and an AI-generated image of a downed F-35 jet, while a post shared by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) received a community note on X for using old, unrelated footage of missile barrages.

A lot of the Disinformation reviewed by BBC Verify has been shared on X, with users frequently turning to the platform’s AI chatbot – Grok – to establish posts’ veracity.

However, in some cases Grok insisted that the AI videos were real. One such video showed an endless stream of trucks carrying ballistic missiles emerging from a mountainside complex. Tell-tale signs of AI content included rocks in the video moving of their own accord, Ms Saliba said.

But in response to X users, Grok insisted repeatedly that the video was real and cited reports by media outlets including Newsweek and Reuters. “Check trusted news for clarity,” the chatbot concluded in several messages.

X did not respond to a request from BBC Verify for comment on the Chatbot’s actions.

Many videos have also appeared on TikTok and Instagram. In a statement to BBC Verify, TikTok said it proactively enforces community guidelines “which prohibit inaccurate, misleading, or false content” and that it works with independent fact checkers to “verify misleading content”.

Instagram owner Meta did not respond to a request for comment.

While the motivations of those creating online fakes vary, many are shared by ordinary social media users.

Matthew Facciani, a researcher at the University of Notre Dame, suggested that disinformation can spread more quickly online when people are faced with binary choices, such as those raised by conflict and politics.

“That speaks to the broader social and psychological issue of people wanting to re-share things if it aligns with their political identity, and also just in general, more sensationalist emotional content will spread more quickly online.”

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

Pakistan has announced it plans to nominate US President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize, citing the role that Islamabad says he played in helping to negotiate a ceasefire last month between India and Pakistan.

On X, the Pakistani government said Trump deserved the award “in recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership during the recent India-Pakistan crisis”.

India has denied the US served as a mediator to end the fighting last month, and says it does not want any diplomatic intervention from a third party.

Trump has often suggested he should receive the Nobel Peace Prize, whose winner this year will be named in October.

In May, Trump made a surprise announcement of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan following four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Pakistan’s government said in its post early on Saturday: “President Trump demonstrated great strategic foresight and stellar statesmanship through robust diplomatic engagement with both Islamabad and New Delhi, which de-escalated a rapidly deteriorating situation.

“This intervention stands as a testament to his role as a genuine peacemaker.”

There was no immediate response from Washington or New Delhi.

Trump has repeatedly said that India and Pakistan ended the conflict after a ceasefire brokered by the US, and also that he had used trade as a lever to make them agree.

Pakistan has corroborated US statements about brokering the ceasefire, but India has denied it.

Last month, Trump said he told India and Pakistan that a ceasefire was necessary in order for them to maintain trade with the US.

“I said, ‘Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys [India and Pakistan]. Let’s stop it,” he told reporters.

The Nobel move was applauded by Mushahid Hussain, a former chair of the Senate Defence Committee in Pakistan’s parliament.

“Trump is good for Pakistan,” he told Reuters. “If this panders to Trump’s ego, so be it. All the European leaders have been sucking up to him big time.”

But Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, criticised the move as “unfortunate”.

“A man who has backed Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and called Israel’s attack on Iran as ‘excellent’,” she wrote on X.

“It compromises our national dignity,” she added.

On Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had helped broker negotiations between multiple nations, but despite this: “No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do.”

Trump entered office vowing to quickly end the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars, although peace deals in both conflicts have eluded him so far.

He has frequently criticised Barack Obama for winning a Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 after less than eight months as US president. In 2013, Trump called on the Norwegian Nobel Committee to rescind the award.

At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a Russian MP came up to me.

“Are you going to bomb Iran?” he asked.

“I’m not planning to bomb anyone!” I replied.

“I mean you, the British…”

“Don’t you mean Donald Trump?”

“He’s told what to do by Britain,” the man smiled. “And by the deep state.”

It was a brief, bizarre conversation. But it showed that in St Petersburg this week there was more on people’s minds than just the economy.

Take President Vladimir Putin.

On Friday, the Kremlin leader delivered the keynote speech at the forum’s plenary session. It focused on the economy.

But it’s what the Kremlin leader said in the panel discussion afterwards that made headlines.

“We have an old rule,” Putin declared. “Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that’s ours.”

Imagine you’re the leader of a country that’s hosting an economic forum, seeking foreign investment and cooperation. Boasting about your army seizing foreign lands wouldn’t appear to be the most effective way to achieve this.

But that’s the point. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the state of the economy has been secondary to the goal of winning the war against Ukraine. That is the Kremlin’s overarching priority. True, Russia’s economy has been growing, but largely due to massive state spending on the defence sector and military-industrial complex.

• Russia fears another loss in Middle East from Iran’s conflict with Israel
• How the West is helping Russia to fund its war on Ukraine

And even this war-related growth is now petering out.

Putin didn’t sound overly concerned.

“As far as the ‘murder’ of the Russian economy is concerned, as a famous writer once said – ‘rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated,'” the Russian president declared.

But the Russian government is clearly nervous.

At the forum, Russia’s Minister for Economic Development, Maxim Reshetnikov, warned that the country’s economy was teetering “on the brink of recession”.

“We grew for two years at a fairly high pace because unused resources were activated,” said Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. “We need to understand that many of those resources have truly been exhausted.”

The St Petersburg International Economic Forum was conceived as a shiny showcase for the Russian economy. A lot of that shine has faded due to the thousands of international sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Many Western companies pulled out of Russia.

Might they return?

After all, US President Donald Trump has made it clear he wants better relations with Moscow.

“Today we had breakfast with the American Chamber of Commerce and lots of investors came from the US. We get a sense that lots of American companies want to come back,” Kirill Dmitriev, President Putin’s envoy on foreign investment, told me. We spoke on the sidelines of the St Petersburg forum.

“I think the American administration understands that dialogue and joint cooperation is better than sanctions that do not work and hurt your businesses.”

Western businesses, though, are unlikely to return in large numbers while Russia is waging war on Ukraine.

“I think it’s clear you have to have some sort of an end to the conflict before American companies are going to seriously consider going back,” said Robert Agee, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia.

“Have you asked the Trump administration to remove some sanctions from Russia?” I asked him.

“We’ve been to Washington,” he replied. “We have made an analysis of the impact of American sanctions on American businesses. We passed that on to the administration.”

“Do you accept that the idea of Western businesses returning is controversial in light of the war in Ukraine?” I asked.

“Western businesses have made decisions based on what happened three or four years ago,” replied Mr Agee. “And it’s up to them to decide whether it’s the right time to return.”

After more than three years of war and mass sanctions, Russia faces tough economic challenges: high inflation, high interest rates, reports of stagnation, recession. The problems in the economy are now openly discussed and debated.

It’s unclear how soon they will be resolved.

Israel says it has killed a senior Iranian commander who helped plan the Hamas 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel, in a strike on Saturday on the city of Qom.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the killing of Saeed Izadi marked a key point in the conflict. He was “one of the orchestrators” of the attack, which killed about 1,200 people and saw many others taken to Gaza as hostages, said IDF chief Eyal Zamir.

“The blood of thousands of Israelis is on his hands,” he said on Saturday, calling it a “tremendous intelligence and operational achievement.”

Iran did not report Mr Izadi’s killing and has previously denied involvement in Hamas’s attack.

• Live updates
• Targeting of Quds Force shows growing security breach

The IDF said it had killed him in a strike on an apartment in Qom, south of Tehran, in the early hours of Saturday. He had been in charge of the Palestine Corps of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’s (IRGC) Quds Force, responsible for handling ties with the Palestinian armed groups.

He was reportedly instrumental in arming and financing Hamas, and had been responsible for military co-ordination between senior IRGC commanders and Hamas leaders, the IDF said.

In April 2024, Mr Izadi narrowly survived an Israeli air strike targeting the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria – an attack that killed several high-ranking Quds Force commanders.

Israel later on Saturday also said it had killed another Quds Force commander, Behnam Shahriyari, in a drone strike as he was travelling in a car through western Iran.

He had been responsible for transporting missiles and rockets to Iran’s proxy groups across the region, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, said the IDF.

If Israeli reports are confirmed, the new assassinations represent a major blow to the IRGC.

The attacks come as the conflict between the two countries entered its ninth day, with both launching new attacks on Saturday.

Iran said Israel had targeted a nuclear facility near the city of Isfahan. Israel said it was targeting military infrastructure in south-west Iran and reported at least one impact from Iranian drones that entered its airspace.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi meanwhile told reporters in Istanbul that any US involvement in the conflict would be “very very dangerous”. On Friday he told European envoys in Geneva on Friday that Iran would not resume talks over its nuclear programme until Israel’s strikes stopped.

Donald Trump has suggested US involvement in Israel’s strikes on Iran, saying Tehran had a “maximum” of two weeks to avoid possible American air strikes if they did not negotiate on their nuclear programme.

Iranian officials say least 430 people, including military commanders, have been killed and 3,500 injured in Iran since the conflict began on 13 June. A human rights group tracking Iran, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, put the unofficial death toll at 657 on Friday.

In Israel, officials say 25 people have been killed including one of a heart attack.

It’s hot, dusty and feels like a desert at the Agarak border crossing between Armenia and Iran.

There are dry, rocky mountains surrounding the area – no trees, no shade. It’s not the most welcoming terrain, especially for those who have travelled long hours to reach Armenia.

A woman with a fashionable haircut, with the lower half of her head shaven, is holding her baby, while her husband negotiates a price with taxi drivers. There’s another family of three with a little boy travelling back to their country of residence, Austria.

Most of those crossing into Armenia appeared to have residency or citizenship in other countries. Many were leaving because of the conflict between Israel and Iran, now in its eighth day.

“Today I saw one site where the bombing happened,” said a father standing with a small child near the minivan that they just hired. They had travelled from the north-western town of Tabriz.

“All the people are scared, every place is dangerous, it’s not normal,” he added.

• Live updates

The conflict began on 13 June, when Israel attacked nuclear and military sites as well as some populated areas.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) – a Washington-based human rights organisation that has long tracked Iran – says 657 people have so far been killed. Iran has retaliated with missile attacks on Israel, killing at least 24 people.

Israel says it has established air superiority over Tehran and has told people to leave some of its districts. In recent days, heavy traffic jams have formed on roads out of the city as some of its 10 million residents seek safety elsewhere.

Those who drove to Armenia from Tehran said the journey had taken at least 12 hours. Several told us that they did not see the Israeli strikes – but heard the sound of explosions they caused.

“It was troubling there. Every night, attacks from Israel. I just escaped from there by very hard way. There were no flights, not any other ways come from there,” said a young Afghan man with a single suitcase, who did not want to be named.

He described the situation in Tehran as “very bad”.

“People who have somewhere to go, they are leaving. Every night is like attacking, people cannot sleep, because of the sounds of explosions, the situation is not good at all,” he said.

A young woman with white headscarf and thick fake lashes said she was heading back to her country of residence, Australia.

“I saw something that is very hard, I don’t want to talk about it,” she said as she boarded a car with several others for the onward journey to the Armenian capital Yerevan.

“Someone comes and attacks your country, would you feel normal?”

Some Israeli ministers have talked up the possibility that the conflict could lead to regime collapse in Iran.

But Javad – who had been visiting the north-eastern city of Sabzevar for the summer holidays and was heading back to Germany – said he thought this was unlikely.

“Israel has no chance. Israel is not a friend for us, it’s an enemy,” he said. “Israel cannot come to our home to help us. Israel needs to change something for itself not for us.”

Some Iranians at the border however were crossing were travelling in the other direction. The previous evening, Ali Ansaye, who had been holidaying in Armenia with his family, was heading back to Tehran.

“I have no concerns, and I am not scared at all. If I am supposed to die, I will die in my country,” he said.

He said Israel was “harassing the entire world – Gaza, Lebanon and other countries”.

“How can such a small country have nuclear weapons?” he asked. “Based on which law can this country have a bomb, and Iran, which has only focused on peaceful nuclear energy and not a bomb, cannot?”

Israel is widely believed to have nuclear weapons, although it neither confirms nor denies this.

At least eight people have died in a hot air balloon accident in southern Brazil, the governor of Santa Catarina state has said.

There were 21 people on board the balloon in the city of Praia Grande on Saturday morning, Jorginho Mello posted on X.

Thirteen people, including the pilot, survived and no one is missing, the state government press office reported.

Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) said it was taking “all necessary steps to investigate the condition of the aircraft and the crew”.

“According to the pilot, who is one of the survivors, a fire started inside the basket, so he started to lower the balloon, and when the balloon was very close to the ground he told people to jump,” officer Tiago Luiz Lemos, from the Praia Grande police station, told reporters at the scene.

“They started to jump, but some people did not manage to. The flames started to grow and because of the weight, the balloon began to rise again.

“It later fell because of a loss of suspension.”

The victims were two couples, a mother and daughter, an ophthalmologist, and a figure skater.

The survivors were taken to nearby hospitals.

Balloon tour company Sobrevoar Serviços Turísticos, which operated the flight, has now suspended its activities indefinitely.

It said it had complied with all regulations set by Anac and had had no prior history of accidents.

“Unfortunately, even with all necessary precautions and the efforts of our experienced pilot – who followed all recommended procedures and tried to save everyone on board – we are now faced with the pain caused by this tragedy,” the company added.

In a video also posted on X, Mello, who is on an official mission in China, said he had sent “the entire state structure” to “rescue, help and comfort the families” and was continuing to monitor the situation.

“We are in mourning, what happened is a tragedy,” he added.

“We will investigate why this happened. But the important thing now is to do everything possible to reach out to the people and the families.”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva posted on X expressing his “solidarity with the families of the victims”.

He said he had placed “the federal government at the disposal of the victims” and that “state and municipal forces ” were working on the rescue and care of the survivors.

Praia Grande, in southern Santa Catarina, is a popular tourist destination known for its ballooning activities.

The suspect accused of fatally shooting a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband in a gun rampage last week was a doomsday “prepper”, according to the FBI.

The wife of the accused, Vance Boelter, told investigators the family was among a small group of Americans who “prepare for major or catastrophic incidents”, said a court document.

Boelter, 57, has been charged with killing Democratic House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, last Saturday.

He also seriously wounded Democratic State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette. Police say there is evidence he was planning to target others.

Police captured Mr Boelter in woods last Sunday after a two-day manhunt.

His wife was pulled over in a traffic stop hours after the shootings. She was taking their four children to stay with friends, according to investigators.

Jenny Boelter told the authorities her husband had warned her in a message that she should flee, documents show.

“The text stated something to the effect of they should prepare for war, they needed to get out of the house and people with guns may be showing up to the house,” wrote FBI agent, Terry Getsch, in an affidavit released on Friday.

In her car, investigators found about $10,000 in cash, passports and two guns. Mrs Boelter has not been charged with any crime.

She said her husband had given her a “bailout plan”, for what to do if she ever needed to leave the house.

Mrs Boelter also said her husband had a business partner in the north-western US state of Washington and that they ran a security company and “fishing outfit” called “Red Lion” in Congo, Africa.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, has called the shootings an “act of targeted political violence”.

According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Mr Boetler wrote a rambling and incoherent letter addressed to the FBI in which he claimed the state’s governor had ordered him to kill Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar as part of a supposed plot for Walz to take her spot in the Senate.

There is no evidence of any such plot.

Klobuchar and Minnesota’s other US senator, Tina Smith, along with Walz, were among Democratic politicians on a list of around 70 targets found in Mr Boetler’s possession, according to local media.

The suspect disguised himself as a police officer to gain access to the homes of the two US lawmakers he shot, police have said. He was wearing a vest with a Taser and a badge.

Yvette Hoffman, who survived the attack, was released from the hospital on Thursday, while her husband remains in care.

Mrs Hoffman was shot while shielding her daughter, Hope, from gunfire. It was Hope who called 911.

In June 1995, a giant statue of Michael Jackson provided a surreal sight in the heart of London when it was floated on a barge down the River Thames.

This 32ft (10m) pop colossus was just one of 10 that appeared around the world to promote the superstar’s album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I.

The fibreglass titans then followed Jackson on his global tour.

Thirty years later – and 16 years after his death – the King of Pop continues to attract controversy, but some of the statues still stand defiantly in unexpected corners of the world.

Jackson’s double album was a mix of his greatest hits alongside 15 new tracks including Earth Song, which would spend six weeks at the top of the UK chart.

In America, sculptor Diana Walczak consulted with the pop star to create a clay sculpture that was digitally scanned for the album cover.

Hertfordshire-based artist Stephen Pyle, who had built sets for worldwide productions of The Phantom of the Opera, was asked by a Sony employee called Robbie Williams (not that one) to make 10 huge statues based on this album cover.

He hired sculptor Derek Howarth to craft the statue in polystyrene sections, which Mr Pyle used to make moulds and fibreglass casts.

Everything was assembled in Chris and Liz Clark’s workshop at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, where they were painted to look like stone.

The team worked without access to Ms Walczak’s prototype, which led to them looking slightly different.

Mr Pyle says: “Making 10 statues in four months was quite the challenge, but thanks to Derek, Chris, Liz and the rest of my workshop team at the time, we became quite the efficient factory for Michael Jackson monoliths!”

The fates of some of the statues is uncertain, and they may have been locked in storage or destroyed. But others have remained on show in some unlikely locations.

For many years, a King of Pop monument towered over a McDonald’s car park in the village of Best in the Netherlands.

Restaurant owner Peter Van Gelder bought the statue from Sony at a 1996 charity gala for the Ronald McDonald Children’s Fund.

“The restaurant had just opened and didn’t yet have the big yellow M,” he says. “It was my intention to put it down as an eye-catcher.”

Jackson fans began flocking to the spot, taking photos and playing his music. Crowds became so frequent that Peter had to fence off the statue to stop people climbing on it.

Each year on Jackson’s birthday, and on the day he died, it became a shrine, with fans gathering to play music, hang pictures and leave flowers.

Things changed in 2019 after HBO’s Leaving Neverland documentary levelled new allegations of child sexual abuse against Jackson.

“In the Netherlands there was not such a strong reaction and my intention was to just leave the statue there,” explained Peter.

But he said pressure from the fast food chain’s US headquarters led to its removal and storage in a “secret location”.

McDonald’s tells the BBC: “In 2019, following the documentary, it was decided to remove the statue.

“We felt and feel it is important for all guests to feel comfortable when visiting one of our restaurants.”

Peter hopes to donate the statue to a fan club, but due to its size a building permit is required. “Many have approached me but still no-one has been able to get a permit,” he says.

“The years have passed since his death and I’ve noticed that the interest in the statue is decreasing… So the Michael Jackson statue lies resting under a tarp in an insignificant shed.”

The courtyard of an abandoned club in a small town 18 miles (30km) west of Vienna is not the place you’d expect to find a towering effigy of the King of Pop.

Owner Franz Josef Zika won the statue in 1998 at a radio charity auction in aid of the Red Cross, and spent 150,000 Austrian Schillings (£9,300).

He recalls: “The big problem was when I went home and had to tell my uncle, who was the family boss, and he said, ‘You’re crazy!'”

Visitors to The Baby’O in Judenau-Baumgarten may have been surprised to find Michael Jackson in the smoking area, but Franz saw it as a great way to promote his club.

“There were also many bars next to the statue, so there was a party around Jackson,” he says.

Last year the club was forced to close after a new residential building was built nearby.

Now Franz wants to find somebody to open a small cafe or pizzeria at the venue, but needs to get rid of the pop monolith first.

He said: “I’ve been trying to sell it for two years. I would be happy if I get €25,000 (£21,000) for it.

“I’ve had some interest from Sweden and some in Hungary, but the problem is people don’t have enough money.”

What if he can’t find a buyer? “We don’t know. Maybe I’ll send it to Mars. Elon will do this for me!” he laughs.

For more than 50 years, an annual fairground event called Luna Park has taken place in Lausanne, Switzerland.

It is among these blinking lights and brightly coloured rides that another Jackson statue can be found.

It has been given slight refurbishment, with gold paint added to his faux military uniform.

Organisers tell the BBC they bought it 2008 from a man who had purchased it from Sony years earlier.

The statue has not been displayed for a few years, but they do not say why – however they stress it is not for sale.

When Jackson brought his HIStory tour to South Africa, he had one of the 10 statues with him.

Santarama Miniland, which opened in Johannesburg in the 1970s to showcase the country in miniature, is now abandoned.

Attractions have been removed and the miniature train no longer runs, but a repainted MJ monolith still stands, visible in Google Earth satellite images.

Blogger Heather Mason of 2summers.net visited the park in 2013.

She recalls: “It was quite strange to see a giant blue Michael Jackson statue in the middle of Miniland, where the general theme is for things to be smaller than life, not larger than life.

“But I certainly appreciated it! The MJ statue was the best photo op in the park.”

A fresh coat of paint and new pair of sunglasses have not made this fibreglass figure too unrecognisable.

In June 2019, Europark Idroscalo Milano unveiled the “restored” statue after a Jackson-themed flash mob.

An announcer told the gathered crowd: “This statue is dedicated to all of you, who keep on loving him through the years.”

The dramatic reveal came just months after the Leaving Neverland documentary.

A park spokesperson tells the BBC the statue was purchased at the end of the tour but remained abandoned for many years before ending up in the park.

They said the titan had its face covered for a while following allegations of child abuse because park owners at the time “did not want to show that MJ welcomed children at the park, so it was transformed almost into a robot”.

Despite the work to restore and repaint the statue, the park’s owners have now put the refurbished statue up for sale.

A photo of the Prince of Wales with another generation – this time of puppies – has been posted on social media by Kensington Palace to mark his 43rd birthday.

The picture, taken by the Princess of Wales, shows Prince William with their family’s Cocker spaniel, Orla, and three of her four recently-arrived puppies.

The message for Prince William was signed online “with love”, with the initials of Catherine and their children, George, Charlotte, Louis, and “the puppies”, plus a paw print emoji.

The picture was taken in Windsor earlier this month.

There was also a message online for Prince William from the official account of the Royal Family, saying “Happy Birthday to The Prince of Wales!”, plus some celebratory emojis.

An accompanying picture, of the prince sitting on a stone wall, was taken while he visited farmers and food producers on the Duchy of Cornwall – a parcel of land William now owns – in May.

Orla was given to the royal couple by Catherine’s brother, James Middleton, in 2020, shortly after the death of their previous dog Lupo.

The dog – seen walking behind William in the picture – gave birth to four puppies in May.

Spaniels are well known for their affectionate behaviour and the picture shows the puppies clambering around the prince.

In the puppy picture, the prince looks relaxed in a pair of jeans and trainers – an informal moment after recent showcase occasions, including Trooping the Colour and the Order of the Garter procession.

He also visited a project linked to his Earthshot environmental prize which creates a type of sustainable dye that can reduce the fashion industry’s use of harmful chemicals – so colours can really be green.

Catherine did not appear at Royal Ascot earlier this week, with royal aides saying she had to find a balance in how she returned to public events. In January, the princess revealed she was in remission after her cancer diagnosis last year.

On Friday, she sent out a message about her support for children’s hospices – saying they helped families who were “heartbroken, fearful of the future and often desperately isolated”.

And now her photo has marked her husband’s birthday.

While Prince William was born in mid-summer on the longest day of the year, his father King Charles has been praising those in Antarctica experiencing the shortest day of the year.

He recorded a special message for the BBC World Service’s Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast, which sends a morale-raising message to scientists working in remote research stations in the depths of their winter.

The King praised the work of researchers tracking climate change.

Tulsi Gabbard says Iran could produce nuclear weapons “within weeks”, months after she testified before Congress that the country was not building them.

The US Director of National Intelligence said her March testimony – in which she said Iran had a stock of materials but was not building these weapons – had been taken out of context by “dishonest media”.

Her change of position came after Donald Trump said she was “wrong” and that intelligence showed Iran had a “tremendous amount of material” and could have a nuclear weapon “within months”.

Iran has always said that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and that it has never sought to develop a nuclear weapon.

On Thursday Trump said he was giving Tehran the “maximum” of two weeks to reach a deal on its nuclear activities with Washington. He said he would soon decide whether the US should join Israel’s strikes on Iran.

Disagreement has been building within Trump’s “America First” movement over whether the US should enter the conflict.

On Saturday morning, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country was “absolutely ready for a negotiated solution” on their nuclear programme but that Iran “cannot go through negotiations with the US when our people are under bombardment”.

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In her post on social media, Gabbard said US intelligence showed Iran is “at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months”.

“President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree,” she added.

Gabbard shared a video of her full testimony before Congress in March, where she said US intelligence agencies had concluded Iran was not building nuclear weapons.

Experts also determined Iran had not resumed its suspended 2003 nuclear weapons programme, she added in the clip, even as the nation’s stockpile of enriched uranium – a component of such weapons – was at an all-time high.

In her testimony, she said Iran’s stock was “unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons”.

Earlier this month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) – the global nuclear watchdog – expressed concern about Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons.

Gabbard’s March testimony has been previously criticised by Trump, who earlier told reporters he did not “care what she said”.

The US president said he believes Iran were “very close to having a weapon” and his country would not allow that to happen.

In 2015, Iran agreed a long-term deal on its nuclear programme with a group of world powers after years of tension over the country’s alleged efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.

Iran had been engaging in talks with the US this year over its nuclear programme and was scheduled to hold a further round when Israel launched strikes on Iran on 13 June, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said targeted “the heart” of Iran’s nuclear programme.

“If not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time,” Netanyahu claimed.

Israeli air strikes have destroyed Iranian military facilities and weapons, and killed senior military commanders and nuclear scientists.

Iran’s health ministry said on Saturday that at least 430 people had been killed, while a human rights group, the Human Rights Activists News Agency, put the unofficial death toll at 657 on Friday.

Iran has retaliated with missile and drone strikes against Israel, killing 25 people including one who suffered a heart attack.