Iran’s supreme leader has insisted the US “gained no achievements” from strikes on its nuclear facilities, in his first public address since a ceasefire with Israel was agreed on Tuesday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the strikes did not “accomplish anything significant” to disrupt Iran’s nuclear programme, and described the retaliation against an American air base in Qatar as dealing a “heavy blow”.

It came as Washington doubled down on its assessment that the strikes had severely undermined Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said intelligence gathered by the US and Israel indicated the operation “significantly damaged the nuclear programme, setting it back by years”.

Previously, US President Donald Trump said the strikes against three key nuclear sites inside Iran “totally obliterated” them, and has responded furiously to reports citing unnamed American officials suggesting the damage may have been less extensive than anticipated.

Speaking alongside senior general Dan Caine at a Pentagon press conference on Thursday morning, Hegseth said the mission was a “historic success” that had “rendered [Iranian] enrichment facilities inoperable”.

During an at times combative exchange with reporters, Hegseth also said the US was “not aware of any intelligence” which indicated the enriched uranium had moved out of Fordo – the deeply buried facility which the US targeted with powerful so-called bunker buster bombs – prior to the strikes.

Khamenei, who had been largely out of public view since direct conflict with Israel broke out on 13 June, released a televised address on Thursday morning, ending a week-long public silence.

The supreme leader has reportedly been sheltering in a bunker and limiting communications, which has sparked speculation about his whereabouts. Iranian authorities did not disclose where he was speaking from on Thursday, though a senior official acknowledged he was in a safe place earlier this week.

Khamenei used Thursday’s video address to threaten to carry out more strikes on US bases in the Middle East if Iran was attacked again, and declared victory over both Israel and the US.

Khamenei said Trump had “exaggerated” the impact of the nuclear site strikes, adding: “They couldn’t accomplish anything and did not achieve their objective.”

Referencing the attack on the US air base in Qatar, Khamenei said: “This incident is also repeatable in the future, and should any attack take place, the cost for the enemy and the aggressor will undoubtedly be very high.”

No one was killed during that attack, which Trump said had been flagged before it was launched. The US says the base was not damaged.

CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, reports that the White House is considering a range of options to entice Iran back to the negotiating table, including facilitating funding for a civilian, non-enrichment nuclear program.

However, Iran’s foreign minister told Iranian state TV on Thursday that there no talks with the US are planned.

Direct confrontation broke out between Iran and Israel on 13 June, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “if not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time”.

A day earlier the global nuclear watchdog’s board of governors declared Iran was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years.

Iran has maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes alone and that it had never sought to develop a nuclear weapon.

On Thursday, Iran approved a parliamentary bill calling for an end to the country’s co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meaning it is no longer committed to allowing nuclear inspectors into its sites.

Iran’s health ministry said 610 people were killed during the 12 days of air attacks, while Israeli authorities said 28 were killed.

The US became directly involved last weekend, striking facilities in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, before Trump sought to rapidly mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, which has held since.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday that there was a chance Tehran had moved much of its highly enriched uranium elsewhere as it came under attack.

Iranian authorities have carried out a wave of arrests and multiple executions of people suspected of links to Israeli intelligence agencies, in the wake of the recent war between the two countries.

It comes after what officials describe as an unprecedented infiltration of Iranian security services by Israeli agents.

Authorities suspect information fed to Israel played a part in a series of high-profile assassinations during the conflict. This included the targeted killings of senior commanders from the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and nuclear scientists, which Iran attributes to operatives of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency working inside the country.

Shaken by the scale and precision of these killings, authorities have been targeting anyone suspected of working with foreign intelligence, saying it is for the sake of national security.

But many fear this is also a way to silence dissent and tighten control over the population.

During the 12-day conflict, Iranian authorities executed three people accused of spying for Israel. On Wednesday – just one day after the ceasefire – three more individuals were executed on similar charges.

Officials have since announced the arrest of hundreds of suspects across the country on accusations of espionage. State television has aired alleged confessions from several detainees, purportedly admitting to collaboration with Israeli intelligence.

Human rights groups and activists have expressed fears over the latest developments, citing Iran’s longstanding practice of extracting forced confessions and conducting unfair trials. There are concerns that more executions may follow.

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence claims it is engaged in a “relentless battle” against what it calls Western and Israeli intelligence networks – including the CIA, Mossad, and MI6.

According to Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, since the beginning of Israel’s attack on Iran on 13 June, “the Israeli spy network has become highly active inside the country”. Fars reported that over the course of 12 days, Iranian intelligence and security forces arrested “more than 700 individuals linked to this network”.

Iranians have told BBC Persian they received warning text messages from Iran’s intelligence ministry informing them their phone numbers had appeared on social media pages related to Israel. They were instructed to leave these pages or face prosecution.

The Iranian government has also stepped up pressure on journalists working for Persian-language media outlets abroad, including BBC Persian and the London-based Iran International and Manoto TV.

According to Iran International, the IRGC detained the mother, father, and brother of one of its TV presenters in Tehran to pressure her into resigning over the channel’s coverage of the Iran-Israel conflict. The presenter received a phone call from her father – prompted by security agents – urging her to quit and warning of further consequences.

After the conflict began, threats directed at BBC Persian journalists and their families have become increasingly severe. According to the journalists recently affected, Iranian security officials contacting their families have claimed that, in a wartime context, they are justified in targeting family members as hostages. They have also labelled the journalists as “mohareb” — a term meaning ‘one who wages war against God’ — a charge that, under Iranian law, can carry the death penalty.

Manoto TV has reported similar incidents, including threats against employees’ families and demands to cut all ties with the outlet. Some relatives were reportedly threatened with charges such as “enmity against God” and espionage – both capital offences under Iranian law.

Analysts view these tactics as part of a broader strategy to silence dissent and intimidate exiled media workers.

Security forces have also detained dozens of activists, writers and artists, in many cases without formal charges. There are also reports of arrests targeting family members of those killed during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” anti-government protests.

These actions suggest a broader campaign aimed not only at current activists but also at those connected to previous waves of dissent.

During the war, the Iranian government severely restricted access to the internet, and even after the ceasefire, full access has not yet been restored. Limiting internet access during crises, especially during nationwide protests against the government, has become a common pattern by Iran. Additionally, most of the social networks like Instagram, Telegram, X and YouTube, as well as news websites such as BBC Persian, have long been blocked in Iran and cannot be accessed without using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) proxy service.

Human rights advocates and political observers have drawn parallels to the 1980s, when the Iranian authorities brutally suppressed political opposition during the Iran-Iraq War.

Many fear that, in the wake of its weakened international standing after the conflict with Israel, the Iranian authorities may again turn inward, resorting to mass arrests, executions, and heavy-handed repression.

Critics point to events of 1988, when, according to human rights groups, thousands of political prisoners – many already serving sentences – were executed following brief, secretive trials by so-called “death commissions.” Most victims were buried in unmarked mass graves.

Dame Anna Wintour is stepping back as editor-in-chief of American Vogue after 37 years.

The British-born fashion magnate, 75, is leaving the role she has held longer than any other editor, but will retain senior positions at its publisher.

Dame Anna will continue as Vogue’s global editorial director, as well as chief content officer for its parent company Conde Nast.

She was made a dame by the late Queen Elizabeth II for services to fashion and journalism in 2017, and was made Companion of Honour by King Charles earlier this year.

Dame Anna announced to staff on Thursday that a new role, head of editorial content, would be introduced at American Vogue.

According to an account published by the company, Dame Anna told staff she wanted to help “the next generation of impassioned editors storm the field with their own ideas” as she announced her departure from the editor-in-chief role.

She said she would continue with many of her responsibilities, and that “it goes without saying that I plan to remain Vogue’s tennis and theatre editor in perpetuity”.

Raised in London, Dame Anna was the editor of British Vogue before she took the helm at its US sister publication in 1988.

She is credited with giving American Vogue a new lease of life, turning it into one of the world’s top fashion publications and was credited with overhauling its output, including featuring less well-known models and mixing inexpensive clothes with couture.

Over her long career, Dame Anna has become one of the most recognisable and influential figures in the fashion industry.

Outside of her work with Vogue, she has also organised the Met Gala, a New York fundraiser which attracts high-profile celebrities, since 1995.

She is known for her trademark bob and dark glasses. Last December, she told the BBC’s culture editor Katie Razzall the signature shades were a “prop”, and “they help me see and they help me not see”.

Dame Anna’s tenure as editor-in-chief of US Vogue is also widely rumoured to have inspired the tyrannical but revered character of Miranda Priestly in the Devil Wears Prada – a novel by a former assistant of Wintour, Lauren Weisberger.

Earlier this year, King Charles asked Dame Anna whether she would stop working – to which she said she replied “firmly no”.

At least 18 Palestinians have been killed after an Israeli drone strike targeted a Hamas police unit attempting to assert control over a market in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, a doctor and eyewitnesses told the BBC.

Eyewitnesses said Israeli drones fired at members of a Hamas police force, dressed in civilian clothing and wearing masks, who were confronting vendors they accused of price gouging and selling goods looted from aid trucks.

The Hamas-run Ministry of Interior condemned the strike, accusing Israel of committing “a new crime against a police unit tasked with maintaining public order”.

The BBC has contacted the Israeli military for comment.

One eyewitness told the BBC clashes broke out on Thursday after police confronted the vendors, with the unit commander shouting: “Either sell at a fair price or we will confiscate the goods.”

Some of the vendors then “pulled out handguns and one man had a Kalashnikov”, the eyewitness said.

Israeli drones then fired two missiles, local residents said.

Video footage from the aftermath shows bodies strewn on the ground and panicked shoppers screaming, as ambulances rush to attend to those injured.

A doctor at Deir al-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Hospital told the BBC 18 bodies were brought to the morgue there. It was not immediately clear how many of those killed were police officers.

The incident came as civilians in Gaza continued to struggle to access food, with near daily shootings reported at and around US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) distribution sites in south and central Gaza, and the limited goods available in markets selling for highly inflated prices.

The GHF – which has been accused of violating humanitarian principles by international aid groups – received a further $30m in funding on Thursday from the US, which has supported Israeli efforts to see it become the largest aid organisation in Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday accused Hamas of “once again taking control of humanitarian aid… and stealing it from civilians” in northern Gaza, as he gave the military two days to devise an “action plan” to prevent this.

It came after video footage was filmed on Wednesday of a truck convoy carrying aid into northern Gaza, after entering through the Zikim gate, with armed and masked men on top.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir shared the video on social media, saying Hamas was “taking control of the food and goods” and calling on Netanyahu to halt the entry of aid into Gaza.

Hamas has denied stealing or profiting from aid, and Gaza’s higher committee for tribal affairs – a non-Hamas affiliated committee created during the war – also dismissed Israel’s “false claims” in a statement on Thursday.

“The securing of aid has been carried out purely through tribal efforts,” it said.

At a warehouse in Gaza City on Thursday, thousands of aid parcels were distributed.

Hamas political officials were present but said their role was “supervisory”, with an NGO in charge of distributing some 6,000 food parcels.

“This morning, when I woke up to the message telling me to go get aid, all my children, young and old, started singing and dancing with joy. I pray to God that this blessing remains with us,” one woman waiting for food there said.

Also on Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced its first medical shipment into Gaza since 2 March had been delivered on Wednesday.

Nine trucks carrying medical supplies, 2,000 units of blood, and 1,500 units of plasma were transported without any looting “despite the high-risk conditions”, WHO’s chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

He added the amount was “only a drop in the ocean”.

The blood and plasma were delivered to Nasser Medical Complex for onward distribution to hospitals “facing critical shortages amid a growing influx of injuries, many linked to incidents at food distribution sites”, he said.

Before Thursday’s strike at the market, at least 14 Palestinians had been killed and dozens injured in Israeli military attacks across Gaza since midnight, a spokesperson for the Hamas-run Civil Defence said.

Rescue teams evacuated 14 bodies, including those of three Palestinians who were waiting for humanitarian aid near the Wadi Gaza bridge close to the Netzarim corridor in central Gaza.

A medical source at Al-Awda Hospital nearby confirmed that three Palestinians were killed and several others injured by Israeli gunfire near the Wadi Gaza bridge.

Witnesses said Israeli drones opened fire at a big crowd of civilians reportedly waiting for humanitarian aid at the time of the attack.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC that overnight, a gathering was identified in an area adjacent to troops in the Netzarim corridor, and troops fired warning shots to prevent suspects from approaching them.

The IDF said it was aware of reports regarding the number of injured individuals in the area, but said an initial inquiry suggested the number does not align with the IDF’s information. However, the details of the incident are under additional review, the IDF added.

Elsewhere, five people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced families in western Gaza City.

In the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, in the south of the Strip, five members of the Abu Arab family were killed when an Israeli air strike hit a tent sheltering displaced persons. Another Palestinian was also killed in a strike that hit a tent in Al-Mawasi.

Others were wounded in the strikes.

The IDF said it was looking into these reports, but requested specific coordinates and times. In general, the IDF said it was “operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities”.

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

At least 56,259 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The head of Ukraine’s army, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, has said his troops have stopped Russian advances in the northeastern border region of Sumy.

During a visit to the front on Thursday, Syrskyi said the line of combat had been “stabilised” and that the Russian summer offensive in the area had been “choked off”.

However, Syrskyi also added that he had personally gone to check on fortifications in the region and that more were urgently needed.

Syrskyi’s comments on the successes of the Ukrainian troops in Sumy back recent statements by Ukrainian officials that Russia’s pressure on the region was declining.

However, the situation remained “volatile”, Border Guard spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said earlier this week.

Sumy borders the Russian region of Kursk, parts of which were seized and occupied last year by Ukrainian forces in a surprise offensive before being almost totally driven out months later.

The Kursk incursion was an embarrassment for Russia and in April President Vladimir Putin announced a plan to create “security buffer zones” along the border to provide “additional support” to areas in Russia which border Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

Moscow has been pushing in the Sumy area with renewed effort since then. In late May Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said 50,000 of Russia’s “largest, strongest” troops were concentrated along the border and were planning to create a 10km (6-mile) buffer zone.

• Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia

There has been criticism about the lack of fortifications in some areas of the Sumy region – and in his statement on Thursday Syrskyi tried to quell growing public concerns over delays in their construction.

“Additional fortifications, the establishment of ‘kill zones’, the construction of anti-drone corridors to protect our soldiers and ensure more reliable logistics for our troops are obvious tasks that are being carried out,” he said.

However, Syrskyi acknowledged that these improvements had to be done better and more efficiently.

In the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the lack of fortifications in certain parts of Ukraine allowed Moscow to make advances across the country – from its northern borders and from the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula.

The window of opportunity to build fortifications in Sumy safely and quickly was in autumn 2024, when Ukrainian troops were still advancing in the Russia’s border Kursk region and Sumy remained relatively unscathed.

Now may be too late, as Russia is undoubtedly well aware of the sections of the front line that lack strong fortifications.

In the last several months Moscow has claimed to have captured several villages while pummelling the city of Sumy with heavy missile strikes, killing dozens. A single ballistic missile attack on 13 April killed at least 34 people and injured 117.

DeepState, a group that monitors the latest frontline developments in Ukraine, has quoted sources as confirming that combat is raging in various unfortified areas of Sumy. The delays with erecting “much-needed fortifications” or the “low quality of some of the dugouts” could no longer be ignored, DeepState analysts said.

Asked about the summer offensive at a forum in St Petersburg last week, Putin said Russia did not “have the goal of capturing Sumy, but I don’t rule it out”. He said Russian forces had already established a buffer zone of 8-12km in depth.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, is now well into its fourth year.

Large-scale Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian cities are on the rise. In recent weeks the capital Kyiv was targeted with record numbers of drones that overwhelm air defences and cause deadly explosions.

Recent rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia resulted in large prisoner exchanges but have so far failed to produce any tangible progress towards a ceasefire.

Earlier this week Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said that European and Canadian allies had pledged €35bn (£30bn; $41bn) to Ukraine.

But there remains nervousness in Kyiv over the level of US President Donald Trump’s commitment to the Ukrainian cause and his volatile relationship with Zelensky.

However, Trump said on Wednesday a meeting he held with Zelensky on the sidelines of the Nato summit in The Hague “couldn’t have been nicer”.

He told BBC Ukraine’s Myroslava Petsa at a press conference afterwards that he was considering supplying Kyiv with US Patriot air defence missiles to defend itself against Russian strikes.

“We’re going to see if we could make some available. You know, they’re very hard to get,” he said.

Actor Brad Pitt’s home in Los Angeles has been ransacked by a trio of thieves.

Three suspects broke into the home in the Los Feliz late on Wednesday through a front window and “ransacked the location,” according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Police did not confirm the home belonged to the Oscar-winning actor, but the address matched that of a home Mr Pitt purchased in 2023.

Authorities said the suspects fled with stolen items, though it’s unclear what was taken. The actor was reportedly not home at the time of the burglary.

Mr Pitt was in the UK earlier this week for the London premier of his new film F1, which is released on Friday. He was accompanied by fellow Hollywood star Tom Cruise and Lewis Hamilton, who has seven Formula One World Drivers’ Championship titles.

US media reported he was not home at the time of the burglary, which authorities said happened around 22:30 local time on Wednesday.

LA police would not confirm whether Mr Pitt was home or the value of items stolen. The BBC also contacted representatives for the actor.

The large three-bedroom home sits just outside Griffith Park – which is home to the famous Hollywood Sign. It is surrounded by a large fence and greenery that shields the home from public view.

The burglary follows others reported in the city targeting other celebrities, including Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.

Last month, a man was also arrested on stalking and vandalism charges after he allegedly rammed his vehicle into the gate of the home of Pitt’s ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston.

The prosecution in Sean “Diddy” Combs’s trial made its final case Thursday, arguing the music mogul used a business “kingdom”, violence, drugs and fraud to coerce women into unwanted sex acts

“You’ve learned a lot about Sean Combs,” Assistant US Attorney Christy Slavik told 12 New Yorkers on Thursday. “He’s the leader of a criminal enterprise. He doesn’t take no for an answer.”

Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.

For four hours, Ms Slavik reviewed seven weeks of evidence, accusing Combs of manipulating women into fulfilling his sexual fantasies with employees’ help.

The rapper, wearing a cream sweater, watched, leaning back in his chair at the defence table, while his twin daughters and 85-year-old mother sat a few rows behind.

For the racketeering charges – the allegation that Mr Combs relied on a loyal network of employees to facilitate and conceal sex trafficking and other crimes – Ms Slavik reminded jurors that they needed to find Combs committed only two crimes through his “criminal enterprise”.

She alleged he committed “hundreds” with the help of his employees.

Among those crimes, she included drug trafficking – when his employees allegedly procured drugs for him and others – as well as arson, when prosecutors say he hired someone to blow up musician Kid Cudi’s car.

But the “brutal crimes at the heart of the case” were sex trafficking, Ms Slavik said, citing harrowing testimony from two of Combs’ ex girlfriends, Casandra Ventura and “Jane”.

They had testified Combs manipulated them into participating in freak-offs – having sex with a male escort while Combs watched and filmed. Combs used repeated beatings to coerce Ms Ventura into the unwanted sex acts, Ms Slavik said – a rebuttal to the defence’s main argument that Combs’ domestic violence did not amount to sex trafficking.

“The cloud of abuse was hanging over Cassie’s head – always hovering,” she said.

• Who testified in the Diddy trial?

Jurors again watched the viral 2016 video of Mr Combs beating Ms Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway, attempting to drag her back to a room, allegedly after she tried to leave a freak-off.

Combs kept his head down and his daughters shifted in their seats as jurors were shown the footage, played repeatedly during ther trial.

“This is what happened when Cassie said no,” Ms Slavik told the court.

The video is particularly effective in helping prosecutors turn theoretical sex trafficking arguments into something more concrete, said Mitchell Epner, a New York-based lawyer and former prosecutor.

“The government is doing a very good job saying that these particular incidents on these particular days constituted sex trafficking,” he said.

Ms Slavik also described other ways Combs allegedly coerced the women into unwanted sex, including “plying” them with copious amounts of drugs, and in the case of Jane, refusing to pay her rent if she did not comply.

She cited texts from Jane telling the rapper she did not want to participate and that she was “in fear of losing the roof over my head”.

The prosecution was not there to “criminalize dysfunctional relationships” or criticize “unconventional sex lives”, she told jurors. Combs’ lawyers have argued he participated in a “swingers” lifestyle.

“Cassie and Jane did not want to have sex with escorts while the defendant watched,” Ms Slavik said.

The government’s summation did what it needed to do, said Anna Cominsky, associate professor at New York Law School.

“They have marshaled the evidence – walked the jury through their case and told them the significance of each piece of evidence.”

The 12 jurors could begin deliberations on Combs’ fate as soon as Friday. His lawyers are set to give closing arguments then, after which the judge will instruct the jurors on its deliberations.

Earlier this week, Combs’ legal team rested its case after about 20 minutes, introducing text messages from Jane, but calling no witnesses.

Combs faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.

One of the “grandpa robbers” found guilty of stealing jewellery worth millions from reality TV star Kim Kardashian has died one month after being convicted, French media have said.

Didier Dubreucq, 69, was diagnosed with lung cancer while in detention prior to going on trial and had been undergoing chemotherapy.

In May, he and seven accomplices were found guilty of the high-profile Paris heist, during which millions of dollars’ worth of jewellery were stolen from Kardashian nearly a decade ago.

Dubreucq denied any involvement in the heist. “It’s a mistaken identity case… I had nothing to do with this,” he told the court during his testimony in April.

Due to chemotherapy, Dubreucq – nicknamed “Blue Eyes” – was absent from the sentencing, but received a seven-year sentence from the judge of which five were suspended.

He did not spend time in prison following the sentencing as he had already spent two years in pre-trial detention.

Three other people were given sentences of up to eight years, mostly suspended, but also did not return to prison because of time already served.

Judge David De Pas said as he delivered the verdict that “the state of health of the main protagonists ethically prohibits incarcerating anyone”.

During the three-week trial, the court heard how Kardashian was bound and had a gun held to her head during the ordeal.

On the day she took the stand, she recalled thinking she “would be shot dead on the bed”.

The thieves – nicknamed the “grandpa robbers” due to the advanced ages of those involved, stole about $10m (£7.5m) of her jewellery, including the engagement ring her then-husband and rapper Kanye West gifted her, which alone was worth $4m (£3m).

“The crime was the most terrifying experience of my life, leaving a lasting impact on me and my family,” Kardashian said in a statement after the verdicts.

Amy Hunt, whose mother and two sisters were murdered in their own home last year, has told the BBC there is an “epidemic” of misogyny in society that has “the most horrific, devastating consequences”.

In her first interview since the murders of her mum, Carol, and sisters, Hannah and Louise, Amy says the UK “should be very concerned” about sexist, hateful content on social media – calling on media platforms, people in power, schools and “every single one of us” to do something about it.

She tells the BBC people are “slowly waking up” to the links between hate posted on social media and violence against women by men in real life.

The man who killed her loved ones was Kyle Clifford, her youngest sister’s ex-boyfriend. The attacks came two weeks after Louise ended their 18-month relationship.

Amy describes Clifford as a man filled with hatred, self-loathing, and a deep insecurity. “It’s very clear he hates women,” she says. “But what I often say is, he doesn’t hate women as much as he hates himself.”

She says there is “a serious obligation as a society to change men’s behaviour, because this is a man’s issue – it is not a woman’s issue”.

Amy has been speaking to the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire alongside her father, racing commentator John Hunt.

• Watch: John and Amy Hunt’s interview with BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire

The pair describe the legacy of love Carol, Hannah and Louise have left. John says it is this that has helped sustain them through their trauma and grief. The three women remain a constant presence in their lives, he says.

Amy adds that her mother and sisters were “the best of us” and says “the world is a much emptier place without them”.

Clifford fatally stabbed 61-year-old Carol in July last year after he followed her into her home, in Bushey, Hertfordshire, on the pretext of bringing over some of his former partner Louise’s belongings.

He then lay in wait for Louise, 25, before raping her, and using a crossbow to shoot both her and her sister Hannah, 28.

In March this year, he was sentenced to three whole-life orders, meaning he will never be released from prison.

John and Amy strongly reject reports in some media that there were clear signs of abuse by Clifford during his relationship with Louise.

Prosecutors in the case did, however, say Clifford’s actions had been fuelled by the “violent misogyny” promoted by controversial social media personality Andrew Tate, whose videos he had watched in the days before the murders.

Clifford had searched for Tate’s podcast the day before carrying out the attack.

The court was told it was no coincidence that he had turned to such content before carrying out the violence. Amy says she believes there was an “undeniable link”.

But she also says any suggestion that Clifford was not dangerous, or that he only became capable of murder after watching misogynistic content, is “ridiculous”. She says, however, we live in a society that “emboldens misogyny” and “allows misogyny to fester”.

“It’s not just Andrew Tate, there are many subsets of Andrew Tate on social media who are spouting the same misogynistic hate – that is an undeniable fact and we should be very concerned about it.”

She feels misogyny is “the acceptable form of extremism” on social media platforms.

“We’ve got a serious issue on our hands, and we don’t give it the attention it deserves until it forces its way into your life, like it has ours,” she says.

Amy says the minute Clifford left their home on the day of the incident, “my mum, Hannah and Louise became a statistic. They became victims of Kyle Clifford.” She wants “to breathe life back into my mum, Hannah and Louise as fully-rounded people”.

When sentencing Clifford in March, the judge, Mr Justice Bennathan, described him as a “jealous man soaked in self-pity, who holds women in utter contempt”. The attacks, the judge added, were “brutal and cowardly”.

Reflecting on these words, John says: “I know it’s difficult to hear, but it’s worth remembering that he killed Carol in the most brutal way, and [he] still had choices after that.

“He didn’t choose to say, ‘oh my God, what have I done? I’ve got to get out of here’. His choice then was to say, ‘I’ve killed Carol, and now I’m going to sit and wait for an hour and a half. I’m going to kill Louise as well, and whatever time Hannah turns up, [do the] same’.

“The amount of time that day, on 9 July, he would have just been sitting there making a conscious decision to do the next step. It’s impossible for us to comprehend, isn’t it?”

He says schools should teach boys to respect women and girls much earlier than they currently do. Once boys start viewing dangerous, misogynistic content online, he adds, “they’re already on the path to doom”.

Amy says she believes misogynist influencers “don’t care” about the men and boys who watch their content.

“Who are the people that do care about the men in our society? It’s the people who love them, the people who know them,” she says. “It’s a question of what sort of world are we comfortable living in.”

One of the two charismatic criminals involved in the kidnapping that gave the world the term “Stockholm syndrome” has died aged 78, his family has said.

Clark Olofsson – who rose to global notoriety in 1973 following a kidnapping and bank robbery in the Swedish capital – died following a lengthy illness, his family told online media outlet Dagens ETC.

During a six-day siege, Olofsson’s hostages began to sympathise with him and his accomplice, defending their actions while growing more hostile to the police outside.

The incident lends its name to a theorised psychological condition whereby kidnap victims develop affections for their captors.

• What is Stockholm syndrome?

The notorious bank siege was instigated by another man, Jan-Erik Olsson. After seizing three women and a man hostage, he demanded Olofsson – who he had previously befriended in prison – be brought to the bank from jail.

Swedish authorities agreed to his demand, and Olofsson entered the bank, which was surrounded by police.

Years later, in an interview with the Aftonbladet newspaper, he claimed he was asked to work as an inside man to keep the captives safe in exchange for a reduced sentence, but accused officials of not honouring the agreement.

Olofsson persuaded one of the hostages, Kristin Enmark, to speak to the Swedish prime minister on the phone on behalf of the robbers.

She begged to be allowed to leave the bank in a getaway car with the kidnappers, telling him: “I fully trust Clark and the robber… They haven’t done a thing to us.”

She went on: “On the contrary, they have been very nice… Believe it or not but we’ve had a really nice time here.”

Over the course of several phone calls, Enmark said she feared her captors would be harmed by police and repeatedly defended their actions.

In her memoir, she said of Olofsson: “He promised that he would make sure nothing happened to me and I decided to believe him. I was 23 years old and feared for my life.”

The hostage situation ended after six days when police officers broke through the roof and used tear gas to subdue the pair.

Initially, hostages refused to leave their captors over fears they would be shot by police. The hostages also later refused to testify against Olofsson and Olsson.

Experts have since debated whether Stockholm syndrome is an actual psychiatric condition, with some arguing it is a defence mechanism to cope with traumatic situations.

The term was coined in the aftermath of the siege by Swedish criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot to explain the seemingly irrational affection some captives felt for their hostage-takers.

The theory reached a wider audience the following year when Californian newspaper heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by revolutionary militants.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sideways podcast in 2021, Enmark rubbished the concept of Stockholm syndrome, saying: “It’s a way of blaming the victim. I did what I could to survive.”

Olofsson was a repeat offender and spent much of his life in prison. He was released for the last time in 2018 after serving a sentence for a drug offence in Belgium.

In 2022, actor Bill Skarsgård portrayed him in the Netflix drama series Clark.

The government is expected to announce a deal with Labour rebels on its planned benefits changes.

Multiple sources tell the BBC existing claimants of the Personal Independence Payment (Pip) will continue to receive what they currently get, as will recipients of the health element of Universal Credit. Instead, planned cuts will only hit future claimants.

Ministers are expected to fast-track a £1bn support plan originally scheduled for 2029.

The concessions amount to a massive climbdown from the government, which was staring at the prospect of defeat if it failed to accommodate the demands of over 100 of its backbenchers.

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer spent Thursday making calls to shore up support among the 120 Labour MPs who backed an amendment to stop the government’s flagship welfare bill ahead of a Commons vote on Tuesday.

Speaking in the Commons earlier, Sir Keir said he wanted to “see reform implemented with Labour values and fairness”.

He said he recognised that MPs of all parties were “eager” to reform the “broken” welfare system.

Broadly speaking the rebels have told the BBC their colleagues are happy with the concessions, meaning the bill is now likely to pass.

Peter Lamb, Labour MP for Crawley, posted on social media that he would still not support the bill – calling the changes “insufficient” and accusing ministers of ignoring better options.

The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill would change who would qualify for certain disability and sickness benefits.

Ministers had said the legislation, which aims to save £5bn a year by 2030, is crucial to slow down the increase in the number of people claiming benefits.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves had factored these cuts into her Spring Statement in March – designed to help meet her economic plans.

It is unclear how the new reforms will affect the government’s spending plans.

Working-age health-related benefit spending has increased from £36bn to £52bn in the five years between 2019 and 2024, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), a think tank.

It is expected to double to £66bn by 2029, without changes to the system.

But Labour MPs have criticised elements of government proposals, including plans to require Pip claimants to prove they need a higher degree of assistance with tasks such as preparing and eating food, communicating, washing and getting dressed.

The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill has its second reading on Tuesday, the first opportunity for MPs to support or reject it.

If the legislation clears its first hurdle, it will then face a few hours’ examination by all MPs the following week – rather than days or weeks in front of a committee tasked with looking at the Bill.

This is now the third government U-turn in a month, in a major blow to the prime minister’s authority.

It follows on from the PM reversing cuts to winter fuel payments, and ordering a grooming gangs inquiry he initially resisted.

The Tories described the concessions understood to have been offered to Labour rebels as “the latest in a growing list of screeching U-turns” from the government.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: “Under pressure from his own MPs Starmer has made another completely unfunded spending commitment.”

One of the main co-ordinators behind the welfare amendment, who did not wish to be named, has told the BBC the winter fuel concessions had emboldened many of the rebels this time.

They told the BBC, MPs “all voted for winter fuel [cuts] and have taken so much grief in our constituencies, so colleagues think why should I take that on again?”.

It is understood that plans for the amendment began when Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall offered a partial olive branch to rebels by expanding the transition period for anyone losing Pip from four to 13 weeks.

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At his 1,200-person cleaning business in Maryland, chief executive Victor Moran carefully screens new recruits to make sure they are authorised to work in the US.

Even so, President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants is starting to chip away at his workforce.

About 15 people have left his company, Total Quality, since Trump won a fight to strip immigrants from Venezuela and Nicaragua from temporary protections shielding them from deportation, he says.

If the White House expands its efforts, it could cost him hundreds more of his workers, who rely on similar work permits and would be difficult to replace.

Similar kinds of concerns are reverberating at businesses across the US, as Trump’s deportation drive appears to pick up pace, threatening to choke off a supply of workers that is increasingly critical to the US economy.

Nearly one in five workers in the US was an immigrant last year, according to census data. That marked a record high in data going back decades, up from less than 10% in 1994.

Trump has said he is targeting people in the US illegally, who account for an estimated 4% of the US workforce. His pledge to conduct mass deportations was a centrepiece of his campaign and an issue on which he drew widespread support, including many Hispanic voters.

His administration has resumed raids at workplaces, a tactic that had been suspended under Biden.

But White House efforts have been much broader in scope, taking aim at people in the US on student visas; suspending admissions of refugees; and moving to revoke temporary work permits and other protections that had been granted to immigrants by previous presidents.

The actions threaten disruption to millions of people, many of whom have lived and worked in the US for years.

“We are terrified,” says Justino Gomez, who is originally from El Salvador and has lived in the US for three decades.

The 73-year-old is authorised to work under a programme known as TPS, which grants temporary work permits and protection from deportation, based on conditions in immigrants’ home countries.

His employment, first as a dishwasher and line cook in a restaurant and now as a cleaner, helped him send an adopted daughter in El Salvador to school to become a teacher.

But Trump has already taken steps to end the programme for people from Haiti and Venezuela. Mr Gomez, who lives in Maryland, fears El Salvador could be next.

“Every time I leave home, I have this stress on my mind,” he tells the BBC, through a translator provided by his labour union, 32BJ SEIU. “Even when I go to the metro, I’m afraid that ICE will be there waiting to abduct us.”

Many of Trump’s actions have been subject to legal challenge, including a lawsuit over TPS brought by the SEIU.

But even if the White House does not successfully ramp up arrests and deportations, analysts say his crackdown could weigh on the economy in the near-term, as it scares people like Mr Gomez into hiding and slows arrivals.

Growth in the workforce, which has been powered by immigrants, has already flattened since January, when Trump took office.

As firms have a harder time finding workers, it will limit their ability to grow, slowing the economy, warns economist Giovanni Peri of University of California, Davis.

A smaller workforce could also feed inflation, by forcing firms to pay more to recruit staff.

If the policies are sustained, they could have far-reaching economic consequences, Prof Peri adds. He points to the example of Japan, which has seen its economy shrink as it keeps a lid on immigration and the population ages.

“The undocumented raids are a piece of a policy that really wants to transform the United States from one of the places where immigrants come, are integrated and part of the success of society to a closed country,” he says.

“Instead of an engine of growth, it will become a more stagnant and slow growing and less dynamic economy.”

Many firms say it is already hard to find people to fill the jobs available.

Adam Lampert, the chief executive of Texas-based Cambridge Caregivers and Manchester Care Homes, which provides assisted living and in-home care, says about 80% of his 350 staff are foreign-born.

“I don’t go out and place ads for non-citizens to fill our roles,” he says. “It is the immigrants who are answering the call.”

Like Mr Moran, he said Trump’s moves had already cost him some workers, who had been authorised to work on temporary permits.

He said he was also worried about the ripple effects of Trump’s crackdown on his business, which in some ways competes with undocumented workers employed directly by families to provide care.

He said if those workers are forced out, it will drive up demand for his own staff – forcing him to pay more, and ultimately raise his rates.

“We’re going to have incredible inflation if you scrape all these people out of the economy,” he warned. “We can’t do without these people in the workforce.”

At Harris Health System, a major hospital network in Texas, Trump’s policy changes have already led to the loss of some workers, says chief executive Esmail Porsa.

He says training American workers to fill the jobs available in his sector would take years, given the rising needs.

“As the population is getting older and we are clamping down on one viable source of current and future workforce, this issue will come to a head,” he says.

Trump last week acknowledged the disruption his policies were creating for sectors that rely heavily on undocumented labour, such as hospitality and agriculture, even reportedly pausing workplace raids in some industries temporarily after receiving blowback from fellow Republicans.

But despite the concerns about the economic impact, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the BBC that such raids remain a “cornerstone” of their efforts.

In the homebuilding industry, firms across the country are reporting seeing some work crews stop showing up for work, which will slow construction and raise costs in a sector where prices are already a concern, says Jim Tobin, president of the National Association of Homebuilders, which represents businesses in the sector.

The industry has called on Congress to reform immigration laws, including creating a special visa programme for construction workers.

But Mr Tobin says he was not expecting big changes to immigration policy anytime soon.

“I think it’s going to take a signal from the president about when it’s time to engage,” he says. “Right now it’s all about enforcement.”

Parents in several Indian cities, including capital Delhi, are protesting against what they call “unsustainable” fee raises by private schools. These increases, they say, are stretching household budgets to a breaking point and taking a toll on their children.

Aaditya Mattey, 14, woke up on 9 May feeling confident about his English exam.

His father dropped him off at his school in Indian capital Delhi, but Aaditya never got to write his exam.

“Two or three minutes after I entered the class, guards and bouncers asked me to leave the room,” Aaditya recalls.

His father was still standing outside the school gates when Aaditya and a few other students were asked to get on the school bus, which dropped them off at their homes.

Aaditya’s name was removed from Delhi Public School Dwarka’s rolls after his father refused to pay a recent fee hike which he alleges was arbitrary and unauthorised.

The BBC reached out to DPS Dwarka and the Delhi Public School Society – which runs the DPS chain of schools – for comment, but did not receive a response.

Aaditya’s case is not an isolated one and DPS is not the only school which is facing allegations of arbitrary fee increase.

Over the past two months, protests have erupted across Indian cities – from Delhi to Pune to Hyderabad – as a growing number of parents accuse private schools of imposing steep fee raises.

In Delhi, which has emerged as the epicentre of the protests, the issue recently made headlines after DPS Dwarka allegedly confined students in the library, hired security guards to stop them from entering classes and expelled them over unpaid dues. Parents have accused the school of punishing children for financial decisions made by their families.

Government-run schools operate nationwide but often suffer from poor, inconsistent quality, prompting even many low-income families to choose private schools for better opportunities.

In Delhi, rules say that private schools on government-leased land must get Directorate of Education (DoE) approval before raising fees and must admit 25% economically weaker or disadvantaged students – a condition tied to their subsidised leases.

The BBC has contacted the DoE for comment on the fee rises, which parents have reported to us, but has not received a response.

Schools, on the other hand, have argued in court and told parents that they are struggling. They cite inflation, rising staff salaries, delayed reimbursements from the government for economically weaker students and the need for infrastructure upgrades as reasons for raising fees.

Divya Mattey says his son Aaditya’s annual fee in 2020 was 93,400 rupees ($1,077; £802). This, he says, has more than doubled to 189,096 rupees in 2025-26.

Mr Mattey is among dozens of parents who have taken the school to court, alleging it has unlawfully removed students from rolls and harassed families over the fee issue.

“We never thought a school of this stature would treat children like this – bar them from classrooms, assign bouncers and make them sit in the library for days,” he says.

The school did not answer the BBC’s questions over email and on a phone call. But in court, it reportedly argued that there was no legal obligation to retain students whose fees haven’t been paid. According to a report in The Indian Express newspaper, DPS claimed it suffered losses of 490m rupees last year and had to raise fees.

A notice on the school’s website meanwhile accuses “a small group of parents” of spreading “false and malicious information regarding the school fee structure” in an attempt to “mislead and create confusion”.

But the controversy reflects a broader problem.

A recent survey by online community platform LocalCircles found that more than 80% of parents with children in private schools said fees had increased by over 10% this academic year. In cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, the rise in some schools was as high as 30%.

India has no centralised regulation for private schools; each state sets its own rules.

For example, Maharashtra allows a 15% fee rise every two years – subject to review if 25% of parents object – while Karnataka permits a 10% annual increase with audit justification. Enforcement, however, is weak, and legal disputes over fees often drag on for years, providing little timely relief to families.

Gagandeep Singh, whose son attends Mira Model School in West Delhi, says fees rose 45% last year and another 7% this year.

Singh is willing to pay the earlier DoE-approved fee, but the school has refused his cheque for the current term, which began nearly three months ago.

The BBC reached out to Mira Model School but received no response.

“It’s not our job to regulate schools,” Mr Singh says. “That’s what the government is supposed to do.”

Meanwhile, many parents fear that the DPS case has set a troubling precedent.

“We don’t want our children to be thrown out of their classes, like what happened there,” says Pankaj Gupta, whose son studies at Delhi’s Maharaja Agarsain Public School.

Mr Gupta said the school increased fees by 25% this year without advance notice.

“We had no choice. We had to pay,” he added.

Mr Gupta runs a small convenience store but has faced declining sales since the pandemic. The rise of online shopping has further squeezed physical stores. Now, rising school fees are pushing his family to the brink.

The BBC has reached out to Maharaja Agarsain Public School for comment.

Another parent, who wanted to remain anonymous, said she’s considering withdrawing her son from the school he attended since childhood due to an “unsustainable” 30% fee hike this year.

“Both my husband and I work, but our salaries haven’t gone up significantly. As a parent, you try to give your child the best but sometimes that comes at great personal cost,” she said.

But she admits that switching schools also feels risky – what if the next one also increases fees?

“It’s the same situation everywhere,” she said.

The uproar has prompted the Delhi government to act.

On 10 June the state cabinet approved the Delhi School Education (Transparency in Fixation and Regulation of Fees) Ordinance, 2025, pending the Lieutenant Governor’s approval – necessary for it to become a law.

Though not yet public, Education Minister Ashish Sood says it will tighten private school fee regulations.

But parents are demanding greater transparency. Last weekend, hundreds protested in Delhi, urging the government to consider their feedback when drafting the bill.

Shweta Sharma Bagga, Supreme Court lawyer and secretary of a group called Justice for All, urges timely audits: “Schools’ finances must be audited before each academic year so parents know what they’re paying for.”

Back in Dwarka, Aaditya is still trying to get back to class.

Media reports say DPS Dwarka has agreed to reinstate students expelled for not paying fees. But Mr Mattey says they are still waiting.

“The school has shown some reciprocation, but to this date my child’s name is not back on the register,” he says, adding that he hasn’t received any assignments for the current academic session.

“My son is only 14. He should be focusing on his studies, not worrying about whether he’ll be allowed to sit in class tomorrow.”

Kenya has been hit by a recent wave of repression, tarnishing its reputation as a beacon of democracy in East Africa.

Critics fear that it is sliding down the path of her neighbours – Uganda and Tanzania, both of which are notorious for cracking down on dissent.

Kenya’s laws are widely regarded as being more progressive – particularly in protecting fundamental freedoms like the right to protest.

But Kenya has witnessed an increasing crackdown on protests – the latest example being the killing of at least 10 people in nationwide demonstrations against President William Ruto’s government while it attempted to ban live TV and radio coverage of the protests.

“Rogue Regime” – declared the headline of Kenya’s respected Standard newspaper as it pointed out that young people had flooded the streets in defiant remembrance of those gunned down a year ago in mass anti-tax demonstrations but “Instead of a listening ear they were met with razor wire, armoured trucks and the cold grip of repression”.

But as far as Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen is concerned, the police showed “remarkable restraint” as they foiled an “attempted coup”.

“We condemn the criminal anarchists who in the name of peaceful demonstrations unleashed a wave of violence, looting, sexual assault and destruction upon our people,” he said, accusing the protesters of attacking police stations and injuring 300 officers.

However, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) condemned the police for their handling of the protest.

“The unnecessary aggression and brute force that culminated in the senseless loss of life and senseless destruction of property have no place in a free democratic society,” it said.

The crackdown came just weeks after a 31-year-old blogger and teacher, Albert Ojwang, died in police custody. He was arrested after being accused of defaming a senior police officer – and died in detention of assault wounds, an autopsy found.

His death triggered a small protest in the capital, Nairobi, which police clamped down on and a street vendor, who was caught in the crossfire – shot at close-range, is fighting for his life in hospital.

The LSK denounced his shooting as unbefitting for “any sane democracy”.

Its comment brought into sharp focus the fact that Kenya risks losing its status as a democracy that many Tanzanians and Ugandans envied – and drew inspiration from.

Tanzanian political analyst Nicodemus Minde said there had long been an “appreciation” among Tanzanians of the ability of Kenyans to “speak truth to power”.

It was a view shared by Tanzania’s main opposition leader Tundu Lissu who told the BBC last year that “We have not pressed hard enough for democratic reform”.

“What Kenya did to build its democratic space is something we need to do,” he said.

Having miraculously survived an assassination attempt after being shot 16 times in 2017, Lissu has become a symbol of state repression in Tanzania.

He is currently in detention, charged with treason for rallying his supporters under the slogan “No reform; no elections”.

The government saw this as an attempt by Lissu to launch a rebellion – and he risks being sentenced to death if convicted.

The 57-year-old opposition leader sees his detention as an attempt by the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party – which has been in power since independence in 1961– to clear its path to victory in presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for October.

This perception has been strengthened by the fact that his Chadema party has been barred from contesting the poll after it refused to sign an electoral code of conduct that it believed would undermine its right to campaign freely.

The opposition in Uganda sees itself in a similar situation, pointing out that President Yoweri Museveni has been in power for almost 40 years, and – along with his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who heads the army – is cracking down on political rivals in the build-up to elections in early 2026.

Ugandan opposition politician Kizza Besigye has been in detention since November, with the government wanting to try him for treason in a military court after accusing him of plotting to overthrow the government – a charge he denies.

Although Kenya has an independent judiciary and holds regular elections that lead to power changing hands, Martha Karua – one of the country’s most respected human rights lawyers, a former justice minister and the leader of a small opposition party – believes that democracy is under threat in all three East African states.

“We are staring at a regional crisis – not at an economic crisis, not a crisis of trade, but of democracy itself,” she said at a recent press conference.

Activists like her are alarmed by the fact that more than 80 Kenyans have been abducted in the past year by people who never identified themselves, raising fears that this was the government’s latest strategy to crush dissent after the protests over moves to increase taxes amidst a cost-of-living crisis.

There is also mounting evidence that Kenya is no longer a safe haven for Ugandans and Tanzanians, with security agencies from the three states apparently colluding to crack down on the opposition.

Besigye was in Nairobi for a book launch in November, when he vanished – only to surface four days later in a military court in Uganda.

The government in Uganda accused him of trying to negotiate an arms deal in Kenya to launch a rebellion back home and said he had been arrested in a cross-border operation carried out with the knowledge of Kenya’s intelligence services.

Kenya’s government initially denied this, saying it was unaware of the Ugandan operation on its soil, although Kenya’s foreign minister recently told local media that “there were certain issues” about Besigye’s visit in Kenya and “he had to go”. He did not elaborate.

About two months after Besigye’s ordeal, exiled Tanzanian activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai said she was abducted by armed men in Nairobi who then, luckily for her, released her several hours later.

Ms Tsehai said she was manhandled and choked by four assailants who forced her into a vehicle.

“I am sure that the reason for the abduction was to get access to my social media and [because of] the whistleblowing job that I do,” she said, as her abductors kept asking how to unlock her phone.

Ms Tsehai is a staunch critic of Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan, and has accused her government of bringing “tyranny back” to the country, despite promising reforms when she took office in 2021 following the death of her authoritarian predecessor, John Magufuli.

Karua said that despite the “backsliding” of democracy and human rights in East Africa, there was little concern about this internationally, with the African Union “silent”, the United Nations offering “rhetoric – not redress”, while the US – “a self-declared champion of liberty” – was facing its “own issues of liberty” under the administration of President Donald Trump.

Tanzania deported Karua and two Kenyan activists when they flew into the country in May to show solidarity with Lissu, while Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan lawyer Agather Atuhaire were detained after being allowed to enter.

Following their release, both accused the Tanzanian police of sexually abusing them.

Tanzania’s police denied the accusation, however amidst the outcry over the detention and deportation of foreign activists, President Samia issued a stark warning.

“If they have been contained in their country, let them not come here to meddle. Let’s not give them a chance. They have already created chaos in their own country,” she said.

To the dismay of activists, Kenya’s President Ruto failed to condemn the alleged abuse and instead, apologised to the Tanzanian government.

“To our neighbours from Tanzania, if we have wronged you in any way, forgive us,” he said.

“If there is anything that Kenyans have done that is not right, we want to apologise.”

Macharia Munene, a Kenyan professor in international relations, told the BBC that Ruto’s apology stemmed from his “perceived failure to keep people [Kenyans] in check”.

He added that the Tanzanian government had become “jittery” of the potential influence of Kenyan activists on the October elections, with Ruto’s government under pressure to “contain troublemakers”.

For Kenyan activists the worsening repression in the three states has merely strengthened their resolve to fight back.

Mr Mwangi, one of Kenya’s most prominent human rights campaigners, summed it up by saying: “If these people are united in oppressing their citizens, then we must be united in fighting to remove them from power.”

• ‘We live in fear’ – forced expulsions taint Kenya’s safe haven image
• BBC identifies security forces who shot Kenya anti-tax protesters
• Could this be the end of the road for Tanzania’s great survivor, Tundu Lissu?
• Why Kenya’s president has so many nicknames
• Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni: How an ex-rebel has stayed in power for 35 year

When the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced last month that it would disband and end its decades-long insurgency against Turkey, Leila hoped she might soon be reunited with her son.

Three years ago, the former sandwich seller left home to join the group – proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US, UK and EU – in the remote Qandil Mountains, near Iraq’s border with Iran.

Apart from two videos he’s sent, the last in March, Leila hasn’t seen him since.

“When I first heard about the announcement I was very happy,” says Leila, whose name we have changed because she fears reprisals from the group.

“But as time has passed, nothing has changed.”

For 40 years the PKK has been at war with Turkey in a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 people, many of them civilians, and is one of the longest-running in the world.

Some families the BBC spoke to bitterly condemned the PKK, while others spoke proudly of how family members had died fighting for the group and felt this sacrifice had paved the way for peace talks.

The PKK’s announcement that it would stop fighting was seen as a historic moment for Turkey, its Kurdish minority, and neighbouring countries into which the conflict has spilled over.

But since then, no formal peace process with Turkey has begun and there is no official ceasefire in place, with reports of killing continuing on both sides.

Initially set up with the aim of fighting for an independent Kurdish state in Turkey, the PKK has, since the 1990s, shifted focus to demand greater cultural and political autonomy for the Kurds.

Leila, who lives in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which borders Turkey, says she hadn’t even heard of the PKK until her son, an Iraqi-Kurd in his twenties, came home one day talking about the group’s ideologies.

She accuses the group of “brainwashing” her son, convincing him they were defending the ethnic Kurdish minorities in Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. The Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East but do not have a nation state.

Leila says over time her son started to become more independent, making his bed, washing his clothes and doing the dishes. She now believes the PKK was preparing him for the tough life he would soon be living in the mountains.

On the day he left, he came home with three “comrades” to tell his mother he was going to the mountains to begin six months of training.

She says she repeatedly tried to dissuade him from joining the PKK but he was determined to go.

“He was so determined. Arguing with him would have been of no use.”

Since then, Leila says she has regularly visited the Qandil Mountains in the hope of catching a glimpse of her son, but has never seen him.

“If they just let me see him once a year, I would be happy,” she says.

The BBC travelled to the Qandil Mountains, having been granted rare access by the PKK to film there.

The mountains, which are sparsely populated and known for their natural beauty, help shield thousands of PKK fighters from Turkish air strikes.

The journey took hours of driving up narrow, bumpy roads, in an area where there are few signs of inhabitation apart from a handful of farmers and shepherds.

As the BBC approached a PKK checkpoint, we saw large pictures of the group’s leader and founding member Abdullah Ocalan – imprisoned by Turkey in solitary confinement since 1999 – displayed across the mountains. But when the BBC reached the checkpoint, the PKK denied us entry.

We were later told by PKK authorities that talks are underway with the group and they did not want media attention.

They did not say what the talks were about, though Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Mohammed Hussein last month told the BBC discussions would be taking place with the PKK, Turkey, Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government to discuss how the group’s weapons will be handed over.

So far, the terms of a possible peace deal between Turkey and the PKK are unknown.

The PKK told the BBC in a written statement that it is sincere and serious about the process, insisting its leader, Ocalan, must be freed.

“The ball is now in Turkey’s court. A peace process cannot develop based on unilateral steps,” said Zagros Hiwa, the spokesman for the PKK-linked Kurdistan Democratic Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group of regional Kurdish organisations.

But in a possible sign of the hurdles ahead, a senior local commander, who’s part of the second line of leadership within the group in Iraq, told the BBC in a written statement that in his view disarmament is “not up for discussion”.

Still suspicious about Turkey’s intentions, he adds that “when we address the reasons of the armed conflict, weapons will be of no use for both sides”.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s apparent willingness to bring an end to the conflict with the PKK has been interpreted by some as a bid to attract Kurdish support for a new constitution to extend his 22-year-rule, which he denies.

He has described the PKK’s decision to disband as an important step towards “our goal of a Turkey without terrorism”.

Writing on X, the Turkish president said a new era was about to begin after “the elimination of terror and violence”.

For some families whose loved ones were killed fighting for the PKK, the idea the conflict might soon end is bitter-sweet.

Kawa Takoor was 21 when he was killed two years ago. His sister, Rondek Takoor, who lives in Iraqi Kurdish city of Sulaimaniya, last saw him in the Qandil Mountains in 2019.

Speaking from the family home, where photos of Kawa adorn the living room walls, Rondek says her brother’s death changed the family’s life. “I always dream about him,” she says with tearful eyes.

Rondek, who is in her twenties, still remembers the last conversation they had together.

“I asked him if he would like to go back home with me and he said ‘never’. He even asked me to join him in the mountains,” she says.

For Rondek and her family, who are pro-PKK, the group disbanding would be both a moment of “pride and pain, especially after our huge loss”.

She believes that “it’s the sacrifices we’ve made and the martyrs we’ve lost, that paved the way for leaders to talk peace”.

What happens next is uncertain.

There are questions about what would happen to thousands of Turkish PKK fighters and whether they would be allowed to reintegrate into Turkish society.

Turkish officials have yet to say whether these fighters will be treated as criminals and face prosecution. But Turkish media reports have suggested fighters who haven’t committed crimes in Turkey could return without fear of prosecution, though PKK leaders might be forced into exile to other countries or required to stay in Iraq.

It is also unclear what the group disbanding would mean for other Kurdish groups, notably in north-east Syria, which Turkey regards as being off-shoots of the PKK.

During the Syrian civil war, Turkish forces and Turkish-backed Syrian fighters launched a series of offensives to capture border areas held by a Syrian Kurdish militia called the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

The YPG dominates an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias called the Syrian Democratic Forces, which drove the Islamic State group out of a quarter of Syria with the help of a US-led multinational coalition.

The YPG says it is a distinct entity from the PKK, but Turkey rejects that and proscribes it as a terrorist organisation.

Erdogan has said the PKK’s decision to disband should “cover all extensions of the organisation in Northern Iraq, Syria and Europe”. SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said the PKK’s decision would “pave the way for a new political and peaceful process in the region”.

However, he has also said that the PKK’s disarmament does not apply to the SDF, which signed a separate deal to merge with the Syrian armed forces in December.

In Iran, the PJAK group, which is also part of the KCK, has told BBC Turkish that it supports the “new process” in Turkey, but that it is not planning to disarm or disband itself.

PJAK is designated as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and Iran. There has been a de facto ceasefire between the group and the Iranian government since 2011.

Turkey says the PJAK is the Iranian arm of the PKK, but the Kurdish groups deny this.

For mothers like Leila, all the complexities of politics and the intricate balance of military powers across the region are irrelevant. What she cares about is having her son with her again.

“He will come back home when he gets tired of the harsh life in the mountains, at some point he will realise that he can take it no more.”

If this happens, Leila plans to leave their home city where her son was recruited by the PKK.

“This city has brought me nothing but pain.”

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough may not be a household name, but the so-called referee of the Senate has found herself at the centre of a firestorm after she objected to several parts of US President Donald Trump’s mega-sized tax bill.

The 1,000-page document, which he’s dubbed the “big beautiful bill”, would slash spending and extend tax cuts.

But Ms MacDonough has said that certain provisions violate Senate rules, throwing billions of dollars of cuts into doubt.

Her findings have also made it difficult for Congress to pass the bill by 4 July – a deadline set by the president himself.

Now, some Republicans are calling for the Senate to ignore her recommendations – going against long-standing tradition – or to fire her.

Earlier this month, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a massive spending bill that included cuts to low-income health insurance programme Medicaid, reforms to the food assistance programme SNAP, and a measure to end taxes on tips and overtime pay.

That version then went to the Senate, where both Republicans and Democrats wanted adjustments made.

The US Senate has spent recent weeks debating changes and writing a new version of the bill.

• A look at the key items in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
• ‘Our food doesn’t even last the month’ – Americans brace for Trump’s welfare cuts

Legislators are now racing against the clock to deliver the bill to Trump’s desk by 4 July.

Republicans maintain a majority in both the House and the Senate, which should make it easy to pass legislation. But leadership in both chambers has struggled to get consensus on a number of provisions – particularly on social programs like Medicaid – from competing factions within the party.

The Senate parliamentarian’s job is to decide whether a bill complies with budget rules.

Ms MacDonough – the first woman to hold the role – has held the position since 2012. Before that, she spent 25 years as a Senate staffer and worked for the Justice Department.

While she was appointed by former Democratic Senator Harry Reid, she has served Senates controlled by both Republicans and Democrats.

In 2021, multiple Democratic legislators called on the Senate to overrule Ms MacDonough when she said a minimum wage increase could not be included in a policy bill at the time.

People serving as the Senate parliamentarian have been fired before, too.

In 2001, the Senate majority leader at the time fired then Senate parliamentarian, Robert Dove, after one of Dove’s rulings on a bill infuriated Republicans.

Several of the provisions Republican senators have proposed violate the Byrd Rule, she said, which is a 1985 rule the Senate adopted that says “extraneous” provisions cannot be tacked onto “reconciliation” bills.

The budget bill is a reconciliation bill, which means it does not need a 60-vote supermajority to pass the Senate. Reconciliation bills tell the government how to spend money, not how to issue policy, the Byrd rule says.

Because of these rules, Republicans can avoid a Democratic filibuster on the bill and pass it with a simple majority.

But as Ms MacDonough has examined the text she has found a number of places where the reconciliation bill tries to change policy.

Among the provisions Ms MacDonough has ruled against is a plan that would cap states’ ability to collect more federal Medicaid funding through healthcare provider taxes and a measure that would have made it harder to enforce contempt findings against the Trump administration.

And more rulings could come as she continues to examine the large bill.

Some Republicans, like Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, are not pleased with her rulings and have gone as far as calling for her to be fired.

“President Trump’s landslide victory was a MANDATE from 77 million Americans,” he wrote on X on Thursday. “The One Big Beautiful Bill delivers on that mandate. The Parliamentarian is trying to UNDERMINE the President’s mandate and should be fired.”

Kansas Senator Roger Marshall urged his party to pass a resolution to term limit the parliamentarian.

He noted in a social media post that the Senate parliamentarian was fired during reconciliation in 2001: “It’s 2025 during reconciliation & we need to again fire the Senate Parliamentarian.”

Texas Senator John Cornyn said Republicans should not let “an unelected Senate staffer” stop the party from passing the bill.

Such a move by Republicans could set a precedent for Democrats, however, whose past legislative priorities also have been thwarted by the parliamentarian’s rulings. When the party held the majority in 2022, they came two votes from scrapping the filibuster rule in order to pass voting rights legislation – and overriding or dismissing the parliamentarian would be a different means to achieve a similar procedural objective.

But Senate Republican Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, does not seem to agree with calls to oust her.

Thune, who is the chief spokesperson for the party in the chamber, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday he would not overrule Ms MacDonough.

Instead, he described the senate referee’s rulings as “speed bumps”, and said his party had other options to reach Republican-promised budget cuts, namely rewriting the bill.

Thune had previously said a vote on the bill was expected on Friday, though it remains unclear if Republicans can agree on a bill to move to the floor for a vote by then.

Once the bill passes the Senate, it goes back to the House for approval. Some Republicans in the House have already indicated their displeasure with the Senate’s edits to the bill.

After the bill passes both houses, then it can go to Trump’s desk.

Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, said the Trump administration is sticking by the 4 July deadline.

“This is part of the process, this is part of the inner workings of the United States Senate, but the president is adamant about seeing this bill on his desk here at the White House by Independence Day,” she said referring to the parliamentarian’s rulings.

Rama Duwaji, a 27-year-old artist and animator, has been thrust into the spotlight as her husband Zohran Mamdani this week became the likely Democratic candidate for mayor of New York City.

Ms Duwaji is a New York-based artist with Syrian roots whose work often explores Middle Eastern themes. Her work has appeared on BBC News, and in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Vice and London’s Tate Modern museum.

“Rama isn’t just my wife; she’s an incredible artist who deserves to be known on her own terms,” Mamdani wrote in a post on 12 May, announcing they had been married three months earlier.

“Omg she’s real,” Ms Duwaji joked in a comment on that post.

Ms Duwaji was rarely seen during her husband’s primary election campaign to lead the most populous US city, leading opponents to claim that the 33-year-old state assemblyman was “hiding” his wife.

Her absence was notable, given that US candidates often put their spouses on full display to show off their commitment to family values.

Mamdani, a 33-year-old democratic socialist, declared a stunning victory in the Democratic party’s primary on Tuesday, defeating his main rival and political veteran Andrew Cuomo who previously served as state governor.

Mamdani addressed the criticism over his wife’s absence in his May post, which included a series of photos showing their marriage at the New York City Clerk’s office.

“If you take a look at Twitter today, or any day for that matter, you know how vicious politics can be,” he wrote.

“I usually brush it off, whether it’s death threats or calls for me to be deported. But it’s different when it’s about those you love…. You can critique my views, but not my family.”

After results from the Democratic primary came in earlier this week, she took to her own Instagram page to post black-and-white photos of the couple embracing with the caption “couldn’t possibly be prouder”.

The couple met on dating app Hinge, “so there is still hope in those dating apps,” the candidate said in an interview for The Bulwark last week.

“Before their civil ceremony in New York City, Zohran and his wife celebrated their engagement in Dubai last year – where her family lives – with a small, joyful ceremony surrounded by their loved ones,” the Mamdani campaign said in a statement.

Photos posted by a florist in Dubai showed the Dubai city skyline in the background, as the couple stood on the rooftop where they held a traditional Islamic wedding ceremony known as a nikah.

Ms Duwaji graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University before earning a master’s degree in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

“Using drawn portraiture and movement, Rama examines the nuances of sisterhood and communal experiences,” Ms Duwaji’s professional website reads.

Much of her work is in black and white, and depicts scenes from the Arab world. Ms Duwaji herself was born in Texas and is ethnically Syrian, a campaign spokesman told the New York Times on Wednesday.

In 2022, her works appeared in the BBC World Service documentary “Who killed my grandfather” that investigated the assassination of a Yemeni politician in 1974.

Some of her works listed on Instagram criticise “American imperialism,” what she called Israeli war crimes and denounce the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians, mirroring some of her husband’s policy positions. Israel emphatically denies accusations of genocide in Gaza.

Her works also show support for Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate that the Trump administration is seeking to deport over claims that his work advocating for Palestinians amounts to “antisemitism” towards Jews.

The Brooklyn-based artist spent most of the coronavirus pandemic in Dubai, where her family lives, she said in an April interview with website YUNG.

In that interview, she was asked about recent events in the Middle East, the return to the White House of Donald Trump and sharp uptick in immigration raids.

“I’m not going to lie, things are dark right now in NYC. I worry for my friends and family, and things feel completely out of my hands,” she said.

“With so many people being pushed out and silenced by fear, all I can do is use my voice to speak out about what’s happening in the US and Palestine and Syria as much as I can,” she added.

She was also asked about the responsibly that artists have to speak out about global issues.

“An artist’s duty as far as I’m concerned is to reflect the times,” she said, quoting musician Nina Simone.

“I believe everyone has a responsibility to speak out against injustice, and art has such an ability to spread it,” she continued.

“I don’t think everybody has to make political work, but art is inherently political in how it’s made, funded, and shared. Even creating art as a refuge from the horrors we see is political to me. It’s a reaction to the world around us.”

Twenty-nine children who were taking their school exams in the Central African Republic have been killed in a crush after a nearby explosion caused panic, a hospital director told the BBC.

The blast, on the second day of the high-school finals on Wednesday, occurred at an electricity transformer, said Abel Assaye from the Bangui community hospital.

“The noise of the explosion, combined with smoke” caused alarm among the almost 6,000 students sitting the baccalaureate at a school in the capital, Bangui, local radio station Ndeke Luka reported.

President Faustin-Archange Touadéra has declared a period of national mourning.

He also ordered that the more than 280 who were wounded in the crush get free treatment in hospital.

Students from five different schools in the capital had gone to the Lycée Barthélémy Boganda to sit the baccalaureate exam.

The education ministry said the explosion happened after power was restored at the electricity transformer, located on the ground floor of the main building, that had been undergoing repairs.

“I also offer our sincere condolences to the parents of the affected candidates and wish a speedy recovery to the injured candidates,” Education Minister Aurelien-Simplice Kongbelet-Zimgas said in a statement.

He also announced the suspension of further exams.

A female survivor spoke to the BBC.

“I don’t even remember what happened. We were in the exam room and when I heard a noise, I immediately fell into a daze,” she said. “Since then, I have had a pain in my pelvis that is causing me a lot of problems.”

Radio France Internationale spoke to another student whose face was covered in blood after he had climbed out of a window.

Magloire explained that the blast happened during the history and geography exam.

“The students wanted to save their lives, and as they fled, they saw death because there were so many people and the door was really small. Not everyone could get out,” he told RFI.

The CAR continues to face political instability and security challenges.

Government forces, backed by Russian mercenaries, are battling armed groups threatening to overthrow Touadéra’s administration.

Three Palestinians have been shot dead after dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian authorities say.

Video footage from Kafr Malik, near Ramallah, on Wednesday night showed a car and a home on fire and Palestinians running away as gunfire is heard.

The Israeli military said forces deployed to the scene found settlers and villagers throwing stones at each other. It added that several “terrorists” opened fire and threw stones at the forces, who returned fire and identified hits. They also arrested five Israelis.

The Palestinian foreign ministry said settlers fired at villagers in their homes during what it called their “terrorist assault”.

The ministry also said Israeli forces prevented ambulance crews from reaching the wounded and obstructed fire crews from entering the village for several hours.

Another villager, a 13-year-old boy, was shot dead – reportedly by Israeli troops – earlier in the week.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem – land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a hoped-for future state – in the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law – a position supported by an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last year – although Israel disputes this.

“What do you expect us to do when our homes are being attacked by settlers with petrol bombs?” asked one elderly man, sitting quietly with hundreds of other mourners on Thursday after the funerals of the three men who were killed – Murshid Nawwaf Hamayel, Mohammed Qaher al-Naji and Lutfi Sabri Bearat.

Kafr Malik has been attacked numerous times in recent weeks by settlers increasingly emboldened by Israeli government ministers who often support their actions and who have endorsed the building of many more settlements.

“They think they can take my land and force me to leave, but I’m not going anywhere,” said Hamdallah Bearat, a retired professor of engineering who has lived in Kafr Malik for most of his life.

For many younger Palestinians, though, the realities of an increasingly restrictive occupation and its economic consequences make life here more difficult by the day.

Shortly after the incident in Kafr Malik, there was another attack in the Palestinian community of Dar Fazaa, near the village of Taybeh.

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said three people were injured and three cars were torched. It posted CCTV footage showing a group of at least 10 masked men setting one car on fire and throwing stones.

“The settler violence and rampage, under the protection of the occupation army, is a political decision by the Israeli government, implemented by the settlers,” Palestinian Vice-President Hussein al-Sheikh wrote on X.

“The Israeli government’s behaviour and decisions are pushing the region toward an explosion. We call on the international community to urgently intervene to protect our Palestinian people.”

Since Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza, more than 900 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank – a period in which more than 20 Israelis have also been killed.

There has also been a sharp increase in the number and severity of settler attacks in the West Bank over the same period.

The UN says there were 487 attacks by settlers resulting in casualties or property damage in the first four months of this year, including 122 in April. At least 181 Palestinians were reportedly injured by settlers in the attacks.

Human rights organisations and witnesses say the Israeli military and police frequently stand by while settlers attack Palestinian towns and villages.

Since the right-wing, pro-settler governing coalition headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in late 2022, it has decided to establish 49 new settlements and begin the legalisation process for seven settler outposts which were built without government authorisation, according to the Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now.

Last month, Israeli ministers said 22 new settlements had been approved across the length and width of the West Bank, hailing it as a move that “prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel”.

In a separate incident on Wednesday, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the town of al-Yamoun, near Jenin, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The Israeli military said “terrorists” threw explosive devices at its forces during an operation there. Afterwards, they approached while holding additional explosives and the forces responded by opening fire, it added.

In January, Israeli forces launched a large-scale operation against Palestinian armed groups in Jenin and two other governorates in the northern West Bank, which Netanyahu said aimed to “defeat terrorism”.

The UN’s human rights chief said in April that the operation had destroyed entire refugee camps and makeshift medical sites, and displaced more than 40,000 Palestinians, who had been told not to return to their homes for a year.

Sabrina Carpenter has revealed alternative artwork “approved by God” for her new album after the original cover sparked controversy.

Earlier in June, the Espresso singer shared art for her album, Man’s Best Friend, which shows her on her hands and knees in a black minidress with a suited man grabbing her hair.

The photo prompted a heated debate, with some arguing that it pandered to the male gaze and promoted misogynistic stereotypes.

On Wednesday, the pop princess posted two less contentious black-and-white images of herself holding a suited man’s arm, with the caption: “Here is a new alternate cover approved by God.”

Users responding to Carpenter’s post on Instagram included fellow pop star Katy Perry, who simply replied: “Gahahahaha.”

Man’s Best Friend is Carpenter’s seventh studio album and will be released on 29 August. Fans can purchase the album with either set of artwork.

Those criticising the initial artwork included Glasgow Women’s Aid, a charity supporting victims of domestic abuse, which said it was “regressive” and “promotes an element of violence and control”.

Not everyone was against it, and some defended the singer, explaining that the image was satirical.

“There’s a deeper meaning, portraying how the public views her, believing she is just for the male gaze,” a fan wrote on X.

But Heather Binning of Women’s Rights Network, told the BBC that violence against women should “never be used as satire”.

Many of Carpenter’s fans are young women, and Ms Binning said the imagery “grooms girls to believe that it is a fun, casual, sexy thing to submit to men’s sexual (sometimes sexually violent) desires”.

On social media, some also criticised Carpenter for the timing, suggesting the image was not appropriate given the current political climate in the US.

“Women’s control over their bodies are being taken away in the US and this is kind of insensitive,” one user wrote on Instagram.

Professor Catherine Rottenberg from Goldsmiths University of London said that regardless of how the artwork should be interpreted, Carpenter was “fanning the flames of controversy in order to sell her brand”.

“Debates around representation that this album has already generated will likely mean more sales, more popularity, and more traction,” she told the BBC.

It is not the first time the 26-year-old’s music has sparked an outcry.

Carpenter has built her brand around fun and risque pop music, and her sexual lyrics, X-rated ad-lib Nonsense outros and provocative performances regularly cause a stir.

At the Brit Awards in March, media watchdog Ofcom received 825 complaints, with the majority involving Carpenter’s pre-watershed opening performance that saw her wearing a red sparkly military-style mini-dress with matching stockings and suspenders.

She was also seen having a close encounter with a dancer dressed as a soldier wearing a bearskin hat during the show, which was broadcast live on ITV.

Lucy Ford, a culture critic, previously told the BBC that Carpenter is “in on the joke” when she performs.

“Sabrina is being unabashedly horny in her music and it feels like an embrace of fun and silliness and not taking things too seriously.”

The BBC has introduced a paywall for people looking at parts of its website from the United States.

US-based visitors to BBC.com will now have to pay $49.99 (£36) a year or $8.99 (£6.50) a month for access to most BBC News stories and features, and to stream the BBC News channel.

Those who do not pay will still have ad-supported access to selected global breaking news stories, BBC Radio 4 and the World Service, as well as its language services and some newsletters and podcasts.

Rebecca Glashow, CEO of BBC Studios Global Media & Streaming, described the move as a “major milestone” that would “unlock new opportunities for growth”.

There will be no changes for the BBC’s UK audiences or for those elsewhere around the world.

The corporation hopes the offer will raise money to help fund the BBC’s services alongside revenue from UK households through the licence fee, which costs £174.50 a year and accounted for about two-thirds of its total income last year.

The BBC has said it expected to have a £492m budget deficit for the latest financial year.

The UK government is set to review the corporation’s funding model, but the BBC’s director general has said switching to a subscription system for UK audiences would not “pass the test of building a universal trusted public service”.

The BBC’s new US pay model follows similar subscription systems used by other publications including the New York Times, and the likes of the Telegraph and the Sun putting selected stories and content behind paywalls in the UK.

BBC.com reaches 139 million visitors globally, including almost 60 million in the US, the corporation said.

UK audiences will still be able to access BBC News when travelling to America if they have the latest version of the app.

Ms Glashow said the BBC wanted to “reimagine how we deliver” news and factual content to the US.

“Our goal? To serve our audiences better than ever before – and unlock new opportunities for growth,” she said.

“Today, the next phase of that vision becomes reality. We’re bringing more of the BBC’s trusted, high-quality content together in one powerful, easy-to-access destination.”

BBC News CEO Deborah Turness said: “Through our partnership with BBC Studios we are growing our audiences in North America – providing more people with news they can trust at a time of dramatic global uncertainty.”

More documentaries, podcasts and newsletters will be added to the subscription offer in the coming months.

The paywall will be launched for the BBC app in the US at a later date.

It comes after the BBC announced it was to block most stations on the BBC Sounds app for audiences outside the UK.

Nike says US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on key trading partners could add around $1bn (£730m) to it costs this year.

Company executives also said the the sportwear giant would cut its reliance on producing goods in China to ease the impact of US trade policies.

Last month, Nike said it would raise prices on some trainers and clothing in the US from early June, weeks after rival Adidas warned it would have to hike the cost of goods due to tariffs.

Nike’s shares jumped by more than 10% in extended trading after the firm forecast a smaller drop in first quarter revenue than many analysts had expected.

The company’s earnings for the last three months also topped estimates, despite being its worst quarterly figures for more than three years.

Nike announced fourth quarter revenue of $11.1bn – the lowest since the third quarter of 2022.

Chief financial officer Matthew Friend said Nike would move some production from China, which was hit with the biggest tariff increases, to other countries in response to Trump’s tariffs.

China currently manufacturers 16% of Nike footwear that ends up in the US. Mr Friend said that figure would be cut to a “high single-digit percentage range” by the end of May 2026.

Trump announced sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs on most goods from countries around the world on 2 April.

In April, he suspended most of those tariffs to allow for talks with the affected countries, with one top adviser promising “90 deals in 90 days”.

The move dropped tariffs to 10%, instead of the far higher rates that goods from many trading partners faced.

• What tariffs has Trump announced and why?

The White House is now facing growing questions about what the president is planning to do about tariffs, as the 90-day pause is due to expire on 9 July.

In remarks at the White House on Thursday, Trump maintained that talks were going well, pointing to an agreement reached with China and saying there was another “coming up with India, maybe”.

But he also warned “We’re not going to make deals with everybody”.

“Some we’re just going to send them a letter, say thank you very much. You’re going to pay 25, 35, 45%. That’s the easy way to do it,” he said.

“My people don’t want to do it that way. They want to do some of it, but they want to make more deals than I would do,” he added.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick later told Bloomberg that the agreement with China formalised terms laid out in trade talks, which included a commitment from Beijing to deliver rare earths minerals used in everything from planes to wind turbines.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has previously raised the possibility that Trump could extend the deadline, depending on how talks are going.

On Thursday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said both that the deadline was “not critical” and that Trump was prepared to present countries with “deals” that would set new tariff rates.

The US and China announced an agreement earlier this month aimed at ensuring US supply to critical magnets and rare earths, after concerns about access had risked re-igniting trade tensions between the two economic superpowers.

At the White House on Thursday, Trump said he had “signed” a deal with China without giving further details. “The administration and China agreed to an additional understanding for a framework to implement the Geneva agreement,” a White House official said later.

Trade between the two sides was nearly shut down after Trump raised tariffs and China hit back in a barrage of tariffs in April that had nearly shut down trade between the two countries.

The US and China subsequently agreed to reduce – but not eliminate – those tariffs.

A large wildfire swept through the coastal towns of Palaia Fokaia and Thymari 40 km (25 miles) southeast of Athens, destroying homes and forcing evacuations as it neared the beach.

The flames erupted in low vegetation but quickly spread into residential areas, as Greece experienced its first heatwave of the summer.

At least 20 homes were destroyed and many others suffered structural damage, according to local officials.

Strong winds and soaring temperatures of up to 40°C made the fire extremely difficult to control.

Local residents joined firefighters, forest rangers and aircraft in trying to contain the fire and protect their homes. The coast guard was also deployed along the coastline.

Emergency alerts were issued via the 112 system, urging residents to evacuate the a series of towns and villages.

Greece has sought to beef up its response to wildfires, which have become increasingly common because of its long, hot summers and warming climate.

An extra 18,000 firefighters backed up by volunteers have been deployed this year, officials say, for the rest of the fire season which ends in October.

Earlier this week thousands of hectares were torched on Chios, Greece’s fifth-largest island. A Georgian woman was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of unintentionally starting a fire by dropping a cigarette.

One resident in Thymari told Greek website Kathimerini on Thursday that by the time she had reached her home it had burned down because of the strong winds. Another said his neighbours’ homes had been destroyed but he had been more fortunate.

Further east along the coast towards Cape Sounion, on the tip of the Attica peninsula, the fire crossed the coastal road and moved toward the ridge of a nearby hill.

Authorities said more than 1,000 people were evacuated from affected areas. Eleven tourists were rescued from a beach after becoming trapped by the advancing flames, according to local authorities.

Despite evacuation orders, some residents refused to leave and attempted to defend their homes using garden hoses and other improvised means. Authorities warned that such actions endangered lives and obstructed emergency services.

According to Greek state broadcaster ERT, at least 40 people, including children and elderly residents, were rescued by police after becoming trapped.

Fire Service spokesperson Vasileios Vathrakogiannis said firefighters were engaged in an intense battle on the ground and by air, particularly in areas where the fire was burning close to houses.

Local officials in villages inland from Thymari described the situation as extremely difficult.

“All of the municipality’s facilities were open to anyone who needed shelter or medical help,” Babis Galanis, a local deputy mayor told ERT.

The head of Greece’s fire service has ordered a special arson investigation unit to the scene to examine whether the fire had been deliberately set.

According to a report by Greece’s Risk Assessment Committee, extremely high temperatures are expected on Friday, with a very high risk of wildfires in Attica, Evia, the Peloponnese, and the northern Aegean.

Iranian authorities have carried out a wave of arrests and multiple executions of people suspected of links to Israeli intelligence agencies, in the wake of the recent war between the two countries.

It comes after what officials describe as an unprecedented infiltration of Iranian security services by Israeli agents.

Authorities suspect information fed to Israel played a part in a series of high-profile assassinations during the conflict. This included the targeted killings of senior commanders from the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and nuclear scientists, which Iran attributes to operatives of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency working inside the country.

Shaken by the scale and precision of these killings, authorities have been targeting anyone suspected of working with foreign intelligence, saying it is for the sake of national security.

But many fear this is also a way to silence dissent and tighten control over the population.

During the 12-day conflict, Iranian authorities executed three people accused of spying for Israel. On Wednesday – just one day after the ceasefire – three more individuals were executed on similar charges.

Officials have since announced the arrest of hundreds of suspects across the country on accusations of espionage. State television has aired alleged confessions from several detainees, purportedly admitting to collaboration with Israeli intelligence.

Human rights groups and activists have expressed fears over the latest developments, citing Iran’s longstanding practice of extracting forced confessions and conducting unfair trials. There are concerns that more executions may follow.

Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence claims it is engaged in a “relentless battle” against what it calls Western and Israeli intelligence networks – including the CIA, Mossad, and MI6.

According to Fars News Agency, which is affiliated with the IRGC, since the beginning of Israel’s attack on Iran on 13 June, “the Israeli spy network has become highly active inside the country”. Fars reported that over the course of 12 days, Iranian intelligence and security forces arrested “more than 700 individuals linked to this network”.

Iranians have told BBC Persian they received warning text messages from Iran’s intelligence ministry informing them their phone numbers had appeared on social media pages related to Israel. They were instructed to leave these pages or face prosecution.

The Iranian government has also stepped up pressure on journalists working for Persian-language media outlets abroad, including BBC Persian and the London-based Iran International and Manoto TV.

According to Iran International, the IRGC detained the mother, father, and brother of one of its TV presenters in Tehran to pressure her into resigning over the channel’s coverage of the Iran-Israel conflict. The presenter received a phone call from her father – prompted by security agents – urging her to quit and warning of further consequences.

After the conflict began, threats directed at BBC Persian journalists and their families have become increasingly severe. According to the journalists recently affected, Iranian security officials contacting their families have claimed that, in a wartime context, they are justified in targeting family members as hostages. They have also labelled the journalists as “mohareb” — a term meaning ‘one who wages war against God’ — a charge that, under Iranian law, can carry the death penalty.

Manoto TV has reported similar incidents, including threats against employees’ families and demands to cut all ties with the outlet. Some relatives were reportedly threatened with charges such as “enmity against God” and espionage – both capital offences under Iranian law.

Analysts view these tactics as part of a broader strategy to silence dissent and intimidate exiled media workers.

Security forces have also detained dozens of activists, writers and artists, in many cases without formal charges. There are also reports of arrests targeting family members of those killed during the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” anti-government protests.

These actions suggest a broader campaign aimed not only at current activists but also at those connected to previous waves of dissent.

During the war, the Iranian government severely restricted access to the internet, and even after the ceasefire, full access has not yet been restored. Limiting internet access during crises, especially during nationwide protests against the government, has become a common pattern by Iran. Additionally, most of the social networks like Instagram, Telegram, X and YouTube, as well as news websites such as BBC Persian, have long been blocked in Iran and cannot be accessed without using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) proxy service.

Human rights advocates and political observers have drawn parallels to the 1980s, when the Iranian authorities brutally suppressed political opposition during the Iran-Iraq War.

Many fear that, in the wake of its weakened international standing after the conflict with Israel, the Iranian authorities may again turn inward, resorting to mass arrests, executions, and heavy-handed repression.

Critics point to events of 1988, when, according to human rights groups, thousands of political prisoners – many already serving sentences – were executed following brief, secretive trials by so-called “death commissions.” Most victims were buried in unmarked mass graves.

Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough may not be a household name, but the so-called referee of the Senate has found herself at the centre of a firestorm after she objected to several parts of US President Donald Trump’s mega-sized tax bill.

The 1,000-page document, which he’s dubbed the “big beautiful bill”, would slash spending and extend tax cuts.

But Ms MacDonough has said that certain provisions violate Senate rules, throwing billions of dollars of cuts into doubt.

Her findings have also made it difficult for Congress to pass the bill by 4 July – a deadline set by the president himself.

Now, some Republicans are calling for the Senate to ignore her recommendations – going against long-standing tradition – or to fire her.

Earlier this month, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a massive spending bill that included cuts to low-income health insurance programme Medicaid, reforms to the food assistance programme SNAP, and a measure to end taxes on tips and overtime pay.

That version then went to the Senate, where both Republicans and Democrats wanted adjustments made.

The US Senate has spent recent weeks debating changes and writing a new version of the bill.

• A look at the key items in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
• ‘Our food doesn’t even last the month’ – Americans brace for Trump’s welfare cuts

Legislators are now racing against the clock to deliver the bill to Trump’s desk by 4 July.

Republicans maintain a majority in both the House and the Senate, which should make it easy to pass legislation. But leadership in both chambers has struggled to get consensus on a number of provisions – particularly on social programs like Medicaid – from competing factions within the party.

The Senate parliamentarian’s job is to decide whether a bill complies with budget rules.

Ms MacDonough – the first woman to hold the role – has held the position since 2012. Before that, she spent 25 years as a Senate staffer and worked for the Justice Department.

While she was appointed by former Democratic Senator Harry Reid, she has served Senates controlled by both Republicans and Democrats.

In 2021, multiple Democratic legislators called on the Senate to overrule Ms MacDonough when she said a minimum wage increase could not be included in a policy bill at the time.

People serving as the Senate parliamentarian have been fired before, too.

In 2001, the Senate majority leader at the time fired then Senate parliamentarian, Robert Dove, after one of Dove’s rulings on a bill infuriated Republicans.

Several of the provisions Republican senators have proposed violate the Byrd Rule, she said, which is a 1985 rule the Senate adopted that says “extraneous” provisions cannot be tacked onto “reconciliation” bills.

The budget bill is a reconciliation bill, which means it does not need a 60-vote supermajority to pass the Senate. Reconciliation bills tell the government how to spend money, not how to issue policy, the Byrd rule says.

Because of these rules, Republicans can avoid a Democratic filibuster on the bill and pass it with a simple majority.

But as Ms MacDonough has examined the text she has found a number of places where the reconciliation bill tries to change policy.

Among the provisions Ms MacDonough has ruled against is a plan that would cap states’ ability to collect more federal Medicaid funding through healthcare provider taxes and a measure that would have made it harder to enforce contempt findings against the Trump administration.

And more rulings could come as she continues to examine the large bill.

Some Republicans, like Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, are not pleased with her rulings and have gone as far as calling for her to be fired.

“President Trump’s landslide victory was a MANDATE from 77 million Americans,” he wrote on X on Thursday. “The One Big Beautiful Bill delivers on that mandate. The Parliamentarian is trying to UNDERMINE the President’s mandate and should be fired.”

Kansas Senator Roger Marshall urged his party to pass a resolution to term limit the parliamentarian.

He noted in a social media post that the Senate parliamentarian was fired during reconciliation in 2001: “It’s 2025 during reconciliation & we need to again fire the Senate Parliamentarian.”

Texas Senator John Cornyn said Republicans should not let “an unelected Senate staffer” stop the party from passing the bill.

Such a move by Republicans could set a precedent for Democrats, however, whose past legislative priorities also have been thwarted by the parliamentarian’s rulings. When the party held the majority in 2022, they came two votes from scrapping the filibuster rule in order to pass voting rights legislation – and overriding or dismissing the parliamentarian would be a different means to achieve a similar procedural objective.

But Senate Republican Leader John Thune, of South Dakota, does not seem to agree with calls to oust her.

Thune, who is the chief spokesperson for the party in the chamber, told reporters on Capitol Hill on Thursday he would not overrule Ms MacDonough.

Instead, he described the senate referee’s rulings as “speed bumps”, and said his party had other options to reach Republican-promised budget cuts, namely rewriting the bill.

Thune had previously said a vote on the bill was expected on Friday, though it remains unclear if Republicans can agree on a bill to move to the floor for a vote by then.

Once the bill passes the Senate, it goes back to the House for approval. Some Republicans in the House have already indicated their displeasure with the Senate’s edits to the bill.

After the bill passes both houses, then it can go to Trump’s desk.

Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, said the Trump administration is sticking by the 4 July deadline.

“This is part of the process, this is part of the inner workings of the United States Senate, but the president is adamant about seeing this bill on his desk here at the White House by Independence Day,” she said referring to the parliamentarian’s rulings.

Iran’s supreme leader has insisted the US “gained no achievements” from strikes on its nuclear facilities, in his first public address since a ceasefire with Israel was agreed on Tuesday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the strikes did not “accomplish anything significant” to disrupt Iran’s nuclear programme, and described the retaliation against an American air base in Qatar as dealing a “heavy blow”.

It came as Washington doubled down on its assessment that the strikes had severely undermined Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said intelligence gathered by the US and Israel indicated the operation “significantly damaged the nuclear programme, setting it back by years”.

Previously, US President Donald Trump said the strikes against three key nuclear sites inside Iran “totally obliterated” them, and has responded furiously to reports citing unnamed American officials suggesting the damage may have been less extensive than anticipated.

Speaking alongside senior general Dan Caine at a Pentagon press conference on Thursday morning, Hegseth said the mission was a “historic success” that had “rendered [Iranian] enrichment facilities inoperable”.

During an at times combative exchange with reporters, Hegseth also said the US was “not aware of any intelligence” which indicated the enriched uranium had moved out of Fordo – the deeply buried facility which the US targeted with powerful so-called bunker buster bombs – prior to the strikes.

Khamenei, who had been largely out of public view since direct conflict with Israel broke out on 13 June, released a televised address on Thursday morning, ending a week-long public silence.

The supreme leader has reportedly been sheltering in a bunker and limiting communications, which has sparked speculation about his whereabouts. Iranian authorities did not disclose where he was speaking from on Thursday, though a senior official acknowledged he was in a safe place earlier this week.

Khamenei used Thursday’s video address to threaten to carry out more strikes on US bases in the Middle East if Iran was attacked again, and declared victory over both Israel and the US.

Khamenei said Trump had “exaggerated” the impact of the nuclear site strikes, adding: “They couldn’t accomplish anything and did not achieve their objective.”

Referencing the attack on the US air base in Qatar, Khamenei said: “This incident is also repeatable in the future, and should any attack take place, the cost for the enemy and the aggressor will undoubtedly be very high.”

No one was killed during that attack, which Trump said had been flagged before it was launched. The US says the base was not damaged.

CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, reports that the White House is considering a range of options to entice Iran back to the negotiating table, including facilitating funding for a civilian, non-enrichment nuclear program.

However, Iran’s foreign minister told Iranian state TV on Thursday that there no talks with the US are planned.

Direct confrontation broke out between Iran and Israel on 13 June, after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that “if not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time”.

A day earlier the global nuclear watchdog’s board of governors declared Iran was in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in 20 years.

Iran has maintained that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes alone and that it had never sought to develop a nuclear weapon.

On Thursday, Iran approved a parliamentary bill calling for an end to the country’s co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), meaning it is no longer committed to allowing nuclear inspectors into its sites.

Iran’s health ministry said 610 people were killed during the 12 days of air attacks, while Israeli authorities said 28 were killed.

The US became directly involved last weekend, striking facilities in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, before Trump sought to rapidly mediate a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, which has held since.

UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Wednesday that there was a chance Tehran had moved much of its highly enriched uranium elsewhere as it came under attack.

Actor Brad Pitt’s home in Los Angeles has been ransacked by a trio of thieves.

Three suspects broke into the home in the Los Feliz late on Wednesday through a front window and “ransacked the location,” according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

Police did not confirm the home belonged to the Oscar-winning actor, but the address matched that of a home Mr Pitt purchased in 2023.

Authorities said the suspects fled with stolen items, though it’s unclear what was taken. The actor was reportedly not home at the time of the burglary.

Mr Pitt was in the UK earlier this week for the London premier of his new film F1, which is released on Friday. He was accompanied by fellow Hollywood star Tom Cruise and Lewis Hamilton, who has seven Formula One World Drivers’ Championship titles.

US media reported he was not home at the time of the burglary, which authorities said happened around 22:30 local time on Wednesday.

LA police would not confirm whether Mr Pitt was home or the value of items stolen. The BBC also contacted representatives for the actor.

The large three-bedroom home sits just outside Griffith Park – which is home to the famous Hollywood Sign. It is surrounded by a large fence and greenery that shields the home from public view.

The burglary follows others reported in the city targeting other celebrities, including Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban.

Last month, a man was also arrested on stalking and vandalism charges after he allegedly rammed his vehicle into the gate of the home of Pitt’s ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston.

An Egyptian national has pleaded guilty after he kicked a customs dog so hard it became airborne at a Washington, DC area airport, authorities say.

Hamed Ramadan Bayoumy Aly Marie, 70, pleaded guilty to kicking Freddie the Beagle, who was working with US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to detect smuggled agricultural products at Washington Dulles International Airport.

Authorities say he kicked the dog after it allegedly detected over 100lb (45kg) of prohibited food products in his luggage.

Marie was ordered to pay for Freddie’s veterinarian bills and was deported back to Egypt.

The incident unfolded early on Tuesday in the baggage claim area of the airport, which is located just outside of Washington in Virginia.

Freddie and his handler were roaming the area around 06:30 local time when the dog alerted to a piece of luggage which had arrived on a flight from Cairo, a federal criminal complaint reads.

Hamed Aly Marie, who owned the bag, briefly spoke with the CBP officer before he kicked Freddie “so hard that he was lifted off of the ground,” the complaint states.

Still images from surveillance footage inside the airport show the dog on his hind legs and another of him in the air with his ears standing up.

Freddie, who weighs 25lb (11kg), was taken to a veterinary emergency room and was found to have contusions to his right rib area, CBP said.

Hamed Aly Marie’s bags were searched and authorities found beef, rice, eggplant, cucumbers, bell peppers, corn seeds, and herbs, according to CBP, which said the items were prohibited from entering the country.

Such products can carry diseases which can hurt native flora and fauna, and prove difficulty to eradicate once inside a country.

At an initial court appearance on Wednesday, Hamed Aly Marie pleaded guilty to one count of harming animals used in law enforcement. He was sentenced to time served and ordered to pay for the animal’s veterinarian bill, which court records show was $840.

Hamed Aly Marie was removed from the US on Thursday afternoon and placed on a flight back to Egypt after the court hearing, according to CBP.

One of the two charismatic criminals involved in the kidnapping that gave the world the term “Stockholm syndrome” has died aged 78, his family has said.

Clark Olofsson – who rose to global notoriety in 1973 following a kidnapping and bank robbery in the Swedish capital – died following a lengthy illness, his family told online media outlet Dagens ETC.

During a six-day siege, Olofsson’s hostages began to sympathise with him and his accomplice, defending their actions while growing more hostile to the police outside.

The incident lends its name to a theorised psychological condition whereby kidnap victims develop affections for their captors.

• What is Stockholm syndrome?

The notorious bank siege was instigated by another man, Jan-Erik Olsson. After seizing three women and a man hostage, he demanded Olofsson – who he had previously befriended in prison – be brought to the bank from jail.

Swedish authorities agreed to his demand, and Olofsson entered the bank, which was surrounded by police.

Years later, in an interview with the Aftonbladet newspaper, he claimed he was asked to work as an inside man to keep the captives safe in exchange for a reduced sentence, but accused officials of not honouring the agreement.

Olofsson persuaded one of the hostages, Kristin Enmark, to speak to the Swedish prime minister on the phone on behalf of the robbers.

She begged to be allowed to leave the bank in a getaway car with the kidnappers, telling him: “I fully trust Clark and the robber… They haven’t done a thing to us.”

She went on: “On the contrary, they have been very nice… Believe it or not but we’ve had a really nice time here.”

Over the course of several phone calls, Enmark said she feared her captors would be harmed by police and repeatedly defended their actions.

In her memoir, she said of Olofsson: “He promised that he would make sure nothing happened to me and I decided to believe him. I was 23 years old and feared for my life.”

The hostage situation ended after six days when police officers broke through the roof and used tear gas to subdue the pair.

Initially, hostages refused to leave their captors over fears they would be shot by police. The hostages also later refused to testify against Olofsson and Olsson.

Experts have since debated whether Stockholm syndrome is an actual psychiatric condition, with some arguing it is a defence mechanism to cope with traumatic situations.

The term was coined in the aftermath of the siege by Swedish criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot to explain the seemingly irrational affection some captives felt for their hostage-takers.

The theory reached a wider audience the following year when Californian newspaper heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped by revolutionary militants.

Speaking on the BBC’s Sideways podcast in 2021, Enmark rubbished the concept of Stockholm syndrome, saying: “It’s a way of blaming the victim. I did what I could to survive.”

Olofsson was a repeat offender and spent much of his life in prison. He was released for the last time in 2018 after serving a sentence for a drug offence in Belgium.

In 2022, actor Bill Skarsgård portrayed him in the Netflix drama series Clark.

The government is expected to announce a deal with Labour rebels on its planned benefits changes.

Multiple sources tell the BBC existing claimants of the Personal Independence Payment (Pip) will continue to receive what they currently get, as will recipients of the health element of Universal Credit. Instead, planned cuts will only hit future claimants.

Ministers are expected to fast-track a £1bn support plan originally scheduled for 2029.

The concessions amount to a massive climbdown from the government, which was staring at the prospect of defeat if it failed to accommodate the demands of over 100 of its backbenchers.

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer spent Thursday making calls to shore up support among the 120 Labour MPs who backed an amendment to stop the government’s flagship welfare bill ahead of a Commons vote on Tuesday.

Speaking in the Commons earlier, Sir Keir said he wanted to “see reform implemented with Labour values and fairness”.

He said he recognised that MPs of all parties were “eager” to reform the “broken” welfare system.

Broadly speaking the rebels have told the BBC their colleagues are happy with the concessions, meaning the bill is now likely to pass.

Peter Lamb, Labour MP for Crawley, posted on social media that he would still not support the bill – calling the changes “insufficient” and accusing ministers of ignoring better options.

The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill would change who would qualify for certain disability and sickness benefits.

Ministers had said the legislation, which aims to save £5bn a year by 2030, is crucial to slow down the increase in the number of people claiming benefits.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves had factored these cuts into her Spring Statement in March – designed to help meet her economic plans.

It is unclear how the new reforms will affect the government’s spending plans.

Working-age health-related benefit spending has increased from £36bn to £52bn in the five years between 2019 and 2024, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), a think tank.

It is expected to double to £66bn by 2029, without changes to the system.

But Labour MPs have criticised elements of government proposals, including plans to require Pip claimants to prove they need a higher degree of assistance with tasks such as preparing and eating food, communicating, washing and getting dressed.

The Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill has its second reading on Tuesday, the first opportunity for MPs to support or reject it.

If the legislation clears its first hurdle, it will then face a few hours’ examination by all MPs the following week – rather than days or weeks in front of a committee tasked with looking at the Bill.

This is now the third government U-turn in a month, in a major blow to the prime minister’s authority.

It follows on from the PM reversing cuts to winter fuel payments, and ordering a grooming gangs inquiry he initially resisted.

The Tories described the concessions understood to have been offered to Labour rebels as “the latest in a growing list of screeching U-turns” from the government.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride said: “Under pressure from his own MPs Starmer has made another completely unfunded spending commitment.”

One of the main co-ordinators behind the welfare amendment, who did not wish to be named, has told the BBC the winter fuel concessions had emboldened many of the rebels this time.

They told the BBC, MPs “all voted for winter fuel [cuts] and have taken so much grief in our constituencies, so colleagues think why should I take that on again?”.

It is understood that plans for the amendment began when Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall offered a partial olive branch to rebels by expanding the transition period for anyone losing Pip from four to 13 weeks.

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The head of Ukraine’s army, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, has said his troops have stopped Russian advances in the northeastern border region of Sumy.

During a visit to the front on Thursday, Syrskyi said the line of combat had been “stabilised” and that the Russian summer offensive in the area had been “choked off”.

However, Syrskyi also added that he had personally gone to check on fortifications in the region and that more were urgently needed.

Syrskyi’s comments on the successes of the Ukrainian troops in Sumy back recent statements by Ukrainian officials that Russia’s pressure on the region was declining.

However, the situation remained “volatile”, Border Guard spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said earlier this week.

Sumy borders the Russian region of Kursk, parts of which were seized and occupied last year by Ukrainian forces in a surprise offensive before being almost totally driven out months later.

The Kursk incursion was an embarrassment for Russia and in April President Vladimir Putin announced a plan to create “security buffer zones” along the border to provide “additional support” to areas in Russia which border Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

Moscow has been pushing in the Sumy area with renewed effort since then. In late May Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky said 50,000 of Russia’s “largest, strongest” troops were concentrated along the border and were planning to create a 10km (6-mile) buffer zone.

• Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia

There has been criticism about the lack of fortifications in some areas of the Sumy region – and in his statement on Thursday Syrskyi tried to quell growing public concerns over delays in their construction.

“Additional fortifications, the establishment of ‘kill zones’, the construction of anti-drone corridors to protect our soldiers and ensure more reliable logistics for our troops are obvious tasks that are being carried out,” he said.

However, Syrskyi acknowledged that these improvements had to be done better and more efficiently.

In the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the lack of fortifications in certain parts of Ukraine allowed Moscow to make advances across the country – from its northern borders and from the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula.

The window of opportunity to build fortifications in Sumy safely and quickly was in autumn 2024, when Ukrainian troops were still advancing in the Russia’s border Kursk region and Sumy remained relatively unscathed.

Now may be too late, as Russia is undoubtedly well aware of the sections of the front line that lack strong fortifications.

In the last several months Moscow has claimed to have captured several villages while pummelling the city of Sumy with heavy missile strikes, killing dozens. A single ballistic missile attack on 13 April killed at least 34 people and injured 117.

DeepState, a group that monitors the latest frontline developments in Ukraine, has quoted sources as confirming that combat is raging in various unfortified areas of Sumy. The delays with erecting “much-needed fortifications” or the “low quality of some of the dugouts” could no longer be ignored, DeepState analysts said.

Asked about the summer offensive at a forum in St Petersburg last week, Putin said Russia did not “have the goal of capturing Sumy, but I don’t rule it out”. He said Russian forces had already established a buffer zone of 8-12km in depth.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, is now well into its fourth year.

Large-scale Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian cities are on the rise. In recent weeks the capital Kyiv was targeted with record numbers of drones that overwhelm air defences and cause deadly explosions.

Recent rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia resulted in large prisoner exchanges but have so far failed to produce any tangible progress towards a ceasefire.

Earlier this week Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said that European and Canadian allies had pledged €35bn (£30bn; $41bn) to Ukraine.

But there remains nervousness in Kyiv over the level of US President Donald Trump’s commitment to the Ukrainian cause and his volatile relationship with Zelensky.

However, Trump said on Wednesday a meeting he held with Zelensky on the sidelines of the Nato summit in The Hague “couldn’t have been nicer”.

He told BBC Ukraine’s Myroslava Petsa at a press conference afterwards that he was considering supplying Kyiv with US Patriot air defence missiles to defend itself against Russian strikes.

“We’re going to see if we could make some available. You know, they’re very hard to get,” he said.

The pound briefly hit its highest level against the dollar for almost four years after markets were unnerved by a report that US President Donald Trump could bring forward the naming of the new head of the US central bank.

Sterling rose above $1.37, which is the strongest since October 2021.

The dollar weakened after the Wall Street Journal reported Trump had considered naming Jerome Powell’s replacement as head of the Federal Reserve by September or October.

The US Fed is independent from the government and Mr Powell chairs a committee that decides on interest rates which have remained unchanged this year, prompting a series of angry outbursts from Trump.

On Wednesday, Trump called Mr Powell “terrible” and said he was looking at “three or four people” who could replace him. Mr Powell’s term is due to end in May 2026.

There are concerns the US president could install someone who is sympathetic to his demands.

Earlier this week, Mr Powell told US lawmakers the Fed would wait and see how the American economy reacts if Trump’s so-called retaliatory tariffs against a range of countries come into force next month, after being paused until 9 July.

The Fed is concerned that the levies, which are paid by the businesses importing the goods, might push up inflation.

The US economy shrank in the first three months of this year – the first decline for three years – as government spending fell and imports rose as firms raced to get products into the country before the tariffs went live.

JP Morgan, the investment bank, has lowered the chance of the US economy falling into recession this year but at 40% the probability of a slowdown remains comparatively high.

Kaspar Hense, a senior portfolio manager at RBC BlueBay Asset Management, said traders were betting the dollar would fall “in this environment, where there is an erosion of institutions”.

While Kit Juckes, chief FX strategist at Societe Generale, said: “I think the market is pricing in President Trump appointing someone who at least at first sight appears more sympathetic to his cause.”

Academics have said that confidence in the Fed’s independence is key to maintaining financial markets’ faith that inflation will be controlled.

If this confidence is shaken, it could lead to higher borrowing costs for everyone if investors demand higher interest rates for holding debt.

There is speculation that Kevin Warsh, a former governor at the Fed, may be considered for the role.

Earlier this month, Trump was asked about whether Warsh could become the Fed’s chair, to which he replied: “He’s very highly thought of.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent could also be a candidate, according to reports.

He recently told lawmakers in the House of Representatives that he currently has “the best job” in Washington and is “happy to do what President Trump wants me to do”.

Mr Powell was himself a Trump appointee. During Trump’s first term in the White House, Mr Powell replaced the then Fed chair Janet Yellen.

Trump had criticised Ms Yellen for keeping interest rates too low, stating: “I think she should be ashamed of herself.”

Ms Yellen went on to become the US Treasury Secretary under President Joe Biden and said she did not think that Trump had a grasp of macroeconomic policy.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth took the lectern at the Pentagon briefing room on Thursday morning with two goals.

He wanted to present evidence of the success of the American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, pushing back against a preliminary defence intelligence assessment that suggested the strikes were less effective.

And he wanted to berate the American media and paint their coverage of that preliminary report as unpatriotic and disrespectful to the “brave men and women” in the US military.

It was a briefing aimed at winning over divided public opinion on the attacks – and to satisfy an audience of one in the White House, who has been railing against the media coverage for days.

The former goal is still in question, but the latter seems to have been a mission accomplished.

“One of the greatest, most professional, and most ‘confirming’ News Conferences I have ever seen!” Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social after Hegseth concluded.

• US gained nothing from strikes, Iran’s supreme leader says
• Trump takes Middle East victory lap – but big questions remain
• What we know about US strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites

During his half-hour briefing, Hegseth ticked through a range of intelligence information, although little of it was new.

He read from a Wednesday letter penned by CIA Director John Ratcliffe that claimed there was “intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years”.

He cited an earlier Israeli intelligence finding, detailed a recent statement by Iranian leaders and reviewed initial findings of “very significant damage” by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

After General Dan Caine, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided information about the development and power of the “bunker buster bombs” used in the attack – including how they were used to repeatedly hit the ventilation shafts at Iran’s Fordo facility – Hegseth told Americans to use their common sense when deciding whether the strikes were successful.

“Anyone with two eyes, ears and a brain can recognise that kind of firepower, with that specificity at that location and others is going to have a devastating effect,” he said.

“You want to call it destroyed, you want to call it defeated, you want to call it obliterated, choose your words,” he said. “This was a historically successful attack.”

After lauding members of the military who participated in the strikes, Hegseth pivoted to those he wanted to portray as the real villains of this story – an American media he said was more interested in cheering against the president and hoping that he failed. “It’s in your DNA,” he said.

If Hegseth’s comments were tinged with anger and frustration, it is in part because the political stakes at this moment are high.

Battle damage assessments take time – time to review intelligence reports from both surveillance and human sources, time to gather information and time to reach conclusions with some level of confidence. But the pace of American politics moves much more quickly.

Trump administration officials know it doesn’t take long for public opinion in a major event like this to harden. If American voters conclude now that the US attacks weren’t effective, it will be hard for the White House to change minds weeks or months later.

Hegseth’s early morning briefing was an attempt to wrest back a narrative derailed by the preliminary defence intelligence report.

Polls indicate that Donald Trump’s popularity has sagged recently and that Americans were sceptical about American military involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict going into Saturday night.

One survey in the days after the attack found that while Republicans are rallying around the president, the majority of Democrats and independents believed the US action made Americans less safe.

In theory, a successful military operation has the potential to give the president a political boost if the White House can convince the public that Trump took decisive action that produced a positive result. It would provide the president to claim a signature foreign policy success after his early high-profile efforts to end wars in Ukraine and Gaza have been stymied.

But the windows on such opportunities close fast, which could explain why Trump, often prone to hyperbole, was quick to declare that Iran’s nuclear programme was “obliterated”, as the dust from the strikes was still settling and before intelligence assessments had begun in earnest.

It’s also why his critics were so eager to boost the preliminary Pentagon report that undercut his claims – and why journalists, attuned to politicians motivated by political advantage, took note.