Israel has agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalise a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, US President Donald Trump has said.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that during the proposed ceasefire the US would “work with all parties to end the War”. He did not provide details on what the ceasefire would entail.

“The Qataris and Egyptians, who have worked very hard to help bring Peace, will deliver this final proposal. I hope… that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” Trump wrote.

Israel has not confirmed it agreed to the conditions of a deal. A Hamas official told the BBC the group is “ready and serious” to reach an agreement if it ends the war.

Hamas is “prepared to agree to any proposal if the requirements for ending the war are clearly met or if they lead to its complete end,” said Taher al-Nunu.

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar posted on X that there is majority support in the government “for a framework to release hostages,” and this opportunity “must not be missed.”

For Israel, the key component of any deal will have to be the release of most, if not all, hostages still being held in Gaza.

Of the 50 or so hostages remaining in captivity, more than 20 are still thought to be alive and their plight has been at the forefront of regular demonstrations in Israel calling for an end to the war.

A recent Israeli newspaper poll suggested that a significant majority of Israelis want the war to end – but polling on Wednesday, from the Israel Democracy Institute, also suggests that most Israelis still don’t trust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or his intentions.

Netanyahu has for months insisted on “complete victory” over Hamas before ending the war. It’s unclear if his position will now change under renewed pressure from Washington – and the answer could be pivotal to reaching a deal.

Trump’s announcement comes before a meeting with Netanyahu scheduled for next week, in which the US president has said he would be “very firm”.

He earlier said that he believed Netanyahu wanted to end hostilities in Gaza. “He wants to. I can tell you he wants to. I think we’ll have a deal next week,” Trump said.

Hamas has already indicated it would be willing to agree to a ceasefire if it led to the end of the war. But without that provision, Hamas negotiators might question the value of releasing all the hostages if the Israeli military is likely to resume bombing Gaza.

Another consideration before an agreement can be signed – perhaps while Netanyahu is in Washington next week – is Hamas’s demand for a partial Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, at least for the duration of the ceasefire.

The international community is also likely to lobby hard for the resumption of full-scale UN-backed aid deliveries into Gaza.

Prior to Trump’s announcement, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the BBC Israel was “absolutely” ready for a ceasefire.

Speaking on the BBC News channel, Danon said that Hamas was “playing hardball”.

“We are putting pressure on Hamas, and if they will not come to the table, the only option we will have to bring back the hostages, is to apply more military pressure,” Danon said.

“The war will end when the hostages are back home,” he added.

Last week, a senior Hamas official told the BBC mediators have increased efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled.

Trump’s comments come shortly after Israel ordered evacuations in northern Gaza ahead of increased military action. At least 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a seafront cafe in Gaza City on Monday, according to medics and eyewitnesses.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed. At least 56,647 have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli military this week also said it was examining reports of civilians being “harmed” while approaching aid distribution centres in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Tuesday that as of 28 June, 408 people had been killed trying to reach aid at GHF aid sites.

More than 170 charities and other NGOs have called for the controversial group to be shut down. Organisations like Oxfam and Save the Children say Israeli forces “routinely” open fire on Palestinians seeking aid.

Israel denies this accusation and says the organisation is necessary to bypass Hamas interference in aid distribution.

In March, a previous ceasefire deal collapsed when Israel launched fresh strikes on Gaza. The Israeli military described the action as “pre-emptive strikes… based on Hamas’s readiness to execute terror attacks, build up force and re-arm”.

The previous ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas – which started on 19 January – was set up to have three stages, but did not make it past the first stage.

Stage two included establishing a permanent ceasefire, the return of remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

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

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has confirmed he will have a successor, putting to rest speculation over whether the 600-year-old institution will end when he dies.

In a video message keenly-awaited by his followers, he said only the trust that he founded could appoint his successor and “no-one else has any authority to interfere in this matter”.

According to Tibetan tradition, Dalai Lamas are “reincarnated” after they die. The current Dalai Lama’s exile from Tibet after China annexed it in the 1950s has made succession a highly contentious issue.

Beijing rejected the statement, saying his successor would be from inside China and must be approved by the government.

Hundreds of followers gathered on Wednesday to hear the long-awaited announcement in the Indian town of Dharamshala where the Dalai Lama lives.

The Dalai Lama Library and Archive centre, where the video message was broadcast, resembled a sea of maroon with monks from all over the world in attendance.

“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” the Dalai Lama’s statement said.

He reiterated that “the Gaden Phodrang Trust, the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama… should accordingly carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition”.

Dharamshala is holding the Dalai Lama’s milestone 90th birthday celebrations which began on Monday – his birthday according to the Tibetan lunar calendar – and will conclude on 6 July, his official birthday.

Celebrations will be attended by more than 7,000 guests, including a number of Indian ministers. Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a long-time follower, is also taking part.

In the past, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism had been torn between whether to continue with the post of Dalai Lama or not. A few years ago, he said his successor might be a girl, or that there might be no successor at all.

But in recent years, he had also said that if there was widespread support among Tibetans-in-exile for the post – which there is – then it would continue and his office would choose a successor.

He has always insisted that his successor must be born outside China and his reiteration of the same on Wednesday did not go down well with Beijing.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation must comply with Chinese laws and regulations as well as “religious rituals and historical conventions” and would need to be approved by Beijing.

Even though the Dalai Lama has always advocated a “middle way” to resolve the status of Tibet – genuine self-rule within China – Beijing regards him as a separatist. It says the standard of living of people in Tibet has greatly improved under its rule and denies suppressing their human rights and freedom of expression.

The Dalai Lama’s message “affirming that the continuation of the institution” has been welcomed by his followers.

Tsayang Gyatso, a 40-year-old businessman, said that for most Tibetans, the announcement is “a great relief and a moment of happiness”.

“I always had a belief that the reincarnation will come. But having heard it from His Holiness, I feel elated,” he told the BBC in Dharamshala.

Mr Gyatso, who had travelled from Delhi, said he felt “blessed to be here in person to witness His Holiness’s birthday”.

He said there was “a lot of propaganda from China on the appointment of the next Dalai Lama” which made him fear that the appointment process could be corrupted “but all that has been put to rest by His Holiness’s announcement”.

Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, told the BBC that the Dalai Lama’s “message is indirect signalling” to China.

“He’s signalling two things here. One is he’s going to decide on his reincarnation, not China. And the other is he’s showing China that he’s made this decision through a kind of popular – almost democratic – process of asking the community whether they want his institution to continue.”

That’s a signal to China that his legitimacy is based on consent and not on force, Prof Barnett said.

Experts, however, say China is also expected to name its own Dalai Lama.

Dibyesh Anand, professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, said, “After a period of a few months or a few years, they will have their own proteges identify a small boy as the next Dalai Lama and impose that. Of course, a majority of Tibetans are going to reject it and the majority of people in the world are going to make fun of it. But remember China has immense authority in terms of resources so they will try to impose that.”

Youdon Aukatsang, an MP in the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, told the BBC that “despite all these years of trying to control the hearts and minds of Tibetan people inside Tibet”, Beijing has “completely failed”.

A Dalai Lama chosen by China, she says, “will not be recognised, not only by the Tibetans but the world will not recognise it because China doesn’t have the legitimacy to find the future Dalai Lama”.

“We are concerned but we know that irrespective of our concern, China will come up with their own Dalai Lama, we will call it the Chinese-recognised Dalai Lama. I am not worried that Dalai Lama will have any credibility in the Tibetan world or the Buddhist world.”

Two people were found dead by firefighters tackling a blaze in Spain’s Catalonia region on Tuesday, as Europe endures scorching temperatures during the ongoing heatwave.

In a statement, Catalan authorities said the two bodies were found after firefighters extinguished a fire in the Torrefeta area, near the town of Coscó.

Another two heat-related fatalities were recorded in France, the country’s ecological transition minister said, adding that more than 300 people were treated by firefighters on Tuesday.

The European continent is experiencing extremely high temperatures, a phenomenon that the UN’s climate agency said is becoming more frequent due to “human-induced climate change”.

For Spain and England, the month of June marked their hottest June since records began. Spain’s weather service, Aemet, said last month’s average temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) “pulverised records”, surpassing the normal average for July and August.

Firefighters worked throughout Tuesday night in Catalonia to define the perimeter of both the Torrefeta and Florejacs fires, according to the region’s fire service.

In a statement on Wednesday, the fire service said their efforts were focused on establishing the perimeter, extinguishing fires in buildings, and ruling out any more victims.

As of 22:37 local time on Tuesday (21:37 BST), Catalonia’s emergency services established they were working in a perimeter of about 6,500 hectares, which is about 40km (25 miles) long.

According to reports by Spanish media, the two people killed in the fire in Coscó were the owner of a farm and a worker. The pair were aged 32 and 45.

Firefighters said they found the two bodies “lifeless” when tackling the blaze. Catalonia’s regional president, Salvador Illa, said he would be visiting the area.

Spanish forecaster Aemet predicts that Wednesday will see highs of 41C in Córdoba, a city in southern Spain.

France’s ecological transition minister, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, said the two deaths in her country were a result of “heat-related illness”.

It comes as France registered its second-hottest June since records began in 1900. June 2025 only trails behind June 2023, when the country also experienced intense heat.

Four departments in France remain on the red alert level for heat, the highest level. These include Aube, Cher, Loiret and Yonne, according to the country’s weather service, Meteo France.

The forecaster predicts some storms in parts of eastern France, with highs of 37C in Metz in the north-east.

In Italy, two construction workers in Tezze sul Brenta, in the province of Vicenza, were rushed to hospital at 15:30 local time on Tuesday because they fell ill as a result of the heat while working in a hole.

One of the workers is in a coma, according to reports by Italian news agency Ansa, who report that he was resuscitated, intubated and taken to San Bassiano hospital by helicopter.

Intense heat on Tuesday led to power outages in Florence city centre, due to a peak in consumption from air conditioners and some underground electrical cables overheating, Italian media reported.

The blackout on Tuesday afternoon meant homes, hotels and shops were without power. ATMs were also out of action and alarm systems in shops and other business premises were deactivated.

In Bergamo, the overheating of underground cables also caused a power outage in half of the city. On one side towards Piazza della Liberta, the lights were on and people could congregate outside, while on the other, towards Sentierone, no electricity meant dark shop fronts and little to no nightlife.

The blackout in Bergamo on Tuesday spanned several hours, with no power between 16:00 and 22:46 local time.

Heatwaves are becoming more common due to human-caused climate change, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Extreme hot weather will happen more often – and become even more intense – as the planet continues to warm, it has said.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which is the UN’s weather and climate agency, said on Tuesday that human-induced climate change means “extreme heat is becoming more frequent and intense”.

In a statement, the WMO added: “The effect of heat on human health is more pronounced in cities as a result of the urban heat island effect. This is where urban environments are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas, especially during hot periods, due to an abundance of paved surfaces, buildings, vehicles, and heat sources.”

“This additional heat in cities exacerbates heat stress and can increase mortality during hot periods”, the agency said.

Jurors in the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs will keep deliberating after they reached a partial verdict, but found themselves unable to agree on the most serious charge faced by the hip-hop mogul.

At the federal court in New York, the 12 jurors said they had agreed on four of the five counts. Those verdicts have not been made public. But jurors were unable to decide on the racketeering charge, which carries a possible life prison term.

Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him, which include two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, as well as the single count of racketeering.

Deliberations will resume on Wednesday morning.

The atmosphere in court on Tuesday was tense – as the rapper sat with head bowed, hands folded in his lap. His lawyers occasionally put their arms around him.

Over the past two months, the jury has heard from 34 witnesses, including ex-girlfriends, former employees of Mr Combs, male escorts and federal agents.

Mr Combs is charged with racketeering conspiracy, two charges of sex trafficking and two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.

At around 16:30 EDT on Tuesday (20:30 GMT), the jury announced they had reached a verdict on four of the five counts, after two days of deliberations.

The panel said they could not come to an agreement on the racketeering charge because jurors on both sides had opinions that were unmovable.

Judge Arun Subramanian heard arguments from both the prosecution and the rapper’s defence attorneys on how to proceed, before urging the jurors to keep trying to come to a unanimous decision. Their verdicts on the other four counts were not disclosed.

The prosecution urged the judge to use an Allen charge, which is a set of instructions given to a hung jury to press its members to reach a unanimous decision.

Allen charges are controversial, as some believe they can put undue pressure on juries, forcing them to change their stances or cave to peer pressure – especially when their opinion is in the minority.

As well as returning to court on Wednesday, the jurors could potentially continue deliberating on 3 July – when the court is normally closed ahead of the 4 July public holiday.

The panel’s unanimous decision on most of the counts after less than two days of deliberations could be a good sign for prosecutors, Robert Mintz, a criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor told the BBC.

But to gain a conviction on the racketeering charge, prosecutors needed to prove that Mr Combs established a criminal enterprise – a co-ordinated plan between the musician and at least one other person to commit at least two crimes over a span of several years.

“That was always going to be the most challenging charge for prosecutors to get a conviction on,” Mr Mintz said.

“It’s a very complicated charge, used typically in the past in organised crime prosecution and so it’s not surprising that that is the one charge giving the jury the most difficulty.”

If convicted on that charge, Mr Combs faces up to life in prison. He faces another statutory minimum sentence of 15 years if he is found guilty of sex trafficking. Meanwhile, transportation for purposes of prostitution carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

The defendant has also gone by the names Puffy, Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Love and Brother Love.

He used his stature in the industry to found his successful Sean John clothing line and starred in multiple reality TV shows, including one where contestants competed to become part of his band.

In 2023, he released his fifth record The Love Album: Off The Grid and earned his first solo nomination at the Grammy awards. He was also named a Global Icon at the MTV Awards.

Kyiv has warned that an interruption of US weapons shipments might encourage Russia to continue the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

On Tuesday the White House said that it had cut off some weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

The decision was taken “to put America’s interests first” following a Department of Defense review of US “military support and assistance to other countries”, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement that “any delay or procrastination in supporting Ukraine’s defense capabilities would only encourage the aggressor to continue war and terror, rather than seek peace.”

It particularly emphasised the need for Kyiv to strengthen its air defences – as Russia continues to pummel the country with missiles and drones on a near-nightly basis.

A Kyiv-based US diplomat was invited to the foreign ministry for talks on Wednesday.

However, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said it had not received any official notification from the US about the “suspension or revision” of the weapons deliveries, and urged people not to speculate on the basis of partial information.

But in a statement the defence ministry also said that the path to ending the war was “through consistent and joint pressure on the aggressor”.

At the weekend Ukraine endured its biggest aerial attack since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with more than 500 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles launched at its cities.

US officials did not immediately say which shipments were being halted.

According to US broadcaster NBC the weapons being delayed could include Patriot interceptors, Howitzer munitions, missiles and grenade launchers.

The US has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, leading some in the Trump administration to voice concerns that US stockpiles are too low.

The Kremlin, for its part, welcomed news of the reduction in weapons shipments, saying reducing the flow of weapons to Kyiv will help end the conflict faster.

“The fewer the number of weapons that are delivered to Ukraine, the closer the end of the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Fedir Venislavskyi, an MP for Ukraine’s ruling party, said the decision was “painful, and against the background of the terrorist attacks which Russia commits against Ukraine… it’s a very unpleasant situation.”

A Ukrainian military source quoted by AFP news agency said that Kyiv was “seriously dependent on American arms supplies, although Europe is doing its best, but it will be difficult for us without American ammunition.”

Ukraine’s European allies have spent billions in military aid over the last three and a half years.

However, military support for Kyiv is not endorsed by everyone on the political spectrum.

The Czech President and former Chair of NATO’s Military Committee, Petr Pavel, has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine but told BBC Russian that he could “not guarantee” continued ammunition support for Kyiv, as that was dependent on the result of the upcoming Czech elections.

“I don’t know what will be the priorities of a new government,” he said.

The Pentagon’s move is based on concerns that US military stockpiles are falling too low, US official Anna Kelly told CBS News, although she stressed that “the strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran”.

Separately, US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby said in a statement that the defense department “continues to provide the President with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine”.

However, he added “the Department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving US forces’ readiness for Administration defense priorities.”

The pause comes less than a week after President Donald Trump discussed air defences with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at the Nato summit in the Netherlands.

Trump said US officials “are going to see if we can make some of them available” when asked by the BBC about providing extra Patriot anti-missile systems to Ukraine.

Referring to his conversation with Zelensky, Trump said: “We had a little rough times sometimes, but he couldn’t have been nicer.”

The two had a heated confrontation in the Oval Office in March this year. Afterwards, Trump said he was pausing military aid to Ukraine that had been earmarked by the previous Biden administration. Intelligence sharing with Ukraine was also suspended.

But both pauses were subsequently lifted.

In late April, the US and Ukraine signed a deal that would give the US access to Ukraine’s mineral reserves in exchange for military assistance.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday – the first time in over two-and-a-half years.

They spoke on the phone for more than two hours, Macron’s office said, adding that the French president had urged a ceasefire in Ukraine and for talks to start on a “solid and lasting settlement of the conflict”.

The Kremlin said Putin had “reminded Macron” that the West’s policy was to blame for the war, because it had “for many years ignored Russia’s security interests”.

Last month Russia’s long-time leader told a forum in St Petersburg that he saw Russians and Ukrainians as one people and “in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours”.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea peninsula annexed in 2014.

Russia has made slow, grinding advances in Ukraine in recent months and claimed full control of the eastern Luhansk region this week. It has also claimed to have seized territory in the south eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday a Ukrainian attack killed three people at a Russian arms production factory for making drones and radars in Izhevsk, more than 1,000km (620 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

British colonists committed genocide against Australia’s Indigenous population in Victoria, a landmark Aboriginal-led inquiry has found.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission found violence and disease reduced the local Indigenous population by three quarters in the 20 years after the state was colonised, in the early 1830s.

Its report included 100 recommendations to “redress” harm caused by “invasion and occupation” – though several of the authors disagreed with unspecified “key findings”.

The Commission was set up in 2021 as Australia’s first formal “truth-telling” inquiry, and tasked with examining past and ongoing “systemic injustices” suffered by the Indigenous people in the state.

It is part of a wider national push for Australia to engage in a reconciliation process with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which community leaders say should include inquiries into the nation’s history, treaty-making, and granting First Nations people greater political say.

Held over four years, The Yoorrook Justice Commission gave Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the opportunity to formally share their stories and experiences.

The commission’s brief covered a wide gamut of issues including land and water rights, cultural violations, killing and genocide, health, education and housing.

The report found that from 1834, “mass killings, disease, sexual violence, exclusion, linguicide, cultural erasure, environmental degradation, child removal” as well as assimilation contributed to the “near-complete physical destruction” of Victoria’s Indigenous community.

The population dropped from 60,000 to 15,000 by 1851.

“This was genocide,” the report said.

The report, which drew from more than two months of public hearings and over 1,300 submissions, called for “redress” to acknowledge a range of human rights violations, which could include reparations.

Among its other recommendations were a significant overhaul of the education system to include greater input from Indigenous people, and a government apology for Aboriginal soldiers who served during the world wars and were excluded from a scheme gifting diggers land when they returned from the battlefields.

On the state’s health system, the report found that racism was “endemic” and called for more funding for Indigenous health services and policies to get more Aboriginal staff in the system.

Three of the five commissioners – Sue-Anne Hunter, Maggie Walter and Anthony North – “did not approve of the inclusion of the key findings in the final report”, however no further detail was provided.

In response to the report, Victoria’s Labor government said it would “carefully consider” the findings, with Premier Jacinta Allan saying they “shine a light on hard truths”.

Jill Gallagher, head of Victoria’s peak body for Aboriginal health and wellbeing, said the genocide finding was “indisputable”.

“We don’t blame anyone alive today for these atrocities,” she told the ABC, “but it is the responsibility of those of us alive today to accept that truth – and all Victorians today must accept, recognise and reconcile with these factual findings.”

The commission’s report is the first of its kind in Australia, though similar inquiries are happening in other states and territories with varying degrees of progress, depending on which party is in government.

For example, in Queensland, a truth-telling inquiry was cancelled after the Labor government was replaced by a new Liberal-National government.

In recent years, the national dialogue on how to recognise the traditional owners of Australia at all levels of governments has prompted heated debate.

Australians voted against a historic referendum in October 2023, rejecting a change to the constitution that would have created an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, a national body for Indigenous people to give advice on laws.

Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending budget bill is returning to the US House of Representatives – as the clock ticks down to the president’s 4 July deadline for lawmakers to present him with a final version that can be signed into law.

The bill narrowly cleared the Senate, or upper chamber of Congress, on Tuesday. Vice-President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote after more than 24 hours of debate and resistance from some Republican senators.

It could prove equally tricky for Trump’s allies to pass the bill through the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson hopes to hold a vote as early as Wednesday.

The lower chamber approved an earlier version of the bill in May with a margin of just one vote, and this bill must now be reconciled with the Senate version.

Both chambers are controlled by Trump’s Republicans, but within the party several factions are fighting over key policies in the lengthy legislation.

Sticking points include the question of how much the bill will add to the US national deficit, and how deeply it will cut healthcare and other social programmes.

The immediate future of the bill, which is meant to fulfil Trump’s campaign promise of making tax cuts from his first term into permanent cuts, is far from clear.

The president wants the House to simply approve the Senate version, without making any changes. But that could be foiled by certain issues and rebel Republicans.

• Facing intense pressure, House must decide if Trump’s bill is good enough
• What’s in Trump’s budget bill?
• Trump and Musk feud again over budget plans

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the version of the bill that was passed on Tuesday by the Senate could add $3.3tn (£2.4tn) to the US national deficit over the next 10 years. That compares with $2.8tn that could be added by the earlier version that was narrowly passed by the House.

The deficit means the difference between what the US government spends and the revenue it receives.

This outraged the fiscal hawks in the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have threatened to tank the bill.

Many of them are echoing claims made by Elon Musk, Trump’s former adviser and campaign donor, who has repeatedly lashed out at lawmakers for considering a bill that will ultimately add to US national debt.

Shortly after the Senate passed the bill, Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina, a Freedom Caucus member, called the move “unconscionable”.

“What the Senate did, I’ll vote against it here and I’ll vote against it on the floor,” he added.

Norman’s colleague from Texas, Chip Roy, was also quick to signal his frustration.

“I think the odds are a hell of a lot lower than they were even 48 hours ago or 72 hours ago based on the deal-cutting that I just saw,” Roy said in response to a question about meeting Trump’s 4 July deadline.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Tennessee told Fox News that “a group of us are not going to vote to advance the bill until we iron out some of the deficit problems”.

“Mr Musk is right, we cannot sustain these deficits,” Harris continued. “He understands finances, he understands debts and deficits, and we have to make further progress.”

On Tuesday, Conservative Congressman Andy Ogles went as far as to file an amendment that would completely replace the Senate version of the bill, which he called a “dud”, with the original House-approved one.

Meanwhile, Ohio Republican Warren Davison posted on X: “Promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending.” He added: “We will eventually arrive at the crash site, because it appears nothing will stop this runaway spending train. A fatal overdose of government.”

Beyond fiscal hawks, House Republican leadership will also have to contend with moderates in their party who represent more liberal-leaning states and key swing districts that helped the party rise to power in the November election.

“I’ve been clear from the start that I will not support a final reconciliation bill that makes harmful cuts to Medicaid, puts critical funding at risk, or threatens the stability of healthcare providers,” said Congressman David Valadao, who represents a swing district in California. This echoes the criticism of opposition Democrats.

Other Republicans have signalled a willingness to compromise. Randy Fine, from Florida, told the BBC he had frustrations with the Senate version of the bill, but that he would vote it through the House because “we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”.

Representatives from poorer districts are worried about the Senate version of the bill harming their constituents, which could also hurt them at the polls in 2026. According to the Hill, six Republicans planning to vote down the bill due to concerns about cuts to key provisions, including cuts to medical coverage.

Some of the critical Republicans have attacked the Senate’s more aggressive cuts to Medicaid, the healthcare programme relied upon by millions of low-income Americans.

House Republicans had wrestled over how much to cut Medicaid and food subsidies in the initial version their chamber passed. They needed the bill to reduce spending, in order to offset lost revenue from the tax cuts contained in the legislation.

The Senate made steeper cuts to both areas in the version passed on Tuesday.

Changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) in the Senate’s bill would see roughly 12 million Americans lose health insurance by 2034, according to a CBO report published on Saturday.

Under the version originally passed by the House, a smaller number of 11 million Americans would have had their coverage stripped, according to the CBO.

Discussing the Medicaid issue with former Trump adviser and conservative podcaster Steve Bannon, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was asked whether the House might simply “rubber stamp” the Senate version.

The right-wing House member and Trump loyalist responded that there was not enough support to get the bill through the House, using strong language to suggest the situation was a mess.

“I think it’s far from over,” she said. “It’s really a dire situation. We’re on a time clock that’s really been set on us, so we have a lot of pressure.”

The bill also deals with the question of how much taxpayers can deduct from the amount they pay in federal taxes, based on how much they pay in state and local taxes (Salt). This, too, has become a controversial issue.

There is currently a $10,000 cap, which expires this year. Both the Senate and House have approved increasing this to $40,000.

But in the Senate-approved version, the cap would return to $10,000 after five years. This change could pose a problem for some House Republicans.

Punk duo Bob Vylan have been dropped from the line-up of a music festival in Manchester following their controversial appearance at Glastonbury.

The group had been due to headline the Radar Festival at Victoria Warehouse on Saturday, but organisers confirmed in a statement they would no longer appear.

Bob Vylan had also been due to perform at French festival Kave Fest on Sunday, but organisers told the BBC their appearance there had been pulled too.

At Glastonbury, Bob Vylan’s lead singer led the crowd in chants of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]”, prompting criticism from across the political spectrum, including the prime minister who called it “appalling hate speech”.

Bob Vylan responded to the outcry in a post on Instagram on Tuesday, saying they had been “targeted for speaking up”.

“We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine,” they said.

They added that “we, like those in the spotlight before us, are not the story. We are a distraction from the story, and whatever sanctions we receive will be a distraction”.

Organisers of Kave Fest, which is held in the town of Gisors, said they would release a statement later explaining their decision.

A German music venue has also confirmed that Bob Vylan will no longer open for US band GoGo Bordello at a concert in Cologne in September.

The BBC has been criticised for broadcasting the Glastonbury set via a live stream which was available on iPlayer.

The UK’s chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis strongly criticised “the airing of vile Jew-hate at Glastonbury” earlier this week.

The BBC previously said the “antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves”.

In a statement on Monday, the corporation said: “The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.”

Broadcast regulator Ofcom also issued a statement, saying it was “very concerned” about the live stream, adding that “the BBC clearly has questions to answer”.

American rapper Kanye West has been blocked from entering Australia over a song glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Australia’s home affairs minister Tony Burke revealed that his department had cancelled West’s valid visa after the song Heil Hitler was released in early May.

West’s song has been widely condemned and has been banned on most platforms.

The highly controversial rapper, also known as Ye, identifies as a Nazi and is known for his anti-Semitic comments. He is married to Australian designer Bianca Censori.

Mr Burke revealed the visa cancellation in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, during a discussion about the visa cancellation of another person over their Islamophobic comments.

“If someone argued that anti-Semitism was rational, I would not let them come here,” Mr Burke said, while bringing up West’s case.

“[West] has been coming to Australia for a long time… and he’s made a lot of offensive comments.

“But my officials looked at it again once he released the Heil Hitler song, and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia.”

It is not clear if West has been permanently banned from Australia. Mr Burke said that visa applications would be reassessed each time they are made, in accordance with Australian law.

But when asked if any visa ban on West would be sustainable, Mr Burke said: “I think that what’s not sustainable is to import hatred… We have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry.”

It is not the first time Australia considered blocking West. In 2023, Australia’s education minister Jason Clare had also condemned West’s “awful” comments on Hitler and the Holocaust, and suggested he could be denied entry.

Amid the current backlash, Heil Hitler raked up millions of views within a day of its release in May.

The song is part of the Grammy-winning artist’s new album WW3, which also contains other tracks with controversial lyrics.

The music video for Heil Hitler, released on 8 May, shows a group of men wearing animal skins and chanting the song’s title. It has been banned on streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.

But shortly after its release, West said he was “done with anti-Semitism” and released a new version of Heil Hitler – titled Hallelujah. The new song replaced earlier references to Nazism with lyrics relating to Christianity.

West has in recent years sparked controversy for his anti-Semitic remarks. Earlier this year, he declared himself a Nazi and retracted an apology for earlier comments.

In 2022, sportswear giant Adidas announced it was ending its partnership with West over his anti-Semitism.

Late last year, the company said it had reached a settlement with him to end all legal proceedings between them.

US media company Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million (£13.5m) to settle a legal dispute with US President Donald Trump regarding an interview it broadcast on CBS with former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump filed a lawsuit last October, alleging the network had deceptively edited an interview that aired on its 60 Minutes news programme with his presidential election rival Kamala Harris, to “tip the scales in favour of the Democratic party”.

Paramount said it would pay to settle the suit, but with the money allocated to Trump’s future presidential library, not paid to him “directly or indirectly”.

The company noted the settlement does not include a statement of apology or regret.

CBS, which is owned by Paramount, previously said the case was “completely without merit” and had asked a judge to dismiss it.

The settlement marks the latest concession by a US media company to a president who has targeted outlets over what he describes as false or misleading coverage.

According to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Texas, CBS aired two versions of the Harris interview in which she appeared to give different answers to the same question about the Israel-Gaza war.

Interviewer Bill Whitaker asked the Democratic nominee about the Biden administration’s relationship with Israel. The network later aired two different versions of her response, according to the claim.

One clip aired on Face the Nation and the other on 60 Minutes. Trump claimed Harris’s “word salad” answer had been deceptively edited in one version to shield her from backlash.

CBS said it edited Harris’s answer for time, in accordance with television news standards.

Trump sued, originally claiming for $10bn (£8.5bn) but that figure was later increased to $20bn ($17bn) for damages.

In May this year, the company offered $15m (12.7m) to settle the suit but Trump wanted more than $25m (£21m).

In a statement released on Tuesday, Paramount confirmed the settlement fee included the president’s legal fees, and that it had agreed that 60 Minutes will release transcripts of interviews with future presidential candidates.

According to both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, the settlement was agreed – with the help of mediator – so as to not affect Paramount’s planned merger with Skydance Media, which the Federal Communications Commission has been reviewing and therefore Trump technically has the power to halt.

During the month-long settlement talks, some CBS News executives including chief executive Wendy McMahon have left their roles, due to their unwillingness to issue an apology to Trump.

There were also reportedly concerns over whether paying to settle the lawsuit could be viewed as bribing a public official.

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the settlement was “another win for the American people as he, once again, holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit.”

He added that CBS and Paramount “realised the strength of this historic case.”

CBS has said the broadcast was “not doctored or deceitful”.

The Paramount settlement follows a decision by Walt Disney-owned ABC News to settle a defamation case brought by Trump.

Prosecutors are considering bringing further charges against Lucy Letby following the deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at hospitals where she worked.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed it had received evidence from Cheshire Police regarding alleged incidents at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

Former neonatal nurse Letby, 35, is serving 15 life sentences for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others – one of whom on two occasions – at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

Cheshire Police has been investigating other incidents going back to 2012, covering Letby’s career and training in Liverpool.

The force said it had “submitted a full file of evidence to the CPS for charging advice”.

Cheshire Police said the file regarded its “ongoing investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neonatal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital as part of Operation Hummingbird”.

Operation Hummingbird was set up after hospital bosses contacted the force in May 2017 to investigate an unexplained rise in incidents in the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit.

The number and exact nature of the potential new offences has not been revealed and it is not known how long it could take the CPS to decide whether to bring new charges.

A CPS spokesperson said: “We will now carefully consider the evidence to determine whether any further criminal charges should be brought.

“As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test.”

Before charging a suspect, prosecutors have to be satisfied they have sufficient evidence for a “realistic prospect of conviction”.

The Daily Mail reports that the government’s most senior lawyers, including Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson and Attorney General Lord Hermer KC, will be involved in the decision-making process.

Letby, originally from Hereford, has always maintained her innocence.

She has lost two separate bids to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal.

Earlier this year her legal team, led by barrister Mark McDonald, submitted an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which has the power to refer cases back to the Court of Appeal for a full hearing.

The application contained a report from a panel of 14 international experts in neonatology and paediatric care.

After reviewing evidence heard at Letby’s trial, panel members concluded that they believed no babies had been deliberately harmed.

The CCRC said it was reviewing the application and could not give a timescale on when a decision would be reached.

Last month former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Letby’s case should be “urgently re-examined” due to what he called “serious and credible” questions raised by the expert panel.

In response to the news that the CPS was considering more charges, Mr McDonald said the evidence of his client’s innocence was “overwhelming”.

“We will cross every bridge when we get to it but if Lucy is charged I know we have a whole army of internationally renowned medical experts who will totally undermine the prosecution’s unfounded allegations,” he added.

In an unrelated development, Cheshire Police on Tuesday announced that three former senior managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

They were questioned on Monday and released on bail, pending further investigation.

Meanwhile, a public inquiry into the circumstances around Letby’s offending is due to publish its findings in early 2026.

The Thirlwall Inquiry examined events at the Countess of Chester Hospital as well as procedures and cultures within the NHS.

A Ugandan military helicopter with eight people on board has crashed at the main international airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, an aviation official has told the BBC.

The state-run news agency reported that a fire broke out after the helicopter crashed at the Aden Adde International Airport, but it had been quickly contained by the emergency services. Video footage showed plumes of smoke rising from the airport.

“We heard the blast and saw smoke and flames over a helicopter. The smoke entirely covered the helicopter,” Farah Abdulle, one of the airport staff, told Reuters news agency.

The cause of the crash and casualty figures are unclear.

The head of the Somali Civil Aviation Authority, Ahmed Maalim, told the BBC that the helicopter had come down in the airport’s military section after flying in from the Balidogle airbase in the Lower Shabelle region, about 90km (56 miles) north-west of Mogadishu.

He said that an investigation was under way to establish the cause of the crash.

Ugandan troops are part of an 11,000-strong African Union (AU) force helping the government fight the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, which has been waging a brutal insurgency in Somalia for more than two decades.

The crash delayed the departure of a Turkish Airlines passenger plane, but domestic flights continued to operate normally.

• The women at the centre of Somalia’s construction boom
• How Somalis see the ‘Black Hawk Down’ battle three decades on
• The city where shopkeepers fear their CCTV cameras could get them killed

The trial of American music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is accused of running a sprawling sex trafficking operation, is almost over.

The 12 jurors at a federal court in New York have announced they have come to a decision on four of the five counts faced by Mr Combs, although these decisions have not been disclosed.

But the jurors are unable to decide on the racketeering charge, the most serious of the five, which carries a possible life prison term.

Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations against him.

So what is the racketeering charge, which is more commonly used against mobsters – and what are the other charges faced by the rapper?

Racketeering conspiracy, or directing an illegal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (Rico), is the formal name for the charge.

The law was created to take on mob bosses, but it has since been used in other trials, including for sex trafficking – such as in the case against disgraced R&B singer R Kelly.

It is also sometimes used against a group of defendants. US President Donald Trump and his allies were accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia – charges that Trump denied.

To convict Mr Combs on this charge, prosecutors must prove he used his loyal network of associates to run a criminal enterprise to commit crimes including sex trafficking, kidnapping, drugging and obstruction of justice.

In this case, that network would include his employees, who prosecutors say played a part in setting up the “freak-offs” at the centre of the case.

These were prolonged sexual encounters at which the prosecution’s key witnesses say they were coerced to have sex with male escorts while Mr Combs watched.

In a raid on his Los Angeles mansion, police found supplies that they said were intended for use in freak-offs, including drugs and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil.

The defence has sought to undermine the racketeering allegations by asking witnesses whether Mr Combs’ employees ever witnessed the freak-offs.

Cassie Ventura, the star witness for the prosecution, said she did not think they were present.

Defence lawyers argue that the case cannot be considered to be racketeering if members of Mr Combs’ staff were not knowingly complicit.

“Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” said defence attorney Marc Agnifilo. “Did any witness get on that witness stand and say ‘yes, I was part of a racketeering enterprise, I engaged in racketeering’?”

Robert Mintz, a criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor, told the BBC that the racketeering charge was always going to be the most challenging one for prosecutors to prove to a jury.

To gain a conviction, lawyers needed to prove that Combs established a co-ordinated plan between Combs and at least one other person to commit at least two crimes over a span of several years, Mr Mintz said.

“It’s a very complicated charge, used typically in the past in organized crime prosecution and so it’s not a surprising that that is the one charge us giving jury the most difficulty,” Mr Mintz added.

In the New York case, Mr Combs is charged with two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution – alongside the racketeering conspiracy charge.

Separately, Mr Combs faces a number of lawsuits accusing him of rape and assault.

Tony Buzbee, a Texas lawyer handling some of these cases, said that more than 100 women and men from across the US had either filed lawsuits against the rap mogul or intended to do so.

In December 2023, a woman known in court papers as Jane Doe alleged that she was “gang raped” by Mr Combs and others in 2003, when she was 17. She said she was given “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol” before the attack.

Mr Combs’s legal team dismissed the flurry of lawsuits as “clear attempts to garner publicity.”

Mr Combs’ current legal issues began in late 2023 when he was sued by Ms Ventura, also known as Cassie, for violent abuse and rape.

That lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount a day after it was filed, with Mr Combs maintaining his innocence.

Since then, dozens of other people have filed lawsuits accusing Mr Combs of sexual assault, with accusations dating back to 1991. He denies all the claims.

His controversial history with Ms Ventura resurfaced in 2024, when CNN published leaked CCTV footage from 2016 showing Mr Combs kicking his ex-girlfriend as she lay on a hotel hallway floor.

He apologised for his behaviour, saying: “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”

• ‘He thought of himself as a king’: The parties that led to Diddy’s downfall
• ‘Studio sex’ and ‘hitman threats’: Insiders speak out about Diddy’s 90s music
• Diddy’s violence left me broken, says Cassie

In a statement to the BBC about the federal criminal charges, Mr Combs’ lawyer said: “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone – man or woman, adult or minor.”

Diddy’s lawyers later filed a motion to dismiss one part of the federal indictment in which he is accused of transportation to engage in prostitution. His team argued he was being unfairly targeted due to his race.

In a hearing in New York a week before the trial officially began, his attorneys told the court that the rapper led the “lifestyle” of a “swinger” and was not a criminal.

They said he thought it was “appropriate” to have multiple sex partners, including sex workers.

At the same hearing, prosecutors revealed that Mr Combs had rejected a plea deal.

Mr Combs’ lawyers have consistently denied the allegations made against him in the civil lawsuits, describing them as “sickening” and suggesting they were made by “individuals looking for a quick payday”.

If convicted on the racketeering charge, Mr Combs faces up to life in prison.

He faces another statutory minimum sentence of 15 years if he is found guilty of sex trafficking.

Transportation for purposes of prostitution carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Mr Combs has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, since his arrest on 16 September 2024.

Critics describe the prison as overcrowded and understaffed, with a culture of violence.

His lawyers argued for his release, citing the jail’s “horrific” conditions, but a New York federal judge denied the bail request, describing Mr Combs as a “serious flight risk”.

Mr Combs – who has also gone by the names Puffy, Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Love, and Brother Love – emerged in the hip-hop scene in the 1990s.

His early music career success included helping launch the careers of Mary J Blige and Christopher Wallace – aka Biggie Smalls, or The Notorious B.I.G.

His music label Bad Boy Records became one of the most important labels in rap and expanded to include Faith Evans, Ma$e, 112, Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez.

Mr Combs also had a prolific business career outside of music, including a deal with British drinks company Diageo to promote the French vodka brand Cîroc.

In 2023, he released his fifth record The Love Album: Off The Grid and earned his first solo nomination at the Grammy awards. He also was named a Global Icon at the MTV Awards.

• Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: Who is the US rapper accused of sex trafficking?

Dozens of potential jurors were vetted by the court.

The process included potential jurors looking through a long list of places and people that could be mentioned during trial, with names like Kanye West and Kid Cudi.

Potential jurors also had to fill out questionnaires that asked whether they had “views about hip hop artists” or “feelings concerning violence, sexual assault”.

The judge reminded the court several times of the importance of choosing a fair and impartial jury.

Millions of fans are bidding farewell to Squid Game, the Emmy award-winning TV series that has topped Netflix’s charts and become a symbol of South Korea’s ascendance in Hollywood.

The fictional show follows cash-strapped players as they battle it out in a series of traditional Korean children’s games – with a gory twist, as losers are killed in every round.

Squid Game has sucked in viewers since 2021 with its candy-coloured sets and bleak messages about capitalism and humanity. And with its third and final season released last Friday, fans across the world are returning to reality.

Some South Koreans, however, have found themselves reflecting on the society that inspired the dystopian series.

“I feel like Squid Game 3 revealed the true feelings and raw inner thoughts of Korean people,” reads one YouTube comment under a clip from season three.

“It reflected reality so well like how in real life, at work, it’s just full of ruthless people ready to crush you. This show nailed it.”

Squid Game was born against the backdrop of cut-throat competition and widening inequality in South Korean society – where people are too stressed to have children and a university placement exam is seen as the defining moment of a person’s life.

The diverse characters of the show – which include a salaryman, a migrant factory worker and a cryptocurrency scammer – are drawn from figures many South Koreans would find familiar.

The backstory of protagonist Seong Gi-hun, a car factory worker who was laid off and later went on strike, was also inspired by a real-life event: a 2009 strike at the SsangYong Motor factory, where workers clashed with riot police over widespread layoffs. It’s remembered today as one of the country’s largest labour confrontations.

“The drama may be fictional, but it feels more realistic than reality itself,” Jeong Cheol Sang, a film enthusiast, wrote in his review of Squid Game’s final season.

“Precarious labour, youth unemployment, broken families – these aren’t just plot devices, but the very struggles we face every day.”

Those darker messages seemed to be brushed to the side on Saturday night, as a massive parade celebrated the release of the blockbuster’s final season. A giant killer doll and dozens of faceless guards in tracksuits – among other motifs of the deadly games – marched down central Seoul to much fanfare.

For South Korea’s leaders, Squid Game has become a symbol of K-drama’s success on the global stage. It is also part of a string of successes – along with K-pop act BTS and Oscar-winning film Parasite – on which newly elected president Lee Jae Myung wants to capitalise as he sets his sights on exporting K-culture far and wide.

There are signs the Squid Game hype may even go further: the show’s final scene, where Cate Blanchett plays a Korean game with a man in a Los Angeles alley, has fuelled rumours of an American spinoff.

The series ended on an “open-ended” note, Lee Jung-jae, the star of the series, told the BBC. “So it poses a lot of questions to the audience. I hope people will talk about those questions, ponder upon themselves about the questions and try to find an answer.”

In the show’s later seasons, viewers follow Gi-hun’s quest to bring down the eponymous games, which are packaged as entertainment for a group of wealthy VIPs.

But his rebellion fails, and by the end Gi-hun is forced to sacrifice himself to save another player’s baby – an ending that has polarised viewers.

Some argued that Gi-hun’s actions did not square with the dark portrait of reality that showrunners had developed – one that had so well captured the ruthless elements of human nature.

“The characters’ excessive altruism was disturbing – almost to the point of seeming unhinged,” reads a comment on popular South Korean discussion site Nate Pann. “It felt like a fake, performative kind of kindness, prioritising strangers over their own families for no real reason.”

But others said Gi-hun’s death was in line with the show’s commitment to uncomfortable truths.

“This perfectly describes humanity and the message of the show,” another commented on YouTube.

“As much as we wanted to see Gi-Hun win, kill the frontman and the VIPs, and stop the games once and for all before riding off into the sunset, that’s just not the world we live in and it’s certainly not the one that Gi-Hun lived in.”

Hwang Dong-hyuk, the show’s creator, told reporters on Monday that he understood the “mixed reaction” to the final season.

“In season one there were no expectations, so the shock and freshness worked. But by seasons two and three, expectations were sky high, and that makes all the difference,” Hwang said on Monday.

“Game fans wanted more games, others wanted deeper messages, and some were more invested in the characters. Everyone expected something different.”

For some, at least, Gi-hun’s final choice offered a hopeful reflection of reality: that even in times of adversity, kindness can prevail.

“That paradox – of cruelty and warmth coexisting – is what made the finale so moving,” said Mr Jeong, the film blogger. “Watching the Squid Game made me reflect on myself. As someone who has worked in education and counselling, I’ve questioned whether kindness can really change anything.”

“That’s why I stayed with this story. That’s why I call this ending beautiful.”

From his pocket, Serhiy Melnyk pulls out a small rusty shard, wrapped neatly in paper.

He holds it up. “It grazed my kidney, pierced my lung, and my heart,” says the Ukrainian serviceman quietly.

Traces of dried blood are still visible on the shrapnel from a Russian drone that became lodged in his heart while he was fighting in eastern Ukraine.

“I didn’t even realise what it was at first — I thought I was just short of breath under my body armour,” he says. “They had to extract shrapnel out of my heart.”

With the rise of drone warfare in Ukraine, these injuries are becoming more common. Drones often carry weapons and materials which fragment and cause more complex shrapnel wounds.

According to Ukrainian military medics, shrapnel wounds now make up to 80% of battlefield trauma.

Untreated, Serhiy’s injury would have been fatal.

“The fragment was as sharp as a blade. Doctors said it was a large piece, and that I was lucky to survive,” he says reflectively.

But it wasn’t just luck that saved him, it was a new piece of medical technology. A magnetic extractor.

Cardiovascular surgeon Serhiy Maksymenko shows footage of the metal fragment trapped in Serhiy’s beating heart before it is delicately removed by a thin magnet-tipped device.

“You don’t have to make large cuts in the heart,” explains Dr Maksymenko. “I just make a small incision, insert the magnet, and it pulls the shrapnel out.”

In just one year, Doctor Maksymenko’s team has performed over 70 successful heart operations with the device, which has changed the face of front-line medicine in Ukraine.

The development of these extractors came after front-line medics highlighted the urgent need for a safe, fast, minimally invasive way to remove shrapnel.

Oleh Bykov – who used to work as a lawyer – drove this development. Since 2014 he has been supporting the army as a volunteer. He met medics on the front line and from his conversations the magnetic extractors were created.

The concept isn’t new. Magnets were used for removing metal from wounds as far back as the Crimean War in the 1850s. But Oleh’s team modernised the approach, creating flexible models for abdominal surgery, micro-extractors for delicate work, and high-strength tools for bones.

Operations have become more precise and less invasive. The magnet can be run along the surface of a wound to draw fragments out. Surgeons then make a small incision and the piece is removed.

Holding a slim pen-shaped tool, Oleh demonstrates its power by lifting a sledgehammer with the magnetic tip.

His work has been commended by other war medics including David Nott, a veteran of war zones around the world.

“In war, things get developed which would never have been thought of in civilian life,” he says.

Fragmentation wounds have increased due to the changing face of war, and because they take a long time to find he believes this device could be a game changer.

He says looking for shrapnel in patients is like “looking for a needle in a haystack”- it is not always successful and delays treatment of other casualties.

Searching for fragments manually can be dangerous and requires bigger incisions that can cause more bleeding – “so to be able just to simply find them using a magnet is ingenious.”

What began as a field tool has now been rolled out across Ukraine, with 3,000 units distributed to hospitals and front-line medics, like Andriy Alban who says he has come to rely on the device.

He often works while under fire, in trenches or makeshift outdoor clinics, and sometimes without local anaesthetic.

“My job is to save lives – bandage wounds and get soldiers evacuated,” he says.

There has been no official certification of the magnetic extractor.

The Ukrainian Health Ministry says medical devices must comply fully with technical regulations. However, in exceptional cases, such as martial law or a state of emergency, the use of uncertified devices is allowed to meet the needs of the military and security forces.

At the height of war, there’s no time for red tape, mastermind Oleh explains. “These devices save lives. If someone thinks my actions are a crime, I’ll take responsibility. I’m even prepared to go to jail if it comes to that. But then all the doctors who use these devices should be incarcerated too,” he adds half jokingly.

David Nott agrees that certification is not a top priority for now and believes the device could prove helpful in other war zones such as Gaza.

“In war, it’s not really necessary. You only do the things which are important to save lives.”

Back in Lviv, Serhiy’s wife Yulia is just grateful her husband survived his injury.

“I just want to praise those people who invented this extractor,” she says tearfully. “Thanks to them, my husband is alive.”

After nearly 24 hours of debate – starting yesterday morning and stretching overnight – the US Senate approved Donald Trump’s massive tax-cut and spending bill

Passing by the narrowest of margins, the bill contains key parts of the agenda he campaigned on last year.

Trump celebrated its passage during a visit to a migrant detention facility in Florida. “It’s a great bill,” he said. “There is something for everyone.”

But in fact, while lawmakers may have got “something” they wanted, they had to make concessions to achieve that.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said she worked hard to ensure the bill provided for her state and ultimately voted for it, but was still unhappy. She called the process “rushed”.

“My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognise that we’re not there yet,” she told reporters just outside the Senate floor, moments after the vote.

• A look at the key items in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
• Watch: Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ triggers Senate face-off
• The woman who could bust Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’

In a game of political ping-pong, the bill now returns to the House, which passed its version of the bill weeks ago.

If the narrow Republican majority in that chamber gives final approval, perhaps as early as Wednesday, the legislation can be presented to the president for his signature.

But it may be a tough pill for some House Republicans to swallow.

It includes massive new funding -$70bn – for Trump’s immigration priorities. It boosts defence spending and makes the tax cuts Republicans passed in Trump’s first term permanent. To offset this loss, it cuts funding for Biden-era environmental programmes and Medicaid, the health insurance programme for low-income Americans.

The financial ledger isn’t nearly balanced, however, as the package adds more than $3tn to the federal debt and raises the US borrowing authority by $5tn.

Fiscal hard-liners have complained that the Senate watered down some of their original budget cuts.

The right-wing House Freedom Caucus said the Senate proposal could add $650bn (£472bn) to the deficit each year. “It’s not what we agreed to,” caucus members said in a social media post on Monday.

And centrists still are concerned about cuts in the bill, including reductions in federal payments covering health insurance for low-income Americans.

The original House version was a balancing act that kept the various factions within the Republican Party just satisfied enough to vote yes. The Senate version now landing back in their laps may disrupt that balance.

But the pressure on House Republicans to sign off on what Trump has called his “big, beautiful bill” will be enormous.

The president has said he views the legislation as an integral part of his political legacy – a lasting change in government policy that, unlike executive orders, a future president cannot easily undo.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

It has been a good year for gold. A host of turbulent events in the global economy has driven up prices for the glittery commodity to record highs in 2025.

In a world of tariffs and international conflict, gold appeals to investors as one of the few remaining stable assets. Everyone wants a piece of the action, from central banks to large institutions like hedge funds, and retail investors. But few know where their gold comes from, or much about the conflicts it may be fuelling in the countries where it is mined.

For the governments of West Africa’s Sahel region, the stakes are even higher. Gold is a lifeline for the military juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, who are beleaguered by jihadist insurgencies, regional isolation, and the ravages of climate change.

“Because gold prices have been at a historic high… the military governments are hoping that they will be able to benefit directly,” Beverly Ochieng, a senior researcher at global consultancy firm Control Risks, told the BBC.

Together, the three Sahel states produce around 230 tonnes of gold per year, according to the World Gold Council’s estimates, or about $15bn (£11bn) at the current market rate.

A lack of records for artisanal and small-scale gold mining means that this figure is probably an underestimate.

The combined gold production in these three states surpasses any other country in Africa, making the Sahel region a major global contributor to the gold market.

The governments say that the proceeds from the lucrative sector are benefitting citizens through increased “sovereignty” – though Russian firms are increasing their stake in the industry at the expense of Western-owned firms.

For example, Mali’s junta leader Gen Assimi Goïta laid the foundation stone last month for a gold refinery, in which a Russian conglomerate, the Yadran Group, will have a minority stake. The refinery will reportedly create 500 direct jobs and 2,000 indirect jobs.

Burkina Faso is also building its first-ever gold refinery, and has set up a state-owned mining company, requiring foreign firms to give it a 15% stake in their local operations and to transfer skills to Burkinabé people.

Fake AI media campaigns have even been launched to celebrate the country’s charismatic 37-year-old military ruler Capt Ibrahim Traoré for commanding such an important revenue stream for the nation.

“Mining gold from deepest dirt. But souls are rich and true,” croons an AI-generated Rihanna in one recent song, pouring her silky, auto-tuned praise on Capt Traoré.

The reality is very different, according to Ms Ochieng, who explained that Burkina Faso and its neighbours need quick cash to fund counterinsurgency campaigns.

In the case of Mali, much of this has been outsourced to Russian mercenaries, including the Wagner Group and its successor, Africa Corps, which falls under the command of Russia’s defence ministry.

Africa Corps has been involved in military training in Burkina Faso, but the junta officially denies its presence.

Although public spending transparency in the countries is poor, the governments are thought to devote large portions of their budgets to national security.

Military spending in Mali trebled since 2010, amounting to 22% of the national budget by 2020.

The governments are fighting jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS).

But campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Malian government and the Wagner Group of committing atrocities against civilians, including unlawful killings, summary executions, and torture.

It has documented similar atrocities by Burkina Faso’s military and its allied militias.

For their services, the Wagner Group and now Africa Corps are often paid directly in gold or in mining concessions, according to Alex Vines of the London-based Chatham House think-tank.

“Very little [of the gold revenues] will trickle down to Malians and Burkinabés,” he told the BBC, adding that in fact the armed insurgents themselves may be benefiting from gold.

Since the coup in Mali in 2021, brutal government tactics against communities suspected of harbouring or sympathising with jihadists have increased, pushing more civilians to join the very groups they are fighting.

Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate which is the most active jihadist group in the region, staged an unprecedented number of attacks targeting Burkina Faso military during the first half of 2025, a sign of the group’s growing strength.

The armed groups are also literally cashing in on the increased global appetite for gold.

A large proportion of gold mining in the Sahel is from the artisanal and small-scale sector, which is often informal, meaning it takes place on unlicensed and undeclared sites away from government oversight, according to a 2023 report on gold mining in the Sahel by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Armed groups, including jihadist groups, and Sahel governments are in competition for control over many of these small-scale gold mines.

Gold provides an important revenue stream for militant groups, which appear to be expanding their territorial influence in both Mali and Burkina Faso.

The UNODC believes that most gold from this type of mining ends up in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a global centre for gold refining and trading.

“You do see overlap of violent extremist groups moving onto artisanal production areas for control,” said Dr Vines.

The global spike in gold prices may be prolonging and exacerbating conflict in the Sahel – but, unfortunately for the diggers in artisanal gold mines, it has not led to owners increasing their wages.

One gold miner in Mali’s northern Kidal region agreed to respond to written questions from the BBC on condition of anonymity, for fear of his safety.

He estimated that, on a “good day”, he earns 10,000 to 20,000 CFA francs, or approximately $18 to $36 (£13 to £26).

The amount he is paid has not increased alongside global gold prices, he said.

“Prices went up, but the extra profit goes to mine owners… It’s risky and uncertain, but for many of us, it’s the only option,” he added.

Dr Vines, who formerly worked as a blood diamond investigator for the UN, is concerned that gold has become Africa’s new main conflict commodity.

He noted that gold has not received the same international attention as diamonds, which fuelled bloodshed in several African states throughout the 20th Century, especially during the 1990s.

Intervention by human rights groups and the UN led to the establishment of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in 2003, which did much to end the sale of so-called “blood diamonds” on the open market.

But attempts to crack down on “blood gold” have been less successful.

This is partly due to a lack of unified ethical standards. The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), a major authority in the gold market, requires refiners to comply with standards based on guidelines set by a global body, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OED).

The UAE’s enforcement of these regulations has historically been patchy.

In 2021, the country announced its own standards for ethical gold mining – however, the framework remains voluntary. The issue of enforcement has caused tensions in the past between the Gulf state and the LBMA.

Tracing technology represents another hurdle.

“There is no ‘DNA testing’ for gold. With a lot of effort, you can trace diamonds before they get polished and cut… But I haven’t seen ways of tracing the origins of a gold nugget,” Dr Vines said.

Gold is smelted early on in the value chain, making it nearly impossible to trace and connect to potential conflict zones, he explained.

Dr Vines believes that it is likely that some blood gold from the Sahel ends up in UK markets.

“[Gold] gets smelted in [the] UAE, then goes onto the jewellery manufacturing industry, or into dentistry, or bullion. Some of it clearly comes into the UK. And once it is here, there is no way of testing what it is.”

Another reason that it will be difficult to repeat the successes of the Kimberley process, according to Dr Vines, is because the certification system was not designed to deal with state governments.

“Kimberley was designed to deal with armed non-state actors in places like Sierra Leone and Liberia,” he said.

For now, gold’s importance for Sahel governments and the patchy enforcement of ethical gold standards mean that the commodity is likely to continue changing hands, regardless of its origin.

Unfortunately for some communities in the Sahel, that may mean paying for the trade in blood.

• ‘I thought I would die’ – freed captive tells BBC of life in jihadist base
• Why Burkina Faso’s junta leader has captured hearts and minds
• ‘We are poisoning ourselves’: Ghana gold rush sparks environmental disaster
• The region with more ‘terror deaths’ than rest of world combined

US President Donald Trump has visited the new Florida detention centre dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”, where around 3,000 migrants are expected to be held as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration.

While touring the facility in the Florida Everglades, Trump said it will soon hold the most “menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet”.

The administration said alligators, crocodiles and pythons in the surrounding wetlands would keep detainees from escaping.

Some state lawmakers, the local mayor, environmental groups and neighbours oppose its construction, saying it could harm an important ecosystem.

“We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is, really, deportation,” Trump said on the tour.

He added that he “wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long” and that anyone who attempted to do so would be met by “a lot of cops in the form of alligators”.

The facility is designed to hold 3,000 detainees, with the first expected to arrive as soon as Wednesday. A second facility – meant to house 2,000 people – is going to be built near Jacksonville.

During his visit, amid sweltering heat and humidity, Trump toured a medical facility in the complex, as well as a large air-conditioned tent that will house detainees, with several enclosures surrounded by chain-link fence.

Speaking to reporters, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he intends to deputise members of the state’s National Guard Judge Advocate Corps, or Jags, to act as immigration judges and facilitate rapid removals from the country.

The president said the facility “could be” a model for future such facilities, adding that his administration was actively working with the governments of several Republican-run states, such as Louisiana, to find other suitable locations.

“They can have their hearings, to get due process and then immediately be flown back home to their home countries,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who accompanied Trump on the trip.

Trump said he already approved of the governor’s plan.

Both Trump and Noem said they believed the facility would encourage undocumented migrants to self-deport.

Noem claimed one million had already done so, but admitted the government was unsure of the true figure, as some had left the country without using the official Customs and Border Protection app and because their countries of origin had not yet provided data.

The new facility will cost about $450m (£332m) a year to run, according to Noem, and funding will mostly come from a temporary shelter and services programme that the Federal Emergency Management Agency previously used to fund accommodation for undocumented immigrants in US cities.

Local residents who live near the site, like Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Native American community, have told the BBC they are worried that the temporary facility will become permanent.

“I have serious concerns about the environmental damage,” she said, as she stood next to a canal where an alligator was swimming.

Experts warn the damage to area wetlands and endangered species could undo the state’s massive effort to restore the Everglades, which has cost Florida billions of dollars. It is home to endangered species such as the Florida panther and the West Indian manatee.

Elise Pautler Bennett, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, described the Everglades as “the most sensitive place in Florida”, making development of a detention centre there “risky”.

“Any other project that would have been proposed in the Everglades would have gone through an intense environmental approval process, I’m convinced this one didn’t get that because it’s a political stunt,” Ms Bennett told the BBC.

The move to build a new centre comes as human rights organisations warn detentions centres are becoming overcrowded.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently has a record 59,000 detainees in custody nationwide, 140% above its capacity, according to data obtained by CBS, the BBC’s news partner.

Like the former prison Alcatraz in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, which Trump has said he wants to reopen, the facility will be hard to reach.

It will be situated on the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a public airport around 58km (36 miles) from Miami.

The wait is over, K-pop fans – BTS are back. The South Korean band confirmed their highly-anticipated comeback on Tuesday, scheduling a new album and tour for next year.

Announcing the news during their first live stream since all band members completed their mandatory military service, the seven-strong group said they would head to the US later this month to begin working on new music.

“Hey guys, we are back,” Jimin said, with the group adding that their album would be released in spring 2026.

“We’re also planning a world tour alongside the album. We’ll be visiting fans all around the world, so we hope you’re as excited as we are,” the band said.

It will be BTS’s first world tour since the group’s Permission to Dance on Stage tour back in 2022.

And the new album will be the band’s first full-length release since 2020.

All South Korean men must do 18 months in the military, which forced the world’s most successful boy band in recent years to pause their careers at the height of their global fame in 2022.

According to a statement, the band told fans on fan platform Weverse on Tuesday: “Starting in July, all seven of us will begin working closely together on new music.

“Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member’s thoughts and ideas. We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”

Fans – collectively known as the ARMY – have been desperate to see the boys back together again following their enforced hiatus.

Suga was the final member of the band to complete military service last month.

BTS are believed to have staggered their military service so that all seven members were unavailable for no more than six months. J-Hope, who was discharged last October, has since wrapped up a solo world tour and will headline Lollapalooza Berlin on 13 July.

The band made their debut in 2013, having formed three years earlier, and have gone on to become the most successful K-pop band globally.

They were the biggest-selling music artists in the world in 2020 and 2021, with six number one albums and the same number of chart-topping singles in the US.

Three former senior staff at the hospital where nurse Lucy Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to kill seven others have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

They worked on the senior leadership team at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016 and were bailed after being questioned on Monday.

The arrests came after an investigation into potential corporate manslaughter at the hospital was opened in 2023, and then widened in March this year to include gross negligence manslaughter.

Letby, 35, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole life prison sentences after targeting babies at the hospital’s neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.

She was convicted of making two attempts to kill one of the babies.

Cheshire Police said the arrests “did not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder”.

Det Supt Paul Hughes said the corporate manslaughter element of the investigation focused on the senior leadership of the hospital and its decision-making, “to determine whether any criminality has taken place concerning the response to the increased levels of fatalities”.

He said gross negligence manslaughter was a separate offence and “focuses on the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals”.

Corporate manslaughter can carry an unlimited fine for an organisation but no jail sentence for any individual, whereas gross negligence manslaughter can result in a life sentence for a person convicted of it.

The three people arrested have not been named by police, in line with normal police procedure.

Cheshire Police said it was also carrying out a separate investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies in Chester and in the Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where Letby trained for periods, going back to 2012.

Det Supt Hughes said there were “no set timescales” for the manslaughter investigations.

Letby has maintained her innocence and her barrister, Mark McDonald, submitted an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) earlier this year.

The application included the findings of 14 medical experts who agreed to re-examine the evidence heard at trial and concluded Letby had not harmed any babies.

The CCRC, which has the power to refer cases back to the Court of Appeal, said it was reviewing the application and could give no timescale on when a decision would be reached.

Mr McDonald said the news of the arrests had come at a “very sensitive” time in his client’s case.

“Despite this the concerns many have raised will not go away, and we will continue to publicly discuss them,” he said.

He added that “internationally renowned experts” had concluded that no babies were murdered and called for a new public inquiry into “failings” in neonatal and paediatric care at the Countess of Chester.

Last month former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt called for an “urgent re-examination” of Letby’s case due to what he called “serious and credible” questions raised by the expert panel.

His Conservative Party colleague, Sir David Davis, has also been supportive of attempts to have Letby’s case looked at again.

But lawyers for the families of Letby’s victims described the expert panel’s conclusions as “full of analytical holes” and “a rehash” of the defence case.

A public inquiry into the circumstances around Letby’s offending is also due to publish its findings in early 2026.

The Thirwall Inquiry heard evidence from the senior leadership team at the hospital about when concerns were raised about a rise in the deaths of babies on the neonatal unit.

A father jumped into the ocean to save his daughter after she fell from the fourth deck of a Disney cruise ship travelling from the Bahamas to the US on Sunday afternoon, witnesses say.

Videos showed passengers cheering as the two were pulled onto a rescue boat after apparently treading water for 10 minutes.

The girl appeared to fall when her father took her picture against a railing, witnesses said. A man overboard alert was broadcast on the ship, and crew rushed to recover them.

“The ship was moving quickly, so quickly, it’s crazy how quickly the people became tiny dots in the sea, and then you lost sight of them,” passenger Laura Amador said.

“The captain slowed the ship and turned it around, and then they deployed a tender ship with people on it to go get them, and we saw them rescue the dad and daughter,” she told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

The identities of the father and daughter have not been publicly released. Several US media outlets are describing the girl as a child.

The 4,000-person capacity Disney Dream, was returning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after sailing for four days around the Bahamas.

Disney confirmed in a statement that two passengers were rescued, but offered few details about what occurred.

“The Crew aboard the Disney Dream swiftly rescued two guests from the water,” a Disney Cruise Line spokesperson said. “We commend our Crew Members for their exceptional skills and prompt actions, which ensured the safe return of both guests to the ship within minutes.

“We watched it, you could see two little things…it was crazy, it was horrific,” passenger Gar Frantz told NBC News, describing how he witnessed the two enter the ocean and nearly disappear into the horizon.

The incident took place on the last day of the cruise, and the ship returned to port in Florida as normal.

While it is rare for passengers to fall from cruise ships, rescues are not often successful when they do.

According to a Cruise Lines International Association report from 2019, 25 people fell overboard that year from cruise ships and only nine were saved from the water.

Qantas is contacting customers after a cyber attack targeted their third-party customer service platform.

On 30 June, the Australian airline detected “unusual activity” on a platform used by its contact centre to store the data of six million people, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers.

Upon detection of the breach, Qantas took “immediate steps and contained the system”, according to a statement.

The company is still investigating the full extent of the breach, but says it is expecting the proportion of data stolen to be “significant”.

It has assured the public that passport details, credit card details and personal financial information were not held in the breached system, and no frequent flyer accounts, passwords or PIN numbers have been compromised.

Qantas has notified the Australian Federal Police of the breach, as well as the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

“We sincerely apologise to our customers and we recognise the uncertainty this will cause,” said Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson.

She asked customers to call the dedicated support line if they had concerns, and confirmed that there would be no impact to Qantas’ operations or the safety of the airline.

The attack comes just days after the FBI issued an alert on X warning that the airline sector was a target of cyber criminal group Scattered Spider.

US-based Hawaiian Airlines and Canada’s WestJet have both been impacted by similar cyber attacks in the past two weeks.

BBC revealed that the group has also been the key focus of an investigation into the wave of cyber attacks on UK retailers, including M&S.

The Qantas breach is the latest in a string of Australian data breaches this year, with AustralianSuper and Nine Media suffering significant leaks in the past few months.

In March 2025, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) released statistics revealing that 2024 was the worst year for data breaches in Australia since records began in 2018.

“The trends we are observing suggest the threat of data breaches, especially through the efforts of malicious actors, is unlikely to diminish,” said Australian Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind in a statement from the OAIC.

Ms Kind urged businesses and government agencies to step up security measures and data protection, and highlighted that both the private and public sectors are vulnerable to cyber attacks.

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

The Congolese government says it targeted an aircraft which rebels claim was delivering food aid before it was blown up in the district of Minembwe, close to the country’s borders with Rwanda and Burundi.

It is the latest violent incident in the region since a ceasefire deal was signed in Washington last Friday.

The army claims it tracked the plane using radar, found it had entered Congolese airspace without legal permission and bore no identification number – giving the force no choice but to take “appropriate measures”.

But rebels allied to the M23 group, which has seized large parts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo this year, dispute this.

A statement released on behalf of the Twerwaneho group, which controls Minembwe, said the plane was bombed in an act of “barbarity” that destroyed “food rations” and “essential supplies including medicines” intended for village residents.

The statement published by the wider rebel umbrella Congo River Alliance, which includes both the Twerwaneho and M23, threatened that the militia would hit back at the army in so-called “necessary measures” to keep locals safe.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify what cargo was on board the plane, nor where it had come from.

Yet daytime images circulating online, whose topography and details match other footage from the scene, appear to show that most of the wreckage was consumed by the fire.

Burundi defence forces and the Congolese army have blocked road access to rebel-held Minembwe, leaving it reliant on air access for all kinds of supplies.

Neither side has said that the plane originated in Rwanda. But all Rwandan civilian and military aircraft have been banned in DR Congo since February over accusations that Rwanda is backing the M23. Despite widespread evidence, Rwanda denies giving financial or military support to the M23 or its allies.

• DR Congo-Rwanda ceasefire deal still faces many challenges
• What’s the fighting in DR Congo all about?

Decades of conflict escalated earlier this year when M23 rebels seized control of large parts of eastern DR Congo including the regional capital, Goma, the city of Bukavu and two airports.

Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of civilians forced from their homes following the recent rebel offensive.

The plane’s destruction is one of many violent incidents that have happened since last week’s much-trumpeted peace agreement.

The M23 is one of the biggest parties in this conflict but was not directly involved in the US-brokered ceasefire deal. Instead it favours continuing talks mediated by Qatar, which it says will address “the root causes” of the conflict.

Both Rwanda and DR Congo last week committed to disarming and disengaging their alleged proxies.

However, dozens of armed groups are active in the region – several of whom have already shown they are not adhering to the ceasefire.

Even though US President Donald Trump told those signing the deal that “you’re going to do what is in the agreement”, what is happening in North and South Kivu provinces makes the prospect of lasting peace remote.

Crucially, no verification mechanism was enshrined in the Washington deal. But both DR Congo and Rwanda were given 30 days to set up a monitoring mechanism.

Analysts say last week’s deal does not immediately change the reality on the ground – despite Trump’s wishes – and matters remain tense and uncertain.

Monday’s incident is likely to spark fresh doubts about the prospect of lasting peace taking hold anytime soon.

• DR Congo-Rwanda peace deal met with scepticism in rebel-held city
• Congolese rebels want peaceful solution to crisis, UN says
• Ex-DR Congo president returns from self-imposed exile, party says
• DR Congo conflict tests China’s diplomatic balancing act
• How DR Congo’s Tutsis become foreigners in their own country

US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a “30% or 35%” tariff on Japan if a deal between the two countries is not reached before a deadline next week.

That would be well above the 24% tariff Japan was hit with as part of Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” on 2 April, when he announced steep import duties on countries around the world.

The tariffs on most US trading partners, including Japan, were later lowered to 10% for 90 days to give them time to negotiate deals with Washington.

That pause is due to expire on 9 July and Trump has said he is not planning to extend the deadline.

Trump also continued to cast doubt that an agreement could be reached with Tokyo.

“We’ve dealt with Japan. I’m not sure we’re going to make a deal. I doubt it,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.

Japan declined to comment on Trump’s threat to hike tariffs during a news conference on Wednesday.

“We are aware of what President Trump said, but we don’t comment on every remark made by US government officials,” the country’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiko Aoki said.

Like many other countries, most of Japan’s exports to the US currently face a 10% levy. There is also a 25% import tax on Japanese vehicles and parts, while steel and aluminium are subject to a 50% tariff.

On Tuesday, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said he would not make concessions that could hurt his country’s farmers to strike an agreement with Washington.

The comments came after Trump criticised countries over their trade policies towards the US, focussing on Japanese rice imports.

“To show people how spoiled Countries have become with respect to the United States of America, and I have great respect for Japan, they won’t take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump originally said he would sign 90 trade agreements during the pause on the new tariffs but since then only the UK has struck a deal with the US.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending budget bill is returning to the US House of Representatives – as the clock ticks down to the president’s 4 July deadline for lawmakers to present him with a final version that can be signed into law.

The bill narrowly cleared the Senate, or upper chamber of Congress, on Tuesday. Vice-President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote after more than 24 hours of debate and resistance from some Republican senators.

It could prove equally tricky for Trump’s allies to pass the bill through the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson hopes to hold a vote as early as Wednesday.

The lower chamber approved an earlier version of the bill in May with a margin of just one vote, and this bill must now be reconciled with the Senate version.

Both chambers are controlled by Trump’s Republicans, but within the party several factions are fighting over key policies in the lengthy legislation.

Sticking points include the question of how much the bill will add to the US national deficit, and how deeply it will cut healthcare and other social programmes.

The immediate future of the bill, which is meant to fulfil Trump’s campaign promise of making tax cuts from his first term into permanent cuts, is far from clear.

The president wants the House to simply approve the Senate version, without making any changes. But that could be foiled by certain issues and rebel Republicans.

• Facing intense pressure, House must decide if Trump’s bill is good enough
• What’s in Trump’s budget bill?
• Trump and Musk feud again over budget plans

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the version of the bill that was passed on Tuesday by the Senate could add $3.3tn (£2.4tn) to the US national deficit over the next 10 years. That compares with $2.8tn that could be added by the earlier version that was narrowly passed by the House.

The deficit means the difference between what the US government spends and the revenue it receives.

This outraged the fiscal hawks in the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have threatened to tank the bill.

Many of them are echoing claims made by Elon Musk, Trump’s former adviser and campaign donor, who has repeatedly lashed out at lawmakers for considering a bill that will ultimately add to US national debt.

Shortly after the Senate passed the bill, Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina, a Freedom Caucus member, called the move “unconscionable”.

“What the Senate did, I’ll vote against it here and I’ll vote against it on the floor,” he added.

Norman’s colleague from Texas, Chip Roy, was also quick to signal his frustration.

“I think the odds are a hell of a lot lower than they were even 48 hours ago or 72 hours ago based on the deal-cutting that I just saw,” Roy said in response to a question about meeting Trump’s 4 July deadline.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Tennessee told Fox News that “a group of us are not going to vote to advance the bill until we iron out some of the deficit problems”.

“Mr Musk is right, we cannot sustain these deficits,” Harris continued. “He understands finances, he understands debts and deficits, and we have to make further progress.”

On Tuesday, Conservative Congressman Andy Ogles went as far as to file an amendment that would completely replace the Senate version of the bill, which he called a “dud”, with the original House-approved one.

Meanwhile, Ohio Republican Warren Davison posted on X: “Promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending.” He added: “We will eventually arrive at the crash site, because it appears nothing will stop this runaway spending train. A fatal overdose of government.”

Beyond fiscal hawks, House Republican leadership will also have to contend with moderates in their party who represent more liberal-leaning states and key swing districts that helped the party rise to power in the November election.

“I’ve been clear from the start that I will not support a final reconciliation bill that makes harmful cuts to Medicaid, puts critical funding at risk, or threatens the stability of healthcare providers,” said Congressman David Valadao, who represents a swing district in California. This echoes the criticism of opposition Democrats.

Other Republicans have signalled a willingness to compromise. Randy Fine, from Florida, told the BBC he had frustrations with the Senate version of the bill, but that he would vote it through the House because “we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”.

Representatives from poorer districts are worried about the Senate version of the bill harming their constituents, which could also hurt them at the polls in 2026. According to the Hill, six Republicans planning to vote down the bill due to concerns about cuts to key provisions, including cuts to medical coverage.

Some of the critical Republicans have attacked the Senate’s more aggressive cuts to Medicaid, the healthcare programme relied upon by millions of low-income Americans.

House Republicans had wrestled over how much to cut Medicaid and food subsidies in the initial version their chamber passed. They needed the bill to reduce spending, in order to offset lost revenue from the tax cuts contained in the legislation.

The Senate made steeper cuts to both areas in the version passed on Tuesday.

Changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) in the Senate’s bill would see roughly 12 million Americans lose health insurance by 2034, according to a CBO report published on Saturday.

Under the version originally passed by the House, a smaller number of 11 million Americans would have had their coverage stripped, according to the CBO.

Discussing the Medicaid issue with former Trump adviser and conservative podcaster Steve Bannon, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene was asked whether the House might simply “rubber stamp” the Senate version.

The right-wing House member and Trump loyalist responded that there was not enough support to get the bill through the House, using strong language to suggest the situation was a mess.

“I think it’s far from over,” she said. “It’s really a dire situation. We’re on a time clock that’s really been set on us, so we have a lot of pressure.”

The bill also deals with the question of how much taxpayers can deduct from the amount they pay in federal taxes, based on how much they pay in state and local taxes (Salt). This, too, has become a controversial issue.

There is currently a $10,000 cap, which expires this year. Both the Senate and House have approved increasing this to $40,000.

But in the Senate-approved version, the cap would return to $10,000 after five years. This change could pose a problem for some House Republicans.

Jurors in the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs will keep deliberating after they reached a partial verdict, but found themselves unable to agree on the most serious charge faced by the hip-hop mogul.

At the federal court in New York, the 12 jurors said they had agreed on four of the five counts. Those verdicts have not been made public. But jurors were unable to decide on the racketeering charge, which carries a possible life prison term.

Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him, which include two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, as well as the single count of racketeering.

Deliberations will resume on Wednesday morning.

The atmosphere in court on Tuesday was tense – as the rapper sat with head bowed, hands folded in his lap. His lawyers occasionally put their arms around him.

Over the past two months, the jury has heard from 34 witnesses, including ex-girlfriends, former employees of Mr Combs, male escorts and federal agents.

Mr Combs is charged with racketeering conspiracy, two charges of sex trafficking and two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.

At around 16:30 EDT on Tuesday (20:30 GMT), the jury announced they had reached a verdict on four of the five counts, after two days of deliberations.

The panel said they could not come to an agreement on the racketeering charge because jurors on both sides had opinions that were unmovable.

Judge Arun Subramanian heard arguments from both the prosecution and the rapper’s defence attorneys on how to proceed, before urging the jurors to keep trying to come to a unanimous decision. Their verdicts on the other four counts were not disclosed.

The prosecution urged the judge to use an Allen charge, which is a set of instructions given to a hung jury to press its members to reach a unanimous decision.

Allen charges are controversial, as some believe they can put undue pressure on juries, forcing them to change their stances or cave to peer pressure – especially when their opinion is in the minority.

As well as returning to court on Wednesday, the jurors could potentially continue deliberating on 3 July – when the court is normally closed ahead of the 4 July public holiday.

The panel’s unanimous decision on most of the counts after less than two days of deliberations could be a good sign for prosecutors, Robert Mintz, a criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor told the BBC.

But to gain a conviction on the racketeering charge, prosecutors needed to prove that Mr Combs established a criminal enterprise – a co-ordinated plan between the musician and at least one other person to commit at least two crimes over a span of several years.

“That was always going to be the most challenging charge for prosecutors to get a conviction on,” Mr Mintz said.

“It’s a very complicated charge, used typically in the past in organised crime prosecution and so it’s not surprising that that is the one charge giving the jury the most difficulty.”

If convicted on that charge, Mr Combs faces up to life in prison. He faces another statutory minimum sentence of 15 years if he is found guilty of sex trafficking. Meanwhile, transportation for purposes of prostitution carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

The defendant has also gone by the names Puffy, Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Love and Brother Love.

He used his stature in the industry to found his successful Sean John clothing line and starred in multiple reality TV shows, including one where contestants competed to become part of his band.

In 2023, he released his fifth record The Love Album: Off The Grid and earned his first solo nomination at the Grammy awards. He was also named a Global Icon at the MTV Awards.

American rapper Kanye West has been blocked from entering Australia over a song glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Australia’s home affairs minister Tony Burke revealed that his department had cancelled West’s valid visa after the song Heil Hitler was released in early May.

West’s song has been widely condemned and has been banned on most platforms.

The highly controversial rapper, also known as Ye, identifies as a Nazi and is known for his anti-Semitic comments. He is married to Australian designer Bianca Censori.

Mr Burke revealed the visa cancellation in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, during a discussion about the visa cancellation of another person over their Islamophobic comments.

“If someone argued that anti-Semitism was rational, I would not let them come here,” Mr Burke said, while bringing up West’s case.

“[West] has been coming to Australia for a long time… and he’s made a lot of offensive comments.

“But my officials looked at it again once he released the Heil Hitler song, and he no longer has a valid visa in Australia.”

It is not clear if West has been permanently banned from Australia. Mr Burke said that visa applications would be reassessed each time they are made, in accordance with Australian law.

But when asked if any visa ban on West would be sustainable, Mr Burke said: “I think that what’s not sustainable is to import hatred… We have enough problems in this country already without deliberately importing bigotry.”

It is not the first time Australia considered blocking West. In 2023, Australia’s education minister Jason Clare had also condemned West’s “awful” comments on Hitler and the Holocaust, and suggested he could be denied entry.

Amid the current backlash, Heil Hitler raked up millions of views within a day of its release in May.

The song is part of the Grammy-winning artist’s new album WW3, which also contains other tracks with controversial lyrics.

The music video for Heil Hitler, released on 8 May, shows a group of men wearing animal skins and chanting the song’s title. It has been banned on streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube.

But shortly after its release, West said he was “done with anti-Semitism” and released a new version of Heil Hitler – titled Hallelujah. The new song replaced earlier references to Nazism with lyrics relating to Christianity.

West has in recent years sparked controversy for his anti-Semitic remarks. Earlier this year, he declared himself a Nazi and retracted an apology for earlier comments.

In 2022, sportswear giant Adidas announced it was ending its partnership with West over his anti-Semitism.

Late last year, the company said it had reached a settlement with him to end all legal proceedings between them.

Kyiv has warned that an interruption of US weapons shipments might encourage Russia to continue the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

On Tuesday the White House said that it had cut off some weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

The decision was taken “to put America’s interests first” following a Department of Defense review of US “military support and assistance to other countries”, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement that “any delay or procrastination in supporting Ukraine’s defense capabilities would only encourage the aggressor to continue war and terror, rather than seek peace.”

It particularly emphasised the need for Kyiv to strengthen its air defences – as Russia continues to pummel the country with missiles and drones on a near-nightly basis.

A Kyiv-based US diplomat was invited to the foreign ministry for talks on Wednesday.

However, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said it had not received any official notification from the US about the “suspension or revision” of the weapons deliveries, and urged people not to speculate on the basis of partial information.

But in a statement the defence ministry also said that the path to ending the war was “through consistent and joint pressure on the aggressor”.

At the weekend Ukraine endured its biggest aerial attack since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with more than 500 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles launched at its cities.

US officials did not immediately say which shipments were being halted.

According to US broadcaster NBC the weapons being delayed could include Patriot interceptors, Howitzer munitions, missiles and grenade launchers.

The US has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, leading some in the Trump administration to voice concerns that US stockpiles are too low.

The Kremlin, for its part, welcomed news of the reduction in weapons shipments, saying reducing the flow of weapons to Kyiv will help end the conflict faster.

“The fewer the number of weapons that are delivered to Ukraine, the closer the end of the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Fedir Venislavskyi, an MP for Ukraine’s ruling party, said the decision was “painful, and against the background of the terrorist attacks which Russia commits against Ukraine… it’s a very unpleasant situation.”

A Ukrainian military source quoted by AFP news agency said that Kyiv was “seriously dependent on American arms supplies, although Europe is doing its best, but it will be difficult for us without American ammunition.”

Ukraine’s European allies have spent billions in military aid over the last three and a half years.

However, military support for Kyiv is not endorsed by everyone on the political spectrum.

The Czech President and former Chair of NATO’s Military Committee, Petr Pavel, has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine but told BBC Russian that he could “not guarantee” continued ammunition support for Kyiv, as that was dependent on the result of the upcoming Czech elections.

“I don’t know what will be the priorities of a new government,” he said.

The Pentagon’s move is based on concerns that US military stockpiles are falling too low, US official Anna Kelly told CBS News, although she stressed that “the strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran”.

Separately, US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby said in a statement that the defense department “continues to provide the President with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine”.

However, he added “the Department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving US forces’ readiness for Administration defense priorities.”

The pause comes less than a week after President Donald Trump discussed air defences with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky at the Nato summit in the Netherlands.

Trump said US officials “are going to see if we can make some of them available” when asked by the BBC about providing extra Patriot anti-missile systems to Ukraine.

Referring to his conversation with Zelensky, Trump said: “We had a little rough times sometimes, but he couldn’t have been nicer.”

The two had a heated confrontation in the Oval Office in March this year. Afterwards, Trump said he was pausing military aid to Ukraine that had been earmarked by the previous Biden administration. Intelligence sharing with Ukraine was also suspended.

But both pauses were subsequently lifted.

In late April, the US and Ukraine signed a deal that would give the US access to Ukraine’s mineral reserves in exchange for military assistance.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday – the first time in over two-and-a-half years.

They spoke on the phone for more than two hours, Macron’s office said, adding that the French president had urged a ceasefire in Ukraine and for talks to start on a “solid and lasting settlement of the conflict”.

The Kremlin said Putin had “reminded Macron” that the West’s policy was to blame for the war, because it had “for many years ignored Russia’s security interests”.

Last month Russia’s long-time leader told a forum in St Petersburg that he saw Russians and Ukrainians as one people and “in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours”.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea peninsula annexed in 2014.

Russia has made slow, grinding advances in Ukraine in recent months and claimed full control of the eastern Luhansk region this week. It has also claimed to have seized territory in the south eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday a Ukrainian attack killed three people at a Russian arms production factory for making drones and radars in Izhevsk, more than 1,000km (620 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

British colonists committed genocide against Australia’s Indigenous population in Victoria, a landmark Aboriginal-led inquiry has found.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission found violence and disease reduced the local Indigenous population by three quarters in the 20 years after the state was colonised, in the early 1830s.

Its report included 100 recommendations to “redress” harm caused by “invasion and occupation” – though several of the authors disagreed with unspecified “key findings”.

The Commission was set up in 2021 as Australia’s first formal “truth-telling” inquiry, and tasked with examining past and ongoing “systemic injustices” suffered by the Indigenous people in the state.

It is part of a wider national push for Australia to engage in a reconciliation process with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which community leaders say should include inquiries into the nation’s history, treaty-making, and granting First Nations people greater political say.

Held over four years, The Yoorrook Justice Commission gave Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the opportunity to formally share their stories and experiences.

The commission’s brief covered a wide gamut of issues including land and water rights, cultural violations, killing and genocide, health, education and housing.

The report found that from 1834, “mass killings, disease, sexual violence, exclusion, linguicide, cultural erasure, environmental degradation, child removal” as well as assimilation contributed to the “near-complete physical destruction” of Victoria’s Indigenous community.

The population dropped from 60,000 to 15,000 by 1851.

“This was genocide,” the report said.

The report, which drew from more than two months of public hearings and over 1,300 submissions, called for “redress” to acknowledge a range of human rights violations, which could include reparations.

Among its other recommendations were a significant overhaul of the education system to include greater input from Indigenous people, and a government apology for Aboriginal soldiers who served during the world wars and were excluded from a scheme gifting diggers land when they returned from the battlefields.

On the state’s health system, the report found that racism was “endemic” and called for more funding for Indigenous health services and policies to get more Aboriginal staff in the system.

Three of the five commissioners – Sue-Anne Hunter, Maggie Walter and Anthony North – “did not approve of the inclusion of the key findings in the final report”, however no further detail was provided.

In response to the report, Victoria’s Labor government said it would “carefully consider” the findings, with Premier Jacinta Allan saying they “shine a light on hard truths”.

Jill Gallagher, head of Victoria’s peak body for Aboriginal health and wellbeing, said the genocide finding was “indisputable”.

“We don’t blame anyone alive today for these atrocities,” she told the ABC, “but it is the responsibility of those of us alive today to accept that truth – and all Victorians today must accept, recognise and reconcile with these factual findings.”

The commission’s report is the first of its kind in Australia, though similar inquiries are happening in other states and territories with varying degrees of progress, depending on which party is in government.

For example, in Queensland, a truth-telling inquiry was cancelled after the Labor government was replaced by a new Liberal-National government.

In recent years, the national dialogue on how to recognise the traditional owners of Australia at all levels of governments has prompted heated debate.

Australians voted against a historic referendum in October 2023, rejecting a change to the constitution that would have created an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, a national body for Indigenous people to give advice on laws.

US media company Paramount Global has agreed to pay $16 million (£13.5m) to settle a legal dispute with US President Donald Trump regarding an interview it broadcast on CBS with former Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump filed a lawsuit last October, alleging the network had deceptively edited an interview that aired on its 60 Minutes news programme with his presidential election rival Kamala Harris, to “tip the scales in favour of the Democratic party”.

Paramount said it would pay to settle the suit, but with the money allocated to Trump’s future presidential library, not paid to him “directly or indirectly”.

The company noted the settlement does not include a statement of apology or regret.

CBS, which is owned by Paramount, previously said the case was “completely without merit” and had asked a judge to dismiss it.

The settlement marks the latest concession by a US media company to a president who has targeted outlets over what he describes as false or misleading coverage.

According to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Texas, CBS aired two versions of the Harris interview in which she appeared to give different answers to the same question about the Israel-Gaza war.

Interviewer Bill Whitaker asked the Democratic nominee about the Biden administration’s relationship with Israel. The network later aired two different versions of her response, according to the claim.

One clip aired on Face the Nation and the other on 60 Minutes. Trump claimed Harris’s “word salad” answer had been deceptively edited in one version to shield her from backlash.

CBS said it edited Harris’s answer for time, in accordance with television news standards.

Trump sued, originally claiming for $10bn (£8.5bn) but that figure was later increased to $20bn ($17bn) for damages.

In May this year, the company offered $15m (12.7m) to settle the suit but Trump wanted more than $25m (£21m).

In a statement released on Tuesday, Paramount confirmed the settlement fee included the president’s legal fees, and that it had agreed that 60 Minutes will release transcripts of interviews with future presidential candidates.

According to both the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, the settlement was agreed – with the help of mediator – so as to not affect Paramount’s planned merger with Skydance Media, which the Federal Communications Commission has been reviewing and therefore Trump technically has the power to halt.

During the month-long settlement talks, some CBS News executives including chief executive Wendy McMahon have left their roles, due to their unwillingness to issue an apology to Trump.

There were also reportedly concerns over whether paying to settle the lawsuit could be viewed as bribing a public official.

A spokesman for Trump’s legal team said the settlement was “another win for the American people as he, once again, holds the Fake News media accountable for their wrongdoing and deceit.”

He added that CBS and Paramount “realised the strength of this historic case.”

CBS has said the broadcast was “not doctored or deceitful”.

The Paramount settlement follows a decision by Walt Disney-owned ABC News to settle a defamation case brought by Trump.

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has confirmed he will have a successor, putting to rest speculation over whether the 600-year-old institution will end when he dies.

In a video message keenly-awaited by his followers, he said only the trust that he founded could appoint his successor and “no-one else has any authority to interfere in this matter”.

According to Tibetan tradition, Dalai Lamas are “reincarnated” after they die. The current Dalai Lama’s exile from Tibet after China annexed it in the 1950s has made succession a highly contentious issue.

Beijing rejected the statement, saying his successor would be from inside China and must be approved by the government.

Hundreds of followers gathered on Wednesday to hear the long-awaited announcement in the Indian town of Dharamshala where the Dalai Lama lives.

The Dalai Lama Library and Archive centre, where the video message was broadcast, resembled a sea of maroon with monks from all over the world in attendance.

“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” the Dalai Lama’s statement said.

He reiterated that “the Gaden Phodrang Trust, the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama… should accordingly carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition”.

Dharamshala is holding the Dalai Lama’s milestone 90th birthday celebrations which began on Monday – his birthday according to the Tibetan lunar calendar – and will conclude on 6 July, his official birthday.

Celebrations will be attended by more than 7,000 guests, including a number of Indian ministers. Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a long-time follower, is also taking part.

In the past, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism had been torn between whether to continue with the post of Dalai Lama or not. A few years ago, he said his successor might be a girl, or that there might be no successor at all.

But in recent years, he had also said that if there was widespread support among Tibetans-in-exile for the post – which there is – then it would continue and his office would choose a successor.

He has always insisted that his successor must be born outside China and his reiteration of the same on Wednesday did not go down well with Beijing.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation must comply with Chinese laws and regulations as well as “religious rituals and historical conventions” and would need to be approved by Beijing.

Even though the Dalai Lama has always advocated a “middle way” to resolve the status of Tibet – genuine self-rule within China – Beijing regards him as a separatist. It says the standard of living of people in Tibet has greatly improved under its rule and denies suppressing their human rights and freedom of expression.

The Dalai Lama’s message “affirming that the continuation of the institution” has been welcomed by his followers.

Tsayang Gyatso, a 40-year-old businessman, said that for most Tibetans, the announcement is “a great relief and a moment of happiness”.

“I always had a belief that the reincarnation will come. But having heard it from His Holiness, I feel elated,” he told the BBC in Dharamshala.

Mr Gyatso, who had travelled from Delhi, said he felt “blessed to be here in person to witness His Holiness’s birthday”.

He said there was “a lot of propaganda from China on the appointment of the next Dalai Lama” which made him fear that the appointment process could be corrupted “but all that has been put to rest by His Holiness’s announcement”.

Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, told the BBC that the Dalai Lama’s “message is indirect signalling” to China.

“He’s signalling two things here. One is he’s going to decide on his reincarnation, not China. And the other is he’s showing China that he’s made this decision through a kind of popular – almost democratic – process of asking the community whether they want his institution to continue.”

That’s a signal to China that his legitimacy is based on consent and not on force, Prof Barnett said.

Experts, however, say China is also expected to name its own Dalai Lama.

Dibyesh Anand, professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, said, “After a period of a few months or a few years, they will have their own proteges identify a small boy as the next Dalai Lama and impose that. Of course, a majority of Tibetans are going to reject it and the majority of people in the world are going to make fun of it. But remember China has immense authority in terms of resources so they will try to impose that.”

Youdon Aukatsang, an MP in the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, told the BBC that “despite all these years of trying to control the hearts and minds of Tibetan people inside Tibet”, Beijing has “completely failed”.

A Dalai Lama chosen by China, she says, “will not be recognised, not only by the Tibetans but the world will not recognise it because China doesn’t have the legitimacy to find the future Dalai Lama”.

“We are concerned but we know that irrespective of our concern, China will come up with their own Dalai Lama, we will call it the Chinese-recognised Dalai Lama. I am not worried that Dalai Lama will have any credibility in the Tibetan world or the Buddhist world.”

Israel has agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalise a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, US President Donald Trump has said.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that during the proposed ceasefire the US would “work with all parties to end the War”. He did not provide details on what the ceasefire would entail.

“The Qataris and Egyptians, who have worked very hard to help bring Peace, will deliver this final proposal. I hope… that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” Trump wrote.

Israel has not confirmed it agreed to the conditions of a deal. A Hamas official told the BBC the group is “ready and serious” to reach an agreement if it ends the war.

Hamas is “prepared to agree to any proposal if the requirements for ending the war are clearly met or if they lead to its complete end,” said Taher al-Nunu.

Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar posted on X that there is majority support in the government “for a framework to release hostages,” and this opportunity “must not be missed.”

For Israel, the key component of any deal will have to be the release of most, if not all, hostages still being held in Gaza.

Of the 50 or so hostages remaining in captivity, more than 20 are still thought to be alive and their plight has been at the forefront of regular demonstrations in Israel calling for an end to the war.

A recent Israeli newspaper poll suggested that a significant majority of Israelis want the war to end – but polling on Wednesday, from the Israel Democracy Institute, also suggests that most Israelis still don’t trust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or his intentions.

Netanyahu has for months insisted on “complete victory” over Hamas before ending the war. It’s unclear if his position will now change under renewed pressure from Washington – and the answer could be pivotal to reaching a deal.

Trump’s announcement comes before a meeting with Netanyahu scheduled for next week, in which the US president has said he would be “very firm”.

He earlier said that he believed Netanyahu wanted to end hostilities in Gaza. “He wants to. I can tell you he wants to. I think we’ll have a deal next week,” Trump said.

Hamas has already indicated it would be willing to agree to a ceasefire if it led to the end of the war. But without that provision, Hamas negotiators might question the value of releasing all the hostages if the Israeli military is likely to resume bombing Gaza.

Another consideration before an agreement can be signed – perhaps while Netanyahu is in Washington next week – is Hamas’s demand for a partial Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, at least for the duration of the ceasefire.

The international community is also likely to lobby hard for the resumption of full-scale UN-backed aid deliveries into Gaza.

Prior to Trump’s announcement, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the BBC Israel was “absolutely” ready for a ceasefire.

Speaking on the BBC News channel, Danon said that Hamas was “playing hardball”.

“We are putting pressure on Hamas, and if they will not come to the table, the only option we will have to bring back the hostages, is to apply more military pressure,” Danon said.

“The war will end when the hostages are back home,” he added.

Last week, a senior Hamas official told the BBC mediators have increased efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled.

Trump’s comments come shortly after Israel ordered evacuations in northern Gaza ahead of increased military action. At least 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a seafront cafe in Gaza City on Monday, according to medics and eyewitnesses.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed. At least 56,647 have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli military this week also said it was examining reports of civilians being “harmed” while approaching aid distribution centres in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Tuesday that as of 28 June, 408 people had been killed trying to reach aid at GHF aid sites.

More than 170 charities and other NGOs have called for the controversial group to be shut down. Organisations like Oxfam and Save the Children say Israeli forces “routinely” open fire on Palestinians seeking aid.

Israel denies this accusation and says the organisation is necessary to bypass Hamas interference in aid distribution.

In March, a previous ceasefire deal collapsed when Israel launched fresh strikes on Gaza. The Israeli military described the action as “pre-emptive strikes… based on Hamas’s readiness to execute terror attacks, build up force and re-arm”.

The previous ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas – which started on 19 January – was set up to have three stages, but did not make it past the first stage.

Stage two included establishing a permanent ceasefire, the return of remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

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

Heathrow Airport is considering legal action against National Grid after a report found the fire which caused the airport to shut down was a result of known fault at an electrical substation.

An investigation found that National Grid, which owns the substation which supplies Heathrow, had been aware of a problem since 2018 but failed to fix it.

There were numerous opportunities to rectify moisture affecting electrical parts at the North Hyde substation, but maintenance was repeatedly deferred, the report said.

Heathrow told the BBC National Grid “could and should” have prevented the fire and that it expected it to “take accountability for those failings”.

“Those failings that resulted in significant damage and loss for Heathrow and our airlines,” a spokesperson added.

National Grid said it had taken action since the fire on 20 March, but said such events were “rare” and that Britain had “one of the most reliable networks in the world”. It has not yet responded to Heathrow’s potential legal case.

Following the report being released on Wednesday, energy watchdog Ofgem has launched its own investigation into National Grid.

Heathrow, the UK’s biggest airport, shut down as a result of the power cut, which led to thousands of cancelled flights and stranded passengers.

The National Energy System Operator (Neso) said moisture entering electrical components at the substation caused the blaze.

It said “elevated” moisture had been detected in July 2018 and that under National Grid’s guidance, such readings indicate “an imminent fault and that the bushing should be replaced”.

Bushing is insulating material used around electrical parts.

But it said the issue went “unaddressed” and an “basic maintenance” to fix the problem in 2022 was deferred.

More than 270,000 journeys were affected by Heathrow’s shut down and the impact was also felt beyond the airport, with “essential services” including road, rail and Hillingdon Hospital affected, Neso said.

Airlines based have previously said the closure on 21 March cost carriers between £80m to £100m.

The power failure and subsequent closure of the UK’s busiest airport has raised wider questions about the UK’s major infrastructure resilience.

Fintan Slye, Neso’s chief executive, told the BBC’s Today programme that while the report “did not set out to apportion blame”, National Grid was responsible for the maintenance of the equipment and making sure it is fit for operation.

The report found that National Grid did not know how crucial the North Hyde substation was to Heathrow, even though the airport did know.

“So when they identified those moisture levels back in 2018, what should have happened is that the transformer should have been taken out of service for a short period of time and that fault effectively repaired,” he said.

“That was missed. The moisture got worse over time and ultimately that’s what caused the fire to happen. The story of our report really is probably one of missed opportunities.”

After announcing its investigation into National Grid, Akshay Kaul, director general for infrastructure at Ofgem, said it expected energy companies to “properly maintain their equipment and networks to prevent events like this happening”.

“Where there is evidence that they have not, we will take action and hold companies fully to account,” he added.

National Grid said it had a “comprehensive asset inspection and maintenance programme in place”.

It said this included “re-testing the resilience of substations that serve strategic infrastructure” and added it would cooperate with Ofgem’s investigation.

Mr Slye said as well as the substation fault, there was also a “potential missed opportunity” at Heathrow to maximise its energy resilience and also another to across the energy industry around understanding resilience of critical infrastructure.

The report also said that “it was not known to the energy companies” that the loss of one of the electrical supply points – of which Heathrow has three – would result in a power outage to some of the airport’s critical systems.

“The review also found that energy network operators are not generally aware whether customers connected to their networks are Critical National Infrastructure,” it said.

The trial of American music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is accused of running a sprawling sex trafficking operation, is almost over.

The 12 jurors at a federal court in New York have announced they have come to a decision on four of the five counts faced by Mr Combs, although these decisions have not been disclosed.

But the jurors are unable to decide on the racketeering charge, the most serious of the five, which carries a possible life prison term.

Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations against him.

So what is the racketeering charge, which is more commonly used against mobsters – and what are the other charges faced by the rapper?

Racketeering conspiracy, or directing an illegal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (Rico), is the formal name for the charge.

The law was created to take on mob bosses, but it has since been used in other trials, including for sex trafficking – such as in the case against disgraced R&B singer R Kelly.

It is also sometimes used against a group of defendants. US President Donald Trump and his allies were accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia – charges that Trump denied.

To convict Mr Combs on this charge, prosecutors must prove he used his loyal network of associates to run a criminal enterprise to commit crimes including sex trafficking, kidnapping, drugging and obstruction of justice.

In this case, that network would include his employees, who prosecutors say played a part in setting up the “freak-offs” at the centre of the case.

These were prolonged sexual encounters at which the prosecution’s key witnesses say they were coerced to have sex with male escorts while Mr Combs watched.

In a raid on his Los Angeles mansion, police found supplies that they said were intended for use in freak-offs, including drugs and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil.

The defence has sought to undermine the racketeering allegations by asking witnesses whether Mr Combs’ employees ever witnessed the freak-offs.

Cassie Ventura, the star witness for the prosecution, said she did not think they were present.

Defence lawyers argue that the case cannot be considered to be racketeering if members of Mr Combs’ staff were not knowingly complicit.

“Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” said defence attorney Marc Agnifilo. “Did any witness get on that witness stand and say ‘yes, I was part of a racketeering enterprise, I engaged in racketeering’?”

Robert Mintz, a criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor, told the BBC that the racketeering charge was always going to be the most challenging one for prosecutors to prove to a jury.

To gain a conviction, lawyers needed to prove that Combs established a co-ordinated plan between Combs and at least one other person to commit at least two crimes over a span of several years, Mr Mintz said.

“It’s a very complicated charge, used typically in the past in organized crime prosecution and so it’s not a surprising that that is the one charge us giving jury the most difficulty,” Mr Mintz added.

In the New York case, Mr Combs is charged with two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution – alongside the racketeering conspiracy charge.

Separately, Mr Combs faces a number of lawsuits accusing him of rape and assault.

Tony Buzbee, a Texas lawyer handling some of these cases, said that more than 100 women and men from across the US had either filed lawsuits against the rap mogul or intended to do so.

In December 2023, a woman known in court papers as Jane Doe alleged that she was “gang raped” by Mr Combs and others in 2003, when she was 17. She said she was given “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol” before the attack.

Mr Combs’s legal team dismissed the flurry of lawsuits as “clear attempts to garner publicity.”

Mr Combs’ current legal issues began in late 2023 when he was sued by Ms Ventura, also known as Cassie, for violent abuse and rape.

That lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount a day after it was filed, with Mr Combs maintaining his innocence.

Since then, dozens of other people have filed lawsuits accusing Mr Combs of sexual assault, with accusations dating back to 1991. He denies all the claims.

His controversial history with Ms Ventura resurfaced in 2024, when CNN published leaked CCTV footage from 2016 showing Mr Combs kicking his ex-girlfriend as she lay on a hotel hallway floor.

He apologised for his behaviour, saying: “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”

• ‘He thought of himself as a king’: The parties that led to Diddy’s downfall
• ‘Studio sex’ and ‘hitman threats’: Insiders speak out about Diddy’s 90s music
• Diddy’s violence left me broken, says Cassie

In a statement to the BBC about the federal criminal charges, Mr Combs’ lawyer said: “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone – man or woman, adult or minor.”

Diddy’s lawyers later filed a motion to dismiss one part of the federal indictment in which he is accused of transportation to engage in prostitution. His team argued he was being unfairly targeted due to his race.

In a hearing in New York a week before the trial officially began, his attorneys told the court that the rapper led the “lifestyle” of a “swinger” and was not a criminal.

They said he thought it was “appropriate” to have multiple sex partners, including sex workers.

At the same hearing, prosecutors revealed that Mr Combs had rejected a plea deal.

Mr Combs’ lawyers have consistently denied the allegations made against him in the civil lawsuits, describing them as “sickening” and suggesting they were made by “individuals looking for a quick payday”.

If convicted on the racketeering charge, Mr Combs faces up to life in prison.

He faces another statutory minimum sentence of 15 years if he is found guilty of sex trafficking.

Transportation for purposes of prostitution carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Mr Combs has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, since his arrest on 16 September 2024.

Critics describe the prison as overcrowded and understaffed, with a culture of violence.

His lawyers argued for his release, citing the jail’s “horrific” conditions, but a New York federal judge denied the bail request, describing Mr Combs as a “serious flight risk”.

Mr Combs – who has also gone by the names Puffy, Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Love, and Brother Love – emerged in the hip-hop scene in the 1990s.

His early music career success included helping launch the careers of Mary J Blige and Christopher Wallace – aka Biggie Smalls, or The Notorious B.I.G.

His music label Bad Boy Records became one of the most important labels in rap and expanded to include Faith Evans, Ma$e, 112, Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez.

Mr Combs also had a prolific business career outside of music, including a deal with British drinks company Diageo to promote the French vodka brand Cîroc.

In 2023, he released his fifth record The Love Album: Off The Grid and earned his first solo nomination at the Grammy awards. He also was named a Global Icon at the MTV Awards.

• Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: Who is the US rapper accused of sex trafficking?

Dozens of potential jurors were vetted by the court.

The process included potential jurors looking through a long list of places and people that could be mentioned during trial, with names like Kanye West and Kid Cudi.

Potential jurors also had to fill out questionnaires that asked whether they had “views about hip hop artists” or “feelings concerning violence, sexual assault”.

The judge reminded the court several times of the importance of choosing a fair and impartial jury.