A former security contractor for Gaza’s controversial new Israel- and US-backed aid distribution sites has told the BBC that he witnessed colleagues opening fire several times on hungry Palestinians who had posed no threat, including with machine guns.

On one occasion, he said, a guard had opened fire from a watchtower with a machine gun because a group of women, children and elderly people was moving too slowly away from the site.

When asked to respond the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said the allegations were categorically false.

They referred us to a statement saying that no civilians ever came under fire at the GHF distribution sites.

The GHF began its operations in Gaza at the end of May, distributing limited aid from several sites in southern and central Gaza. That followed an 11-week total blockade of Gaza by Israel during which no food entered the territory.

The system has been widely criticised for forcing vast numbers of people to walk through active combat zones to a handful of sites. Since the GHF started up, Israeli forces have killed more than 400 Palestinians trying to retrieve food aid from its sites, the UN and local doctors say. Israel says the new distribution system stops aid going to Hamas.

Continuing his description of the incident at one of the GHF sites – in which he said guards fired on a group of Palestinians – the former contractor said: “As that happened, another contractor on location, standing on the berm overlooking the exit, opened up with 15 to 20 shots of repetitive weapons fire at the crowd.

“A Palestinian man dropped to the ground motionless. And then the other contractor who was standing there was like, ‘damn, I think you got one’. And then they laughed about it.”

The contractor, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity, said GHF managers had brushed off his report as a coincidence, suggesting that the Palestinian man could have “tripped” or been “tired and passed out”.

The GHF claimed the man who made these allegations is a “disgruntled former contractor” who they had terminated for misconduct, which he denies. He showed us payslips suggesting that he continued to be paid for two weeks after leaving the post.

The man we spoke to, who said he had worked at all four of the GHF distribution sites, described a culture of impunity with few rules or controls.

He said contractors were given no clear rules of engagement or standard operating procedures, and were told by one team leader: “if you feel threatened, shoot – shoot to kill and ask questions later”.

The culture in the company, he said, felt like “we’re going into Gaza so it’s no rules. Do what you want.”

“If a Palestinian is walking away from the site and not demonstrating any hostile intent, and we’re shooting warning shots at them regardless, we are wrong, we are criminally negligent,” he told me.

He told us that each site had CCTV monitoring the activity in the area, and GHF insistence that no one there had been hurt or shot at was “an absolute bare-faced lie”.

GHF said that gunfire heard in footage shared with the BBC was coming from Israeli forces.

Team leaders referred to Gazans as “zombie hordes”, the former contractor said, “insinuating that these people have no value.”

The man also said Palestinians were coming to harm in other ways at GHF sites, for example by being hit by debris from stun grenades, being sprayed with mace or being pushed by the crowds into razor wire.

He said he had witnessed several occasions in which Palestinians appeared to have been seriously hurt, including one man who had a full can of pepper spray in his face, and a woman who he said was hit with the metal part of a stun grenade, improperly fired into a crowd.

“This metal piece hit her directly in the head and she dropped to the ground, not moving,” he said. “I don’t know if she was dead. I know for a fact she was unconscious and completely limp.”

Earlier this week more than 170 charities and other NGOs called for the GHF to be shut down. The organisations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, say Israeli forces and armed groups “routinely” open fire on Palestinians seeking aid.

Israel denies its soldiers deliberately shoot at aid recipients and says the GHF’s system provides direct assistance to people who need it, bypassing Hamas interference.

The GHF says it had delivered more than 52 million meals in five weeks and that other organisations “stand by helplessly as their aid is looted”.

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

At least 57,130 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The US Congress has passed Donald Trump’s sprawling tax and spending bill in a significant and hard-fought victory for the president and his domestic agenda.

After a gruelling session on Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 218 to 214 on Thursday afternoon. It was approved in the Senate on Tuesday by one vote.

Trump had given the Republican-controlled Congress a deadline of 4 July to send him a final version of the bill to sign into law.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill could add $3.3tn (£2.4tn) to federal deficits over the next 10 years and leave millions without health coverage – a forecast that the White House disputes.

• ANALYSIS: Trump gets major win – but debate over his mega-bill is just beginning
• EXPLAINER: What’s in Trump’s budget bill?

Speaking to reporters on Thursday evening, Trump said the bill would “turn this country into a rocket ship”.

“This is going to be a great bill for the country,” he said.

He is expected to sign it into law at a ceremony on the 4 July national holiday at 17:00 EDT (22:00 BST).

A triumphant Republican Speaker Mike Johnson emerged from the House after the vote and told reporters “belief” was key to rallying support within his party.

“I believed in the people that are standing here behind me… Some of them are more fun to deal with,” he said. “I mean that with the greatest level of respect.”

Among those he had to convince was Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican who was a firm “no” just days ago when the Senate passed its version of the bill. He called the Senate version a “travesty”, but changed his mind by the time voting had begun.

“I feel like we got to a good result on key things,” Roy said, although the House did not make any changes to the Senate bill.

While some Republicans, like Roy, had resisted the Senate version, only two lawmakers from Trump’s own party voted “nay” on Thursday: Thomas Massie and Brian Fitzpatrick.

After Johnson announced that the legislation had passed the chamber by four votes, dozens of Republican lawmakers gathered on the House floor chanting “USA! USA!”

The bill’s passage on Thursday was delayed by Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who delivered the longest speech in the chamber’s history.

His “magic minute” address, which is a custom that allows party leaders to speak for as long as they like, ran for eight hours and 45 minutes.

Jeffries pledged to take his “sweet time on behalf of the American people”, decrying the bill’s impact on poor Americans.

The legislation makes savings through making cuts to food benefits and health care and rolling back tax breaks for clean energy projects.

It also delivers on two of Trump’s major campaign promises – making his 2017 tax cuts permanent and lifting taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security recipients – at a cost of $4.5tn over 10 years.

About $150bn (£110bn) will be spent on border security, detention centres and immigration enforcement officers. Another $150bn is allocated for military expenditures, including the president’s “gold dome” missile defence programme.

Democrats, who had used procedural manoeuvres to stall the House vote, were roundly critical of the final bill.

They portrayed it as taking health care and food subsidies away from millions of Americans while giving tax cuts to the rich.

California’s Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, said “today ushers in a dark and harrowing time”, and called the bill a “dangerous checklist of extreme Republican priorities”.

North Carolina’s Deborah Ross said: “Shame on those who voted to hurt so many in the service of so few.”

While Arizona’s Yassamin Ansari said she was “feeling really sad right now”, while Marc Veasey of Texas labelled the Republican Party the party of “cowards, chaos and corruption”.

The fate of the so-called ‘big, beautiful bill’ hung in the balance for much of Wednesday as Republican rebels with concerns about the impact on national debt held firm – prompting a furious missive from Trump.

“What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!,” he wrote on Truth Social just after midnight local time on Thursday.

Both chambers of Congress are controlled by Trump’s Republican Party, but within the party several factions were at odds over key policies in the lengthy legislation.

In the early hours of Thursday, Republican leadership grew more confident, and a procedural vote on the bill passed just after 03:00 EDT (07:00 GMT).

The final vote on the bill would come almost 12 hours later, at 14:30 EDT (19:30 GMT).

At least 69 people have been killed by Israeli fire across Gaza on Thursday, rescuers say, as Israel intensified its bombardment of the Palestinian territory.

One air strike killed 15 people at a school-turned-shelter for displaced families in Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency. The Israeli military said it targeted a “key” Hamas operative based there.

The Civil Defence also reported that 38 people were killed while queueing for aid, or on their way to pick it up. The military said such reports of extensive casualties were “lies”.

It comes as pressure mounts on both Israel and Hamas to agree to a new ceasefire and hostage release deal being pushed by US President Donald Trump.

Trump announced on Tuesday that Israel had agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalize a 60-day ceasefire. However, there are still obstacles that could prevent a quick agreement.

Hamas has said it is studying the proposals – the details of which have still not been made public – but that it still wants an end to the war and an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will travel to Washington on Monday, has meanwhile insisted that the Palestinian armed group must be eliminated.

On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its aircraft had struck around 150 “terror targets” across Gaza over the previous 24 hours, including fighters, tunnels and weapons.

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said 118 people had been killed during the same period.

Fifteen people, most of them women and children, were killed when a school housing displaced families in the al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City was struck before dawn on Thursday, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency and medics said.

Witness Wafaa al-Arqan told Reuters news agency: “Suddenly, we found the tent collapsing over us and a fire burning… What can we do? Is it fair that all these children burned?”

The IDF said it struck a “key Hamas terrorist” who was operating in a “command-and-control centre” in Gaza City, without mentioning the school.

The IDF added that it took numerous steps to mitigate the risk of harming civilians and accused Hamas of using human shields – an allegation the group has repeatedly denied.

At least another five displaced people were reportedly killed when a tent was struck overnight in the southern al-Mawasi area, where the IDF has told residents of areas affected by its evacuation orders to head for their own safety.

Ashraf Abu Shaba, who lived in a neighbouring tent, said he saw the bodies of children and women wrapped in blankets afterwards.

“The occupation [Israel] claims there are safe zones, but there are no safe zones. Every place is a target… The situation is unbearable,” he added.

Later, Civil Defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP news agency that another 38 people were killed by Israeli forces while seeking aid.

He said 25 were killed near the Israeli military’s Netzarim corridor in central Gaza. Six died at another location nearby, while seven were killed in the southern Rafah area, he added.

Medics at Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis separately told Reuters that at least 20 people were killed while making their way to an aid distribution centre.

There was no direct response to the reports from the IDF.

Last week, the IDF said it was examining reports of civilians being harmed while approaching sites in southern and central Gaza run by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

On Thursday, IDF spokesman Brig-Gen Effie Defrin acknowledged at a briefing that Israeli forces were facing a “complex challenge” and drawing “lessons from every incident to prevent similar cases in the future”.

But he declared: “The reports of allegations of extensive casualties in the aid distribution centres are lies.”

There have been reports of deadly incidents near the distribution sites almost every day since the GHF began operating on 26 May.

According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 408 people have been killed near GHF centres over the past five weeks. Another 175 people have been killed seeking aid elsewhere, including along routes used by UN aid convoys, it says.

The GHF, which uses US private security contractors, said “distribution at all sites ran smoothly” on Thursday and that it had now handed out more than one million boxes of food.

The GHF also rejected as “categorically false” allegations from a former security contractor, who told the BBC that he witnessed colleagues opening fire on civilians waiting for aid.

The UN and other aid groups refuse to co-operate with the GHF, saying its new system contravenes fundamental humanitarian principles.

The US and Israel say the GHF’s system will prevent aid being stolen by Hamas.

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

At least 57,130 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana has announced she is resigning from the party, saying she will be founding a new party with her former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Sultana, the Coventry South MP stripped of the Labour whip last year for backing a move to scrap the two-child benefit cap, said the new party would be formed with other independent MPs and activists, aiming to challenge a “broken” Westminster system.

Corbyn has been contacted but has not confirmed his involvement to the BBC.

However last night, he had hinted he may form a new party, telling ITV’s Peston “there is a thirst for an alternative” and that a “grouping will come together”.

In a social media post, Sultana said the government is “an active participant in genocide” in Gaza – and highlighted growing poverty, the government’s position on welfare, and the cost of living as reasons for establishing her new party.

“Labour has completely failed to improve people’s lives. And across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists.

“But the truth is clear: this government is an active participant in genocide. And the British people oppose it.”

Israel has strenuously denied accusations it is committing genocide or genocidal acts in Gaza.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has described the situation in Gaza as “appalling and intolerable” and repeatedly called for a ceasefire, as well as the release of hostages.

But some MPs want him to go further and describe the situation in Gaza as a genocide, claims currently being examined by the International Court of Justice.

Sultana also referenced the government’s welfare bill that passed this week, adding: “The government wants to make disabled people suffer; they just can’t decide how much.”

“We’re not an island of strangers,” she says, referencing a speech given by the prime minister in May about immigration, which he has since said he regrets. And she says at the next election, “the choice will be stark: socialism or barbarism”.

Asked for a response to her resignation and comments, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “In just 12 months, this Labour government has boosted wages, delivered an extra four million NHS appointments, opened 750 free breakfast clubs, secured three trade deals and four interest rate cuts lowering mortgage payments for millions.

“Only Labour can deliver the change needed to renew Britain.”

Sultana was elected as a Labour MP at the 2024 general election but was suspended not long after, and has since sat in the Commons as an independent.

She was suspended with seven other Labour MPs, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, for defying the government over its two-child benefit cap.

Four have of the rebels have since returned to Labour, but Sultana and McDonnell remain independents.

Despite her suspension, she had remained a member of the Labour Party.

Responding to Sultana’s announcement, McDonnell posted on social media: “I am dreadfully sorry to lose Zarah from the Labour Party.

“The people running Labour at the moment need to ask themselves why a young, articulate, talented, extremely dedicated socialist feels she now has no home in the Labour Party and has to leave.”

Last year, Corbyn united with four other MPs elected as independents to establish an alliance in the House of Commons.

All five of the group beat Labour candidates in July’s election with their pro-Palestinian stance in constituencies with large Muslim populations.

Speaking to ITV’s Peston programme, he said he and fellow pro-Gaza independents would “come together” and “there will be an alternative”.

He said it would be based on “peace rather than war”.

His alliance includes MPs Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, and Iqbal Mohamed.

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Hollywood actor Michael Madsen died in his California home on Thursday morning, US media reported. He was 67.

He was found unresponsive by authorities responding to a 911 call at his Malibu home and pronounced dead at 08:25 local time (15:25 GMT), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He is believed to have died of cardiac arrest, according to a representative.

Madsen was a prolific actor, best known for his roles in the Quentin Tarantino movies Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

In Reservoir Dogs, one of the seminal movies of the 1990s, he played the thief Mr Blonde, described by fellow characters as “psycho”, and shocked audiences in a scene where he cut off a policeman’s ear.

During a career spanning four decades, Madsen also took on a number of tv roles.

In both tv and film, he often portrayed the law enforcers like sheriffs and detectives, as well as the law breakers, such as a washed-out hitman in the Kill Bill franchise.

In recent years, he lent his voices to video games, including Grand Theft Auto III and the Dishonored series.

Michael Madsen was born in Chicago in September 1957. His father was a Navy veteran of World War Two who later became a firefighter, and his mother was a filmmaker.

He was the brother of Virginia Madsen, who is known for several movies including Sideways, for which she was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe.

He was married three times, and is survived by four children, including actor Christian Madsen.

Madsen divorced his wife of 28 years, DeAnna, in 2024, over the death of their son Hudson, according to People magazine.

“My brother Michael has left the stage,” his sister Virginia wrote in a statement to Variety.

“He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother – etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark.”

US immigration agents have arrested famed Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, 39, and plan to deport him to Mexico where he has “an active arrest warrant… for his involvement in organised crime”, US officials announced on Thursday.

Less than a week before his arrest, the former middleweight world champion was defeated by influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul at a match in California.

US officials say he is affiliated with the notorious Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel. His lawyer denied the claims.

“Under President Trump, no one is above the law – including world-famous athletes,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement following his arrest.

Chavez Jr was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Studio City, Los Angeles, on Thursday.

His fight against Paul was in nearby Anaheim on Saturday. Chavez Jr is the son of former boxing champion Julio Cesar Chavez Sr, who is considered to be the best boxer in Mexico’s history.

The DHS statement said that the “prominent Mexican boxer and criminal illegal alien” is being processed for “expedited removal” .

“Chavez is a Mexican citizen who has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition, and explosives,” the statement said.

It added that officials believe that he may be affiliated with the Sinaloa Cartel, which President Donald Trump designated as a terrorist organisation on his first day back in office in January.

Describing the alleged connection, the statement says he applied for US permanent residency last year due to his marriage to a US citizen “who is connected to the Sinaloa Cartel through a prior relationship with the now-deceased son of the infamous cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman”.

According to US officials, Chavez Jr has been arrested and jailed for several offences in the US, many involving weapons.

In January 2024, he was arrested and later convicted for illegal possession of an assault weapon, officials said.

In 2023, a local judge in the US issued an arrest warrant against him for allegedly trafficking weapons for a criminal organisation. Nearly a decade earlier, in 2012, he was arrested for driving without a licence under the influence drugs or alcohol.

He also allegedly made multiple fraudulent statements to US immigration authorities in his attempts to gain permanent residency and over-stayed a tourist visa that expired last February.

A lawyer for Chavez Jr called his arrest “nothing more than another headline to terrorise the Latin community”.

Asked about the allegations of a cartel connection, lawyer Michael Goldstein told NBC: “This is the first we’ve ever heard of these outrageous allegations.”

Two weeks before the bout against Paul, Chavez Jr held a public workout in LA where he spoke to the LA Times about the massive uptick in immigration raids that have swept the city in the past month.

He said that his own trainer was afraid to come to work, due to fear of deportation.

“I was even scared, to tell you the truth. It’s very ugly,” he said, accusing US immigration agents of “giving the community an example of violence”.

“I’m from Sinaloa, where things are really ugly, and to come here, to such a beautiful country with everything… and see Trump attacking immigrants, Latinos, for no reason. Not being with God makes you think you know everything. Trump made a bad decision.”

He added: “After everything that’s happened, I wouldn’t want to be deported.”

Musical icon Angélique Kidjo has become the first black African performer to be selected for a star on the prestigious Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Kidjo, who comes from the West African country of Benin and has won five Grammy awards, was among the 35 names announced as part of the Walk of Fame’s class of 2026 list.

The 64-year-old was hailed as Africa’s “premier diva” during a press conference announcing the list on Wednesday.

Singer Miley Cyrus, actor Timothée Chalamet, actress Demi Moore and former basketball player Shaquille O’Neal are also among those set to be honoured with a star on Los Angeles’ famous walk.

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Kidjo receives the honour after making music for more than four decades and releasing 16 albums.

The songstress has won fans across the world with her commanding voice and ability to fuse West African styles with the likes of funk, jazz and R&B.

Her long list of collaborators includes forces such as Burna Boy, Philip Glass, Sting and Alicia Keys.

Kidjo joins Charlize Theron, a white South African actress, in representing Africa on the Walk of Fame, which comprises more than 2,700 stars.

Theron received her star in 2005.

The date on which Kidjo will see her star unveiled on the Walk of Fame has not yet been announced.

After recipients have been selected for a star, they have two years to schedule induction ceremonies.

Kidjo grew up in Benin, but left for Paris in 1983, citing oppression from the country’s then communist government.

“From the moment the communist regime arrived in Benin, I became aware that the freedom we enjoy can be snatched away in a second,” she told the BBC in 2023.

She said she has been driven by curiosity since childhood, adding: “my nickname was ‘when, why, how?’. I want to understand things, to understand my place in this world.”

Kidjo worked as a backing singer in France before striking out as a solo artist in 1990, with the album Parakou.

She is a Unicef and Oxfam goodwill ambassador, and has her own charity, Batonga, which is dedicated to supporting the education of young girls in Africa.

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The BBC has told a small number of senior staff to step back from their day-to-day duties on music and live events, following the broadcast of Bob Vylan’s controversial Glastonbury set.

The punk duo led a chant of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]” and made other derogatory comments during their performance, which was available to watch via a live stream on iPlayer.

In a statement, the BBC said there was “no place for antisemitism” in its output, and that it was taking action to “ensure proper accountability for those found to be responsible” for the broadcast.

The BBC also said Bob Vylan were one of seven Glastonbury acts it had deemed “high risk” in advance of the festival.

The broadcaster said it would make “immediate changes to livestreaming music events”, so that “any music performances deemed high risk by the BBC will now not be broadcast live or streamed live” in the future.

The corporation’s chair, Samir Shah, said the decision not to pull the live feed was “unquestionably an error of judgement”.

Earlier on Thursday, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told the House of Commons she was unsatisfied with the BBC’s response after she had asked questions about due diligence, senior oversight, and the delay in pulling the live feed.

“Given the seriousness of what happened, and particularly we heard in the House the absolute shocking stories of the impact this has had on the Jewish community in this country – given the seriousness of this, I would expect there to be accountability at the highest levels [of the BBC],” she said.

Shadow culture secretary Stuart Andrew said the BBC’s “belated response suggests a lack of vigilance and proper oversight”, adding the BBC has “clear responsibilities when broadcasting live events”.

The BBC has also been criticised by the UK’s chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis, while media regulator Ofcom said the corporation had “questions to answer”.

During their Glastonbury set, Bob Vylan’s singer Pascal Robinson-Foster, who performs under the stage name Bobby Vylan, also spoke about a record label boss he used to work for.

That boss would “speak very strongly about his support for Israel”, and had put his name to a letter urging Glastonbury to cancel Irish-language rap trio Kneecap’s performance, the musician said.

“Who do I see on that list of names but that bald-headed [expletive] I used to work for. We’ve done it all, all right? From working in bars to working for [expletive] Zionists.”

In a message to staff on Thursday, director general Tim Davie said: “I deeply regret that such offensive and deplorable behaviour appeared on the BBC and want to say sorry – to our audience and to all of you, but in particular to Jewish colleagues and the Jewish community.”

The BBC said Bob Vylan had been deemed high risk following a risk assessment process applied to all acts appearing at Glastonbury.

The duo, along with six other acts, were included in this category, but the BBC said they “were all deemed suitable for live streaming with appropriate mitigations”.

The statement continued: “Prior to Glastonbury, a decision was taken that compliance risks could be mitigated in real time on the live stream – through the use of language or content warnings – without the need for a delay. This was clearly not the case.”

The BBC noted that the live stream was monitored “in line with the agreed compliance protocols and a number of issues were escalated”.

Warnings appeared on the stream on two occasions, but, the BBC added: “The editorial team took the decision not to cut the feed. This was an error.”

Davie, who was attending Glastonbury himself on the day, was “subsequently made aware of what had happened and instructed the team that none of the performance should feature in further coverage”.

The BBC said the team on duty prioritised stopping the performance from becoming available on demand, meaning that the set would not appear separately on iPlayer or BBC Sounds.

However, the live feed remained available for more than four hours, which meant viewers were able to rewind and view the content.

“Given the failings that have been acknowledged, we are taking actions to ensure proper accountability for those found to be responsible for those failings in the live broadcast,” the BBC said. “We will not comment further on those processes at this time.”

In a statement, Shah apologised “to all our viewers and listeners and particularly the Jewish community for allowing the ‘artist’ Bob Vylan to express unconscionable antisemitic views live on the BBC”.

“This was unquestionably an error of judgement,” he added. “I was very pleased to note that as soon as this came to the notice of Tim Davie – who was on the Glastonbury site at the time visiting BBC staff – he took immediate action and instructed the team to withdraw the performance from on demand coverage.”

Since Glastonbury, Bob Vylan have had several bookings cancelled, including festival appearances in Manchester and France and a slot in Germany.

In response to the cancellations, the band reiterated their position, telling followers: “Silence is not an option. We will be fine, the people of Palestine are hurting.”

Avon and Somerset Police have launched a criminal investigation into their Glastonbury comments.

On Wednesday, London’s Metropolitan Police said the band are also under investigation for comments they allegedly made during a concert at Alexandra Palace in May.

After the media coverage of their comments, Bob Vylan said in a statement on Tuesday: “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 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”.

The deputy head of the Russian Navy has been killed near the Ukrainian border, the Russian military has confirmed.

Major General Mikhail Gudkov, appointed by President Vladimir Putin to the senior naval post in March, was killed during what Russia’s defence ministry described as “combat work” in the western Kursk region, which borders Ukraine’s Sumy region. The ministry gave no further details about the operation.

Last summer Ukraine launched a surprise offensive in Kursk. While its troops have mostly been driven out, in June Kyiv said it was still holding onto small areas of the region.

Gudkov’s death is one of the most high-profile losses for Moscow since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

According to Oleg Kozhemyako, governor of the Primorsky region in Russia’s Far East, ten others were also killed in the incident.

Kozhemyako made the announcement on Telegram, where he described Gudkov as a loyal officer who died “carrying out his duty”.

Unconfirmed reports from Russian and Ukrainian military-linked Telegram channels suggest the deaths were the result of a Ukrainian missile strike on a Russian command post near the town of Korenevo, around 30km (19 miles) from the border.

Ukraine has not officially commented on the attack – consistent with its usual policy of not confirming targeted strikes on Russian territory.

Gudkov had previously commanded the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade of the Pacific Fleet, a unit involved in heavy fighting across eastern Ukraine and later in the Kursk region itself.

Footage from the far eastern city of Vladivostok, home to Russia’s Pacific Fleet, showed mourners laying flowers at a makeshift memorial to Gudkov, who received the Gold Star medal of Hero of Russia in late 2023. He was seen receiving the honour from President Putin at a Kremlin ceremony in February.

Ukraine has not acknowledged involvement in Gudkov’s death.

However sources within Ukrainian security services have previously told the media, including the BBC, that they were behind similar targeted strikes, such as the killing of Gen Igor Kirillov in December 2024.

Earlier this year, General Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow – an incident the Kremlin also blamed on Kyiv. At the time Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of “continuing its involvement in terrorist activities inside our country”.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there have been several high-level assassination plots on both sides.

Last year the Ukrainian security service (SBU) said it foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other high-ranking Ukrainian officials.

At the start of the war, the Ukrainian leader said he was Russia’s “number one target”.

Meanwhile, officials in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa said two people were killed and six injured in a missile strike on the port on Thursday.

Earlier, strikes on the central city of Poltava targeting an army recruitment centre killed two people and wounded nearly 50 others, authorities said.

Two streets in Adolf Hitler’s hometown in Austria are to be renamed following longstanding complaints that they commemorate Nazis, officials say.

The council of Braunau am Inn made the decision on Wednesday after a “secret vote”, according to local media. It followed a report, commissioned by the local government, which concluded that keeping the names was unconstitutional.

The streets are named after composer Josef Reiter and entertainer Franz Resl, both of whom were members of the Nazi party.

About 200 households will get a new address after the names are changed.

The Austrian government has long been criticised by historians for the way it has acknowledged its part in World War Two, and in particular for positioning itself as a victim rather than a participant.

The move to rename the streets has been welcomed as a “decision with symbolic significance” by the Mauthausen Committee. At least 90,000 prisoners were killed by the Nazis at Mauthausen concentration camp in northern Austria between 1938–1945.

Committee chairman Willi Mernyi told local media that they had “worked hard for this”, and thanked all who supported them.

Robert Eiter, a committee member, added that they had suggested the names be changed to honour Austrians who actively opposed the Nazis – former deputy mayor Lea Olczak, whose father died in Mauthausen, and Maria Stromberger, who joined the resistance while working as the head nurse at Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland.

Many streets in Austria have already been renamed due to their Nazi associations, including one honouring Ferdinand Porsche, founder of the luxury car company, in the city of Linz – but 80 years on since the end of the war, others still remain.

Around 65,000 Austrian Jews were killed in the Holocaust during World War Two, when the Nazi party, led by Adolf Hitler, worked to eradicate Europe’s Jewish population, as well as the Slavic and Roma population.

During the war, the Nazi regime systematically murdered more than six million Jewish people.

At least four people were killed and 14 others injured in a drive-by shooting outside a Chicago nightclub, police said.

Chicago Police said a dark-coloured car drove past the club around 23:00 local time (04:00 GMT) on Wednesday, when gunmen inside the vehicle opened fire into a crowd of people outside.

The crowd was said to be leaving the nightclub following an album release party for rapper Mello Buckzz, the BBC’s US partner, CBS News reported.

Police said the vehicle fled the scene immediately and no one has been taken into custody.

The victims of the shooting were rushed to several different area hospitals. Two men, ages 24 and 25, and two women, aged 26 and 27 years old, were pronounced dead, police said.

At least four people taken to hospital are reported to be in critical to serious condition. The identities of the victims have not yet been released.

Eyewitness Pastor Donovan Price said there were scenes of “absolute chaos” unlike he had ever seen before.

“From people screaming to blood on the streets to people laying on the streets… horrific,” he told Reuters.

“It’s something that you wouldn’t expect to find in the city. We have a lot of shootings, but nothing like this.”

Following the incident, rapper Mello Buckzz said all she can do is “talk to god and pray”.

In a statement on social media, she said: “Prayers up for all my sisters god please wrap yo arms around every last one of them.”

“Feel like everything just weighing down on me,” she added.

A Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and detained in one of that country’s most notorious prisons was subjected to “severe beatings” and “torture”, new court documents allege.

Lawyers for Kilmar Ábrego García, 29, alleged that assaults from guards within a day of his arrival at the CECOT prison left him with visible injuries.

The Trump administration had previously alleged Mr Ábrego García was a member of the Salvadorian gang, MS-13, which his lawyers and family have strongly denied.

While officials initially said Mr Ábrego García could never return to the US, in June he was extradited to Tennessee to face human trafficking charges – to which he has pleaded not guilty.

According to new court documents filed on Wednesday as part of a lawsuit his wife brought against the Trump administration, Mr Ábrego García and 20 other detainees were repeatedly beaten when they arrived at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Centre, or Cecot.

• US brings back El Salvador deportee to face charges
• Kilmar Ábrego García pleads not guilty in human trafficking case

Once there, according to the documents, Mr Ábrego García and 20 other deported inmates “were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation”.

Mr Ábrego García has also alleged that he and the other prisoners were “forced to kneel” from 9 PM to 6 AM, “with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion”.

At one point, guards allegedly threatened to confine him with gang members who would “tear” him apart.

His mistreatment led to him losing 30lbs (14kg) within the first two weeks of his incarceration in El Salvador, according to the complaint.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has previously said his country’s prisons are “clean, orderly, free from abuses, unsanitary conditions, beatings, or murders”.

During a visit to the White House earlier this year, he expressed support for the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.

The Trump administration has asked the federal judge in Maryland overseeing the case to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it was overtaken by events after Mr Ábrego García was returned to the US. The lawsuit was filed by Mr Ábrego García’s wife after his deportation.

Mr Ábrego García first entered the US illegally in 2011 and was granted protection from deportation by an immigration judge in 2019 because it was determined he might face danger from gangs if returned to his native El Salvador.

But in March 2025 the Maryland resident was deported and initially held in El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison, in what Trump administration officials later admitted was a mistake. A judge ordered the government to “facilitate” his return, but White House officials initially refused to bring him back.

Following his return to face charges in June, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that “this is what American justice looks like”.

He has denied any wrongdoing, and his attorneys have called the trafficking charges “preposterous”.

In late June, a federal judge in Tennessee ruled that Mr Ábrego García is eligible for release, but he has remained in jail over fears from his own legal team that he could be swiftly deported again if he leaves the facility.

Thousands of football fans have made their way to Anfield stadium to pay their respects to the Liverpool forward Diogo Jota after his death in a car crash in Spain.

Jota, 28, was killed when a Lamborghini he was travelling in with his younger brother, Andre Silva, suffered a tyre blow-out, crashed and caught fire in Cernadilla in the Zamora province.

Both men died in the crash, which happened at about 00:30 local time, Spanish police told the BBC.

A sea of flowers, football shirts, scarves, balloons and flags have been laid outside Liverpool’s ground by fans since news of his death broke.

Lifelong fan John Barlow from Leyland in Lancashire, a survivor of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, said he was “absolutely devastated” when the news broke.

Mr Barlow said: “I had to stop what I’m doing at work and drive in.

“I come to every match and he was like one of us. He had a bit of something about him, like a proper old Liverpool player, like the players we were brought up with.

“He had a fight in him and he came back from things and he was tough.”

He said he was “just heartbroken, absolutely heartbroken”.

• ‘We will miss you so much’: Klopp leads tributes to Diogo Jota after he dies in car crash

Andrea Molyneux, who went to the stadium with her daughters Isabella and Lily Costello, described their “utter devastation”.

“I can’t even comprehend the grief that the family are going through,” Ms Molyneux said.

“He was just such a young man and life can be taken away from you in such a short time.

“He had everything. Everything.”

The Portugal international had recently married his partner, Rute Cardoso, with whom he had three young children.

Another fan told the BBC he would remember Jota with “a smile on his face, scoring goals for Liverpool”.

“But in a time like this, football pales into insignificance,” he added.

“He’s left a wife and three children behind, his brother has passed away with him and his poor parents have lost two children.

“I mean, he’ll forever be remembered as a great Red for us. But when something like this happens, football doesn’t matter anymore.”

Writing on social media, former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who was in charge at Anfield when Jota was signed from Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2020, said he was heartbroken.

“This is a moment where I struggle!” he wrote.

“There must be a bigger purpose, but I can’t see it.”

Earlier Liverpool FC said it was “devastated” by the loss of the player and his brother.

The club described the player’s death as “an unimaginable loss”.

After the verdicts were delivered in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial in New York on Wednesday, emotions boiled over outside court in heated confrontations between fans and protesters who voiced opposing views about the outcome.

Some thought the rap star should have been found guilty on the more serious counts, not just the two lesser charges on which he was convicted.

But they were outnumbered by pro-Diddy influencers and fans who were chanting “free Diddy” and “let him go” and spraying each other in baby oil in celebration.

The jury’s mixed verdicts did not present a clear-cut result – but it was seen as a better-than-expected outcome for the star.

He still faces significant jail time and dozens of civil legal cases, though. His reputation will forever be tarnished by months of ugly allegations and revelations – and the two convictions.

But some observers believe that’s unlikely to stop him trying to mount a comeback.

As a songwriter, rapper, producer and record label impresario, Combs – formerly known as Puff Daddy – was one of the driving forces in hip-hop and R&B in the 1990s.

He launched the careers of Notorious BIG and Mary J Blige, signed acts such as Faith Evans, 112, Mase and Janelle Monae to his Bad Boy Records label, and worked with stars including Mariah Carey, Usher and Busta Rhymes.

He won three Grammy Awards as an artist and scored his biggest pop hit with I’ll Be Missing You, sampling The Police’s Every Breath You Take, in 1997 – his tribute after BIG’s murder.

Combs “was one of the most famous people in hip-hop”, says Los Angeles Times music writer August Brown.

“He was an incredibly important figure in evolving both that genre and the music industry as a whole into a commercial juggernaut.”

Like many at the peak of the music industry, he also threw lavish parties. But sordid details emerged during the legal cases, revealing a darker side.

These so-called “freak offs” were hotel sex encounters which could last for days, involving multiple male escorts, routine violence and copious amounts of drugs and baby oil.

The question for the jury was whether this was a criminal enterprise designed to force two alleged victims into sex against their will or whether, as Combs claimed, the women willingly took part.

The defence argued that these orgies were “kinky” but consensual – and that organising them was not criminal.

In the end, the jury agreed and he was found not guilty of the most serious charge of racketeering conspiracy, as well as two charges of sex trafficking.

“The jury was just unpersuaded that what amounted to an extremely baroque and violent and drug-stoked sex life on Diddy’s behalf amounted to a criminal organisation on the racketeering charge, or trafficking in the way that we understand it now,” Mr Brown told the BBC World Service.

“This isn’t to say that it wasn’t possible, but they just didn’t think it rose to ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt’.”

Combs was, however, convicted on two counts of transporting two former girlfriends, including singer Cassie, to participate in sex acts and prostitution.

He will face up to 10 years in jail for each charge when he’s sentenced in October. But the sentences are likely to be lower than the maximum and to run simultaneously, with the year he will have already spent in jail to be deducted. So it’s quite possible he could be free in several years.

His supporters will be waiting – but most people will be unwilling to accept a comeback, Mr Brown says.

“I cannot imagine any kind of redemption arc as far as him [remaining] as an artist or a music mogul in light of this.

“I think the public will remember him as an important figure whose name is now permanently associated with this very-difficult-to-process range of charges, even if he’s not been convicted on the worst of it.”

Alvin Blanco, content director of Hiphopwired.com, agrees that Combs is too tarnished to make a successful comeback. “He’s definitely going to try, but I think the damage is just too irreparable at this point.”

Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African American Studies at Duke University in North Carolina, also believes there’s “no doubt” the revelations have tarnished Combs’ legacy as the man who helped take hip-hop “from the ghettos to the mainstream of America to the global mainstream”.

However, his influence on music had diminished even before the allegations, says Jem Aswad, executive editor of music at Variety.

“He doesn’t really have much of a music career any more, and he hasn’t for about 15 years,” Mr Aswad told BBC News.

“It’s not that he was unpopular, although he wasn’t enormously popular recently – he just moved on to other businesses. He got into beverages, he got into apparel, he got into lots of other businesses.

“Anything he did in music over the last 15 years was almost just for fun. I think he’s released two, maybe three albums in that time period, and they just did OK, and frankly they just were OK.”

His stock was still pretty high, though. His last LP, The Love Album: Off The Grid, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2024. The previous year, he was named a Global Icon at the MTV Awards.

And he wouldn’t be the first star to retain support despite facing allegations.

Michael Jackson was cleared of child abuse in court in 2005 but persuasive claims about him have persisted, and many people still wrestle with how to reconcile those with the brilliance of the King of Pop’s catalogue.

R&B star R. Kelly was jailed for 30 years in 2022 for racketeering and sex trafficking. He still has five million monthly listeners on Spotify at the last count.

Some in hip-hop may be willing to work with Combs. Kanye West last week released a song called Diddy Free – although Kanye himself is ostracised by large parts of the industry for making antisemitic and Nazi statements.

Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty, host of the BBC’s Diddy on Trial podcast, has seen the support outside court and suggests there may be a way back.

“We’ll see what happens with his career after this,” she told the BBC’s Newscast.

“I feel like he will be able to reclaim a top spot in hip-hop just because of the sheer amount of support we’ve seen online and here at the courthouse from his fans, and from people who feel he was being unjustly targeted by the federal government.

“He won’t be the first musician to be a convicted criminal who carries on having a music career, especially in hip-hop.”

For many, the details of the case will be hard to shake from the memory, though.

Angela Star, one of the content creators outside court on Wednesday, told BBC News that “his image is tainted, and when you think of Diddy now, you think of…” before finishing her point by holding up a bottle of baby oil.

Soon after Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, he began raising tariffs, brushing off warnings from economists and businesses about the risks of economic damage.

He started with Mexico, Canada and China, then targeted steel, aluminium and cars, and finally in April, on what he called “Liberation Day”, unleashed a blitz of new taxes on goods from countries around the world.

The plans hit trade and roiled financial markets. But as worries mounted, Trump quickly suspended his most aggressive plans to allow for 90 days of talks.

As that 9 July deadline approaches and the president crafts his approach, he will have one eye on the US economy.

So what has the impact really been?

Trump’s plans included tariffs of 20% on goods from the European Union, punishing tariffs on items from China of 145%, and a 46% levy on imports from Vietnam, though on Wednesday he announced a deal that will see the US charge tariffs of 20% on Vietnam.

The US stock market suffered the most immediate hit, starting to slide in February and finally tanking in April after Trump unveiled the full scope of his plans, on so-called “Liberation Day”.

The S&P 500, which tracks 500 of the biggest companies in the US, dropped about 12% over the course of a week.

But shares bounced back after Trump rolled back his plans, abandoning steep tariffs in favour of a more easily swallowed 10% rate instead.

Now, the S&P 500 index is up about 6% for the year. In the UK and Europe, shares have also rebounded.

But shares of tariff-vulnerable firms, such as retailers and car companies are still hurting – and there is more risk ahead, as the talks deadline approaches.

The White House has left its options open, saying both that the deadline is “not critical” and that the president may simply present other countries “with a deal” on that date.

Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, said the rebound suggested “a lot of complacency” among investors, who risk being spooked again should Trump revive higher tariffs than they expect.

Trump’s tariffs precipitated a rush of goods to the US in the early part of the year, followed by a sharp drop in April and May.

But zoom out a bit, and US goods imports in the first five months of the year were up 17% compared with the same period last year.

What happens in the months ahead will depend on whether Trump extends his pause – or revives his more aggressive plans, said Ben Hackett of Hackett Associates, which tracks port traffic for the National Retail Federation.

“At this point it’s anybody’s guess,” Mr Hackett said, noting that for now the situation was “in a holding pattern”.

“If the tariff freeze disappears and the high tariffs are reimposed then almost certainly we’re going to have a short recession,” he added.

In the US, imported goods are estimated to account for only about 11% of consumer spending.

Trump and his allies have argued that fears that tariffs – which, on average, are now roughly six times higher than they were at the start of the year – will drive up the cost of living for Americans are overblown.

They have pointed in part to recent inflation data, which showed consumer prices stepping up just 0.1% from April to May.

But certain items, such as toys, saw far bigger jumps and many goods facing higher duties have not yet made it to shelves.

Firms, especially those cushioned by strong profits, could opt to pass the increases on gradually, rather than alienate customers with an abrupt jump.

Despite pressure from the president to “eat the tariffs”, economists still widely expect customers to pay for them eventually.

“If you’re not digging more into the data you would think, ‘nothing to see here’ from an inflation standpoint,” says Ms Sonders. “But it’s premature at this point to hang the victory banner.”

Economic sentiment in the US started falling earlier this year, as Trump began to set out his tariff plans.

But political views play a big role in shaping opinions on the economy, so whether the worries would actually lead households to clamp down on spending over the long term remained a matter of debate.

We are now starting to see signs of pullback: retail sales dropped 0.9% from April to May, the second month in a row of decline. It was the first back-to-back fall since the end of 2023.

Overall consumer spending grew at the slowest rate since 2020 in the first three months of the year, and slipped unexpectedly in May, the most recent month for which data is available.

But while growth is still expected to slow significantly compared with last year, most analysts say the economy should be able to escape a recession – so long as the job market continues to hold up.

Though layoff notices have been pacing higher, for now, unemployment remains low, at 4.2%. Job creation last month continued at a pace similar to the average over the last 12 months.

“We’re sort of in this stall mode right now in the economy, a kind of wait-and-see mode, that is driven by pretty grave uncertainty and the instability in policy,” Ms Sonders said, noting that many firms were responding with a self-imposed “time-out” on hiring and investment.

The economy is unlikely to escape unscathed, she warned.

“It’s hard to lay out a scenario of a pickup in growth from here,” she said. “The question is more, will it just be a softening of the economy or a bigger slide.”

It’s the gig that fans have been waiting 5,795 days for, as Oasis kick off their reunion tour at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on Friday night.

The venue has been hosting soundchecks and rehearsals all week, with passersby treated to snatches of songs such as Cigarettes & Alcohol, Wonderwall and Champagne Supernnova.

“It’s sounding huge,” Noel Gallagher told talkSPORT radio. “This is it, there’s no going back now.”

The Oasis Live ’25 tour was the biggest concert launch ever seen in the UK and Ireland, with more than 10 million fans from 158 countries queuing to buy tickets last summer.

Around 900,000 tickets were sold, but many fans complained when standard standing tickets advertised at £135 plus fees were re-labelled “in demand” and changed on Ticketmaster to £355 plus fees.

The sale prompted an investigation from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which said Ticketmaster may have breached consumer protection law by selling “platinum” tickets for almost 2.5 times the standard price, without explaining they came with no additional benefits.

The CMA ordered Ticketmaster to change the way it labels tickets and reveals prices to fans in the future. Ticketmaster said it “welcomed” the advice.

Still, the debacle has done nothing to dampen the excitement in Cardiff, where fans have arrived from Spain, Peru, Japan, America and elsewhere for the opening night.

“For me, Oasis represents an overwhelming optimism about being young and loving music,” says Jeff Gachini, a fan from Kenya who’s making his first visit to the UK for the show.

“To write simple music that relays the simple truth of life is very difficult. For me, they do that better than anyone.”

Brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher will be joined on stage by Gem Archer, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs and Andy Bell, all former members of Oasis, alongside drummer Joey Waronker, who has previously recorded with Beck and REM; and toured with Liam.

The band will also be augmented by a brass section, and backing singer Jess Greenfield, who is part of Noel’s side project the High Flying Birds.

Meanwhile, rumours about the setlist have been swirling all week, as Oasis songs echoed around the Principality Stadium.

One purported running order that was leaked to Reddit suggested the band would open with Hello and finish with Champagne Supernova, with other highlights including Acquiesece, Roll With It, Live Forever and Supersonic.

Noel is also expected to take lead vocals twice during the show, on short sets including songs such as Half The World Away and The Masterplan.

Oasis were the biggest band in Britain from 1994 to 1997, selling tens of millions of copies of their first three albums Definitely Maybe, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory and Be Here Now.

Liam’s sneering vocals and Noel’s distorted guitars brought a rock and roll swagger back to the charts, revitalising British guitar music after an influx of self-serious Seattle grunge.

Born and raised in Manchester, they formed the band to escape the dead-end mundanity of their working class backgrounds.

“In Manchester you either became a musician, a footballer, a drugs dealer or work in a factory. And there aren’t a lot of factories left, you know?” Noel Gallagher once said.

“We didn’t start in university or anything like this. We’re not a collection of friends that kind of come together and discuss things musically.

“We started the group… because we were all on the dole and we were unemployed and we rehearsed and we thought we were pretty good.”

Oasis was originally Liam’s band, performing under the name The Rain. But after watching them live, Noel offered to join – on the condition that he became chief songwriter and de facto leader.

That fait accompli brought them worldwide fame, culminating in two open-air gigs at Knebworth House in summer 1996.

Nearly five per cent of the UK population applied for tickets, with a then-record 125,000 people watching the band top a line-up that also included The Prodigy, Manic Street Preachers, Ocean Colour Scene, The Chemical Brothers, The Charlatans and a Beatles tribute.

But festering tension between the Gallagher brothers often spilled over into verbal and physical violence.

Backstage at a gig in Barcelona in 2000, for example, Noel attacked Liam after he questioned the legitimacy of his eldest daughter. The guitarist walked out for the rest of the European tour, leaving the band to continue with a stand-in.

Although they repaired the relationship, the insults and in-fighting continued until 28 August, 2009, when Oasis split up minutes before they took the stage at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris.

“People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer,” Noel wrote in a statement at the time.

He would later recount a backstage argument in which his younger brother grabbed his guitar and started “wielding it like an axe”, adding, “he nearly took my face off with it”.

Since then, they’ve pursued successful solo careers, while constantly fielding questions about an Oasis reunion.

Liam called the idea “inevitable” in 2020, and said the band should reform to support NHS workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, he said his brother had spurned the idea, despite a lucrative offer from promoters.

“There was a lot of money knocking about,” he told ITV’s Jonathan Ross Show. “It was £100 million to do a tour.

“But [Noel] isn’t into it. He’s after a knighthood, isn’t he?”

The reconciliation took another five years and, with neither of the Gallaghers consenting to an interview, it’s hard to know what informed their decision to get back together.

Tabloid newspapers suggested that Noel’s divorce from Sara McDonald in 2022 led to a thaw in relations. Others have suggested the brothers simply wanted the Oasis story to have a more satisfactory conclusion than a dressing room bust-up.

“I’ve heard everything is honky dory and they’re getting on great,” says Tim Abbott, former managing director of Oasis’s record label, Creation.

“I’ve worked with bands in the past that had separate limos, separate walkways onto the stage. I don’t think they’ll get to that. They’re grown men.”

Whatever sparked the reunion, the sold-out tour will see the band play 41 shows between July and November, spanning the UK & Ireland, North America, Oceania and South America.

“Probably the biggest and most pleasing surprise of the reunion announcement is how huge it was internationally,” said Oasis’s co-manager Alec McKinlay in an interview with Music Week.

“Honestly, we knew it would be big here, and that doesn’t take much intuition. But looking outside the UK, we knew they had a strong fanbase, we did all the stats.

“We were quite cautious about what that would mean when it came to people actually buying tickets but we were just bowled over by how huge it was.”

McKinlay added that the band had no plans for new music, and described the tour as their “last time around”.

They take to the stage for the first time in 16 years at 20:15 UK time on Friday night.

Shunning the usual rock and roll trappings, Noel Gallagher was spotted arriving for the show by train.

A state-of-the-art British fighter jet stuck at an airport in India for nearly three weeks now has sparked curiosity and raised questions about how such a modern aircraft could get stranded for days in a foreign country.

The F-35B landed at Thiruvananthapuram airport in the southern state of Kerala on 14 June.

The aircraft was diverted there after it ran into bad weather during a sortie in the Indian ocean and was unable to return to HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s flagship carrier.

It landed safely but it has since developed a technical snag and is unable to return to the carrier.

Since the jet’s landing, engineers from HMS Prince of Wales have assessed the aircraft, but the visiting teams have been unable to fix it so far.

On Thursday, the British High Commission said in a statement to the BBC: “The aircraft was moved to the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul facility at the airport and will be moved to the hangar once UK engineering teams arrive with specialist equipment.”

“The aircraft will return to active service once repairs and safety checks have been completed,” it added. “Ground teams continue to work closely with Indian authorities to ensure safety and security precautions are observed.”

Authorities at Thiruvananthapuram airport told the BBC they were expecting technicians from the UK to arrive on Friday.

The $110m (£80m) jet is being guarded around the clock by six officers from the RAF.

Dr Sameer Patil, director of the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai, told the BBC the Royal Navy had only two options: “They can repair it and make it fly-worthy or they can fly it out in a bigger cargo place such as a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.”

The case of the stranded jet has also been raised in the House of Commons.

On Monday, opposition Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty asked the government to clarify what was being done to secure it and return it to operational service, the UK Defence Journal reported.

“What steps are the government taking to recover the plane, how much longer will that take, and how will the government ensure the security of protected technologies on the jet while it is in the hangar and out of view?” he was quoted as saying.

The British armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, confirmed the aircraft remained under close UK control.

“We continue to work with our Indian friends who provided first-class support when the F-35B was unable to return to the carrier,” he said. “I am certain that the security of the jet is in good hands because Royal Air Force crew are with it at all times.”

F-35Bs are highly advanced stealth jets, built by Lockheed Martin, and are prized for their short take-off and vertical landing capability.

So images of the “lonely F-35B”, parked on the tarmac and soaked by the Kerala monsoon rains, have spawned memes on social media.

One viral post joked that the jet had been put up for sale at an online site at a hugely competitive price of $4m. The listing claimed the jet included features like “automatic parking, brand-new tyres, a new battery and an automatic gun to destroy traffic violators”.

One user on X said the jet deserved Indian citizenship as it had been in the country long enough, while another suggested that India should start charging rent and that the Kohinoor diamond would be the most appropriate payment.

On Wednesday, Kerala government’s tourism department also joined in the fun with a post on X that said “Kerala, the destination you’ll never want to leave.”

The post included an AI-generated photograph of an F-35B standing on the runway with coconut palm trees in the background. The text suggested that, like most visitors to the state described in tourism brochures as “God’s own country” for its scenic beauty, the jet too was finding it hard to leave.

Dr Patil says that each passing day that the jet remains stranded, “it adversely affects the image of the F-35Bs and the Royal Navy”.

“The jokes and memes and rumours and conspiracy theories are affecting the image and credibility of the British Royal Navy. The longer the jet stays stranded, the more disinformation will come out.”

The engineering issues “seem of a much more serious nature” than it was originally thought, he says.

But most militaries, he adds, prepare for “a worst-case scenario” – and it is one since a jet is stranded on foreign soil.

“Most militaries would have a standard operating procedure [SOP] on how to respond when something like this happens. So does the Royal Navy not have an SOP?”

The optics of this, he says, are really bad.

“If such a thing had happened in enemy territory, would they have taken this much time? This makes for very bad PR for a professional navy.”

Shrouded in crimson robes, prayer beads moving rhythmically past his fingers, the monk walks towards us.

It is a risky decision.

We are being followed by eight unidentified men. Even saying a few words to us in public could get him in trouble.

But he appears willing to take the chance. “Things here are not good for us,” he says quietly.

This monastery in China’s south-western Sichuan province has been at the centre of Tibetan resistance for decades – the world learned the name in the late 2000s as Tibetans set themselves on fire there in defiance of Chinese rule. Nearly two decades later, the Kirti monastery still worries Beijing.

A police station has been built inside the main entrance. It sits alongside a small dark room full of prayer wheels which squeak as they spin. Nests of surveillance cameras on thick steel poles surround the compound, scanning every corner.

“They do not have a good heart; everyone can see it,” the monk adds. Then comes a warning. “Be careful, people are watching you.”

As the men tailing us come running, the monk walks away.

“They” are the Communist Party of China, which has now governed more than six million Tibetans for almost 75 years, ever since it annexed the region in 1950.

China has invested heavily in the region, building new roads and railways to boost tourism and integrate it with the rest of the country. Tibetans who have fled say economic development also brought more troops and officials, chipping away at their faith and freedoms.

Beijing views Tibet as an integral part of China. It has labelled Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, as a separatist, and those who display his image or offer him public support could end up behind bars.

Still, some in Aba, or Ngaba in Tibetan, which is home to the Kirti monastery, have gone to extreme measures to challenge these restrictions.

The town sits outside what China calls the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), created in 1965, comprising about half of the Tibetan plateau. But millions of Tibetans live outside of TAR – and consider the rest as part of their homeland.

Aba has long played a crucial role. Protests erupted here during the Tibet-wide uprising of 2008 after, by some accounts, a monk held up a photo of the Dalai Lama inside the Kirti monastery. It eventually escalated into a riot and Chinese troops opened fire. At least 18 Tibetans were killed in this tiny town.

As Tibet rose up in protest, it often turned into violent clashes with Chinese paramilitary. Beijing claims 22 people died, while Tibetan groups in exile put the number at around 200.

In the years that followed there were more than 150 self-immolations calling for the return of the Dalai Lama – most of them happened in or around Aba. It earned the main street a grim moniker: Martyr’s row.

China has cracked down harder since, making it nearly impossible to determine what is happening in Tibet or Tibetan areas. The information that does emerge comes from those who have fled abroad, or the government-in-exile in India.

To find out a little more, we returned to the monastery the next day before dawn. We snuck past our minders and hiked our way back to Aba for the morning prayers.

The monks gathered in their yellow hats, a symbol of the Gelug school of Buddhism. Low sonorous chanting resonated through the hall as ritual smoke lingered in the still, humid air. Around 30 local men and women, most in traditional Tibetan long-sleeved jackets, sat cross-legged until a small bell chimed to end the prayer.

“The Chinese government has poisoned the air in Tibet. It is not a good government,” one monk told us.

“We Tibetans are denied basic human rights. The Chinese government continues to oppress and persecute us. It is not a government that serves the people.”

He gave no details, and our conversations were brief to avoid detection. Still, it is rare to hear these voices.

The question of Tibet’s future has taken on urgency with the Dalai Lama turning 90 this week. Hundreds of followers have been gathering in the Indian town of Dharamshala to honour him. He announced the much-anticipated succession plan on Wednesday, reaffirming what he has said before: the next Dalai Lama would be chosen after his death.

Tibetans everywhere have reacted – with relief, doubt or anxiety – but not those in the Dalai Lama’s homeland, where even the whisper of his name is forbidden.

Beijing has spoken loud and clear: the next reincarnation of the Dalai Lama will be in China, and approved by the Chinese Communist Party. Tibet, however, has been silent.

“That’s just the way it is,” the monk told us. “That’s the reality.”

The road to Aba winds slowly for nearly 500km (300 miles) from the Sichuan capital of Chengdu.

It passes through the snow-packed peaks of Siguniang Mountain before it reaches the rolling grassland at the edge of the Himalayan plateau.

The gold, sloping rooftops of Buddhist temples shimmer every few miles as they catch especially sharp sunlight. This is the roof of the world where traffic gives way to yak herders on horseback whistling to reluctant, grunting cattle, as eagles circle above.

There are two worlds underneath this Himalayan sky, where heritage and faith have collided with the Party’s demand for unity and control.

China has long maintained that Tibetans are free to practise their faith. But that faith is also the source of a centuries-old identity, which human rights groups say Beijing is slowly eroding.

They claim that countless Tibetans have been detained for staging peaceful protests, promoting the Tibetan language, or even possessing a portrait of the Dalai Lama.

Many Tibetans, including some we spoke to within the Kirti monastery, are concerned about new laws governing the education of Tibetan children.

All under-18s must now attend Chinese state-run schools and learn Mandarin. They cannot study Buddhist scriptures in a monastery class until they are 18 years old – and they must “love the country and the religion and follow national laws and regulations”.

This is a huge change for a community where monks were often recruited as children, and monasteries doubled up as schools for most boys.

“One of the nearby Buddhist institutions was torn down by the government a few months ago,” a monk in his 60s told us in Aba, from under an umbrella as he walked to prayers in the rain.

“It was a preaching school,” he added, becoming emotional.

The new rules follow a 2021 order for all schools in Tibetan areas, including kindergartens, to teach in the Chinese language. Beijing says this gives Tibetan children a better shot at jobs in a country where the main language is Mandarin.

But such regulations could have a “profound effect” on the future of Tibetan Buddhism, according to renowned scholar Robert Barnett.

“We are moving to a scenario of the Chinese leader Xi Jinping having total control – towards an era of little information getting into Tibet, little Tibetan language being shared,” Mr Barnett says.

“Schooling will almost entirely be about Chinese festivals, Chinese virtues, advanced Chinese traditional culture. We are looking at the complete management of intellectual input.”

The road to Aba shows off the money Beijing has pumped into this remote corner of the world. A new high-speed railway line hugs the hills linking Sichuan to other provinces on the plateau.

In Aba, the usual high-street shop fronts selling monks’ robes and bundles of incense are joined by new hotels, cafes and restaurants to entice tourists.

Chinese tourists arrive in their branded hiking gear and stand amazed as the local faithful prostrate themselves on wooden blocks at the entrance to Buddhist temples.

“How do they get anything done all day?” one tourist wonders aloud. Others turn the prayer wheels excitedly and ask about the rich, colourful murals depicting scenes from the Buddha’s life.

A party slogan written on the roadside boasts that “people of all ethnic groups are united as closely as seeds in a pomegranate”.

But it’s hard to miss the pervasive surveillance.

A hotel check-in requires facial recognition. Even buying petrol requires several forms of identification which are shown to high-definition cameras. China has long controlled what information its citizens have access to – but in Tibetan areas, the grip is even tighter.

Tibetans, Mr Barnett says, are “locked off from the outside world”.

It’s hard to say how many of them know about the Dalai Lama’s announcement on Wednesday – broadcast to the world, it was censored in China.

Living in exile in India since 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama has advocated for more autonomy, rather than full independence, for his homeland. Beijing believes he “has no right to represent the Tibetan people”.

He handed over political authority in 2011 to a government-in-exile chosen democratically by 130,000 Tibetans globally – and that government has had back-channel talks this year with China about the succession plan, but it’s unclear if they have progressed.

The Dalai Lama has previously suggested that his successor would be from “the free world”, that is, outside China. On Wednesday, he said “no-one else has any authority to interfere”.

This sets the stage for a confrontation with Beijing, which has said the process should “follow religious rituals and historical customs, and be handled in accordance with national laws and regulations”.

Beijing is already doing the groundwork to convince the Tibetans, Mr Barnett says.

“There is already a huge propaganda apparatus in place. The Party has been sending teams to offices, schools and villages to teach people about the ‘new regulations’ for choosing a Dalai Lama.”

When the Panchen Lama, the second highest authority in Tibetan Buddhism, died in 1989, the Dalai Lama identified a successor to that post in Tibet. But the child disappeared. Beijing was accused of kidnapping him, although it insists that boy, now an adult, is safe. It then approved a different Panchen Lama, who Tibetans outside China do not recognise.

If there are two Dalai Lamas, it could become a test of China’s powers of persuasion. Which one will the world recognise? More important, would most Tibetans in China even know of the other Dalai Lama?

China wants a credible successor – but perhaps no-one too credible.

Because, Mr Barnett says, Beijing “wants to turn the lion of Tibetan culture into a poodle”.

“It wants to remove things it perceives as risky and replace them with things it believes Tibetans ought to be thinking about; patriotism, loyalty, fealty. They like the singing and dancing – the Disney version of Tibetan culture.”

“We don’t know how much will survive,” Mr Barnett concludes.

As we leave the monastery, a line of women carrying heavy baskets filled with tools for construction or farming walk through the room of prayer wheels, spinning them clockwise.

They sing in Tibetan and smile as they pass, their greying, pleated hair only just visible under their sun hats.

Tibetans have clung on to their identity for 75 years now, fighting for it and dying for it.

The challenge now will be to protect it, even when the man who embodies their beliefs – and their resistance – is gone.

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Rachel Reeves has said she had had “a tough day” and had been “clearly upset”, as she gave her first interview since crying in the House of Commons on Wednesday.

She did not go into details behind the incident saying she had been dealing with “a personal issue” adding: “Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

The chancellor was speaking after making a surprise appearance alongside Sir Keir Starmer to unveil the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS.

Government borrowing costs rose following Reeves’ tearful appearance at Prime Minister’s Questions, when Sir Keir initially failed to guarantee that the chancellor would keep her job.

The rise was partially reversed after Sir Keir insisted he was “in lockstep” with his chancellor, who he said would be in her job “for a very long time to come”.

One analyst told the BBC the initial rise reflected concern in the financial markets that if Reeves left her job then control over the government’s finances would weaken.

Will Walker Arnott, head of private clients at the bank Charles Stanley, told the BBC’s Today programme: “It looks to me like this is a rare example of financial markets actually enhancing the career prospects of a politician.”

In a bid to put on a united front, the chancellor unexpectedly joined Sir Keir and Health Secretary Wes Streeting at a hospital in East London to set out details of new neighbourhood health centres.

As she addressed staff, Reeves was smiling broadly and later shared a hug with the prime minister.

Speaking to broadcasters after the event, Reeves was asked about her tears in Parliament. She said: “My job as chancellor at 12 o’clock on a Wednesday is to be at PMQs next to the prime minister, supporting the government and that’s what I tried to do.”

“I think all your viewers have had tough days, for personal reasons, for whatever reasons. I happened to be on the camera when I had a tough day.”

She said she was “totally” up for the job of chancellor and asked if she was surprised the prime minister had not unequivocally backed her in Parliament replied: “People can see that Keir and me are a team.”

“We fought the election together, we changed the Labour Party together so that we could be in the position to return to power and over the past year we’ve worked in lockstep together.”

During the event, Sir Keir praised his chancellor telling the audience: “I think it’s just fantastic that she is here.”

He said decisions made by Reeves had allowed the government to “invest record amounts in the NHS”.

Asked if he had been aware that his chancellor had been crying next to him in the House of Commons, Sir Keir said he “hadn’t appreciated what was happening” as he was “literally up and down” answering questions.

“No prime minister ever has had side conversations in PMQs. It does happen in other debates when there is a bit more time, but in PMQs it is bang, bang, bang, bang.

“I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber.”

He said the incident was due to “a personal issue and I am certainly not going to say anything more about that”.

Speculation about Reeves’ future had been growing after Labour rebels forced the government to give up some of its benefits changes and in so doing put a £5bn hole in the chancellor’s spending plans.

In order to meet her self-imposed borrowing rules, she is now likely to have to consider cutting public spending or raising taxes at the Budget in autumn.

Asked if taxes would be going up, Reeves said she would not “speculate” but added: “Of course there is a cost to the welfare changes that Parliament voted through this week and that will be reflected in the Budget.”

In a sign that she would not be changing her own restrictions on borrowing, the chancellor said “the stability that we’ve been able to return to the economy… is only possible because of the fiscal discipline which is underpinned by the fiscal rules”.

Reeves’s two main rules are not to borrow to fund day-to-day public spending; and to get debt falling as a share of the UK economic output by 2029/30.

In her speech, she also said the boost to NHS spending would not “have been possible” without the measures she took in last year’s Budget.

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Thursday, shadow chancellor Mel Stride said he “felt for” Reeves, and the incident showed politicians “are all human beings”.

But he accused the government of making “serious mistakes” and “bungling and chaos”, which he predicted would lead to tax rises in the autumn.

Rachael Maskell, one of the Labour MPs who led efforts to block the government’s benefits bill, told the BBC on Wednesday that when trying to find money, the government should “look at those with the broadest shoulders”.

“We do need to look at things like a wealth tax or equalisation of capital gains tax,” she said.

On Thursday, the government announced that its Universal Credit and Personal Independence Bill would be renamed the Universal Credit Bill, after the legislation was gutted of significant measures relating to the personal independence payment.

Budget airline Ryanair is planning to increase its “personal bag” size by 20% as the EU brings in a new standard.

Passengers will be allowed to take an item such as a handbag or laptop bag measuring up to 40cm x 30cm x 20cm in the cabin without paying an extra fee. It should weigh less than 10kg, and fit “under the seat in front you.”

The new size represents a 20% increase in volume from the current maximum dimensions.

This will mean that Ryanair accepts free bags one third bigger than the new EU minimum size limit.

Ryanair said the new free bag size would come into effect in the coming weeks as its bag size measuring devices were adjusted to the new standard.

Its current maximum bag size is 40cm x 25cm x 20cm, which already has a greater volume than the new European standard of 40cm x 30cm x 15cm.

Ryanair declined to say why it was giving passengers a larger carry-on bag allowance.

The size is still less generous than rival budget airline Easyjet, which allows a free underseat bag of 45cm x 36cm x 20cm (including wheels and handles) weighing up to 10kg.

Wizz Air allows one cabin bag as big as Ryanair’s new limits – 40cm x 30cm x 20cm, with the same weight limit of 10kg.

BA has a slightly smaller limit for an under-seat laptop bag or handbag of 40cm x 30cm x 15cm, but passengers are allowed to take a larger cabin bag as well free of charge, subject to a maximum weight of 23kg.

The EU has been working with airlines to agree a minimum free bag size, so that frequent travellers can purchase one piece of luggage and be confident it would be accepted by multiple airlines.

The rule applies to airlines based in the EU – which includes Easyjet, Ryanair and Wizz Air – but airlines are of course free to accept larger bags if they choose.

Confusion about the different minimum sizes has caused problems for passengers, who have sometimes been faced with unexpected extra fees when airlines said their bags didn’t match the specified dimensions.

Last month the transport committee of the European parliament voted to give passengers the right to an extra piece of free hand luggage weighing up to 7kg. The proposed rule would still have to be passed by the wider European parliament.

Passengers should confirm baggage rules with their airlines directly.

The US Supreme Court has agreed to review whether state laws can ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports.

The case concerns laws in Idaho and West Virginia, where two transgender students won injunctions from lower courts allowing them to continue competing.

How the top court rules could have significant implications across the country.

It comes two weeks after the conservative majority court upheld a Tennessee law that bans gender transition care for young people – a ruling that some advocates say delivered a major blow to transgender rights in the US.

The Supreme Court will review the cases of Becky Pepper-Jackson, 15, and Lindsay Hecox, 24, who successfully challenged state bans in West Virginia and Idaho by arguing they were discriminatory.

Idaho was the first state to pass a law prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in women and girls’ sports. Two dozen other states have since followed.

Ms Hecox, a long distance runner, lodged a legal challenge against the Idaho law in 2020 shortly after it was enacted. She was later granted an injunction by both a district court and an appeals court.

State lawmaker Barbara Ehardt, who introduced the law, said at the time of its passing that it would ensure “boys and men will not be able to take the place of girls and women in sports because it’s not fair”.

But in the appeals ruling, a panel of three judges found that the Idaho law violated constitutional rights, and that the state had “failed” to provide evidence that the law protects “sex equality and opportunity for women athletes.”

West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey backed the top court’s intervention.

“The people of West Virginia know that it’s unfair to let male athletes compete against women; that’s why we passed this common sense law preserving women’s sports for women,” he said.

Joshua Block of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is representing the athletes, insisted lower courts were correct to block the “discriminatory laws”.

“Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth,” he said.

How the Supreme Court decides to rule on the issue will likely impact other states that have similar bans in place.

At the federal level, President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this year that aimed to ban transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams.

The Supreme Court will hear the challenges during its next term, which begins in October. A hearing date has not yet been set.

Ethiopia says it has completed building a mega-dam on the Blue Nile that has long been a source of tension with Egypt and Sudan.

Launched in 2011 with a $4bn (£2.9bn) budget, the dam is Africa’s biggest hydro-electric plant, and a major source of pride for Ethiopians.

Ethiopia sees the dam as vital to meeting its energy needs but Egypt and Sudan see it as threatening their water supply from the Nile.

In a statement announcing the completion of the project, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sought to reassure his neighbours. “To our neighbours downstream – Egypt and Sudan – our message is clear: the Renaissance Dam is not a threat, but a shared opportunity,” he said.

US President Donald Trump said in 2020 that Egypt had threatened to “blow up” the dam – officially known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd).

In a conciliatory move, Abiy said that both Egypt and Sudan would be invited to its official inauguration in September.

“We believe in shared progress, shared energy, and shared water,” he said.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Sudan’s military chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met earlier this week and “stressed their rejection of any unilateral measures in the Blue Nile Basin”, AFP news agency reports.

More than a mile long and 145m high, the dam is on the Blue Nile tributary in the northern Ethiopia highlands, from where 85% of the Nile’s waters flow.

Ethiopia wants the dam to produce desperately needed electricity, as the majority of its population – about 60% – have no supply.

Egypt relies on the River Nile for nearly all of its fresh water, and fears that the flow of water could be disrupted.

It has argued that just a 2% reduction in the amount of water it gets from the Nile could result in the loss of 200,000 acres of irrigated land.

Sudan is also heavily reliant on water from the Nile, and shares Egypt’s concerns.

Abiy said Ethiopia was “willing to engage constructively” with the two countries.

However, previous talks have failed to resolve differences.

• Why is Egypt worried about Ethiopia’s dam on the Nile?
• Nile Dam row: Egypt and Ethiopia generate heat but no power
• River Nile dam: Why Ethiopia can’t stop it being filled

A man has died after he was attacked by a bear in one of Romania’s most scenic mountain regions.

The victim, who had been riding a motorcycle, stopped at a popular tourist area on the Transfagarasan road on Tuesday morning, authorities said.

The bear dragged him down a steep ravine with an elevation drop of around 80 metres (262ft), they added.

“Unfortunately, he was already dead when we arrived,” Ion Sanduloiu, head of the Arges County Mountain Rescue Service, told the BBC.

“The injuries were extremely severe. Even though he was wearing a helmet and full protective gear, it wasn’t enough.”

Sanduloiu said the victim had parked his bike next to a sign that warned not to feed the bears.

“My advice is simple: do not stop, do not feed them, and keep your distance,” he added.

The animal has not yet been euthanised, officials said. An investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Romania is home to the largest brown bear population in the European Union.

Human-bear encounters have increased in recent years, with several fatal incidents prompting calls for clearer regulations and investment into prevention strategies.

Recent genetic population studies conducted by Romania’s environment ministry estimated the country’s brown bear population to be between 10,400 and 12,800 – significantly higher than previous counts.

Former environment minister Mircea Fechet considered the optimal sustainable population to be around 4,000 bears – roughly one-third of the current estimate.

Fechet has proposed simplifying laws to allow local authorities to take more immediate action, including the ability to euthanise bears that enter residential areas.

The ministry also plans to introduce risk zone maps to better manage bear populations, balancing conservation efforts with public safety.

Conservationists say the death reflects deeper structural problems in Romania’s wildlife management.

Gabriel Paun, founder of the environmental NGO Agent Green, which campaigns for wildlife protection and against illegal logging, said the issue was mismanagement, not overpopulation.

“The recurring tragedies on the Transfagarasan road are the result of multiple failures: tourists stopping to interact with wild animals, local authorities not doing enough to drive bears back into the forest, and the national government – particularly the environmental ministry – failing to properly implement the national plan for coexistence between wildlife and humans,” he said.

Paun said the bear population was threatened by “climate change, habitat destruction and human persecution”, adding that Romania has become a “key destination” for international trophy hunters.

Sanduloiu believes stronger deterrents are needed to prevent further loss of life.

“The solution is simple, in my opinion: higher fines and even prison sentences for those who stop to feed the bears,” he said.

A United Nations expert has called on dozens of multinational companies to stop doing business with Israel, warning them they risk being complicit in war crimes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

Francesca Albanese, presenting her report to the UN human rights council, described what she called “an economy of genocide” in which the conflict with Hamas provided a testing ground – with no accountability or oversight – for new weapons and technology.

Israel has rejected her report as “groundless”, saying it would “join the dustbin of history”.

UN experts, or special rapporteurs, are independent of the UN, but appointed by it to advise on human rights matters.

Ms Albanese is an international lawyer from Italy, and she is known for her bluntness; in previous reports she has suggested that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

On Thursday she repeated that claim, accusing Israel of “committing one of the cruellest genocides in modern history”.

In this report Ms Albanese names companies she says are profiting from, and therefore complicit in, war crimes in Gaza.

Her list includes arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin for selling weapons, and tech firms Alphabet, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon for providing technology which allows Israel to track and target Palestinians.

She also lists Caterpillar, Hyundai, and Volvo, which her report claims have supplied vehicles used for demolishing homes and flattening bombed communities.

Financial institutions are included too – Ms Albanese claims banks BNP Paribas and Barclays have been underwriting Israeli treasury bonds throughout the conflict.

The BBC has approached the companies named above for comment.

Lockheed Martin said foreign military sales were government-to-government transactions, and discussions were best addressed by the US government.

Volvo said it did not share Ms Albanese’s criticism which it believes was based on “insufficient and partly incorrect information”. It added that it is committed to respecting human rights and constantly works to strengthen its due diligence. But it said that since its products have a long life and change hands often “there is unfortunately a limit to how much control or influence we can have on how and where our products are used during their lifetime”.

For the companies named, the business is lucrative, the report says, and helps Israel to continue the war. Ms Albanese says all the companies should stop dealing with Israel immediately.

But how likely is that? UN reports like this one have no legal power, but they do attract attention.

Ms Albanese is, in targeting economic ties, trying to remind multinationals, and governments, of what happened with apartheid South Africa.

For a while many businesses made good money trading with South Africa, but the injustice of apartheid attracted global condemnation and UN sanctions which forced disinvestment and, eventually, helped to end the apartheid regime.

By listing companies which are household names, Ms Albanese is probably also hoping to provide millions of consumers worldwide with information they can use when choosing whether or not to buy something, as they did with South Africa.

But the suggestion they are complicit in possible genocide is the one the multinationals themselves may take most seriously. The law on genocide is strict, it needs to be determined by a court of law, and in fact the International Court of Justice is currently considering a case against Israel on this very question, brought by South Africa.

Complicity is defined as a person or entity having engaged in actions whose foreseeable results may have contributed to genocide, but without having personally intended to commit genocide.

This is an accusation that Ms Albanese suggests could be levelled against businesses selling anything that might contribute to Israel’s war effort. It is known that international lawyers have privately advised European governments that continued arms sales to Israel may lead to charges of complicity.

Israel, which has long accused Ms Albanese of being extremely hostile to it, and even antisemitic, has rejected her latest report as “groundless, defamatory and a flagrant abuse of office”.

Israel denies genocide, claiming the right of self-defence against Hamas.

But when Ms Albanese presented her report to UN member states, she received primarily praise and support.

African, Asian, and Arab states backed her call for disinvestment, many agreed that genocide was taking place, and some also warned Israel against vilifying international lawyers like Ms Albanese for doing their job.

European states, traditionally more supportive of Israel, also condemned the denial of aid to Gaza, and said Israel had a legal responsibility, as the occupying power, to ensure Palestinians had the means to survive.

But Israel’s biggest ally, the United States, left the UN Human Rights Council when President Donald Trump took office in January. Washington’s response to the report has simply accused Ms Albanese, whose team contacted US companies for information about their dealings with Israel, of an “unacceptable campaign of political and economic warfare against the American and worldwide economy”.

It’s unlikely the US administration will pay much more attention to the words of one international lawyer. But the big US companies named in her report, listening to the condemnation from so many countries where they have financial interests, may start to question their ties with Israel.

A former security contractor for Gaza’s controversial new Israel- and US-backed aid distribution sites has told the BBC that he witnessed colleagues opening fire several times on hungry Palestinians who had posed no threat, including with machine guns.

On one occasion, he said, a guard had opened fire from a watchtower with a machine gun because a group of women, children and elderly people was moving too slowly away from the site.

When asked to respond the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) said the allegations were categorically false.

They referred us to a statement saying that no civilians ever came under fire at the GHF distribution sites.

The GHF began its operations in Gaza at the end of May, distributing limited aid from several sites in southern and central Gaza. That followed an 11-week total blockade of Gaza by Israel during which no food entered the territory.

The system has been widely criticised for forcing vast numbers of people to walk through active combat zones to a handful of sites. Since the GHF started up, Israeli forces have killed more than 400 Palestinians trying to retrieve food aid from its sites, the UN and local doctors say. Israel says the new distribution system stops aid going to Hamas.

Continuing his description of the incident at one of the GHF sites – in which he said guards fired on a group of Palestinians – the former contractor said: “As that happened, another contractor on location, standing on the berm overlooking the exit, opened up with 15 to 20 shots of repetitive weapons fire at the crowd.

“A Palestinian man dropped to the ground motionless. And then the other contractor who was standing there was like, ‘damn, I think you got one’. And then they laughed about it.”

The contractor, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity, said GHF managers had brushed off his report as a coincidence, suggesting that the Palestinian man could have “tripped” or been “tired and passed out”.

The GHF claimed the man who made these allegations is a “disgruntled former contractor” who they had terminated for misconduct, which he denies. He showed us payslips suggesting that he continued to be paid for two weeks after leaving the post.

The man we spoke to, who said he had worked at all four of the GHF distribution sites, described a culture of impunity with few rules or controls.

He said contractors were given no clear rules of engagement or standard operating procedures, and were told by one team leader: “if you feel threatened, shoot – shoot to kill and ask questions later”.

The culture in the company, he said, felt like “we’re going into Gaza so it’s no rules. Do what you want.”

“If a Palestinian is walking away from the site and not demonstrating any hostile intent, and we’re shooting warning shots at them regardless, we are wrong, we are criminally negligent,” he told me.

He told us that each site had CCTV monitoring the activity in the area, and GHF insistence that no one there had been hurt or shot at was “an absolute bare-faced lie”.

GHF said that gunfire heard in footage shared with the BBC was coming from Israeli forces.

Team leaders referred to Gazans as “zombie hordes”, the former contractor said, “insinuating that these people have no value.”

The man also said Palestinians were coming to harm in other ways at GHF sites, for example by being hit by debris from stun grenades, being sprayed with mace or being pushed by the crowds into razor wire.

He said he had witnessed several occasions in which Palestinians appeared to have been seriously hurt, including one man who had a full can of pepper spray in his face, and a woman who he said was hit with the metal part of a stun grenade, improperly fired into a crowd.

“This metal piece hit her directly in the head and she dropped to the ground, not moving,” he said. “I don’t know if she was dead. I know for a fact she was unconscious and completely limp.”

Earlier this week more than 170 charities and other NGOs called for the GHF to be shut down. The organisations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, say Israeli forces and armed groups “routinely” open fire on Palestinians seeking aid.

Israel denies its soldiers deliberately shoot at aid recipients and says the GHF’s system provides direct assistance to people who need it, bypassing Hamas interference.

The GHF says it had delivered more than 52 million meals in five weeks and that other organisations “stand by helplessly as their aid is looted”.

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

At least 57,130 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

A state-of-the-art British fighter jet stuck at an airport in India for nearly three weeks now has sparked curiosity and raised questions about how such a modern aircraft could get stranded for days in a foreign country.

The F-35B landed at Thiruvananthapuram airport in the southern state of Kerala on 14 June.

The aircraft was diverted there after it ran into bad weather during a sortie in the Indian ocean and was unable to return to HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s flagship carrier.

It landed safely but it has since developed a technical snag and is unable to return to the carrier.

Since the jet’s landing, engineers from HMS Prince of Wales have assessed the aircraft, but the visiting teams have been unable to fix it so far.

On Thursday, the British High Commission said in a statement to the BBC: “The aircraft was moved to the Maintenance Repair and Overhaul facility at the airport and will be moved to the hangar once UK engineering teams arrive with specialist equipment.”

“The aircraft will return to active service once repairs and safety checks have been completed,” it added. “Ground teams continue to work closely with Indian authorities to ensure safety and security precautions are observed.”

Authorities at Thiruvananthapuram airport told the BBC they were expecting technicians from the UK to arrive on Friday.

The $110m (£80m) jet is being guarded around the clock by six officers from the RAF.

Dr Sameer Patil, director of the Centre for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Foundation in Mumbai, told the BBC the Royal Navy had only two options: “They can repair it and make it fly-worthy or they can fly it out in a bigger cargo place such as a C-17 Globemaster transport aircraft.”

The case of the stranded jet has also been raised in the House of Commons.

On Monday, opposition Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty asked the government to clarify what was being done to secure it and return it to operational service, the UK Defence Journal reported.

“What steps are the government taking to recover the plane, how much longer will that take, and how will the government ensure the security of protected technologies on the jet while it is in the hangar and out of view?” he was quoted as saying.

The British armed forces minister, Luke Pollard, confirmed the aircraft remained under close UK control.

“We continue to work with our Indian friends who provided first-class support when the F-35B was unable to return to the carrier,” he said. “I am certain that the security of the jet is in good hands because Royal Air Force crew are with it at all times.”

F-35Bs are highly advanced stealth jets, built by Lockheed Martin, and are prized for their short take-off and vertical landing capability.

So images of the “lonely F-35B”, parked on the tarmac and soaked by the Kerala monsoon rains, have spawned memes on social media.

One viral post joked that the jet had been put up for sale at an online site at a hugely competitive price of $4m. The listing claimed the jet included features like “automatic parking, brand-new tyres, a new battery and an automatic gun to destroy traffic violators”.

One user on X said the jet deserved Indian citizenship as it had been in the country long enough, while another suggested that India should start charging rent and that the Kohinoor diamond would be the most appropriate payment.

On Wednesday, Kerala government’s tourism department also joined in the fun with a post on X that said “Kerala, the destination you’ll never want to leave.”

The post included an AI-generated photograph of an F-35B standing on the runway with coconut palm trees in the background. The text suggested that, like most visitors to the state described in tourism brochures as “God’s own country” for its scenic beauty, the jet too was finding it hard to leave.

Dr Patil says that each passing day that the jet remains stranded, “it adversely affects the image of the F-35Bs and the Royal Navy”.

“The jokes and memes and rumours and conspiracy theories are affecting the image and credibility of the British Royal Navy. The longer the jet stays stranded, the more disinformation will come out.”

The engineering issues “seem of a much more serious nature” than it was originally thought, he says.

But most militaries, he adds, prepare for “a worst-case scenario” – and it is one since a jet is stranded on foreign soil.

“Most militaries would have a standard operating procedure [SOP] on how to respond when something like this happens. So does the Royal Navy not have an SOP?”

The optics of this, he says, are really bad.

“If such a thing had happened in enemy territory, would they have taken this much time? This makes for very bad PR for a professional navy.”

US immigration agents have arrested famed Mexican boxer Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, 39, and plan to deport him to Mexico where he has “an active arrest warrant… for his involvement in organised crime”, US officials announced on Thursday.

Less than a week before his arrest, the former middleweight world champion was defeated by influencer-turned-boxer Jake Paul at a match in California.

US officials say he is affiliated with the notorious Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel. His lawyer denied the claims.

“Under President Trump, no one is above the law – including world-famous athletes,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement following his arrest.

Chavez Jr was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Studio City, Los Angeles, on Thursday.

His fight against Paul was in nearby Anaheim on Saturday. Chavez Jr is the son of former boxing champion Julio Cesar Chavez Sr, who is considered to be the best boxer in Mexico’s history.

The DHS statement said that the “prominent Mexican boxer and criminal illegal alien” is being processed for “expedited removal” .

“Chavez is a Mexican citizen who has an active arrest warrant in Mexico for his involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition, and explosives,” the statement said.

It added that officials believe that he may be affiliated with the Sinaloa Cartel, which President Donald Trump designated as a terrorist organisation on his first day back in office in January.

Describing the alleged connection, the statement says he applied for US permanent residency last year due to his marriage to a US citizen “who is connected to the Sinaloa Cartel through a prior relationship with the now-deceased son of the infamous cartel leader Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman”.

According to US officials, Chavez Jr has been arrested and jailed for several offences in the US, many involving weapons.

In January 2024, he was arrested and later convicted for illegal possession of an assault weapon, officials said.

In 2023, a local judge in the US issued an arrest warrant against him for allegedly trafficking weapons for a criminal organisation. Nearly a decade earlier, in 2012, he was arrested for driving without a licence under the influence drugs or alcohol.

He also allegedly made multiple fraudulent statements to US immigration authorities in his attempts to gain permanent residency and over-stayed a tourist visa that expired last February.

A lawyer for Chavez Jr called his arrest “nothing more than another headline to terrorise the Latin community”.

Asked about the allegations of a cartel connection, lawyer Michael Goldstein told NBC: “This is the first we’ve ever heard of these outrageous allegations.”

Two weeks before the bout against Paul, Chavez Jr held a public workout in LA where he spoke to the LA Times about the massive uptick in immigration raids that have swept the city in the past month.

He said that his own trainer was afraid to come to work, due to fear of deportation.

“I was even scared, to tell you the truth. It’s very ugly,” he said, accusing US immigration agents of “giving the community an example of violence”.

“I’m from Sinaloa, where things are really ugly, and to come here, to such a beautiful country with everything… and see Trump attacking immigrants, Latinos, for no reason. Not being with God makes you think you know everything. Trump made a bad decision.”

He added: “After everything that’s happened, I wouldn’t want to be deported.”

Hollywood actor Michael Madsen died in his California home on Thursday morning, US media reported. He was 67.

He was found unresponsive by authorities responding to a 911 call at his Malibu home and pronounced dead at 08:25 local time (15:25 GMT), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

He is believed to have died of cardiac arrest, according to a representative.

Madsen was a prolific actor, best known for his roles in the Quentin Tarantino movies Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill: Vol. 2, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

In Reservoir Dogs, one of the seminal movies of the 1990s, he played the thief Mr Blonde, described by fellow characters as “psycho”, and shocked audiences in a scene where he cut off a policeman’s ear.

During a career spanning four decades, Madsen also took on a number of tv roles.

In both tv and film, he often portrayed the law enforcers like sheriffs and detectives, as well as the law breakers, such as a washed-out hitman in the Kill Bill franchise.

In recent years, he lent his voices to video games, including Grand Theft Auto III and the Dishonored series.

Michael Madsen was born in Chicago in September 1957. His father was a Navy veteran of World War Two who later became a firefighter, and his mother was a filmmaker.

He was the brother of Virginia Madsen, who is known for several movies including Sideways, for which she was nominated for an Oscar and Golden Globe.

He was married three times, and is survived by four children, including actor Christian Madsen.

Madsen divorced his wife of 28 years, DeAnna, in 2024, over the death of their son Hudson, according to People magazine.

“My brother Michael has left the stage,” his sister Virginia wrote in a statement to Variety.

“He was thunder and velvet. Mischief wrapped in tenderness. A poet disguised as an outlaw. A father, a son, a brother – etched in contradiction, tempered by love that left its mark.”

The US Congress has passed Donald Trump’s sprawling tax and spending bill in a significant and hard-fought victory for the president and his domestic agenda.

After a gruelling session on Capitol Hill, the House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 218 to 214 on Thursday afternoon. It was approved in the Senate on Tuesday by one vote.

Trump had given the Republican-controlled Congress a deadline of 4 July to send him a final version of the bill to sign into law.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill could add $3.3tn (£2.4tn) to federal deficits over the next 10 years and leave millions without health coverage – a forecast that the White House disputes.

• ANALYSIS: Trump gets major win – but debate over his mega-bill is just beginning
• EXPLAINER: What’s in Trump’s budget bill?

Speaking to reporters on Thursday evening, Trump said the bill would “turn this country into a rocket ship”.

“This is going to be a great bill for the country,” he said.

He is expected to sign it into law at a ceremony on the 4 July national holiday at 17:00 EDT (22:00 BST).

A triumphant Republican Speaker Mike Johnson emerged from the House after the vote and told reporters “belief” was key to rallying support within his party.

“I believed in the people that are standing here behind me… Some of them are more fun to deal with,” he said. “I mean that with the greatest level of respect.”

Among those he had to convince was Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican who was a firm “no” just days ago when the Senate passed its version of the bill. He called the Senate version a “travesty”, but changed his mind by the time voting had begun.

“I feel like we got to a good result on key things,” Roy said, although the House did not make any changes to the Senate bill.

While some Republicans, like Roy, had resisted the Senate version, only two lawmakers from Trump’s own party voted “nay” on Thursday: Thomas Massie and Brian Fitzpatrick.

After Johnson announced that the legislation had passed the chamber by four votes, dozens of Republican lawmakers gathered on the House floor chanting “USA! USA!”

The bill’s passage on Thursday was delayed by Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who delivered the longest speech in the chamber’s history.

His “magic minute” address, which is a custom that allows party leaders to speak for as long as they like, ran for eight hours and 45 minutes.

Jeffries pledged to take his “sweet time on behalf of the American people”, decrying the bill’s impact on poor Americans.

The legislation makes savings through making cuts to food benefits and health care and rolling back tax breaks for clean energy projects.

It also delivers on two of Trump’s major campaign promises – making his 2017 tax cuts permanent and lifting taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security recipients – at a cost of $4.5tn over 10 years.

About $150bn (£110bn) will be spent on border security, detention centres and immigration enforcement officers. Another $150bn is allocated for military expenditures, including the president’s “gold dome” missile defence programme.

Democrats, who had used procedural manoeuvres to stall the House vote, were roundly critical of the final bill.

They portrayed it as taking health care and food subsidies away from millions of Americans while giving tax cuts to the rich.

California’s Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, said “today ushers in a dark and harrowing time”, and called the bill a “dangerous checklist of extreme Republican priorities”.

North Carolina’s Deborah Ross said: “Shame on those who voted to hurt so many in the service of so few.”

While Arizona’s Yassamin Ansari said she was “feeling really sad right now”, while Marc Veasey of Texas labelled the Republican Party the party of “cowards, chaos and corruption”.

The fate of the so-called ‘big, beautiful bill’ hung in the balance for much of Wednesday as Republican rebels with concerns about the impact on national debt held firm – prompting a furious missive from Trump.

“What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!,” he wrote on Truth Social just after midnight local time on Thursday.

Both chambers of Congress are controlled by Trump’s Republican Party, but within the party several factions were at odds over key policies in the lengthy legislation.

In the early hours of Thursday, Republican leadership grew more confident, and a procedural vote on the bill passed just after 03:00 EDT (07:00 GMT).

The final vote on the bill would come almost 12 hours later, at 14:30 EDT (19:30 GMT).

Ex-Labour MP Zarah Sultana has announced she is resigning from the party, saying she will be founding a new party with her former leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Sultana, the Coventry South MP stripped of the Labour whip last year for backing a move to scrap the two-child benefit cap, said the new party would be formed with other independent MPs and activists, aiming to challenge a “broken” Westminster system.

Corbyn has been contacted but has not confirmed his involvement to the BBC.

However last night, he had hinted he may form a new party, telling ITV’s Peston “there is a thirst for an alternative” and that a “grouping will come together”.

In a social media post, Sultana said the government is “an active participant in genocide” in Gaza – and highlighted growing poverty, the government’s position on welfare, and the cost of living as reasons for establishing her new party.

“Labour has completely failed to improve people’s lives. And across the political establishment, from Farage to Starmer, they smear people of conscience trying to stop a genocide in Gaza as terrorists.

“But the truth is clear: this government is an active participant in genocide. And the British people oppose it.”

Israel has strenuously denied accusations it is committing genocide or genocidal acts in Gaza.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has described the situation in Gaza as “appalling and intolerable” and repeatedly called for a ceasefire, as well as the release of hostages.

But some MPs want him to go further and describe the situation in Gaza as a genocide, claims currently being examined by the International Court of Justice.

Sultana also referenced the government’s welfare bill that passed this week, adding: “The government wants to make disabled people suffer; they just can’t decide how much.”

“We’re not an island of strangers,” she says, referencing a speech given by the prime minister in May about immigration, which he has since said he regrets. And she says at the next election, “the choice will be stark: socialism or barbarism”.

Asked for a response to her resignation and comments, a Labour Party spokesperson said: “In just 12 months, this Labour government has boosted wages, delivered an extra four million NHS appointments, opened 750 free breakfast clubs, secured three trade deals and four interest rate cuts lowering mortgage payments for millions.

“Only Labour can deliver the change needed to renew Britain.”

Sultana was elected as a Labour MP at the 2024 general election but was suspended not long after, and has since sat in the Commons as an independent.

She was suspended with seven other Labour MPs, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, for defying the government over its two-child benefit cap.

Four have of the rebels have since returned to Labour, but Sultana and McDonnell remain independents.

Despite her suspension, she had remained a member of the Labour Party.

Responding to Sultana’s announcement, McDonnell posted on social media: “I am dreadfully sorry to lose Zarah from the Labour Party.

“The people running Labour at the moment need to ask themselves why a young, articulate, talented, extremely dedicated socialist feels she now has no home in the Labour Party and has to leave.”

Last year, Corbyn united with four other MPs elected as independents to establish an alliance in the House of Commons.

All five of the group beat Labour candidates in July’s election with their pro-Palestinian stance in constituencies with large Muslim populations.

Speaking to ITV’s Peston programme, he said he and fellow pro-Gaza independents would “come together” and “there will be an alternative”.

He said it would be based on “peace rather than war”.

His alliance includes MPs Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, and Iqbal Mohamed.

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Twelve New York jurors gathered around 10:00 (14:00 GMT) on Wednesday in a wood-panelled courtroom to tell Sean “Diddy” Combs that they found him not guilty of running a criminal enterprise with employees, and sex trafficking his ex-girlfriends.

The disgraced hip-hop mogul fell to his knees and buried his head in a chair at the defence table where he had just spent two months on trial for sex trafficking and racketeering.

Before the verdict came down, Combs sat quietly in his chair, looking forward, wearing the same off-white sweater and pants he wore for much of his trial.

The court grew quiet as the jury foreperson handed the verdict sheet to the court deputy. Then it was handed back to the foreperson.

And they began to read.

As the sound of the “not guilty” rung out in court for the first time, acquitting Combs of the most severe crime of racketeering, the rapper kept his head low.

By the time the foreperson announced Combs was not guilty of sex trafficking, Combs had his head in his hands.

The jury did find him guilty on the least severe charges of transporting people to engage in prostitution. As they confirmed their decision, Combs buried his face in his hands.

A flurry of small celebrations followed for Combs, who has been in a federal jail in Brooklyn since September. He made a prayer sign with his hands to the jury, then turned around and made the same gesture to his family – twin daughters, sons and 85-year-old mother.

He appeared to mouth: “I’m coming home.”

The moment seemed equally emotional for Combs’ many lawyers, including Teny Geragos, seated next to him and wiping away tears with a tissue after the verdict was read.

Combs’ attorneys wasted no time in telling the judge that the verdict, reached after roughly two days of deliberations, meant Combs should be able to walk out of the Manhattan courthouse a free man that very day.

His acquittal on the most serious charges meant he no longer needed to be jailed, his attorney Marc Agnifilo told the court, noting that his client’s plane was inaccessible – chartered and in Maui.

“Mr Combs has been given his life by this jury,” he said. “He will not run afoul of anything this court imposes on him.”

Then, in the perhaps the most emotional gesture of the day for Combs, he appeared to express his gratitude by pressing his head into his chair at the defence table.

He rose, clapping his hands loudly, to hug several of his lawyers. Many family members and supporters in the main courtroom and a packed overflow room joined him, cheering.

Then, with one final hug to his lawyer and a wave to his family – blocked by a mass of people and court benches – he was escorted out of the court.

The hip-hop mogul’s homecoming hopes were later dashed as Judge Arun Subramanian denied him bail at another hearing on Wednesday afternoon.

Outside the Manhattan court, there were repeated calls of “free Diddy” in a large crowd behind barriers.

But he will remain behind bars until his sentencing later this year.

An American teenager has been detained on an Antarctic island, creating a major delay in his attempt to fly his small plane to every continent that is being followed on-line by more than a million people.

Chilean authorities stopped Ethan Guo, 19, after he submitted a false flight plan, according to the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

His deviation from that plan in the air had “activated alert protocols”, Chile’s General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics said in a statement.

Mr Guo was taken into custody after landing on King George Island, home to a number of international research stations and their staffs, where July temperatures typically stay well below freezing.

Mr Guo’s small Cessna 182 aircraft took off from the city of Punta Arenas, near the southernmost point of Chile, and flew to the island off the Atlantic coast, which is claimed by Chile. It is named after England’s King George III.

He was detained at Teniente R. Marsh airport.

Mr Guo had allegedly submitted a plan to fly over Punta Arenas, but not beyond that, according to regional prosecutor Cristian Cristoso Rifo, as cited by CBS.

He has been charged for violating two articles of the country’s aeronautical code, including one that could lead to short-term imprisonment.

In the statement, Chile’s General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics said Mr Guo had also allegedly violated the Antarctic Treaty, which regulates international relations with respect to the uninhabited continent.

Mr Guo posted an update on X on Wednesday, saying: “I’m alive everyone, I’ll make an update soon.”

Ethan Guo has flown his Cessna aircraft to all the other six continents in his journey spanning more than 140 days, according to his social media feed.

He is hoping to become the first pilot to complete solo flights across all seven continents in the Cessna aircraft, and simultaneously aims to raise $1m (£ 731,000) for cancer research at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

It’s the gig that fans have been waiting 5,795 days for, as Oasis kick off their reunion tour at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on Friday night.

The venue has been hosting soundchecks and rehearsals all week, with passersby treated to snatches of songs such as Cigarettes & Alcohol, Wonderwall and Champagne Supernnova.

“It’s sounding huge,” Noel Gallagher told talkSPORT radio. “This is it, there’s no going back now.”

The Oasis Live ’25 tour was the biggest concert launch ever seen in the UK and Ireland, with more than 10 million fans from 158 countries queuing to buy tickets last summer.

Around 900,000 tickets were sold, but many fans complained when standard standing tickets advertised at £135 plus fees were re-labelled “in demand” and changed on Ticketmaster to £355 plus fees.

The sale prompted an investigation from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which said Ticketmaster may have breached consumer protection law by selling “platinum” tickets for almost 2.5 times the standard price, without explaining they came with no additional benefits.

The CMA ordered Ticketmaster to change the way it labels tickets and reveals prices to fans in the future. Ticketmaster said it “welcomed” the advice.

Still, the debacle has done nothing to dampen the excitement in Cardiff, where fans have arrived from Spain, Peru, Japan, America and elsewhere for the opening night.

“For me, Oasis represents an overwhelming optimism about being young and loving music,” says Jeff Gachini, a fan from Kenya who’s making his first visit to the UK for the show.

“To write simple music that relays the simple truth of life is very difficult. For me, they do that better than anyone.”

Brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher will be joined on stage by Gem Archer, Paul “Bonehead” Arthurs and Andy Bell, all former members of Oasis, alongside drummer Joey Waronker, who has previously recorded with Beck and REM; and toured with Liam.

The band will also be augmented by a brass section, and backing singer Jess Greenfield, who is part of Noel’s side project the High Flying Birds.

Meanwhile, rumours about the setlist have been swirling all week, as Oasis songs echoed around the Principality Stadium.

One purported running order that was leaked to Reddit suggested the band would open with Hello and finish with Champagne Supernova, with other highlights including Acquiesece, Roll With It, Live Forever and Supersonic.

Noel is also expected to take lead vocals twice during the show, on short sets including songs such as Half The World Away and The Masterplan.

Oasis were the biggest band in Britain from 1994 to 1997, selling tens of millions of copies of their first three albums Definitely Maybe, (What’s The Story) Morning Glory and Be Here Now.

Liam’s sneering vocals and Noel’s distorted guitars brought a rock and roll swagger back to the charts, revitalising British guitar music after an influx of self-serious Seattle grunge.

Born and raised in Manchester, they formed the band to escape the dead-end mundanity of their working class backgrounds.

“In Manchester you either became a musician, a footballer, a drugs dealer or work in a factory. And there aren’t a lot of factories left, you know?” Noel Gallagher once said.

“We didn’t start in university or anything like this. We’re not a collection of friends that kind of come together and discuss things musically.

“We started the group… because we were all on the dole and we were unemployed and we rehearsed and we thought we were pretty good.”

Oasis was originally Liam’s band, performing under the name The Rain. But after watching them live, Noel offered to join – on the condition that he became chief songwriter and de facto leader.

That fait accompli brought them worldwide fame, culminating in two open-air gigs at Knebworth House in summer 1996.

Nearly five per cent of the UK population applied for tickets, with a then-record 125,000 people watching the band top a line-up that also included The Prodigy, Manic Street Preachers, Ocean Colour Scene, The Chemical Brothers, The Charlatans and a Beatles tribute.

But festering tension between the Gallagher brothers often spilled over into verbal and physical violence.

Backstage at a gig in Barcelona in 2000, for example, Noel attacked Liam after he questioned the legitimacy of his eldest daughter. The guitarist walked out for the rest of the European tour, leaving the band to continue with a stand-in.

Although they repaired the relationship, the insults and in-fighting continued until 28 August, 2009, when Oasis split up minutes before they took the stage at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris.

“People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer,” Noel wrote in a statement at the time.

He would later recount a backstage argument in which his younger brother grabbed his guitar and started “wielding it like an axe”, adding, “he nearly took my face off with it”.

Since then, they’ve pursued successful solo careers, while constantly fielding questions about an Oasis reunion.

Liam called the idea “inevitable” in 2020, and said the band should reform to support NHS workers during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, he said his brother had spurned the idea, despite a lucrative offer from promoters.

“There was a lot of money knocking about,” he told ITV’s Jonathan Ross Show. “It was £100 million to do a tour.

“But [Noel] isn’t into it. He’s after a knighthood, isn’t he?”

The reconciliation took another five years and, with neither of the Gallaghers consenting to an interview, it’s hard to know what informed their decision to get back together.

Tabloid newspapers suggested that Noel’s divorce from Sara McDonald in 2022 led to a thaw in relations. Others have suggested the brothers simply wanted the Oasis story to have a more satisfactory conclusion than a dressing room bust-up.

“I’ve heard everything is honky dory and they’re getting on great,” says Tim Abbott, former managing director of Oasis’s record label, Creation.

“I’ve worked with bands in the past that had separate limos, separate walkways onto the stage. I don’t think they’ll get to that. They’re grown men.”

Whatever sparked the reunion, the sold-out tour will see the band play 41 shows between July and November, spanning the UK & Ireland, North America, Oceania and South America.

“Probably the biggest and most pleasing surprise of the reunion announcement is how huge it was internationally,” said Oasis’s co-manager Alec McKinlay in an interview with Music Week.

“Honestly, we knew it would be big here, and that doesn’t take much intuition. But looking outside the UK, we knew they had a strong fanbase, we did all the stats.

“We were quite cautious about what that would mean when it came to people actually buying tickets but we were just bowled over by how huge it was.”

McKinlay added that the band had no plans for new music, and described the tour as their “last time around”.

They take to the stage for the first time in 16 years at 20:15 UK time on Friday night.

Shunning the usual rock and roll trappings, Noel Gallagher was spotted arriving for the show by train.

After the verdicts were delivered in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial in New York on Wednesday, emotions boiled over outside court in heated confrontations between fans and protesters who voiced opposing views about the outcome.

Some thought the rap star should have been found guilty on the more serious counts, not just the two lesser charges on which he was convicted.

But they were outnumbered by pro-Diddy influencers and fans who were chanting “free Diddy” and “let him go” and spraying each other in baby oil in celebration.

The jury’s mixed verdicts did not present a clear-cut result – but it was seen as a better-than-expected outcome for the star.

He still faces significant jail time and dozens of civil legal cases, though. His reputation will forever be tarnished by months of ugly allegations and revelations – and the two convictions.

But some observers believe that’s unlikely to stop him trying to mount a comeback.

As a songwriter, rapper, producer and record label impresario, Combs – formerly known as Puff Daddy – was one of the driving forces in hip-hop and R&B in the 1990s.

He launched the careers of Notorious BIG and Mary J Blige, signed acts such as Faith Evans, 112, Mase and Janelle Monae to his Bad Boy Records label, and worked with stars including Mariah Carey, Usher and Busta Rhymes.

He won three Grammy Awards as an artist and scored his biggest pop hit with I’ll Be Missing You, sampling The Police’s Every Breath You Take, in 1997 – his tribute after BIG’s murder.

Combs “was one of the most famous people in hip-hop”, says Los Angeles Times music writer August Brown.

“He was an incredibly important figure in evolving both that genre and the music industry as a whole into a commercial juggernaut.”

Like many at the peak of the music industry, he also threw lavish parties. But sordid details emerged during the legal cases, revealing a darker side.

These so-called “freak offs” were hotel sex encounters which could last for days, involving multiple male escorts, routine violence and copious amounts of drugs and baby oil.

The question for the jury was whether this was a criminal enterprise designed to force two alleged victims into sex against their will or whether, as Combs claimed, the women willingly took part.

The defence argued that these orgies were “kinky” but consensual – and that organising them was not criminal.

In the end, the jury agreed and he was found not guilty of the most serious charge of racketeering conspiracy, as well as two charges of sex trafficking.

“The jury was just unpersuaded that what amounted to an extremely baroque and violent and drug-stoked sex life on Diddy’s behalf amounted to a criminal organisation on the racketeering charge, or trafficking in the way that we understand it now,” Mr Brown told the BBC World Service.

“This isn’t to say that it wasn’t possible, but they just didn’t think it rose to ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt’.”

Combs was, however, convicted on two counts of transporting two former girlfriends, including singer Cassie, to participate in sex acts and prostitution.

He will face up to 10 years in jail for each charge when he’s sentenced in October. But the sentences are likely to be lower than the maximum and to run simultaneously, with the year he will have already spent in jail to be deducted. So it’s quite possible he could be free in several years.

His supporters will be waiting – but most people will be unwilling to accept a comeback, Mr Brown says.

“I cannot imagine any kind of redemption arc as far as him [remaining] as an artist or a music mogul in light of this.

“I think the public will remember him as an important figure whose name is now permanently associated with this very-difficult-to-process range of charges, even if he’s not been convicted on the worst of it.”

Alvin Blanco, content director of Hiphopwired.com, agrees that Combs is too tarnished to make a successful comeback. “He’s definitely going to try, but I think the damage is just too irreparable at this point.”

Mark Anthony Neal, professor of African American Studies at Duke University in North Carolina, also believes there’s “no doubt” the revelations have tarnished Combs’ legacy as the man who helped take hip-hop “from the ghettos to the mainstream of America to the global mainstream”.

However, his influence on music had diminished even before the allegations, says Jem Aswad, executive editor of music at Variety.

“He doesn’t really have much of a music career any more, and he hasn’t for about 15 years,” Mr Aswad told BBC News.

“It’s not that he was unpopular, although he wasn’t enormously popular recently – he just moved on to other businesses. He got into beverages, he got into apparel, he got into lots of other businesses.

“Anything he did in music over the last 15 years was almost just for fun. I think he’s released two, maybe three albums in that time period, and they just did OK, and frankly they just were OK.”

His stock was still pretty high, though. His last LP, The Love Album: Off The Grid, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2024. The previous year, he was named a Global Icon at the MTV Awards.

And he wouldn’t be the first star to retain support despite facing allegations.

Michael Jackson was cleared of child abuse in court in 2005 but persuasive claims about him have persisted, and many people still wrestle with how to reconcile those with the brilliance of the King of Pop’s catalogue.

R&B star R. Kelly was jailed for 30 years in 2022 for racketeering and sex trafficking. He still has five million monthly listeners on Spotify at the last count.

Some in hip-hop may be willing to work with Combs. Kanye West last week released a song called Diddy Free – although Kanye himself is ostracised by large parts of the industry for making antisemitic and Nazi statements.

Anoushka Mutanda-Dougherty, host of the BBC’s Diddy on Trial podcast, has seen the support outside court and suggests there may be a way back.

“We’ll see what happens with his career after this,” she told the BBC’s Newscast.

“I feel like he will be able to reclaim a top spot in hip-hop just because of the sheer amount of support we’ve seen online and here at the courthouse from his fans, and from people who feel he was being unjustly targeted by the federal government.

“He won’t be the first musician to be a convicted criminal who carries on having a music career, especially in hip-hop.”

For many, the details of the case will be hard to shake from the memory, though.

Angela Star, one of the content creators outside court on Wednesday, told BBC News that “his image is tainted, and when you think of Diddy now, you think of…” before finishing her point by holding up a bottle of baby oil.