Speculation has swirled over whether the Trump-Putin summit will result in the map of Ukraine being forcibly – and fundamentally – altered.

Russia has laid claim to vast parts of Ukraine since 2014, when President Vladimir Putin made his first move.

At the time, in the space of a short few months, Moscow carried out the relatively bloodless occupation and annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

But that was followed by a Russian-backed separatist movement in the eastern Donbas region – specifically the two regions, or “oblasts”, known as Donetsk and Luhansk.

A war simmered there for eight years.

Ukraine lost around 14,000 soldiers and civilians during this period.

But in February 2022, Putin launched his full-scale invasion. Russian troops quickly reached the outskirts of Kyiv and seized huge swathes of the south, including big chunks of two more oblasts, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

The war has ebbed and flowed ever since. Russia now controls rather less territory – down from about 27% in the spring of 2022 to around 20% now. In the east, Russian forces are advancing, but very slowly and at great cost.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine says an unconditional ceasefire is needed now. European allies also insist on a halt in fighting. US President Donald Trump says that is what he has been trying to achieve.

But in the run-up to his Alaska summit with Putin, Trump has started talking, instead about territorial swaps. That has sent shockwaves across Kyiv and Europe.

It is not at all clear what land Trump is referring to, or what those swaps could look like, given that all the territory in question legally belongs to Ukraine.

As of August 2025, the territory of Ukraine looks as follows:

Russia would dearly love to expand its control over the entirety of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Some reports suggest that Putin is demanding that Ukraine hand over the remaining territory it controls in both oblasts.

But that would mean Kyiv giving up on places which tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have died trying to protect – cities like Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, and a fortified line protecting Ukrainian territory to the north and west.

For Kyiv, such a concession would be a bitter pill to swallow. For Moscow, whose losses have been even more catastrophic, it would be seen as victory.

Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukraine “could not” leave the Donbas as Moscow would use the region as a springboard to attack the rest of the country.

In recent days, Russian forces appear to be pushing hard, and making progress, near the town of Dobropillya. But it’s not yet clear whether this marks a significant strategic move or just an effort to show Trump that Moscow has the upper hand.

What about Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, captured in 2022?

Here, it’s reported, Russia is offering to halt its offensive and freeze the lines.

But would Russia be prepared to give any of it back?

On Monday, Trump talked vaguely about “ocean-front property” – presumably a reference to some of this shoreline, along the Sea of Azov or Black Sea.

But this is all part of Putin’s strategically vital land bridge connecting Russia to occupied Crimea.

It’s hard to see the Russian leader agreeing to give any of it up. Like Donetsk and Luhansk, Putin regards these places as part of Russia, and illegally annexed them three years ago in four referendums widely regarded as a sham.

For Ukraine, and Europe, territorial swaps – at this very early stage of the talks – are a non-starter.

A discussion about future borders may eventually come, but only when the war has stopped and Ukraine’s security has been guaranteed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister has rebutted South Korea’s claims that Pyongyang removed some of its propaganda-blasting loudspeakers along the border.

North Korea has “never removed” the speakers and “are not willing to remove them”, Kim Yo Jong said in a statement published by state media KCNA on Thursday.

“We have clarified on several occasions that we have no will to improve relations with [South Korea],” she said, adding that this stance “will be fixed in our constitution in the future”.

South Korea’s military said earlier this week that North Korea had removed some of its loudspeakers along the border – days after South Korea dismantled some of its own.

Kim, the deputy director of North Korea’s propaganda department, said Seoul’s claim was an “unfounded unilateral supposition and a red herring”.

Besides propaganda messages, South Korea’s broadcasts often blasted K-pop songs across the border. while North Korea played unsettling noises such as howling animals.

South Korean residents living near the border had complained that their lives were being disrupted been by the noise from both sides, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Pyongyang considers Seoul’s propaganda broadcasts an act of war and has threatened to blow up the speakers in the past.

South Korea’s speaker broadcasts resumed in June 2024 after a six year pause under impeached president Yoon Suk Yeol who took a more hardline stance against the North.

They were restarted after Pyongyang began sending rubbish-filled balloons to the South in response to increased tensions.

The relationship appeared to have thawed under new President Lee Jae Myung, who campaigned on improving inter-Korean ties.

South Korea halted its broadcasts along the demilitarised zone shortly after Lee took office in June, in what the country’s military described as a bid to “restore trust” and “achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula”.

Still, ties between the two neighbours remain uneasy. Earlier this week, North Korea warned of “resolute counteraction” to provocations ahead of joint military drills between South Korea and the US.

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia is facing pushback for what some have called “draconian” restrictions as it tries to limit wildfire risk in extremely dry conditions.

Last week, Nova Scotia banned all hiking, fishing and use of vehicles like ATVs in wooded areas, with rule breakers facing a C$25,000 ($18,000) fine. A tip line has been set up to report violations.

The Canadian Constitution Foundation, a non-profit that defends charter rights in the country, called the ban a “dangerous example of ‘safetyism’ and creeping authoritarianism”.

Tens of thousands of residents are under evacuation alerts in eastern Canada as the country experiences its second worst wildfire season on record.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says human activity is responsible for almost all wildfires in the Atlantic province – official statistics from 2009 say 97% of such blazes are caused by people.

On Wednesday, he defended the ban, which was announced last week, calling the province a “tinder box” that has not seen any rain since June.

“I get that people want to go for a hike or want to go for a walk in the woods with their dog,” Houston said during a wildfire update with officials.

“But how would you like to be stuck in the woods while there’s a fire burning around you?”

He said the restrictions will be loosened once enough rain falls to mitigate the risk.

“In the meantime go to the beach,” he added.

Houston confirmed that 12 people have been fined so far for violating the ban.

“It’s certainly my hope that every single one of those is fully prosecuted and collected,” said the premier. “It’s just too serious of a situation by now.”

One of those penalised is military veteran Jeff Evely.

On Friday, Mr Evely posted a video on Facebook of himself going to a Department of Natural Resources office saying he wanted to challenge the ban in court, and “the only way for me to do that is to get the fine”.

“I’m not trying to make trouble for you guys,” Mr Evely, who ran as a candidate for the People’s Party of Canada in April’s federal election, is heard telling an official.

He is later seen walking into the woods, before going back to the office where he is fined C$28,872.50.

Others defend the restrictions as a needed precaution since the province has seen two fires a day for the last week on average.

Stephen Maher, a political journalist who lives in rural Nova Scotia, argued in an opinion piece for the Globe and Mail newspaper that there is little chance his run in the woods would have sparked a fire.

He added, “but fires are mostly caused by dimwitted and careless people, and there is no way of separating them from their careful neighbours, so the ban is necessary”.

In a separate blog post, former Conservative Party campaign manager Fred DeLorey said that given the lack of rain, “when the provincial government announced a temporary ban on travelling in the woods due to extreme fire risk, I didn’t complain. I exhaled”.

Officials fear a repeat of 2023, the worst-ever fire season in Canada and in Nova Scotia, when 220 fires razed more than 25,000 hectares of land in the province.

The province of New Brunswick has brought in similar restrictions, barring use of public land.

On Wednesday, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador banned off-road vehicles in forested areas until at least next week. It has brought in fines of up to C$150,000 for fire ban violations.

Canada’s 2025 wildfire season is the second-worst on record, after 2023.

Fires happen naturally in many parts of the world and it’s difficult to know if climate change has caused or worsened a specific wildfire because other factors are also relevant.

According to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate change is making the weather conditions needed for wildfires to spread more likely.

More than 470 blazes are currently “out of control”, says the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

One is on the western outskirts of Halifax, the largest city in Nova Scotia, which continues to burn out of control.

In New Brunswick, Premier Susan Holt called it “a tale of two fires”.

She said crews had made progress on one fire, but were having less success with another blaze near the community of Miramichi.

Military and coast guard units were deployed in Newfoundland and Labrador, while the worst fires were concentrated in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Three other provinces, British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, have also seen fire activity well above their 25-year average.

More than 100 organisations have signed a joint letter calling on Israel to stop the “weaponisation of aid” into Gaza, as “starvation deepens”.

Humanitarian groups, including Oxfam and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), say they are increasingly being told they are “not authorised” to deliver aid, unless they comply with the stricter Israeli regulations.

Groups risk being banned if they “delegitimise” the state of Israel or do not provide detailed information about Palestinian staff, the letter says.

Israel denies there are restrictions on aid and says the rules, introduced in March, ensure that aid “reaches the population directly and not Hamas”.

According to the joint letter, most major international non-governmental organisations (NGO) have been unable to deliver a single truck of lifesaving supplies since 2 March.

They say Israeli authorities “have rejected requests from dozens of non-governmental organisations to bring in lifesaving goods”, citing the new rules. More than 60 requests were denied in July alone.

Aid groups’ inability to deliver aid has “left hospitals without basic supplies, children, people with disabilities, and older people dying from hunger and preventable illnesses”, the statement said.

Sean Carroll, CEO of American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera), said: “Anera has over $7 million worth of lifesaving supplies ready to enter Gaza – including 744 tons of rice, enough for six million meals, blocked in Ashdod just kilometers away”.

Israel said that any delays in delivering aid occur “only when organisations choose not to meet the basic security requirements intended to prevent Hamas’s involvement”.

Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of aid, said nearly 20 organisations that completed the registration process are bringing aid into Gaza, with roughly 300 trucks entering daily.

The UN says 600 trucks of supplies a day are needed in Gaza.

The new guidelines introduced in March update the framework for how aid groups must register to maintain their status within Israel, along with provisions that outline how their applications can be denied or registration revoked.

Registration can be rejected if Israeli authorities deem that a group denies the democratic character of Israel or “promotes delegitimisation campaigns” against the country.

“Unfortunately, many aid organisations serve as a cover for hostile and sometimes violent activity,” Israel’s Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

“Organisations that have no connection to hostile or violent activity and no ties to the boycott movement will be granted permission to operate,” added Chikli.

Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam Policy Lead, said Israel had rejected more than $2.5m (£1.8m) of goods from entering Gaza.

She added: “This registration process signals to INGOs that their ability to operate may come at the cost of their independence and ability to speak out.”

The warning comes as Israel steps up its bombardment of Gaza City, in preparation for a plan to take control of the city.

Israel says it will provide humanitarian aid to civilian populations “outside the combat zones”, but has not specified whether that aid would be delivered by the Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Israel says the system is necessary to stop Hamas stealing aid, an accusation Hamas denies.

The UN this month reported that 859 Palestinians had been killed near GHF sites since May, a figure the GHF denies.

In the joint statement, Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza, said that the “militarised food distribution scheme has weaponised starvation”.

The secretary-general of MSF, Chris Lockyear, told the BBC that GHF was a “death trap”, and the humanitarian situation in Gaza was “hanging on by a thread”.

Hamas’s 2023 attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel, with 251 seized and taken into Gaza as hostages.

Israel’s offensive has since killed nearly 62,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. It says that 235 people including 106 children have also died due to starvation and malnutrition.

Taylor Swift has revealed details of her new album and given a rare insight into her relationship with boyfriend Travis Kelce during a highly anticipated appearance on his podcast.

The pop superstar used the interview on New Heights, co-hosted with Travis’ brother Jason Kelce, to announce that her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, will be released on 3 October.

She also discussed how she and Travis got together and their life together, as well as subjects ranging from reclaiming the rights to her first albums, the hidden clues she plants in music for fans, and her record-breaking Eras Tour, to her love of baking sourdough bread.

It marked a change for the megastar, who tends not to give interviews, instead sharing updates on her life through song lyrics, which are dissected by obsessed fans.

More than 1.3 million tuned in live for the broadcast. The American football star brothers called Swift “Tay Tay” and ran through a list of her many awards.

Preview clips of the New Heights podcast went viral before her episode aired, including one where Swift pulled out her new album.

Here is some of what we learned from her appearance.

Swift’s 12th studio studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, will be available on 3 October.

Its cover features the singer wearing a dress emblazoned with diamonds lying in turquoise green.

She is seen submerged in the water, with only her face and wrist above the surface.

The record was simultaneously made available for pre-order on her website, which started crashing as soon as the podcast began.

Swift explained that she wrote the album while on her Eras Tour and would frequently return to Sweden while performing concerts in Europe, in order to record it.

“I was basically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,” she said.

Travis added: “Literally living the life of a showgirl.”

Swift went on to read out all 12 track names, including the title track featuring Sabrina Carpenter.

Travis said the album is “upbeat” and will make people dance. He called it a 180-degree turnabout from her last album, The Tortured Poets Department.

“Life is more upbeat,” Swift said in response, smiling and looking at Travis.

Swift said the album tells the story of “everything that was going on behind the curtain” of her time on tour.

Orange was chosen because it’s a colour she likes and felt energised by, she added.

Near the beginning of the show, Swift was asked why she chose to appear on the podcast, which caters primarily to sports fans.

“This podcast got me a boyfriend,” she said, accusing Travis of using the broadcast as his “personal dating app” to connect with her.

Before they even met, Travis famously gushed on the podcast about attending one of Swift’s concerts and being disappointed when they couldn’t meet.

He talked about making her a beaded friendship bracelet, which were popular during the Eras Tour, and said he wanted to give her his phone number.

She said the clip, which went viral, felt almost like “he was standing outside of my apartment, holding a boom box saying, ‘I want to go on a date with you'”.

She said this was exactly the moment she had “been writing songs about, wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager”.

“It was wild, but it worked… He’s the good kind of crazy,” she said, calling her boyfriend “a human exclamation point”.

Sitting beside Travis, Swift teased the “male sports fans” in the audience.

“As we all know, you know, you guys have a lot of male sports fans that listen to your podcast,” she said.

“I think we all know that if there’s one thing that male sports fans want in their spaces and on their screens, it’s more of me,” she deadpanned, looking straight into the camera.

Swift’s appearance at Kansas City Chiefs games have caused a frenzy over the years. But some football fans weren’t happy.

She was booed when she appeared on the jumbotron screen at the Super Bowl last February, which drew social media posts from President Donald Trump.

Despite the criticism, Jason assured her she has been the “most requested guest on the podcast”.

Other recent guests on the show have included basketball stars Caitlin Clark, Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James, and actors Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Bill Murray and Adam Sandler.

Swift also spoke about all the ways she uses Easter eggs – or secret messages to fans – to tease her music.

She said she has rules for these covert clues in her music and performances.

“I’m never going to plant an Easter egg that ties back to my personal life. It’s always going to go back to my music,” she said, joking that some fans are so good at decoding her that it’s almost gotten a bit “zodiac killer”.

The secret messages are “something that you don’t know I’m saying for a specific reason, but you’ll go back and be like, ‘Oh my God!'”

She said her favourite example was a speech she gave when she received an honorary doctorate.

“I put so many lyrical Easter eggs in that speech that when the Midnights album came out, after that, the fans were like, ‘The whole speech was an Easter egg!'”

She also spoke about her love of numbers and dates.

“I love math stuff,” she said, saying 13 was her favourite number.

Travis, she said, is “87” – the number he wears on his game jersey – and she noted that 13 plus 87 equals 100.

Some of her hidden messages are so complex, she said, they are crafted “upside down, backwards in Braille”.

Swift said she knew nothing about football before their romance began.

“I didn’t know what a first down was,” or a “tight-end” (the position Travis plays), she said.

Swift said she appreciated Travis’ patience when they started dating and introducing her to his world.

She’s now personally invested, citing a moment where she found herself interested in a recent player trade.

Travis told her he will be “forever grateful” that she embraced his world “wholeheartedly”.

In May this year, it was announced that she had bought the rights to her first six albums, ending a long-running battle over the ownership of her music.

After her original masters sold, she vowed to re-record all six albums, which became known as “Taylor’s Versions”.

Swift grew emotional as she explained the process by which she purchased her master recordings, after trying for a decade to secure the rights.

She said she was not interested in the financial rewards the albums would bring.

“I want this because it was my handwritten diary entries from my entire life,” she said.

She said her mother and brother had talked to Shamrock Capital, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, about purchasing her music.

When her mother called her, saying “You got your music,” she said: “I just very dramatically hit the floor. For real.

“Bawling my eyes out, and just weeping. This changed my life.”

She also thanked loyal fans for listening to her re-recorded albums, saying they reacted to the dispute over rights to her music with the Western cowboy expression “we ride at dawn”.

Swift also said it was through her fans that she was able to buy back her music.

“The reason I was able to purchase my music back is they came to the Eras Tour,” she said.

Swift was also asked which versions of her albums her fans should listen to – now that she owns both versions.

“I think a lot of the vocals I did on the re-records were better than the original,” she said, adding she is especially fond of the remake of her 2012 album Red.

She and Travis spoke fondly about their love, describing how they bake sourdough bread together.

His dough winds up with chest hair in it, while hers has extra cat hair, she joked.

“I had never experienced something so mesmerising on stage, and then so real and beautiful in person,” said Travis.

Jason then joked that maybe he should leave, and give them some privacy, as Swift swooned.

“Yeah I think so, honestly,” Swift responded. “At this point, I think everyone should leave.”

While Swift has at times been shy about discussing her relationship in public, Travis has been more outspoken. Before the podcast aired, he told GQ in an interview: “I love being the happiest guy in the world.”

First Lady Melania Trump has threatened to sue Hunter Biden for more than $1bn after he claimed she was introduced to her husband by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the first lady, who married US President Donald Trump in 2005, described the claim as “false, disparaging, defamatory and inflammatory”.

Biden, son of former US President Joe Biden, made the comments during an interview earlier this month, in which he strongly criticised the president’s former ties to Epstein.

Donald Trump was a friend of Epstein, but has said the pair fell out in the early 2000s because the financier had poached employees who worked at the spa in Trump’s Florida golf club.

A letter from the first lady’s lawyers and addressed to an attorney for Hunter Biden demands he retract the claim and apologise, or face legal action for “over $1bn in damages”.

It says the first lady has suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” because of the claim he repeated.

It also accuses the youngest Biden son of having a “vast history of trading on the names of others”, and repeating the claim “to draw attention to yourself”.

During a wide-ranging interview with filmmaker Andrew Callaghan published earlier this month, Hunter Biden claimed unreleased documents relating to Epstein would “implicate” President Trump.

He said: “Epstein introduced Melania to Trump – the connections are so wide and deep.” The first lady’s legal letter notes the claim was partially attributed to Michael Wolff, a journalist who authored a critical biography of the president.

In a recent interview with US outlet the Daily Beast, Wolff reportedly claimed that the first lady was known to an associate of Epstein and Trump when she met her now-husband.

The outlet later retracted the story after receiving a letter from the first lady’s attorney that challenged the contents and framing of the story.

There is no evidence the pair were introduced to each other by Epstein, who took his own life in prison while awaiting trial in 2019.

In the first lady’s legal letter, Hunter Biden is accused of relying on a since-removed article as the basis of his claims, which it describes as “false and defamatory”.

A message on the archived version of the Daily Beast online story reads: “After this story was published, The Beast received a letter from First Lady Melania Trump’s attorney challenging the headline and framing of the article.

“After reviewing the matter, the Beast has taken down the article and apologizes for any confusion or misunderstanding.”

Asked about the legal threat, the first lady’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, referred BBC News to a statement issued by her aide, Nick Clemens.

It read: “First Lady Melania Trump’s attorneys are actively ensuring immediate retractions and apologies by those who spread malicious, defamatory falsehoods.”

A January 2016 profile by Harper’s Bazaar reported the first lady met her husband in November 1998, at a party hosted by the founder of a modelling agency.

Melania Trump, 55, told the publication she declined to give him her phone number because he was “with a date”.

The profile said Trump had recently separated from his second wife, Marla Maples, whom he divorced in 1999. He was previously married to Ivana Trump between 1977 and 1990.

The BBC has contacted Hunter Biden’s attorney.

The legal letter comes after weeks of pressure on the White House to release the so-called Epstein files, previously undisclosed documents relating to the criminal investigation against the convicted paedophile.

Before being re-elected, Trump said he would release the records if he returned to office, but the FBI and justice department said in July that no “incriminating” client list of Epstein associates existed.

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

When JD Vance stepped onto Scottish soil on Wednesday he became the second member of the White House team to visit the country in a month.

The vice-president is believed to be staying in Ayrshire, just north of Galloway, the area he says his forebears left in the 17th Century.

But while his boss, President Donald Trump, is half-Scottish – his mother was born in Lewis in the Western Isles – Vance’s claim to Caledonian blood has come under some questioning.

And this is important because in his own way the vice-president is a follower of the modern creed his Maga allies claim to hate – identity politics.

That’s loosely defined as people of a particular group – perhaps racial, sexual or social – putting that group’s goals ahead of traditional party politics.

Or as Vance once put it: “To understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart.”

He made that claim in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, a bestseller which was subsequently turned into an Oscar-nominated film starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams.

The book describes a childhood spent surrounded by poverty and substance abuse in Appalachia, the broad mountainous region which extends across the eastern USA from Canada to the Deep South.

It’s estimated that about 90% of the area’s early European immigrants came in the 17th Century from the lands which stretch along both sides of the Scottish-English border.

These included Ayrshire, Galloway, Dumfriesshire and the areas now known as the Scottish Borders. Vance claims his ancestors were from Galloway and were part of this migration.

The terms Scots-Irish, Scotch-Irish and Ulster-Scots relate to people who left Scotland, settled as part of the Ulster plantation and then moved on to North America.

Appalachia today includes pockets of extreme poverty and its inhabitants are often offensively depicted as “hillbillies” – simple, unsophisticated and poor.

Vance’s memoir is an attempt to reclaim that tradition. He writes: “I may be white, but I do not identify with the WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) of the Northeast.

“Instead, I identify with the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree.

“To these folks, poverty is the family tradition… Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbours, friends and family.”

The book sets out Vance’s developing political ideas as it charts his move towards conservatism.

And though he was at the time a critic of Donald Trump, the book explains why poor rural voters in places like Appalachia were becoming attracted to the Maga movement.

But while Vance makes explicit links between his family heritage and his political views, others are more sceptical.

Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Prof Angelia Wilson of the University of Manchester said Vance has used his Scots-Irish heritage to craft his image.

“What we know about his background is often what he wants us to know about his background and his construction of the narrative has been very much based on the American dream,” she said.

“Everybody who is white and working class in the American south claims to be of some sort of Scotch-Irish heritage. There is some absolute truth there.

“There’s also a bit of cultural construction happening because it was those in the north-east, those ‘damn Yankees’ that claimed to be English.”

Prof Wilson believes the administration Vance is now part of does not especially represent the heritage he likes to embrace.

“The values that he may have grown up with, that might ring true with Scottish stereotypes about being financially conservative and valuing families and community and helping those in need, are certainly not values that Trump and Maga talk about now.

“So he is now not a man of Scottish values,” she said.

Prof Euan Hague of DePaul University in Chicago is an expert in white racial identities and the cultural relationships between Scotland and America.

He believes Vance’s identification with the Scots-Irish community has actually brought him definite political benefits.

“He can align himself with the Trump voters,” he says. “In 2016, he was strongly against Donald Trump. I think that’s well known.

“I think part of it is these are the kinds of self identities that Trump has that have really moved towards sort of supporting Trump. The sort of lower income rural white population.

“And so by emphasising that as part of his core identity, JD Vance, I think, can tap into those connections. And these ideas of strength, self-reliance, very kind of “small c” conservative connection to family and patriotism and nation.

“The Scots-Irish becomes a kind of shorthand for a lot of the things that we’re seeing from the kind of cultural perspectives of the current administration.”

If this all sounds a little politically cynical, it should be said there are many things to celebrate about the links between Scotland and the United States.

Over the past 26 years, Tartan Day has grown into a huge celebration. Set up to mimic the traditional St Patrick’s Day celebrations enjoyed by the Irish-American community in cities across the USA, it brings celebrities, pipe bands, business leaders and politicians out on the streets of New York every April.

It is seen as a key way of promoting Scotland across North America.

Politicians from different parts of the political spectrum have said Scots should make every effort to get along with President Trump as a means of getting any political and economic advantage out of his recent trip to his mother’s homeland.

The Vance trip is another opportunity to do that, though this visit promises to be a much more low-key, private affair.

After all, he may well at some point succeed his boss into the West Wing. A future President Vance would see himself as the second chief executive in a row with Scottish heritage.

Others may question just how Scottish he is or how much that even means. But if it’s how he sees himself, it is a factor this week and for the future.

The women at the community kitchen in the besieged Sudanese city of el-Fasher are sitting in huddles of desperation.

“Our children are dying before our eyes,” one of them tells the BBC.

“We don’t know what to do. They are innocent. They have nothing to do with the army or [its paramilitary rival] the Rapid Support Forces. Our suffering is worse than what you can imagine.”

Food is so scarce in el-Fasher that prices have soared to the point where money that used to cover a week’s worth of meals can now buy only one. International aid organisations have condemned the “calculated use of starvation as a weapon of war”.

The BBC has obtained rare footage of people still trapped in the city, sent to us by a local activist and filmed by a freelance cameraman.

The Sudanese army has been battling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than two years after their commanders jointly staged a coup, and then fell out.

El-Fasher, in the western Darfur region, is one of the most brutal frontlines in the conflict.

The hunger crisis is compounded by a surge of cholera sweeping through the squalid camps of those displaced by the fighting, which escalated this week into one of the most intense RSF attacks on the city yet.

The paramilitaries tightened their 14-month blockade after losing control of the capital Khartoum earlier this year, and stepped up their battle for el-Fasher, the last foothold of the armed forces in Darfur.

In the north and centre of the country where the army has wrestled back territory from the RSF, food and medical aid have begun to make a dent in civilian suffering.

But the situation is desperate in the conflict zones of western and southern Sudan.

• Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening

At the Matbakh-al-Khair communal kitchen in el-Fasher late last month, volunteers turned ambaz into a porridge. This is the residue of peanuts after the oil has been extracted, normally fed to animals.

Sometimes it is possible to find sorghum or millet but on the day of filming, the kitchen manager says: “There is no flour or bread.”

“Now we’ve reached the point of eating ambaz. May God relieve us of this calamity, there’s nothing left in the market to buy,” he adds.

The UN has amplified its appeal for a humanitarian pause to allow food convoys into the city, with its Sudan envoy Sheldon Yett once more demanding this week that the warring sides observe their obligations under international law.

The army has given clearance for the trucks to proceed but the UN is still waiting for official word from the paramilitary group.

RSF advisers have said they believed the truce would be used to facilitate the delivery of food and ammunition to the army’s “besieged militias” inside el-Fasher.

They have also claimed the paramilitary group and its allies were setting up “safe routes” for civilians to leave the city.

Local responders in el-Fasher can receive some emergency cash via a digital banking system, but it does not go very far.

“The prices in the markets have exploded,” says Mathilde Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

“Today, $5,000 [£3,680] covers one meal for 1,500 people in a single day. Three months ago, the same amount could feed them for an entire week.”

Doctors say people are dying of malnutrition. It is impossible to know how many – one report quoting a regional health official put the number at more than 60 last week.

Hospitals cannot cope. Few are still operating. They have been damaged by shelling and are short of medical supplies to help both the starving, and those injured in the continual bombardment.

“We have many malnourished children admitted in hospital but unfortunately there is no single sachet of [therapeutic food],” says Dr Ibrahim Abdullah Khater, a paediatrician at the Al Saudi Hospital, noting that the five severely malnourished children currently in the ward also have medical complications.

“They are just waiting for their death,” he says.

When hunger crises hit, those who usually die first are the most vulnerable, the least healthy or those suffering from pre-existing conditions.

“The situation, it is so miserable, it is so catastrophic,” the doctor tells us in a voice message.

“The children of el-Fasher are dying on a daily basis due to lack of food, lack of medicine. Unfortunately, the international community is just watching.”

International non-governmental organisations working in Sudan issued an urgent statement this week declaring that “sustained attacks, obstruction of aid and targeting of critical infrastructure demonstrate a deliberate strategy to break the civilian population through hunger, fear, and exhaustion”.

They said that “anecdotal reports of recent food hoarding for military use add to the suffering of civilians”.

“There is no safe passage out of the city, with roads blocked and those attempting to flee facing attacks, taxation at checkpoints, community-based discrimination and death,” the organisations said.

Hundreds of thousands of people did flee in recent months, many from the Zamzam displaced persons camp at the edge of el-Fasher, seized by the RSF in April.

They arrive in Tawila, a town 60km (37 miles) west of the city, weak and dehydrated, with accounts of violence and extortion along the road from RSF-allied groups.

Life is safer in the crowded camps, but they are stalked by disease – most deadly of all: cholera.

It is caused by polluted water and has killed hundreds in Sudan, triggered by the destruction of water infrastructure and lack of food and medical care, and made worse by flooding due to the rainy season.

Unlike el-Fasher, in Tawila aid workers at least have access, but their supplies are limited, says John Joseph Ocheibi, the on-site project coordinator for a group called The Alliance for International Medical Action.

“We have shortages in terms of [washing facilities], in terms of medical supplies, to be able to deal with this situation,” he tells the BBC. “We are mobilizing resources to see how best we can be able to respond.”

Sylvain Penicaud of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) estimates there are only three litres of water per person per day in the camps, which, he says, is “way below the basic need, and forces people to get water from contaminated sources”.

Zubaida Ismail Ishaq is lying in the tent clinic. She is seven months pregnant, gaunt and exhausted. Her story is a tale of trauma told by many.

She tells us she used to trade when she had a little money, before fleeing el-Fasher.

Her husband was captured by armed men on the road to Tawila. Her daughter has a head injury.

Zubaida and her mother came down with cholera shortly after arriving in the camp.

“We drink water without boiling it,” she says. “We have no-one to get us water. Since coming here, I have nothing left.”

Back in el-Fasher we hear appeals for help from the women clustered at the soup kitchen – any kind of help.

“We’re exhausted. We want this siege lifted,” says Faiza Abkar Mohammed. “Even if they airdrop food, airdrop anything – we’re completely exhausted.”

• ‘I lost a baby and then rescued a child dodging air strikes in Sudan’s civil war’
• Oil-rich Sudanese region becomes new focus of war between army and rival forces
• Sudan in danger of self-destructing as conflict and famine reign

Hailed by some as a hero and scorned by others as a traitor, Hong Kong’s pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai is in the final stage of his national security trial.

Closing arguments were scheduled to start on Thursday for Lai, who is accused of colluding with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

But the hearing has now been postponed by a “black” rainstorm warning – Hong Kong’s highest level of warning – as a typhoon swept the city.

The trial has drawn international attention, with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling for Lai’s release. The 77-year-old has British as well as Chinese citizenship – though China does not recognise dual nationality, and therefore considers Lai to be exclusively Chinese.

Lai has been detained since December 2020 and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if he is convicted.

Critics say Lai’s case shows how Hong Kong’s legal system has been weaponised to silence political opposition.

Lai has been a persistent thorn in China’s side. Unlike other tycoons who rose to the top in Hong Kong, Mr Lai became one of the fiercest critics of the Chinese state and a leading figure advocating democracy in the former British territory.

“I’m a born rebel,” he told the BBC in an interview in 2020, hours before he was charged. “I have a very rebellious character.”

He is the most prominent person charged under the controversial national security law which China introduced in 2020, in response to massive protests which erupted in Hong Kong the year before.

The legislation criminalises a wider range of dissenting acts which Beijing considers subversion and secession, among other things.

Beijing says the national security law is necessary to maintain stability in Hong Kong but critics say it has effectively outlawed dissent.

Over the years, Lai’s son Sebastien has called for his release. In February, the younger Lai urged Starmer and US President Donald Trump to take urgent action, adding that his father’s “body is breaking down”.

Ahead of Lai’s trial on Thursday, Sebastien told the BBC that even if his father got just five years in prison, it was “practically the same as a death penalty.”

“Given his age, given his health, yeah. He will die in prison,” he said.

Sebastien added that Lai’s case was “crucial for China-UK relations”. If Lai died, it would show that “as a nation [the UK] we didn’t stand up for one of our bravest when it mattered”, he said.

Lai was born in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, to a wealthy family that lost everything when the communists took power in 1949.

He was 12 years old when he fled his village in mainland China, arriving in Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat.

While working odd jobs and knitting in a small clothing shop he taught himself English. He went from a menial role to eventually founding a multi-million dollar empire including the international clothing brand Giordano.

The chain was a huge success. But when China sent in tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989, Lai began a new journey as a vocal democracy activist as well as an entrepreneur.

He started writing columns criticising the massacre that followed the demonstrations in Beijing and established a publishing house that went on to become one of Hong Kong’s most influential.

As China responded by threatening to shut his stores on the mainland, leading him to sell the company, Lai launched a string of popular pro-democracy titles that included Next, a digital magazine, and the widely read Apple Daily newspaper.

In a local media landscape increasingly fearful of Beijing, Lai had been a persistent critic of Chinese authorities both through his publications and writing.

This has seen him become a hero for many in Hong Kong, who view him as a man of courage who took great risks to defend the freedoms of the city.

But on the mainland he is viewed as a “traitor” who threatens Chinese national security.

In recent years, masked attackers firebombed Lai’s house and company headquarters. He was also the target of an assassination plot.

But none of the threats stopped him from airing his views robustly. He was a prominent part of the city’s pro-democracy demonstrations and was arrested twice in 2021 on illegal assembly charges.

When China passed Hong Kong’s new national security law in June 2020, Lai told the BBC it sounded the “death knell” for the territory.

The influential entrepreneur also warned that Hong Kong would become as corrupt as China. Without the rule of law, he said, its coveted status as a global financial hub would be “totally destroyed”.

The media mogul is known for his frankness and acts of flamboyance.

In 2021, he urged Donald Trump to help the territory, saying he was “the only one who can save us” from China. His newspaper, Apple Daily, published a front-page letter that finished: “Mr President, please help us.”

For Lai, such acts were necessary to defend the city which had taken him in and fuelled his success.

He once told news agency AFP: “I came here with nothing, the freedom of this place has given me everything… Maybe it’s time I paid back for that freedom by fighting for it.”

Lai has been slapped with various charges – including unauthorised assembly and fraud – since 2020.

He has been in custody since December of that year.

The prosecution of Lai has captured international attention, with rights groups and foreign governments urging his release.

Over the years, Sebastien Lai has travelled the world to denounce his father’s arrest and condemn Hong Kong for punishing “characteristics that should be celebrated”.

“My father is in jail for the truth on his lips, courage in his heart, and freedom in his soul,” he had said.

Australia and Vanuatu have agreed to a 10-year deal, aimed at strengthening security and economic ties, worth A$500m ($328m; £241m).

The so-called Nakamal agreement – the result of months of negotiations – will transform Australia’s relationship with its Pacific neighbour, leaders from both countries said on Wednesday.

“We are family,” Australia’s deputy prime minister Richard Marles said, adding, “Our future is very much bound together”. Vanuatu’s leader Jotham Napat described the deal as “win-win situation” for both nations.

The deal, to be officially signed in September, comes as Australia tries to grow its influence in the region, to counter China’s increased spending and power.

While the Australian government did not provide further details of the deal, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports it will provide funds to build two large data centres in the capital, Port Vila, and Vanuatu’s largest island, Santo.

Millions will also be poured into helping the low-lying island to deal with the impacts of climate change, as well as building up its security.

In earlier stages of the negotiations, visa-free travel for citizens of Vanuatu was also discussed and considered a key part of the deal. However, Napat told the media on Wednesday that this issue would be covered in a “subsidiary” agreement, yet to be confirmed.

It is unclear what, if any, commitments Vanuatu has given Australia as part of the deal.

A similar agreement fell through in 2022, after Vanuatu’s previous prime minister pulled out at the last minute over security concerns, according to the ABC.

At a press conference on the side of a volcano on Tanna island, one of 80 plus in the Vanuatu archipelago, Marles emphasised the “shared destiny” of the two countries.

“[The deal] acknowledges that as neighbours, we have a shared security environment and a commitment to each other,” he said.

Australia’s Foreign Minister added that the deal was about the long-term future.

“The most important thing [about the deal] is where we will be [in] three and five and ten years,” Penny Wong said.

Vanuatu’s prime minister Napat said the agreement will bring “a lot of great benefits between the two countries, whether it be the security agreement, economic transformation, with some specific focus on the mobile labour mobility and financial support”.

This week’s Vanuatu deal comes after Australia signed similar pacts with several of its other Pacific neighbours in recent months.

Canberra struck a new A$190m security deal with the Solomon Islands last December, with similar agreements also in place with Tuvalu and Papua New Guinea.

Some Alaskans are evacuating their homes as meltwater escapes a basin dammed by the Mendenhall Glacier – raising fears of record-breaking flooding in the US state’s capital city.

The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Juneau has issued a flood warning as glacial outburst water flows into Mendenhall River, putting homes in the area at risk.

For days, local officials have warned residents they may be forced to evacuate. On Tuesday, they confirmed water had begun escaping the ice dam and flooding was expected in the coming days.

The glacier, a popular tourist attraction, is 12 miles (19km) from Juneau.

Water levels reached 9.85ft (3m) on Tuesday, below major flooding levels which begin at 14ft, the NWS said. But by Wednesday morning they were above 16ft, which is considered a crest.

“This will be a new record, based on all of the information that we have,” Nicole Ferrin, a weather service meteorologist, said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The Juneau city website explains that glacial lake outbursts happen when a lake of melting snow and ice and rain drains rapidly. It compares the process to pulling out a plug from a full bathtub. When meltwaters reach a certain level, they can overtop a glacier that previously held them back.

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy issued a state disaster declaration on Sunday because of the “imminent threat of catastrophic flooding from a glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF)” in the Juneau area.

Flooding has been an annual concern in the area since 2011, as homes have been damaged and swept away by deluges. Last year, hundreds of residences were damaged.

Mountain glaciers are shrinking around the world as temperatures rise.

Extra meltwater can collect to form glacial lakes. Scientists have observed an increasing number and size of these lakes globally since 1990.

The natural dams of ice and rock that hold the lakes in place can fail suddenly and unpredictably, triggering floods.

Researchers expect climate change to increase the number of these outburst floods in future, although past trends – and the causes of individual floods – are complicated.

US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Anchorage on Friday to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.

The venue for the high-profile meeting is Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson – a US military installation on the northern edge of Alaska’s most-populated city.

White House officials have said the base satisfied security requirements for hosting two world leaders. And, during the height of summer tourism, there were few other options for the hastily arranged meeting.

Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine this summer, held at Trump’s behest, have yet to bring the two sides any closer to peace.

Here is what we know about the base, and what we can expect from the meeting.

With roots tracing back to the Cold War, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is Alaska’s largest military base. The 64,000 acre installation is a key US site for Arctic military readiness.

Snow-capped mountains, icy lakes and picturesque glaciers frame the base, which regularly shivers through temperatures as low as -12C (15F) in winter. However the leaders can expect comparatively pleasant temperatures of around 16C (61F) on Friday.

When Trump visited the base during his first term, in 2019, he said the troops there “serve in our country’s last frontier as America’s first line of defence”.

More than 30,000 people live on the site, accounting for approximately 10% of the population of Anchorage.

Built in 1940, the base was a critical air defence site and central command point to ward off threats from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

At its peak in 1957, it hosted 200 fighter jets, and multiple air traffic control and early warning radar systems, earning it the nickname of “Top Cover for North America”.

The base continues to grow today due to its strategic location and training facilities.

• Follow live coverage of the build-up to the meeting here

The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, lending a historical resonance to the meeting. It became a US state in 1959.

Russian presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov pointed out that the two countries are neighbours, with only the Bering Strait separating them.

“It seems quite logical for our delegation simply to fly over the Bering Strait and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska,” Ushakov said.

The last time Alaska took centre-stage in an American diplomatic event was in March 2021, when Joe Biden’s newly minted diplomatic and national security team met their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage.

The sit-down turned acrimonious, with the Chinese accusing the Americans of “condescension and hypocrisy”.

Trump has been pushing hard – without much success – to end the war in Ukraine.

As a presidential candidate, he pledged that he could end the war within 24 hours of taking office. He has also repeatedly argued that the war “never would have happened” if he had been president at the time of Russia’s invasion in 2022.

Last month, Trump told the BBC that he was “disappointed” by Putin.

Frustrations grew and Trump set an 8 August deadline for Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire or face more severe US sanctions.

As the deadline hit, Trump instead announced he and Putin would meet in person on 15 August.

The meeting comes after US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held “highly productive” talks with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, according to Trump.

Ahead of the meeting, the White House sought to play down speculation that the bilateral could yield a ceasefire.

“This is a listening exercise for the president,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said he viewed the summit as a “feel-out meeting” aimed at urging Putin to end the war.

• Trump says he will try to get back territory for Ukraine in talks with Putin
• Zelensky could still join Trump and Putin, but rest of Europe is shut out

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not expected to attend. Trump said on Monday: “I would say he could go, but he’s been to a lot of meetings.”

Trump did, however, say that Zelensky would be the first person he would call afterwards.

A White House official later said that Trump and Zelensky would meet virtually on Wednesday, ahead of the US president’s summit with Putin. The Zelensky meeting will be joined by several European leaders.

Putin had requested that Zelensky be excluded, although the White House has previously said that Trump was willing to hold a trilateral in which all three leaders were present.

Zelensky has said any agreements without input from Ukraine would amount to “dead decisions”.

While both Russia and Ukraine have long said that they want the war to end, both countries want things that the other harshly opposes.

Trump said on Monday he was “going to try to get some of that [Russian-occupied] territory back for Ukraine”. But he also warned that there might have to be “some swapping, changes in land”.

Ukraine, however, has been adamant that it will not accept Russian control of regions that Moscow has seized, including Crimea.

Zelensky pushed back this week against any idea of “swapping” territories.

“We will not reward Russia for what it has perpetrated,” the Ukrainian president said.

Meanwhile, Putin has not budged from his territorial demands, Ukraine’s neutrality and the future size of its army.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in part, over Putin’s belief the Western defensive alliance, Nato, was using the neighbouring country to gain a foothold to bring its troops closer to Russia’s borders.

The Trump administration has been attempting to sway European leaders on a ceasefire deal that would hand over swathes of Ukrainian territory to Russia, the BBC’s US partner CBS News has reported.

The agreement would allow Russia to keep control of the Crimean peninsula, and take the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Russia illegally occupied Crimea in 2014 and its forces control the majority of the Donbas region.

Under the deal, Russia would have to give up the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where it currently has some military control.

• ANALYSIS: Why Trump-Putin relationship has soured
• EXPLAINER: Why did Putin’s Russia invade Ukraine?
• VISUALS: Tracking the war in maps
• GLOBAL FALLOUT: How the global economy could be impacted
• VERIFY: Russian attacks on Ukraine double since Trump inauguration
• GROUND REPORT: On Ukraine’s front line, twisted wreckage shows sanctions haven’t yet stopped Russia

European leaders appeared cautiously optimistic after holding a virtual meeting with Donald Trump on Wednesday, two days before he meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump reportedly told the Europeans that his goal for the summit was to obtain a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv.

He also agreed that any territorial issues had to be decided with Volodymyr Zelensky’s involvement, and that security guarantees had to be part of the deal, according to France’s Emmanuel Macron.

Speaking to Trump had allowed him to “clarify his intentions” and gave the Europeans a chance to “express our expectations,” Macron said.

Trump and Vice-President JD Vance spoke to the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Finland and Poland as well as EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Nato chief Mark Rutte.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will meet with Zelensky in London on Thursday morning.

Their talks will take place at No 10 Downing Street, just 24 hours before the summit between Trump and Putin.

The Europeans have been sidelined from the hastily organised summit in Alaska and their phone call on Wednesday was a last-ditch attempt to keep Ukraine’s interests and the continent’s security at the forefront of Trump’s mind.

To an extent, it seemed to work. On Wednesday evening Trump rated the meeting “a 10” and said Russia would face “very severe” consequences unless it halted its war in Ukraine.

He also said that if Friday’s meeting went well he would try to organise a “quick second one” involving both Putin and Zelensky.

Still, in their statements European leaders restated the need for Kyiv to be involved in any final decision – betraying an underlying nervousness that Putin could ultimately persuade Trump to concede Ukrainian land in exchange for a ceasefire.

“It’s most important thing that Europe convinces Donald Trump that one can’t trust Russia,” said Poland’s Donald Tusk, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed the leaders had “made it clear that Ukraine must be at the table as soon as follow-up meetings take place”.

If the Russian side refused to make any concessions, “then the United States and we Europeans should and must increase the pressure”, Merz said.

Since the US-Russia summit was announced last week, Trump has made several references to “land-swapping” between Kyiv and Moscow – sparking serious concerns in Ukraine and beyond that he could be preparing to give in to Putin’s longstanding demand to seize large swathes of Ukrainian territory.

On Wednesday morning Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexey Fadeev reiterated that Russia’s stance had not changed since Putin set it out in June 2024.

At the time Putin said a ceasefire would start the minute the Ukrainian government withdrew from four regions partially occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. He also said Ukraine would need to officially give up its efforts to join the Nato military alliance.

• Viable chance of Russia-Ukraine ceasefire, says Starmer
• What to know about Trump and Putin’s meeting at an Alaska military base
• Why did Putin’s Russia invade Ukraine?

These are maximalist demands which neither Kyiv nor its European partners see as viable.

Zelensky has said he is convinced that Russia would use any region it was allowed to keep as a springboard for future invasions.

A way to counter this threat could be security guarantees – intended as commitments to ensure Ukraine’s long-term defence.

In statements issued after the phone call with Trump, several European leaders said such guarantees had been mentioned and Sir Keir said that “real progress” had been made in that respect.

He also praised Trump’s efforts to reach an agreement, saying: “For three-and-a-bit years this conflict has been going on and we haven’t got anywhere near the prospect of an actually viable solution, a viable way of bringing it to a ceasefire.

“Now we do have that chance, because of the work the president has put in.”

Since the spring the UK and France have been spearheading efforts to create a so-called “Coalition of the Willing” – a group of nations who have pledged to deter Russia from further invading Ukraine.

On Wednesday the group said it stood “ready to play an active role” including by deploying “a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased” – although the shape, composition and role of such a force is yet unclear.

Meanwhile, on the front lines, Russia’s summer offensive continues to press on. Referencing the sudden advance of Moscow’s troops near Dobropillya, in the embattled Donetsk region, Zelensky said Putin was pretending that sanctions were not effective at damaging the Russian economy.

“I told Trump and our European allies that Putin is bluffing,” the Ukrainian president said, urging them to apply “more pressure” on Russia.

For his part, Trump appeared to admit that even when he meets Putin face-to-face he may not be able to get him to stop killing civilians in Ukraine.

“I’ve had that conversation with him… but then I go home and see that a rocket has hit a nursing home or an apartment building and people are lying dead in the street.

“So I guess the answer to that is probably no.”

A political row has erupted in India over allegations of “vote theft”, with opposition parties accusing the country’s election body of irregularities, which they say favoured the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections.

On Tuesday, parliament was adjourned after opposition MPs demanded a debate on the integrity of India’s electoral process.

A day earlier, dozens of opposition leaders, including Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, were briefly detained by the police in the capital Delhi, as they tried to march to the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) headquarters.

Gandhi first raised the issue at a 7 August press conference in Delhi, and has since managed to galvanise strong support from hundreds of opposition lawmakers.

The Election Commission and the BJP have aggressively rejected the allegations.

Gandhi has alleged widespread voter manipulation during the 2024 parliamentary elections, citing granular data obtained from the electoral body itself – though the ECI and the ruling party dispute his interpretation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi secured a historic third term in the elections, but his BJP-led alliance fell short of the sweeping majority predicted. Voter turnout averaged 66% in the world’s largest election, with nearly a billion registered voters – one in eight people on Earth.

Gandhi cited electoral data for Mahadevapura, a part of the Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency, and claimed that the voter list had more than 100,000 manipulated entries, including duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and bulk registrations of votes at single locations.

He presented examples of voters like Shakun Rani, who he claimed cast her ballots twice – a claim disputed by the election body.

Gandhi also alleged CCTV footage from polling booths was deleted and pointed out an instance of 80 people registered in a single address in Mahadevapura.

The Congress leader says his party lost at least 48 seats in the elections due to such irregularities and has accused India’s election body of failing to enforce the “one man, one vote” principle. The Congress won 99 of the 543 seats in the elections, behind BJP’s 240.

Gandhi has demanded that the ECI release digital voter rolls, so that they can be audited by his party and the public.

The BBC hasn’t independently verified Gandhi’s claims.

Soon after Gandhi’s press conference, ECI responded on social media platform X, calling his allegations “absurd” and denying many of his claims.

The polling body has demanded that he either submit a signed declaration under oath or apologise to the nation.

ECI’s Karnataka state unit further said that the Congress didn’t file formal objections when the electoral roll was being revised ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.

The poll body earlier said it keeps CCTV footage only for 45 days after results – the window for filing election disputes.

BJP leaders have also strongly rebutted the allegations.

“This anarchy is extremely worrying and dangerous for democracy,” BJP leader and federal education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

Federal agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Gandhi and the opposition alliance were “defaming democracy, tearing it to shreds, and tampering with the dignity of constitutional institutions”.

Gandhi’s allegations have led to an uproar as they come in the backdrop of a controversy over a month-long revision of electoral rolls in Bihar state, where key elections are scheduled for November.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), held between June and July, saw officials visit all 78.9 million voters in the state for verification – the first update since 2003.

The ECI says the drive targets duplicate and deceased voters, but critics say its haste has disenfranchised many, especially migrants and minorities.

Many voters in Bihar have told the BBC that the draft rolls have wrong photos and include dead people.

India’s Supreme Court is currently hearing a batch of petitions challenging the SIR, with petitioners demanding publication of the deleted names – about 6.5 million – with reasons for their removal.

The election body says deletions include 2.2 million dead, 700,000 enrolled more than once and 3.6 million who have migrated from the state.

Corrections are open until 1 September, with over 165,000 applications received. A similar review will be conducted nationwide to verify nearly a billion voters.

The court has said that the allegations of disenfranchisement “largely appears to be a case of trust deficit, nothing else” and that it would “step in immediately” if mass exclusion of voters is proven.

On 12 August, Gandhi escalated his claims of vote theft, saying such manipulation was happening “at a national level and systematically”.

Highlighting the case of a 124-year-old voter’s name found in the draft electoral list of Bihar he said: “There are unlimited cases like that. ‘Abhi picture baki hai’ [the story is not over yet].”

“Are you a chemistry professor?” the judge asked.

“Yes,” Mamta Pathak replied, clasping her hand in a respectful namaste.

Draped in a white sari, glasses perched on her nose, the retired college teacher stood before two judges in a courtroom in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, speaking as if delivering a forensic chemistry lecture.

“In the post-mortem,” she argued, her voice trembling but composed, “it is not possible to differentiate between a thermal burn and an electric burn mark without proper chemical analysis.”

Across the bench, Justice Vivek Agarwal reminded her, “The doctor who conducted the post-mortem said there were clear signs of electrocution.”

It was a rare, almost surreal moment – a 63-year-old woman, accused of murdering her husband by electrocution, explaining to the court how acids and tissue reactions revealed the nature of a burn.

The exchange, caught on video during her April hearing, went viral in India and stunned the internet. But in the court, no amount of expert-like confidence could undo the prosecution’s case – a spouse murdered and a motive rooted in suspicion and marital discord.

Last month the High Court dismissed Mamta Pathak’s appeal and upheld her life sentence for the April 2021 murder of her husband, Neeraj Pathak, a retired physician.

While Pathak mounted a spirited, self-argued defence – invoking gaps in the autopsy, the insulation of the house, and even an electrochemical theory – the court found the circumstantial evidence conclusive: she had drugged her husband with sleeping pills and then electrocuted him.

In court, Mamta, a mother of two, had peered over a stack of overflowing case files, leafing through them before she grew animated.

“Sir, electric burn marks can’t be distinguished as ante-mortem [before death] or post-mortem [after death],” she argued quoting from a forensics book.

“How did they [doctors] write it was an electric burn mark in post-mortem [report]?”.

Microscopically, electrical burns look the same before and after death, making standard examination inconclusive, say experts. A close study of dermal changes may reveal whether a burn was ante- or post-mortem, according to one paper.

An impromptu exchange on chemical reactions followed, with the judge probing her on laboratory processes. Mamta spoke about different acids, explaining that distinctions could be made using an electron microscope – something not possible in a post-mortem room. She tried to walk the judge through electron microscopy and different acids. Three women lawyers in the background smiled.

Mamta ploughed on – she said she had been studying law in prison for a year. Flipping through her tabbed files with stickers and quoting from forensic medicine books, she pointed to alleged gaps in the investigation – from the unexamined crime scene to the absence of qualified electrical and forensic experts at the scene of the crime.

“Our house was insured from 2017 to 2022, and inspections confirmed it was protected against electrical fire,” she said.

Mamta told the court that her husband had high blood pressure and heart disease. She stated the actual cause of death was narrowing and “calcification of his coronary arteries due to old age”. She also suggested he may have slipped and sustained a hematoma, but no CT scan was conducted to confirm this.

Neeraj Pathak, 65, had been found dead at the family home on 29 April 2021. The autopsy ruled electrocution as the cause of death. Days later, Mamta had been arrested and charged with murder.

Police had seized an 11-meter electric wire with a two-pin plug, and CCTV footage from the couple’s house. Six tablets of a sleeping pill were recovered in a strip of 10.

The postmortem report cited cardiorespiratory shock from electrical current at multiple sites as the cause of death, occurring 36 to 72 hours before the autopsy conducted on 1 May.

“But they didn’t find my fingerprints on the strip of tablets,” Mamta told the judges.

But her arguments quickly unravelled, leaving Judges Agarwal and Devnarayan Sinha unconvinced.

For nearly four decades, Mamta and Neeraj Pathak had lived a seemingly orderly middle-class life in Chhatarpur – a drought-prone district of Madhya Pradesh known for its farms, granite quarries, and small businesses.

She taught chemistry at the local government college; he was the chief medical officer at the district hospital. They raised two sons – one settled abroad, the other, sharing a home with his mother. Neeraj retired voluntarily in 2019 after 39 years as a government doctor and then opened a private clinic at home.

The incident happened during the pandemic. Neeraj was showing Covid symptoms and kept to the first floor. Mamta and her son, Nitish, stayed downstairs. Two staircases from the ground floor linked Neeraj’s rooms to the open gallery and waiting hall of his private clinic, where half a dozen staff bustled between the lab and the medical store.

The 97-page judgment stated that Mamta reported finding her husband Neeraj unresponsive in his bed on 29 April, but did not inform a doctor or the police until 1 May. Instead, she took her elder son to Jhansi – over 130km away – without clear reason, according to the driver, and returned the same evening. She claimed ignorance about how he died when she finally alerted the police.

Beneath this silence lay a troubled marriage. The judges highlighted longstanding marital discord, with the couple living apart and Mamta suspecting her husband of infidelity.

On the morning of the day he died,, Neeraj had called an associate, alleging that Mamta was “torturing him,” locking him in a bathroom, withholding food for days, and causing physical injuries. He also accused her of taking cash, ATM cards, vehicle keys, and bank fixed deposit documents. Pleading for help, Neeraj’s son contacted a friend who alerted the police, who then rescued the retired doctor from what was described as “Mamta’s custody”.

The couple had even lived apart in recent times, adding weight to the court’s doubts.

Mamta had told the court she was the “best mother,” presenting a birthday card from her children as proof. She also showed photos of herself feeding her husband and snapshots with family.

Yet, the judges were unmoved. They noted that such tokens of affection didn’t erase motive – after all, a “doting mother” can also be a “suspicious wife,” they said.

Fifty minutes into her deposition, after parrying questions and defending herself against the court’s doubts, Mamta’s composure faltered for the first time.

“I know one thing… I did not kill him,” she said, her voice trailing off.

At another moment, she confessed, “I can’t take this very much more.”

Trying to ease the tension, Judge Agarwal remarked, “You must be used to this… you must be taking classes for 50 minutes in college.”

“Forty minutes, sir. But they are small children,” Mamta said.

“Small children in college? But your designation is assistant professor,” the judge pressed.

“But they are kids, sir,” she replied.

“Don’t tell us such stories,” Judge Agarwal interrupted sharply.

Mamta fought not just as a defendant, but as a teacher turning the courtroom into a chemistry lab – hoping to prove her innocence through science. Yet in the end, the cold facts proved stronger than her lessons.

When JD Vance stepped onto Scottish soil on Wednesday he became the second member of the White House team to visit the country in a month.

The vice-president is believed to be staying in Ayrshire, just north of Galloway, the area he says his forebears left in the 17th Century.

But while his boss, President Donald Trump, is half-Scottish – his mother was born in Lewis in the Western Isles – Vance’s claim to Caledonian blood has come under some questioning.

And this is important because in his own way the vice-president is a follower of the modern creed his Maga allies claim to hate – identity politics.

That’s loosely defined as people of a particular group – perhaps racial, sexual or social – putting that group’s goals ahead of traditional party politics.

Or as Vance once put it: “To understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart.”

He made that claim in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, a bestseller which was subsequently turned into an Oscar-nominated film starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams.

The book describes a childhood spent surrounded by poverty and substance abuse in Appalachia, the broad mountainous region which extends across the eastern USA from Canada to the Deep South.

It’s estimated that about 90% of the area’s early European immigrants came in the 17th Century from the lands which stretch along both sides of the Scottish-English border.

These included Ayrshire, Galloway, Dumfriesshire and the areas now known as the Scottish Borders. Vance claims his ancestors were from Galloway and were part of this migration.

The terms Scots-Irish, Scotch-Irish and Ulster-Scots relate to people who left Scotland, settled as part of the Ulster plantation and then moved on to North America.

Appalachia today includes pockets of extreme poverty and its inhabitants are often offensively depicted as “hillbillies” – simple, unsophisticated and poor.

Vance’s memoir is an attempt to reclaim that tradition. He writes: “I may be white, but I do not identify with the WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) of the Northeast.

“Instead, I identify with the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree.

“To these folks, poverty is the family tradition… Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbours, friends and family.”

The book sets out Vance’s developing political ideas as it charts his move towards conservatism.

And though he was at the time a critic of Donald Trump, the book explains why poor rural voters in places like Appalachia were becoming attracted to the Maga movement.

But while Vance makes explicit links between his family heritage and his political views, others are more sceptical.

Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Prof Angelia Wilson of the University of Manchester said Vance has used his Scots-Irish heritage to craft his image.

“What we know about his background is often what he wants us to know about his background and his construction of the narrative has been very much based on the American dream,” she said.

“Everybody who is white and working class in the American south claims to be of some sort of Scotch-Irish heritage. There is some absolute truth there.

“There’s also a bit of cultural construction happening because it was those in the north-east, those ‘damn Yankees’ that claimed to be English.”

Prof Wilson believes the administration Vance is now part of does not especially represent the heritage he likes to embrace.

“The values that he may have grown up with, that might ring true with Scottish stereotypes about being financially conservative and valuing families and community and helping those in need, are certainly not values that Trump and Maga talk about now.

“So he is now not a man of Scottish values,” she said.

Prof Euan Hague of DePaul University in Chicago is an expert in white racial identities and the cultural relationships between Scotland and America.

He believes Vance’s identification with the Scots-Irish community has actually brought him definite political benefits.

“He can align himself with the Trump voters,” he says. “In 2016, he was strongly against Donald Trump. I think that’s well known.

“I think part of it is these are the kinds of self identities that Trump has that have really moved towards sort of supporting Trump. The sort of lower income rural white population.

“And so by emphasising that as part of his core identity, JD Vance, I think, can tap into those connections. And these ideas of strength, self-reliance, very kind of “small c” conservative connection to family and patriotism and nation.

“The Scots-Irish becomes a kind of shorthand for a lot of the things that we’re seeing from the kind of cultural perspectives of the current administration.”

If this all sounds a little politically cynical, it should be said there are many things to celebrate about the links between Scotland and the United States.

Over the past 26 years, Tartan Day has grown into a huge celebration. Set up to mimic the traditional St Patrick’s Day celebrations enjoyed by the Irish-American community in cities across the USA, it brings celebrities, pipe bands, business leaders and politicians out on the streets of New York every April.

It is seen as a key way of promoting Scotland across North America.

Politicians from different parts of the political spectrum have said Scots should make every effort to get along with President Trump as a means of getting any political and economic advantage out of his recent trip to his mother’s homeland.

The Vance trip is another opportunity to do that, though this visit promises to be a much more low-key, private affair.

After all, he may well at some point succeed his boss into the West Wing. A future President Vance would see himself as the second chief executive in a row with Scottish heritage.

Others may question just how Scottish he is or how much that even means. But if it’s how he sees himself, it is a factor this week and for the future.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated that Gaza ceasefire efforts are now focused on a comprehensive deal to release all the remaining hostages at once.

The plan previously being pushed was for an initial 60-day truce and partial release of living hostages.

Hamas says a delegation of its leaders is in Cairo for “preliminary talks” with Egyptian officials.

Reports say that mediators see a window of opportunity in the coming weeks to try to push a deal through.

After indirect talks between Israel and Hamas broke down last month, Israel announced a controversial plan to widen its military offensive and conquer all the Gaza Strip – including the areas where most of its two million Palestinian residents have sought refuge.

However, Israeli media do not expect the new operation to begin until October – allowing time for military preparations, including a mass call-up of reservists.

Meanwhile, intense Israeli strikes have continued in Gaza, and the Hamas-run health ministry said at least 123 Palestinians have been killed in the past day.

Witnesses say that Israel has stepped up its attacks on Gaza City in particular with air strikes destroying homes.

Footage shows large explosions caused by the strikes and demolitions in the Zaytoun area, to the east of Gaza City.

Early on Wednesday, al-Shifa Hospital said seven members of one family, five of them children, were killed when tents were targeted in Tel al-Hawa, in the south of the city. Al-Ahli Hospital said 10 people were killed in a strike on a house in the Zaytoun area, to the city’s east.

The Israeli army said it had begun new operations in Zaytoun.

Israeli military chief Lt Gen Eyal Zamir also “approved the main framework for the IDF’s operational plan in the Gaza Strip”, a statement released by the army said.

In an interview with the i24News Israeli TV Channel shown on Tuesday, Netanyahu was asked if a partial ceasefire was still possible.

“I think it’s behind us,” he replied. “We tried, we made all kinds of attempts, we went through a lot, but it turned out that they were just misleading us.”

“I want all of them,” he said of the hostages. “The release of all the hostages, both alive and dead – that’s the stage we’re at.”

Palestinian armed groups still hold 50 hostages seized in the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war. Israel believes that around 20 of them are still alive.

Netanyahu is under mounting domestic pressure to secure their release as well as over his plans to expand the war.

Last week, unnamed Arab officials were quoted as saying that regional mediators, Egypt and Qatar, were preparing a new framework for a deal that would involve releasing all remaining hostages at the same time in return for an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

However, this will be difficult to do in a short time frame as Israel is demanding that Hamas give up control of Gaza as well as its weapons.

This is likely to be why, at a news conference on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told journalists that Cairo was still “making great efforts” with Qatar and the US – the other mediators – to revive the earlier phased plan.

“The main goal is to return to the original proposal – a 60-day ceasefire – along with the release of some hostages and some Palestinian prisoners, and the flow of humanitarian and medical aid into Gaza without obstacles or conditions,” Abdelatty said.

The Israeli prime minister says Israel’s goals have not changed. He says that the war will end only when all hostages are returned and Hamas surrenders.

Netanyahu has said that, ultimately, Israel must keep open-ended security control over Gaza.

Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal to exchange the hostages it is holding for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. It also wants a full pull-out of Israeli forces and an end to the war.

It refuses to disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is created.

Speaking to i24News, Netanyahu also reiterated an idea that Palestinians should simply leave the territory through “voluntary” emigration, saying: “They’re not being pushed out, they’ll be allowed to exit.”

He went on: “All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their gates and stop lecturing us.”

Palestinians, human rights groups and many in the international community have warned that any forced displacement of people from Gaza violates international law.

Many Palestinians fear a repeat of what they call the “Nakba” (Catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced from their homes in the fighting that came before and after the state of Israel was created in 1948.

Most Gazans are descendants of those original refugees and themselves hold official refugee status.

UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in Gaza, where Israel has greatly limited the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in.

The UN’s World Food Programme has warned that starvation and malnutrition are at the highest levels in Gaza since the conflict began.

Hamas’s 2023 attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel, with 251 seized and taken into Gaza as hostages.

Israel’s offensive has since killed at least 61,722 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. It says that 235 people including 106 children have also died due to starvation and malnutrition.

The vice president of the United States has been labelled “a bit of a mouth” after holidaying with his family in an English country manor this week.

JD Vance used the break in the peaceful Cotswolds to relax with his family, go fishing with the foreign Secretary and make the trip to RAF Fairford where US Air Force personnel are based.

The security that comes with having such a high-profile guest in the manor, plus Mr Vance’s outspoken nature, has not gone down well with some residents.

“He’s a bit of a mouth – to put it politely as possible,” said Josh Packford.

“I think he thought he was going to be a bit more important than he really is,” Mr Packford added.

The visit has meant a lot of changes to village life with road closures, ID checks and 20-vehicle motorcades

Resident Shelley Walsh said while some Americans might be pleased to see him, “I don’t think the locals are too happy about the roads being closed.”

JD Vance has been more outspoken than many other vice presidents since coming to office in January.

In February, he was seen to lead an attack on Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky, in an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office.

Moments like this have earned him a reputation that has not endeared him to some in the Cotswolds.

“A lot of people are not particularly keen on Trump unfortunately,” said Danielle Swann.

“I think because of that a lot of people are going to see the vice president coming here as a bad thing.”

Not all residents were entirely negative about the visit.

“It’s a shame he hasn’t popped in to see us on the market today, he could’ve got some nice local produce to eat,” said James Fallows, a market trader in Fairford.

Richard Bennett added: “He’s probably doing a bit of fishing and a bit of golfing while he’s here and I’m sure it’s a total waste of taxpayers money but we’d make him welcome here as everyone does in the Cotswolds.”

Mr Vance also took the opportunity to meet members of the US military at RAF Fairford – where the United States Air Force’s 501st Combat Support Wing and the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron are currently stationed.

During the visit, Vance was briefed on the base’s capabilities and addressed personnel.

“I’m pretty jealous, this is a pretty fine duty station,” he said to the assembled troops.

“This is a beautiful country – I’ve had some downtime with the family and we’ve had a very good time here in England – the United Kingdom is of course one of our great allies,” he added.

“We are proud of the special relationship and we are proud to work together with our British friends right here at Fairford.”

Mr Vance is expected to continue his holiday with a trip to Scotland.

President Donald Trump has announced this year’s Kennedy Center honours will go to action star Sylvester Stallone, stage actor Michael Crawford, singers George Strait and Gloria Gaynor, and the rock band KISS.

Breaking with tradition, he will also host the show later this year celebrating the recipients of one of the country’s highest recognitions of artists.

After returning to office, Trump fired the president and much of the board of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and took on the role of its chairman, a move many criticised as political interference in the arts.

He said on Wednesday he plans to fully renovate the centre, which receives federal funds for its facilities.

Trump said he was “98% involved” in the selection of this year’s honourees, adding “I was very involved”.

During Wednesday’s event, where two women in evening gowns pulled away fabric draped over portraits to reveal each honoured artist, Trump said he had rejected prospective honourees who were “wokesters”.

Trump also criticised the Academy Awards and other arts recognitions for being “too woke”. He has frequently taken aim at “wokeness” – which he portrays as being excessively orthodox about liberal and progressive ideas – since returning to office.

He acknowledged that some selected artists had turned down the award, as well, a nod to the discontent over his leading the 54 year-old centre .

Stallone, who last appeared in the movie Alarum this winter, is a strong Trump supporter, and has extolled him as the “second George Washington”.

“Nobody in the world could have pulled off what he pulled off, so I’m in awe,” Stallone said of the president’s November election victory.

Meanwhile, the lead singer of KISS, Gene Simmons, has been critical of Trump in the past.

“I don’t think he’s a Republican or a Democrat,” Simmons said of Trump in 2022. “He’s out for himself, any way you can get there. And in the last election, over 70 million people bought it hook, line and sinker.”

Trump on Wednesday pledged, as chairman, to make the Kennedy Center a “crown jewel” of arts and culture in time for the 2026 celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary. He spoke at length about repairing seats and updating the building that looks over the Potomac River.

After Trump ousted board members and staff earlier this year, many performers canceled upcoming engagements at the centre, including the producers of Broadway hit Hamilton, who said in a statement: “We cannot presently support an institution that has been forced by external forces to betray its mission as a natural cultural center that fosters the free expression of art.”

As the US moves closer to its 250th birthday, Trump is showing increasing interest in many aspects of its capital city, including bolstering its law enforcement to address what he describes as an emergency with crime.

His administration on Tuesday announced it will review current and planned exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, whose museums line the National Mall. The review will examine websites, social media and museum text “to assess tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals”.

The Smithsonian will have 120 days to address problems identified in the review.

A major city in western Greece is under threat from fast-moving wildfires as extreme heat and strong winds drive blazes across much of southern Europe.

Searing winds pushed flames into the outskirts of Patras, the country’s third-largest city with a population of around 200,000, forcing evacuations including a children’s hospital, and sending plumes of smoke across the skyline.

Nearly 10,000 hectares have burned in the surrounding Achaia region in two days.

Entire villages have been emptied, homes and businesses destroyed and hundreds of vehicles incinerated, including more than 500 cars at a customs yard.

The streets of Patras were deserted on Wednesday, save for some residents watching in silence as the fires descended from the surrounding mountains.

Strong and scorching winds blew as temperatures hit 38C and smoke has blanketed the city, sending some to hospital with breathing difficulties.

Authorities ordered residents of a nearby town of 7,700 people to evacuate on Tuesday and fresh alerts were issued on Wednesday for two villages.

Elsewhere in Greece, dozens of people were rescued by coastguards as fires inched towards beaches on the islands of Zante and Chios.

Greece has requested EU water bombers to bolster the more than 4,800 firefighters tackling the more than 20 wildfires currently raging across the country.

The crisis comes as a heatwave blankets southern Europe, sparking blazes from Portugal to the Balkans.

In Spain, a civilian and a volunteer firefighter were killed on Wednesday during the country’s tenth consecutive day of extreme heat, which peaked at 45C the day before.

The state weather agency warned almost all of Spain was at extreme or very high fire risk. The heatwave is expected to last until Monday, making it one of the longest in the country on record.

The fires have triggered a political row after transport minister Oscar Puente said that “things are getting a little hot” in Castile and León, where flames have threatened a world heritage Roman site and forced more than 6,000 people to flee.

His remark, aimed at the region’s conservative leader for holidaying during the crisis, drew condemnation from opposition figures, who demanded his dismissal. Puente defended his comments, saying leaders absent during disasters should be held to account.

Authorities say 199 wildfires have destroyed nearly 99,000 hectares nationwide this year – double last year’s total by mid-August – with several outbreaks suspected to be arson.

In neighbouring Portugal, 1,800 firefighters have been deployed against five major blazes, including one in the eastern town Trancoso reignited by lightning.

In Albania, the defence minister called it a “critical week” as 24 wildfires burned, forcing residents from central villages.

Italy has brought under control a five-day blaze on Mount Vesuvius but remains under extreme heat warnings in 16 cities, with Florence touching 39C. Temperatures are at such a high that Pope Leo moved his weekly audience from St. Peter’s Square to an indoor venue in the Vatican.

Britain entered its fourth heatwave of the summer, with temperatures forecast to peak at 34C and health officials warning of a strain on care services.

Meteorologists say such extremes are becoming more frequent and intense due to human-induced climate change.

Peru’s president has signed a controversial new law pardoning soldiers, police and civilian militias on trial for atrocities during the country’s two-decade armed conflict against Maoist rebels.

Dina Boluarte enacted the measure that was passed by Congress in July, despite an order from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to suspend it pending a review of its impact on victims.

The law will benefit hundreds of members of the armed forces, police and self-defence committees accused of crimes committed between 1980 and 2000.

It will also mandate the release of those over 70 serving sentences for such offences.

During the conflict, the Shining Path and Tupac Amaru rebel groups waged insurgencies in which an estimated 70,000 people were killed and more than 20,000 disappeared, according to Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Boluarte, elected in 2022 as the the country’s first female president, said the Peruvian government was paying tribute to the forces who – she said – fought against terrorism and in defence of democracy.

Human rights organisations have condemned the law. Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch, called it “a betrayal of Peruvian victims” that “undermines decades of efforts to ensure accountability for atrocities”.

United Nations experts and Amnesty International had urged Boluarte to veto the bill, saying that it violated Peru’s duty to investigate and prosecute grave abuses including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture and sexual violence.

UN experts said the amnesty could halt or overturn more than 600 pending trials and 156 convictions.

The TRC found that state agents, notably the armed forces, were responsible for 83% of documented sexual violence cases.

Last year, Peru adopted a statute of limitations for crimes against humanity committed before 2002, effectively shutting down hundreds of investigations into alleged crimes committed during the fighting.

The initiative benefited late president Alberto Fujimori, who was jailed for atrocities – including the massacre of civilians by the army – but released from prison in 2023 on humanitarian grounds. He died in September 2024.

Meanwhile, former president Martin Vizcarra was ordered on Wednesday to be held in preventative detention for five months over allegations he received $640,000 in bribes while governor of Moquegua between 2011 and 2014.

He is the fifth former president to be jailed in corruption investigations.

A 10-year-old chess prodigy from north-west London has become the youngest person to earn the woman international master title.

Bodhana Sivanandan, from Harrow, also became the youngest female player to beat a chess grandmaster at the 2025 British Chess Championship earlier this month.

In 2024 Bodhana was thought to have become the youngest person ever to represent England internationally in any sport when she was selected for England Women’s Team at the Chess Olympiad in Hungary.

Her father Siva previously told the BBC he had no idea where his daughter got her talent from as neither he or his wife, both engineering graduates, are any good at chess.

The International Chess Federation said on its social media account on X that Bodhana “pulled off the win against 60-year-old Grandmaster Peter Wells in the last round of the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool”.

The federation added: “Sivanandan’s victory at 10 years, five months and three days beats the 2019 record held by American Carissa Yip (10 years, 11 months and 20 days).”

Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain and the rank is held for life.

Bodhana’s new title – woman international master – is the second highest-ranking title given exclusively to women, second only to woman grandmaster.

Bodhana first took up chess during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She says chess makes her feel “good” and helps her with “lots of other things like maths, how to calculate”.

Bodhana started playing chess during the pandemic lockdown, when she was five.

She told the BBC about how she came to the game when she paid a visit to Chess Fest in Trafalgar Square, central London, in July 2024.

“When it was 2020, it was Covid, so one of my dad’s friends was going back to India, and he had a few toys and books, and he gave them to us.

“And in one of the bags, I saw a chessboard, and I was interested in the pieces.

“I wanted to use the pieces as toys. Instead, my dad said that I could play the game, and then I started from there,” she said.

Bodhana’s dad Siva said “nobody at all” in his family was proficient at chess before his daughter took up the game.

He said: “I try to trace down whether any of my cousins or anyone plays – nobody has any chess energy or chess-playing skills, no one played for any chess events.”

He added: “Overall we are happy with whatever is happening. Hopefully she enjoys, plays well and performs.”

Bodhana said she hopes to achieve her ultimate goal and become a grandmaster.

Malcolm Pein, an international chess master who runs a charity that’s brought the game to a quarter-of-a-million state school children, said Bodhana was blazing a trail for girls and women in what has traditionally been a man’s game.

He said: “She’s so composed, she’s so modest and yet she’s so absolutely brilliant at chess.

“She could easily become the women’s world champion, or maybe the overall world champion. And certainly I believe that she’s on course to become a grandmaster.”

First Lady Melania Trump has threatened to sue Hunter Biden for more than $1bn after he claimed she was introduced to her husband by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Lawyers acting on behalf of the first lady, who married US President Donald Trump in 2005, described the claim as “false, disparaging, defamatory and inflammatory”.

Biden, son of former US President Joe Biden, made the comments during an interview earlier this month, in which he strongly criticised the president’s former ties to Epstein.

Donald Trump was a friend of Epstein, but has said the pair fell out in the early 2000s because the financier had poached employees who worked at the spa in Trump’s Florida golf club.

A letter from the first lady’s lawyers and addressed to an attorney for Hunter Biden demands he retract the claim and apologise, or face legal action for “over $1bn in damages”.

It says the first lady has suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” because of the claim he repeated.

It also accuses the youngest Biden son of having a “vast history of trading on the names of others”, and repeating the claim “to draw attention to yourself”.

During a wide-ranging interview with filmmaker Andrew Callaghan published earlier this month, Hunter Biden claimed unreleased documents relating to Epstein would “implicate” President Trump.

He said: “Epstein introduced Melania to Trump – the connections are so wide and deep.” The first lady’s legal letter notes the claim was partially attributed to Michael Wolff, a journalist who authored a critical biography of the president.

In a recent interview with US outlet the Daily Beast, Wolff reportedly claimed that the first lady was known to an associate of Epstein and Trump when she met her now-husband.

The outlet later retracted the story after receiving a letter from the first lady’s attorney that challenged the contents and framing of the story.

There is no evidence the pair were introduced to each other by Epstein, who took his own life in prison while awaiting trial in 2019.

In the first lady’s legal letter, Hunter Biden is accused of relying on a since-removed article as the basis of his claims, which it describes as “false and defamatory”.

A message on the archived version of the Daily Beast online story reads: “After this story was published, The Beast received a letter from First Lady Melania Trump’s attorney challenging the headline and framing of the article.

“After reviewing the matter, the Beast has taken down the article and apologizes for any confusion or misunderstanding.”

Asked about the legal threat, the first lady’s lawyer, Alejandro Brito, referred BBC News to a statement issued by her aide, Nick Clemens.

It read: “First Lady Melania Trump’s attorneys are actively ensuring immediate retractions and apologies by those who spread malicious, defamatory falsehoods.”

A January 2016 profile by Harper’s Bazaar reported the first lady met her husband in November 1998, at a party hosted by the founder of a modelling agency.

Melania Trump, 55, told the publication she declined to give him her phone number because he was “with a date”.

The profile said Trump had recently separated from his second wife, Marla Maples, whom he divorced in 1999. He was previously married to Ivana Trump between 1977 and 1990.

The BBC has contacted Hunter Biden’s attorney.

The legal letter comes after weeks of pressure on the White House to release the so-called Epstein files, previously undisclosed documents relating to the criminal investigation against the convicted paedophile.

Before being re-elected, Trump said he would release the records if he returned to office, but the FBI and justice department said in July that no “incriminating” client list of Epstein associates existed.

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

Taylor Swift has revealed details of her new album and given a rare insight into her relationship with boyfriend Travis Kelce during a highly anticipated appearance on his podcast.

The pop superstar used the interview on New Heights, co-hosted with Travis’ brother Jason Kelce, to announce that her 12th album, The Life of a Showgirl, will be released on 3 October.

She also discussed how she and Travis got together and their life together, as well as subjects ranging from reclaiming the rights to her first albums, the hidden clues she plants in music for fans, and her record-breaking Eras Tour, to her love of baking sourdough bread.

It marked a change for the megastar, who tends not to give interviews, instead sharing updates on her life through song lyrics, which are dissected by obsessed fans.

More than 1.3 million tuned in live for the broadcast. The American football star brothers called Swift “Tay Tay” and ran through a list of her many awards.

Preview clips of the New Heights podcast went viral before her episode aired, including one where Swift pulled out her new album.

Here is some of what we learned from her appearance.

Swift’s 12th studio studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, will be available on 3 October.

Its cover features the singer wearing a dress emblazoned with diamonds lying in turquoise green.

She is seen submerged in the water, with only her face and wrist above the surface.

The record was simultaneously made available for pre-order on her website, which started crashing as soon as the podcast began.

Swift explained that she wrote the album while on her Eras Tour and would frequently return to Sweden while performing concerts in Europe, in order to record it.

“I was basically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,” she said.

Travis added: “Literally living the life of a showgirl.”

Swift went on to read out all 12 track names, including the title track featuring Sabrina Carpenter.

Travis said the album is “upbeat” and will make people dance. He called it a 180-degree turnabout from her last album, The Tortured Poets Department.

“Life is more upbeat,” Swift said in response, smiling and looking at Travis.

Swift said the album tells the story of “everything that was going on behind the curtain” of her time on tour.

Orange was chosen because it’s a colour she likes and felt energised by, she added.

Near the beginning of the show, Swift was asked why she chose to appear on the podcast, which caters primarily to sports fans.

“This podcast got me a boyfriend,” she said, accusing Travis of using the broadcast as his “personal dating app” to connect with her.

Before they even met, Travis famously gushed on the podcast about attending one of Swift’s concerts and being disappointed when they couldn’t meet.

He talked about making her a beaded friendship bracelet, which were popular during the Eras Tour, and said he wanted to give her his phone number.

She said the clip, which went viral, felt almost like “he was standing outside of my apartment, holding a boom box saying, ‘I want to go on a date with you'”.

She said this was exactly the moment she had “been writing songs about, wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager”.

“It was wild, but it worked… He’s the good kind of crazy,” she said, calling her boyfriend “a human exclamation point”.

Sitting beside Travis, Swift teased the “male sports fans” in the audience.

“As we all know, you know, you guys have a lot of male sports fans that listen to your podcast,” she said.

“I think we all know that if there’s one thing that male sports fans want in their spaces and on their screens, it’s more of me,” she deadpanned, looking straight into the camera.

Swift’s appearance at Kansas City Chiefs games have caused a frenzy over the years. But some football fans weren’t happy.

She was booed when she appeared on the jumbotron screen at the Super Bowl last February, which drew social media posts from President Donald Trump.

Despite the criticism, Jason assured her she has been the “most requested guest on the podcast”.

Other recent guests on the show have included basketball stars Caitlin Clark, Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James, and actors Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Bill Murray and Adam Sandler.

Swift also spoke about all the ways she uses Easter eggs – or secret messages to fans – to tease her music.

She said she has rules for these covert clues in her music and performances.

“I’m never going to plant an Easter egg that ties back to my personal life. It’s always going to go back to my music,” she said, joking that some fans are so good at decoding her that it’s almost gotten a bit “zodiac killer”.

The secret messages are “something that you don’t know I’m saying for a specific reason, but you’ll go back and be like, ‘Oh my God!'”

She said her favourite example was a speech she gave when she received an honorary doctorate.

“I put so many lyrical Easter eggs in that speech that when the Midnights album came out, after that, the fans were like, ‘The whole speech was an Easter egg!'”

She also spoke about her love of numbers and dates.

“I love math stuff,” she said, saying 13 was her favourite number.

Travis, she said, is “87” – the number he wears on his game jersey – and she noted that 13 plus 87 equals 100.

Some of her hidden messages are so complex, she said, they are crafted “upside down, backwards in Braille”.

Swift said she knew nothing about football before their romance began.

“I didn’t know what a first down was,” or a “tight-end” (the position Travis plays), she said.

Swift said she appreciated Travis’ patience when they started dating and introducing her to his world.

She’s now personally invested, citing a moment where she found herself interested in a recent player trade.

Travis told her he will be “forever grateful” that she embraced his world “wholeheartedly”.

In May this year, it was announced that she had bought the rights to her first six albums, ending a long-running battle over the ownership of her music.

After her original masters sold, she vowed to re-record all six albums, which became known as “Taylor’s Versions”.

Swift grew emotional as she explained the process by which she purchased her master recordings, after trying for a decade to secure the rights.

She said she was not interested in the financial rewards the albums would bring.

“I want this because it was my handwritten diary entries from my entire life,” she said.

She said her mother and brother had talked to Shamrock Capital, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, about purchasing her music.

When her mother called her, saying “You got your music,” she said: “I just very dramatically hit the floor. For real.

“Bawling my eyes out, and just weeping. This changed my life.”

She also thanked loyal fans for listening to her re-recorded albums, saying they reacted to the dispute over rights to her music with the Western cowboy expression “we ride at dawn”.

Swift also said it was through her fans that she was able to buy back her music.

“The reason I was able to purchase my music back is they came to the Eras Tour,” she said.

Swift was also asked which versions of her albums her fans should listen to – now that she owns both versions.

“I think a lot of the vocals I did on the re-records were better than the original,” she said, adding she is especially fond of the remake of her 2012 album Red.

She and Travis spoke fondly about their love, describing how they bake sourdough bread together.

His dough winds up with chest hair in it, while hers has extra cat hair, she joked.

“I had never experienced something so mesmerising on stage, and then so real and beautiful in person,” said Travis.

Jason then joked that maybe he should leave, and give them some privacy, as Swift swooned.

“Yeah I think so, honestly,” Swift responded. “At this point, I think everyone should leave.”

While Swift has at times been shy about discussing her relationship in public, Travis has been more outspoken. Before the podcast aired, he told GQ in an interview: “I love being the happiest guy in the world.”

“Are you a chemistry professor?” the judge asked.

“Yes,” Mamta Pathak replied, clasping her hand in a respectful namaste.

Draped in a white sari, glasses perched on her nose, the retired college teacher stood before two judges in a courtroom in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, speaking as if delivering a forensic chemistry lecture.

“In the post-mortem,” she argued, her voice trembling but composed, “it is not possible to differentiate between a thermal burn and an electric burn mark without proper chemical analysis.”

Across the bench, Justice Vivek Agarwal reminded her, “The doctor who conducted the post-mortem said there were clear signs of electrocution.”

It was a rare, almost surreal moment – a 63-year-old woman, accused of murdering her husband by electrocution, explaining to the court how acids and tissue reactions revealed the nature of a burn.

The exchange, caught on video during her April hearing, went viral in India and stunned the internet. But in the court, no amount of expert-like confidence could undo the prosecution’s case – a spouse murdered and a motive rooted in suspicion and marital discord.

Last month the High Court dismissed Mamta Pathak’s appeal and upheld her life sentence for the April 2021 murder of her husband, Neeraj Pathak, a retired physician.

While Pathak mounted a spirited, self-argued defence – invoking gaps in the autopsy, the insulation of the house, and even an electrochemical theory – the court found the circumstantial evidence conclusive: she had drugged her husband with sleeping pills and then electrocuted him.

In court, Mamta, a mother of two, had peered over a stack of overflowing case files, leafing through them before she grew animated.

“Sir, electric burn marks can’t be distinguished as ante-mortem [before death] or post-mortem [after death],” she argued quoting from a forensics book.

“How did they [doctors] write it was an electric burn mark in post-mortem [report]?”.

Microscopically, electrical burns look the same before and after death, making standard examination inconclusive, say experts. A close study of dermal changes may reveal whether a burn was ante- or post-mortem, according to one paper.

An impromptu exchange on chemical reactions followed, with the judge probing her on laboratory processes. Mamta spoke about different acids, explaining that distinctions could be made using an electron microscope – something not possible in a post-mortem room. She tried to walk the judge through electron microscopy and different acids. Three women lawyers in the background smiled.

Mamta ploughed on – she said she had been studying law in prison for a year. Flipping through her tabbed files with stickers and quoting from forensic medicine books, she pointed to alleged gaps in the investigation – from the unexamined crime scene to the absence of qualified electrical and forensic experts at the scene of the crime.

“Our house was insured from 2017 to 2022, and inspections confirmed it was protected against electrical fire,” she said.

Mamta told the court that her husband had high blood pressure and heart disease. She stated the actual cause of death was narrowing and “calcification of his coronary arteries due to old age”. She also suggested he may have slipped and sustained a hematoma, but no CT scan was conducted to confirm this.

Neeraj Pathak, 65, had been found dead at the family home on 29 April 2021. The autopsy ruled electrocution as the cause of death. Days later, Mamta had been arrested and charged with murder.

Police had seized an 11-meter electric wire with a two-pin plug, and CCTV footage from the couple’s house. Six tablets of a sleeping pill were recovered in a strip of 10.

The postmortem report cited cardiorespiratory shock from electrical current at multiple sites as the cause of death, occurring 36 to 72 hours before the autopsy conducted on 1 May.

“But they didn’t find my fingerprints on the strip of tablets,” Mamta told the judges.

But her arguments quickly unravelled, leaving Judges Agarwal and Devnarayan Sinha unconvinced.

For nearly four decades, Mamta and Neeraj Pathak had lived a seemingly orderly middle-class life in Chhatarpur – a drought-prone district of Madhya Pradesh known for its farms, granite quarries, and small businesses.

She taught chemistry at the local government college; he was the chief medical officer at the district hospital. They raised two sons – one settled abroad, the other, sharing a home with his mother. Neeraj retired voluntarily in 2019 after 39 years as a government doctor and then opened a private clinic at home.

The incident happened during the pandemic. Neeraj was showing Covid symptoms and kept to the first floor. Mamta and her son, Nitish, stayed downstairs. Two staircases from the ground floor linked Neeraj’s rooms to the open gallery and waiting hall of his private clinic, where half a dozen staff bustled between the lab and the medical store.

The 97-page judgment stated that Mamta reported finding her husband Neeraj unresponsive in his bed on 29 April, but did not inform a doctor or the police until 1 May. Instead, she took her elder son to Jhansi – over 130km away – without clear reason, according to the driver, and returned the same evening. She claimed ignorance about how he died when she finally alerted the police.

Beneath this silence lay a troubled marriage. The judges highlighted longstanding marital discord, with the couple living apart and Mamta suspecting her husband of infidelity.

On the morning of the day he died,, Neeraj had called an associate, alleging that Mamta was “torturing him,” locking him in a bathroom, withholding food for days, and causing physical injuries. He also accused her of taking cash, ATM cards, vehicle keys, and bank fixed deposit documents. Pleading for help, Neeraj’s son contacted a friend who alerted the police, who then rescued the retired doctor from what was described as “Mamta’s custody”.

The couple had even lived apart in recent times, adding weight to the court’s doubts.

Mamta had told the court she was the “best mother,” presenting a birthday card from her children as proof. She also showed photos of herself feeding her husband and snapshots with family.

Yet, the judges were unmoved. They noted that such tokens of affection didn’t erase motive – after all, a “doting mother” can also be a “suspicious wife,” they said.

Fifty minutes into her deposition, after parrying questions and defending herself against the court’s doubts, Mamta’s composure faltered for the first time.

“I know one thing… I did not kill him,” she said, her voice trailing off.

At another moment, she confessed, “I can’t take this very much more.”

Trying to ease the tension, Judge Agarwal remarked, “You must be used to this… you must be taking classes for 50 minutes in college.”

“Forty minutes, sir. But they are small children,” Mamta said.

“Small children in college? But your designation is assistant professor,” the judge pressed.

“But they are kids, sir,” she replied.

“Don’t tell us such stories,” Judge Agarwal interrupted sharply.

Mamta fought not just as a defendant, but as a teacher turning the courtroom into a chemistry lab – hoping to prove her innocence through science. Yet in the end, the cold facts proved stronger than her lessons.

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia is facing pushback for what some have called “draconian” restrictions as it tries to limit wildfire risk in extremely dry conditions.

Last week, Nova Scotia banned all hiking, fishing and use of vehicles like ATVs in wooded areas, with rule breakers facing a C$25,000 ($18,000) fine. A tip line has been set up to report violations.

The Canadian Constitution Foundation, a non-profit that defends charter rights in the country, called the ban a “dangerous example of ‘safetyism’ and creeping authoritarianism”.

Tens of thousands of residents are under evacuation alerts in eastern Canada as the country experiences its second worst wildfire season on record.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says human activity is responsible for almost all wildfires in the Atlantic province – official statistics from 2009 say 97% of such blazes are caused by people.

On Wednesday, he defended the ban, which was announced last week, calling the province a “tinder box” that has not seen any rain since June.

“I get that people want to go for a hike or want to go for a walk in the woods with their dog,” Houston said during a wildfire update with officials.

“But how would you like to be stuck in the woods while there’s a fire burning around you?”

He said the restrictions will be loosened once enough rain falls to mitigate the risk.

“In the meantime go to the beach,” he added.

Houston confirmed that 12 people have been fined so far for violating the ban.

“It’s certainly my hope that every single one of those is fully prosecuted and collected,” said the premier. “It’s just too serious of a situation by now.”

One of those penalised is military veteran Jeff Evely.

On Friday, Mr Evely posted a video on Facebook of himself going to a Department of Natural Resources office saying he wanted to challenge the ban in court, and “the only way for me to do that is to get the fine”.

“I’m not trying to make trouble for you guys,” Mr Evely, who ran as a candidate for the People’s Party of Canada in April’s federal election, is heard telling an official.

He is later seen walking into the woods, before going back to the office where he is fined C$28,872.50.

Others defend the restrictions as a needed precaution since the province has seen two fires a day for the last week on average.

Stephen Maher, a political journalist who lives in rural Nova Scotia, argued in an opinion piece for the Globe and Mail newspaper that there is little chance his run in the woods would have sparked a fire.

He added, “but fires are mostly caused by dimwitted and careless people, and there is no way of separating them from their careful neighbours, so the ban is necessary”.

In a separate blog post, former Conservative Party campaign manager Fred DeLorey said that given the lack of rain, “when the provincial government announced a temporary ban on travelling in the woods due to extreme fire risk, I didn’t complain. I exhaled”.

Officials fear a repeat of 2023, the worst-ever fire season in Canada and in Nova Scotia, when 220 fires razed more than 25,000 hectares of land in the province.

The province of New Brunswick has brought in similar restrictions, barring use of public land.

On Wednesday, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador banned off-road vehicles in forested areas until at least next week. It has brought in fines of up to C$150,000 for fire ban violations.

Canada’s 2025 wildfire season is the second-worst on record, after 2023.

Fires happen naturally in many parts of the world and it’s difficult to know if climate change has caused or worsened a specific wildfire because other factors are also relevant.

According to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate change is making the weather conditions needed for wildfires to spread more likely.

More than 470 blazes are currently “out of control”, says the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

One is on the western outskirts of Halifax, the largest city in Nova Scotia, which continues to burn out of control.

In New Brunswick, Premier Susan Holt called it “a tale of two fires”.

She said crews had made progress on one fire, but were having less success with another blaze near the community of Miramichi.

Military and coast guard units were deployed in Newfoundland and Labrador, while the worst fires were concentrated in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Three other provinces, British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, have also seen fire activity well above their 25-year average.

Canada’s largest airline will begin suspending flights on Thursday after the union representing its flight attendants issued a 72-hour strike notice.

Air Canada will be gradually suspending flights over that period, the carrier said, warning that passengers without confirmed flights should not go to the airport.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants, provided a strike notice early on Wednesday after reaching an impasse in contract talks.

The union said that it has bargained in good faith but Air Canada “refused to address” core issues, such as proposals on wages, and unpaid work.

The airline responded by issuing a 72-hour lockout notice and said on Tuesday night that it had received a union counteroffer seeking “exorbitant increases” and that CUPE had rejected an offer to enter binding, third-party arbitration.

The strike is set to begin at about 01:00 EST (05:00 GMT) on Saturday.

The airline – which operates in 64 countries with a fleet of 259 aircraft – said the unplanned shutdown is “a major risk” to the company and its employees. The flight disruption could affect 130,000 daily customers, including 25,000 Canadians, amid the peak summer travel period.

“By optimally positioning aircraft and crews ahead of a possible stoppage, Air Canada will be able to provide required routine maintenance and more quickly restore regular service,” the Montreal-based company said on Wednesday in response to the strike notice.

The first Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flights will be cancelled on Thursday, with additional flights on Friday also expected to be grounded.

A “complete cessation of flying” will begin on Saturday, the airline said. Air Canada Express flights, which carry about 20% of Air Canada’s daily customers, will not be affected.

Customers whose flights are cancelled will be notified and will receive a full refund, the airline said. The company has also made arrangements with other Canadian and foreign carriers to provide customers alternative travel options.

Customers will be notified of alternative options, but they could take time or might not be immediately possible.

Toronto’s Pearson International Airport – Canada’s largest airport – said on Wednesday on X that it is closely monitoring the situation, and advised travellers to check directly with Air Canada for flight information. Other airports, including Vancouver International Airport, are also working on contingency plans.

In contract negotiations, the carrier said it offered flight attendants a 38% increase in total compensation over four years, with a 25% raise in the first year. CUPE said the offer is “below inflation, below market value, below minimum wage” and would still leave flight attendants unpaid for some hours of work, including boarding and waiting at airports ahead of flights.

The union asserted that it has bargained in good faith with the airline for more than eight months but Air Canada instead sought government-directed arbitration.

“When we stood strong together, Air Canada didn’t come to the table in good faith,” CUPE said in a statement to its members. “Instead, they called on the federal government to step in and take those rights away.”

Earlier this month, 99.7% of employees represented by the union voted for a strike.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has warned that Washington could increase secondary tariffs on India.

He said the decision would depend on the outcome of President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

“We’ve put secondary tariffs on Indians for buying Russian oil. And I could see, If things don’t go well, then sanctions or secondary tariffs could go up,” Bessent said in an interview to Bloomberg TV on Wednesday.

Earlier this month, Trump imposed a 25% penalty on India in addition to 25% tariffs for buying oil and weapons from Russia.

The US has been trying to mediate a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, and on Wednesday, Trump warned of “severe consequences” if Moscow did not agree to a peace deal.

Trump and Putin are set to meet in Anchorage on Friday to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.

“President Trump is meeting with President Putin, and the Europeans are in the wings carping about how he should do it, what he should do. The Europeans need to join us in these sanctions. The Europeans need to be willing to put on these secondary sanctions,” Bessent said.

Delhi’s increased imports of cheap Russian crude since the Ukraine war have strained India-US relations and disrupted ongoing trade talks with Washington.

Russian oil made up 35% to 40% of India’s oil imports in 2024 – up from 3% in 2021.

Delhi has defended its purchases of Russian oil, arguing that as a major energy importer, it must buy the cheapest available crude to protect millions of poor Indians from rising costs.

Bessent’s comments come after he called India a “bit recalcitrant” on trade negotiations in an interview with Fox Business on Tuesday.

Trump says his tariffs are part of his administration’s plan to boost the US’ economy and make global trade fairer.

He has repeatedly called India a tariff abuser and is keen to trim a $45bn (£33bn) trade deficit with Asia’s third largest economy.

Trade negotiations between Delhi and Washington have been under way for several months, and are set to renew with US negotiators expected to arrive in India on 25 August.

But experts say India’s refusal to reduce duties on agriculture and dairy products has been a major thorn in the negotiations.

Trump’s new 50% tariff rate on India is set to come into effect on 27 August, which some experts have said is akin to an embargo on trade between the two countries.

It makes India the most heavily taxed US trading partner in Asia and is expected to severely hamper its exports focused industries like textiles and jewellery, and could drag India’s growth down by as much as half a percent.

Some Alaskans are evacuating their homes as meltwater escapes a basin dammed by the Mendenhall Glacier – raising fears of record-breaking flooding in the US state’s capital city.

The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Juneau has issued a flood warning as glacial outburst water flows into Mendenhall River, putting homes in the area at risk.

For days, local officials have warned residents they may be forced to evacuate. On Tuesday, they confirmed water had begun escaping the ice dam and flooding was expected in the coming days.

The glacier, a popular tourist attraction, is 12 miles (19km) from Juneau.

Water levels reached 9.85ft (3m) on Tuesday, below major flooding levels which begin at 14ft, the NWS said. But by Wednesday morning they were above 16ft, which is considered a crest.

“This will be a new record, based on all of the information that we have,” Nicole Ferrin, a weather service meteorologist, said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The Juneau city website explains that glacial lake outbursts happen when a lake of melting snow and ice and rain drains rapidly. It compares the process to pulling out a plug from a full bathtub. When meltwaters reach a certain level, they can overtop a glacier that previously held them back.

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy issued a state disaster declaration on Sunday because of the “imminent threat of catastrophic flooding from a glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF)” in the Juneau area.

Flooding has been an annual concern in the area since 2011, as homes have been damaged and swept away by deluges. Last year, hundreds of residences were damaged.

Mountain glaciers are shrinking around the world as temperatures rise.

Extra meltwater can collect to form glacial lakes. Scientists have observed an increasing number and size of these lakes globally since 1990.

The natural dams of ice and rock that hold the lakes in place can fail suddenly and unpredictably, triggering floods.

Researchers expect climate change to increase the number of these outburst floods in future, although past trends – and the causes of individual floods – are complicated.

Speculation has swirled over whether the Trump-Putin summit will result in the map of Ukraine being forcibly – and fundamentally – altered.

Russia has laid claim to vast parts of Ukraine since 2014, when President Vladimir Putin made his first move.

At the time, in the space of a short few months, Moscow carried out the relatively bloodless occupation and annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

But that was followed by a Russian-backed separatist movement in the eastern Donbas region – specifically the two regions, or “oblasts”, known as Donetsk and Luhansk.

A war simmered there for eight years.

Ukraine lost around 14,000 soldiers and civilians during this period.

But in February 2022, Putin launched his full-scale invasion. Russian troops quickly reached the outskirts of Kyiv and seized huge swathes of the south, including big chunks of two more oblasts, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

The war has ebbed and flowed ever since. Russia now controls rather less territory – down from about 27% in the spring of 2022 to around 20% now. In the east, Russian forces are advancing, but very slowly and at great cost.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine says an unconditional ceasefire is needed now. European allies also insist on a halt in fighting. US President Donald Trump says that is what he has been trying to achieve.

But in the run-up to his Alaska summit with Putin, Trump has started talking, instead about territorial swaps. That has sent shockwaves across Kyiv and Europe.

It is not at all clear what land Trump is referring to, or what those swaps could look like, given that all the territory in question legally belongs to Ukraine.

As of August 2025, the territory of Ukraine looks as follows:

Russia would dearly love to expand its control over the entirety of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Some reports suggest that Putin is demanding that Ukraine hand over the remaining territory it controls in both oblasts.

But that would mean Kyiv giving up on places which tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have died trying to protect – cities like Kramatorsk and Slovyansk, and a fortified line protecting Ukrainian territory to the north and west.

For Kyiv, such a concession would be a bitter pill to swallow. For Moscow, whose losses have been even more catastrophic, it would be seen as victory.

Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukraine “could not” leave the Donbas as Moscow would use the region as a springboard to attack the rest of the country.

In recent days, Russian forces appear to be pushing hard, and making progress, near the town of Dobropillya. But it’s not yet clear whether this marks a significant strategic move or just an effort to show Trump that Moscow has the upper hand.

What about Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, captured in 2022?

Here, it’s reported, Russia is offering to halt its offensive and freeze the lines.

But would Russia be prepared to give any of it back?

On Monday, Trump talked vaguely about “ocean-front property” – presumably a reference to some of this shoreline, along the Sea of Azov or Black Sea.

But this is all part of Putin’s strategically vital land bridge connecting Russia to occupied Crimea.

It’s hard to see the Russian leader agreeing to give any of it up. Like Donetsk and Luhansk, Putin regards these places as part of Russia, and illegally annexed them three years ago in four referendums widely regarded as a sham.

For Ukraine, and Europe, territorial swaps – at this very early stage of the talks – are a non-starter.

A discussion about future borders may eventually come, but only when the war has stopped and Ukraine’s security has been guaranteed.

When JD Vance stepped onto Scottish soil on Wednesday he became the second member of the White House team to visit the country in a month.

The vice-president is believed to be staying in Ayrshire, just north of Galloway, the area he says his forebears left in the 17th Century.

But while his boss, President Donald Trump, is half-Scottish – his mother was born in Lewis in the Western Isles – Vance’s claim to Caledonian blood has come under some questioning.

And this is important because in his own way the vice-president is a follower of the modern creed his Maga allies claim to hate – identity politics.

That’s loosely defined as people of a particular group – perhaps racial, sexual or social – putting that group’s goals ahead of traditional party politics.

Or as Vance once put it: “To understand me, you must understand that I am a Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart.”

He made that claim in his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, a bestseller which was subsequently turned into an Oscar-nominated film starring Glenn Close and Amy Adams.

The book describes a childhood spent surrounded by poverty and substance abuse in Appalachia, the broad mountainous region which extends across the eastern USA from Canada to the Deep South.

It’s estimated that about 90% of the area’s early European immigrants came in the 17th Century from the lands which stretch along both sides of the Scottish-English border.

These included Ayrshire, Galloway, Dumfriesshire and the areas now known as the Scottish Borders. Vance claims his ancestors were from Galloway and were part of this migration.

The terms Scots-Irish, Scotch-Irish and Ulster-Scots relate to people who left Scotland, settled as part of the Ulster plantation and then moved on to North America.

Appalachia today includes pockets of extreme poverty and its inhabitants are often offensively depicted as “hillbillies” – simple, unsophisticated and poor.

Vance’s memoir is an attempt to reclaim that tradition. He writes: “I may be white, but I do not identify with the WASPs (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) of the Northeast.

“Instead, I identify with the millions of working-class white Americans of Scots-Irish descent who have no college degree.

“To these folks, poverty is the family tradition… Americans call them hillbillies, rednecks, or white trash. I call them neighbours, friends and family.”

The book sets out Vance’s developing political ideas as it charts his move towards conservatism.

And though he was at the time a critic of Donald Trump, the book explains why poor rural voters in places like Appalachia were becoming attracted to the Maga movement.

But while Vance makes explicit links between his family heritage and his political views, others are more sceptical.

Speaking on the BBC’s Good Morning Scotland programme, Prof Angelia Wilson of the University of Manchester said Vance has used his Scots-Irish heritage to craft his image.

“What we know about his background is often what he wants us to know about his background and his construction of the narrative has been very much based on the American dream,” she said.

“Everybody who is white and working class in the American south claims to be of some sort of Scotch-Irish heritage. There is some absolute truth there.

“There’s also a bit of cultural construction happening because it was those in the north-east, those ‘damn Yankees’ that claimed to be English.”

Prof Wilson believes the administration Vance is now part of does not especially represent the heritage he likes to embrace.

“The values that he may have grown up with, that might ring true with Scottish stereotypes about being financially conservative and valuing families and community and helping those in need, are certainly not values that Trump and Maga talk about now.

“So he is now not a man of Scottish values,” she said.

Prof Euan Hague of DePaul University in Chicago is an expert in white racial identities and the cultural relationships between Scotland and America.

He believes Vance’s identification with the Scots-Irish community has actually brought him definite political benefits.

“He can align himself with the Trump voters,” he says. “In 2016, he was strongly against Donald Trump. I think that’s well known.

“I think part of it is these are the kinds of self identities that Trump has that have really moved towards sort of supporting Trump. The sort of lower income rural white population.

“And so by emphasising that as part of his core identity, JD Vance, I think, can tap into those connections. And these ideas of strength, self-reliance, very kind of “small c” conservative connection to family and patriotism and nation.

“The Scots-Irish becomes a kind of shorthand for a lot of the things that we’re seeing from the kind of cultural perspectives of the current administration.”

If this all sounds a little politically cynical, it should be said there are many things to celebrate about the links between Scotland and the United States.

Over the past 26 years, Tartan Day has grown into a huge celebration. Set up to mimic the traditional St Patrick’s Day celebrations enjoyed by the Irish-American community in cities across the USA, it brings celebrities, pipe bands, business leaders and politicians out on the streets of New York every April.

It is seen as a key way of promoting Scotland across North America.

Politicians from different parts of the political spectrum have said Scots should make every effort to get along with President Trump as a means of getting any political and economic advantage out of his recent trip to his mother’s homeland.

The Vance trip is another opportunity to do that, though this visit promises to be a much more low-key, private affair.

After all, he may well at some point succeed his boss into the West Wing. A future President Vance would see himself as the second chief executive in a row with Scottish heritage.

Others may question just how Scottish he is or how much that even means. But if it’s how he sees himself, it is a factor this week and for the future.

The vice president of the United States has been labelled “a bit of a mouth” after holidaying with his family in an English country manor this week.

JD Vance used the break in the peaceful Cotswolds to relax with his family, go fishing with the foreign Secretary and make the trip to RAF Fairford where US Air Force personnel are based.

The security that comes with having such a high-profile guest in the manor, plus Mr Vance’s outspoken nature, has not gone down well with some residents.

“He’s a bit of a mouth – to put it politely as possible,” said Josh Packford.

“I think he thought he was going to be a bit more important than he really is,” Mr Packford added.

The visit has meant a lot of changes to village life with road closures, ID checks and 20-vehicle motorcades

Resident Shelley Walsh said while some Americans might be pleased to see him, “I don’t think the locals are too happy about the roads being closed.”

JD Vance has been more outspoken than many other vice presidents since coming to office in January.

In February, he was seen to lead an attack on Ukraine’s President Volodomyr Zelensky, in an extraordinary meeting in the Oval Office.

Moments like this have earned him a reputation that has not endeared him to some in the Cotswolds.

“A lot of people are not particularly keen on Trump unfortunately,” said Danielle Swann.

“I think because of that a lot of people are going to see the vice president coming here as a bad thing.”

Not all residents were entirely negative about the visit.

“It’s a shame he hasn’t popped in to see us on the market today, he could’ve got some nice local produce to eat,” said James Fallows, a market trader in Fairford.

Richard Bennett added: “He’s probably doing a bit of fishing and a bit of golfing while he’s here and I’m sure it’s a total waste of taxpayers money but we’d make him welcome here as everyone does in the Cotswolds.”

Mr Vance also took the opportunity to meet members of the US military at RAF Fairford – where the United States Air Force’s 501st Combat Support Wing and the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron are currently stationed.

During the visit, Vance was briefed on the base’s capabilities and addressed personnel.

“I’m pretty jealous, this is a pretty fine duty station,” he said to the assembled troops.

“This is a beautiful country – I’ve had some downtime with the family and we’ve had a very good time here in England – the United Kingdom is of course one of our great allies,” he added.

“We are proud of the special relationship and we are proud to work together with our British friends right here at Fairford.”

Mr Vance is expected to continue his holiday with a trip to Scotland.