Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died days after being doused in petrol and set on fire by a former boyfriend.

The 33-year-old Ugandan marathon runner, who competed in the recent Paris Olympics, had suffered extensive burns after Sunday’s attack.

The authorities in north-west Kenya, where Cheptegei lived and trained, said she was targeted after returning home from church with her two daughters.

Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, said that he had lost a “very supportive” daughter. Fellow Ugandan athlete James Kirwa told the BBC about her generosity and how she had helped out other runners financially.

A report filed by a local administrator alleged the athlete and her ex-partner had been wrangling over a piece of land. Police say an investigation is under way.

Cheptegei, from a region just across the border in Uganda, is said to have bought a plot in Trans Nzoia county and built a house to be near Kenya’s elite athletics training centres.

Attacks on women have become a major concern in Kenya. In 2022 at least 34% of women said they had experienced physical violence, according to a national survey.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the urgent need to combat gender-based violence, which has increasingly affected even elite sports,” Kenya’s Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said.

Speaking to journalists outside the hospital where she had been treated, Mr Cheptegei asked the Kenyan government to ensure justice was done after the death of his daughter.

“We have lost our breadwinner,” he added and wondered how her two children, aged 12 and 13, would “proceed with their education”.

Dr Kimani Mbugua, a consultant at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, told local media that the staff did all they could for her but the athlete “had a severe percentage of burns, which unfortunately led to multi-organ failure, which ultimately led to her passing this morning at 05:30 [02:30 GMT]”.

Kirwa, who often trained with Cheptegei and had visited her in hospital, told the BBC she “was a very affable person. [She] helped us all even financially and she brought me training shoes when she came back from the Olympics. She was like an older sister to me”.

Uganda’s athletics federation said in a post on X: “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our athlete, Rebecca Cheptegei early this morning who tragically fell victim to domestic violence. As a federation, we condemn such acts and call for justice. May her soul rest In Peace.”

• Why men in Kenya fail to condemn deadly misogyny
• A woman’s murder exposes Kenya’s toxic online misogyny

“This is heart-breaking. Even more heart-breaking that it’s not the first time the athletics community has lost such an incredible female athlete to domestic violence,” British Olympian Eilish McColgan wrote on X.

Cheptegei’s former boyfriend was also admitted to the hospital in Eldoret – but with less severe burns. He is still in intensive care but his condition was “improving and stable”, Moi hospital’s Dr Owen Menach said.

Earlier, local police chief Jeremiah ole Kosiom was quoted by local media as saying: “The couple were heard quarrelling outside their house. During the altercation, the boyfriend was seen pouring a liquid on the woman before burning her.”

“This was a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will continue to endure,” the head of Uganda’s Olympic committee Donald Rukare said on X.

Talking to reporters earlier in the week, her father said that he prayed “for justice for my daughter”, adding that he had never seen such an inhumane act in his life.

Uganda’s Sports Minister Peter Ogwang said arrangements were being made to transport Cheptegei’s body back to Uganda for burial.

Cheptegei finished 44th in the marathon at the recent Paris Olympics.

She also won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.

Her death comes after the killings of fellow East African athletes Agnes Tirop in 2021 and Damaris Mutua the following year, with their partners identified as the main suspects in both cases by the authorities.

Tirop’s husband is currently facing murder charges, which he denies, while a hunt for Mutua’s boyfriend continues.

“Today has been a sad moment for me. It has been a sad moment for athletes because it really reminded us [of] the day that Agnes was murdered,” Kenyan athlete Joan Chelimo told the BBC.

She is involved in Tirop Angels, an organisation she said was set up as a “wake-up call” after Tirop’s murder to address gender-based violence.

“We say we need to unite together as athletes and just try to raise awareness, create a place where women can just come and speak up. But it is still on the rise.”

Cheptegei’s friend Milcah Chemos-Cheywa, a Kenyan athlete who with her in Paris, echoed these feelings.

“I can say we are still in shock, and we are in pain, especially as athletes, and this thing happening in Kenya,” she told the Reuters news agency. “We remember the case of Agnes Tirop, now it has come to Rebecca, so we are not happy.’’

French President Emmanuel Macron has named Michel Barnier as prime minister almost two months after France’s snap elections ended in political deadlock.

Mr Barnier, 73, is the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator and led talks with the UK government between 2016 and 2019.

A veteran of the right-wing Republicans (LR) party, he has had a long political career and filled various senior posts, both in France and within the EU.

He will now have to form a government that can survive a National Assembly divided into three big political blocs, with none able to form a clear majority.

Known in France as , Mr Barnier will be France’s oldest prime minister since the Fifth Republic came into being in 1958.

Three years ago, he tried and failed to become his party’s candidate to take on President Macron for the French presidency. He said he wanted to limit and take control of immigration.

He is set to succeed Gabriel Attal, France’s youngest ever prime minister, who President Macron first appointed prime minister in early 2024 and who has stayed in post as caretaker since July.

It has taken President Macron 60 days to make up his mind on choosing a prime minister, having called a “political truce” during the Paris Olympics.

But Mr Barnier will need all his political skills to navigate the coming weeks, with the centre-left Socialists already planning to challenge his appointment with a vote of confidence.

Mr Macron’s presidency lasts until 2027. Normally the government comes from the president’s party, as they are elected weeks apart.

But the man who has called himself “the master of the clocks” changed that when he called snap elections in June and his centrists came second to the left-wing New Popular Front.

President Macron has interviewed several potential candidates for the role of prime minister, but his task was complicated by the need to come up with a name who could survive a so-called censure vote on their first appearance in the National Assembly.

The Elysée Palace said that by appointing Mr Barnier, the president had ensured that the prime minister and future government would offer the greatest possible stability and the broadest possible unity.

Mr Barnier had been given the task of forming a unifying government “in the service of the country and the French people”, the presidency stressed.

Mr Barnier’s immediate challenge will be to steer through France’s 2025 budget and he has until 1 October to submit a draft plan to the National Assembly.

Gabriel Attal has already been working on a provisional budget over the summer, but getting it past MPs will require all Mr Barnier’s political skills.

His nomination has already caused discontent within the New Popular Front (NFP), whose own candidate for prime minister was rejected by the president.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the radical France Unbowed (LFI) – the biggest of the four parties that make up the NFP – said the election had been “stolen from the French people”.

Instead of coming from the the alliance that came first on 7 July, he complained that the prime minister would be “a member of a party that came last”, referring to the Republicans.

“This is now essentially a Macron-Le Pen government,” said Mr Mélenchon, referring to the leader of the far-right National Rally (RN).

He then called for people to join a left-wing protest against Mr Macron’s decision planned for Saturday.

To survive a vote of confidence, Mr Barnier will need to persuade 289 MPs in the 577-seat National Assembly to back his government.

Marine Le Pen has made clear her party will not take part in his administration, but she said he at least appeared to meet National Rally’s initial requirement, as someone who “respected different political forces”.

Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old president of the RN, said Mr Barnier would be judged on his words, his actions and his decisions on France’s next budget, which has to be put before parliament by 1 October.

He cited the cost of living, security and immigration as major emergencies for the French people, adding that “we hold all means of political action in reserve if this is not the case in the coming weeks”.

Mr Barnier is likely to attract support from the president’s centrist Ensemble alliance. Macron ally Yaël Braun-Pivet, who is president of the National Assembly, congratulated the nominee and said MPs would now have to play their full part: “Our mandate obliges us to.”

The former Brexit negotiator had only emerged as a potential candidate late on Wednesday afternoon.

Until then, two other experienced politicians had been touted as most likely candidates: former Socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Republicans regional leader Xavier Bertrand. But it soon became apparent that neither would have survived a vote of confidence.

That was Mr Macron’s explanation for turning down the left-wing candidate, Lucie Castets, a senior civil servant in Paris who he said would have fallen at the first hurdle.

The president has been widely criticised for igniting France’s political crisis.

A recent opinion poll suggested that 51% of French voters thought the president should resign.

There is little chance of that, but the man Mr Macron picked as his first prime minister in 2017, Édouard Philippe, has now put his name forward three years early for the next presidential election.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has told the BBC that justice must be seen to be done after seeking an arrest warrant for Israel’s prime minister and defence minister.

Karim Khan said it was important to show the court would hold all nations to the same standard in relation to alleged war crimes. He also welcomed the new UK government’s decision to drop its opposition to the arrest warrants.

“There’s a difference of tone and I think of substance in relation to international law by the new government. And I think that’s welcome,” he told Political Thinking with Nick Robinson.

He has also requested warrants for three Hamas leaders, two of whom have since been killed.

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Khan explained the ICC needed to request warrants for leaders on both sides to ensure people around the world thought the court was applying “the law equally based upon some common standards”.

“If one had applied for warrants in relation to Israeli officials and not for Gaza, [some would] say: ‘well, this is an obscenity’ and, ‘how on earth is that possible?’” he said.

“You can’t have one approach for countries where there’s support, whether it’s Nato support, European support [and] powerful countries behind you, and a different approach where you have clear jurisdiction,” he added.

In May, Mr Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders Yahiya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from the day of Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October onwards.

However the request for the warrants must yet be approved by ICC judges.

Mr Khan said Israel’s prime minister and defence minister were suspected of crimes including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, murder, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, and extermination.

He accused the Hamas leaders of having committed crimes including extermination, murder, hostage taking, rape and sexual violence, and torture.

Israel and Hamas have both rejected the allegations. US President Joe Biden said the application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders was “outrageous”.

But Mr Khan told the BBC that unlike his critics, he had seen the evidence the warrant requests were based on.

“I have one advantage at least. Hopefully even they will concede I’ve seen the evidence. They haven’t,” he said.

“The application is not public. It is confidential. It is filed to the chamber. So they are guessing what evidence has been submitted.”

The previous UK Conservative government had indicated it planned to make a submission to the court, having questioned the right of the prosecutor to apply for a warrant against the Israeli leaders.

But in July, a spokesperson for the Labour administration which succeeded it said the issue was a “matter for the court” and therefore would not be making a submission.

Mr Khan told the BBC he had been pressured by some world leaders not to issue warrants.

“Several leaders and others told me and advised me and cautioned me,” he said.

Turning to the war in Ukraine, Mr Khan said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin would “see the inside of a courtroom”, pointing to historic cases of other world leaders being brought before the court.

“Nothing is permanent. Life is transitory. And every political life ends in failure,” he said.

Mr Putin was not arrested during his visit on Tuesday to Mongolia, an ICC signatory, despite the valid arrest warrant for alleged war crimes committed during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian leader is wanted for the alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children since the start of the war in 2022.

Moscow has previously denied the allegations and said the warrants were “outrageous”.

Gillian Anderson tells me she is “very comfortable” talking about sex. The clues were obvious even before we met to talk about her new book, Want, a collection of women’s sexual fantasies.

The actor – once deemed the sexiest woman in the world by FHM magazine – wore a dress covered in vulvas to an awards ceremony and has a soft drinks brand called the G Spot.

She’ll forever be associated with frank discussions about intimate activities, after her role as a sex therapist in the hit Netflix show Sex Education.

But Anderson says even she “struggled” to express her own sexual fantasy in words for the book, as requested by her publishers.

“Suddenly describing the imagery that’s been in my head for a while and the action of doing that, added a level of intimacy that I wouldn’t have expected, and I wouldn’t have expected myself to be so shy around it.”

Anderson’s fantasy is hidden amongst 174 in a book she curated that is not for the prudish.

The actor, who first made her mark as Dana Scully in the TV show The X Files, and her publishers received 1,800 anonymous submissions from women around the world.

The letters were whittled down and collated into 13 chapters with titles including “To Be Worshipped”, “Exploration”, “Power and Submission” and “The Watchers and the Watched”.

The contributors were self-selecting and anonymous detailing only sexual identity, age, income, relationship status.

Clinical psychologist Professor Susan Young, who’s read the book, tells me “sexual fantasies are a healthy and normal aspect of sexual expression, provided they do not cause distress and harm”.

They allow people to explore “in a safe, private and controlled environment – their minds”.

Some of the fantasies in Want are moving – the bereaved woman who craves touch and mourns the secondary loss of sexual relations. “I do wish there were more discussion of grief and spouse loss and sexuality,” she writes.

Others are almost pastiches – a fantasy about “very hot, sensual, passionate sex” with Harry Styles.

One contributor, whose orthodox religion forbids women from stepping up to the altar, fantasises about getting intimate on an altar in an abandoned church.

Anderson describes the stories as “honest and raw and intimate and beautiful”, adding: “We’ve got letters fantasising about having sex with strangers and talking about being turned on by the idea of voyeurism.”

“What I was most interested in was the joy and the enjoyment that the women had clearly in writing, how much it opened them up to understanding themselves more, it seemed. Ultimately, this is not my book. This is the book of every woman who contributed.”

Want is a 21st Century take on another collection of women’s fantasies, My Secret Garden, published in 1973. The journalist Nancy Friday’s groundbreaking book became a global bestseller, the first time female desires had been made so public.

Fifty-one years after My Secret Garden, Anderson says she was “surprised” how much shame there still is around talking about sex and sharing sexual fantasies with friends or partners.

“I would have thought there would be less of it today” and it was “quite an eye opener.”

Her book is an attempt to get us all to be more upfront about our desires.

“Sex and sexual fantasy are still very much taboo, even though we have shows like Sex Education and Euphoria and Fifty Shades of Grey,” Anderson says. And then there’s “the multi-billion dollar porn industry,” which she describes as being “in our faces, on our screens, on our phones all the time”.

One of the contributions in Want begins: “I found it so difficult to understand what truly my own fantasies are. So much of what is played out in porn is geared towards men, and so many expectations set on us as women, that I have a very difficult time navigating what really turns me on versus how I feel I should perform.”

Anderson would encourage young people to read her book “because there are so many different versions of how sex can be that is outside what is handed to them by the porn industry”.

“There’s a lot of tenderness and women really wanting to be seen for themselves and who they are and be cared for – and there’s a lot of romance in it as well.”

Prof Young highlights a difference between male and female desire. “Women’s fantasies often include an emotional or narrative context that is likely to differ from the more visual, and sexually explicit content reported by men.”

Porn is “typically less attractive to women as pornography is typically generated and focused on men’s desires”, she adds.

In 1973, My Secret Garden contained explicit chapters about fantasies of non-consensual and illegal sex, including a chapter of rape fantasies.

We live in more sensitive times and in 2024, Anderson wanted to create “a safe space for women to share and for women to read and not feel like they have to be wary or afraid of what they’re going to find from one page to the next”.

It was “the right call” to refuse “letters that bordered on illegality or bestiality or incest”, she says.

Despite that choice, a short chapter The Captive contains material Anderson says strays into “dangerous topics and it almost felt disingenuous for us not to include them because they are fantasies that women have”.

Prof Young says these types of fantasy “about intense domination, submission, violent and/or even non-consensual acts are not intended to be acted upon”.

“They provide a safe place to explore interests and desires that are considered taboo, dangerous or socially unacceptable.”

Crucially, for Anderson, in fantasy the woman “is in charge, she can decide with whom, when, where, how much, how often, when to stop, when to continue”.

“So it feels like an empowering admission and revelation rather than something that is under somebody else’s control.”

The 56-year-old star, very much in her prime, recalls “a fair few” of the characters she has played have taught her about sex and sexuality. It’s “vital” for her to understand the inner lives, desires and fantasies of these women, in order to understand “what makes them tick”.

We don’t have time to get into what that meant for her preparation for roles including Miss Havisham in Great Expectations or Emily Maitlis in Emmy-nominated Scoop, a dramatisation of Newsnight’s car-crash interview with Prince Andrew.

But she tells me firmly, when it came to her role in The Crown, she “did not think about Margaret Thatcher’s sexual fantasies”.

In person, Anderson is every inch the star; glowing and smooth-skinned. Some of the anonymous women in her book struggle with body image and don’t feel desirable.

Even Anderson admits to having “gone through periods where it’s struck me quite harshly that I too am ageing”.

She continues: “Being on camera, there are certainly times… when I’m seeing the final product and thinking, ‘Oh my God, is that really what I look like?’”

Her philosophy is to remember “that’s going to be the youngest that I look from here on out, so I better embrace it”.

Some of her peers resort to plastic surgery. “I haven’t reached for that yet,” she notes. “But at some point, who knows?”

She’s recently finished shooting a female-led period western for Netflix called The Abandons. Anderson plays a silver baron, one of a pair of “duelling matriarchs” opposite Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey.

“I own the town… This is my town. I say that a lot as I’m walking down the middle of the town,” she smiles.

When we met, Anderson sounded British, but often, in interviews and on her Instagram feed, her accent is American.

She was born in the US but has lived permanently in Britain for decades.

“My cells are American, but my soul is British,” she tells me.

Her next role is a Channel 4 drama that she’s about to start filming in Belfast. Her Northern Irish accent is also “not bad, actually”, she says.

But before that, there’s a round of book publicity to get through. And the obvious question, asked not just by me I assume: can she offer up any clues which fantasy is hers?

“No way,” she laughs. Like the others “mine will stay anonymous”.

You can see the full interview with Gillian Anderson on BBC iPlayer.

A French woman who was raped by unknown men over 10 years after being drugged to sleep by her husband told a court of her horror at learning how she had been abused.

Gisèle Pélicot, who is 72, was giving evidence on day three of the trial in Avignon, south-east France, of 51 men – including her husband of 50 years, Dominique. All are accused of rape.

Documents before court indicate that Dominique Pélicot, 71, admitted to police that he got satisfaction from watching other men have sex with his unconscious wife.

Many defendants in the case contest the rape charge against them, claiming that they thought they were taking part in a consensual sex game.

This is a case that has shocked France, all the more so because the trial is being held in public.

Gisèle Pélicot waived her right to anonymity to shift the “shame” back onto the accused, her legal team has previously said.

Taking the stand on Thursday, she said she was speaking for “every woman who’s been drugged without knowing it… so that no woman has to suffer.”

She recalled the moment in November 2020 when she was asked by police to attend an interview alongside her husband.

He had recently been caught taking under-skirt photographs of women at a supermarket, and Gisèle told the court she believed the meeting with police was a formality related to that incident.

“The police officer asked me about my sex life,” she told the court. “I told him I had never practised partner-swapping or threesomes. I said I was a one-man woman. I couldn’t bear any man’s hands on me other than my husband’s.

“But after an hour the officer said, ‘I am going to show you some things which you will not find pleasant’. He opened a folder and he showed me a photograph.

“I did not recognise either the man or the woman asleep on the bed. The officer asked: ‘Madame, is this your bed and bedside table?’

“It was hard to recognise myself dressed up in a way that was unfamiliar. Then he showed me a second photo and a third.

“I asked him to stop. It was unbearable. I was inert, in my bed, and a man was raping me. My world fell apart.”

Gisèle said that up until then their marriage had been generally happy, and she and her husband had overcome a number of financial and health-related difficulties. She said she had forgiven the upskirting after he promised her that it had been a one-off incident.

“All that we had built together had gone. Our three children, seven grandchildren. We used to be an ideal couple.

“I just wanted to disappear. But I had to tell my children their father was under arrest. I asked my son-in-law to stay next to my daughter when I told her that her father had raped me, and had me raped by others.

“She let out a howl, whose sound is still etched on my mind.”

In the coming days, the court will hear more evidence from the investigation, about how Dominique allegedly contacted men via sex-chat websites and invited them to his suburban home in Mazan, a town north-east of Avignon.

Police claim the men were given strict instructions. They had to park at some distance from the house so as to not attract attention, and to wait for up to an hour so that the sleeping drugs which he had given Gisèle could take effect.

They further claim that, once in the home, the men were told to undress in the kitchen, and then to warm their hands with hot water or on a radiator. Tobacco and perfume were not allowed in case they awoke Gisèle. Condoms were not required.

No money changed hands.

According to the investigation, Dominique watched and filmed the proceedings, eventually creating a hard-drive file with some 4,000 photos and videos on it. It was as a result of the upskirting episode that police found the files on his computer.

Police say they have evidence of around 200 rapes carried out between 2011 and 2020, initially at their home outside Paris, but mainly in Mazan, where they moved in 2013.

Investigators allege that just over half the rapes were carried out by her husband. Most of the other men lived only a few kilometres away.

Asked Thursday by the judge if she knew any of the accused, Gisèle said she recognised only one.

“He was our neighbour. He came over to check our bikes. I used to see him at the bakery. He was always polite. I had no idea he was coming to rape me.”

Gisèle was then reminded by the judge that in order to respect the presumption of innocence, it had been agreed in court not to use the word rape but “sex scene”.

She replied: “I just think they should recognise the facts. When I think of what they have done I am overcome with disgust. They should at least have the responsibility to recognise what they did.”

After the truth emerged, Gisèle found that she was carrying four sexually-transmitted diseases.

“I have had no sympathy from any of the accused. One who was HIV-positive came six times. Not once did my husband express any concern about my health,” she said.

She is now in the process of divorcing him.

After speaking for two hours in front of Dominique and the other accused, she said: “Inside me, it is a scene of devastation. The façade may look solid… but behind it…”

Pope Francis has warned against using religion to fuel conflict on his last day of his visit to Indonesia, the first stop in his tour around the Asia Pacific region.

At the Istiqlal mosque in the capital Jakarta, the Pope signed a declaration on religious harmony and environmental protection with the mosque’s grand imam and met with local leaders of six religions.

The 87-year-old had earlier on Tuesday kicked off a 11-day visit to the region, the longest foreign trip of his papacy.

After celebrating mass before an anticipated crowd of 80,000 in Indonesia’s main football stadium later in the day, he will move to Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste and Singapore.

Speaking at the mosque – the largest in South East Asia – the Pope on Thursday said people from different religions had to know “we are all brothers, all pilgrims, all on our way to God, beyond what differentiates us”.

Humanity is facing a “serious crisis” brought about by war, conflict and the destruction of the environment, he added.

The Pope also visited a 28m (91ft) tunnel that connects Istiqlal mosque to a Catholic cathedral across the street.

He and grand imam Nasaruddin Umar stood at the entrace to the “tunnel of friendship”, which he said was an “eloquent sign” of how people of different beliefs could share roots.

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim majority country and only 3% of its 275 million are Catholics.

Indonesia has six officially recognised religions — Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism.

The Pope has ahead of him a gruelling schedule of public appreances and meetings with Church leaders in the Asia-Pacific, one of only a few places in the world where the Catholic Church is growing in terms of baptised faithful and religious vocations.

In Indonesia, he has been seen moving around and waving to adoring crowds from his wheelchair, underscoring concerns about his spate of health issues.

The Pope had earlier on Wednesday, the second day of his three-day visit, spoke alongside the country’s outgoing president, Joko Widodo in Jakarta.

There, he said Indonesia should live up to its promise of “harmony in diversity”.

He also praised Indonesians for having large families with up to five children.

“Keep it up, you’re an example for everyone, for all the countries that maybe, and this might sound funny, (where) these families prefer to have a cat or a little dog instead of a child,” he said.

His remarks were reminiscent of two years ago, where the Pope said having pets instead of kids diminishes the “humanity” of married couples.

Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty to revised federal charges against him over his alleged attempts to interfere in the 2020 election.

Jack Smith, the special counsel on the case, updated the wording of the charges last week, after the US Supreme Court ruled that presidents had broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.

Trump has denied accusations that he pressed officials to reverse the 2020 election results, knowingly spread lies about election fraud and exploited a riot at the US Capitol to delay the certification of Joe Biden’s victory.

His lawyers officially entered the not guilty plea on his behalf at an arraignment hearing on Thursday in Washington.

Trump waived his right to be present at the hearing.

The revised indictment leaves in place the four charges Trump is accused of committing: conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.

But these charges are now related to Trump’s status as a political candidate rather than a sitting president.

“The defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceeding, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” read one new line in the indictment.

Trump had pleaded not guilty to the original charges.

He has categorised the case in the past as a “witch hunt” designed to “distract the American people” from the upcoming 2024 presidential election.

Several key allegations against Trump remain, including that he attempted to persuade Vice-President Mike Pence to obstruct Mr Biden’s election certification – a point that the presiding judge over the case, Tanya Chutkan, and Trump’s legal team sparred over during Thursday’s hearing.

Trump’s laweyer John Lauro argued the new indictment has a “major problem” because the Supreme Court had decided that communication between Trump and Mr Pence constitutes an official act.

Judge Chutkan responded: “No, I would disagree with you Mr Lauro, they have not decided that. They have sent that back to me for me to figure that out.”

It is still unclear when the case would head to trial, and whether that would happen before November’s election.

At Thursday’s arraignment hearing, the presiding judge on the case, Judge Tanya Chutkan, said she will issue a schedule for the case “as soon as possible”.

“There needs to be some forward movement in this case, regardless of when the election is held,” she said.

The federal case over the 2020 election is one of several legal troubles facing Trump.

In another case led by Mr Smith, Trump is accused of taking classified documents back to his Florida home after leaving office.

That case has been dismissed by a Florida judge, but Mr Smith has appealed that decision.

Separately in Georgia, Trump and 18 other defendants are also accused of criminally conspiring to overturn his narrow defeat in 2020. He has pleaded not guilty, and a trial date has not been set.

Meanwhile, Trump awaits sentencing in New York for falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments made to a porn star.

Ukraine’s parliament has approved Andrii Sybiha, a 49-year-old former diplomat and ex-adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, as the country’s new foreign minister.

It comes as Mr Zelensky carries out his biggest government reshuffle since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, with a number of appointments expected over the course of Thursday.

The shake-up has been expected for months, with almost 25% of the president’s cabinet left holding office in an acting capacity after a spate of resignations and dismissals.

But critics have accused the president of seeking to centralise power around his office, with several of the new ministers having once served as his advisers.

Mr Sybiha will replace Dmytro Kuleba at the foreign ministry, but his appointment is not expected to alter policy significantly. President Zelensky and his office have broadly overseen international relations from the presidential palace.

The ex-ambassador is seen by some as being closer to Andriy Yermak, the increasingly powerful presidential chief of staff. Mr Yermak was said to have clashed with Mr Kuleba.

Another key adviser to the president, Oleksiy Kuleba, has been appointed as deputy prime minister in charge of reconstruction, regions and infrastructure. He previously served as deputy head of the presidential office.

Other changes include the promotion of 38-year-old Olha Stefanyshyna. She has been reappointed as deputy prime minister in charge of European integration, while also being handed the justice portfolio.

Analysts say the move represents Ukraine’s desire to move forward with its bid for EU membership. She told MPs on Wednesday that “hundreds and thousands” of legal changes are needed before Kyiv can become a member of the bloc.

Meanwhile, Herman Smetanin, 32, has been appointed strategic industries minister in charge of domestic arms production, a key position as Kyiv’s forces face intense Russian attacks in the eastern Donetsk region, while continuing their incursion into Russia’s Kursk border province.

In a meeting with his Servant of the People Party on Wednesday, Mr Zelensky reportedly told lawmakers that the changes to his cabinet were intended to increase efficiency and re-energise his government.

Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday, MP Inna Sovsun echoed his claims, saying that the reshuffle was “the best way to bring in new people, new ideas into the government”.

But Dmytro Razumkov, a former ally of Mr Zelensky’s turned opposition MP, said the new changes would have little impact on decision-making, claiming in a Telegram post on Thursday that the “Cabinet of Ministers has not influenced anything for a long time”.

• Zelensky sacks Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi
• Ukraine makes gains in its other war – fighting corruption
• Ukraine says it has uncovered major arms corruption

Another opposition MP, Iryna Gerashchenko, accused Mr Zelensky of “breaking parliamentary tradition” by not being present at votes to approve his new ministers.

She said that the nomination of key posts such as that of foreign minister was a “presidential prerogative”, adding that “always the presidents represented their candidates”.

Parliament also approved new ministers of the environment, culture and telecommunications, veterans affairs and youth and sport.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal welcomed the new appointments, acknowledging that they faced “difficult tasks,” but insisted that “their experience and skills will help in the implementation of our state’s strategic goals”.

In the opening months of the war, President Zelensky largely kept senior political and military figures in place. In May last year, he fired defence minister Oleksii Reznikov after a series of corruption scandals, then sacked Kyiv’s top military commander Valerii Zaluzhnyi earlier this year.

Meanwhile, a recent crackdown on corruption has seen some ministers, including agriculture chief Mykola Solskyi, detained by security services.

Under martial law, Mr Zelensky boasts considerable executive powers. With elections suspended while the war continues, and the Servant of the People Party maintaining a parliamentary majority, there is a limited check on his government, some experts say.

Four people who died when the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily last month suffocated after oxygen depleted in a pocket of air they were trapped in, the Italian news agency Ansa has reported.

Banking executive Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were among the seven people who lost their lives when the vessel went down during a violent storm.

Post-mortem examinations revealed that none of them had water in their lungs, suggesting they did not drown, according to reports.

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch and the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, also died in the incident.

The group was travelling on the yacht following Mr Lynch’s acquittal of fraud charges in the United States earlier this year.

Investigators believe the cabin the four were found in filled with carbon dioxide as the oxygen supply diminished, leading to their deaths.

According to Italian media, divers involved in recovering the bodies found the victims on the left side of the cabins, an indication that they had been trying to reach the last remaining air pockets as the vessel tilted to the right during the sinking.

There were also no signs of external injuries on the four victims.

The remaining post-mortems for Mr Lynch, his daughter Hannah, and Mr Thomas are expected to take place over the next few days.

Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, survived the incident along with 14 others on board.

The superyacht will be raised from the seabed as the investigation continues.

Italian prosecutors have opened an inquiry into suspected manslaughter, placing the boat’s captain, James Cutfield, and two British crew members, Tim Parker Eaton and Matthew Griffiths, under investigation.

Being investigated does not equate to being charged and is a procedural step.

Allegations of whether negligence may have contributed to the yacht’s sinking, such as leaving external doors open, will form part of the investigation.

US officials have secured the release of 135 political prisoners from Nicaragua on humanitarian grounds.

All 135 are Nicaraguan citizens who were unjustly detained, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement.

Those released were taken to Guatemala, where they arrived on Thursday morning local time, and will be given the chance to apply to move to the US.

The Nicaraguan government led by President Daniel Ortega has jailed hundreds of people since mass protests broke out against his rule in 2018.

The United Nations human rights office (OHCHR) published a report on Tuesday documenting the deterioration in Nicaragua’s human rights situation in the past year.

It described a dozen cases in which detainees were tortured through various forms of sexual abuse and electric shocks.

It found that “not only those who express dissenting opinions, but also any individual or organisation that operates independently or does not fall directly under their control” are being persecuted by the Nicaraguan authorities.

More than 5,000 non-governmental groups, private universities and civil society organisations have been closed down on government orders.

Those with links to church groups in particular have been targeted, with priests and pastors arbitrarily arrested, sometimes dragged away by force as they were holding Mass.

Among those freed on Thursday are Catholic laypeople, students and 13 members of Texas-based evangelical organisation Mountain Gateway, the White House statement said.

This is the second time the US has secured the release of a large group of political prisoners from Nicaragua.

In February of last year, 222 detainees were flown from Managua to the United States.

Rights groups have denounced the intensifying crackdown on dissent in the Central American nation for years.

Measures taken against those who have spoken out against Mr Ortega include stripping them of their Nicaraguan citizenship and seizing their homes and assets.

In its statement, the White House called on the Nicaraguan government to “cease the arbitrary arrest and detention of its citizens for merely exercising their fundamental freedoms”.

The Nicaraguan government has not yet commented.

A boy accused of killing four people at his high school in Georgia was interviewed last year by police about anonymous online threats, the FBI has said.

Colt Gray, 14, denied to police in May 2023 he was behind internet posts that contained images of guns, warning of a school shooting.

The suspect opened fire on Wednesday at Apalachee High School in the city of Winder, killing two teachers and two pupils, investigators say. Eight students and one teacher were injured.

He was arrested on campus and will be prosecuted as an adult.

Police have identified the victims as teachers Christina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall and 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo.

In a news conference, Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey said the gun used was an “AR-platform style weapon”.

• What we know about the victims
• The numbers behind mass shootings in US
• LISTEN: What’s it like for a school principal dealing with a shooting?

The FBI said its National Threat Operations Center had alerted local law enforcement in May 2023 after receiving anonymous tips about “online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time”.

The agency said that within 24 hours investigators had determined that the threats originated in Georgia.

Sheriff’s deputies interviewed the boy and his father, who “stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them”, the FBI said.

The suspect, who was 13 years old at the time, denied making the online threats and officials “alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject”.

“At the time, there was no probable cause for an arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels,” added the FBI statement.

Sheriff Jud Smith described the attack as “pure evil” and said officers were on scene within minutes of receiving 911 calls at 10:20 local time (14:20 GMT).

Two officers assigned to the school “immediately encountered the subject”, the sheriff said, adding that the boy “immediately surrendered”.

The boy has been interviewed and spoke with investigators once while in custody, Sheriff Smith said.

The sheriff added that no motive had been identified and that law enforcement did not know of “any targets at this point”.

Students described chaotic scenes as alerts went out that an attacker was on campus. Classes at Apalachee began last month, but many students across the US are returning to schools this week.

Lyela Sayarath, who was in the alleged attacker’s class, told CNN that the suspect left the room at the beginning of an algebra lesson.

She said he came back and knocked on the door, which had locked automatically, but another student refused to let him in after noticing he had a gun.

Lyela told CNN the attacker then went to the classroom next door, where he began shooting.

Marques Coleman, 14, said he saw the attacker holding a “big gun” just before the shooting began.

“I got up, I started running, he started shooting like, like 10 times. He shot at least 10 times,” he told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

“My teacher started barricading the door with desks,” he said.

After standing up, the pupil said he saw “one of my classmates on the ground bleeding so bad”, another girl shot in the leg and a friend shot in the stomach.

A vigil was held on Wednesday evening in the city of 18,000 residents about 50 miles (80km) from Atlanta.

This was the 23rd US school shooting of 2024, according to a database maintained by magazine Education Week, which counts 11 dead and 38 injured in such attacks so far this year.

David Riedman, who runs the K-12 School Shooting Database, told Reuters news agency that the shooting in Georgia was the first “planned attack” at a school during this autumn term.

Tonga’s sleepy capital Nuku’alofa was buzzing last week as leaders from across the Pacific region descended upon it for the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) meeting.

Every so often, a police escort would speed through its streets, sirens blaring. On the bonnet of the cars, small flags identified the foreign delegations. China and Taiwan were visible, as well as the Union Jack and the United Nations.

All of them only participated as dialogue partners or observers. But they made a lot of noise. Their security detail was bigger than those of most of the 18 PIF members, save perhaps New Zealand and Australia. Tonga’s Royal Palace looked understated in comparison with only a sole guard looking after the King, according to sources.

Throughout the week, diplomats called the meeting fascinating – but the underlying concern is that the interest by these delegations is not necessarily in line with what PIF leaders or its people want.

The PIF is made up of 18 members – mostly Pacific Island nations as well as Australia and New Zealand – but delegations from across the world also attend, keen to play a role in the region, which is assuming greater geopolitical significance.

The big players are no longer just Australia and the US. China is a rising power in the Pacific and one that causes ructions.

Nuku’alofa has almost buckled under the pressure of all this interest. Outside one of its top hotels, where the big delegations were staying, there was a billboard looking for staff – declaring “no experience necessary – all positions”.

Inside the hotel, another notice warned that Tonga was facing a scarcity of skilled workers and therefore couldn’t service the general public during the forum.

It was a pertinent reminder of the “brain drain” that many Pacific nations face as their people head to Australia and New Zealand for a better future.

At the forum itself, Australia scored a victory quite early on when it announced a A$400m ($268m; £204m) Pacific Policing Initiative that aims to set up a police training facility in Brisbane and four centres across the Pacific. It will also train regional officers to be deployed across the region for major disasters or big events.

No sooner than the plan had been announced, it was eclipsed by a “hot mic” moment. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was caught on camera calling the deal “a cracker” in a conversation with US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell. In a conversation he didn’t think was being filmed, he even joked with Mr Campbell about going “halfsies on the cost”.

It was an awkward gaffe that made it pretty clear that the policing initiative was a “win” against China’s growing influence in the region – 1-0 to Australia and its friends.

That Mr Albanese’s remarks were made in the auditorium that was built by the Chinese makes the competition all the more relevant. Chinese influence on the island is clear. Next to the auditorium is a large patch of land that holds the Royal Tombs, which has now been boarded up with big signs on the outside saying a renovation is being carried out with the help of China Aid. It’s a similar story across the Pacific.

But the conversation also backed up reservations made by Vanuatu’s Prime Minister and the head of the Melanesian Spearhead Group that the policing initiative could be seen more about cutting out China than focusing on the benefits for the Pacific Islands.

Mr Albanese’s “cracker” comments weren’t the only controversy last week. In the final communique issued by PIF leaders on Friday afternoon, there was a reaffirmation of a 1992 agreement allowing Taiwan to play a role in forum leaders’ meetings. The communique was then removed and put up again, removing the reference to Taiwan. That then led to accusations that PIF leaders had given in to pressure from China although they suggested it was in fact an administrative error.

Of the 18 countries in the Pacific Islands Forum, just three have diplomatic relations with Taiwan. While China is a “dialogue partner’” Taiwan is a “development partner”, which is a step down in importance.

What all these arguments show is the very real competition that is hotting up in the Pacific. Everyone wants to come to the PIF because everyone wants a piece of the region.

The thing is, while superpowers fight it out for relevance, so too do the Pacific Islands. There’s a real emphasis on making sure that those who participate in this forum do so in the Pacific way – and for the benefit of people in the Pacific.

A recent report by the Lowy Institute found that strategic rivalry can at times forget the needs of people.

“Many of these economies are struggling to meet basic development needs,” according to the report entitled ‘The Great Game in the Pacific islands’.

“Larger powers often prioritise projects that deliver strategic gains such as telecommunications, ports and military facilities, or political dividends such as stadiums and convention centres, over less visibly impressive projects.”

On the penultimate day, leaders went on a retreat on the island of Vava’u. Meanwhile in Nuku’alofa, side events carried on. One was on the Pacific Resilience Facility, the first Pacific-led climate and disaster resilience financing fund whose headquarters will be in Tonga.

Attending the event were ministers and diplomats from members including Tonga, Tuvalu and Australia. There was great pride in the fund with expectations that this could be the answer to supporting climate change concerns across the region. Australia has been the biggest donor so far, with A$100m. The US, China and Saudi Arabia have also contributed but the fund still only has US$137m in total – that’s a long way from their target of US$500m by 2026 and a long-term goal of US$1.5bn.

“I think it’s harder to get funding for climate change,” Paulson Panapa, Tuvalu’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Labour and Trade told the BBC. “We want all donors to treat both as very important just like it’s important to us.

The Pacific Islands are small but in many ways they are mighty. These nations sit in an ocean that accounts for a third of the world’s surface area – what happens in their waters – politically, economically, diplomatically will shape the future of the world – both for good and bad.

Four-year-old Sandhya was sleeping outside her mud hut in India’s Uttar Pradesh state on the night of 17 August when a power cut plunged the village into darkness.

“The wolves attacked within two minutes of the lights going out. By the time we realised what was happening, they had taken her away,” recalls her mother, Sunita.

Sandhya’s body was found lying next day in the sugarcane farms, some 500 metres from her home.

Earlier in the month, in a neighbouring village, eight-year-old Utkarsh was sleeping under a mosquito net when his mother spotted a wolf creeping into their hut.

“The animal lunged from the shadows. I screamed, ‘Leave my son alone!’ My neighbours rushed in, and the wolf fled,” she recounts.

Since mid-April, a wave of wolf attacks has terrorised around 30 villages in Bahraich district, near the border with Nepal. Nine children and an adult have been carried off and killed by the wolves. The youngest victim was a one-year-old boy, and the oldest was a 45-year-old woman. At least 34 others have been injured.

Fear and hysteria have gripped the affected villages. With many village homes lacking locks, children are being kept indoors, and men are patrolling the darkly lit streets at night. Authorities have deployed drones and cameras, set traps and used firecrackers to scare away the wolves. So far, three wolves have been captured and relocated to zoos.

Such attacks on humans are extremely rare and most involve wolves infected with rabies, a viral disease that affects the central nervous system. A rabid wolf will typically make multiple assaults without consuming the victims.

• Can Calvin Klein scent catch a ‘killer’ tiger?

A report by the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research reported 489 “relatively reliable cases” of wolf attacks in 21 countries – including India – between 2002 and 2020. Only 26 of them were fatal. Around 380 people were victims of “rabid attacks”.

There have been only two confirmed cases of wolf-related fatalities in North America over the past 50 years, Dave Mech, a renowned American biologist who specialises in wolf behaviour, told the BBC. This is despite a population of approximately 70,000 wolves spread across North America.

So why are wolves attacking humans in Bahraich?

Nestled between a river and forests, parts of Bahraich have long been a traditional wolf habitat. Located in the floodplain of the Ghaghara river, the district, home to 3.5 million people, is prone to seasonal flooding.

Heavy rains and flooding during the monsoons have drastically altered the landscape. The swollen river has inundated the forests, potentially driving the wolves out in search of food and water. Indian wolves prey on black buck, chinkara (Indian gazelle) and hare.

“Climate change is a gradual process but flooding can lead to habitat disruptions for the wolves, forcing them into human settlements in search of food,” says Amita Kanaujia of the Institute of Wildlife Sciences in Lucknow University.

Why would children be a target of the wolves in search of food?

During an investigation into killings of a large number of children in wolf attacks in Uttar Pradesh villages in 1996, wildlife experts found there was minimal supervision of children because most victims came from impoverished single-parent households, usually led by mothers.

In these poor Indian villages, livestock is often better protected than children. When a hungry wolf, facing a depleted prey habitat and limited access to livestock, encounters such vulnerable children, they become more likely targets. “Nowhere else in the world have we witnessed surges of wolf attacks on children,” Yadvendradev Jhala, a leading Indian scientist and conservationist, told me.

The current wolf attacks in Uttar Pradesh are possibly the fourth such wave in four decades. In 1981-82, wolf attacks in Bihar claimed the lives of at least 13 children. Between 1993 and 1995, another 80 children were attacked, this time by what were believed to be five wolf packs in the region’s Hazaribagh district.

The deadliest episode occurred over eight months in 1996, when at least 76 children from more than 50 villages in Uttar Pradesh were attacked, resulting in 38 deaths. The killings stopped after authorities killed 11 wolves. The media described them as “man-eating” wolves.

Mr Jhala and his colleague Dinesh Kumar Sharma conducted a meticulous investigation into the 1996 killings, examining body remains, wolf hair, village hutments, population density, livestock and autopsy reports. The current attacks in Uttar Pradesh bear an eerie resemblance to their findings from nearly 30 years ago.

In both instances, children were killed and partially consumed, showing bite marks on their throats and puncture wounds on various parts of their bodies. Most attacks occurred at night, with children sleeping outdoors in the heart of villages being taken away. Victims were frequently discovered in open areas, such as farms or meadows.

Like Bahraich today, the 1996 wolf attacks took place in villages near riverbanks, surrounded by rice and sugarcane farms and swampy groves. Both cases involved crowded villages and a large number of vulnerable children from poor farming families, which increased the risk.

• Switzerland’s wolves get too close for comfort

It is unclear whether the ongoing attacks are by a lone wolf or a pack. Based on his 30 years of studying wolves, Mr Jhala believes that a single wolf – like in 1996 – is probably responsible for the recent killings. Villagers have reported seeing a group of five to six wolves in their fields during the day, while the mother of eight-year-old Utkarsh, who survived, saw a single wolf entering her home and attacking her son.

For centuries, humans and wolves in India co-existed peacefully, thanks to the traditional tolerance of pastoralist communities, say wildlife experts. This long-standing co-existence has allowed wolves to persist despite frequent conflicts, particularly over livestock. However, times have changed, and the recent surge in attacks has raised new concerns.

Wildlife experts like Mr Jhala advise that children in the affected villages should stay indoors, sleep between adults if housing is inadequate, and be accompanied by an adult to the toilet at night. Villagers should avoid letting children roam unsupervised in areas where wolves might be hiding and appoint night watchmen to patrol the streets.

“Until we determine the exact reasons behind these attacks, these precautions are crucial to keep people safe,” Mr Jhala says. Meanwhile, people in Bahraich remain on edge every night.

A student nurse cleared of plotting to kidnap a baby from a neonatal ward said her experience of the justice system had left her “smashed”.

Safia Ahmadei was accused of “scouting” New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton for a baby she could pass off as her own.

But following an 11-day trial a jury found her not guilty of attempted kidnap in just 48 minutes.

Ms Ahmadei, who has maintained her innocence since her arrest in February, told the BBC: “My reputation, my dignity, my career is gone, all because of a wrong allegation.”

The mother of two was on remand in prison for six months awaiting trial where she said she was attacked three times by other inmates.

Ms Ahmadei was unable to speak to family members while behind bars because it took four months to get phone calls approved.

“Prison made me broken – behind the door, in the dark, thinking about my two flowers… my children,” she said.

Ms Ahmadei, who came to England from Afghanistan in 2011, enrolled on a nursing course at the University of Wolverhampton in 2022.

She was in her second year and training at the city’s hospital when she said her life was turned upside down.

Ms Ahmadei maintains an innocent encounter with a distressed new mum on the neonatal ward led to her being arrested, charged and facing trial accused of trying to steal her baby.

She said she approached the woman, who was concerned her baby had been placed by an air conditioning unit.

Able to communicate in Urdu, Ms Ahmadei said she comforted her and sympathised with her raising a family without female relatives in the country.

She also maintains the women realised they had mutual acquaintances and that later that day she returned to the ward to give the baby a blanket.

Dressed in her nurse’s uniform but not on duty, she was informed by a member of staff she should not be wearing it if not working.

Ms Ahmadei said she returned to her car, put on an overall to cover herself and took the blanket to the ward.

The following day, she received a call from the university to say she had been suspended from her course.

“I was really shocked. I couldn’t take it in” she said.

“It was my dream to put on that uniform. I was wondering what I had done wrong… I knew in my heart I was doing my best at the hospital.”

Despite being told to stay away, the nurse said she returned to the hospital the next day because she feared she had unintentionally offended the woman.

She also took baby clothes, which she said were an apology gift.

When she arrived, she was surrounded by hospital staff and police were called.

“They weren’t letting me speak. I didn’t know what had gone on or what I’d done wrong,” she said.

“My arrest was the black day in my life. I felt totally smashed,” she said.

During her trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, the prosecution argued she was planning to kidnap a baby to pass off as her own after lying to her second husband about being pregnant with twin boys.

She admitted being untruthful but said she had found herself in an impossible situation.

“I was scared if I told him that maybe he would be angry and leave me,” she said.

Her repeated appearances in the neonatal ward, changing of clothes and purchasing of baby outfits were part of the the prosecution’s case against her.

But she repeatedly insisted she had no intention of taking a child to pretend it was her own.

“I’m a mother. How could I hurt another mother?” she said.

On 16 August, the jury delivered its not guilty verdict in less than an hour.

Ms Ahmadei said she wept with joy but that her ordeal was far from over.

“I close my eyes and I still hear the noise of the keys, the chain,” she said.

Rumours and misinformation about her online had been devastating, she said.

“My family are not letting me see social media, or the news reports, because they know if I see something it will make me more upset.”

She said she believed she faced prejudice within the Afghan community after separating from her first husband and pursuing an education and career.

“In my mind, it was a plan to put me in trouble,” she told the BBC.

Despite her experience, Ms Ahmadei is still pursuing a career in nursing and hopes to be re-enrolled on a course.

“I’m a strong mother. I will get my degree but I worry that there could be another Safia in the future,” she said.

West Midlands Police said it accepted the court’s decision and that “our thoughts remain firmly with everyone that has been involved in this case”.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said it reviewed the evidence in the case “carefully before making a charging decision”.

They added: “The CPS doesn’t decide whether or not a person is guilty – we make independent decisions about when it’s appropriate to bring a case to court.

“The defendant has been acquitted and we respect the jury’s decision.”

The University of Wolverhampton said an internal investigation was ongoing and that Ms Ahmadei would remain suspended until its conclusion.

New Cross Hospital did not want to comment.

Bangladesh is the beating heart of the global fast fashion business.

The clothes its factories export stock the shelves at H&M, Gap and Zara. Over three decades, this has transformed the country from one of the world’s poorest to a lower-middle income nation.

But its garment industry, worth $55bn (£42bn) a year, is now facing an unsettled future after weeks of protests toppled the government of Sheikh Hasina in August. Hundreds of people were killed in the unrest.

At least four factories were set alight, while manufacturers struggled to operate under a nationwide internet blackout. Already, three big brands, including Disney and US supermarket chain Walmart, have looked elsewhere for next season’s clothes.

The disruption is continuing. From Thursday, some 60 factories outside Dhaka are expected to be closed because of worker unrest. Staff have been protesting with various demands, including for better wages.

Recent events “will impact the confidence level of brands”, says Mohiuddin Rubel, a director at the country’s garments manufacturers and exporters association.

“And probably they might think – should we put all our eggs in one basket?” he says, noting rival garment-producing countries like Vietnam.

Indeed, Kyaw Sein Thai, who has sourcing offices in both Bangladesh and the US, suggests the recent political unrest could result in a “10-20% drop in exports this year”. That’s no small amount when fast fashion exports account for 80% of Bangladesh’s export earnings.

Even before the events of the past few months, Bangladesh’s garment industry – and its economy – were not in good health. Child labour scandals, deadly accidents and the Covid-19 shutdown had all taken their toll.

Soaring prices had made manufacturing more expensive – but slowing demand meant you couldn’t sell for as much. This was especially bad for Bangladesh, which relies heavily on exports. As profits from exports shrank, so did foreign currency reserves.

There were other problems too: excessive spending on showpiece infrastructure projects had drained the government’s coffers. And rampant cronyism weakened its banks, as powerful businessmen with links to former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party failed to repay loans.

“It wasn’t benign neglect but a designed robbery of the financial system,” the country’s new central bank governor, Dr Ahsan Mansur, told the BBC in a recent exclusive interview.

Fixing this, Dr Mansur said, was his top priority, but he warned it would take years and the country would need more financial support, including another IMF bailout.

“We are in a difficult spot and we want to remain fully compliant in terms of servicing our foreign obligations, every penny of it. But we need some additional cushion for now,” said Dr Mansur.

Mahaburbur Rahman, whose family founded clothing manufacturing firm Sonia Group two decades ago, points out that the country’s falling reserves of foreign currencies alone are enough to dent confidence.

“They are concerned about how we will pay for imports of yarn from India and China if we don’t have enough dollars. Many of them are not even able to come to Bangladesh anymore to place new orders because they aren’t getting travel insurance,” Mr Rahman says.

But Bangladesh has a bigger problem at hand – the protests that ousted Ms Hasina were driven by students who were frustrated over the lack of well-paying jobs and opportunities.

While the clothing factories may have created millions of jobs, they don’t pay well. Some factory workers who spoke to the BBC said they struggled to survive on pay that was barely half the national minimum wage, which meant they were forced to take out loans to feed their children.

Many of them joined the student-led protests in recent months to demand better pay and conditions.

“We will settle for nothing less than a doubling,” union leader Maria said. “Wages have to reflect the increase in cost of living.”

The student protesters, though, are calling for a more radical shake-up of the jobs market.

Abu Tahir, Mohammad Zaman, Mohammad Zaidul and Sardar Armaan were all part of the demonstrations.

All unemployed for between two and five years, they tell the BBC that they are keen to work for the private sector but don’t feel as if they are qualified for the jobs that are available.

“[My parents] hardly understand how competitive the job market is. To be unemployed is a major source of pressure in my family. I feel belittled,” Mr Zaman says.

“We just get a degree, we are not getting the right skills,” says Mr Zaidul.

“The new adviser is an entrepreneur himself though, so we all feel more hopeful he’ll do something about this,” he adds, referring to the country’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus. Mr Yunus won a Nobel Peace Prize for his pioneering work in micro loans.

Dr Fahmida Khatun of the Centre for Policy Dialogue think tank points out that diversifying the economy will be critical to meet the aspirations of educated youth – arguing that that would be no bad thing for the economy.

“No country can survive for a long time based on only one sector,” she says. “It will take you so far, but no further. There have been [diversification] attempts, but so far it’s only been in the books.”

A disused technology park outside the capital Dhaka offers evidence of this. Inaugurated in 2015, it was meant to be part of a nationwide initiative to create higher paid jobs and cut Bangladesh’s reliance on garment production.

It now sits abandoned – a reminder of the previous administration’s economic failures.

“This is the perfect example of the gap between what industry needs and what the government has provided,” says Russel T Ahmed, a software entrepreneur.

“Nobody asked us if we needed these parks. Bangladesh has been investing in physical infrastructure, but how much have we invested in human infrastructure? That is the raw material this industry needs.”

What the new government needs to do, says Dr Khatun, is remove bottlenecks like corruption and red tape to encourage foreign and private investment.

Mr Yunus has vowed to bring comprehensive reforms to the country’s economy and fix institutions that have, as Dr Khatun says, been “systematically destroyed” over the past few years.

He has a formidable task ahead – steadying the economy, delivering free and fair elections, and preventing government policymaking from being controlled by vested interests.

All of this has to be done as the country faces a raft of other problems: slowing global demand for the goods it makes, deteriorating relations with its giant neighbour and trading partner India, which is harbouring Ms Hasina, and climate change causing more intense cyclones in the flood-prone nation.

These challenges are as vast as the hopes many people have heaped on Mr Yunus’ shoulders.

The killing of Indian rapper Sidhu Moose Wala made an impact on many around the world.

For those who knew him, it hit even harder.

Close friend Steel Banglez says it took “months” before he was ready to return to music.

His latest track, Attach, is a tribute to Moose Walla, who Steel Banglez credits with inspiring him to make his “best music ever”.

The video for the song, which includes the artist’s last-ever appearance, has been viewed millions of times.

Steel Banglez has worked with the likes of Burna Boy, J Hus, Rudimental and Dave and says he wants to keep Sidhu Moose Wala’s music “legacy going”.

“Knowing our relationship, knowing what he was like, knowing what we spoke about.

“I know he would want me to do my thing,” the 37-year-old tells BBC Asian Network.

“So with that acceptance… it’s just put me in a place to go and achieve more.”

Moose Wala was killed in 2022 and while being considered by some as a divisive and controversial figure, he was also a household name in his home country, gaining international recognition with a music legacy that has endured.

Steel Banglez describes the pair as “like best friends” and says he feels a responsibility to “do something in his name”.

“Whether it’s building studios in India in his hometown [of Punjab], or even directing a film.

“I have to keep that legacy going, and can’t let that die,” he says.

Attach so far has two million Spotify streams and the video has been viewed over 18 million times on YouTube.

Steel Banglez reveals the song was made in April 2021, and was part of an experiment of using different sounds like Afrobeats and drill.

“I thought it’d be dope for Sidhu to jump on.”

The initial plan was for the song to be on his album The Playlist, released last year.

“But I held the song back because obviously Sidhu passed away,” he says.

“It was one of them things that I had dear to my heart. So I kept the record and wanted to release it at the right time, maybe a better time after speaking to the family.”

The music video, which he also directed, came about quite quickly, he says, and the end scene features a voicenote from Moose Wala.

“My last real big moment with him. Editing it was a bit emotional.

“It’s really deep to be honest. I don’t even know what to think.”

It has not yet hit home that the track is finally out, he says.

“It’s been on my laptop for so long. Maybe it’ll hit me in a couple of weeks.”

He adds he has tried to ignore comments, even though many are positive about the song.

“[Because] I know I’ve done my job and I know the track’s a banger.

“No one’s seen Sidhu since he passed away, and that video is where I just have him, and fun so it was actually a good thing for people to see.”

The use of AI has been a prominent issue in the industry recently, with debate around copyright, artist rights and voice cloning.

Tools have been used which can mimic artists, including with music involving Sidhu Moose Wala since his death.

Steel Banglez says he is a fan “if it’s used correctly” and that it can be helpful when he uses it for samples and production.

“But ripping people off and using people’s vocals and trying to make hype for yourself… that’s not real creativity to me.

“And at the end of the day. AI is moving into our day to day lives.

“And you gotta get with it. And if you don’t get with it. You’re going to get left behind,” he says.

That evolution in the industry is one that Steel Banglez has been a part of, and is keen to drive on with younger artists.

After being inspired by the likes of Panjabi MC, Bally Sagoo and Dr Zeus in the 1990s, he says he is “in a phase” that he wants to promote others and the sound of South Asian artists “that fans don’t hear from the UK”.

“I want to take talent and put them on tracks with Afrobeat artists because I feel like we’re really close melodically in our artistry.

“I solidified myself as one of the leaders.

“I think I’m way past needing to develop my brand and for people to know.

“I feel like there’s a whole new generation that have looked at my journey so far and been shown what it is possible,” he says.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.

Tuesday’s deaths in the English Channel have, as usual, done nothing to deter the smuggling gangs from launching more flimsy, overcrowded boats from the French coastline.

A BBC team watched a packed inflatable craft heading north, close to shore, early on Wednesday morning.

An hour later, a similar boat – very possibly the same one – was seen veering towards a French beach favoured by smugglers near the town of Wimereux to pick up even more paying customers.

French police rushed to intercept the group before they could clamber on board, but arrived moments too late. The boat set off with well over 40 people on it, some standing or clinging to the sides.

• How many people cross the Channel in small boats?
• France sees Channel migrant deaths as a problem of Britain’s making

While investigations into Tuesday’s disaster continue, local authorities chose to send bulldozers and teams of cleaners to dismantle the makeshift migrant camp outside Calais that was used by many of those who were on the boat that capsized.

“I’m stressed. I knew some of the [dead]. The police have now taken my tent and all my things,” said a 23-year-old Eritrean man who asked us to hide his identity.

French officials have suggested that most – if not all – of those who died were from the troubled east African nation of Eritrea. Many young men have abandoned the country in order to avoid military service.

“I’ve been waiting here a year. I don’t have money [to pay the smugglers]. It happens all the time – the drownings,” said the Eritrean, who remains determined to cross to the UK, believing he can find work there.

Further south, French fishermen who had been involved in Tuesday’s rescue operation, returned to the port of Boulogne with another day’s catch.

Several men told us they had helped to haul bodies from the water, having arrived at the scene less than half an hour after the boat had disintegrated, leaving all those onboard struggling in choppy, cold waters.

“The less we have to talk about that, the less we have to think about it,” said Bruno Hecquet sombrely, as he unloaded boxes of fresh whelks on the quayside.

“It’s sad. It shouldn’t be happening,” said captain Gaetan Baillet, but he shrugged when asked who was to blame for the rising death toll.

Dany Patoux, from a local migrant charity, Osmos 62, said the smuggling gangs were obviously responsible, but added that the growing militarisation of the French coast was driving those gangs to take ever greater risks – or rather to put their paying passengers at ever greater risk.

“All this extra security forces active on our coastline… the buggies and drones and helicopters… this is achieving nothing but to provoke more deaths. Those migrants who want to cross take ever greater risks,” said Patoux, arguing that more people were forced to cram on to each boat because so many of the inflatables were being destroyed by the police.

While the general mood regarding the migrant crisis here appears to be sombre, and largely sympathetic to those attempting to make the Channel crossing in small boats, some warn that frustration with the rising death toll is starting to reshape public opinion.

The UK must completely close its border or do something to make the crossing safer, said Olivier Barbarin, mayor of Le Portel.

“We can’t keep exposing to such risk all these freedom-loving men and women, who’ve fled war and whose one desire is to reach England.”

On a chilly Saturday morning in December 1976, postman Nigel Rossiter pulled up outside an isolated farmhouse in west Wales.

It was his first week in the job and he spotted a couple of letters still lying on the floor of the porch, where he had delivered them days before.

Smelling burning inside, he raised the alarm. This led to the discovery of two bodies – a man who was badly burnt, and his sister, who had severe injuries.

Almost 50 years on, with family challenging the official version of events, Dyfed-Powys Police is now undertaking a forensic review to see if the case should be re-opened.

Describing what happened, Nigel, who was then 19, said: “I started shouting ‘hello, anybody here?’

“As I opened the door, I could smell burning, smokiness, coming from the chimney, I thought.”

It was then he saw the badly-burnt body of 73-year-old Griff Thomas, lying in a pile of charred debris on the kitchen floor.

Officers arrived, and moving further into the house, they discovered a second brutal scene.

Crime Next Door: Death on the Farm

A community fights for justice almost 50 years after the grim discovery of two bodies in a remote farmhouse.

Listen now on BBC Sounds

The body of Griff’s sister Martha Mary – known as Patti – lay slumped on a magazine rack in the corner of the living room, with severe head injuries.

Chairs had been knocked over and an overturned television lay at Patti’s feet. It was still switched on, with the sound of static filling the room.

Patti, who was 70, had been battered to death. Ffynon Samson farmhouse, a half mile outside the village of Llangolman in eastern Pembrokeshire, was now a murder scene.

Just over a month later, detectives reached their conclusion – Griff had “probably” killed his sister in a fit of rage after arguing about money.

But nearly 50 years on, surviving family, friends and neighbours of the siblings still struggle to make sense of the police’s version of events.

“There’s no way Griff could have smashed the furniture,” said Huw Absalom, whose father was Griff and Patti’s cousin.

“He would have been unable to cause that damage to Patti. Griff has gone to his grave branded the murderer of his own sister, the one person he lived with all his life, who’s been a part of his life through thick and thin.

“It’s not fair and it’s not right.”

After calls for the case to be re-opened, Dyfed-Powys Police announced in October 2022 that it would undertake a forensic review of material gathered by police at the time, to see if modern techniques could “shed further light” on what happened.

That review, dubbed Operation Hallam, is still ongoing and a new BBC podcast, called Death on the Farm, is now exploring the 50-year-old case.

Mr Absalom said he had asked the review team to consider exhuming the bodies, so they can be examined in light of modern forensic techniques.

“Forensics has moved on so much since the 70s, I’m sure they’d be able to look at them now in a new light,” he said.

In December 1976, as news of the tragedy spread around the close-knit community, Dyfed-Powys Police launched a double murder investigation and set up an incident room in the heart of the village.

The case was led by a celebrated detective who had solved the notorious Cannock Chase murders, Det Ch Supt Pat Molloy.

More than 1,200 people were spoken to, with police officers knocking on doors over a five-mile radius.

Over the coming weeks, 572 men provided alibis to police that ruled them out of the investigation. But as Christmas came and went, and the new year arrived, no leads were emerging.

So the focus of the inquiry shifted.

By late January 1977, Det Ch Supt Molloy reached his conclusion. He announced that Griff had “probably” killed his sister – possibly by hitting her over the head with a kitchen chair – before starting a fire in which he lay down and died.

For those who had known the siblings throughout their lives, this scenario was incomprehensible.

Mr Absalom, who grew up nearby and was 15 at the time, remembers their deaths sending a “shockwave” through the community.

“I never heard of any falling-out between them, not even a mild argument,” he said. “These were God-fearing people, chapel was everything to them.”

The siblings were respected and liked in the community and were active members of nearby Rhydwilym Chapel.

Both had lived at Ffynon Samson with their elderly father until his death in 1967. They continued running the farm into the 1970s before retiring and renting land out.

Anne Gibby, whose father Emlyn was also a cousin of the siblings and saw the gruesome scene, said: “From what my father said about the scene, he felt it was physically impossible that he had done it.

“It stayed with him all his life and he talked about it until his dying day, that there was no way Griff had done it.”

It is a view with which many in the community agree. They point to details about the case which many feel cast doubt on Det Ch Supt Molloy’s conclusions.

Griff was last seen at the local shop, Charing Cross, on the afternoon of Tuesday, 7 December, and it is believed that he and Patti died that evening.

Two half-drunk cups of tea, and a plate of bread and butter and crisps were found in the living-room – fuelling speculation that someone else had visited the house that evening.

The cheese and newspaper Griff bought at the shop were still in the pocket of the jacket he was wearing when he died.

A large quantity of Griff’s blood was found inside Patti’s sewing machine, with the cover replaced – part of a left thumbprint found in blood on the cover was never identified.

Their sheepdog, known to bark when anyone visited the farm, had disappeared and locals said it was found drowned in the farmyard well – though this is not referenced in the police report.

Perhaps most significantly, there was lingering doubt over whether frail, arthritic Griff, who used a stick around the farm, suffered with curvature of the spine and had “clawlike” hands affecting his dexterity, would have been physically capable of doing what he was accused of.

“Sitting next to Griff in chapel, he often wouldn’t be able to find the page in the hymnbook, because of his hands [so] I’d help him,” said Mr Absalom.

“One time he dropped his glasses and couldn’t grasp them to pick them up.

“The way she was killed, she was bludgeoned beyond recognition, there’s no way he could have done that, physically or mentally. Looking through the evidence, it just doesn’t add up.”

In his report, Det Ch Supt Molloy dismissed the likelihood of a third party killing the siblings as “so remote as to be discounted”.

But he acknowledged too that there was nothing in their backgrounds to make sense of such an act of violence.

Many believe that Griff disturbed an intruder attacking Patti when he arrived home from the shop – possibly someone they knew demanding money from them.

They were known to be comfortably off – more than £2,000 in cash was found in the farmhouse after their deaths and they left £35,000 in savings and investments.

On 17 February 1977, a jury inquest in Haverfordwest returned verdicts of unlawful killing for Patti Thomas, and an open verdict on Griff.

Just 10 weeks on from their deaths, the case was closed.

But over the decades, calls to clear Griff’s name have grown, including through a campaign run by community newspaper Clebran.

Its editor, Hefin Wyn, said: “Many were convinced someone else, a third party, was involved in the deaths but people had no influence or authority to challenge the police version of events.

“People were more accepting of authority back then.

“The Thomases were highly regarded in the community. Pat Molloy tried to suggest they were reclusive and constantly bickering, but that isn’t borne out by the facts.”

Denzil Davies, who sometimes worked at Ffynon Samson farm as a teenager, said: “Police said they’d interviewed everyone during their inquiry, but I wasn’t interviewed and nor were my friends.

“If this verdict was being judged today, the community would have stood up and said ‘no way, you need to look deeper’.

“But even though no-one agreed with them, we’d never have challenged them.”

Griff and Patti Thomas are laid to rest together in the graveyard at Rhydwilym Chapel, overlooking the lush valley and River Cleddau where they were baptised.

For Huw Absalom, the campaign to clear Griff’s name goes on.

But he accepts that chances of uncovering the truth of what happened at Ffynon Samson may be ebbing away.

“Time is not on our side. It’s coming up to 50 years since all this happened, and the number of people who knew them is dwindling every year,” he said.

“To walk up to my parents’ grave, I have to walk past Griff and Patti’s grave.

“Every time, I go over and speak to them and say that I’m still fighting the cause.”

Dyfed-Powys Police said in a statement that the forensic review of the case was looking at evidence gathered from the original inquiry in light of modern forensic techniques, to assess whether new evidence could be gathered.

A spokesperson said: “The timeframe for conclusion of the review is not known at this stage, however this work is very much ongoing.

“We are in close contact with the family and continue to update them on our progress.”

A new queen was crowned as the eighth Māori monarch in New Zealand as her father, Kiingi Tuheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero VII, was laid to rest.

Twenty-seven-year-old Ngā Wai hono i te pō was chosen as kuini – the Māori word for queen – by a council of New Zealand’s indigenous Māori chiefs during an elaborate ceremony in the country’s North Island.

She is only the second Māori queen, the first being her grandmother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu.

Ngā Wai hono i te pō is the youngest child of Kiingi Tuheitia, who died last Friday at the age of 69.

Sitting on a carved wooden throne, the new queen was announced at a gathering at Tūrangawaewae Marae, which is the seat of the Kiingitanga or Māori king movement.

She was blessed with the same Bible that was used to anoint the first Māori king in 1858 and sat in front of her father’s coffin, wearing a wreath and a cloak as prayers and chants were performed ahead of his burial.

A flotilla of carved war canoes, or waka, then transported the king to his final resting place on Mount Taupiri, sacred to the Māori people.

The king had been recovering from heart surgery in hospital when he died, just days after celebrating the 18th anniversary of his coronation.

The naming of Ngā Wai hono i te pō as queen marks a generational shift. Many also see it as a gesture of renewal and a positive influence on younger Māori members.

The new queen holds a masters degree in Māori cultural studies and teaches kapa haka, the Māori term for performing arts.

A haka dance accompanied some of Kiingi Tuheitia’s funeral ceremony, which was elaborate and in many parts emotional. His coffin was then taken by a flotilla of waka along the Waikato River before being carried up Mount Taupiri, where he was laid to rest.

The ceremony marked the end of a week of formal proceedings following Kiingi Tuheitia’s death.

“The death of Kiingi Tuheitia is a moment of great sadness for followers of Te Kiingitanga, Maaoridom and the entire nation,” Rahui Papa, spokesman for the Kiingitanga or Māori king movement, said at the time of Kiingi Tuheiti’s death.

“A chief who has passed to the great beyond. Rest in love.”

“Our country will be in mourning,” said Chris Hipkins, leader of New Zealand’s opposition Labour party, shortly after the king’s death. “He was a fantastic king with a wicked sense of humour, but also a very good man… with a real focus on bringing New Zealanders together.”

New Zealand’s prime minister Christoper Luxon praised King Tuheitia as a leader “whose commitment to Māori and all New Zealanders has been felt right across the country”.

However, Mr Luxon – whose government’s policies have been accused by some New Zealanders as being anti-Māori – is on an official trip to South Korea and did not attend the funeral.

Last year, thousands of protesters across New Zealand rallied against the government’s plans to reverse policies which boosted Indigenous rights. These included plans to close the Māori Health Authority, Te Aka Whai Ora, which was set up during Jacinda Ardern’s government, and plans to switch the names of some departments from Māori to English.

Kiingi Tuheitia’s official period of mourning was extended from the usual three days to seven days in order to accommodate the huge delegations that came to pay tribute to him.

“I have never experienced anything like this,” Mereana Hond, a Māori journalist, told BBC Newsday.

“We have lost a king who was rising in prominence, leading all tribes of Aotearoa/New Zealand at a time when we’re under a lot of political and social pressure under this coalition government.”

Kiingi Tuheitia was born Tūheitia Paki in 1955, and crowned in 2006 following the death of his mother, Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu. Like his mother, he was seen as a great unifying figure, recently calling on Māori to stand together in the face of policies targeting them.

The Māori monarchy dates back to the 19th Century, when different Māori tribes decided to create a unifying figure similar to that of a European monarch in order to try to prevent the widespread loss of land to New Zealand’s British colonisers and to preserve Māori culture. The role is largely ceremonial.

A court in Greenland has ruled that anti-whaling activist Paul Watson must remain in custody pending a decision to extradite him to Japan.

The veteran campaigner, who has featured in the reality television show “Whale Wars”, was apprehended by police in July as his ship docked in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk.

They were acting on a 2012 Japanese warrant which accuses him of causing damage to a Japanese whaling ship, obstructing business and injuring a crew member during an encounter in Antarctic waters in February 2010.

Officials in Japan argue that whaling and eating whale meat is part of the country’s culture and way of life. However, it has been heavily criticised by conservation groups.

Dressed in jeans and a white shirt, Mr Watson sat beside his defence lawyers and listened to proceedings through an interpreter as several of his supporters looked on.

“This is about revenge for a television show that extremely embarrassed Japan in the eyes of the world,” he told the small courtroom.

“What happened in the Southern Ocean is documented by hundreds of hours of video,” Mr Watson said.

“I think a review of all the video and of all the documentation will exonerate me from the accusations.”

However the prosecution argued that the defendant was a flight risk, and the judge concluded he should remain in custody until 2 October.

Paul Watson is the former head of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which he left in 2022 to set up the Captain Paul Watson Foundation.

He was also a founding member of Greenpeace, but they parted ways in 1977, amid disagreements over his radical tactics.

The 73-year old Canadian-American campaigner has been a controversial figure known for confrontations with whaling vessels at sea.

Mr Watson’s vessel, called the M/Y John Paul DeJoria, had been heading to the North Pacific with a crew of 26 volunteers on board, in a bid to intercept a new Japanese whaling ship when it docked to refuel in Nuuk on 21 July.

He was arrested and led away in handcuffs, and has been held at the local prison for the last seven weeks.

His defence team have appealed against the decision to keep him in custody before Greenland’s High Court.

Greenland is an autonomous territory of Denmark and, although the court in Nuuk is overseeing the custody hearings, the decision about Mr Watson’s extradition lies with Danish authorities in Copenhagen.

Last month, Japan asked Denmark to hand Paul Watson over, even though there is no extradition treaty between the two countries.

Police in Nuuk are carrying out an investigation before handing their findings to Denmark’s ministry of justice and a decision could be expected within the next few weeks.

“It’s a serious case, and it has to have some serious consideration. It has a deep impact on Mr Watson if we get to the point that he has to be extradited. So I will take the time needed to do it properly,” Greenland chief prosecutor Mariam Khalil told the BBC.

At the defence’s request, the judge granted permission for a video clip to be played, which appeared to show a zodiac-type speedboat sailing alongside a Japanese ship and firing a stink bomb.

However, Mr Watson’s lawyers say a second video clip, which was not shown, proves no-one was on deck at the time.

“We have video footage of a stink bomb being shot on to the ship, and the position that the Japanese claim the sailor should be in, he simply isn’t there,” Jonas Christoffersen told BBC.

“There’s no evidential basis for the allegation that somebody got got injured.”

Lyon-based international police body Interpol has confirmed the existence of an outstanding red notice for the arrest of Mr Watson.

In 2012, Paul Watson was also detained in Germany, but left the country after learning that he was sought for extradition by Japan.

Masashi Mizobuchi, assistant press secretary for the Japanese ministry of foreign affairs, told the BBC that Japan had not yet received any response from the Danish authorities.

“We will continue to take appropriate measures, including necessary outreach to the relevant countries and organisations,” Mr Mizobuchi said.

Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission and resumed commercial whaling in 2019, after a 30-year hiatus. However, it had continued whaling for what it said were research purposes.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office has asked Denmark not to extradite Paul Watson, and there has been vocal support from legendary actress turned animals rights activist Brigitte Bardot.

Meanwhile a petition calling for Mr Watson’s release has surpassed 120,000 signatures.

Telegram has apologised to South Korean authorities for its handling of deepfake pornographic material shared via its messaging app, amid a digital sex crime epidemic in the country.

It comes days after South Korean police said they had launched an investigation into Telegram, accusing it of “abetting” the distribution of such images.

In recent weeks, a large number of Telegram chatrooms – many of them run by teenagers – were found to have been creating sexually explicit “deepfakes” using doctored photographs of young women.

Authorities say Telegram has since removed such videos from its platform.

In a statement to South Korea’s Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), Telegram said the situation was “unfortunate”, adding that it “apologised if there had been an element of misunderstanding”.

It also confirmed that it had taken down 25 such videos as requested by KCSC.

In its latest statement to KCSC, Telegram also proposed an email address dedicated to future communication with the regulator.

KCSC described the company’s approach as “very forward-looking” and said Telegram has “acknowledged the seriousness” of the situation.

Deepfakes are generated using artificial intelligence, and often combine the face of a real person with a fake body.

The recent deepfake crisis has been met with outrage in South Korea, after journalists discovered police were investigating deepfake porn rings at two of the country’s major universities.

It later emerged that police received 118 reports of such videos in the last five days. Seven suspects, six of whom are teenagers, have been questioned by the police in the past week.

The chat groups were linked to individual schools and universities across the country. Many of their victims were students and teachers known to the perpetrators.

In South Korea, those found guilty of creating sexually explicit deepfakes can be jailed for up to five years and fined up to 50 million won ($37,500; £28,300).

These discoveries in South Korea follow the arrest of the Russian-born founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, in France, on allegations that child pornography, drug trafficking and fraud were taking place on the messaging app.

Mr Durov has since been charged.

Last Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol had instructed authorities to “thoroughly investigate and address these digital sex crimes to eradicate them”.

Women’s rights activists have accused South Korean authorities of allowing sexual abuse to take place on Telegram.

In 2019, it was discovered that a sex ring had used the app to blackmail dozens of women and children to film pornographic content. The ring leader Cho Ju-bin, who was then 20, was sentenced to 42 years in jail.

A US mother accused of shooting two of her children at their home in Colorado was “begged” by her third child not to kill her, a UK court has heard.

Kimberlee Singler has attended the start of her extradition hearing in London after being accused of murdering her daughter Elianna, 9, and son Aden, 7, who were found dead in their bedroom in Colorado Springs on 19 December last year.

The eldest child, aged 11 at the time, survived being stabbed in the neck but needed emergency surgery, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

Through her defence barrister Ms Singler, 36, denied responsibility for the deaths and the attack on the third child.

It will not ultimately be for the London court to carry out a criminal trial.

Ms Singler is wanted in Colorado to face a seven-count indictment, comprising two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder, two counts of class-two felony child abuse, one count of class-three felony child abuse, and one count of assault.

The court was told in the days that followed the attack, Ms Singler “fled” the US and was arrested 11 days later in London.

Ms Singler’s hearing, before District Judge John Zani, is expected to last three days. The final decision on whether Ms Singler should be extradited to the US will be made by the UK home secretary.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Joel Smith KC told the court Ms Singler’s alleged crimes were “committed against the backdrop of acrimonious court proceedings” concerning the custody of her children with her ex-husband Kevin Wentz.

Mr Smith said she shot and stabbed the first two children and attacked the third with a knife, causing “serious lacerations”.

“She initially blamed an unknown male, and cast suspicion on her former partner.”

The court heard that on 19 December the Colorado Springs Police Department responded to a 911 call reporting a burglary at a Colorado residence at 00:29 local time (06:29 GMT).

When officers arrived at the defendant’s address, they found two dead children and a third with a serious injury to her neck. She was taken to hospital.

Live rounds and spent cartridges were found in a closet and a “blood-stained handgun” was discovered on the floor of the bedroom, the prosecutor added.

A blood-stained knife was also found in the living room of the property, Mr Smith added.

The court heard that DNA tests were carried out on the knife and the gun and revealed the presence of mixed profiles matching the children and Ms Singler.

Mr Smith added: “Two empty bottles of sleeping tablets were also found and there were no signs of a break-in.”

The court heard the third child required emergency surgery, but survived.

Mr Smith said Ms Singler blamed her husband for the attack, but it was found he had been driving a “GPS-tracked truck” in Denver, giving what the prosecutor described as a “complete and verifiable alibi”.

In the days that followed, the third child, who was not named in court, was moved into foster care after her emergency surgery.

On Christmas Day, she told her foster carer that Ms Singler had been responsible for the attack and had asked her to lie to police, Mr Smith said.

The prosecutor said the girl was interviewed by police on 26 December, during which time she recounted how the attack had unfolded after the defendant guided all three children into their bedroom.

“The defendant told her that God was telling her to do it, and that the children’s father would take them away,” Mr Smith said.

The police investigation then led to a warrant being issued by Fourth Judicial District Court in El Paso County, Colorado, for Ms Singler’s arrest.

Mr Smith said Ms Singler was arrested in the Chelsea area of west London on 30 December.

Ms Singler’s defence barrister Edward Fitzgerald told the court she “denies she is responsible for the death of her two young children and the attempted murder of her third child”.

“She is innocent,” he said.

Members of Ms Singler’s family joined via a video link, as did the Colorado State prosecutor and officials from the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

The extradition hearing continues.

Car company Volvo has abandoned its target to produce only fully electric cars by 2030, saying it now expects to be selling some hybrid vehicles by that date.

The carmaker blamed changing market conditions for its decision to give up a target it had announced only three years ago.

It comes as the industry faces a slowdown in demand in some major markets for electric vehicles (EVs) and uncertainty due to the imposition of trade tariffs on EVs made in China.

Volvo, which has traditionally flaunted its environmental credentials, joins other major carmakers General Motors and Ford in rowing back on EV ambitions.

Volvo now expects at least 90% of its output to be made up of both electric cars and plug-in hybrids by 2030.

The Swedish company may also sell a small number of so-called mild hybrids, which are more conventional vehicles with limited electrical assistance.

“We are resolute in our belief that our future is electric,” said Jim Rowan, chief executive of Volvo.

“However, it is clear that the transition to electrification will not be linear, and customers and markets are moving at different speeds.”

The company also said the business climate for EVs had changed, due to factors such as a slow rollout of charging infrastructure and the withdrawal of consumer incentives.

Independent equity analyst Anna McDonald said consumers still had concerns about switching to EVs.

“Some of the subsidies that governments had put in place to encourage electric car purchases have ended and also there’s just that ongoing lack of demand because consumers are worried about charging,” she told the BBC’s Today programme.

“It still remains the case that electric cars remain more expensive.

“While the EU and the US are putting tariffs on Chinese cars that are imported to stop them kind of swamping the market, that just means that vehicles have to be made outside China which is more expensive in themselves.

“Car manufacturers are not keen to start making a loss on these vehicles,” Ms McDonald added.

Registrations of EVs across the European Union dropped by nearly 11% in July, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers Association.

Volvo is majority-owned by Chinese car giant Geely and because it uses factories in China, it will also be affected by tariffs on imports of Chinese-made EVs in Europe and North America.

Last week, Canada announced it was imposing a 100% tariff on imports of China-made electric vehicles, after similar announcements by the US and the EU.

Western countries have accused China of subsidising its EV industry, giving its car makers an unfair advantage.

China has rejected those allegations and criticised the tariffs as “discriminatory”.

Ford has also been scaling back on its EV ambitions. Just last month, the US car giant announced it was scrapping plans for a large, three-row, all-electric sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and postponing the launch of its next electric pick-up truck.

Its rival General Motors has also been cutting EV production goals in the last year.

President Joe Biden is preparing to block the takeover of a storied US steel-maker by a Japanese company, a controversial move that critics say would lead to job losses and could chill foreign investment in the US, according to US media reports.

The $15bn deal was announced by Japan’s Nippon Steel and US Steel last year.

It would have created one of the world’s biggest steel companies outside of China and had been hailed by investors as an answer to the company’s financial woes.

But it soon ran into resistance from politicians and the US Steelworkers union, which said it did not want to see the 123-year-old firm fall into foreign hands.

US Steel shares fell nearly 20% after reports of the decision, which involves a company headquartered Pennsylvania, a swing state, during a heated campaign season.

Mr Biden had already moved to have the deal probed on national security grounds and voiced opposition to the takeover earlier this year.

Both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, rivals in the race for president, have also come out against the merger.

US Steel said it had not received any update about a formal decision and said it stood by the deal, noting that Japan was one of America’s “most staunch allies”.

“We fully expect to pursue all possible options under the law to ensure this transaction, which is [the] best future for Pennsylvania, American steelmaking, and all of our stakeholders, closes,” a spokesman said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the company held a rally to show support for the merger.

It warned that blocking the deal would put “thousands of jobs” at risk, prompting it to shut factories and potentially move its headquarters from Pennsylvania.

“We want elected leaders and other key decision makers to recognise the benefits of the deal as well as the unavoidable consequences if the deal fails,” chief executive David Burrit said in a statement announcing a rally in favour of the plans.

The deal has been under review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), a group led by the Treasury Department that looks at national security concerns.

Treasury declined to comment on the president’s decision, which was first reported by the Washington Post and Financial Times. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US had not yet given a recommendation to the president.

Speaking to the BBC, a White House official did not deny reports of that the president planned to block the deal, saying only that receiving the CFIUS recommendation would be the “next step in this process”.

As of 2020, the US had formally blocked just five foreign investments via CFIUS, deals that involved Chinese firms.

Nippon Steel is based in Japan, a US ally.

Earlier this year, the US Chamber of Commerce warned against politicising such reviews, saying officials risked sending a “chilling signal” to firms abroad.

Though the involvement of CFIUS makes this case unusual, political intervention in the steel industry is not, said Alan Wolff, a visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former trade lawyer who has worked with firms, including US Steel.

More than 20 years ago, George W Bush, “otherwise a free-trader”, put in place protections for steel, he noted.

Donald Trump’s administration was also marked by a trade fight over tariffs put in place to protect US steelmakers. Biden modified those protections, easing tensions with allies, but still kept in place some guards.

The economic stature of US steel, founded by Andrew Carnegie, may have shrunk, but it still plays a big role in our national psyche, Mr Wolff said.

“It has a big part in our view of where manufacturing has gone and the threat to manufacturing jobs,” he said.

“That’s a big part of the Biden administration and it’s a big part of this election,” he said.

A funeral has been held for a 16-year-old Palestinian girl reportedly killed by Israeli forces in the north of the occupied West Bank on the seventh day of a wide-scale Israeli operation.

Lujain Musleh’s father said she was shot in the head as she looked out of a window of her home in Kafr Dan, just outside Jenin, after soldiers surrounded a neighbouring house on Tuesday.

The Israeli military said armed fighters fired at the soldiers and that they “fired back at a suspect who observed” them.

The Palestinian health ministry says 30 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched what it called an operation to dismantle “terrorist cells”.

Most of the dead have been claimed by armed groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as members, but several children are also among them, according to the ministry.

The Israeli military has said that one Israeli soldier has been killed.

There has been a spike in violence in the West Bank since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Defence for Children Palestine (DCIP), a rights group, said Israeli soldiers entered Kafr Dan around 11:30 (09:30 BST) on Tuesday, prompting clashes with armed Palestinians.

“Israeli soldiers surrounded and besieged the home of a wanted Palestinian man, firing live ammunition and shells at the house,” it said.

“Around 14:10, 16-year-old Loujain was inside her family’s home … when an Israeli sniper shot her in the head through a window.”

During a funeral procession for Loujain on Wednesday, her father, Osama, told reporters: “She didn’t go to the roof, she didn’t hurl a stone, and she wasn’t carrying a weapon.”

“The only thing she did is look from the window and the soldier saw her and shot her.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said soldiers surrounded two civilian structures in Kafr Dan where they believed armed fighters were sheltering, and that they “called for civilians to evacuate from both structures prior to the exchange of fire that took place”.

“During the encircling of the structures, the terrorists opened fire at IDF soldiers in the area, and in response the soldiers fired back at a suspect who observed the forces in the area, in order to remove a threat,” it added.

“The IDF is aware of the report regarding a 16-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed during the exchange of fire. The details of the incident are under review.”

Pictures from the funeral showed mourners carrying a body wrapped in a Hamas flag. The bodies of those killed by Israel are often wrapped in the flags of movements supported by friends or family members – even when the deceased are not supporters themselves.

DCIP also cited documentation it had collected which said a 14-year-old boy, Mohammed Kanaan, was shot dead by an Israeli sniper on Tuesday morning at an entrance to the Tulkarm refugee camp, in Tulkarm city. The IDF said it was looking into that report.

When asked by the BBC on Tuesday to comment on the reports of civilian deaths, the IDF said its forces operated in strict accordance with international law.

“The IDF has never, and will never, deliberately target civilians,” it added. “Given the ongoing exchanges of fire, remaining in an active combat zone has inherent risks. The IDF will continue to counter threats while persisting to mitigate harm to civilians.”

The IDF said its soldiers had killed two armed fighters during an exchange of fire in Tulkarm on Tuesday, and also located what an explosive device in a baby stroller.

On Monday evening, it announced that 14 “terrorists” had been killed in Jenin since the start of the operation and that 25 suspects had been detained.

“Every terrorist must be eliminated, and if they surrender, they must be arrested. There is no other option, use all the forces, everyone who is needed, with full strength,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told IDF officers on Wednesday.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa said on Tuesday that the losses caused by the raids, especially of infrastructure, might be the most extensive in two decades.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees expressed particular concern about Jenin, saying it had been “ravaged by violence and destruction”.

Jenin’s streets have been so damaged that cars cannot pass some roads. Israeli bulldozers have destroyed many shops in the city centre, although those on the periphery were still open.

The local municipality said the IDF had bulldozed more than 70% of streets, cut off water to 80% of the city, and damaged 20km (12 miles) of water, sewage, communications and electricity networks.

The IDF said: “The terrorists in [the West Bank] exploit the civilian population and use them as human shields for murderous purposes, establishing terrorist infrastructures and planting explosives underneath traffic routes to harm the IDF troops in their attempts to thwart threats to the lives of Israeli citizens.”

It also said it would work quickly to enable local authorities to repair damaged infrastructure and ensure the functionality of essential services.

Israeli forces have also surrounded Jenin’s government hospital throughout the operation.

Hospital director Dr Wisam Baker told the BBC on Monday that no-one could come in and out, including doctors like him travelling home, except in ambulances.

Troops searched the vehicles and checked the IDs of those inside, he added.

Ambulance drivers are “afraid” to bring wounded to the hospital or are delayed from entering because of searches, he said, adding the delay could put lives at risk.

The hospital has been running on a generator, and 10 tanks of water are brought in each day, Dr Baker said. Ambulances have also been delivering food.

Asked about the presence of troops outside the hospital, the IDF alleged that armed groups were exploiting medical and other facilities that were protected under international law.

“The hospitals continue to operate as usual. In appropriate cases, inspections are conducted on those arriving at the hospital, provided that this does not prevent their treatment or endanger their health,” it said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams were “tirelessly providing humanitarian and emergency services to the besieged citizens in the Jenin camp, despite continuous obstructions by Israeli occupation forces, who are hindering [their] work.”

On Monday, it said many Jenin residents were in urgent need of medicine, baby formula or food supplies, and that two paramedics and a volunteer doctor had been injured while on duty.

Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died days after being doused in petrol and set on fire by a former boyfriend.

The 33-year-old Ugandan marathon runner, who competed in the recent Paris Olympics, had suffered extensive burns after Sunday’s attack.

The authorities in north-west Kenya, where Cheptegei lived and trained, said she was targeted after returning home from church with her two daughters.

Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, said that he had lost a “very supportive” daughter. Fellow Ugandan athlete James Kirwa told the BBC about her generosity and how she had helped out other runners financially.

A report filed by a local administrator alleged the athlete and her ex-partner had been wrangling over a piece of land. Police say an investigation is under way.

Cheptegei, from a region just across the border in Uganda, is said to have bought a plot in Trans Nzoia county and built a house to be near Kenya’s elite athletics training centres.

Attacks on women have become a major concern in Kenya. In 2022 at least 34% of women said they had experienced physical violence, according to a national survey.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the urgent need to combat gender-based violence, which has increasingly affected even elite sports,” Kenya’s Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said.

Speaking to journalists outside the hospital where she had been treated, Mr Cheptegei asked the Kenyan government to ensure justice was done after the death of his daughter.

“We have lost our breadwinner,” he added and wondered how her two children, aged 12 and 13, would “proceed with their education”.

Dr Kimani Mbugua, a consultant at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, told local media that the staff did all they could for her but the athlete “had a severe percentage of burns, which unfortunately led to multi-organ failure, which ultimately led to her passing this morning at 05:30 [02:30 GMT]”.

Kirwa, who often trained with Cheptegei and had visited her in hospital, told the BBC she “was a very affable person. [She] helped us all even financially and she brought me training shoes when she came back from the Olympics. She was like an older sister to me”.

Uganda’s athletics federation said in a post on X: “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our athlete, Rebecca Cheptegei early this morning who tragically fell victim to domestic violence. As a federation, we condemn such acts and call for justice. May her soul rest In Peace.”

• Why men in Kenya fail to condemn deadly misogyny
• A woman’s murder exposes Kenya’s toxic online misogyny

“This is heart-breaking. Even more heart-breaking that it’s not the first time the athletics community has lost such an incredible female athlete to domestic violence,” British Olympian Eilish McColgan wrote on X.

Cheptegei’s former boyfriend was also admitted to the hospital in Eldoret – but with less severe burns. He is still in intensive care but his condition was “improving and stable”, Moi hospital’s Dr Owen Menach said.

Earlier, local police chief Jeremiah ole Kosiom was quoted by local media as saying: “The couple were heard quarrelling outside their house. During the altercation, the boyfriend was seen pouring a liquid on the woman before burning her.”

“This was a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will continue to endure,” the head of Uganda’s Olympic committee Donald Rukare said on X.

Talking to reporters earlier in the week, her father said that he prayed “for justice for my daughter”, adding that he had never seen such an inhumane act in his life.

Uganda’s Sports Minister Peter Ogwang said arrangements were being made to transport Cheptegei’s body back to Uganda for burial.

Cheptegei finished 44th in the marathon at the recent Paris Olympics.

She also won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.

Her death comes after the killings of fellow East African athletes Agnes Tirop in 2021 and Damaris Mutua the following year, with their partners identified as the main suspects in both cases by the authorities.

Tirop’s husband is currently facing murder charges, which he denies, while a hunt for Mutua’s boyfriend continues.

“Today has been a sad moment for me. It has been a sad moment for athletes because it really reminded us [of] the day that Agnes was murdered,” Kenyan athlete Joan Chelimo told the BBC.

She is involved in Tirop Angels, an organisation she said was set up as a “wake-up call” after Tirop’s murder to address gender-based violence.

“We say we need to unite together as athletes and just try to raise awareness, create a place where women can just come and speak up. But it is still on the rise.”

Cheptegei’s friend Milcah Chemos-Cheywa, a Kenyan athlete who with her in Paris, echoed these feelings.

“I can say we are still in shock, and we are in pain, especially as athletes, and this thing happening in Kenya,” she told the Reuters news agency. “We remember the case of Agnes Tirop, now it has come to Rebecca, so we are not happy.’’

A French woman who was raped by unknown men over 10 years after being drugged to sleep by her husband told a court of her horror at learning how she had been abused.

Gisèle Pélicot, who is 72, was giving evidence on day three of the trial in Avignon, south-east France, of 51 men – including her husband of 50 years, Dominique. All are accused of rape.

Documents before court indicate that Dominique Pélicot, 71, admitted to police that he got satisfaction from watching other men have sex with his unconscious wife.

Many defendants in the case contest the rape charge against them, claiming that they thought they were taking part in a consensual sex game.

This is a case that has shocked France, all the more so because the trial is being held in public.

Gisèle Pélicot waived her right to anonymity to shift the “shame” back onto the accused, her legal team has previously said.

Taking the stand on Thursday, she said she was speaking for “every woman who’s been drugged without knowing it… so that no woman has to suffer.”

She recalled the moment in November 2020 when she was asked by police to attend an interview alongside her husband.

He had recently been caught taking under-skirt photographs of women at a supermarket, and Gisèle told the court she believed the meeting with police was a formality related to that incident.

“The police officer asked me about my sex life,” she told the court. “I told him I had never practised partner-swapping or threesomes. I said I was a one-man woman. I couldn’t bear any man’s hands on me other than my husband’s.

“But after an hour the officer said, ‘I am going to show you some things which you will not find pleasant’. He opened a folder and he showed me a photograph.

“I did not recognise either the man or the woman asleep on the bed. The officer asked: ‘Madame, is this your bed and bedside table?’

“It was hard to recognise myself dressed up in a way that was unfamiliar. Then he showed me a second photo and a third.

“I asked him to stop. It was unbearable. I was inert, in my bed, and a man was raping me. My world fell apart.”

Gisèle said that up until then their marriage had been generally happy, and she and her husband had overcome a number of financial and health-related difficulties. She said she had forgiven the upskirting after he promised her that it had been a one-off incident.

“All that we had built together had gone. Our three children, seven grandchildren. We used to be an ideal couple.

“I just wanted to disappear. But I had to tell my children their father was under arrest. I asked my son-in-law to stay next to my daughter when I told her that her father had raped me, and had me raped by others.

“She let out a howl, whose sound is still etched on my mind.”

In the coming days, the court will hear more evidence from the investigation, about how Dominique allegedly contacted men via sex-chat websites and invited them to his suburban home in Mazan, a town north-east of Avignon.

Police claim the men were given strict instructions. They had to park at some distance from the house so as to not attract attention, and to wait for up to an hour so that the sleeping drugs which he had given Gisèle could take effect.

They further claim that, once in the home, the men were told to undress in the kitchen, and then to warm their hands with hot water or on a radiator. Tobacco and perfume were not allowed in case they awoke Gisèle. Condoms were not required.

No money changed hands.

According to the investigation, Dominique watched and filmed the proceedings, eventually creating a hard-drive file with some 4,000 photos and videos on it. It was as a result of the upskirting episode that police found the files on his computer.

Police say they have evidence of around 200 rapes carried out between 2011 and 2020, initially at their home outside Paris, but mainly in Mazan, where they moved in 2013.

Investigators allege that just over half the rapes were carried out by her husband. Most of the other men lived only a few kilometres away.

Asked Thursday by the judge if she knew any of the accused, Gisèle said she recognised only one.

“He was our neighbour. He came over to check our bikes. I used to see him at the bakery. He was always polite. I had no idea he was coming to rape me.”

Gisèle was then reminded by the judge that in order to respect the presumption of innocence, it had been agreed in court not to use the word rape but “sex scene”.

She replied: “I just think they should recognise the facts. When I think of what they have done I am overcome with disgust. They should at least have the responsibility to recognise what they did.”

After the truth emerged, Gisèle found that she was carrying four sexually-transmitted diseases.

“I have had no sympathy from any of the accused. One who was HIV-positive came six times. Not once did my husband express any concern about my health,” she said.

She is now in the process of divorcing him.

After speaking for two hours in front of Dominique and the other accused, she said: “Inside me, it is a scene of devastation. The façade may look solid… but behind it…”

A boy accused of killing four people at his high school in Georgia was interviewed last year by police about anonymous online threats, the FBI has said.

Colt Gray, 14, denied to police in May 2023 he was behind internet posts that contained images of guns, warning of a school shooting.

The suspect opened fire on Wednesday at Apalachee High School in the city of Winder, killing two teachers and two pupils, investigators say. Eight students and one teacher were injured.

He was arrested on campus and will be prosecuted as an adult.

Police have identified the victims as teachers Christina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall and 14-year-old students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo.

In a news conference, Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey said the gun used was an “AR-platform style weapon”.

• What we know about the victims
• The numbers behind mass shootings in US
• LISTEN: What’s it like for a school principal dealing with a shooting?

The FBI said its National Threat Operations Center had alerted local law enforcement in May 2023 after receiving anonymous tips about “online threats to commit a school shooting at an unidentified location and time”.

The agency said that within 24 hours investigators had determined that the threats originated in Georgia.

Sheriff’s deputies interviewed the boy and his father, who “stated he had hunting guns in the house, but the subject did not have unsupervised access to them”, the FBI said.

The suspect, who was 13 years old at the time, denied making the online threats and officials “alerted local schools for continued monitoring of the subject”.

“At the time, there was no probable cause for an arrest or to take any additional law enforcement action on the local, state or federal levels,” added the FBI statement.

Sheriff Jud Smith described the attack as “pure evil” and said officers were on scene within minutes of receiving 911 calls at 10:20 local time (14:20 GMT).

Two officers assigned to the school “immediately encountered the subject”, the sheriff said, adding that the boy “immediately surrendered”.

The boy has been interviewed and spoke with investigators once while in custody, Sheriff Smith said.

The sheriff added that no motive had been identified and that law enforcement did not know of “any targets at this point”.

Students described chaotic scenes as alerts went out that an attacker was on campus. Classes at Apalachee began last month, but many students across the US are returning to schools this week.

Lyela Sayarath, who was in the alleged attacker’s class, told CNN that the suspect left the room at the beginning of an algebra lesson.

She said he came back and knocked on the door, which had locked automatically, but another student refused to let him in after noticing he had a gun.

Lyela told CNN the attacker then went to the classroom next door, where he began shooting.

Marques Coleman, 14, said he saw the attacker holding a “big gun” just before the shooting began.

“I got up, I started running, he started shooting like, like 10 times. He shot at least 10 times,” he told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

“My teacher started barricading the door with desks,” he said.

After standing up, the pupil said he saw “one of my classmates on the ground bleeding so bad”, another girl shot in the leg and a friend shot in the stomach.

A vigil was held on Wednesday evening in the city of 18,000 residents about 50 miles (80km) from Atlanta.

This was the 23rd US school shooting of 2024, according to a database maintained by magazine Education Week, which counts 11 dead and 38 injured in such attacks so far this year.

David Riedman, who runs the K-12 School Shooting Database, told Reuters news agency that the shooting in Georgia was the first “planned attack” at a school during this autumn term.

Gillian Anderson tells me she is “very comfortable” talking about sex. The clues were obvious even before we met to talk about her new book, Want, a collection of women’s sexual fantasies.

The actor – once deemed the sexiest woman in the world by FHM magazine – wore a dress covered in vulvas to an awards ceremony and has a soft drinks brand called the G Spot.

She’ll forever be associated with frank discussions about intimate activities, after her role as a sex therapist in the hit Netflix show Sex Education.

But Anderson says even she “struggled” to express her own sexual fantasy in words for the book, as requested by her publishers.

“Suddenly describing the imagery that’s been in my head for a while and the action of doing that, added a level of intimacy that I wouldn’t have expected, and I wouldn’t have expected myself to be so shy around it.”

Anderson’s fantasy is hidden amongst 174 in a book she curated that is not for the prudish.

The actor, who first made her mark as Dana Scully in the TV show The X Files, and her publishers received 1,800 anonymous submissions from women around the world.

The letters were whittled down and collated into 13 chapters with titles including “To Be Worshipped”, “Exploration”, “Power and Submission” and “The Watchers and the Watched”.

The contributors were self-selecting and anonymous detailing only sexual identity, age, income, relationship status.

Clinical psychologist Professor Susan Young, who’s read the book, tells me “sexual fantasies are a healthy and normal aspect of sexual expression, provided they do not cause distress and harm”.

They allow people to explore “in a safe, private and controlled environment – their minds”.

Some of the fantasies in Want are moving – the bereaved woman who craves touch and mourns the secondary loss of sexual relations. “I do wish there were more discussion of grief and spouse loss and sexuality,” she writes.

Others are almost pastiches – a fantasy about “very hot, sensual, passionate sex” with Harry Styles.

One contributor, whose orthodox religion forbids women from stepping up to the altar, fantasises about getting intimate on an altar in an abandoned church.

Anderson describes the stories as “honest and raw and intimate and beautiful”, adding: “We’ve got letters fantasising about having sex with strangers and talking about being turned on by the idea of voyeurism.”

“What I was most interested in was the joy and the enjoyment that the women had clearly in writing, how much it opened them up to understanding themselves more, it seemed. Ultimately, this is not my book. This is the book of every woman who contributed.”

Want is a 21st Century take on another collection of women’s fantasies, My Secret Garden, published in 1973. The journalist Nancy Friday’s groundbreaking book became a global bestseller, the first time female desires had been made so public.

Fifty-one years after My Secret Garden, Anderson says she was “surprised” how much shame there still is around talking about sex and sharing sexual fantasies with friends or partners.

“I would have thought there would be less of it today” and it was “quite an eye opener.”

Her book is an attempt to get us all to be more upfront about our desires.

“Sex and sexual fantasy are still very much taboo, even though we have shows like Sex Education and Euphoria and Fifty Shades of Grey,” Anderson says. And then there’s “the multi-billion dollar porn industry,” which she describes as being “in our faces, on our screens, on our phones all the time”.

One of the contributions in Want begins: “I found it so difficult to understand what truly my own fantasies are. So much of what is played out in porn is geared towards men, and so many expectations set on us as women, that I have a very difficult time navigating what really turns me on versus how I feel I should perform.”

Anderson would encourage young people to read her book “because there are so many different versions of how sex can be that is outside what is handed to them by the porn industry”.

“There’s a lot of tenderness and women really wanting to be seen for themselves and who they are and be cared for – and there’s a lot of romance in it as well.”

Prof Young highlights a difference between male and female desire. “Women’s fantasies often include an emotional or narrative context that is likely to differ from the more visual, and sexually explicit content reported by men.”

Porn is “typically less attractive to women as pornography is typically generated and focused on men’s desires”, she adds.

In 1973, My Secret Garden contained explicit chapters about fantasies of non-consensual and illegal sex, including a chapter of rape fantasies.

We live in more sensitive times and in 2024, Anderson wanted to create “a safe space for women to share and for women to read and not feel like they have to be wary or afraid of what they’re going to find from one page to the next”.

It was “the right call” to refuse “letters that bordered on illegality or bestiality or incest”, she says.

Despite that choice, a short chapter The Captive contains material Anderson says strays into “dangerous topics and it almost felt disingenuous for us not to include them because they are fantasies that women have”.

Prof Young says these types of fantasy “about intense domination, submission, violent and/or even non-consensual acts are not intended to be acted upon”.

“They provide a safe place to explore interests and desires that are considered taboo, dangerous or socially unacceptable.”

Crucially, for Anderson, in fantasy the woman “is in charge, she can decide with whom, when, where, how much, how often, when to stop, when to continue”.

“So it feels like an empowering admission and revelation rather than something that is under somebody else’s control.”

The 56-year-old star, very much in her prime, recalls “a fair few” of the characters she has played have taught her about sex and sexuality. It’s “vital” for her to understand the inner lives, desires and fantasies of these women, in order to understand “what makes them tick”.

We don’t have time to get into what that meant for her preparation for roles including Miss Havisham in Great Expectations or Emily Maitlis in Emmy-nominated Scoop, a dramatisation of Newsnight’s car-crash interview with Prince Andrew.

But she tells me firmly, when it came to her role in The Crown, she “did not think about Margaret Thatcher’s sexual fantasies”.

In person, Anderson is every inch the star; glowing and smooth-skinned. Some of the anonymous women in her book struggle with body image and don’t feel desirable.

Even Anderson admits to having “gone through periods where it’s struck me quite harshly that I too am ageing”.

She continues: “Being on camera, there are certainly times… when I’m seeing the final product and thinking, ‘Oh my God, is that really what I look like?’”

Her philosophy is to remember “that’s going to be the youngest that I look from here on out, so I better embrace it”.

Some of her peers resort to plastic surgery. “I haven’t reached for that yet,” she notes. “But at some point, who knows?”

She’s recently finished shooting a female-led period western for Netflix called The Abandons. Anderson plays a silver baron, one of a pair of “duelling matriarchs” opposite Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey.

“I own the town… This is my town. I say that a lot as I’m walking down the middle of the town,” she smiles.

When we met, Anderson sounded British, but often, in interviews and on her Instagram feed, her accent is American.

She was born in the US but has lived permanently in Britain for decades.

“My cells are American, but my soul is British,” she tells me.

Her next role is a Channel 4 drama that she’s about to start filming in Belfast. Her Northern Irish accent is also “not bad, actually”, she says.

But before that, there’s a round of book publicity to get through. And the obvious question, asked not just by me I assume: can she offer up any clues which fantasy is hers?

“No way,” she laughs. Like the others “mine will stay anonymous”.

You can see the full interview with Gillian Anderson on BBC iPlayer.

French President Emmanuel Macron has named Michel Barnier as prime minister almost two months after France’s snap elections ended in political deadlock.

Mr Barnier, 73, is the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator and led talks with the UK government between 2016 and 2019.

A veteran of the right-wing Republicans (LR) party, he has had a long political career and filled various senior posts, both in France and within the EU.

He will now have to form a government that can survive a National Assembly divided into three big political blocs, with none able to form a clear majority.

Known in France as , Mr Barnier will be France’s oldest prime minister since the Fifth Republic came into being in 1958.

Three years ago, he tried and failed to become his party’s candidate to take on President Macron for the French presidency. He said he wanted to limit and take control of immigration.

He is set to succeed Gabriel Attal, France’s youngest ever prime minister, who President Macron first appointed prime minister in early 2024 and who has stayed in post as caretaker since July.

It has taken President Macron 60 days to make up his mind on choosing a prime minister, having called a “political truce” during the Paris Olympics.

But Mr Barnier will need all his political skills to navigate the coming weeks, with the centre-left Socialists already planning to challenge his appointment with a vote of confidence.

Mr Macron’s presidency lasts until 2027. Normally the government comes from the president’s party, as they are elected weeks apart.

But the man who has called himself “the master of the clocks” changed that when he called snap elections in June and his centrists came second to the left-wing New Popular Front.

President Macron has interviewed several potential candidates for the role of prime minister, but his task was complicated by the need to come up with a name who could survive a so-called censure vote on their first appearance in the National Assembly.

The Elysée Palace said that by appointing Mr Barnier, the president had ensured that the prime minister and future government would offer the greatest possible stability and the broadest possible unity.

Mr Barnier had been given the task of forming a unifying government “in the service of the country and the French people”, the presidency stressed.

Mr Barnier’s immediate challenge will be to steer through France’s 2025 budget and he has until 1 October to submit a draft plan to the National Assembly.

Gabriel Attal has already been working on a provisional budget over the summer, but getting it past MPs will require all Mr Barnier’s political skills.

His nomination has already caused discontent within the New Popular Front (NFP), whose own candidate for prime minister was rejected by the president.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the radical France Unbowed (LFI) – the biggest of the four parties that make up the NFP – said the election had been “stolen from the French people”.

Instead of coming from the the alliance that came first on 7 July, he complained that the prime minister would be “a member of a party that came last”, referring to the Republicans.

“This is now essentially a Macron-Le Pen government,” said Mr Mélenchon, referring to the leader of the far-right National Rally (RN).

He then called for people to join a left-wing protest against Mr Macron’s decision planned for Saturday.

To survive a vote of confidence, Mr Barnier will need to persuade 289 MPs in the 577-seat National Assembly to back his government.

Marine Le Pen has made clear her party will not take part in his administration, but she said he at least appeared to meet National Rally’s initial requirement, as someone who “respected different political forces”.

Jordan Bardella, the 28-year-old president of the RN, said Mr Barnier would be judged on his words, his actions and his decisions on France’s next budget, which has to be put before parliament by 1 October.

He cited the cost of living, security and immigration as major emergencies for the French people, adding that “we hold all means of political action in reserve if this is not the case in the coming weeks”.

Mr Barnier is likely to attract support from the president’s centrist Ensemble alliance. Macron ally Yaël Braun-Pivet, who is president of the National Assembly, congratulated the nominee and said MPs would now have to play their full part: “Our mandate obliges us to.”

The former Brexit negotiator had only emerged as a potential candidate late on Wednesday afternoon.

Until then, two other experienced politicians had been touted as most likely candidates: former Socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Republicans regional leader Xavier Bertrand. But it soon became apparent that neither would have survived a vote of confidence.

That was Mr Macron’s explanation for turning down the left-wing candidate, Lucie Castets, a senior civil servant in Paris who he said would have fallen at the first hurdle.

The president has been widely criticised for igniting France’s political crisis.

A recent opinion poll suggested that 51% of French voters thought the president should resign.

There is little chance of that, but the man Mr Macron picked as his first prime minister in 2017, Édouard Philippe, has now put his name forward three years early for the next presidential election.

Vice-President Kamala Harris has agreed to the rules of the upcoming TV debate against her opponent Donald Trump, including allowing mics to be muted when it is the other person’s turn to speak.

Ms Harris’s campaign previously fought the muted mics rule, which was agreed by her predecessor in the presidential contest, Joe Biden. Analysts suggested Ms Harris’s team believed the rule would benefit Trump.

But on Wednesday, both the Harris and Trump campaigns agreed to the ground debate rules set out by host network ABC News.

The debate, scheduled for 10 September in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will be the first showdown between the two as presidential nominees.

Its rules are similar to that of the June debate between President Joe Biden and Trump, hosted by CNN, in which Mr Biden’s poor performance led to a chorus of calls asking him to step down from the Democratic Party’s nomination.

Political watchers suggested at the time that the muted mics rule used in that debate may have benefited Trump, as it limited his ability to interrupt Mr Biden and speak off-the-cuff, and helped him deliver a more measured performance.

In a letter to ABC on Wednesday, the Harris campaign said it still believed it would be “fundamentally disadvantaged” by the debate’s format, saying it would “serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the vice-president.”

But the campaign added that it was accepting the rules so that the debate could go ahead.

“We understand that Donald Trump is a risk to skip the debate altogether, as he has threatened to do previously, if we do not accede to his preferred format,” it said.

“For this reason, we accepted the full set of rules proposed by ABC, including muted microphone.”

The Trump campaign said in a statement it was “thrilled that Kamala Harris and her team of Biden campaign leftovers” have “accepted the already agreed-upon rules.”

Trump himself, however, previously indicated that he would accepted un-muted mics.

He attacked host network ABC in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, questioning its polling and saying it was “the worst network in terms of fairness”.

He said he had only agreed to the debate “because (Ms Harris’s campaign) wouldn’t do any other network.”

The debate is set to run for 90 minutes and will be held at the Constitution Center in Philadelphia. It will be moderated by ABC anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis.

Both candidates will not be giving opening statements, and they are not allowed to communicate with their campaign staff during commercial breaks.

Like the CNN debate, there will be no live audience inside the venue.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• ANALYSIS: Will Harris debate tactics work against Trump?
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• IMMIGRATION: Could Trump really deport a million migrants?
• FACT CHECK: Was US economy stronger or weaker under Trump?

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has told the BBC that justice must be seen to be done after seeking an arrest warrant for Israel’s prime minister and defence minister.

Karim Khan said it was important to show the court would hold all nations to the same standard in relation to alleged war crimes. He also welcomed the new UK government’s decision to drop its opposition to the arrest warrants.

“There’s a difference of tone and I think of substance in relation to international law by the new government. And I think that’s welcome,” he told Political Thinking with Nick Robinson.

He has also requested warrants for three Hamas leaders, two of whom have since been killed.

In a wide-ranging interview, Mr Khan explained the ICC needed to request warrants for leaders on both sides to ensure people around the world thought the court was applying “the law equally based upon some common standards”.

“If one had applied for warrants in relation to Israeli officials and not for Gaza, [some would] say: ‘well, this is an obscenity’ and, ‘how on earth is that possible?’” he said.

“You can’t have one approach for countries where there’s support, whether it’s Nato support, European support [and] powerful countries behind you, and a different approach where you have clear jurisdiction,” he added.

In May, Mr Khan said there were reasonable grounds to believe that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders Yahiya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh bore criminal responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity from the day of Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October onwards.

However the request for the warrants must yet be approved by ICC judges.

Mr Khan said Israel’s prime minister and defence minister were suspected of crimes including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, murder, intentionally directing attacks against a civilian population, and extermination.

He accused the Hamas leaders of having committed crimes including extermination, murder, hostage taking, rape and sexual violence, and torture.

Israel and Hamas have both rejected the allegations. US President Joe Biden said the application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders was “outrageous”.

But Mr Khan told the BBC that unlike his critics, he had seen the evidence the warrant requests were based on.

“I have one advantage at least. Hopefully even they will concede I’ve seen the evidence. They haven’t,” he said.

“The application is not public. It is confidential. It is filed to the chamber. So they are guessing what evidence has been submitted.”

The previous UK Conservative government had indicated it planned to make a submission to the court, having questioned the right of the prosecutor to apply for a warrant against the Israeli leaders.

But in July, a spokesperson for the Labour administration which succeeded it said the issue was a “matter for the court” and therefore would not be making a submission.

Mr Khan told the BBC he had been pressured by some world leaders not to issue warrants.

“Several leaders and others told me and advised me and cautioned me,” he said.

Turning to the war in Ukraine, Mr Khan said he believed Russian President Vladimir Putin would “see the inside of a courtroom”, pointing to historic cases of other world leaders being brought before the court.

“Nothing is permanent. Life is transitory. And every political life ends in failure,” he said.

Mr Putin was not arrested during his visit on Tuesday to Mongolia, an ICC signatory, despite the valid arrest warrant for alleged war crimes committed during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian leader is wanted for the alleged illegal deportation of Ukrainian children since the start of the war in 2022.

Moscow has previously denied the allegations and said the warrants were “outrageous”.

Four people who died when the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily last month suffocated after oxygen depleted in a pocket of air they were trapped in, the Italian news agency Ansa has reported.

Banking executive Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were among the seven people who lost their lives when the vessel went down during a violent storm.

Post-mortem examinations revealed that none of them had water in their lungs, suggesting they did not drown, according to reports.

British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch and the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, also died in the incident.

The group was travelling on the yacht following Mr Lynch’s acquittal of fraud charges in the United States earlier this year.

Investigators believe the cabin the four were found in filled with carbon dioxide as the oxygen supply diminished, leading to their deaths.

According to Italian media, divers involved in recovering the bodies found the victims on the left side of the cabins, an indication that they had been trying to reach the last remaining air pockets as the vessel tilted to the right during the sinking.

There were also no signs of external injuries on the four victims.

The remaining post-mortems for Mr Lynch, his daughter Hannah, and Mr Thomas are expected to take place over the next few days.

Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, survived the incident along with 14 others on board.

The superyacht will be raised from the seabed as the investigation continues.

Italian prosecutors have opened an inquiry into suspected manslaughter, placing the boat’s captain, James Cutfield, and two British crew members, Tim Parker Eaton and Matthew Griffiths, under investigation.

Being investigated does not equate to being charged and is a procedural step.

Allegations of whether negligence may have contributed to the yacht’s sinking, such as leaving external doors open, will form part of the investigation.

Four people have been killed and nine others injured in a shooting at Apalachee High School in the city of Winder, Georgia.

Officials have identified those who died as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, and teachers Christina Irimie and Richard Aspinwall.

The 14-year-old suspect, Colt Gray, was arrested and will be prosecuted as an adult.

Here is what we know so far about the attack victims.

Schermerhorn was one of two 14-year-olds killed. Friends of his mother told the New York Times that he had recently started at Apalachee.

He was described as lighthearted, and enjoyed reading, video games and visiting Walt Disney World.

Schermerhorn had an “upbeat attitude about everything”, Doug Kilburn told the newspaper.

Louis Briscoe described the moment he heard of Schermerhorn’s death from the boy’s mother, commenting: “Nobody should have to go through this type of pain.”

Lisette Angulo identified herself as the elder sister of the shooting’s other 14-year-old victim.

In a GoFundMe page aimed at raising money for the funeral, she said her brother was “a very good kid and very sweet and so caring”. She went on to say the boy was “loved by many”, describing her heartbreak at her loss.

Schoolmates remembered him as funny and with a “chill” attitude, Fox 5 Atlanta reported. One friend who said the two had been close since middle school said he was “in denial” after hearing about the deadly shooting.

Christina Irimie was one of two teachers killed in the shooting.

The 53-year-old is named on the Apalachee High School website as a maths teacher.

Students described her as patient and caring, Fox 5 Atlanta reported.

A second maths teacher, 39-year-old Richard Aspinwall, was also killed.

He was also the school’s American football defensive coordinator, US media reported. He has received tributes from his sporting peers.

Nearby Mountain View High School identified Aspinwall as its former teacher and coach, saying its “thoughts and prayers” were with his family.

Brandon Gill, the football coach of nearby Buford High School, wrote on social media that Aspinwall was a “helluva human being” who “would do anything for anyone.” He was an “amazing husband, father, teacher and coach”, he added.

As well as the four people who were killed, eight students and a teacher were wounded.

The teacher was identified by his daughter as David Phenix. He has a role in curriculum assistance, according to the school’s website.

His daughter said he underwent surgery after being shot in the hip, and that she felt “so, so lucky” he had survived.

Little has been revealed about the eight children who were injured.

Police say all those who were hurt in the attack are expected to recover.

A Belfast man has pleaded guilty to trying to blackmail 16 women into sending him sexual videos and images.

Christopher Morrow, 27, of Rochester Road in east Belfast, appeared at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday to be re-arraigned on 17 charges.

Morrow entered guilty pleas to all 16 counts of blackmail.

The defendant admitted making unwarranted demands with menaces for sexual videos and images from 16 individual women.

The charges span a four-month period between 14 January and 10 April 2023.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing an extreme pornographic image on 10 April, 2023.

A prosecution lawyer told the court the pleas were acceptable to the Crown and that a separate charge of harassment was to be “left on the books”.

Morrow, who was granted continuing bail, is due to be sentenced on 24 October.

Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died days after being doused in petrol and set on fire by a former boyfriend.

The 33-year-old Ugandan marathon runner, who competed in the recent Paris Olympics, had suffered extensive burns after Sunday’s attack.

The authorities in north-west Kenya, where Cheptegei lived and trained, said she was targeted after returning home from church with her two daughters.

Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, said that he had lost a “very supportive” daughter. Fellow Ugandan athlete James Kirwa told the BBC about her generosity and how she had helped out other runners financially.

A report filed by a local administrator alleged the athlete and her ex-partner had been wrangling over a piece of land. Police say an investigation is under way.

Cheptegei, from a region just across the border in Uganda, is said to have bought a plot in Trans Nzoia county and built a house to be near Kenya’s elite athletics training centres.

Attacks on women have become a major concern in Kenya. In 2022 at least 34% of women said they had experienced physical violence, according to a national survey.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the urgent need to combat gender-based violence, which has increasingly affected even elite sports,” Kenya’s Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said.

Speaking to journalists outside the hospital where she had been treated, Mr Cheptegei asked the Kenyan government to ensure justice was done after the death of his daughter.

“We have lost our breadwinner,” he added and wondered how her two children, aged 12 and 13, would “proceed with their education”.

Dr Kimani Mbugua, a consultant at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, told local media that the staff did all they could for her but the athlete “had a severe percentage of burns, which unfortunately led to multi-organ failure, which ultimately led to her passing this morning at 05:30 [02:30 GMT]”.

Kirwa, who often trained with Cheptegei and had visited her in hospital, told the BBC she “was a very affable person. [She] helped us all even financially and she brought me training shoes when she came back from the Olympics. She was like an older sister to me”.

Uganda’s athletics federation said in a post on X: “We are deeply saddened to announce the passing of our athlete, Rebecca Cheptegei early this morning who tragically fell victim to domestic violence. As a federation, we condemn such acts and call for justice. May her soul rest In Peace.”

• Why men in Kenya fail to condemn deadly misogyny
• A woman’s murder exposes Kenya’s toxic online misogyny

“This is heart-breaking. Even more heart-breaking that it’s not the first time the athletics community has lost such an incredible female athlete to domestic violence,” British Olympian Eilish McColgan wrote on X.

Cheptegei’s former boyfriend was also admitted to the hospital in Eldoret – but with less severe burns. He is still in intensive care but his condition was “improving and stable”, Moi hospital’s Dr Owen Menach said.

Earlier, local police chief Jeremiah ole Kosiom was quoted by local media as saying: “The couple were heard quarrelling outside their house. During the altercation, the boyfriend was seen pouring a liquid on the woman before burning her.”

“This was a cowardly and senseless act that has led to the loss of a great athlete. Her legacy will continue to endure,” the head of Uganda’s Olympic committee Donald Rukare said on X.

Talking to reporters earlier in the week, her father said that he prayed “for justice for my daughter”, adding that he had never seen such an inhumane act in his life.

Uganda’s Sports Minister Peter Ogwang said arrangements were being made to transport Cheptegei’s body back to Uganda for burial.

Cheptegei finished 44th in the marathon at the recent Paris Olympics.

She also won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.

Her death comes after the killings of fellow East African athletes Agnes Tirop in 2021 and Damaris Mutua the following year, with their partners identified as the main suspects in both cases by the authorities.

Tirop’s husband is currently facing murder charges, which he denies, while a hunt for Mutua’s boyfriend continues.

“Today has been a sad moment for me. It has been a sad moment for athletes because it really reminded us [of] the day that Agnes was murdered,” Kenyan athlete Joan Chelimo told the BBC.

She is involved in Tirop Angels, an organisation she said was set up as a “wake-up call” after Tirop’s murder to address gender-based violence.

“We say we need to unite together as athletes and just try to raise awareness, create a place where women can just come and speak up. But it is still on the rise.”

Cheptegei’s friend Milcah Chemos-Cheywa, a Kenyan athlete who with her in Paris, echoed these feelings.

“I can say we are still in shock, and we are in pain, especially as athletes, and this thing happening in Kenya,” she told the Reuters news agency. “We remember the case of Agnes Tirop, now it has come to Rebecca, so we are not happy.’’