Russia started the conflict in Ukraine and can end it “straight away”, Sir Keir Starmer has said after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow would regard Western missiles being fired into Russia as a serious escalation of the war.

The PM is in Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden on Friday, as allies of Kyiv discuss giving Ukraine permission to fire their missiles at targets inside Russia.

Putin told Russian state television that this would “mean nothing other than the direct participation of Nato countries – the US and European countries – in the war in Ukraine.”

“It is their direct participation,” he said. “And, of course, this substantially changes the very essence, the nature of the conflict.”

He added: “If that is the case, we will take corresponding decisions based on the threats that will be created to us.”

Asked for his response to the remarks on his flight to Washington, the prime minister struck a robust tone repeatedly stating that Russia had started the war.

“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away,” he said. He later added: “To reiterate, it was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully.”

The prime minister and Foreign Secretary David Lammy are on a blitz of international diplomacy, as Ukraine’s allies discuss how to respond to Iran stepping up its support for Russia.

Lammy told the BBC this “clearly changes the debate” as he visited Kyiv alongside the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

On Sunday, the day after the prime minister returns from Washington, he will fly to Rome to meet the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni.

Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialised countries.

A week later world leaders will gather in New York for the annual UN General Assembly.

There has long been a hesitancy to allow Ukraine to fire Western missiles into Russia because of fears it could be seen as provocative and draw the US, European countries and others directly into the conflict.

But with winter approaching and Russia getting extra support from Iran, minds appear to be changing.

When asked about the prospect of allowing the Anglo-French cruise missile called Storm Shadow to be used, the public remarks of senior figures remain guarded.

“There are really important developments likely in the next few weeks and months, both in Ukraine and the Middle East, and therefore a number of tactical decisions ought to be taken,” the prime minister told reporters, without disputing the issue is on the agenda.

He noted that both Blinken and Lammy had recently visited Ukraine.

“They’re obviously with us to report into the process on a really important joint trip.”

Speaking earlier in the day, Putin said: “This isn’t about allowing or banning the Kyiv regime from striking Russian territory. It does that already with drones and by other means.

“But when we talk about high-precision, long-range weapons made in the West this is a completely different matter… The Ukrainian army is not able to strike with modern, high-decision, long-range systems. It can’t do this. It is only possible with intelligence data from satellites that Ukraine doesn’t have, data that’s only from satellites of the European Union, the USA, Nato satellites.”

“The key point,” he added, “is that only servicemen of Nato countries can input flight missions into these missile systems. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this. Therefore this is not about permitting or not permitting the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons.

“This is about whether or not Nato countries take the decision to directly participate in the military conflict.”

This is the prime minister’s second visit to Washington in a little over two months, having travelled here in July for the Nato Summit and a visit to the White House, shortly after winning the general election.

Starmer said he would not be meeting the vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during the visit.

When asked by journalists on the flight to the US, he said: “No, because she will be in other parts of the US as you’d expect, rather than Washington, she’ll be as you’d expect in swing states… That’s fine.”

Donald Trump has ruled out another presidential debate against his rival Kamala Harris before November’s election.

He said on Thursday – two days after the pair’s first showdown in Philadelphia – that Harris only wanted a rematch because he “clearly” won.

Several instant polls taken after Tuesday’s contest indicated voters felt Harris had performed better than her Republican opponent.

Trump added that Harris should instead “focus” on her job as vice-president.

Shortly after, at a campaign rally in North Carolina, Harris responded by saying they “owe” voters another debate because “what is at stake could not be more important”.

Polls suggest the two candidates are in an extremely tight race with just two months to go before the election.

Both claimed victory after Tuesday’s 90-minute debate on ABC News, in which Harris rattled Trump with a string of personal attacks that put him on the defensive. These included comments about the size of his rally crowds and his conduct during the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

Trump and his supporters have since accused the two ABC journalists that moderated the debate of being unfair and biased in favour of Harris. He said on Thursday that he did not need another debate.

“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are ‘I want a rematch’,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post on Thursday.

“Polls clearly show that I won the debate against comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ radical left candidate… and she immediately called for a second debate,” he added.

The former president held a rally in Arizona on Thursday and gave an interview with Telemundo Arizona backstage. “We just don’t think it’s necessary,” he said of a second debate with Harris. “We think we’ve discussed everything and I don’t think they want it either.”

The Harris campaign, however, called for a second debate immediately after Philadelphia and continued to do so on Thursday. They said voters “got to see the choice they will face at the ballot box: moving forward with Kamala Harris or going backwards with Trump”.

“Vice-President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?” the campaign said.

Speaking after the debate, various Trump campaign surrogates – including Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz – said they believed Trump would welcome another debate.

However, Trump said on Fox News the following morning that the debate had been “rigged” and that he was “less inclined” to attend another after his “great night”.

His decision on Thursday also appeared to contradict earlier messaging from his own campaign. On Wednesday morning, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, told CNN that Trump “has already said that he is going to do three debates”.

Both campaigns had reportedly been in discussions over a debate on NBC News on 25 September. The network has not commented on Trump’s latest statement.

Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee – an organisation that has advised the Harris-Walz campaign on economic messaging – told the BBC that Trump’s decision was a “double favour” to the Harris campaign.

“Voters will have a lasting impression of Kamala Harris as looking presidential and standing on their side,” he said. “That will probably do her very well.”

“Another debate would potentially help Harris, but could also shake up the existing glow that surrounds her,” Mr Green added.

Jeremy Petersen, an independent voter from Utah, told the BBC that he was not surprised by Trump’s decision.

“If [Trump] doesn’t feel like he can score some social media soundbites, there’s no benefit for him to show up,” said Mr Petersen, who added that he would probably support Harris after the Philadelphia debate.

“He felt that Harris wouldn’t have the type of performance she did and now he’s running scared,” Mr Petersen added. “He can’t stop her momentum via debate so he needs a new angle.”

• FACT-CHECK: Key claims from both sides examined
• ANALYSIS: Harris puts Trump on the defensive
• HARRIS: Where she stands on 10 key issues
• TRUMP: Where he stands on 10 key issues

Televised debates date back to 1960, when John F Kennedy faced off against Richard Nixon.

There are traditionally two or three presidential debates happening in most election cycles, along with at least one vice-presidential debate.

That tradition, however, was upended in July, when Joe Biden withdrew from the election weeks after a disastrous performance against Trump in the first debate.

The subsequent debate between Harris and Trump followed weeks of back and forth over whether it would go ahead, and under what conditions.

Trump previously suggested additional debates on Fox and NBC News, although Harris only agreed to ABC.

In his Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump said his rival “refused” to do the additional debates.

Statistics from media analytics firm Nielsen show that 67.1m people watched the debate, a significantly higher figure than the 51.3m who tuned into the June debate between Trump and Biden.

Polls suggest Harris and Trump are in an extremely tight race in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Thursday indicated Harris had a five-point lead over Trump nationally, while 53% of respondents said that she won Tuesday’s debate.

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Four activists for black rights have been convicted of federal charges of conspiring to act as unregistered Russian agents, the Justice Department said.

Omali Yeshitela, 82, Penny Hess, 78, Jesse Nevel, 34, and Augustus Romain, 38, face maximum sentences of five years in prison, the department said in a statement.

A jury in Tampa, Florida found them not guilty of the more serious charge of acting as agents of a foreign government.

Yeshitela is the founder of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and Uhuru Movement. Hess and Nevel are white allies of the groups. Romain is the leader of a Georgia-based spinoff known as Black Hammer.

A date has not yet been set for sentencing.

According to prosecutors, the four carried out a number of actions in the US between 2015 and 2022 on behalf of the Russian government and received money and support from Aleksandr Ionov, the president of the Moscow-based group Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia.

Mr Ionov used the APSP, Uhuru Movement and Black Hammer to promote Russian views on politics, the Ukraine war and other issues, they said.

“Ionov’s influence efforts were directed and supervised” by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s intelligence agency, the Justice Department said.

Mr Ionov and two alleged FSB agents – Aleksey Borisovich Sukhodolov and Yegor Sergeyevich Popov – have also been indicted in the US in connection with the case but are not under arrest.

The Justice Department said the Americans all knew Mr Ionov worked for the Russian government.

Among the actions cited by prosecutors was the drafting by APSP in 2015 of a petition to the UN accusing the US of committing genocide against African people.

Mr Ionov also allegedly sought to influence the 2017 mayoral election in St Petersburg, Florida, in which Nevel unsuccessfully ran for office.

Leonard Goodman, a lawyer for Hess, told the Tampa Bay Times that the four had been prosecuted to censor their pro-Russian views. “This case has always been about free speech,” he told the AFP news agency.

Yeshitela said after conviction that “the most important thing is they were unable to convict us of working for anybody except black people”, the Tampa Bay Times reported. “I am willing to be charged and found guilty of working for black people.”

Mutaqee Akbar, who represents Nevel, said the defendants planned to appeal against their convictions.

The relationship between neighbours India and Bangladesh continues to remain frosty more than a month after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power. While Hasina’s stay in India remains an irritant, a recent interview by Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus also took India by surprise. The BBC’s Anbarasan Ethirajan examines where ties stand now.

Sheikh Hasina was seen as pro-India and the two countries enjoyed close strategic and economic ties during her 15-year rule. Her time in power was also beneficial for India’s security, as she cracked down on some anti-India insurgent groups operating from her country and settled some border disputes.

But her presence in India, with no clarity on how long she will stay, complicates the two countries’ efforts to maintain a strong relationship.

That was made clearer last week when, in an interview with news agency Press Trust of India, Yunus urged India to stop Hasina from making any political statements while staying in Delhi.

“If India wants to keep her until the time Bangladesh wants her back, the condition would be that she has to keep quiet,” said Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is currently leading an interim administration after Hasina’s exit.

Yunus may have been referring to a statement released days after Hasina’s arrival which had stoked anger in Bangladesh. She has not issued any public communication since then.

There have been calls within Bangladesh to bring Hasina back to stand trial for killings of people during the anti-government protests in July and August.

• India’s Bangladesh dilemma: What to do about Sheikh Hasina?

Yunus also said in the interview that both countries need to work together to improve their bilateral relationships, which he described as being “at a low”.

India’s foreign ministry has not formally reacted yet to the remarks, but officials are reportedly “upset”.

“India is waiting and watching developments in Bangladesh, taking note of statements emanating from Dhaka representing both official views and views expressed by prominent individuals,” an Indian official told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

Former Indian diplomats say they are taken aback by what has been described as “megaphone diplomacy” by Yunus – trying to discuss contentious bilateral issues through the media.

“India has indicated its readiness to talk to the interim government, and to discuss all concerns, those of Bangladesh and those of India,” Veena Sikri, a former Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, said.

The retired diplomat says the issues merit quiet discussions and it’s not clear “on what basis [Yunus] has described the bilateral relationship as low”.

But Bangladesh’s foreign ministry rejects the criticism.

“Don’t Indian leaders talk to any media? If Dr Yunus is asked about specific issues, he can of course express his views. If you want to criticise, you can criticise about anything,” Touhid Hossain, adviser to the Bangladesh foreign ministry, told the BBC.

Though Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yunus spoke on the telephone some weeks ago, there have been no ministerial level meetings so far.

There seems to be a broad consensus in India that Hasina can stay until another country agrees to let her in.

However, the newly appointed chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, Mohammad Tajul Islam, has said they are taking steps to extradite her to face charges in connection with the killings during the protests.

“As she has been made the main accused of the massacres in Bangladesh, we will try to legally bring her back to Bangladesh to face trial,” Islam told reporters.

But experts say it’s unlikely that Hasina will be extradited even if Bangladesh makes a formal request.

“She is staying here as a guest of India. If we don’t extend basic courtesy to our long-time friend, then why would anyone take us seriously as a friend in future?” says Riva Ganguly Das, who is also a former Indian high commissioner to Dhaka.

In his interview, Yunus also criticised Delhi for not reaching out to Bangladeshi opposition parties.

“The narrative is that everybody is Islamist, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is Islamist, and everyone else is Islamist and will make this country into Afghanistan. And Bangladesh is in safe hands with Sheikh Hasina at the helm only. India is captivated by this narrative,” he said.

But Indian analysts differ.

“I absolutely do not agree with that statement. In Bangladesh, our high commissioners talk to all political parties without ascribing any labels,” says Ms Sikri.

During the previous BNP-led coalition government from 2001 to 2006, the bilateral relationship deteriorated, with Delhi accusing Dhaka of harbouring insurgents from India’s north-east. The BNP denies this.

But many in Bangladesh point out that India should be reaching out to the BNP, which is confident of winning the election whenever it is held.

“No Indian official has met us since 5 August [when Hasina’s government fell]. I don’t know the reason,” says Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of the BNP.

On the contrary, the Chinese ambassador in Dhaka and envoys from European countries have been holding regular meetings with the BNP.

The lack of security in the days after the fall of Hasina has also given rise to attacks on religious minorities by suspected Islamists. India has already expressed concern several times over reports of attacks on Hindus.

• ‘There is no law and order. And Hindus are being targeted again in Bangladesh’

In the past few weeks, several Sufi shrines, locally known as mazars, have also been vandalised by Islamist hardliners. Sunni Muslims are the majority in Bangladesh, and radicals consider shrines and tombs of revered figures un-Islamic.

“A group of people came and vandalised my father-in-law’s tomb a few days ago and warned us not to perform any un-Islamic rituals,” said Tamanna Akhtar, wife of the caretaker of the shrine of Ali Khawaja Ali Pagla Pir in Sirajganj district.

The adviser to the Bangladeshi religious affairs ministry, AFM Khalid Hossain, has said that action would be taken against those who target religious sites.

But experts say that if Islamist hardliners re-establish an assertive presence, however small it may be, in Bangladesh, it will set off alarm bells for Delhi.

In the past few weeks, a convicted Islamist militant has been released. Nine suspected radicals escaped during a jail break last month – four of them were arrested later.

Jashimuddin Rahmani, chief of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, which was designated as a terror outfit by Hasina’s government in 2016, walked out of prison last month.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2015 in connection with the murder of an atheist blogger. He had been in jail even after his prison term ended because of other pending cases.

“Several militants have been freed in the past month. Some of them are known to India,” former diplomat Ms Das said, terming it a “serious matter”.

For weeks, the roads around Islamabad have been lined by shipping containers; road blocks ready for immediate deployment in the event of any protest.

Pakistan’s capital has become used to entire areas being sealed off whenever the authorities get an inkling that unrest could be brewing. It is a constant reminder to the city’s residents that at any moment, everything could tip.

Last Sunday, the containers were out in force, blocking 29 routes around the city.

In a much-publicised and anticipated political rally, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters made their way in their thousands towards Islamabad. The crowd waved flags and banners while a poster of the former prime minister suspended by balloons gently floated overhead. Others wore eerie masks of Imran Khan’s face. Chants of “Imran Khan Zindabad” (long live Imran Khan) echoed around the venue.

The containers did not contain them; video on social media shows lines of supporters shoving the corrugated metal aside and surging through to reach the rally’s venue.

The man whose face was everywhere was not in attendance. Imran Khan has been behind bars for more than a year, having been convicted of corruption and charged with leaking state secrets.

Mr Khan has called all the charges against him politically motivated. But despite seeing his sentences overturned and a UN working group declaring that he had been “arbitrarily detained”, there seems little movement toward his release. Most analysts say that without the explicit say-so from Pakistan’s politically powerful military, Mr Khan will not be let out.

That didn’t stop the political promises from PTI leaders on Sunday.

“Listen Pakistanis, if in one to two weeks Imran will not be released legally, then I swear to God we will release Imran Khan ourselves,” the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, bellowed from the stage. “Are you ready?”

The reaction came quickly.

On the following evening, word began to spread on social media and TV news channels that the crackdown had begun. Footage from Pakistan’s parliament showed the party’s chairman and MP Gohar Ali Khan being marched out of the building, his arms held firmly by police, cameras and mobile phones hovering in a swarm around him.

CCTV footage reportedly filmed inside the office of Shoaib Shaheen, another National Assembly member, showed him being quickly bustled out of the room as men streamed through several doors.

Confusion about exactly who had been arrested pinged around WhatsApp groups. Even by the morning after, the police had only confirmed three arrests to the BBC, while the PTI said the number was higher than 10. Mr Gohar was later released, but several others remained in police custody.

The assumption from the start was that these arrests had been made under a new law, introduced only last week and labelled by Amnesty International’s spokesperson as “another attack on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly”. The Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act 2024 act restricts public gatherings and proposes three-year jail terms for participants of “illegal” assemblies, with 10-year imprisonment for repeat offenders.

While the PTI had received permission to hold their rally, the police had already complained that it had run past the designated cut-off time and therefore caused a “serious law and order situation”.

The crackdowns mark the latest phase in a long game of cat and mouse between Imran Khan’s PTI and the authorities. So what does this power struggle mean for Pakistan?

“At best this is a dangerous distraction,” says Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre think tank in Washington. “But at worst, it could be something that destabilises the country even more. It makes it all the more difficult to address Pakistan’s economic and security challenges.”

Pakistan is still trying to stabilise its economy and has seen an increasing number of militant attacks.

Mr Kugelman argues that Pakistan’s military, thought to be the driving force behind the crackdown on PTI, are trying to contend with a changing world.

“For many years the army has had its way with dissent. It’s been able to snuff it out through crackdowns,” he said. “But what’s different with Pakistan and the world [now] is that this is the social media era. The PTI has been able to master the art of social media to advance political goals.”

Mr Kugelman described this as a “very concerning” development from the military’s perspective, and said it’s not surprising that it would resort to methods which “might seem like overkill and certainly are, not to mention wholly undemocratic.”

“This is a military reacting to a political threat it’s not used to,” he said.

Beyond the introduction of the illegal assembly law and the arrests of lawmakers from parliament, the Pakistani government has also been criticised by digital rights campaigners for limiting online activities.

Since the February elections, social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has not worked in Pakistan without a VPN. The military has repeatedly talked about the dangers of “cyber terrorism”, and the government recently said that it was creating an online firewall. When questioned about how the firewall might limit freedom of speech, a minister said “it would not curb anything”.

Many see this as an attempt to try to limit PTI’s social media machine, including the reach of the party’s supporters based outside the country who regularly criticise the military online.

The longer these clashes continue, the worse some fear it could be for Pakistan. As Mehmal Sarfraz, a Lahore-based political commentator and journalist, puts it: “When political parties fight, a third force takes advantage.”

For many analysts, that third force is Pakistan’s military which has long been closely tied to the country’s politics. The degree to which the military has allowed civilian governments to make decisions has waxed and waned. Today many analysts see the military’s hand in many political decisions and restrictions.

“Unless political parties talk to one another, this hybrid regime will continue to gain strength,” says Ms Safraz. “The hybrid could then become more permanent.”

Imran Khan has made it clear, however, that he and his party have no interest in speaking to the other political parties.

The PTI is consistently popular and able to mobilise, and seems unbowed by the pressure. But despite party members’ success keeping their leader’s name in the headlines, they can’t get him out from behind bars.

Rather than coming to a compromise, the recent rally and heated speeches suggest that they remain confrontational. And that could have ramifications for both their political and legal positions; Imran Khan is still fighting to avoid being tried in a military court.

The military remain resolute, too. The more the PTI seems to push, the more barriers the military seems to find to put in its way.

The fear for some, however, is that once these new measures are rolled out it will be hard to roll them back.

“The danger is that we become less of a democracy, more of a hybrid with every passing day,” says Ms Sarfraz.

For now, the shipping containers still sit on the sides of Islamabad’s streets.

An Italian father and his son have been fined 60 million Sri Lankan rupees ($200,000; £150,000) for trying to smuggle hundreds of endemic insects – including 92 species of butterflies – out of a safari park.

Rangers at Yala National Park arrested Luigi Ferrari, 68, and his 28-year-old son Mattia on 8 May this year after they were found with jars containing the insects.

The men had lured the insects with animal attractants and planned on using wax sachets to chemically preserve them, investigations show.

They were convicted in early September of illegal collection, possession and transportation of the insects, and handed the highest-ever fine for wildlife crime in the country.

One of the park rangers, K Sujeewa Nishantha, told BBC Sinhala that on the day of the incident, a safari jeep driver had informed his team of rangers that a “suspicious car” was parked along the road, and that the two men who were in it had ventured into the forest with insect nets.

The rangers located the car and found hundreds of jars containing the insects in its trunk.

“All the insects were dead when we found them. They put a chemical in the bottles,” Mr Nishantha said. “There were more than three hundred animals.”

The men were initially slapped with 810 charges, but these were later reduced to 304. They could face two years in jail if they fail to pay the fine by 24 September.

Italian news reports say the men were on vacation in Sri Lanka at the time and have been held in the country since the incident.

Yala National Park, located in the country’s south-east, is one of Sri Lanka’s most popular wildlife parks, home to a high concentration of leopards, elephants and buffalos, among other animals.

Luigi Ferrari, an orthopaedic surgeon who specialises in treating foot and ankle injuries, was described by his friends as an insect enthusiast, reports say. He is also a member of an entomology association in Modena, a city in the north of Italy.

His friends and colleagues in Italy have pleaded for leniency on his behalf. Some suggested that the butterflies found in his possession have no commercial value, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported.

Dr. Jagath Gunawardena, an expert on environmental law, told the BBC Sinhala that the $200,000 fine was a warning to criminals as well as a good precedent.

A massive landslide in a Greenland fjord triggered a wave that “shook the Earth” for nine days.

The seismic signal last September was picked up by sensors all over the world, leading scientists to investigate where it had come from.

The landslide – a mountainside of rock that collapsed and carried glacial ice with it – triggered a 200m wave.

That wave was then “trapped” in the narrow fjord – moving back and forth for nine days, generating the vibrations.

Landslides like this, scientists say, are happening more frequently with climate change – as the glaciers that support Greenland’s mountains melt.

The results of the investigation into this event, which are published in the journal Science, are the result of a detective mission involving an international team of scientists and the Danish Navy.

“When colleagues first spotted this signal last year, it looked nothing like an earthquake. We called it an ‘unidentified seismic object’,” recalled Dr Stephen Hicks from UCL, one of the scientists involved.

“It kept appearing – every 90 seconds for nine days.”

A group of curious scientists started to discuss the baffling signal on an online chat platform.

“At the same time, colleagues from Denmark, who do a lot of fieldwork in Greenland, received reports of a tsunami that happened in a remote fjord,” explained Dr Hicks. “So then we joined forces.”

The team used the seismic data to pin down the location of the signal’s source to Dickson Fjord in East Greenland. They then gathered other clues, including satellite imagery and photographs of the fjord that were taken by the Danish Navy just before the signal appeared.

A satellite image showed a cloud of dust in a gully in the fjord. Comparing photographs before and after the event revealed that a mountain had collapsed and swept part of a glacier into the water.

The researchers eventually worked out that 25 million cubic metres of rock – a volume equivalent of 25 Empire State Buildings – slammed into the water, causing a 200m-high “mega-tsunami”.

In the “after” photographs of the location, a mark is visible on the glacier – left by the sediment that the giant wave hurled upwards.

Tsunamis, usually caused by underground earthquakes, dissipate within hours in the open ocean. But this wave was trapped.

“This landslide happened about 200km inland from the open ocean,” Dr Hicks explained. “And these fjord systems are really complex, so the wave couldn’t dissipate its energy.”

The team created a model that showed how, instead of dissipating, it sloshed back and forth for nine days.

“We’ve never seen such a large scale movement of water over such a long period,” said Dr Hicks.

Scientists say the landslide was caused by rising temperatures in Greenland, which have melted the glacier at the base of the mountain.

“That glacier was supporting this mountain, and it got so thin that it just stopped holding it up,” said Dr Hicks. “It shows how climate change is now impacting these areas.”

While this event was in a a remote area, these fjords are visited by some Arctic cruise ships. Fortunately none were in the area where this landslide occurred. But the lead researcher, Dr Kristian Svennevig from the National Geological Surveys for Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said this was an increasingly common phenomenon in the Arctic.

“We are witnessing a rise in giant, tsunami-causing landslides, particularly in Greenland,” he told BBC News.

“While the Dickson Fjord event alone doesn’t confirm this trend, its unprecedented scale underscores the need to carry out more research.”

The event at Dickson Fjord, Dr Hicks added, “is the perhaps first time a climate change event has impacted the crust beneath our feet all the world over.”

It is a hot night and thousands of fans have packed into Rongjiang’s football ground for the final of the Guizhou Village Super League.

Dongmen village is up against Dangxiang village in the climax of this hyper rowdy, very local competition.

This small, weekly, village football festival has become a viral sensation in China, as images have spread across social media of fans dressed in traditional ethnic costume, banging drums and cheering on the players who might be farmers, students or shopkeepers.

And these videos have inspired tens of thousands of people from across the country to experience it for themselves on any given weekend.

Watching the matches in the village league is free but it is quite a hike to get here, a three-hour drive into the mountains from the provincial capital Guiyang.

Yet millions of Chinese tourists have made the trek over the last 12 months, to soak up the atmosphere, boosting tourist industry revenue by nearly 75%, according to official figures quoted by state-run media.

The accommodation available is basically small hotels which are often fully booked when the big games are on.

It’s the ultimate underdog story.

This is an area which was one of the last parts of China to be officially declared free of “extreme poverty”.

Five years ago its average annual disposable income was just $1,350 in rural areas. Now, this newly organised league – only in its second year – has attracted so much fame it is transforming the place.

The players can’t quite believe it.

“We’re not professional footballers. We just love footy,” says Shen Yang.

“Even if there was no Village Super League, we’d play every week. Without football, I’d feel like life had lost its colour.”

Shen is a 32-year-old hospital maintenance worker who’s just come off an all-night shift, but, on the field, he is one of the main attacking weapons for Dongmen village.

He says his parents hated him playing football when he was a kid but now they’re total converts.

“They didn’t let me play. They threw away my trainers. But now they’ve set up a stall at the gate to the stadium selling ice creams,” he laughs.

Shen’s parents are not the only small business owners who have benefited from the economic boost this competition has brought to the area.

It is not as if everyone has suddenly become rich, but this sporting carnival has definitely brought earning opportunities for those running little family hotels, restaurants and street stalls.

Dong Yongheng, a player whose Zhongcheng village was in the final last year, is among those who have benefited from the tournament way beyond his experience on the pitch.

The former construction worker has turned footballing limelight into family business success.

The 35-year-old once worked in his auntie’s modest shop preparing rice rolls, a famous Rongjiang street snack.

Now he has opened his own, multi-story restaurant. It even has a shop attached to it selling his team’s football jerseys and other memorabilia.

“I think people like the authenticity of the village league,” he tells the BBC.

“It is really not because of our sporting skills. They like seeing a genuine performance, whether it is by our cheerleading ethnic singers or our players. Tourists love real and original things.”

The government says that more than 4,000 new businesses have registered in the region since the competition started last year, creating thousands of new jobs in the poor farming community.

That some fans dress up in traditional clothing to cheer on their village team has definitely given this tournament a unique flavour.

In the hours before the final, Pan Wenge’s silver headdress jingles and jangles as she speaks enthusiastically, preparing to cheer on Dongmen village.

“When we watch the game, it’s so exciting. We’re really nervous, you feel your heart pumping. And, when we win, we’re so happy. We sing and dance.”

But standing in Dongmen’s way is the younger, faster Dangxiang village team.

Their star striker, Lu Jinfu, the son of itinerant labourers, has just finished high school. With a shy smile he acknowledges the attention of local kids wanting to take selfies with him.

“When I started playing I didn’t expect it to be like this. I didn’t expect us to have such an amazing football atmosphere,” he says.

On the night, his team are indeed too good for Dongmen. Lu scores twice and, after the full-time whistle, the winning team spray each other with soft drinks in celebration.

But the losers don’t go home empty-handed.

“We won two pigs. That’s not bad,” Shen Yang says with a cheeky smile.

And, at their party afterwards, you would not think they were the runners-up.

There is much eating and drinking in an outdoor banquet down the main street of Dongmen village.

The players get hugs and kisses from their neighbours they refer to as “aunties”. Win, lose, or draw, they’re still seen as heroes.

And, after all, there is always next year.

Sitaram Yechury, the leader of India’s largest communist party, has died at the age of 72.

He was being treated for an acute respiratory tract infection at a Delhi hospital where he was admitted on 19 August.

Yechury, the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI (M), was a key figure in India’s politics over several decades.

Several politicians including main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi and former rival Mamata Banerjee have paid their tributes.

Yechury started his political career as a student leader with the left-wing Student Federation of India. He was arrested during the Emergency in 1975, when the Congress government led by Indira Gandhi enforced a widespread curtailment of civil liberties.

After his release, he went on to become the president of Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, where he studied economics.

He played an especially significant role during the peak years of coalition politics, when the stability of India’s federal governments depended on bringing together disparate ideologies and priorities.

In 1996, he played a leading role in forming a coalition of 13 parties, which governed India for nearly two years with two prime ministers – HD Deve Gowda and IK Gujral – sharing the tenure.

In 2004, Yechury’s party won a historic 44 seats in the parliamentary election.

The Left parties, including the CPI(M), then supported the Congress-led government from “outside” – a term used for supporting the administration without taking ministerial roles.

But in 2008, they withdrew their support as a protest against the Indo-US nuclear deal, which required India to place its civil nuclear facilities under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency in exchange for full civil nuclear co-operation with the United States.

The Left’s decision was controversial and seen by many as questionable as it failed to repeat its 2004 electoral success.

By the time Yechury became the CPI(M)’s general secretary in 2015, the party had lost many of its former strongholds, including West Bengal state, and its parliamentary seats were on the decline.

He was a member of the Rajya Sabha, or the upper house of parliament, from 2005 to 2017.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, with whom Yechury shared a warm relationship, called him a “friend” while paying his tribute.

“A protector of the Idea of India with a deep understanding of our country. I will miss the long discussions we used to have,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress ended the Left’s 34-year-old rule in West Bengal in 2011, called his death “a loss for national politics”.

Junior doctors in Kolkata are defying a court order to continue protests against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a state-run hospital in the city.

The discovery of the body of the 31-year-old woman on 9 August sparked nationwide outrage in India.

A hospital volunteer was arrested for the crime, which is now being investigated by a federal agency.

While protests have died down in other parts of India, doctors in Kolkata say they will hold firm until their demands are met.

Protesters have set up camp outside the state’s health department headquarters, voicing five key demands: justice for the victim, the removal of senior police officials, and enhanced security for health workers, among them.

A deadline set by the Supreme Court for them to return to work passed on Tuesday evening. The court is currently hearing a case related to the matter.

The protests have put the government of West Bengal state – of which Kolkata is the capital – on the back foot. Courts have criticised the local administration and police for lapses in the handling of the case, which they have denied.

The state government has said that 23 people have died after not accessing medical services during the strike. Reports on local channels and videos on social media also show patients alleging that the absence of doctors has adversely affected treatment.

But the protesting doctors say they have ensured that emergency services are not affected.

“Senior doctors are putting in all the effort they can,” said Dr Amrita Bhattacharya of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front.

“We are providing healthcare through telemedicine from the protest sites. They can’t replace the facilities of a hospital, and we are not even claiming that, but we are there to treat patients.”

On Wednesday, authorities declined the doctors’ conditions to hold negotiations, one of which was to telecast their meeting with the state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee live on TV.

Organisers say while protests are happening across the state, the bulk of them are taking place in Kolkata.

The Indian Express reports that more than 300 rallies have been held in Kolkata over the past month, “many of these midnight events organised by women“.

• Indian women lead night protests after doctor’s rape and murder
• Kolkata doctor’s rape and murder has shocked India, says top court

Some of the protests have also escalated into chaotic political rallies, with police and protesters clashing with each other.

The doctors in Kolkata have often been joined by other health workers and people not connected with the profession as they shout slogans and sing and dance.

Behind them, there are several banners and posters seeking justice for the victim. Indian law prohibits naming victims of sex crimes so many protesters and news reports call her Abhaya, which means fearless.

Protesting doctors say that the brutal murder of their colleague at her workplace has shaken them.

Dr Bhattacharya says that earlier, when she was travelling to work, her mother would call to ask if she had reached the hospital safely.

“If I have reached the hospital, then I am fine. This is how we were conditioned to think,” she said. “So how can we go back to work knowing that people who have murdered our colleague might be roaming around free just next to us?”

On Wednesday, a state minister – West Bengal is governed by the Trinamool Congress party – alleged that the protests have been politicised by their rivals. But doctors insist they are not allied with any political party or ideology.

Dr Sumantra Dey said that the protests have participants from all walks of life as well as people from various political parties in their personal capacities.

“As of now, our mentors are senior doctors. We ask them what is the right path ahead, and we are choosing whether to listen to them as well,” he said.

This is a united front, he says, using a football analogy to illustrate his point.

“We might be Barcelona, we might be Manchester United but here we are playing for India.”

Indigenous leaders in Brazil have celebrated the return of a sacred cloak that had been on display at a Danish museum for more than 300 years.

The 1.8m-long cloak, made of 4,000 red feathers from the scarlet ibis bird, was officially unveiled at a ceremony in Rio de Janeiro. It was attended by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

The cloak was taken from the Tupinambá people during the Portuguese colonial period and had been on display in Copenhagen since 1689.

Indigenous leaders say its return highlights the importance of demarcating their ancestral lands to keep their traditions alive.

A group of 200 Tupinambá people camped outside the building, with drums and pipes filled with medicinal herbs, waiting to see the precious cloak and to reconnect with their ancient traditions.

Yakuy Tupinambá travelled more than 1,200km (745 miles) by bus from the eastern Olivenca municipality to see the garment.

“I felt sadness and joy. A mixture between being born and dying,” he told the AFP news agency.

“Our ancestors say that when they [the Europeans] took it away, our village was left without a north,” indigenous chief Sussu Arana Morubyxada Tupinambá said.

Several Tupinambá sacred capes, which have survived hundreds of years, are still on display in museums across Europe.

They are thought to date back to the 16th Century.

Tupinambá leaders say this is not just about bringing artefacts back to their original homelands, but about recognising indigenous people, their lands and rights.

Brazil’s president has previously pledged to recognise indigenous land reserves, but the Tupinambás’ territory has not yet been formally demarcated by the government.

Speaking at the event President Lula said: “I am also against the time limit on Indigenous land claims.

“I made a point of vetoing this attack against the indigenous peoples. But the National Congress, using a prerogative backed by law, overruled my veto. The discussion continues in the Federal Supreme Court.

“And my position has not changed: I am in favour of the rights of the indigenous peoples to their territory and culture, as established by the Constitution.

“Therefore, I am against the absurd idea of the limit on land claims.”

The Tupinambás say the mineral-rich territory is being devastated by large agriculture and mining businesses.

Malaysian police have rescued 402 children and teenagers that they suspect were physically and sexually abused across 20 care homes.

The victims, aged between one to 17, were said to have endured various forms of abuse, with some allegedly forced to perform sexual acts on other children, said Police Inspector-General Razarudin Husain at a press conference.

Police have arrested 171 suspects, including religious teachers and caretakers.

The care homes are allegedly linked to a prominent Islamic conglomerate which has issued a statement denying any wrongdoing.

Police raids on Wednesday across 20 welfare homes in the states of Selangor and Negeri Sembilan were prompted by reports earlier this month of child exploitation, molestation and sexual abuse at another facility in Negeri Sembilan state.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Insp Razarudin told reporters that some of the suspects – aged between 17 to 64 – would allegedly touch the children, claiming it was part of a religious treatment. Some children were also reportedly taught to perform similar sexual acts on other children at the home.

Children were also “punished using heated metal objects” and those who were ill were not allowed to seek medical treatment until their condition turned critical, he added.

The children will be temporarily housed at a police centre in the capital Kuala Lumpur and will undergo health checks, said Insp Razarudin.

Initial investigations found that many children were placed in these homes by their parents so they could undergo religious education, according to state news agency Bernama.

The raids come days after police opened an investigation against the Islamic Global Ikhwan Group (GISB) business group over child exploitation. The police has since confirmed that the two cases are linked.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said initial investigations have revealed that GISB’s modus operandi is to set up welfare homes to collection donations, said a report by the New Straits Times.

The group denied the allegations in a statement posted to Facebook on Wednesday.

“The company will not compromise with any activity that goes against the law, particularly regarding the exploitation of children,” it said.

GISB has hundreds of businesses across 20 countries, operating across sectors from hospitality, to food, to education.

The Human Rights Commission of Malaysia, or Suhakam, has called for stricter regulations in welfare homes.

“The problem is that these places are not properly regulated or supervised,” Suhakam’s children’s commissioner Farah Nini Dusuki told online news site Free Malaysia Today.

“We have a serious issue with monitoring and supervision, which is why we need the community to be more alert,” she said.

Visit BBC Action Line for details of organisations that can provide advice, information and support for people affected by sexual abuse.

Thousands of people in Peru have been paying their respects to the late President, Alberto Fujimori, who died at the age of 86 after serving prison time for corruption and human rights abuses.

Long queues formed outside the Culture Ministry in Lima where Fujimori’s body is lying in state.

Among the first to arrive was incumbent President Dina Boluarte who has declared three days of national mourning.

Critics say the government has gone too far by honouring a man who was convicted of serious crimes during the fight against Shining Path rebels in the 1990s.

All images subject to copyright.

The presence of hard-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer alongside Donald Trump on the campaign trail in recent days has raised questions, including from some Republicans, about the influence the controversial former congressional candidate may have on him.

Ms Loomer is well-known for her anti-Muslim rhetoric and for spreading conspiracy theories, including that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” carried out by the US government.

She joined Trump at an event on Wednesday commemorating the attacks, raising eyebrows and prompting outrage in some US media outlets.

And on Tuesday, the 31-year-old travelled to Philadelphia on board Trump’s plane for the presidential debate in the city.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of that debate came when Trump repeated a baseless claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti have been eating domestic pets in a small Ohio city. “They are eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.

City officials later told BBC Verify that there have been “no credible reports” this has actually happened.

Trump said he was repeating claims he had heard on television, but the baseless theory was aired by Ms Loomer just a day before the debate. On Monday, the fringe pundit and social media influencer repeated the baseless claims to her 1.2m followers on X.

While the level of access Ms Loomer has to Trump is unclear, and his running mate JD Vance has also spread the baseless theory, Ms Loomer’s post and her presence in Philadelphia has led some Republicans to blame her for the former president making the unfounded claim on stage.

An anonymous source close to the Trump campaign told US news outlet Semafor that they were “100%” concerned about Ms Loomer’s proximity to Trump.

“Regardless of any guardrails the Trump campaign has put on her, I don’t think it’s working,” the source was quoted as saying.

Another source, however, told the outlet that Ms Loomer did not interfere in debate preparations and said she was a “positive person to be around”.

Dennis Lennox, a Republican consultant, was much more pointed in his criticism of Trump’s debate performance and Ms Loomer. “That’s what happens when you wing it, live in the Fox News-X bubble, and rely upon Matt Gaetz, let alone Laura Loomer,” he told Semafor.

Ms Loomer did not respond to several requests for comment from the BBC.

But on X, formerly Twitter, she said that she operates “independently” to help Trump, who she referred to as “truly our nation’s last hope”.

“To the many reporters who are calling me and obsessively asking me to talk to them today, the answer is no,” she wrote. “I am very busy working on my stories and investigations and don’t have time to entertain your conspiracy theories.”

Born in Arizona in 1993, the self-styled investigative journalist has worked as an activist and commentator for organisations including Project Veritas and Alex Jones’s Infowars.

In 2020, she ran – with Trump’s support – as a Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in Florida, but lost to Democrat Lois Frankel.

She tried again two years later, when she unsuccessfully ran to unseat Representative Daniel Webster in a Republican primary in a different Florida district.

Now, she is known for her vocal support of Trump and for promoting a long string of conspiracy theories including claims that Kamala Harris is not black, and that the son of billionaire George Soros was sending cryptic messages calling for Trump’s assassination.

These posts led her to be banned from a number of platforms including Facebook, Instagram and even, according to her, Uber and Lyft for making offensive comments about Muslim drivers. She once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”.

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Ms Loomer frequently attends events in support of Trump and has been seen previously at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago.

Earlier this year, she travelled on his plane to Iowa where she was given a shout-out by him on stage at an event. “You want her on your side,” Trump said. The former president has also shared several of her videos on Truth Social.

And last year, the New York Times reported that Trump had expressed an interest in hiring her for his campaign, relenting only after top aides expressed concern that she could damage his electoral efforts.

“Everyone who works for him thinks she’s a liability,” one Trump aide said of Ms Loomer in a report in NBC News in January.

Another outspoken Trump supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene, took issue with Ms Loomer this week over her comments questioning Harris’s race and a post in which she said the White House “will smell like curry” if Harris – who is partly of Indian descent – is elected.

Greene said Ms Loomer’s comments were “appalling and extremely racist” and did “not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA” – prompting a flurry of furious messages in her direction.

This feud in Trump’s orbit played out just a day after Ms Loomer appeared at events with Trump commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 in New York and Pennsylvania.

Asked about her attendance there by the Associated Press, she said she did not work for the campaign and was “invited as a guest”.

In just four years, Richard Osman has transformed himself from a TV presenter and producer into a best-selling author.

But despite having a knack for writing cosy crime, he admits to the BBC he is “terrible at playing detective”.

“My grandfather solved crimes for a living and my mum would watch any Sunday night crime drama, and within five minutes know who done it.

“I think I’m brilliant but I’m always wrong. My wife and I think we know who did it and then at the end we both don’t get it right,” Osman says.

His hugely popular Thursday Murder Club mystery novels follow a group of elderly amateur sleuths living in a peaceful retirement village. The first book has already been snapped up by director Steven Spielberg, who is adapting it for Netflix.

Osman has now turned his attention to a new crime series.

We Solve Murders, sees Steve and Amy, a retired ex-cop and his bodyguard daughter-in-law, jet set across the world to solve a string of murders.

But the crime-busting duo couldn’t be more different.

“Steve’s an ex-cop who just wants a quiet life, but he’s reluctantly dragged into this adventure by Amy, who’s got this energy and drive that pulls him along,” explains Osman.

While most people’s relationship with their in-laws is civil at best, Osman wanted to turn the stereotype on its head and explore the idea of found families.

“I find the idea very moving,” Osman says. “I wanted to bring together two people who wouldn’t naturally cross paths like Steve and Amy. They’re an unlikely pair, but their relationship is filled with love and respect.”

Although the backdrops of private jets and luxurious destinations is a marked difference from the quaint Kent village setting of his first crime series, Osman says the book has the same “warmth and type of characters”.

One of the most humorous elements in Osman’s latest novel involves the use of AI, with the murderer concealing his identity by asking ChatGPT to write his emails in the style of a friendly English gentleman.

“I have finally found a good use for ChatGPT, because I don’t think there’s been one before,” Osman says.

Despite pretending to use it in his books, Osman hasn’t been tempted to see if it can help him write his next novel.

“It can certainly help you write a letter to your electricity company, but I’m sure it definitely can’t write a book – it’s so flat.”

He doesn’t worry about AI replacing roles in the arts as he says: “AI is not going to write Succession anytime soon, or a Kate Atkinson novel. There’s always going to be room for great culture that comes from the human heart rather than a machine’s head.”

In his new novel, Osman also touches on the world of social media influencers.

The murderer’s victims are influencers – the kind flogging vitamin drinks and lip fillers in the search of fame and money, which Osman says makes them the perfect character.

“I was reading that influencers were being used to smuggle things because no one questions why they’re going to Dubai or the Cayman Islands all the time with either no luggage, or lots of it.

“They spend their lives travelling around the world but actually if you look behind the curtain, they don’t have any money so they are the perfect people to abuse if you’re a criminal gang because you can always take advantage of someone like that.”

But Osman says there’s another side to the influencer lifestyle, one that can help those from less privileged backgrounds break into the media industry.

“If you’re a young working-class kid and you’ve got talent, there’s an avenue to money that didn’t used to exist,” he explains.

“Social media has given working-class talent a way to bypass the traditional gatekeepers of television.”

Osman says there were barely any working-class people in the TV industry when he joined and “even fewer people now”.

He was fortunate to have attended university on a scholarship and received housing benefits to move to London, so he was able to take a low-paid job in the industry, but in today’s world “I would not be able to do what I do now”.

“Traditional media industry is in such decline that there’s not an awful lot it can do to help working-class kids get jobs,” Osman explains.

Instead he says that young people are having “to do it by themselves and lean into the world of self-promotion”.

While there’s a buzz around his new book, Osman’s fans are most excited about what’s next in store for The Thursday Murder Club.

The book series has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide, and all four of the books in the series have broken UK sales records.

Osman is now in the process of writing the fifth book in the series, while also working on the upcoming film adaptation, helmed by Oscar winner and film veteran Spielberg, plus Harry Potter and The Help director Chris Columbus.

The Netflix film, which has just wrapped up filming, features a stellar cast including Helen Mirren, David Tennant and Pierce Brosnan.

Osman says he is just as excited as his fans to watch it – “I go down on set and it’s incredible, it feels like an absolute treat and I can’t wait to see it.”

He has also learnt to let go of any protectiveness he might feel around the story.

“You just have to give it all up and trust people,” he says. “I take care of the books because that’s what I’m good at, and I leave the film to the people who can do that.”

“Nobody wants me looking over Spielberg’s shoulder telling him what to do.”

The Pointless and House of Games star has achieved immense success in TV and now also in the world of fiction writing, but he never allows himself to get complacent.

“Every bit of success is gravy but I just always think ‘I need to go and write the next thing now.'”

And, what is next for the 53-year-old?

“The fifth Thursday Murder Club is out next September and I try to do a book a year, so then there’ll be a second We Solve Murders after that and the series will sort of piggyback each other for the next few years.

“Unless, of course, it’s a total disaster, in which case this book was always designed to be a one-off!”

Midwife Siro Devi is clinging to Monica Thatte, sobbing. Monica, in her late 20s, has returned to her birthplace – the Indian town where Siro has delivered hundreds of babies.

But this is no straightforward reunion. There is a painful history behind Siro’s tears. Shortly before Monica was born, Siro and several Indian midwives like her were regularly pressured to murder newborn girls.

Monica, evidence suggests, is one they saved.

I have been following Siro’s story for 30 years, ever since I went to interview her and four other rural midwives in India’s Bihar state in 1996.

They had been identified by a non-governmental organisation as being behind the murder of baby girls in the district of Katihar where, under pressure from the newborns’ parents, they were killing them by feeding them chemicals or simply wringing their necks.

Hakiya Devi, the eldest of the midwives I interviewed, told me at the time she had killed 12 or 13 babies. Another midwife, Dharmi Devi, admitted to killing more – at least 15-20.

It is impossible to ascertain the exact number of babies they may have killed, given the way the data was gathered.

But they featured in a report published in 1995 by an NGO, based on interviews with them and 30 other midwives. If the report’s estimates are accurate, more than 1,000 baby girls were being murdered every year in one district, by just 35 midwives. According to the report, Bihar at the time had more than half a million midwives. And infanticide was not limited to Bihar.

Refusing orders, Hakiya said, was almost never an option for a midwife.

“The family would lock the room and stand behind us with sticks,” says Hakiya Devi. “They’d say: ‘We already have four-five daughters. This will wipe out our wealth. Once we give dowry for our girls, we will starve to death. Now, another girl has been born. Kill her.’

“Who could we complain to? We were scared. If we went to the police, we’d get into trouble. If we spoke up, people would threaten us.”

The role of a midwife in rural India is rooted in tradition, and burdened by the harsh realities of poverty and caste. The midwives I interviewed belonged to the lower castes in India’s caste hierarchy. Midwifery was a profession passed on to them by mothers and grandmothers. They lived in a world where refusing orders of powerful, upper-caste families was unthinkable.

The midwife could be promised a sari, a sack of grain or a small amount of money for killing a baby. Sometimes even that was not paid. The birth of a boy earned them about 1,000 rupees. The birth of a girl earned them half.

The reason for this imbalance was steeped in India’s custom of giving a dowry, they explained. Though the custom was outlawed in 1961, it still held strong in the 90s – and indeed continues into the present day.

A dowry can be anything – cash, jewellery, utensils. But for many families, rich or poor, it is the condition of a wedding. And this is what, for many, still makes the birth of a son a celebration and the birth of a daughter a financial burden.

Siro Devi, the only midwife of those I interviewed who is still alive, used a vivid physical image to explain this disparity in status.

“A boy is above the ground – higher. A daughter is below – lower. Whether a son feeds or takes care of his parents or not, they all want a boy.”

The preference for sons can be seen in India’s national-level data. Its most recent census, in 2011, recorded a ratio of 943 women to every 1,000 men. This is nevertheless an improvement on the 1990s – in the 1991 census, the ratio was 927/1,000.

By the time I finished filming the midwives’ testimonies in 1996, a small, silent change had begun. The midwives who once carried out these orders had started to resist.

This change was instigated by Anila Kumari, a social worker who supported women in the villages around Katihar, and was dedicated to addressing the root causes of these killings.

Anila’s approach was simple. She asked the midwives, “Would you do this to your own daughter?”

Her question apparently pierced years of rationalisation and denial. The midwives got some financial help via community groups and gradually the cycle of violence was interrupted.

Siro, speaking to me in 2007, explained the change.

“Now, whoever asks me to kill, I tell them: ‘Look, give me the child, and I’ll take her to Anila Madam.’”

The midwives rescued at least five newborn girls from families who wanted them killed or had already abandoned them.

One child died, but Anila arranged for the other four to be sent to Bihar’s capital, Patna, to an NGO which organised their adoption.

The story could have ended there. But I wanted to know what had become of those girls who were adopted, and where life had taken them.

The Midwife’s Confession

Thirty years ago, a journalist in the Indian state of Bihar filmed a series of shocking confessions: midwives admitting they routinely murdered new-born baby girls. BBC Eye explores the disturbing story.

Watch on iPlayer (UK only), or if you are outside the UK watch on YouTube

The Midwife’s Confession

BBC Eye finds a woman who was possibly one of the girls abandoned in Bihar. What will happen when she returns to meet the only surviving midwife?

Listen on BBC Sounds or outside the UK, listen here

Anila’s records were meticulous but they had few details about post-adoption.

Working with a BBC World Service team, I got in touch with a woman called Medha Shekar who, back in the 90s, was researching infanticide in Bihar when the babies rescued by Anila and the midwives began arriving at her NGO. Remarkably, Medha was still in touch with a young woman who, she believed, was one of these rescued babies.

Anila told me that she had given all the girls saved by the midwives the prefix “Kosi” before their name, a homage to the Kosi river in Bihar. Medha remembered that Monica had been named with this “Kosi” prefix before her adoption.

The adoption agency would not let us look at Monica’s records, so we can never be sure. But her origins in Patna, her approximate date of birth and the prefix “Kosi” all point to the same conclusion: Monica is, in all probability, one of the five babies rescued by Anila and the midwives.

When I went to meet her at her parents’ home some 2,000km (1,242 miles) away in Pune, she said she felt lucky to have been adopted by a loving family.

“This is my definition of a normal happy life and I am living it,” she said.

Monica knew that she had been adopted from Bihar. But we were able to give her more details about the circumstances of her adoption.

Earlier this year, Monica travelled to Bihar to meet Anila and Siro.

Monica saw herself as the culmination of years of hard work by Anila and the midwives.

“Someone prepares a lot to do well in an exam. I feel like that. They did the hard work and now they’re so curious to meet the result… So definitely, I would like to meet them.”

Anila wept tears of joy when she met Monica. But Siro’s response felt different.

She sobbed hard, holding Monica close and combing through her hair.

“I took you [to the orphanage] to save your life… My soul is at peace now,” she told her.

But when, a couple of days later, I attempted to press Siro about her reaction, she resisted further scrutiny.

“What happened in the past is in the past,” she said.

But what is not in the past is the prejudice some still hold against baby girls.

Reports of infanticide are now relatively rare, but sex-selective abortion remains common, despite being illegal since 1994.

If one listens to the traditional folk songs sung during childbirth, known as Sohar, in parts of north India, joy is reserved for the birth of a male child. Even in 2024, it is an effort to get local singers to change the lyrics so that the song celebrates the birth of a girl.

While we were filming our documentary, two baby girls were discovered abandoned in Katihar – one in bushes, another at the roadside, just a few hours old. One later died. The other was put up for adoption.

Before Monica left Bihar, she visited this baby in the Special Adoption Centre in Katihar.

She says she was haunted by the realisation that though female infanticide may have been reduced, abandoning baby girls continues.

“This is a cycle… I can see myself there a few years ago, and now again there’s some girl similar to me.”

But there were to be happier similarities too.

The baby has now been adopted by a couple in the north-eastern state of Assam. They have named her Edha, which means happiness.

“We saw her photo, and we were clear – a baby once abandoned cannot be abandoned twice,” says her adoptive father Gaurav, an officer in the Indian air force.

Every few weeks Gaurav sends me a video of Edha’s latest antics. I sometimes share them with Monica.

Looking back, the 30 years spent on this story were never just about the past. It was about confronting uncomfortable truths. The past cannot be undone, but it can be transformed.

And in that transformation, there is hope.

Kamala Harris is leaning into a little-known aspect of her biography – the fact that she is a gun owner – to stake out ground on the issue of firearms control.

The Democratic presidential nominee supports universal background checks, so-called “red flag” laws and a ban on assault weapons, but critics are honing in on her past support for a mandatory buyback of semi-automatic rifles.

After Donald Trump claimed during their Tuesday debate she would “confiscate everybody’s gun” if elected, Harris replied that both she and running mate Tim Walz own guns.

“We’re not taking anyone’s guns away, so stop with the continuous lying about this stuff,” she said.

Gun control remains among the most contentious issues in American politics but has largely taken a backseat to other policy areas this election.

The question raised during Tuesday’s debate over where exactly Harris stands was the first time the issue has even come up in a 2024 debate.

Moderator Linsey Davis noted that, among other shifting policy positions, Harris no longer backs a programme that would force gun owners to hand over their AR-15s and other assault-style weapons to the government.

Harris reiterated her stance at a rally on Thursday in North Carolina. “We who believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence will finally pass an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, and red flag laws”.

Gun buyback proposals gained steam during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary race, first endorsed by Eric Swalwell and earning support from Harris, Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders and – most memorably – Beto O’Rourke.

“We have to have a buyback programme, and I support a mandatory gun buyback programme,” Harris said in October 2019.

“It’s got to be smart, we got to do it the right way. But there are five million [assault weapons] at least, some estimate as many as 10 million, and we’re going to have to have smart public policy that’s about taking those off the streets, but doing it the right way.”

Buyback initiatives have taken place in cities across the US since at least the 1970s, though research indicates that they are often very expensive and not effective as a standalone strategy to curb gun violence.

Advocates, however, point to the impact of two mandatory buybacks in Australia following the deadliest mass shooting on its soil in 1996. The country has largely avoided mass firearm violence since that incident.

In making her own case for buybacks as part of a broader effort to rein in gun violence, Harris explained back in 2019: “I am a gun owner, and I own a gun for probably the reason a lot of people do – for personal safety. I was a career prosecutor.”

She argued US politicians were offering American voters “a false choice” between protecting gun rights under the Second Amendment and taking guns away.

“It’s a false choice that is borne out of a lack of courage from leaders who must recognise and agree that there are some practical solutions to what is a clear problem in our country,” she said.

Harris began her career as the district attorney – or the top prosecutor – in Alameda County and then for the city of San Francisco. She also served from 2011 to 2017 as California’s attorney general, the top law enforcement job in the state.

William Lockyer, a fellow Democrat who served as California AG from 1999 to 2007, told the BBC that it was not uncommon for a local or state-level prosecutor to own a gun, even though the role comes with its own security team.

“I don’t know about Kamala’s experience as AG, but I received a threat on average every day during my eight years,” he said.

Harris not directly explain on Tuesday either why she got a weapon or why she no longer supports the idea of a mandatory gun buyback by the federal government.

The Harris campaign did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

It is rare for elected officials in the party to speak openly about their experience as gun owners.

Harris’s vice-presidential nominee, Tim Walz, is a notable exception.

Walz, from Nebraska, grew up hunting during summer breaks and trained with firearms over the more than two decades he spent as a National Guardsman.

At the start of his political career, he held an A rating from the National Rifle Association and was often spotted wearing an NRA ballcap.

But Walz changed tack amid a series of deadly shootings during the 2010s, including at schools in Sandy Hook, Connecticut and Parkland, Florida.

He held an F rating by the time he left Congress and, as Minnesota governor, he signed expansions of background checks and other restrictions into law.

“I know guns,” he said at the Democratic National Convention last month.

“I’m a veteran. I’m a hunter. I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress and I have the trophies to prove it. But I’m also a dad.

“I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe that our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.”

On the Republican side, Trump has referred to himself as ”the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House”.

Speaking to NRA members in February, he bragged that he “did nothing” despite pressure to take action after shootings and pledged “no one will lay a finger on your firearms” if he is re-elected.

As a New York resident, Donald Trump owned three licenced firearms, two of which he surrendered in 2023 following his arrest on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

The third weapon is said to have been legally transferred to Florida, the state where he now lives.

His criminal conviction in New York required that his gun licence there be revoked.

Convicted criminals are barred under federal law from owning guns or ammunition, but authorities in Republican-led Florida have expressed no interest in confiscating his weapon.

Trump once claimed in an interview that he “always” carried a gun. Under Florida law, he can carry his firearm concealed and does not need a permit.

The Trump campaign has also said his support for gun rights was unshaken by the attempt on his life this July, when a 20-year-old armed with his father’s AR-style rifle shot at least eight rounds in his direction and grazed his right ear with a bullet.

JD Vance, his running mate and a former Marine, has described shooting guns from an early age and was lauded earlier this year for his “perfect voting record” on protecting the Second Amendment by the pro-gun group, Gun Owners of America.

With renters in popular areas facing intense competition for homes, many are increasingly finding themselves pitted against each other in bidding wars.

Housing campaigners have welcomed plans for new laws to ban the practice in England – but are warning more action will be needed to tackle unaffordable rents.

Jason Phillips had been living in his flat in Crouch End, north London, for 10 years when his landlady decided to sell up.

He spent more than a year looking for somewhere new to rent in the area. But despite going to around 40 viewings and having a good salary as a business analyst, he kept losing out to other applicants.

In one case he was told a two-bed flat on the market for £1,800 month had gone for £2,500, after someone offered £700 over the asking price.

“It’s frustrating,” he says. “It made it not only unaffordable for me, but if I’d known that was going to be the price range I probably wouldn’t have even gone to see it in the first place.”

With at least a dozen prospective tenants viewing some of the properties, Jason said several estate agents had actively encouraged him to bid higher than the advertised price to give him the best chance.

Eventually Jason, 60, gave up and reluctantly moved to Stevenage, Hertfordshire, where it was easier to find somewhere within his budget and he was closer to work.

“I’d got to know my neighbours and I’d build up a lot of friends,” he says. “I miss [Crouch End] and I would love to go back.”

The government has set out plans to end bidding wars as part of a wider Renters’ Rights Bill, which was published on Wednesday.

Under the legislation, which still needs to be approved by MPs and peers, landlords and letting agents would be legally required to publish an asking rent for their property and banned from encouraging or accepting any bids above this price.

This goes further than proposals Labour set out when it was in opposition, which would have prevented landlords and agents from encouraging bids but would still have allowed prospective tenants to offer more than the advertised rent.

Campaign group Generation Rent’s Conor O’Shea says they are pleased the government has listened to the evidence from countries like Australia, where legislation has already been introduced to tackle bidding wars, and decided on a “total ban”.

He argues allowing “voluntary” bids would have been “open to abuse”, as tenants may still feel pressurised to offer above the asking price.

In Australia, all states now restrict rental bidding in some form – but only Queensland and the Northern Territory have banned landlords and agents from accepting offers above the asking price completely.

Three years after first introducing legislation to ban the encouraging of bids, Victoria is also planning to go further and make it an offence to accept rental bids, as the UK government is proposing.

The government there says with vacancy rates at record lows prospective tenants are under “an incredible amount of pressure” and people are increasingly making “unsolicited bids” to give them an edge over other applicants.

Joel Dignam, executive director of Australian campaign group Better Renting, says this suggests banning landlords from accepting as well as just encouraging bids is necessary to stop bidding wars.

He says enforcement is also an issue.

Generally, landlords or agents breaking the rules can be fined, but Mr Dignam says it is more likely they only get “a slap on the wrist”.

Mr O’Shea says this is also a problem in the UK, where overstretched councils struggle to go after all landlords who break the rules.

Under the planned legislation, landlords or agents could be fined up to £7,000 if they encourage or accept bids.

But Mr O’Shea says any new laws must be properly enforced to be effective.

He argues tenants should also be incentivised to report when bidding is being encouraged, for example they could be given a rebate on their rent if their landlord is found to have broken the law.

There are also questions over how effective banning rental bidding can be in curbing rising rents, with campaigners saying this does not address the root cause of the issue.

In Australia, rents have continued to increase in popular areas, where demand outstrips supply.

But Mr Dignam argues banning the practice is not just about affordability but also transparency.

“I think what’s tricky for renters is just not knowing what the real price of the property is,” he says.

“Is it even worth going to this [viewing] if actually it’s out of my price range?”

In the UK, the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) also agrees with the principle of ending bidding wars, saying neither landlords nor agents should be encouraging tenants to offer above the asking rent.

However, it is calling for more detail on how the policy would work in practice.

More broadly, the NRLA says there needs to be action to boost the supply of privately rented homes.

Mr O’Shea says ultimately banning bidding wars is “not going to be the silver bullet that will deal with the affordability crisis for tenants”.

He says there are concerns that some landlords may simply list their property at an inflated price and accept lower offers if needed.

Generation Rent also wants to see tighter controls on how much landlords can increase rents by within tenancies and an increase in the supply of homes, he adds.

“We don’t have enough homes in the places that people want to live, at rates they can afford to rent.”

Fatima Yakubu cannot believe that she and her six children are still alive after a dam collapsed following torrential rains in north-eastern Nigeria.

The family, who live south of the city of Maiduguri near the Alau Dam, were asleep when their house began filling with water in the early hours of Tuesday.

“I woke up at 1am when I felt water on my legs,” the 26-year-old told the BBC.

“It was rising very fast, and I was so scared. I thought I was going to die with my children.”

She cried out in panic for help: “Some men heard me screaming and came to rescue us. I am grateful to God.”

Along with her children she has found refuge at Bakassi Camp, one of four centres set up for the hundreds of thousands of people who have been flooded out of their homes this week.

Until last year, the camp was occupied by those who had fled notorious Boko Haram Islamist militants, whose 15-year insurgency has caused havoc in a region where poverty is endemic.

Though diminished, the jihadists are still active and despite the closure of displacement camps, Maiduguri remains densely populated with many people still preferring its relative security to rural areas of Borno state.

The heavier than usual rains began towards the end of August – and it is still humid and pouring with rain as people try to deal with the aftermath of the dam’s collapse.

Locals living around the Alau Dam, which is about 20km (12 miles) south of the city on the Ngadda river, became worried about the structure as the waters in the reservoir steadily rose last week – and they alerted officials.

A delegation did go out to inspect the dam, but said there was nothing to worry about.

However around four days later it started to fracture, and the dam gave way. Within three hours water was pouring into Maiduguri as people slept – with some estimates suggesting nearly half of the city was covered.

The authorities are still scrambling to rescue people, and sometimes bodies, trapped in buildings.

Many public structures are affected, including hospitals and the prison.

The crisis has been compounded by the escape of some wild animals from the state zoo – and an estimated 40% of its animals have perished.

The Borno state government has ordered schools that only recently reopened after a long holiday, to close for two weeks.

Hundreds of residents can be seen walking through the knee-high floodwater along the popular Lagos Bridge, while most vehicles are unable to plough through the high volume of water.

Mothers clutch their children tightly as they wade through the streets, trying not to get swept away.

Some young people have been taking advantage by going swimming in areas where the water is at least 4ft (1.2m) deep.

The waters have begun to recede in some areas, though five communities are still inundated.

This is Borno state’s most devastating flood disaster in three decades, according to the UN and local media.

There are worries about an outbreak of waterborne diseases as most of the city’s network of sewers has collapsed, contaminating water sources.

‘’The governor has announced the constitution of a special health team that will analyse the situation,” Borno state spokesperson Abdurrahman Ahmed Bundi told the BBC. “International partners, like the WHO [World Health Organization], have promised to support the government.”

Aid agencies say at least 37 people have died – but the authorities say it is too early to confirm this estimate.

“We can’t ascertain the figure yet. For the number of houses affected, we have to wait until the water level recedes,” Sirajo Garba, from the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) in Maiduguri, told the BBC.

The state governor, Babagana Zulum, has said that the floods may have affected up to a million people.

Hunger is now a major issue for those who have lost their belongings, homes and businesses.

At Bakassi Camp on Wednesday evening, a car pulled up at the gate and the driver began giving out loaves of bread to the crowds gathered.

But dozens of people then swooped on his vehicle and snatched everything through the wound-down windows.

“We don’t have enough food and essential supplies at the camp. People are always rushing for food,” said Ms Yakubu, who is shouldering the responsibility for looking after her children as her husband is staying with his second wife.

“My kids shared just one plate of meal today. They are still hungry while I haven’t eaten,” she said.

The family all share a mat placed on the ground in the open air – no other shelter is yet available. Fighting off mosquitos, she uses her hijab to cover her one-month-old baby.

Like many families, they are yet to be assigned sleeping areas as more tents are still being put up.

“My son and I have only taken kunu [a local drink made from sorghum or maize] today,” 23-year-old Aisha Muhammad told the BBC in tears.

Like many other women in the camp – finding something to eat is her main concern.

Nema said it would start distributing food soon – in additional to what the state government is doing.

The state spokesman explained that Governor Zulum visited the camp on Wednesday.

“He distributed 10,000 naira [$6; £5] to the head of each household as an immediate relief package while the government prepares something that’s more sustainable,” Mr Bundi said.

The four camps are currently housing around 6,000 people, according to Nema.

But there are thousands of others in desperate need of help – sleeping on the roads, under bridges, inside trucks and under vehicles.

Some have made makeshift tents with whatever is to hand, but they do a poor job of shielding them from the continuous rain.

As the emergency services deal with the deluged city, it is unclear when the damaged Alau Dam will be fixed.

‘’The reconstruction of the dam is a huge project that Borno state government alone cannot take care of. It is owned by the federal government,’’ Mr Bundi said.

• Collapse after collapse – why Lagos buildings keep crashing down
• Should I stay or should I go? The dilemma for young Nigerians
• Celebrating 50 years of marriage in Nigeria’s ‘divorce capital’

A couple who got married in a cemetery on what is supposedly the unluckiest day of the year have said the day was “pretty perfect”.

Hannah and Mathew Parfitt, from Pontypridd, tied the knot on Friday 13 October last year in a room that was once used to lower coffins before cremation.

Hannah, dressed in a black gown, and Mathew, wearing a red tie covered in skulls, said their vows by candlelight with the curtains drawn.

“We did want to get married on Halloween, but it always rains really badly on Halloween every year,” said Hannah, 27.

“Then randomly when we looked, Friday 13th came up and we wanted to get married in October so it seemed pretty perfect.”

The couple’s choice of venue was Arnos Vale in Bristol, a Victorian cemetery which is also a licensed wedding venue.

Hannah said one of the rooms they used was where a pallbearer would “lower the coffins down before they would be cremated… obviously they don’t use it any more”.

“We didn’t get married on the actual graves, because that would be disrespectful,” she said.

Asked why they chose a cemetery, Hannah said: “I’ve always really liked them. I just find them quite peaceful.”

And as for choosing the supposedly unluckiest day of the year?

“We haven’t had any bad luck yet, have we?” said Matthew.

“No, we’ve been pretty good,” said Hannah. “We got a new house recently, so it’s going well.”

Samantha Buca, an alternative wedding dress designer who created Hannah’s dress, said black wedding gowns were most popular in the autumn, with many getting married around Halloween.

“But I’ve just done a black dress for someone who got married in Ibiza. So there’s no right or wrong anymore with weddings,” she said.

Samantha said she did not really believe in the superstition surrounding Friday 13th.

“[But] I tend not to get people booking in to look at wedding dresses or picking up their dresses up on Friday 13th, because obviously there’s that negative connotation,” she added.

No one is sure of the exact origin of the superstition.

The number 13 and Friday both have a history of supposedly bringing bad luck – and it’s the combination of the two that gives the day its reputation.

It has been suggested that the reason for the number 13’s bad luck comes from the Bible.

Judas, who betrayed Jesus, is thought to have been the 13th guest to sit down to the Last Supper.

Friday has been considered the unluckiest day of the week for hundreds of years.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th Century, he said: “And on a Friday fell all this mischance”.

In the UK, Friday was once known as Hangman’s Day because it was usually when people who had been condemned to death would be hanged.

It is a hot night and thousands of fans have packed into Rongjiang’s football ground for the final of the Guizhou Village Super League.

Dongmen village is up against Dangxiang village in the climax of this hyper rowdy, very local competition.

This small, weekly, village football festival has become a viral sensation in China, as images have spread across social media of fans dressed in traditional ethnic costume, banging drums and cheering on the players who might be farmers, students or shopkeepers.

And these videos have inspired tens of thousands of people from across the country to experience it for themselves on any given weekend.

Watching the matches in the village league is free but it is quite a hike to get here, a three-hour drive into the mountains from the provincial capital Guiyang.

Yet millions of Chinese tourists have made the trek over the last 12 months, to soak up the atmosphere, boosting tourist industry revenue by nearly 75%, according to official figures quoted by state-run media.

The accommodation available is basically small hotels which are often fully booked when the big games are on.

It’s the ultimate underdog story.

This is an area which was one of the last parts of China to be officially declared free of “extreme poverty”.

Five years ago its average annual disposable income was just $1,350 in rural areas. Now, this newly organised league – only in its second year – has attracted so much fame it is transforming the place.

The players can’t quite believe it.

“We’re not professional footballers. We just love footy,” says Shen Yang.

“Even if there was no Village Super League, we’d play every week. Without football, I’d feel like life had lost its colour.”

Shen is a 32-year-old hospital maintenance worker who’s just come off an all-night shift, but, on the field, he is one of the main attacking weapons for Dongmen village.

He says his parents hated him playing football when he was a kid but now they’re total converts.

“They didn’t let me play. They threw away my trainers. But now they’ve set up a stall at the gate to the stadium selling ice creams,” he laughs.

Shen’s parents are not the only small business owners who have benefited from the economic boost this competition has brought to the area.

It is not as if everyone has suddenly become rich, but this sporting carnival has definitely brought earning opportunities for those running little family hotels, restaurants and street stalls.

Dong Yongheng, a player whose Zhongcheng village was in the final last year, is among those who have benefited from the tournament way beyond his experience on the pitch.

The former construction worker has turned footballing limelight into family business success.

The 35-year-old once worked in his auntie’s modest shop preparing rice rolls, a famous Rongjiang street snack.

Now he has opened his own, multi-story restaurant. It even has a shop attached to it selling his team’s football jerseys and other memorabilia.

“I think people like the authenticity of the village league,” he tells the BBC.

“It is really not because of our sporting skills. They like seeing a genuine performance, whether it is by our cheerleading ethnic singers or our players. Tourists love real and original things.”

The government says that more than 4,000 new businesses have registered in the region since the competition started last year, creating thousands of new jobs in the poor farming community.

That some fans dress up in traditional clothing to cheer on their village team has definitely given this tournament a unique flavour.

In the hours before the final, Pan Wenge’s silver headdress jingles and jangles as she speaks enthusiastically, preparing to cheer on Dongmen village.

“When we watch the game, it’s so exciting. We’re really nervous, you feel your heart pumping. And, when we win, we’re so happy. We sing and dance.”

But standing in Dongmen’s way is the younger, faster Dangxiang village team.

Their star striker, Lu Jinfu, the son of itinerant labourers, has just finished high school. With a shy smile he acknowledges the attention of local kids wanting to take selfies with him.

“When I started playing I didn’t expect it to be like this. I didn’t expect us to have such an amazing football atmosphere,” he says.

On the night, his team are indeed too good for Dongmen. Lu scores twice and, after the full-time whistle, the winning team spray each other with soft drinks in celebration.

But the losers don’t go home empty-handed.

“We won two pigs. That’s not bad,” Shen Yang says with a cheeky smile.

And, at their party afterwards, you would not think they were the runners-up.

There is much eating and drinking in an outdoor banquet down the main street of Dongmen village.

The players get hugs and kisses from their neighbours they refer to as “aunties”. Win, lose, or draw, they’re still seen as heroes.

And, after all, there is always next year.

France’s first lady Brigitte Macron has made a cameo appearance in the latest instalment of the hit series Emily in Paris.

The wife of President Emmanuel Macron features in the second instalment of season four of the comedy, which airs on Netflix on Thursday.

The show is centred on Chicago woman Emily Cooper, played by British-American star Lily Collins, who moves to the French capital. It has won over fans but also drawn criticism for portraying a stereotypical image of Paris.

But Mrs Macron, 71, has lent it her ringing endorsement, by playing herself in a short scene in which she poses for a selfie with Emily in a restaurant.

Collins says the idea for the cameo, first reported this week by Elle magazine, was spawned when she and the show’s creator Darren Star met Mrs Macron at the Élysée Palace in December 2022.

The first lady is mentioned in season one of the show, when she shares Emily’s Instagram post expressing disappointment that the French word for vagina, le vagin, is masculine.

“She is a big fan of the show and took the mention of her in season one with great humour,” Collins told Elle.

“This scene in season four is a wink, and shooting with her was both an honour and a real joy.”

Star, meanwhile, said Mrs Macron had “great talent” when appraising her performance.

In the scene, Emily (Collins) approaches Mrs Macron as she sits with two other women in a restaurant.

The first lady waves away her security guard as Emily explains she is the person behind the Instagram account Emily in Paris.

After a short exchange, Emily takes a selfie with Mrs Macron and posts it to Instagram, with the post including the hashtag #makeiticonic, a slogan from President Macron’s drive to attract foreign investors to France.

Netflix confirmed to AFP that the first lady wore her own clothing “with no particular instructions given to her” by the series known for its fashion.

Collins was quoted as saying Mrs Macron had “actually asked us” to appear in the show, “which was wild”.

But the Élysée has reportedly briefed media outlets in France that the request in fact came from the show’s producers.

Mrs Macron has some background in drama. That was the subject she was teaching at a secondary school when she first met the future French president, a member of the class, in 1993 when he was 15. They married 14 years later.

She also briefly appeared in the show Vestiaires, a French comedy series following two disabled swimmers, in 2018. Earlier this year a French production company announced it was creating a six-part series about her life.

First airing in 2020, Emily in Paris has attracted criticism for its fantastical portrayal of life in the city, from beret-wearing bon vivant lifestyle to sanitised, Instagrammable scenes, while avoiding issues including rubbish, crime and social conflicts.

Star has defended the show, and said it was intended to be a “love letter to Paris”, seen through the eyes of Emily.

“The first thing she is seeing is the clichés because it’s from her point of view,” he explained, speaking in 2020. “I wanted to do a show that celebrated that part of Paris.”

The latest series has attracted some scathing reviews, with the Telegraph complaining of “yet more tedium” and “terrible outfits”, but Collider applauded a “jaw-dropping finale” after a “chaotic second act”.

The bearskin caps worn by soldiers outside Buckingham Palace now cost more than £2,000 each, figures from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) show.

The cost of the ceremonial caps, made from the fur of black bears, soared by 30% in a year, according to figures revealed in response to a Freedom of Information request from animal welfare campaigners.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) group are against using real fur in principle, but they say it is also now a financial as well as an ethical issue, with £1m spent on fur caps in recent years.

The MoD said: “We are open to exploring faux fur alternatives if they pass the necessary requirements.”

However, the ministry spokesman said a fake fur version would have to satisfy “safety and durability considerations” and that “no alternative has met all those criteria to date”.

The sharp increase in price is explained by the MoD as the result of a change in the “contractual arrangements” for the caps, which are all made from the fur of bears hunted in Canada.

The cost of the caps worn by the King’s Guard rose from £1,560 each in 2022 to £2,040 in 2023.

Elisa Allen, of Peta, called on the MoD to “stop wasting taxpayer pounds on caps made from slaughtered wildlife, and switch to faux fur today”.

The distinctive tall caps are worn on ceremonial events such as Trooping the Colour, and the figures from the MoD show that 24 new caps were bought in 2023 and 13 in 2022. Over the past decade the amount spent on replacement caps has been more than £1m.

Defenders of using real fur caps have argued that they are long-lasting and maintain their appearance for such showcase military occasions.

Animal welfare campaigners have claimed it is cruel and unnecessary for the King’s Guard to use real fur, saying it takes the fur of one bear to make each bearskin.

The decision on the use of real fur is up to the MoD rather than the royals, but as the BBC previously revealed, Queen Camilla switched this year to only buying fake fur clothes, saying in a letter she would “not procure any new fur garments”.

There has been criticism from Peta of how black bears are caught and killed, with accusations that hunters can use crossbows, and the animals might suffer for a long time.

However, the MoD says all of the fur it uses comes from legal and licensed hunts from the regulated Canadian market, and that bears are not “hunted to order” to make the caps.

There are fake fur alternatives on offer to make the caps, including a fabric made from synthetic fibres – proposed by Peta.

But the MoD is not yet convinced that fake fur meets the five tests it has set for a bearskin alternative, in terms of its comfort and keeping its shape in all types of weather.

Those tests are “water absorption, penetration, appearance, drying rate and compression”.

In opposition, Labour’s then-shadow defence minster Stephanie Peacock had called for “an immediate review of the possible alternatives to bear fur, taking an in-depth look at contracts and costs”.

She had told the House of Commons: “It is incredibly important that traditions develop and adapt if they are to survive.”

With Labour now in government, the MoD says it is open to considering fake fur alternatives and would welcome the submission of samples of materials for testing.

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Leaders in the US state of Ohio are trying to douse baseless claims that Haitian immigrants in a town there have been eating residents’ pets as food.

The allegations carried in right-wing media were amplified by Donald Trump at his presidential debate with Kamala Harris on Tuesday.

“This is something that came up on the internet, and the internet can be quite crazy sometimes,” Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said on Thursday. Trump repeated the false claims again at a rally in Arizona soon after.

On Tuesday, a parent in the town of Springfield accused Republicans of politically exploiting his son’s death in a crash caused by a Haitian migrant.

Authorities say some 15,000 migrants of Haitian origin have resettled over the past couple of years in Springfield, a south-western Ohio town with a population of less than 60,000 people.

Some local residents have expressed frustration over the influx, saying the newcomers are straining city resources, from housing to healthcare.

In recent weeks unsubstantiated claims have surfaced on social media that the migrants are abducting and eating animals, from pet cats and dogs to park ducks.

Trump, his running mate JD Vance, the world’s richest man Elon Musk and other conservatives have amplified the reports.

But Springfield Mayor Rob Rue said on Tuesday that “we have not been able to verify any credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community”.

“The news story regarding a cat being killed or consumed did not originate in Springfield,” he added. “It actually involved a Canton woman who was arrested for animal cruelty last month.”

Canton is an Ohio city north-east of Springfield.

“I think we go with what the mayor says,” Governor DeWine told CBS on Wednesday. “He knows his city.”

A moderate Republican who has endorsed Trump’s re-election bid, DeWine has pledged to invest in Springfield’s healthcare and education systems to address its “unprecedented” population increase, but he also defended the newcomers.

“These Haitians came in here to work because there were jobs, and they filled a lot of jobs. And if you talk to employers, they’ve done a very, very good job and they work very, very hard,” he said.

On Thursday Springfield officials evacuated city hall following reports of a bomb threat. It is not yet known whether the incident was connected to the immigration controversy.

The latest rebuttal comes after a Springfield father told Trump to stop using his son’s death in a school bus crash, caused by a Haitian immigrant, for “political gain”.

Hermano Joseph was jailed for involuntary manslaughter and felony homicide after crashing into the bus in August 2023, killing Aiden Clark, 11.

On Monday, the Trump campaign used Aiden’s picture in a social media post attacking his Democratic rival Kamala Harris.

On Tuesday, Trump’s running mate JD Vance referred to Aiden in a post on Twitter/X, saying that “a child was murdered by a Haitian migrant”.

Aiden’s father, Nathan, said in a city commission meeting later the same day that the message had reopened wounds: “They have spoken my son’s name and used his death for political gain. This needs to stop now.”

Mr Clark said he wished his child had been killed “by a 60-year-old white man” so “the incessant group of hate-spewing people would leave us alone”.

“My son was not murdered. He was accidentally killed by an immigrant from Haiti,” he continued.

“They can vomit all the hate they want about illegal immigrants, the border crisis, and even untrue claims about fluffy pets being ravaged and eaten by community members,” Mr Clark said on Tuesday.

“However, they are not allowed, nor have they ever been allowed to mention Aiden Clark from Springfield, Ohio.”

The Trump campaign told the BBC it was “deeply sorry to the Clark family for the loss of their son”.

“We hope the media will continue to cover the stories of the very real suffering and tragedies experienced by the people of Springfield, Ohio, due to the influx of illegal Haitian immigrants in their community,” the campaign said.

Russia started the conflict in Ukraine and can end it “straight away”, Sir Keir Starmer has said after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested Moscow would regard Western missiles being fired into Russia as a serious escalation of the war.

The PM is in Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden on Friday, as allies of Kyiv discuss giving Ukraine permission to fire their missiles at targets inside Russia.

Putin told Russian state television that this would “mean nothing other than the direct participation of Nato countries – the US and European countries – in the war in Ukraine.”

“It is their direct participation,” he said. “And, of course, this substantially changes the very essence, the nature of the conflict.”

He added: “If that is the case, we will take corresponding decisions based on the threats that will be created to us.”

Asked for his response to the remarks on his flight to Washington, the prime minister struck a robust tone repeatedly stating that Russia had started the war.

“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Russia can end this conflict straight away,” he said. He later added: “To reiterate, it was Russia who started this in the first place. They caused the conflict, they’re the ones who are acting unlawfully.”

The prime minister and Foreign Secretary David Lammy are on a blitz of international diplomacy, as Ukraine’s allies discuss how to respond to Iran stepping up its support for Russia.

Lammy told the BBC this “clearly changes the debate” as he visited Kyiv alongside the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

On Sunday, the day after the prime minister returns from Washington, he will fly to Rome to meet the Italian Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni.

Italy currently holds the rotating presidency of the G7 group of industrialised countries.

A week later world leaders will gather in New York for the annual UN General Assembly.

There has long been a hesitancy to allow Ukraine to fire Western missiles into Russia because of fears it could be seen as provocative and draw the US, European countries and others directly into the conflict.

But with winter approaching and Russia getting extra support from Iran, minds appear to be changing.

When asked about the prospect of allowing the Anglo-French cruise missile called Storm Shadow to be used, the public remarks of senior figures remain guarded.

“There are really important developments likely in the next few weeks and months, both in Ukraine and the Middle East, and therefore a number of tactical decisions ought to be taken,” the prime minister told reporters, without disputing the issue is on the agenda.

He noted that both Blinken and Lammy had recently visited Ukraine.

“They’re obviously with us to report into the process on a really important joint trip.”

Speaking earlier in the day, Putin said: “This isn’t about allowing or banning the Kyiv regime from striking Russian territory. It does that already with drones and by other means.

“But when we talk about high-precision, long-range weapons made in the West this is a completely different matter… The Ukrainian army is not able to strike with modern, high-decision, long-range systems. It can’t do this. It is only possible with intelligence data from satellites that Ukraine doesn’t have, data that’s only from satellites of the European Union, the USA, Nato satellites.”

“The key point,” he added, “is that only servicemen of Nato countries can input flight missions into these missile systems. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this. Therefore this is not about permitting or not permitting the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons.

“This is about whether or not Nato countries take the decision to directly participate in the military conflict.”

This is the prime minister’s second visit to Washington in a little over two months, having travelled here in July for the Nato Summit and a visit to the White House, shortly after winning the general election.

Starmer said he would not be meeting the vice-president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris during the visit.

When asked by journalists on the flight to the US, he said: “No, because she will be in other parts of the US as you’d expect, rather than Washington, she’ll be as you’d expect in swing states… That’s fine.”

Donald Trump has ruled out another presidential debate against his rival Kamala Harris before November’s election.

He said on Thursday – two days after the pair’s first showdown in Philadelphia – that Harris only wanted a rematch because he “clearly” won.

Several instant polls taken after Tuesday’s contest indicated voters felt Harris had performed better than her Republican opponent.

Trump added that Harris should instead “focus” on her job as vice-president.

Shortly after, at a campaign rally in North Carolina, Harris responded by saying they “owe” voters another debate because “what is at stake could not be more important”.

Polls suggest the two candidates are in an extremely tight race with just two months to go before the election.

Both claimed victory after Tuesday’s 90-minute debate on ABC News, in which Harris rattled Trump with a string of personal attacks that put him on the defensive. These included comments about the size of his rally crowds and his conduct during the 6 January 2021 riot at the US Capitol.

Trump and his supporters have since accused the two ABC journalists that moderated the debate of being unfair and biased in favour of Harris. He said on Thursday that he did not need another debate.

“When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are ‘I want a rematch’,” Trump wrote in a lengthy Truth Social post on Thursday.

“Polls clearly show that I won the debate against comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ radical left candidate… and she immediately called for a second debate,” he added.

The former president held a rally in Arizona on Thursday and gave an interview with Telemundo Arizona backstage. “We just don’t think it’s necessary,” he said of a second debate with Harris. “We think we’ve discussed everything and I don’t think they want it either.”

The Harris campaign, however, called for a second debate immediately after Philadelphia and continued to do so on Thursday. They said voters “got to see the choice they will face at the ballot box: moving forward with Kamala Harris or going backwards with Trump”.

“Vice-President Harris is ready for a second debate. Is Donald Trump?” the campaign said.

Speaking after the debate, various Trump campaign surrogates – including Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz – said they believed Trump would welcome another debate.

However, Trump said on Fox News the following morning that the debate had been “rigged” and that he was “less inclined” to attend another after his “great night”.

His decision on Thursday also appeared to contradict earlier messaging from his own campaign. On Wednesday morning, Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, told CNN that Trump “has already said that he is going to do three debates”.

Both campaigns had reportedly been in discussions over a debate on NBC News on 25 September. The network has not commented on Trump’s latest statement.

Adam Green, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee – an organisation that has advised the Harris-Walz campaign on economic messaging – told the BBC that Trump’s decision was a “double favour” to the Harris campaign.

“Voters will have a lasting impression of Kamala Harris as looking presidential and standing on their side,” he said. “That will probably do her very well.”

“Another debate would potentially help Harris, but could also shake up the existing glow that surrounds her,” Mr Green added.

Jeremy Petersen, an independent voter from Utah, told the BBC that he was not surprised by Trump’s decision.

“If [Trump] doesn’t feel like he can score some social media soundbites, there’s no benefit for him to show up,” said Mr Petersen, who added that he would probably support Harris after the Philadelphia debate.

“He felt that Harris wouldn’t have the type of performance she did and now he’s running scared,” Mr Petersen added. “He can’t stop her momentum via debate so he needs a new angle.”

• FACT-CHECK: Key claims from both sides examined
• ANALYSIS: Harris puts Trump on the defensive
• HARRIS: Where she stands on 10 key issues
• TRUMP: Where he stands on 10 key issues

Televised debates date back to 1960, when John F Kennedy faced off against Richard Nixon.

There are traditionally two or three presidential debates happening in most election cycles, along with at least one vice-presidential debate.

That tradition, however, was upended in July, when Joe Biden withdrew from the election weeks after a disastrous performance against Trump in the first debate.

The subsequent debate between Harris and Trump followed weeks of back and forth over whether it would go ahead, and under what conditions.

Trump previously suggested additional debates on Fox and NBC News, although Harris only agreed to ABC.

In his Truth Social post on Thursday, Trump said his rival “refused” to do the additional debates.

Statistics from media analytics firm Nielsen show that 67.1m people watched the debate, a significantly higher figure than the 51.3m who tuned into the June debate between Trump and Biden.

Polls suggest Harris and Trump are in an extremely tight race in the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Thursday indicated Harris had a five-point lead over Trump nationally, while 53% of respondents said that she won Tuesday’s debate.

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The relationship between neighbours India and Bangladesh continues to remain frosty more than a month after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted from power. While Hasina’s stay in India remains an irritant, a recent interview by Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus also took India by surprise. The BBC’s Anbarasan Ethirajan examines where ties stand now.

Sheikh Hasina was seen as pro-India and the two countries enjoyed close strategic and economic ties during her 15-year rule. Her time in power was also beneficial for India’s security, as she cracked down on some anti-India insurgent groups operating from her country and settled some border disputes.

But her presence in India, with no clarity on how long she will stay, complicates the two countries’ efforts to maintain a strong relationship.

That was made clearer last week when, in an interview with news agency Press Trust of India, Yunus urged India to stop Hasina from making any political statements while staying in Delhi.

“If India wants to keep her until the time Bangladesh wants her back, the condition would be that she has to keep quiet,” said Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is currently leading an interim administration after Hasina’s exit.

Yunus may have been referring to a statement released days after Hasina’s arrival which had stoked anger in Bangladesh. She has not issued any public communication since then.

There have been calls within Bangladesh to bring Hasina back to stand trial for killings of people during the anti-government protests in July and August.

• India’s Bangladesh dilemma: What to do about Sheikh Hasina?

Yunus also said in the interview that both countries need to work together to improve their bilateral relationships, which he described as being “at a low”.

India’s foreign ministry has not formally reacted yet to the remarks, but officials are reportedly “upset”.

“India is waiting and watching developments in Bangladesh, taking note of statements emanating from Dhaka representing both official views and views expressed by prominent individuals,” an Indian official told the BBC on condition of anonymity.

Former Indian diplomats say they are taken aback by what has been described as “megaphone diplomacy” by Yunus – trying to discuss contentious bilateral issues through the media.

“India has indicated its readiness to talk to the interim government, and to discuss all concerns, those of Bangladesh and those of India,” Veena Sikri, a former Indian high commissioner in Dhaka, said.

The retired diplomat says the issues merit quiet discussions and it’s not clear “on what basis [Yunus] has described the bilateral relationship as low”.

But Bangladesh’s foreign ministry rejects the criticism.

“Don’t Indian leaders talk to any media? If Dr Yunus is asked about specific issues, he can of course express his views. If you want to criticise, you can criticise about anything,” Touhid Hossain, adviser to the Bangladesh foreign ministry, told the BBC.

Though Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Yunus spoke on the telephone some weeks ago, there have been no ministerial level meetings so far.

There seems to be a broad consensus in India that Hasina can stay until another country agrees to let her in.

However, the newly appointed chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, Mohammad Tajul Islam, has said they are taking steps to extradite her to face charges in connection with the killings during the protests.

“As she has been made the main accused of the massacres in Bangladesh, we will try to legally bring her back to Bangladesh to face trial,” Islam told reporters.

But experts say it’s unlikely that Hasina will be extradited even if Bangladesh makes a formal request.

“She is staying here as a guest of India. If we don’t extend basic courtesy to our long-time friend, then why would anyone take us seriously as a friend in future?” says Riva Ganguly Das, who is also a former Indian high commissioner to Dhaka.

In his interview, Yunus also criticised Delhi for not reaching out to Bangladeshi opposition parties.

“The narrative is that everybody is Islamist, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is Islamist, and everyone else is Islamist and will make this country into Afghanistan. And Bangladesh is in safe hands with Sheikh Hasina at the helm only. India is captivated by this narrative,” he said.

But Indian analysts differ.

“I absolutely do not agree with that statement. In Bangladesh, our high commissioners talk to all political parties without ascribing any labels,” says Ms Sikri.

During the previous BNP-led coalition government from 2001 to 2006, the bilateral relationship deteriorated, with Delhi accusing Dhaka of harbouring insurgents from India’s north-east. The BNP denies this.

But many in Bangladesh point out that India should be reaching out to the BNP, which is confident of winning the election whenever it is held.

“No Indian official has met us since 5 August [when Hasina’s government fell]. I don’t know the reason,” says Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary general of the BNP.

On the contrary, the Chinese ambassador in Dhaka and envoys from European countries have been holding regular meetings with the BNP.

The lack of security in the days after the fall of Hasina has also given rise to attacks on religious minorities by suspected Islamists. India has already expressed concern several times over reports of attacks on Hindus.

• ‘There is no law and order. And Hindus are being targeted again in Bangladesh’

In the past few weeks, several Sufi shrines, locally known as mazars, have also been vandalised by Islamist hardliners. Sunni Muslims are the majority in Bangladesh, and radicals consider shrines and tombs of revered figures un-Islamic.

“A group of people came and vandalised my father-in-law’s tomb a few days ago and warned us not to perform any un-Islamic rituals,” said Tamanna Akhtar, wife of the caretaker of the shrine of Ali Khawaja Ali Pagla Pir in Sirajganj district.

The adviser to the Bangladeshi religious affairs ministry, AFM Khalid Hossain, has said that action would be taken against those who target religious sites.

But experts say that if Islamist hardliners re-establish an assertive presence, however small it may be, in Bangladesh, it will set off alarm bells for Delhi.

In the past few weeks, a convicted Islamist militant has been released. Nine suspected radicals escaped during a jail break last month – four of them were arrested later.

Jashimuddin Rahmani, chief of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, which was designated as a terror outfit by Hasina’s government in 2016, walked out of prison last month.

He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2015 in connection with the murder of an atheist blogger. He had been in jail even after his prison term ended because of other pending cases.

“Several militants have been freed in the past month. Some of them are known to India,” former diplomat Ms Das said, terming it a “serious matter”.

A massive landslide in a Greenland fjord triggered a wave that “shook the Earth” for nine days.

The seismic signal last September was picked up by sensors all over the world, leading scientists to investigate where it had come from.

The landslide – a mountainside of rock that collapsed and carried glacial ice with it – triggered a 200m wave.

That wave was then “trapped” in the narrow fjord – moving back and forth for nine days, generating the vibrations.

Landslides like this, scientists say, are happening more frequently with climate change – as the glaciers that support Greenland’s mountains melt.

The results of the investigation into this event, which are published in the journal Science, are the result of a detective mission involving an international team of scientists and the Danish Navy.

“When colleagues first spotted this signal last year, it looked nothing like an earthquake. We called it an ‘unidentified seismic object’,” recalled Dr Stephen Hicks from UCL, one of the scientists involved.

“It kept appearing – every 90 seconds for nine days.”

A group of curious scientists started to discuss the baffling signal on an online chat platform.

“At the same time, colleagues from Denmark, who do a lot of fieldwork in Greenland, received reports of a tsunami that happened in a remote fjord,” explained Dr Hicks. “So then we joined forces.”

The team used the seismic data to pin down the location of the signal’s source to Dickson Fjord in East Greenland. They then gathered other clues, including satellite imagery and photographs of the fjord that were taken by the Danish Navy just before the signal appeared.

A satellite image showed a cloud of dust in a gully in the fjord. Comparing photographs before and after the event revealed that a mountain had collapsed and swept part of a glacier into the water.

The researchers eventually worked out that 25 million cubic metres of rock – a volume equivalent of 25 Empire State Buildings – slammed into the water, causing a 200m-high “mega-tsunami”.

In the “after” photographs of the location, a mark is visible on the glacier – left by the sediment that the giant wave hurled upwards.

Tsunamis, usually caused by underground earthquakes, dissipate within hours in the open ocean. But this wave was trapped.

“This landslide happened about 200km inland from the open ocean,” Dr Hicks explained. “And these fjord systems are really complex, so the wave couldn’t dissipate its energy.”

The team created a model that showed how, instead of dissipating, it sloshed back and forth for nine days.

“We’ve never seen such a large scale movement of water over such a long period,” said Dr Hicks.

Scientists say the landslide was caused by rising temperatures in Greenland, which have melted the glacier at the base of the mountain.

“That glacier was supporting this mountain, and it got so thin that it just stopped holding it up,” said Dr Hicks. “It shows how climate change is now impacting these areas.”

While this event was in a a remote area, these fjords are visited by some Arctic cruise ships. Fortunately none were in the area where this landslide occurred. But the lead researcher, Dr Kristian Svennevig from the National Geological Surveys for Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said this was an increasingly common phenomenon in the Arctic.

“We are witnessing a rise in giant, tsunami-causing landslides, particularly in Greenland,” he told BBC News.

“While the Dickson Fjord event alone doesn’t confirm this trend, its unprecedented scale underscores the need to carry out more research.”

The event at Dickson Fjord, Dr Hicks added, “is the perhaps first time a climate change event has impacted the crust beneath our feet all the world over.”

The presence of hard-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer alongside Donald Trump on the campaign trail in recent days has raised questions, including from some Republicans, about the influence the controversial former congressional candidate may have on him.

Ms Loomer is well-known for her anti-Muslim rhetoric and for spreading conspiracy theories, including that the 9/11 attacks were an “inside job” carried out by the US government.

She joined Trump at an event on Wednesday commemorating the attacks, raising eyebrows and prompting outrage in some US media outlets.

And on Tuesday, the 31-year-old travelled to Philadelphia on board Trump’s plane for the presidential debate in the city.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of that debate came when Trump repeated a baseless claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti have been eating domestic pets in a small Ohio city. “They are eating the pets of the people that live there,” he said.

City officials later told BBC Verify that there have been “no credible reports” this has actually happened.

Trump said he was repeating claims he had heard on television, but the baseless theory was aired by Ms Loomer just a day before the debate. On Monday, the fringe pundit and social media influencer repeated the baseless claims to her 1.2m followers on X.

While the level of access Ms Loomer has to Trump is unclear, and his running mate JD Vance has also spread the baseless theory, Ms Loomer’s post and her presence in Philadelphia has led some Republicans to blame her for the former president making the unfounded claim on stage.

An anonymous source close to the Trump campaign told US news outlet Semafor that they were “100%” concerned about Ms Loomer’s proximity to Trump.

“Regardless of any guardrails the Trump campaign has put on her, I don’t think it’s working,” the source was quoted as saying.

Another source, however, told the outlet that Ms Loomer did not interfere in debate preparations and said she was a “positive person to be around”.

Dennis Lennox, a Republican consultant, was much more pointed in his criticism of Trump’s debate performance and Ms Loomer. “That’s what happens when you wing it, live in the Fox News-X bubble, and rely upon Matt Gaetz, let alone Laura Loomer,” he told Semafor.

Ms Loomer did not respond to several requests for comment from the BBC.

But on X, formerly Twitter, she said that she operates “independently” to help Trump, who she referred to as “truly our nation’s last hope”.

“To the many reporters who are calling me and obsessively asking me to talk to them today, the answer is no,” she wrote. “I am very busy working on my stories and investigations and don’t have time to entertain your conspiracy theories.”

Born in Arizona in 1993, the self-styled investigative journalist has worked as an activist and commentator for organisations including Project Veritas and Alex Jones’s Infowars.

In 2020, she ran – with Trump’s support – as a Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in Florida, but lost to Democrat Lois Frankel.

She tried again two years later, when she unsuccessfully ran to unseat Representative Daniel Webster in a Republican primary in a different Florida district.

Now, she is known for her vocal support of Trump and for promoting a long string of conspiracy theories including claims that Kamala Harris is not black, and that the son of billionaire George Soros was sending cryptic messages calling for Trump’s assassination.

These posts led her to be banned from a number of platforms including Facebook, Instagram and even, according to her, Uber and Lyft for making offensive comments about Muslim drivers. She once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”.

• Eating pets, inflation, abortion – key debate claims fact-checked
• Ohio leaders dismiss claims of migrants eating pets
• US voters weigh in on debate performance

Ms Loomer frequently attends events in support of Trump and has been seen previously at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago.

Earlier this year, she travelled on his plane to Iowa where she was given a shout-out by him on stage at an event. “You want her on your side,” Trump said. The former president has also shared several of her videos on Truth Social.

And last year, the New York Times reported that Trump had expressed an interest in hiring her for his campaign, relenting only after top aides expressed concern that she could damage his electoral efforts.

“Everyone who works for him thinks she’s a liability,” one Trump aide said of Ms Loomer in a report in NBC News in January.

Another outspoken Trump supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene, took issue with Ms Loomer this week over her comments questioning Harris’s race and a post in which she said the White House “will smell like curry” if Harris – who is partly of Indian descent – is elected.

Greene said Ms Loomer’s comments were “appalling and extremely racist” and did “not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA” – prompting a flurry of furious messages in her direction.

This feud in Trump’s orbit played out just a day after Ms Loomer appeared at events with Trump commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 in New York and Pennsylvania.

Asked about her attendance there by the Associated Press, she said she did not work for the campaign and was “invited as a guest”.

The first showdown between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump was closely watched not only in the US but around the world.

The debate in Philadelphia featured some tense exchanges on foreign policy between the two presidential candidates.

From Beijing to Budapest, here’s how the debate went down, according to BBC foreign correspondents.

• Follow latest on the debate

Kamala Harris told Donald Trump that President Putin is “a dictator who would eat you for lunch.”

The expression “to eat someone for lunch” (or breakfast, or any other meal) doesn’t exist in Russian. But one thing you will find in Moscow is the appetite for a US election result that benefits Russia.

The Kremlin will have noted (with pleasure) that in the debate Trump sidestepped the question about whether he wants Ukraine to win the war.

“I want the war to stop,” replied Trump.

By contrast, Harris spoke of Ukraine’s “righteous defence” and accused Vladimir Putin of having “his eyes on the rest of Europe”.

Later the Kremlin claimed to have been irked by all mentions of Putin in the debate.

“Putin’s name is used as one of the instruments for the internal battle in the US,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told me.

“We don’t like this and hope they will keep our president’s name out of this.”

Last week Putin claimed he was backing Harris in the election and praised her “infectious laugh.”

Later a Russian state TV anchor clarified that Putin had been “slightly ironic” in his comments.

The presenter was dismissive of Harris’ political skills and suggested she would be better off hosting a TV cooking show.

I wonder: would it feature “dictators” eating US presidential candidates “for lunch”…?

• Who won the debate?
• Fact-checking Harris and Trump

Donald Trump’s failure, when asked on the debate stage to say if he wanted Ukraine to win the war, may not have surprised people here but it adds to their worry about what a second Trump term would bring.

Trump has long boasted he could end in the conflict in 24 hours, a prospect many Ukrainians assume would mean an incredibly bad deal with Kyiv forced to give up huge swathes of the land Russia has seized over the past two and a half years.

In contrast, Ukrainians will have been reassured by Kamala Harris’s responses, with no sign she would deviate from the current position of staunch American support.

She took credit for the role she’s already played, arguing she shared important intelligence with President Zelensky in the days before the full-scale invasion.

She then claimed Trump’s position would have been fatal for Ukraine had he still been in the White House. “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”

Publicly, there has been a deafening silence from Ukraine’s current ministers and senior military in reaction to the debate. The figurative US electoral battle is one they need not weigh in to while they’re consumed by real fighting at home.

It’s President Zelensky himself who so far has gone furthest in articulating, albeit somewhat euphemistically, what a Trump victory would mean for Ukrainians.

Speaking to the BBC in July, he said it would mean “hard work, but we are hard workers”.

America’s longest war ended in August 2021 when it scrambled to pull out the last of its troops, and evacuate thousands of civilians, as the Taliban swept into Kabul with surprising speed.

That debacle made it into the debate and, not surprisingly, the issues were dodged, dismissed, distorted.

Harris veered away from the question “do you bear any responsibility in the way that withdrawal played out?”.

As a correspondent who followed the chaotic pullout closely, I never heard that the vice-president was in the room when decisions were taken in those final fateful weeks. But she made it clear she agreed with President Biden’s decision to leave.

Trump boasted that he talked tough with “Abdul”, the “head of the Taliban” who is “still the head of the Taliban.”

He seemed to be referring to Abdul Ghani Baradar, who signed the withdrawal deal with the US. But he never headed the Taliban, and has been sidelined since the Taliban takeover.

The mention immediately prompted a wave of internet memes featuring “Abdul” with people named Abdul weighing in, and others asking “who is Abdul?”

Both contenders focused on the flawed deal with the Taliban. The truth is that the Trump team negotiated this exit plan; the Biden team hastily enacted it.

Trump said the deal was good because “we were getting out”.

There were no good ways to go. But the departure turned into a disaster and all sides are to blame.

Kamala Harris was an unknown quantity to leaders here and she still is, even after the debate.

She has no track record on China and on the debate stage she simply repeated her line that the US, not China, would win the competition for the 21st Century.

The vice-president represents something China does not like – uncertainty.

That is why President Xi recently used a visit by US officials to call for “stability” between the two superpowers, perhaps a message to the current vice-president.

The prevailing view among Chinese academics is that she will not stray too far from President Biden’s slow and steady diplomatic approach.

But on the debate stage she went on the attack and accused Donald Trump of “selling American chips to China to help them improve and modernise their military”.

Donald Trump has made it clear he plans has to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese goods.

This will add to the tariffs he imposed as president which started a trade war in 2018. China retaliated, and numerous studies suggest this caused economic pain for both sides.

This is the last thing China wants right now as it is trying to manufacture and export goods to rescue its economy.

For Chinese leaders, this debate will have done little to assuage beliefs that Trump represents something else they don’t like – unpredictability.

But in truth, there is little hope here that US policy on China will change significantly, no matter who sits in the White House.

• Six highlights from Harris and Trump on stage
• Undecided Americans impressed by Harris

The two candidates did not stray much from their previously stated positions last night, even if Trump did add, with characteristic hyperbole, that Israel wouldn’t exist in two years if his opponent becomes president.

Here in the Middle East, the race for the White House is being keenly watched.

With the war in Gaza raging and a ceasefire deal still elusive, some of Benjamin Netanyahu’s critics suspect that Israel’s prime minister is deliberately stalling until after the election, in the hope that Trump will be more sympathetic to Israel than Harris.

There’s a whiff of history perhaps being about to repeat itself.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan’s campaign team was suspected of urging Iran not to release American hostages held in Tehran until after he had beaten President Jimmy Carter, saying Reagan would give Iran a better deal.

Could something similar be afoot now? Certainly Netanyahu’s opponents believe he is now the chief obstacle to a ceasefire deal.

Harris has indicated that she might be tougher on Israel than Joe Biden, something Trump has seized on, saying last night that the vice-president “hates Israel”.

Palestinians, deeply sceptical about Donald Trump but dismayed by the Biden administration’s inability to stop the war in Gaza, are possibly inclined to see Harris as the lesser of two evils.

They’ve long since abandoned any notion of the US as an honest broker in the Middle East, but will have noticed that Harris, unlike Trump, says she’s committed to Palestinian statehood.

Donald Trump showered praise on the Hungarian prime minister.

“Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men, they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person. Smart…”

Hungarian pro-government media picked up on the compliment. “Huge recognition!” ran the headline in Magyar Nemzet.

But government-critical news portal 444 quoted Tim Walz, running mate of Harris.

“He [Trump] was asked to name one world leader who was with him, and he said Orban. Dear God. That’s all we need to know.’

Viktor Orban backed Trump for president in 2016 and is strongly backing him again in November.

The two men met for the second time this year at Trump’s home in Florida on 12 July, after Orban visited Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing in quick succession.

The Orban government is banking both on Trump’s victory and his ability to swiftly end the war in Ukraine.

“Things are changing. If Trump comes back, there will be peace. It will be established by him without the Europeans,” Balazs Orban, Viktor Orban’s political director, told the BBC in July.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: Everything you need to know about the vote
• EXPLAINER: Seven swing states that could decide election
• FACT CHECK: Was US economy stronger under Biden or Trump?
• IMMIGRATION: Could Trump really deport a million migrants?
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

A “fabulous moment” has been captured as tiger cubs explored a new area of their safari park for the first time.

Along with mum Yana, the four rare Amur tigers ventured into the drive-through Tiger Territory section at Longleat Safari Park in Wiltshire.

Amy Waller, from Longleat, said: “The four of them cautiously followed mum into the drive-through and then grew in confidence to explore the area.”

The four female cubs were born in May, making Longleat home to the largest number of tigers in the UK, as they joined Yana, their dad, Red, and their older sister, Yuki.

“We have always said it will be a gradual process led by Yana and the guidance of the keepers as it is really important we make sure Yana, and the cubs, are confident about where they are and what they are experiencing,” Ms Waller added.

“Yana decided when she’d had enough and led them back indoors.”

Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers, are native to the far east of Russia.

They are one of the most endangered species in the world and it is estimated that only 450 of them are left in the wild.

The species was on the brink of extinction in the 1940s, due to hunting and logging.

At one stage, it is believed the population fell to only 20 to 30 animals.

Visitors to the safari park will have the chance to see them in their paddock everyday.

A billionaire and an engineer have become the first non-professional crew to perform one of the riskiest manoeuvres in space – a spacewalk.

Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis stepped out of the SpaceX spacecraft around 15 minutes apart, starting at 11:52BST, wearing specially-designed suits.

“Back at home we all have a lot of work to do, but from here Earth sure looks like a perfect world,” Mr Isaacman said as he exited.

It was commercially funded by Mr Isaacman. Before, only astronauts with government-funded space agencies had done a spacewalk.

Images broadcast live showed the two crew emerge from the white Dragon capsule to float 435 miles (700km) above the blue Earth below.

Mr Isaacman emerged first, wiggling his limbs, hands and feet to test his suit. He returned back inside the hatch, and Ms Gillis, who works for SpaceX, then climbed out.

Both crew narrated their spacewalk, describing how their suits performed outside of the craft.

The walk, originally scheduled for 07:23BST, was postponed early on Thursday.

Anticipation and tension grew as the crew prepared to open the hatch on the craft that has no air lock, or doorway between the vacuum outside and the rest of the spacecraft.

The four crew members spent two days “pre-breathing” to prevent becoming seriously ill from decompression sickness, known as getting “the bends”, as the pressure changed. That involves replacing nitrogen in the blood with oxygen.

The craft was then depressurised to bring it closer to the conditions of the space vacuum outside.

This type of space walk took a “very different approach” to previous walks from, for example, the International Space Station, according to Dr Simeon Barber, research scientist at the Open University.

In recent decades astronauts used an airlock that separates most of a craft from the space vacuum outside – but this SpaceX Dragon capsule was in effect entirely exposed to space outside.

“It’s really exciting and I think it shows again that SpaceX is not afraid to do things in a different way,” he told BBC News.

But it was not without major risks.

Mr Isaacman, who funded the Polaris Dawn mission, was the only member of the four-person crew on the Polaris mission to have previously been to space.

He is commander on the Resilience spacecraft with his close friend Scott ‘Kidd’ Poteet, who is a retired air force pilot, and two SpaceX engineers Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.

The Dragon capsule the team flew in has now launched to space three times, taking 11 crew in total. However, the capsule and the spacesuits are not subject to regulation and were untested in this environment.

Spacewalks are one of the most difficult manouevres in space, so the fact that a private company has pulled it off is a milestone in the history of space travel.

This walk at 435 miles (700km) was higher than any previous walk, and used innovative technology in the new extravehicular activity (EVA) astronaut suits.

These are an upgrade from SpaceX’s previous intravehicular activity (IVA) suits.

The EVA suit incorporates a heads-up display in its helmet, which provides information about the suit while it is being used.

Sarah Gillis read out data from her heads-up display during her time outside the Dragon capsule.

SpaceX say the suits are comfortable and flexible enough to be worn during launch and landing, eliminating the need to have separate IVA suits.

Extra nitrogen and oxygen tanks were installed and all four astronauts wore the suits, meaning the mission broke the record for the most people in the vacuum of space at once.

The Resilience spacecraft left Earth on Tuesday on a SpaceX rocket.

The mission said it would travel up to 870 miles (1,400km) up in orbit – further than any human has been in space since Nasa’s Apollo programme ended in the 1970s.

Government space agencies like Nasa want the private sector to transport their astronauts on missions and bring down the cost of space travel.

And entrepreneurs like Isaacman and Elon Musk want to expand private space travel so that more non-professional astronauts can go to space.

This is a major symbolic step forwards, but that day is probably a long way off as the costs remain prohibitively high.

Russia’s defence ministry says its forces have recaptured 10 settlements seized by Ukrainian forces in a surprise incursion in Russia’s Kursk border region last month.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Russia had begun “counter-offensive actions, which is going in line with our Ukrainian plan”.

Russia said its “Units of the North” forces had reclaimed the settlements over two days in the area around Snagost, on the western flank of the area occupied by Ukraine in its campaign launched on 6 August.

The first indication of a counteroffensive had come from Chechen special forces commander, Maj Gen Apti Alaudinov, who said six Ukrainian brigades had suffered heavy casualties.

A Ukrainian officer fighting in the Kursk region told the BBC that the Russian counteroffensive had begun some distance to the west of Sudzha.

“The fighting is very tough and the situation is not in our favour as of now,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.

Ukraine’s offensive was launched with the apparent aim of distracting Russia from its push into eastern Ukraine. It now claims up to 1,300 sq km (500 sq miles) of Russian territory.

However, Russian forces continued to seize villages in eastern Ukraine and are closing in on the strategic town of Pokrovsk.

Analysts from the US-based Institute for the Study of War said the size, scale and potential prospects of the Russian counterattacks were unclear and it was premature to draw any conclusions.

One social media account linked to a Ukrainian brigade said Russian forces had unexpectedly launched their attack near Snagost and that the Ukrainians were fighting back.

In the weeks since Ukrainian forces entered Kursk region, they have destroyed three bridges across the River Seym to keep the Russians at bay, and several pontoon bridges erected afterwards.

However, reports suggest the Russians were able to cross both the Seym and other smaller rivers as part of their counteroffensive.

Russian military expert Anatoly Matviychuk told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper that more than 100 sq km of territory had been recaptured and “the enemy’s reserves, reinforcements, and logistical supplies can no longer reach Kursk region”.

Russia’s military was caught by surprise by the scale and intensity of the Ukraine incursion into Kursk region early last month.

Although Moscow was stunned by the ease with which Ukrainian forces seized towns and villages including Sudzha, President Vladimir Putin said almost a month afterwards that they had failed.

Ukrainian forces had tried to make Russia nervous – “to scurry, to send troops from one area to another and to stop our offensive in key areas, above all in Donbas” – he said.

Not only had it not worked, Putin argued, but Ukraine’s offensive had merely helped Moscow’s “primary objective”, which he identified as capturing the Donbas – Ukraine’s industrial regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russian forces are now only a few kilometres outside Pokrovsk and its adjoining town Myrnohrad and fierce fighting is reported on the approaches to the Pokrovsk.

An overpass between the two towns was destroyed overnight into Thursday and the Donetsk regional head said a water supply line to Pokrovsk had also been cut, although he said the town had access to several wells.

Separately, on Wednesday the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said three of its staff had been killed in eastern Ukraine.

They had been delivering aid in the Donetsk region.

Zelensky called the attack a Russian war crime but the ICRC did not identify who was behind it, adding that it was “unconscionable” that “shelling would hit an aid distribution site”.

Meanwhile, a Russian drone attack left 14 people wounded in the northern Ukrainian town of Konotop, a key hub used by Kyiv for preparing its Kursk campaign.

Prosecutors in the Sumy border region posted photographs showing damaged apartment blocks in the town. Power supplies to Konotop were down because of the strike and officials said energy infrastructure had been significantly damaged.

For weeks, the roads around Islamabad have been lined by shipping containers; road blocks ready for immediate deployment in the event of any protest.

Pakistan’s capital has become used to entire areas being sealed off whenever the authorities get an inkling that unrest could be brewing. It is a constant reminder to the city’s residents that at any moment, everything could tip.

Last Sunday, the containers were out in force, blocking 29 routes around the city.

In a much-publicised and anticipated political rally, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) supporters made their way in their thousands towards Islamabad. The crowd waved flags and banners while a poster of the former prime minister suspended by balloons gently floated overhead. Others wore eerie masks of Imran Khan’s face. Chants of “Imran Khan Zindabad” (long live Imran Khan) echoed around the venue.

The containers did not contain them; video on social media shows lines of supporters shoving the corrugated metal aside and surging through to reach the rally’s venue.

The man whose face was everywhere was not in attendance. Imran Khan has been behind bars for more than a year, having been convicted of corruption and charged with leaking state secrets.

Mr Khan has called all the charges against him politically motivated. But despite seeing his sentences overturned and a UN working group declaring that he had been “arbitrarily detained”, there seems little movement toward his release. Most analysts say that without the explicit say-so from Pakistan’s politically powerful military, Mr Khan will not be let out.

That didn’t stop the political promises from PTI leaders on Sunday.

“Listen Pakistanis, if in one to two weeks Imran will not be released legally, then I swear to God we will release Imran Khan ourselves,” the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Ali Amin Gandapur, bellowed from the stage. “Are you ready?”

The reaction came quickly.

On the following evening, word began to spread on social media and TV news channels that the crackdown had begun. Footage from Pakistan’s parliament showed the party’s chairman and MP Gohar Ali Khan being marched out of the building, his arms held firmly by police, cameras and mobile phones hovering in a swarm around him.

CCTV footage reportedly filmed inside the office of Shoaib Shaheen, another National Assembly member, showed him being quickly bustled out of the room as men streamed through several doors.

Confusion about exactly who had been arrested pinged around WhatsApp groups. Even by the morning after, the police had only confirmed three arrests to the BBC, while the PTI said the number was higher than 10. Mr Gohar was later released, but several others remained in police custody.

The assumption from the start was that these arrests had been made under a new law, introduced only last week and labelled by Amnesty International’s spokesperson as “another attack on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly”. The Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Act 2024 act restricts public gatherings and proposes three-year jail terms for participants of “illegal” assemblies, with 10-year imprisonment for repeat offenders.

While the PTI had received permission to hold their rally, the police had already complained that it had run past the designated cut-off time and therefore caused a “serious law and order situation”.

The crackdowns mark the latest phase in a long game of cat and mouse between Imran Khan’s PTI and the authorities. So what does this power struggle mean for Pakistan?

“At best this is a dangerous distraction,” says Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre think tank in Washington. “But at worst, it could be something that destabilises the country even more. It makes it all the more difficult to address Pakistan’s economic and security challenges.”

Pakistan is still trying to stabilise its economy and has seen an increasing number of militant attacks.

Mr Kugelman argues that Pakistan’s military, thought to be the driving force behind the crackdown on PTI, are trying to contend with a changing world.

“For many years the army has had its way with dissent. It’s been able to snuff it out through crackdowns,” he said. “But what’s different with Pakistan and the world [now] is that this is the social media era. The PTI has been able to master the art of social media to advance political goals.”

Mr Kugelman described this as a “very concerning” development from the military’s perspective, and said it’s not surprising that it would resort to methods which “might seem like overkill and certainly are, not to mention wholly undemocratic.”

“This is a military reacting to a political threat it’s not used to,” he said.

Beyond the introduction of the illegal assembly law and the arrests of lawmakers from parliament, the Pakistani government has also been criticised by digital rights campaigners for limiting online activities.

Since the February elections, social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has not worked in Pakistan without a VPN. The military has repeatedly talked about the dangers of “cyber terrorism”, and the government recently said that it was creating an online firewall. When questioned about how the firewall might limit freedom of speech, a minister said “it would not curb anything”.

Many see this as an attempt to try to limit PTI’s social media machine, including the reach of the party’s supporters based outside the country who regularly criticise the military online.

The longer these clashes continue, the worse some fear it could be for Pakistan. As Mehmal Sarfraz, a Lahore-based political commentator and journalist, puts it: “When political parties fight, a third force takes advantage.”

For many analysts, that third force is Pakistan’s military which has long been closely tied to the country’s politics. The degree to which the military has allowed civilian governments to make decisions has waxed and waned. Today many analysts see the military’s hand in many political decisions and restrictions.

“Unless political parties talk to one another, this hybrid regime will continue to gain strength,” says Ms Safraz. “The hybrid could then become more permanent.”

Imran Khan has made it clear, however, that he and his party have no interest in speaking to the other political parties.

The PTI is consistently popular and able to mobilise, and seems unbowed by the pressure. But despite party members’ success keeping their leader’s name in the headlines, they can’t get him out from behind bars.

Rather than coming to a compromise, the recent rally and heated speeches suggest that they remain confrontational. And that could have ramifications for both their political and legal positions; Imran Khan is still fighting to avoid being tried in a military court.

The military remain resolute, too. The more the PTI seems to push, the more barriers the military seems to find to put in its way.

The fear for some, however, is that once these new measures are rolled out it will be hard to roll them back.

“The danger is that we become less of a democracy, more of a hybrid with every passing day,” says Ms Sarfraz.

For now, the shipping containers still sit on the sides of Islamabad’s streets.