Israel’s leaders are jubilant about the progress of the offensive against Hezbollah that started with the detonation of weaponised pagers and radios and moved on to intense and deadly airstrikes.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant did not hold back his praise after Monday’s air strikes.

“Today was a masterpiece… This was the worst week Hezbollah has had since its establishment, and the results speak for themselves.”

Gallant said airstrikes destroyed thousands of rockets that could have killed Israeli citizens. In the process Lebanon says Israel killed more than 550 of its citizens, including 50 children. That is almost half Lebanon’s dead in a month of war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Israel believes that a ferocious offensive will coerce Hezbollah into doing what it wants, inflicting so much pain that its leader Hassan Nasrallah and his allies and backers in Iran decide that the price of resistance is too high.

Israel’s politicians and generals need a victory. After almost a year of war Gaza has become a quagmire. Hamas fighters still emerge out of tunnels and ruins to kill and wound Israeli soldiers and are still holding Israeli hostages.

Hamas caught Israel by surprise last October. The Israelis did not see Hamas as a significant threat, with devastating consequences. Lebanon is different. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Mossad spy agency have been planning the next war against Hezbollah since the last war ended in a stalemate in 2006.

Israel’s leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, believes the current offensive is making big progress towards his declared objective of tipping the balance of power away from Hezbollah.

He wants to stop Hezbollah firing rockets over the border into Israel. At the same time, the Israeli military says the plan is to force Hezbollah back from the border and to destroy military facilities that threaten Israel.

The last week in Lebanon brings back echoes of the last year of war in Gaza. Israel issued warnings to civilians, as it did in Gaza, to move out of areas about to be attacked. It blames Hezbollah, as it blames Hamas, for using civilians as human shields.

Some critics as well as enemies of Israel said the warnings were too vague and did not give enough time for families to evacuate. The laws of war demand that civilians be protected, and forbid indiscriminate, disproportionate use of force.

Some of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel have hit civilian areas, breaking laws designed to protect civilians. They have also targeted the Israeli military. Israel and key Western allies, including the US and UK, classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

Israel insists it has a moral army that respects the rules. But much of the world has condemned its conduct in Gaza. The ignition of a wider border war will deepen the gap at the centre of a highly polarised argument.

Take the pager attack. Israel says it was aimed at Hezbollah operatives who had been issued with the pagers. But Israel could not know where they would be when the bombs inside the pagers were triggered, which was why civilians and children in homes, shops and other public places were wounded and killed. That, some leading lawyers say, proves that Israel was using deadly force without distinguishing between combatants and civilians; a violation of the rules of war.

The fight between Israel and Hezbollah started in the 1980s. But this border war began the day after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, when Hassan Nasrallah ordered his men to begin a limited, but almost daily barrage over the border to support Hamas. It tied up Israeli troops and forced around 60,000 people in border towns to leave their homes.

A few voices in the Israeli media have compared the impact of the air strikes on Hezbollah’s capacity to wage war to Operation Focus, Israel’s surprise attack on Egypt in June 1967. It was a famous raid that destroyed the Egyptian air force when its aircraft were lined up on the ground. Over the next six days Israel defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The victory created the shape of the current conflict as Israel captured the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.

It is not a good comparison. Lebanon, and war with Hezbollah, is different. Israel has inflicted heavy blows. But so far it has not stopped Hezbollah’s capacity or will to fire into Israel.

Israel’s earlier wars with Hezbollah were grinding, attritional and never produced a decisive victory for either side. This one might go the same way, however satisfying the last week of offensive action has been for Israel, its intelligence services and its military.

Israel’s offensive rests on an assumption – a gamble – that a point will come when Hezbollah will crumple, retreat from the border and stop firing into Israel. Most observers of Hezbollah believe it will not stop. Fighting Israel is the main reason why Hezbollah exists.

That means Israel, just as reluctant to admit defeat, would have to escalate the war further. If Hezbollah continued to make northern Israel too dangerous for Israeli civilians to return home, Israel would have to decide whether to launch a ground offensive, probably to capture a strip of land to act as a buffer zone.

Israel has invaded Lebanon before. In 1982 its forces swept up to Beirut to try to stop Palestinian raids into Israel. They were forced into an ignominious retreat in the face of fury at home and abroad, after Israeli troops held the perimeter as their Lebanese Christian allies massacred Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut.

By the 1990s Israel still occupied a broad band of Lebanese land along the border. Today’s Israeli generals were then young officers, who fought in endless skirmishes and firefights against Hezbollah, which was growing stronger as it fought to drive Israel out. Ehud Barak, then Israel’s prime minister and a former chief of staff of the IDF, withdrew from the so-called “security zone” in 2000. He decided that it did not make Israel any safer and was costing Israel the lives of too many soldiers.

In 2006 an ill-judged raid by Hezbollah across the tense and highly militarised border killed and captured Israeli soldiers. After the war ended Hassan Nasrallah said he would not have allowed the raid had he realised what Israel would do in return. Ehud Olmert, by then Israel’s prime minister, went to war.

At first Israel hoped air power would stop rocket attacks into Israel. When it did not, ground troops and tanks once again rolled back over the border. The war was a disaster for Lebanese civilians. But on the last day of the war, Hezbollah was still launching salvoes of rockets into Israel.

Israel’s commanders know that entering Lebanon under fire would be much more formidable military challenge than fighting Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah has also been making plans since the end of the 2006 war, and would be fighting on home ground, in south Lebanon which has plenty of rugged, hilly terrain that suits guerrilla tactics.

Israel has not been able to destroy all the tunnels Hamas dug through sand in Gaza. In the borderlands of south Lebanon, Hezbollah has spent the last 18 years preparing tunnels and positions in solid rock. It has a formidable arsenal, supplied by Iran. Unlike Hamas in Gaza, it can be resupplied by land through Syria.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington DC, estimates that Hezbollah has around 30,000 active fighters and up to 20,000 reserves, mostly trained as mobile small units of light infantry. Many of its men have combat experience fighting in support of the Assad regime in Syria.

Most estimates say that Hezbollah has something between 120,000 and 200,000 missiles and rockets, ranging from unguided weapons to longer-range weapons that could hit Israel’s cities.

Israel may be gambling that Hezbollah will not use all of them, fearful that the Israeli air force will do to Lebanon what it did to Gaza, turning entire towns to rubble and killing thousands of civilians. Iran might not want Hezbollah to use weapons it would like to reserve as insurance against an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. That’s another gamble. Hezbollah might decide to use more of its arsenal before Israel destroys it.

With the war continuing in Gaza, and rising levels of violence on the occupied West Bank, Israel would also have to contemplate a third front if it invaded Lebanon. Its soldiers are motivated, well trained and equipped, but the reserve units that provide much of Israel’s fighting power are already feeling the strain after a year of war.

Israel’s allies, led by the United States, did not want Israel to escalate the war with Hezbollah and do not want it to invade Lebanon. They insist that only diplomacy can make the border safe enough for civilians to return to their homes on either side of it. An American envoy has worked out an agreement, partly based on UN Security resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war.

But diplomats have their hands tied without a ceasefire in Gaza. Hasan Nasrallah has said Hezbollah will only stop attacking Israel when the Gaza war stops. At the moment neither Hamas nor the Israelis are prepared to make the necessary concessions that would produce a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and a swap of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

As Israeli air strikes continue to pound Lebanon, civilians who were already struggling to provide for their families in a broken economy face terrible pain and uncertainty. Fear crosses front lines. Israelis know that Hezbollah could do them much worse damage than they have in the last year.

Israel believes the time has come to be aggressive and audacious, to blast Hezbollah away from its borders. But it faces an obdurate, well-armed and angry enemy. This is the most dangerous crisis in the long year of war since Hamas attacked Israel and at the moment nothing is stopping it spiralling towards something much worse.

As Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to reveal a “Victory plan” to President Joe Biden on Thursday, Kyiv is looking to the US leader for a strong show of support before he leaves the White House.

A senior official in Kyiv said they wanted him to “make history” in his final months in office.

While details of the Ukrainian plan have been kept under wraps, the strategy is likely to contain pleas for further military and financial support, plus future security guarantees.

Zelensky says it is designed to be a “bridge” towards stopping the war, which he believes could end sooner than people think.

If the West strengthens Ukraine’s position, he believes Russia’s Vladimir Putin could be pushed into a diplomatic peace.

Ever sharp at public relations, Ukraine’s president is also aiming to take on critics in the US who have questioned the wisdom of pouring further money into Ukraine’s cause – by promoting an apparent blueprint for eventual peace.

Zelensky is throwing a huge diplomatic effort behind his victory plan.

He is almost camped out at the United Nations. He spoke on Monday at a debate about how the UN should be reformed. He addressed the Security Council on Tuesday. And he is giving a speech to the General Assembly on Wednesday.

In between, he is meeting world leaders and US politicians. He visited an ammunition factory in Scranton, Joe Biden’s hometown in Pennsylvania, one that is making shells for Ukrainian artillery batteries.

And he is explicit that he considers time is short. In one of his many media interviews, Zelensky told the New Yorker that the victory plan had to be agreed – and Ukraine strengthened – in October, November and December.

“This plan is designed, first and foremost, with Biden’s support in mind,” he told the magazine. That support is by no means guaranteed but Zelensky is staking much on securing it.

That is because the situation will change significantly if Donald Trump were to win the election. At a campaign rally on Monday, the former president mocked Zelensky as “the greatest salesman in history” because “every time he comes into this country, he walks away with $60bn”.

Trump restated his position that he would urge Russia and Ukraine to agree a deal to end the war, one that Kyiv fears would force them to accept territorial losses and no guarantee against further Russian aggression.

It is the fear of such a scenario that is pushing the diplomatic drive behind Zelensky’s victory plan this week. Some diplomats are sceptical the plan would succeed in nudging Russia towards a negotiating table. Much depends now on Biden’s response.

Congressional lawmakers will be handed the plan as will Trump and his presidential rival Kamala Harris.

Trump has claimed he would end the war within 24 hours, leading to fears the Republican nominee would essentially force Kyiv into making territorial concessions against its will.

As the US elections loom, it’s a crucial moment for Zelensky as Moscow’s troops continue to press gains, inch by inch, in Ukraine’s east.

A top priority in the so-called victory plan will be to “hit Russia strongly”, believes one military analyst – Mykhailo Samus, director of the New Geopolitics Research Network.

Giving Kyiv the ability to destroy military infrastructure within a 300km range could seriously hamper the Kremlin’s offensive operations in the Donbas and its ability to “neutralise” Ukraine’s ongoing incursion in Russia’s Kursk region, says Mr Samus.

This would mean securing permission, so far denied, to use Western-made long-range missiles on targets deep inside Russia.

While Ukraine has successfully been deploying attack drones against Russian ammunition dumps, missiles can penetrate more heavily fortified munition sites.

The plan will also see Kyiv ask for more of these kinds of missiles, believes Olga Rudenko, editor in chief of the Kyiv Independent.

Further financial support and capitalising on Ukraine’s surprise cross-border push into Russia’s Kursk region are also expected to form core elements within the strategy.

As for Ukraine’s future security guarantees, Ukraine’s aspirations towards joining the Nato defensive military alliance clearly remain.

“Ukraine’s invitation to Nato is part of the victory plan,” confirmed Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office.

Zelensky’s office has rejected a German report that he is considering a localised ceasefire as “fake”.

However, Czech President Petr Pavel – who has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine – said this week that part of Ukraine would probably remain “temporarily” occupied, possibly for years.

Olga Rudenko believes that, for most Ukrainians, it’s still “too sensitive and unimaginable to concede anything even temporarily to Russia” – even if that conversation is happening somewhere, privately, within government.

“It’s not that Ukrainians are greedy about the territory,” she says.

“We can’t leave our people there, under Russian control and sentence them to those horrors,” referring to persistent allegations of Russian war crimes.

That sentiment was echoed by 31-year-old Dmytro, whose face and arms were badly burned when he was hit by a Russian drone.

“We will not surrender our territories, for which so many people have been fallen,” he told the BBC in Kyiv.

“If we ended the war at this stage, what were we fighting for then? What for did all our men, our comrades die for?”

A truce, he believes, would simply give Russia time to recuperate and Zelensky has likewise warned against a “frozen” conflict.

Dmytro is already planning his return to the front line to fight alongside his comrades: “I will not retreat, I will be there until my last breath.”

Donald Trump has been briefed by US intelligence on threats from Iran to assassinate him, his campaign said.

The Republican presidential candidate was briefed “regarding real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States”, the campaign said in a statement.

It did not elaborate on the claims, and it was not immediately clear if the threats it referred to were new or had been previously reported.

The Iranian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Tehran has previously denied US claims of interfering in American affairs.

“Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung said in the statement.

“Law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” he added.

The BBC has approached the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the US for comment.

It comes after Mr Trump survived an assassination attempt on 13 July, when he was wounded and another person was killed in a shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania. No motive has been determined and it remains under investigation.

In the days after, US media reported that officials had received intelligence of an alleged Iranian plot against the former president. Iranian officials at the time rebuffed the allegations as “malicious”, the BBC’S US partner CBS news reported.

“If they do ‘assassinate President Trump,’ which is always a possibility, I hope that America obliterates Iran, wipes it off the face of the Earth – If that does not happen, American Leaders will be considered ‘gutless’ cowards!” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform at the time.

Then on 15 September, a Secret Service agent spotted a rifle poking through a fence at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. The agent opened fire as Mr Trump was playing a round of golf.

US prosecutors have charged Ryan Wesley Routh, a man arrested near the golf course, with the attempted assassination of a presidential candidate.

There has been no suggestion Iran was involved in either case.

Last month, the Trump campaign said some of its internal communications had been hacked and suggested it was targeted by Iranian operatives.

The tragic death of a 26-year-old Indian employee at a leading accounting firm has ignited a serious debate about workplace culture and employee welfare in corporate environments.

Anna Sebastian Perayil, a chartered accountant at Ernst & Young (EY), died in July, four months after joining the firm. Her parents have alleged that the “overwhelming work pressure” at her new job took a toll on her health and led to her death.

EY has refuted the allegation, saying that Perayil was allotted work like any other employee and that it didn’t believe that work pressure could have claimed her life.

Her death has resonated deeply, sparking a discussion on the “hustle culture” promoted by many corporates and start-ups – a work ethic that prioritises productivity, often at the expense of employee well-being.

Some argue that this culture drives innovation and growth, with many choosing extra hours out of passion or ambition. Others say that employees are often pressured by management, leading to burnout and a diminished quality of life.

Perayil’s death came under the spotlight after a letter written by her mother Anita Augustine to EY went viral on social media last week. In the letter, she detailed the alleged pressures her daughter had experienced at work, including working late into the night and on weekends, and appealed to EY to “reflect on its work culture” and take steps to prioritise its employees’ health.

“Anna’s experience sheds light on a work culture that seems to glorify overwork while neglecting the very human beings behind the roles,” she wrote. “The relentless demands and the pressure to meet unrealistic expectations are not sustainable, and they cost us the life of a young woman with so much potential.”

Many people condemned EY for its “toxic work culture”, sharing their experiences on Twitter and LinkedIn. One user alleged that he had been made to work for 20 hours a day at a top consultancy firm without being paid overtime.

“Work culture in India is horrid. Pay is dismal, exploitation is max [maximum]. There are zero repercussions and no remorse on the part of employers who routinely harass workers,” another user wrote, adding that managers are often praised for overworking and underpaying their employees.

A former EY employee criticised the work culture at the firm and alleged that employees were often “mocked” for leaving on time and “shamed” for enjoying weekends.

“Interns [are] given crazy workload, unrealistic timelines and [are] humiliated during reviews as it builds character for their future,” he wrote.

EY’s India chief, Rajiv Memani, has since said that the firm attaches the “highest importance” to the wellbeing of its employees. “I would like to affirm that the wellbeing of our people is my top-most priority and I will personally champion this objective,” he wrote in a post on LinkedIn.

Perayil’s death isn’t the first incident that has brought India’s work culture under scrutiny. In October last year, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy faced criticism for suggesting that young Indians should work 70-hour weeks to boost the country’s economic growth.

His views were backed by Ola’s India chief Bhavesh Aggarwal, who said that he didn’t believe in the concept of work-life balance because “if you are enjoying your work, you will find happiness in life also and work also, and both of them will be in harmony”.

In 2022, Shantanu Deshpande, founder of the Bombay Shaving Company, asked youngsters to stop “cribbing” about working hours and suggested that new recruits at any job should be prepared to work 18 hours a day for the first four to five years of their career.

But mental health experts and labour rights activists say that such demands are unfair and put employees under immense stress. In her letter, Perayil’s mother alleged that her daughter had experienced “anxiety and sleeplessness” soon after joining EY.

India is known to have one of the most overworked workforces globally. A recent report by the International Labour Organisation said half of India’s workforce worked for over 49 hours each week, making India the second country after Bhutan to have the longest working hours.

Labour economist Shyam Sunder said India’s work culture had shifted post-1990s with the rise of the service sector, leading firms to bypass labour laws to meet round-the-clock demands.

He added that the culture has now been “institutionalised” by firms but it has also been accepted by employees. “Even in business schools, students are tacitly told that working long hours to earn a high salary is normal and even desirable,” he said.

According to him, for there to be any real change in corporate culture, a “mindset shift” is necessary – one where both firms and employees approach work with a more mature outlook, viewing it as important, but not the only part and purpose of life.

“Till then, all the other steps by corporates, like offering period leave or partnering with mental health firms will remain supplementary at best and symbolic at worst,” he said.

Chandrasekhar Sripada, a professor at the Indian School of Business, agrees with this view. He said that toxic work culture was a “complex, multi-stake holder problem” and that everyone, from industry leaders to managers to employees and even society, would have to change the way they viewed productivity in order for there to be any real change.

“We’re still confusing hard work with productive work,” Mr Sripada said. “The point of technology is to reduce human work so why are working hours getting longer?”

“We need to start focussing on sustainable growth, not just from an environmental standpoint, but also from a labour rights perspective,” he added.

“Scandinavian countries have already created much gentler working environments, so there are models for India to follow. All it needs is willpower.”

Thailand’s king has signed a marriage equality bill into law, making the country the first in South East Asia to recognise same-sex unions.

The bill cleared the Senate in June but required royal endorsement to become law. It was published in the Royal Gazette on Tuesday and will come into effect on 22 January next year.

Activists hailed the move as historic – it marks the culmination of years of campaigning for marriage equality.

Thailand has long been seen as a relative haven for the LGBTQ+ community in a region where such attitudes are rare.

The new law uses gender-neutral terms in place of “husbands”, “wives”, “men” and “women”. And it grants same-sex couples adoption and inheritance rights.

“Today we’re not only getting to write our names in marriage certificates, but we are also writing a page in history… that tells us that love never set a condition of who we were born to be,” Ann Chumaporn, a longtime LGBTQ+ activist and co-founder of the Bangkok Pride movement, told the BBC.

“It’s a triumph of equality and human dignity.”

She said she plans to organise a mass wedding for more than 1,000 LGBTQ+ couples on 22 January.

“[The legal recognition] means we are fully accepted and can live our lives without conditions or compromises,” said advertising strategist Kwankaow Koosakulnirund.

“Thailand’s LGBTQ+ community can now look toward a future beyond relationships, embracing the sense of pride that this law brings,” he said.

“We are all delighted and excited. We’ve been fighting for our rights for over 10 years, and now it’s finally happening,” another activist, Siritata Ninlapruek, told AFP news agency.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra posted on X: “Congratulations on everyone’s love. #LoveWins.”

Former PM Srettha Thavisin, who has been vocal in his support for the bill, also applauded the development as a “significant step” for Thailand.

“Equity and equality have become concrete in the Thai society. Gender diversity will eventually be fully accepted. Congratulations,” he wrote on X.

When the law comes into effect, Thailand will become only the third place in Asia, after Taiwan and Nepal, where same-sex couples can get married.

In 2019, Taiwan’s parliament became the first in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. Nepal registered its first same-sex union in November last year, five months after its Supreme Court ruled in favour of it.

This was just one month after India’s top court had ruled against it, leaving the decision to the government, which said it would set up a panel to decide on more legal rights for same-sex couples.

Singapore scrapped a colonial-era law that banned gay sex in 2022, but also amended its constitution to prevent the courts from challenging the definition of marriage as one between a man and a woman.

Women working in hospitals in Pakistan say they regularly face sexual harassment, violence and verbal abuse, from male colleagues, patients and their families.

Following the rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor at work in an Indian hospital, more than a dozen female medics in Pakistan told the BBC they were worried about their own safety.

But this is a largely hidden crisis, as many are too scared to come forward to report the crimes – while those who do are often told no one would believe their allegations.

Most of the women the BBC spoke to asked that their names be withheld for fear of losing their jobs, “honour and respect”.

A few months ago, a young doctor came to Dr Nusrat (not her real name) in tears. While she was using the toilet, a male doctor had filmed the woman through a hole in the wall and was using the video to blackmail her.

“I suggested filing a complaint with the FIA [Federal Investigation Agency, which handles cyber crimes], but she refused. She said she didn’t want it to be leaked and reach her family or in-laws,” Dr Nusrat explained, adding that she knows of at least three other cases where female doctors have been secretly filmed.

Dr Nusrat happened to know someone senior in the police who spoke to the blackmailer, warning him he could be arrested for what he had done. The police officer made sure the video was deleted.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t take further action, but we got the hole covered so that no-one could do it again,” says Dr Nusrat.

Other women shared experiences of being sexually harassed, including Dr Aamna (not her real name), who was a resident medical officer in a government hospital five years ago when she was targeted by her senior doctor, a powerful man.

“When he saw me with a file in my hand, he would try to lean over it, make inappropriate comments, and try to touch me,” she says.

She filed a complaint with the hospital administration, but says she was met with indifference. “I was told I had only been there for a short time, and asked what proof I had of this harassment. They said, ‘We’ve been unable to fix this person in seven years – nothing will change, and no-one will believe you’.”

Dr Aamna says she knows of other women who have managed to record videos of harassment, “but nothing happens – the harasser is merely transferred to another ward for a few months, then comes back”.

She had to complete her placement to qualify as a doctor, but moved as soon as it was over.

Testimony gathered by the BBC suggests her story is disturbingly common.

The root of the problem lies in a lack of trust and accountability, according to Dr Summaya Tariq Syed, the chief police surgeon in Karachi and head of Pakistan’s first rape crisis centre.

She describes her 25 years of service as a constant battle against violence and betrayal, and says she has been disappointed with how things are handled.

She recounts how, a few years ago when she was in a different role, she was shut in a room by colleagues who wanted her to change what she had written in a post-mortem examination report about someone who had been killed.

“They said, ‘Sign it or you have no idea what we’ll do to you’,” but she refused. Given the senior position of one of the people involved, she says, no action was taken against them.

Another female doctor at a government hospital in Punjab explains that it can be hard for women to report abuse.

“The [hospital] committees that do exist often include the same doctors who harass us, or their friends. So why would anyone file a complaint and make their life even more difficult?”

There are no official statistics available on assaults against female health workers in Pakistan. However, a report in the US National Institutes of Health in 2022 paints a troubling picture. It indicates that up to 95% of nurses in Pakistan have faced workplace violence at least once in their career. This includes assault and threats as well as verbal and mental abuse, from colleagues, patients and hospital visitors.

This tallies with a report in the Pakistan Journal of Medicine and Dentistry, which quotes a 2016 study of public sector hospitals in Lahore that suggested 27% of nurses had experienced sexual violence. It also cites a study from Pakistan’s north-western Khyber Pakhtunkha province that indicated that 69% of nurses and 52% of female doctors there had experienced some sort of sexual harassment in the workplace from other staff.

Dr Syed recounts a particularly disturbing attack that happened in Karachi in 2010: “A doctor at a government hospital lured a nurse to his hostel, where he wasn’t alone – two other doctors were there as well.” The nurse was raped and was so distraught that she jumped off the roof and was in a coma for about a week. “Nothing that happened was consensual. But she decided not to pursue the case.”

Dr Syed believes that society often blames victims and if the nurse had reported it “the blame would have fallen on her”.

Harassment and threats come from patients, their friends and families too, she says, describing how members of the public attacked her team while they were handling bodies in the mortuary last year.

“Two people had to ward off blows from a person who tried to hit me, just because I told him not to make videos.”

She registered a complaint with the police and is now waiting for the case to work its way through court. “We must continue our part of the fight – staying quiet will only strengthen the culprits.”

Other female doctors also describe a lack of security as a problem, especially in state-run hospitals, where they say anyone can walk in unchecked. At least three said people who attacked them were ordinary citizens who had entered the hospital while drunk. Drinking alcohol is largely banned in Pakistan.

Dr Saadia (not her real name) explains that several of her colleagues at a major government hospital in Karachi have been repeatedly sexually harassed. “It’s often people under the influence of drugs wandering into the hospital,” she says.

“One evening, a colleague was on her way to another ward when a drunken man started harassing her. Another time, a different doctor was attacked. Some other doctors managed to get rid of the man, but there were no security guards around.”

Nurse Elizabeth Thomas (not her real name) says incidents where drunk patients try to touch them are common. “We feel terrified, unsure whether to treat the man or protect ourselves. We feel utterly helpless. And there are no security staff to help us.”

Dr Saadia says they don’t even know “if the person sweeping the floor or roaming around the ward claiming to be staff is actually staff”.

Looking back at her time at a government hospital in Punjab five years ago, Dr Aamna says: “In remote areas, forget about security; they don’t even have proper lighting in the hallways.”

According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2023, there are 1,284 government hospitals in the country. Doctors say security measures are extremely poor.

Healthcare workers say many either lack CCTV cameras or have too few, and those that do exist often don’t function properly. They say thousands of patients and their families visit these hospitals daily, and attacks on medical staff have become common.

Dr Saadia recounts how she once had to hide after a patient’s relative attacked her for waiting for test results to arrive before administering an injection.

“He was a tall man, and he started yelling at me. I was pressed against the door. He threatened me, saying, ‘Give the injection now, or I’ll kill you’.”

Many of Pakistan’s nursing staff come from minority non-Muslim communities, which can make them vulnerable in other ways, says Elizabeth Thomas.

“I know many nurses who are harassed, and if they don’t comply, they’re threatened with accusations of blasphemy. If a nurse is attractive, they’re often told to convert their religion.

“We’re always left wondering how to respond because if we don’t do what they want, they might falsely accuse us of blasphemy. This has happened to nurses.”

On top of the abuse, female doctors describe enduring long, demanding shifts with a lack of basic facilities.

“During my house job, we went through times when, during a 30-hour shift, we didn’t have a room to rest in. We would go outside and rest in a colleague’s car for 15 minutes or so,” says Dr Saadia.

“When I was in the emergency ward, there was no toilet. We couldn’t go to the loo during 14-hour shifts. Even when we were menstruating, we couldn’t use a toilet.”

She says toilets for hospital staff were in other blocks, so far away that they didn’t have time to go and use them.

The BBC asked local health ministers in the four provinces where these women have worked to comment, as well as the national health co-ordinator in Islamabad but did not receive any replies.

Since the rape and murder of the trainee doctor in India, discussions have intensified among female doctors in Pakistan about how to ensure their own safety.

Dr Saadia says it has affected her deeply and she has changed her routine: “I no longer go to dark or deserted places. I used to take the stairs, but now I feel safer using the lifts.”

And Elizabeth Thomas says it has shaken her too. “I have a seven-year-old daughter, and she often says she wants to become a doctor. But I keep wondering, is a doctor safe in this country?”

The union representing thousands of striking Boeing workers says a survey of its members shows they are “not interested” in the aviation giant’s latest pay offer.

“Many comments expressed that the offer was inadequate,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said in a post on X.

It comes after Boeing made a new offer earlier this week to striking workers, which proposed a 30% pay rise over four years.

BBC News has requested a statement from Boeing in response to the IAM announcement.

“The survey results from yesterday were overwhelmingly clear, almost as loud as the first offer: members are not interested in the company’s latest offer that was sent through the media,” the IAM post said.

On Monday, Boeing made what it called its “best and final” pay offer, which included the reinstatement of a performance bonus, improved retirement benefits and a doubling of the value of a one-off bonus for signing a new pay deal to $6,000 (£4,470).

The company said the offer was dependent on it being ratified by union members by midnight pacific time on Friday 27 September (7:00 GMT on Saturday 28 September).

However, IAM said Boeing had sent the new offer directly to union members and the media without telling the union’s representatives.

It also said the company’s deadline did not give it enough time to organise a vote by its members.

Boeing denied that it had not informed IAM representatives about the offer, and said it would give the union more time and logistical support to ballot its members.

More than 30,000 Boeing workers have been on strike since 13 September after rejecting a 25% pay rise offer.

Union members – who produce planes including the 737 Max and 777 – voted overwhelmingly to reject the offer and back strike action until a new agreement could be reached.

IAM had initially aimed for a number of improvements to workers’ packages, including a 40% pay rise.

The strike threatens to cost Boeing billions of dollars, deepening the crisis at a company already facing significant challenges.

The company has already suspended the jobs of tens of thousands of staff.

Central Europe’s devastating floods were made much worse by climate change and offer a stark glimpse of the future for the world’s fastest-warming continent, scientists say.

Storm Boris has ravaged countries including Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Austria and Italy, leading to at least 24 deaths and billions of pounds of damage.

The World Weather Attribution (WWA) group said one recent four-day period was the rainiest ever recorded in central Europe – an intensity made twice as likely by climate change.

On a positive note, the storm was well forecast, meaning some regions were better prepared for it, likely avoiding more deaths.

Scientists at WWA work out how much of a role climate change played in an extreme weather event by comparing it with a model of how bad that storm, drought or heatwave might have been in a world where humans hadn’t been burning fossil fuels for nearly 200 years.

The kind of rainfall unleashed by Boris is thankfully still rare – expected to occur about once every 100-300 years in today’s climate, which has warmed by about 1.3C due to greenhouse gas emissions.

But if warming reaches 2C, similar episodes will become an extra 5% more intense and 50% more frequent, the WWA warned.

Without more ambitious climate action, global warming is expected to reach around 3C by the end of the century.

“This is definitely what we will see much more of in the future,” said Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at Imperial College London and co-author of the WWA study.

“[It] is the absolute fingerprint signature of climate change […] that records are broken by such a large margin.”

The record rains fit into the broader pattern of how Europe’s climate is changing in a warming world.

Europe is the fastest-warming continent. The last five years were on average around 2.3C warmer than the second half of the 19th Century, according to the Copernicus climate service.

This not only brings much more frequent and intense heatwaves, but also more extreme rainfall, particularly over north and central Europe. The picture is more complicated in southern Europe, due to shifts in large-scale weather patterns.

The simplest reason for more intense rainfall in a hotter world is that a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture – about 7% for every 1C. This extra moisture can lead to heavier rainfall.

One reason Boris has produced so much rain is that the weather system got ‘stuck’, dumping huge amounts of water over the same areas for days.

There is some evidence that the effects of climate change on the jet stream – a band of fast-flowing winds high up in the atmosphere – may make this ‘stalling’ phenomenon more common. But this is still up for debate.

Even if we don’t get more ‘stalled’ weather systems in the future, climate change means that any that do get stuck can carry more moisture and therefore be potentially disastrous.

“These weather patterns occurred in a warmer climate because of our greenhouse gas emissions, [so] the intensity and volume of rainfall was larger than it would have otherwise been,” explains Richard Allan, professor in climate science at the University of Reading.

Weather forecasts are continually improving, and in this case the huge levels of rainfall that triggered the floods were forecast several days in advance.

That meant flood preparations could be put in place.

That’s partly why the death toll was not as bad as previous major flooding in 1997 and 2002, even though the recent rain was heavier in many places and the floods covered a larger area.

“There has been a lot of money spent after the previous two floods to [install and update] the flood defences,” explains Mirek Trnka of the Global Change Research Institute in the Czech Republic, one of the countries most affected by the flooding.

In the city of Brno, for example, where Prof Trnka is based, not all of the flood defences had been completed, but the advanced warning allowed authorities to strengthen areas where there was still work to be done.

Not everywhere in Europe has been as fortunate. The EU has pledged €10bn (£8.3bn) in emergency repairs to help affected areas.

“It shows just how expensive climate change is,” says Dr Otto.

Over recent decades, improved flood protection has largely shielded communities from increased impacts.

But there are concerns that rising temperatures – and so ever increasing extreme rainfall – could make them ineffective.

“The [severity of the] flood events is going to increase considerably in the future, so if you keep the flood protections at the same level as they are today, the impacts may become unbearable for societies in Europe,” explains Francesco Dottori of IUSS in Pavia, Italy.

There is of course a clear way to stop these rainfall events from getting ever worse – cutting emissions of planet-warming gases such as carbon dioxide.

“Our simulations show that if you are able to keep future global warming below 1.5C, which is one of the targets of the Paris agreement, then future flood damage will be cut by half compared to the [business as usual] scenario,” Dr Dottori adds.

Otherwise, we know what will happen to these events in the future, Prof Allan says.

“The intensity of rainfall and these weather events will only get worse.”

Children’s eyesight is steadily getting worse with one in three now short-sighted or unable to see things in the distance clearly, a global analysis suggests.

The researchers say Covid lockdowns had a negative impact on eyesight as children spent more time on screens and less time outdoors.

Short-sightedness, or myopia, is a growing global health concern which is set to affect millions more children by 2050, the study warns.

The highest rates are in Asia – 85% of children in Japan and 73% in South Korea are short-sighted with more than 40% affected in China and Russia.

Paraguay and Uganda, at about 1%, had some of the lowest levels of myopia, with the UK, Ireland and the US all about 15%.

The study, published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology, looked at research involving more than five million children and teenagers from 50 countries across all six continents.

Their number-crunching revealed that short-sightedness tripled between 1990 and 2023 – rising to 36%.

And the increase was “particularly notable” after the Covid pandemic, the researchers say.

Myopia usually starts during primary school years and tends to worsen until the eye has stopped growing, at about 20 years of age.

There are factors that make it much more likely – living in East Asia is one of those.

It is also down to genetics – the traits children inherit from their parents – but there are other factors too, such as the particularly young age (two years old) that children start their education in places like Singapore and Hong Kong.

This means they are spending more time focusing on books and screens with their eyes during their early years, which strains the eye muscles and can lead to myopia, research suggests.

In Africa, where schooling starts at the age of six to eight years old, myopia is seven times less common than in Asia.

During Covid lockdowns worldwide, when millions had to stay indoors for lengthy periods, children and teenagers’ eyesight took a hit.

“Emerging evidence suggests a potential association between the pandemic and accelerated vision deterioration among young adults,” the researchers write.

By 2050, the condition could affect more than half of teens worldwide, the research predicts.

Girls and young women are likely to have higher rates than boys and young men because they tend to spend less time doing outdoor activities at school and at home as they grow up, the study suggests.

Girls’ growth and development, including puberty, starts earlier which means they tend to experience short-sightedness at an earlier age too.

Although Asia is expected to have the highest levels compared with all other continents by 2050, with nearly 69% short-sighted, developing countries may also reach 40%, the researchers say.

Children should spend at least two hours outside every day, particularly between the age of seven and nine, to reduce their chances of being short-sighted, say UK eye experts.

It is not clear if it is the presence of natural sunlight, the exercise taken outdoors or the fact that children’s eyes are focusing on objects that are further away that makes the difference.

“There is something about being outside that is a real benefit to children,” says Daniel Hardiman-McCartney, clinical adviser from the UK College of Optometrists.

He also recommends that parents take their children for an eye test when they are seven to 10 years old, even if their vision was checked at a younger age.

Parent should also take note – myopia runs in families. If you are short-sighted then your children are three times more likely than others to be short-sighted too.

Myopia cannot be cured but it can be corrected with glasses or contact lenses.

Special lenses can slow down the development of myopia in young children by encouraging the eye to grow differently, but they are expensive.

In Asia, where these special lenses are very popular, glass classrooms which mimic learning outdoors are also being used.

The concern is that high rates of myopia could lead to large numbers of unusual eye conditions in older age.

• Difficulty reading words from a distance, such as reading the whiteboard at school
• Sitting close to the TV or computer, or holding a mobile phone or tablet close to the face
• Getting headaches
• Rubbing the eyes a lot

Caroline Ellison has been sentenced to two years in prison for her role in the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which has been described as one of biggest financial frauds in US history.

Ellison, 29, was a top executive at the firm and is also the ex-girlfriend of its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing more than $8bn (£6.3bn) from customers.

As part of a plea deal, Ellison admitted charges including wire fraud and money laundering, and testified against Bankman-Fried. She was also ordered to forfeit more than $11bn (£8.2bn) to the court and could pay more if she’s ordered to hand over any restitution.

She had faced a maximum sentence 55 times what she was given – 110 years in prison.

While Judge Lewis Kaplan called her cooperation with prosecutors “remarkable”, he said she was “gravely culpable” and that her help and remorse for the crimes should not be a “get out of jail free card”, according to Reuters.

In court, Ellison apologised to the victims of the scheme, according US media reports.

“On some level, my brain can’t even comprehend the scale of the harm that I caused,” she said.

FTX was founded in 2019. Just two years later it had grown into the third biggest crypto exchange in the world, valued at $32bn (£26bn).

Its apparent success turned Bankman-Fried into a billionaire and business celebrity.

But, in 2022, rumours of financial trouble sparked a run on its deposits, precipitating the firm’s implosion and exposing Bankman-Fried’s crimes.

He was convicted by a New York jury last year on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, after a trial that detailed how he had used customers’ money for property purchases, investments and political donations.

Ellison was one of Bankman-Fried’s closest lieutenants and lived and worked in the company’s offices and luxury apartments in The Bahamas. The on-and-off couple built the dual empire of FTX and Alameda Research.

While Bankman-Fried was arrested and spent time in prison before his trial, Ellison remained free and agreed to help the criminal investigations

The revelation that she would testify against her former boyfriend and boss added to the drama of the high-profile trial.

Ellison testified over three days, telling the jury that Bankman-Fried directed her and others to take money from FTX’s customers without their knowledge.

In tearful testimony, she said she felt “indescribably bad” about the fraud.

Prosecutors said Ellison met them about 20 times to help them piece together FTX’s unravelling, and make their case against Bankman-Fried.

Prior to the sentencing, Ellison’s legal team had argued the help she provided meant she should not be sent to jail.

The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which brought the charges, had declined to call for a particular sentence, but acknowledged what it called her “extraordinary” cooperation and expression of remorse.

In May, Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, was sentenced to 90 months in prison.

Salame pleaded guilty in September last year to violating political campaign finance laws and operating an illegal money-transmitting business.

A major international study suggests there has been a sharp rise in what it calls “problematic” social media use among young people since the pandemic.

Researchers came to the conclusion after surveying almost 280,000 children aged 11, 13 and 15 across 44 countries.

The Health Behaviour In School-aged Children (HBSC) study found, on average, 11% of respondents engaged with social media in a problematic way in 2022 – compared to 7% in 2018.

England, Scotland and Wales all recorded figures above that average.

The report’s authors say the findings “raise urgent concerns about the impact of digital technology on the mental health and well-being of Europe’s youth”.

They say more action is needed to “promote healthy online behaviours.”

“Problematic use is most common amongst 13-year-olds – it sort of peaks in that early adolescence phase and girls are more likely to report problematic social media use than boys,” said the study’s international co-ordinator Dr Jo Inchley, from the University of Glasgow.

She said the research also revealed how much time young people spend online.

“Across the study as a whole, we found just over a third of adolescents report continuous online contact with friends and others,” she said.

“That means almost all the time throughout the day they are connected online to friends and other people.”

The report does not conclude all that time spent online is detrimental.

Instead, teenagers who were heavy, but not problematic, users of social media reported stronger peer support and social connections.

But for the “problematic” minority it found social media use was associated with addiction-like symptoms including:

• neglect of other activities in favour of spending time on social media
• frequent arguments about use
• lying about how much time is spent online
• an inability to control social media use and experiencing withdrawal

It also highlights concerns about the proportion of teenagers considered to be at risk of “problematic gaming” – something it suggests applies to boys more than girls.

That designation applied to 15% of teenagers in England – the second highest proportion across all countries studied.

The average proportion of boys who played daily was 46%, but this figure stood at 52% in England and 57% in Scotland.

And 13-year-old boys in England reported the highest rate of long gaming sessions, with 45% of boys of that age indicating that they played for at least four hours on gaming days.

The study has been published by the European arm of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Dr Hans Henri P Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, said the findings made clear social media could have both positive and negative consequences for young people.

He said there needed to be more “digital literacy education” to help young people develop a healthy approach to being online, and governments, health authorities, teachers and parents all had to play their part.

“It’s clear we need immediate and sustained action to help adolescents turn the tide on potentially damaging social media use, which has been shown to lead to depression, bullying, anxiety, and poor academic performance,” he said.

Ben Carter, Professor of Medical Statistics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, described the report as a “useful snapshot of the evidence”.

But he pointed out it was difficult to agree on a definition of what “problematic social media” was, making gathering data on it challenging.

Nonetheless, he said the study was a “valid contribution to the evidence base”.

Donald Trump pledged the US would “take other countries’ jobs” if he returned to the White House, as he laid out his plans to slash taxes and lower energy costs and regulations for manufacturers that made goods on US soil.

At a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, Trump promised a “manufacturing renaissance”, reiterating his pledge to punish American companies that manufactured outside the US, and slap large tariffs on foreign-made goods to protect US industries.

Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris have stepped up efforts to outline their competing visions for the economy in the final stretch of the campaign, highlighting what voters say is a top concern in the 2024 election.

Harris is expected to unveil a new set of economic proposals in a major speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.

Speaking to a crowd in Savannah, Trump moved beyond his usual protectionist policies to raise the prospect of more trade battles.

Trump said he would offer special federal zones with “ultra low taxes and regulations” to companies that relocate to the US, cut through regulation and appoint a “manufacturing ambassador” to convince international companies to move the United States.

“Under my plan, American workers will no longer be worried about losing your jobs to foreign nations. Instead, foreign nations will be worried about losing their jobs to America,” he said.

Trump has also previously proposed a 60% tariff or higher on Chinese goods and a blanket 20% tariff on imports from other countries, an aggressive policy that could increase prices for Americans, according to some economists.

During his presidency, Trump imposed tariffs on some goods imported from China. The Biden administration has left some of these policies in place and announced new restrictions in some areas such as electric vehicles.

The former president has sought to blame Democrats for the surge in inflation following the Covid pandemic, which has since cooled, as well as the high cost of groceries that remain top concerns for voters.

The food Consumer Price Index rose by 25% from 2019 to 2023, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Polls have indicated that American voters are most concerned about the economy, and more voters see Trump as equipped to handle it. Harris, however has made some gains.

Voters for whom the economy was a major factor preferred Trump over Harris by 53-47%, according to CBS News/YouGov poll of likely voters published this week. But Harris has improved her standing since August, when only 43% of voters who prioritised the economy favoured her.

Trump’s visit to Georgia came on the heels of a New York Times/Siena College poll that found him slightly ahead in the state, as well as the battlegrounds Arizona, and North Carolina.

Both candidates have devoted significant time and resources to campaigning in Georgia, as it may prove critical to their paths to the White House.

Though the Georgia speech was billed as an economic event, Trump dedicated a significant portion of his speech to other subjects. He recounted the failed assassination attempt on his life at a Pennsylvania rally in July and the second suspected attempt in Florida this month. He praised the US Secret Service, which has faced scrutiny over their ability to protect Trump.

He also attacked Harris, calling her “grossly incompetent” and said she would “deindustrialise the United States and destroy our country”.

An hour before Trump spoke in Georgia, the Harris campaign held a press call with American investor Mark Cuban, who has long supported Democratic candidates.

Mr Cuban assailed Mr Trump’s proposals to place tariffs on American companies which manufactured in countries like Mexico, saying it would harm American businesses.

“It just goes to show that he doesn’t think these things through,” Mr Cuban said.

Harris will return to the another critical swing state – Pennsylvania – on Wednesday to lay out her own economic agenda.

The vice-president has already released a set of economic proposals aimed at first-time home buyers, tax breaks for families and a ban on grocery “price-gouging”. She has called for a “first-ever” tax credit for builders of homes sold to first-time buyers, as well as up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance for “eligible” first-time buyers.

She told reporters on Sunday the plan would focus on investing “in the aspirations and ambitions of the American people while addressing the challenges that they face”.

The UN’s refugee agency says one of its staff members and one of her children were killed in an Israeli air strike in eastern Lebanon – one of well over a thousand such strikes over the past two days.

The UNHCR said Dina Darwiche’s home was hit on Monday. Her husband and her older son were rescued and are in hospital with serious injuries, the agency said.

Ms Darwiche had worked in UNHCR’s Bekaa office for 12 years.

Meanwhile Ali Basma, who had worked for UNHCR’s office in the southern city of Tyre as a cleaner, was also killed.

In a statement, the agency said it was “outraged and deeply saddened” by their killing.

“Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon are now relentlessly claiming hundreds of civilian lives,” said UNHCR’s global director Filippo Grandi on Tuesday.

“And I am very saddened to confirm that two UNHCR colleagues were also killed yesterday.”

Ms Darwiche’s friends described her as “the gentlest and kindest soul we knew.”

“She had been dedicated to her humanitarian work with UNHCR for as long as I can remember,” wrote Professor Jasmin Lilian Diab, an academic at the Lebanese American University, on X. “I am broken. I am absolutely destroyed.”

Funerals for those killed have been taking place across Lebanon.

In the southern city of Sidon, Mohammed Hilal had gathered with hundreds of other mourners to say goodbye to his daughter at a funeral also held for eight other people.

Three Hezbollah members were among those being buried, according to Reuters news agency which filmed the scene.

Mr Hilal knelt over his daughter’s body, covered in an embroidered blanket, and wept.

He told Reuters news agency that he had left his house in the town of Saksakiyeh on Monday to complete paperwork identifying his family. When he returned, he said, “I found her martyred due to the brutal aggression, the cowardly aggression that is killing children.”

Israel says it has warned Lebanese to leave their homes and put distance between themselves and sites used by Hezbollah.

But Lebanon’s health minister Firass Abiad told the BBC Israel had caused “carnage” and it was “clear” that many victims were civilians, including children and women who were in their homes doing “normal things”.

Israel says it targeted Hezbollah sites, accusing the Iranian-backed group of hiding weapons and rockets in residential homes and of using civilians as human shields.

On Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue attacking Hezbollah sites. Israel has alleged that some weapons are being stored in civilian homes.

“Anyone who has a missile in their living room and a rocket in their garage will not have a home,” he said in a video posted on social media.

Meanwhile the UN’s children’s agency told the BBC that many of the children in shelters in the capital had been “heavily traumatised”.

Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese are believed to have fled their homes, the country’s foreign minister says.

“Most of them have left in a few minutes without taking anything, just getting their cars and leaving the house,” Edouard Beigbeder from Unicef said.

“Some of them have seen their house being destroyed, and some have witnessed their family members, siblings killed or injured. So those who reached Beirut are heavily traumatised.”

The prime minister has told British nationals in Lebanon “now is the time to leave” after fighting intensified between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group which dominates the country.

Sir Keir Starmer said “we are ramping up the contingency plans, I think you’d expect that in light of the escalation”, and added that UK citizens should “leave immediately”.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is sending 700 troops to nearby Cyprus to prepare for the possible evacuation of British nationals from Lebanon and the government “continues to advise against all travel to Lebanon”.

The situation in the country, where Israeli strikes reportedly killed more than 560 people this week, is described as deteriorating “rapidly, with devastating consequences”.

Lebanon’s health minister has told the BBC what is happening in his country is “carnage”, as hospitals struggle to cope with the number of casualties from two days of widespread Israeli air strikes targeting Hezbollah.

Asked by reporters how the British prime minister would ensure the situation wasn’t a repeat of the chaos in the Afghan capital Kabul when the Taliban seized control in August 2021, Sir Keir said: “The most important message from me to British nationals in Lebanon is to leave immediately.

“It is important that we’ve been really, really clear: now is the time to leave.”

A senior government source added that the difference, for now at least, was that there were commercial flights leaving Lebanon.

Asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if he sensed the world was on the brink of all-out war in the Middle East, Sir Keir said he was “deeply concerned”.

He said he “put it in those terms, that we are potentially at a brink point, and we have to come back from the brink”.

He repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire, along with other ministers.

Defence Secretary John Healey said: “We continue to urge all sides to step back from conflict to prevent further tragic loss of life.

“Our government is ensuring all preparations are in place to support British nationals should the situation deteriorate.

“I want to thank the British personnel who are deploying in the region for their commitment and professionalism.”

Healey held a meeting with fellow ministers, intelligence chiefs and diplomats on Tuesday afternoon to work through the government’s plans.

Officials say the UK already has a significant diplomatic and military presence close to Lebanon, including RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and two Royal Navy ships – RFA Mounts Bay and HMS Duncan – which have been in the eastern Mediterranean over the summer.

The Royal Air Force also has planes and helicopters on standby.

The escalating conflict in the Middle East is likely to be a significant topic of discussion for the prime minister and other world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Sir Keir arrived in the city on Tuesday evening local time.

Tensions have been growing across the Middle East since Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others as hostages.

Previously sporadic fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated on 8 October – the day after Hamas’s unprecedented attack. Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions, in solidarity with Hamas.

Hezbollah has launched more than 8,000 rockets at northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. It has also fired anti-tank missiles at armoured vehicles and attacked military targets with explosive drones.

Last week Hezbollah’s communication devices started exploding all across Lebanon.

Israel then launched a massive series of air strikes on Monday that have so far killed 560 people according to the Lebanese government.

Last year, the British government helped co-ordinate the evacuation of British nationals from Gaza, with some 200 UK citizens thought to be living in the territory before the war broke out.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 people since 7 October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Across southern Lebanon, families scrambled together belongings and headed north in cars and trucks and on motorcycles as the Israeli military struck targets it said were linked to the Lebanese Shia armed group Hezbollah.

Some residents reported receiving warnings in the form of text messages and voice recordings from the Israeli military to leave areas near the Iran-backed group’s positions.

Zahra Sawli, a student in the southern town of Nabatieh told the BBC’s Newshour programme the bombardment was intense.

“I woke up at 6am to the sound of bombing. By noon it started to get really intense and I saw a lot of strikes in my area.”

“I heard a lot of glass shattering.”

Unlike many, she and those she was with did not leave the house – they didn’t dare, she said.

“Where are we supposed to go? A lot of people are still stuck on the streets. A lot of my friends are still stuck in traffic because a lot of people are trying to flee,” she said.

• Live updates: Israel strikes dozens more sites in southern Lebanon
• Bowen: Israel believes it has weakened Hezbollah but escalation still carries risks
• Cold military logic takes over in Israel-Hezbollah conflict

By the middle of the day roads north towards Beirut were clogged with traffic, with vehicles heading towards the capital on both sides of a six-lane coastal highway.

Other images showed people walking along the beach in the southern city of Tyre as smoke rose from air strikes in the countryside inland.

The BBC spoke to one family of five who had arrived in Beirut on a single motorbike.

From a village in the south, they were heading to Tripoli in the north. They were exhausted.

“What do you want us to say? We just had to flee,” the father said.

By Monday evening the Lebanese health ministry reported that 492 people had been killed and more than 1,600 injured in the bombardment. It said at least 35 children were among those killed. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had carried out 1,100 strikes over the previous 24 hours.

That included an air strike in southern Beirut that the IDF said had targeted a senior Hezbollah commander.

In Beirut too there was widespread anxiety. As people from the south arrived in the capital in cars with suitcases strapped to the top, some of the city’s residents were themselves leaving.

Israel has warned people to evacuate areas where it says Hezbollah is storing weapons – but it also sent recorded warnings to people in Beirut districts not considered Hezbollah strongholds including Hamra, an area home to government ministries, banks and universities.

Parents rushed to pick up their children from school after receiving more warnings to leave the area.

One father, Issa, took his son out of school, telling Reuters news agency: “[We’re here] because of the phone calls.

“They’re calling everyone and threatening people by phone. So we’re here to take my boy from school. The situation is not reassuring,” he said.

Mohammed, a Palestinian man on the road with his wife, spoke to the BBC on the way out of Beirut.

When asked if he would stay in the capital he said: “In Lebanon nowhere is safe, Israel is saying they are going to bombard everywhere. Now they threatened this neighbourhood, so where should we go?”

“It’s scary, I don’t know what to do – work, go home, no idea what to do.”

Meanwhile as a BBC crew set up on one side of the road, a taxi driver called out asking if they knew of a fuel crisis unfolding. “Too many people are coming to Beirut,” he said.

Schools have been hastily converted into shelters for the streams of evacuees coming from the south. On a government order, schools in Beirut and Tripoli as well as eastern Lebanon were established as shelters.

The BBC was at a classroom at a public school in Bir Hasan, west Beirut on Monday which was being prepared for people coming from the Bekaa Valley – a Hezbollah stronghold in north-eastern Lebanon which Israel said it was targeting too.

The classrooms were stacked with mattresses but would be fully occupied by the end of the day, workers said.

Meanwhile Lebanon’s hospitals were also ordered to cancel all elective surgeries on Monday as physicians braced for a wave of casualties and injuries.

Despite the tense and uncertain atmosphere in Beirut, some people were defiant.

“If a total war happens, we should stand as Lebanese people together regardless of our political affiliations because at the end of the day, our country is getting bombed,” one man told the BBC.

Others were simply resigned to the violence.

“If they want war, what can we do? It was imposed on us. We cannot do anything,” shop owner Mohammed Sibai told Reuters.

Mohammed, a 57-year-old in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieyh – Hezbollah’s main power base in the capital – told the BBC he had “survived all the wars since 1975” so “it’s normal for me”.

“I will not leave, I will be in my house,” he said.

The recent wave of abductions, arrests and the brutal killing of an opposition official in Tanzania seems to be dimming the ray of political hope that came with President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s rise to power in 2021.

There was huge relief when Samia – Tanzania’ first female president – took office, with opposition parties allowed to organise rallies and criticise the government without the fear of grave repercussions.

But concern is growing that Tanzania is sliding back to the era of her autocratic predecessor, John Magufuli.

In the span of weeks, two of the most senior opposition leaders have been arrested twice, and another opposition official, Ali Kibao, was abducted, killed and his body doused in acid by unknown assailants.

“The political situation in Tanzania is worrisome in the extreme,” said the deputy leader of the main opposition Chadema party, Tundu Lissu.

He was speaking to the BBC a week before his arrest on Monday, when his party had planned to protest against the killing of Kibao and the alleged disappearance of several other government critics. Lissu was later released on bail.

He was also released on bail last month, following his arrest on the eve of a banned opposition rally in the south-western town of Mbeya.

Chadema said about 100 of its members had been detained to prevent the rally from taking place.

“We’re beginning to see the kind of the wave of repression and state-orchestrated violence which was characteristic of the period from 2016 to 2020 [during the Magufuli administration],” Lissu told the BBC.

In 2017, Lissu sustained heavy injuries during an assassination attempt, when his vehicle was sprayed with at least 16 bullets.

He was treated abroad and stayed in exile in Belgium until his return last year to, as he put it, “write a new chapter” for the country after the president lifted a ban on rallies.

Lissu now sees the promised reforms as a façade.

“[There have been] no reforms whatsoever. No reforms of a democratic nature,” he told the BBC.

The violent incidents are politically motivated and “associated with the security forces” he alleged, adding that they were a harbinger of worse to come.

The police have denied involvement, while the ruling CCM party’s secretary-general, Emmanuel Nchimbi declined to speak to the BBC.

There is no doubt that the crackdown has sullied the image of the president.

Rights groups and western diplomats have called for an immediate end to “arbitrary detention” and have demanded “independent and transparent investigations”.

In her response, the president warned “outsiders” against meddling in Tanzania’s affairs but she also denounced the killing of Kibao, and ordered speedy investigations.

“Our country is a democracy, and every citizen has the right to live,” she said.

“It is surprising that the death of our brother Kibao has stirred up such a huge outcry of condemnation, grief, and accusations of calling the government murderers.

“This is not right. Death is death. What we Tanzanians must do is stand together and condemn these acts,” she added.

Tanzanian political analyst Thomas Kibwana said there appeared to be a lack of good faith between the main political parties, which has led to negotiations aimed at bringing about reforms stalling.

He added that while being confrontational may suit the opposition to win votes, it fuelled tensions.

Samia had indicated that she was “very open to dialogue” and, from her perspective, Chadema had “shut the doors to negotiation” and had resorted to protest action, Mr Kibwana said.

“This is up to both sides – for them to sit down and come back to the talks,” he added.

At the beginning, Samia was very much focused on her much-publicised mantra of the four Rs – reconciliation, resilience, reforms and rebuilding.

Her moves to mend fences with the opposition and initiate reforms – especially when she did not seem to be under political pressure to do so – won her praise locally and abroad.

There are still signs of the positive image she wants to retain.

One billboard in the centre of the capital, Dodoma, says: “The president of all Tanzanians – irrespective of their party, religion, ethnicity or gender. Mama [Samia] delivers”.

The billboard bears her picture sitting in a conversation with Lissu, now one of her fiercest critics.

Other billboards, including in the largest city Dar es Salaam, show her with other opposition leaders, depicting her intention to unite people across the political divide.

They appear to be campaign advertisements ahead of local government elections next month and presidential and parliamentary elections a year later.

The elections will be her first real test. She was Magufuli’s deputy, and inherited the presidency following his sudden death during the coronavirus pandemic.

Like Magufuli, she belongs to the CCM party, which has won every election it has contested since independence from Britain in 1961.

According to the second-biggest opposition party, ACT-Wazalendo, Samia’s reform drive may have been stymied by the CCM’s fear that it may lose elections.

“We have heard a CCM bigwig saying that if she had maintained that pace which she came in with, she would lose the country to the opposition,” party leader Dorothy Semu told the BBC.

“So maybe she absorbed that fear that if you reform, you will eventually end giving in to the opposition,” she added.

But Semu feels the political climate is better than during the Magufuli era, even if government officials sometimes acted like “they are doing us a favour”.

“We have now a more open civic space. We can talk about politics freely. We can discuss as political parties. We can take part in political rallies. We can organise meetings,” she told the BBC.

Semu added that as elections approach, “we are hopeful, but we not assured everything is going to be OK”.

Lawyer and activist Fatma Karume told the BBC that genuine reform hinged on overhauling the country’s laws so that the president has less power.

“In Tanzania we have something called an imperial presidency,” she said.

“All we have is a head of state who is less oppressive… let’s say, not as comfortable as Magufuli in using the oppressive powers of the state.”

• Tanzanian minister sacked after poll rigging remarks
• The Tanzanians searching for their grandfathers’ skulls in Germany
• A quick guide to Tanzania

Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is currently in federal custody awaiting trial on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.

His arrest last week in New York comes amid a series of civil suits alleging sexual assault and physical violence, some going back to the 1990s.

The 11th and latest accuser to come forward, Thalia Graves, claims Combs and his bodyguard drugged, bound and raped her in 2001, and filmed the incident.

The Harlem-born rapper has denied criminal wrongdoing.

Combs, 54, was arrested on Monday 16 September in a New York hotel on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force and transportation for purposes of prostitution.

Federal prosecutors have accused him of “creating a criminal enterprise” in which he “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfil his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct”.

They said Combs had used drugs, violence and the power of his status to “lure female victims” into extended sex acts called “Freak Offs”.

They also revealed they had uncovered firearms, ammunition and more than 1,000 bottles of lubricant during raids on Combs’s homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March.

Prosecutors have reportedly been in touch with several witnesses who worked under Combs and some of the accusers currently suing him, and have left open the possibility of more charges.

The singer-producer has pleaded not guilty to the three felony counts against him and his attorney told reporters he was a “fighter” who was “not afraid of the charges”.

Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a federal jail notorious for its violence and poor inmate care.

MDC includes an extra-security section with barracks-style housing reserved for special detainees, and US media report that Combs is sharing the space with convicted cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.

His legal team sought his release pending trial because of the jail’s “horrific” conditions, but prosecutors argued he posed “a serious flight risk” and Combs has twice been denied bail.

If convicted, he faces a sentence of anywhere from 15 years to life in prison.

Combs’s former on-and-off girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, was first to blow the whistle on the self-proclaimed “bad boy for life”.

In a lawsuit filed last November, the model and musician alleged he had “trapped” her for over a decade in a “cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking”.

Combs “vehemently” denied the claims. A day after the suit landed in court, both parties said they had “amicably” settled the case, though Combs’s attorney said the settlement was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing”.

But in May, CNN obtained surveillance footage that showed the entertainer-turned-entrepreneur assaulting Ms Ventura in a 2016 altercation that is detailed in her suit.

Combs finally acknowledged the incident in an Instagram video two days later, saying he was “disgusted” by what he had done.

“My behaviour on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions,” he said.

Ten others – including one man – have since come forward with their own claims.

Joi Dickerson-Neal, who said Ms Ventura had inspired her to speak out, alleged Combs had “intentionally drugged” and raped her when she was a Syracuse University student in 1991, and had made her a victim of revenge porn by filming the assault and showing it to others.

Representatives for Combs blasted the lawsuit as “purely a money grab” and have asked for it to be dismissed.

Liza Gardner accused Combs and R&B crooner Aaron Hall of plying her with drinks and then forcing her to have sex with them against her will when she was 16 years old. She also claimed that Combs had visited her home the next day and choked her until she passed out. Combs’s attorney slammed the claims as “bogus”.

The three initial lawsuits were brought under New York state’s Adult Survivors Act, which granted adult victims a one-year window to bring claims against their abusers regardless of statutes of limitation.

A woman so far identified only as Jane Doe claimed that Combs, former Bad Boy Records president Harve Pierre and a third person had violently gang-raped her in a New York City studio when she was a 17-year-old high school student.

A few days later, Combs broke his silence on social media against “sickening allegations… by individuals looking for a quick pay day”. His attorneys are seeking to dismiss the “baseless and time-barred” case. Mr Pierre has meanwhile called the suit a “tale of fiction”.

Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a producer and videographer who worked on Combs’s most recent album, accused the mogul of running an illegal racketeering enterprise in which he was forced to procure drugs, solicit sex workers and tape sex acts. He also claimed Combs and actor Cuba Gooding Jr had groped him without consent.

Grace O’Marcaigh, who worked on a yacht leased by the Combs family in 2022, accused the rapper and his son, Christian “King” Combs, of sexual assault. She blamed them for creating an “environment of debauchery” with suspected sex workers and top celebrities aboard.

Crystal McKinney claimed she had been drugged and sexually assaulted by Combs following a Men’s Fashion Week event in 2003 when she was 22 years old. She also said he had subsequently “blackballed” her in the modelling world.

April Lampros, who says she met Combs as a student at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology in 1994, detailed “four terrifying sexual encounters” through the early 2000s.

Adria English, a former adult-film actress who worked with Combs in the 2000s, said he had used her as a “sexual pawn for the pleasure and financial benefit of others” during the “White Parties” he hosted at his homes in New York and Miami.

Dawn Richards, who once sang in two Combs-assembled groups including Danity Kane, said she had personally witnessed his violence against Ms Ventura and that he had threatened her life when she tried to intervene.

Thalia Graves, who is backed by celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, claimed Combs and his bodyguard Joseph Sherman had sedated, overpowered and tied her up before recording themselves raping her and later distributing the sex tape.

Representatives for Combs have denied the claims of all six most recent accusers.

The Bird Photographer of the Year award has been announced, with Canadian photographer Patricia Homonylo scooping the top prize for her thought-provoking image titled When Worlds Collide.

The picture was taken in Toronto and beat more than 23,000 entries to claim the prize.

The photograph shows more than 4,000 birds that died colliding with windows and other reflective surfaces in the city.

“Each year more than one billion birds die in North America alone due to collisions with windows,” says Homonylo.

“I am a conservation photojournalist and have been working with the Fatal Light Awareness Program, where we save window-collision survivors in Toronto.

“Sadly, most of the birds we find are already dead.

“They are collected and at the end of the year we create this impactful display to honour the lives lost and increase public awareness.”

Homonylo’s entry was also among the winners selected for the Conservation (Single Image) category.

The Young Bird Photographer of the Year 2024 was awarded to 14-year-old Spanish photographer Andrés Luis Domínguez Blanco for his creative angle on a nuthatch scrambling down an oak tree.

Photographers competed in a eight of different categories in the adult competition, including a Conservation Award, Portfolio Award, and Video Award.

Here is a selection of the pictures that were awarded a gold, silver or bronze, with descriptions by the photographers.

“This Peregrine Falcon fledgling had been flying for over a week and his skills had improved by the day.

“While he still took food from parents, he had started to practise his hunting skills.

“He was not good enough to catch live birds in the air yet, so he took baby steps by chasing a fluttering butterfly.

“I have been photographing peregrines for years, and this was the first time I have seen fledglings play with butterflies.”

“For several weeks each year, Black Grouse gather at [the] leks on spring mornings for courtship and display.

“The males come down, each claiming their patch, and spend a couple of hours sizing each other up, charging at each other, engaging in mostly mock battles.

“Sometimes, however, the encounters escalate to real fights.

“The heated breath of a solitary fighter is steaming in the cold air, which I captured while sitting inside a small photography hide, revelling in the sounds and sights of this ancient play.”

“In the dead of winter, I marvel at the aerial ballet of the garden birds that come to visit my trees and to take advantage of the seeds that I put out for them.

“Discreetly hidden, I tried to immortalise their flight and its delicate trail using a flash and camera in ‘rear curtain’ mode.

“Hundreds of shots were required before I captured the perfect moment, which portrayed the fleeting magic of nature in winter.”

“Here we see a trio of northern gannets diving into the ocean on a sunny day in Shetland. .

“The species is Scotland’s largest seabird, and they are remarkably adept in the water, with the ability to dive to depths as far as 22 metres.

“I took this photo while scuba diving from a boat near Noss, which is home to the UK’s seventh largest colony of northern gannets.

“In the past the population has been estimated at around 25,000 birds, though their numbers were unfortunately severely reduced by the avian flu outbreak.

“It is unclear when, or if, their population will be able to recover. Dead herring from a local herring fishery were used to attract the birds to the boat.”

“This photograph shows a hoary-headed grebe as it disappears below the surface of the water to feed, pushing into the depths with its huge paddle-like feet.

“I took the image from a raised platform high above the wetland.

“With a little bit of imagination, the combination of bird and ripples look like the head of a hippo.”

“We were on a safari, and returning to camp in Sabi Sands, South Africa, on a dark March evening.

“We stopped, having picked up some unusual sounds, although unsure what they were.

“Then we heard chattering and fluttering high above us.

“When illuminated with the lamp on the vehicle, we saw these helmetshrikes huddling together against a night that was starting to turn colder.”

“Goosanders breed in the park about one kilometre from Poland’s life-giving River Vistula.

“Each mother has to move her brood to the river as quickly as possible due to lack of food and safety in the park.

“They make the journey through a series of underground passages and over a six-lane highway.

“Each year a group of volunteers help them cross this deadly road by stopping the traffic.

“This image shows a mother goosander crossing a smaller road because she decided not to use the scary and dark underground passage below it.”

“This poignant image captures the harsh reality in one of Bali’s bird markets.

“The pair of lovebirds face each other in separate cages, appearing to say their final farewells, not knowing if they will see each other again.

“Who knows what joys they would have experienced together in their lush native rainforests and whether they will ever experience that again.

“Their silent connection transcends physical barriers, emphasising the complex interaction between yearning for freedom and the urge to escape from captivity for human pleasure.”

“I took this photo on a beautiful beach on the Baltic Sea.

“There are a number of waders and other birds here, but also many visitors who enjoy the beautiful landscape.

“In this case there was also a dog who initially did not notice the grey plover. The grey plover, however, did notice the dog and flew away shortly after I took the photo.

“While I do not believe this incident greatly stressed the bird, it is crucial to acknowledge the potential impact of human activity and tourism on protected species and their habitats.”

“Lake Federsee is a famous wintering area for numerous migratory birds.

“From November to March, Eurasian bitterns are frequent visitors to this lake.

“As soon as the lake freezes over, these rare birds retreat to trenches through the reeds.

“Surprisingly, this individual was very close to the boardwalk that leads through the nature reserve.

“From there, I could easily watch its fishing campaign and take numerous photos.”

All photographs courtesy Bird Photographer of the Year

The last time Oasis played Wembley Stadium, in 2009, a standing ticket cost exactly £44.04.

For their return next summer, the same ticket was priced at £150. Vastly more than the old ticket price which, when adjusted for inflation, would cost £68.

Not only that, but some fans were charged hundreds of pounds more than the face value, after so-called “dynamic pricing” boosted the cost in response to high demand.

But Oasis aren’t alone. If you’ve logged onto Ticketmaster over the last couple of years, you’ll know the cost of live music has soared.

Ticket prices shot up by 23% last year, having already risen 19% since the pandemic. Going to a gig can cost the same amount as taking a holiday, and prices are only rising.

At the most extreme end of the scale, Madonna charged £1,306.75 for VIP passes to her Celebration tour; and Beyoncé offered fans the chance to sit on the stage of her Renaissance concerts for the bargain price of £2,400.

Overall, the average ticket price for the top 100 tours around the world was £101 last year, up from £82 in 2022, according to Pollstar, a trade publication that tracks the concert industry.

In the UK, 51% of people say high prices have stopped them going to gigs at least once in the last five years. Among 16 to 34-year-olds, two-thirds of concert-goers say they’ve reduced the number of shows they attend. But despite this, tours with high-priced tickets keep selling out – but only for the biggest-name artists.

Abbi Glover, 33, from New Holland, Lincolnshire, said the cost of tickets “creates a divide” between those who can afford them and those who are “priced out”.

“I work hard and earn a decent wage. What do I have to do to be able to just enjoy these things when I’m doing everything I possibly can?”

UK prices are still below those in the US but, as ticketing expert Reg Walker told the BBC, “what happens there happens here five to 10 years later”.

So why have costs skyrocketed?

If your first thought was “greed”, well, that’s definitely part of it.

“It’s not speculation to think that some artists want to make as much money as they can,” says Gideon Gottfried, Pollstar’s European editor.

One musician who’s been bullish about the price hikes is Bruce Springsteen.

Fans were alarmed when some seats for his 2023 US tour were priced as high as $5,000 (£3,874), thanks to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing.

Speaking to Rolling Stone, Springsteen argued that most of the tickets were in an “affordable range”, but he was fed up with touts making money off his back, so he chose to match their prices.

“I’m going, ‘Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?’” he said.

• Listen to Mark read this article on Sounds

Kiss star Gene Simmons also defended the system.

“Whatever the pricing is, it’s all academic,” he told Forbes. “Somebody sits in a room and tries to figure out how far the rubber band can stretch. And if you’re not selling tickets, guess what happens? The price goes down. Capitalism!

“Vote with [your] money,” he concluded. “You don’t like the ticket pricing? Don’t buy a ticket.”

Springsteen and Simmons are in good company. Other artists who’ve embraced dynamic pricing include Coldplay, Harry Styles, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift (although she ditched it for the Eras tour after significant fan backlash).

Following the Oasis debacle, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer vowed to get a “grip” on the situation and “make sure that tickets are available at a price that people can actually afford”.

But it might not be so simple…

Aside from the lure of a big payday, there are many reasons why artists are charging more.

Some are trying to combat the impact of streaming – the majority of musicians make just 5% of their income from streaming, a sharp decline from the years when vinyl and CD were king.

Others are worried about their longevity, in an era when entire careers can be measured in the span of a TikTok trend.

“Nobody really knows what the heck is going on, and how the economy will develop and what the next crisis is going to be,” says Gottfried, “so some artists are trying to milk the cow as much as possible, while it’s still possible.”

Not everyone thinks that way. Punk-pop star Yungblud organised his own festival in Milton Keynes this August, setting prices at a market-beating £49.50.

He was compelled to take action after noticing unsold seats on his US arena tour last year.

“Five hundred seats would be completely empty because they were $200 a ticket,” he told Music Week. “I’d have 1,000 kids outside the venue who couldn’t afford to come in and I was like, ‘Something’s got to change here.’”

But the festival didn’t go completely to plan. Heightened security after a stabbing in Milton Keynes the previous weekend led to delays of up to three hours for fans waiting to get into the venue. As temperatures soared above 30 degrees Celsius, some passed out in the queue. Others gave up and went home.

Higher-priced tickets could have paid for extra security staff and eased those pressures – illustrating the delicate balance that has to be struck when setting prices.

Still, Yungblud isn’t the only one trying to get a fair deal for concert-goers.

Paul Heaton capped prices for his upcoming tour at £35. Pop star Caity Baser set her 2023 concerts at just £11 – or “two meal deals”, as she put it – to help cash-strapped fans.

But these artists don’t require big productions full of pyrotechnics and jumbotron video screens.

For acts who do, the cost of touring has spiralled since the pandemic. Here are just a few examples:

• Transport Whether you’re in a minivan or a private jet, it costs more to travel these days. Fuel prices have risen by 20% since 2019 and a shortage of drivers post-Brexit means experienced crew can charge a premium.

• Freight costs A tour isn’t just about moving bodies – for big arena and stadium shows, the stage also has to be transported. According to the pop star Lorde, the cost of shipping her stage around the world increased by up to 300% after Covid. And logistics company Freightwaves says the cost of insuring one truck can be as high as $5m (£3.8m). For context, Taylor Swift’s Eras tour requires up to 50 trucks.

• Catering We’ve all seen our food bills increase, and touring artists are no exception. When you have hundreds of mouths to feed, the costs add up.

• Stage equipment From sound systems to lighting rigs, rental costs for tour gear have risen by 15-20%. And with more tours on the road, equipment is overbooked – which can push prices even higher.

• Accommodation Hotels and accommodation are a major cost. Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour, for example, had more than 300 people on the road at any one time. With hotel prices doubling in the last five years, this adds another strain on tour finances.

“We’ve seen projects where the cost of overheads have increased by up to 35 to 40%,” says Stuart Galbraith, CEO of concert promoters Kilimanjaro Live, “and the only form of income that comes in to cover all of that is ticket money”.

Even when prices go up, the profit margins are minimal, according to Stephan Thanscheidt, CEO of FKP Scorpio, which organises more than 20 European festivals, as well as tours by Ed Sheeran, the Rolling Stones and Foo Fighters.

“The costs associated with our productions have doubled or tripled [but] we cannot and will not compensate for this by tripling the ticket prices,” he told Pollstar last year.

That means the artist’s share of the box office – roughly 56% of the money you pay – increasingly goes towards production costs, not profits.

The squeeze is particularly tight on UK festival organisers, which have also been hit by a ban on “red diesel”, a fuel tinted with red dye, which they previously used to power the generators and heavy vehicles needed to construct festival sites.

The move is part of the UK’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gases, and meant some organisers suddenly had to pay a higher rate of fuel duty from April 2022 – a big increase of 46 pence per litre.

Since then, the average cost of a UK festival ticket has shot up by 22%. Combined with other rising costs, more than 50 festivals went on hiatus or closed completely this summer.

Small venues are under pressure, too. Their prices might average between £7 and £10, but they’re struggling to sell shows – partly because fans have already spent their money on stadium tickets that cost the same as a games console.

Toni Coe-Brooker from the Music Venues Trust said this is down to “a culture in which people think that grassroots gigs should be free”.

In the past, that didn’t matter because owners made plenty of money behind the bar. But Gen Z are increasingly turning their backs on alcohol. One study says 26% of 16-to-25-year-olds are teetotal, and that leaves yet another hole in venues’ finances.

Combined with other pressures including higher rent and electricity bills, 125 music venues closed or stopped hosting live music in 2023.

In those that remain, costs are so tight that “a lot of venue operators aren’t even paying themselves, which is really worrying,” says Coe-Brooker.

The Music Venue Trust wants bigger concert halls to donate £1 from each ticket sold to the grassroots scene and the next generation of artists.

That wouldn’t necessarily push prices up again – the trust says the £1 fee would be factored into existing costs – but here’s the fascinating thing: If the artist is the right one, fans will pay regardless.

Live Nation is the world’s biggest concert promoter and it shifted a record 118 million tickets in the first six months of 2024.

According to its latest earnings report, sales for arenas, amphitheatres, theatre and club shows are all up double digits.

“People’s enthusiasm to go out has not been as curbed as we expected in the current economy,” says Gottfried.

“VIP ticket sales have definitely picked up. Every single promoter I’ve spoken to across the individual European markets, has seen an uptake in almost every case. And £1,000 for a VIP package is not at all unheard of.”

However, the same rules don’t apply to everyone.

The biggest names might get away with charging hundreds of pounds per show, but “the weaker tours are coming under more pressure,” says Galbraith.

In other words, with an ongoing squeeze on their disposable incomes, fans are cutting back on experiences that don’t seem unique or essential.

“We’re competing in a marketplace that isn’t just gig to gig,” says Galbraith. “It’s also, are we value for money versus a restaurant? Are we value for money versus a mini break? So every tour has to be as cost effective as they possibly can.”

There are some signs that we’ve reached a peak. Jennifer Lopez and the Black Keys both scrapped recent US arena tours, after fans baulked at average prices of around $150 (£116). And the most expensive tickets for Billie Eilish’s 2025 UK tour (£398, of which £151 goes to local charities) are still available, months after going on sale.

It’s hard to say whether this will change. But Leah Rafferty, 27, from Sheffield, is an example of a fan who will pay whatever is asked. She lives with her parents, which allows her to spend her disposable income on concerts – something she says she feels “extremely lucky” to do.

A devoted Swiftie, she has seen The Eras Tour six times: Once in Edinburgh, twice in Liverpool and three times in London, at a cost of £1,192.57.

“As long as it doesn’t bankrupt me, I’m happy to spend whatever it costs.”

That’s exactly what promoters are relying on, says Gottfried.

“One of the reasons you haven’t seen notable dips [in sales], despite people struggling economically, is that seeing their favourite artist means so much to them that they make irrational decisions.

“Any market will be distorted by people making irrational decisions. It might be a beautiful decision for them but it’s also an irrational one, because their emotions and their fandom will make them pay outrageous money.”

US President Joe Biden has spent nearly a year vowing his determination to prevent the war in Gaza engulfing the wider Middle East. On Tuesday, he repeated that resolve in his last ever United Nations speech as president, as he addressed the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“A diplomatic solution is still possible. In fact, remains the only path to lasting security,” Biden said.

“Full scale war is not in anyone’s interest,” he added.

But the Israel-Lebanon crisis is now on the brink.

And Biden’s calls for restraint from the podium of the UN, like his pleas for Israel and Hamas to finally reach a ceasefire and hostage release deal, are being heard in the hall but not in the region.

On Monday, Israel unleashed hundreds of airstrikes on Lebanon, inflicting the deadliest day on the country since the end of its bloody, sectarian civil war more than three decades ago. Israel’s bombardment killed more than 500 people, according to Lebanese health officials.

Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group that dominates the country – reeling and damaged from Israel’s wave of exploding pager attacks last week – launched hundreds of rockets into northern Israel, smashing homes and setting streets ablaze.

Once again the US is trying to restrain Israel, the key regional ally it arms, and urging its adversaries against escalating too, all the while seeking a diplomatic outcome that the sides themselves lack either the ability or will to agree.

Israel says it’s acting to disarm the Lebanese militia so Israeli residents can return to their homes in the north. Hezbollah says it’s been striking Israel for the past 11 months to deter and degrade Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza. Months of shuttle diplomacy by the US envoy Amos Hochstein – building on already established UN Security Resolutions on Israel and Hezbollah – have come to nothing.

Instead, in another split screen moment as Biden was urging calm at the podium at the UN, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video on X vowing: “We will continue to hit Hezbollah. He who has a missile in his living room and a rocket in his garage – he will not have a home.”

The White House supports what it calls Israel’s right to hit Hezbollah. But the often dysfunctional political relationship with the Israeli leadership has again become apparent over recent weeks, amid serious concerns in the administration that the exploding pager attacks and subsequent Israeli airstrikes could lead to all out war.

No call between Biden and Netanyahu was announced despite the crisis of the last week. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently made his tenth trip to the region since the 7 October attacks but for the first time did not visit Israel. Critics both within and outside the administration have repeatedly blamed an inability of the White House to wield influence over Netanyahu on a failure to condition US weapons supply. The administration categorically rejects this, saying it is committed to Israel’s defence.

President Biden always believed the key to solving the crisis on the Israel-Lebanon border, involving 11 months of cross border fire and tens of thousands of people displaced on either side, was instead clinching the ceasefire deal in Gaza. But this is badly stalled with few signs either side is willing to reach it. Blinken recently pinned this on a lack of “political will” by both Israel and Hamas.

The White House denies that it is pursuing a diplomatic effort doomed to defeat – and that President Biden, with four months left in office, has given up hope of achieving a breakthrough.

“No, he absolutely hasn’t given up,” White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said of Biden’s attempts to reach a deal that would end the war in Gaza.

“There have been difficulties and setbacks. We’ve had challenges getting the [Israeli] prime minister across the line. We’ve had challenges getting Hamas’s leader Sinwar across the line. But we’re determined to keep at it,” Mr Sullivan told CNN.

“The president this week in New York will be huddling with other leaders to try to bring about a ceasefire and hostage deal in Gaza and really critically, to try and avert an all-out war in the Middle East.”

Behind the scenes here in New York, a stream of diplomacy is taking place. According to a senior state department official, the US is presenting allies with potential plans to resolve the crisis between Israel and Hezbollah.

“We’ve got some concrete ideas we’re going to be discussing with allies and partners this week to try to figure out the way forward on this,” said the official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Pressed on what the “concrete ideas” were, the official would not be drawn, noting instead that while the US does not speak directly to Hezbollah, some of its allies gathered in New York do and these partners “might have a more refined sense of Hezbollah thinking so we can stress test our ideas.”

But the official also renewed US opposition to any Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon. And they rejected Israeli officials’ reported belief that ramping up the conflict with Hezbollah could force them into cutting a diplomatic deal that would stabilise the situation on either side of the Israel-Lebanon border – a strategy referred to as “de-escalation by escalation”.

“I can’t recall, at least in recent memory, a period in which an escalation or intensification led to a fundamental de escalation and led to profound stabilisation of the situation,” said the official.

Vishal Jaiswal has been flying drones since he was young.

Now 27, that childhood hobby has become his profession. A recent project involved mapping part of the Sundarbans, a vast area of mangrove forests where the waters of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers spill into the Bay of Bengal.

Covering more than 4,000 sq miles (10,360 sq km) of coastal India and Bangladesh, it is the world’s biggest area of mangroves.

“It’s a very dense area with mix of everything, including forests with wild animals,” says Mr Jaiswal.

Along with two other team members he mapped 150 sq km in three days.

“A trained and skilled person is needed to fly a drone in thick mangroves area,” he says.

“It was a difficult task. We mapped the area from deep inside the forest, travelling there on boats and roads.”

It was one of many projects aimed at protecting the mangrove forest from the effects of climate change and human activities.

Globally, more than half of all mangrove ecosystems are at risk of collapse by 2050, according to a recent report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

“Mangroves are threatened by deforestation, development, pollution, and dam construction, but the risk to these ecosystems is increasing due to sea-level rise and the increased frequency of severe storms associated with climate change,” the report said.

In India the picture is mixed.

The mangroves of South India, Sri Lanka and Maldives are “critically endangered,” according to the IUCN report.

Other Indian mangroves are not on that “red list”.

The Sundarbans are one of those mangroves not considered endangered by the (IUCN).

However, Dr Sahadev Sharma, a consultant scientist to the USDA Forestry Service, says there are signs of both manmade and natural stress, which he identified during his field survey beginning of this year.

“We are seeing a loss in dense mangrove cover in Sundarbans. Additionally, patches on the western coast are extremely fragmented and eroded due to shrimp farming and development,” he says.

But it’s hard for scientists to know exactly what’s happening to the Sundarbans. There’s a lack of field research, partly because it’s a difficult place to work.

“It requires coordination with officers and ground staff, procuring field supplies in remote areas, and planning extensive logistics for field operations.

“The risk of saltwater crocodiles and Bengal tigers, tides and treacherous terrain make the field work even more difficult,” he says.

So, scientists are turning to tech, like Mr Jaiswal’s drones, to monitor the mangroves.

One key bit of information needed is the height of the mangroves in relation to the sea level.

The rivers flooding into the Sundarbans dump sediment, raising the ground level.

But if the sea level rises faster than that soil building process, then the mangroves will be threatened.

This process is monitored by installing rSETs (rod surface elevation tables) across mangrove forests.

The first part of the process is to drive steel rods into the mud, to provide a base for the measuring equipment.

Then Lidar scanners are attached to the top of the rods. These use lasers to scan the ground up to 2m away from the central rod, taking hundreds of thousands of extremely accurate measurements.

It’s a big improvement on the previous system, which involved attaching cumbersome fibreglass arms to the rods, which were extended to take height measurements.

That method would take hours to produce just 36 measurements and relied on the user placing the arms in the exact same positions as previous surveys.

“Because we are using a laser, there is minimal human error and the precision of this method is much greater than the traditional pin methods,” says Mr Sharma.

But it has one drawback – it’s more expensive than the old way.

Nevertheless, the project is making progress with the help of local partners.

Measuring sites are in place in the Andaman Islands, Sundarbans and Coringa and there are plans to install more in Bhitarkanika National Park, Orissa.

The research is still in its early days, they have a few data sets, but are waiting for the water level to recede before they can start measuring in the Sundarbans.

Many who live in the coastal regions that support mangrove forests rely on them for survival.

In Andhra Pradesh, which has a long coastline in eastern India, fisherman Laxman Anna blamed the destruction of mangroves for poor catches.

“A few years back it had become a frustrating job. Going into the creek to catch fish and coming back empty handed.”

“Imagine a day when I made just 60 cents for my entire day in the creek, as there were no fishes. Barely enough to sustain my family of five.”

He blamed shrimp farms for upsetting the ecosystem.

But Mr Anna says communities in his area have realised the importance of preserving the mangroves.

“We are planting saplings, nurturing them back to life with help of an NGO and the forest department.”

And that effort is paying off.

“Things are changing I have a smile on my face when I go to fishing now. I am able to get a good catch and make around seven to eight dollars a day, which is a good catch for my survival.”

At first glance, Dunpo Elementary is no different from the thousands of elementary schools dotted across South Korea.

But look just beneath the surface and the differences are stark.

For one thing, most of the students in this school in Asan, an industrial city near the capital Seoul, may look ethnically Korean, but cannot speak the language.

“If I don’t translate into Russian for them, the other kids won’t understand any of the lessons,” says 11-year-old Kim Yana.

Yana speaks the best Korean in her class – but she and most of her 22 classmates are native Russian speakers.

Nearly 80% of the pupils at Dunpo are categorised as “multicultural students”, meaning they are either foreigners or have a parent who is not a Korean citizen.

And while the school says it is difficult to know exactly what these students’ nationalities are, most of them are believed to be Koryoins: ethnic Koreans typically hailing from countries in Central Asia.

Amid a plummeting birth rate and associated labour shortages, South Korea is touting the settlement of Koryoins and other ethnic Koreans as a possible solution to the nation’s population crisis. But discrimination, marginalisation, and the lack of a proper settlement programme are making it hard for many of them to integrate.

Koryoins are descendants of ethnic Koreans who migrated to the far east of the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries – before many were forcibly transferred to Central Asia in the 1930s as part of Stalin’s “frontier-cleansing” policy.

They lived in former Soviet states such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and, over the generations, assimilated into those cultures and stopped speaking Korean, which was forbidden.

South Korea started granting residency to Koryoins as well as ethnic Koreans in China after a landmark ruling by the country’s constitutional court in 2001. But the number of Koryoin migrants began growing rapidly from 2014 when they were allowed to bring their families into the country as well.

Last year, about 760,000 ethnic Koreans from China and Russian-speaking countries were living in South Korea, making up about 30% of the country’s foreign population. Many have settled in cities like Asan, which have more factories and therefore greater job opportunities.

Ni Denis, who migrated to South Korea from Kazakhstan in 2018, is one of them.

“These days, I don’t see Koreans in the factory [where I work],” he says. “They think the job’s difficult, so they leave quickly. More than 80% of the people I work with are Koryoins.”

It isn’t only Koryoins, however, who are benefitting from the immigration boost. The influx of ethnic Koreans from abroad is also helping to address a severe labour shortage in a country whose population continues to shrink.

South Korea has the world’s lowest fertility rate, which keeps dropping year on year. In 2023, the birth rate was 0.72 – far behind the 2.1 required to maintain a stable population in the absence of immigration.

Estimates suggest that if this trend continues, South Korea’s population could halve by the year 2100.

The country will need 894,000 more workers, especially in the service industry, to “achieve long-term economic growth projections” over the next decade, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labour.

Workers from overseas are helping to bridge the gap.

“While the overseas Korean visa is often perceived as a form of support for ethnic Koreans, it has been primarily serving to provide stable labour for manufacturing,” says Choi Seori, a researcher at the Migration Research and Training Centre.

Mr Lee, a recruiter in Asan who asked to be identified only by his surname, highlighted the workforce’s dependence on immigration another way.

“Without Koryoins,” he said. “these factories wouldn’t run.”

Yet while immigration may be one solution to the country’s workforce problem, it comes with its own set of issues in this ethnically homogenous society.

Language is one of them.

“Korean kids only play with Koreans and Russian kids only play with Russians because they can’t communicate,” says 12-year-old student Kim Bobby.

In an attempt to overcome the language barrier, Dunpo Elementary School runs a two-hour Korean class for foreign students every day. Even so, teacher Kim Eun-ju is worried that many children “hardly understand the lessons” as they move up grades.

Academic competition in South Korea is notoriously rife and the school is losing local students, as parents worry their children’s education is being affected because lessons have to be conducted at a slower pace for Koryoins.

The high school enrolment rate for multicultural students is already slightly lower than for locals, according to an official national survey conducted in 2021. Park Min-jung, a researcher at the Migration Research and Training Centre, worries that more Koryoin students will drop out of school if they don’t get the support they need.

And language is not the only point of difference.

Mr Ni says he has noticed that many of his Korean neighbours have moved out of their building.

“Koreans seem to dislike having Koryoins as neighbours,” he says with an awkward laugh. “Sometimes Koreans ask us why we don’t smile at them. It’s just the way we are; it’s not that we’re angry.”

He says there have been disputes between children in his neighbourhood, and he has heard of cases where Koryoin children have been “rough” during arguments. “After that, Korean parents tell their kids not to play with Koryoin kids. I think that’s how segregation happens.”

“I am concerned about how Korea will be able to accept other immigrants,” says Seong Dong-gi, an expert of Koryoin at Inha University, explaining that there is already “significant resistance” to the influx of ethnic Koreans who “do not look different”.

The population crisis should be a “catalyst for society to look at immigration differently”, says Ms Choi. “It’s time to think about how to integrate them”.

In 2023 there were roughly 2.5 million foreigners living in South Korea, which is also a popular destination for migrant workers from places such as Nepal, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Most of them work in manual jobs, with only 13% in professional roles.

“There is no clear plan for immigration at the national government level,” says Lee Chang-won, the director of the Migration Research and Training Centre. “Solving the country’s population problem with foreigners has been an afterthought.”

Mr Lee adds that the current immigration policy is “heavily weighted towards low-skilled workers”, leading to a “common view” that foreigners only work in South Korea for a while and then leave. As a result, he says, there has been little discussion about long-term settlement for all immigrants.

According to current laws, the government is only required to provide support with things like vocational training for foreigners who marry locals. The same rights, however, are not extended to families entirely made up of foreigners.

Analysts say a new law for these families is urgently needed.

An Asan official, who requested anonymity, says it is difficult to secure funding for more supporting facilities for Koryoin families because there is no legal requirement to do so.

But despite these challenges, Mr Ni says he has not regretted the decision to move to South Korea. He still gets a better living environment and higher wages here.

“For my children, this is home,” he says. “When we visited Kazakhstan, they asked: ‘Why are we here? We want to go back to Korea.’”

The union representing thousands of striking Boeing workers says a survey of its members shows they are “not interested” in the aviation giant’s latest pay offer.

“Many comments expressed that the offer was inadequate,” the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) said in a post on X.

It comes after Boeing made a new offer earlier this week to striking workers, which proposed a 30% pay rise over four years.

BBC News has requested a statement from Boeing in response to the IAM announcement.

“The survey results from yesterday were overwhelmingly clear, almost as loud as the first offer: members are not interested in the company’s latest offer that was sent through the media,” the IAM post said.

On Monday, Boeing made what it called its “best and final” pay offer, which included the reinstatement of a performance bonus, improved retirement benefits and a doubling of the value of a one-off bonus for signing a new pay deal to $6,000 (£4,470).

The company said the offer was dependent on it being ratified by union members by midnight pacific time on Friday 27 September (7:00 GMT on Saturday 28 September).

However, IAM said Boeing had sent the new offer directly to union members and the media without telling the union’s representatives.

It also said the company’s deadline did not give it enough time to organise a vote by its members.

Boeing denied that it had not informed IAM representatives about the offer, and said it would give the union more time and logistical support to ballot its members.

More than 30,000 Boeing workers have been on strike since 13 September after rejecting a 25% pay rise offer.

Union members – who produce planes including the 737 Max and 777 – voted overwhelmingly to reject the offer and back strike action until a new agreement could be reached.

IAM had initially aimed for a number of improvements to workers’ packages, including a 40% pay rise.

The strike threatens to cost Boeing billions of dollars, deepening the crisis at a company already facing significant challenges.

The company has already suspended the jobs of tens of thousands of staff.

Sri Lanka’s new president has dissolved parliament to make way for a snap general election.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake dissolved the 225-member parliament in which his left-leaning National People’s Power (NPP) alliance had just three seats.

The election will take place on 14 November, almost a year ahead of schedule, according to a notification in the official government gazette.

The president also selected his ally Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister on Tuesday, choosing a woman for the third time in the country’s history.

Dissanayake won the nation’s presidential election on Saturday.

He had signalled he would dissolve parliament soon after being elected to seek a fresh mandate to pursue his policies. He previously said there was “no point continuing with a parliament that is not in line with what the people want”.

The last general election in Sri Lanka, where MPs are elected for a five-year term, took place in August 2020.

Dissanayake, who has drawn increasing support in recent years for his anti-corruption and anti-poverty policies, won the country’s first election since its economy collapsed in 2022 sparking protests and forcing then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and resign.

It was a remarkable turnaround for a politician who won just 3% in the 2019 presidential election.

Dissanayake’s immediate challenge is to renegotiate parts of a $2.9bn bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that has involved painful austerity measures.

Soon after taking over, the new president said he had no magic solution to hardships people were facing, but would seek a collective effort to end the crisis.

In Sri Lanka the president heads the cabinet and appoints ministers from MPs, while the prime minister acts as the president’s deputy and leads the ruling party.

Just before Dissanayake took the oath as president on Monday, Dinesh Gunawardene resigned as prime minister.

His replacement Amarasuriya is one of the three NPP MPs. The former university lecturer was also given ministerial responsibility for justice, education and labour.

Remaining interim cabinet roles were shared out between the two others.

Amarasuriya campaigned alongside Dissanayake in 2019, before being elected as an MP the next year.

Her career as a public activist started in 2011, when she participated in protests demanding for free education.

The 54-year-old has since become known for her advocacy for youth development, child protection and gender inequality, among other social justice issues.

Her appointment as Sri Lanka’s 16th prime minister makes her the first academic to take office. She follows in the footsteps of just two other women – Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga – both of whom had family ties to politics. A woman has not held the role since 2000.

Among the sea of glossy black and white penguins that call a popular Australian aquarium home, one baby bird stands out like a sore thumb.

Chocolatey brown, obscenely fluffy, and towering a head above his own foster parents – plus weighing more than both combined – is Pesto.

Affectionately dubbed a “fatty”, an “absolute unit”, and a “linebacker”, the chonky chick has shot to viral superstardom and attracted a legion of obsessed fans, including popstar Katy Perry.

Pesto has reached an audience of billions – dominating social media algorithms, securing wall-to-wall breakfast TV coverage in the US and UK, and drawing travellers from around the globe to Melbourne’s Sea Life Aquarium.

Born in January weighing only 200g (7oz), the nine-month-old king penguin is now more than a hundred times the size. At a whopping 22.5kg (50lb), he is the biggest chick the aquarium has ever seen.

It is normal for penguins to stack on some “healthy baby chub” after they hatch, the aquarium’s Jacinta Early tells the BBC, but keepers had no idea Pesto would become so immense.

“It’s a combination of nature [and] nurture, really,” the marine biologist explains.

Pesto’s biological father is quite tall, but he’s also been very well looked after by his foster parents Tango and Hudson: “He eclipses them now, which also makes him look comically large.”

Hand-fed several times a day, Ms Early says Pesto’s considerable heft is also partly attributable to his “very healthy appetite” – a gentle way of saying he gobbles up to 30 fish daily.

But she stresses he’s healthy – essentially half fluff – and he’ll soon begin to drop weight naturally.

“If I poked him, my entire finger would completely [disappear] deep in his feathers,” Ms Early says.

“When he does start to fledge, he’ll lose a lot of that baby fluff, and he’ll also lose much of that weight, so he’ll slim down nice and sleek.”

He’s already losing a smattering of his baby feathers, but she says there’s much more to Pesto than his cuddly appearance anyway.

She describes him as a social butterfly who chatters away in a “cute little whistle tone” and loves annoying the adult penguins “like any typical toddler would”.

“He tends to be the first one to kind of say hi [to keepers] and he also does respond to his name.”

“We definitely do have our favourites,” Ms Early says, diplomatically. “[But] Pesto seems to be a little bit in love with all the keepers as well.”

Even though staff have long been besotted with the chick, seeing the love he’s attracted from the public has been an absurd experience, they say.

It’s a generally busy period of year for the aquarium, amid school holidays, but crowds have been flocking to the penguin exhibit to catch a glimpse of the glorified pom-pom.

Millie Jacoby – a Brit who has lived in Melbourne for the past year – is one such Pesto groupie.

The 25-year-old has visited the penguin twice already and brags that she was a fan before he became an online sensation.

“We walked in and there was just this big, fluffy penguin… and we just kind of fell in love.

“He deserves to be famous.”

Olivia Wilson, who has been managing Pesto’s demanding media schedule for the aquarium, jokes that she’s not sure what’s the bigger drawcard to Melbourne this weekend: Pesto or the Australian Football League grand final – a sporting event taken so seriously that the entire state of Victoria gets a public holiday the day before to celebrate.

“You name a country, and he has had a mention in the media… there are very few places across the globe that haven’t had a bit of Pesto love.”

By her metrics, Pesto has reached an audience of about 5 billion and appears to have dethroned Thailand’s adorably erratic baby pygmy hippo as the internet’s favourite animal.

“People are trading him as Bitcoin, which has been unbelievable,” Ms Wilson says.

“Move over Moo Deng, basically.”

Police in Switzerland made multiple arrests after a woman reportedly ended her life using a so-called suicide pod, in apparently the first case of its kind.

Police in the Schaffhausen region said they arrested “several persons” on suspicion of inciting, and aiding and abetting suicide after she died reportedly by using a pod made by the company Sarco on Monday.

While assisted dying is legally protected in some circumstances in Switzerland, it is strictly regulated and the Sarco pod has encountered opposition.

Officers recovered the device and body at the scene.

The company behind the controversial pod says it can be solely operated by the person seeking to end their own life, without medical supervision.

Police said it was used on Monday at a forest hut in the Merishausen area, a sparsely populated part of Switzerland on the German border.

Police said they were tipped off by a law firm about a suicide involving the device. The number of people arrested and their identities were not disclosed. The deceased also was not named.

• If you are experiencing any of the issues mentioned in this story you can visit BBC Action Line for a list of websites and helplines that can offer direct help at any time.

In July, a pro-assisted dying group, which promotes the Sarco device, said it anticipated that it would be used for the first time this year.

Advocates say it provides an option not reliant on drugs or doctors, and that it expands access to euthanasia as the portable device can be 3D-printed and assembled at home.

However, there also has been opposition in Switzerland, despite the country having some of the world’s most protective laws surrounding assisted dying.

Critics fear the device’s modern design glamorises suicide and the fact that it can be operated without medical oversight is concerning.

Assisted dying is illegal in the UK and in most other European countries, but thousands have travelled to Switzerland over the years to end their own lives.

A row between a prominent journalist and a king has captivated many in Ghana.

It began when Afia Pokua criticised the Ashanti king’s handling of tensions with other ethnic groups, the deference that politicians show him, and expressed her frustration about the apparent supremacy of the Asante community.

“Even the president… bowed to show respect to the chief,” Ms Pokua said in an interview with Mona Gucci earlier this month on local channel Onua TV.

“Asante is not the whole of Ghana. If you are only thinking about Asante, they can amend the laws so that you can separate yourself from the rest of the country.”

The comments were not well received by the traditional ruler.

The head of the Ashanti kingdom – Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II – occupies a powerful position in society and it is considered hugely disrespectful to openly insult or criticise him.

His official title is the “Asantehene” – but he is also referred to as “Nyame Kessie” which means greater god, and as such he is treated with maximum respect.

Royal historian Osei Bonsu Sarfo Kantanka, who works for the Asantehene, told the BBC that anybody wanting to criticise the leader must follow specific steps.

“You go through the queen mother – she is the only person who can rebuke him. If you don’t go through the queen mother and then you do it yourself, then you’re in trouble,” he said.

Mr Osei also criticised Ms Pokua for saying that Otumfuo Nana Osei Tutu II, who is in his 70s, was hard of hearing.

“If you use this word on even an ordinary person, he will not take it as criticism.”

Seeking to apologise for her comments, Ms Pokua on Monday went to Manhye Palace in Kumasi where the Asantehene lives.

Dressed in black and accompanied by elders, she kneeled on the ground and begged for forgiveness, as did Ms Gucci. The whole spectacle was filmed for TV.

But Ms Pokua’s apologies were rejected by representatives of the Ashanti traditional ruler and she was asked to leave the palace.

“Take your cursed self and your troubles with you. Whatever comes your way in the future, deal with it on your own. Do not ever return here,” the Asantehene told her, according to local media.

That was despite her already apologising on social media and live television.

According to the royal historian, it boils down to another failure to follow etiquette.

In order for her apology to be accepted, said Mr Osei, the journalist should have appealed to the Agona traditional authority and taken along with her, her parents and the owners of the TV station that broadcast the critical remarks.

If the apology were accepted, the Agona chief would then convey the message to the Asantehene and then set a date to take her to Manhye Palace for another apology.

But, if she follows these steps now, it may not be too late.

• Ghana rejoices as ‘crown jewels’ looted by British put on display
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• How Nigeria’s kings lost their power

China’s central bank has unveiled a major package of measures aimed at reviving the country’s flagging economy.

People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Pan Gongsheng announced plans to lower borrowing costs and allow banks to increase their lending.

The move comes after a series of disappointing data has increased expectations in recent months that the world’s second largest economy will miss its own 5% growth target this year.

Stock markets in Asia jumped after Mr Pan’s announcement.

Speaking at a rare news conference alongside officials from two other financial regulators, Mr Pan said the central bank would cut the amount of cash banks have to hold in reserve – known as reserve requirement ratios (RRR).

The RRR will initially be cut by half a percentage point, in a move expected to free up about 1 trillion yuan ($142bn; £106bn).

Mr Pan added that another cut may be made later in the year.

Further measures aimed to boost China’s crisis-hit property market include cutting interest rates for existing mortgages and lowering minimum down payments on all types of homes to 15%.

The country’s real estate industry has been struggling with a sharp downturn since 2021.

Several developers have collapsed, leaving large numbers of unsold homes and unfinished building projects.

The PBOC’s new economic stimulus measures come just days after the US Federal Reserve lowered interest rates for the first time in more than four years with a bigger than usual cut.

The plans also included measures to help support the stock market.

The news pushed up share prices, with the leading stock indexes in Shanghai and Hong Kong ending the day more than 4% higher.

Israel’s leaders are jubilant about the progress of the offensive against Hezbollah that started with the detonation of weaponised pagers and radios and moved on to intense and deadly airstrikes.

Defence Minister Yoav Gallant did not hold back his praise after Monday’s air strikes.

“Today was a masterpiece… This was the worst week Hezbollah has had since its establishment, and the results speak for themselves.”

Gallant said airstrikes destroyed thousands of rockets that could have killed Israeli citizens. In the process Lebanon says Israel killed more than 550 of its citizens, including 50 children. That is almost half Lebanon’s dead in a month of war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Israel believes that a ferocious offensive will coerce Hezbollah into doing what it wants, inflicting so much pain that its leader Hassan Nasrallah and his allies and backers in Iran decide that the price of resistance is too high.

Israel’s politicians and generals need a victory. After almost a year of war Gaza has become a quagmire. Hamas fighters still emerge out of tunnels and ruins to kill and wound Israeli soldiers and are still holding Israeli hostages.

Hamas caught Israel by surprise last October. The Israelis did not see Hamas as a significant threat, with devastating consequences. Lebanon is different. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Mossad spy agency have been planning the next war against Hezbollah since the last war ended in a stalemate in 2006.

Israel’s leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, believes the current offensive is making big progress towards his declared objective of tipping the balance of power away from Hezbollah.

He wants to stop Hezbollah firing rockets over the border into Israel. At the same time, the Israeli military says the plan is to force Hezbollah back from the border and to destroy military facilities that threaten Israel.

The last week in Lebanon brings back echoes of the last year of war in Gaza. Israel issued warnings to civilians, as it did in Gaza, to move out of areas about to be attacked. It blames Hezbollah, as it blames Hamas, for using civilians as human shields.

Some critics as well as enemies of Israel said the warnings were too vague and did not give enough time for families to evacuate. The laws of war demand that civilians be protected, and forbid indiscriminate, disproportionate use of force.

Some of Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel have hit civilian areas, breaking laws designed to protect civilians. They have also targeted the Israeli military. Israel and key Western allies, including the US and UK, classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation.

Israel insists it has a moral army that respects the rules. But much of the world has condemned its conduct in Gaza. The ignition of a wider border war will deepen the gap at the centre of a highly polarised argument.

Take the pager attack. Israel says it was aimed at Hezbollah operatives who had been issued with the pagers. But Israel could not know where they would be when the bombs inside the pagers were triggered, which was why civilians and children in homes, shops and other public places were wounded and killed. That, some leading lawyers say, proves that Israel was using deadly force without distinguishing between combatants and civilians; a violation of the rules of war.

The fight between Israel and Hezbollah started in the 1980s. But this border war began the day after Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, when Hassan Nasrallah ordered his men to begin a limited, but almost daily barrage over the border to support Hamas. It tied up Israeli troops and forced around 60,000 people in border towns to leave their homes.

A few voices in the Israeli media have compared the impact of the air strikes on Hezbollah’s capacity to wage war to Operation Focus, Israel’s surprise attack on Egypt in June 1967. It was a famous raid that destroyed the Egyptian air force when its aircraft were lined up on the ground. Over the next six days Israel defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The victory created the shape of the current conflict as Israel captured the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.

It is not a good comparison. Lebanon, and war with Hezbollah, is different. Israel has inflicted heavy blows. But so far it has not stopped Hezbollah’s capacity or will to fire into Israel.

Israel’s earlier wars with Hezbollah were grinding, attritional and never produced a decisive victory for either side. This one might go the same way, however satisfying the last week of offensive action has been for Israel, its intelligence services and its military.

Israel’s offensive rests on an assumption – a gamble – that a point will come when Hezbollah will crumple, retreat from the border and stop firing into Israel. Most observers of Hezbollah believe it will not stop. Fighting Israel is the main reason why Hezbollah exists.

That means Israel, just as reluctant to admit defeat, would have to escalate the war further. If Hezbollah continued to make northern Israel too dangerous for Israeli civilians to return home, Israel would have to decide whether to launch a ground offensive, probably to capture a strip of land to act as a buffer zone.

Israel has invaded Lebanon before. In 1982 its forces swept up to Beirut to try to stop Palestinian raids into Israel. They were forced into an ignominious retreat in the face of fury at home and abroad, after Israeli troops held the perimeter as their Lebanese Christian allies massacred Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut.

By the 1990s Israel still occupied a broad band of Lebanese land along the border. Today’s Israeli generals were then young officers, who fought in endless skirmishes and firefights against Hezbollah, which was growing stronger as it fought to drive Israel out. Ehud Barak, then Israel’s prime minister and a former chief of staff of the IDF, withdrew from the so-called “security zone” in 2000. He decided that it did not make Israel any safer and was costing Israel the lives of too many soldiers.

In 2006 an ill-judged raid by Hezbollah across the tense and highly militarised border killed and captured Israeli soldiers. After the war ended Hassan Nasrallah said he would not have allowed the raid had he realised what Israel would do in return. Ehud Olmert, by then Israel’s prime minister, went to war.

At first Israel hoped air power would stop rocket attacks into Israel. When it did not, ground troops and tanks once again rolled back over the border. The war was a disaster for Lebanese civilians. But on the last day of the war, Hezbollah was still launching salvoes of rockets into Israel.

Israel’s commanders know that entering Lebanon under fire would be much more formidable military challenge than fighting Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah has also been making plans since the end of the 2006 war, and would be fighting on home ground, in south Lebanon which has plenty of rugged, hilly terrain that suits guerrilla tactics.

Israel has not been able to destroy all the tunnels Hamas dug through sand in Gaza. In the borderlands of south Lebanon, Hezbollah has spent the last 18 years preparing tunnels and positions in solid rock. It has a formidable arsenal, supplied by Iran. Unlike Hamas in Gaza, it can be resupplied by land through Syria.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington DC, estimates that Hezbollah has around 30,000 active fighters and up to 20,000 reserves, mostly trained as mobile small units of light infantry. Many of its men have combat experience fighting in support of the Assad regime in Syria.

Most estimates say that Hezbollah has something between 120,000 and 200,000 missiles and rockets, ranging from unguided weapons to longer-range weapons that could hit Israel’s cities.

Israel may be gambling that Hezbollah will not use all of them, fearful that the Israeli air force will do to Lebanon what it did to Gaza, turning entire towns to rubble and killing thousands of civilians. Iran might not want Hezbollah to use weapons it would like to reserve as insurance against an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. That’s another gamble. Hezbollah might decide to use more of its arsenal before Israel destroys it.

With the war continuing in Gaza, and rising levels of violence on the occupied West Bank, Israel would also have to contemplate a third front if it invaded Lebanon. Its soldiers are motivated, well trained and equipped, but the reserve units that provide much of Israel’s fighting power are already feeling the strain after a year of war.

Israel’s allies, led by the United States, did not want Israel to escalate the war with Hezbollah and do not want it to invade Lebanon. They insist that only diplomacy can make the border safe enough for civilians to return to their homes on either side of it. An American envoy has worked out an agreement, partly based on UN Security resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 war.

But diplomats have their hands tied without a ceasefire in Gaza. Hasan Nasrallah has said Hezbollah will only stop attacking Israel when the Gaza war stops. At the moment neither Hamas nor the Israelis are prepared to make the necessary concessions that would produce a ceasefire agreement in Gaza and a swap of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

As Israeli air strikes continue to pound Lebanon, civilians who were already struggling to provide for their families in a broken economy face terrible pain and uncertainty. Fear crosses front lines. Israelis know that Hezbollah could do them much worse damage than they have in the last year.

Israel believes the time has come to be aggressive and audacious, to blast Hezbollah away from its borders. But it faces an obdurate, well-armed and angry enemy. This is the most dangerous crisis in the long year of war since Hamas attacked Israel and at the moment nothing is stopping it spiralling towards something much worse.

The tragic death of a 26-year-old Indian employee at a leading accounting firm has ignited a serious debate about workplace culture and employee welfare in corporate environments.

Anna Sebastian Perayil, a chartered accountant at Ernst & Young (EY), died in July, four months after joining the firm. Her parents have alleged that the “overwhelming work pressure” at her new job took a toll on her health and led to her death.

EY has refuted the allegation, saying that Perayil was allotted work like any other employee and that it didn’t believe that work pressure could have claimed her life.

Her death has resonated deeply, sparking a discussion on the “hustle culture” promoted by many corporates and start-ups – a work ethic that prioritises productivity, often at the expense of employee well-being.

Some argue that this culture drives innovation and growth, with many choosing extra hours out of passion or ambition. Others say that employees are often pressured by management, leading to burnout and a diminished quality of life.

Perayil’s death came under the spotlight after a letter written by her mother Anita Augustine to EY went viral on social media last week. In the letter, she detailed the alleged pressures her daughter had experienced at work, including working late into the night and on weekends, and appealed to EY to “reflect on its work culture” and take steps to prioritise its employees’ health.

“Anna’s experience sheds light on a work culture that seems to glorify overwork while neglecting the very human beings behind the roles,” she wrote. “The relentless demands and the pressure to meet unrealistic expectations are not sustainable, and they cost us the life of a young woman with so much potential.”

Many people condemned EY for its “toxic work culture”, sharing their experiences on Twitter and LinkedIn. One user alleged that he had been made to work for 20 hours a day at a top consultancy firm without being paid overtime.

“Work culture in India is horrid. Pay is dismal, exploitation is max [maximum]. There are zero repercussions and no remorse on the part of employers who routinely harass workers,” another user wrote, adding that managers are often praised for overworking and underpaying their employees.

A former EY employee criticised the work culture at the firm and alleged that employees were often “mocked” for leaving on time and “shamed” for enjoying weekends.

“Interns [are] given crazy workload, unrealistic timelines and [are] humiliated during reviews as it builds character for their future,” he wrote.

EY’s India chief, Rajiv Memani, has since said that the firm attaches the “highest importance” to the wellbeing of its employees. “I would like to affirm that the wellbeing of our people is my top-most priority and I will personally champion this objective,” he wrote in a post on LinkedIn.

Perayil’s death isn’t the first incident that has brought India’s work culture under scrutiny. In October last year, Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy faced criticism for suggesting that young Indians should work 70-hour weeks to boost the country’s economic growth.

His views were backed by Ola’s India chief Bhavesh Aggarwal, who said that he didn’t believe in the concept of work-life balance because “if you are enjoying your work, you will find happiness in life also and work also, and both of them will be in harmony”.

In 2022, Shantanu Deshpande, founder of the Bombay Shaving Company, asked youngsters to stop “cribbing” about working hours and suggested that new recruits at any job should be prepared to work 18 hours a day for the first four to five years of their career.

But mental health experts and labour rights activists say that such demands are unfair and put employees under immense stress. In her letter, Perayil’s mother alleged that her daughter had experienced “anxiety and sleeplessness” soon after joining EY.

India is known to have one of the most overworked workforces globally. A recent report by the International Labour Organisation said half of India’s workforce worked for over 49 hours each week, making India the second country after Bhutan to have the longest working hours.

Labour economist Shyam Sunder said India’s work culture had shifted post-1990s with the rise of the service sector, leading firms to bypass labour laws to meet round-the-clock demands.

He added that the culture has now been “institutionalised” by firms but it has also been accepted by employees. “Even in business schools, students are tacitly told that working long hours to earn a high salary is normal and even desirable,” he said.

According to him, for there to be any real change in corporate culture, a “mindset shift” is necessary – one where both firms and employees approach work with a more mature outlook, viewing it as important, but not the only part and purpose of life.

“Till then, all the other steps by corporates, like offering period leave or partnering with mental health firms will remain supplementary at best and symbolic at worst,” he said.

Chandrasekhar Sripada, a professor at the Indian School of Business, agrees with this view. He said that toxic work culture was a “complex, multi-stake holder problem” and that everyone, from industry leaders to managers to employees and even society, would have to change the way they viewed productivity in order for there to be any real change.

“We’re still confusing hard work with productive work,” Mr Sripada said. “The point of technology is to reduce human work so why are working hours getting longer?”

“We need to start focussing on sustainable growth, not just from an environmental standpoint, but also from a labour rights perspective,” he added.

“Scandinavian countries have already created much gentler working environments, so there are models for India to follow. All it needs is willpower.”

Sri Lanka’s new president has dissolved parliament to make way for a snap general election.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake dissolved the 225-member parliament in which his left-leaning National People’s Power (NPP) alliance had just three seats.

The election will take place on 14 November, almost a year ahead of schedule, according to a notification in the official government gazette.

The president also selected his ally Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister on Tuesday, choosing a woman for the third time in the country’s history.

Dissanayake won the nation’s presidential election on Saturday.

He had signalled he would dissolve parliament soon after being elected to seek a fresh mandate to pursue his policies. He previously said there was “no point continuing with a parliament that is not in line with what the people want”.

The last general election in Sri Lanka, where MPs are elected for a five-year term, took place in August 2020.

Dissanayake, who has drawn increasing support in recent years for his anti-corruption and anti-poverty policies, won the country’s first election since its economy collapsed in 2022 sparking protests and forcing then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee and resign.

It was a remarkable turnaround for a politician who won just 3% in the 2019 presidential election.

Dissanayake’s immediate challenge is to renegotiate parts of a $2.9bn bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that has involved painful austerity measures.

Soon after taking over, the new president said he had no magic solution to hardships people were facing, but would seek a collective effort to end the crisis.

In Sri Lanka the president heads the cabinet and appoints ministers from MPs, while the prime minister acts as the president’s deputy and leads the ruling party.

Just before Dissanayake took the oath as president on Monday, Dinesh Gunawardene resigned as prime minister.

His replacement Amarasuriya is one of the three NPP MPs. The former university lecturer was also given ministerial responsibility for justice, education and labour.

Remaining interim cabinet roles were shared out between the two others.

Amarasuriya campaigned alongside Dissanayake in 2019, before being elected as an MP the next year.

Her career as a public activist started in 2011, when she participated in protests demanding for free education.

The 54-year-old has since become known for her advocacy for youth development, child protection and gender inequality, among other social justice issues.

Her appointment as Sri Lanka’s 16th prime minister makes her the first academic to take office. She follows in the footsteps of just two other women – Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga – both of whom had family ties to politics. A woman has not held the role since 2000.

Marcellus Williams was executed on Tuesday night in the US state of Missouri after spending more than two decades on death row.

Williams, who had two previous executions stayed, maintained he was innocent in the 1998 fatal stabbing of Felicia Gayle in a St Louis suburb, and a wide swath of people had opposed his death sentence.

An attorney representing Williams argued there was racial discrimination in selecting jurors and that DNA evidence in the case was mishandled.

Williams was denied a last-minute reprieve from the US Supreme Court, after Missouri’s top court and governor rejected his clemency requests early this week.

In a rare move, the three liberal justices on the US Supreme Court – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson – said on Tuesday they disagreed with the conservative majority and would have granted a stay. They did not give a reason.

Missouri Department of Corrections communications director Karen Pojmann said no witnesses for Ms Gayle’s family attended the execution, CBS, the BBC’s US partner, reported.

Williams’ son and two of his attorneys were present.

At his trial, prosecutors said Williams broke into Ms Gayle’s home in August 1998 and stabbed her 43 times with a large butcher knife before stealing her purse and her husband’s laptop.

Ms Gayle was a social worker and former reporter at the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

Lawyers for Williams had said there were concerns over the handling of his case, arguing black jurors were wrongly excluded from his trial.

They also said there was no forensic evidence linking Williams to the crime scene and that the murder weapon had been mishandled, raising questions over DNA evidence.

The trial prosecutor has said he followed procedure at the time by touching the murder weapon without gloves after it was tested in a crime lab.

Williams had requested clemency from Missouri’s Republican governor, Mike Parson, which was denied.

“We hope this gives finality to a case that’s languished for decades, re-victimising Ms Gayle’s family,” Parson said in a statement.

“No juror, no judge has ever found Williams’ innocence claim to be credible.”

Many people, including British billionaire Richard Branson, campaigned against the execution, the third in Missouri this year.

Mr Branson told the BBC earlier on Tuesday that he had spent part of the day focused on the Williams case.

“He’s an innocent person,” he said.

“Even the prosecuting council have told the governor they should not, this man is innocent.”

The victim’s family had supported a life sentence instead of the death penalty, while local prosecutors had pressed to have the conviction overturned.

His execution had been stayed twice – once in 2017 and once in 2015 – due to the discovery of male DNA on the murder weapon that did not match Williams.

The state’s then-governor, Eric Greitens, a Republican, formed a panel to examine the case after granting the second stay, but he then left office amid a scandal and the panel never formed a conclusion.

Also concerned about the DNA, the local prosecuting attorney, Wesley Bell, requested a hearing.

But at that point it was discovered that the DNA evidence was spoiled from someone in the prosecutor’s office touching the knife without gloves, and the hearing was cancelled.

“This outcome did not serve the interests of justice,” Mr Bell said in a statement on Tuesday.

“If there is even the shadow of a doubt of innocence, the death penalty should never be an option.”

Midwest Innocence Project, a legal group whose attorneys represented Williams, worked to reach an agreement with the prosecutor’s office that Williams would enter a no-contest plea to first-degree murder in exchange for life in prison.

But the Missouri Supreme Court blocked the agreement and ruled the death sentence would stand.

“Mr Williams’ story echoes that of too many others caught in our country’s broken criminal legal system,” the Innocence Project said in a statement.

“A Black man convicted of killing a white woman, Mr Williams maintained his innocence until the very end.”

Donald Trump pledged the US would “take other countries’ jobs” if he returned to the White House, as he laid out his plans to slash taxes and lower energy costs and regulations for manufacturers that made goods on US soil.

At a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, Trump promised a “manufacturing renaissance”, reiterating his pledge to punish American companies that manufactured outside the US, and slap large tariffs on foreign-made goods to protect US industries.

Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris have stepped up efforts to outline their competing visions for the economy in the final stretch of the campaign, highlighting what voters say is a top concern in the 2024 election.

Harris is expected to unveil a new set of economic proposals in a major speech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday.

Speaking to a crowd in Savannah, Trump moved beyond his usual protectionist policies to raise the prospect of more trade battles.

Trump said he would offer special federal zones with “ultra low taxes and regulations” to companies that relocate to the US, cut through regulation and appoint a “manufacturing ambassador” to convince international companies to move the United States.

“Under my plan, American workers will no longer be worried about losing your jobs to foreign nations. Instead, foreign nations will be worried about losing their jobs to America,” he said.

Trump has also previously proposed a 60% tariff or higher on Chinese goods and a blanket 20% tariff on imports from other countries, an aggressive policy that could increase prices for Americans, according to some economists.

During his presidency, Trump imposed tariffs on some goods imported from China. The Biden administration has left some of these policies in place and announced new restrictions in some areas such as electric vehicles.

The former president has sought to blame Democrats for the surge in inflation following the Covid pandemic, which has since cooled, as well as the high cost of groceries that remain top concerns for voters.

The food Consumer Price Index rose by 25% from 2019 to 2023, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Polls have indicated that American voters are most concerned about the economy, and more voters see Trump as equipped to handle it. Harris, however has made some gains.

Voters for whom the economy was a major factor preferred Trump over Harris by 53-47%, according to CBS News/YouGov poll of likely voters published this week. But Harris has improved her standing since August, when only 43% of voters who prioritised the economy favoured her.

Trump’s visit to Georgia came on the heels of a New York Times/Siena College poll that found him slightly ahead in the state, as well as the battlegrounds Arizona, and North Carolina.

Both candidates have devoted significant time and resources to campaigning in Georgia, as it may prove critical to their paths to the White House.

Though the Georgia speech was billed as an economic event, Trump dedicated a significant portion of his speech to other subjects. He recounted the failed assassination attempt on his life at a Pennsylvania rally in July and the second suspected attempt in Florida this month. He praised the US Secret Service, which has faced scrutiny over their ability to protect Trump.

He also attacked Harris, calling her “grossly incompetent” and said she would “deindustrialise the United States and destroy our country”.

An hour before Trump spoke in Georgia, the Harris campaign held a press call with American investor Mark Cuban, who has long supported Democratic candidates.

Mr Cuban assailed Mr Trump’s proposals to place tariffs on American companies which manufactured in countries like Mexico, saying it would harm American businesses.

“It just goes to show that he doesn’t think these things through,” Mr Cuban said.

Harris will return to the another critical swing state – Pennsylvania – on Wednesday to lay out her own economic agenda.

The vice-president has already released a set of economic proposals aimed at first-time home buyers, tax breaks for families and a ban on grocery “price-gouging”. She has called for a “first-ever” tax credit for builders of homes sold to first-time buyers, as well as up to $25,000 in down-payment assistance for “eligible” first-time buyers.

She told reporters on Sunday the plan would focus on investing “in the aspirations and ambitions of the American people while addressing the challenges that they face”.

Thailand’s king has signed a marriage equality bill into law, making the country the first in South East Asia to recognise same-sex unions.

The bill cleared the Senate in June but required royal endorsement to become law. It was published in the Royal Gazette on Tuesday and will come into effect on 22 January next year.

Activists hailed the move as historic – it marks the culmination of years of campaigning for marriage equality.

Thailand has long been seen as a relative haven for the LGBTQ+ community in a region where such attitudes are rare.

The new law uses gender-neutral terms in place of “husbands”, “wives”, “men” and “women”. And it grants same-sex couples adoption and inheritance rights.

“Today we’re not only getting to write our names in marriage certificates, but we are also writing a page in history… that tells us that love never set a condition of who we were born to be,” Ann Chumaporn, a longtime LGBTQ+ activist and co-founder of the Bangkok Pride movement, told the BBC.

“It’s a triumph of equality and human dignity.”

She said she plans to organise a mass wedding for more than 1,000 LGBTQ+ couples on 22 January.

“[The legal recognition] means we are fully accepted and can live our lives without conditions or compromises,” said advertising strategist Kwankaow Koosakulnirund.

“Thailand’s LGBTQ+ community can now look toward a future beyond relationships, embracing the sense of pride that this law brings,” he said.

“We are all delighted and excited. We’ve been fighting for our rights for over 10 years, and now it’s finally happening,” another activist, Siritata Ninlapruek, told AFP news agency.

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra posted on X: “Congratulations on everyone’s love. #LoveWins.”

Former PM Srettha Thavisin, who has been vocal in his support for the bill, also applauded the development as a “significant step” for Thailand.

“Equity and equality have become concrete in the Thai society. Gender diversity will eventually be fully accepted. Congratulations,” he wrote on X.

When the law comes into effect, Thailand will become only the third place in Asia, after Taiwan and Nepal, where same-sex couples can get married.

In 2019, Taiwan’s parliament became the first in Asia to legalise same-sex marriage. Nepal registered its first same-sex union in November last year, five months after its Supreme Court ruled in favour of it.

This was just one month after India’s top court had ruled against it, leaving the decision to the government, which said it would set up a panel to decide on more legal rights for same-sex couples.

Singapore scrapped a colonial-era law that banned gay sex in 2022, but also amended its constitution to prevent the courts from challenging the definition of marriage as one between a man and a woman.

The prime minister has told British nationals in Lebanon “now is the time to leave” after fighting intensified between Israel and Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group which dominates the country.

Sir Keir Starmer said “we are ramping up the contingency plans, I think you’d expect that in light of the escalation”, and added that UK citizens should “leave immediately”.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is sending 700 troops to nearby Cyprus to prepare for the possible evacuation of British nationals from Lebanon and the government “continues to advise against all travel to Lebanon”.

The situation in the country, where Israeli strikes reportedly killed more than 560 people this week, is described as deteriorating “rapidly, with devastating consequences”.

Lebanon’s health minister has told the BBC what is happening in his country is “carnage”, as hospitals struggle to cope with the number of casualties from two days of widespread Israeli air strikes targeting Hezbollah.

Asked by reporters how the British prime minister would ensure the situation wasn’t a repeat of the chaos in the Afghan capital Kabul when the Taliban seized control in August 2021, Sir Keir said: “The most important message from me to British nationals in Lebanon is to leave immediately.

“It is important that we’ve been really, really clear: now is the time to leave.”

A senior government source added that the difference, for now at least, was that there were commercial flights leaving Lebanon.

Asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if he sensed the world was on the brink of all-out war in the Middle East, Sir Keir said he was “deeply concerned”.

He said he “put it in those terms, that we are potentially at a brink point, and we have to come back from the brink”.

He repeated his call for an immediate ceasefire, along with other ministers.

Defence Secretary John Healey said: “We continue to urge all sides to step back from conflict to prevent further tragic loss of life.

“Our government is ensuring all preparations are in place to support British nationals should the situation deteriorate.

“I want to thank the British personnel who are deploying in the region for their commitment and professionalism.”

Healey held a meeting with fellow ministers, intelligence chiefs and diplomats on Tuesday afternoon to work through the government’s plans.

Officials say the UK already has a significant diplomatic and military presence close to Lebanon, including RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and two Royal Navy ships – RFA Mounts Bay and HMS Duncan – which have been in the eastern Mediterranean over the summer.

The Royal Air Force also has planes and helicopters on standby.

The escalating conflict in the Middle East is likely to be a significant topic of discussion for the prime minister and other world leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York.

Sir Keir arrived in the city on Tuesday evening local time.

Tensions have been growing across the Middle East since Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on 7 October last year, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others as hostages.

Previously sporadic fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated on 8 October – the day after Hamas’s unprecedented attack. Hezbollah fired at Israeli positions, in solidarity with Hamas.

Hezbollah has launched more than 8,000 rockets at northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. It has also fired anti-tank missiles at armoured vehicles and attacked military targets with explosive drones.

Last week Hezbollah’s communication devices started exploding all across Lebanon.

Israel then launched a massive series of air strikes on Monday that have so far killed 560 people according to the Lebanese government.

Last year, the British government helped co-ordinate the evacuation of British nationals from Gaza, with some 200 UK citizens thought to be living in the territory before the war broke out.

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 people since 7 October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Police in Switzerland made multiple arrests after a woman reportedly ended her life using a so-called suicide pod, in apparently the first case of its kind.

Police in the Schaffhausen region said they arrested “several persons” on suspicion of inciting, and aiding and abetting suicide after she died reportedly by using a pod made by the company Sarco on Monday.

While assisted dying is legally protected in some circumstances in Switzerland, it is strictly regulated and the Sarco pod has encountered opposition.

Officers recovered the device and body at the scene.

The company behind the controversial pod says it can be solely operated by the person seeking to end their own life, without medical supervision.

Police said it was used on Monday at a forest hut in the Merishausen area, a sparsely populated part of Switzerland on the German border.

Police said they were tipped off by a law firm about a suicide involving the device. The number of people arrested and their identities were not disclosed. The deceased also was not named.

• If you are experiencing any of the issues mentioned in this story you can visit BBC Action Line for a list of websites and helplines that can offer direct help at any time.

In July, a pro-assisted dying group, which promotes the Sarco device, said it anticipated that it would be used for the first time this year.

Advocates say it provides an option not reliant on drugs or doctors, and that it expands access to euthanasia as the portable device can be 3D-printed and assembled at home.

However, there also has been opposition in Switzerland, despite the country having some of the world’s most protective laws surrounding assisted dying.

Critics fear the device’s modern design glamorises suicide and the fact that it can be operated without medical oversight is concerning.

Assisted dying is illegal in the UK and in most other European countries, but thousands have travelled to Switzerland over the years to end their own lives.

As Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky prepares to reveal a “Victory plan” to President Joe Biden on Thursday, Kyiv is looking to the US leader for a strong show of support before he leaves the White House.

A senior official in Kyiv said they wanted him to “make history” in his final months in office.

While details of the Ukrainian plan have been kept under wraps, the strategy is likely to contain pleas for further military and financial support, plus future security guarantees.

Zelensky says it is designed to be a “bridge” towards stopping the war, which he believes could end sooner than people think.

If the West strengthens Ukraine’s position, he believes Russia’s Vladimir Putin could be pushed into a diplomatic peace.

Ever sharp at public relations, Ukraine’s president is also aiming to take on critics in the US who have questioned the wisdom of pouring further money into Ukraine’s cause – by promoting an apparent blueprint for eventual peace.

Zelensky is throwing a huge diplomatic effort behind his victory plan.

He is almost camped out at the United Nations. He spoke on Monday at a debate about how the UN should be reformed. He addressed the Security Council on Tuesday. And he is giving a speech to the General Assembly on Wednesday.

In between, he is meeting world leaders and US politicians. He visited an ammunition factory in Scranton, Joe Biden’s hometown in Pennsylvania, one that is making shells for Ukrainian artillery batteries.

And he is explicit that he considers time is short. In one of his many media interviews, Zelensky told the New Yorker that the victory plan had to be agreed – and Ukraine strengthened – in October, November and December.

“This plan is designed, first and foremost, with Biden’s support in mind,” he told the magazine. That support is by no means guaranteed but Zelensky is staking much on securing it.

That is because the situation will change significantly if Donald Trump were to win the election. At a campaign rally on Monday, the former president mocked Zelensky as “the greatest salesman in history” because “every time he comes into this country, he walks away with $60bn”.

Trump restated his position that he would urge Russia and Ukraine to agree a deal to end the war, one that Kyiv fears would force them to accept territorial losses and no guarantee against further Russian aggression.

It is the fear of such a scenario that is pushing the diplomatic drive behind Zelensky’s victory plan this week. Some diplomats are sceptical the plan would succeed in nudging Russia towards a negotiating table. Much depends now on Biden’s response.

Congressional lawmakers will be handed the plan as will Trump and his presidential rival Kamala Harris.

Trump has claimed he would end the war within 24 hours, leading to fears the Republican nominee would essentially force Kyiv into making territorial concessions against its will.

As the US elections loom, it’s a crucial moment for Zelensky as Moscow’s troops continue to press gains, inch by inch, in Ukraine’s east.

A top priority in the so-called victory plan will be to “hit Russia strongly”, believes one military analyst – Mykhailo Samus, director of the New Geopolitics Research Network.

Giving Kyiv the ability to destroy military infrastructure within a 300km range could seriously hamper the Kremlin’s offensive operations in the Donbas and its ability to “neutralise” Ukraine’s ongoing incursion in Russia’s Kursk region, says Mr Samus.

This would mean securing permission, so far denied, to use Western-made long-range missiles on targets deep inside Russia.

While Ukraine has successfully been deploying attack drones against Russian ammunition dumps, missiles can penetrate more heavily fortified munition sites.

The plan will also see Kyiv ask for more of these kinds of missiles, believes Olga Rudenko, editor in chief of the Kyiv Independent.

Further financial support and capitalising on Ukraine’s surprise cross-border push into Russia’s Kursk region are also expected to form core elements within the strategy.

As for Ukraine’s future security guarantees, Ukraine’s aspirations towards joining the Nato defensive military alliance clearly remain.

“Ukraine’s invitation to Nato is part of the victory plan,” confirmed Andriy Yermak, head of the presidential office.

Zelensky’s office has rejected a German report that he is considering a localised ceasefire as “fake”.

However, Czech President Petr Pavel – who has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine – said this week that part of Ukraine would probably remain “temporarily” occupied, possibly for years.

Olga Rudenko believes that, for most Ukrainians, it’s still “too sensitive and unimaginable to concede anything even temporarily to Russia” – even if that conversation is happening somewhere, privately, within government.

“It’s not that Ukrainians are greedy about the territory,” she says.

“We can’t leave our people there, under Russian control and sentence them to those horrors,” referring to persistent allegations of Russian war crimes.

That sentiment was echoed by 31-year-old Dmytro, whose face and arms were badly burned when he was hit by a Russian drone.

“We will not surrender our territories, for which so many people have been fallen,” he told the BBC in Kyiv.

“If we ended the war at this stage, what were we fighting for then? What for did all our men, our comrades die for?”

A truce, he believes, would simply give Russia time to recuperate and Zelensky has likewise warned against a “frozen” conflict.

Dmytro is already planning his return to the front line to fight alongside his comrades: “I will not retreat, I will be there until my last breath.”

Lebanon’s health minister has said what is happening in his country is “carnage”, as hospitals struggle to cope with the number of casualties from two days of widespread Israeli air strikes targeting the armed group Hezbollah.

Dr Firass Abiad told the BBC it was “clear” that many of the 550 people killed in Monday’s attacks were civilians, including children and women.

Israel said it hit hundreds of Hezbollah sites, accusing the group of hiding weapons in residential areas.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military killed the head of Hezbollah’s rocket forces as the strikes continued, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the group was leading Lebanon “to the edge of the abyss”.

Hezbollah responded by firing more than 300 rockets into northern Israel, injuring six people, according to the military.

Although neither side seemed interested in backing down, US President Joe Biden told the UN General Assembly that a full-scale conflict was “not in anyone’s interest” and insisted that a “diplomatic solution is still possible”.

UN Secretary General António Guterres warned that the world “cannot afford Lebanon to become another Gaza”.

Nearly a year of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah sparked by the war in Gaza has killed hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah fighters, and displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the frontier.

Hezbollah has said it is acting in support of Hamas and will not stop until there is a ceasefire in Gaza. Both groups are backed by Iran and proscribed as terrorist organisations by Israel, the UK and other countries.

Monday’s Israeli air strikes across southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley had resulted in the deadliest day in the country since at least 2006 – the last time Hezbollah and Israel fought a war.

Abiad told a news conference on Tuesday that 50 children, 94 women and a number of medical workers were among the 558 people killed. More than 50 hospitals were currently treating the 1,835 other people who were wounded, he added.

Later, in an interview with the BBC, the health minister described what happened as “carnage.”

“If you look at the people who were brought to the emergency rooms it’s clear that they’re civilians. They are not the combatants that the Israelis claim they are,” he said.

“We know about the victims of the attacks because our ambulances are the ones that transferred them to hospitals,” he added. “[They were] civilians who were doing their normal things.”

When comparing the current hostilities with the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Abiad said: “Definitely we’re looking at a more cruel war, especially in the way civilians are being targeted.”

The UN Human Rights Office also expressed alarm at the number of casualties in Monday’s strikes, saying they could have violated international humanitarian law.

When asked by journalists about the audio and text messages sent by the Israeli military to people in Lebanon, telling them to evacuate areas near buildings where Hezbollah stored weapons, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said: “Telling civilians to flee doesn’t make it ok to then strike those areas, knowing full well that the impact on civilians will be huge.”

Roads in southern Lebanon were also congested for a second day, as thousands more people fled north to get away from the Israeli attacks. Journeys that would usually take an hour were lasting 12 or more.

At a shelter in Beirut, 65-year-old Maryam told the BBC that she had travelled all night with 12 relatives in one small car.

“We got together and left. We didn’t want to leave our homes, because leaving your home is difficult,” she said. “We arrived here at four in the morning. With our children. It’s because of our children that we left.”

During a visit to an intelligence base, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “continue striking Hezbollah” until it had achieved its war goal of returning displaced Israeli civilians to their homes along the northern border.

He also addressed the people of Lebanon, insisting that “our war is not with you” and warning them that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was “leading you to the edge of the abyss”.

“I told you yesterday to evacuate homes in which there is a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage. Whoever has a missile in the living room and a rocket in the garage will no longer have a home,” he said.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told an evening briefing that Hezbollah had turned southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley “into a combat zone” and that aircraft had continued to strike targets there throughout Tuesday.

He also released video footage that he said showed secondary explosions during strikes on residential buildings that indicated missiles and a truck carrying a rocket launcher had been stored inside them.

Hagari also said the head of Hezbollah’s missile and rocket unit, Ibrahim Qubaisi, had been killed in an air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday afternoon, along with at least two other commanders who were with him at the time.

Qubaisi was “a key figure in activating missiles” and was “responsible for a series of attacks on Israeli territory”, he added.

Hezbollah confirmed in a Telegram post that Qubaisi had been “martyred” in a strike.

The Lebanese health ministry said six people were killed and 15 others injured in an “Israeli enemy raid” that partly destroyed the top two floors of a block of flats in Beirut’s Ghobeiry neighbourhood.

Hezbollah said that its fighters had fired barrages of rockets towards more than a dozen Israeli towns and military bases, as well as an explosives factory. It also claimed that a new type of rocket had been used to strike the IDF’s Samson unit.

Sirens continued to sound throughout the day across northern Israel and interceptor rockets from Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system were seen streaking into the sky.

Some of the approximately 300 rockets landed, causing damage and injuring six civilians and soldiers, most of them lightly, according to Hagari.