Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against the UK’s Labour Party, accusing it of “blatant foreign interference” in the US election in aid of the Harris-Walz campaign.

The complaint cites media reports about contact between Labour and the Harris campaign as well as apparent volunteering efforts, arguing that this amounts to illegal “contributions”.

The BBC understands that Labour activists campaigning in the US presidential election are doing so in a personal capacity.

The Labour Party has not issued an official response.

Specifically, the complaint cites newspaper reporting that Labour-linked individuals have travelled to the US to campaign for Harris.

That reporting, the complaint alleges, creates a “reasonable inference that the Labour Party has made, and the Harris campaign has accepted, illegal foreign national contributions.”

• Election polls – is Harris or Trump ahead?

The letter refers to Washington Post reporting that communications were exchanged between the parties and that senior officials have met in private.

Additionally, the complaint cites a social media post on LinkedIn in which a Labour staff member said that “nearly 100” current and former party members will be headed to battleground states in the US.

The post, from Labour Party head of operations Sofia Patel, added that 10 “spots” are available and that “we will sort your housing”.

It appears to have since been deleted.

The complaint makes comparisons to an international programme in 2016 in which the Australian Labor Party, or ALP, sent delegates to help with Bernie Sanders’ campaign.

In that instance, however, the ALP paid for flights and daily stipends. The party and the campaign were each handed down civil penalties of $14,500.

Labour activists’ trips were not organised or funded by the party, it is understood from party officials.

Foreign nationals are permitted to serve as campaign volunteers as long as they are not compensated, according to FEC rules.

It is considered normal for party officials from the UK to be in contact with counterparts in the US.

It also has taken place previously between the UK’s Conservative Party and US Republicans.

The BBC has contacted the Harris-Walz campaign for comment.

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A communications satellite designed and built by embattled aerospace giant Boeing has broken up in orbit.

The satellite’s operator, Intelsat, has confirmed the “total loss” of iS-33e, which has affected customers in Europe, Africa and parts of the Asia-Pacific region.

Intelsat also says it has taken steps to complete “a comprehensive analysis” of the incident.

Boeing has been facing crises on multiple fronts, with a strike at its commercial plane business and issues with its Starliner spacecraft.

“We are coordinating with the satellite manufacturer, Boeing, and government agencies to analyse data and observations,” Intelsat said.

Boeing did not comment directly on the incident, referring BBC News to Intelsat’s statements.

The US Department of Defense’s space-tracking website, SpaceTrack, also confirmed the incident.

An alert on the platform said the US Space Forces also said it is “currently tracking around 20 associated pieces” of the satellite.

Separately, two astronauts have been stranded at the International Space Station (ISS) after the Boeing Starliner capsule they arrived on in June was deemed unfit to make the return flight.

They are due to travel back to Earth on a spacecraft made by Elon Musk’s SpaceX next year.

Since last month, Boeing has also been dealing with a strike involving more than 30,000 workers at its commercial plane making operation.

Union members are set to vote on the company’s latest offer on Wednesday.

The new offer includes a 35% pay rise over the next four years.

Last week, Boeing announced it was seeking up to $35bn (£27bn) in new funding. It also said it would start laying off 17,000 employees – about 10% of its workforce – from November.

In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a criminal fraud conspiracy charge and to pay at least $243.6m after breaching a 2021 deferred prosecution deal.

The agreement was in relation to two 737-MAX planes that were lost in nearly-identical accidents that cost 346 lives more than five years ago.

Thousands of people were out on the streets of Sydney on Tuesday, eager to see King Charles and Queen Camilla, set against the iconic Opera House in the late afternoon sunlight.

For Buckingham Palace, this was the ideal ending to the royal tour of Australia.

The optics were positive. Despite a headline-grabbing protest in Canberra on Monday, the public mood on the ground in Sydney was supportive.

But getting to this point – with a successful completion of this trip ahead of a poignant goodbye – will have come as a huge relief to royal aides.

Back in February, this tour looked unlikely to happen with the King diagnosed with cancer and having treatment.

But it stayed in the diary with modifications on the advice of doctors.

The duration of this visit has been shorter and the engagements have been arranged to avoid early starts and late finishes.

Even with the alterations, it has still been a busy schedule for the King and Queen.

On Tuesday alone the royal couple between them visited a National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, a food bank, a social housing project, a literacy initiative, a community barbecue, meeting two leading cancer researchers, celebrating the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary, and a naval review in Sydney Harbour.

An Australian arm of the King’s Foundation was officially launched, expanding a charity which promotes sustainability and provides training in traditional craft skills.

These trips are a quickfire round of very diverse events, with the crowds at each demanding attention – and the King appears to have coped well.

His health challenges haven’t shown and he has appeared moved by the response he’s had from the public on his first visit here as monarch.

The protest at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday was uncomfortable but not unexpected.

The King has encountered many protesters over the years and came to Australia knowing that republican sentiment and campaigns in support of Indigenous communities were likely to come up.

His presence here in Australia immediately focuses minds on the King’s role as head of state and re-opens questions about whether that is right for modern Australia.

Although republican sentiment bubbles under the surface here, except for the heckling in Parliament it has not burst through in any significant way on this trip.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who supports a republic, has been at the King and Queen’s side for several engagements and spoken warmly about his royal guests.

Before the disruption at Parliament, the prime minister formally welcomed the King to Canberra.

“You have shown great respect for Australians, even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the crown. Nothing stands still,” said Albanese.

At about 06:45 on 28 March, police arrived at Andrey Perlov’s house near Novosibirsk in Siberia.

They accused him of stealing about three million roubles ($32,000; £24,000) from a Novosibirsk football club where he was the managing director – he and his family deny this.

Perlov, who is 62, is an Olympic gold medallist, having won the 50km race walk in 1992.

He has been detained for more than six months and his family says he is being pressured to agree to fight in Ukraine. He’s been told that, in return, the embezzlement case against him would be frozen and potentially dropped when the war ends.

It’s no secret that prisoners have been recruited to fight in Ukraine, but BBC analysis can reveal how the initial focus on convicted criminals has shifted to include people yet to face trial.

The latest laws mean that both prosecution and defence lawyers are now legally obliged to inform people who are charged with most crimes that they have the option to go to war instead of court.

The legislation, passed in March 2024, means that if they sign up, the prosecution and any investigation will be stopped. Their cases will generally be closed completely at the end of the war.

“This has turned Russia’s law enforcement system upside down,” says Olga Romanova, the director of Russia Behind Bars – an NGO that provides legal assistance to detainees.

“Police can now catch a man over a corpse of someone he has just killed. They tighten the handcuffs and then the killer says: ‘Oh wait, I want to go on a special military operation,’ and they close the criminal case.”

We received a leaked recording of an investigator describing the advantages of signing a contract with the Russian army to someone whose husband had already been sentenced to three years for theft.

“He can get six more for this other crime,” he tells her. “I offered him a chance to sign an agreement. If his request is approved, he will go to war and we will close the case.”

If the accused signs, within a few days the criminal case is suspended, and they leave for the front line almost immediately.

Three lawyers working in Russia confirmed that this has become the norm across the country.

Some sign up in the hope of avoiding prison and a criminal record – but it’s not an easy way out, as teenager Yaroslav Lipavsky discovered.

He signed a contract with the army after he was accused of intentionally inflicting “serious harm to health by a group of persons by prior agreement”.

His young girlfriend had just found out she was pregnant and in order to avoid prosecution, Lipavsky signed up with the military as soon as he turned 18.

He left for Ukraine and a week later was dead – one of the youngest soldiers to die in the war.

It’s not clear how many people accused of crimes have opted to fight instead of facing trial, but this shift in policy reflects Russia’s need to reinforce troops while minimising the number of other civilians it needs to mobilise.

“Do Russians care about convicts or those who are in prison? I suspect that they don’t,” says Michael Koffman, military analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He thinks the government “likely assumes that these are people they can lose, that nobody will miss and that they will not have a substantial, negative effect on the overall economy”.

When the Wagner mercenary group first recruited prison inmates, its late leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, targeted convicts in high-security jails, saying he needed their “criminal talents” in return for pardons.

The BBC and Russian website Mediazona have seen and verified confidential documents that shed light on the process of recruiting prisoners, what has happened to many of them and the need to maintain the flow of new fighters.

We know, from analysing the dog tags of convicts who died in Ukraine and payments made to their families, that Wagner recruited nearly 50,000 inmates from penal colonies, and at one point were losing up to 200 in action every day. Many others were injured.

All prisoners’ dog tags start with the letter K, which stands for “kolonya” or prison colony.

The first three numbers identify the prison where they came from and the last three numbers identify the recruit, given out in sequence – so the higher the number, the more recruits came from that colony.

Payment records show that more than 17,000 prisoners were killed trying to capture the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine between July 2022 and June 2023 alone.

To plug the losses, Wagner, and later the Ministry of Defence, have adapted their recruitment strategies to broaden the pool of people they can draw on.

Some people accused of crimes refuse the new deal because they are against the war in principle, others because the risk of dying or being injured on the battlefield is too great, and others because they want to stay at home to fight their case.

But they can come under huge pressure from the authorities, says Andrey Perlov’s daughter Alina.

“He refused and we made quite a big noise in the local media so he was sent to the strict punishment cell, where they brought him the contract again.”

She adds that when he refused a second time, he was forbidden from seeing or calling his family.

They still hope to prove his innocence, but the last time Alina saw her father in court in mid-July, he had lost a lot of weight. “He tries to keep himself cheerful,” she says, “but if this goes on, they will break him.”

We asked the Russian authorities about Andrey Perlov’s case and whether they are unfairly pressurising detainees to join the army. They did not respond.

• Listen to the latest Ukrainecast, in wich the former head of the Army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, discusses how militaries have a long history of recruiting from prisons

The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) and his partner have been arrested and charged with running a prostitution and international sex trafficking business.

Authorities arrested former fashion executive Mike Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith and the couple’s alleged middleman – James Jacobson – on Tuesday morning.

Federal prosecutors said the men used force, fraud and coercion to engage in “violent and exploitive” sexual acts.

Mr Jeffries and his partner have previously denied any wrongdoing via their lawyers, and Mr Jeffries’ lawyer told the BBC on Tuesday that they would “respond in detail to the allegations after the Indictment is unsealed”.

A lawyer for Mr Smith has been approached for new comment. A&F declined to comment on the latest developments.

The FBI opened an investigation last year after the BBC revealed claims that Mike Jeffries and his partner sexually exploited and abused men at events they hosted in their New York residences and hotels around the world.

The BBC investigation found that there was a sophisticated operation involving a middleman and a network of recruiters tasked with finding men for these events.

On Tuesday, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, alleged that Mr Jeffries used his wealth, power and status as CEO of A&F “to traffic men for his own sexual pleasure” and for the pleasure of his partner, Mr Smith.

Outlining prosecutors’ accusations, Mr Peace alleged the couple employed Mr Jacobson as their recruiter who would conduct “tryouts” with men from across the globe by engaging them in sex acts in exchange for money.

Once Mr Jeffries approved of the men, they would be flown to his New York home where they were “pressured to consume alcohol, Viagra, and muscle relaxants”, Mr Peace claimed.

Prosecutors further alleged that Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith directed others or personally “injected men with an erection inducing substance” when they were incapable or unwilling to participate.

The ex-CEO “spent millions of dollars on a massive infrastucture to support this operation and maintain its secrecy”, prosecutors said, which included international travel, hotel stays, paid staff and security for the events.

Prosecutors said there were 15 victims mentioned in the indictment but alleged that the operation “encompassed dozens and dozens of men”.

After a court appearance on Tuesday, Mr Jeffries was released on a $10m (£7.7m) bond, while Mr Jacobson was released on a $500,000 bond. They are next due in court on Friday.

Mr Smith was ordered detained.

Mr Peace, the federal prosecutor, confirmed at a press conference on Tuesday that authorities were initially tipped off by media reports.

Following the BBC’s reporting, a civil lawsuit was also filed in New York accusing Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith of sex-trafficking, rape and sexual assault.

The lawsuit also accused Abercrombie & Fitch of having funded a sex-trafficking operation led by its former CEO over the two decades he was in charge.

Earlier on Tuesday, Brad Edwards of Edwards Henderson, a civil lawyer representing some of the alleged victims, said: “These arrests are a huge first step towards obtaining justice for the many victims who were exploited and abused through this sex-trafficking scheme that operated for many years under the legitimate cover Abercrombie provided.

“The unprecedented reporting of the BBC, coupled with the lawsuit our firm filed detailing the operation, are to credit for these monumental arrests. This was the result of impressive investigative journalism.”

In its initial investigation, the BBC spoke to 12 men who described attending or organising events involving sex acts run for Mr Jeffries, 80, and his British partner Mr Smith, 61, between 2009 and 2015.

The eight men who attended the events said they were recruited by a middleman who the BBC identified as James Jacobson.

Then, more men came forward last month. Some alleged Mr Jeffries’ assistants had injected them in the penis with what they were told was liquid Viagra.

Mr Jacobson, 71, previously told the BBC in a statement through his lawyer that he took offence at the suggestion of “any coercive, deceptive or forceful behaviour on my part” and had “no knowledge of any such conduct by others”.

The BBC also interviewed dozens of other sources, including former household staff.

Some of the men the BBC spoke to said they were misled about the nature of the events or not told sex was involved. Others said they understood the events would be sexual, but not exactly what was expected of them. All were paid.

Several told the BBC the middleman or other recruiters raised the possibility of modelling opportunities with A&F.

David Bradberry, then 23 and an aspiring model, said that it was “made clear” to him that without performing oral sex on Mr Jacobson, he would not be meeting A&F CEO Mr Jeffries.

“It was like he was selling fame. And the price was compliance,” Mr Bradberry told the BBC.

Mr Bradberry said he later attended a party at Mr Jeffries’s mansion in the Hamptons in Long Island where he met Mr Jeffries and had sex with him.

He said the “secluded” location and presence of Mr Jeffries’ personal staff, dressed in A&F uniforms, supervising events meant he “didn’t feel safe to say ‘no’ or ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this'”.

After the BBC’s initial investigation was published last year, A&F announced it was opening an independent investigation into the allegations raised. When we recently asked when this report will be completed – and if the findings would be made public – the company declined to answer.

Like Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith, the brand has been trying to get the civil lawsuit against it dismissed, arguing it had no knowledge of “the supposed sex-trafficking venture” led by its former CEO – which it has been accused of having funded.

Earlier this year, a US court ruled that A&F must cover the cost of Mike Jeffries’ legal defence as he continues to fight the civil allegations of sex-trafficking and rape. The judge ruled the allegations were tied to his corporate role after he sued the brand for refusing to pay his legal fees.

The brand said it did not comment on legal matters. However, in its defence submitted to court, A&F said its current leadership team was “previously unaware of” the allegations until the BBC contacted it, adding the company “abhors sexual abuse and condemns the alleged conduct” by Mr Jeffries and others.

In 2014, Mr Jeffries stepped down as CEO following declining sales and left with a retirement package valued at around $25m (£20.5m), according to company filings at the time.

Once one of America’s highest-paid CEOs, he was a controversial figure who faced claims of discrimination against staff, concerns about his lavish expenses and complaints about the unofficial influence of his life partner, Matthew Smith, inside A&F.

World Of Secrets – The Abercrombie Guys

Hear two new episodes on BBC Sounds or here if you are outside the UK

The son of modern Singapore’s founder has gained asylum in the UK following claims of persecution amid a high-profile family feud.

Lee Hsien Yang has long alleged he faces oppression back home from the Singapore government that was led for 20 years by his brother, Lee Hsien Loong.

The government denies these claims and says he is free to return.

Both men are sons of the revered leader Lee Kuan Yew who died in 2015. Since then the brothers have been locked in a years-long dispute over their father’s house, which has spiralled into a vicious public family battle.

Lee Hsien Yang showed the BBC some documents including a letter stating his claim for asylum was successful. The letter also stated the UK government had given him “refugee status” for five years as it accepted he had the “well-founded fear of persecution and therefore cannot return to your country Singapore”.

Mr Lee, who lives in London, said his wife had also been granted asylum.

A Home Office spokesman said it is “longstanding government policy that we do not comment on individual cases”.

The BBC has independently confirmed Mr Lee’s asylum status but not other details.

“Everything the Singapore government has said is fully public and must surely have been taken into account when the refugee status was granted,” Mr Lee said.

“I sought asylum protection as a last resort. I remain a Singapore citizen and hope that some day it will become safe to return home.”

As a member of what has been seen as Singapore’s “first family”, and the former chief of Singapore’s largest telecommunications company, Mr Lee was very much a part of the country’s establishment until he fell out with his brother.

Since then he has joined an opposition political party and become a vocal critic of the Singapore government, roles which he has “every intention” of continuing while based in the UK, he said.

Lee Hsien Yang and his wife, as well as one of their sons, have lived abroad for several years in self-imposed exile. They have been subject to investigations and legal action brought on by the government which they say is part of a pattern of persecution.

Along with his late sister Lee Wei Ling, Mr Lee has long accused their brother Lee Hsien Loong of capitalising on their father’s legacy to build a political dynasty.

They have also alleged their brother abused his power during his time as prime minister, and said they feared he was using the “organs of the state” against them.

Lee Hsien Loong stepped down as PM earlier this year and remains in cabinet as a senior minister. He and the Singapore government have strenuously denied such claims.

On Tuesday the government released a statement saying allegations that Lee Hsien Yang and his family are victims of persecution were “without basis” and that they face “no legal restraints”.

“They are and have always been free to return to Singapore,” the statement added.

Lee Hsien Loong’s press secretary said he had no comment.

The Lees’ years-long dispute over their family home began with the death of Lee Kuan Yew, the country’s first prime minister and widely considered the architect of modern Singapore.

It centres on 38 Oxley Road, a small and nondescript house sitting on a quiet street in Singapore’s downtown that is estimated to be worth tens of millions of Singapore dollars.

The statesman, who was famously averse to the idea of a cult of personality built around him, had stated in his will that he wanted his house to be demolished either after his death or after his daughter moved out of the home.

Lee Hsien Loong, who was prime minister at the time, said the house would be preserved for the time being, while his siblings insisted it should be knocked down immediately in accordance to their father’s wishes.

Following his sister’s death earlier this month from a brain disease, Lee Hsien Yang has now applied for the demolition of the house and, in its place, the construction of a “small private dwelling” that would be owned by the Lee family.

The race between two of the world’s richest men, Elon Musk and Mukesh Ambani, is intensifying as they prepare to face off in India’s satellite broadband market.

After India’s government announced last week that satellite spectrum for broadband would be allocated administratively rather than through auction, this battle has only heated up.

Mr Musk had previously criticised the auction model supported by Mr Ambani.

Satellite broadband provides internet access anywhere within the satellite’s coverage.

This makes it a reliable option for remote or rural areas where traditional services like DSL – a connection that uses telephone lines to transmit data – or cable are unavailable. It also helps to bridge the hard-to-reach digital divide.

India’s telecom regulator has yet to announce spectrum pricing, and commercial satellite internet services are still to begin.

However, satellite internet subscribers in India are projected to reach two million by 2025, according to credit rating agency ICRA.

The market is competitive, with around half a dozen key players, led by Mr Ambani’s Reliance Jio.

Having invested billions in airwave auctions to dominate the telecom sector, Jio has now partnered with Luxembourg-based SES Astra, a leading satellite operator.

Unlike Mr Musk’s Starlink, which uses low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites positioned between 160 and 1,000 km from Earth’s surface for faster service, SES operates medium-Earth orbit (MEO) satellites at a much higher altitude, offering a more cost-effective system.

Receivers on the ground receive satellite signals and process it to internet data.

Mr Musk’s Starlink has 6,419 satellites in orbit and four million subscribers across 100 countries. He has been aiming to launch services in India since 2021, but regulatory hurdles have caused delays.

If his company enters India this time, it will boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to attract foreign investment, many say.

It will also help his government’s efforts to burnish its image as pro-business, countering claims that its policies favour top Indian businessmen like Mr Ambani.

While auctions have proved lucrative for it in the past, India’s government defends its decision to allocate satellite spectrum administratively this time, claiming it aligns with international norms.

Satellite spectrum is not typically allocated by auction as the costs involved could impact the financial rationale or investment in the business, says Gareth Owen, a technology analyst at Counterpoint Research. In contrast, administrative allocation would ensure spectrum is fairly distributed among “qualified” players, giving Starlink a chance to enter the race.

But Mr Ambani’s Reliance says an auction is necessary to ensure fair competition, given the lack of clear legal provisions in India on how satellite broadband services can be offered directly to people.

In letters written to the telecoms regulator earlier in October, seen by the BBC, Reliance repeatedly urged the creation of a “level playing field between satellite-based and terrestrial access services”.

The firm also said that “recent advancements in satellite technologies… have significantly blurred the lines between satellite and terrestrial networks”, and that “satellite-based services are no longer confined to areas unserved by terrestrial networks”. One letter stated that spectrum assignment is done through auctions under India’s telecom laws, with administrative allocation allowed only in cases of “public interest, government functions, or technical or economic reasons preventing auctions.”

On X, Mr Musk pointed out that the spectrum “was long designated by the ITU as shared spectrum for satellites”. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency for digital technology, sets global regulations, and India is a member and signatory.

When Reuters news agency reported that Mukesh Ambani was lobbying the government to reconsider its position, Mr Musk responded to a post on X, saying: “I will call [Mr Ambani] and ask if it would not be too much trouble to allow Starlink to compete to provide internet services to the people of India.”

Mr Ambani’s resistance to the administrative pricing method might stem from a strategic advantage, suggests Mr Owen. The tycoon could be “prepared to outbid Musk”, using an auction to potentially exclude Starlink from the Indian market, he says.

But it is not Mr Ambani alone who supported the auction route.

Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, has said that companies aiming to serve urban, high-end customers should “take telecom licences and buy spectrum like everyone else”.

Mr Mittal – India’s second-largest wireless operator – along with Mr Ambani, controls 80% of the country’s telecom market.

Such resistance is a “defensive move aimed at raising costs for international players seen as long-term threats,” says Mahesh Uppal, a telecommunications expert.

“While not immediate competition, satellite technologies are advancing quickly. Telecom companies [in India] with large terrestrial businesses fear that satellites could soon become more competitive, challenging their dominance.”

At stake, clearly, is the promise of the vast Indian market. Nearly 40% of India’s 1.4 billion people still don’t have internet access, with rural areas making up most of the cases, according to EY-Parthenon, a consulting company.

For context, China is home to almost 1.09 billion internet users, which is almost 340 million more than India’s 751 million, according to DataReportal, which tracks global online trends.

India’s internet adoption rate still lags behind the global average of 66.2% but recent studies show that the country is closing the gap.

If priced properly, satellite broadband can help bridge some of this gap, and even help in the internet-of things (IoT), a network that connects everyday objects to the internet, allowing them to talk to each other.

Pricing will be crucial in India, where mobile data is among the cheapest globally – just 12 cents per gigabyte, according to Modi.

“A price war [with Indian operators] is inevitable. Musk has deep pockets. There’s no reason why he cannot offer a year of free services in [some] places to gain a foothold in the domestic market,” says Prasanto K Roy, a technology analyst.

Starlink has already cut prices in Kenya and South Africa.

It may not be easy though. In a 2023 report, EY-Parthenon noted that Starlink’s higher costs – almost 10 times those of major Indian broadband providers – could make it difficult to compete without government subsidies.

Many more LEO satellites – the kind Starlink operates – are needed to provide global coverage than MEO satellites, increasing launch and maintenance costs.

And some of the fears of Indian operators could be unfounded.

“Businesses will never switch completely to satellite unless there is no terrestrial option. Terrestrial networks will always be less expensive than satellite, except in thinly populated regions,” says Mr Owen.

Mr Musk could have a first-mover advantage, but “satellite markets are notoriously slow to develop”.

The battle between two of the world’s richest men over internet of space has truly begun.

A young woman spent hours trapped upside down after slipping between two boulders as she tried to retrieve her mobile phone during a hike in Australia.

The woman – named in reports as Matilda Campbell – was walking in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley region earlier this month when she fell into the three-metre crevice.

It was the start of a seven-hour ordeal which would see emergency services undertake a “challenging” rescue – including moving several boulders.

And even after managing to winch a 500kg (1,100lb) rock out the way, they still had to work out how to get the woman out of the “S” bend she had found herself in.

“In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic I had never encountered a job quite like this, it was challenging but incredibly rewarding,” Peter Watts, a paramedic with New South Wales Ambulance service, said, according to a release on the service’s social media pages.

She had already been upside down for more than an hour before rescuers arrived, her friends’ initial attempts to free her having been unsuccessful.

Photos shared by the ambulance service show her hanging between the boulders by her feet, as well as the complicated efforts to keep the area stable as emergency services tried to create a gap big enough to free her.

Mr Watts later described the young woman as a “trooper” in an interview with Australia’s ABC.

“We were all like, how did you get down there – and how are we going to get her out?”

Unbelievably, the rescued woman was left with just minor scratches and bruises, NSW Ambulance said.

She did not, however, manage to retrieve her phone.

“Thank you to the team who saved me you guys are literally life savers,” she wrote in a message online.

“Too bad about the phone tho.”

Anthony Blinken has told Israeli leaders that “much more needs to be done” to get humanitarian aid to civilians in besieged northern Gaza, raising possible consequences in US law if action isn’t taken, a senior Biden administration official says.

On Tuesday, the US secretary of state met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and senior military officials in a series of meetings in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The meetings are part of a regional tour that Washington sees as a chance to revive diplomacy after Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza last week.

The account of Blinken’s face-to-face message to the Israelis comes despite mounting criticism that the US has failed to stem the rate at which civilians have been killed in Gaza because it has been unwilling to use its supplying of weapons to Israel as leverage.

Washington has consistently rejected the criticism.

The official said Blinken also pressed the Israeli leadership over reports that its military has been implementing a so-called “generals’ plan” in northern Gaza – a tactic described as using mass forced displacement of civilians and a surrender-or-starve tactic against all who remain.

• Israeli attack on northern Gaza hints at retired general’s ‘surrender or starve’ plan for war

The official said the Israelis told them the tactic was “absolutely not” their policy, to which the Americans responded that their Israeli counterparts then needed to make this clearer publicly.

Israel has said its offensive in northern Gaza is to rout a Hamas resurgence.

Blinken’s apparent warning on humanitarian aid followed his letter last week, co-signed by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, which gave the Israeli government 30 days to surge aid into the northern Gaza Strip or risk having some military assistance cut off.

“There was extended conversation about this,” the senior State Department official said.

They added: “The steps that have [been] taken thus far have not been sufficient and we made that clear today, that we do need to see more.”

“We have seen some initial progress. We heard more from Minister Gallant in detail about… steps that he is overseeing to be responsive to it, but… both with the prime minister, Minister Dermer and with Minister Gallant, this was a central part of the discussion,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Aid groups have warned that civilians in northern Gaza risk starvation amid Israel’s military siege.

Israel says its offensive there is focused on Hamas fighters, while the US has warned it not to try to forcibly displace residents to the south of Gaza, where 1.7 million civilians are crammed into a dangerously overcrowded area at “lethal risk” of disease.

Pressed on whether Blinken warned the Israelis verbally about repercussions if Israel didn’t heed its demands, the official said Blinken “made clear it has implications under our law and policy, [and] what those actions need to be”.

A statement issued by Netanyahu’s office after the meeting made no mention of humanitarian assistance. It stressed the “Iranian threat” against Israel and the need for the US and Israel to “unite” against it.

The statement also said Blinken had expressed America’s “deep shock” over what Israel says was an Iranian assassination attempt against Netanyahu via a Hezbollah drone strike on his private residence at the weekend.

It said Blinken had characterised the event as “an exceptionally extreme incident”.

Asked whether this account was accurate, the US official said Blinken “expressed concern that it was a very serious incident… ‘Exceptional and extreme’ is not language that he would typically use.”

The official added the US had no assessment either way over the claim of Iranian involvement.

The discrepancy in the characterisation of their conversation comes with Israel poised to carry out a retaliatory strike against Iran for its 1 October ballistic missile attack on Israel. That had followed Israel’s recent assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The US is attempting to get Israel to dial down the scale of its response for fear of further regional escalation.

The US official also said Blinken discussed the war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon as part of a “diplomatic push” the Americans are making to de-escalate the fighting, but didn’t provide any update on whether this had made progress.

Mohammed Sukayneh picked his way through slabs of rubble and twisted metal, clutching a few plastic bags – all he could recover from his home of 45 years.

It was brought down on top of him and his family last night by an Israeli airstrike, that killed at 18 people, four of them children, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The attack happened without warning in a place where people thought they would be safe – about 150 metres from the entrance to Lebanon’s largest public hospital, the Rafik Hariri hospital in southern Beirut.

Mohammed and his family were asleep in their beds.

“We didn’t recognise what is happening,” he said.

“After the strike we hear the sound like ‘boom, boom, boom, boom’ like this. And everything is thrown on us. Stones, metal, steel, fresh blood, fresh meat on us. You couldn’t speak, you couldn’t breathe, you couldn’t take your oxygen.”

He names five neighbours who are still under the rubble of their home. And there were others, killed in an instant, in their own neighbourhood – including two 19-year-old girls who were sitting outside his door.

Mohammed, 54, survived with a grazed arm, but his 20-year-old nephew is now in intensive care. “Half of his brain is crushed,” he said.

• Lebanon says 18 killed in Israeli strike near southern Beirut hospital
• Biden ‘deeply concerned’ about apparent leak of Israel plan to attack Iran

A civil defence worker at the scene told us six residential buildings had been brought down, most of them three or four stories high.

A veiled woman sat on the ground, with her hands on her head, rocking back and forth in distress. “There are no Hezbollah here,” she said, “we are all civilians”.

A neighbour said, “everyone flew through the air”.

Minutes later more remains were recovered from the rubble and carried away in a black body bag.

I asked Mohammed what he thought Israel could have been targeting, in this heavily populated area.

“They are hitting everything randomly,” he replied, his voice strengthened by anger.

“Without seeing there is children. Where are the guns here? Where are the rockets here? Blind, Israeli enemies. Blind.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it struck a “Hezbollah terrorist target near the hospital” without providing any information about what the target was. It says the hospital itself was not targeted or hit.

Rafik Hariri hospital director Jihad Saadeh said it was struck by shrapnel but is functioning normally and will not be evacuated.

Not so for the Al Sahel private hospital, about 2km away, which was emptied out last night.

“We evacuated instantly, like crazy,” says Dr Mazen Alameh, the general manager.

“We cannot risk anyone’s lives. We cannot take it as granted that they (Israel) will not bomb.”

The hurried evacuation of 10 patients and 50 staff came after a public claim by the Israeli military that the hospital was sitting on top of a Hezbollah bunker, full of riches.

The IDF gave no proof but produced a 3D animation, claiming to show a bunker beneath the building. “There are hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold inside the bunker, right now,” said the IDF spokesman Rear Adm Daniel Hagari.

It sounded like an invitation to a heist.

At the hospital today management and doctors gathered to deny “Israel’s false allegation” and give us a tour, including the two floors below ground. The hospital is in the southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, but staff insist strongly that it is not linked with any group.

“It’s really shocking to say that Sahel Hospital is affiliated with any party in Lebanon,” says Dr Alameh. “It’s a private hospital. It’s a teaching hospital for doctors, physicians and other medical students.”

He dismissed Israel’s claim of a hidden bunker. “The hospital was founded 40 years ago on an old house,” he said.

“It’s impossible to have any tunnel or infrastructure underneath. Any person in the world can come here and see everything they want.”

We were encouraged to check in every corner. Nowhere was off limits, not even the morgue. Bundles of surgical scrubs, and packets of surgical instruments were opened to show there was nothing concealed.

After the tour, we were allowed to move around freely. We saw empty wards and anxious staff, but no hint of a bunker.

Israel claimed the entrance was in a neighbouring building. We went there too and had free access to the parking lot underneath. If there was an entrance to a secret bunker, we did not find it.

The only door we saw led to a lift, which we could not open. But that door was not concealed, and seemed an unlikely access point to a hidden chamber full of gold.

As we left the hospital as an Israeli drone circled overhead in the sunshine. Israel says its air force is “monitoring the compound but it will not strike the hospital itself.”

For now, Al Sahel remains closed, but doctors want to get back to treating the sick.

“We are an institution helping people,” said Dr Walid Alameh, the medical director, and a cousin of Dr Mazen.

“The founder of this hospital is my father,” he said, becoming emotional. “This is my home. Hopefully tomorrow we will open.”

But Israel is imposing its own wartime schedule here.

This afternoon it bombed Beirut again, a short drive from the hospital, and on Hezbollah’s doorstep.

A spokesman for the armed group had called a rare press conference.

As it was underway, the IDF issued a warning, telling residents of two nearby buildings to leave as they were “located near Hezbollah facilities.”

Half an hour later two more multi story buildings vanished from the skyline in seconds, reduced to dark clouds of smoke and ash.

In homes, and in hospitals here, many are stricken by fear.

Police have raided a pizzeria in western Germany which they alleged served customers a side of cocaine when they ordered item number 40 on the menu.

Authorities were tipped off about the scheme in March by food inspectors, and drug squad officers began watching the restaurant, criminal director Michael Graf von Moltke said on Monday.

When police went to detain the pizzeria manager at his apartment, the 36-year-old reportedly threw a bag of drugs out of the window, which “fell right into the arms of the police officers”, Düsseldorf police said.

Police found 1.6kg (3.5lb) of cocaine, 400g (14.1oz) of cannabis and €268,000 (£223,120) in cash in the apartment.

The restaurant manager was released by police a few days later, and he reopened his restaurant and continued to sell the drug and pizza combination.

Investigators used the opportunity to explore the drug supply chain to the pizzeria, leading them to bust a drug ring in western Germany weeks later.

Around 150 officers raided two cannabis plantations – one in Mönchengladbach, to the west of Düsseldorf where 300 plants were found, and another in Solingen, to the east of the city, where 60 plants were found.

The homes and businesses of 12 suspects were also raided, resulting in the arrests of three people, including a 22-year-old suspected of being the head of the drug operation.

Police also found weapons, money and expensive watches during the raids.

The pizzeria manager was rearrested while trying to leave the country and remains in custody.

“The number 40 was one of the best-selling pizzas,” Mr Moltke said.

Police have not released the name of others involved in the drug operation, or the price of the pizza and cocaine combination.

Mexican police have arrested a man accused of murdering a Roman Catholic priest and human rights campaigner in the southern state of Chiapas.

Father Marcelo Pérez was killed on Sunday after celebrating Mass at his church in the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas.

Witnesses say the shots came from two men who approached the church on a motorbike.

The authorities identified the alleged murderer as Edgar N, a local drug dealer.

Father Marcelo had campaigned tirelessly against drug trafficking in Chiapas, which has seen a surge in violence in recent years linked to turf wars between rival cartels.

Mexico’s bishops’ conference said the murder had silenced a “prophetic voice” who had worked tirelessly for peace and justice.

According to the Chiapas public prosecutor’s office, his suspected killer had been identified using security camera footage, witness testimony and other leads, AFP news agency reports.

Father Marcelo had been killed by two men on a motorcycle, who opened fire on his vehicle.

The incident happened early on Sunday as Father Marcelo was returning to his parish after saying Mass in the Cuxtitali neighbourhood of San Cristóbal de Las Casas.

He had been transferred to the city after receiving death threats in the rural parish where he had previously worked.

The priest had tried to negotiate an end to the violence caused by clashes between a criminal gang and a vigilante group.

In an interview last month, he had described the southern state of Chiapas as a “time bomb”.

“There are many [people who have] disappeared, many who have been kidnapped, many who have been murdered because of the presence of organised crime here,” he said as he was leading a protest march that he described as a “pilgrimage”.

Hundreds of mourners attended his funeral on Tuesday in his home town, San Andrés Larráinzar, chanting “Long live Father Marcelo, priest of the poor”, AFP reports.

Chiapas has seen a spike in violence over the past year, with the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel fighting for control of the area.

The criminal groups exploit migrants who cross the southern state on their way north to Mexico’s border with the United States.

Communities in the region have been hard hit by the violence, sometimes having to hide in their homes for days as shots ring out outside.

But the targeted murder of an outspoken human rights advocate is seen as a dangerous escalation of the violence that has been plaguing the community for months.

The Israeli military say they killed the cleric tipped to succeed the late Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an air strike nearly three weeks ago.

Hashem Safieddine died in air strikes on the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Hezbollah, a powerful Lebanese Shia Muslim organisation fighting Israel, has not confirmed Safieddine’s death.

Its previous leader, Nasrallah, was killed by an Israeli air strike on Beirut on 27 September.

After air strikes near the city’s airport on 4 October, Hezbollah officials said they had lost contact with Safieddine, while US media cited Israeli officials as saying the cleric had been the target of the bombing.

Huge blasts shook the city that night, leaving plumes of smoke that could still be seen into the morning.

On Tuesday, the IDF issued a statement saying Safieddine had been killed along with Ali Hussein Hazima, described as commander of Hezbollah’s Intelligence Headquarters, in a strike on the organisation’s main intelligence headquarters in Beirut.

It accused Safieddine of directing “terrorist attacks against the State of Israel” for years, as well as taking part in Hezbollah’s “central decision-making processes”.

Hezbollah is a military, political and social organisation that wields considerable power in Lebanon. It is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel as well as the US, the UK and other countries.

Safieddine himself was designated a “global terrorist” by the US and Saudi Arabia in 2017.

A cousin of Nasrallah, he took religious studies in Iran and his son was married to a daughter of Gen Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s most powerful military commander, who was killed in a 2020 US air strike in Iraq.

He is believed to have been aged about 60 at the time of his reported death.

In a speech given in Beirut this summer, Safieddine described how Hezbollah viewed its leadership succession.

“In our resistance, when any leader is martyred, another takes up the flag and goes on with new, certain, strong determination,” he was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

Israel went on the offensive against Hezbollah after almost a year of cross-border hostilities sparked by the war in Gaza, saying it wanted to ensure the safe return of residents of border areas displaced by Hezbollah rocket, missile and drone attacks.

Over the past year, at least 2,464 Lebanese people have been killed and nearly 12,000 injured, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.

Hezbollah has attacked Israel with thousands of rockets and drones over the same period, and at least 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, Reuters news agency reports.

Palestinians who fled from the Israeli ground offensive on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza have given harrowing accounts of the situation there.

One man told the BBC that he saw streets strewn with bodies after being ordered to leave a shelter by Israeli forces, while a woman said some people left in such panic that they left their children behind.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees called for a temporary truce to enable safe passage for families still wishing to flee, while two local hospitals warned that they were running out of supplies.

The Israeli military said its troops were continuing operations against Hamas fighters while enabling the secure evacuation of civilians.

More than 400 people are reported to have been killed and tens of thousands have been displaced since the military said it was launching a third offensive in the Jabalia area on 6 October, saying it was rooting out Hamas fighters who had regrouped there.

It came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to Israel to try to revive the stalled diplomatic process for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal in the wake of last week’s killing by Israeli troops of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

After meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he told reporters that he wanted “to make sure that this is a moment of opportunity to move forward”.

Mr Blinken also emphasized the need for Israel to take additional steps to increase and sustain the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today programme interviewed several displaced people who had recently fled Jabalia camp and sought refuge in the nearby Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City.

A man called Saleh said he had “endured a siege for 16 days” while sheltering with his family at Abu Hussein Primary School for Boys.

Medics and rescue workers said more than 20 people were killed in an Israeli air strike there last week. The Israeli military named on Tuesday 18 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters who it said were among the dead.

“The shelling grew closer and intensified each day, with Israeli forces advancing towards us. Today, we heard bombings very near… We feared for our lives,” Saleh said.

“We received messages via [Israeli] quadcopters urging us to evacuate, so we began to move under the watch of Israeli soldiers, who demanded we go towards either the south or west of Gaza… I had my grandmother with me, she was unable to move, like many others.”

Another man, Mohammed al-Danani, said he was at the same school and that he had “witnessed the bodies of martyrs on the streets” after complying with the evacuation order.

Engy Abdel Aal said she had been in the Abu Rashid Pond area when quadcopters broadcast orders directing people to move towards the town of Beit Lahia, just north of the camp.

“The situation was incredibly difficult, no-one knew where to go. It’s tragic and catastrophic in every sense,” she said. “Some people had to flee without their children, leaving them behind in the school while they escaped with others.”

The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that it troops were “continuing combat in the Jabalia area, while enabling the secure evacuation of civilians from the combat zone”.

“As a result, thousands of civilians have been evacuated. Dozens of terrorists were arrested from among the civilians,” it said in a post on X that included a video showing crowds walking through damaged streets.

The military also said that troops “eliminated 10 terrorists that posed a threat and operated adjacent to them” in a single strike, without giving any details.

The Palestinian Red Crescent meanwhile posted a video that it said showed an ambulance transporting the bodies of five people, including children, killed by shelling in Jabalia town on Monday.

Another graphic video filmed on the same day showed paramedic Nevin al-Dawasah trying to help dead and wounded men, women and children at a tented camp next to Jabalia Preparatory School for Boys.

After fleeing the area on Tuesday, Ms Dawasah told AFP news agency that people had been complying with an evacuation order when “suddenly there was shelling”.

“We had martyrs and wounded and there was no safe passage for the ambulances to come,” she said.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the reports.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, said its staff in northern Gaza were reporting that they could not find food, water or medical care.

“The smell of death is everywhere as bodies are left lying on the roads or under the rubble,” he wrote on X. “People are just waiting to die. They feel deserted, hopeless and alone.”

Mr Lazzarini called for “an immediate truce, even if for few hours, to enable safe humanitarian passage for families who wish to leave the area and reach safer places”.

A UN spokesman said Israeli authorities were continuing to deny requests from its Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to help rescue civilians trapped under the rubble and to deliver desperately needed supplies to hospitals.

The director of the Indonesian hospital, one of the last functioning hospitals near Jabalia, told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Today programme that Israeli troops were stationed outside its gates and that there was constant gunfire in the vicinity.

“This has created an atmosphere of fear and confusion among patients and medical staff,” Dr Marwan al-Sultan said. “We are also facing a critical shortage of fuel, medical supplies, personnel, food, and water.”

“Additionally, ongoing power outages force the hospital to rely on alternative energy sources that last only eight to 10 hours. During the remaining time, the medical staff cannot operate the electric generators, which endangers patients who require oxygen.”

Dr Sultan also denied reports that there had been a fire at the hospital on Monday, saying there had been a blaze inside an adjacent school, near several generators.

The Israeli military has said it is ensuring hospitals remain operational during the offensive.

It has also said that more than 230 lorries carrying food, water, medical supplies and shelters have been transferred to northern Gaza via the Erez West crossing since last week, following a two-week period when the UN said there were no deliveries.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 42,710 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) says Israel is continuing to prevent humanitarian missions from reaching northern Gaza with critical supplies, including food and medicine.

“Hospitals have been hit and are left without power while injured people are left without care,” Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X.

He also said Unrwa’s remaining shelters were so overcrowded that displaced people were “forced to live in the toilets”, and cited reports that people trying to flee were being killed.

The Israeli military has been intensifying a weeks-long offensive in parts of northern Gaza against what it said were Hamas fighters who had regrouped there. On Monday residents and medics said Israeli forces were besieging hospitals and shelters for displaced people.

The Israeli military said it was facilitating evacuations of civilians and ensuring hospitals remained operational while it continued “operating against terrorists and terrorist infrastructure”.

Medics at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza told Reuters that Israeli troops stormed a school and detained the men before setting the building ablaze.

Palestinian media also reported on Monday that at least 10 people had been killed by Israeli artillery fire that hit a camp for displaced people at a school in Jabalia refugee camp, a densely-populated urban area to the north of Gaza City.

Israel does not allow the BBC and other international media into Gaza to report independently, making it difficult to verify facts on the ground, so we rely on information from video footage and testimonies.

Graphic videos of the aftermath of the Israeli strike posted online by Gaza’s Hamas-run Civil Defence agency and local journalists appeared to show at least four bodies, including a child and a woman, lying on the ground inside a tented camp.

One of the videos was filmed by a paramedic called Nabila as she ran between the dead and wounded.

“Calm down,” she is heard screaming at a badly hurt woman sitting in a pool of blood, “I swear I don’t have anything to stop the bleeding”.

In a passage pockmarked by shrapnel, she comes across a woman sitting with a baby, who says: “My children are gone, look at them.”

The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

The Israeli military body responsible for managing crossings into Gaza, Cogat, also announced that 41 aid lorries and six fuel tankers had been transferred to the north over the past day, and that a Unicef mission had been able to deliver polio vaccines to the north.

Cogat said there were also 600 lorry loads of aid waiting to be picked up and distributed at various crossings, most of it by UN agencies.

The UN said no aid was allowed into northern Gaza during the first two weeks of October, when the Israeli military began its offensive in and around Jabalia.

The UN’s acting humanitarian chief said a “trickle” of aid was allowed through last week, after the US warned Israel in a letter to urgently boost access within 30 days or risk having some military assistance cut off.

On Monday, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it had been asking Israeli authorities for four days to access to the Falouja area of Jabalia but had been denied.

The OCHA also shared a video showing an appeal for help from a Jabalia resident who said he was one of 32 people buried underneath a building destroyed in an air strike on Friday.

“Eighteen of us got out. Fourteen people remain under rubble, including little kids. They are two, three and four-year-olds, as well as women. They’re under rubble. Alive. They begged for me to rescue them but I couldn’t,” Shamekh al-Dibes said.

Meanwhile, a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who recently visited Gaza City said the suffering for the estimated 400,000 people in the north was “unimaginable”.

“Heavy fighting and evacuation orders are tearing communities apart. While some are desperate to leave, many, especially the elderly, sick, and people with disabilities, are unable to leave. Other stay, believing nowhere is safe,” Stephanie Eller said in a video.

“Hospitals are overwhelmed, struggling with too many patients and lack of fuel, electricity, and water supplies,” she added. “People need food, water, medical care and, above all, a respite from the ongoing hostilities.”

Hadeel Obeid, the chief nurse at the Indonesian hospital, also near Jabalia, said its water supply had been cut off and that was no food for the fourth consecutive day. She also said that the hospital needed permission from the Israeli military to operate its generator.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 42,000 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

US investigators are trying to find out how a pair of highly classified intelligence documents were leaked online.

The documents, which appeared on the messaging app Telegram on Friday, contain an alleged US assessment of Israeli plans to attack Iran.

The assessment is based on interpretation of satellite imagery and other intelligence.

On Monday White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said President Joe Biden was “deeply concerned” about the leak.

• Latest updates: Hezbollah launches rockets after Israeli strike kills four in Lebanon

Officials have not determined whether the documents were released due to a hack or a leak, Mr Kirby said.

For three weeks now, Israel has been vowing to hit Iran hard in retaliation for Iran’s massed ballistic missile attack on Israel on 1 October.

Iran says that was in response to Israel’s assassination of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on 27 September.

Military analysts say the phrasing used in the headings looks credible and is consistent with similar classified documents revealed in the past.

Headed “Top Secret”, they include the acronym “FGI”, standing for “Foreign Government Intelligence”.

The documents appear to have been circulated to intelligence agencies in the Five Eyes alliance, the five Western nations that regularly share intelligence, namely the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The acronym “TK” in the documents refers to “Talent Keyhole”, a codeword covering satellite-based Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Imagery Intelligence (IMINT).

Taken together, the two documents are a classified US assessment of Israel’s preparations to hit targets in Iran, based on intelligence analysed on 15-16 October by the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

What features prominently is the mention of two Air-launched Ballistic Missile (ALBM) systems: Golden Horizon and Rocks.

Rocks is a long-range missile system made by the Israeli company Rafael and designed to hit a variety of targets both above and below ground. Golden Horizon is thought to refer to the Blue Sparrow missile system with a range of around 2,000km (1,240 miles).

The significance of this is that it would indicate that the Israeli Air Force is planning to carry out a similar but greatly expanded version of its ABLM attack on an Iranian radar site near Isfahan in April.

By launching these weapons from long range and far from Iran’s borders it would avoid the need for Israeli warplanes to overfly certain countries in the region like Jordan.

The documents also report no sign of any preparations by Israel to activate its nuclear deterrent.

At the request of Israel, the US government never publicly acknowledges that its close ally Israel even possesses nuclear weapons, so this has caused some embarrassment in Washington.

Glaringly absent from these documents is any mention of what targets Israel intends to hit in Iran, or when.

The US has made no secret of its opposition to the targeting of either Iran’s nuclear research facilities or its oil installations.

That leaves military bases, most likely those belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its affiliated Basij militia as these two institutions are seen as the backbone of the Islamic Republic, projecting its military reach abroad and suppressing popular protest at home.

As regards timing, many had expected Israel to have carried out its promised retaliation by now. But back in April, Iran waited 12 days before hitting back at Israel with a barrage of 300 drones and missiles after an Israeli air strike hit its diplomatic buildings in Damascus, killing several senior IRGC commanders.

Part of the current delay in Israel’s response is likely due to US concerns at escalation with less than a month to go before the US presidential elections.

Possibly yes, by someone who wanted to derail Israel’s plans.

Iran has a large and sophisticated cyber-warfare capability so the possibility of a hostile hack is also being investigated.

These documents, if genuine as thought highly likely, show that despite the close defence relationship between the US and Israel, Washington still spies on its ally in case it is not being given the full picture.

They show that plans by the Israeli Air Force to carry out some kind of long-range retaliation against Iran are well advanced and that mitigation is being put in place against an expected Iranian response.

In short: if and when Israel does carry out these plans then the Middle East will once again experience a period of extreme tension.

The tiny villages of Haryana state in India’s rural north-west find themselves in an unlikely spotlight these days.

Farmers’ homes in hamlets around the industrial town of Rohtak are suddenly in demand, doubling up as movie sets.

Alongside the mooing of cows, it isn’t unusual to hear a director shouting “lights, camera, action” here.

A new start-up, called STAGE, has spawned a nascent film industry in this hinterland.

“Batta”, a high-octane drama about power and injustice, is just the latest in half-a-dozen movies under production in the area, Vinay Singhal, founder of STAGE, told the BBC on the film’s sets.

“There were just a dozen odd Haryanvi films made in India’s history before we came in. Since 2019, we’ve made more than 200,” says Mr Singhal.

STAGE makes content for largely under-served provincial audiences, keeping hyper-local tastes, dialectical quirks and the rural cultural syntax in mind.

There are 19,500 different dialects in India, and STAGE has identified 18 that are spoken by a large enough population to merit their own film industry.

The app currently offers content in two languages – Rajasthani and Haryanvi. It has three million paying subscribers and is planning to expand and include other dialects like Maithili and Konkani, which are spoken in north-east and coastal-west India, respectively.

“We’re also on the verge of closing a funding round from an American venture capitalist firm to expand into these territories,” says Mr Singhal, who appeared along with his co-founders on the Indian version of Shark Tank, a business reality show, a year ago.

STAGE is among a growing number of Indian start-ups that are betting big on the rural market opportunity as the next growth frontier. Others include players like Agrostar and DeHaat.

While a bulk of India’s 1.4 billion people still live in its 650,000 villages, they’ve hardly been a market for its booming tech start-ups so far.

Asia’s third-largest economy has been a hotbed for innovation, birthing several dozen unicorns – or tech companies valued at over $1bn – but they’ve all largely built for the “top 10%” of urban Indians, according to Anand Daniel, partner at Accel Ventures, which has funded some of the country’s most successful ventures, from Flipkart to Swiggy and Urban Company.

While there have been notable exceptions like online marketplace Meesho, or a few farm technology players, the start-up boom has largely bypassed India’s villages.

That’s now changing as more founders successfully cater to rural consumers and get funded for their ideas.

“Investors don’t show you the door anymore,” says Mr Singhal.

“Five years ago, I didn’t get any money at all. I had to bootstrap the company.”

Accel itself is now cutting more cheques to entrepreneurs solving for the rural market, recently announcing it will invest up to $1m in rural start-ups through its pre-seed accelerator programme.

Unicorn India Ventures, another local VC fund, says 50% of their investments are now in start-ups based in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. And in July this year, the Japanese auto giant Suzuki announced a $40m India fund to invest in start-ups building for rural markets.

So what’s driving this shift?

The untapped market opportunity is large, says Mr Daniel, and there’s a growing realisation among investors and founders that rural doesn’t necessarily mean poor.

Two-thirds of India’s population live in the hinterland and spend about $500bn annually. In fact, the top 20% of this demographic spends more money than half of those that live in the cities, according to Accel’s own estimates.

“As India adds $4tn to GDP over the next decade, at least 5% of that will be digitally influenced, and coming from ‘Bharat’ or rural India,” says Mr Daniel.

That’s a $200bn incremental opportunity.

Giving tailwind to this is the growing penetration of smartphones among middle-income rural families.

Some 450 million Indians now use one outside its cities – which is more than the entire US population.

And click-of-a-button digital payments through the much-touted UPI interface has been a game-changer for companies looking beyond the metros to expand their offering.

“Five or seven years ago, the ability to reach this target group – be it digitally, logistically or in terms of getting payments – wasn’t easy. But the timing right now is much better for this generation of start-ups trying to address this market,” says Mr Daniel.

Also, while most innovation was happening in cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru a decade ago, a growing number of entrepreneurs are now emerging from smaller towns, driven by factors such as lower operating costs, availability of local talent, and government initiatives aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in non-metro areas, according to a report from Primus Ventures.

Being close to the ground may have also contributed to exposing founders to the potential of the vast non-metro market.

But cracking rural India is easier said than done.

The small town consumer is price-conscious and geographically dispersed. The number of addressable consumers in any given postcode is far smaller than the cities.

Infrastructure also continues to lag, so “distribution isn’t easy, and operating costs are high”, says Gautam Malik, chief revenue officer at Frontier Markets, a rural e-commerce start-up that does last-mile deliveries to villages with populations below 5,000.

Besides, those using urban templates and force-fitting them to the village context will fail, says Mr Malik.

His company quickly realised why traditional e-commerce wasn’t able to penetrate the very last mile. The village customer simply didn’t trust her money with a third party that didn’t have local presence.

To build that trust factor, Mr Malik and his team had to tie up with village-level women entrepreneurs to act as their sales and delivery agents.

Such differentiation and a commitment for the long haul will be critical, he says, to winning rural India and cracking that incremental $200bn market opportunity.

Kamala Harris spent the whole of Monday making a direct pitch to independent and Republican voters in the three states that form the Democratic Party’s so-called “blue wall”.

Two weeks from the election, Harris toured Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin alongside former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, an outspoken anti-Trump Republican.

While it’s not surprising that Harris visited the most hotly contested battlegrounds of the campaign in its home stretch, she departed from her customary rally-style events.

Instead she chose a “town hall” format alongside Cheney, a series of discussions hosted by figures picked with an eye toward the other side of the political divide.

There was Republican pollster and publisher Sarah Longwell in Pennsylvania and conservative commentator Charlie Sykes in Wisconsin. The third moderator was Maria Shriver in Michigan, niece of JFK and former first lady of California under Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The locations, suburban counties outside each of the state’s largest cities, were also not chosen by chance. They are rich in the kind of college-educated, traditionally Republican voters who polls show have been moving toward Democrats even as some blue-collar voters have drifted away from the party.

It’s a sign of just how dramatically the coalitions supporting the two major parties are shifting in the era of Donald Trump.

• Follow the latest from campaign trail
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According to Craig Snyder, a Pennsylvania-based Republican strategist who is supporting Harris, the Democrats are making a concerted outreach to disaffected Republicans, but hearing from Democrats isn’t enough.

“These voters want to hear from other Republicans,” he said. “They want to hear that they’re not alone.”

Across the three states, Liz Cheney – who co-chaired the congressional committee investigating the 6 January attack on the US Capitol and was ousted in 2022 by a Trump-backed primary challenger – delivered that message.

“You can vote [with] your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody,” Cheney said in Michigan. “And there will be millions of Republicans who will do it.”

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Harris quickly added that she had seen Republicans approach Cheney and thank her for speaking out against the former president – even if they never say anything publicly.

“From my vantage point, she is not alone,” Harris said.

The crowds at the venues were supposedly filled with Republicans and undecided voters, although the questions were pre-selected and the audience response – nods of understanding and gasps of shock at details of Trump’s political misdeeds and transgressions – suggested they were mostly friendly.

Dan Voboril, a retired schoolteacher in Wisconsin concerned about the toxic nature of Trump’s Republican Party, said he was truly undecided but was considering voting for Harris.

“Come on, Dan,” Cheney urged. The former congresswoman went on to say that partisanship was less important than ensuring that a person of character and principles held the presidency.

“If you wouldn’t hire somebody to babysit your kids, then you shouldn’t make that guy the president of the United States,” she added.

Most of the questions during this three-state town hall trip, however, seemed tailor made for Harris to tout key campaign talking points.

A young mother in Pennsylvania asked how she could care for her elderly mother who has dementia.

Harris outlined her plan for government supported in-home nursing care. In Michigan there was a question about Ukraine, allowing both Cheney and Harris to warn that a Trump victory would lead to Vladimir Putin “sitting in Kyiv”.

The isolationist approach to the war adopted by Trump and his running mate JD Vance has struck a chord among Americans who think the billions of dollars spent on aiding Ukraine since Russia invaded would be better spent at home.

Every stop on the Harris-Cheney day tour included a question about abortion and reproductive rights, allowing Cheney – who is anti-abortion – to say Republican states banning the procedure were going too far.

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Current public opinion polls show a neck-and-neck race for the presidency nationally and in the blue wall, battleground states.

In 2016, Donald Trump flipped the three traditionally Democratic “rust belt” states that used to be the heart of the American manufacturing industry but Joe Biden won them back four years later.

Most surveys currently show fewer than 10% of Republicans are backing the Democrats.

If those numbers turn out to be understated – if Cheney is right and there are shy Republicans who will ultimately break ranks and vote Democratic – Harris’s path to the White House would become much easier.

At the very least, the Harris campaign decided that the chance to chip away at Trump’s support where it might be soft was worth a day’s effort.

Zander Mundy was midway through a typical day at his office when he heard the news: tech billionaire Elon Musk was speaking at a nearby school in the town of Folsom, in the US state of Pennsylvania.

“When is the richest guy in the world in town often?” Mr Mundy remembers thinking to himself.

With a population of just under 9,000 people, Folsom is a quiet place. Residents typically shy away from speaking openly about their politics, and political yard signs are few and far between.

The 21-year-old Mr Mundy, who works at a leasing agent at an apartment complex, admits that he wasn’t planning on voting in the November election.

But once he saw crowds forming – and felt the excitement – he decided to go in, eager to hear from Musk.

By the time he left the school, he recalls leaning more towards Donald Trump than towards Kamala Harris.

“[If] someone like that tells you this is the election that’s going to decide our future, not only who’s president for the next four years but what the world world is going to be like… I think that’s pretty huge,” he told the BBC. “That matters. That’s significant.”

Musk, who previously cultivated an image as an eccentric tech genius who was only on the sidelines of politics, has now pledged full allegiance to Trump.

In full view of the American public, the 53-year-old has invested his time, operational know-how and ample pocketbook into trying to get the Republican elected – a rarity among the nation’s business elite who traditionally prefer to influence politics from behind the scenes.

It’s an approach that is starkly different to traditional CEOs, many of whom have been better known for holding expensive, exclusive fundraising dinners or hosting potential donors at lavish homes in the Hamptons.

And it’s prompted observers to ask questions about Mr Musk’s motivations.

• Follow live updates from the US campaign trail
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The traditional approach by CEOs is “not out in the public spotlight,” explains Erik Gordon, chair of the entrepreneurship department at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. But “Musk does it loudly and proudly, and, therefore, perhaps makes himself a lightning rod”.

Musk’s Trump-supporting political action committee – America PAC – has already spent more than $119m (£91.6m) this election cycle, according to Open Secrets, a non-profit tracker.

Additionally, Musk’s own contributions make him one of the largest individual donors in the presidential race, and reportedly play a vital role in Trump’s door-knocking and ground operation in key swing states in which the campaign hopes to mobilise voters.

Steve Davis, a key lieutenant of Musk’s who has worked for his companies including SpaceX, X and the Boring Company, has reportedly been recruited to help in the effort.

Mr Musk’s personal investment into the campaign is something that was quickly noticed by Mr Mundy.

“That alone was shocking to me,” he said. “That someone would really spend that much time and money to influence voters. That means he’s doing it for a reason.”

Some Democrats, like Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, have been urging their party to not ignore the threat Mr Musk poses ahead of the election.

Mr Musk appeals to a demographic of people who see him as “undeniably brilliant” and among whom traditional Democratic outreach efforts have proven difficult, Fetterman believes.

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Since first endorsing Trump in the wake of the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, on 13 July, Mr Musk has become a common fixture on the campaign trail, where he often delivers warnings that only Trump can “save” American democracy.

In the closing days of the race, Mr Musk has criss-crossed the state of Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that has become a focus for Trump and Kamala Harris alike.

America PAC is now doling out $1m a day until election day to one random voter – no matter their party affiliation – provided they have registered to vote and sign a petition.

At “town hall” events in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh over the weekend, for example, Mr Musk presented giant lottery-style cheques to winners, with enthusiastic crowds chanting “Elon”. He responded by telling the crowd that their energy “lights a fire” in his soul.

At a rally in Philadelphia on Monday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Mr Musk was “dangling a million bucks to many of us who are struggling to make ends meet, if they dance for him”.

“Elon Musk thinks that dangling money in front of a working person is a cute thing to do when the election of our lives is before us because that’s what people and billionaires like that do,” she added.

Some observers, however, have questioned his motivation and have suggested that Mr Musk and his businesses stand to benefit from a relationship with Trump.

Among those observers is Matt Teske, the CEO of electric vehicle charging platform Chargeway.

According to Mr Teske, Mr Musk’s political shift has been difficult for many in the electric vehicle industry, but comes as no surprise after several years of becoming increasingly active in politics.

“I think Musk’s interests are focused, predominantly, around a handful of things that are important to him related to his businesses, [with] regulation being something he’s voiced concerns around,” Mr Tesks says. He notes that Mr Musk “pushed back heavily” on restrictions implemented during the Covid-19 pandemic in California.

The University of Michigan’s Professor Gordon agrees. He says Mr Musk sees himself as a someone who has been held back by regulators, and feels that government intervention has stifled the development of the technologies he is focused on, such as autonomous driving.

“He wants to be sort of on the frontier, [a] wild and woolly entrepreneur who can break new paths and not be bogged down by regulation, which tends to fall five, 10, 20 years behind advances in technology,” Prof Gordon says.

“Musk wants to go the other way,” he adds. “He wants to go to Mars.”

If he wins in November, Donald Trump has suggested that Mr Musk could oversee “cost cutting” in the US government. Even if he doesn’t do that exact job, Mr Musk would have Trump’s ear thanks to his support during the campaign, observers believe, and he could have a strong influence on the administration’s decision-making.

Mr Musk, for his part, has said he would be open to the idea of leading a “department of government efficiency” to end regulation’s “strangulation” of the US.

That position, Democrats say, could present a complex conflict of interest, given the billions in government contracts Mr Musk has received for SpaceX and Tesla.

“That’s kind of deeply both unethical and illegal,” says Lenny Mendonca, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s former chief economic and business adviser.

Mendonca believes that those with intertwined government and regulatory relationships “can have a voice” but should not be in a position of authority over those same interests.

Lawrence Noble, a former general counsel at the Federal Election Commission, has questioned the legality of Mr Musk’s giveaways in the election cycle.

Mr Noble believes that this form of campaigning should concern Americans who value safe work environments and consumer protections.

“We know what companies do when left to their own devices. They put profit and stockholder value and CEO compensation above safety, and they kind of write off the safety issues as a cost of doing business,” he tells the BBC.

“It’s dangerous to have somebody who views business that way, and views government that way, in charge of safety,” he adds.

For Mr Musk – who relishes being a “disrupter” and renegade – there’s little question that his lucrative relationships with the US government will continue, no matter the result of the November election.

But his brand, and his reputation, are now tied to Donald Trump’s – and his actions suggest he knows it.

• SIMPLE GUIDE: How to win a US election
• EXPLAINER: What Harris or Trump would do in power
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North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

As Americans prepare to vote for their next president, Canadians and Mexicans are watching on nervously.

For some Canadians living next to the US border, politics isn’t a topic often discussed.

“You don’t talk politics and you don’t talk religion,” says 85-year-old Ernie, who lives in the Canadian town of Fort Erie, just across the Niagara River from Buffalo, New York.

Yet for others in Fort Erie, Ontario, politics can come up, especially after a few beers, and with a US presidential election fast approaching.

A short walk from the Peace Bridge that connects the two countries is Southsides Patio Bar & Grill, where US-born bartender Lauren says she frequently has to break up political arguments.

“It happens, especially after a few drinks. Everybody’s voice is heard here,” she laughs while shaking her head.

Some 2,000 miles (3,200 km) southwest in the Mexican border city of Juarez, Sofia Ana is in the Monday morning queue of cars waiting to cross to El Paso, Texas for work.

“There’s better employment opportunities in the US, there’s better benefits,” she explains.

Ana is one of an estimated 500,000 Mexicans who legally cross the border into the US every week day.

It is in their interest that relations between the two countries remain cordial. “It affects us deeply… it is very intense,” adds Ana from her car window.

With more than 155 million Americans due to vote in the US presidential election on 5 November, it is fair to say that the outcome will be felt well beyond the US. No more so than its largest trading partners Canada and Mexico.

The two-way trade of goods between the US and Mexico totalled $807bn (£621bn) last year, making Mexico the US’s biggest trading partner when it comes to physical items.

Meanwhile, the US’s goods trade with Canada in 2023 was in second place on $782bn. By comparison the figure for the US and China was $576bn.

Mexico and Canada’s future trade with the US could be impacted if Donald Trump wins the US election. This is because he is proposing to introduce substantial import tariffs. These would be 60% for goods from China, and 20% on products from all other countries, apparently including Mexico and Canada.

By contrast, Kamala Harris is widely expected to maintain the current more open trade policies of President Biden. This is despite the fact she voted against the 2020 United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) free trade deal, saying it didn’t go far enough on tackling climate change.

Trump and Harris have “starkly different visions for the future of US economic relations with the world”, said one study in September.

Back in Juarez, shop owner Adrian Ramos says that US political instability is something business owners like himself have had to get used to. “We’ve seen it all,” he says.

Mr Ramos adds that the result in the US on 5 November will likely impact on his business whoever wins. “If Trump wins, it’s going to take longer to cross over to the States, if Harris wins, it may not, but there will be changes depending on who wins.”

In the rural Canadian township of Puslinch, Ontario, beef farmer Dave Braden is definitely more concerned about Trump returning to the White House.

“The worry with Trump is that he’ll introduce a policy [such as tariffs], and just say ‘get on with it’ and that is threatening,” says Mr Braden, standing between hay bales in front of one of his cattle fields.

“I think with Harris, we have the assumption that she will recognize the relationship between the two countries and we will work together.”

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce is also concerned about the possibility of a second Trump presidency introducing new tariffs. It calculated that tariffs of 10% on Canadian imports (a level that Trump has previously suggested), would cost each Canadian and American $CA1,100 ($800; £615) per year.

The Canadian government has reportedly been talking to Trump’s camp to try to exempt Canada in the event that he does win the election.

Not every Canadian has such fears about Trump though. One Ontario farmer who is supporting him didn’t want to speak on the record, but says he believes the former president is stronger on the economy, which would benefit Canada.

For Georganne Burke, the Republicans Overseas chapter leader for Canada, it’s no surprise that some Trump supporters don’t speak publicly about him. She says that backing Trump is “not a popular position to be in”.

Recent polling suggests that Harris is significantly more popular than Trump among Canadians.

The USMCA, which was negotiated in 2018 under Trump’s presidency, is up for renegotiation in 2026.

With that on his mind, Canada’s Minister for Innovation, Science and Industry Francois Champagne tells the BBC he is checking the US election polls daily.

“Because this is such a valued relationship. It’s why I call it this indispensable relationship, because when you look at everything, you realise how indispensable we are to each other,” he explains.

In the run up to the election Mr Champagne is spending time meeting American counterparts of both parties. In his words “connecting the dots”.

“For example, when I meet the governor of South Carolina, which has a plant in the auto sector, I remind him that a lot of the critical minerals are coming from Canada,” he says. “So, it’s making sure that everyone understands that we are joint at the hip in terms of security, supply chain, but also a growth agenda for North America.”

Lila Abed, an expert on US-Mexico relations, says that whatever November’s outcome, “there will be three essential topics on the bilateral agenda with Mexico that are going to have to be dealt with immediately” – migration, security and trade.

“It is telling that [new Mexican president] Claudia Sheinbaum hasn’t designated Mexico’s ambassador to the US,” adds Ms Abed, who is director of the Mexico Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Centre think tank.

“I don’t believe that will be announced until after the US presidential election, because she wants to take into consideration what kind of individual she wants in Washington after the result.”

Looking ahead to 2026, Ms Abed believes the USMCA renegotiation will focus on US efforts to stop increased Chinese investment in Mexico.

“Where Republicans and Democrats actually coincide is on trying to stem or trying to stop Chinese investment in Mexico, which is something that both political parties in the United States are very concerned about,” she says.

“While I believe that, you know, the tone and the policies will naturally differ depending on who wins the White House, I do believe that the main issues on the bilateral agenda will remain.”

• SIMPLE GUIDE: How to win a US election
• EXPLAINER: What Harris or Trump would do in power
• GLOBAL: Harris or Trump? What Chinese people want
• ON THE GROUND: Democrats take fight deep into Trump country
• FACT-CHECK: What the numbers really say about crime
• POLLS: Who is winning the race for the White House?

North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of the race for the White House in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

Yulia Navalnaya intends to be president of Russia, she tells me. She looks me straight in the eye. No hesitation or wavering.

This, like so many of the decisions she made with her husband, the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, is unambiguous.

Navalnaya knows she faces arrest if she returns home while President Putin is still in power. His administration has accused her of participating in extremism.

This is no empty threat. In Russia, it can lead to death.

Her husband, President Putin’s most vocal critic, was sentenced to 19 years for extremism, charges that were seen as politically motivated. He died in February in a brutal penal colony in the Arctic Circle. US President Joe Biden said there was “no doubt” Putin was to blame. Russia denies killing Navalny.

Yulia Navalnaya, sitting down for our interview in a London legal library, looks and sounds every inch the successor to Navalny, the lawyer turned politician who dreamt of a different Russia.

As she launches Patriot, the memoir her husband was writing before his death, Yulia Navalnaya restated her plans to continue his fight for democracy.

When the time is right, “I will participate in the elections… as a candidate,” she told the BBC.

“My political opponent is Vladimir Putin. And I will do everything to make his regime fall as soon as possible”.

For now, that has to be from outside Russia.

She tells me that while Putin is in charge she cannot go back. But Yulia looks forward to the day she believes will inevitably come, when the Putin era ends and Russia once again opens up.

Just like her husband, she believes there will be the chance to hold free and fair elections. When that happens, she says she will be there.

Her family has already suffered terribly in the struggle against the Russian regime, but she remains composed throughout our interview, steely whenever Putin’s name comes up.

Her personal grief is channelled into political messaging, in public anyway. But she tells me, since Alexei’s death, she has been thinking even more about the impact the couple’s shared political beliefs and decisions have had on their children, Dasha, 23, and Zakhar, 16.

“I understand that they didn’t choose it”.

But she says she never asked Navalny to change course.

He was barred from standing for president by Russia’s Central Election Commission.

His investigations through his Anti-Corruption Foundation were viewed by millions online, including a video posted after his last arrest, claiming that Putin had built a one-billion dollar palace on the Black Sea.

The president denied it.

Yulia says: “When you live inside this life, you understand that he will never give up and that is for what you love him”.

Navalny was poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in 2020.

He was flown to Germany for treatment and the German chancellor demanded answers from Putin’s regime.

Navalny worked with open-source investigators Bellingcat and traced the poisoning to Russia’s security service, the FSB.

He began writing his memoir as he recovered.

He and Yulia returned to Russia in January 2021 where he was arrested after landing.

Many ask why they returned.

“There couldn’t be any discussion. You just need to support him. I knew that he wants to come back to Russia. I knew that he wants to be with his supporters, he wanted to be an example to all these people with his courage and his bravery to show people that there is no need to be afraid of this dictator.

“I never let my brain think that he might be killed… we lived this life for decades and it’s about you share these difficulties, you share these views. You support him”.

After his jailing, Navalny continued his book in notebook entries, posts on social media and prison diaries, published for the first time. Some of his writing was confiscated by the prison authorities, he said.

Patriot is revealing – and devastating. We all know Navalny’s final chapter, which makes the descriptions of his treatment – and his courage in the face of it – even more poignant.

Navalny spent 295 days in solitary confinement, punished, according to the book, for violations including the top button of his fatigues being unbuttoned. He was deprived of phone calls and visits.

Yulia Navalnaya told me: “Usually, the normal practice is banishment just for two weeks and it’s the most severe punishment. My husband spent there almost one year.”

In a prison diary from August 2022, Navalny writes from solitary confinement:

Navalnaya says she was prevented from visiting or speaking to her husband for two years before he died. She says Alexei was tortured, starved and kept in “awful conditions”.

After his death, the US, EU and UK announced new sanctions against Russia. These included freezing the assets of six prison bosses who ran the Arctic Circle penal colony and other sanctions on judges involved in criminal proceedings against Navalny.

Yulia calls the reaction to his death by the international community “a joke” and urges them to be “a little less afraid” of Putin. She wants to see the president locked up.

“I don’t want him to be in prison, somewhere abroad, in a nice prison with a computer, nice food… I want him to be in a Russian prison. And it’s not just that – I want him to be in the same conditions like Alexei was. But it’s very important for me”.

The Russians claim Navalny died of natural causes. Yulia believes President Putin ordered the killing.

“Vladimir Putin is answering for the death and for the murder of my husband”.

She says the Anti-Corruption Foundation she now leads in her husband’s place already has “evidence” which she will reveal when they have “the whole picture”.

The book is as much a political work as a memoir, a rallying cry to anyone who believes in a free Russia. It is also being published in Russian, as an ebook and audiobook. But the publishers won’t send hard copies to Russia or Belarus, because they say they can’t guarantee the book would get through customs.

How many Russians will dare to buy it, even in electronic form, is unclear – and how much impact it could have remains questionable.

The message etched on every page is that Navalny never gave up. His arch wit shines through.

He says, in the punishment cell, he is getting “for free” the experience of staying silent, eating scant food and getting away from the outside world that “rich people suffering from a midlife crisis” pay for.

Only once does he share feeling “crushed”, during the hunger strike he undertook in 2021 in order to demand medical care from civilian doctors. “For the first time, I’m feeling emotionally and morally down,” he writes in one entry.

But Yulia says she never worried that he would actually be broken by the regime.

“I’m absolutely confident that is the point why finally they decided to kill him. Because they just realised that he will never give up”.

Even the day before he died, when he appeared in court, Navalny was filmed joking with the judge.

Yulia says laughter was his “superpower”.

“He really, truly laughed at this regime and at Vladimir Putin. That’s why Vladimir Putin hated him so much”.

The writing is laced with a great deal of irony.

The book will sell better if he dies, Navalny writes:

In the end, Patriot is also a love story about two people fully committed to a cause they believed in.

A cause for which Yulia has now become the figurehead.

After a visit from her, Navalny writes:

A few weeks ago, police in India discovered that scammers had set up a fake bank branch – complete with a logo, office furniture and even some employees – in a village in Chhattisgarh state. BBC Hindi pieced together what happened.

Jyoti Yadav was delighted when she got a job as an office assistant at a recently opened bank branch near her village.

She had been job-hunting for four years, facing increasing financial pressure.

The bank officials asked her to join immediately, and she agreed because it was the State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest government-backed lender and one of its most recognisable brands.

But just a week after she joined, the police and employees from a nearby branch of SBI arrived at the bank – about 200 km (124 miles) from Chhattisgarh’s capital, Raipur – and told them it was fake.

Yadav was stunned. She said the people who gave her a job had conducted an interview, issued her an appointment letter and provided an identity card, with a promised salary of 30,000 rupees ($357; £273) a month. She had begun work along with five others.

Police have arrested one person and say they are on the lookout for eight others.

Employment-related scams are not uncommon in India, where millions of young people are desperate to find a stable job. In 2022, more than two dozen men who thought they would get jobs with the Indian Railways were tricked into counting trains for days.

The job crisis is particularly acute in small towns and villages, where work opportunities are limited, often forcing young people to take risks such as paying bribes – which is illegal in India – for jobs that promise to secure their future.

The police said that the six employees of the fake bank came from financially weak backgrounds, and that some of them had paid substantial amounts as bribes for the job.

An officer involved in the investigation told BBC Hindi that the motive appeared to be swindling job-seekers of money.

According to the initial investigation, a large number of people were asked for money under the pretence of securing a bank job and were sent to the fake branch for “training”, the officer said.

After around two weeks of training, they were sent back with the promise that they would be “appointed” to an SBI branch soon, he added.

Those who were allegedly duped say the fraudsters made the bank appear legitimate.

Yadav says she filed an online form, uploaded her educational certificates and submitted biometric data as part of the onboarding process – common when joining many Indian firms.

“I never felt for a moment that I was caught in a fraud. But now everything is ruined,” she said.

She claimed to have paid 250,000 rupees – a sum she had difficulty raising – as a bribe for the job.

Rohini Sahu, from a village in the neighbouring district, was offered a job as a marketing officer by the fake employers.

Sahu told BBC Hindi that her offer letter said that she had been appointed to the Raipur branch of the SBI, but had to undergo training at this branch.

The letter, the signboard, the building and its infrastructure all convinced her it was a real bank.

“No one could have imagined in their wildest dreams that this wasn’t a legitimate bank,” she says

Residents of the village where the branch was located say they were happy when it came up as it promised easy access to banking services.

But some villagers who wanted to open accounts were told by employees that the bank was still installing servers and that they should return next month.

For some, it also offered business opportunities.

Ajay Agarwal, one of the villagers, immediately applied to run a kiosk under a scheme that allows people to operate limited banking services outside the premises of the bank.

Such banking kiosks are common in villages and small towns across India.

But he says he soon grew sceptical after his application was not approved, and that he approached the SBI branch nearby to ask questions about the branch.

Soon, the local police raided the bank. But by then the “manager” of the branch had already absconded.

The man they have arrested, police say, is also an accused in another job scam in the state. He has not issued any statement in police custody.

News presenter Andrea Byrne has said she feared her husband would be “better off” without her during the couple’s seven-year experience of infertility.

Byrne, 45, who is married to former Wales rugby international Lee Byrne, 44, has presented Welsh and network news for ITV since 2008.

“You feel so guilty,” recalled Byrne, who was told by doctors that she would likely never be able to carry her own pregnancy.

“I remember those feelings all the time of thinking [Lee] would be better off without me.”

The couple welcomed their daughter Jemima, who “defied science” by being conceived naturally, in 2019.

“I feel very conscious when I’m telling my story, that maybe it’s easier to tell because we did get the ending that we had,” said Byrne.

“But I still feel it’s important to talk about, because I know how lonely we were during that journey.”

After getting married on New Year’s Day in 2012, Byrne said she and her husband began trying to get pregnant straight away.

“We were both at the start of our 30s,” she said. “I didn’t have any reason to think there would be issues.”

After a while, they went to a fertility clinic for tests.

An ultrasound revealed an issue with the thickness of Byrne’s womb lining, which she described in her new book Desperate Rants and Magic Pants as an “unfixable rare genetic defect”.

“It’s the kind of news that you don’t expect to hear,” Byrne told the BBC.

Years of intrusive tests and procedures followed, including multiple rounds of IVF.

“To be honest, the number of cycles, I couldn’t even tell you,” she said.

“We also tried lots of different things on top of the IVF, things that we were advised might work from different specialists.

“We also had some positive pregnancy tests and thought we were pregnant, but unfortunately we had losses as well.

“So it was a real rollercoaster of emotion.”

Byrne said the years of trying to conceive also took a toll on her relationship with her husband.

“I like to think that we’re really strong because of it, but boy, at the time it’s really difficult,” she said.

“There are times when we wondered how we would stay together,” added Byrne, “because it’s so difficult emotionally”.

“I remember I used to say to Lee, and he used to get quite cross with me, because I used to say ‘oh just go and find somebody else, somebody else could do this more easily, just go and find another woman’.

“And he would say to me ‘goodness, we are in this together’.”

Doctors eventually told the couple their only hope was surrogacy and, in 2018, they began exploring the possibility of finding a surrogate in the USA.

In her book, Byrne describes finding out just minutes before she was due to present the evening news that none of the embryos they hoped to use for a surrogate were viable.

She wrote: “I look at my tear-streaked reflection in the mirror, patch up the damaged foundation, breathe deeply, walk out of the dressing room, put on a smile and walk through a busy newsroom, and on to the set.”

Byrne said that moment felt like the end of the road.

“We had a conversation after that news and decided we’d move on and build another life together,” she said.

“I get really emotional about it, because I felt so guilty about not being able to do what every other woman could do.”

But just a few months later, against all the odds, Byrne fell pregnant naturally.

“Amazingly, we fell pregnant again, and this time it was Jemima. It was unbelievable really,” said Byrne.

“We were without hope and they said the chances are you will never be able to carry your own pregnancy.

“So she [Jemima] really did defy everybody, all the medical advice we’d been given, she came along and said ‘nope, I’m going to make it through’.”

Byrne, who also hosts the Making Babies fertility podcast, said writing her book was “emotional” and “in a way cathartic”.

“I know it’s a bit of a cliched word but it does provide a little bit of closure too, I guess,” she said.

The book includes chapters reflecting the fertility experiences of a number of other celebrities who have appeared on Byrne’s podcast, including presenter Gabby Logan and comedian Geoff Norcott.

“I look at Jemima every single day and I’m just so grateful,” said Byrne.

“I’m glad that I am able, hopefully, to use my platform to hopefully have a positive effect and maybe help other people feel less isolated.”

Asked if she had any advice for others experiencing infertility, Byrne said she wished she had been kinder to herself.

“I think it’s very easy when you get some bad news about a cycle, or you’re having a bad time dealing with it, that you catastrophise and think 10 steps ahead,” she said.

“And before you know it you’ve written off any chance of anything, which is very easy to do because it feels so hopeless.

“Nobody knows what’s going to happen 10 steps down the road, so just try and deal with what’s happening in that moment. I wish I’d done that more.

“And also been a bit kinder to ourselves, and yourself in the process. Take that time to find little bits of joy where you can and take time out if you need to from it.

“Because it can be all consuming, friendships-wise, family-wise, it affects everything. So you really need to be kind to yourself.”

JK Rowling has revealed she turned down two offers of a peerage in the House of Lords and would turn down a third.

The author’s remarks came after Conservative Party leader hopeful Kemi Badenoch said she would give Rowling a peerage for her stance on gender – a position critics have described as being transphobic.

The Harry Potter author said in a post on X that she had been offered peerages “once under Labour and once under the Tories”, adding she “still wouldn’t take it” if offered the honour for a third time.

Most peers sitting in the House of Lords are appointed by the monarch on the prime minister’s advice, with nominations vetted by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.

Badenoch praised Rowling in an interview with the Talk TV online streaming service, saying they both believed protections for women should be based not on self-identified gender but rather biological sex.

The MP for North West Essex said of Rowling: “I don’t know whether she would take it, but I certainly would give her a peerage.”

The former equalities minister went on to praise Baroness Cass for her review of NHS children’s gender services – work Badenoch “managed to get” the doctor a peerage for.

Writing on X, Rowling said: “It’s considered bad form to talk about this but I’ll make an exception given the very particular circumstances.

“I’ve already turned down a peerage twice, once under Labour and once under the Tories. If offered one a third time, I still wouldn’t take it.”

She said in an apparent reference to Badenoch: “It’s not her, it’s me.”

Rowling was awarded an OBE in 2001, and was made a Companion of Honour in 2017 by Prince William, then the Duke of Cambridge, for her work.

While the precise dates the author was offered the two peerages are unclear, the first would have come in the New Labour years, when Rowling was still writing the Harry Potter series.

The final book in Rowling’s best-selling wizard series was published in 2007. In the years since, she has written articles, plays and a series of crime books for adults under the pen name Robert Galbraith.

The crime series, known collectively under the title Cormoran Strike, were published throughout the 2010s – during which time Rowling was presumably offered a peerage for the second time.

If she had taken up a seat in the House of Lords, the author would most likely have been given the title of Baroness Rowling – and if she found the time to attend sessions, she would have a say in the work of Parliament’s second chamber, considering draft laws and potentially participating in select committees.

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Cameroon’s 91-year-old President Paul Biya has been seen in public for the first time in six weeks amid speculation about his ailing health.

His absence from the public eye led to unfounded rumours of his death.

But on Monday afternoon state television showed footage of the president’s arrival at the airport in the capital, Yaoundé, on a flight from Switzerland.

The government had banned the media from discussing the health of Biya – in power since 1982 – classifying it as a matter of national security.

Rumours of his death have been circulating on and off for the past two decades.

Monday’s broadcast pictures show the president dressed in his usual neat, conservative suit and looking visibly strong.

The last time Biya had been seen was on 8 September attending a China-Africa summit in Beijing.

Since then, the government has been under immense pressure to prove that the long-serving leader was alive.

Government officials eventually denied claims that he had died, saying that Biya was in good health and on a private visit to Geneva. He is known for frequent visits to the Swiss city.

After landing, Biya was welcomed by state officials and members of the ruling party.

The unusual mobilisation of people on some streets in the capital suggests the clear intention of the government is to put to rest the speculation about his wellbeing.

His re-appearance could spark calls from within his CPDM party for him to seek another seven-year term at next year’s election.

While the “Lion Man”, as he is called by his backers, is yet to openly state if he will run, his critics say his recent political moves signal an attempt to tighten the governing party’s firm grip on power.

• The 91-year-old African president who keeps defying death rumours
• Why African leaders maintain secrecy around their health
• Cameroon country profile

Ariana Grande has apologised to the actress who plays horror icon Elvira after she accused the singer of ignoring her during a meet-and-greet.

Actress Cassandra Peterson, who’s best known for her Mistress of the Dark alter-ego, said Ariana Grande had requested tickets for herself and family members to one of her stage shows.

She told a panel that she’d posed for photos and signed autographs for “all her friends and relatives” but that Ariana had refused to pose for a picture in return and left before the performance.

Responding via Instagram, Ariana Grande said she was “disheartened” to see the comments and claimed she’d left the event early because she “had an anxiety attack”.

In her response on Cassandra Peterson’s post, Ariana said she didn’t “even remember” getting the chance to meet the star.

She said the event would have happened about seven years ago, after her concert in Manchester was targeted in a terror attack.

At the time, Ariana said, she “was really not great with being in public crowds or loud places”.

“But if I’m misremembering this moment, I sincerely apologise for offending you so.

“Thank you for being so nice to my mum, she told me how lovely you were (she might have different feelings about that now but I’ll talk to her… clearly, we all have our days!).”

She signed off “sending love always”, adding “you’ll always be our queen of Halloween”.

The video of Cassandra Peterson, who’s also appeared as a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, discussing the interaction, recently went viral.

She’s heard laughing when someone else on-stage says Ariana is “playing the wrong witch” – referencing her role as Good Witch Glinda in the upcoming film adaption of Wicked.

Fan edits of the movie’s poster made using AI have made headlines during a recent promotional tour.

One fan edit turned the image of Ariana and co-star Cynthia Erivo in-character into an animation of the two fighting.

And Photoshopped versions of the image, with Cynthia’s eyes removed, have also been criticised by the stars.

“None of this is funny,” Cynthia said. “None of it is cute. It degrades me. It degrades us.”

Ariana agreed fan edits can go “too far” , that she had “so much respect” for Cynthia and found the issue “very complicated”.

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

Tributes have been made to a surfer who died after reportedly being impaled by a swordfish in Indonesia.

Giulia Manfrini, 36, from Turin in northern Italy, had been surfing in the waters of the Mentawai Islands Regency, West Sumatra Province, before the incident on Friday, according to reports.

Two witnesses are said to have tried to provide first aid to Ms Manfrini – who was later taken to a medical centre – after a swordfish struck her in the chest.

James Colston, who set up a travel agency with Ms Manfrini, said on Instagram: “Even with the brave efforts of her partner, local resort staff and doctors, Giulia couldn’t be saved.”

“The information we received from the Head of Southwest Siberut District was that an accident occurred with an Italian citizen while surfing,” Lahmudin Siregar, acting head of the Mentawai Islands Regency Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD), reportedly told news agency Antara.

He added: “Unexpectedly, a swordfish jumped towards Manfrini and stuck her right in the chest”.

Mr Colston said his former colleague had suffered “a freak accident”, adding that “we believe she died doing what she loved, in a place that she loved”.

“Giulia was the lifeblood of this company and her infectious enthusiasm for surf, snow and life will be remembered by all that came in contact with her,” he said.

Fabio Giulivi, the mayor of Ms Manfrini’s hometown Venaria Reale, said: “The news of her death has left us shocked and makes us feel powerless in front of the tragedy that took her life so prematurely.”

He added that surfing and opening a travel agency had been her “double dream”.

Previous research has suggested attacks by swordfish are rare but they can be dangerous when provoked.

Donald Trump’s campaign has filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against the UK’s Labour Party, accusing it of “blatant foreign interference” in the US election in aid of the Harris-Walz campaign.

The complaint cites media reports about contact between Labour and the Harris campaign as well as apparent volunteering efforts, arguing that this amounts to illegal “contributions”.

The BBC understands that Labour activists campaigning in the US presidential election are doing so in a personal capacity.

The Labour Party has not issued an official response.

Specifically, the complaint cites newspaper reporting that Labour-linked individuals have travelled to the US to campaign for Harris.

That reporting, the complaint alleges, creates a “reasonable inference that the Labour Party has made, and the Harris campaign has accepted, illegal foreign national contributions.”

• Election polls – is Harris or Trump ahead?

The letter refers to Washington Post reporting that communications were exchanged between the parties and that senior officials have met in private.

Additionally, the complaint cites a social media post on LinkedIn in which a Labour staff member said that “nearly 100” current and former party members will be headed to battleground states in the US.

The post, from Labour Party head of operations Sofia Patel, added that 10 “spots” are available and that “we will sort your housing”.

It appears to have since been deleted.

The complaint makes comparisons to an international programme in 2016 in which the Australian Labor Party, or ALP, sent delegates to help with Bernie Sanders’ campaign.

In that instance, however, the ALP paid for flights and daily stipends. The party and the campaign were each handed down civil penalties of $14,500.

Labour activists’ trips were not organised or funded by the party, it is understood from party officials.

Foreign nationals are permitted to serve as campaign volunteers as long as they are not compensated, according to FEC rules.

It is considered normal for party officials from the UK to be in contact with counterparts in the US.

It also has taken place previously between the UK’s Conservative Party and US Republicans.

The BBC has contacted the Harris-Walz campaign for comment.

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The race between two of the world’s richest men, Elon Musk and Mukesh Ambani, is intensifying as they prepare to face off in India’s satellite broadband market.

After India’s government announced last week that satellite spectrum for broadband would be allocated administratively rather than through auction, this battle has only heated up.

Mr Musk had previously criticised the auction model supported by Mr Ambani.

Satellite broadband provides internet access anywhere within the satellite’s coverage.

This makes it a reliable option for remote or rural areas where traditional services like DSL – a connection that uses telephone lines to transmit data – or cable are unavailable. It also helps to bridge the hard-to-reach digital divide.

India’s telecom regulator has yet to announce spectrum pricing, and commercial satellite internet services are still to begin.

However, satellite internet subscribers in India are projected to reach two million by 2025, according to credit rating agency ICRA.

The market is competitive, with around half a dozen key players, led by Mr Ambani’s Reliance Jio.

Having invested billions in airwave auctions to dominate the telecom sector, Jio has now partnered with Luxembourg-based SES Astra, a leading satellite operator.

Unlike Mr Musk’s Starlink, which uses low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites positioned between 160 and 1,000 km from Earth’s surface for faster service, SES operates medium-Earth orbit (MEO) satellites at a much higher altitude, offering a more cost-effective system.

Receivers on the ground receive satellite signals and process it to internet data.

Mr Musk’s Starlink has 6,419 satellites in orbit and four million subscribers across 100 countries. He has been aiming to launch services in India since 2021, but regulatory hurdles have caused delays.

If his company enters India this time, it will boost Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to attract foreign investment, many say.

It will also help his government’s efforts to burnish its image as pro-business, countering claims that its policies favour top Indian businessmen like Mr Ambani.

While auctions have proved lucrative for it in the past, India’s government defends its decision to allocate satellite spectrum administratively this time, claiming it aligns with international norms.

Satellite spectrum is not typically allocated by auction as the costs involved could impact the financial rationale or investment in the business, says Gareth Owen, a technology analyst at Counterpoint Research. In contrast, administrative allocation would ensure spectrum is fairly distributed among “qualified” players, giving Starlink a chance to enter the race.

But Mr Ambani’s Reliance says an auction is necessary to ensure fair competition, given the lack of clear legal provisions in India on how satellite broadband services can be offered directly to people.

In letters written to the telecoms regulator earlier in October, seen by the BBC, Reliance repeatedly urged the creation of a “level playing field between satellite-based and terrestrial access services”.

The firm also said that “recent advancements in satellite technologies… have significantly blurred the lines between satellite and terrestrial networks”, and that “satellite-based services are no longer confined to areas unserved by terrestrial networks”. One letter stated that spectrum assignment is done through auctions under India’s telecom laws, with administrative allocation allowed only in cases of “public interest, government functions, or technical or economic reasons preventing auctions.”

On X, Mr Musk pointed out that the spectrum “was long designated by the ITU as shared spectrum for satellites”. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN agency for digital technology, sets global regulations, and India is a member and signatory.

When Reuters news agency reported that Mukesh Ambani was lobbying the government to reconsider its position, Mr Musk responded to a post on X, saying: “I will call [Mr Ambani] and ask if it would not be too much trouble to allow Starlink to compete to provide internet services to the people of India.”

Mr Ambani’s resistance to the administrative pricing method might stem from a strategic advantage, suggests Mr Owen. The tycoon could be “prepared to outbid Musk”, using an auction to potentially exclude Starlink from the Indian market, he says.

But it is not Mr Ambani alone who supported the auction route.

Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, has said that companies aiming to serve urban, high-end customers should “take telecom licences and buy spectrum like everyone else”.

Mr Mittal – India’s second-largest wireless operator – along with Mr Ambani, controls 80% of the country’s telecom market.

Such resistance is a “defensive move aimed at raising costs for international players seen as long-term threats,” says Mahesh Uppal, a telecommunications expert.

“While not immediate competition, satellite technologies are advancing quickly. Telecom companies [in India] with large terrestrial businesses fear that satellites could soon become more competitive, challenging their dominance.”

At stake, clearly, is the promise of the vast Indian market. Nearly 40% of India’s 1.4 billion people still don’t have internet access, with rural areas making up most of the cases, according to EY-Parthenon, a consulting company.

For context, China is home to almost 1.09 billion internet users, which is almost 340 million more than India’s 751 million, according to DataReportal, which tracks global online trends.

India’s internet adoption rate still lags behind the global average of 66.2% but recent studies show that the country is closing the gap.

If priced properly, satellite broadband can help bridge some of this gap, and even help in the internet-of things (IoT), a network that connects everyday objects to the internet, allowing them to talk to each other.

Pricing will be crucial in India, where mobile data is among the cheapest globally – just 12 cents per gigabyte, according to Modi.

“A price war [with Indian operators] is inevitable. Musk has deep pockets. There’s no reason why he cannot offer a year of free services in [some] places to gain a foothold in the domestic market,” says Prasanto K Roy, a technology analyst.

Starlink has already cut prices in Kenya and South Africa.

It may not be easy though. In a 2023 report, EY-Parthenon noted that Starlink’s higher costs – almost 10 times those of major Indian broadband providers – could make it difficult to compete without government subsidies.

Many more LEO satellites – the kind Starlink operates – are needed to provide global coverage than MEO satellites, increasing launch and maintenance costs.

And some of the fears of Indian operators could be unfounded.

“Businesses will never switch completely to satellite unless there is no terrestrial option. Terrestrial networks will always be less expensive than satellite, except in thinly populated regions,” says Mr Owen.

Mr Musk could have a first-mover advantage, but “satellite markets are notoriously slow to develop”.

The battle between two of the world’s richest men over internet of space has truly begun.

The son of modern Singapore’s founder has gained asylum in the UK following claims of persecution amid a high-profile family feud.

Lee Hsien Yang has long alleged he faces oppression back home from the Singapore government that was led for 20 years by his brother, Lee Hsien Loong.

The government denies these claims and says he is free to return.

Both men are sons of the revered leader Lee Kuan Yew who died in 2015. Since then the brothers have been locked in a years-long dispute over their father’s house, which has spiralled into a vicious public family battle.

Lee Hsien Yang showed the BBC some documents including a letter stating his claim for asylum was successful. The letter also stated the UK government had given him “refugee status” for five years as it accepted he had the “well-founded fear of persecution and therefore cannot return to your country Singapore”.

Mr Lee, who lives in London, said his wife had also been granted asylum.

A Home Office spokesman said it is “longstanding government policy that we do not comment on individual cases”.

The BBC has independently confirmed Mr Lee’s asylum status but not other details.

“Everything the Singapore government has said is fully public and must surely have been taken into account when the refugee status was granted,” Mr Lee said.

“I sought asylum protection as a last resort. I remain a Singapore citizen and hope that some day it will become safe to return home.”

As a member of what has been seen as Singapore’s “first family”, and the former chief of Singapore’s largest telecommunications company, Mr Lee was very much a part of the country’s establishment until he fell out with his brother.

Since then he has joined an opposition political party and become a vocal critic of the Singapore government, roles which he has “every intention” of continuing while based in the UK, he said.

Lee Hsien Yang and his wife, as well as one of their sons, have lived abroad for several years in self-imposed exile. They have been subject to investigations and legal action brought on by the government which they say is part of a pattern of persecution.

Along with his late sister Lee Wei Ling, Mr Lee has long accused their brother Lee Hsien Loong of capitalising on their father’s legacy to build a political dynasty.

They have also alleged their brother abused his power during his time as prime minister, and said they feared he was using the “organs of the state” against them.

Lee Hsien Loong stepped down as PM earlier this year and remains in cabinet as a senior minister. He and the Singapore government have strenuously denied such claims.

On Tuesday the government released a statement saying allegations that Lee Hsien Yang and his family are victims of persecution were “without basis” and that they face “no legal restraints”.

“They are and have always been free to return to Singapore,” the statement added.

Lee Hsien Loong’s press secretary said he had no comment.

The Lees’ years-long dispute over their family home began with the death of Lee Kuan Yew, the country’s first prime minister and widely considered the architect of modern Singapore.

It centres on 38 Oxley Road, a small and nondescript house sitting on a quiet street in Singapore’s downtown that is estimated to be worth tens of millions of Singapore dollars.

The statesman, who was famously averse to the idea of a cult of personality built around him, had stated in his will that he wanted his house to be demolished either after his death or after his daughter moved out of the home.

Lee Hsien Loong, who was prime minister at the time, said the house would be preserved for the time being, while his siblings insisted it should be knocked down immediately in accordance to their father’s wishes.

Following his sister’s death earlier this month from a brain disease, Lee Hsien Yang has now applied for the demolition of the house and, in its place, the construction of a “small private dwelling” that would be owned by the Lee family.

A young woman spent hours trapped upside down after slipping between two boulders as she tried to retrieve her mobile phone during a hike in Australia.

The woman – named in reports as Matilda Campbell – was walking in New South Wales’ Hunter Valley region earlier this month when she fell into the three-metre crevice.

It was the start of a seven-hour ordeal which would see emergency services undertake a “challenging” rescue – including moving several boulders.

And even after managing to winch a 500kg (1,100lb) rock out the way, they still had to work out how to get the woman out of the “S” bend she had found herself in.

“In my 10 years as a rescue paramedic I had never encountered a job quite like this, it was challenging but incredibly rewarding,” Peter Watts, a paramedic with New South Wales Ambulance service, said, according to a release on the service’s social media pages.

She had already been upside down for more than an hour before rescuers arrived, her friends’ initial attempts to free her having been unsuccessful.

Photos shared by the ambulance service show her hanging between the boulders by her feet, as well as the complicated efforts to keep the area stable as emergency services tried to create a gap big enough to free her.

Mr Watts later described the young woman as a “trooper” in an interview with Australia’s ABC.

“We were all like, how did you get down there – and how are we going to get her out?”

Unbelievably, the rescued woman was left with just minor scratches and bruises, NSW Ambulance said.

She did not, however, manage to retrieve her phone.

“Thank you to the team who saved me you guys are literally life savers,” she wrote in a message online.

“Too bad about the phone tho.”

The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) and his partner have been arrested and charged with running a prostitution and international sex trafficking business.

Authorities arrested former fashion executive Mike Jeffries, his partner Matthew Smith and the couple’s alleged middleman – James Jacobson – on Tuesday morning.

Federal prosecutors said the men used force, fraud and coercion to engage in “violent and exploitive” sexual acts.

Mr Jeffries and his partner have previously denied any wrongdoing via their lawyers, and Mr Jeffries’ lawyer told the BBC on Tuesday that they would “respond in detail to the allegations after the Indictment is unsealed”.

A lawyer for Mr Smith has been approached for new comment. A&F declined to comment on the latest developments.

The FBI opened an investigation last year after the BBC revealed claims that Mike Jeffries and his partner sexually exploited and abused men at events they hosted in their New York residences and hotels around the world.

The BBC investigation found that there was a sophisticated operation involving a middleman and a network of recruiters tasked with finding men for these events.

On Tuesday, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Breon Peace, alleged that Mr Jeffries used his wealth, power and status as CEO of A&F “to traffic men for his own sexual pleasure” and for the pleasure of his partner, Mr Smith.

Outlining prosecutors’ accusations, Mr Peace alleged the couple employed Mr Jacobson as their recruiter who would conduct “tryouts” with men from across the globe by engaging them in sex acts in exchange for money.

Once Mr Jeffries approved of the men, they would be flown to his New York home where they were “pressured to consume alcohol, Viagra, and muscle relaxants”, Mr Peace claimed.

Prosecutors further alleged that Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith directed others or personally “injected men with an erection inducing substance” when they were incapable or unwilling to participate.

The ex-CEO “spent millions of dollars on a massive infrastucture to support this operation and maintain its secrecy”, prosecutors said, which included international travel, hotel stays, paid staff and security for the events.

Prosecutors said there were 15 victims mentioned in the indictment but alleged that the operation “encompassed dozens and dozens of men”.

After a court appearance on Tuesday, Mr Jeffries was released on a $10m (£7.7m) bond, while Mr Jacobson was released on a $500,000 bond. They are next due in court on Friday.

Mr Smith was ordered detained.

Mr Peace, the federal prosecutor, confirmed at a press conference on Tuesday that authorities were initially tipped off by media reports.

Following the BBC’s reporting, a civil lawsuit was also filed in New York accusing Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith of sex-trafficking, rape and sexual assault.

The lawsuit also accused Abercrombie & Fitch of having funded a sex-trafficking operation led by its former CEO over the two decades he was in charge.

Earlier on Tuesday, Brad Edwards of Edwards Henderson, a civil lawyer representing some of the alleged victims, said: “These arrests are a huge first step towards obtaining justice for the many victims who were exploited and abused through this sex-trafficking scheme that operated for many years under the legitimate cover Abercrombie provided.

“The unprecedented reporting of the BBC, coupled with the lawsuit our firm filed detailing the operation, are to credit for these monumental arrests. This was the result of impressive investigative journalism.”

In its initial investigation, the BBC spoke to 12 men who described attending or organising events involving sex acts run for Mr Jeffries, 80, and his British partner Mr Smith, 61, between 2009 and 2015.

The eight men who attended the events said they were recruited by a middleman who the BBC identified as James Jacobson.

Then, more men came forward last month. Some alleged Mr Jeffries’ assistants had injected them in the penis with what they were told was liquid Viagra.

Mr Jacobson, 71, previously told the BBC in a statement through his lawyer that he took offence at the suggestion of “any coercive, deceptive or forceful behaviour on my part” and had “no knowledge of any such conduct by others”.

The BBC also interviewed dozens of other sources, including former household staff.

Some of the men the BBC spoke to said they were misled about the nature of the events or not told sex was involved. Others said they understood the events would be sexual, but not exactly what was expected of them. All were paid.

Several told the BBC the middleman or other recruiters raised the possibility of modelling opportunities with A&F.

David Bradberry, then 23 and an aspiring model, said that it was “made clear” to him that without performing oral sex on Mr Jacobson, he would not be meeting A&F CEO Mr Jeffries.

“It was like he was selling fame. And the price was compliance,” Mr Bradberry told the BBC.

Mr Bradberry said he later attended a party at Mr Jeffries’s mansion in the Hamptons in Long Island where he met Mr Jeffries and had sex with him.

He said the “secluded” location and presence of Mr Jeffries’ personal staff, dressed in A&F uniforms, supervising events meant he “didn’t feel safe to say ‘no’ or ‘I don’t feel comfortable with this'”.

After the BBC’s initial investigation was published last year, A&F announced it was opening an independent investigation into the allegations raised. When we recently asked when this report will be completed – and if the findings would be made public – the company declined to answer.

Like Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith, the brand has been trying to get the civil lawsuit against it dismissed, arguing it had no knowledge of “the supposed sex-trafficking venture” led by its former CEO – which it has been accused of having funded.

Earlier this year, a US court ruled that A&F must cover the cost of Mike Jeffries’ legal defence as he continues to fight the civil allegations of sex-trafficking and rape. The judge ruled the allegations were tied to his corporate role after he sued the brand for refusing to pay his legal fees.

The brand said it did not comment on legal matters. However, in its defence submitted to court, A&F said its current leadership team was “previously unaware of” the allegations until the BBC contacted it, adding the company “abhors sexual abuse and condemns the alleged conduct” by Mr Jeffries and others.

In 2014, Mr Jeffries stepped down as CEO following declining sales and left with a retirement package valued at around $25m (£20.5m), according to company filings at the time.

Once one of America’s highest-paid CEOs, he was a controversial figure who faced claims of discrimination against staff, concerns about his lavish expenses and complaints about the unofficial influence of his life partner, Matthew Smith, inside A&F.

World Of Secrets – The Abercrombie Guys

Hear two new episodes on BBC Sounds or here if you are outside the UK

At about 06:45 on 28 March, police arrived at Andrey Perlov’s house near Novosibirsk in Siberia.

They accused him of stealing about three million roubles ($32,000; £24,000) from a Novosibirsk football club where he was the managing director – he and his family deny this.

Perlov, who is 62, is an Olympic gold medallist, having won the 50km race walk in 1992.

He has been detained for more than six months and his family says he is being pressured to agree to fight in Ukraine. He’s been told that, in return, the embezzlement case against him would be frozen and potentially dropped when the war ends.

It’s no secret that prisoners have been recruited to fight in Ukraine, but BBC analysis can reveal how the initial focus on convicted criminals has shifted to include people yet to face trial.

The latest laws mean that both prosecution and defence lawyers are now legally obliged to inform people who are charged with most crimes that they have the option to go to war instead of court.

The legislation, passed in March 2024, means that if they sign up, the prosecution and any investigation will be stopped. Their cases will generally be closed completely at the end of the war.

“This has turned Russia’s law enforcement system upside down,” says Olga Romanova, the director of Russia Behind Bars – an NGO that provides legal assistance to detainees.

“Police can now catch a man over a corpse of someone he has just killed. They tighten the handcuffs and then the killer says: ‘Oh wait, I want to go on a special military operation,’ and they close the criminal case.”

We received a leaked recording of an investigator describing the advantages of signing a contract with the Russian army to someone whose husband had already been sentenced to three years for theft.

“He can get six more for this other crime,” he tells her. “I offered him a chance to sign an agreement. If his request is approved, he will go to war and we will close the case.”

If the accused signs, within a few days the criminal case is suspended, and they leave for the front line almost immediately.

Three lawyers working in Russia confirmed that this has become the norm across the country.

Some sign up in the hope of avoiding prison and a criminal record – but it’s not an easy way out, as teenager Yaroslav Lipavsky discovered.

He signed a contract with the army after he was accused of intentionally inflicting “serious harm to health by a group of persons by prior agreement”.

His young girlfriend had just found out she was pregnant and in order to avoid prosecution, Lipavsky signed up with the military as soon as he turned 18.

He left for Ukraine and a week later was dead – one of the youngest soldiers to die in the war.

It’s not clear how many people accused of crimes have opted to fight instead of facing trial, but this shift in policy reflects Russia’s need to reinforce troops while minimising the number of other civilians it needs to mobilise.

“Do Russians care about convicts or those who are in prison? I suspect that they don’t,” says Michael Koffman, military analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

He thinks the government “likely assumes that these are people they can lose, that nobody will miss and that they will not have a substantial, negative effect on the overall economy”.

When the Wagner mercenary group first recruited prison inmates, its late leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, targeted convicts in high-security jails, saying he needed their “criminal talents” in return for pardons.

The BBC and Russian website Mediazona have seen and verified confidential documents that shed light on the process of recruiting prisoners, what has happened to many of them and the need to maintain the flow of new fighters.

We know, from analysing the dog tags of convicts who died in Ukraine and payments made to their families, that Wagner recruited nearly 50,000 inmates from penal colonies, and at one point were losing up to 200 in action every day. Many others were injured.

All prisoners’ dog tags start with the letter K, which stands for “kolonya” or prison colony.

The first three numbers identify the prison where they came from and the last three numbers identify the recruit, given out in sequence – so the higher the number, the more recruits came from that colony.

Payment records show that more than 17,000 prisoners were killed trying to capture the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine between July 2022 and June 2023 alone.

To plug the losses, Wagner, and later the Ministry of Defence, have adapted their recruitment strategies to broaden the pool of people they can draw on.

Some people accused of crimes refuse the new deal because they are against the war in principle, others because the risk of dying or being injured on the battlefield is too great, and others because they want to stay at home to fight their case.

But they can come under huge pressure from the authorities, says Andrey Perlov’s daughter Alina.

“He refused and we made quite a big noise in the local media so he was sent to the strict punishment cell, where they brought him the contract again.”

She adds that when he refused a second time, he was forbidden from seeing or calling his family.

They still hope to prove his innocence, but the last time Alina saw her father in court in mid-July, he had lost a lot of weight. “He tries to keep himself cheerful,” she says, “but if this goes on, they will break him.”

We asked the Russian authorities about Andrey Perlov’s case and whether they are unfairly pressurising detainees to join the army. They did not respond.

• Listen to the latest Ukrainecast, in wich the former head of the Army, General Sir Patrick Sanders, discusses how militaries have a long history of recruiting from prisons

A huge meteorite first discovered in 2014 caused a tsunami bigger than any in known human history and boiled the oceans, scientists have discovered.

The space rock, which was 200 times the size of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs, smashed into Earth when our planet was in its infancy three billion years ago.

Carrying sledge hammers, scientists hiked to the impact site in South Africa to chisel off chunks of rock to understand the crash.

The team also found evidence that massive asteroid impacts did not bring only destruction to Earth – they helped early life thrive.

“We know that after Earth first formed there was still a lot of debris flying around space that would be smashing into Earth,” says Prof Nadja Drabon from Harvard university, lead author of the new research.

“But now we have found that life was really resilient in the wake of some of these giant impacts, and that it actually bloomed and thrived,” she says.

The meteorite S2 was much larger than the space rock we are most familiar with. The one that led to the dinosaurs’ extinction 66 million years ago was about 10km wide, or almost the height of Mount Everest.

But S2 was 40-60km wide and its mass was 50-200 times greater.

It struck when Earth was still in its early years and looked very different. It was a water world with just a few continents sticking out of the sea. Life was very simple – microorganisms composed of single cells.

The impact site in Eastern Barberton Greenbelt is one of the oldest places on Earth with remnants of a meteorite crash.

Prof Drabon travelled there three times with her colleagues, driving as far as possible into the remote mountains before hiking the rest of the way with backpacks.

Rangers accompanied them with machine guns to protect them against wild animals like elephants or rhinos, or even poachers in the national park.

They were looking for spherule particles, or tiny fragments of rock, left behind by impact. Using sledge hammers, they collected hundreds of kilograms of rock and took them back to labs for analysis.

Prof Drabon stowed the most precious pieces in her luggage.

“I usually get stopped by security, but I give them a big spiel about how exciting the science is and then they get really bored and let me through,” she says.

The team have now re-constructed just what the S2 meteorite did when it violently careened into Earth. It gouged out a 500km crater and pulverised rocks that ejected at incredibly fast speeds to form a cloud that circled around the globe.

“Imagine a rain cloud, but instead of water droplets coming down, it’s like molten rock droplets raining out of the sky,” says Prof Drabon.

A huge tsunami would have swept across the globe, ripped up the sea floor, and flooded coastlines.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami would have paled in comparison, suggests Prof Drabon.

All that energy would have generated massive amounts of heat that boiled the oceans causing up to tens of metres of water to evaporate. It would also have increased air temperatures by up to 100C.

The skies would have turned black, choked with dust and particles. Without sunlight penetrating the darkness, simple life on land or in shallow water that relied on photosynthesis would have been wiped out.

These impacts are similar to what geologists have found about other big meteorite impacts and what was suspected for S2.

But what Prof Drabon and her team found next was surprising. The rock evidence showed that the violent disturbances churned up nutrients like phosphorus and iron that fed simple organisms.

“Life was not only resilient, but actually bounced back really quickly and thrived,” she says.

“It’s like when you brush your teeth in the morning. It kills 99.9% of bacteria, but by the evening they’re all back, right?” she says.

The new findings suggest that the big impacts were like a giant fertiliser, sending essential ingredients for life like phosphorus around the globe.

The tsunami sweeping the planet would also have brought iron-rich water from the depths to the surface, giving early microbes extra energy.

The findings add to a growing view among scientists that early life was actually helped by the violent succession of rocks striking Earth in its early years, Prof Drabon says.

“It seems that life after the impact actually encountered really favourable conditions that allowed it to bloom,” she explains.

The findings are published in the scientific journal PNAS.

Police have raided a pizzeria in western Germany which they alleged served customers a side of cocaine when they ordered item number 40 on the menu.

Authorities were tipped off about the scheme in March by food inspectors, and drug squad officers began watching the restaurant, criminal director Michael Graf von Moltke said on Monday.

When police went to detain the pizzeria manager at his apartment, the 36-year-old reportedly threw a bag of drugs out of the window, which “fell right into the arms of the police officers”, Düsseldorf police said.

Police found 1.6kg (3.5lb) of cocaine, 400g (14.1oz) of cannabis and €268,000 (£223,120) in cash in the apartment.

The restaurant manager was released by police a few days later, and he reopened his restaurant and continued to sell the drug and pizza combination.

Investigators used the opportunity to explore the drug supply chain to the pizzeria, leading them to bust a drug ring in western Germany weeks later.

Around 150 officers raided two cannabis plantations – one in Mönchengladbach, to the west of Düsseldorf where 300 plants were found, and another in Solingen, to the east of the city, where 60 plants were found.

The homes and businesses of 12 suspects were also raided, resulting in the arrests of three people, including a 22-year-old suspected of being the head of the drug operation.

Police also found weapons, money and expensive watches during the raids.

The pizzeria manager was rearrested while trying to leave the country and remains in custody.

“The number 40 was one of the best-selling pizzas,” Mr Moltke said.

Police have not released the name of others involved in the drug operation, or the price of the pizza and cocaine combination.

British actor Idris Elba has told the BBC that he will relocate to Africa within the next decade as part of his plans to support the continent’s movie industry.

The 52-year-old star of the hit series The Wire is behind nascent projects to build a film studio on the Tanzanian islands of Zanzibar as well as one in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

Born in London, Elba, whose mother is from Ghana and father from Sierra Leone, has a strong attachment to Africa.

He wants to leverage his star power to back its burgeoning film business as he says it is vital that Africans get to tell their own stories.

“I would certainly consider settling down here; not even consider, it’s going to happen,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of a cinema industry meeting in Accra.

“I think [I’ll move] in the next five, 10 years, God willing. I’m here to bolster the film industry – that is a 10-year process – I won’t be able to do that from overseas. I need to be in-country, on the continent.”

But in the spirit of Pan-Africanism he will not commit to living in a specific place.

“I’m going to live in Accra, I’m going to live in Freetown [Sierra Leone’s capital], I’m going to live in Zanzibar. I’m going to try and go where they’re telling stories – that’s really important.”

One goal he does have is to make a film in his studio in Accra one day.

Elba, who played South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela in the 2013 biopic Long Walk to Freedom, believes that it is vital for Africans to be centre-stage in the entire film-making process. That is in front of the camera, behind the camera and also in financing, distribution, marketing and showing the final product.

He imagines that just as movie audiences around the world know the differences between the US cities of New York and Los Angeles without necessarily ever having visited them, they will one day have a more nuanced understanding of the continent.

“This sector is a soft power, not just across Ghana but across Africa.

“If you watch any film or anything that has got to do with Africa, all you’re going to see is trauma, how we were slaves, how we were colonised, how it’s just war and when you come to Africa, you will realise that it’s not true.

“So, it’s really important that we own those stories of our tradition, of our culture, of our languages, of the differences between one language and another. The world doesn’t know that.”

With Nigeria’s Nollywood producing hundreds of movies a year, films are arguably one of the country’s most successful exports. There is also a tradition, especially in parts of Francophone Africa, of making high-quality films.

Elba has previously recognised the talent in Africa’s film industry, but said the facilities were “lacking”.

A 2022 report from Unesco backed up the actor.

The UN’s cultural agency said that despite “significant growth in production”, the business of film-making across the continent was hindered by issues such as piracy, insubstantial training opportunities and a lack of official film institutions.

Elba believes with the right momentum and involvement of governments willing to create an enabling environment, a virtuous circle can be established.

“We have to invest in our story-telling because when you see me, you see a little version of yourself and that encourages us.”

Thousands of people were out on the streets of Sydney on Tuesday, eager to see King Charles and Queen Camilla, set against the iconic Opera House in the late afternoon sunlight.

For Buckingham Palace, this was the ideal ending to the royal tour of Australia.

The optics were positive. Despite a headline-grabbing protest in Canberra on Monday, the public mood on the ground in Sydney was supportive.

But getting to this point – with a successful completion of this trip ahead of a poignant goodbye – will have come as a huge relief to royal aides.

Back in February, this tour looked unlikely to happen with the King diagnosed with cancer and having treatment.

But it stayed in the diary with modifications on the advice of doctors.

The duration of this visit has been shorter and the engagements have been arranged to avoid early starts and late finishes.

Even with the alterations, it has still been a busy schedule for the King and Queen.

On Tuesday alone the royal couple between them visited a National Centre of Indigenous Excellence, a food bank, a social housing project, a literacy initiative, a community barbecue, meeting two leading cancer researchers, celebrating the Sydney Opera House’s 50th anniversary, and a naval review in Sydney Harbour.

An Australian arm of the King’s Foundation was officially launched, expanding a charity which promotes sustainability and provides training in traditional craft skills.

These trips are a quickfire round of very diverse events, with the crowds at each demanding attention – and the King appears to have coped well.

His health challenges haven’t shown and he has appeared moved by the response he’s had from the public on his first visit here as monarch.

The protest at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday was uncomfortable but not unexpected.

The King has encountered many protesters over the years and came to Australia knowing that republican sentiment and campaigns in support of Indigenous communities were likely to come up.

His presence here in Australia immediately focuses minds on the King’s role as head of state and re-opens questions about whether that is right for modern Australia.

Although republican sentiment bubbles under the surface here, except for the heckling in Parliament it has not burst through in any significant way on this trip.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who supports a republic, has been at the King and Queen’s side for several engagements and spoken warmly about his royal guests.

Before the disruption at Parliament, the prime minister formally welcomed the King to Canberra.

“You have shown great respect for Australians, even during times when we have debated the future of our own constitutional arrangements and the nature of our relationship with the crown. Nothing stands still,” said Albanese.