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For most of the people of Lebanon, a ceasefire could not come quickly enough. A leading Lebanese analyst at a conference on the Middle East that I’m attending in Rome said she couldn’t sleep as the appointed hour for the ceasefire came closer.

“It was like the night before Christmas when you’re a kid. I couldn’t wait for it to happen.”

You can see why there’s relief. More than 3,500 citizens of Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes. Displaced people packed their cars before dawn to try to get back to whatever remains of their homes.

Well over one million of them have been forced to flee by Israeli military action. Thousands have been wounded and the homes of tens of thousands of others have been destroyed.

But in Israel, some feel they have lost the chance to do more damage to Hezbollah.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the heads of Israel’s northern municipalities, which have been turned into ghost towns with around 60,000 civilians evacuated further south.

Israel’s Ynet news website reported that it was an angry meeting that turned into a shouting match, with some of the local officials frustrated that Israel was taking the pressure off their enemies in Lebanon and not offering an immediate plan to get civilians home.

In a newspaper column, the mayor of Kiryat Shmona, close to the border, said he doubted the ceasefire would be enforced, demanding that Israel creates a buffer zone in south Lebanon. In a poll commissioned by the Israeli station Channel 12 News those questioned were roughly split between supporters and opponents of the ceasefire.

Half of the participants in the survey believe Hezbollah has not been defeated and 30% think the ceasefire will collapse.

Back in late September, at the UN General Assembly in New York, a deal looked as if it was close. Diplomats from the US and UK were convinced that a ceasefire very similar to the one that is now coming into force was about to happen.

All sides in the war appeared to have signalled their willingness to accept a ceasefire based on the provisions of Security Council resolution 1701, which was passed to end the 2006 Lebanon war: Hezbollah would pull back from the border to be replaced by UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese Armed Forces. As they moved in, Israeli forces would gradually move out.

But Prime Minister Netanyahu went to the podium at the UN to deliver a fiery speech that refused to accept any pause in Israel’s offensive.

Back at his New York hotel Netanyahu’s official photographer captured the moment as he ordered the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, along with most of his high command. Netanyahu’s office released the photos, in another calculated snub for American diplomacy.

The assassination was a significant escalation and a blow to Hezbollah. In the weeks since, Israel’s military has inflicted immense damage to Hezbollah’s military organisation. It could still fire rockets over the border and its fighters continued to engage Israel’s invasion force. But Hezbollah is no longer the same threat to Israel.

Military success is one of several factors that have come together to persuade Benjamin Netanyahu that this is a good time to stop.

Israel’s agenda in Lebanon is more limited than in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. It wants to push Hezbollah back from its northern border and to allow civilians to return to border towns.

If Hezbollah looks to be preparing an attack, Israel has a side letter from the Americans agreeing that it can take military action.

In a recorded statement announcing his decision, Netanyahu listed the reasons why it was time for a ceasefire. Israel, he said, had made the ground in Beirut shake. Now there was a chance ‘to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks,’ he continued.

Israel had also broken the connection between Gaza and Lebanon. After the late Hassan Nasrallah ordered the attacks on Israel’s north, the day after Hamas went to war on 7th October last year, he said they would continue until there was a ceasefire in Gaza.

Now, Netanyahu said, Hamas in Gaza would be under even more pressure. Palestinians fear another escalation in Israel’s Gaza offensive.

There was one more reason; to concentrate on what Netanyahu called the Iranian threat. Damaging Hezbollah means damaging Iran. It was built up by the Iranians to create a threat right on Israel’s border. Hezbollah became the strongest part of Iran’s axis of resistance, the name it gave to its network of forward defence made up of allies and proxies.

Just like Hezbollah’s surviving leaders, their patrons in Iran also wanted a ceasefire. Hezbollah needs a pause to lick its wounds. Iran needs to stop the geostrategic bleeding. Its axis of resistance is no longer a deterrent. Iran’s missile attack on Israel after Nasrallah’s assassination did not repair the damage.

Two men, both now assassinated, designed Hezbollah to deter Israel not just from attacking Lebanon – but also from attacking Iran. They were Qasem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who was killed by an American drone strike at Baghdad airport in January 2020. The order was issued by Donald Trump in his last few weeks in the White House at the end of his first term. The other was Hassan Nasrallah, killed by a huge Israeli air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Hezbollah and Iran’s deterrence strategy matched Israel’s own deterrence for almost 20 years after the end of the 2006 war. But among the profound changes caused by the 7th October attacks was Israel’s determination not to accept restrictions on the wars it would wage in response. America, its most important ally, also put almost no restrictions on the supply or use of the weapons it kept on providing.

Nasrallah and Iran failed to see what had happened. They did not understand how Israel had changed. They sought to impose a war of attrition on Israel, and succeeded for almost a year. Then on 17th September Israel broke out of it by triggering the miniature bombs built into the network of booby-trapped pagers its intelligence services had duped Hezbollah into buying.

Hezbollah was thrown off balance. Before it could react with the most powerful weapons Iran had provided, Israel killed Nasrallah and most of his key lieutenants, accompanied by massive strikes that destroyed arms dumps. That was followed by an invasion of South Lebanon and the wholesale destruction of Lebanese border villages as well as Hezbollah’s tunnel network.

A ceasefire in Lebanon is not necessarily a precursor to one in Gaza. Gaza is different. The war there is about more than security of the border, and Israeli hostages.

It is also about revenge, about Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival, and his government’s absolute rejection of Palestinian aspirations for independence.

The Lebanon ceasefire is fragile and deliberately paced to buy time for it to work. When the 60 days in which it is supposed to take effect ends, Donald Trump will be back in the Oval Office. President-elect Trump has indicated that he wants a ceasefire in Lebanon, but his precise plans have not yet emerged.

The Middle East is waiting for the ways he might affect the region. Some optimists hope that he might want to create a moment akin to President Nixon’s sensational visit to China in 1972 by reaching out to Iran.

The pessimists fear he might abandon even the hollow genuflection that the US still makes to the idea of a creating an independent Palestine alongside Israel – the so-called two state solution. That might pave the way to annexation of those parts of the occupied Palestinian territories Israel wants, including much of the West Bank and northern Gaza.

What is certain though is that the Middle East has no chance of escaping more generations of war and violent death until the region’s fundamental political ruptures are faced and fixed. The biggest is the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, along with most Israelis believe it is possible to dominate their enemies by pressing on to a military victory. Netanyahu is actively using force, unrestrained by the US, to alter the balance of power in the Middle East in Israel’s favour.

In a conflict that has lasted more than a century both Arabs and Jews have dreamt repeatedly of peace through military victory. Every generation has tried and failed. The catastrophic consequences of the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 ripped away any pretence that the conflict could be managed while Israel continued to deny Palestinian rights to self-determination. The ceasefire in Lebanon is a respite. It is not a solution.

Early in the morning they grabbed what they could – bags with clothes, blankets, and mattresses – and headed south.

Families who had been forced to flee because of the war did not wait to see if the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah would hold.

Just hours after it came into effect they were driving back home on the main road from Beirut.

Some waved the yellow and green flag of Hezbollah, others carried posters with images of the group’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah, killed in an Israeli air strike two months ago.

For many this was a moment of celebration.

“What happened is very good. This is a victory for the resistance,” said Abu Ali, referring to the ceasefire that had been brokered by the US and France.

“May God have mercy on our martyrs. The resistance is a source of honour and pride for us. Without its existence, there would be no homeland, no south, nothing.”

His plan was to return to the village Houla, right next to the border. But Israeli troops were still there, he said.

“We don’t know whether our house is still standing or has been destroyed,” Ali said. “But we’ll go there.”

The 60-day ceasefire will see the gradual withdrawal of the Israeli military, and of Hezbollah fighters and weapons, from Lebanon’s south.

The Lebanese army said it was already strengthening its presence there, as part of the deployment of an additional 5,000 soldiers under the deal. Both Israel and Hezbollah have said they are ready to respond to any violations.

The ceasefire is the main hope to bring an end to over a year of conflict, that intensified in September with widespread Israeli air strikes, assassinations of top Hezbollah officials and a ground invasion.

Israel’s stated goal was to move the group away from the border and stop the attacks on its northern communities.

In Lebanon, more than one million people were displaced, mostly from Shia Muslim areas in the south, the eastern Bekka Valley and Dahieh in Beirut – which are essentially controlled by Hezbollah, the powerful militia and political party supported by Iran.

They started to return despite warnings from Israeli and Lebanese authorities that it was not yet safe to do so.

“It doesn’t matter if the house is still intact or not, the important thing is that we are returning, thanks to the blood of our martyr, Nasrallah,” said Fatma Balhas, who was travelling to the town of Seddiqine.

Hezbollah-allied media also said this was a sign the group had been victorious in the war.

Near Sidon, the first big city on the coast south of Beirut, cars drove on the opposite carriageway, as a traffic jam formed just outside a military checkpoint.

Soldiers handed out leaflets telling people to not touch unexploded ordnance. “Don’t get close, don’t touch it, report it immediately”.

As night fell on Wednesday the truce appeared to be holding, with UN chief Antonio Guterres describing it as the “first ray of hope for peace amid the darkness of the past months”.

The war has devastated this country, and recovery will be long and difficult. And what will happen with Hezbollah is not clear. The group has been diminished, but it still enjoys significant support.

For Lebanon, it means this crisis is not over.

Several of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and picks for his White House team have been targeted by bomb threats.

The FBI said it was aware of “numerous bomb threats” as well as “swatting incidents”, in which hoax calls are made to attract a police response to the target’s home.

Threats were made against at least nine people chosen by Trump to lead the Departments of Defence, Housing, Agriculture and Labor, as well as his pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, among others.

Police are investigating the incidents, which happened on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition team, said the Trump appointees “were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them”.

She said “law enforcement acted quickly to ensure” the nominees’ safety.

“With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us,” she said.

Neither Leavitt nor the FBI identified any of the targets by name.

New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who Trump has named to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, was the first to say her family home had been targeted by a bomb threat.

Her office said the congresswoman was informed of the threat while she was driving with her husband and three-year-old son from Washington DC to New York for Thanksgiving.

Defence secretary nominee Pete Hegseth later confirmed that he was also targeted.

On X, he said that a police officer had shown up at his home on Wednesday morning, as his seven children were sleeping inside to notify him they had received “a credible pipe bomb threat”.

“I will not be bullied or intimidated. Never,” he wrote. “President Trump has called on me to serve – and that is what I intend to do.”

• ‘I had 60 seconds to protect my family’: Swatting targets US politicians

Trump, who survived two assassination attempts during his campaign, was not among those who received the hoax calls, law enforcement sources told US media.

He has received genuine threats recently, according to officials in Arizona who arrested a man earlier this week for posting videos on a “near-daily basis” in which he threatened to kill Trump and his family.

None of those targeted this week were protected by the US Secret Service, according to media reports.

Lee Zeldin, who Trump has nominated to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, also confirmed he was targeted, saying a “pipe bomb threat” was sent to his home with a “pro-Palestinian themed message”.

“My family and I were not home at the time and are safe,” he said. “We are thankful for the swift actions taken by local officers.”

Brooke Rollins, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Agriculture, posted on X to thank police in Fort Worth, Texas, for their “swift efforts” to investigate a threat to her family on Wednesday morning.

“We were unharmed and quickly returned home,” she wrote.

Scott Turner, Trump’s pick for Department of Housing, and Lori Chavez-Deremer, his pick for Labour Secretary, also posted on social media that they had been targeted. They each vowed that they would not be deterred by the threats.

President Joe Biden has been briefed on the incidents, the White House said in a statement.

“The White House is in touch with federal law enforcement and the President-elect’s team, and continues to monitor the situation closely.”

US Capitol Police, which protects Congress, said in the statement that it was working with federal law enforcement agencies on any “swatting”, but declined to provide further details “to minimise the risk of copy-cats”.

Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, who recently dropped out of the running to become US attorney general, was also targeted.

The sheriff’s office in Florida’s Okaloosa County confirmed that a bomb threat targeted an address in the town of Niceville.

The home’s mailbox was cleared and no devices were located, police said, and a search of the area did not uncover anything.

New York police told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the New York home of Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, was also threatened.

Pam Bondi, who was selected to replace Gaetz as Trump’s nominee, was also targeted along with incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, according to CBS.

Fox News reports that John Ratcliffe, Trump’s nominee to be director of the CIA, also received threats.

Similar hoax tactics have been recently used against other high-profile political figures, including against the judges and prosecutors who oversaw the criminal cases against Trump.

Last year, US politicians around the country were swatted over Christmas. Most were Republican, but some Democrats were targeted as well.

In what is one of Europe’s best performing economies, mum-of-four Emma says she lies awake at night worrying if her children will get the medical care they need.

She is one of many in the Republic of Ireland who say they are not feeling the benefits of the country’s considerably healthy bank balance.

As polls in the country’s general election prepare to open on Friday, there are lots of voters who say they feel “frustrated” and “grumpy”.

Pressures around housing, immigration and public services have dominated the campaign.

Two of Emma’s children have complex medical needs and have spent years on “endless waiting lists”, she says.

Her 16-year-old daughter waited so long to see a rheumatologist she “aged out” of child services, she says.

“I hear we are one of the richest countries in the world and we have never been richer, but I don’t see it,” she tells BBC News NI.

“I hear it but I don’t see it.”

Emma also cares for her two elderly parents and says her mum is forced to regularly drive a 10-hour round trip to see an eye specialist.

Emma lives in County Donegal, in the north-west of Ireland.

It is one of the furthest points from the heart of government in Dublin.

Last month, the Republic’s outgoing finance minister, Jack Chambers, delivered a pre-election budget in which he promises “bright and hopeful days for all of us”, including €250 (£208) for all households to help with energy bills.

Ireland will have a total budget surplus this year of €25bn (£20.8bn), which is made up in part by a huge tax windfall from Apple.

Thirty miles away in Bunbeg, on the county’s west coast, local journalist Áine Ní Bhreisleáin confirms Emma is not alone in how she feels.

“We’re being told that things are better in Ireland, but people can see the cost of living is rising and rising,” she says.

“Housing is very difficult to get. Health services, we’re being told, are having money pumped into them, but people can’t access the health services they need.”

And “people often vote first with their pocket”, she warns.

With its mountains and coastline, Donegal is a beautiful place to live in but its scale as a political constituency makes it a “canvasser’s nightmare”, says Áine.

“People maybe feel they’ve been separated and left on their own and forgotten here in Donegal,” she adds.

There are a number of issues why this may be, but Áine points to infrastructure, health services, expenditure and, pointedly, the issue surrounding defective concrete blocks.

Thousands of homes built with blocks containing high levels of the mineral Mica are crumbling across the county.

The mineral absorbs water, causing walls to crack and crumble.

In November 2021, the Irish government introduced what it said was a significant number of improvements to a previous scheme for mica homeowners.

The scheme, which is capped at €420,000 (£357,500), is for homeowners in counties Donegal, Mayo, Clare and Limerick – where the blocks are most present.

Housing is also a major problem in the Republic, with prices soaring and about 58,000 on the social housing waiting list.

A major report from July also suggests that at least 35,000 new homes need to be built every year to keep up with demand.

However, Ireland’s population continues to rise.

Last year around 150,000 immigrants arrived – the highest number for 17 years.

Most were from outside the UK.

County Donegal hosts the largest proportion, per capita, of asylum seekers – known in Ireland as International Protection Applicants (IPAs).

It is claimed one in every 100 people in the county is now an IPA.

“The concern people have about immigration in Donegal is equality,” local radio host Greg Hughes says.

“They feel people coming to the country, or people being offered refuge, are given priority.”

Greg hosts a live daily local phone-in programme on Highland Radio.

At his studios in Letterkenny, he says perhaps voters are “feeling grumpy or perhaps disconnected” because not all the problems in Ireland are new.

He suggests that people also have not seen meaningful moves to address them.

“I am not saying the government isn’t trying or they aren’t doing their best but the reality is you say to someone in Donegal that this current country is incredibly rich, they’ll say, ‘Well, when’s this going to trickle down into my pocket?’”

While chatting to Margarite in Letterkenny Shopping Centre, she says that she feels she is being “gaslighted” – the act or practice of grossly misleading someone, especially for one’s own advantage – by politicians.

“I think there’s a gap between the wealth in the country and the people on the ground,” she tells the BBC.

“I think people might be grumpy about the fact they’re constantly being told almost they feel like they’re being gaslit that we’re a rich country with all these resources.

“But when it comes down to things in rural areas, public transport, investment in roads, investment in local hospitals and the rate of pay in areas such as Donegal, we don’t feel that wealth.

“And I think that causes an awful lot of frustration.”

The outgoing government parties, made up of a coalition between Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, will be hoping to return to power following this election.

However Sinn Féin are hoping to be returned as the biggest party for the first time.

They have all been defending their records in government and in opposition.

A quarter of the 686 candidates are also running as Independents.

BBC News Northern Ireland will also broadcast an election results programme on Saturday at 18:00 GMT, available on iPlayer BBC Sounds, BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Two.

Three Americans detained in China were released after the Biden administration negotiated a prisoner swap.

Mark Swidan, Kai Li, and John Leung are on their way back to the US, a spokesperson for the National Security Council (NSC) said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Soon they will return and be reunited with their families for the first time in many years,” the statement said.

The exchange was reportedly months in the making, and included the release of at least one Chinese citizen in US custody.

President Biden raised the issue of Americans wrongfully detained in China directly with President Xi Jinping earlier this month when the two met during the Apec summit in Peru, according to an American official familiar with the negotiations. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also urged for their return during his visit to China in August.

“Thanks to this Administration’s efforts and diplomacy with the PRC, all of the wrongfully detained Americans in the PRC are home,” the NSC spokesperson said.

The swap was first reported by Politico.

Mr Swidan, 48, had been detained since 2012 and was facing the death penalty after a conviction for narcotics trafficking. Swidan denied the charges and the State Department classified him as wrongfully detained, previously raising concerns about his health.

Mark Li, 60, had been held in China since September 2016 on what activists say were trumped-up spying charges.

John Leung, 78, has lead several pro-Beijing groups in the US. He was arrested in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison on espionage charges two years later.

According to the New York Times, multiple US officials said they had discussed releasing Chinese citizen Xu Yanjun, 42, who was convicted in the US on espionage charges two years ago and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Xu was first Chinese government intelligence officer ever to be extradited to the US to stand trial, the Justice Department said.

As of Wednesday morning, Xu was listed in the Bureau of Prisons system as “not in BOP custody”.

The deal marks a diplomatic win for Biden in the final months of his presidency.

It follows the release of another American considered wrongfully detained: David Lin, a pastor who had been jailed in China from 2006 until his release in September.

During his four years in the White House, Biden oversaw the release of more than 70 Americans, including from Russia, Venezuela and Iran.

On Wednesday, the US also lowered its travel advisory level for mainland China to Level 2: Exercise increased caution.

Saurabh Bhasin loved Delhi, the city where he was born.

Growing up, he longed for the winter months which offered a brief escape from the Indian capital’s long and harsh summers.

But over the years, his yearning for winters turned into fear. Air pollution increasingly crossed hazardous levels between October and January, leaving the city’s skyline hazy and air poisonous. Ordinary activities like walking outdoors or even playing with his child at home started feeling stressful and risky.

In 2015, Mr Bhasin, a corporate lawyer, filed a petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of his toddler – along with the fathers of two six-month-olds – seeking a ban on the use of firecrackers, which are burst mostly during festivals and weddings.

“The alarming rate of deterioration of the quality of air in Delhi due to air pollution [is] caused by, but not limited to, traffic congestion, dust from widespread construction, industrial pollution and the seasonal use of firecrackers,” his petition said.

The court issued guidelines to regulate the use of crackers but Delhi’s air continued to deteriorate.

In November 2022, Mr Bhasin’s daughter was diagnosed with asthma. Earlier this year, he and his family left for the coastal state of Goa, around 2,000km (1,242 miles) away, where they live now.

It’s not a choice available to millions in Delhi, who cannot leave their livelihoods and are forced to live through the smog.

But a small number of people who have the means are choosing to move out – either permanently or during winter.

Mr Bhasin is one of them.

“We know that bringing [his daughter] to Goa doesn’t mean her asthma will go away. But we are sure that had we kept her in Delhi, the chances of it getting worse would have been much higher,” he says.

His concerns are not unfounded. Over the past few years, between October and January, Delhi’s air quality has frequently deteriorated to levels that the World Health Organization categorises as hazardous to health.

The Indian health ministry’s own recommendations say that poor to severe air quality may lead to an increase in morbidity and mortality among vulnerable sections such as children, elderly people and those with underlying medical conditions.

The recommendation advises people to avoid outdoor physical activities, and asks vulnerable people to remain inside and keep activity levels low when the air quality dips to levels classified as “severe”.

Mr Bhasin finds these measures cosmetic. “You can either invest in a solution now or keep putting a band-aid on it and pay the price for generations,” he says.

A 2022 study by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago found that air pollution can shorten the lives of people in Delhi by almost 10 years.

• Living in Delhi smog is like watching a dystopian film again and again

Rekha Mathur* is among those who have chosen to temporarily leave every year. In the winter, she relocates to the outskirts of Dehradun, near the Himalayan foothills.

She recently had a baby and now wants to stay away longer from Delhi, which struggles with bad air throughout the year. But her husband has to stay back for work, which means Ms Mathur is the child’s sole caregiver for months, and their son only gets to see his father occasionally.

“Our whole life is built around Delhi. I would have never left the city, if not for the worsening air pollution,” she says.

Ms Mathur says she is unsure how long the arrangement can continue as her son grows up and needs regular schooling.

It worries her that pollution is not just restricted to urban centres like Delhi now, but even smaller, scenic cities like Dehradun.

In Delhi, the city she longs to return to, the crisis has been a matter of debate for years.

Over the past four decades, India’s Supreme Court has ordered the relocation of polluting industries, the conversion of commercial diesel vehicles into cleaner alternatives, the closure of brick kilns and the speedy construction of bypasses and expressways.

• Indian Supreme Court’s 40-year quest to clean Delhi’s foul air

This winter, as smog returned to Delhi and adjoining regions, authorities imposed measures such as restricting non-essential construction, halting demolition activities, shutting down polluting industries, and limiting the number of vehicles on the road.

Yet, air quality hasn’t improved much. Residents express frustration that the onset of winter triggers an intense debate around air pollution every year, but hardly yields results.

Journalist and writer Om Thanvi, who lived in Delhi for more than 15 years, says there is no magic wand but to find a viable solution, the government must treat this as a public health emergency.

Mr Thanvi moved to the western state of Rajasthan in 2018 to teach, planning to return soon. But now, he says, he has decided to stay there permanently.

“I had to use an inhaler in Delhi. But since I have moved here, I don’t even remember where it is,” he says.

He advises others who have the means to leave the city until things improve.

“I miss Delhi’s vibrant cultural scene, but I don’t regret leaving and I don’t plan to return.”

But for millions of Indians, this is not a choice.

Sarita Devi migrated to Delhi from Patna city years ago for work. She irons clothes for a living, spending hours outdoors with her cart through winter and summer.

“I can’t go back to Patna because I can’t earn money there. And even if I did go, it wouldn’t change much for me,” Ms Devi says.

“I visited for a festival a few days ago and the air there was equally hazy,” she adds, highlighting the fact that the air in many north Indian cities is highly polluted.

Mr Bhasin says that when they moved to Goa in June, leaving behind friends and family was particularly difficult.

But now, he is confident that the decision was right.

“We are no longer willing to pay the price with our child’s health.”

Mahmoud is a cheeky teenager who beams the biggest of smiles even though he lost his front teeth in the rough and tumble of kids’ play.

He is a Sudanese orphan abandoned twice, and displaced twice in his country’s grievous war – one of nearly five million Sudanese children who have lost almost everything as they are pushed from one place to the next in what is now the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Nowhere else on Earth are so many children on the run, so many people living with such acute hunger.

Famine has already been declared in one area – many others subsist on the brink of starvation not knowing where their next meal will come from.

“It’s an invisible crisis,” emphasises the UN’s new humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.

“Twenty-five million Sudanese, more than half the country, need help now,” he adds.

In a time of all too many unprecedented crises, where devastating wars in places like Gaza and Ukraine dominate the world’s aid and attention, Mr Fletcher chose Sudan for his first field mission to highlight its plight.

“This crisis is not invisible to the UN, to our humanitarians on the front line risking and losing their lives to help the Sudanese people,” he told the BBC, as we travelled with him on his week-long trip.

Most of the people on his team working on the ground are also Sudanese who have lost their homes, their old lives, in this brutal struggle for power between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Mr Fletcher’s first field visit took him to Mahmoud’s Maygoma orphanage in Kassala in eastern Sudan, now home to nearly 100 children in a crumbling three-storey school-turned-shelter.

They lived with their carers in the capital, Khartoum, until the army and RSF turned their guns on each other in April 2023, trapping the orphanage as they dragged their country into a vortex of horrific violence, systematic looting and shocking abuse.

When fighting spread to the orphans’ new shelter in Wad Madani, in central Sudan, those who survived fled to Kassala.

When I asked 13-year-old Mahmoud to make a wish, he immediately broke into a big gap-toothed grin.

“I want to be a state governor so I can be in charge and rebuild destroyed homes,” he replied.

For 11 million Sudanese driven from one refuge to the next, returning to what is left of their homes and rebuilding their lives would be the biggest gift of all.

For now, even finding food to survive is a daily battle.

And for aid agencies, including the UN, getting it to them is a titanic task.

After Mr Fletcher’s four days of high-level meetings in Port Sudan, army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced on the X social media site that he had given the UN permission to establish more supply hubs and to use three more regional airports to deliver assistance.

Some of the permissions had been granted before but some marked a step forward.

The new announcement also came as the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) secured a green light to reach stricken communities behind lines controlled by the RSF, including the Zamzam camp in Darfur housing about half a million people where famine was recently confirmed.

“We’ve been pushing for months to get to these communities,” says Alex Marianelli, who heads WFP’s operations in Port Sudan.

Behind us in a WFP warehouse, Sudanese labourers sing as they load trucks with boxes of food heading for the worst of the worst areas.

Mr Marianelli reflects that he has never worked in such a difficult and dangerous environment.

Within the aid community, some criticise the UN, saying that its hands have been tied by recognising Gen Burhan as the de facto ruler of Sudan.

“Gen Burhan and his authorities control those checkpoints and the system of permits and access,” Mr Fletcher says in response.

“If we want to go into those areas we need to deal with them.”

He hopes the rival RSF will also put the people first.

“I’ll go anywhere, talk to anyone, to get this aid through, and to save lives,” Mr Fletcher adds.

In Sudan’s merciless war, all warring parties have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.

So too sexual violence, which the UN describes as “an epidemic” in Sudan.

The UN visit coincided with the “16 days of activism” marked globally as a campaign to stop gender-based violence.

In Port Sudan, the event in a displaced camp, the first to be set up when war flared, was especially poignant.

“We have to do better, we must do better,” vowed Mr Fletcher, who cast aside his prepared speech when he stood under a canopy facing rows of Sudanese women and children, clapping and ululating.

I asked some of the women listening what they made of his visit.

“We really need help but the major job should be from the Sudanese themselves,” reflects Romissa, who works for a local aid group and recounts her own harrowing journey from Khartoum at the start of the war.

“This is the time for the Sudanese people to stand together.”

The Sudanese have been trying to do a lot with a little.

In a simple two-room shelter, a safe house called Shamaa, or “Candle”, brings some light to the lives of abused single women and orphaned children.

Its founder, Nour Hussein al-Sewaty, known as Mama Nour, also started life in the Maygoma orphanage.

She also had to flee Khartoum to protect those in her care. One woman now sheltering with her was raped before the war, then abducted and raped again.

Even the formidable Mama Nour is now at breaking-point.

“We are so exhausted. We need help,” she declares.

“We want to smell the fresh air. We want to feel there are still people in the world who care about us, the people of Sudan.”

• A simple guide to what is happening
• ‘Rape me, not my daughter’ – women tell BBC of Sudan sexual violence
• Famine hits Sudan as peace talks fall short yet again
• WATCH: Inside a hospital on Sudan’s hunger front line
• WATCH: BBC reporter’s emotional return to ransacked family home

The boss of the company behind global fashion chain Uniqlo has told the BBC that the Japanese firm does not use cotton from the Xinjiang region of China in its products.

It is the first time Fast Retailing’s chief executive Tadashi Yanai has directly addressed the contentious issue.

China is a crucial market for Uniqlo not just for customers but also as a major manufacturing hub.

Xinjiang cotton was once known as some of the best fabric in the world.

But it has fallen out of favour after revelations that it is produced using forced labour by people from the Muslim Uyghur minority.

In 2022, tough US regulations on the import of goods from Xinjiang came into effect.

Many global brands removed products using Xinjiang cotton from their shelves, which led to fierce backlash in China. Brands such as H&M, Nike, Burberry, Esprit and Adidas were boycotted.

Sweden’s H&M saw its clothing pulled from major e-commerce stores in China.

At the time, Mr Yanai – who is Japan’s richest man – refused to confirm or deny whether Xinjiang cotton was used in Uniqlo clothing, saying he wanted “to be neutral between the US and China”.

His decision not to take a side helped Uniqlo to remain popular in China’s huge retail market.

But speaking to the BBC in Tokyo about the firm’s measures to be more transparent about where the materials in its clothes come from and how they are made, he said: “We’re not using [cotton from Xinjiang].”

“By mentioning which cotton we’re using…” he continued, before pausing and ending his answer with “Actually, it gets too political if I say anymore so let’s stop here”.

Isaac Stone Fish, the chief executive and founder of Strategy Risks, a business intelligence firm with a China focus highlights the pressures on firms from both China and the US.

“Not a single large company can remain politically neutral anymore,” he says.

“Both Beijing and Washington want companies to choose sides, and Tokyo will continue to lean closer to the United States in this matter.”

Even though Uniqlo has been expanding aggressively in Europe and the US, in Mr Yanai’s own words, “we are not a known brand globally” and Asia is still its biggest market.

The company has more stores in China than in its home country Japan, and Mr Yanai says he does not plan to change that strategy despite challenges in the world’s second biggest economy.

“There are 1.4 billion people in China and we only have 900 to 1,000 stores,” he says. “I think we can increase that to 3,000.”

Meanwhile, China is Uniqlo’s single biggest manufacturing hub. The company also makes clothes in countries including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia and India.

In 2009, when 80% of its products were made in China, Mr Yanai told the BBC that China was getting too expensive and the firm was shifting production away “to lower-wage Cambodia to keep prices low”.

He now says it was challenging to repeat China’s success as the world’s factory in other countries as transferring years of experience proved difficult.

Retailers like Uniqlo are also facing intense competition from ultra-fast fashion as brands like China’s Shein and Temu gain popularity with price-conscious customers.

But Mr Yanai says “I don’t think there’s a future for fast fashion”.

“They’re producing clothes without any careful consideration which you only wear for one season. That is a waste of the planet’s resources.”

He adds that Uniqlo’s strategy is to focus on essential items that can be worn for years.

In the 40 years that he has been in charge of the firm, Mr Yanai has grown the business he inherited from his father from a company with annual sales of around 100 million yen ($656,700; £522,400) to a global chain with 3 trillion yen of revenues this year.

The 75-year-old says he aims to overtake Inditex, which owns the global chain Zara, as the world’s biggest fashion retailer before he retires.

But to achieve that, Uniqlo needs to expand not just in China but also in the West, where shoppers are increasingly conscious of human rights issues such as forced labour.

Mr Yanai’s ambitions may also face more hurdles as Donald Trump returns to the White House on a pledge to impose much higher tariffs on Chinese-made goods.

Pakistan’s security forces have been accused of pushing a man off a stack of cargo containers during Tuesday’s protests in the capital Islamabad, where crowds demanded the release of former President Imran Khan.

Khan’s party said the incident was one of several examples of police brutality at the demonstrations and has since called off the protests.

The man had been praying on top of a container when armed officers approached him and “brutally pushed him off from a height equivalent to three storeys”, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said.

The condition of the man is unknown.

BBC Verify has confirmed that the incident took place on Tuesday at the corner of Jinnah and Attaturk avenues in Islamabad, where protesters had gathered.

Video footage showed officers – carrying riot shields with markings indicating they were affiliated with the Pakistani Rangers, a paramilitary force – approaching a man kneeling on top of the containers before pushing him over the edge.

The video shows him trying to cling on to the containers before falling.

The footage was verified by matching a video of the fall posted on social media with images uploaded by Getty Images on Tuesday of the same scene.

BBC Verify has approached the Pakistani Rangers – whose officers were allegedly involved in the incident – for comment.

At least six people – four security officers and two civilians – died in clashes during the protests which began on Sunday.

On Tuesday, thousands of Khan supporters marched on central Islamabad demanding that the former leader be released.

Protesters had said they would not leave the capital until Khan – who is in prison on several criminal charges including fraud – was freed.

But as they made their way to Democracy Square on Tuesday, they were pushed back by police firing tear gas.

PTI said in a statement on Wednesday that the protests had been “temporarily suspended” due to the “government’s brutality”.

It said Pakistan government forces had “launched a violent assault” on peaceful protesters “firing live rounds with the intent to kill as many people as possible.”

The party has claimed that several of their party workers were killed during the crackdown and appealed for an investigation.

The BBC has not yet independently verified reports of killings, although two sources at a nearby hospital confirmed to the BBC they had received four civilian bodies with gunshot wounds after Tuesday’s protests.

Pakistan’s information minister has said authorities resisted firing on protesters.

Earlier on Tuesday, many Khan supporters had managed to reach the city centre but were dispersed by authorities by sunset.

Local media reported a government source saying police had arrested more than 500 PTI supporters.

Islamabad had been put under lockdown, with a heavy security presence deployed in anticipation of clashes with convoys of PTI supporters.

The convoys were led by PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur and Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who was released from prison in October and has since taken a more prominent role in trying to mobilise support for Khan.

Reports say Gandapur and Bushra Bibi have left Islamabad and returned to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where their convoy had come from.

Protesters were reported to have responded to a “final” call from Khan, asking them to “fight till the end” until their demands are met.

Khan has been in prison for more than a year on charges he says are politically motivated.

Even from behind bars, the former cricket star has proved a powerful player in Pakistan politics. During elections in February his party, which had been banned from standing and was forced to run candidates as independents, emerged as the single largest bloc in winning votes.

However, they fell short of a majority and their rivals united to form a new government.

The PTI has called for election results to be overturned because they say the vote was rigged, a claim disputed by the government.

The Metropolitan Police has said it is investigating more than five people it believes may have assisted or enabled Mohamed Al Fayed’s sexual offences.

The force launched a new investigation after 90 alleged new victims came forward following a BBC documentary which revealed the extent of the billionaire’s predatory behaviour.

It was previously revealed the force had been contacted by 21 alleged victims before the documentary was released.

Despite that, Al Fayed died last year having faced no criminal charges.

It is thought the timescale for the new allegations is between 1977 and 2014 with the youngest victim aged 13 years old.

Cdr Steve Clayman from the Metropolitan Police said the investigation – called operation Cornpoppy – would look at what role individuals “may have played in facilitating or enabling his offending, and what opportunities they had to protect victims from his horrendous abuse.”

“I recognise the bravery of every victim-survivor who has come forward to share their experiences, often after years of silence,” he said.

“This investigation is about giving survivors a voice, despite the fact that Mohamed Al Fayed is no longer alive to face prosecution.

“However, we are now pursuing any individuals suspected to have been complicit in his offending and we are committed to seeking justice.

“We are aware that past events may have impacted the public’s trust and confidence in our approach, and we are determined to rebuild that trust by addressing these allegations with integrity and thoroughness.”

• Al Fayed abuse ‘could be on scale of Savile’, says survivors’ advocate
• Watchdog to review police handling of Al Fayed abuse claims
• Harrods boss tells BBC he is ‘dreadfully sorry’ for Al Fayed abuse

The Metropolitan Police have also launched an internal review which will look at all previous investigations to identify any missed opportunities. The force has already looked at more than 50,000 pages of evidence, including victim and impact statements.

Earlier this month, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) confirmed it was reviewing two cases the Metropolitan Police investigated in 2008 and 2013 after it referred itself.

The force said it had received complaints from two women regarding previous police investigations. The complaints “address concerns about the quality of police response and how details came to be disclosed publicly”, a statement from the Metropolitan Police said.

Al Fayed, who died aged 94, owned Harrods between 1985 and 2010.

In response to this latest investigation, a spokesperson for the department store said they “wholeheartedly” support it.

They said: “We have an open, direct and ongoing line of communication with the Met Police for the benefit of the survivors.

“We continue to encourage all survivors to engage with the Met Police and we welcome the investigation in supporting survivors in their wider pursuit of justice.”

The store’s new owners have previously said they are “appalled” by the allegations of sexual abuse and have been investigating since 2023 whether any current members of staff were involved.

The retailer has declined to give any details of whether any action has been taken against any individual or when the review might be completed.

As well as targeting Harrods’ employees, Al Fayed is alleged to have also abused women at other businesses he owned, including the Ritz Paris hotel and Fulham FC.

Earlier this month, BBC News revealed that the Met Police was told of allegations of sexual assault by Mohamed Al Fayed a decade earlier than it had previously acknowledged.

If you have information about this story that you would like to share please get in touch. Email MAFinvestigation@bbc.co.uk. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist.

you can contact the BBC Action Line here.

A hiker who was lost in the backwoods of British Columbia for more than five weeks has been found alive.

Sam Benastick, 20, was reported missing on 19 October after he failed to return from a 10-day fishing and hiking trip in Redfern-Keily Park in the northern Rocky Mountains.

Authorities had called off search and rescue efforts for the avid hiker in late October. Temperatures in the region had at times dropped to around -20C (-4F).

Mr Benastick was found on Tuesday by two people headed to the Redfern Lake trail for work, who recognised him as the missing hiker as he walked towards them.

Given all the time he was missing, a different outcome had been feared, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl Madonna Saunderson told the BBC on Wednesday.

“We’re very grateful. The family is thrilled,” she said, adding that he had simply gotten lost.

Mr Benastick told police that he stayed in his car for a couple of days and then walked to a creek where he camped for 10 to15 days. At the time he went missing, he was equipped with a tarp, a backpack and some camping supplies.

He then moved down the valley and built a camp and shelter in a dried-out creek bed. Winter conditions ramped up, with some snowfall.

Eventually, Mr Benastick made his way to the area where he flagged down his rescuers.

“Those are very difficult conditions for really anyone to survive in, especially [with] limited supplies and equipment and food,” Prince George Search and Rescue search manager Adam Hawkins told the BBC.

“Even someone with quite a bit of experience would find that challenging.”

Multiple rescue teams, the Canadian Rangers, the RCMP, and family and friends, had all conducted a ground and air search over “a pretty huge amount of terrain”, Mr Hawkins said.

The rugged, remote region was hours from any towns, and featured low-lying hills, steep alpine cliffsides, and “even glaciated terrain”, he said.

Little is known about Mr Benastick’s condition or how he survived in the backwoods. He is currently in hospital.

Local inn owner Mike Reid, who got to know Mr Benastick’s family while they stayed at his establishment during search efforts, told broadcaster CBC that the hiker had cut his sleeping bag and wrapped it around his legs to stay warm.

He said he was told the young man nearly collapsed as he was placed into the ambulance and was in “rough shape”.

Before he was found, Mr Benastick’s last known location was at a trailhead in the region of Redfern Lake – the park’s largest lake – where he was seen using his red dirt bike, according to the RCMP.

Mr Hawkins , the search manager, said he is “intensely curious” to learn more about the area where Mr Benastick was found and what he was doing while missing to help inform future search and rescue operations.

The families of two Australian teenagers killed in a suspected methanol poisoning in Laos have welcomed news that eight people have been detained during a police investigation into the incident.

Bianca Jones and Holly Bowles, both 19, were among six foreign tourists who died after apparently consuming the toxic substance, which is commonly added to bootleg alcohol.

The bodies of the Australians were flown home to Melbourne late on Tuesday, accompanied by their relatives.

“We miss our daughters desperately. I was happy to hear that there’s been some movement over in Laos – we cannot have our girls passing and this continuing to happen,” Ms Jones’s father Mark told reporters.

The eight people detained for questioning on Tuesday were staff at the Nana Backpackers hostel where all the victims had been staying, according to local media.

The owners of the hostel, which is now closed, have previously denied serving illicit alcohol.

Speaking at Melbourne Airport, Mr Jones urged the government in Laos to “continue to pursue” the case, adding that the families involved would try to “raise awareness of methanol poisoning”.

The other four victims have been named as Simone White, a 28-year-old lawyer from the UK; James Louis Hutson, a 57-year-old American; and Danish citizens Anne-Sofie Orkild Coyman, 20, and Freja Vennervald Sorensen, 21.

Mr Hutson was found dead in his bedroom at the hostel on 13 November with several empty glasses nearby. On the same morning Ms Orkild Coyman and Ms Vennervald Sorensen were also found unconscious in their rooms and rushed to the local hospital.

It is unclear how many other people may have fallen ill from the suspected poisoning and an investigation into the deaths is continuing.

The hostel’s manager was among several people questioned by police last week. Earlier, he told the Associated Press that Ms Jones and Ms Bowles had been the only tourists staying at the venue to have become unwell after drinking free shots there before heading out for the night.

Methanol – which is commonly found in industrial and household products such as paint thinners – is a colourless chemical substance sometimes used in bootleg alcohol.

• What is methanol and how does it affect the body?

Consuming just 25ml – which amounts to roughly half a shot – can be lethal, but it can take up to 24 hours for victims to start showing signs of illness, via symptoms such as vomiting and abdominal pain.

Methanol poisoning has long been an issue across South East Asia, particularly in the poorer countries along the Mekong river, and the broader region has the highest prevalence of incidents worldwide.

The recent spate of deaths has cast a spotlight on Vang Vieng – which is a notorious party town – and prompted renewed warnings from governments around the world about drinking spirits in Laos.

A police officer who Tasered a 95-year-old woman with dementia symptoms at an Australian care home has been found guilty of her manslaughter.

Kristian White, 34, used his weapon on Clare Nowland after the great-grandmother was found wandering with a small kitchen knife in the early hours of 17 May 2023.

Her death a week later caused public outcry, but White – a senior constable – argued at trial that his use of force was reasonable and proportionate to the threat.

Prosecutors, however, said Mrs Nowland – who relied on a walker to get around and weighed under 48kg (105lb) – was not a danger and that the “impatient” officer had neglected his duty of care to her.

Police and paramedics were called to Yallambee Lodge – in the town of Cooma about 114km (71 miles) south of Canberra – around 04:00 on the day of the incident, after Mrs Nowland had been seen roaming the care home with two serrated steak knives.

The trial in the New South Wales (NSW) Supreme Court heard that Mrs Nowland, while not formally diagnosed with dementia, had been displaying signs of cognitive decline in the months leading up to her death and had at times behaved aggressively towards healthcare workers.

At one point that night she had entered the room of another resident holding the knives, though he told the court he did not feel unsafe, and she had also later thrown one of the blades at a staff member.

When emergency services found Mrs Nowland, they repeatedly asked her to drop the knife in her right hand, and – using thick gloves – had tried to disarm her themselves, the court was told.

In the moments before she was hit by the Taser, footage played to the jury showed the elderly woman using her walker to slowly shuffle forward – 1m (3.3ft) over the course of a minute – before stopping and raising the blade.

White warned Mrs Nowland his weapon was aimed at her, before saying “bugger it” and firing it, while she was still 1.5m-2m away. She fell and hit her head, triggering a fatal brain bleed.

“Who could she have injured at that moment? No one,” Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield said, summing up his case for the jury last week.

He said White had used his weapon only three minutes after finding the woman: “He was fed up, impatient, not prepared to wait any longer.”

However in a written incident report, the officer – who had been stood down from duties while facing court – said he deployed his Taser because he felt a “violent confrontation was imminent”.

In court he added that he didn’t think Mrs Nowland would be “significantly injured” and that he was “devastated” by her death.

The defence pointed to evidence from one of the paramedics and White’s police partner, who both said Mrs Nowland had made them feel scared for their safety.

“I thought that I was going to be stabbed,” Jessica Pank, also a senior constable, said.

However, both agreed they could have easily moved to safety, given Mrs Nowland’s limited mobility.

Mrs Nowland’s family, who were in court to hear the jury’s verdict, thanked prosecutors, the judge and the jury.

“The family will take some time to come to terms with the jury’s confirmation that Clare’s death at the hands of a serving NSW police officer was a criminal and unjustified act,” they said in a statement issued by a lawyer, which also asked for privacy.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb on Wednesday said White’s employment was still under legal review.

She added that the force’s Taser policies and training had also been reviewed but found to be appropriate.

“The death of Clare Nowland is a terrible tragedy… this should never have happened,” she said.

White, who remains on bail, will be sentenced at a later date.

In Kibbutz Menara in northern Israel, the sound of gunfire from across the border marked the first day of the ceasefire with Hezbollah.

Menara sits face to face with the Lebanese village of Meiss el-Jabal. It was one of several places where the Israeli military said it fired towards suspects spotted nearby.

They were not gun battles with Hezbollah fighters, it said, but warning shots to push the suspects back. Four of them were arrested.

The handover of control on the Lebanese side of the border, from Israeli troops to the Lebanese army, has not yet begun.

And Lebanese residents have been told not to return there yet.

In Menara, the ceasefire bought Meitel and her 13-year-old daughter Gefen back their first visit home in more than a year.

“This is unbelievable. It’s like a nightmare,” Meitel said, as they inspected a damaged building.

They left the kibbutz on 8 October 2023, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel the day after Hamas’s deadly attack on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza.

Israel’s government said its intense bombardment and ground invasion in Lebanon would ensure the tens of thousands of northern Israeli residents of the evacuated from their homes would be able to return safely.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised that would happen during a speech on Tuesday in which he said he had agreed to the ceasefire because the war had set Hezbollah back “tens of years”, destroyed most of its rockets, and demolished its infrastructure next to the border.

However, Meitel said she had little trust in the ceasefire, noting the gunfire that echoed through Menara’s empty streets during her visit.

“They want to come back. We need to keep them away,” she said.

Three quarters of the buildings in Menara have been destroyed in almost 14 months of fighting, along with the electricity, sewage and gas supplies.

The roof of the communal kitchen, caved in from a direct hit, lies tangled in hills of concrete and metal on the floor.

In house after house, the tell-tale tattoos of shrapnel damage, and rough-edged holes from anti-tank missiles have left homes burned out and unsafe.

Through the burned-out windows, the many shattered houses of their Lebanese neighbours are also visible.

Orna has lived in Menara through two previous wars but she said this ceasefire was different.

“Our forces will not leave these villages and will not allow terrorists to come back here. You can hear it yourself. Whenever someone tries to come back, they will be shot,” she explained.

“I personally will be come and be here regardless of what goes on there. But I’m a crazy, stubborn old lady. Families will not come back here. It’s impossible.”

The ceasefire is triggering the first discussions of what it would take for residents to return.

Repairing Menara will take months, but rebuilding a sense of security could take longer still.

The damage, a practical challenge, is also a reminder of what Hezbollah weapons can do.

President Joe Biden has said the US will make another push with regional powers for a ceasefire in Gaza, involving the release of hostages and the removal of Hamas from power.

His remarks on X come just hours after a ceasefire came into force in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, ending nearly 14 months of conflict.

Hamas said it hoped for a similar deal in Gaza but continues to reject Israel’s demands, which it perceives as surrender.

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.

• Jeremy Bowen: Lebanon ceasefire is a respite, not a solution for Middle East
• Displaced Lebanese head for homes as fragile truce appears to hold
• What we know about Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal

More than 44,000 people have been killed and more than 104,000 injured in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

“Over the coming days, the United States will make another push with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and others to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza with the hostages released and an end to the war without Hamas in power,” Biden said on X.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden had agreed with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu right before the announcement of the Lebanon ceasefire to try again for a Gaza agreement, which negotiators have sought unsuccessfully for months.

The US and its Arab allies used to say that a ceasefire in Gaza would end the conflict with Hezbollah. Now they are hoping for the reverse.

The argument goes that the truce in Lebanon shows compromises are possible and that Hamas may now feel more isolated, putting pressure on it to agree to concessions.

However, the goals of the Israeli government in Lebanon were always more limited than those in Gaza, where it has failed to agree a post-war plan.

Qatar recently suspended its efforts to help mediate a ceasefire and hostage release deal in the Palestinian territory until both sides shifted their positions. Hamas insists on ending the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces, while Israel remains determined to destroy Hamas.

Netanyahu’s political survival is also bound up with Gaza. His far-right coalition partners aspire to rebuild Jewish settlements there and have threatened to collapse the government if Israel makes a “reckless” agreement to stop the fighting.

Netanyahu also worries that a ceasefire could open the way to a commission of inquiry into Israel’s failure to prevent the 7 October attacks, which would be very damaging for him.

Hamas reacted positively to the Lebanon ceasefire, and said it was ready to consider a truce in Gaza.

“We appreciate the steadfastness of the brotherly Lebanese people, and their constant solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Hamas leader Basem Naim told the BBC.

“We express our commitment to cooperate with any efforts to stop the fire in Gaza, and we are concerned with stopping the aggression against our people.”

The organisation has faced significant challenges, including an inability to convene its leadership since the killing of Yahya Sinwar by Israel.

Its leaders are now scattered across Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, and disconnected from those managing the hostages held in Gaza.

These hostages appear to be Hamas’s remaining leverage, as the group’s capacity to fight Israel has been very limited, and its popularity has significantly declined in Gaza.

Amos Hochstein, the US envoy who negotiated the ceasefire in Lebanon, told BBC Newshour he was hopeful the deal could pave the way to a ceasefire in Gaza and even for the normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“I know I sound crazy, but then again people thought I sounded crazy when I said I thought I could get a deal in Lebanon,” he said. “I read many articles [about] how I was in fantasy-land.

“Will it happen? I don’t know, but we have an opportunity and I think that’s why this deal is so important.

“It’s not just about Lebanon. It’s a key that unlocks potentially an even broader door.”

Despite insisting on three conditions – an Israeli withdrawal, a permanent ceasefire and the reconstruction of Gaza – Hamas has indicated to mediators on many occasions its willingness to make substantial concessions.

For now, Hamas remains unwilling to agree to terms it perceives as surrender, but it has little room for manoeuvre in the negotiations, as the gap between the two sides has become deeper and the sound of the guns will remain louder.

Meanwhile, on Gaza’s streets, the ceasefire has raised some concerns.

“We were overjoyed by the cessation of the war in Lebanon, and we also hope for the same here in the Gaza Strip,” one man in Khan Younis told Gaza Today.

“However, at the same time, we have concerns that the occupation army might once again intensify its raids in Gaza and that its military forces might return from Lebanon to Gaza.”

“We don’t want anyone to experience what we’ve gone through here in Gaza,” another man said.

“We don’t want to see children killed, women trapped under rubble, or the recurring scenes of bloodshed in Lebanon that we have witnessed here.

“On the other hand, I believe the Israeli army will focus its raids on Gaza.”

While the outgoing Biden administration is making a last-ditch effort to work on a Gaza truce deal, it is not clear how much of a priority this will be when President Trump takes office.

Trump did, however, express an interest in ending the fighting in Lebanon, in line with pledges he made to Lebanese-American voters during his election campaign.

Another factor to bear in mind is that ending the war with Hezbollah relieves pressure on Israel’s military, which has been stretched by conflicts raging in the north and south.

Contrary to the idea that the ceasefire in Lebanon could lead to one with Hamas, some defence analysts now argue that it could in fact make it more possible for Israel to continue fighting in Gaza.

A ceasefire deal to end 13 months of conflict between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has taken effect.

The US and France said the agreement would “cease the fighting in Lebanon, and secure Israel from the threat of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations operating from Lebanon”.

Hezbollah has been given 60 days to end its armed presence in southern Lebanon while Israeli forces must withdraw from the area over the same period.

This is what we know about the ceasefire from the agreement itself and official briefings.

• Jeremy Bowen: Lebanon ceasefire is a respite, not a solution for Middle East
• Displaced Lebanese head for homes as fragile truce appears to hold
• What we know about Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal
• Watch: ‘Everything was gone’ – Beirut resident returning home

US President Joe Biden told reporters on Tuesday night that it was “designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities”.

The 13-point agreement between the governments of Israel and Lebanon – and not Hezbollah – also says both countries are “prepared to take steps to promote conditions for a permanent and comprehensive solution”.

It states that the Lebanese government will “prevent Hezbollah and all other armed groups in the territory of Lebanon from carrying out any operations against Israel”.

Israel, meanwhile, will “not carry out any offensive military operations against Lebanese targets, including civilian, military, or other state targets, in the territory of Lebanon”.

The basis of the deal, it notes, is the “full implementation, without violation” of UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last war in 2006.

The resolution required, among other things, Hezbollah to remove its fighters and weapons from the area between the Blue Line – the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel – and the Litani river, about 30km (20 miles) to the north.

Israel said that was never implemented, allowing Hezbollah to build extensive infrastructure in the area, while Lebanon said Israel’s violations included military flights over its territory.

The agreement also notes that the resolution reaffirmed previous Security Council calls for the “disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon”.

Biden declared that “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon will not be allowed to be rebuilt”.

The ceasefire agreement says Israeli forces will move south of the Blue Line “in a phased manner” within 60 days. The Lebanese army’s troops will deploy “in parallel” to the positions.

A senior US official said this was “to prevent any vacuums from being formed”.

Without mentioning Hezbollah, the agreement says the Lebanese army will “dismantle all infrastructure, and military positions, and confiscate all unauthorised arms” in what it calls the Southern Litani Area, as well as stop the unauthorised entry of weapons into Lebanon and dismantle any unauthorised weapons production facilities.

The agreement also says that “Lebanon’s official military and security forces, infrastructure and weaponry will be the only armed groups, arms, and related material deployed” in the Southern Litani Area. The only exception is the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, Unifil, which has about 10,000 troops.

The US official said that meant Hezbollah would have to pull back its fighters and “all their heavy weaponry” to the north of the area.

A map of the Southern Litani Area shows that it extends north of the river in some locations, notably around the village of Yohmor, and extends to Hasbaya and Chebaa in the east.

A total of 10,000 Lebanese army troops will eventually be deployed to the south, according to the agreement.

However, questions remain about the troops’ role in enforcing the ceasefire, and whether they would confront Hezbollah if needed, which would have the potential to exacerbate tensions in a country where sectarian divisions run deep.

The Lebanese army has also said it does not have the resources – money, manpower and equipment – to fulfil its obligations, although the agreement says the US and France will work with the international community to provide support and improve its capabilities.

Many Western officials say Hezbollah has been weakened and that this is the moment for the Lebanese government to re-establish control over all the country’s territory.

The US and France will join the existing Tripartite Mechanism involving Unifil, the Israeli military and Lebanese army that was set up to help reach agreements on contentious issues.

The ceasefire agreement says the US will chair the “reformulated and enhanced” mechanism, which will “monitor, verify and assist in ensuring enforcement” of both sides’ commitments.

Israel and Lebanon will be expected to report any alleged violations to the mechanism.

“What this means is that the United States, both through diplomats and military personnel, is going to be receiving any complaints by either side,” the senior US official said. “Information can flow on a real time basis to make sure that any potential violations are deterred.”

The official also stressed that “there will be no US combat troops in the area”.

The agreement states that “these commitments do not preclude either Israel or Lebanon from exercising their inherent right of self-defence, consistent with international law”.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said on Tuesday night that Israel would “maintain full freedom of military action” in Lebanon “with the United States’ full understanding”.

“If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack,” he asserted.

Biden supported that view, telling reporters: “If Hezbollah or anyone else breaks the deal and poses a direct threat to Israel, then Israel retains the right to self-defence consistent with international law.”

But Lebanese officials said they would oppose any violations of Lebanon’s sovereignty.

A ceasefire has come into effect between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon after a deal was agreed to end 13 months of fighting.

In October 2023, Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza and Israel launched retaliatory air strikes in Lebanon.

The conflict escalated in late September 2024, when Israel launched an intense air campaign and ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

In Lebanon, more than 3,800 people have been killed since October 2023, according to Lebanese authorities, with one million people forced to flee their homes.

On the Israeli side, at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed, while 60,000 people have been displaced, Israeli authorities say.

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Lebanon is a small country with a population of about 5.5 million people, which borders Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. It is about 170km (105 miles) away from Cyprus.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah must end its armed presence in the area of southern Lebanon between the Blue Line – the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel – and the Litani River, about 30km (20 miles) to the north.

Over the next 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon and thousands of Lebanese army troops will move into the vacated positions in parallel, the agreement says.

The Lebanese army will ensure that Hezbollah’s infrastructure or weaponry is removed and that it cannot be rebuilt, according to a senior US official.

Under UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last war in 2006, the area south of the Litani should be free of any armed personnel or weapons other than those of the Lebanese state and the UN peacekeeping force (Unifil). However, both sides claimed violations of the resolution.

The US and France will join the existing tripartite mechanism, involving Unifil, Lebanon and Israel, which will be charged with monitoring violations, the senior US official said.

The agreement also says that “these commitments do not preclude either Israel or Lebanon from exercising their inherent right of self-defence, consistent with international law”. Israel’s prime minister insisted it would “maintain full freedom of military action” to attack Hezbollah if it violated the agreement.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese civilians displaced by the war have started returning to their homes in the south, despite being warned by the Israeli military that it was not safe to return to areas where its soldiers were still deployed.

Israel launched its ground invasion of southern Lebanon on the night of 30 September 2024, with troops and tanks crossing the border in several locations.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was carrying out “limited, localised, and targeted ground raids” to dismantle what it called Hezbollah’s “terrorist infrastructure”.

Analysis by experts at the Institute for the Study of War suggests Israeli ground operations were limited to areas within a few kilometres of the border, as shown in the map below.

The IDF warned people living in dozens of towns and villages in southern Lebanon to leave their homes and head north of the Awali River, which meets the coast about 50km (30 miles) from the border with Israel.

Lebanese civilians were also told by the IDF not to use vehicles to travel south of the Litani River.

The IDF carried out air strikes in Lebanon throughout the conflict.

But it sharply escalated the air campaign on 23 September 2024, when it launched an operation targeting what it said were Hezbollah infrastructure sites and weapons in all areas of the country where the group has a strong presence.

However, Lebanese authorities say more than 700 women and 200 children have been killed since the start of the conflict, as well as another 200 people working in the country’s health sector.

As the chart below shows, the intensity of the strikes stepped up significantly in the weeks before the Israeli ground invasion in late September and peaked in October.

The majority of Israeli strikes were in southern Lebanon, where about a million people lived before the conflict escalated over a year ago.

The map below – using analysis of satellite data by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University – shows which areas of Lebanon sustained the most concentrated damage during the conflict.

As the following map shows, Beirut was also heavily targeted by Israeli air strikes.

There were some strikes close to central Beirut but the majority of them hit the southern suburbs of the city – densely populated areas that were home to hundreds of thousands of civilians.

These areas, close to the international airport, have a strong Hezbollah presence and it was a series of strikes on buildings there that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September.

There were several dozens air strikes in the southern suburbs and central Beirut on 26 November hours before the ceasefire deal was agreed.

Israel has a decades-long history of conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon but it is just one of the fronts that it is currently engaged in hostilities.

The others include armed forces and non-state armed groups in several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Syria and Iran-backed groups operating in Gaza, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Seoul has recorded its heaviest November snowfall since records began over a century ago in 1907.

The South Korean capital was covered with at least 16 cm of snow on Wednesday – beating the city’s previous record of 12.4cm from November 1972.

It caused significant disruption across the country, with local media reporting that flights had been grounded, roads closed, and that there were delays to transport services.

At least one person is reported to have died in a weather-related traffic accident near Seoul.

Youn Ki-han, the head of Seoul’s Meteorology Forecast Division, told the AFP news agency that the heavy snowfall was due to strong westerly winds and a “significant temperature difference between the sea surface and the cold air”.

It is expected to continue through Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

The cold weather comes after the region experienced a period of mild autumn temperatures.

“Just last week, I felt that the November autumn was a bit warm, but in just one week it feels like it’s turned into a winter wonderland, which was quite a contrast,” said businessman Bae Joo-han.

“So I came out onto the streets today to enjoy the first snowfall of this winter.”

An oil painting of a Māori elder has fetched a record price at an auction on Tuesday, making it the most valuable artwork of its kind in New Zealand history.

The painting by famed local artist Charles Frederick Goldie, shows a portrait of Wharekauri Tahuna, a priest who is believed to be one of the last tattooed men of his generation.

The NZ$3.75m ($2.2m; £1.7m) sale also marks the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction in New Zealand, according to the auction house.

It comes at a point of increased racial tensions in New Zealand, with the government having recently put forth a bill that Māori said would hurt their rights.

Thoughts of a Tohunga was painted nine years before Goldie died in 1947, with art critics believing it was his best work.

It depicts the priest with a moko, or facial tattoo, and wearing a pendant known as a hei-tiki around his neck.

The sale, to an undisclosed buyer, makes it the most valuable Māori portrait in New Zealand art history.

“Goldie was well loved by Māori during his lifetime, [he] lived in Auckland and met his subjects,” Richard Thomson, director at the International Art Centre told the BBC, adding that this was the first time the painting had gone on sale in 33 years.

“New Zealanders have an affinity with their history and portraits by Goldie have always been sought after,” he said, adding that since 2016 his auction house has sold 13 Goldie paintings, with buyers paying more than a million New Zealand dollars each time.

Wharekauri Tahuna was one of Goldie’s favourite subjects and featured in a number of his works.

Māoris make up about 18% of New Zealand’s population, though many remain disadvantaged compared to the general population when assessed through markers such as health outcomes, household income, education levels and incarceration and mortality rates. There remains a seven-year gap in life expectancy.

Last week, political party Act – a minor partner in the coalition government – sought to pass a bill that would reintepret the country’s founding treaty with Māori people, known as the Treaty of Waitangi.

Thousands of people joined a nine-day march against the bill earlier last week.

The bill passed a first reading but is unlikely to pass a second reading, as Act’s coalition partners have indicated they will not support it.

When handbag designer Sherrill Mosee learned that roughly 2,700 purses and backpacks she had ordered from her Chinese manufacturing partner would not make it onto one ship this autumn, she was initially content to wait.

Then Donald Trump was re-elected as US president.

“I’m like, okay, we’ve got to bring those in,” said Ms Mosee, founder of MinkeeBlue, a small business based in Philadelphia. Her firm is one of the many thousands across the country preparing for the potential impact of Trump’s promises to impose stiff new tariffs on all goods coming into the country.

Those efforts gained urgency this week as Trump said he would take action on his first day in office. He aimed the measures – a kind of border tax – at China, Mexico and Canada, America’s top three trade partners.

Writing on social media, Trump said he planned to impose a 25% levy on goods from Canada and Mexico and “an additional 10% tariff, above any additional tariffs” on imports from China.

The post followed his campaign pledge to impose across-the-board tariffs of at least 10% on all imports coming into the US, and 60% or more on goods from China – many of which already face steep duties left over from actions taken during his first term as president.

Some experts have said that Trump’s policies may ultimately prove less aggressive than promised, and that his statements should be understood as opening salvos in bigger negotiations of migration and drug policy.

But regardless of how policy shakes out, the threats are already having economic consequences, as firms like MinkeeBlue start to stockpile, shift supply chains, re-work contracts and take other steps to guard against the possible impact.

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Chris Caton, managing director for global strategy and analytics at warehouse giant Prologis, said his firm had already seen an uptick in activity “on the margin” as businesses respond to possible tariffs by looking for space to stock up.

“There’s economic impact whether it’s bluster or not,” said economist Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

In the days after the election, footwear giant Steve Madden told investors that it was moving forward with plans to shift manufacturing outside of China, with the aim of cutting its imports from the country in half over the next year.

Tool and hardware maker Stanley Black & Decker also said it had initiated conversations with its customers about price hikes tied to the tariffs.

Executives at retail giants such as Walmart have discussed similar plans.

Even if Trump’s policies remain just talk, Ms Edelberg said the public could see higher prices, as well as possible shortages of some items, as hoarding left some firms scrambling.

Just the simple fact that firms were unsure about what was going to happen was also likely to reduce economic growth in the months ahead, she added.

“Even if firms don’t think that these tariffs are going to happen with 100% certainty, it’s not zero, so they should be responding,” Ms Edelberg said.

Trump and his advisers have argued that tariffs will help revive US manufacturing and drive a new US jobs boom.

But that can come at a cost, businesses owners and economists warn.

Martin Pochtaruk, chief executive of Canadian solar panel maker Heliene, said his firm was nearly wiped out in 2018 when Trump imposed tariffs on foreign-made solar panels and it had to absorb the fees.

The firm now does all of its manufacturing in the US, where it employs 400 people. Many of its suppliers have also set up shop in the US, lured by government incentives for renewable energy introduced by President Joe Biden.

Mr Pochtaruk’s firm has learned from its experience, changing the design of its contracts so that customers are responsible for unexpected cost changes – whether due to tariffs or the kind of price spikes that hit during the pandemic.

But despite these protections, the possibility of renewed trade tension between countries as closely connected as Canada and the US was worrying, Mr Pochtaruk said.

Some key materials – such as glass – still come from overseas and face likely price hikes. The new administration could also bring other policies that slow growth in the industry.

“We are talking to all of our clients,” Mr Pochtaruk said. “There is a lot of anxiety.”

Economists say the evidence from existing tariffs – which have been present for decades in sectors such as clothing and footwear – suggests that while they can protect some firms, the cost is high and they do little to boost overall employment, while raising prices for US companies and consumers.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has warned that tariffs along the lines of Trump’s campaign proposals would cost US consumers between $46bn (£36.6bn) and $78bn more annually for apparel, toys, furniture, household appliances, footwear and travel goods.

By NRF estimates, a $40 toaster, for example, would rise in price to $48-$52, while a $50 pair of athletic shoes could jump to $59-$64.

Trump’s move on Monday to target Mexico – a key supplier of grocery staples such as fruits and vegetables and historically protected by a free-trade agreement – underscores the tension between his tariff promises and other pledges on the campaign trail to bring down prices for Americans.

Viktor Shvets of Macquarie Capital said that although Trump’s ideas were in conflict with each other, he believed in the end Trump’s fear of disrupting financial markets would limit his trade actions.

“Risks are high, but we remain convinced that ‘guardrails’ are sufficiently robust to avoid the worst outcomes,” he wrote in a note to clients on Tuesday.

Such bets are little comfort to small business owners like Ms Mosee, who have little extra financial cushion to weather uncertainty.

As a small brand facing significant competition, Ms Mosee said she was not in a strong position to raise prices on her bags, which typically sell for about $180 a piece.

She has been looking in Cambodia and India for a new supplier.

But after a decade on her own, Ms Mosee – a former engineer who has decorated her office with motivational posters promising that “something wonderful is about to happen” – said she probably needed to find a business partner if her business, with its two employees, was to survive the expected changes ahead.

“It’s going to be hard,” she said. “It’s going to be hard all the way around.”

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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.

Scientists in India have reported the “first significant result” from Aditya-L1, the country’s first solar observation mission in space.

The new learnings, they said, could help keep power grids and communication satellites out of harm’s way the next time solar activities threatened infrastructure on Earth and space.

On 16 July, the most important of the seven scientific instruments Aditya-L1 is carrying – Visible Emission Line Coronagraph, or Velc – captured data that helped scientists estimate the precise time a coronal mass ejection (CME) began.

Studying CMEs – massive fireballs that blow out of the Sun’s outermost corona layer – is one of the most important scientific objectives of India’s maiden solar mission.

“Made up of charged particles, a CME could weigh up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed of up to 3,000km [1,864 miles] per second while travelling. It can head out in any direction, including towards the Earth,” says Prof R Ramesh of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics that designed Velc.

“Now imagine this huge fireball hurtling towards Earth. At its top speed, it would take just about 15 hours to cover the 150 million km Earth-Sun distance.”

The coronal ejection that Velc captured on 16 July had started at 13:08 GMT. Prof Ramesh, Velc’s Principal Investigator who has published a paper on this CME in the prestigious Astrophysical Journal Letters, said it originated on the side of the Earth.

“But within half an hour of its journey, it got deflected and went in a different direction, going behind the Sun. As it was too far away, it did not impact Earth’s weather.”

But solar storms, solar flares and coronal mass ejections routinely impact Earth’s weather. They also impact the space weather where nearly 7,800 satellites, including more than 50 from India, are stationed.

According to Space.com, they rarely pose a direct threat to human life, but they can cause mayhem on Earth by interfering with the Earth’s magnetic field.

Their most benign impact is causing beautiful auroras in places close to the North and South Pole. A stronger coronal mass ejection can cause auroras to show up in skies further away such as in London or France – as it did in May and October.

But the impact is much more serious in space where the charged particles of a coronal mass ejection can make all the electronics on a satellite malfunction. They can knock down power grids and affect weather and communication satellites.

“Today our lives fully depend on communication satellites and CMEs can trip the internet, phone lines and radio communication,” Prof Ramesh says. “That can lead to absolute chaos.”

The most powerful solar storm in recorded history occurred in 1859. Called the Carrington Event, it triggered intense auroral light shows and knocked out telegraph lines across the globe.

Scientists at Nasa say an equally strong storm was headed at Earth in 2012 and we had “a close shave just as perilous”. They say a powerful coronal mass ejection tore through Earth’s orbit on 23 July but that we were “incredibly fortunate” that instead of hitting our planet, the storm cloud hit Nasa’s solar observatory STEREO-A in space.

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In 1989, a coronal mass ejection knocked out part of Quebec’s power grid for nine hours, leaving six million people without power.

And on 4 November 2015, solar activity disrupted air traffic control at Sweden and some other European airports, leading to travel chaos for hours.

Scientists say that if we are able to see what happens on the Sun and spot a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection in real time and watch its trajectory, it can work as a forewarning to switch off power grids and satellites and keep them out of harm’s way.

US space agency Nasa, the European Space Agency (ESA), Japan and China have been watching the Sun through their space-based solar missions for decades. With Aditya-L1 – named after the Hindu god of Sun – Indian space agency Isro joined that select group earlier this year.

From its vantage point in space, Aditya-L1 is able to watch the Sun constantly, even during eclipses and occultations, and carry out scientific studies.

Prof Ramesh says when we look at the Sun from the Earth, we see an orange ball of fire which is the photosphere – the Sun’s surface or the brightest part of the star.

It’s only during a total eclipse, when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun and covers the photosphere that we are able to see the solar corona, the Sun’s outermost layer.

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India’s coronagraph, Prof Ramesh says, has a slight advantage over the coronagraph in Nasa-ESA’s joint Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

“Ours is of a size that it’s able to mimic the role of the Moon and artificially hide the Sun’s photosphere, providing Aditya-L1 an uninterrupted view of the corona 24 hours a day 365 days a year.”

The coronagraph on Nasa-ESA’s mission, he says, is bigger which means it hides not only the photosphere but also parts of corona – so it cannot see the genesis of a CME if it originates in the hidden region.

“But with Velc, we can precisely estimate the time a coronal mass ejection begins and in which direction it’s headed.”

India also has three ground based observatories – in Kodaikanal, Gauribidanur in the south and Udaipur in the northwest – to look at the Sun. So if we add up their findings with that of Aditya-L1, we can greatly improve our understanding of the Sun, he adds.

Dodging bullets, ducking explosions, safeguarding state secrets.

Bombastic propaganda films present the shadowy Russian political operative Maxim Shugalei as a heroic figure – who will apparently stop at nothing in his quest to promote the country abroad.

While his escapades have no doubt been exaggerated, in real life he has played a significant role in the expansion of Russia’s influence in parts of Africa, working closely with the Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries.

However, this would-be iron man recently suffered a set-back when he was arrested in the central African nation of Chad.

He, along with fellow Russian operatives Samer Sueifan and E Tsaryov, were detained in September on unexplained charges, before being freed and sent home earlier this month, according to the Russian embassy.

Shugalei tends to describe himself as a “sociologist” but in reality, say analysts, he is a spin doctor and an agent of Russian influence known for his work on the African continent.

He has been under EU sanctions since 2023 for overseeing disinformation campaigns to promote the Wagner Group in several African countries, and is also the subject of Ukrainian sanctions.

Since at least 2010, Shugalei was affiliated with the late Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner boss and a close associate of President Vladimir Putin.

While Shugalei used to deny these ties – as was customary in Prigozhin’s circles – he nevertheless first came to media attention for his work and subsequent arrest in Libya on charges of spying and meddling in elections on behalf of the Wagner boss.

Prigozhin had tasked Shugalei with gathering information and preparing a strategy to support Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, the son of former leader Muammar Gaddafi.

When Shugalei returned to Russia, Prigozhin revealed that he had given him 18m rubles ($173,000; £138,000) – 1m rubles for each month he had spent in captivity.

Shugalei’s escapades in Libya formed the basis for a trilogy of action TV films, seemingly sponsored by Prigozhin. They were designed to, among other things, glorify the regime of then-Wagner ally Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya and whitewash Russia’s activities in Africa.

The role of Shugalei was played by the actor Kirill Polukhin, and the films show him as “almost a James Bond figure, or Mission Impossible type”, says Ladd Serwat, an Africa Regional Specialist at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (Acled).

“We are shown this macho, tough person who is unwilling to crack under pressure or give away national secrets – then is very capable as a mercenary or independent military operator.”

A modest-sized online fan page falsely claims that “Shugalei” has even become an Arabic word for “man of iron who cannot be broken”.

But as a key player in the expansion of Russia’s influence in Africa in recent years, he has also been involved in some extraordinary activities in real life.

In 2018, a BBC investigation found that he was one of several Russian operatives who were caught offering suitcases full of cash to presidential candidates in Madagascar.

Before his activities abroad, the only public episode of Shugalei’s career as a political consultant dates back to the 2002 elections for the St Petersburg parliament.

At the time, Shugalei served as a representative for one of the candidates and famously ate several documents during an electoral commission meeting to prevent them from being submitted to court.

Under Prigozhin, Shugalei’s official position was head of the Foundation for the Protection of National Values, a pro-Wagner organisation and public relations firm.

Unofficially, he worked in various African states to try to ensure regimes favourable to Wagner would come to, and remain in, power, as part of Russia’s attempts to gain influence on the continent – especially at the expense of France.

Since the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin last year, troops serving under the Wagner banner in Ukraine and Africa have been absorbed into Russia’s official military structure.

However, Prigozhin’s media empire, which Shugalei was a part of, has crumbled.

As someone who operates in the shadows, it is hard to know exactly how much influence he wields.

Yet, according to some, Shugalei may not have lost too much influence despite the death of his mentor.

“He still seems to have the same level of influence, despite the fact that the Kremlin seems to have taken over the majority of Wagner group operations,” says Beverly Ochieng, a senior analyst covering Francophone Africa for Control Risks.

He seemingly no longer denies his ties to Wagner and Prigozhin – his Telegram channel is full of posts commemorating the late oligarch and his mercenary group, and he even reposts Wagner’s recruitment information.

Yet, aside from his arrest in Chad and a July trip to Angola which he documented on Telegram, it is hard to tell the full scale of his current activities.

Chad has given no official reason for the arrest of Shugalei and his two associates.

Multiple theories abound – some more plausible than others.

Russian state-controlled news channel RT reported that the arrests were instigated by France, but this is most likely a fiction designed to save face, Ms Ochieng tells the BBC.

Since at least May, Russia has been pushing the narrative that the West’s traditional influence in Chad is waning.

But, although Chad has recently signed deals with Russia on infrastructure and security, it still hosts French troops, and retains good relations with the former colonial power, unlike several of its Francophone neighbours which have tilted towards Russia.

There is no evidence of a Russian military presence in the country.

In fact, some argue that Chadian President Mahamat Déby is expertly playing Russia and the West against each other, to Chad’s advantage.

Russia is striving to gain complete dominance over West Africa’s Sahel region, and already has close ties to two of Chad’s neighbours – Niger, and the Central Africa Republic (CAR), the country where Russia’s influence is strongest on the continent.

Wagner fighters are said to have infiltrated Chad from the CAR and clashed with the local army, before retreating.

If Russia could bring Chad into its orbit, that would create an uninterrupted sphere of influence stretching thousands of miles.

Shugalei had visited Chad twice before, and notably held talks with Déby’s campaign team prior to the presidential elections in May. He was also linked to the Russia House cultural centre in the capital, N’Djamena, which recently unveiled a new headquarters at a ceremony attended by Russian government officials.

Last year, US intelligence services said they had discovered that Wagner allegedly orchestrated a plot to assassinate Déby but failed to carry it out.

Mr Serwat suggests this may be why Shugalei was arrested.

Ms Ochieng says Chad may have been worried about Shugalei’s potential to try and destabilise the country by spreading disinformation.

Shugalei’s foundation has denied that he is a “Wagner spy”, saying Shugalei “does not know anything in particular about Wagner Group’s activities in Africa and only knows general details about what it did previously”.

Russian-backed social media content, TV stations and news sites are being deployed to spread a pro-Russian agenda and disinformation, especially in Africa, according to analysts.

Examples include Afrique Media TV which broadcasts from Cameroon as far afield as CAR, Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger – and is also on YouTube where it has thousands of followers, and enjoys a large Facebook following.

Shugalei himself teases his presence in various African countries, sometimes sharing short, low-budget, vlog-style Telegram videos that make clear his love of showmanship.

Of the video content aimed at Africans, many take on a fable-like appearance – one, called LionBear – shows a bear (which symbolises Russia) running across the globe to defend a lion (his Central African Republic friend) from the malign influence of hyenas.

“I don’t think people necessarily are won over by these videos – people think it’s funny, a joke,” says Ms Ochieng.

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Boeing, Nike and Starbucks have all changed their chief executives in recent months. But just how important is the person in the top job for the successful running of such huge companies?

“There’s only one cat who’s on the hot seat,” says Alan Lafley, who was CEO of global consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble from 2000 to 2010, and then again from 2013 to 2015.

With P&G selling everything from Pampers nappies, to Head & Shoulders shampoo, and Fairy washing up liquid, it has more than five billion customers around the world. And its workforce now exceeds 107,000 people.

Mr Lafley equates leading a firm of that vast size with being the manager of one of England’s Premier League football teams. Specifically, he says the job comes with the same risk of being sacked if results are not as good as expected.

“With the football players, if they have a bad season, they’re not gone,” he says. “Instead it is the coach or manager that’s going to go.”

Coffee giant Starbucks announced a change of CEO in August, following falling sales caused by factors including a complicated menu, tough competition in China, and boycotts linked to the war in the Middle East. The hope is that new boss Brian Niccol can transform the firm’s fortunes.

To lure him away from the success he was enjoying running US restaurant chain Chipotle, Starbucks is paying him more than $100m (£79m) in his first year, plus the use of a private jet to allow him to commute 1,000 miles from his home in California to the firm’s head office in Seattle, Washington state.

“It’s pretty obvious that there’s a big hope for him and his ability to turn that company around,” says executive coach Alisa Cohn, who explains that top pay packages are set by a company’s board of directors, and reflect their expectations of the CEO they’re appointing.

Investors welcomed Mr Niccol’s appointment with a 24.5% jump in Starbucks share price the day it was announced. The same day Chipotle fell 7.5%.

Mr Niccol is now continuing efforts to simplify Starbucks’ menu.

“CEOs are the ones who are setting the strategy for the company,” adds Ms Cohn. “They’re the ones setting the culture for the company, and, truthfully, the buck stops with them in terms of their accountability.”

Marcia Kilgore is a Canadian entrepreneur behind skincare brands Soap & Glory and Beauty Pie, plus footwear firm Fitflop. She says that the role of CEO is complicated, demanding, and critical to a company’s success.

“You need to have somebody who can really look at the different streams of work that need to be done, and make those organised and prioritised,” she adds.

“And someone who can make sure that the different teams in the company are working together harmoniously, and ensuring that time is not wasted, money is not wasted, and energy is not wasted on things that are not going to move the dial for the company.”

The failure to make the right choices and lead teams in the right direction was why Mr Lafley became the boss of P&G in 2000.

His predecessor Durk Jager resigned as a result of the failure of a huge global restructuring that he led. Cutting 15,000 jobs and 10 factories was meant to increase profits, but instead led to repeated profit warnings and a steep share price collapse.

Mr Lafley says that as CEO it’s not about doing everything yourself, but “enabling and empowering everybody in the organisation” to do what needs to be done.

“We had 100,000 people looking to the new CEO to tell them two things – ‘what happened?’, and ‘what are we going to do next?’.”

He explains that he decided to refocus the firm on serving customers and innovating new products, telling staff that “I have confidence that we’re all going to get us out of where we are and back on track”.

Mr Lafley adds that clearly communicating his plans with employees was so “hugely important” that in those pre-Zoom days he flew around the world to meet staff in person.

Inspiration and communication are also seemingly at the heart of the approach of new Nike CEO Elliott Hill. On getting the job in September he wrote to staff telling them he had “great confidence in his team and our future together” despite years of falling sales.

Ms Cohn who has worked with companies including Google, Etsy and Johnson & Johnson says that whatever the plans of a new CEO, confidence is vital for any success.

“The most important quality that you need to be the CEO is knowing that you will be able to be the CEO,” she says. “There is a sense of confidence, and healthy ego that you need to bring to the table.

“The second thing you need to bring to the table is an ability to adapt. You’ve got to be able to assess the situation, make some important decisions, and then adapt them as you go”.

It’s not something she thinks can always be taught, which is why she says so many people get “stuck” at lower levels in a company. Ms Cohn adds: “You need to develop your own sort of internal state to know that you can handle the pressure, the difficulty, the spotlight”.

That pressure is one the reasons why top CEO’s are often compensated with huge pay packages. When it comes to the S&P 500 group of the US’s biggest companies last year, the top earner was Hock Tan at Broadcom who got $162m, followed by Nikesh Arora with $151m at cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks, and Stephen Schwarzman with $120m at investment giant Blackstone.

The average for an S&P500 CEO last year was a record $16.3m, according to executive consultants Equilar. It means they are getting 196 times as much as the average worker at their companies and critics says CEO’s aren’t worth that much more than their staff.

“This is based on the foolish notion that the person in the corner office is somehow almost single-handedly responsible for corporate value,” says Sarah Anderson from the Washington based progressive think tank the Institute for Policy Studies.

She think it’s a problem that is getting worse, and spreading around the world. “I think runaway CEO pay is bad for our economy, bad for democracy and bad for business,” she adds.

Mr Lafley agrees that the ratio between staff and CEOs’ pay is “too high”, but reasons that firms are having to compete to attract the best talent.

He thinks the answer lies in paying CEOs “a rather modest basic salary, and then everything else is incentive”.

“In the end, it’s sort of like a coach. If you’re not motivating people, and you’re not enabling them to do what you’re asking them to do, then you’re not doing the job.”

A South Korean actor’s revelation that he fathered a child with a woman to whom he is not married has triggered a national debate over celebrity conduct and non-traditional family structures.

Jung Woo-sung, a 51-year-old A-lister in South Korea’s film industry, confirmed via his agency on Sunday that he is the father of 35-year-old model Moon Ga-bi’s newborn son.

While Jung pledged to “fulfil his responsibilities” as the father, his silence on whether he plans to marry Moon drew fierce backlash in the conservative country where births outside marriage are seen as taboo.

But some progressive voices have defended Jung, noting a shift in South Korea’s attitudes towards diverse family structures.

Moon announced her child’s birth via Instagram on Friday, without mentioning the father, describing the pregnancy as “unexpected” and saying she had been “completely unprepared for the sudden news”.

Two days later, Jung’s agency Artist Company released a statement confirming that “the baby Moon revealed on her social media is Jung Woo-sung’s son”.

The statement further noted that Jung and Moon were “discussing the best way to raise the child”.

It triggered outrage that quickly spread across the country, triggering a slate of opinion pieces in tabloids, spurring online debate and eliciting comments from national politicians.

Online, the response was largely critical towards Jung, whose prolific film career has made him a household name in South Korea.

Many commentators seemed to believe the actor had tarnished an otherwise upstanding and squeaky clean image, with some expressing disappointment that the former United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees ambassador “can’t accept his own child”.

“Jung Woo-sung is pretending to be a good guy saying he will fulfil all his duty… A child does not grow on money alone,” wrote one commenter on Naver News, South Korea’s largest news aggregate website.

“It’s not a problem not marrying after having a child. It’s that he pretended to be such an ethical person so far,” wrote another.

Speaking to conservative news outlet JoongAng, an unnamed lawmaker from the right-wing People Power Party described Jung’s decision to have a child outside marriage as “something unthinkable in this country of social mores”.

“No matter how much the times are changing, Korea’s tradition and public sentiment must be kept (righteous),” the lawmaker said.

A recent social survey by South Korea’s statistics agency found that 37% of people believed it was acceptable to have a child outside marriage – an almost 15% increase since 2012.

Of those who said marriage was necessary, more than 72% were above the age of 60 – with younger respondents increasingly less likely to take that view.

Other lawmakers have defended Jung, with Lee So-young, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, saying that “deciding to live with someone is a deeply personal and existential choice”.

“To assume that simply having a child obligates people to marry and take on the duties of cohabitation and mutual support feels suffocating,” Lee wrote on Facebook on Tuesday.

“Of course, there’s nothing wrong with being ‘normal’… [But] even if society appears to have a standard of ‘normal’, every life is unique in its own way.

“Perhaps a better society is one that accepts and respects such differences without judgment,” she added. “That’s what I believe.”

Kyunghyang, a progressive major newspaper, put out an editorial piece noting that while some voices have pushed for traditional values, “also rising is the voice that our society must think of the diverse shapes families take”.

“It makes one hope that celebrities having babies outside of marriage, like Jung and Moon, will help change the public view which today is against [such] births.”

South Korea has a notoriously high-pressure entertainment industry, with celebrities often held to inordinately high social standards and placed under extreme scrutiny.

Additional reporting by BBC Korean’s Juna Moon in Seoul

Sean “Diddy” Combs has been denied bail for the third time by a judge in New York City.

Two judges previously denied Mr Combs’s release from custody, primarily due to concerns about potential witness tampering, deeming it a significant risk if he was freed before trial, which is scheduled for May 2025.

Mr Combs is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation for prostitution.

He has entered a plea of not guilty and has also denied more than two dozen sexual assault accusations lodged in a flurry of civil lawsuits.

The judge cited evidence in the case showing Mr Combs’s alleged attempts at witness tampering, his violation of prison regulations while behind bars and claims he ran a “criminal enterprise” including forced labour and kidnapping.

US District Judge Arun Subramanian concluded the court could not trust Mr Combs if released on bail.

“The Court finds that the government has shown by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community,” the judge wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.

Prosecutors had opposed granting Mr Combs bail, citing his misconduct while in custody.

In a recent court filing, prosecutors accused the rap mogul of misusing jail communications to influence witnesses in his case and coercing others in his orbit to post online in order to sway public opinion and benefit his defence.

But defence attorneys for Mr Combs said he should be released so he has adequate time to prepare for his trial next year.

Earlier this month, Judge Subramanian ordered prosecutors in the case to destroy all copies of nearly 20 pages seized during a recent search of the former hip-hop star’s jail cell.

Some of the documents included handwritten notes to his attorneys and thoughts on his legal strategy, court filings show.

Mr Combs’s legal team said the search was unlawful and that the material was subject to attorney-client privilege, a legal doctrine that safeguards confidential communications between lawyers and those they represent.

But prosecutors said the information wasn’t protected due to Mr Combs’s alleged actions, which could be considered obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

They claimed Mr Combs had encouraged his children to post a video on social media featuring their birthday celebration with the aim of swaying prospective jurors.

Allegedly, Mr Combs sent hundreds of text messages using an app called ContactMeASAP, marketed as “an innovative text messaging service for federal inmates to communicate with loved ones via real-time messages”.

According to authorities, Mr Combs has maintained two accounts on the platform, communicating with dozens of individuals, including attorneys and others not listed on his approved contacts list at the jail.

Lisa Bloom, an attorney for Dawn Richards, who filed a civil lawsuit against Mr Combs, also alleges that he was contacting witnesses from prison.

In an interview with BBC’s Newsnight, she said one person had called her client a liar, and that phone tracking showed this person had had more than 100 points of contact with Mr Combs from jail.

“The strong implication there is that he talked her into making those statements, perhaps gave her money. We don’t know. But that would be witness tampering,” Ms Bloom told Newsnight.

Prosecutors have stated their investigation is ongoing, leaving open the possibility of additional charges or defendants.

Ms Bloom said she believes others could be charged in the investigation.

“He didn’t do this by himself,” Ms Bloom said. “He had an operation that people were brought in by others, so he didn’t do everything himself. And we think it’s very important that not only do predators get brought to justice, but those who conspire with them, who help them, who are complicit.”

Dozens of civil lawsuits also have been filed against Mr Combs accusing him of coercing and abusing both men and women, blackmailing them with video recordings of sexual encounters, threatening witnesses, and in some cases, physically beating them.

Several cases include accusations from people who were underage at the time of the alleged assaults.

Mr Combs has vehemently denied all the allegations.

His legal team previously offered a $50m bail package that included house arrest and no female visitors, but it was rejected by the court.

He put up his Los Angeles and Miami mansions for sale in a bid to secure the bail bond.

Read more on the allegations against Diddy:

• ‘He thought of himself as a king’: The parties that led to Diddy’s downfall
• Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs faces more than 100 new assault allegations
• The charges against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs explained
• Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: Who is the US rapper accused of sex trafficking?
• ‘Chaos reigns’ – the notorious jail holding Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
• When is Diddy’s trial starting? What to know about his legal trouble

Awards campaigns have kicked into high gear following the launch of the last remaining films which could form part of this year’s Oscars race.

Voting for the Golden Globes, the first major film ceremony of awards season, is under way ahead of the nominations being announced on 9 December.

Studios have already been campaigning for months, as many of the major movies premiered at the Venice, Telluride, Toronto, Cannes and Sundance festivals.

Ahead of the Baftas on 16 February and Oscars on 2 March, here’s the ABC (Anora, Blitz, Conclave) of all the films you need to know about.

What’s it about? A biopic of singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, focusing on his early career as he was making his name in 1960s New York.

Who’s in it? Timothée Chalamet as Dylan, alongside Edward Norton, Elle Fanning and Monica Barbaro.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 17 January.

What’s it about? An aspiring actor with a disfiguring facial condition has a radical medical procedure, drastically transforming his appearance. But he gradually starts to regret his decision as he grapples with a sense of lost identity.

Who’s in it? Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve and Adam Pearson.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 4 October.

What’s it about? Two cousins go on a trip across Poland to learn more about their late grandmother.

Who’s in it? Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 10 January.

• Read more: Succession star praised for emotional film role

What’s it about? Three Indian nurses working in the same Mumbai hospital struggle to make ends meet. A trip to a coastal town provides a chance for freedom and reflection.

Who’s in it? Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam and Hridhu Haroon.

Where can I see it? In cinemas from 29 November.

• Read more: An Indian tale of love and sisterhood unfolds at Cannes

What’s it about? A woman working as a stripper in New York falls in love with the son of a Russian billionaire. The pair enjoy a whirlwind romance, but the wheels soon start to come off.

Who’s in it? Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov and Karren Karagulian.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas from 1 November.

• Read more: Mikey Madison leads Oscars race for breakout role as New York stripper

What’s it about? A young Donald Trump tries to make his name as a real estate tycoon in New York in the 1970s and 80s, and finds a mentor in lawyer Roy Cohn.

Who’s in it? Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong and Maria Bakalova.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 18 October.

• Read more: Sebastian Stan says Trump ‘should be grateful’ for controversial film

What’s it about? A high-powered CEO risks her career and family when she begins an affair with a younger intern.

Who’s in it? Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde and Antonio Banderas.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 10 January.

What’s it about? Set more than three decades after the original Beetlejuice, Lydia Deetz is now a mother struggling to keep her family together when Betelgeuse returns to haunt her.

Who’s in it? Jenna Ortega, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Monica Bellucci and Willem Dafoe.

Where can I see it? It was released in cinemas in the summer and is now available to buy and rent digitally.

Read more: Beetlejuice stars launch sequel in Venice

What’s it about? A 12-year-old girl living on a rough council estate finds a mentor and protector in a man who has returned to the town to try to track down his family.

Who’s in it? Nykiya Adams, Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 8 November.

• Read more: Saltburn star plays chaotic young dad in Bafta-tipped film

What’s it about? A young boy makes his own way back to London after the city is evacuated during World War Two.

Who’s in it? Saoirse Ronan, Stephen Graham and Elliott Heffernan.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 1 November, and is now on Apple TV+.

• Read more: Saoirse Ronan says WW2 film is ‘incredibly relevant’

What’s it about? A Hungarian architect tries to build a new life for himself and his wife in post-war America, but their plans are changed by a wealthy client.

Who’s in it? Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce and Joe Alwyn.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas on 24 January 2025.

What’s it about? A love triangle between a tennis prodigy-turned-coach and two male rivals.

Who’s in it? Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist

Where can I see it? Amazon Prime Video, and available to rent on other digital platforms.

• Read more: How Zendaya she’s perfected the art of method dressing

What’s it about? A group of photographers and journalists venture through the US, which has been torn apart by civil war during the third term of an authoritarian president.

Who’s in it? Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas in April and is now available to buy on digital platforms.

• Read more: Dunst ‘didn’t even think to ask for equal pay’ early in career

What’s it about? A gossipy and scheming group of cardinals must select the new Pope, but there is backstabbing, wheeling and dealing behind the scenes.

Who’s in it? Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 29 November.

• Read more: Critics praise ‘skin-prickling suspense’ of Oscar-tipped Conclave

What’s it about? Deadpool is recruited to help safeguard the multiverse, and unites with Wolverine to complete the mission.

Who’s in it? Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman.

Where can I see it? On Disney+.

• Read more: Can Deadpool and Wolverine spark Marvel’s revival?

What’s it about? A sequel to 2021’s Dune, Paul Atreides unites with the Fremen people of the desert planet Arrakis to wage war against House Harkonnen.

Who’s in it? Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Austin Butler and Florence Pugh.

Where can I see it? Available to rent or buy on digital platforms.

• Read more: Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya thrill fans at premiere

What’s it about? A musical following a Mexican cartel leader who wants to leave the world of crime and live a new life as a woman.

Who’s in it? Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas from 25 October and is on Netflix from 13 November.

• Read more: Selena Gomez ‘shines’ in new Oscar-tipped musical

What’s it about? A cat fleeing its home after a devastating flood finds refuge on a boat populated by various animals, and must team up with them despite their differences in order to survive.

Who’s in it? There are no big-name actors as the film is dialogue-free (although the animals bark, meow and squawk).

Where can I see it? In cinemas from 1 March.

What’s it about? A sequel to 2000’s Oscar-winning Gladiator, the grandson of Rome’s former emperor is forced into slavery following an invasion.

Who’s in it? Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 15 November.

• Read more: Mescal was cast in Gladiator II after ’30-minute Zoom call’

What’s it about? An irritable woman whose constant misery puts severe strain on those around her grapples with her depression as Mother’s Day approaches. Directed by Mike Leigh.

Who’s in it? Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber and Tuwaine Barrett.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 31 January.

• Read more: Actress ‘dazzles’ as woman who is always miserable in Mike Leigh film

What’s it about? Two female Mormon missionaries knock on the door of a man who initially appears friendly but is not what he seems, leading to a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Who’s in it? Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas now.

What’s it about? Three sisters with very different personalities come together in New York to care for their sick father.

Who’s in it? Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen and Natasha Lyonne.

Where can I see it? On Netflix now.

What’s it about? A fake hit man who actually works for the police is used to catch potential criminals who try to enlist him as a contract killer.

Who’s in it? Glen Powell, Adria Arjona and Austin Amelio.

Where can I see it? On Netflix now.

What’s it about? Set in 1970s Brazil, a woman and her five children’s lives are turned upside down after the disappearance of her congressman husband.

Who’s in it? Fernanda Torres, Fernanda Montenegro and Selton Mello.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 21 February.

What’s it about? A sequel to 2015’s Inside Out, Riley is now a teenager with a whole heap of new emotions to deal with, including anxiety and embarrassment.

Who’s in it? The voices of Amy Poehler, Maya Hawke, Tony Hale and Ayo Edebiri.

Where can I see it? On Disney+ now.

Read more: Inside Out 2 becomes biggest animated film ever

What’s it about? Following 2019’s Joker, Arthur Fleck falls in love with Harley Quinn while incarcerated at Arkham Asylum.

Who’s in it? Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Zazie Beetz and Brendan Gleeson.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas now.

Read more: Joker sequel suffers $33m collapse at box office

What’s it about? A man who flees after accidentally killing someone in a road accident finds himself on the jury in a trial that wrongly accuses someone else of the crime.

Who’s in it? Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette and JK Simmons.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 1 November.

What’s it about? A biopic focusing on legendary opera singer Maria Callas’s final years in Paris in the 1970s.

Who’s in it? Angelina Jolie, Haluk Bilginer and Kodi Smit-McPhee.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 10 January.

• Read more: Angelina Jolie ‘spellbinding’ as opera star Callas

What’s it about? A young woman tries to convince her father to let a visionary artist renovate a city into a utopian, idealistic future.

Who’s in it? Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Laurence Fishburne and Dustin Hoffman.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 27 September.

What’s it about? In 1970s Australia, a lonely woman dictates her life story to her favourite pet snail.

Who’s in it? The voices of Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Eric Bana.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 14 February.

What’s it about? Two young men are abused at a reform school called the Nickel Academy in 1960s Florida.

Who’s in it? Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 3 January.

• Read more: Nickel Boys adaptation ‘breaks the rules of cinema’

What’s it about? A woman who quits her job to be at home with her young son fears she is turning into a dog at night.

Who’s in it? Amy Adams and Scoot McNairy.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 6 December.

• Read more: Amy Adams turns into a dog in ‘bizarre and brilliant’ film

What’s it about? An ancient Transylvanian vampire haunts a young woman in 19th Century Germany.

Who’s in it? Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 1 January.

What’s it about? A young woman struggling with addiction to alcohol returns to her home in Orkney.

Who’s in it? Saoirse Ronan and Paapa Essiedu.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 27 September.

• Read more: ‘I was terrified’ – Saoirse Ronan learns lambing for The Outrun

What’s it about? Adapted from August Wilson’s play, a brother and sister disagree over what to do with a family heirloom piano in 1920s Pittsburgh.

Who’s in it? John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler and Samuel L Jackson.

Where can I see it? It was released in cinemas on 8 November and is now on Netflix.

• Read more: Denzel Washington’s children join forces in ‘fearless’ film

What’s it about? A gay man in 1950s Mexico ventures into the jungle in search of a rare plant, which is said to have telepathic powers.

Who’s in it? Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey and Lesley Manville.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 13 December.

• Read more: Daniel Craig’s new film ‘smug’ but ‘beautiful’

What’s it about? A woman with terminal cancer asks a close friend to be in the room next door when she takes her own life.

Who’s in it? Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 25 October.

• Read more: Tilda Swinton film sparks euthanasia debate

What’s it about? Set in 1975, the cast and crew of US variety show Saturday Night Live gear up for their first episode.

Who’s in it? Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 31 January.

What’s it about? A judge loses his gun amid unrest in Tehran. Suspecting his family, he imposes harsh rules, straining relationships as society destabilises.

Who’s in it? Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh and Mahsa Rostami.

Where can I see it? In cinemas from 7 February.

• Read more: Director flees Iran after receiving jail sentence for making film in secret

What’s it about? The 1972 Munich Olympic hostage crisis told from the perspective of an ABC Sports crew, incorporating real-life footage from their coverage.

Who’s in it? Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro and Ben Chaplin.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 24 January.

What’s it about? A group of inmates in a high-security prison sign up for a performing arts programme.

Who’s in it? Colman Domingo and Clarence Maclin.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 30 August.

What’s it about? A woman takes a black-market drug in order to create a younger, more beautiful version of herself.

Who’s in it? Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 20 September and is now available on Mubi.

• Read more: Demi Moore is over being perfect in new ‘risky and juicy’ horror role

What’s it about? An elderly woman sets out to get back the $10,000 she lost in a scam.

Who’s in it? June Squibb, Fred Hechinger and Richard Roundtree.

Where can I see it? It’s available to rent or buy on digital platforms.

What’s it about? A young chef is diagnosed with cancer, throwing her plans for the future into doubt.

Who’s in it? Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield.

Where can I see it? In UK cinemas from 1 January.

• Read more: Garfield brings cardboard cut-out of Pugh to red carpet

What’s it about? A film adaptation of the book and stage musical, which tell the origin story of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Who’s in it? Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 22 November.

Read more: Ariana Grande channelled her loss into Wicked role

What’s it about? An animated robot named Roz adapts to its new surroundings after being shipwrecked on a deserted island, and develops a parental bond with an orphaned gosling.

Who’s in it? The voices of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal and Bill Nighy.

Where can I see it? It was released in UK cinemas on 18 October and is released for digital rental or purchase on 18 November.

The incoming regional director of the World Health Organization in Africa, Tanzania’s Dr Faustine Ndugulile, has died, just three months after he was elected to the position.

Ndugulile, a 55-year-old lawmaker and a medical doctor, died on Wednesday morning in India while undergoing treatment, Tanzania’s speaker of parliament said.

He is known for having stood up to President John Magufuli at the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020, when he served as deputy health minister.

In August this year, he was elected as the WHO regional head, to take over from Botswana’s Dr Matshidiso Moeti, who has served two five-year terms.

He was due to assume the role in February next year.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Thursday said he was “shocked and deeply saddened” by Ndugulile’s death.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu also sent her condolences to the family of the deceased lawmaker.

The reasons he was being treated have not been disclosed.

Before his election to the WHO position, Ndugulile had a distinguished career in both politics and public health.

He represented the Kigamboni constituency in Dar es Salaam as a legislator and held several key governmental positions, including deputy minister for health and communications minister.

He was appointed to the health ministry position in 2017 and stayed there until Magufuli sacked him in May 2020, at the height of the coronavirus epidemic.

No reason was given for his sacking, although media reports suggested that it was related to his stance on the fight against coronavirus in the country, which went against the president’s views.

Magufuli was a vehement coronavirus sceptic and refused to put in place measures that the rest of the world had taken to control the spread of the virus, such as wearing face masks.

In parliament and elsewhere, Ndugulile was often photographed wearing a mask when hardly any Tanzanians were doing this.

A month before his sacking, he had warned against using traditional means of treating patients for Covid, such as inhaling boiled herbs, saying this would block the respiratory system.

Magufuli had openly supported traditional remedies as a way of dealing with Covid.

He asked Tanzanians to be mindful so that they could not be “used for trials of some doubtful vaccinations” and advocated steam inhalation saying that “because the coronavirus is made up of fats, when exposed to such high temperatures above 100°C, it will just disintegrate”.

He also urged Tanzanians to pray. “I don’t expect to announce any lockdown because our God is living and he will continue to protect Tanzanians,” he said.

But at the beginning of his second term in office in December of the same year, President Magufuli appointed Ndugulile as Minister of Communication and Information Communication Technology.

Ndugulile held the position until Magufuli’s death in 2021.

Before joining politics in 2010, Ndugulile had served as a director in the health ministry overseeing diagnostic services.

He played a key role in establishing the National Blood Transfusion Services in 2006, where he served as the founding programme manager.

He had also worked at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in South Africa.

Tanzania proposed him for the WHO post earlier this year, citing his experience and commitment to global health.

After his election in August, he had expressed commitment to advancing health in the continent.

“I promise to work with you and I believe that together we can build a healthier Africa,” he said then.

The outgoing Africa director, Dr Moeti, has described his death as an “immense loss”.

It is the first time a WHO regional director-elect has died before assuming office.

The political process of electing another director is a long and complex one.

• Africa’s long wait for the Covid-19 vaccine
• John Magufuli: The cautionary tale of the president who denied coronavirus
• The man who declared victory over coronavirus

Radio 4 Today programme co-presenter Mishal Husain is to leave the BBC in the New Year, the corporation has announced.

Husain has been a host on the station’s flagship current affairs morning show for 11 years, and also fronted BBC One’s recent UK general election debates.

Husain, who joined the broadcaster in 1998, has also presented the BBC News at Six and Ten, as well its news channels.

She will move to Bloomberg to host a new interview series and be editor-at-large of its Weekend Edition.

The 51-year-old said in a statement that her BBC career had “involved many memorable moments, going to places I would never otherwise have seen, witnessing history and being part of live, national conversation on Radio 4”.

She added: “I will always be grateful for the opportunities the BBC gave me, and wish the organisation and everyone who is part of it the very best.”

Owenna Griffiths, editor of the Today programme, described Husain as “not only a formidable journalist and first-rate presenter” but also “an extremely generous and thoughtful colleague”.

“It has been my great privilege to work alongside her and, along with the Today team, I’ll miss her enormously but wish her all the very best in her new venture,” she said.

Husain is one of five presenters on the Today programme’s current roster, alongside Justin Webb, Nick Robinson, Emma Barnett and Amol Rajan.

She earned between £340,000 and £344,999 in the last financial year for about 140 shifts presenting Today, 20 days reading the news on BBC One, plus Today’s debates and other projects.

In a statement issued by her new employer, she said: “I am delighted to be fronting a new interview show that will reach audiences in different formats as part of the exciting plans for Bloomberg Weekend Edition.

“Ours is an ever more complex world but the desire for thoughtful conversations crosses all borders. I look forward to working with a new team at Bloomberg – the place which gave me my first job in journalism.”

Husain began her journalism career at Bloomberg Television in the 1990s before joining the BBC.

During her career at the corporation, she also reported from countries ranging from the US to Pakistan.

She interviewed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan, after their engagement in 2017; and was part of the coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, and the King’s coronation.

She also made documentaries about the lives of the late Queen, Mahatma Gandhi and Malala Yousafzai, as well as the Arab Spring in 2011.

Earlier this year, the British presenter’s book, Broken Threads: My Family From Empire to Independence, became a Sunday Times bestseller.

The Guardian said it saw her weave “a tender tapestry with the stories of her four grandparents in the new state of Pakistan”.

The Times newspaper’s media correspondent Alex Farber, who reported last week that Husain was preparing to step down, told Radio 4’s Media Show her departure had upset some BBC staff.

“I think she is very highly regarded within the corporation,” he said. “I’ve had lots of messages this afternoon from people within the BBC who consider her departure to be quite a loss.

“We don’t know the kinds of offers that were made, and what was put on the table for her. Ultimately she obviously decided that whatever was being offered wasn’t quite right for her.”

He said her replacement on Today should be another woman, and mentioned BBC Europe editor Katya Adler, Radio 5 Live’s Rachel Burden and ITV’s deputy political editor Anushka Asthana as possibilities.

The news of Husain’s departure comes five months after Martha Kearney left the Today programme. She was replaced by Barnett, who joined from Woman’s Hour.

An Egyptian diver involved in the rescue operation of people scouring the wreckage of a tourist boat which sank in the Red Sea has described how he found his own nephew among the passengers trapped but still alive on the boat.

Rescuers on Tuesday found five survivors on the vessel and four bodies. On the third day of the search, seven people remain missing.

“We dived 12m (40ft) under water – the survivors were trapped inside the boat cabins,” Mr Khattab al-Faramawy told the BBC.

They had survived more than 24 hours on the boat since it was sunk by a large wave near Marsa Alam off Egypt’s eastern coast on Monday.

Mr al-Faramawy described the complexities of searching the submerged four-deck boat to find passengers and crew.

“We were using torch lights to try to find our way into the darkness, it was quite a complicated mission,” he said.

Eventually, they were able to open cabin doors to get survivors out.

His own nephew was among them. Youssef, 23, worked as a diving instructor on board the boat.

“He was trying to save the passengers on board but got locked in one of the cabins,” his father Hussam al-Faramawy told the BBC in an emotional phone call.

“I could do nothing but pray to God to help my boy, and thankfully his uncle finally saved him.”

Hussam al-Faramawy said he broke down in tears when he learnt his son had survived.

“I couldn’t tell his mother what happened to the boat, she would have died immediately. I only told her after I realised that he survived,” he said.

Youssef is currently receiving treatment in a local hospital, as are other survivors. A total of 33 of the 44 people on board the Sea Story have been rescued so far.

Officials have not yet disclosed the identities of the victims and missing. The BBC understands two of the missing are British nationals.

The Egyptian navy is in charge of the rescue operation and the military has kept the survivors away from the media.

The local authorities have posted videos of the rescue operation with footage showing survivors wrapped in blankets – including one on a stretcher – being brought to shore.

One unnamed survivor is seen saying he had been “shaking with cold” before being rescued.

The 44m Sea Story had left a port near Marsa Alam on Sunday for a five-day diving trip. It is believed to have been hit by rough winds overnight on Sunday, with Red Sea governor Maj-Gen Amr Hanafi saying it sank within five to seven minutes.

The Egyptian Meteorological Authority warned of high waves on the Red Sea and advised against maritime activity on Sunday and Monday.

Egyptian officials said the vessel had a valid safety certificate and was understood to have no technical problems.

Diving tours and sea cruises are a huge attraction for tourists visiting the Egyptian Red Sea resorts. Marsa Alam, where the boat had departed from, is a popular destination among European visitors, due to its clear waters, sunny weather and magnificent marine life.

According to the local council in Marsa Alam, the tourists on board were from Belgium, the UK, China, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and the US.

Among the missing are two Polish tourists, according to the foreign ministry in Warsaw.

A UK Foreign Office spokesperson said they were providing “support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Egypt”.

The Chinese embassy in Egypt said two of its nationals were “in good health” after being rescued.

A hiker who was lost in the backwoods of British Columbia for more than five weeks has been found alive.

Sam Benastick, 20, was reported missing on 19 October after he failed to return from a 10-day fishing and hiking trip in Redfern-Keily Park in the northern Rocky Mountains.

Authorities had called off search and rescue efforts for the avid hiker in late October. Temperatures in the region had at times dropped to around -20C (-4F).

Mr Benastick was found on Tuesday by two people headed to the Redfern Lake trail for work, who recognised him as the missing hiker as he walked towards them.

Given all the time he was missing, a different outcome had been feared, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Cpl Madonna Saunderson told the BBC on Wednesday.

“We’re very grateful. The family is thrilled,” she said, adding that he had simply gotten lost.

Mr Benastick told police that he stayed in his car for a couple of days and then walked to a creek where he camped for 10 to15 days. At the time he went missing, he was equipped with a tarp, a backpack and some camping supplies.

He then moved down the valley and built a camp and shelter in a dried-out creek bed. Winter conditions ramped up, with some snowfall.

Eventually, Mr Benastick made his way to the area where he flagged down his rescuers.

“Those are very difficult conditions for really anyone to survive in, especially [with] limited supplies and equipment and food,” Prince George Search and Rescue search manager Adam Hawkins told the BBC.

“Even someone with quite a bit of experience would find that challenging.”

Multiple rescue teams, the Canadian Rangers, the RCMP, and family and friends, had all conducted a ground and air search over “a pretty huge amount of terrain”, Mr Hawkins said.

The rugged, remote region was hours from any towns, and featured low-lying hills, steep alpine cliffsides, and “even glaciated terrain”, he said.

Little is known about Mr Benastick’s condition or how he survived in the backwoods. He is currently in hospital.

Local inn owner Mike Reid, who got to know Mr Benastick’s family while they stayed at his establishment during search efforts, told broadcaster CBC that the hiker had cut his sleeping bag and wrapped it around his legs to stay warm.

He said he was told the young man nearly collapsed as he was placed into the ambulance and was in “rough shape”.

Before he was found, Mr Benastick’s last known location was at a trailhead in the region of Redfern Lake – the park’s largest lake – where he was seen using his red dirt bike, according to the RCMP.

Mr Hawkins , the search manager, said he is “intensely curious” to learn more about the area where Mr Benastick was found and what he was doing while missing to help inform future search and rescue operations.

• Listen to Jeremy read this article

For most of the people of Lebanon, a ceasefire could not come quickly enough. A leading Lebanese analyst at a conference on the Middle East that I’m attending in Rome said she couldn’t sleep as the appointed hour for the ceasefire came closer.

“It was like the night before Christmas when you’re a kid. I couldn’t wait for it to happen.”

You can see why there’s relief. More than 3,500 citizens of Lebanon have been killed in Israeli strikes. Displaced people packed their cars before dawn to try to get back to whatever remains of their homes.

Well over one million of them have been forced to flee by Israeli military action. Thousands have been wounded and the homes of tens of thousands of others have been destroyed.

But in Israel, some feel they have lost the chance to do more damage to Hezbollah.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the heads of Israel’s northern municipalities, which have been turned into ghost towns with around 60,000 civilians evacuated further south.

Israel’s Ynet news website reported that it was an angry meeting that turned into a shouting match, with some of the local officials frustrated that Israel was taking the pressure off their enemies in Lebanon and not offering an immediate plan to get civilians home.

In a newspaper column, the mayor of Kiryat Shmona, close to the border, said he doubted the ceasefire would be enforced, demanding that Israel creates a buffer zone in south Lebanon. In a poll commissioned by the Israeli station Channel 12 News those questioned were roughly split between supporters and opponents of the ceasefire.

Half of the participants in the survey believe Hezbollah has not been defeated and 30% think the ceasefire will collapse.

Back in late September, at the UN General Assembly in New York, a deal looked as if it was close. Diplomats from the US and UK were convinced that a ceasefire very similar to the one that is now coming into force was about to happen.

All sides in the war appeared to have signalled their willingness to accept a ceasefire based on the provisions of Security Council resolution 1701, which was passed to end the 2006 Lebanon war: Hezbollah would pull back from the border to be replaced by UN peacekeepers and the Lebanese Armed Forces. As they moved in, Israeli forces would gradually move out.

But Prime Minister Netanyahu went to the podium at the UN to deliver a fiery speech that refused to accept any pause in Israel’s offensive.

Back at his New York hotel Netanyahu’s official photographer captured the moment as he ordered the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, along with most of his high command. Netanyahu’s office released the photos, in another calculated snub for American diplomacy.

The assassination was a significant escalation and a blow to Hezbollah. In the weeks since, Israel’s military has inflicted immense damage to Hezbollah’s military organisation. It could still fire rockets over the border and its fighters continued to engage Israel’s invasion force. But Hezbollah is no longer the same threat to Israel.

Military success is one of several factors that have come together to persuade Benjamin Netanyahu that this is a good time to stop.

Israel’s agenda in Lebanon is more limited than in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. It wants to push Hezbollah back from its northern border and to allow civilians to return to border towns.

If Hezbollah looks to be preparing an attack, Israel has a side letter from the Americans agreeing that it can take military action.

In a recorded statement announcing his decision, Netanyahu listed the reasons why it was time for a ceasefire. Israel, he said, had made the ground in Beirut shake. Now there was a chance ‘to give our forces a breather and replenish stocks,’ he continued.

Israel had also broken the connection between Gaza and Lebanon. After the late Hassan Nasrallah ordered the attacks on Israel’s north, the day after Hamas went to war on 7th October last year, he said they would continue until there was a ceasefire in Gaza.

Now, Netanyahu said, Hamas in Gaza would be under even more pressure. Palestinians fear another escalation in Israel’s Gaza offensive.

There was one more reason; to concentrate on what Netanyahu called the Iranian threat. Damaging Hezbollah means damaging Iran. It was built up by the Iranians to create a threat right on Israel’s border. Hezbollah became the strongest part of Iran’s axis of resistance, the name it gave to its network of forward defence made up of allies and proxies.

Just like Hezbollah’s surviving leaders, their patrons in Iran also wanted a ceasefire. Hezbollah needs a pause to lick its wounds. Iran needs to stop the geostrategic bleeding. Its axis of resistance is no longer a deterrent. Iran’s missile attack on Israel after Nasrallah’s assassination did not repair the damage.

Two men, both now assassinated, designed Hezbollah to deter Israel not just from attacking Lebanon – but also from attacking Iran. They were Qasem Soleimani, head of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who was killed by an American drone strike at Baghdad airport in January 2020. The order was issued by Donald Trump in his last few weeks in the White House at the end of his first term. The other was Hassan Nasrallah, killed by a huge Israeli air strike in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Hezbollah and Iran’s deterrence strategy matched Israel’s own deterrence for almost 20 years after the end of the 2006 war. But among the profound changes caused by the 7th October attacks was Israel’s determination not to accept restrictions on the wars it would wage in response. America, its most important ally, also put almost no restrictions on the supply or use of the weapons it kept on providing.

Nasrallah and Iran failed to see what had happened. They did not understand how Israel had changed. They sought to impose a war of attrition on Israel, and succeeded for almost a year. Then on 17th September Israel broke out of it by triggering the miniature bombs built into the network of booby-trapped pagers its intelligence services had duped Hezbollah into buying.

Hezbollah was thrown off balance. Before it could react with the most powerful weapons Iran had provided, Israel killed Nasrallah and most of his key lieutenants, accompanied by massive strikes that destroyed arms dumps. That was followed by an invasion of South Lebanon and the wholesale destruction of Lebanese border villages as well as Hezbollah’s tunnel network.

A ceasefire in Lebanon is not necessarily a precursor to one in Gaza. Gaza is different. The war there is about more than security of the border, and Israeli hostages.

It is also about revenge, about Benjamin Netanyahu’s political survival, and his government’s absolute rejection of Palestinian aspirations for independence.

The Lebanon ceasefire is fragile and deliberately paced to buy time for it to work. When the 60 days in which it is supposed to take effect ends, Donald Trump will be back in the Oval Office. President-elect Trump has indicated that he wants a ceasefire in Lebanon, but his precise plans have not yet emerged.

The Middle East is waiting for the ways he might affect the region. Some optimists hope that he might want to create a moment akin to President Nixon’s sensational visit to China in 1972 by reaching out to Iran.

The pessimists fear he might abandon even the hollow genuflection that the US still makes to the idea of a creating an independent Palestine alongside Israel – the so-called two state solution. That might pave the way to annexation of those parts of the occupied Palestinian territories Israel wants, including much of the West Bank and northern Gaza.

What is certain though is that the Middle East has no chance of escaping more generations of war and violent death until the region’s fundamental political ruptures are faced and fixed. The biggest is the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, along with most Israelis believe it is possible to dominate their enemies by pressing on to a military victory. Netanyahu is actively using force, unrestrained by the US, to alter the balance of power in the Middle East in Israel’s favour.

In a conflict that has lasted more than a century both Arabs and Jews have dreamt repeatedly of peace through military victory. Every generation has tried and failed. The catastrophic consequences of the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 ripped away any pretence that the conflict could be managed while Israel continued to deny Palestinian rights to self-determination. The ceasefire in Lebanon is a respite. It is not a solution.

The boss of the company behind global fashion chain Uniqlo has told the BBC that the Japanese firm does not use cotton from the Xinjiang region of China in its products.

It is the first time Fast Retailing’s chief executive Tadashi Yanai has directly addressed the contentious issue.

China is a crucial market for Uniqlo not just for customers but also as a major manufacturing hub.

Xinjiang cotton was once known as some of the best fabric in the world.

But it has fallen out of favour after revelations that it is produced using forced labour by people from the Muslim Uyghur minority.

In 2022, tough US regulations on the import of goods from Xinjiang came into effect.

Many global brands removed products using Xinjiang cotton from their shelves, which led to fierce backlash in China. Brands such as H&M, Nike, Burberry, Esprit and Adidas were boycotted.

Sweden’s H&M saw its clothing pulled from major e-commerce stores in China.

At the time, Mr Yanai – who is Japan’s richest man – refused to confirm or deny whether Xinjiang cotton was used in Uniqlo clothing, saying he wanted “to be neutral between the US and China”.

His decision not to take a side helped Uniqlo to remain popular in China’s huge retail market.

But speaking to the BBC in Tokyo about the firm’s measures to be more transparent about where the materials in its clothes come from and how they are made, he said: “We’re not using [cotton from Xinjiang].”

“By mentioning which cotton we’re using…” he continued, before pausing and ending his answer with “Actually, it gets too political if I say anymore so let’s stop here”.

Isaac Stone Fish, the chief executive and founder of Strategy Risks, a business intelligence firm with a China focus highlights the pressures on firms from both China and the US.

“Not a single large company can remain politically neutral anymore,” he says.

“Both Beijing and Washington want companies to choose sides, and Tokyo will continue to lean closer to the United States in this matter.”

Even though Uniqlo has been expanding aggressively in Europe and the US, in Mr Yanai’s own words, “we are not a known brand globally” and Asia is still its biggest market.

The company has more stores in China than in its home country Japan, and Mr Yanai says he does not plan to change that strategy despite challenges in the world’s second biggest economy.

“There are 1.4 billion people in China and we only have 900 to 1,000 stores,” he says. “I think we can increase that to 3,000.”

Meanwhile, China is Uniqlo’s single biggest manufacturing hub. The company also makes clothes in countries including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia and India.

In 2009, when 80% of its products were made in China, Mr Yanai told the BBC that China was getting too expensive and the firm was shifting production away “to lower-wage Cambodia to keep prices low”.

He now says it was challenging to repeat China’s success as the world’s factory in other countries as transferring years of experience proved difficult.

Retailers like Uniqlo are also facing intense competition from ultra-fast fashion as brands like China’s Shein and Temu gain popularity with price-conscious customers.

But Mr Yanai says “I don’t think there’s a future for fast fashion”.

“They’re producing clothes without any careful consideration which you only wear for one season. That is a waste of the planet’s resources.”

He adds that Uniqlo’s strategy is to focus on essential items that can be worn for years.

In the 40 years that he has been in charge of the firm, Mr Yanai has grown the business he inherited from his father from a company with annual sales of around 100 million yen ($656,700; £522,400) to a global chain with 3 trillion yen of revenues this year.

The 75-year-old says he aims to overtake Inditex, which owns the global chain Zara, as the world’s biggest fashion retailer before he retires.

But to achieve that, Uniqlo needs to expand not just in China but also in the West, where shoppers are increasingly conscious of human rights issues such as forced labour.

Mr Yanai’s ambitions may also face more hurdles as Donald Trump returns to the White House on a pledge to impose much higher tariffs on Chinese-made goods.

Several of Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees and picks for his White House team have been targeted by bomb threats.

The FBI said it was aware of “numerous bomb threats” as well as “swatting incidents”, in which hoax calls are made to attract a police response to the target’s home.

Threats were made against at least nine people chosen by Trump to lead the Departments of Defence, Housing, Agriculture and Labor, as well as his pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, among others.

Police are investigating the incidents, which happened on Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Trump’s transition team, said the Trump appointees “were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them”.

She said “law enforcement acted quickly to ensure” the nominees’ safety.

“With President Trump as our example, dangerous acts of intimidation and violence will not deter us,” she said.

Neither Leavitt nor the FBI identified any of the targets by name.

New York Republican Elise Stefanik, who Trump has named to be the US ambassador to the United Nations, was the first to say her family home had been targeted by a bomb threat.

Her office said the congresswoman was informed of the threat while she was driving with her husband and three-year-old son from Washington DC to New York for Thanksgiving.

Defence secretary nominee Pete Hegseth later confirmed that he was also targeted.

On X, he said that a police officer had shown up at his home on Wednesday morning, as his seven children were sleeping inside to notify him they had received “a credible pipe bomb threat”.

“I will not be bullied or intimidated. Never,” he wrote. “President Trump has called on me to serve – and that is what I intend to do.”

• ‘I had 60 seconds to protect my family’: Swatting targets US politicians

Trump, who survived two assassination attempts during his campaign, was not among those who received the hoax calls, law enforcement sources told US media.

He has received genuine threats recently, according to officials in Arizona who arrested a man earlier this week for posting videos on a “near-daily basis” in which he threatened to kill Trump and his family.

None of those targeted this week were protected by the US Secret Service, according to media reports.

Lee Zeldin, who Trump has nominated to become administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, also confirmed he was targeted, saying a “pipe bomb threat” was sent to his home with a “pro-Palestinian themed message”.

“My family and I were not home at the time and are safe,” he said. “We are thankful for the swift actions taken by local officers.”

Brooke Rollins, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Agriculture, posted on X to thank police in Fort Worth, Texas, for their “swift efforts” to investigate a threat to her family on Wednesday morning.

“We were unharmed and quickly returned home,” she wrote.

Scott Turner, Trump’s pick for Department of Housing, and Lori Chavez-Deremer, his pick for Labour Secretary, also posted on social media that they had been targeted. They each vowed that they would not be deterred by the threats.

President Joe Biden has been briefed on the incidents, the White House said in a statement.

“The White House is in touch with federal law enforcement and the President-elect’s team, and continues to monitor the situation closely.”

US Capitol Police, which protects Congress, said in the statement that it was working with federal law enforcement agencies on any “swatting”, but declined to provide further details “to minimise the risk of copy-cats”.

Florida Republican Matt Gaetz, who recently dropped out of the running to become US attorney general, was also targeted.

The sheriff’s office in Florida’s Okaloosa County confirmed that a bomb threat targeted an address in the town of Niceville.

The home’s mailbox was cleared and no devices were located, police said, and a search of the area did not uncover anything.

New York police told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that the New York home of Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, was also threatened.

Pam Bondi, who was selected to replace Gaetz as Trump’s nominee, was also targeted along with incoming White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, according to CBS.

Fox News reports that John Ratcliffe, Trump’s nominee to be director of the CIA, also received threats.

Similar hoax tactics have been recently used against other high-profile political figures, including against the judges and prosecutors who oversaw the criminal cases against Trump.

Last year, US politicians around the country were swatted over Christmas. Most were Republican, but some Democrats were targeted as well.

Saurabh Bhasin loved Delhi, the city where he was born.

Growing up, he longed for the winter months which offered a brief escape from the Indian capital’s long and harsh summers.

But over the years, his yearning for winters turned into fear. Air pollution increasingly crossed hazardous levels between October and January, leaving the city’s skyline hazy and air poisonous. Ordinary activities like walking outdoors or even playing with his child at home started feeling stressful and risky.

In 2015, Mr Bhasin, a corporate lawyer, filed a petition in the Supreme Court on behalf of his toddler – along with the fathers of two six-month-olds – seeking a ban on the use of firecrackers, which are burst mostly during festivals and weddings.

“The alarming rate of deterioration of the quality of air in Delhi due to air pollution [is] caused by, but not limited to, traffic congestion, dust from widespread construction, industrial pollution and the seasonal use of firecrackers,” his petition said.

The court issued guidelines to regulate the use of crackers but Delhi’s air continued to deteriorate.

In November 2022, Mr Bhasin’s daughter was diagnosed with asthma. Earlier this year, he and his family left for the coastal state of Goa, around 2,000km (1,242 miles) away, where they live now.

It’s not a choice available to millions in Delhi, who cannot leave their livelihoods and are forced to live through the smog.

But a small number of people who have the means are choosing to move out – either permanently or during winter.

Mr Bhasin is one of them.

“We know that bringing [his daughter] to Goa doesn’t mean her asthma will go away. But we are sure that had we kept her in Delhi, the chances of it getting worse would have been much higher,” he says.

His concerns are not unfounded. Over the past few years, between October and January, Delhi’s air quality has frequently deteriorated to levels that the World Health Organization categorises as hazardous to health.

The Indian health ministry’s own recommendations say that poor to severe air quality may lead to an increase in morbidity and mortality among vulnerable sections such as children, elderly people and those with underlying medical conditions.

The recommendation advises people to avoid outdoor physical activities, and asks vulnerable people to remain inside and keep activity levels low when the air quality dips to levels classified as “severe”.

Mr Bhasin finds these measures cosmetic. “You can either invest in a solution now or keep putting a band-aid on it and pay the price for generations,” he says.

A 2022 study by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago found that air pollution can shorten the lives of people in Delhi by almost 10 years.

• Living in Delhi smog is like watching a dystopian film again and again

Rekha Mathur* is among those who have chosen to temporarily leave every year. In the winter, she relocates to the outskirts of Dehradun, near the Himalayan foothills.

She recently had a baby and now wants to stay away longer from Delhi, which struggles with bad air throughout the year. But her husband has to stay back for work, which means Ms Mathur is the child’s sole caregiver for months, and their son only gets to see his father occasionally.

“Our whole life is built around Delhi. I would have never left the city, if not for the worsening air pollution,” she says.

Ms Mathur says she is unsure how long the arrangement can continue as her son grows up and needs regular schooling.

It worries her that pollution is not just restricted to urban centres like Delhi now, but even smaller, scenic cities like Dehradun.

In Delhi, the city she longs to return to, the crisis has been a matter of debate for years.

Over the past four decades, India’s Supreme Court has ordered the relocation of polluting industries, the conversion of commercial diesel vehicles into cleaner alternatives, the closure of brick kilns and the speedy construction of bypasses and expressways.

• Indian Supreme Court’s 40-year quest to clean Delhi’s foul air

This winter, as smog returned to Delhi and adjoining regions, authorities imposed measures such as restricting non-essential construction, halting demolition activities, shutting down polluting industries, and limiting the number of vehicles on the road.

Yet, air quality hasn’t improved much. Residents express frustration that the onset of winter triggers an intense debate around air pollution every year, but hardly yields results.

Journalist and writer Om Thanvi, who lived in Delhi for more than 15 years, says there is no magic wand but to find a viable solution, the government must treat this as a public health emergency.

Mr Thanvi moved to the western state of Rajasthan in 2018 to teach, planning to return soon. But now, he says, he has decided to stay there permanently.

“I had to use an inhaler in Delhi. But since I have moved here, I don’t even remember where it is,” he says.

He advises others who have the means to leave the city until things improve.

“I miss Delhi’s vibrant cultural scene, but I don’t regret leaving and I don’t plan to return.”

But for millions of Indians, this is not a choice.

Sarita Devi migrated to Delhi from Patna city years ago for work. She irons clothes for a living, spending hours outdoors with her cart through winter and summer.

“I can’t go back to Patna because I can’t earn money there. And even if I did go, it wouldn’t change much for me,” Ms Devi says.

“I visited for a festival a few days ago and the air there was equally hazy,” she adds, highlighting the fact that the air in many north Indian cities is highly polluted.

Mr Bhasin says that when they moved to Goa in June, leaving behind friends and family was particularly difficult.

But now, he is confident that the decision was right.

“We are no longer willing to pay the price with our child’s health.”

Mahmoud is a cheeky teenager who beams the biggest of smiles even though he lost his front teeth in the rough and tumble of kids’ play.

He is a Sudanese orphan abandoned twice, and displaced twice in his country’s grievous war – one of nearly five million Sudanese children who have lost almost everything as they are pushed from one place to the next in what is now the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Nowhere else on Earth are so many children on the run, so many people living with such acute hunger.

Famine has already been declared in one area – many others subsist on the brink of starvation not knowing where their next meal will come from.

“It’s an invisible crisis,” emphasises the UN’s new humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher.

“Twenty-five million Sudanese, more than half the country, need help now,” he adds.

In a time of all too many unprecedented crises, where devastating wars in places like Gaza and Ukraine dominate the world’s aid and attention, Mr Fletcher chose Sudan for his first field mission to highlight its plight.

“This crisis is not invisible to the UN, to our humanitarians on the front line risking and losing their lives to help the Sudanese people,” he told the BBC, as we travelled with him on his week-long trip.

Most of the people on his team working on the ground are also Sudanese who have lost their homes, their old lives, in this brutal struggle for power between the army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Mr Fletcher’s first field visit took him to Mahmoud’s Maygoma orphanage in Kassala in eastern Sudan, now home to nearly 100 children in a crumbling three-storey school-turned-shelter.

They lived with their carers in the capital, Khartoum, until the army and RSF turned their guns on each other in April 2023, trapping the orphanage as they dragged their country into a vortex of horrific violence, systematic looting and shocking abuse.

When fighting spread to the orphans’ new shelter in Wad Madani, in central Sudan, those who survived fled to Kassala.

When I asked 13-year-old Mahmoud to make a wish, he immediately broke into a big gap-toothed grin.

“I want to be a state governor so I can be in charge and rebuild destroyed homes,” he replied.

For 11 million Sudanese driven from one refuge to the next, returning to what is left of their homes and rebuilding their lives would be the biggest gift of all.

For now, even finding food to survive is a daily battle.

And for aid agencies, including the UN, getting it to them is a titanic task.

After Mr Fletcher’s four days of high-level meetings in Port Sudan, army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced on the X social media site that he had given the UN permission to establish more supply hubs and to use three more regional airports to deliver assistance.

Some of the permissions had been granted before but some marked a step forward.

The new announcement also came as the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) secured a green light to reach stricken communities behind lines controlled by the RSF, including the Zamzam camp in Darfur housing about half a million people where famine was recently confirmed.

“We’ve been pushing for months to get to these communities,” says Alex Marianelli, who heads WFP’s operations in Port Sudan.

Behind us in a WFP warehouse, Sudanese labourers sing as they load trucks with boxes of food heading for the worst of the worst areas.

Mr Marianelli reflects that he has never worked in such a difficult and dangerous environment.

Within the aid community, some criticise the UN, saying that its hands have been tied by recognising Gen Burhan as the de facto ruler of Sudan.

“Gen Burhan and his authorities control those checkpoints and the system of permits and access,” Mr Fletcher says in response.

“If we want to go into those areas we need to deal with them.”

He hopes the rival RSF will also put the people first.

“I’ll go anywhere, talk to anyone, to get this aid through, and to save lives,” Mr Fletcher adds.

In Sudan’s merciless war, all warring parties have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.

So too sexual violence, which the UN describes as “an epidemic” in Sudan.

The UN visit coincided with the “16 days of activism” marked globally as a campaign to stop gender-based violence.

In Port Sudan, the event in a displaced camp, the first to be set up when war flared, was especially poignant.

“We have to do better, we must do better,” vowed Mr Fletcher, who cast aside his prepared speech when he stood under a canopy facing rows of Sudanese women and children, clapping and ululating.

I asked some of the women listening what they made of his visit.

“We really need help but the major job should be from the Sudanese themselves,” reflects Romissa, who works for a local aid group and recounts her own harrowing journey from Khartoum at the start of the war.

“This is the time for the Sudanese people to stand together.”

The Sudanese have been trying to do a lot with a little.

In a simple two-room shelter, a safe house called Shamaa, or “Candle”, brings some light to the lives of abused single women and orphaned children.

Its founder, Nour Hussein al-Sewaty, known as Mama Nour, also started life in the Maygoma orphanage.

She also had to flee Khartoum to protect those in her care. One woman now sheltering with her was raped before the war, then abducted and raped again.

Even the formidable Mama Nour is now at breaking-point.

“We are so exhausted. We need help,” she declares.

“We want to smell the fresh air. We want to feel there are still people in the world who care about us, the people of Sudan.”

• A simple guide to what is happening
• ‘Rape me, not my daughter’ – women tell BBC of Sudan sexual violence
• Famine hits Sudan as peace talks fall short yet again
• WATCH: Inside a hospital on Sudan’s hunger front line
• WATCH: BBC reporter’s emotional return to ransacked family home

Pakistan’s security forces have been accused of pushing a man off a stack of cargo containers during Tuesday’s protests in the capital Islamabad, where crowds demanded the release of former President Imran Khan.

Khan’s party said the incident was one of several examples of police brutality at the demonstrations and has since called off the protests.

The man had been praying on top of a container when armed officers approached him and “brutally pushed him off from a height equivalent to three storeys”, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said.

The condition of the man is unknown.

BBC Verify has confirmed that the incident took place on Tuesday at the corner of Jinnah and Attaturk avenues in Islamabad, where protesters had gathered.

Video footage showed officers – carrying riot shields with markings indicating they were affiliated with the Pakistani Rangers, a paramilitary force – approaching a man kneeling on top of the containers before pushing him over the edge.

The video shows him trying to cling on to the containers before falling.

The footage was verified by matching a video of the fall posted on social media with images uploaded by Getty Images on Tuesday of the same scene.

BBC Verify has approached the Pakistani Rangers – whose officers were allegedly involved in the incident – for comment.

At least six people – four security officers and two civilians – died in clashes during the protests which began on Sunday.

On Tuesday, thousands of Khan supporters marched on central Islamabad demanding that the former leader be released.

Protesters had said they would not leave the capital until Khan – who is in prison on several criminal charges including fraud – was freed.

But as they made their way to Democracy Square on Tuesday, they were pushed back by police firing tear gas.

PTI said in a statement on Wednesday that the protests had been “temporarily suspended” due to the “government’s brutality”.

It said Pakistan government forces had “launched a violent assault” on peaceful protesters “firing live rounds with the intent to kill as many people as possible.”

The party has claimed that several of their party workers were killed during the crackdown and appealed for an investigation.

The BBC has not yet independently verified reports of killings, although two sources at a nearby hospital confirmed to the BBC they had received four civilian bodies with gunshot wounds after Tuesday’s protests.

Pakistan’s information minister has said authorities resisted firing on protesters.

Earlier on Tuesday, many Khan supporters had managed to reach the city centre but were dispersed by authorities by sunset.

Local media reported a government source saying police had arrested more than 500 PTI supporters.

Islamabad had been put under lockdown, with a heavy security presence deployed in anticipation of clashes with convoys of PTI supporters.

The convoys were led by PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur and Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who was released from prison in October and has since taken a more prominent role in trying to mobilise support for Khan.

Reports say Gandapur and Bushra Bibi have left Islamabad and returned to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where their convoy had come from.

Protesters were reported to have responded to a “final” call from Khan, asking them to “fight till the end” until their demands are met.

Khan has been in prison for more than a year on charges he says are politically motivated.

Even from behind bars, the former cricket star has proved a powerful player in Pakistan politics. During elections in February his party, which had been banned from standing and was forced to run candidates as independents, emerged as the single largest bloc in winning votes.

However, they fell short of a majority and their rivals united to form a new government.

The PTI has called for election results to be overturned because they say the vote was rigged, a claim disputed by the government.

A rare first edition of a Harry Potter book has sold for £36,000.

Christine McCulloch bought the copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for her son Adam in the 1990s.

She said she paid about £10 for the copy from a bookshop in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1997 and had no idea the same book would be worth thousands of pounds, 30 years later.

On Wednesday, the first edition was sold at Rare Book Auctions in Lichfield, Staffordshire, with the buyer paying £45,000 in total with a buyer’s premium.

The book is one of only 500 hardback copies published in the first-ever Potter book print run in 1997, according to Hansons Auctioneers.

It had been given a valuation of between £30,000 and £50,000.

Adam McCulloch, from Tansley, Derbyshire, said the copy had been left in a cupboard under the stairs of his family’s former house in Chesterfield – much like Harry Potter in the book and film series.

The family only learned of its potential value during lockdown in 2020, having seen stories about first editions.

“Once we got it verified it was a bit of a pinch yourself moment,” he said.

Speaking of the moment Ms McCulloch bought the book in 1997, she said: “We went in [the bookshop], bought it for £10.

“Adam really loved the book and it started off this sort of fascination, as with so many children all over the world now.”

Her son said it was the right time to pass the book on for others to enjoy.

“In some ways I think having that bit of a story around it, some tea stains there and a folded over corner here where someone’s enjoyed reading it – I think that adds to the magic,” he said.

President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Keith Kellogg, a former national security adviser and retired lieutenant general in the US military, to be special envoy to Ukraine and Russia in his second administration.

Kellogg is likely to be at the centre of negotiations to end the ongoing war in Ukraine, should Russia and Ukraine agree to take part.

Trump has promised to stop the war on his first day back in office – though he has not provided any details on how he plans to do that.

Kellogg has advocated for tough negotiations with Russia and Ukraine in order to bring the war to an end.

Earlier this month, in an interview on Fox News – where he has been a paid contributor since 2022 – Kellogg specifically noted that the war would be the “biggest thing” Trump has to solve in his second administration.

Kellogg’s ideas for how to do this have been outlined in a research paper published by the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think thank.

In the document, published in April, Kellogg advocated for “a formal US policy to seek a ceasefire and negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict”.

He proposed that Ukraine would only get further US aid if Kyiv participated in peace talks with Moscow, but also suggested that if Moscow refused to take part, Washington would then give Kyiv more aid.

Co-authored with Fred Fleitz, who like Kellogg, served as a chief of staff on Trump’s National Security Council during his first presidency, the paper said Russia could be convinced to negotiate if the US promised to “put off” Ukraine’s Nato membership for an extended period of time.

It also said the negotiations should include establishing a “long-term security architecture” for Ukraine’s defence.

Months later and following Trump’s election win, it is unclear exactly how much of this plan could be adopted by Trump himself.

Speaking to Reuters news agency in June after presenting the plan to Trump, Kellogg said of Trump’s reaction: “I’m not claiming he agreed with it or agreed with every word of it, but we were pleased to get the feedback we did.”

Kyiv has maintained a diplomatic stance towards Trump.

Speaking to the BBC earlier this month, former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Trump has “taken a very smart approach” regarding his stance on the war “by clearly setting out the goal – ‘I’m going to fix it’ – but without getting into details”.

Kuleba said Trump will not view negotiations as “simply transactional”.

“President Trump will undoubtedly be driven by one goal, to project his strength, his leadership,” he said. “And show that he is capable of fixing problems which his predecessor failed to fix.”

Since winning the election, Trump has spoken to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who congratulated him on his victory.

A source in Ukraine’s presidential office told the BBC that the “good lengthy conversation” between Zelensky and Trump lasted “about half an hour”, and that “it was not really a conversation to talk about very substantial things”.

The president-elect has also reportedly spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

During a phone call, he urged Putin not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of “Washington’s sizeable military presence in Europe”, the Washington Post reported, citing several people familiar with the matter.

Following Trump’s election victory, Putin congratulated the president-elect, saying that what Trump has said “about the desire to restore relations with Russia, to help end the Ukrainian crisis, in my opinion, deserves attention at least”.

The Kremlin has also welcomed Trump’s claim that he could end the war within 24 hours, but added that it would wait for further policy details.

The US has been the biggest source of military aid to Ukraine, including weapons, equipment and financial assistance.

Kellogg’s appointment as a special envoy normally requires Senate confirmation.

Seoul has recorded its heaviest November snowfall since records began over a century ago in 1907.

The South Korean capital was covered with at least 16 cm of snow on Wednesday – beating the city’s previous record of 12.4cm from November 1972.

It caused significant disruption across the country, with local media reporting that flights had been grounded, roads closed, and that there were delays to transport services.

At least one person is reported to have died in a weather-related traffic accident near Seoul.

Youn Ki-han, the head of Seoul’s Meteorology Forecast Division, told the AFP news agency that the heavy snowfall was due to strong westerly winds and a “significant temperature difference between the sea surface and the cold air”.

It is expected to continue through Wednesday night and into Thursday morning.

The cold weather comes after the region experienced a period of mild autumn temperatures.

“Just last week, I felt that the November autumn was a bit warm, but in just one week it feels like it’s turned into a winter wonderland, which was quite a contrast,” said businessman Bae Joo-han.

“So I came out onto the streets today to enjoy the first snowfall of this winter.”