India has announced measures targeting Pakistan, a day after 26 people were killed by gunmen in an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

They include the closure of the main border crossing linking the two countries, the suspension of a water-sharing treaty and the expulsion of diplomats.

India has also cancelled some visas held by Pakistanis and ordered holders to leave within two days, while demanding Pakistan renounces “support for cross-border terrorism” – something Islamabad denies.

Tuesday’s killing of tourists gathered at a Himalayan beauty spot in Pahalgam was one of the deadliest incidents in Indian-administered Kashmir in recent years.

There has been a long-running insurgency in the Muslim-majority region for several decades.

The Indian government has responded furiously to the attack and has signalled it holds Pakistan indirectly responsible.

Indian security agencies believe a group called the Kashmir Resistance was behind the attack, though BBC News has not independently verified that.

A manhunt for the gunmen responsible was continuing on Wednesday evening.

Pakistan’s government said its National Security Council – the country’s highest military and security body – would meet on Thursday.

In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, the Pakistani foreign ministry said it was “concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives” and expressed condolences.

India has long accused successive governments in Islamabad of supporting armed groups in the region, which Pakistan strongly denies.

Under the measures announced by India on Wednesday, Pakistani military advisers based at the Delhi embassy were told to leave immediately, and more diplomatic expulsions are planned for next week, a statement said.

The Pahalgam attack risks reigniting long-running tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.

In a statement, the Indian government said “the perpetrators of the attack will be brought to justice and their sponsors held to account”.

It said India would be “unrelenting in the pursuit of those who have committed acts of terror, or conspired to make them possible”.

Earlier, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also signalled India’s response would go beyond targeting the perpetrators.

He said: “We will not only reach those who have perpetrated this incident but also those who, sitting behind the scenes, have conspired to commit such acts on the soil of India.”

The attack has been widely condemned by international leaders and has generated outrage and mourning in India.

Eyewitnesses have described chaotic and bloody scenes as holidaymakers including entire families fled for their lives.

Some witnesses said it appeared the gunmen targeted non-Muslims but others have described the shooting as random.

Most of the victims were Hindu men, though a local Muslim man was among the victims.

India’s government has not given an official account on whether people were targeted on the basis of religion.

An Indian naval officer on honeymoon, a tourist guide who was sole breadwinner for his family, and a businessman holidaying with his wife and children were among the victims of the horrific attack that killed 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir.

A group of gunmen opened fire on Tuesday on tourists at a resort in Pahalgam, a picturesque town in the Himalayas often described as the “Switzerland of India”.

Visitors from different states in India were killed, others seriously injured – there is no official confirmation on the numbers yet from the government.

The attack was one of the deadliest in recent years in the troubled region, and it has shattered the lives of many.

The attack took place on Tuesday afternoon. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that tourists had gathered at Baisaran, a mountain-top meadow 5km (three miles) from Pahalgam, when they heard the sound of bullets ripping through the air.

They began to run for cover and in the chaos, some were injured or separated from their groups.

Veenu Bhai, who fractured his arm as he was trying to escape, told BBC Hindi that there was confusion and mayhem everywhere. Children could be heard screaming and no one knew what was going on, he said.

Priyadarshini, whose husband Prashant Satpathy was killed in the attack, told the Indian Express newspaper that he was hit by a bullet as they were alighting from a ropeway.

JS Chandramouli, a retired banker who had travelled to Kashmir with his wife and four others, became separated from his group and his bullet-ridden body was found several hours later at the site of the attack, the newspaper reported.

Most of the victims were Hindu men.

Some eyewitnesses said it appeared the gunmen targeted non-Muslims but others have described the shooting as random. A local Muslim man was among the victims.

India’s government has not given an official account on whether people were targeted on the basis of religion.

Himanshi, who was on honeymoon with her husband Vinay Narwal, an Indian naval officer, can be heard saying in a video that has now gone viral that one of the attackers asked her husband if he was a Muslim.

“When he said no, the man shot him dead,” she said.

The couple married last week, on 16 April. On Wednesday, Himanshi bid a tearful farewell to her husband as he lay in a coffin draped with the Indian flag.

“He was the best man. I pray that his soul rests in peace and he has the best life wherever he is,” she said.

Vinay’s grandfather, Hawa Singh Narwal, told BBC Punjabi that his grandson had initially wanted to go to Switzerland for his honeymoon.

“But he did not get a visa,” he said.

Asavari, the daughter of Santosh Jagdale – a businessman from Maharashtra state – told PTI news agency that the gunmen asked her father to recite an Islamic verse.

“When he failed to do so, they pumped three bullets into him, one in the head, one behind the ear and another in the back,” she said.

She added that the attackers killed her uncle too, who was standing next to her.

Pallavi, whose husband Manjunath Rao was killed, told reporters that when she confronted the attackers and asked them to shoot her too, one of them said, “I won’t kill you. Go tell this to [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi.”

The tragedy has torn families apart and engulfed households in grief.

As they speak to journalists, many relatives break down in tears.

The mother of Syed Hussain Shah, a local man who took tourists on horse rides to earn a living and died in the attack, told ANI news agency that her son was the sole breadwinner of the family.

She was inconsolable when reporters asked her about her son. Reports said that hundreds of people attended Shah’s funeral, including Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who told reporters that the man was killed while trying to stop the attackers.

In the western state of Maharashtra, a family is struggling to come to terms with the sudden loss of three of its members.

Atul Mone, Sanjay Lele and Hemant Joshi, cousins who had gone to Kashmir with six other family members, were killed by the gunmen.

“We found out last night [about their deaths]. The family is in shock,” a relative told BBC Marathi.

The brazen attack at one of its most popular tourist destinations has shocked India and been condemned by leaders around the world. People across India have been protesting.

In Kashmir, locals shut down markets, businesses and schools on Wednesday in protest at the attack. Some locals told the BBC that they feared tourists would be scared away, causing irreparable harm to their businesses and Kashmir’s economy.

There’s an eerie silence in areas that once bustled with tourist activity.

It’s been more than 24 hours since the atrocity, and those affected are still struggling to come to terms with what’s happened. A huge manhunt is under way for the militants suspected of carrying out the killings.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short a foreign trip to return to Delhi for talks with security chiefs and other officials.

“Those responsible and behind such an act will very soon hear our response, loud and clear,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said. “We will not only reach those who have perpetrated this incident but also those who, sitting behind the scenes, have conspired to commit such acts on the soil of India.”

India has yet to say who it thinks carried out the killings. But after previous attacks it launched cross-border strikes, blaming militant groups it says are supported by Pakistan, which denies the accusation.

Observers say there is now a risk of fresh hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours if India takes a similar course of action.

Hawa Singh Narwal says he is full of rage and grief and wants “exemplary punishment” for the attackers.

“Today, I lost my grandson. Tomorrow, someone else will lose theirs [if such attacks don’t stop],” he told BBC Punjabi.

A series of earthquakes including a 6.2-magnitude tremor have struck near Istanbul, shaking buildings and prompting people to flee their homes.

At least 151 were injured jumping from high places, the governor of Turkey’s largest city said on X. There were no deaths and no major structural damage reported, authorities said.

The largest earthquake on Wednesday struck at 12:49 local time (09:49 GMT) at a depth of 6.92 km (4.3 miles), Turkey’s emergency services said.

Large groups of people remained on the streets as aftershocks struck in the afternoon, and many have prepared to spend the night outside to safeguard against another strong tremor.

The epicentre of the 6.2-magnitude tremor was located along the coast of the Sea of Marmara, in the Silivri area about 80 km (50 miles) west of Istanbul. City authorities said more than 50 aftershocks had been recorded in the hours since.

Residents reported the main earthquake as one of the strongest they had felt in years, with many saying they feared an even bigger quake.

Many gathered to spend the evening outdoors in the main square in Besiktas, a large student area and one of the city’s busiest.

Selim Ustaoglu, a student, told the BBC he grabbed a few essentials as he fled his accommodation, and would not be returning for at least the night.

He packed a small bag with a charger, toothbrush and his favourite sweater before heading to the square. “I’m staying here tonight,” he said.

Zeynep Akincioglu, another student, said he didn’t feel he could take his family home under the threat of more shocks. “I don’t feel safe going back inside, our building doesn’t look strong,” he said.

Selva Demiralp, an economics professor at Koc University, told the BBC she was with her family in a high-rise when the earthquake struck and it was “quite scary”.

“We are safe, it looks there was no damage in buildings,” she said. But she added that people were nervous about whether the quake “was a foreshock itself” and the “real one is on its way”.

There has been little visible structural damage to the city, however. Authorities said an abandoned building in the Fatih district on the European side of the city had collapsed.

Energy and gas supplies, drinking water and sewerage infrastructure were unaffected, it added in a post on X.

Schools were closed on Wednesday due to a public holiday. They will remain so on Thursday and Friday, Education Minister Yusuf Tekin said, though open ground would be available for use as safe spaces.

Southern Turkey was devastated by two giant earthquakes in 2023, which killed more than 55,000 people.

Istanbul is Turkey’s most populous city and home to 16 million people – a fifth of the country’s residents. The city lies 20km to the north of the North Anatolian Fault Line.

Have you been affected by the earthquake in Istanbul? If it is safe to do so, please get in touch here.

Bite marks found on the skeleton of a Roman gladiator are the first archaeological evidence of combat between a human and a lion, experts say.

The remains were discovered during a 2004 dig at Driffield Terrace, in York, a site now thought to be the world’s only well-preserved Roman gladiator cemetery.

Forensic examination of the skeleton of one young man has revealed that holes and bite marks on his pelvis were most likely caused by a lion.

Prof Tim Thompson, the forensic expert who led the study, said this was the first “physical evidence” of gladiators fighting big cats.

“For years our understanding of Roman gladiatorial combat and animal spectacles has relied heavily on historical texts and artistic depictions,” he said.

“This discovery provides the first direct, physical evidence that such events took place in this period, reshaping our perception of Roman entertainment culture in the region.”

Experts used new forensic techniques to analyse the wounds, including 3D scans which showed the animal had grabbed the man by the pelvis.

Prof Thompson, from Maynooth University, in Ireland, said: “We could tell that the bites happened at around the time of death.

“So this wasn’t an animal scavenging after the individual died – it was associated with his death.”

As well as scanning the wound, scientists compared its size and shape to sample bites from large cats at London Zoo.

“The bite marks in this particular individual match those of a lion,” Prof Thompson told BBC News.

The location of the bites gave researchers even more information about the circumstances of the gladiator’s death.

The pelvis, Prof Thompson explained, “is not where lions normally attack, so we think this gladiator was fighting in some sort of spectacle and was incapacitated, and that the lion bit him and dragged him away by his hip.”

The skeleton, a male aged between 26 and 35, had been buried in a grave with two others and overlaid with horse bones.

Previous analysis of the bones pointed to him being a Bestiarius – a gladiator that was sent into combat with beasts.

Malin Holst, a Senior Lecturer in Osteoarchaeology at the University of York, said in 30 years of analysing skeletons she had “never seen anything like these bite marks”.

Additionally, she said the man’s remains revealed the story of a “short and somewhat brutal life”.

His bones were shaped by large, powerful muscles and there was evidence of injuries to his shoulder and spine, which were associated with hard physical work and combat.

Ms Holst, who is also managing director of York Osteoarchaeology, added: “This is a hugely exciting find because we can now start to build a better image of what these gladiators were like in life.”

The findings, which have been published in the Journal of Science and Medical Research PLoS One, also confirmed the “presence of large cats and potentially other exotic animals in arenas in cities such as York, and how they too had to defend themselves from the threat of death”, she said.

Experts said the discovery added weight to the suggestion an amphitheatre, although not yet found, likely existed in Roman York and would have staged fighting gladiators as a form of entertainment.

The presence of distinguished Roman leaders in York would have meant they required a lavish lifestyle, experts said, so it was no surprise to see evidence of gladiatorial events, which served as a display of wealth.

David Jennings, CEO of York Archaeology, said: “We may never know what brought this man to the arena where we believe he may have been fighting for the entertainment of others, but it is remarkable that the first osteoarchaeological evidence for this kind of gladiatorial combat has been found so far from the Colosseum of Rome, which would have been the classical world’s Wembley Stadium of combat.”

US President Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelensky of harming peace negotiations, after the Ukrainian president said Kyiv would not recognise Russian control of Crimea.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump claimed a deal to end the war was “very close”, but that Zelensky’s refusal to accept US terms “will do nothing but prolong” the conflict.

Earlier, US Vice-President JD Vance laid out the US vision for a deal, saying it would “freeze the territorial lines […] close to where they are today”.

Ukraine has long said it will not give up Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Vance said the deal would mean Ukraine and Russia “are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own.”

The administration has yet to publicly offer specifics about what geographic concessions would have to be made.

Zelensky immediately shot down the idea of a proposal including Crimea.

“There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution,” he said.

Later, after Trump called Zelensky’s remarks “inflammatory”, the Ukrainian president said: “Emotions have run high today.”

Recognising Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea would not only be politically impossible for Zelensky to accept, it would also be contrary to post-war international legal norms that borders should not be changed by force.

The comments from Trump and Zelensky are the latest chapter in an often fractious relationship.

In February, the pair clashed in a fiery meeting in the Oval Office.

• ANALYSIS: US intensifying bid to end Ukraine war – but chances of success remain unclear

Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail he could end the Ukraine-Russia war in one day, but as he approaches his 100th day in office a truce remains elusive.

After Trump’s remarks, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The president is frustrated. His patience is running very thin.”

She claimed Trump was not asking Ukraine to recognise a Russian-controlled Crimea, later adding: “Zelensky seems to be moving in the wrong direction.”

Vance warned on Wednesday that the US would “walk away” from its deal-making role if Russia and Ukraine do not come to an agreement – echoing comments last week by Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

US officials also pulled out of a London meeting to focus on talks in Moscow, as the pace of diplomacy to end the war quickens.

The London talks between officials from the UK, France, Germany, Ukraine and the US aimed at securing a ceasefire were downgraded this week after Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out.

Instead, Trump’s Ukraine envoy Gen Keith Kellogg attended the talks in London, and Witkoff will head to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin for the fourth time.

British diplomats said they were not entirely clear why Rubio and Witkoff had pulled out of the London talks.

The US state department blamed logistical reasons, but it was clear the decision was last-minute and left the Foreign Office wrongfooted.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s ministry of strategic industries, said Ukrainian negotiators would attend the London meeting on a “very clear, narrow mandate” to achieve a ceasefire that will “pave the way for further talks”.

Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine on Wednesday, after a brief lull over Easter when it halted air strikes.

Nine people were killed and dozens more wounded in the eastern Ukrainian city of Marhanets when a Russian drone hit a bus carrying workers.

Putin called a temporary ceasefire for the Easter weekend but UK Defence Secretary John Healey told the House of Commons on Tuesday that British military intelligence had found no evidence of a let-up in attacks.

“While Putin has said he declared an Easter truce, he broke it,” he said. “While Putin says he wants peace, he has rejected a full ceasefire; and while Putin says he wants to put an end to the fighting, he continues to play for time in the negotiations.”

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or injured on all sides since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and nearly seven million Ukrainians are currently listed as refugees worldwide.

The conflict goes back more than a decade, to 2014, when Ukraine’s pro-Russian president was overthrown. Russia then annexed Crimea and backed militants in bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine.

The pace of diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine is quickening.

Talks are taking place in London between officials from the UK, Germany, France, Ukraine and the United States. Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is heading to Moscow for his fourth meeting with President Putin.

And yet there is little clarity about where these efforts are heading or whether they will be successful.

Not so long ago the American plan for ending the fighting in Ukraine was clear.

There would be an immediate, unconditional 30-day ceasefire followed by longer-term talks to establish a permanent settlement to the war.

Ukraine agreed to this and – under pressure from the US – made a huge concession; it would no longer demand the promise of long-term security guarantees before any cessation of hostilities.

But Russia refused to play ball, insisting there could be no end to the fighting until a whole series of conditions were met.

In particular, Vladimir Putin said “the root causes” of the war had to be addressed, namely his fears of an expanding Nato alliance and the very existence of Ukraine as a sovereign state somehow presenting a threat to Russia’s security.

The US accepted the premise of this Russian argument and is now deep in the weeds of a potential ceasefire proposal.

In recent days, there have been various leaks about the latest US ideas, the status and veracity of which is disputed among diplomats.

But there seems to be a framework along the following lines: Russia would halt its invasion along current lines, and would give up its ambition to control the remaining parts of the four regions of eastern Ukraine it has yet to occupy, namely Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

In return, the US would accept the four occupied territories de facto as Russian controlled.

It would also recognise Crimea – which was annexed illegally by Russia in 2014 – as de jure Russian territory. The US would also ensure Ukraine ruled out joining Nato.

As part of this plan, the US might also take control of the controversial Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – currently in Russian hands – and feed the electricity to both parts of Ukrainian territory.

This proposal would then be backed up with the US threat – as rehearsed by both President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio – that it would give up on the negotiations if there was no immediate agreement.

At first sight, this proposal seems unlikely to succeed.

President Zelensky has already made it clear Ukraine would never concede that Crimea is Russian sovereignty.

Even if he wanted to do that, he could not because it would first require a referendum of the Ukrainian people.

The European powers have made clear they would not accept Russian sovereignty over Crimea, something that would breach post-war international legal norms that borders should not be changed by military force.

Legal experts say there are even technical issues about the US recognising Crimea because of certain laws passed by the US Congress.

But despite that, western diplomats do not dismiss the plan out of hand. “There is a landing space,” one told me. “It is just a question of whether there is enough trust between the parties to move forward.”

They say that because the proposed deal, as leaked so far, contains huge gaps.

There is no reference to any ban on western countries continuing to rearm Ukraine, something that in the past has been a red line for Russia.

There is no reference, either, to Russia’s demands for Ukraine to be “demilitarised”, in other words for its army to be reduced massively in size, again another long-term Moscow demand.

Under the deal, Ukraine may not be allowed to join Nato but it could join the European Union.

There is no apparent objection to a European “reassurance force” deploying to western Ukraine after any ceasefire to deter future Russian aggression.

But it is still not clear if the US is willing to provide a “backstop” to this force. There is also uncertainty about what economic sanctions against Russia would be lifted and when, and under what circumstances.

In other words, a huge amount of detail is unclear and still to be discussed.

And all sides seem far apart.

Ukraine still wants an immediate conditional ceasefire and then talks. The US wants a quick win. And Russia wants to get deep into the detail of a peace deal, the like of which normally takes months if not years to resolve.

There is an old Russian saying that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. Right now we seem far away from that.

Attorneys delivered opening statements on Wednesday in the New York retrial of Harvey Weinstein, with prosecutors accusing the disgraced film producer of using his immense power in Hollywood to sexually harass and abuse three women.

“The defendant wanted their bodies, and the more they resisted, the more forceful he got,” Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey told jurors on Wednesday.

In his third trial in five years, Weinstein is accused of sexually abusing a former television production assistant, an aspiring actress and a model.

The former film mogul has pleaded not guilty, and in court his lawyer sought to cast doubt on the women’s claims and credibility.

Attorney Arthur Aidala told the jury the prosecution case would “fall flat on its face” after they heard all the evidence.

“They’re going to ask you to make sense of things that just don’t make sense,” he said.

A court of appeals overturned Weinstein’s previous conviction for sex crimes in New York last April, before he was indicted on new sexual assault charges in the state in September.

Last week, 12 jurors – seven women and five men – were chosen to weigh Weinstein’s fate.

On Wednesday, Ms Lucey spent an hour delivering an opening statement, telling jurors that three women had fallen victim to the abuse of a “Hollywood gatekeeper” who held “unfettered power for over 30 years in that industry”.

The retrial in New York is centred on two women who brought allegations against Weinstein for his 2020 trial, actress Jessica Mann and former TV production assistant Miriam Haley. This time, the trial also includes allegations from former Polish model and actress Kaja Sokola, who has accused Weinstein of assaulting her when she was 16.

On Wednesday, Ms Lucey recounted the three women’s stories of assault and harassment, sparing few details. The alleged encounters often involved Weinstein bringing women to his room under the guise of a business meeting, before he allegedly forced himself onto them.

Victims “kept their shame and their pain to themselves” for years because of Weistein’s role as a man who “defined the field” of acting and film, Ms Lucey said.

During his hour of opening statements that followed, Weinstein’s attorney took a combative approach, accusing the women of having “mutually beneficial” sexual relationships with Weinstein and being motivated by money.

“These women are addicted to that fame,” Mr Aidala said. “They want to be heroes.”

Mr Aidala argued that Weinstein could not have assaulted the women because they kept in contact with him and sent him friendly messages after the encounters.

Last April, a court of appeals said Weinstein, now 73, did not receive a fair trial in New York in 2020 because the judge overseeing his case allowed testimony from women who made allegations against him for conduct he was never charged over.

Weinstein had been serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison after being convicted.

He was also found guilty of rape in a separate trial in California in 2022 and was sentenced to 16 years in that case.

Weinstein has several medical conditions, including cancer and diabetes. In September, he was taken to hospital for heart surgery and has been held in a secure hospital unit.

A judge has approved a request from Weinstein’s lawyers to let him stay at the Bellevue hospital in Manhattan when he is not in court.

His lawyers had complained that he was receiving poor medical treatment in unhygienic conditions at the infamous Rikers Island prison facility – which officials have long said they plan to close – though the move has been delayed.

In total, Weinstein has been accused of sexual misconduct, assault and rape by more than 100 women.

He is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison, as he has yet to begin serving his 16-year California sentence.

The decision by his accusers to come forward, and his subsequent conviction in New York, galvanised the #MeToo movement against sex abuse by powerful men.

Speaking to jurors on Wednesday, Ms Lucey said the movement had allowed the three women to come forward in the criminal case against Weinstein after they “suddenly realized they were not alone”.

Before the allegations against him emerged, Weinstein and his brother Bob were among Hollywood’s ultimate power players.

Weinstein co-founded Miramax film studio, whose hits included Shakespeare in Love, which won best picture at the Academy Awards, and Pulp Fiction.

His films have received more than 300 Oscar nominations and 81 wins.

The former film mogul has also faced a number of civil lawsuits, including from a group of women who accused him of sexual harassment and rape and reached a $19m (£14.2) settlement with him in 2020.

Mahmoud Abbas has called Hamas “sons of dogs” in a fiery speech in which he demanded the group release the hostages it is still holding, disarm, and hand over control of Gaza in order to end the war with Israel.

The president of the Palestinian Authority told a meeting in the occupied West Bank that Hamas had given Israel “excuses” to continue its attacks on Gaza, and told it to “release the hostages and be done with it”.

The remarks were the strongest against the group that the president has delivered since the war began 18 months ago.

A Hamas official condemned what he called Abbas’s “derogatory language” towards “a significant proportion… of his own people”.

Last week, the group rejected an Israeli proposal for a new ceasefire in Gaza, which included a demand to disarm in return for a six-week pause in hostilities and the release of 10 of the 59 remaining hostages.

Hamas reiterated that it would hand over all of the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal. It also ruled out giving up its weapons.

The PA, which is led by Abbas and dominated by his Fatah movement, has only governed parts of the West Bank since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after it won legislative elections.

The PA’s leadership has regularly insisted it is ready to take over running post-war Gaza. But it has been criticised by Palestinians for not speaking out enough or taking effective action.

Abbas lashed out at Hamas in furious speech to a meeting of the Palestinian Central Council in Ramallah.

“Hamas has given the criminal occupation [Israel] excuses to commit its crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent being the holding of hostages,” he said.

“Sons of dogs, just release whoever you’re holding and be done with it. Shut down their excuses and spare us.”

The president also said Hamas must “hand over” responsibility for Gaza and its weapons to the PA, and transform into a political party.

A member of Hamas’s political bureau, Bassem Naim, criticised Abbas’s decision to “describe a significant and integral part of his own people using derogatory language”, according to AFP news agency.

“Abbas repeatedly and suspiciously lays the blame for the crimes of the occupation and its ongoing aggression on our people,” he added.

Hamas and the PA have been bitterly divided for decades, with their rift ensuring that no unified Palestinian leadership in both the West Bank and Gaza has been able to emerge.

Abbas, 89, is seen as an irrelevance by many Palestinians.

He has remained in power without election for many years, presiding over a PA that is seen by its critics as ineffective at best and corrupt at worst. Hamas has essentially accused it of collaborating with Israel.

In a separate development on Wednesday, Hamas’s military wing released a video showing the Israel-Hungarian hostage Omri Miran, 48, in an underground tunnel.

“On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we say ‘Never Again,’ an Israeli citizen cries out for help from Hamas’ tunnels. It is a moral failure for the State of Israel,” his family said in a statement.

Israel started blocking all deliveries of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its offensive two weeks later, saying that the pressure would force Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

Since then, at least 1,928 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

On Tuesday night, 10 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in the north-eastern Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City that was being used as a shelter for displaced families, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.

A woman who was living at the school with her husband, children and grandchildren said they were asleep when the attack happened.

“We woke up to fire surrounding us from all sides. My daughters suffered burns on their hands and legs. One of the women with us was taken to the hospital, but we still don’t know what her condition is,” she told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Lifeline programme. “Several young people were burned alive.”

“This war has dragged on for nearly two years now. And what has it brought us? Just more death, more suffering,” she added.

The Civil Defence said its first responders also recovered another four bodies from attacks on two homes in the same area.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it struck “a gathering of terrorists operating within a Hamas and [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad command and control centre” in the area of the school.

It accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields – an allegation that the group has repeatedly denied.

The UN meanwhile warned that the 52-day Israeli blockade had deprived Gaza’s 2.1 million population of “the basic necessities for human survival”. It has reported a rise in malnutrition and severe shortages of medicines at hospitals.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany called on Israel to end the blockade, saying it was “intolerable”.

“We urge Israel to immediately restart a rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza in order to meet the needs of all civilians,” said a joint statement.

They also described as “unacceptable” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s “recent comments politicising humanitarian aid and Israeli plans to remain in Gaza after the war”, adding that Israel was bound under international law to allow aid deliveries.

The Israeli foreign ministry rejected the allegation that aid was being politicised.

It also insisted that the country was acting in full accordance with international law and that there was “no shortage of aid in Gaza” because 25,000 aid lorries had entered during the recent two-month ceasefire.

“Israel is fighting Hamas, which steals humanitarian aid, uses it to rebuild its war machine, and hides behind civilians,” a statement said.

“Hamas started this war, and Hamas is responsible for its continuation and for the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis. The war can end tomorrow if the hostages are released and Hamas lays down its weapons,” it added.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 51,300 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The European Union has ordered Apple and Meta to pay a combined €700m (£599m) in the first fines it has issued under legislation intended to curb the power of big tech.

It has issued a €500m (£428m) fine to Apple over its App Store, while Meta has been fined €200m (£171m) over how much choice users had to consent to data collection.

“We have a duty to protect the rights of citizens and innovative businesses in Europe,” Commissioner Henna Virkkunen said in a statement.

The two tech firms have reacted angrily, with Meta accusing the EU of “attempting to handicap successful American businesses” and Apple saying it was being “unfairly targeted” and forced to “give away our technology for free.”

The fines are lower than some of those issued by the EU in the past but – given the heightened economic tensions with America – still risk angering US President Donald Trump.

The US has levied a 10% tariff on imports from the EU, which Trump has accused of “taking advantage” of America.

EU spokesperson Arianna Podesta insisted the matters were “completely separate”, telling the BBC: “This is about enforcement, it’s not about trade negotiations.”

The White House has been contacted for comment.

The European Commission – the EU’s executive – started both investigations last year under a new law brought in to promote fairness in the tech sector called the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The case against Apple was over its App Store.

The Commission says it must freely offer alternative app marketplaces to users and app developers – and says Apple was in breach of this.

Meanwhile, Meta’s fine was over the choices it offered on data collection.

Meta introduced a “consent or pay” model, which meant users had to choose between allowing Meta to combine data it had collected on Facebook and Instagram, or paying a monthly subscription.

The Commission says this model did not allow users to freely consent to how their data was used.

In November, Meta introduced another option, which the Commission says “allegedly uses less personal data to display advertisements.”

The Commission is currently assessing the new option.

In both cases, the Commission says the size of the fine takes into account “the gravity and duration of the non-compliance”.

Both companies have 60 days to comply or risk further fines.

“Apple and Meta have fallen short of compliance with the DMA by implementing measures that reinforce the dependence of business users and consumers on their platforms,” said Commissioner Teresa Ribera.

“As a result, we have taken firm but balanced enforcement action against both companies, based on clear and predictable rules.”

Apple said the Commission had made “a series of decisions that are bad for the privacy and security of our users, bad for products, and force us to give away our technology for free.”

It also accused the Commission of “[moving] the goal posts” during their meetings.

Meta said the ruling means Chinese and European companies are allowed to operate to different standards compared to American businesses.

“This isn’t just about a fine; the Commission forcing us to change our business model effectively imposes a multi-billion-dollar tariff on Meta while requiring us to offer an inferior service,” it said in a statement.

The fines are relatively small given the tech companies’ huge worldwide revenues – and are a fraction of Google’s €2.4bn fine from last September.

But they are significant in the context of the current global economic situation.

In February, Donald Trump’s White House issued a memorandum complaining about EU and UK regulation of American tech firms.

“Today’s decisions are important in that they confirm that the European Commission will not back down,” Anne Witt, professor of law at the EDHEC Business School in France, told the BBC.

Prof Witt said the disagreement was “not so much about substantive antitrust principles,” given the US government is itself taking a number of big tech companies to court over alleged monopoly power.

They are more “about the fact that European institutions are telling US companies how to behave, even if these decisions are limited to have these companies behave on European soil,” she added.

One company pleased with the ruling against Apple is Epic Games, the makers of Fortnite.

They had a long-running dispute over the distribution of their apps on Apple devices.

Epic Games chief executive Tim Sweeney said the ruling was “great news for app developers worldwide” in a thread on X.

He urged the US to pass similar legislation which would allow developers to distribute their apps without using Apple’s App Store, which charges fees for using its platform.

A US-based think tank, which is partly funded by big tech firms including Apple and Meta, came out against the decision.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said the European Commission “has made clear that the DMA will be used to extract revenues from U.S. firms even as they continue striving to comply with its strictures.”

“The Commission’s actions today will not be well received by the Trump administration,” it said.

The UK is also investigating big tech companies over alleged monopoly power, after a digital competition law was brought in last year focusing on companies with large market shares.

“Apple and Google’s mobile ecosystems and Google’s general search and search advertising services are currently being investigated for potentially having this status, and it is likely that other US tech giants and platforms will face similar investigations in the near future,” said Andrew Maxwell, partner at law firm Freeths.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has pledged to “significantly” cut back his role in the US government after the electric car firm reported a huge drop in profit and sales for the start of this year.

Musk has led the newly created advisory body – the Department for Government Efficiency (Doge) – since last year, putting the world’s richest man at the heart of cutting US spending and jobs.

But Musk said his “time allocation to Doge” would “drop significantly” from next month, adding he would spend only one to two days per week on it after accusations he has taken his focus off Tesla.

His political involvement has sparked protests and boycotts of Tesla cars around the world.

Temporary government employees, such as Musk, are normally limited to working 130 days a year which, if counted from the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, is set to expire late next month.

But it is unclear when Musk, who contributed more than a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump’s re-election, will step down completely.

Trump said earlier this month he would keep Musk “as long as I could keep him”.

The tech boss said he would now “be allocating far more of my time to Tesla”, but suggested he would not leave the Trump administration completely, calling the work “critical” and pledging to stay on “as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it’s useful”.

On Tuesday, Tesla reported a 20% drop in car sales for the first three months of the year, compared with the same period last year, while profits fell more than 70%.

The company warned investors that the pain could continue, declining to offer a growth forecast while saying “changing political sentiment” could meaningfully hurt demand.

Musk blamed the boycott of Tesla cars on people who would “try to attack me and the Doge team”.

Shares in the company had shed about 37% of their value this year as of market close on Tuesday. They rose by more than 5% in after-hours trading following the results.

Trump’s tariffs on China also weighed heavily on Tesla. Although the vehicles Tesla sells in its home market are assembled in the US, it depends on many parts made in China. “Rapidly evolving trade policy” could hurt its supply chain and raise costs, according to the company.

“This dynamic, along with changing political sentiment, could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near-term,” Tesla’s quarterly update said.

Musk has clashed on trade with other Trump administration figures, including trade adviser Peter Navarro.

On Tuesday, Musk said he thought Tesla was the car company least affected by tariffs because of its localised supply chains in North America, Europe and China, but he added that tariffs were “still tough on a company where margins are low”.

“I’ll continue to advocate for lower tariffs rather than higher tariffs but that’s all I can do,” he said.

Earlier this month, he called Navarro a “moron” over comments he had made about Tesla. Navarro had said Musk was “not a car manufacturer” but a “car assembler, in many cases”.

Georg Ell, who knew Musk and was director for Western Europe at Tesla, told the BBC’s Today programme that if the multi-billionaire “focuses on the companies where he is extraordinary, I think people will focus once again on the quality of the product and experiences”.

“I think Elon is not someone who surrounds himself with a great diversity of opinion to challenge his thinking, he’s a pretty single-minded individual,” added Mr Ell, who is now chief executive of translation software firm Phrase.

Tesla said artificial intelligence would contribute to future growth, though investors have been unconvinced by such arguments in the past.

Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, called expectations “rock-bottom” after the company said earlier this month that the number of cars sold in the quarter had fallen 13% to the lowest level in three years.

The firm faces fierce competition, Mr Coatsworth said, warning that potential disruption to global supply chains as a result of Trump’s trade war also created risks.

“Tesla’s problems are mounting,” he said.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

India and the US need to work together successfully for a “prosperous and peaceful” 21st Century, US Vice-President JD Vance said in a speech calling for closer ties between the countries across sectors.

Vance, who is on a four-day visit to India, was speaking at a programme in the western city of Jaipur.

“But I also believe that if we fail to work together successfully, the 21st Century could be a very dark time for all of humanity,” he added.

The vice-president’s remarks came a day after he met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and both countries said they had made progress in negotiating a bilateral trade deal which Delhi hopes will help it avoid higher tariffs.

India is among a number of countries rushing to negotiate trade deals with the US during President Donald Trump’s 90-day pause on higher tariffs, which ends on 9 July.

India was set to face 27% US tariffs before the pause was announced. Since then, Delhi and Washington have been working towards an early conclusion of trade negotiations.

In his speech in Jaipur, Vance said that the two countries had finalised the terms of reference for the negotiation.

“This is a vital step toward realising President Trump and Prime Minister Modi’s vision because it sets a roadmap toward a final deal between our nations,” Vance said.

He also called Modi a “tough negotiator” and someone “who drives a hard bargain”, drawing applause from the audience.

Modi and Trump share a warm personal relationship: the Indian prime minister was among the first global leaders to visit Trump after his second term began. But the US president has repeatedly taken aim at India’s high tariffs, branding it a “tariff king” and a “big abuser” of trade ties.

Even in the statement issued on Monday after Vance’s meeting with Modi, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer highlighted the “serious lack of reciprocity in the trade relationship with India”.

India has already cut tariffs on a number of goods in the past few months and is reportedly considering more wide-ranging cuts to pacify Trump. But sectors like agriculture – where Washington wants greater access, but India fiercely protects – are still sticking points.

Vance also said in Jaipur that the US is seeking to sell more energy and defence equipment to Delhi. On Monday, in addition to trade, the two leaders had also discussed cooperation in defence, strategic technologies and energy.

• Trump wants India to buy US corn – but here’s why it probably won’t
• China warns nations against ‘appeasing’ US in trade deals

The Indian prime minister also said after the meeting that he was looking forward to welcoming Trump to India this year. Delhi is hosting the Quad summit later this year and the US president is expected to attend it.

The bilateral meeting was followed by delegation-level talks and a dinner hosted by Modi for Vance and his family.

Vance arrived in India on Monday morning, accompanied by his wife Usha and their three children. Usha Vance’s parents migrated to the US from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, and some media reports have said that Vance and his wife are keen to introduce their children to their Indian heritage.

Photographs of the three children wearing Indian-style outfits – the two boys in kurta-pyjamas and three-year-old Mirabel wearing a lehenga – on their arrival in India were splashed across Indian newspapers and websites.

The rest of Vance’s visit is largely personal. After the meeting with Modi, the family visited Jaipur city, where they visited the historic Amer Fort on Tuesday.

The family is also set to visit the iconic Taj Mahal in Agra city on Wednesday before flying to the US the next day.

US President Donald Trump has appeared to soften his recent comments on China and the head of the US Federal Reserve after recent clashes as he pursues his economic agenda.

He said he has “no intention of firing” Jerome Powell after repeatedly criticising the head of the central bank, but he added that he would like Powell to be “a little more active” on cutting interest rates.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump also said he was optimistic about improving trade relations with China.

He said the level of tariffs – or import taxes – that he had imposed on Chinese imports would “come down substantially, but it won’t be zero”.

The president’s tariffs are an effort to encourage factories and jobs to return to the US. This is a pillar of his economic agenda – as is a cut in interest rates, aimed at reducing the cost of borrowing for Americans.

Trump has ratcheted the rate on Chinese goods up to 145% – sparking reciprocal measures from Beijing and warnings from economists about the global impact of a trade war.

In his comments to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said he would be “very nice” in negotiations with Beijing – in the hope of securing a trade deal.

Earlier, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly said he expected a de-escalation of the trade war, which he said was unsustainable. Responding to comments from China, he said the current situation was “not a joke”.

The trade war has led to turbulence in financial markets around the world – to which Trump’s comments on Powell have also contributed.

The Fed has not cut rates so far this year, after lowering them by a percentage point late last year, a stance Trump has heavily criticised.

Last week, the president intensified his attacks on the Fed chief, calling him “a major loser”. The comments sparked a selloff of stocks, bonds and the US dollar – though markets have since been recovering from those losses.

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said on Friday that Trump was looking into whether it would be possible to sack Powell – who he first nominated to lead the central bank in 2017. Powell was then renewed in 2021 by Joe Biden.

It is unclear whether Trump has the authority to fire the Fed chair. No other US president has tried to do so.

Most major Asian stock markets were higher on Wednesday as investors appeared to welcome the latest remarks.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose about 1.9%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong climbed by around 2.2%, while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite was down less than 0.1%.

That came after US shares made gains on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 ending Tuesday’s session up 2.5% and the Nasdaq rose 2.7%.

US futures were also trading higher overnight. Futures markets give an indication of how financial markets will perform when they open for trading.

Investors feared that pressure on Powell to lower interest rates could cause prices to rise at a time when trade tariffs are already seen boosting inflation.

Trade tensions between the world’s biggest economies, as well as US tariffs on other countries around the world, have triggered uncertainty about the global economy. Those concerns triggered turmoil in financial markets in recent weeks.

On Tuesday, the forecast for US economic growth for this year was given the biggest downgrade among advanced economies by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to uncertainty caused by tariffs.

The sharp increase in tariffs and uncertainty will lead to a “significant slowdown” in global growth, the Fund predicted.

Trump has imposed taxes of up to 145% on imports from China. Other countries are now facing a blanket US tariff of 10% until July.

His administration said last week that when the new tariffs are added on to existing ones, the levies on some Chinese goods could reach 245%.

China has hit back with a 125% tax on products from the US and vowed to “fight to the end”.

The Chinese government has not yet officially responded to the latest statements from the Trump administration.

However, an article in the state-controlled Global Times on Wednesday quoted commentators who said the remarks showed that the US is beginning to realise the tariffs do more harm than good to America’s economy.

Lashed by an off-season typhoon, Pope Francis stepped out on a rain-soaked makeshift stage in front of hundreds of thousands of weeping pilgrims in the central Philippines.

Organisers had warned him to cancel the 2015 open air mass in Tacloban as the weather had worsened.

But Francis was not be put off: he flew through the typhoon from the capital Manila to hold the mass in memory of more than 6,000 people who had perished in Super Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. As he rode in his popemobile around the vast airport carpark waving to the crowd, palm trees swayed furiously in the storm.

In Asia’s largest Roman Catholic country, all popes enjoy rockstar status. Here, religion brought by Spanish colonisers in the 16th Century has become woven into the very fabric of society, and given a distinctly Filipino intensity and colour. In some towns devotees are even nailed to the cross at Easter to imitate the suffering of Jesus.

But with his mass in Tacloban – along with his informal, down-to-earth manner and calls for justice – Pope Francis won particular affection among the Philippine’s 80 million Catholics.

• LIVE UPDATES: Follow the latest after the Pope’s death
• IN PICTURES: Symbolism on show as Pope lies in open coffin
• EXPLAINER: Key candidates in an unpredictable contest to be the next Pope
• PROFILE: Acting head of the Vatican Cardinal Kevin Farrell

Many have described Monday’s death of the man they called Lolo Kiko, or Grandpa Francis, as leaving them feeling like orphans. Masses to mourn him have been held across the country.

“So many of you have lost everything,” he told those who had gathered in the rain to listen to his sermon more than 10 years ago.

“I do not know what to tell you. But surely He knows what to tell you! So many of you have lost members of your family. I can only be silent; I accompany you silently, with my heart.”

And then tragedy struck.

A steel scaffolding collapsed, killing 27-year-old Kristel, an aid worker who was among the congregation.

Paul Padasas Jr was at home in Taguig, a suburb of Manila, when he received the news of his daughter’s death.

“I thought of questioning God, why did he let that happen to my daughter?” he told the BBC.

The next morning, he woke up to a flurry of missed calls, asking him to come to the Pope’s spartan accommodation at the Vatican’s diplomatic mission near Manila’s old Spanish quarter.

He got dressed immediately and brought along his wife and brother-in-law.

As he waited in a holding room at the Apostolic Nunciature, staff members asked him to listen to a radio broadcast of the Pope’s mass at the nearby University of Santo Tomas. There, the Pope mentioned Kristel and offered his condolences to her family.

At that point, Mr Padasas said he broke down. “I was feeling all kinds of emotions at that time.”

He said he felt extremely nervous as he was led to the Pope’s room a few hours later.

Beside the Pope was Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, then the Archbishop of Manila, who translated the Pope’s words into Tagalog for Mr Padasas.

Mr Padasas said the Pope told him that he was praying for Kristel. Then the pontiff placed his hands over Mr Padasas’ head and blessed him.

“My heart was beating out of my chest. Then I felt something like an electric current going through my entire body,” he said. “I told myself, that must be what the Holy Spirit feels like.”

Mr Padasas recalled feeling at peace.

“Our children are just on loan to us from God. Kristel has served her purpose.”

The rest of the Argentinian-born pope’s visit, which took place just two years into his papacy, was a success.

His plane – codenamed Shepherd One – returned to Manila safely from Tacloban the next day, despite the stormy weather. Minutes later, a private jet skidded off the runway, shutting it down.

The following day, six million attended the open-air mass he held in and around Luneta, Manila’s main square at sunset – the largest congregation ever recorded by the Vatican. It unofficially exceeded the four-million strong crowd at John Paul II’s Luneta mass in 1995, officially recognised by the Guinness World records as the world’s largest papal gathering.

Everywhere Pope Francis went during his five-day visit, traffic stopped and the Catholic faithful scrambled for selfies as his popemobile drove past.

Rodrigo Duterte, who would assume the presidency the year after the papal visit, would make headlines after cursing the Pope for the traffic chaos he caused.

When he learned that Pope Francis had died at the age of 88, Mr Padasas said he reached for daughter’s photo at the family altar and said to her in prayer: “Please welcome Pope Francis in heaven.”

He said he still keeps the rosary that Pope Francis gave him as a gift. “I will not sell this, even for a million dollars.”

Across the country – where it is not uncommon for the smallest village to have a patron saint – church bells tolled and portraits of Pope Francis were hung inside churches as the faithful mourned.

“Pope Francis is special to me. He is my favourite pope. As an LGBT member, I saw in him love for all genders, whether you are rich or poor. He is truly the people’s pope,” 19-year-old nursing student Renzie Sarmiento told BBC News outside Manila Cathedral on Tuesday.

“As someone who wants to return to the Catholic Church, Francis is someone who represents the love of Jesus Christ,” he said.

Mr Sarmiento said he hoped Francis’ successor would maintain the Catholic Church’s openness to diversity.

“Love should not exclude LGBT members,” he said.

But even as the nation mourns, Filipinos are thinking about what happens next: at the Manila Cathedral mass for Pope Francis, mourners were saying the time has come for someone from one of the largest Catholic populations on the planet to be the church’s next leader.

In fact, the Philippines has five cardinals who are eligible to vote for – and also potentially be elected as – the next pope, but many are pinning their hopes on Cardinal Tagle.

Luis Antonio Tagle was in Francis’ inner circle and is largely believed to be someone who would further his progressive agenda. Based in the Vatican, he is the pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelisation, the office that promotes evangelisation and growth of new churches.

Widely known as the “Asian Francis”, Fr Tagle accompanied Pope Francis on his 11-day tour of South East Asia last year. He also constantly tries to make Catholicism relevant to younger Filipinos with a strong presence on social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube and X.

For ice cream vendor Reymond Clores, a Tagle papacy would be like a dream.

“I used to see Cardinal Tagle here all the time. It will be a very happy moment for Filipinos. It will make me very proud as a Filipino,” the 37-year-old vendor said.

Mr Padasas said Tagle would make a kind pope, like Francis.

“If that happens, I will consider myself very lucky. How many people can say that they met two popes at the same time?”

Pope Francis’s funeral will take place on Saturday in St Peter’s Square, the Vatican has confirmed, with hundreds of thousands expected to attend.

The head of the Catholic Church died of a stroke on Monday, aged 88, less than 24 hours after leading an Easter address. He had been in poor health after recently battling double pneumonia.

A host of world leaders and royals – including Sir Keir Starmer, Donald Trump, the Prince of Wales, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil, home to the biggest Catholic population in the world – have confirmed their attendance.

Thousands of mourners have already flocked to Vatican City, carrying flowers, crosses and candles and reciting prayers.

On Tuesday, the Vatican released further details of the Pope’s final 24 hours.

Francis, who had recently spent five weeks in hospital, was slightly apprehensive about appearing on the balcony on Sunday.

“Do you think I can do this?” the Pope asked his personal nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti.

Strappetti reassured him and moments later the pontiff appeared on the balcony, blessing the crowd gathered in St Peter’s Square below.

The following morning at around 05:30 local time (03:30 GMT), Francis began to feel unwell. An hour later, he waved at Strappetti before slipping into a coma.

“Those who were near him in those moments say he didn’t suffer,” the Vatican said in a statement. “It was a discreet death.”

On Wednesday morning, Pope Francis’s body will be taken in a procession led by cardinals from the Chapel of Santa Marta to St Peter’s Basilica, where he will remain in an open coffin until Friday to allow mourners to pay their respects.

Just before the procession, a moment of prayer will be led by the camerlengo, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, who is running the Vatican in the wake of the Pope’s death.

The Vatican has released photos of the Pope’s body lying in the chapel at Casa Santa Marta – his residence during his 12-year papacy – dressed in a red robe with the papal mitre on his head and a rosary in his hand.

The general public will be able to visit St Peter’s Basilica from 11:00 to midnight on Wednesday, 07:00 to midnight on Thursday and 07:00 to 19:00 on Friday.

Bucking tradition, there will be no private viewing for cardinals, at Pope Francis’s request. The Pope’s coffin will also not be raised on a pedestal.

The funeral will start at 10:00 in the square in front of St Peter’s Basilica.

Patriarchs, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests from across the globe will take part. The dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, will lead the service.

Cardinal Battista Re will deliver the final commendation and valediction – a concluding prayer where the Pope will be formally entrusted to God – and the pontiff’s body will be moved to St Mary Major for the burial.

A nine-day mourning period, known as Novemdiales, then begins.

• LIVE UPDATES: Follow the latest after the Pope’s death
• Argentina mourns Pope who left for the Vatican – and never came back
• What happens now and what does the Pope do?
• How the next Pope is chosen

Huge crowds are anticipated on Saturday, with as many as 250,000 people expected to attend the funeral.

Many heads of state and royals have confirmed their attendance, including Prince William, US President Donald Trump, Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Other political figures who have announced they will attend include:

• Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
• Polish President Andrzej Duda
• EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
• Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, Francis’s home country
• British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer
• Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni

Pope Francis, who famously eschewed some of the pomp of the papacy during his life, will continue to break with tradition in death.

Historically, popes are buried in triple coffins in marble tombs inside St Peter’s Basilica at the heart of the Vatican. Pope Francis requested that he instead be buried at Rome’s Basilica of St Mary Major.

He will become the first pope in more than 100 years to be laid to rest outside the Vatican.

In his final testament, Pope Francis also asked to be buried “in the earth, simple, without particular decoration” and with the inscription only of his papal name in Latin: Franciscus.

His body was moved into the Santa Marta chapel on Monday evening, and his apartment formally sealed, the Vatican said.

Following the funeral, a conclave of cardinals will convene to elect a successor.

The dean of the College of Cardinals has 15 to 20 days to summon the cardinals to Rome once the Pope is buried.

Several names have already been floated as potential successors, with more likely to emerge in the coming days.

You can get in touch by following this link

If the sole predictor of who would become the next pope was where the Catholic Church is growing fastest, then it is almost certain he would hail from Africa.

The continent’s Catholic population is expanding more rapidly than anywhere else, representing more than half of the global increase.

While there have been at least three pontiffs from Africa, the last – Pope Gelasius I – died more than 1,500 years ago, many would argue it is high time for another.

When the cardinals who vote for the leader of the Roman Catholic Church – known as the cardinal-electors – meet at the Vatican to choose Pope Francis’ successor, will these facts influence their decision making?

“I think that it will be great to have an African pope,” Father Stan Chu Ilo, a Nigerian Catholic priest and associate professor at DePaul University in Chicago, told the BBC, arguing that the leadership of the Church should better reflect the make-up of the global congregation.

But the cleric admitted it was more likely that the cardinals would pick someone who already had a high profile – “someone who is already an influential voice”.

“The challenge is that you don’t have any senior African clergy holding any important position today at the Vatican, and that poses a problem,” he said.

However, he also said that: “Cardinal [Robert] Sarah of Guinea and Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo [Besungu] of DR Congo have become prominent voices in global Catholicism within the last two years.”

And he noted that Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Turkson had held different roles at the Vatican, endearing him to many people around the world.

He remains a strong contender for the position, while in 2005 Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze was also a potential candidate in the conclave that led to the election of Pope Benedict XVI.

This is despite Pope Francis increasing the proportion of cardinals from sub-Saharan Africa from 8% when he was elected in 2013 to 12% a decade later, according to US-based Pew Research Center.

“How it has come to this point for the continent of Africa and the Catholic Church is still something that surprises many of us, given Pope Francis’s openness to Africa,” Fr Chu Ilo said.

Francis visited 10 countries in Africa during his pontificate – a time that marked a dramatic increase in the number of Catholics on the continent. The latest figures show there were 281 million Catholics in Africa in 2023, making up 20% of the worldwide congregation.

But some African Catholics do not like this emphasis on origin – like Father Paulinus Ikechukwu Odozor, a professor at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.

For the Nigerian-born Catholic priest it just smacks of tokenism.

“It’s like people are saying, ‘OK, so Africans are growing in these numbers, so why don’t we give them a pope,'” he told me.

“I have never been one to think that just because you come from Africa, or because you come from Europe, therefore you are prime candidate.

“No matter where you come from, as soon as you are elected, everybody’s issues become your issue. You have one concern, to build up the body of Christ, no matter where the people are, no matter how many they are, in whatever context they are.”

The most important thing, he told the BBC, was for the pope to be “the chief theologian of the Church”.

“The pope must be somebody who knows tradition very well” and was able to use that to give people direction, he said.

In his view, more needs to be done to ensure that matters affecting the faithful in Africa are taken seriously by those in positions of power at the Vatican.

He admitted that at times it felt “as if Africans don’t matter, or it’s as if their faith is seen as a little bit below par, or counterfeit, and should not be taken seriously”.

“When Africans feel that their issues are not on the table as they should be, then people begin to ask, well, maybe we can only get ourselves heard or seen if we have our own man there.”

Pope Francis has been praised for his understanding of the poor and marginalised – which made him particularly loved in Africa.

For example, he spoke out against what he saw as the plundering of natural resources in places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, a vast country which is home to Africa’s largest Catholic community with almost 55 million believers.

His role as peacemaker has also been commended – he went to great lengths to heal divisions following the brutal civil war in the Central African Republic, famously giving a ride on his popemobile to the imam who invited him to pray at a mosque in Bangui in 2015. He also kissed the feet of South Sudan’s rival leaders four years later in an attempt to end that country’s civil war.

But Pope Francis did face a backlash from the African Church for his stance on LGBT issues.

Africa bishops rejected his 2023 declaration allowing priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples.

The Vatican clarified that the blessings “neither approve nor justify the situation in which these people find themselves”, and that “in several countries there are strong cultural and even legal issues that require time and pastoral strategies that go beyond the short term”.

It is an issue that seems to unite the continent, where homosexual relationships are outlawed in many countries.

The three African cardinals, mentioned by observers as possible, if not top, contenders – Turkson, Sarah and Besungu – are all clear in their rejection of a change on this issue.

Congolese Cardinal Besungu has said “unions of persons of the same sex are considered contradictory to cultural norms and intrinsically evil”.

Cardinal Sarah, an arch traditionalist, has been damning about the West’s liberal attitudes, telling a Synod in 2015: “What Nazi-Fascism and Communism were in the 20th Century, Western homosexual and abortion ideologies and Islamic fanaticism are today.”

And while Cardinal Turkson has been critical of Ghana’s move to impose harsh penalties on LGBT people, he toes the line that same-sex relationships are “objectively sinful”.

Nonetheless Fr Odozor agreed that despite an increase in the number of cardinals from the African continent, they lack real power in the Church.

And both clerics interviewed by the BBC pointed to an issue that could hinder efforts that Pope Francis had made to make the leadership of the Church more representative – and the possibility of getting a pontiff from Africa.

“There is still that question of racism in the Church that we never even talk about,” Fr Odozor said.

“That could undermine someone, no matter how papal he is or what he does, he will be seen simply as an African pope.”

As Pope Francis appointed 108 of the 135 cardinals eligible to vote in the conclave, there is a good chance they will choose someone whose emphasis is also on reaching out to the poor and disenfranchised.

It is an approach Fr Chu Ilo called a “poor-first” outlook, with a focus on being “a listening Church”.

But, as when Pope Francis was elected, he said the outcome would be unpredictable.

“I will answer like a good priest,” he told me chuckling, when asked for his prediction.

“I would pray that God will give us a pope who will continue with the outlook of Francis, and I’ll pray that such a person comes from Africa.”

• Argentina mourns Pope who left for the Vatican – and never came back
• What happens now and what does the Pope do?
• How the next Pope is chosen
• ‘Our father has died’: The world mourns
• Pope from Latin America who changed Catholic Church

Who will be the next pope? The decision could have a profound impact on the Catholic Church and the world’s 1.4 billion baptised Roman Catholics.

It also promises to be a highly unpredictable and open process for a host of reasons.

The College of Cardinals will meet in conclave in the Sistine Chapel to debate and then vote for their preferred candidates until a single name prevails.

With 80% of the cardinals appointed by Pope Francis himself, they are not only electing a pope for the first time, but will offer a broad global perspective.

For the first time in history, fewer than half of those given a vote will be European.

And although the college may be dominated by his appointments, they were not exclusively “progressive” or “traditionalist”.

For those reasons, it is harder than ever to predict who will be elected the next pope.

Could the cardinals elect an African or an Asian pope, or might they favour one of the old hands of the Vatican administration?

Here are some of the names being mentioned as Francis’s potential successor.

• LIVE UPDATES: Follow the latest after the Pope’s death
• IN PICTURES: Symbolism on show as Pope lies in open coffin
• EXPLAINER: Key candidates in an unpredictable contest to be the next Pope
• PROFILE: Acting head of the Vatican Cardinal Kevin Farrell

Nationality: Italian

Age: 70

Softly spoken Italian Cardinal Parolin was the Vatican’s secretary of state under Pope Francis – making him the pope’s chief adviser. The secretary of state also heads the Roman Curia, the Church’s central administration.

Having acted effectively as deputy pope, he could be considered a frontrunner.

He is viewed by some as more likely to prioritise diplomacy and a global outlook than the purity of Catholic dogma. His critics consider that a problem, while his supporters see a strength.

But he has been critical of the legalisation of same-sex marriage around the world, calling a landmark 2015 vote in favour in the Republic of Ireland “a defeat for humanity”.

The bookmakers may back him but Cardinal Parolin will be well aware of an old Italian saying that stresses the uncertainty of the pope-picking process: “He who enters a conclave as a pope, leaves it as a cardinal.”

Some 213 of the previous 266 popes have been Italian and even though there has not been an Italian pope in 40 years, the pivot of the upper echelons of the Church away from Italy and Europe may mean there may not be another for now.

Nationality: Filipino

Age: 67

Could the next pope come from Asia?

Cardinal Tagle has decades of pastoral experience – meaning he has been an active Church leader among the people as opposed to a diplomat for the Vatican or cloistered expert on Church law.

The Church is massively influential in the Philippines, where about 80% of the population is Catholic. The country currently has a record five members of the College of Cardinals – which could make for a significant lobbying faction if they all back Cardinal Tagle.

He is considered a moderate within the Catholic definition, and has been dubbed the “Asian Francis” because of a dedication to social issues and sympathy for migrants that he shared with the late pope.

He has opposed abortion rights, calling them “a form of murder” – a position in line with the Church’s broader stance that life begins at conception. He has also spoken against euthanasia.

But in 2015 when he was Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Tagle called for the Church to reassess its “severe” stance towards gay people, divorcees and single mothers, saying past harshness had done lasting harm and left people feeling “branded”, and that each individual deserved compassion and respect.

The cardinal was considered a candidate to be pope as far back as the 2013 conclave in which Francis was elected.

Asked a decade ago how he viewed suggestions he could be next, he replied: “I treat it like a joke! It’s funny.”

Nationality: Congolese

Age: 65

It’s very possible the next pope could be from Africa, where the Catholic Church continues to add millions of members. Cardinal Ambongo is a leading candidate, hailing from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

He has been Archbishop of Kinshasa for seven years, and was appointed cardinal by Pope Francis.

He is a cultural conservative, opposing blessings for same-sex marriage, stating that “unions of persons of the same sex are considered contradictory to cultural norms and intrinsically evil”.

Though Christianity is the majority religion in the DRC, Christians there have faced death and persecution at the hands of jihadist group Islamic State and associated rebels. Against that backdrop, Cardinal Ambongo is viewed as a fierce advocate for the Church.

But in a 2020 interview, he spoke in favour of religious plurality, saying: “Let Protestants be Protestants and Muslims be Muslims. We are going to work with them. But everyone has to keep their own identity.”

Such comments could lead some cardinals to wonder if he fully embraces their sense of mission – in which Catholics hope to spread the Church’s word throughout the world.

Nationality: Ghanaian

Age: 76

If chosen by his peers, the influential Cardinal Turkson would likewise have the distinction of being the first African pope for 1,500 years.

Like Cardinal Ambongo, he has claimed not to want the job. “I’m not sure whether anyone does aspire to become a pope,” he told the BBC in 2013.

Asked if Africa had a good case to provide the next pope based on the Church’s growth on the continent, he said he felt the pope shouldn’t be chosen based on statistics, because “those types of considerations tend to muddy the waters”.

He was the first Ghanaian to be made a cardinal, back in 2003 under Pope John Paul II.

Like Cardinal Tagle, Cardinal Turkson was considered a potential pope a decade later, when Francis was chosen. In fact, bookmakers made him the favourite ahead of voting.

A guitarist who once played in a funk band, Cardinal Turkson is known for his energetic presence.

Like many cardinals from Africa, he leans conservative. However, he has opposed the criminalisation of gay relationships in African countries including his native Ghana.

In a BBC interview in 2023, while Ghana’s parliament was discussing a bill imposing harsh penalties on LGBTQ+ people, Turkson said he felt homosexuality should not be treated as an offence.

In 2012, he was accused of making fear-mongering predictions over the spread of Islam in Europe at a Vatican conference of bishops, for which he later apologised.

Nationality: Hungarian

Age: 72

A cardinal since the age of 51, Peter Erdo is highly regarded in the Church in Europe, having twice led the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences from 2006 to 2016.

He is well known among African cardinals and he has worked on Catholic relations with the Orthodox Church.

The archbishop of Budapest and primate of Hungary grew up in a Catholic family under communism, and he is considered a potential compromise candidate.

Erdo played a prominent role in Pope Francis’s two visits to Hungary in 2021 and 2023, and he was part of the conclaves that elected Francis and his predecessor Pope Benedict.

His conservative views on the family have found favour with some parts of the Church and he has navigated the “illiberal democracy” of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. During Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, he said the Church would not take in migrants as it was tantamount to human trafficking.

Nationality: Italian

Age: 83

Only cardinals under 80 can vote in the conclave, but Angelo Scola could still be elected.

The former Archbishop of Milan was a frontrunner in 2013 when Francis was chosen, but he is thought to have fallen victim to the adage of entering the conclave as Pope and leaving as cardinal.

His name has resurfaced ahead of the conclave, because of a book he is publishing this week on old age. The book features a preface written by Pope Francis shortly before he was admitted to hospital in which he said “death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something”.

Francis’s words show genuine affection for Scola, but the college of cardinals might not see his focus on old age as ideal for a new pope.

Nationality: German

Age: 71

Germany’s top Catholic cleric is also very much a Vatican insider too.

The Archbishop of Munich and Freising was chosen as an adviser when Francis became pope in 2013. For 10 years he advised the Pope on Church reform and still oversees financial reform of the Vatican.

He has advocated a more accommodating approach towards homosexuals or transgender people in Catholic teaching.

But in 2021 he offered to resign over serious mistakes in tackling child sexual abuse in Germany’s Catholic Church. That resignation was rejected by Francis.

Two years ago he left the Council of Cardinals, the Pope’s most important advisory body, in what was seen in Germany as a setback for his career in the Church.

Nationality: Canadian

Age: 80

Cardinal Ouellet has twice before been seen as a potential candidate for Pope, in 2005 and 2013.

For years he ran the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, which chooses candidates for the episcopate around the world, so he has played a significant and formative role in vetting the future members of the Catholic hierarchy.

As another octogenarian, he will not be able to play a part in the conclave itself, which may hinder his chances.

Ouellet is viewed as a conservative with a modern outlook, who is strongly in favour of maintaining the principle of celibacy for priests.

He opposes the ordination of women priests, but he has called for a greater role for women in running the Catholic Church, saying that “Christ is male, the Church is feminine”.

Nationality: American

Age: 69

Could the papacy go to an American for the first time?

Chicago-born Cardinal Prevost is certainly seen as having many of the necessary qualities for the role.

Two years ago Pope Francis chose Prevost to replace Marc Ouellet as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, handing him the task of selecting the next generation of bishops.

He worked for many years as a missionary in Peru before being made an archbishop there.

Prevost is not just considered an American, but as someone who headed the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

He is seen a reformer, but at 69 might be viewed as too young for the papacy. His period as archbishop in Peru was also clouded by allegations of covering up sexual abuse claims, which were denied by his diocese.

Nationality: Guinean

Age: 79

Well-liked by conservatives in the Church, Cardinal Sarah is known for his adherence to doctrine and traditional liturgy and was often considered opposed to Pope Francis’s reformist leanings.

The son of a fruit-picker, Sarah became the youngest archbishop aged 34 when Pope John Paul II appointed him prelate in Conakry in Guinea.

He has had a long and impressive career, retiring in 2021 as head of the Vatican’s office that oversees the Catholic Church’s liturgical rites.

While not considered a favourite for the papacy, he could attract strong support from conservative cardinals.

Nationality: Italian

Age: 60

Ordained in Italy when he was 25, Pizzaballa moved to Jerusalem the following month and has lived there ever since.

Pope Francis made him Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem five years ago and later cardinal, and Pizzaballa has spoken of the city as “the heart of the life of this world”.

Fellow cardinals will have been impressed by his deep understanding of Israelis and Palestinians and the ongoing war in Gaza.

However, his relative young age and inexperience as a cardinal may count against him, as could his affinity to Francis among cardinals seeking a change in direction.

Nationality: Canadian

Age: 78

Cardinal Czerny was appointed cardinal by Pope Francis and is like him a Jesuit, a leading order of the Catholic Church known for its charitable and missionary work around the world.

Although he was born in the former Czechoslovakia, his family moved to Canada when he was two.

He has worked widely in Latin America and in Africa, where he founded the African Jesuit Aids Network and taught in Kenya.

Czerny is popular with progressives in the Church and was considered close to Pope Francis. He is currently head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Human Integral Development.

Although a strong candidate, it seems unlikely the cardinals would choose a second Jesuit pope in succession.

“As-salaam Alaikum” or “peace be upon you,” Pope Francis ventured in Arabic while talking to parishioners in Gaza earlier this year.

A short video released by the Vatican upon his death showed his intimate relationship with the Palestinian territory’s tiny Christian community, many of whom he came to know by name.

During 18-months of war, he took to calling them nightly to check on their wellbeing.

“What did you eat today?” the Pope asks the local priests in the video, having switched to Italian. “The rest of the chicken from yesterday,” replies Father Gabriel Romanelli.

Only a few hundred Christians remain in Gaza among the territory’s almost entirely Muslim population of more than 2 million. Many have been living, as well as worshipping, at the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City.

With the Pope’s death they feel they have lost a dear friend.

“He used to call us daily during the war, on the black days under the bombing – on the days when people were killed and injured,” Father Romanelli said.

“Sometimes, we didn’t have a phone connection for hours and the Pope with all of his responsibilities would try to reach us.”

George Anton, a local Catholic, is the emergency coordinator in the Holy Family church. He told me that shock left him virtually speechless the first time he spoke to the Pope but that he ended up talking to him regularly on video calls.

He explained to the pontiff how he had lost his home and relatives.

“He was all the time blessing me and he was totally understanding our situation and he always encouraged us to be strong,” Mr Anton said. “And he asked ‘What can I do for you? What more can I do for you’?”

The Gazan Christians say they will now miss a great source of comfort and support.

“We felt like ‘Oh my God, we’re like orphans now’,” Mr Anton said.

“There will be no calls from the Pope, we will not hear this voice.  We will not hear his sense of humour. You know Pope Francis has a special relation with Gaza, and with every one of us.”

Pope Francis visited the Holy Land in 2014. A defining image of his trip came at an unscheduled stop off in Bethlehem when he prayed for peace by the graffitied wall that forms part of Israel’s West Bank barrier.

On Sunday in his Easter message, his last public appearance, he was again calling for peace and a ceasefire in Gaza.

With his words read by an aide, he said: “The terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation.”

“War is not just weapons. War is sometimes words,” the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said when I asked him about the Pope’s final address. He said the Pope had a moral clarity.

“Pope Francis recently, especially in the last year, has been very outspoken about the situation of the Holy Land, calling for the liberation of the hostages, but also condemning the dramatic situation, the ongoing war in Gaza and the situation for Palestinians,” the cardinal said.

Israeli media has noted that while President Isaac Herzog expressed condolences to the Catholic world, there were not similar comments from the prime minister or foreign minister as would have been expected – widely attributed to the Pope’s strong positions against the Gaza war.

Some of his most explicit criticism of Israel came late last year when excerpts of an upcoming book were published.

“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” Pope Francis wrote.

“It should be carefully investigated to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies.”

Israel firmly rejects allegations of genocide in Gaza and says its war goal is to defeat Hamas.

As a conclave gets under way in Rome this week to decide Pope Francis’s successor, Palestinians and Israelis will be watching closely to see what the next Pope has to say about their intractable conflict.

Christians in Gaza say they hope that whoever is chosen will be pushing for peace.

A record-breaking tunnel is being built under the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Germany, which will slash travel times and improve Scandinavia’s links with the rest of Europe.

Running for 18km (11 miles), the Fehmarnbelt will be the world’s longest pre-fabricated road and rail tunnel.

It’s also a remarkable feat of engineering, that will see segments of the tunnel placed on top of the seafloor, and then joined together.

The project’s main construction site is located at the northern entrance to the tunnel, on the coast of Lolland island in the south east of Denmark.

The facility spans more than 500 hectares (1,235 acres), and includes a harbour and a factory that is manufacturing the tunnel sections, which are called “elements”.

“It’s a huge facility here,” says Henrik Vincentsen, chief executive of Femern, the state-owned Danish company that is building the tunnel.

To make each 217m (712ft) long and 42m wide element reinforced steel is cast with concrete.

Most underwater tunnels – including the 50km Channel Tunnel between the UK and France – burrow through bedrock beneath the seafloor. Here instead, 90 individual elements will be linked up, piece by piece, like Lego bricks.

“We are breaking records with this project,” says Mr Vincentsen. “Immersed tunnels have been built before, but never on this scale.”

With a price-tag around €7.4bn ($8.1bn; £6.3bn) the scheme has mostly been financed by Denmark, with €1.3bn from the European Commission.

It’s among the region’s largest-ever infrastructure projects, and part of a wider EU plan to strengthen travel links across the continent while reducing flying.

Once completed, the journey between Rødbyhavn in southern Denmark and Puttgarten in northern Germany, will take just 10 minutes by car, or seven minutes by train, replacing a 45-minute ferry voyage.

Bypassing western Denmark, the new rail route will also halve travel times between Copenhagen and Hamburg from five to 2.5 hours, and provide a “greener” shortcut for freight and passengers.

“It’s not only linking Denmark to Germany, it’s linking Scandinavia to central Europe,” states Mr Vincentsen. “Everybody’s a winner,” he claims. “And by travelling 160km less, you’ll also cut carbon and reduce the impact of transport.”

Towered over by cranes, the tunnel entrance sits at the base of a steep coastal wall with sparkling seawater lying overhead.

“So now we are in the first part of the tunnel,” announces senior construction manager Anders Gert Wede, as we walk inside the future highway. It’s one of five parallel tubes in each element.

There are two for railway lines, two for roads (which have two lanes in each direction), and a maintenance and emergency corridor.

At the other end enormous steel doors hold back the sea. “As you can hear, it’s quite thick,” he says tapping on the metal. “When we have a finished element at the harbour, it will be towed out to the location and then we will slowly immerse it behind the steel doors here.”

Not only are these elements long, they’re enormously heavy, weighing over 73,000 tonnes. Yet incredibly, sealing the ends watertight and fitting them with ballast tanks, gives enough buoyancy to tow them behind tugboats.

Next it’s a painstakingly complex procedure, lowering the elements 40 metres down into a trench dug out on the seafloor, using underwater cameras and GPS-guided equipment, to line it up with 15mm precision.

“We have to be very, very careful,” emphasises Mr Wede. “We have a system called ‘pin and catch’ where you have a V-shaped structure and some arms grabbing onto the element, dragging it slowly into place.”

Denmark sits at the mouth of the Baltic, on a stretch of sea with busy shipping lanes.

With layers of clay and bedrock of chalk, the subsurface is too soft to drill a bore tunnel, said Per Goltermann, a professor in concrete and structures at the Technical University of Denmark.

A bridge was initially considered, but strong winds might disrupt traffic, and security was another important consideration.

“There was the risk of ships crashing into bridges. We can build the bridge so they can withstand it,” he adds. “But this is rather deep water, and the biggest ships can sail there.”

So, adds Mr Goltermann, it was decided to go with an immersed tunnel. “They looked at it and said, “Okay, what is the cheapest? The tunnel. What is the safest? The tunnel.”

Denmark and Germany signed an agreement to build the tunnel back in 2008, but the scheme was delayed by opposition from ferry operators and German conservation groups concerned about the ecological impact.

One such environmental group, Nabu (The Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union), argued that this area of the Baltic is an important habitat for larvae and harbour porpoises, which are sensitive to underwater noise.

However in 2020 their legal challenge was dismissed by a federal court in Germany, which green-lighted construction to go ahead.

“We have done a lot of initiatives to make sure that the impact of this project is as small as possible,” says Mr Vincentsen, pointing to a 300-hectare wetland nature and recreational area that’s planned on reclaimed land, which has been built from the dredged up sand and rock.

When the tunnel opens in 2029, Femern estimates that more than 100 trains and 12,000 cars will use it each day.

According to plans, revenues collected from toll fees will repay the state-backed loans that were taken out to finance the construction, and Mr Vincentsen calculates that will take around four decades. “Ultimately, the users are going to pay,” he says.

It’s also hoped the huge investment will boost jobs, business and tourism in Lolland, which is one of Denmark’s poorest regions.

“The locals down here have been waiting for this project for a lot of years,” said Mr Wede, who grew up nearby. “They’re looking forward to businesses coming to the area.”

In India, you can face criminal charges for tethering an animal on the street, flying a kite in a manner that causes alarm, skipping a school attendance order or handing a feeding bottle to a mother who can’t breastfeed.

Of the 882 federal laws on the books, 370 contain criminal provisions – together criminalising 7,305 acts and omissions. These range from the absurd to the serious: failing to give a month’s notice before quitting your job or not walking your dog enough, to offences like illegal arms possession, murder and sexual assault.

Delhi-based think-tank Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy calls it “India’s crisis of over-criminalisation”.

In a new report, The State of the System: Understanding the Scale of Crime and Punishment in India, the think-tank has produced the country’s first comprehensive database of crimes, mapping the extent of criminalisation across 370 federal laws.

The report flags India’s habit of reaching for criminal law to solve just about everything – even the mundane. It notes that many laws criminalise “routine, everyday actions”.

You could, for instance, be charged for tethering your goat on a public street, fixing a leaky tap without a licence or not naming the owner of a building when asked.

Then there are the truly obscure offences – like a parent ignoring a school attendance order, applying for a driver’s licence when banned or littering in a zoo. Basically, there’s a criminal penalty waiting around every corner of daily life.

Let your pigs wander on to a field or road and you could be fined 10 rupees (12 cents). Disturb an animal or litter in a zoo? Six months in jail or a 2,000-rupee fine. And failing to exercise your dog can cost you up to 100 rupees and three months in jail.

Promoting infant milk substitutes or feeding bottles to pregnant women or mothers can lead to up to three years in jail or a 5,000-rupee fine. (This was meant to curb aggressive marketing by formula food companies, but the law also applies to individuals, which makes it controversial.)

Jail is the go-to punishment in India – 73% of crimes carry prison terms ranging from a single day to 20 years.

More than 250 offences across 117 laws penalise delays in filing documents – everything from wealth and property tax returns to gift declarations, the report finds.

Some 124 crimes across 80 laws criminalise obstructing a public officer, often without clearly defining what causes “obstruction”.

Even the death penalty isn’t off the table – not just for murder or mutiny, but for damaging an oil or gas pipeline or a sentry caught sleeping on duty. In all, a staggering 301 offences in India can legally cost you your life.

Out of 7,305 offences under central laws, nearly 80% come with fines – from as low as two rupees to a staggering 50m rupees.

To be fair, many of these provisions are rarely used – India’s crime records bureau tracks around 50 laws, even though 370 carry criminal penalties.

“They’re not heavily enforced, but they create ample opportunities for rent-seeking,” Naveed Mehmood Ahmad, co-author of the study at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, told me.

“There’s enough in the books to jail almost anyone for some technical non-compliance. It’s less about actual use and more about the potential for misuse.”

This “excessive use of criminal law not only disrupts the daily lives of ordinary citizens but also creates significant barriers for business operations”, the report says.

Businesses in India face a maze of regulations, but using criminal law as the default for non-compliance is excessive, disproportionate and often counter-productive, experts say.

The report also talks about some glaring inconsistencies in crime and punishment.

Rioting – the use of force or violence by an unlawful assembly – is punishable with up to two years of imprisonment. Meanwhile, falsely reporting a birth or death for official records can lead to three years of imprisonment.

The irony? Violence in public gets a lighter sentence than a lie on paper.

Even more striking: crimes of vastly different severity carry the same penalty – like practicing homoeopathy without a licence, jumping a red light, or forcing someone into labour – all punishable with a one-year sentence.

The sheer number of crimes tied to everyday life and business shows how heavily the state leans on criminalisation to enforce compliance, the report says.

“This over-reliance has significant costs, not just for citizens and businesses, but also for state machinery.”

Over 34 million criminal cases are pending in India’s courts, with 72% stuck for more than a year. Prisons are overcrowded, running at 131% capacity, while courts and police forces continue to grapple with chronic staff shortages

Even the law-and-order machinery is stretched. As of 1 January 2023, India had just 154 police personnel per 100,000 people – well below the sanctioned 195. Nationwide, there are 581,000 vacancies against an approved strength of 2.72 million.

“Even then, we continue to rely on this overburdened system to combat minor infractions, including those that attract nominal fines,” the report says.

It says that criminal law should be limited to acts that threaten core societal values – like public safety, national security, life, liberty, property and social harmony.

Authorities say they plan to scrap criminal penalties in more than 100 legal provisions – on top of the 180 already axed in 2023. It’s not just legal clean-up; it’s a chance to rethink how the law treats people. Less fear, more trust. Less suspect, more citizen.

Abby Wu was just 14 when she had cosmetic surgery for the first time.

After receiving hormone treatment for an illness, Abby’s weight increased from 42kg (6 stone 8lbs) to 62kg (9 stone 11lbs) in two months.

The change hadn’t gone unnoticed by her drama teacher.

“My teacher said, ‘You were our star but now you’re too fat. Either give up or lose weight fast,'” recalls Abby, who was preparing for her drama exams at the time.

Abby’s mother stepped in, taking her to get liposuction to remove fat from her belly and legs.

Abby remembers her mother’s words as she waited in the clinic in a hospital gown, nervous about the impending operation.

“Just be brave and walk in. You’ll become pretty once you’re out.”

The surgery was traumatic. Abby was only given partial anaesthesia and remained conscious throughout.

“I could see how much fat was extracted from my body and how much blood I was losing,” she says.

Now 35, Abby has gone on to have more than 100 procedures, costing half a million dollars.

She co-owns a beauty clinic in central Beijing and has become one of the most recognisable faces of China’s plastic surgery boom.

But the surgeries have come at a physical cost.

Sitting in front of a mirror inside her luxury duplex apartment in Beijing, she gently dabs concealer onto bruises from a recent face-slimming injection – a procedure she undergoes monthly to help her face appear “firmer and less chubby” after three jaw reduction surgeries removed too much bone.

But she insists she has no regrets about the surgeries and believes her mother made the right decision all those years ago.

“The surgery worked. I became more confident and happier, day by day. I think my mum made the right call.”

Once seen as taboo, plastic surgery has exploded in popularity over the last 20 years in China, fuelled by rising disposable incomes and shifts in social attitudes, in large part driven by social media.

Every year, 20 million Chinese people pay for cosmetic procedures.

Overwhelmingly, it is young women who seek surgery. Eighty per cent of patients are women and the average age of someone receiving surgery is 25.

While appearance has always been important in Chinese culture, particularly for women, beauty standards in the country are changing.

For years, the most sought-after features were a blend of Western ideals, anime fantasy and K-Pop inspiration: The double eyelid, the sculpted jawline, the prominent nose, and the symmetrical face.

But lately, more disturbing procedures are on the rise – chasing an unrealistic, hyper-feminine, almost infantile ideal.

Botox is now injected behind the ears to tilt them forward, creating the illusion of a smaller, daintier face.

Lower eyelid surgery, inspired by the glassy gaze of anime heroines, widens the eyes for an innocent, childlike look.

Upper lip shortening narrows the space between lip and nose, thought to signal youth.

But much of this beauty is built for the screen. Under filters and ring lights, the results can look flawless. In real life, the effect is often uncanny – a face not quite human, not quite child.

Cosmetic surgery apps like SoYoung (New Oxygen) and GengMei (More Beautiful) – claiming to offer algorithm-driven analysis of “facial imperfections” – have been surging in popularity.

After scanning and assessing users’ faces, they provide surgery recommendations from nearby clinics, taking a commission from each operation.

These and other beauty trends are shared and promoted by celebrities and influencers on social media, rapidly changing what’s considered desirable and normal.

As one of China’s earliest cosmetic surgery influencers, Abby has documented her procedures across major social media platforms and joined SoYoung soon after it launched.

Yet despite having undergone more than 100 procedures, when she scans her face using SoYoung’s “magic mirror” feature, the app still points out “imperfections” and suggests a long list of recommended surgeries.

“It says I have eye bags. Get a chin augmentation? I’ve done that.”

Abby seems amused.

“Nose-slimming? Should I get another nose surgery?”

Unlike typical e-commerce sites, beauty apps like SoYoung also offer a social media function. Users share detailed before-and-after diaries and often ask superusers like Abby for their advice.

To meet surging demand, clinics are opening up rapidly across China.

But there’s a shortage of qualified practitioners and large numbers of clinics are operating without a licence.

According to a report by iResearch, a marketing research firm, as of 2019, 80,000 venues in China were providing cosmetic procedures without a licence and 100,000 cosmetic practitioners were working without the right qualifications.

As a result, it’s estimated that hundreds of accidents are happening every day inside Chinese cosmetic surgery clinics.

Dr Yang Lu, a plastic surgeon and owner of a licensed cosmetic surgery clinic in Shanghai, says in recent years the number of people coming for surgeries to repair botched operations has been growing.

“I’ve seen many patients whose first surgery was botched because they went to unlicensed places,” Dr Yang says.

“Some even had surgery inside people’s homes.”

Yue Yue, 28, is among those to have had surgery that went badly wrong.

In 2020 she received baby face collagen injections – designed to make the face appear more plump – from an unlicensed clinic opened by a close friend. But the fillers hardened.

“My skin felt like there was cement underneath,” she says.

Desperate to undo the damage, Yue Yue turned to clinics she found through social media – well-known names – but the repairs only made things worse.

One clinic attempted to extract the filler using syringes. Instead of removing the hardened material, they extracted her own tissue, leaving her skin loose.

Another clinic tried lifting the skin near her ears to reach the filler underneath, leaving her with two long scars and a face that looked unnaturally tight.

“My entire image collapsed. I lost my shine and it’s affected my work [in human resources for a foreign company in Shanghai] too.”

She found Dr Yang through SoYoung last year and has since undergone three repair surgeries, including for her eyelids which were damaged during a previous operation by another clinic.

But while Dr Yang’s surgeries have brought visible improvements, some of the damage from the botched procedures may be permanent.

“I don’t want to become prettier any more,” she says.

“If I could go back to how I looked before surgery, I’d be quite happy.”

Every year, tens of thousands like Yue Yue fall victim to unlicensed cosmetic clinics in China.

But even some licensed clinics and qualified surgeons aren’t following the rules strictly.

In 2020, actress Gao Liu’s botched nose operation – in which the tip of her nose turned black and died – went viral.

“My face was disfigured and I was very down. It ruined my acting career.”

She had received the nose surgery at a licensed Guangzhou clinic called She’s Times from Dr He Ming, who was described as its “chief surgeon” and a nose surgery expert.

But in reality Dr He was not fully qualified to perform the surgery without supervision and had not obtained his licensed plastic surgeon status from the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission.

Authorities fined the clinic, which closed soon after the scandal, and barred Dr He from practising for six months.

However, weeks before She’s Times was officially dissolved, a new clinic, Qingya, requested to register at the same address.

BBC Eye has found strong links between She’s Times and Qingya, such as the same Weibo account and the retention of several staff, including Dr He.

The BBC has also learned that Dr He only obtained the licensed plastic surgeon qualification in April 2024, even though he was technically barred from applying for the status for five years from the date he was sanctioned in 2021.

Qingya now claims to have opened 30 branches.

Dr He, Qingya and Guangdong Provincial Health Commission did not respond to the BBC’s requests for comment.

The Chinese Embassy in the UK said: “The Chinese government consistently requires enterprises to operate in strict compliance with national laws, regulations, and relevant policy provisions.”

Four years and two repair operations later, Gao Liu’s nose remains uneven.

“I really regret it. Why did I do it?”

China’s Central Health Commission has been trying to crack down on the issue of under-qualified health practitioners performing tasks beyond their expertise in recent years – including ordering local health bodies to improve regulation and issuing stricter guidelines – but problems persist.

In today’s China, looking good is important for professional success.

A quick search on popular job recruitment platforms reveals many examples of employers listing physical requirements for roles, even when they have little to do with the actual work.

One receptionist role asks for candidates to be “at least 160cm tall and aesthetically pleasing”, while an administrative job demands “an appealing look and an elegant presence”.

And now that pressure is being exploited by a growing scam in some Chinese clinics in which vulnerable young women are offered jobs, but only if they pay for expensive surgeries carried out by their would-be employers.

Da Lan, not her real name, applied for a “beauty consultant” job at a clinic in Chengdu, south-western China, on a popular recruitment website in March 2024.

After the interview, she was offered the position that same evening.

But she says when she began her role the next morning, she was taken to a small room by her manager, who scanned her up and down and gave her an ultimatum – get cosmetic work done or lose out on the job.

Da Lan says she was given less than an hour to decide.

Under pressure, she agreed to undergo double eyelid surgery – priced at over 13,000 yuan (£1,330) – more than three times the monthly salary of the role – with more than 30% annual interest.

She says staff took her phone and used it to apply for a so-called “beauty loan,” falsifying her income details. Within a minute, the loan was approved.

By noon, she was undergoing medical tests. An hour later, she was on the operating table.

From job offer to debt and surgery – all within 24 hours.

You can watch the documentary on BBC Two at 23:00 BST on Wednesday 23 April.

Outside of the UK, you can watch the documentary on YouTube.

The surgery did nothing for her job prospects. Da Lan says her manager belittled her, shouting her name in public and swearing at her.

She quit after just a few weeks. Looking back, she believes the job was never real.

“They wanted me to leave from the beginning,” she says.

Despite having worked there for more than 10 days, she was paid only 303 yuan ($42). With help from her friends, Da Lan paid off the debt for her surgery after six months.

BBC Eye spoke to dozens of victims, and met three including Da Lan in Chengdu, a city that has set out to become China’s “capital of cosmetic surgery”. Some have been trapped in much larger debt for years.

The clinic Da Lan says scammed her had previously been reported by other graduates and exposed by local media, but it remains open and is still recruiting for the same role.

This scam isn’t limited to clinic jobs – it’s creeping into other industries.

Some live-streaming companies pressure young women to take out loans for surgery, promising a shot at influencer fame.

But behind the scenes, these firms often have undisclosed agreements with clinics – taking a cut from every applicant they send to the operating table.

In a bohemian-style café in Beijing, the perfect setting for a selfie, Abby meets her friends for coffee.

The trio adjust their poses and edit their faces in great detail – extending eyelashes and reshaping their cheekbones.

When asked what they like most about their facial features, they hesitate, struggling to name a single part they wouldn’t consider altering.

The conversation turns to chin implants, upper-lip shortening, and nose surgery.

Abby says she’s thinking about another nose job – her current one is six years old – but surgeons are finding it difficult to operate.

“My skin isn’t as stretchable after so many procedures. The doctors don’t have much to work with. You can’t give them enough fabric for a vest and expect a wedding dress.”

The metaphor lingers in the air, underscoring the toll taken by all of the operations.

But despite everything, Abby has no plans to stop.

“I don’t think I’ll ever stop my journey of becoming more beautiful.”

The relationship between William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway may have been happier than previously thought, according to new research.

For more than 200 years it has been believed that Shakespeare left his wife in Stratford-upon-Avon when he travelled to London and that a decision to leave her almost nothing in his will meant he probably felt bitterness towards her.

However, examination of a fragment of a letter, which is addressed to “good Mrs Shakespeare”, appears to show they did live together in central London between 1600-1610.

The research was carried out by Prof Matthew Steggle from the University of Bristol’s Department of English.

In the letter, which was preserved by accident in the binding of a book in Hereford, it is alleged that Shakespeare is withholding money from an orphan boy named John Butts, with the letter asking Mrs Shakespeare for money instead.

Prof Steggle said: “First discovered in 1978, the letter’s been known for a while, but no-one could identify the names or places involved or see any reason to think that the Mr Shakespeare in the letter was necessarily William rather than anyone else of the same name in the general period.

“So, it’s a story about the Shakespeares’ marriage, really, as well as about Shakespeare’s London contacts.

“And if the writing on the back of the letter is a reply, then it’s also a story about the first ever bit of writing which can be attributed to Anne Hathaway.”

The letter refers to the boy being a fatherless apprentice and through his research Prof Steggle says there was only one person in London called John Butts who fits that criterion.

The letter also refers to a Trinity Lane and of the four married couples called Shakspaire (spelling of the time) known to be in London in that period, only William and Anne are likely to have lived in that area.

“It at least doubles the number of letters known to be addressed to or sent from Shakespeare and his family,” Prof Steggle said.

“Currently, there’s only one known. It also shows a side of Shakespeare’s London life that’s not been known before, giving him a new address in Trinity Lane and a whole new sphere of activity for him.”

Prof Steggle said it “opens the door” to the idea Shakespeare’s wife did indeed spend “significant” time with her husband in London.

“It’s not a complete slam dunk,” he told the BBC.

“It’s a possibility that seems difficult to avoid, rather than a certainty.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World at One programme, author Maggie O’Farrell, whose book Hamnet is a fictionalised account of the marriage between Shakespeare and his wife as they deal with the loss of their son, called the discovery “thrilling” and “wonderful”.

“There have been very respected scholars who’ve said that she was ugly, that Shakespeare hated her, that she trapped him into marriage, that she was illiterate, that she was stupid,” Ms O’Farrell said.

“There is absolutely not one shred of evidence for any of that and it’s always baffled me as to why she attracts all this vilification and all this misogyny.

“And it’s so wonderful to find this tiny fragment of a letter which was discovered in the binding of a book that was published in 1608, that proves of course that they did love each other and probably lived together for some time in London.”

WhatsApp says its new AI feature embedded in the messaging service is “entirely optional” – despite the fact it cannot be removed from the app.

The Meta AI logo is an ever-present blue circle with pink and green splashes in the bottom right of your Chats screen.

Interacting with it opens a chatbot designed to answer your questions, but it has drawn attention and frustration from users who cannot remove it from the app.

It follows Microsoft’s Recall feature, which was an always-on tool – before the firm faced a backlash and decided to allow people to disable it.

“We think giving people these options is a good thing and we’re always listening to feedback from our users,” WhatsApp told the BBC.

It comes the same week Meta announced an update to its teen accounts feature on Instagram.

The firm revealed it was testing AI technology in the US designed to find accounts belonging to teenagers who have lied about their age on the platform.

If you can’t see it, you may not be able to use it yet.

Meta says the feature is only being rolled out to some countries at the moment and advises it “might not be available to you yet, even if other users in your country have access”.

As well as the blue circle, there is a search bar at the top inviting users to ‘Ask Meta AI or Search’.

This is also a feature on Facebook Messenger and Instagram, with both platforms owned by Meta.

Its AI chatbot is powered by Llama 4, one of the large language models operated by Meta.

Before you ask it anything, there is a long message from Meta explaining what Meta AI is – stating it is “optional”.

On its website, WhatsApp says Meta AI “can answer your questions, teach you something, or help come up with new ideas”.

I tried out the feature by asking the AI what the weather was like in Glasgow, and it responded in seconds with a detailed report on temperature, the chance of rain, wind and humidity.

It also gave me two links for further information, but this is where it ran into problems.

One of the links was relevant, but the other tried to give me additional weather details for Charing Cross – not the location in Glasgow, but the railway station in London.

So far in Europe people aren’t very pleased, with users on X, Bluesky, and Reddit outlining their frustrations – and Guardian columnist Polly Hudson was among those venting their anger at not being able to turn it off.

Dr Kris Shrishak, an adviser on AI and privacy, was also highly critical, and accused Meta of “exploiting its existing market” and “using people as test subjects for AI”.

“No one should be forced to use AI,” he told the BBC.

“Its AI models are a privacy violation by design – Meta, through web scraping, has used personal data of people and pirated books in training them.

“Now that the legality of their approach has been challenged in courts, Meta is looking for other sources to collect data from people, and this feature could be one such source.”

An investigation by The Atlantic revealed Meta may have accessed millions of pirated books and research papers through LibGen – Library Genesis – to train its Llama AI.

Author groups across the UK and around the world are organising campaigns to encourage governments to intervene, and Meta is currently defending a court case brought by multiple authors over the use of their work.

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on The Atlantic investigation.

When you first use Meta AI in WhatsApp, it states the chatbot “can only read messages people share with it”.

“Meta can’t read any other messages in your personal chats, as your personal messages remain end to end encrypted,” it says.

Meanwhile the Information Commissioner’s Office told the BBC it would “continue to monitor the adoption of Meta AI’s technology and use of personal data within WhatsApp”.

“Personal information fuels much of AI innovation so people need to trust that organisations are using their information responsibly,” it said.

“Organisations who want to use people’s personal details to train or use generative AI models need to comply with all their data protection obligations, and take the necessary extra steps when it comes to processing the data of children.”

Dr Shrishak says users should be wary.

“When you send messages to your friend, end to end encryption will not be affected,” he said.

“Every time you use this feature and communicate with Meta AI, you need to remember that one of the ends is Meta, not your friend.”

The tech giant also highlights that you should only share material which you know could be used by others.

“Don’t share information, including sensitive topics, about others or yourself that you don’t want the AI to retain and use,” it says.

Benson Boone scored the world’s most popular song of last year with Beautiful Things – but that success has come with a backlash.

The US singer has now sent a message to his haters, asking them to make their criticism more constructive.

“If you hate me or my music at least have a good reason for it,” the 22-year-old wrote in a message on TikTok.

“I just read a comment that said ‘idek [I dont even know] why I hate Benson Boone but it feels right.’ Like WHAT!? how am I supposed to improve after reading that?”

The star, who is also known for his love of sparkly jumpsuits and doing athletic on-stage backflips, added: “At least say something valid like ‘he low key just flips everywhere can he doing anything else?’

“Or even ‘I just don’t like his songs even though I’m basing my opinion off the only one that I’ve heard over and over’ (super valid).”

Boone captioned the video containing his message: “I’m literally giving you ideas.”

Boone’s breakout hit has been near-inescapable on radio and social media, and the impassioned folk-pop anthem is still in both the US and UK top 10s more than a year after its release.

It was the most popular single of 2024 across digital platforms, with more than two billion streams, according to global music trade body the IFPI, beating hits by Sabrina Carpenter, Teddy Swims and Billie Eilish.

Boone was nominated for a Grammy and two Brit Awards, and made headlines at the first weekend of the recent Coachella festival when he brought out Queen guitarist Brian May to perform Bohemian Rhapsody.

But with such ubiquity comes criticism.

Pitchfork’s savage review of his first Coachella set pulled no punches and summed up the sentiment of those who can’t stand him.

“Benson Boone is horrible, just godawful, the kind of act that makes you wonder if this whole medium has been worth it,” the site’s critic Paul A Thompson wrote.

“His main stage set, at 7pm on Friday – a preposterous slot for him – was nine absolutely insipid originals that seem designed to soundtrack tearful front-facing confession videos followed by a galling (and inexplicably Brian May-assisted) cover of Bohemian Rhapsody.

“I didn’t love it.”

Nora Princiotti, co-host of the We’re Obsessed podcast, then waded in.

“I’m also a Benson Boone hater,” she said. “So… reading these [Pitchfork] paragraphs and seeing them tweeted out cleared my skin and corrected my posture, because I don’t care that that man can do a flip, I hate that song that’s all over TikTok, Beautiful Things.

“I hated having to talk about it in conjunction with the Grammys. It didn’t deserve anything and I never want to think about him again.”

But Boone isn’t going away – he is playing a string of other North American festivals this summer, and is releasing his second album, American Heart, in June.

The west Belfast rap group Kneecap have hit back at a call for their US visas to be revoked after their performance at Coachella where they ended their set with pro-Palestinian messages.

Writing on social media, TV personality and music manager Sharon Osbourne said the hip-hop trio “took their performance to a different level by incorporating aggressive political statements”.

When asked by BBC News NI for a response, the band replied: “Statements aren’t aggressive, murdering 20,000 children is though.”

The festival’s organisers have also been approached for comment.

Kneecap have been vocal supporters of the Palestinian people, often raising the conflict in their live performances.

Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and taking 251 back to Gaza as hostages.

• Israel and the Palestinians: History of the conflict explained
• Why are Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza?

Israel launched a massive military offensive in response, which has killed 51,240 Palestinians – mainly civilians – according to figures released by Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The number of children who have been killed in Gaza is disputed. International journalists including the BBC are blocked by Israel from entering Gaza independently so are unable to independently verify figures.

Speaking to Irish broadcaster RTÉ , Kneecap’s manager said: “If somebody is hurt by the truth, that’s something for them to be hurt by, but it’s really important to speak truth.”

Daniel Lambert added: “Thankfully the lads are not afraid to do that.”

He also said the band had received death threats following their performance at Coachella and described the threats as “too severe to get into”.

In a statement to BBC News NI, the US State Department said when considering revocations, they look at information that “may indicate a potential visa ineligibility under US immigration laws, pose a threat to public safety, or other situations where revocation is warranted”.

The band are set to play a number of shows in the US and Canada in coming months.

On Tuesday, Osbourne claimed on social media the band’s actions included “projections of anti-Israel messages and hate speech”.

“This band openly support terrorist organizations,” she added.

Ms Osbourne was also critical of the organisers of the festival, Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).

“Reports indicate that Goldenvoice was unaware of Kneecap’s political intentions when they were booked,” Osbourne said.

“However, after witnessing their performance during the first weekend, allowing them to perform again the following weekend suggests support of their rhetoric and a lack of due diligence,” she continued.

“This behaviour raises concerns about the appropriateness of their participation in such a festival and further shows they are booked to play in the USA,” Osbourne said.

“I know for a fact that certain people in the industry had written to Goldenvoice, airing their concerns around the booking of Kneecap,” she said.

Osbourne is the wife of Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne, and a former judge of TV talent shows The X-Factor and America’s Got Talent.

She also managed her husband’s solo career.

Osbourne finished her post by saying: “As someone of both Irish Catholic on my mother’s side and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage on her father’s side and extensive experience in the music industry, I understand the complexities involved.

“I urge you to join me in advocating for the revocation of Kneecap’s work visa.”

The festival organisers have been approached for comment.

At the end of their set at the second weekend of Coachella, which was not streamed on the festival’s official YouTube page, Kneecap projected three screens of text.

The first message said: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” followed by: “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes,” and a final screen added: “[Expletive] Israel. Free Palestine.”

During the performance, band member Mo Chara said: “The Irish not so long ago were persecuted at the hands of the Brits, but we were never bombed from the… skies with nowhere to go.

“The Palestinians have nowhere to go.”

The band also led the audience in chants of: “Free, free Palestine”.

On 11 April, during Kneecap’s first Coachella performance, the group faced criticism after leading an anti-Margaret Thatcher chant – which was subsequently omitted from the festival’s livestream – along with calls for a united Ireland.

A US State Department spokesperson said: “Due to privacy and other considerations, and visa confidentiality, we generally will not comment on department actions with respect to specific cases.”

They said the Trump administration “is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process”.

“When considering revocations, the department looks at information that arises after the visa was issued that may indicate a potential visa ineligibility under US immigration laws, pose a threat to public safety, or other situations where revocation is warranted,” they added.

“This can include everything from arrests, criminal convictions, and engaging in conduct that is inconsistent with the visa classification, to an overstay.”

The Dominican Republic says it deported more than 130 Haitian women and children on the first day of a crackdown on undocumented migrants in hospitals.

Dominican authorities said 48 pregnant women, 39 new mothers and 48 children were removed on Monday.

The swoop is one of 15 measures announced by President Luis Abinader to cut the number of undocumented migrants in his country, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

Abinader’s government has been criticised for its harsh treatment of Haitian migrants, many of whom are fleeing the extreme gang violence in their country.

Those deported were taken to a detention centre to have their biometric data and fingerprints taken, before being handed to Haitian authorities at the Elías Piña border crossing.

The Dominican immigration department said the women and their children “were treated with dignity and given food”.

Immigration officials added that those detained were taken to the border in buses “with padded seats, safety belts, air conditioning, curtains, CCTV cameras, bathrooms, and a luggage area”.

Officials also said all were deported after they had been “discharged from hospital and there were no risks to their health”.

However, the Dominican College of Physicians called the deportations “inhumane” and said that checking people’s migratory status and detaining them in hospitals would lead to undocumented migrants being too afraid to seek urgent medical care.

At least half a million Haitians are estimated to live in the Dominican Republic, which has a population of 11m.

One study suggests close to 33,000 Haitian mothers gave birth in Dominican hospitals last years.

Many Dominicans complain of the additional strain on public services, including health.

President Abinader said earlier this month that his country’s “generosity will not be exploited”, and that public hospitals would be required to check patients’ IDs, work permits and proof of residence.

He said that those not in possession of the necessary papers would be deported after being treated.

The Dominican Republic has deported more than 80,000 people to Haiti in the first three months of this year, according to AFP news agency.

Rights groups have described the deportations as “cruel”.

More than 5,600 people were killed in gang violence in Haiti in 2024 and many hospitals have had to close after being stormed by gang members.

On Monday, the UN special representative to Haiti, María Isabel Salvador, warned that a recent surge in gang violence meant the country was approaching a “point of no return”.

US Senior Advisor for Africa Massad Boulos has said that President Donald Trump values Africa, despite announcing sweeping aid cuts that have caused considerable humanitarian distress across the continent.

Trump announced the aid freeze on his first day in office in January in line with his “America First” foreign policy, while Trump’s recent tariffs have raised fears of the end of a trade deal between the US and Africa meant to boost economic growth.

But Mr Boulos told BBC’s Newsday that Africa was “very important” to Trump and downplayed reports that the US was planning to close some of its missions in the continent.

“He highly values Africa and African people,” Mr Boulos added.

The aid cuts have affected health programmes across Africa, including shipments of critical medical supplies, including HIV drugs.

• US cuts send South Africa’s HIV treatment ‘off a cliff’
• How jeans and diamonds pushed Lesotho to the top of Trump’s tariffs list
• Trump’s tariffs could be death knell for US-Africa trade pact
• ‘My wife fears sex, I fear death’ – impacts of the USAID freeze

The majority of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) programmes, which provided health and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable nations, have since been terminated.

Eight countries – six of them in Africa, including Nigeria, Kenya and Lesotho – could soon run out of HIV drugs following the US decision to pause foreign aid, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

There are fears that nearly six million more Africans could be pushed into extreme poverty next year following the aid cuts, according to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) – a pan-African think-tank.

Earlier this month, eight people, including five children, died after walking for hours to seek treatment for cholera in South Sudan after aid cuts by the Trump administration forced local health clinics to close, the international charity Save the Children reported.

But Mr Boulos said those reported deaths could not be directly linked to the US aid cuts and said they were needed to ensure the money was being well used.

“It is absolutely necessary [for the US] to review some of these programmes for much more efficiency and transparency,” Mr Boulos said.

“We have to make sure the [aid funds] are going to the right place and that we are getting the desired outcome,” he added.

Mr Boulos, whose son is married to Trump’s daughter, Tiffany, said several US companies had expressed an interest in exploiting minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, following his recent trip to the resource-rich central African nation.

DR Congo, home to vast natural reserves like lithium which is essential for battery and electric vehicle production, has been battling Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, who have seized large areas of territory this year.

Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi believes US involvement in extracting the minerals could help quell the violence that has plagued the east of the country for nearly 30 years. Currently, DR Congo’s mineral wealth is dominated by Chinese firms.

Mr Boulos said his country was also interested in exploring minerals in neighbouring Rwanda, but called on the country to first withdraw its troops from DR Congo and stop its support for the M23. Rwanda denies involvement in the conflict.

Asked if the US was only interested in benefiting economically from Africa and not its welfare, Boulos said “our job is to promote the US interests and promote our strategic partnerships”.

Trump is also determined “to end wars and establish peace” across the world, the envoy said, citing the conflict in Sudan as a big concern for the US government.

Mr Boulos, who has served as Washington’s senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs since December, also visited Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda in his trip.

He has business interests in Africa, including in a Nigeria-based company that distributes motor vehicles and equipment in West Africa.

The Lebanese-born businessman said Trump felt it was time to end the “unfair advantage” taken by other international players of Africa.

Responding to reports in the US media that the Trump administration was planning to close most of its diplomatic missions in Africa, Mr Boulos said this was “not very accurate”, adding: “Africa is very important to Trump.”

On the trade tariffs announced by Trump, Mr Boulos said they had “zero net-effect” for most African countries as they touched on “small trade volumes” from the continent.

“Many countries have lined up for negotiations and at the end of the day we want fairness and a win-win solution,” he added.

The small southern African country of Lesotho was hit by the highest of the most recently announced tariffs – 50% – before they were paused for 90 days.

It has used the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) to become a major exporter of textiles, including jeans, to the US. This trade accounts for more than 10% of Lesotho’s national income.

Agoa was set up by former Us President Bill Clinton in 2000 to encourage trade and investment in Africa but analysts fear that it is unlikely to be renewed by the current, Republican-dominated Congress.

• Unconventional Trump brings openings and perils for Africa
• Roses, cars and jeans: Has US trade deal helped Africa?
• Nigeria and Kenya among nations running out of HIV drugs – WHO
• Race policies or Israel – what’s really driving Trump’s fury with South Africa?

Remains have been found by search and rescue teams after a swimmer was attacked by a shark off the coast of northern Israel on Monday, the country’s Fire and Rescue Authority says.

The remains recovered on Tuesday afternoon were transferred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification.

Local media said the missing swimmer was a 40-year-old man from central Israel.

The extremely rare incident happened in the sea at Hadera, about 40km (25 miles) north of Tel Aviv. People on Olga Beach could be heard yelling in shock in footage posted on social media.

Sharks are known to gather there where warm water is discharged by a local power plant, and especially at this time of year, but they are usually harmless.

There have been no recorded fatal shark attacks in waters off Israel since the country was founded in 1948.

Police closed the beach while rescue teams searched for the missing man.

In video shared online, a man can be seen at a distance of what appears to be a few hundred feet out to sea. He is seen flailing around as people on the beach shout that he is being attacked.

“I was in the water, I saw blood and there were screams,” a witness, Eliya Motai, told Ynet news site.

“I was a few meters from shore,” he said. “It’s terrifying. We were here yesterday and saw the sharks circling us.”

Dusky and sandbar sharks are known to cluster in the area, which is dominated by the Orot Rabin power station, the largest in Israel.

They are attracted by the water warmed up by the plant and by fish which are carried down there from a nearby stream.

Monday’s incident is only the fourth documented shark attack in Israel’s history, according to YNet.

US President Donald Trump has accused Volodymyr Zelensky of harming peace negotiations, after the Ukrainian president said Kyiv would not recognise Russian control of Crimea.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump claimed a deal to end the war was “very close”, but that Zelensky’s refusal to accept US terms “will do nothing but prolong” the conflict.

Earlier, US Vice-President JD Vance laid out the US vision for a deal, saying it would “freeze the territorial lines […] close to where they are today”.

Ukraine has long said it will not give up Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Vance said the deal would mean Ukraine and Russia “are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own.”

The administration has yet to publicly offer specifics about what geographic concessions would have to be made.

Zelensky immediately shot down the idea of a proposal including Crimea.

“There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution,” he said.

Later, after Trump called Zelensky’s remarks “inflammatory”, the Ukrainian president said: “Emotions have run high today.”

Recognising Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea would not only be politically impossible for Zelensky to accept, it would also be contrary to post-war international legal norms that borders should not be changed by force.

The comments from Trump and Zelensky are the latest chapter in an often fractious relationship.

In February, the pair clashed in a fiery meeting in the Oval Office.

• ANALYSIS: US intensifying bid to end Ukraine war – but chances of success remain unclear

Trump repeatedly said on the campaign trail he could end the Ukraine-Russia war in one day, but as he approaches his 100th day in office a truce remains elusive.

After Trump’s remarks, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “The president is frustrated. His patience is running very thin.”

She claimed Trump was not asking Ukraine to recognise a Russian-controlled Crimea, later adding: “Zelensky seems to be moving in the wrong direction.”

Vance warned on Wednesday that the US would “walk away” from its deal-making role if Russia and Ukraine do not come to an agreement – echoing comments last week by Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

US officials also pulled out of a London meeting to focus on talks in Moscow, as the pace of diplomacy to end the war quickens.

The London talks between officials from the UK, France, Germany, Ukraine and the US aimed at securing a ceasefire were downgraded this week after Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff pulled out.

Instead, Trump’s Ukraine envoy Gen Keith Kellogg attended the talks in London, and Witkoff will head to Russia to meet President Vladimir Putin for the fourth time.

British diplomats said they were not entirely clear why Rubio and Witkoff had pulled out of the London talks.

The US state department blamed logistical reasons, but it was clear the decision was last-minute and left the Foreign Office wrongfooted.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Yuriy Sak, an adviser to Ukraine’s ministry of strategic industries, said Ukrainian negotiators would attend the London meeting on a “very clear, narrow mandate” to achieve a ceasefire that will “pave the way for further talks”.

Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine on Wednesday, after a brief lull over Easter when it halted air strikes.

Nine people were killed and dozens more wounded in the eastern Ukrainian city of Marhanets when a Russian drone hit a bus carrying workers.

Putin called a temporary ceasefire for the Easter weekend but UK Defence Secretary John Healey told the House of Commons on Tuesday that British military intelligence had found no evidence of a let-up in attacks.

“While Putin has said he declared an Easter truce, he broke it,” he said. “While Putin says he wants peace, he has rejected a full ceasefire; and while Putin says he wants to put an end to the fighting, he continues to play for time in the negotiations.”

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed or injured on all sides since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and nearly seven million Ukrainians are currently listed as refugees worldwide.

The conflict goes back more than a decade, to 2014, when Ukraine’s pro-Russian president was overthrown. Russia then annexed Crimea and backed militants in bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine.

India has announced measures targeting Pakistan, a day after 26 people were killed by gunmen in an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir.

They include the closure of the main border crossing linking the two countries, the suspension of a water-sharing treaty and the expulsion of diplomats.

India has also cancelled some visas held by Pakistanis and ordered holders to leave within two days, while demanding Pakistan renounces “support for cross-border terrorism” – something Islamabad denies.

Tuesday’s killing of tourists gathered at a Himalayan beauty spot in Pahalgam was one of the deadliest incidents in Indian-administered Kashmir in recent years.

There has been a long-running insurgency in the Muslim-majority region for several decades.

The Indian government has responded furiously to the attack and has signalled it holds Pakistan indirectly responsible.

Indian security agencies believe a group called the Kashmir Resistance was behind the attack, though BBC News has not independently verified that.

A manhunt for the gunmen responsible was continuing on Wednesday evening.

Pakistan’s government said its National Security Council – the country’s highest military and security body – would meet on Thursday.

In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, the Pakistani foreign ministry said it was “concerned at the loss of tourists’ lives” and expressed condolences.

India has long accused successive governments in Islamabad of supporting armed groups in the region, which Pakistan strongly denies.

Under the measures announced by India on Wednesday, Pakistani military advisers based at the Delhi embassy were told to leave immediately, and more diplomatic expulsions are planned for next week, a statement said.

The Pahalgam attack risks reigniting long-running tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.

In a statement, the Indian government said “the perpetrators of the attack will be brought to justice and their sponsors held to account”.

It said India would be “unrelenting in the pursuit of those who have committed acts of terror, or conspired to make them possible”.

Earlier, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also signalled India’s response would go beyond targeting the perpetrators.

He said: “We will not only reach those who have perpetrated this incident but also those who, sitting behind the scenes, have conspired to commit such acts on the soil of India.”

The attack has been widely condemned by international leaders and has generated outrage and mourning in India.

Eyewitnesses have described chaotic and bloody scenes as holidaymakers including entire families fled for their lives.

Some witnesses said it appeared the gunmen targeted non-Muslims but others have described the shooting as random.

Most of the victims were Hindu men, though a local Muslim man was among the victims.

India’s government has not given an official account on whether people were targeted on the basis of religion.

WhatsApp says its new AI feature embedded in the messaging service is “entirely optional” – despite the fact it cannot be removed from the app.

The Meta AI logo is an ever-present blue circle with pink and green splashes in the bottom right of your Chats screen.

Interacting with it opens a chatbot designed to answer your questions, but it has drawn attention and frustration from users who cannot remove it from the app.

It follows Microsoft’s Recall feature, which was an always-on tool – before the firm faced a backlash and decided to allow people to disable it.

“We think giving people these options is a good thing and we’re always listening to feedback from our users,” WhatsApp told the BBC.

It comes the same week Meta announced an update to its teen accounts feature on Instagram.

The firm revealed it was testing AI technology in the US designed to find accounts belonging to teenagers who have lied about their age on the platform.

If you can’t see it, you may not be able to use it yet.

Meta says the feature is only being rolled out to some countries at the moment and advises it “might not be available to you yet, even if other users in your country have access”.

As well as the blue circle, there is a search bar at the top inviting users to ‘Ask Meta AI or Search’.

This is also a feature on Facebook Messenger and Instagram, with both platforms owned by Meta.

Its AI chatbot is powered by Llama 4, one of the large language models operated by Meta.

Before you ask it anything, there is a long message from Meta explaining what Meta AI is – stating it is “optional”.

On its website, WhatsApp says Meta AI “can answer your questions, teach you something, or help come up with new ideas”.

I tried out the feature by asking the AI what the weather was like in Glasgow, and it responded in seconds with a detailed report on temperature, the chance of rain, wind and humidity.

It also gave me two links for further information, but this is where it ran into problems.

One of the links was relevant, but the other tried to give me additional weather details for Charing Cross – not the location in Glasgow, but the railway station in London.

So far in Europe people aren’t very pleased, with users on X, Bluesky, and Reddit outlining their frustrations – and Guardian columnist Polly Hudson was among those venting their anger at not being able to turn it off.

Dr Kris Shrishak, an adviser on AI and privacy, was also highly critical, and accused Meta of “exploiting its existing market” and “using people as test subjects for AI”.

“No one should be forced to use AI,” he told the BBC.

“Its AI models are a privacy violation by design – Meta, through web scraping, has used personal data of people and pirated books in training them.

“Now that the legality of their approach has been challenged in courts, Meta is looking for other sources to collect data from people, and this feature could be one such source.”

An investigation by The Atlantic revealed Meta may have accessed millions of pirated books and research papers through LibGen – Library Genesis – to train its Llama AI.

Author groups across the UK and around the world are organising campaigns to encourage governments to intervene, and Meta is currently defending a court case brought by multiple authors over the use of their work.

A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment on The Atlantic investigation.

When you first use Meta AI in WhatsApp, it states the chatbot “can only read messages people share with it”.

“Meta can’t read any other messages in your personal chats, as your personal messages remain end to end encrypted,” it says.

Meanwhile the Information Commissioner’s Office told the BBC it would “continue to monitor the adoption of Meta AI’s technology and use of personal data within WhatsApp”.

“Personal information fuels much of AI innovation so people need to trust that organisations are using their information responsibly,” it said.

“Organisations who want to use people’s personal details to train or use generative AI models need to comply with all their data protection obligations, and take the necessary extra steps when it comes to processing the data of children.”

Dr Shrishak says users should be wary.

“When you send messages to your friend, end to end encryption will not be affected,” he said.

“Every time you use this feature and communicate with Meta AI, you need to remember that one of the ends is Meta, not your friend.”

The tech giant also highlights that you should only share material which you know could be used by others.

“Don’t share information, including sensitive topics, about others or yourself that you don’t want the AI to retain and use,” it says.

An Indian naval officer on honeymoon, a tourist guide who was sole breadwinner for his family, and a businessman holidaying with his wife and children were among the victims of the horrific attack that killed 26 people in Indian-administered Kashmir.

A group of gunmen opened fire on Tuesday on tourists at a resort in Pahalgam, a picturesque town in the Himalayas often described as the “Switzerland of India”.

Visitors from different states in India were killed, others seriously injured – there is no official confirmation on the numbers yet from the government.

The attack was one of the deadliest in recent years in the troubled region, and it has shattered the lives of many.

The attack took place on Tuesday afternoon. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that tourists had gathered at Baisaran, a mountain-top meadow 5km (three miles) from Pahalgam, when they heard the sound of bullets ripping through the air.

They began to run for cover and in the chaos, some were injured or separated from their groups.

Veenu Bhai, who fractured his arm as he was trying to escape, told BBC Hindi that there was confusion and mayhem everywhere. Children could be heard screaming and no one knew what was going on, he said.

Priyadarshini, whose husband Prashant Satpathy was killed in the attack, told the Indian Express newspaper that he was hit by a bullet as they were alighting from a ropeway.

JS Chandramouli, a retired banker who had travelled to Kashmir with his wife and four others, became separated from his group and his bullet-ridden body was found several hours later at the site of the attack, the newspaper reported.

Most of the victims were Hindu men.

Some eyewitnesses said it appeared the gunmen targeted non-Muslims but others have described the shooting as random. A local Muslim man was among the victims.

India’s government has not given an official account on whether people were targeted on the basis of religion.

Himanshi, who was on honeymoon with her husband Vinay Narwal, an Indian naval officer, can be heard saying in a video that has now gone viral that one of the attackers asked her husband if he was a Muslim.

“When he said no, the man shot him dead,” she said.

The couple married last week, on 16 April. On Wednesday, Himanshi bid a tearful farewell to her husband as he lay in a coffin draped with the Indian flag.

“He was the best man. I pray that his soul rests in peace and he has the best life wherever he is,” she said.

Vinay’s grandfather, Hawa Singh Narwal, told BBC Punjabi that his grandson had initially wanted to go to Switzerland for his honeymoon.

“But he did not get a visa,” he said.

Asavari, the daughter of Santosh Jagdale – a businessman from Maharashtra state – told PTI news agency that the gunmen asked her father to recite an Islamic verse.

“When he failed to do so, they pumped three bullets into him, one in the head, one behind the ear and another in the back,” she said.

She added that the attackers killed her uncle too, who was standing next to her.

Pallavi, whose husband Manjunath Rao was killed, told reporters that when she confronted the attackers and asked them to shoot her too, one of them said, “I won’t kill you. Go tell this to [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi.”

The tragedy has torn families apart and engulfed households in grief.

As they speak to journalists, many relatives break down in tears.

The mother of Syed Hussain Shah, a local man who took tourists on horse rides to earn a living and died in the attack, told ANI news agency that her son was the sole breadwinner of the family.

She was inconsolable when reporters asked her about her son. Reports said that hundreds of people attended Shah’s funeral, including Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who told reporters that the man was killed while trying to stop the attackers.

In the western state of Maharashtra, a family is struggling to come to terms with the sudden loss of three of its members.

Atul Mone, Sanjay Lele and Hemant Joshi, cousins who had gone to Kashmir with six other family members, were killed by the gunmen.

“We found out last night [about their deaths]. The family is in shock,” a relative told BBC Marathi.

The brazen attack at one of its most popular tourist destinations has shocked India and been condemned by leaders around the world. People across India have been protesting.

In Kashmir, locals shut down markets, businesses and schools on Wednesday in protest at the attack. Some locals told the BBC that they feared tourists would be scared away, causing irreparable harm to their businesses and Kashmir’s economy.

There’s an eerie silence in areas that once bustled with tourist activity.

It’s been more than 24 hours since the atrocity, and those affected are still struggling to come to terms with what’s happened. A huge manhunt is under way for the militants suspected of carrying out the killings.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cut short a foreign trip to return to Delhi for talks with security chiefs and other officials.

“Those responsible and behind such an act will very soon hear our response, loud and clear,” Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said. “We will not only reach those who have perpetrated this incident but also those who, sitting behind the scenes, have conspired to commit such acts on the soil of India.”

India has yet to say who it thinks carried out the killings. But after previous attacks it launched cross-border strikes, blaming militant groups it says are supported by Pakistan, which denies the accusation.

Observers say there is now a risk of fresh hostilities between the nuclear-armed neighbours if India takes a similar course of action.

Hawa Singh Narwal says he is full of rage and grief and wants “exemplary punishment” for the attackers.

“Today, I lost my grandson. Tomorrow, someone else will lose theirs [if such attacks don’t stop],” he told BBC Punjabi.

Mahmoud Abbas has called Hamas “sons of dogs” in a fiery speech in which he demanded the group release the hostages it is still holding, disarm, and hand over control of Gaza in order to end the war with Israel.

The president of the Palestinian Authority told a meeting in the occupied West Bank that Hamas had given Israel “excuses” to continue its attacks on Gaza, and told it to “release the hostages and be done with it”.

The remarks were the strongest against the group that the president has delivered since the war began 18 months ago.

A Hamas official condemned what he called Abbas’s “derogatory language” towards “a significant proportion… of his own people”.

Last week, the group rejected an Israeli proposal for a new ceasefire in Gaza, which included a demand to disarm in return for a six-week pause in hostilities and the release of 10 of the 59 remaining hostages.

Hamas reiterated that it would hand over all of the hostages in exchange for an end to the war and a full Israeli withdrawal. It also ruled out giving up its weapons.

The PA, which is led by Abbas and dominated by his Fatah movement, has only governed parts of the West Bank since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007, a year after it won legislative elections.

The PA’s leadership has regularly insisted it is ready to take over running post-war Gaza. But it has been criticised by Palestinians for not speaking out enough or taking effective action.

Abbas lashed out at Hamas in furious speech to a meeting of the Palestinian Central Council in Ramallah.

“Hamas has given the criminal occupation [Israel] excuses to commit its crimes in the Gaza Strip, the most prominent being the holding of hostages,” he said.

“Sons of dogs, just release whoever you’re holding and be done with it. Shut down their excuses and spare us.”

The president also said Hamas must “hand over” responsibility for Gaza and its weapons to the PA, and transform into a political party.

A member of Hamas’s political bureau, Bassem Naim, criticised Abbas’s decision to “describe a significant and integral part of his own people using derogatory language”, according to AFP news agency.

“Abbas repeatedly and suspiciously lays the blame for the crimes of the occupation and its ongoing aggression on our people,” he added.

Hamas and the PA have been bitterly divided for decades, with their rift ensuring that no unified Palestinian leadership in both the West Bank and Gaza has been able to emerge.

Abbas, 89, is seen as an irrelevance by many Palestinians.

He has remained in power without election for many years, presiding over a PA that is seen by its critics as ineffective at best and corrupt at worst. Hamas has essentially accused it of collaborating with Israel.

In a separate development on Wednesday, Hamas’s military wing released a video showing the Israel-Hungarian hostage Omri Miran, 48, in an underground tunnel.

“On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we say ‘Never Again,’ an Israeli citizen cries out for help from Hamas’ tunnels. It is a moral failure for the State of Israel,” his family said in a statement.

Israel started blocking all deliveries of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its offensive two weeks later, saying that the pressure would force Hamas to release the remaining hostages.

Since then, at least 1,928 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

On Tuesday night, 10 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in the north-eastern Tuffah neighbourhood of Gaza City that was being used as a shelter for displaced families, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.

A woman who was living at the school with her husband, children and grandchildren said they were asleep when the attack happened.

“We woke up to fire surrounding us from all sides. My daughters suffered burns on their hands and legs. One of the women with us was taken to the hospital, but we still don’t know what her condition is,” she told BBC Arabic’s Gaza Lifeline programme. “Several young people were burned alive.”

“This war has dragged on for nearly two years now. And what has it brought us? Just more death, more suffering,” she added.

The Civil Defence said its first responders also recovered another four bodies from attacks on two homes in the same area.

The Israeli military said on Wednesday that it struck “a gathering of terrorists operating within a Hamas and [Palestinian] Islamic Jihad command and control centre” in the area of the school.

It accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields – an allegation that the group has repeatedly denied.

The UN meanwhile warned that the 52-day Israeli blockade had deprived Gaza’s 2.1 million population of “the basic necessities for human survival”. It has reported a rise in malnutrition and severe shortages of medicines at hospitals.

On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany called on Israel to end the blockade, saying it was “intolerable”.

“We urge Israel to immediately restart a rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza in order to meet the needs of all civilians,” said a joint statement.

They also described as “unacceptable” Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz’s “recent comments politicising humanitarian aid and Israeli plans to remain in Gaza after the war”, adding that Israel was bound under international law to allow aid deliveries.

The Israeli foreign ministry rejected the allegation that aid was being politicised.

It also insisted that the country was acting in full accordance with international law and that there was “no shortage of aid in Gaza” because 25,000 aid lorries had entered during the recent two-month ceasefire.

“Israel is fighting Hamas, which steals humanitarian aid, uses it to rebuild its war machine, and hides behind civilians,” a statement said.

“Hamas started this war, and Hamas is responsible for its continuation and for the suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis. The war can end tomorrow if the hostages are released and Hamas lays down its weapons,” it added.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 51,300 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Who will be the next pope? The decision could have a profound impact on the Catholic Church and the world’s 1.4 billion baptised Roman Catholics.

It also promises to be a highly unpredictable and open process for a host of reasons.

The College of Cardinals will meet in conclave in the Sistine Chapel to debate and then vote for their preferred candidates until a single name prevails.

With 80% of the cardinals appointed by Pope Francis himself, they are not only electing a pope for the first time, but will offer a broad global perspective.

For the first time in history, fewer than half of those given a vote will be European.

And although the college may be dominated by his appointments, they were not exclusively “progressive” or “traditionalist”.

For those reasons, it is harder than ever to predict who will be elected the next pope.

Could the cardinals elect an African or an Asian pope, or might they favour one of the old hands of the Vatican administration?

Here are some of the names being mentioned as Francis’s potential successor.

• LIVE UPDATES: Follow the latest after the Pope’s death
• IN PICTURES: Symbolism on show as Pope lies in open coffin
• EXPLAINER: Key candidates in an unpredictable contest to be the next Pope
• PROFILE: Acting head of the Vatican Cardinal Kevin Farrell

Nationality: Italian

Age: 70

Softly spoken Italian Cardinal Parolin was the Vatican’s secretary of state under Pope Francis – making him the pope’s chief adviser. The secretary of state also heads the Roman Curia, the Church’s central administration.

Having acted effectively as deputy pope, he could be considered a frontrunner.

He is viewed by some as more likely to prioritise diplomacy and a global outlook than the purity of Catholic dogma. His critics consider that a problem, while his supporters see a strength.

But he has been critical of the legalisation of same-sex marriage around the world, calling a landmark 2015 vote in favour in the Republic of Ireland “a defeat for humanity”.

The bookmakers may back him but Cardinal Parolin will be well aware of an old Italian saying that stresses the uncertainty of the pope-picking process: “He who enters a conclave as a pope, leaves it as a cardinal.”

Some 213 of the previous 266 popes have been Italian and even though there has not been an Italian pope in 40 years, the pivot of the upper echelons of the Church away from Italy and Europe may mean there may not be another for now.

Nationality: Filipino

Age: 67

Could the next pope come from Asia?

Cardinal Tagle has decades of pastoral experience – meaning he has been an active Church leader among the people as opposed to a diplomat for the Vatican or cloistered expert on Church law.

The Church is massively influential in the Philippines, where about 80% of the population is Catholic. The country currently has a record five members of the College of Cardinals – which could make for a significant lobbying faction if they all back Cardinal Tagle.

He is considered a moderate within the Catholic definition, and has been dubbed the “Asian Francis” because of a dedication to social issues and sympathy for migrants that he shared with the late pope.

He has opposed abortion rights, calling them “a form of murder” – a position in line with the Church’s broader stance that life begins at conception. He has also spoken against euthanasia.

But in 2015 when he was Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Tagle called for the Church to reassess its “severe” stance towards gay people, divorcees and single mothers, saying past harshness had done lasting harm and left people feeling “branded”, and that each individual deserved compassion and respect.

The cardinal was considered a candidate to be pope as far back as the 2013 conclave in which Francis was elected.

Asked a decade ago how he viewed suggestions he could be next, he replied: “I treat it like a joke! It’s funny.”

Nationality: Congolese

Age: 65

It’s very possible the next pope could be from Africa, where the Catholic Church continues to add millions of members. Cardinal Ambongo is a leading candidate, hailing from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

He has been Archbishop of Kinshasa for seven years, and was appointed cardinal by Pope Francis.

He is a cultural conservative, opposing blessings for same-sex marriage, stating that “unions of persons of the same sex are considered contradictory to cultural norms and intrinsically evil”.

Though Christianity is the majority religion in the DRC, Christians there have faced death and persecution at the hands of jihadist group Islamic State and associated rebels. Against that backdrop, Cardinal Ambongo is viewed as a fierce advocate for the Church.

But in a 2020 interview, he spoke in favour of religious plurality, saying: “Let Protestants be Protestants and Muslims be Muslims. We are going to work with them. But everyone has to keep their own identity.”

Such comments could lead some cardinals to wonder if he fully embraces their sense of mission – in which Catholics hope to spread the Church’s word throughout the world.

Nationality: Ghanaian

Age: 76

If chosen by his peers, the influential Cardinal Turkson would likewise have the distinction of being the first African pope for 1,500 years.

Like Cardinal Ambongo, he has claimed not to want the job. “I’m not sure whether anyone does aspire to become a pope,” he told the BBC in 2013.

Asked if Africa had a good case to provide the next pope based on the Church’s growth on the continent, he said he felt the pope shouldn’t be chosen based on statistics, because “those types of considerations tend to muddy the waters”.

He was the first Ghanaian to be made a cardinal, back in 2003 under Pope John Paul II.

Like Cardinal Tagle, Cardinal Turkson was considered a potential pope a decade later, when Francis was chosen. In fact, bookmakers made him the favourite ahead of voting.

A guitarist who once played in a funk band, Cardinal Turkson is known for his energetic presence.

Like many cardinals from Africa, he leans conservative. However, he has opposed the criminalisation of gay relationships in African countries including his native Ghana.

In a BBC interview in 2023, while Ghana’s parliament was discussing a bill imposing harsh penalties on LGBTQ+ people, Turkson said he felt homosexuality should not be treated as an offence.

In 2012, he was accused of making fear-mongering predictions over the spread of Islam in Europe at a Vatican conference of bishops, for which he later apologised.

Nationality: Hungarian

Age: 72

A cardinal since the age of 51, Peter Erdo is highly regarded in the Church in Europe, having twice led the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences from 2006 to 2016.

He is well known among African cardinals and he has worked on Catholic relations with the Orthodox Church.

The archbishop of Budapest and primate of Hungary grew up in a Catholic family under communism, and he is considered a potential compromise candidate.

Erdo played a prominent role in Pope Francis’s two visits to Hungary in 2021 and 2023, and he was part of the conclaves that elected Francis and his predecessor Pope Benedict.

His conservative views on the family have found favour with some parts of the Church and he has navigated the “illiberal democracy” of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. During Europe’s migrant crisis in 2015, he said the Church would not take in migrants as it was tantamount to human trafficking.

Nationality: Italian

Age: 83

Only cardinals under 80 can vote in the conclave, but Angelo Scola could still be elected.

The former Archbishop of Milan was a frontrunner in 2013 when Francis was chosen, but he is thought to have fallen victim to the adage of entering the conclave as Pope and leaving as cardinal.

His name has resurfaced ahead of the conclave, because of a book he is publishing this week on old age. The book features a preface written by Pope Francis shortly before he was admitted to hospital in which he said “death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something”.

Francis’s words show genuine affection for Scola, but the college of cardinals might not see his focus on old age as ideal for a new pope.

Nationality: German

Age: 71

Germany’s top Catholic cleric is also very much a Vatican insider too.

The Archbishop of Munich and Freising was chosen as an adviser when Francis became pope in 2013. For 10 years he advised the Pope on Church reform and still oversees financial reform of the Vatican.

He has advocated a more accommodating approach towards homosexuals or transgender people in Catholic teaching.

But in 2021 he offered to resign over serious mistakes in tackling child sexual abuse in Germany’s Catholic Church. That resignation was rejected by Francis.

Two years ago he left the Council of Cardinals, the Pope’s most important advisory body, in what was seen in Germany as a setback for his career in the Church.

Nationality: Canadian

Age: 80

Cardinal Ouellet has twice before been seen as a potential candidate for Pope, in 2005 and 2013.

For years he ran the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, which chooses candidates for the episcopate around the world, so he has played a significant and formative role in vetting the future members of the Catholic hierarchy.

As another octogenarian, he will not be able to play a part in the conclave itself, which may hinder his chances.

Ouellet is viewed as a conservative with a modern outlook, who is strongly in favour of maintaining the principle of celibacy for priests.

He opposes the ordination of women priests, but he has called for a greater role for women in running the Catholic Church, saying that “Christ is male, the Church is feminine”.

Nationality: American

Age: 69

Could the papacy go to an American for the first time?

Chicago-born Cardinal Prevost is certainly seen as having many of the necessary qualities for the role.

Two years ago Pope Francis chose Prevost to replace Marc Ouellet as prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops, handing him the task of selecting the next generation of bishops.

He worked for many years as a missionary in Peru before being made an archbishop there.

Prevost is not just considered an American, but as someone who headed the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

He is seen a reformer, but at 69 might be viewed as too young for the papacy. His period as archbishop in Peru was also clouded by allegations of covering up sexual abuse claims, which were denied by his diocese.

Nationality: Guinean

Age: 79

Well-liked by conservatives in the Church, Cardinal Sarah is known for his adherence to doctrine and traditional liturgy and was often considered opposed to Pope Francis’s reformist leanings.

The son of a fruit-picker, Sarah became the youngest archbishop aged 34 when Pope John Paul II appointed him prelate in Conakry in Guinea.

He has had a long and impressive career, retiring in 2021 as head of the Vatican’s office that oversees the Catholic Church’s liturgical rites.

While not considered a favourite for the papacy, he could attract strong support from conservative cardinals.

Nationality: Italian

Age: 60

Ordained in Italy when he was 25, Pizzaballa moved to Jerusalem the following month and has lived there ever since.

Pope Francis made him Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem five years ago and later cardinal, and Pizzaballa has spoken of the city as “the heart of the life of this world”.

Fellow cardinals will have been impressed by his deep understanding of Israelis and Palestinians and the ongoing war in Gaza.

However, his relative young age and inexperience as a cardinal may count against him, as could his affinity to Francis among cardinals seeking a change in direction.

Nationality: Canadian

Age: 78

Cardinal Czerny was appointed cardinal by Pope Francis and is like him a Jesuit, a leading order of the Catholic Church known for its charitable and missionary work around the world.

Although he was born in the former Czechoslovakia, his family moved to Canada when he was two.

He has worked widely in Latin America and in Africa, where he founded the African Jesuit Aids Network and taught in Kenya.

Czerny is popular with progressives in the Church and was considered close to Pope Francis. He is currently head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Promoting Human Integral Development.

Although a strong candidate, it seems unlikely the cardinals would choose a second Jesuit pope in succession.

Tesla boss Elon Musk has pledged to “significantly” cut back his role in the US government after the electric car firm reported a huge drop in profit and sales for the start of this year.

Musk has led the newly created advisory body – the Department for Government Efficiency (Doge) – since last year, putting the world’s richest man at the heart of cutting US spending and jobs.

But Musk said his “time allocation to Doge” would “drop significantly” from next month, adding he would spend only one to two days per week on it after accusations he has taken his focus off Tesla.

His political involvement has sparked protests and boycotts of Tesla cars around the world.

Temporary government employees, such as Musk, are normally limited to working 130 days a year which, if counted from the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, is set to expire late next month.

But it is unclear when Musk, who contributed more than a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump’s re-election, will step down completely.

Trump said earlier this month he would keep Musk “as long as I could keep him”.

The tech boss said he would now “be allocating far more of my time to Tesla”, but suggested he would not leave the Trump administration completely, calling the work “critical” and pledging to stay on “as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it’s useful”.

On Tuesday, Tesla reported a 20% drop in car sales for the first three months of the year, compared with the same period last year, while profits fell more than 70%.

The company warned investors that the pain could continue, declining to offer a growth forecast while saying “changing political sentiment” could meaningfully hurt demand.

Musk blamed the boycott of Tesla cars on people who would “try to attack me and the Doge team”.

Shares in the company had shed about 37% of their value this year as of market close on Tuesday. They rose by more than 5% in after-hours trading following the results.

Trump’s tariffs on China also weighed heavily on Tesla. Although the vehicles Tesla sells in its home market are assembled in the US, it depends on many parts made in China. “Rapidly evolving trade policy” could hurt its supply chain and raise costs, according to the company.

“This dynamic, along with changing political sentiment, could have a meaningful impact on demand for our products in the near-term,” Tesla’s quarterly update said.

Musk has clashed on trade with other Trump administration figures, including trade adviser Peter Navarro.

On Tuesday, Musk said he thought Tesla was the car company least affected by tariffs because of its localised supply chains in North America, Europe and China, but he added that tariffs were “still tough on a company where margins are low”.

“I’ll continue to advocate for lower tariffs rather than higher tariffs but that’s all I can do,” he said.

Earlier this month, he called Navarro a “moron” over comments he had made about Tesla. Navarro had said Musk was “not a car manufacturer” but a “car assembler, in many cases”.

Georg Ell, who knew Musk and was director for Western Europe at Tesla, told the BBC’s Today programme that if the multi-billionaire “focuses on the companies where he is extraordinary, I think people will focus once again on the quality of the product and experiences”.

“I think Elon is not someone who surrounds himself with a great diversity of opinion to challenge his thinking, he’s a pretty single-minded individual,” added Mr Ell, who is now chief executive of translation software firm Phrase.

Tesla said artificial intelligence would contribute to future growth, though investors have been unconvinced by such arguments in the past.

Dan Coatsworth, investment analyst at AJ Bell, called expectations “rock-bottom” after the company said earlier this month that the number of cars sold in the quarter had fallen 13% to the lowest level in three years.

The firm faces fierce competition, Mr Coatsworth said, warning that potential disruption to global supply chains as a result of Trump’s trade war also created risks.

“Tesla’s problems are mounting,” he said.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

China has sent back planes it ordered from the US in its latest retaliation over Trump tariffs, the boss of aircraft maker Boeing has said.

Kelly Ortberg said two planes had already been returned and another would follow after trade tensions between the two countries escalated.

Boeing’s chief executive told CNBC that 50 more planes were due to go to China this year but their customers had indicated they will not take delivery of them.

The US put 145% tariffs on imports from China and it hit back with a 125% tax on US products.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said he was optimistic about improving trade relations with China, saying the level of tariffs he had imposed would “come down substantially, but it won’t be zero”.

However, Mr Ortberg said China “have in fact stopped taking delivery of aircraft because of tariff environment”.

Boeing is America’s largest exporter with about 70% of its commercial aircraft sales outside of the US.

Mr Ortberg said Boeing was assessing options to re-market 41 of the already built planes to other customers as there was high demand from other airlines.

He said there were nine planes not yet in Boeing’s production system and he wanted to “understand their intentions and if necessary we can assign to other customers”.

He added Boeing was “not going continue to build aircraft for customers who will not take them”.

Later in the afternoon, Mr Ortberg told an investor call “there is not a day that goes by that we’re not engaged with either cabinet secretaries or either POTUS himself (President Trump) regarding the trade war between China and the USA.”

He added he was “very hopeful we’ll get to some negotiations”.

On Wednesday, America’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the International Monetary Fund (IMF) conference there was an opportunity for a “big deal” between the US and China on trade.

Asked about an upcoming meeting between the countries, Bessent said it would be an “incredible opportunity” to strike an agreement, if China was “serious” on making its economy less dependent on manufacturing exports.

Mr Ortberg also told investors others in the Boeing supply chain were now exposed to tariffs – mainly in Japan and Italy where universal tariffs of 10% are being implemented.

Brian West, Boeing’s chief financial officer said during the call “free trade policy is very important to us” and Boeing will continue to work to with suppliers to ensure continuity.

Boeing has reported smaller losses for the first quarter of the year after it manufactured and delivered more planes.

Production had slumped in 2024 due to a series of crises and a strike by about 30,000 American factory workers.

It wants to increase output of its 737 MAX jets to 38 a month in 2025.

Bite marks found on the skeleton of a Roman gladiator are the first archaeological evidence of combat between a human and a lion, experts say.

The remains were discovered during a 2004 dig at Driffield Terrace, in York, a site now thought to be the world’s only well-preserved Roman gladiator cemetery.

Forensic examination of the skeleton of one young man has revealed that holes and bite marks on his pelvis were most likely caused by a lion.

Prof Tim Thompson, the forensic expert who led the study, said this was the first “physical evidence” of gladiators fighting big cats.

“For years our understanding of Roman gladiatorial combat and animal spectacles has relied heavily on historical texts and artistic depictions,” he said.

“This discovery provides the first direct, physical evidence that such events took place in this period, reshaping our perception of Roman entertainment culture in the region.”

Experts used new forensic techniques to analyse the wounds, including 3D scans which showed the animal had grabbed the man by the pelvis.

Prof Thompson, from Maynooth University, in Ireland, said: “We could tell that the bites happened at around the time of death.

“So this wasn’t an animal scavenging after the individual died – it was associated with his death.”

As well as scanning the wound, scientists compared its size and shape to sample bites from large cats at London Zoo.

“The bite marks in this particular individual match those of a lion,” Prof Thompson told BBC News.

The location of the bites gave researchers even more information about the circumstances of the gladiator’s death.

The pelvis, Prof Thompson explained, “is not where lions normally attack, so we think this gladiator was fighting in some sort of spectacle and was incapacitated, and that the lion bit him and dragged him away by his hip.”

The skeleton, a male aged between 26 and 35, had been buried in a grave with two others and overlaid with horse bones.

Previous analysis of the bones pointed to him being a Bestiarius – a gladiator that was sent into combat with beasts.

Malin Holst, a Senior Lecturer in Osteoarchaeology at the University of York, said in 30 years of analysing skeletons she had “never seen anything like these bite marks”.

Additionally, she said the man’s remains revealed the story of a “short and somewhat brutal life”.

His bones were shaped by large, powerful muscles and there was evidence of injuries to his shoulder and spine, which were associated with hard physical work and combat.

Ms Holst, who is also managing director of York Osteoarchaeology, added: “This is a hugely exciting find because we can now start to build a better image of what these gladiators were like in life.”

The findings, which have been published in the Journal of Science and Medical Research PLoS One, also confirmed the “presence of large cats and potentially other exotic animals in arenas in cities such as York, and how they too had to defend themselves from the threat of death”, she said.

Experts said the discovery added weight to the suggestion an amphitheatre, although not yet found, likely existed in Roman York and would have staged fighting gladiators as a form of entertainment.

The presence of distinguished Roman leaders in York would have meant they required a lavish lifestyle, experts said, so it was no surprise to see evidence of gladiatorial events, which served as a display of wealth.

David Jennings, CEO of York Archaeology, said: “We may never know what brought this man to the arena where we believe he may have been fighting for the entertainment of others, but it is remarkable that the first osteoarchaeological evidence for this kind of gladiatorial combat has been found so far from the Colosseum of Rome, which would have been the classical world’s Wembley Stadium of combat.”

Sharon Osbourne has called for a west Belfast rap group’s US work visas to be revoked.

Last weekend, Kneecap performed at Coachella, an annual music festival in California, where they ended their set with pro-Palestinian messages.

Writing on social media, the TV personality and America’s Got Talent judge said the hip-hop trio “took their performance to a different level by incorporating aggressive political statements”.

Kneecap and the festival’s organisers have been approached for comment.

The band are set to play a number of shows in the US and Canada in coming months.

A US State Department spokesperson said: “Due to privacy and other considerations, and visa confidentiality, we generally will not comment on department actions with respect to specific cases.”

Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people – mostly civilians – and taking 251 back to Gaza as hostages.

Israel launched a massive military offensive in response, which has killed 51,240 Palestinians – mainly civilians – according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry figures on Monday.

• Israel and the Palestinians: History of the conflict explained
• Why are Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza?

Kneecap have been vocal supporters of the Palestinian people, often raising the conflict in their live performances.

At the end of their set at the second weekend of Coachella, which was not streamed on the festival’s official YouTube page, Kneecap projected three screens of text.

The first message said: “Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” followed by: “It is being enabled by the US government who arm and fund Israel despite their war crimes,” and a final screen added: “[Expletive] Israel. Free Palestine.”

During the performance, band member Mo Chara said: “The Irish not so long ago were persecuted at the hands of the Brits, but we were never bombed from the… skies with nowhere to go.

“The Palestinians have nowhere to go.”

The band also led the audience in chants of: “Free, free Palestine”.

On 11 April, during Kneecap’s first Coachella performance, the group faced criticism after leading an anti-Margaret Thatcher chant – which was subsequently omitted from the festival’s livestream – along with calls for a united Ireland.

On Tuesday, Osbourne claimed on social media the band’s actions included “projections of anti-Israel messages and hate speech”.

“This band openly support terrorist organizations,” she added.

“I urge you to join me in advocating for the revocation of Kneecap’s work visa,” she said.

A US State Department spokesperson told BBC News NI that the Trump administration “is focused on protecting our nation and our citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process”.

“When considering revocations, the department looks at information that arises after the visa was issued that may indicate a potential visa ineligibility under US immigration laws, pose a threat to public safety, or other situations where revocation is warranted,” they added.

“This can include everything from arrests, criminal convictions, and engaging in conduct that is inconsistent with the visa classification, to an overstay.”

Ms Osbourne was also critical of the organisers of the festival, Goldenvoice, a subsidiary of Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).

“Reports indicate that Goldenvoice was unaware of Kneecap’s political intentions when they were booked,” Osbourne said.

“However, after witnessing their performance during the first weekend, allowing them to perform again the following weekend suggests support of their rhetoric and a lack of due diligence,” she continued.

“This behaviour raises concerns about the appropriateness of their participation in such a festival and further shows they are booked to play in the USA,” Osbourne said.

“I know for a fact that certain people in the industry had written to Goldenvoice, airing their concerns around the booking of Kneecap,” she said.

The organisers have also been approached for comment.

In response to the performance, the organisers of the Nova Music Festival, Tribe of Nova, said Kneecap shared messaging that “deeply hurt many in our community”.

Hundreds of people were killed at that festival and a number of people were abducted during the Hamas attack in 2023.

In a statement, they said: “Our festival was a space where people came together -across cultures and beliefs – to celebrate life. That’s why we believe that even in the face of ignorance or provocation, our response must be rooted in empathy, not hate.

“We invite the members of Kneecap to visit the Nova Exhibition and experience first-hand the stories of those who were murdered, those who survived, and those who are still being held hostage.

“Not to shame or silence – but to connect. To witness. To understand.”

Kneecap are an Irish-speaking rap trio who have courted controversy with their provocative lyrics and merchandise.

The group was formed in 2017 by three friends who go by the stage names of Mo Chara, Móglaí Bap and DJ Próvaí.

Their rise to fame inspired a semi-fictionalised film starring Oscar-nominated actor Michael Fassbender.

The film won a British Academy of Film Award (Bafta) in February 2025.

Meanwhile, a Jewish security charity has called for police to investigate videos appearing to show the group express support for Hezbollah and Hamas.

Hezbollah is a political and military group in Lebanon, while Hamas is a Palestinian armed group and political movement in the Gaza Strip.

On Monday, a member of Community Security Trust (CST) shared on X a video from a Kneecap gig in London last November.

The footage appeared to show a member of the group draped in a Hezbollah flag shouting to the crowd “up Hamas, up Hezbollah”.

A CST spokeswoman said it was “utterly disgraceful” that Hezbollah and Hamas – both considered terrorist organisations by the UK and other nations – were being “lauded from a London stage” with the crowd “encouraged to show their support”.

“We fully expect the police to investigate this thoroughly and take appropriate action.”

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said it had been made aware of the video.

“It has been referred to the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit for assessment and to determine whether any further police investigation may be required,” it said.

On Tuesday, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch shared the video and renewed her criticism of the Labour government for last year settling a legal case brought by the group.

It related to a decision Badenoch made when she was a minister to withdraw an arts grant.

Kneecap were awarded £14,250 – the same amount they were initially granted – and said they would donate it to youth groups.

Badenoch posted on X, formerly known as Twitter: “Perhaps now Labour see Kneecap openly glorifying evil terror groups, they will apologise for rolling over. But I doubt it.”

The Department for Business and Trade said the government’s “priority is to get on delivering the change we promised and protect the taxpayer from further expense”.

A spokesperson said this was “why we did not continue to contest Kneecap’s challenge as we did not believe it to be in the public interest”.