The FBI has named the man who shot at Donald Trump during a campaign rally as Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Crooks is alleged to have opened fire while the former US president was addressing a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, leaving one audience member dead and two others badly hurt.

The 20-year-old kitchen worker was shot dead at the scene by a Secret Service sniper, officials said.

In a statement, the FBI said Crooks was the “subject involved” in the assassination attempt on the former president and that an active investigation was under way.

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• WATCH: Video shows shooter on roof at Trump rally
• WATCH: Trump grimaces and ducks as several shots ring out
• MORE: Secret Service facing questions as investigation launched
• ANALYSIS: Spray of bullets shatters nation’s illusion of security

Thomas Crooks had not been carrying ID, so investigators used DNA to identify him, the FBI said.

He was from Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, about 70km (43 miles) from the site of the attempted assassination, and graduated in 2022 from Bethel Park High School with a $500 prize for maths and science, according to a local newspaper.

Crooks worked in a local nursing home kitchen just a short drive away from his home, the BBC understands.

State voter records show that he was a registered Republican, according to US media.

He is also reported to have donated $15 to liberal campaign group ActBlue in 2021.

According to US media reports, Crooks was wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel known for its guns and demolition content. The channel has millions of subscribers featuring videos on different guns and explosive devices.

Law enforcement officials believe the weapon used to shoot at Donald Trump was purchased by Crook’s father, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two officers told AP that Crooks’ father bought a weapon at least six months ago.

Having established Crooks’s identity, police and agencies are investigating his motive.

“We do not currently have an identified motive,” said Kevin Rojek, FBI Pittsburgh special agent in charge, at a briefing on Saturday night.

The inquiry into what took place could last for months and investigators would work “tirelessly” to identify what Crooks’ motive was, Mr Rojek said.

Speaking to CNN, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.

Police sealed off the road to the house where Crooks lived with his parents, CBS News reports.

A neighbour told CBS that officers evacuated her in the middle of the night with no warning.

Bethel Park Police said there was a bomb investigation surrounding Crooks’s home.

Access to the area remains tightly controlled with police vehicles blocking the roads. Only residents have been allowed in or out.

One person was killed and two others were injured in the shooting.

All three victims are adult men and were audience members, CBS News reports. Their names have not been released.

A GoFundMe page, organised by the Trump campaign’s national finance director Meredith O’Rourke, was set up in the hours after the attack with donations going to the families of the injured.

It has so far raised more than $340,000 (£267,000).

In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear” and said he felt the bullet “ripping through the skin”.

Blood was visible on Trump’s ear and face as protection officers rushed him away.

Trump is “doing well” and is grateful to law enforcement officers, according to a statement published on the Republican National Committee (RNC) website.

One witness told the BBC that he had seen a man – believed to be Crooks – with a rifle on the roof of a building before Trump was shot at.

Video footage obtained by TMZ shows the moment the shooting began.

The assailant opened fire with “an AR-style rifle”, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reports.

However, the FBI says it did not immediately know what type of firearm the gunman used or how many shots were fired.

A Secret Service sniper returned fire and killed the gunman, the agency said.

Footage later shows armed officers approaching a body on the roof of the building.

The US Secret Service has one job – to protect current and former US presidents – and in that they failed spectacularly when an attempt was made on Donald Trump’s life on Saturday.

It has been 43 years since the last assassination attempt on a former or present US president, when Ronald Reagan was shot in the lung but survived.

Today, American politicians and the public want to know how a would-be assassin was able to crawl onto a rooftop vantage point, armed with a rifle, and let off four shots towards the podium – all in an area that was supposed to have been cleared.

Why were warnings from the public apparently ignored or not acted upon?

And why, when a highly charged presidential election is just four months away, did the Secret Service not do a better job of protecting the man many believe will be America’s next president?

The investigation that is already under way involves the FBI as well as the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.

The Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, has been summoned to testify before a committee of the US House of Representatives on 22 July.

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• ANALYSIS: Spray of bullets shatters nation’s illusion of security
• THE SUSPECT: What we know so far about Thomas Matthew Crooks
• REACTION: What politicians in the UK are saying
• IN PICTURES: How the chaos unfolded on the ground

Those who attended the rally itself were asked to pass through metal detectors to ensure they were not bringing any weapons, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

But the gunman believed to have fired the shots could clearly be seen crawling around with a rifle on top of a nearby building for several minutes, one eyewitness told the BBC.

The witness, who called himself Greg, said warnings that he and others gave were not acted upon by police, who he suggested did not know “what was going on” and had poor visibility of the rooftop.

The suspected gunman – who has been named by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks – also appears to have been caught on camera lining up his shot, in footage obtained by TMZ.

One spectator was killed and two others critically injured before the gunman was himself shot dead. Trump was also injured in the ear. State police have said it is “too early” to determine exactly what happened.

Trump’s life might have been saved by the fact he ducked after the first shots were fired, said David Dunn, a professor of international politics from the University of Birmingham.

In that respect, he “clearly had been well trained by the Secret Service”, Prof Dunn told BBC Radio 5 Live. Before being whisked away in a car by agents, Trump rose again to pump his fist before the crowd.

Greg said he was left wondering why agents were not deployed on all the nearby rooftops, and did not intervene to take Trump off stage after he raised the alarm.

Former Secret Service agent Charles Marino agreed that there were questions to answer. He told the BBC it would have been among the agents’ tasks to survey the surroundings and note “concerning areas”.

Experts who spoke to NBC said events such as political rallies always brought challenges in securing a wide expanse of land. One of them, former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras, said there would always be lingering questions: “How do you secure that outer perimeter? How far do you go? And can you cover everything? That’s a problem.”

Analysis from BBC Verify suggests that Crooks was able to get a little more than 130m (430ft) from Trump’s position behind the lectern.

It was announced late on Saturday that the FBI had assumed the role of lead investigator into the incident, which it describes as an assassination attempt.

One of its special agents said at a news conference it was “surprising” that the gunman had been able to open fire before the Secret Service killed him.

But when asked if there was a failure of security, he said his team was “not gonna make that assessment” while the investigation continued.

The Secret Service was not represented at the briefing. An earlier statement confirming the start of the investigation promised more information would be released when available.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security said maintaining the security of presidential candidates was one of the departments “most vital priorities”.

It is not clear what the attack will mean for the former president’s future security arrangements, though an adviser to the Trump campaign said it was clear he needed more protection.

A Secret Service spokesman has denied an “untrue assertion” that it was asked by Trump’s team for extra resources, but rebuffed this request.

In any case, Trump was now likely to receive a security detail comparable to that of a sitting president, former Secret Service agent Joseph LaSorsa told the Reuters news agency.

“There will be an intensive review… there’s going to be a massive realignment,” he said. “This cannot happen.”

The Republican National Convention will go ahead as planned on Monday, with a speech from Trump on Thursday, as confirmed by a statement from the party.

During the event, Trump will be officially nominated as the Republican candidate for president ahead of November’s election.

Donald Trump was rushed off stage during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania after a gunman opened fire from a nearby building.

The Republican candidate for president dropped to the ground and was seen with blood on the side of his face. He later said that he heard the whizzing of a bullet, that ripped through his ear.

As the stage was swarmed by secret service agents, he raised a fist into the air and was escorted away.

Rallygoers dropped to the ground as shot rang out, with some then fleeing the area.

One witness told the BBC that he had seen a man with a rifle on the roof of a building moments before Trump was shot at.

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• WATCH: Video shows shooter on roof at Trump rally
• WATCH: Trump grimaces and ducks as several shots ring out
• ANALYSIS: Spray of bullets shatters nation’s illusion of security
• SHOOTING SUSPECT: What we know so far about Thomas Matthew Crooks

President Joe Biden has condemned the assassination attempt on Donald Trump, calling on all Americans to denounce such “sick” violence.

The US president was quick to call for unity in the hours after a gunman shot Trump in the ear, killed one member of the crowd and injured two others at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The gunman was shot dead by Secret Service agents.

In a statement issued within an hour of the attack, Mr Biden said there was “no place in America for this. We must unite as one nation to condemn it. It’s sick, it’s sick”.

The attack came amid a febrile election race between the pair, laden with personal insults and barbs over their records in office.

Seeking to present a united front, Mr Biden said in televised comments from his home in Delaware that “everybody must condemn” the violent scenes in Butler.

“We cannot allow for this to be happening. We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this,” he added.

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• WATCH: Video shows shooter on roof at Trump rally
• WATCH: Trump grimaces and ducks as several shots ring out
• ANALYSIS: Spray of bullets shatters nation’s illusion of security
• SHOOTING SUSPECT: What we know so far about Thomas Matthew Crooks

He said he was “grateful to hear that he’s safe and doing well. I’m praying for him and his family and for all those at the rally. Jill [Biden] and I are grateful to the Secret Service for getting him to safety.”

The White House later said Mr Biden spoke to his Republican election rival by telephone after he had left hospital, while Biden campaign managers said they were pulling television adverts as quickly as possible in the wake of the attempt on Trump’s life.

President Biden’s comments were echoed by his vice-president, Kamala Harris. Senior Democrats, including former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also spoke out.

Ms Harris said in a statement that she was “relieved” Trump was not seriously injured in what she described as a “senseless shooting”.

“Violence such as this has no place in our nation,” she added. “We must all condemn this abhorrent act and do our part to ensure that it does not lead to more violence.”

Ms Pelosi, the former House Speaker who helped impeach Trump twice, said she was praying for him.

“As one whose family has been the victim of political violence, I know first-hand that political violence of any kind has no place in our society. I thank God that former President Trump is safe,” Ms Pelosi wrote on X/Twitter.

Ms Pelosi’s husband suffered a fractured skull and other injuries after a man broke into her California home with a hammer trying to find her.

Both Mr Clinton and Mr Obama echoed the comments, saying violence had no place in politics and wishing Trump their prayers.

Former US president Donald Trump was rushed off stage at a campaign rally after an assassination attempt.

Shots rang out as he was speaking at the event in Pennsylvania, sparking panic in the crowd.

The former US president, who emerged with a bloodied face and was pictured pumping his fist in the air, says he was shot in the ear.

He had been speaking at a campaign rally at Butler Farm Show Grounds, about 30 miles (50km) north of Pittsburgh, on Saturday when loud bangs were heard.

The suspected gunman – later named as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, from Bethel Park in Pennsylvania – was among two people killed. Two more people were critically injured.

The US Secret Service said the gunman had fired “multiple shots toward the stage from an elevated position” but had been shot dead by service personnel.

Video footage from the event shows law enforcement snipers on the roof of a building behind where Mr Trump was speaking, although it is not clear if they fired the shots that killed the gunman.

The gunman had been on a rooftop about 130m (430ft) from where Mr Trump was speaking – one witness told the BBC the gunman may have been hidden from the authorities by the slope of the roof he was lying on.

When the shots were fired, Mr Trump reached his right hand to his face before ducking as Secret Service agents surrounded him on stage.

As the agents began taking Mr Trump to his motorcade, he turned to the crowd, and with blood running from his right ear, he repeatedly pumped his fist in the air.

A spray of bullets may have only grazed Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday night, but they killed one rally attendee and critically wounded two others.

They have also torn through the 2024 presidential campaign, damaging the social and cultural fabric of the nation. The illusion of security and safety in American politics – built over decades – has been dramatically shattered.

Trump received only minor injuries but it was close – a photograph by Doug Mills of the New York Times appears to show the streak of a bullet cutting through the air near the former president’s head.

Not since Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinkley Jr in 1981 has there been such a dramatic act of violence directed against a president – or presidential candidate.

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• WATCH: Video shows shooter on roof at Trump rally
• WATCH: Trump grimaces and ducks as several shots ring out
• MORE: Secret Service facing questions as investigation launched
• SHOOTING SUSPECT: What we know so far about Thomas Matthew Crooks

It harkens back to a darker time in US history, more than a half-century ago, when two Kennedy brothers – one a president and one a presidential candidate – were felled by assassin bullets. Civil rights leaders such as Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X all also lost their lives in political violence.

Like today, the 1960s were marred by intense political polarisation and dysfunction, when a firearm and an individual willing to use it could change the course of history.

It is difficult to predict the impact Saturday’s events will have on America – and its political discourse. Already, there have been some bipartisan calls for a cooling of rhetoric and national unity.

Within hours of the incident, President Joe Biden – Trump’s likely opponent in November – appeared before cameras in Delaware to make a statement to the press.

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick,” he said. “We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”

The president later spoke by phone with the former president. He cut short his weekend at the beach and is returning to the White House late Saturday evening.

But the violence has also quickly filtered into the bare-knuckle partisan trench-warfare that has characterised American politics in recent decades. Some Republican politicians have laid the blame for the attack on Democrats who have employed dire rhetoric about the threat they say the former president poses to American democracy.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Ohio Senator JD Vance, who is reportedly on the shortlist to be Trump’s vice-presidential pick, posted on social media. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s assassination attempt.”

Chris LaCivita, the Trump campaign manager, said that “leftist activists, Democratic donors and even Joe Biden” need to be held accountable at the ballot box in November for “disgusting remarks” that in his view led to Saturday’s attack.

Democrats may object, but many on the left used similar language to describe the culpability of right-wing rhetoric in the months before the 2011 near-fatal shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in Arizona.

The Pennsylvania violence will undoubtedly cast a long shadow over the Republican convention, which begins on Monday. Security protocols will be tightened, and the protests – and counter-protests – near the site could be accompanied by a new sense of foreboding.

Meanwhile, an even brighter national spotlight will shine on the party’s nominee when he takes the stage on Thursday night.

Images of the former president, bloodied, with an upraised fist are sure to become a rallying point in Milwaukee. The Republican Party was already planning to make strength and rugged masculinity a central theme, and Saturday’s incident will give that a jolt of new energy.

“This is the fighter America needs!” Eric Trump wrote on social media, accompanied by a photograph of his father after the shooting.

The US Secret Service will also face intense scrutiny for its handling of security at the Trump rally. An individual with a high-powered rifle was able to come within firing distance of a major presidential candidate.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is promising that his chamber will conduct a full inquiry. Those investigations will take time.

But for now, one thing is clear: in a year of uncharted electoral waters, America’s politics have taken a new, deadly turn.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says 141 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes since Saturday.

About 400 people have been injured, according to the health ministry’s statement.

One of the air strikes hit a designated humanitarian zone in the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attack was targeting senior Hamas leader Mohammed Deif, but there was “no certainty” that he had been killed.

An eyewitness in al-Mawasi told the BBC that it looked like an “earthquake” had hit.

Videos from the area show smouldering wreckage and bloodied casualties being loaded on to stretchers.

BBC Verify has analysed footage of the aftermath of the strike, confirming that it took place within an area shown on the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) website as a humanitarian zone.

Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defence agency said that 17 people had been killed in a second Israeli strike on Saturday.

The attack is said to have targeted a prayer hall in the Shati refugee camp to the west of Gaza City. The Israeli military has not yet commented on the claim.

A Hamas official, cited by Reuters, called the attacks a “grave escalation” that showed Israel was not interested in reaching a ceasefire agreement.

The ceasefire negotiations being held in Qatar and Egypt ended on Friday without success, the BBC understands.

• Who are Mohammed Deif and the other top Hamas leaders?

In a news conference on Saturday, Mr Netanyahu said he gave the order for the al-Mawasi operation to go ahead after being briefed by his general security forces.

He said he wanted to know there were no hostages nearby, the extent of the collateral damage and what kinds of weapons would be used.

He said the two Hamas leaders targeted had not been confirmed dead before promising to eradicate all of the group’s senior members.

“Either way, we will get to the whole of the leadership of Hamas,” Mr Netanyahu added.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, quoted by the AFP news agency, later accused Mr Netanyahu of seeking to block a ceasefire in the Gaza war with “heinous massacres”.

Hamas said the claim that their leaders were targets was “false”.

“It is not the first time Israel claims to target Palestinian leaders, only to be proven false later,” the group said in a statement.

An Israeli military official said the strike took place in an “open area” where there were “no civilians”.

He refused to say whether it was inside a designated safe zone, but said Hamas leaders had “cynically” set up in a civilian area.

The official also said he was unaware of any hostages taken during the 7 October attack on Israel being in the area.

He added that “accurate intelligence” was gathered before the “precision strike”.

Speaking to Newshour on the BBC World Service, Dr Mohammed Abu Rayya, who is at a hospital dealing with the aftermath of the attack, said the majority of those injured were suffering from multiple shrapnel wounds.

He said it was like being in “hell”, adding that many of the casualties were civilians, notably women and children.

Footage from the nearby Kuwait field hospital showed scenes of chaos with patients being treated on the floor.

The Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis is “overwhelmed” and no longer able to function, British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians said.

Mohammed Deif, the head of Hamas’s military wing the al-Qassam Brigades, is one of Israel’s most wanted men.

He has near-mythical status in Gaza after escaping capture and surviving several assassination attempts, including one in 2002 when he lost an eye.

He was imprisoned by Israeli authorities in 1989, after which he formed the Brigades with the aim of capturing Israeli soldiers.

Israel accuses him of planning and supervising bus bombings which killed tens of Israelis in 1996, and of involvement in the capture and killing of three Israeli soldiers in the mid-1990s.

It is thought he was one of the masterminds behind the 7 October Hamas attack, when about 1,200 Israelis and foreigners – mostly civilians – were killed and 251 others were taken back to Gaza as hostages.

It led to the major Israeli military operation in Gaza which has killed more than 38,400 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Renowned sex therapist and talk show host Dr Ruth Westheimer, who spoke openly about sex and intimate subjects, died on Friday at 96 years old.

Her publicist confirmed her death to BBC News partner CBS News without providing a cause.

Ruth Westheimer, often referred to as Dr Ruth, became known for talking openly about sex. She became a pop culture icon as well as a best-selling author with guides like “Sex for Dummies”.

She pushed for having open conversations about sex with a non-judgmental approach.

Dr Ruth, who spoke with a German accent, is a Holocaust survivor who was born in Frankfurt, Germany.

In the 1980s, she had her own local radio program called “Sexually Speaking” which became well recognized and placed her on the path to national fame when it was nationally syndicated in 1984.

She wrote her first book, Dr Ruth’s Guide to Good Sex, in 1983 in which she aimed to demystify sex. It was the first of more than 40 books she authored.

Dr Ruth launched a television program the following year called The Dr. Ruth Show and wrote a nationally syndicated advice column.

“I knew that there is a lot of knowledge that is around but doesn’t get to young people,” Dr Ruth told NBC Nightly News in 2019.

Dr Ruth frequently made appearances on talk shows including The Howard Stern Radio Show, the Dr. Oz Show, Nightline, the Tonight Show and Late Night with David Letterman.

Born in 1928 as Karola Ruth Siegel, at ten-years-old her parents sent her to Switzerland to escape Kristallnacht, a violent riot Nazis carried out against Jews before the Holocaust.

Dr Ruth never saw her parents after leaving for Switzerland and believed they were killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz – a Nazi death camp.

She moved to Palestine at 16 years old and joined the Haganah, an underground military organization fighting for Israeli independence

Dr Ruth was trained as a sniper at the time, but never put the skills to use.

While in Palestine, a bomb exploded in her dormitory that severely injured her legs.

In 1950, Dr Ruth met her first husband and moved to Paris where she studied psychology at Sorbonne University.

The marriage ended and she moved to New York with who would become her second husband. The couple had one daughter together.

Dr Ruthe divorced from her second husband before meeting Manfred Westheimer, a refugee from Nazi Germany. They married and had one son, staying together until Mr Westheimer died in 1997.

While in New York, Dr Ruth earned a master’s degree in sociology from the New School in New York. She later received a doctorate in education from Columbia University and taught at Lehman College in the Bronx.

Dr Ruth later taught at several universities and held her own private sex therapy practice.

Last November, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Dr Ruth would become the state’s honorary ambassador to loneliness.

“I am deeply honoured and promised the governor that I will work day and night to help New Yorkers feel less lonely!” Dr Ruth said at the time.

Officers at a police station near a rubbish dump where dismembered body parts were found have been transferred, Kenya’s acting inspector general of police has said.

On Sunday, Douglas Kanja Kirocho said that so far, eight female bodies had been retrieved from the site in the capital, Nairobi.

Kenya’s police watchdog previously announced it was investigating whether there was police involvement in the gruesome deaths, which come amid allegations of widespread human rights abuses by officers during recent anti-government protests.

Mr Kirocho said officers from Kware police station were being moved to ensure “fair and unbiased investigations” into the “heinous” deaths.

Detectives have been scouring the site in the Mukuru slum since Friday, when the corpses of six women were found in sacks floating in a sea of rubbish.

On Saturday, five other bags containing body parts were recovered.

Preliminary reports show that the bodies were in various stages of decomposition and that the deceased were aged between 18 and 30.

Officers said some of the bags included severed legs and torsos, speculating that the deaths could be related to the activities of cultists or serial killers.

But the Independent Police Oversight Authority said “widespread allegations of police involvement in unlawful arrests [and] abductions” meant it was undertaking a preliminary investigation to establish whether there was any police connection.

Human rights groups have accused the police of shooting dozens of people who were demonstrating against planned tax rises earlier this month, some of them fatally.

• Was there a massacre after Kenya’s anti-tax protests?
• Kenyan president’s humbling shows power of African youth
• Protesters set fire to Kenya’s parliament – but also saved two MPs

The police have also been accused of abducting or arbitrarily arresting hundreds more during the protests.

Responding to the bodies found in Mukuru, the Independent Police Oversight Authority said: “The bodies, wrapped in bags and secured by nylon ropes, had visible marks of torture and mutilation.”

The watchdog also noted that the dump site was less than 100m from Kware police station.

In contradiction to the police’s report, the Independent Police Oversight Authority said nine dismembered bodies were found at the Mukuru dump – seven female and two male.

Mr Kirocho said the police were working to conclude their investigation into the deaths “within 21 days”.

The bodies are being kept at a funeral home in Nairobi, pending post-mortem examinations.

Local media reported that police deployed two water cannons to the scene on Saturday, after angry protesters threatened to open the bags filled with human remains.

Officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) urged people to keep calm and grant them space to investigate the discoveries, accusing protesters of impeding their investigation.

The grisly find has put pressure on President William Ruto, who has vowed that those behind the killings will be punished.

“We are a democratic country guided by the rule of law. Those involved in mysterious killings in Nairobi and any other part of the country will be held to account,” he said in a post to X, formerly Twitter.

The case is the latest disturbing such incident in Kenya.

Last year the country was left horrified after the remains of hundreds of people associated with a doomsday cult were discovered in the Indian Ocean coastal town of Malindi.

Paul Nthenge Mackenzie went on trial in Mombasa earlier this week on charges of terrorism and murder over the deaths of more than 440 of his followers. He denies the allegations.

He is alleged to have encouraged men, women and children to starve themselves in order to “meet Jesus”, in one of the world’s worst cult-related massacres.

America’s Sweethearts, which lifts the lid on life in the most famous cheerleading team in the US, has been climbing up the Netflix charts since its release last month.

The series follows the gruelling recruitment and coaching process for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders – DCC for short – and how much pressure the members face to be perfect.

Among the hopefuls is 24-year-old Ariana McClure – a medical sales rep who moved to Dallas to pursue her dream.

It is her second attempt at making the team, having been cut in training camp the previous year.

Dancers have to go through a tough audition process and training camp before they’re high-kicking in formation on the football pitch, all without a piece of hair or false eyelash being out of place. It’s ruthlessly competitive.

As well as learning the demanding acrobatic routines, they are required to stay the same size, so they can continue to fit in to the trademark uniform of tiny shorts, crop top and cowboy boots.

It’s not the first show about the cheerleaders, who are nicknamed America’s Sweethearts – there had already been 16 seasons of a reality show about the team on US network CMT.

But Netflix has brought DCC to a new audience. And many viewers have expressed shock at the demands on the cheerleaders, and the comparatively low wages they are paid.

In addition to intense training, most of the women have other full-time jobs.

In the opening episode, Cowboys boss Charlotte Jones admits the cheerleaders are “not paid a lot” – but says women on the team do not join for the pay, rather to be part of something bigger than themselves.

Ariana thinks pay has slightly improved across the board, but still says the cheerleaders should be compensated better.

“I definitely [don’t think we have to earn] anything near what the football players are making,” she tells the BBC.

“But I do think that these organisations have enough money.

“We like to say it’s a part-time job with a full time schedule. Apart from just the hours of practising, it’s also two hours beforehand, getting ready, you have to have your hair and make-up done.

“It’s also finding time within the day to work out so that you stay in shape, not only physically but to make sure you can get through the routines.”

She adds: “We would all ultimately do it for free because we love it and it’s our passion, but it is at the end of the day a job and they treat it as a job and so I think we should be rewarded for our work a little better – but it’s getting there.”

The series also touches on the mental health of the dancers.

Four-year veteran Victoria Kalina – who has since left the team – spoke about struggling with depression and eating disorders while she was on the team.

“I applaud Victoria for being so brave to speak about it because it’s a vulnerable thing and it’s hard to speak about that and we all have the same thoughts,” Ariana says.

In order to cope with the pressure of training, Ariana started journalling and seeing a therapist.

But she thinks, in order to help others, sports therapists should be offered to cheerleaders on NFL teams.

“My therapist was great, but she’s not a dancer, or wasn’t an athlete,” she explains. “And so having just some tools offered for the girls to talk to would be really beneficial.”

A DCC spokesperson told the BBC that all chearleaders, like its football players, have access to “immediate, independent and confidential support resources”.

“Also, just like our Cowboys players, they have access to our dedicated team Mental Health and Wellness Consultant on staff, as needed.”

The women featured in the series have won praise from viewers and TV critics for how they face the exacting expectations.

“America’s Sweethearts is a disturbing show on many levels, but the resilience of its women is impressive,” the Guardian said.

Emma Beddington wrote that there is “plenty to horrify” in the series, including the physical toll on the team members’ bodies, the “abysmal pay” and “the objectification”.

Time’s Judy Berman wrote: “At best, they’re athletes working at the apex of their sport; at worst, they’re casualties of a job market, a form of entertainment, and a society in which misogyny is so deeply ingrained, it’s often enforced by the women it oppresses.”

Writing in the New York Times, Jessica Grose said: “If there’s another season of the Netflix show, perhaps a more complete picture of the Cowboys cheerleading experience could force this elite institution to evolve, and it may make more of these talented women reach the conclusion that making the team isn’t worth the cost.”

For Ariana, the experience ended when she was cut from training camp on the last day.

She says she only found out why she was cut from the team while watching the show “at the same time as everyone else”.

In the emotional chat with director Kelli Finglass and choreographer Judy Trammel, Ari was told she was being dropped because there were only 36 spaces, without much further explanation.

But earlier, Jones – the team’s executive vice-president and daughter of owner Jerry – had told Kelli and Judy that Ariana looked like a “little girl” and “left behind” on the team, due to her 5ft 2in (1.57m) height.

“I found out details that I didn’t know,” she tells BBC News.

“And I think it allowed for me to not so much blame myself, not be so hard on myself – knowing it’s the one thing God gave me that I can’t change or fix.”

There are no height restrictions for the team, with guidelines simply saying there are no height or weight requirements, and women are expected to “look well-proportioned in dancewear”.

After watching the show, does Ariana think there should have been a height restriction?

“Had I known even going in the first year that height was a concern, I probably wouldn’t have tried out for Cowboys again,” she says.

“I do think they need to install a height requirement.

“But I also I know that the team changes throughout the years, and the demographic of the team, and they may have more taller rookies, may have shorter rookies.”

DCC were asked by the BBC to comment on the team not having a height restriction.

But Ariana’s hard work hasn’t gone to waste – she is about to start the season as a cheerleader for the Miami Dolphins.

“It’s nice, because the new director of the Dolphins squad was at the Cowboys, and so I knew her in Dallas for a little bit.

“And so a lot of the things I loved about Cowboys in that organisation, she’s taking over to Dolphins – but it is the most mentally positive, happy environment I’ve been in.”

Actress Shannen Doherty, best known for roles in hit TV shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed, died on Saturday from cancer at 53.

“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty,” her publicist, Leslie Sloane, said in a statement. “The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie.”

Doherty spent over four decades as an actress. She is best known for playing Brenda Walsh on four seasons of 90210. The series followed a group of Beverly Hills teenagers as they faced relationship and family issues.

Ms Doherty was nominated for several awards for her role on the show.

She later went on to play Brenda in a 2008 reboot of the series where her character grew up to become a theatre actress.

The actor was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015 and underwent a mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy. She announced she was in remission in 2017, but the cancer returned two years later.

She was open about her battle with cancer, documenting it on social media. In a June 2023 Instagram video, she shared that the the cancer spread to her brain. She announced last fall that she is committed to battling the disease despite it spreading to her bones.

“I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating,” she said to People magazine in November 2023.

Born in Memphis, Ms Doherty started acting as a child. She appeared in TV series including Voyagers, Our House and Father Murphy before starring as Jenny Wilder at the age of 11 in Little House on the Prairie.

Three years later in 1985, she got her first major film role starring in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, which also starred Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt.

In 1988, Ms Doherty played Heather Duke in the iconic teen film Heathers alongside Winona Ryder, Lisanne Falk and Kim Walker.

The actress struggled at the time with being young and famous, earning a reputation as a troublemaker on the set of 90210.

“I was very confused back then about what I wanted for myself, and the attention was way too much,” she said. “I didn’t always handle it that well.”

She later starred in Charmed, a show about three sisters who were witches.

Ms Doherty also played roles in North Shore, set in a Hawaii hotel, and the offbeat film comedy Mallrats.

The actress was married twice before marrying her current husband, photographer Kurt Iswarienko, in 2011.

In the 2010s, she ventured into reality TV appearing on Dancing With The Stars and the US version of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Ms Doherty was a passionate animal rights activist. Her semi-autobiographical book Badass, released in 2010, encouraged young women to live life with attitude and confidence.

In Kenya, the youth protests against planned tax increases have served as a wake-up call for the Church.

They’ve shaken up a powerful institution, in a country where more than 80% of the population, including the president, are Christian.

The young demonstrators accused the Church of siding with the government, and took action against politicians using the pulpit as a political platform.

On a recent Sunday afternoon, Catholic leaders responded to the challenge.

They organised a special Mass for the youth from churches in and around Nairobi, to honour those who’d been killed by police in the anti-tax protests.

Hundreds of young people crowded into the Holy Family Basilica to pray for the dead.

Just weeks earlier, Sunday Mass had been interrupted by chants from the altar of the basilica.

It was an unprecedented protest from young people – the digitally savvy generation known as Generation Z or Gen-Z.

They felt the church wasn’t backing their campaign against tough tax hikes.

Now, Bishop Simon Kamomoe tried to convince them they’d been heard.

“I know as young people sometimes you feel disappointed even in the Church,” he said.

“We would like to renew our commitment in serving you. We can be mistaken…May the Lord forgive us as a Church, where even before God, we have disappointed you.”

He also admonished them to be patient in pursuit of their dreams, to be guided by the Church, and to repent of any sins committed during the protests.

“We don’t want to lose you, we don’t want to lose our young people,” he said, with remarkable candour. “The Catholic bishops are so concerned about losing this generation,” he said, urging them to stay peaceful and protect their lives.

The Mass was punctuated by spirited singing and ended with boisterous cheering as people waved Kenyan flags.

Several who attended said the service was a welcome first step, but a belated one.

“I feel like for the first time, the Church is realising that the young people are serious,” said Yebo, who attended the protests before they turned violent and wanted to remain anonymous.

“And I feel also the Church hasn’t been really on our side. They have been sitting on the fence for a long time.

“The youth have actually been more persistent, they have brought results more than the Church with the current economic change. We can hear the president is taking the youth more serious than he takes the Church serious.”

Church organisations did lobby against the tax bill, but it was young people taking to the streets in overwhelming numbers that forced President William Ruto to back down.

Not only that.

The Gen-Z protesters are now condemning what they see as the cozy relationship between Christian and political institutions.

Again and again on the sidelines of the Mass, they mentioned suspicions about visits by Church leaders to the State House, the presidential residence, including during the protests.

“We believe the president is buying the Church,” said Meshack Mwendwa.

On social media “the Church leaders are seen holding envelopes (alongside) the executive leaders and the permanent members of the government,” he said. “And that’s not what we want as the youth, now it’s time for a change.”

One change they demanded, and got, was an end to the ostentatious practice of “harambee” – politicians giving large sums of money to the Church.

Such donations can buy political influence on Sunday mornings.

The protest movement aimed to stop that – they called it #OccupyChurch.

Some even demonstrated against President Ruto’s attendance at a Church-sponsored event. But he supported their position.

“On matters of politics on the pulpit I am 100% aligned,” he told a media roundtable that aired nationally.

“We shouldn’t be using the pulpit in churches or in any other places of worship, to prosecute politics. It is not right.”

Several days later, he banned state officers and public servants from making public charitable donations, and directed the attorney general to develop a mechanism for structured and transparent contributions.

But the president himself has been part of this political culture, converting the pulpit into a campaign platform.

“His political message was actually driven within the Church,” says Reverend Chris Kinyanjui, the general secretary of Kenya’s National Council of Churches (NCCK).

“So, people feel that they have a Christian government.”

Mr Ruto’s Christian narrative has made it difficult for many pastors to hold him to account, Rev Kinyanjui said. Rather they behave like “shareholders of this administration,” he claimed.

“Our president speaks from the pulpit. You know what the pulpit means? He cannot be questioned. So, he has become a very powerful figure in Kenya’s politics and church circles. The Gen-Z are questioning, and are saying, we don’t know the difference between the government and the Church.”

The BBC asked the Kenyan government for a response but the spokesman said he was unable to comment right now. He was speaking amidst sweeping changes in the cabinet and security services made by Mr Ruto in response to the protests.

The backlash from Kenya’s young people has the potential to reshape the way power works in Kenya.

They make up the vast majority of the population, and are outside predictable political dynamics.

The president is listening now, and so is the Church.

“We are the Church,” said Mitchelee Mbugua outside the basilica as the Mass wound up.

“If the Church shows that they don’t support us, we draw away from them. If there are no us, there’s not a Church. So, they have to listen to our grievances. Because we are the Church.”

Rev Kinyanjui goes further, underlining what he sees as the fragility of the social contract with Kenya’s youth. He acknowledged that NCCK leadership had been worried that Kenya might go the way of Sudan.

There, a youth revolution was aborted by a military coup, which eventually led to civil war.

“We were happy that the president was able to defuse [this crisis],” he said, “because if he had signed that finance bill into law, who knows what we’d have become.”

Rev Kinyanjui said the NCCK came out “too quietly” against the finance bill. Going forward they will adopt a strategy of “being proactive, being visible, being the voice of and the consciousness of society… by questioning, by correcting the regime.”

“In a way, we see the Gen-Z as doing the Lord’s work, and I think that’s something that has made many pastors to wake up.”

• Was there a massacre after Kenya’s anti-tax protests?
• Historic first as president takes on Kenya’s online army
• Protesters traumatised by abductions – lawyer
• Kenyan president’s humbling shows power of African youth
• Protesters set fire to Kenya’s parliament – but also saved two MPs

Fans are mourning US actress Shannen Doherty, who has died the age of 53 of cancer.

“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty,” her publicist, Leslie Sloane said.

Doherty enjoyed a screen career spanning four decades as the star of hit TV shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed.

Although Doherty and the characters she played usually seemed to inhabit a glossier, more beautiful world, she was always someone viewers could relate to on screen, and was a self-proclaimed “badass” in real life.

The Memphis-born star began acting as a child with appearances in TV series such as Voyagers, Our House and Father Murphy, before joining the cast of the long-running Little House on the Prairie as Jenny Wilder at the age of 11 in 1982.

Her first major film role came in 1985 with Girls Just Want to Have Fun, which also starred Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt.

• Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty dead at 53

Three years later, she played Heather Duke, a member of the high school clique in cult 1988 teen drama Heathers, starring alongside Winona Ryder, Lisanne Falk and Kim Walker.

When a rebooted television series was commissioned in 2016, Doherty played the mother of one of the new generation of Heathers.

In 1990, Doherty landed the biggest role of her career – as Brenda Walsh in the original Beverly Hills, 90210.

The TV series followed a group of teenagers as they dealt with relationship and family issues that were relatable beyond the glamorous Beverly Hills setting.

While working on the show in the 1990s, she developed a reputation as something of a troublemaker, with reports accusing her of heated feuds with her fellow actors.

“There were times when we wanted to claw each other’s eyes out,” Doherty’s co-star Jennie Garth admitted in 2014. But the pair became close friends as they grew older.

Doherty admitted she struggled to handle the fame. “I was very confused back then about what I wanted for myself, and the attention was way too much,” she said. “I didn’t always handle it that well.

“And in truth, I was just shooting myself in the foot because the more I fought it, the more the celebrity took over versus the actor, and then the press ran with it.”

She told another interviewer: “Maybe my career would have taken a different direction if I’d been wiser and older, but I wasn’t. I started young and I got 90210 kind of success very early, and it came at a time in my life where I was a petrified kid.”

Doherty left 90210 after four seasons, with Brenda being written out to go to prestigious drama school Rada in London.

While the actress mellowed and became more private as she got older, she played up to her reputation with the release of 2010’s Badass, a semi-autobiographical book that encouraged young women to find their “inner badass” and live life with attitude and confidence.

Doherty went on to star in shows including Charmed, which followed a trio of sisters who are the most powerful good witches of all time, and North Shore, set in a Hawaii hotel. In 1995, she starred in the offbeat film comedy Mallrats.

Away from the screen, Doherty had a somewhat turbulent romantic life. She married Ashley Hamilton, the son of actor George Hamilton, two weeks after meeting him in 1993, but they divorced just six months later.

She wed her second husband Rick Salomon in 2002, but the marriage was annulled after nine months. She married her third husband, a photographer named Kurt Iswarienko, in 2011. The couple stayed together until her death.

As she got older, Doherty became a passionate animal rights activist and participated in campaigns against animal cruelty.

She also ventured into reality TV as the genre became popular in the noughties, and in 2010 she appeared in Dancing With The Stars, the US version of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Beverly Hills, 90210 remained the role she was best known for, and in 2008 she joined the cast of a new version of the show, reprising her role of Brenda Walsh. In the reboot, Brenda had grown up to become a successful theatre actress and stage director.

But in her personal life, Doherty began to struggle with her health.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015. The following year, she had a mastectomy and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

She initially announced her cancer was in remission in 2017, but it returned two years later.

At the time, Doherty was appearing in another reboot of 90210, which she said she was keen to take part in to honour her former co-star Luke Perry, who died of a stroke aged 52.

“It’s so weird for me to be diagnosed and then somebody who was seemingly healthy to go first,” said Doherty. “It was really shocking. And the least I could do to honour him was to do that show.”

The latest version, titled BH90210, put a new spin on it. Rather than being a straightforward reboot, it followed Doherty and many of the other original cast members playing heightened, parody versions of their real selves.

Doherty kept the return of the disease secret at first, opting not to tell her fellow cast members except Brian Austin Green.

“I had moments of great anxiety where I thought, ‘I can’t really do this,'” she explained. “Prior to shooting, Brian would always call me and say, ‘Listen, you know, whatever happens, I have your back.’ So Brian helped me through a lot.”

In recent years, she openly documented her battle with cancer on social media – posting videos of herself exercising alongside the hashtag #cancerslayer.

In November 2023, she said she is committed to battling stage four breast cancer, which had now spread to her bones.

Speaking to People magazine, Doherty said she was determined to keep going with treatment, adding: “I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating.”

On the face of it, this past week’s Nato summit in Washington has ticked the boxes. The alliance can show it is bigger and stronger than ever, its military support for Ukraine appears undiminished and it has just sent a robust message to China to stop secretly supporting Russia’s war on Kyiv.

Sir Keir Starmer’s new government has had a chance to position itself as a linchpin in the transatlantic alliance at a time when political uncertainty hovers over the White House and much of Europe.

Back home in Britain, the priorities for this new government are pressing: the economy, housing, immigration, the NHS, to name but a few.

Yet unwanted threats and scenarios can often have a habit of turning up and upsetting the best laid plans.

So what could be coming down the track during the life of this new UK government?

No surprises here, this one is on everybody’s radar. But that does not make it any less dangerous, for Lebanon, Israel and the entire Middle East.

“The possibility of a large-scale Israeli invasion of Lebanon this summer should be at the top of the new government’s geopolitical risk register.”

That’s according to Professor Malcolm Chalmers, the Deputy Director-General of the Whitehall think tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

With the conflict continuing in Gaza and the Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping continuing, Prof Chalmers believes “we could be entering a period of sustained multi-front warfare in the region, for which neither Israel nor its Western partners will be prepared.”

Ever since the Hamas-led raid into southern Israel on 7 October last year, there have been fears that Israel’s subsequent military campaign in Gaza could escalate across borders into a full-scale regional war.

Israel’s troubled northern border with Lebanon is where such a war is most at risk of igniting.

The daily exchange of fire across this border, between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Shia militia, have already resulted in hundreds killed, mostly in Lebanon.

More than 60,000 Israelis have been forced to abandon their homes and livelihoods in the north and an even greater number of people on the Lebanese side.

Domestic pressure is mounting for the Israeli government to “deal with” Hezbollah by pushing its forces north of Lebanon’s Litani River, from where they would have less chance of sending rockets into Israel.

“We don’t want to go to war,” says Lt Col Nadav Shoshani of the IDF, “but I don’t think any country could accept 60,000 of its citizens displaced. The situation has to end. We would like it to be a diplomatic solution, but Israeli patience is wearing thin.”

There are strong reasons for both sides not to go to war.

Lebanon’s economy is already fragile. It has barely recovered from the 2006 war with Israel and a renewed full-scale conflict would have a devastating impact on the country’s infrastructure and its people.

Hezbollah, for its part, would likely respond to a major Israeli attack and invasion with a massive and sustained missile, drone and rocket barrage that could potentially overwhelm Israel’s Iron Dome air defences.

Nowhere in Israel is beyond its reach.

At this point, the US Navy, positioned offshore, could well join in on Israel’s side. Which then begs the question of what Iran would do.

It too has a sizeable arsenal of ballistic missiles as well as a network of proxy militias in Iraq, Yemen and Syria that could be mobilised to intensify their attacks on Israel.

One way to take the heat out of the tension on the Israel-Lebanon border would be for the conflict in Gaza to come to an end. But after nine months and a horrific death toll, a lasting peace has yet to be achieved.

The Iran nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), designed to contain and monitor Iran’s nuclear programme, was the crowning foreign policy achievement of the Obama administration in 2015.

But it has long since fallen apart.

One year after President Trump unilaterally withdrew from it, Iran stopped abiding by its rules.

Buried deep beneath gigantic mountains, ostensibly beyond the reach of even the most powerful of bunker-busting bombs, Iran’s nuclear centrifuges have been spinning frantically, enriching uranium to well beyond the 20% needed for peaceful civil purposes. (A nuclear bomb requires highly enriched uranium.)

Officially, Iran insists its nuclear programme remains entirely peaceful, that it is purely for generating energy.

But Israeli and Western experts have voiced fears that Iran has a clandestine programme to reach what is known as “breakout capability”: achieving a position where it has the capacity to build a nuclear bomb, but does not necessarily do so.

It will not have escaped Iran’s notice that North Korea, an isolated, global pariah, has been steadily amassing an arsenal of nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them, constituting a major deterrent to any would-be attacker.

If Iran gets the Bomb, then it is almost inevitable that Saudi Arabia, its regional rival, would also go after acquiring it. So would Turkey and so would Egypt.

And suddenly there is a nuclear arms race all across the Middle East.

This depends on what you define as “winning”.

At its maximalist, it means Russian forces overwhelming Ukraine’s defences and seizing the rest of the country including the capital Kyiv, replacing the pro-West government of President Volodymyr Zelensky with a puppet regime appointed by Moscow.

That, of course, was the original plan behind the full-scale Russian invasion of February 2022, a plan which failed spectacularly.

This scenario is currently thought unlikely.

But Russia does not need to conquer the whole of Ukraine to be able to declare some kind of “victory”, something that it can present to its population to justify the astronomically high casualties it is sustaining in this war.

Russia already occupies around 18% of Ukraine and, in the east, its forces are slowly gaining ground.

Although more Western weapons are on their way, Ukraine is critically short of manpower. Its troops, fighting bravely, often heavily outnumbered and outgunned, are exhausted.

Russian commanders, who seem to care little for the lives of their men, have mass on their side. Russia’s entire economy has been placed on a war footing, with close to 40% of the state budget now devoted to defence.

President Vladimir Putin, whose recent “conditions for peace talks” equated to total capitulation by Ukraine, believes he has time on his side. He knows there is a high chance that his old friend Donald Trump will be back in the White House within months and that Western support for Ukraine will start to crumble.

Russia needs only to hang on to the territory it has already seized, and to deny Ukraine the chance of joining Nato and the EU, to declare a partial victory in the war it has portrayed as a fight for Russian survival.

Again, there are plenty of warnings that this one might be coming.

China’s President Xi Jinping and his officials have stated on numerous occasions that the self-governing island democracy of Taiwan must be “returned to the Motherland”, by force if necessary.

Taiwan does not want to be ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing.

But China considers Taiwan a renegade province and it wants to see it “reunited” well before the centenary of the founding of the CCP in 2049.

The US has adopted a position of what it calls “strategic ambiguity” over Taiwan.

It is legally bound to help defend Taiwan, but Washington prefers to keep China guessing as to whether that means sending US forces to fight off a Chinese invasion.

China would almost certainly prefer not to invade Taiwan.

It would be hugely costly, in both blood and treasure. Ideally, Beijing would like Taiwan to give up on its dreams of full independence and volunteer to be ruled by the mainland.

But as that currently looks unlikely – the Taiwanese have watched with horror the crushing of democracy in Hong Kong – Beijing has another option up its sleeve.

If and when it decides to move on Taiwan, it is likely to try to seal it off from the outside world, making life unbearable for its citizens, but with the minimum of bloodshed so as to avoid provoking a war with the US.

Does Taiwan matter? It does.

This is about more than lofty principles of defending a democratic ally on the other side of the world.

Taiwan produces more than 90% of the world’s top-end microchips, the miniscule bits of tech that power almost everything that runs our modern-day lives.

A US-China war over Taiwan would have catastrophic consequences for the global economy that would dwarf the war in Ukraine.

Not exactly, but there are some moderating factors here.

For China, trade is all-important. Beijing’s ambitious plans to squeeze the US Navy out of the western Pacific and dominate the entire region may well be tempered by its reluctance to trigger damaging sanctions and a global trade war.

In Ukraine, President Putin may be making slow, incremental territorial gains but this comes at a horrendous cost in casualties.

When the Red Army occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s, it suffered around 15,000 killed over a decade, triggering protests at home and hastening the demise of the Soviet Union.

In Ukraine, in just one quarter of that time, Russia has suffered many multiples of that death toll. To date, protest has been limited – the Kremlin largely controls what news Russians see – but the longer this war goes on, the greater the risk that the Russian public will eventually baulk at the mounting number of their fellow citizens getting killed.

In Europe, where worries abound over a future Trump presidency withdrawing its historic protection, a new UK-led security pact is being prepared.

As the US presidential election in November draws closer, plans are accelerating to try to mitigate any possible downsides to the continent’s security.

A selection of striking news photographs taken around the world this week.

The things they see. The dead girl lowered by a rope from a ruined building. She sways slightly, then comes to rest, legs folding beneath her on the rubble.

They see people and parts of people lying out in the open where the blast or the bullet caught them. Violent death in all of its contortions.

Bodies lying in the streets, in the blasted open sitting rooms of houses, under the rubble. Sometimes covered by so much concrete the men will never reach them, and only in the future when the war is over will somebody come and give them a decent burial.

The men of the Gaza Civil Defence cannot close their eyes to any of this. There is no shutting out the smell. Every sense is on alert. Death can come from the skies in an instant.

When the fighting in places like Shejaiya in eastern Gaza City, or Tal Al-Sultan, near Rafah, in the south, is as fierce as it has been in the last few days, the ambulances of the Civil Defence dare not venture out.

“Entering areas close to the Israeli occupation is dangerous, but we try to intervene to save lives and souls,” says Muhammed Al Mughayer, a local Civil Defence official.

He and his men seize any lull in the conflict to recover the dead and the wounded. Families constantly ask about missing relatives.

“It is very difficult to identify the bodies,” explains Mr Mughayer. “Some remain unidentified due to complete decomposition.”

Stray animals also prey on the corpses, tearing off clothes and scattering papers that might be used to identify them.

The ambulance crews are short of fuel. Two days ago one broke down in Tal Al-Sultan and had to be towed out, a nerve-wracking experience for the crews. The risk of being fired on by the Israeli forces, says Mr Mughayer, means seriously injured people often cannot be rescued.

“There is currently a report of an injured person near Al-Salihin Mosque from two days ago, but we can’t reach them due to delays in coordination. It may result in their death.”

Refugees are continuing to flee from Gaza city and areas like Shejaiya. Many have been displaced multiple times.

For them it is a world without laws or rules. World leaders express concern. But nobody is coming to rescue them. Nothing is more acute for these people than the sense that they can die at any moment.

Sharif Abu Shanab stands outside the ruins of his family home in Shejaiya with an expression that is part bewilderment, part grief.

“My house had four floors, and I can’t enter it,” he says. “I can’t take anything out of it, not even a can of tuna. We have nothing, no food or drink. They bulldozed all the houses, and it is not our fault. Why do they hold us accountable for the fault of others? What did we do? We are citizens. Look at the destruction around you…

“Where do we go, and to whom? We are thrown in the streets now, we have no home or anything, where do we go? There is only one solution and that is to hit us with a nuclear bomb and relieve us of this life.”

There are occasional glimpses of reprieve. The Al-Fayoumi family, arriving close to Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, were relieved to have escaped from Gaza City. This after a warning this week to evacuate from the Israel Defense Forces sent thousands of people onto the road south.

In the boiling heat of the asphalt road, without shade, family members were reunited with others who had gone ahead of them.

The new arrivals were given water and soft drinks. A boy sucked from a carton of juice, then squeezed it with all his strength to coax out a last few drops.

Nobody in the group took their survival for granted. So to see everyone alive, all in the one place, brought smiles and cries of happiness. An aunt reached into a car to hug her young niece. At first the child smiled. Then she turned her head and sobbed.

Where will they be tomorrow, next week, next month? They have no way of knowing. It depends on where the fighting moves next, on the next Israeli evacuation order, on the mediators and whether Hamas and Israel can agree a ceasefire.

These lines could have been written at any time in the last few months. Civilians dying. Taking to the roads. Hunger. Hospitals struggling. Talks about a ceasefire.

Since February, we have been following the story of Nawara al-Najjar whose husband Abed-Alrahman was among more than 70 people killed when Israeli forces launched an operation to rescue two hostages in Rafah.

They had fled Khan Younis 9km (6 miles) to the north, and took refuge closer to Rafah when bullets and shrapnel tore through the tented camp where they slept.

Nawara was six months pregnant when she was widowed, and taking care of six children, aged from four to 13. When a BBC colleague found her again today, Nawara was nursing her newborn baby, Rahma, just one month old.

She gave birth on a night of heavy airstrikes, rushed to the hospital by her in-laws.

“I kept saying: ‘Where are you Abed-Alrahman? This is your daughter coming into the world without a father.’” Baby Rahma has red hair like her dead father.

The Israeli advance into Rafah last month sent Nawara and her children fleeing again, back to their old home in Khan Younis. She struggled to settle there again.

“My husband’s things were there, his laugh, his voice. I couldn’t open the house. I tried to be strong. Then I took my children and opened the door, and we wandered around the house, but it was hard. I cried for my husband…He was the one who cleaned the house, cooked for us, made sure I was comfortable.”

There has been fighting around Khan Younis again in the last week. An Israeli air strike close to a school killed 29 people, local hospital sources say, and wounded dozens more.

But Nawara is adamant she will not move again. Here she is close to the memory of the man she loves. She imagines her husband as a still living presence. She sends texts to his phone: “I complain to him, and I cry to him…I try to reassure myself, telling myself that I need to be patient. I imagine he’s the one telling me.”

For the last few months, Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani has been grabbing the spotlight in India.

It’s not because he has completed a major acquisition or cut a big philanthropic cheque, but it’s his son’s grandiose wedding celebrations that have entranced the entire nation and the world.

The pre-wedding parties, which began in March, have put the Ambani family firmly at the centre of many breakfast, lunch and dinner table conversations.

Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, tied the knot with his long-time girlfriend Radhika Merchant at a family-owned convention centre in Mumbai on Friday, in a culmination of six-month-long festivities that have taken place across the globe.

Indian weddings can be lavish, but the sheer scale and size of the Ambani jamboree have perhaps eclipsed the celebratory fervour displayed by erstwhile royals.

• India tycoon’s son to marry after months of festivities
• The marathon Indian wedding turning heads around the world

The unerring presence of Bollywood A-listers at every party, the million-dollar performances by global pop-stars like Rihanna and Justin Bieber, and a bevy of VVIP dignitaries descending upon the celebrations have been a source of endless fodder for the paparazzi.

Consider some of the global elite who made it to the functions – Meta’s Mark Zuckerburg, Samsung CEO Han-Jong Hee, Bill Gates, former US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, former UK prime ministers Boris Johnson and Sir Tony Blair, Fifa president Gianni Infantino and the Kardashian sisters.

And the list goes on.

“These are very busy people. They aren’t coming just to have fun,” James Crabtree, author of The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age, told the BBC.

“What this tells you is that global business leaders believe the Ambanis are strategically important and also that they see India as a very big market.”

Meet the family

The Ambanis are often described as India’s most prominent business family.

They run Reliance Industries, an oil to telecoms conglomerate that was founded by Mukesh Ambani’s father Dhirubhai Ambani – a man with a controversial legacy who attained legendary status for deftly navigating India’s controversial pre-liberalisation polity, while creating enormous wealth for his company’s shareholders.

Dhirubhai died in 2002, and the empire he founded was split between his two sons – Anil and Mukesh – after what could be described as one of India’s most acrimonious succession battles.

Since then, the brothers’ fortunes have diverged, with the younger Anil declaring bankruptcy and Mukesh pivoting more and more to consumer-facing businesses, even while retaining his pole position in Reliance’s mainstay – petrochemicals.

His oil refinery in the western town of Jamnagar is the largest in the world.

In recent years, Reliance has brought some of the world’s most celebrated luxury brands to India, from Valentino to Versace and Burberry to Bottega.

Among other things, the company now owns a team in the world’s richest cricket tournament and the iconic British toy retailer Hamleys.

In 2021, it acquired the historic country club Stoke Park in Buckinghamshire for £57m.

Earlier this year, Reliance signed a binding pact to merge its entertainment platforms with Disney, in its latest attempt to transform the company’s industrial moorings. It is a deal that makes Mukesh Ambani a formidable player in the digital streaming space, with rights to cricketing tournaments and international shows.

But the conglomerate really began its shopping spree during the Covid-19 pandemic, when it got billions of dollars in investment from more than a dozen global players, including Meta and Google. The plan with Meta has been to connect WhatsApp’s more than 400 million users in India with its online grocery platform JioMart.

The company’s aggressive pricing strategy has mounted a serious challenge to foreign entrants like Netflix and Amazon.

Privately, foreign players, who compete in the same sectors as Reliance, sometimes complain of a lack of level playing field, claiming the Ambanis are among a select few who’ve benefited from the Indian government’s policy of awarding preferential contracts to local tycoons.

“Foreign players face a difficult choice,” says Mr Crabtree. “They can either fight with Reliance or get into bed with Reliance. Zuckerburg has chosen to partner with them, while Amazon has decided to fight. But these battles are often very costly, and foreigners end up losing.”

Now, Mukesh Ambani’s next target is financial services, with Reliance entering into a joint venture with US-based BlackRock for a brokering and wealth management business.

Not surprisingly then, for the Ambanis, this is much more than just a wedding.

It is a show of strength and of the clout they command, says Harish Bijoor, a brand strategy specialist. “It’s a show of the fact that this family is a magnet that attracts people from all walks of life – business, politics and entertainment.”

The media blitzkrieg around it, he adds, is also a way for them to make a personal event “even more personal to the whole world” – such as the consumers of Reliance products and services for instance – who would never have got an invite.

If the Ambani patriarch, Dhirubhai, was credited with introducing the stock market to India’s retail investors, his son Mukesh is well recognised for creating a myriad touchpoints between his businesses and the average Indian consumer.

A bulk of what Indians consume today, from the shows they watch, to the clothes they wear and potentially even how they will transact in the future, comes from the Ambani stable.

And that is why there couldn’t have been a better occasion than a dazzling wedding for the family to market its brand to India’s burgeoning consumer class.

And sure enough, the wedding has captivated people in India and across the world.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban has no peace plan of his own, but he has spent the past two weeks on a whistle-stop tour of Kyiv, Moscow, Azerbaijan, Beijing, Washington and even Mar-a-Lago, on a one-man mission that has infuriated leaders in the EU and US.

“Peace will not come by itself in the Russia-Ukraine war, someone has to make it,” he proclaims in videos posted daily on his Facebook page.

He has been bitterly attacked by both Brussels and Washington for breaking EU and Nato unity and cosying up to Vladimir Putin and China’s leader Xi Jinping.

Few argue with his central premise, that there can be no peace without peacemakers. But his close economic relationship with Russia’s president leaves him open to the charge of acting as Mr Putin’s puppet.

The right-wing Hungarian PM says a ceasefire tied to a specific deadline would be a start.

“I am not negotiating on behalf of anyone,” he told Hungarian radio during a brief stopover in Budapest between visits to Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and Mr Putin in Moscow.

For the next six months, Hungary holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.

Mr Orban followed up his first visit to Kyiv since the start of the war with the first trip by an EU leader to Russia since April 2022. That visit to the Kremlin clearly angered his European partners.

Charles Michel, the head of the European Council of 27 EU governments, said the rotating presidency gave no mandate to engage with Russia on the EU’s behalf.

Mr Orban admitted that was the case, but insisted: “I’m clarifying the facts… I’m asking questions.”

In Kyiv he posed “three or four” to President Zelensky “so that we can understand his intentions, and where the red line is, the boundary up to which he can go in the interest of peace”.

He has also been generous in his praise of two other allies, Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Meeting Mr Erdogan on arrival at the Nato summit in Washington, he spoke of him as “the only man who has overseen an agreement between Russia and Ukraine” so far, referring to a now defunct Black Sea grain agreement.

“China not only loves peace but has also put forward a series of constructive and important initiatives [for resolving the war],” he said of President Xi Jinping, according to Chinese state media.

The final visit on his whirlwind tour was to presidential candidate Donald Trump, another close ally who he strongly backs to win again in November and who he refers to as a man of peace.

In one interview, he declared that during Trump’s four-year term as president “he did not initiate a single war”.

This has been a remarkable trip in the international limelight for the leader of a small East European country with 9.7 million inhabitants. But who is it designed to impress, and could it have any effect?

A key target of his message is the domestic public.

Viktor Orban has had a relatively bad year so far, losing the two most prominent female politicians in his party to a scandal in February, and witnessing the emergence of his first serious challenger for more than a decade – Peter Magyar.

In June, Mr Orban’s Fidesz party won an impressive 45% in European elections, to 30% for Mr Magyar’s three-month-old Tisza party.

But he lost more than 700,000 votes (one in four) compared with the last parliamentary elections in 2022.

For the first time, he does not look invincible.

What better way to show Hungarians that their leader was still strong than to parade across the world stage, in a global tour “to make peace”?

His mission was also targeted at an international public, in the week that his new Patriots for Europe (PfE) group in the European Parliament attracted 84 MEPs from mainly far-right parties in 11 countries.

Patriots for Europe has emerged as the third largest faction in parliament, edging aside the rival Conservatives and Reformist group of Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.

Mr Orban’s visit to Moscow won him effusive praise from the Russians: “We take it very, very positively. We believe it can be very useful,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The US was less impressed.

“We would welcome, of course, actual diplomacy with Russia to make it clear to Russia that they need to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, that they need to respect Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller. “But that is not at all what this visit appears to have been.”

At the same time, the US did welcome Mr Orban’s first visit to neighbouring Ukraine since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.

The Hungarian leader has given very little away about the actual content of his talks in Kyiv, Moscow or Beijing.

A leaked version of his letter to Charles Michel, sent from Azerbaijan, offers some clues.

Mr Putin was open to a ceasefire, Mr Orban told the European Council president, provided it did not provide Ukraine with a chance to reorganise its army on the front lines.

Three days earlier in Kyiv, on 2 July, the Ukrainian leader used a similar argument, telling Mr Orban that the Russians would abuse any ceasefire to regroup their invading forces.

Mr Orban was apparently “surprised” that President Zelensky still believed Ukraine could win back its lost territories.

And Vladimir Putin told Mr Orban that “time favours Russian forces”, according to the leaked letter.

Arriving in Washington days later, Mr Orban posted yet another video on Facebook, saying he would argue that Nato “should return to its original spirit: Nato should win peace, not the wars around it”.

Unlike his Nato allies, Viktor Orban views Russia’s two-and-a-half year war in Ukraine as a civil war between two Slav nations, prolonged by US support for one of them.

One thing he probably does agree on is that this autumn the conflict will become only worse.

A Trump presidential victory in November, he believes, would force the Ukrainians and Russians to the negotiating table.

Lavish wedding celebrations for the son of Asia’s richest man resumed on Saturday with a star-studded guestlist including Hollywood celebrities, global business leaders and two former British prime ministers.

Billionaire tycoon Mukesh Ambani’s youngest son Anant and fiancee Radhika Merchant, both 29, are tying the knot this weekend in Mumbai, India, following months of pre-marriage parties.

Saturday will see a blessing ceremony during which the world’s rich and famous will greet and pay their respects to the couple at a 16,000-capacity convention centre owned by the Ambani family’s conglomerate.

This will be followed by a grand party where unconfirmed reports say pop stars Drake, Lana Del Rey and Adele are likely to perform.

It follows a formal ceremony and party on Friday evening which was attended by the likes of socialite Kim Kardashian, actor John Cena and former British leaders Tony Blair and Boris Johnson.

Fifa boss Gianni Infantino, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Samsung chairman Jay Y Lee were also among hundreds of famous figures who made an appearance.

“Great wedding!” China’s ambassador to India Xu Feihong wrote on social media platform X along with footage of the couple from inside the venue.

“Best wishes to the new couple and double happiness!”

This weekend’s celebrations end on Sunday with a reception party.

• In photos: Kim Kardashian, Priyanka Chopra and Tony Blair at grand India wedding
• The marathon Indian wedding turning heads around the world

Wedding events earlier this year included a party at the Ambanis’ ancestral home, where a purpose-built Hindu temple was unveiled alongside private performances by singers Rihanna and Justin Bieber.

Guests included Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and former US president Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka.

In June, the couple embarked on a four-day Mediterranean cruise with 1,200 guests, while singer Katy Perry performed at a masquerade ball at a French chateau in Cannes.

The Backstreet Boys, US rapper Pitbull and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli also provided entertainment.

Rajan Mehra, chief executive of air charter company Club One Air, told Reuters that the family had rented three Falcon-2000 jets to ferry wedding guests to this week’s string of events.

“The guests are coming from all over and each aircraft will make multiple trips across the country,” he said.

On Wednesday, the family hosted a bhandara – a community feast for underprivileged people.

Anant’s father Mukesh, 66, is chairman of Reliance Industries, a family-founded conglomerate that has grown into India’s biggest company by market capitalisation.

The patriarch is the world’s 11th richest person with a fortune of more than $123bn, according to Forbes.

The family’s lucrative interests include retail partnerships with Armani and other luxury brands, more than 40% of India’s mobile phone market and an Indian Premier League cricket team.

His 27-floor family home Antilia is one of Mumbai’s most prominent landmarks, reportedly costing more than $1bn to build, with a permanent staff of 600 servants.

Merchant is the daughter of well-known pharmaceutical moguls.

Key roads in Mumbai are being sealed off for several hours a day until the festivities end on Monday, while social media is awash with minute-by-minute updates.

But the extraordinary opulence has also led to a backlash.

People living in the city have complained that road closures have worsened traffic problems caused by monsoon flooding, while others have questioned the ostentatious display of wealth.

The Ambanis have not revealed how much this wedding is costing them, but wedding planners estimate they have already spent anywhere between 11bn and 13bn rupees [$132m-$156m].

It was rumoured Rihanna was paid $7m (£5.5m) for her performance, while the figure suggested for Justin Bieber is $10m.

One unnamed executive at Reliance claimed the event was a “powerful symbol of India’s growing stature on the global stage” in a note shared with reporters.

But opposition politician Thomas Isaac said it was “obscene”.

“Legally it may be their money but such ostentatious expenditure is a sin against mother earth and [the] poor,” he posted on X.

• Meet the tycoons behind the grand Indian wedding

Elon Musk’s social media site X has been accused by the European Union of breaching its online content rules, with its “verified” blue tick accounts having the potential to “deceive” users.

The bloc’s tech regulator said users could be duped into thinking the identity of those with blue tick marks was verified, when in fact anybody can pay for a blue tick. It said it had found evidence of “malicious actors” abusing the system.

The investigation began under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

It could lead to X being fined up to 6% of its global annual turnover and being forced to change how it operates in the bloc.

Mr Musk reacted angrily: “The DSA is misinformation,” he wrote on X.

The billionaire, who bought the platform for $44bn in 2022, said the DSA rules amounted to “censored speech” which he said he found unacceptable.

X chief executive Linda Yaccarino also defended the company’s practices.

“A democratised system, allowing everyone across Europe to access verification, is better than just the privileged few being verified,” she wrote on the social media site.

The findings follow a seven month investigation under the DSA.

The law, which was introduced in 2022, requires big tech firms, like X, to take action to stop illegal content and safeguard the public.

ByteDance’s TikTok, AliExpress and Meta Platforms are also being investigated under the act.

The Commission said its review of X had found a lack of transparency around advertising and that X did not provide data for research use as required under EU rules.

“In particular, X prohibits eligible researchers from independently accessing its public data, such as by scraping, as stated in its terms of service”, the Commission said.

The tech regulator also said that the way X designed and operated its interface for blue tick verified accounts did “not correspond to industry practice and deceives users”.

“Since anyone can subscribe to obtain such a ‘verified’ status, it negatively affects users’ ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with,” it said.

“There is evidence of motivated malicious actors abusing the ‘verified account’ to deceive users,” it added.

The Commission said X could defend itself against the findings or resolve the issue by committing to changes that would bring it into compliance.

Any such deal would be made public, it added, in response to Mr Musk’s claim that the commission had offered an “illegal secret deal”.

“Back in the day, BlueChecks used to mean trustworthy sources of information,” Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, said.

“Now with X, our preliminary view is that they deceive users and infringe the DSA.”

“X has now the right of defence – but if our view is confirmed, we will impose fines and require significant changes.”

The Commission pushed back against Mr Musks’s charge of censorship, saying its rules were aimed at ensuring “a safe and fair online environment for European citizens that is respectful of their rights, in particular freedom of expression”.

Among its rules, it said, are requirements that companies inform users when their accounts are restricted and that users who are banned can contest those decisions.

The Commission said it was continuing investigations into X’s practices around dissemination of illegal content, and how well it combats the spread of fake news.

A bear rescued from the war in Ukraine and rehomed in a West Lothian zoo has died.

Staff at Five Sisters Zoo in West Calder said they were “utterly devastated” that Yampil had died following an anaesthetic procedure.

The 12-year-old Asiatic black bear had been rehomed at the zoo in January after being rescued from the village of Yampil in the Donetsk province of eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers had discovered an abandoned zoo in the village when they arrived there in July 2022, five months after the Russian invasion.

They found Yampil injured and traumatised after Russian shelling of the zoo.

Of nearly 200 animals at the zoo, he was one of seven survivors.

Rescuers initially moved him to an animal sanctuary in Belgium before he was permanently rehomed in Scotland.

Romain Pizzi, a specialist vet at Five Sisters Zoo, said Yampil had been “comfortable and happy” at the West Lothian zoo.

However, he said animals that had been rescued from such “traumatic circumstances” could have “complicated health problems such as dental problems or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”

He said: “Yampil was anaesthetised for further treatment for his health problems which were worrying the team.

“Sadly, anaesthetising animals always carries risks, and Yampil did not recover from the procedure.”

The bear was being observed for signs of PTSD when he arrived at the zoo after being concussed by shellfire in the warzone.

The vet said staff at the zoo were all “deeply affected by the loss of our beloved Yampil”.

He added: “We appreciate this will be a truly sad day for all the incredible people who helped make his rescue possible.

“While the zoo will remain open as usual, we kindly request respect and privacy for our owners and staff during this difficult time.”

The Asiatic black bear – also known as moon bears because of crescent-shaped yellow fur on their chests – are classed as a vulnerable species by conservation groups, with estimates suggesting there are fewer than 60,000 of them left in the world.

They are medium-sized bears averaging 4.5 – 5.4ft (137-165cm) in height, and weighing 90-115kg. The males are often heavier and can weigh up to 181kg.

Five people linked to one of Ecuador’s biggest criminal gangs have been jailed for the murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio last year.

Mr Villavicencio, a member of the country’s national assembly and an ex-journalist, was shot dead as he left a campaign rally in the capital, Quito, last August.

Carlos Angulo, the alleged leader of the Los Lobos gang, and Laura Castilla were sentenced to 34 years and eight months in prison for directing the hit.

Two men and a woman were handed 12-year sentences by the court in Quito for aiding a hit squad in the attack.

Prosecutors alleged that Angulo – widely known as The Invisible – ordered the hit from the Quito prison in which he is detained.

He denied the charges, claiming he was being made a “scapegoat” for the hit.

Castilla was left in charge of logistics for the hit. She allegedly supplied weapons, money and motorcycles to the men to carry out the hit.

The others – Erick Ramirez, Victor Flores and Alexandra Chimbo – were accused of helping the hit squad track Mr Villavicencio’s movements.

More than 70 people gave evidence during the trial, including a key witness who said the gang had been offered more than $200,000 (£154,000) to kill Mr Villavicencio.

A crusading anti-corruption activist, Mr Villavicencio had been one of the few candidates to allege links between organised crime and government officials in Ecuador.

In the weeks leading up to the election, the politician had received death threats and been given a security detail. But he continued to campaign and was gunned down by a group of assailants on 9 August outside a school in the north of Quito.

Prosecutors said during the trial that one of the men involved in the assassination was shot dead in a confrontation with police at the scene.

Six other men – all Colombian nationals – were later arrested in connection with the killing, but were subsequently found murdered at El Litoral prison, where they were being held in pre-trial detention.

A separate investigation into who contracted Los Lobos to carry out the hit remains ongoing, prosecutors have said.

Mr Villavicencio’s widow, Veronica Sarauz, welcomed the ruling. But she said it only marked the beginning of a long road to determine the entire story behind her husband’s death.

Ecuador has historically been a relatively safe and stable country in Latin America, but crime has shot up in recent years, fuelled by the growing presence of Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, which have infiltrated local criminal gangs.

The Los Lobos gang led by Angulo is said to have deep connections to the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel in Mexico.

There is very little room for improvement for Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame in Monday’s election after getting almost 99% of the vote last time round.

The scale of his victory in 2017, along with his 95% in 2003 and 93% in 2010, raised some questions about how truly democratic the elections were.

Criticism that the former refugee and rebel leader confidently bats away.

“There are those who think 100% is not democracy,” Mr Kagame told thousands of cheering supporters at a campaign rally in western Rwanda last month.

Referring to elections elsewhere, without naming a specific country, he added: “There are many who are voted in office with 15%… Is that democracy? How?”

What happens in Rwanda is Rwanda’s business, the president insisted.

His backers agreed, chanting “they should come and learn” as they waved the red, white and sky blue flags of the governing Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) party.

At over 6ft (1.83m), the wiry 66-year-old father of four cuts a stern and imposing figure amid the crowds. He can crack a smile and a joke or two, but the bespectacled leader can often take on the grimace of a disappointed elder.

His soft, thoughtful delivery forces the listener to take note and when he speaks he is usually very direct, rarely mincing his words.

Even on the occasions when he deploys more cryptic or diplomatic language, he will use insinuation to let people know what he is talking about.

Mr Kagame’s life has been shaped by the conflict between Rwanda’s Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups.

In order to overcome this, his government now insists that people identify as Rwandans rather than with a specific ethnic group.

President since 2000, he is running for a fourth term, but Mr Kagame has been the real leader of the East African country ever since July 1994. This is when his rebel army ousted the Hutu extremist government which had orchestrated the genocide of that year.

He initially served as vice-president and defence minister.

Many of his supporters, among them some leading Western politicians, praise him for bringing stability and rebuilding Rwanda after the mass slaughter in which 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.

Some accuse his then rebel army of revenge killings at the time, but his government has consistently said they were isolated instances and that those responsible were punished.

The president is not backward when it comes to criticising the West, but he also tries to secure its backing by sometimes playing on the guilt over the failure to prevent the genocide.

Rwanda was also a partner and a financial beneficiary in a now-junked UK scheme to send asylum seekers to the country.

“I will vote for PK, of course,” says university student Marie Jeanne, referring to Mr Kagame by his initials.

“Look at how I am studying well. If he was not president, I might not study well maybe due to lack of security,” she tells the BBC.

For her, the answer to who she would vote for was obvious, but there are two other names on the ballot paper for the nine million registered voters to consider.

The Democratic Green Party’s Frank Habineza and independent Philippe Mpayimana are both running again, in a repeat of the presidential election seven years ago.

However, last time round they got just over 1% of votes between them.

Other political parties have backed Mr Kagame for president.

Opposition politician Diane Rwigara, an outspoken critic of Mr Kagame, was barred from taking part on the grounds that she did not present the correct paperwork, which she dismissed as an excuse to stop her running.

Mr Kagame has also been accused of silencing, through imprisonment and intimidation, other potential opponents. He once told the Al Jazeera news channel he should not be held responsible for a weak opposition.

His powerful network of spies has allegedly carried out a spate of cross-border assassinations and abductions.

They are alleged to have even targeted their own former boss, ex-intelligence chief Col Patrick Karegeya, who fled Rwanda after falling out with Mr Kagame.

He was murdered in 2014 in his suite at an upmarket hotel in South Africa’s main city, Johannesburg.

“They literally used a rope to hang him tight,” said David Batenga, Col Karegeya’s nephew.

Mr Kagame did little to distance himself from the killing, while officially denying any involvement.

“You can’t betray Rwanda and not get punished for it,” he told a prayer meeting shortly afterwards. “Anyone, even those still alive, will reap the consequences. Anyone. It is a matter of time.”

The president’s pursuit of security at home has led him to send troops into neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, saying they are pursuing a Hutu rebel group. Rwanda is also accused of backing the M23 rebel group there – something which it denies, despite a wealth of evidence, including in a recent UN report.

“Really to be honest, [the election] is a farce,” says Filip Reyntjens reflecting on the poll. The Belgian political scientist is an expert on the Great Lakes region.

“Of course I don’t know what will happen this time, but previous elections have been… a circus.

“I mean the national electoral commission attributes votes rather than counting votes,” he alleges, citing the last European Union (EU) observer mission report of 2003 and the Commonwealth observer mission report of 2010.

Rwanda’s electoral commission says on its website that it conducts “free, fair and transparent elections to promote democracy and good governance in Rwanda”.

“To me, the upcoming presidential election in Rwanda is a non-event,” says Dr Joseph Sebarenzi, a former speaker of the Rwandan parliament, who lost parents and many family members during the genocide, and now lives in exile in the US.

“The election is like a football game where the organiser is also a competitor, selects other competitors, orders people to attend the game, and where everyone knows the pre-determined winner but must behave as if the game is real.”

Mr Kagame, a keen football fan who closely follows English Premier League club Arsenal, would reject this description.

Born in 1957 into a well-to-do household in central Rwanda, he was the youngest of five children.

But, barely two years old, he became a refugee in neighbouring Uganda, fleeing the persecution and pogroms of the late 1950s with his family and thousands of others from the minority Tutsi population.

Despite being just an infant at the time, Mr Kagame has said he can still “remember looking out onto the next hill. We could see people burning the houses there.

“They were killing people. My mother was so desperate. She didn’t want to leave this place,” the president told American journalist and unofficial biographer Stephen Kinzer.

These killings came after Belgian colonisers switched which ethnic group they backed, to favour an emerging ruling elite from the majority Hutu ethnic group, some of whom had suffered ill-treatment under the Tutsi monarchy.

Rwanda gained independence in 1962.

In the late 1970s, Mr Kagame made a series of clandestine visits back home.

While in the capital, Kigali, he frequented a particular hotel in Kiyovu, one of the city’s wealthiest neighbourhoods. Its bar was popular with politicians, security officers and civil servants who gossiped as they sipped their beer after work.

Mr Kinzer wrote that the future leader would listen in to their conversations as he drank an orange soda sitting alone at a table and avoiding attention.

These visits to his homeland sharpened his interest in the art of espionage.

He trained in military intelligence in Uganda and joined the successful rebellion in that country led by Yoweri Museveni that saw him take power in 1986. Mr Kagame further trained in Tanzania, Cuba and the US.

He then led his mainly Tutsi rebel army which marched into Rwanda in 1990.

“[The training] was useful. Cuba, in its wars with the US and connection to Russia, was quite advanced in matters of intelligence. There was also political education: The struggle is about what? How do you sustain it?” he told Mr Kinzer.

He has sought to sustain the struggle by targeting economic development – Mr Kagame suggested Rwanda would emulate Singapore or South Korea and achieve development in a generation.

Although Rwanda fell short of its middle-income country target by 2020, Prof Reyntjens says “this is a well-run country”.

“The problem in Rwanda is with political governance, there is no level playing-field, there is no space for opposition, there is no freedom of speech, [which] risks undoing the achievements of good technocratic governance.”

But Mr Kagame maintains the huge crowds of supporters at his rallies are just one example of the trust and love Rwandans have for him and their wish that he continue as their leader, although he once said he would have groomed a successor by 2017.

Because of constitutional changes, he could, in theory, remain in power until 2034.

“The context of every country” matters, Mr Kagame said in a live interview on the state broadcaster last month, addressing the issue of his time in power.

“[The West says]: ‘Oh you have been there too long’. But that’s none of your business. It’s the business of these people here.”

Thousands of miles away in the US, Dr Sebarenzi says he does not know what the future holds for his home country, affectionately known as the land of a thousand hills, but adds: “History shows that in countries where the head of state is stronger than state institutions, change of power can turn violent, leading to chaotic post-regime periods.”

• Rwanda genocide: My return home after 30 years
• World failed us in 1994, President Paul Kagame says
• ‘I forgave my husband’s killer – our children married’
• Is Rwanda a land of safety or fear?
• Why a Rwandan sports reporter fled his home‘
• We don’t have to repay UK for axed deal – Rwanda

To get a sense of the public interest in the Vision Pro, Apple’s very high-tech, very expensive virtual reality (VR) headset – finally launched in the UK and Europe on Friday – where better to head than one of its own stores?

In the past, people camped outside Apple branches overnight, so desperate were they to get their hands on the tech giant’s latest product.

When I went to its branch in central London on Friday morning, though, there was just a small group, mainly comprised of men, waiting for the doors to open.

Partly, that’s because people these days prefer the convenience of pre-orders.

But it also perhaps tells us something about the question that continues to hang over the VR headset market: will it ever escape the realm of tech aficionados and go truly mainstream?

Apple’s plan to make its product break through is to position it as a product you use to do the stuff you already do – only better. Home videos become 3D-like, panoramic photos stretch from floor to ceiling, 360 degrees around you. Apple keeps reminding me it calls this “spatial content”. Nobody else does. Plenty suck their teeth at the Vision Pro’s price though – a whopping £3,499.

Facebook owner Meta has been watching Apple’s approach closely. It’s been in the VR game a long time. At a recent demo for the Meta Quest 3, which has been available in the UK since 2023, the team was very keen to talk to me about “multi-tasking” – having multiple screens in action at once. In a demo I had a web browser, YouTube and Messenger in a line in front of me. “We always did this, we just didn’t really talk about it,” one Meta worker told me.

And in its most recent advertisement, a man wears a Quest 3 to watch video instructions while building a crib. Not the most exciting concept, perhaps, but it shows just how Meta wants people to see its tech.

Oh – and it costs less than £500.

Apple and Meta are the two big players but VR is a crowded market – there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of different headsets already out there.

But what unites them all is none have quite hit the mainstream.

Up until now, the Vision Pro has only been on sale in the US – research firm IDC predicts it will shift fewer than 500,000 units this year.

Meta, which has been in the market longer, does not release sales data for the Quest either but it’s thought to have sold around 20 million worldwide.

VR headsets are nowhere near as ubiquitous as tablets, let alone mobile phones.

And it gets worse – George Jijiashvili, analyst at market research firm Omdia, said of those devices sold, many are abandoned.

“This is largely due to the limited in-flow of compelling content to keep up engagement,” he said.

But of course lack of content leads to reduced interest – and a reduced incentive for developers to make that content in the first place.

“It’s a chicken and egg situation,” Mr Jijiashvili told the BBC.

Alan Boyce, the founder of mixed reality studio DragonfiAR, warned that early adopters of the Vision Pro would have to “be patient” while more content arrived.

That’s where the Quest 3 wins out for him – it already has a “robust library” of games, and it can perform virtual desktop tasks just like the Vision Pro.

And IDC analyst Francisco Jeronimo says we should not be too quick to write off a slow start for Apple’s new product.

“There’s always the expectation that Apple with every single product will sell in the millions straight away, there’s always the comparison with the iPhone,” he said.

But the reality is even the iPhone took time to find its feet – and a huge number of buyers.

According to Melissa Otto from S&P Global Market Intelligence, the iPhone only became mainstream when the App Store “started to explode with apps that added value to our lives”.

“When people start to feel their lives are becoming better and more convenient, that’s when they’re willing to take the leap,” she said.

There is another factor to consider here too though: the physical experience of using a headset.

Both Apple and Meta use so-called “passthrough” technology to enable what is known as mixed reality – the blending of the real and computer-generated worlds.

By utilising cameras on the outside of the headset, users are given a live, high-definition video feed of their surroundings – meaning they can wear it while doing things like walking or exercising.

But strapping something to your face weighing half a kilogram is not something that feels particularly natural. Generally headsets now are lighter than before, but I still can’t imagine wearing any of them for hours on end – though a colleague says he often does just this.

A sizeable number of people, myself included, have experienced VR sickness, which is when being in VR makes you feel queasy. This has significantly improved as the tech has advanced and is much less of a problem – but any experience that has you moving around with a controller instead of your feet will still take some getting used to.

Most VR experiences now include all sorts of settings to avoid this, such as the ability to “teleport” between locations. Sony’s VR game Horizon: Call of the Mountain solved the problem by letting you move by swinging your arms up and down – it sounds silly, but it goes some way to trick the brain and avoid nausea.

Whatever the experts say, the companies themselves appear bullish about their products, and their respective strengths

It’s no secret that the long-term ambition from the tech giants here is for mixed, or augmented, reality to become normal reality. Facebook owner Meta renamed itself after its grand plan for us all to inhabit a virtual world called the Metaverse – working, resting and playing there, and presenting ourselves as digital avatar versions of our ordinary selves. That all seems to have gone a bit quiet at the moment.

But they are all right in that one day, something will replace our phones and perhaps that thing is some form of VR headset. Eventually, I expect these things will start to look more like glasses and less like giant ski goggles… if they’re not brain implants (I’m not joking).

“The devices that look like what they look like today – I think we know that’s not a mass market device. It’s too heavy, it’s too awkward,” said Mr Jijiashvili.

That’s an area where rivals have focused their efforts, with Viture and XReal producing sunglasses with high-fidelity screens embedded in them.

Melissa Brown, head of Development Relations at Meta, told us she “absolutely” thought the Quest 3 could one day replace the smartphone. But the next day Meta’s PR team got in touch with a more measured response from Mark Zuckerberg, in which he said “the last generation of computing doesn’t go away… it’s not like when we got phones, people stopped using computers”.

Judging by what I saw in the Apple store in London’s Regent Street, the UK is not about to be flooded with people wandering around in Vision Pros or Quest 3s.

The very first customer I spoke to had actually just popped in for a charger and was a bit bemused by Apple staff applause as he walked in.

But in the couple of hours we were there, several people walked out grinning with big white Apple bags. The question remains: how many more can be persuaded to do the same.

The FBI has named the man who shot at Donald Trump during a campaign rally as Thomas Matthew Crooks.

Crooks is alleged to have opened fire while the former US president was addressing a crowd in Butler, Pennsylvania, leaving one audience member dead and two others badly hurt.

The 20-year-old kitchen worker was shot dead at the scene by a Secret Service sniper, officials said.

In a statement, the FBI said Crooks was the “subject involved” in the assassination attempt on the former president and that an active investigation was under way.

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• WATCH: Video shows shooter on roof at Trump rally
• WATCH: Trump grimaces and ducks as several shots ring out
• MORE: Secret Service facing questions as investigation launched
• ANALYSIS: Spray of bullets shatters nation’s illusion of security

Thomas Crooks had not been carrying ID, so investigators used DNA to identify him, the FBI said.

He was from Bethel Park in Pennsylvania, about 70km (43 miles) from the site of the attempted assassination, and graduated in 2022 from Bethel Park High School with a $500 prize for maths and science, according to a local newspaper.

Crooks worked in a local nursing home kitchen just a short drive away from his home, the BBC understands.

State voter records show that he was a registered Republican, according to US media.

He is also reported to have donated $15 to liberal campaign group ActBlue in 2021.

According to US media reports, Crooks was wearing a T-shirt from Demolition Ranch, a YouTube channel known for its guns and demolition content. The channel has millions of subscribers featuring videos on different guns and explosive devices.

Law enforcement officials believe the weapon used to shoot at Donald Trump was purchased by Crook’s father, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, two officers told AP that Crooks’ father bought a weapon at least six months ago.

Having established Crooks’s identity, police and agencies are investigating his motive.

“We do not currently have an identified motive,” said Kevin Rojek, FBI Pittsburgh special agent in charge, at a briefing on Saturday night.

The inquiry into what took place could last for months and investigators would work “tirelessly” to identify what Crooks’ motive was, Mr Rojek said.

Speaking to CNN, Crooks’ father, Matthew Crooks, said he was trying to figure out “what the hell is going on” but would “wait until I talk to law enforcement” before speaking about his son.

Police sealed off the road to the house where Crooks lived with his parents, CBS News reports.

A neighbour told CBS that officers evacuated her in the middle of the night with no warning.

Bethel Park Police said there was a bomb investigation surrounding Crooks’s home.

Access to the area remains tightly controlled with police vehicles blocking the roads. Only residents have been allowed in or out.

One person was killed and two others were injured in the shooting.

All three victims are adult men and were audience members, CBS News reports. Their names have not been released.

A GoFundMe page, organised by the Trump campaign’s national finance director Meredith O’Rourke, was set up in the hours after the attack with donations going to the families of the injured.

It has so far raised more than $340,000 (£267,000).

In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump said he was “shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear” and said he felt the bullet “ripping through the skin”.

Blood was visible on Trump’s ear and face as protection officers rushed him away.

Trump is “doing well” and is grateful to law enforcement officers, according to a statement published on the Republican National Committee (RNC) website.

One witness told the BBC that he had seen a man – believed to be Crooks – with a rifle on the roof of a building before Trump was shot at.

Video footage obtained by TMZ shows the moment the shooting began.

The assailant opened fire with “an AR-style rifle”, the BBC’s US partner CBS News reports.

However, the FBI says it did not immediately know what type of firearm the gunman used or how many shots were fired.

A Secret Service sniper returned fire and killed the gunman, the agency said.

Footage later shows armed officers approaching a body on the roof of the building.

The US Secret Service has one job – to protect current and former US presidents – and in that they failed spectacularly when an attempt was made on Donald Trump’s life on Saturday.

It has been 43 years since the last assassination attempt on a former or present US president, when Ronald Reagan was shot in the lung but survived.

Today, American politicians and the public want to know how a would-be assassin was able to crawl onto a rooftop vantage point, armed with a rifle, and let off four shots towards the podium – all in an area that was supposed to have been cleared.

Why were warnings from the public apparently ignored or not acted upon?

And why, when a highly charged presidential election is just four months away, did the Secret Service not do a better job of protecting the man many believe will be America’s next president?

The investigation that is already under way involves the FBI as well as the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.

The Secret Service director, Kimberly Cheatle, has been summoned to testify before a committee of the US House of Representatives on 22 July.

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• ANALYSIS: Spray of bullets shatters nation’s illusion of security
• THE SUSPECT: What we know so far about Thomas Matthew Crooks
• REACTION: What politicians in the UK are saying
• IN PICTURES: How the chaos unfolded on the ground

Those who attended the rally itself were asked to pass through metal detectors to ensure they were not bringing any weapons, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

But the gunman believed to have fired the shots could clearly be seen crawling around with a rifle on top of a nearby building for several minutes, one eyewitness told the BBC.

The witness, who called himself Greg, said warnings that he and others gave were not acted upon by police, who he suggested did not know “what was going on” and had poor visibility of the rooftop.

The suspected gunman – who has been named by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks – also appears to have been caught on camera lining up his shot, in footage obtained by TMZ.

One spectator was killed and two others critically injured before the gunman was himself shot dead. Trump was also injured in the ear. State police have said it is “too early” to determine exactly what happened.

Trump’s life might have been saved by the fact he ducked after the first shots were fired, said David Dunn, a professor of international politics from the University of Birmingham.

In that respect, he “clearly had been well trained by the Secret Service”, Prof Dunn told BBC Radio 5 Live. Before being whisked away in a car by agents, Trump rose again to pump his fist before the crowd.

Greg said he was left wondering why agents were not deployed on all the nearby rooftops, and did not intervene to take Trump off stage after he raised the alarm.

Former Secret Service agent Charles Marino agreed that there were questions to answer. He told the BBC it would have been among the agents’ tasks to survey the surroundings and note “concerning areas”.

Experts who spoke to NBC said events such as political rallies always brought challenges in securing a wide expanse of land. One of them, former Secret Service agent Evy Poumpouras, said there would always be lingering questions: “How do you secure that outer perimeter? How far do you go? And can you cover everything? That’s a problem.”

Analysis from BBC Verify suggests that Crooks was able to get a little more than 130m (430ft) from Trump’s position behind the lectern.

It was announced late on Saturday that the FBI had assumed the role of lead investigator into the incident, which it describes as an assassination attempt.

One of its special agents said at a news conference it was “surprising” that the gunman had been able to open fire before the Secret Service killed him.

But when asked if there was a failure of security, he said his team was “not gonna make that assessment” while the investigation continued.

The Secret Service was not represented at the briefing. An earlier statement confirming the start of the investigation promised more information would be released when available.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security said maintaining the security of presidential candidates was one of the departments “most vital priorities”.

It is not clear what the attack will mean for the former president’s future security arrangements, though an adviser to the Trump campaign said it was clear he needed more protection.

A Secret Service spokesman has denied an “untrue assertion” that it was asked by Trump’s team for extra resources, but rebuffed this request.

In any case, Trump was now likely to receive a security detail comparable to that of a sitting president, former Secret Service agent Joseph LaSorsa told the Reuters news agency.

“There will be an intensive review… there’s going to be a massive realignment,” he said. “This cannot happen.”

The Republican National Convention will go ahead as planned on Monday, with a speech from Trump on Thursday, as confirmed by a statement from the party.

During the event, Trump will be officially nominated as the Republican candidate for president ahead of November’s election.

Actress Shannen Doherty, best known for roles in hit TV shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed, died on Saturday from cancer at 53.

“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty,” her publicist, Leslie Sloane, said in a statement. “The devoted daughter, sister, aunt and friend was surrounded by her loved ones as well as her dog, Bowie.”

Doherty spent over four decades as an actress. She is best known for playing Brenda Walsh on four seasons of 90210. The series followed a group of Beverly Hills teenagers as they faced relationship and family issues.

Ms Doherty was nominated for several awards for her role on the show.

She later went on to play Brenda in a 2008 reboot of the series where her character grew up to become a theatre actress.

The actor was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015 and underwent a mastectomy, radiation and chemotherapy. She announced she was in remission in 2017, but the cancer returned two years later.

She was open about her battle with cancer, documenting it on social media. In a June 2023 Instagram video, she shared that the the cancer spread to her brain. She announced last fall that she is committed to battling the disease despite it spreading to her bones.

“I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating,” she said to People magazine in November 2023.

Born in Memphis, Ms Doherty started acting as a child. She appeared in TV series including Voyagers, Our House and Father Murphy before starring as Jenny Wilder at the age of 11 in Little House on the Prairie.

Three years later in 1985, she got her first major film role starring in Girls Just Want to Have Fun, which also starred Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt.

In 1988, Ms Doherty played Heather Duke in the iconic teen film Heathers alongside Winona Ryder, Lisanne Falk and Kim Walker.

The actress struggled at the time with being young and famous, earning a reputation as a troublemaker on the set of 90210.

“I was very confused back then about what I wanted for myself, and the attention was way too much,” she said. “I didn’t always handle it that well.”

She later starred in Charmed, a show about three sisters who were witches.

Ms Doherty also played roles in North Shore, set in a Hawaii hotel, and the offbeat film comedy Mallrats.

The actress was married twice before marrying her current husband, photographer Kurt Iswarienko, in 2011.

In the 2010s, she ventured into reality TV appearing on Dancing With The Stars and the US version of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Ms Doherty was a passionate animal rights activist. Her semi-autobiographical book Badass, released in 2010, encouraged young women to live life with attitude and confidence.

There’s an issue dividing K-pop fans right now – artificial intelligence.

Several of the genre’s biggest stars have now experimented with the technology to create music videos and produce songs, including boy band Seventeen.

Last year the South Korean group sold around 16 million albums, making them one of the most successful K-pop acts in history. But it’s their most recent album and single, Maestro, that’s got people talking.

The music video features an AI-generated scene, and at the launch of the album in Seoul, one of the band members, Woozi, told reporters he was “experimenting” with AI when making music.

“We practised making songs with AI, as we want to develop along with technology rather than complain about it,” he said.

“This is a technological development that we have to leverage, not just be dissatisfied with. I practised using AI and tried to look for the pros and cons.”

However, Woozi has since said on Instagram that all of Seventeen’s music is “written and composed by human creators”.

On K-pop discussion pages, fans were torn over the issue of using AI, with some saying more regulations need to be in place before the technology becomes normalised.

Others were more open to it, including super fan Ashley Peralta. “If AI can help an artist overcome creative blocks, then that’s OK with me,” says the 26-year-old.

Her worry though, is that a whole album of AI generated lyrics means fans will lose touch with their favourite musicians.

“I love it when music is a reflection of an artist and their emotions,” she says. “K-pop artists are much more respected when they’re hands on with choreographing, lyric writing and composing, because you get a piece of their thoughts and feelings.

“AI can take away that crucial component that connects fans to the artists.”

Ashley presents Spill the Soju, a K-pop fan podcast, with her best friend Chelsea Toledo. Chelsea admires Seventeen for being a self-producing group, which means they write their own songs and choreograph them too, but she’s worried about AI having an impact on that reputation.

“If they were to put out an album that’s full of lyrics they hadn’t personally written, I don’t know if it would feel like Seventeen any more and fans want music that is authentically them”.

For those working in K-Pop production, it’s no surprise that artists are embracing new technologies.

Chris Nairn is a producer, composer and songwriter working under the name Azodi. Over the past 12 years he’s written songs for K-pop artists including Kim Woojin and leading agency SM Entertainment.

Working with K-pop stars means Chris, who lives in Brighton, has spent a lot of time in South Korea, whose music industry he describes as progressive.

“What I’ve learned by hanging out in Seoul is that Koreans are big on innovation, and they’re very big on ‘what’s the next thing?’, and asking, ‘how can we be one step ahead?’ It really hit me when I was there,” he says.

“So, to me, it’s no surprise that they’re implementing AI in lyric writing, it’s about keeping up with technology.”

Is AI the future of K-pop? Chris isn’t so sure. As someone who experiments with AI lyric generators, he doesn’t feel the lyrics are strong enough for top artists.

“AI is putting out fairly good quality stuff, but when you’re at the top tier of the songwriting game, generally, people who do best have innovated and created something brand new. AI works by taking what’s already been uploaded and therefore can’t innovate by itself.”

If anything, Chris predicts AI in K-pop will increase the demand for more personal songs.

“There’s going to be pressure from fans to hear lyrics that are from the artist’s heart, and therefore sound different to any songs made using AI”.

Seventeen aren’t the only K-pop band experimenting with AI. Girl group Aespa, who have several AI members as well as human ones, also used the technology in their latest music video. Supernova features generated scenes where the faces of band members remain still as only their mouths move.

Podcaster and super-fan Chelsea says it “triggered” a lot of people.

“K-pop is known for amazing production and editing, so having whole scenes made of AI takes away the charm,” she adds.

Chelsea also worries about artists not getting the right credit. “With AI in videos it’s harder to know if someone’s original artwork has been stolen, it’s a really touchy subject”.

Arpita Adhya is a music journalist and self-titled K-pop superfan. She believes the use of AI in the industry is demonstrative of the pressure artists are under to create new content.

“Most recording artists will put out an album every two years, but K-pop groups are pushing out albums every six to eight months, because there’s so much hype around them.”

She also believes AI has been normalised in the industry, with the introduction of AI covers which have exploded on YouTube. The cover tracks are created by fans and use technology to mimic another artist’s voice.

It’s this kind of trend that Arpita would like to see regulated, something western artists are calling for too.

Just last month megastars including Billie Eilish and Nicki Minaj wrote an open letter calling for the “predatory” use of AI in the music industry to be stopped.

They called on tech firms to pledge not to develop AI music-generation tools “that undermine or replace the human artistry of songwriters and artists, or deny us fair compensation for our work”.

For Arpita, a lack of regulations means fans feel an obligation to regulate what is and isn’t OK.

“Whilst there are no clear guidelines on how much artists can and can’t use AI, we have the struggle of making boundaries ourselves, and always asking ‘what is right and wrong?’”

Thankfully she feels K-pop artists are aware of public opinion and hopes there will be change.

“The fans are the biggest part and they have a lot of influence over artists. Groups are always keen to learn and listen, and if Seventeen and Aespa realise they are hurting their fans, they will hopefully address that.”

The Princess of Wales was given a standing ovation at Centre Court where she watched the Wimbledon men’s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic with her daughter Princess Charlotte.

It was Catherine’s second public appearance following her cancer diagnosis and abdominal surgery earlier this year, and she was met with a standing ovation by spectators.

As patron of the All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, Catherine presented the singles trophy to Alcaraz.

Sunday’s head-to-head saw Alcaraz retain his title against seven-times Wimbledon winner Djokovic.

Before taking their seats, Catherine and Charlotte met some of Britain’s tennis players, including Emma Raducanu.

In June, the princess made her return to public duties with an appearance at Trooping the Colour, waving and smiling from the Buckingham Palace balcony with her children.

At the time, Catherine addressed her cancer diagnosis in a statement saying that while she is making “good progress”, she was “not out of the woods yet”.

That was the most significant update on her health since revealing in March that she had cancer.

The princess said she has “good days and bad days”, and that her treatment will be ongoing for a few more months.

While Catherine settled in to watch the tennis final, the Prince of Wales was in Berlin, gearing up to support England in the Euro 2024 final against Spain.

The Secret Service is facing questions after former US President Donald Trump was shot at during a rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump, who is now “doing well”, says he was shot in the ear as he stood in front of crowds at a fairground in Butler.

One bystander was killed in the shooting and two others were critically injured, according to a Secret Service spokesman.

The Director of the Secret Service, Kimberly Cheatle, has been summoned to testify before the US House of Representatives on 22 July by the Oversight Committee – the main investigative board of the US House of Representatives.

At a news conference on Sunday, FBI special agent Kevin Rojek said it was “surprising” that the shooter, who has been named as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was able to open fire before the Secret Service killed him.

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• WATCH: Video shows shooter on roof at Trump rally
• WATCH: Trump grimaces and ducks as several shots ring out
• ANALYSIS: Secret Service has questions to answer after this failure
• SHOOTING SUSPECT: What we know so far about Thomas Matthew Crooks

An investigation into the attempted assassination, which is already under way, involves the FBI, the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.

“Americans demand answers about the assassination attempt of President Trump,” the Oversight Committee said in a statement on social media.

Trump was quickly bundled off stage and into a waiting vehicle after shots were fired just a few minutes into his speech at 18:11 local time on Saturday.

Blood could be seen near the former president’s ear as he raised his fist to the crowd.

In a post to his Truth Social network, Trump said a bullet pierced the “upper part” of his right ear.

“I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin,” Trump wrote.

“Much bleeding took place, so I realised then what was happening.”

The FBI said it is treating the incident as an assassination attempt on Trump and it is an “active and ongoing investigation”.

The suspect was shot dead at the scene by a US Secret Service sniper, said the agency’s spokesperson, Anthony Guglielmi.

He added that the one bystander killed in the shooting, and the two others critically injured, were all male. Their identities have not been released.

Law enforcement sources told CBS News that Crooks had been armed with “an AR-style rifle” and had fired from a building a few hundred metres from the venue.

Special Agent Kevin Rojek said Crooks had not been carrying ID and that investigators used DNA to identify him.

They have yet to identify a motive for the assassination attempt, he added.

State voter records show that Crooks was a registered Republican, according to US media reports.

He is also reported to have donated $15 to a liberal campaign group in 2021.

A senior adviser to Donald Trump’s campaign said there are questions about how prepared the Secret Service was.

Speaking to the BBC World Service, Stephen Moore called it a “scary day”.

“Certainly Trump needs more protection – there’s a lot of inquiry now about whether the Secret Service was totally prepared,” Mr Moore said.

However, Mr Guglielmi says there is an “untrue assertion” circulating that someone on Trump’s security team had requested extra security “resources” and that request was “rebuffed”.

“This is absolutely false. In fact, we added protective resources and technology and capabilities as part of the increased campaign travel tempo,” Mr Guglielmi said.

Trump had just started addressing his supporters in Butler, Pennsylvania – a crucial swing state in November’s election – when the shots started.

Multiple bangs rang out as Trump spoke about his successor, President Joe Biden, and his administration.

Several supporters holding placards and standing behind Trump ducked as the shots were heard.

Bystanders who spoke to the BBC suggested the gunshots may have come from a one-storey building to the right of the stage where Trump was speaking.

One witness – Greg – told the BBC that he had spotted a suspicious-looking person “bear crawling” on the roof of the building about five minutes after Trump took to the stage. He said he pointed the person out to police.

“He had a rifle, we could clearly see him with a rifle,” he said. “We’re pointing at him, the police are down there running around on the ground – we’re like ‘hey man there’s a guy on the roof with a rifle’ and the police did not know what was going on.”

Tim – who was also at the rally – told the BBC that he had heard a “barrage” of shots.

“There was a spray which we initially thought was a fire hose, and then the speaker on the right-hand side started coming down,” he said.

“Something must have hit the hydraulic lines [which caused it to fall]. We saw President Trump go to the ground and everyone started dropping to the ground because it was chaos.”

Warren and Debbie were at the venue and told the BBC they heard at least four gunshots.

They said they both got on the ground as Secret Service agents came through the crowd, shouting for the attendees to get down. People remained calm, they said.

“We couldn’t believe it was happening,” Warren said.

Debbie said a little girl beside them was crying that she didn’t want to die and saying “how is this happening to us?”

“That broke my heart,” Debbie said.

Republican Congressman Ronnie Jackson told the BBC that his nephew was injured in the shooting. He sustained a minor wound to his neck and was treated at the scene, Mr Jackson said in a statement.

Speaking from his home state of Delaware, President Biden deplored the attack, calling it “sick”.

“There’s no place in America for this kind of violence,” he said. “Everybody must condemn it.”

The White House later said President Biden had spoken with Trump before returning to Washington DC.

• Biden condemns ‘sick’ attempt on Trump’s life

Trump remains locked in a tight contest with President Biden – the presumptive Democratic nominee – in a re-match of the 2020 election.

Politicians of both parties joined Mr Biden in condemning the apparent attack.

Former President Barack Obama said there “is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy” and that he was “relieved that former President Trump wasn’t seriously hurt”.

Trump’s former vice-president Mike Pence said he and his wife were praying for his former ally, adding that he urged “every American to join us”.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement: “My thoughts and prayers are with former President Trump. I am thankful for the decisive law enforcement response. America is a democracy. Political violence of any kind is never acceptable.”

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer led international condemnation of the shooting, saying he was “appalled by the shocking scenes at President Trump’s rally”.

“Political violence in any form has no place in our societies and my thoughts are with all the victims of this attack,” he said in a statement.

Trump is still set to accept his party’s nomination for president at the convention in Milwaukee on Monday, his campaign managers said. Some had speculated that he had been set to reveal his running mate at the Butler rally.

Some Republicans were quick to blame President Biden over the shooting, accusing him of stoking fears about Trump’s potential return to office.

Senator JD Vance, who is thought to be on the shortlist to become Trump’s vice-presidential candidate, said the rhetoric from the Biden campaign had led directly to this incident.

Mike Collins – a Republican congressman – accused the president of “inciting an assassination”.

Meanwhile James Comer, the chair of the powerful House oversight committee, said he would summon the director of the Secret Service before his panel.

Fans are mourning US actress Shannen Doherty, who has died the age of 53 of cancer.

“It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of actress Shannen Doherty,” her publicist, Leslie Sloane said.

Doherty enjoyed a screen career spanning four decades as the star of hit TV shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Charmed.

Although Doherty and the characters she played usually seemed to inhabit a glossier, more beautiful world, she was always someone viewers could relate to on screen, and was a self-proclaimed “badass” in real life.

The Memphis-born star began acting as a child with appearances in TV series such as Voyagers, Our House and Father Murphy, before joining the cast of the long-running Little House on the Prairie as Jenny Wilder at the age of 11 in 1982.

Her first major film role came in 1985 with Girls Just Want to Have Fun, which also starred Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt.

• Beverly Hills 90210 star Shannen Doherty dead at 53

Three years later, she played Heather Duke, a member of the high school clique in cult 1988 teen drama Heathers, starring alongside Winona Ryder, Lisanne Falk and Kim Walker.

When a rebooted television series was commissioned in 2016, Doherty played the mother of one of the new generation of Heathers.

In 1990, Doherty landed the biggest role of her career – as Brenda Walsh in the original Beverly Hills, 90210.

The TV series followed a group of teenagers as they dealt with relationship and family issues that were relatable beyond the glamorous Beverly Hills setting.

While working on the show in the 1990s, she developed a reputation as something of a troublemaker, with reports accusing her of heated feuds with her fellow actors.

“There were times when we wanted to claw each other’s eyes out,” Doherty’s co-star Jennie Garth admitted in 2014. But the pair became close friends as they grew older.

Doherty admitted she struggled to handle the fame. “I was very confused back then about what I wanted for myself, and the attention was way too much,” she said. “I didn’t always handle it that well.

“And in truth, I was just shooting myself in the foot because the more I fought it, the more the celebrity took over versus the actor, and then the press ran with it.”

She told another interviewer: “Maybe my career would have taken a different direction if I’d been wiser and older, but I wasn’t. I started young and I got 90210 kind of success very early, and it came at a time in my life where I was a petrified kid.”

Doherty left 90210 after four seasons, with Brenda being written out to go to prestigious drama school Rada in London.

While the actress mellowed and became more private as she got older, she played up to her reputation with the release of 2010’s Badass, a semi-autobiographical book that encouraged young women to find their “inner badass” and live life with attitude and confidence.

Doherty went on to star in shows including Charmed, which followed a trio of sisters who are the most powerful good witches of all time, and North Shore, set in a Hawaii hotel. In 1995, she starred in the offbeat film comedy Mallrats.

Away from the screen, Doherty had a somewhat turbulent romantic life. She married Ashley Hamilton, the son of actor George Hamilton, two weeks after meeting him in 1993, but they divorced just six months later.

She wed her second husband Rick Salomon in 2002, but the marriage was annulled after nine months. She married her third husband, a photographer named Kurt Iswarienko, in 2011. The couple stayed together until her death.

As she got older, Doherty became a passionate animal rights activist and participated in campaigns against animal cruelty.

She also ventured into reality TV as the genre became popular in the noughties, and in 2010 she appeared in Dancing With The Stars, the US version of the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing.

Beverly Hills, 90210 remained the role she was best known for, and in 2008 she joined the cast of a new version of the show, reprising her role of Brenda Walsh. In the reboot, Brenda had grown up to become a successful theatre actress and stage director.

But in her personal life, Doherty began to struggle with her health.

She was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2015. The following year, she had a mastectomy and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

She initially announced her cancer was in remission in 2017, but it returned two years later.

At the time, Doherty was appearing in another reboot of 90210, which she said she was keen to take part in to honour her former co-star Luke Perry, who died of a stroke aged 52.

“It’s so weird for me to be diagnosed and then somebody who was seemingly healthy to go first,” said Doherty. “It was really shocking. And the least I could do to honour him was to do that show.”

The latest version, titled BH90210, put a new spin on it. Rather than being a straightforward reboot, it followed Doherty and many of the other original cast members playing heightened, parody versions of their real selves.

Doherty kept the return of the disease secret at first, opting not to tell her fellow cast members except Brian Austin Green.

“I had moments of great anxiety where I thought, ‘I can’t really do this,'” she explained. “Prior to shooting, Brian would always call me and say, ‘Listen, you know, whatever happens, I have your back.’ So Brian helped me through a lot.”

In recent years, she openly documented her battle with cancer on social media – posting videos of herself exercising alongside the hashtag #cancerslayer.

In November 2023, she said she is committed to battling stage four breast cancer, which had now spread to her bones.

Speaking to People magazine, Doherty said she was determined to keep going with treatment, adding: “I’m not done with living. I’m not done with loving. I’m not done with creating.”

Leaders around the world have condemned the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump on Saturday and expressed concern for him.

The Republican presidential candidate was at a rally in Pennsylvania when shots were fired and he was injured in the right ear.

The FBI has named 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks as the man suspected of carrying out the gun attack. He has been killed.

US President Joe Biden – Trump’s political opponent – called the attack “sick”, saying “there’s no place for this kind of violence in America”.

But reaction and condemnation poured in from further afield too.

“It is a tragedy for our democracies,” French President Emmanuel Macron said.

“France shares the shock and indignation of the American people.”

He also wished the former president a “speedy recovery”, a sentiment shared by a number of leaders, including those from Spain, Ireland, Italy, Australia, Turkey, Honduras and Israel.

Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said his thoughts were with Trump and all those at the event, adding: “Political violence is never acceptable.”

As well as the suspected gunman, one spectator has also died and two others are critically injured.

The UK’s newly elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer sent the former president his best wishes and said his thoughts were with all the victims of the attack.

Similarly, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his thoughts were with all those affected, and called the attack “despicable”.

“Such acts of violence threaten democracy,” he added.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum reiterated the condemnation expressed by her various counterparts, adding: “Peace and democracy must always be the option.”

In a social media post, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote: “My thoughts and prayers are with President @realDonaldTrump in these dark hours.”

The right-wing premier has recently been on a whirlwind two-week tour that concluded with a visit to Trump, whom he strongly backs to win again in November.

Nations across the Asian continent also sent messages, including Japan, the Philippines, Pakistan and Taiwan.

Indian Prime Minister Nahendra Modi said he was “deeply concerned” by the attack on his friend and condemned it.

Meanwhile, China’s President Xi Jinping “expressed his condolences” in a statement from an official spokesperson, which added China was “concerned” about the shooting.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said: “Russia always denounced and categorically denounces any displays of force in a political battle.

“We express condolences to the family of the deceased and wish a speedy recovery to the injured.”

Mr Peskov added that the US had a repeated history of similar violence during “political battles”.

To date, the US has lost four presidents to assassinations, while others have been targets of attempted attacks.

A spray of bullets may have only grazed Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday night, but they killed one rally attendee and critically wounded two others.

They have also torn through the 2024 presidential campaign, damaging the social and cultural fabric of the nation. The illusion of security and safety in American politics – built over decades – has been dramatically shattered.

Trump received only minor injuries but it was close – a photograph by Doug Mills of the New York Times appears to show the streak of a bullet cutting through the air near the former president’s head.

Not since Ronald Reagan was shot by John Hinkley Jr in 1981 has there been such a dramatic act of violence directed against a president – or presidential candidate.

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• WATCH: Video shows shooter on roof at Trump rally
• WATCH: Trump grimaces and ducks as several shots ring out
• MORE: Secret Service facing questions as investigation launched
• SHOOTING SUSPECT: What we know so far about Thomas Matthew Crooks

It harkens back to a darker time in US history, more than a half-century ago, when two Kennedy brothers – one a president and one a presidential candidate – were felled by assassin bullets. Civil rights leaders such as Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X all also lost their lives in political violence.

Like today, the 1960s were marred by intense political polarisation and dysfunction, when a firearm and an individual willing to use it could change the course of history.

It is difficult to predict the impact Saturday’s events will have on America – and its political discourse. Already, there have been some bipartisan calls for a cooling of rhetoric and national unity.

Within hours of the incident, President Joe Biden – Trump’s likely opponent in November – appeared before cameras in Delaware to make a statement to the press.

“There is no place in America for this kind of violence. It’s sick,” he said. “We cannot be like this. We cannot condone this.”

The president later spoke by phone with the former president. He cut short his weekend at the beach and is returning to the White House late Saturday evening.

But the violence has also quickly filtered into the bare-knuckle partisan trench-warfare that has characterised American politics in recent decades. Some Republican politicians have laid the blame for the attack on Democrats who have employed dire rhetoric about the threat they say the former president poses to American democracy.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Ohio Senator JD Vance, who is reportedly on the shortlist to be Trump’s vice-presidential pick, posted on social media. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s assassination attempt.”

Chris LaCivita, the Trump campaign manager, said that “leftist activists, Democratic donors and even Joe Biden” need to be held accountable at the ballot box in November for “disgusting remarks” that in his view led to Saturday’s attack.

Democrats may object, but many on the left used similar language to describe the culpability of right-wing rhetoric in the months before the 2011 near-fatal shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in Arizona.

The Pennsylvania violence will undoubtedly cast a long shadow over the Republican convention, which begins on Monday. Security protocols will be tightened, and the protests – and counter-protests – near the site could be accompanied by a new sense of foreboding.

Meanwhile, an even brighter national spotlight will shine on the party’s nominee when he takes the stage on Thursday night.

Images of the former president, bloodied, with an upraised fist are sure to become a rallying point in Milwaukee. The Republican Party was already planning to make strength and rugged masculinity a central theme, and Saturday’s incident will give that a jolt of new energy.

“This is the fighter America needs!” Eric Trump wrote on social media, accompanied by a photograph of his father after the shooting.

The US Secret Service will also face intense scrutiny for its handling of security at the Trump rally. An individual with a high-powered rifle was able to come within firing distance of a major presidential candidate.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is promising that his chamber will conduct a full inquiry. Those investigations will take time.

But for now, one thing is clear: in a year of uncharted electoral waters, America’s politics have taken a new, deadly turn.

Donald Trump was rushed off stage during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania after a gunman opened fire from a nearby building.

The Republican candidate for president dropped to the ground and was seen with blood on the side of his face. He later said that he heard the whizzing of a bullet, that ripped through his ear.

As the stage was swarmed by secret service agents, he raised a fist into the air and was escorted away.

Rallygoers dropped to the ground as shot rang out, with some then fleeing the area.

One witness told the BBC that he had seen a man with a rifle on the roof of a building moments before Trump was shot at.

• LIVE: All the latest developments after assassination attempt on Trump
• WATCH: Video shows shooter on roof at Trump rally
• WATCH: Trump grimaces and ducks as several shots ring out
• ANALYSIS: Spray of bullets shatters nation’s illusion of security
• SHOOTING SUSPECT: What we know so far about Thomas Matthew Crooks