The Trump administration will direct US federal agencies to review their grants to Harvard University to potentially end or redistribute funding, as part of the White House’s escalating battle with America’s oldest university.

The Government Services Agency (GSA) plans to circulate a letter to agencies “asking them to identify any contracts with Harvard, and whether they can be cancelled or redirected elsewhere”, a senior White House official said.

The administration estimates about 30 contracts, collectively worth $100m (£74m), could be up for review.

Harvard University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On its website, the university says that its “cutting-edge medical, scientific, and technological research” has historically been “supported by the federal government” and other entities.

Touting the institution’s research on cancer, heart disease, infectious diseases, and obesity, the university website warns that “without federal funding, this work will come to a halt midstream”.

The White House will not revoke the funds automatically, but rather kick off a review of money Harvard receives from the federal government to determine whether that funding is critical in the eyes of the administration.

GSA will recommend each agency “terminate for convenience each contract that it determines has failed to meet its standards”, and consider reallocating those funds to other entities.

A draft of the letter accuses Harvard of engaging in discrimination and antisemitism as justification for the move.

An administration official told the BBC that potential cuts would not impact hospitals affiliated with Harvard University.

And if a federal grant was deemed critical to a particular agency’s functions, they said, that agency could make a case for continued funding.

The White House and Harvard have been locked in a political, legal and financial battle – the stakes of which have dramatically escalated over the past two months.

This is not the first time the administration has attempted to block Harvard’s funding. In April, the White House froze $2.2bn in federal funding, prompting the university to sue.

“Why cut off research funding? Sure, it hurts Harvard, but it hurts the country because after all, the research funding is not a gift,” Harvard University president Alan Garber told NPR on Tuesday morning, before news broke of the latest attempt at cuts.

“The research funding is given to universities and other research institutions to carry out work – research work – that the federal government designates as high-priority work,” Mr Garber continued.

“It is work that they want done. They are paying to have that work conducted.”

Last week, the Trump administration also revoked Harvard’s ability to enrol international students or host foreign researchers, prompting mass confusion among thousands of impacted students.

Harvard again sued the Trump administration over that policy, alleging that it had violated the university’s constitutional First Amendment rights as well as federal law.

The former head of India’s wrestling federation has been cleared in a sexual harassment case filed by a minor female wrestler.

A court in the capital, Delhi, accepted a Delhi police report, recommending the cancellation of the case against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

A former MP from the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Singh still faces charges of sexual harassment and stalking in a separate case by six adult female wrestlers.

Singh has always denied these charges.

The cases against Singh made headlines in 2023 when he was charged with sexual harassment after months of protests by India’s top wrestlers.

The protests made headlines globally, especially after the police detained them as they tried to march to India’s new parliament building in Delhi.

Footage of the Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia and two-time world champion medallist Vinesh Phogat being dragged in the streets and carried off in police vans went viral, sparking criticism from top athletes and opposition politicians.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also condemned the way the wrestlers were being treated and called for an impartial inquiry into their complaints.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was criticised for not acting strongly or swiftly enough against Singh since he was a member of his party. The government had rejected the allegations.

• The man at the centre of India’s wrestling row
• India’s wrestling chief charged with sexual harassment

The wrestlers agreed to pause their protests after meeting Home Minister Amit Shah and then Sports Minister Anurag Thakur.

Thakur assured them that charges would be filed against Singh by 15 June 2023.

Seven female wrestlers, including the minor, registered complaints with the police accusing Singh of molesting and groping them at training camps and tournaments.

In the case of the minor, police had invoked the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.

Singh, denied all the allegations, accusing the wrestlers of being “politically motivated”.

Weeks later, the minor retracted her earlier statements and withdrew her allegations, reports said. Wrestler Sakshi Malik told the BBC at the time that she believed “the player was pressurised into withdrawing the charges”. Mr Singh refused to comment on the allegation, saying “let law take its course”.

On Monday, legal news site Bar and Bench reported that the police had given a report in court seeking cancellation of the case as the minor wrestler’s father said he had made a false complaint.

The prosecution lawyer said “no corroborative evidence” had been found in the allegations after a detailed investigation in the case.

Bar and Bench said the wrestler and her father had appeared before the court and expressed satisfaction with the police investigation. They also did not oppose the cancellation report.

In the aftermath of the row, Singh had stepped down as the wrestling federation chief. He was replaced by his close aide Sanjay Singh, who was later elected as the organisation’s chief, leading to the accusation that Brij Bhushan Singh was still running it by proxy. The two Singhs denied the accusation but the federal sports ministry suspended the federation in December 2023.

In 2024, the federation resumed its functions after United World Wrestling, the international, organisation governing wrestling, lifted its ban on the Indian federation. Earlier this year, The Hindu and Indian Express newspapers reported that the Wrestling Federation of India was functioning out of Singh’s address in Delhi.

Singh was also denied a ticket by the BJP to contest the 2024 general election. The party instead fielded his son Karan Bhushan Singh from Kaiserganj – the seat in the northern Uttar Pradesh state which the senior Singh had held since 1999. The junior Singh won the election.

After a driver ploughed into crowds during the Liverpool FC victory parade on Monday evening, Merseyside Police said within two hours they had arrested a “53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area”.

It was striking how quickly police shared the man’s nationality and ethnicity.

The decision shows lessons have already been learned from the Southport attacks last summer, when online speculation and disinformation filled a void after the same force released little detail about the 17-year-old they had in custody.

Usually when a suspect is arrested, police forces in England and Wales just give out the age of the person and where they were arrested.

But at 19:53 BST, the force emailed out a press release including the suspect’s age, nationality and ethnicity.

It was a clear attempt to damp down inaccurate speculation on social media that the Ford Galaxy driving into Liverpool fans was part of an Islamist terrorist attack, or was in any way linked to migrants.

• LIVE UPDATES: Child and adult seriously hurt
• WHAT WE KNOW: Man arrested, dozens injured
• WATCH: Videos show car driving through crowd

Merseyside Police acted “very, very quickly” to stamp out speculation on social media that had caused “real consternation”, Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram said.

By contrast, last summer in the aftermath of the horrific knife attack in Southport in which Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice Da Silva Aguiar were killed, Merseyside Police said very little about the suspect they had arrested.

This meant that inaccurate social media speculation and deliberate disinformation about the suspect having a Muslim name and being a newly-arrived migrant went unchecked.

A consequence was a riot in Southport within 36 hours of the attack focused on the local mosque, and then further rioting across England, much of it aimed at hotels housing recently-arrived asylum seekers.

The Southport attacker Axel Rudakubana had in fact been born in the UK and had no direct connections to Islamism, though he had downloaded an academic study of an al-Qaeda manual.

In a report published earlier this month into last summer’s events, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services said the police service “must do more to communicate online” and “fill the information void with the truth”.

“Forces must provide a true narrative online to reach people who may be searching for information,” it added.

The report went on to say: “The police service must communicate the facts. Repeatedly, continuously and effectively as circumstances change and develop.

“If not, others will take over the narrative with overwhelming amounts of online content. And some of this may be false or harmful to the police response and the communities the police are there to protect.”

The way Merseyside Police’s communications team responded last night suggests that the force has rapidly adapted its policies since the violent disorder of last summer.

It means that a clearer picture of what had happened quickly reached people’s phones, TVs and radios and rapidly reduced the disinformation.

The problem that police forces now face is whether this new approach will lead to confusion in future.

What will a force do for example if the information about the suspect they are holding is unclear?

Even more problematically, what will a force do if they arrest someone in similar circumstances who is a recently arrived migrant or who has a clearly Muslim name?

Last night’s rapid move to correct the narrative may not be as straightforward in different circumstances.

Helen King, former assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: “There will be times when police can confirm quickly. There are other times when it is unclear. These will always be complex and sensitive decisions.”

North Korea has criticised the US’s plan for a futuristic “Golden Dome” missile shield, saying it could “turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field”.

The defence system, which President Donald Trump plans to unveil by the end of his term, is aimed at countering “next-generation” aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry slammed the plan as “the height of self-righteousness [and] arrogance”, state media reported.

It accused Washington of being “hell-bent… to militarise outer space” and warned that the plan might spark “a global nuclear and space arms race”.

North Korea considers Washington an adversary and has routinely condemned joint military drills between the US and South Korea.

Pyongyang probably sees the Golden Dome as a threat that can “significantly weaken” its nuclear arsenal, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP news agency.

“If the US completes its new missile defence programme, the North will be forced to develop alternative means to counter or penetrate it,” he said.

In 2022, the North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state, and it has tested a variety of ballistic and cruise missiles in recent years.

Early this year it claimed it fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead which it said “will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region”.

North Korea joins China in criticising the US’s plan. Beijing said last week that it is “seriously concerned” about the Golden Dome, which it said has “strong offensive implications”.

“The United States, in pursuing a ‘US-first’ policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself,” China’s foreign ministry said. “This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability.”

Many analysts believe an update to the US’s limited defence systems is necessary, but some warn the process of developing the Golden Dome could face technical and political challenges.

For one, its hefty price tag could suck up a large chunk of the US defence budget.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill – although the government has estimated it could end up costing 20 times that over decades.

There were big wins for Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Eminem and Sir Rod Stewart at the American Music Awards (AMAs).

Monday’s event in Las Vegas was hosted – and in some ways dominated – by the evening’s host, singer and actress Jennifer Lopez.

There were also peformances from stars including Benson Boone, Gwen Stefani and another award-winner, Janet Jackson.

Here’s some key takeaways from the ceremony.

Billie Eilish won seven prizes at the fan-voted awards show, sweeping most of the major catergories in the process, including artist and album of the year – for Hit Me Hard and Soft – as well as song of the year, Birds of a Feather.

The singer, 23, who also won the award for favourite touring artist, was not there to collect her awards in person however, as she was busy doing precisely that – being on tour in Europe.

Eminem took home the awards for favourite male hip-hop artist and favourite hip-hop album, but he wasn’t there either.

And nor was favourite female country artist-winner Beyoncé, who won favourite country album.

With many stars not in attendance, the focus fell almost fully on host Jennifer Lopez – aka J. Lo.

The star, 55, danced to a medley of hits including Eilish’s Birds of a Feather, Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso and Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em.

But she will be remembered most on the night for having locked lips both male and female dancers during her performances.

One viewer joked online that it made them “cringe”, while another said the singer had “lost the plot”. The sweat dripping emoji was used by another fan to describe the situation.

Sir Rod Stewart got a huge surprise on stage when he was presented with the lifetime achievement award by his children.

The father-of-eight seemed shocked to be introduced to the stage by five of his own grown-up kids.

“I’m absolutely flabbergasted,” said Sir Rod. “I didn’t know they were here – my children.”

The former Faces frontman, 80, thanked his bandmates, past and present, noting how when he was young he had a “burning ambition to sing”.

“That’s all I wanted to do. I didn’t want to be rich or famous. And here I am a few years later, picking up this wonderful award,” he said.

Sing is precisely what he then did, performing his 1988 track Forever Young.

Another highlight on the night for many on social media it seems was Shaboozey’s reaction to Megan Moroney declaring that the Carter Family “basically invented country music”.

The Carter Family – which featured singer June Carter who later went on to perform with her husband Johnny Cash – was an influential American folk music group that recorded and performed between the 1920s and 1950s.

Shaboozey, whose hits include A Bar Song (Tipsy), appeared to pause and give Moroney a slightly sceptical look before letting out a little laugh in response, while they were jointly presenting an award.

The Hollywood Reporter noted Shaboozey’s apparent “side eye” look soon went viral.

But you knew that already, right?

Janet Jackson, 59, collected the icon award and showed why by performing a medley of her songs including Someone to Call My Lover and All for You.

“I’m so grateful. I mean, no disrespect in any way, but I don’t consider myself an icon,” she said.

Echoing Sir Rod, she added: “My family, myself, our dream wasn’t ever to be famous; we weren’t raised like that.”

She continued: “We always had a special love for music, dancing and singing, and fame came with the result of hard work and dedication.”

Or is this look more Captain Hook?

The back-flipping pop star performed on the night and he looked resplendent in his green suit jacket and trousers while posing for pictures on the red carpet.

The 22-year-old changed into a floral purple number for his typically acrobatic live performance of recent single Mystical Magical.

Other performances on the night saw Gloria Estefan celebrate the legacy of Latin music by doing the Conga, and Gwen Stefani celebrate her noughties hits.

Other winners on the night included R&B singer SZA, Post Malone, Gracie Abrams and Becky G, as well as Kendrick Lamar and collaborators Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.

Check out the full list of winners here, and a video of the action below.

A controversial new aid distribution group backed by the US and Israel has begun working in Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said lorry loads of food had been delivered to secure sites on Monday and that distribution had begun. Hundreds of Palestinians collected food parcels from a site in southern city of Rafah on Tuesday.

The GHF, which uses armed American security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to the 2.1 million people in Gaza, where experts have warned of a looming famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade that was recently eased.

A UN spokesman said the operation was a “distraction from what is actually needed” and urged Israel to reopen all crossings.

The UN and many aid groups have refused to co-operate with GHF’s plans, which they say contradict humanitarian principles and appear to “weaponise aid”.

They have warned that the system will practically exclude those with mobility issues, force further displacement, expose thousands of people to harm, make aid conditional on political and military aims, and set an unacceptable precedent for aid delivery around the world.

Israel says an alternative to the current aid system is needed to stop Hamas stealing aid, which the group denies doing.

In a statement sent to journalists on Monday night, GHF announced that it had “commenced operations in Gaza” and delivered “truck loads of food to its Secure Distribution Sites, where distribution to the Gazan people began”.

“More trucks with aid will be delivered [on Tuesday], with the flow of aid increasing each day,” it added.

Handout photos showed three lorries laden with pallets of supplies at an unspecified location and just over a dozen men carrying away boxes.

The BBC has asked the GHF how many lorry loads of aid got in and how many people were able to pick up aid, but it has not yet received a response.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said in a statement that two distribution sites located in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah and the Morag Corridor, which separates the city from the rest of Gaza, had begun operating and distributing food to thousands of families.

Hundreds of Palestinians were seen queueing at the site in Tal al-Sultan, where food parcels were handed out by Palestinian workers.

“We stood in a long queue. We did not deal with the Israeli army or any American staff,” one recipient told a local journalist.

A Palestinian working with one of the local companies involved in the operation told the BBC that “dozens of Palestinian workers from three Palestinian companies are overseeing the distribution process, which runs daily from 09:00 to 19:00”.

The employee, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media, added: “The distribution is co-ordinated with five American security personnel, who are present on-site, but there are no Israelis involved in the process.”

But many Palestinians stayed away from the sites.

A displaced woman from the neighbouring city of Khan Younis expressed concern about having to cross Israeli military lines to collect aid from the GHF’s sites.

“We have no idea what awaits us there – whether we will return or be lost forever. We are being forced to risk our lives just to feed our children,” she told BBC Arabic’s Middle East Daily radio programme.

A man who was still living in Khan Younis despite an Israeli evacuation order said he would “refuse to accept American aid under these terms”, and warned that it marked the beginning of a “broader strategy of displacement”.

When asked to comment on the GHF’s work by reporters in Geneva, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Jens Laerke, said: “We do not participate in this modality for the reasons that we have given.”

“It is a distraction from what is actually needed, which is the reopening of all the crossings into Gaza, a secure environment within Gaza, and faster facilitation of permissions and final approvals of all the emergency supplies that we have just outside the border,” he added.

Under the GHF’s mechanism, Palestinians must collect boxes containing food and basic hygiene items for their families from four distribution sites in southern and central Gaza.

The sites will be secured by American contractors, with Israeli troops patrolling the perimeters. To access them, Palestinians were expected to have to undergo identity checks and screening for involvement with Hamas.

UN and other aid agencies have insisted they will not co-operate with any scheme that fails to respect fundamental humanitarian principles.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a former UN humanitarian chief, has described the GHF as “militarised, privatised, politicised”.

“The people behind it are military – ex-CIA, ex-security people. There is a security firm that is going to work closely with one party to the armed conflict, the Israel Defense Forces,” he told the BBC on Monday. “They will have some hubs… where people will be screened according to the needs of one side in this conflict – Israel.”

“We cannot have a party to the conflict decide where, how and who will get the aid,” he added.

On Sunday night, Jake Wood resigned as the GHF’s executive director, saying the group’s aid distribution system could not work in a way that would be able to fulfil the principles of “humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

The GHF’s board rejected the criticism, accusing “those who benefit from the status quo” of being more focused on “tearing this apart than on getting aid in”.

It said the system was fully consistent with humanitarian principles and would feed a million Palestinians – just under half the population – by the end of the week.

John Acree, a former senior manager at USAID – the US government agency responsible for administering foreign aid – has been named interim executive director.

Hamas has warned Palestinians not to co-operate with GHF’s system, saying it would “replace order with chaos, enforce a policy of engineered starvation of Palestinian civilians, and use food as a weapon during wartime”.

GHF’s statement alleged that Hamas had also made “death threats targeting aid groups supporting humanitarian operations at GHF’s Safe Distribution Sites, and efforts to block the Gazan people from accessing aid at the sites”.

Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

It said the steps were meant to put pressure on the armed group to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

On 19 May, the Israeli military launched an expanded offensive that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would see troops “take control of all areas” of Gaza. The plan reportedly includes completely clearing the north of civilians and forcibly displacing them to the south.

Netanyahu also said Israel would temporarily ease the blockade and allow a “basic” amount of food into Gaza to prevent a famine, following pressure from allies in the US.

Since then, Israeli authorities say they have allowed at least 665 lorry loads of humanitarian aid, including flour, baby food and medical supplies, into Gaza.

However, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme warned on Sunday that the aid was only a “drop in the bucket” of what was needed in the territory to reverse the catastrophic levels of hunger, amid significant shortages of basic foods and skyrocketing prices.

Half a million people face starvation in the coming months, according to an assessment by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response Hamas’ cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,056 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,901 over the past 10 weeks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Scientists in Spain say they have discovered the oldest full human fingerprint after unearthing a rock which they say resembles a human face and suggests Neanderthals could make art.

A Neanderthal man is believed to have dipped his finger in red pigment to paint a nose on a pebble around 43,000 years ago. The rock was discovered in the San Lázaro rock shelter in Segovia, Spain.

The “strategic position” of the dot has led scientists to see it as evidence of Neanderthals’ “symbolic behaviour”, suggesting they had the ability to think about things in an abstract way.

The findings contribute to the ongoing debate on Neanderthals’ ability to make art, study co-author María de Andrés-Herrero said.

In an interview with the BBC’s Newsday, Prof de Andrés-Herrero from the University of Complutense in Madrid said excavation at the shelter began five years ago and in 2022 they found the stone below 1.5m (5 feet) of sediments from Neanderthal groups.

“At the beginning we couldn’t believe what we were looking at, because there was a bigger stone in comparison to other stones that appeared at this site, with a red dot just in the middle which looked like a human face.”

It was unclear whether the dot was made with ochre, a natural clay pigment. Once the research group was able to confirm it was a pigment, Prof de Andrés-Herrero said they contacted Spain’s scientific police to support their efforts.

This team was able to conduct deep research using multi-spectrum analysis and they identified a fingerprint.

Analysis of the pebble also suggested the fingerprint was of a male adult, according to the team’s investigations.

But archaeologist David Álvarez Alonso, the study’s co-author, said that as there were no other Neanderthal references to compare the prints to, it was difficult to say for certain.

Speaking from a news conference updating the public on the scientific development, Spanish official Gonzalo Santonja said the pebble was the oldest portable object to be painted in the European continent and “the only object of portable art painted by Neanderthals”.

Prof de Andrés-Herrero said her research group’s findings mark “an important contribution to the debate on Neanderthals’ symbolic capacity, because it represents the first known pigment-marked object in an archaeological context” and it is “clear it is a Neanderthal site”.

In addition to this, the human fingerprint was found in a non-utilitarian context, the expert added, suggesting that the dot on the pebble was intended for artistic purposes.

Prof Herrero also said it is the first time scientists have discovered a stone in an archaeological context with a red ochre dot, meaning Neanderthals brought it to the shelter.

The thinking is that one of the Neanderthals found the stone, “which caught his attention because of its fissures, and he intentionally made his mark with an ochre [pigment] stain in the middle of the object,” Prof Alonso said, quoted by Spanish news agency Europa Press.

Researchers believe the mark was not accidental because, according to their findings, the red pigment does not exist naturally in the shelter, meaning it was “intentionally brought to the shelter”.

In their paper, which was published in the journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, researchers wrote: “The pebble from San Lázaro rock-shelter presents a series of characteristics that render it exceptional, based on which we have deemed it a visual symbol that could be considered a piece of portable art in some contexts.”

Swedish authorities have charged a convicted terrorist over the 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot who was burned to death in Syria.

Osama Krayem, 32 – a Swedish citizen – was on Tuesday charged with war and terrorism crimes relating to the death of Moaz al-Kasasbeh.

Krayem is currently in prison after being convicted for his role in the 2015 and 2016 terror attacks in Paris and Brussels respectively.

The BBC has contacted his lawyer for comment relating to the latest allegations. He has previously denied the charges, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported.

Krayem’s trial is expected to begin on 4 June.

“It is painful for my parents to be confronted with this event again, but we are grateful that the Swedish authorities want to give us justice,” the pilot’s brother, Jawdat al-Kasasbeh, told Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio following the announcement of the charges.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority last week announced they planned to charge a man with the “execution” of Lt Kasasbeh, along with other suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group.

Jordan confirmed the death of Lt Kasasbeh in 2015, following the circulation of a gruesome video published online by IS that appeared to show the 26-year-old being burned alive in a cage.

He was captured when his plane came down near the city of Raqqa during a mission against IS in December 2014.

At the time of Lt Kasasbeh’s death, Jordan – which was part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria during the civil war – had been attempting to secure his release as part of a prisoner swap.

Swedish prosecutors said in its statement last week the offences Krayem has now been charged with took place between 24 December 2014 and 3 February 2015.

They added an investigation had shown Krayem “armed and masked, together with others forced the pilot into a metal cage”.

“The cage was subsequently set on fire by one of the co-perpetrators, and the pilot died as a consequence of the fire.”

Krayem is originally from the Swedish city of Malmo and is thought to have travelled to Syria in September 2014 to fight for IS.

In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the November 2015 Paris terror attacks – in which 130 people were killed – and for planning a separate attack on Amsterdam airport.

A year later, he was also found guilty of terrorist murder for his role in the Brussels attacks that killed 32 people.

He has been temporarily transferred from France to Sweden in order to participate in this latest trial.

A 19-year-old New Zealander has died of a “serious head injury” sustained in a social media-inspired game of tackle with friends, police said.

The young man, identified in local media as Ryan Satterthwaite, died in hospital on Monday after a game of “run it straight” in the city of Palmerston North.

The game has two players – one with a ball, the other the tackler – who try to knock the other one down.

“We would urge anyone thinking about taking part in a game or event like this to consider the significant safety and injury risks,” police spokesperson Ross Grantham said in a statement on Tuesday.

“While this was an impromptu game among friends, not a planned event, this tragic outcome does highlight the inherent safety concerns with such an activity.”

He added that it was not a police matter, but officers would “continue to undertake enquiries on behalf of the coroner”.

“Run it straight” has long been played casually in Australia and New Zealand, but has recently taken off as a trend online and been endorsed by some professional rugby players, despite critics warnings it could give players head trauma and brain injury.

On social media, “run it straight” challenges show young men and students charging at each other as their friends watch on. In some videos, participants are seen passing out after being hit.

As the popularity of the game grew, some have started to hold their own tournaments – though it is unclear how these are regulated.

One such tournament, the Runit Championship League, made its debut in Auckland this month after first being held in Australia in March.

On its website, organisers described the game as the “fiercest, new collision sport”.

The league drew more than 1,000 people to the Auckland’s Trusts Arena as men went head-to-head for a prize of around $13,000 (£9,500).

Some participants were injured during their matches, and one video showed a man appearing to have a seizure after colliding with his rival.

But Runit Championship League organisers have promised to return to next month with an even bigger prize.

Kimami Ngaluafe, the organiser of Up the Guts NZ, another “run it straight” event in New Zealand, tells says the game has long been popular in the country, attracting five-year-old boys to men in their 40s.

“It’s a Kiwi national backyard sport. The boys are currently playing as we speak,” he tells the BBC.

But Satterthwaite’s death is a reminder of how important safety is, Mr Ngaluafe says. He adds that players should wear protective headgear – which many currently do not – and have spotters around to prevent their heads from hitting the ground.

“In New Zealand, kids are playing this kind of game every day. They deserve to be guided properly and shown how to do it the right way,” he says.

South Korea will elect a new president on 3 June to replace Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office for placing the country under martial law for six hours in December.

The winner will be tasked with managing the political and economic fallout of Yoon’s move, which plunged the country in deep turmoil and divided opinions.

The snap election is also being held as South Korea faces an unpredictable ally in US President Donald Trump – and that will shape long-running challenges such as the threat from North Korea, and Seoul’s frosty relationship with China.

Here is what you need to know as the nation of about 52 million people chooses a new president who will lead it for the next five years.

Yoon was supposed to serve as president until 2027, but his term ended in disgrace.

He shocked the nation by declaring martial law on 3 December, citing threats from “anti-state forces” and North Korea – but it soon became clear that he was spurred by his own political troubles.

A week later, he was impeached by parliament. On 4 April, a constitutional court upheld his impeachment and removed him from office permanently, setting the stage for a snap presidential election within 60 days, as required by law.

In the six turbulent months since Yoon’s martial law attempt, the country has had three acting presidents, the most recent being Lee Ju-ho, the labour minister who assumed the role one month before the election.

Lee replaced Prime Minister Han Duck Soo, who himself was impeached just weeks after taking over from Yoon as acting president. Finance minister Choi Sang-mok was acting president before Han was reinstated in March.

Yoon’s martial law laid bare the deep political divisions in the country, as those who supported his decision to impose martial law and those who opposed it took to the streets in protest.

The following months of uncertainty shook public confidence in South Korea’s economy. And this was at a time when US President Donald Trump unleashed his tariffs on America’s trading partners, with South Korean goods facing a 25% levy.

Closer to home, relations with North Korea are a persistent challenge. While 2025 has been relatively uneventful, the year before saw heightened tensions as Kim Jong Un escalated the rhetoric, and both sides spent months sending balloons and drones carrying propaganda materials across the border.

South Korea’s new leader must also balance Seoul’s relations between its biggest trading partner, Beijing, and its most important security ally, Washington.

Then there is the task of arresting the country’s declining birth rate, which is among the lowest in the world – 0.75.

Polls have placed Lee Jae-myung of the main opposition Democratic Party as the frontrunner among six candidates, followed by Kim Moon-soo from the ruling PPP.

Lee, who lost to Yoon by a razor-thin margin in 2022, is hailed by his supporters as a working class hero. He worked in a factory before he became a human rights lawyer and politician. He has promised to establish a “real Republic of Korea” with jobs and a fair society.

Kim, a former labour minister, has positioned himself as a president for the economy, promising to create a business-friendly environment.

The other candidates are Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Party, Kwon Young-guk of the Democratic Labor Party and two independents – Hwang Kyo-ahn and Song Jin- ho.

For the first time in 18 years, there is no woman running for president. The first woman to run for president was Hong Suk-Ja in 1987, but she withdrew before the vote. The election in 2012 saw four female candidates contest for the top job.

The election is scheduled on 3 June and voting precincts will be open from 06:00 local time (22:00 GMT) to 20:00. South Koreans overseas were allowed to vote early from 20 to 25 May.

Results are expected to come in after polls close and the winner will likely be known in the early hours of the following day.

When Yoon defeated Lee in 2022, he was proclaimed the winner nine hours after the close of voting, or at 04:40 the morning after election day.

That was the closest presidential contest in the country’s history, which saw Yoon win by a 0.73% difference in votes.

The new president will take office immediately and unlike many of his predecessors, will not have the advantage of a formal transition from Yoon.

Yoon faces trial for an insurrection charge as a result of his attempt to impose martial law.

In January this year he became South Korea’s first sitting president to be arrested after investigators scaled barricades and cut through barbed wire to take him into custody. He was relased from detention weeks later on a technicality.

He was also recently indicted for abuse of power, a separate charge to insurrection.

Before the election, Yoon quit his party in what analysts said was an attempt to shore up the chances of PPP’s presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo.

A man with a rare form of blood cancer has travelled 10,000 miles to meet the stranger who saved his life.

Luke Melling, 31, from Melbourne, Australia, says he was “staring death in the face” before receiving a stem-cell transplant from Alastair Hawken, of Grantham, Lincolnshire.

The match between the pair was so perfect that the men now believe they could be distantly related, as both their families hail from Preston, Lancashire – the town they chose for their emotional first meeting.

They are sharing their story to encourage more people to join the NHS Stem Cell Donor Registry.

Three years ago, Luke, who was then 28, was desperately ill in hospital with Hodgkin lymphoma.

He had been living with the condition since he was 16 and, despite being in remission four times, the cancer kept coming back.

After exhausting all other treatments, he was told he needed a transplant of stem cells – which can be found in the bone marrow and produce essential blood cells – to survive.

But no-one in his family, and no-one in Australia, was a match, so doctors started searching global stem-cell registries for a donor.

“It was pretty much like, ‘This is it – this is the only option you have. It’s either this or you’re going to die’,” Luke says.

“Finding out that my sister wasn’t a match was terrifying – we just didn’t know if there would be anybody registered who would be a suitable match for me.”

But then, after a six-month wait, Luke was told there was hope. The register had discovered a potential donor on the other side of the world.

“When we found out we had the perfect match, that was an emotional moment,” Luke recalls. “I remember mum – she was in hysterics, crying.”

For Alastair, then 48, the phone call came out of the blue. A regular blood donor, he had signed up to the NHS registry in 2008.

When he was asked if he was still willing to donate, the father-of-three did not hesitate.

“It was no problem at all,” he says. “What can I do, where can I be? It was nice to be wanted, or to feel that I could be of use to someone.”

Before the donation, Alastair was injected with a high-strength cell-generating drug. After a couple of days he could barely move, but he was told that showed the process was working and the body was “over-generating stem cells”.

He then went to a hospital for the stem cells to be “harvested” in a process similar to blood donation, while he was fed snacks and watched television.

“There’s no discomfort,” he says. “The stem cells are taken out and packaged up, and then they’re counted in the laboratory – 85 million is what we needed for Luke, and that’s what was taken.

“I felt amazing – my body was made up of fresh stem cells – and then my [harvested] stem cells went on their journey.”

The cells were cryogenically frozen within hours to be sent to Australia, where Luke was waiting.

Luke had his transplant a month later, but all he knew about the donor was that he was a 48-year-old man from the UK.

He was not allowed to contact Alastair until two years had passed and the treatment was considered successful.

At that point, Alastair did not know whether Luke had survived.

“I just hoped. I hoped and prayed that he had,” he says.

And then an email dropped into his inbox via the stem cell registry.

“It was like all my Christmases had come at once,” Alastair recalls. “It was a really beautiful moment.”

The men were put in contact with each other and finally met in Preston on Friday.

Luke told Alastair: “To have someone like you, who is so beautiful, lovely and kind, having done all this, I’m glad it’s your cells. I just can’t thank you enough.”

For his part, Alastair, who runs a gingerbread business, describes the donation as his “legacy”.

He told Luke: “If I achieve nothing more than just seeing that smile on your face, then I’ve achieved everything I need to achieve.”

Preston was a fitting place to meet as Alastair’s grandparents lived in the town and Luke’s family also have roots there.

Luke, who is now 31 and back to full health, feels he can put the last 15 years behind him. He has even run a marathon.

“Meeting Alastair in person is a dream come true,” he says. “What do you say to the person who has given you your life back by literally giving a part of themselves?

“Me being able to get on that plane and fly across the world is possible only because of him.

“The moment I got to give him that huge hug and thank him in person is a moment I’ll never forget.”

Alastair, now 51, hopes their story will encourage others to sign up to the stem cell registry.

“Meeting Luke today really brings home just what a difference that simple act can make,” he says.

“I just wish more people would put themselves forward to be on the register to donate, whether it’s platelets or organs or blood or stem cells – that is just the gift of life.

“There’s nothing that makes you feel more complete as a human being – and when it’s a success story, like it clearly has been in our case, it makes everything all worthwhile.”

Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds latest episode of Look North here.

Listen to this article.

I step into the booth with some trepidation. I am about to be subjected to strobe lighting while music plays – as part of a research project trying to understand what makes us truly human.

It’s an experience that brings to mind the test in the science fiction film Bladerunner, designed to distinguish humans from artificially created beings posing as humans.

Could I be a robot from the future and not know it? Would I pass the test?

The researchers assure me that this is not actually what this experiment is about. The device that they call the “Dreamachine”, after the public programme of the same name, is designed to study how the human brain generates our conscious experiences of the world.

As the strobing begins, and even though my eyes are closed, I see swirling two-dimensional geometric patterns. It’s like jumping into a kaleidoscope, with constantly shifting triangles, pentagons and octagons. The colours are vivid, intense and ever-changing: pinks, magentas and turquoise hues, glowing like neon lights.

The “Dreamachine” brings the brain’s inner activity to the surface with flashing lights, aiming to explore how our thought processes work.

The images I’m seeing are unique to my own inner world and unique to myself, according to the researchers. They believe these patterns can shed light on consciousness itself.

They hear me whisper: “It’s lovely, absolutely lovely. It’s like flying through my own mind!”

The “Dreamachine”, at Sussex University’s Centre for Consciousness Science, is just one of many new research projects across the world investigating human consciousness: the part of our minds that enables us to be self-aware, to think and feel and make independent decisions about the world.

By learning the nature of consciousness, researchers hope to better understand what’s happening within the silicon brains of artificial intelligence. Some believe that AI systems will soon become independently conscious, if they haven’t already.

But what really is consciousness, and how close is AI to gaining it? And could the belief that AI might be conscious itself fundamentally change humans in the next few decades?

The idea of machines with their own minds has long been explored in science fiction. Worries about AI stretch back nearly a hundred years to the film Metropolis, in which a robot impersonates a real woman.

A fear of machines becoming conscious and posing a threat to humans is explored in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, when the HAL 9000 computer attacks astronauts onboard its spaceship. And in the final Mission Impossible film, which has just been released, the world is threatened by a powerful rogue AI, described by one character as a “self-aware, self-learning, truth-eating digital parasite”.

But quite recently, in the real world there has been a rapid tipping point in thinking on machine consciousness, where credible voices have become concerned that this is no longer the stuff of science fiction.

The sudden shift has been prompted by the success of so-called large language models (LLMs), which can be accessed through apps on our phones such as Gemini and Chat GPT. The ability of the latest generation of LLMs to have plausible, free-flowing conversations has surprised even their designers and some of the leading experts in the field.

There is a growing view among some thinkers that as AI becomes even more intelligent, the lights will suddenly turn on inside the machines and they will become conscious.

Others, such as Prof Anil Seth who leads the Sussex University team, disagree, describing the view as “blindly optimistic and driven by human exceptionalism”.

“We associate consciousness with intelligence and language because they go together in humans. But just because they go together in us, it doesn’t mean they go together in general, for example in animals.”

So what actually is consciousness?

The short answer is that no-one knows. That’s clear from the good-natured but robust arguments among Prof Seth’s own team of young AI specialists, computing experts, neuroscientists and philosophers, who are trying to answer one of the biggest questions in science and philosophy.

While there are many differing views at the consciousness research centre, the scientists are unified in their method: to break this big problem down into lots of smaller ones in a series of research projects, which includes the Dreamachine.

Just as the search to find the “spark of life” that made inanimate objects come alive was abandoned in the 19th Century in favour of identifying how individual parts of living systems worked, the Sussex team is now adopting the same approach to consciousness.

They hope to identify patterns of brain activity that explain various properties of conscious experiences, such as changes in electrical signals or blood flow to different regions. The goal is to go beyond looking for mere correlations between brain activity and consciousness, and try to come up with explanations for its individual components.

Prof Seth, the author of a book on consciousness, Being You, worries that we may be rushing headlong into a society that is being rapidly reshaped by the sheer pace of technological change without sufficient knowledge about the science, or thought about the consequences.

“We take it as if the future has already been written; that there is an inevitable march to a superhuman replacement,” he says.

“We did not have these conversations enough with the rise of social media, much to our collective detriment. But with AI, it is not too late. We can decide what we want.”

But there are some in the tech sector who believe that the AI in our computers and phones may already be conscious, and we should treat them as such.

Google suspended software engineer Blake Lemoine in 2022, after he argued that AI chatbots could feel things and potentially suffer.

In November 2024, an AI welfare officer for Anthropic, Kyle Fish, co-authored a report suggesting that AI consciousness was a realistic possibility in the near future. He recently told The New York Times that he also believed that there was a small (15%) chance that chatbots are already conscious.

One reason he thinks it possible is that no-one, not even the people who developed these systems, knows exactly how they work. That’s worrying, says Prof Murray Shanahan, principal scientist at Google DeepMind and emeritus professor in AI at Imperial College, London.

“We don’t actually understand very well the way in which LLMs work internally, and that is some cause for concern,” he tells the BBC.

According to Prof Shanahan, it’s important for tech firms to get a proper understanding of the systems they’re building – and researchers are looking at that as a matter of urgency.

“We are in a strange position of building these extremely complex things, where we don’t have a good theory of exactly how they achieve the remarkable things they are achieving,” he says. “So having a better understanding of how they work will enable us to steer them in the direction we want and to ensure that they are safe.”

The prevailing view in the tech sector is that LLMs are not currently conscious in the way we experience the world, and probably not in any way at all. But that is something that the married couple Profs Lenore and Manuel Blum, both emeritus professors at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, believe will change, possibly quite soon.

According to the Blums, that could happen as AI and LLMs have more live sensory inputs from the real world, such as vision and touch, by connecting cameras and haptic sensors (related to touch) to AI systems. They are developing a computer model that constructs its own internal language called Brainish to enable this additional sensory data to be processed, attempting to replicate the processes that go on in the brain.

“We think Brainish can solve the problem of consciousness as we know it,” Lenore tells the BBC. “AI consciousness is inevitable.”

Manuel chips in enthusiastically with an impish grin, saying that the new systems that he too firmly believes will emerge will be the “next stage in humanity’s evolution”.

Conscious robots, he believes, “are our progeny. Down the road, machines like these will be entities that will be on Earth and maybe on other planets when we are no longer around”.

David Chalmers – Professor of Philosophy and Neural Science at New York University – defined the distinction between real and apparent consciousness at a conference in Tucson, Arizona in 1994. He laid out the “hard problem” of working out how and why any of the complex operations of brains give rise to conscious experience, such as our emotional response when we hear a nightingale sing.

Prof Chalmers says that he is open to the possibility of the hard problem being solved.

“The ideal outcome would be one where humanity shares in this new intelligence bonanza,” he tells the BBC. “Maybe our brains are augmented by AI systems.”

On the sci-fi implications of that, he wryly observes: “In my profession, there is a fine line between science fiction and philosophy”.

Prof Seth, however, is exploring the idea that true consciousness can only be realised by living systems.

“A strong case can be made that it isn’t computation that is sufficient for consciousness but being alive,” he says.

“In brains, unlike computers, it’s hard to separate what they do from what they are.” Without this separation, he argues, it’s difficult to believe that brains “are simply meat-based computers”.

And if Prof Seth’s intuition about life being important is on the right track, the most likely technology will not be made of silicon run on computer code, but will rather consist of tiny collections of nerve cells the size of lentil grains that are currently being grown in labs.

Called “mini-brains” in media reports, they are referred to as “cerebral organoids” by the scientific community, which uses them to research how the brain works, and for drug testing.

One Australian firm, Cortical Labs, in Melbourne, has even developed a system of nerve cells in a dish that can play the 1972 sports video game Pong. Although it is a far cry from a conscious system, the so-called “brain in a dish” is spooky as it moves a paddle up and down a screen to bat back a pixelated ball.

Some experts feel that if consciousness is to emerge, it is most likely to be from larger, more advanced versions of these living tissue systems.

Cortical Labs monitors their electrical activity for any signals that could conceivably be anything like the emergence of consciousness.

The firm’s chief scientific and operating officer, Dr Brett Kagan is mindful that any emerging uncontrollable intelligence might have priorities that “are not aligned with ours”. In which case, he says, half-jokingly, that possible organoid overlords would be easier to defeat because “there is always bleach” to pour over the fragile neurons.

Returning to a more solemn tone, he says the small but significant threat of artificial consciousness is something he’d like the big players in the field to focus on more as part of serious attempts to advance our scientific understanding – but says that “unfortunately, we don’t see any earnest efforts in this space”.

The more immediate problem, though, could be how the illusion of machines being conscious affects us.

In just a few years, we may well be living in a world populated by humanoid robots and deepfakes that seem conscious, according to Prof Seth. He worries that we won’t be able to resist believing that the AI has feelings and empathy, which could lead to new dangers.

“It will mean that we trust these things more, share more data with them and be more open to persuasion.”

But the greater risk from the illusion of consciousness is a “moral corrosion”, he says.

“It will distort our moral priorities by making us devote more of our resources to caring for these systems at the expense of the real things in our lives” – meaning that we might have compassion for robots, but care less for other humans.

And that could fundamentally alter us, according to Prof Shanahan.

“Increasingly human relationships are going to be replicated in AI relationships, they will be used as teachers, friends, adversaries in computer games and even romantic partners. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I don’t know, but it is going to happen, and we are not going to be able to prevent it”.

The pomp and pageantry were on full display when King Charles arrived in Canada on Monday, on his first trip to the country since his coronation.

He is due to deliver the Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of Canada’s parliament in Ottawa on Tuesday.

The King is the head of state of Canada – and of 13 other Commonwealth realms such as Australia, New Zealand and several Caribbean states – as well as the UK.

The King, who has travelled with Queen Camilla, previously journeyed to Canada several times as the Prince of Wales. This is his 20th visit.

Tuesday’s address would traditionally be given by the governor general, who is the monarch’s top representative in Canada. They read it on behalf of the prime minister, to set out the government’s agenda when a new parliamentary session is about to begin.

Canada’s House of Commons and Senate cannot conduct any public business before the Speech from the Throne is made.

It is so-called because it is typically read from the seat in the Senate chamber that is reserved for the monarch or their representative in Canada.

The current governor general is Mary Simon. But this time, newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney has invited the King himself to inaugurate the new parliament.

• King prepares to give key speech backing Canada
• In pictures: King Charles and Queen Camilla welcomed in Ottawa
• What’s changed in how Canada views the monarchy?

While it is not unprecedented for the throne speech to be read by the monarch, the last time this happened was in October 1977, when Elizabeth II read the speech for the second time. The first was in 1957.

This will be the first time a king opens a new session of parliament. King Charles’s grandfather George VI granted royal assent to several bills when he visited Canada in 1939, but he never delivered a throne speech.

Earlier in May, Prime Minister Mark Carney said he had invited the King to formally open Canada’s 45th session of parliament.

His request was viewed as a strategic one, as it came amid strained ties between Canada and its powerful neighbour the United States.

US President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on Canada, and has repeatedly referred to it as the “51st state”. He also disparagingly referred to Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau”.

Speaking in Ottawa, Carney said the King’s visit “clearly underscores the sovereignty of our country”. He told reporters: “This is a historic honour that matches the weight of our times.”

Canada’s Governor General Mary Simon said the visit “highlights the enduring relationship between Canada and the Crown”.

“Now more than ever, we need to come together to ensure a future that builds on our shared global values of democracy, equality and peace,” she said.

King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived at Ottawa’s Macdonald-Cartier International Airport at 13:15 EST (17:15 GMT) on Monday, and were greeted by Governor General Mary Simon, Prime Minister Mark Carney and his wife, Diana Fox Carney.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed, and Métis National Council President Victoria Pruden were also at the airport.

The trip began at Lansdowne Park, where the royal couple met individuals and organisations showcasing Canadian identity and diversity.

They then made their way to Rideau Hall – the residence of Canada’s governor general and the official residence of the monarch when in Canada. There, the King took part in a tree-planting ceremony.

He then held separate private meetings with Simon and Carney.

On Tuesday morning, the King and Queen will head to Canada’s Senate accompanied by a royal escort, where they will receive full military honours – including a 100-person guard of honour from the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, an inspection of the guard and the band, and a 21-gun salute.

Shortly after 11:00 local time, the King will deliver his Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of parliament.

The royal couple will then pay their respects to Canada’s fallen soldiers at the National War Memorial, before leaving the country later that day.

In his role as head of state, the monarch is expected to avoid straying into politics. He instead appears to have sent coded signals and made symbolic gestures of support for Canada amid Trump’s threats.

The King praised Canada as a “proud, resilient and compassionate country” in February, on the 60th anniversary of the first raising of the country’s maple leaf flag – an event that might have otherwise passed without royal intervention.

When he visited aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales on 4 March, he appeared wearing a set of Canadian medals.

The same month, when he sat for the Commonwealth Service – an annual celebration of Commonwealth countries in London – he did so on a Canadian chair.

And at a tree-planting ceremony at Buckingham Palace earlier this year, the tree he chose was a maple.

• King uses symbols to show support for Canada

Nearly three weeks after Rohit Sharma’s sudden retirement from Test cricket, the Indian cricket board has ended speculation of his successor by naming Shubman Gill as India’s new captain for the upcoming five-Test series against England in June.

At 25, Gill becomes India’s 37th Test captain – and one of its youngest, after Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, Sachin Tendulkar, Kapil Dev and Ravi Shastri.

His appointment marks a turning point for Indian cricket. The squad he leads is without batting greats Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, spin stalwart R Ashwin who retired six months ago, and pace spearhead Mohammed Shami, who was sidelined due to fitness concerns.

The team is rich in young batting talent but will miss the experience of Kohli and Sharma. Despite Jaspreet Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, and Mohammad Siraj, the bowling attack still feels a touch raw.

Adding to Gill’s challenge: India haven’t won a Test series in England since 2007.

His appointment followed intense deliberations between chief selector Ajit Agarkar, coach Gautam Gambhir, and backchannel talks with other contenders.

Though Bumrah seemed the natural choice after serving as vice-captain in Australia, concerns over his ability to shoulder the workload of a five-Test series tipped the scales in Gill’s favour.

A prodigy from Punjab state, Gill has long carried the weight of expectation with elegance.

He burst into the spotlight in 2014, not yet 15, hammering 351 in a world-record opening stand of 587 with Nirmal Singh in the Punjab Inter-District ML Markan Trophy. It was a knock that vindicated his family’s bold move from the border village of Chak Kherewala to Mohali, seeking better training and greater exposure for the young talent.

Consistent run-getting as a junior, fast-tracked him into the under-19 ranks which is where Gill really made his first big impact.

Vice-captain of the team that played the 2017-18 U-19 World Cup, he emerged as the top run aggregator for India, highlighted by a skilful, unbeaten 102 against arch rivals Pakistan in the semi-final. In the final where India beat Australia, Gill scored a handy 31.

At the time, all eyes were on Prithvi Shaw – the U-19 captain whose Mumbai schoolboy feats drew comparisons with Tendulkar. His rise was meteoric: a Test debut century, another soon after. But by 2020, his career had begun to unravel.

Temporarily sidelined, Gill made an immediate impact on his Ranji Trophy debut with a half-century, followed by a century. Under Yuvraj Singh’s mentorship, he sharpened both his batting and game awareness.

Prolific runs pushed selectors to consider Gill as Shaw’s replacement. He debuted in Tests in Melbourne, December 2020, during India’s memorable comeback series win.

Tall and graceful, Gill’s technical precision and elegant stroke play – especially front of the wicket – set him apart as a promising young talent. Nicknamed the ‘Prince’ by his family, the title soon became his cricketing identity. Hailed as the Next Big Thing, he’s widely tipped to succeed Virat Kohli as the next generation’s leading batsman.

That promise remains unproven. Like Kohli, Gill is an all-format player, but unlike Kohli’s early dominance, Gill has yet to display the same ambition and match-winning impact – especially in Tests, where his 1,893 runs in 32 matches are solid but not outstanding.

Gill’s first captaincy, less than five years after his Test debut, comes at a crucial point in his career.

With enough international experience to elevate his batting from good to great, he now faces a stern test against England’s Bazball style of play in challenging conditions. Success here would be a major boost to his standing as a top Test player.

But it is as captain that Gill probably faces tougher challenges.

The England series kicked off India’s new World Test Championship cycle, following two finals appearances but a disappointing early exit in the last one. India’s recent Test form has been poor, with back-to-back series losses to New Zealand and Australia.

To pull India out of the current rut, Gill will have to lead the way as batter as well as captain in charge of a new-look team, whose dressing-room and dynamics he will have to understand and, perhaps, reshape.

“Gill is a young man we are investing in not just for one series, but for the next five-six years to take Indian cricket ahead,” said chief selector Ajit Agarkar.

That should be a tremendous reassurance for the new captain. While his appointment brings its share of pressure, it also carries immense hope – and an opportunity to carve his own legacy in Indian cricket history.

In Nigerian politics, there has long been an informal understanding: presidential appointments should carefully balance the country’s many ethnic and religious differences. Today, there are concerns that this is being ignored.

While the constitution requires regional representation in cabinet positions, the broader distribution of other prominent roles has traditionally followed a convention aimed at fostering national cohesion.

Nigeria’s fractious divisions have in the past torn the country – Africa’s most populous – apart.

Worries about fairness in presidential appointments are not new, but a chorus of criticism is growing over President Bola Tinubu’s picks, with some accusing the head of state – who has been in power for two years – of favouring people from his own Yoruba ethnic group.

The presidency vehemently denies the accusation.

There have long been fears that members of one ethnic group would come to dominate key positions – and this means that presidential appointments are closely scrutinised whenever they are announced.

There are over 250 ethnic groups in the country with Hausa-Fulanis, Igbo and Yoruba – hailing from the north, south-east and south-west respectively – being the three largest.

Critics say that Tinubu, a southern Muslim, showed signs of ignoring precedent from the onset when he picked another Muslim (although from the north) to be his running mate for the last election.

Since the return of democracy in 1999, the major parties had always put forward a mixed Muslim-Christian ticket, as the country is roughly evenly divided between followers of the two religions.

It is now Tinubu’s appointments since becoming president in May 2023 that people are focusing on.

Although there are dozens of roles for a head of state to fill, there are eight jobs that “are the most crucial for every administration”, according to political analyst and barrister Lawal Lawal.

These are the heads of the:

• central bank
• state-owned oil company, NNPC
• police
• army
• customs service
• intelligence agency
• anti-corruption agency and
• revenue service.

There is no constitutional ranking of positions, but collectively these roles control the key financial and security apparatus of the country.

Every president inherits his predecessor’s appointees, but has the prerogative to replace them.

As of April, all eight positions under Tinubu are now filled by Yorubas.

The recent appointment of former Shell boss Bayo Ojulari to head the state-owned oil company, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC), in place of a northerner turbocharged the debate about the apparent monopoly of one group in top positions.

Looking at who filled the same posts under Tinubu’s two immediate predecessors, there was no such dominance of one ethnic group at the same stage of their presidencies.

Goodluck Jonathan – who served from 2010 to 2015 – had a relatively balanced team of two ethnic Fulanis, two Hausas, one Atyap, one Igbo, one Yoruba and one Calabar.

When it came to Muhammadu Buhari – in power from 2015 to 2023 – the situation was less clear.

In the top eight he had three Hausas, two Kanuris, one Igbo, one Yoruba and one Nupe.

But in the minds of many Nigerians, Hausas, Kanuris and Nupes are all seen as northerners – and therefore there was a perception that Buhari, who is from the north, showed favouritism.

Some argue that Tinubu’s appointments have merely continued the trend, but the 100%-Yoruba make-up of the eight key positions is unprecedented.

“For a democratically elected president, I cannot remember at any point in Nigerian history where you have this high concentration of a particular ethnic group holding most of the sensitive positions,” history professor Tijjani Naniya told the BBC.

This is not just about what has happened in the past but it could have an impact on the unity and even the future of the country, the professor said.

“For me, the fear is what if the next president continues on this path and picks most of the sensitive positions from his ethnic group, it diminishes the feeling of belonging among the rest and also reduces belief in democracy,” he said.

In the last two years, many northerners, mostly Hausa-Fulanis, have looked at the apparent direction of travel with alarm.

The current men (there are no women) in charge of the NNPC, the police, customs and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) all replaced northerners.

The removal of Abdulrasheed Bawa, a Hausa, as boss of the EFCC in 2023 just two years after he was appointed was especially controversial.

He was arrested, accused of abuse of office and detained for over 100 days before the charges were dropped.

He was replaced by Ola Olukoyode, an ethnic Yoruba.

Some from the north felt Mr Bawa was unfairly treated and pushed aside to make way for Mr Olukoyode.

“The president needs to know that the Yoruba people are just a part of the country, and all appointments should be spread across all ethnic groups and regions,” social affairs analyst Isah Habibu told the BBC.

Without addressing specific cases, a Tinubu spokesperson has said the president is being fair and balanced, by taking the wider view of all appointments.

Media aide Sunday Dare did try to go into detail, saying overall, 71 northerners and 63 southerners had been appointed by Tinubu. But his 9 April post on X was later deleted, after people pointed out errors in his claim.

He promised an updated list, but more than six weeks later, it has yet to appear.

Tinubu faces critics even from within his own party.

Senator Ali Ndume is from the north and – like Tinubu – belongs to the All Progressives Congress. In one television interview he said he had gone on air to talk about the president’s appointment “wrongdoings”.

Ndume said he was shocked, describing them as “non-inclusive and not reflecting the president’s ‘Renewed Hope’ agenda, which promised to carry every section of the country along”.

Another presidential aide, Daniel Bwala, disputed the idea that some positions were more significant than others.

“All I know is that the constitutional provisions [regarding appointments] have been taken care of by the president – there’s nowhere in the constitution [where it is] mentioned top five, top 10 and the rest,” he told the BBC.

“The way we see it is that any position or appointment that one is privileged to serve in is very critical and important.

“The national security adviser is from the north-east, the chief of defence staff is from the north-west and the secretary to the federal government is from north-central.”

The Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, which coordinates policy on behalf of the presidency, released a statement on 12 April saying Tinubu was being fair.

“This administration is dedicated to ensuring that all regions and demographics of the country are adequately represented in its institutions and agencies,” it said.

Political analyst Mr Lawal said the president should appoint the best person for the job, irrespective of their ethnic origin – and agues that this is what Tinubu is doing.

“It’s high time Nigeria looks beyond ethnicity,” he said.

There could be a time when Nigerians no longer obsess over the ethnic origins of those in the upper echelons of government, but historian Prof Naniya says this is still some way off.

He believes it can only happen when the country gets at least four presidents in succession who give every section a sense of belonging in terms of projects and appointments.

“I think it can be done but needs the right leaders.”

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A Syrian man has admitted carrying out a knife attack in the German town of Solingen last August in which three people were killed.

“I have committed a grave crime, I am prepared to accept the verdict,” Issa al H said in a statement read out by his defence lawyers at the start of his trial in the western city of Düsseldorf.

Issa al H, whose surname was not made public because of German privacy rules, is accused of being a member of the Islamic State jihadist group, and pledging allegiance to IS in videos shortly before the attack.

The stabbings took place as Solingen was holding a three-day festival to mark its 650th anniversary and came shortly before a series of key regional elections.

In the space of a year, German cities saw a string of deadly attacks, which began in Mannheim in May 2024, when an Afghan national stabbed a police officer at a rally.

Most of the attackers were described as having migrant backgrounds and the killings played a significant part in the national debate leading up to Germany’s federal elections in February.

While most mainstream parties toughened their language on migration, the far-right AfD were seen as benefiting most from the heightened climate, coming second with almost 21% of the vote. They have since narrowed the gap with Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives even further.

The man accused of the 23 August Solingen knife attack had arrived in Germany as a refugee in 2022, but because he had already registered for asylum in Bulgaria he was ordered to be deported there.

By the time German authorities tried to deport him in 2023 he had disappeared.

On Tuesday, Issa al H appeared in a high-security wing of the court in Düsseldorf wearing a blue T-shirt, and kept his head bowed for most of the time he stood in the dock.

He is accused of three murders as well as 10 counts of attempted murder and further charges of grievous bodily harm.

Prosecutors allege he approached IS contacts on jihadist social media forums before the attack and he was then given help planning it and choosing his murder weapon.

In his statement read out by his lawyers, Issa al H said: “I killed innocents, not infidels.”

One of the people wounded in the Solingen attack sat in court on Tuesday, her arm in a sling, in a reminder of the wounds he inflicted in the city.

Athanasios Antonakis, a lawyer acting on behalf of a mother and daughter who were wounded in the attack, told public broadcaster WDR that “my clients are expecting this trial will help improve the healing process”.

Nepali sherpa Kami Rita, also known as “Everest Man”, has scaled Mount Everest for the 31st time, breaking his own record for the most climbs up the world’s tallest peak.

The 55-year-old, who was guiding a group of Indian army officials up the mountain, reached its 8,849m summit at 04:00 local time on Tuesday (23:15 GMT Monday).

“Kami Rita Sherpa needs no introduction. He is not just a national climbing hero, but a global symbol of Everest itself,” expedition organiser Seven Summit Treks said in a statement.

Kami Rita first summited Everest in 1994 guiding a commercial expedition and has made the peak almost ever year since.

He scaled it twice some years, like in 2023 and 2024.

His closest competitor for the Everest record is fellow Nepali sherpa Pasang Dawa, who scaled the peak 29 times – the latest attempt made last week.

Kami Rita has previously told media how his climbs are just work.

“I am glad for the record, but records are eventually broken,” he told AFP in May last year. “I am more happy that my climbs help Nepal be recognised in the world.”

Earlier this month, Kami Rita posted snippets of life on Everest, including one of the Puja ceremony, a Tibetan Buddhist ritual done before Everest expeditions to pray for a safe and successful climb.

Kami Rita’s feat comes one week after British mountaineer Kenton Cool summited Everest for the 19th time, also breaking his own record for the most climbs for a non-sherpa.

More than 500 people and their guides have climbed Everest successfully this climbing season, which is coming to an end.

Nepal issued more than 1,000 climbing permits this season – including for Everest and other peaks – according to its tourism department.

The number of Everest summit attempts has soared in recent years. However this has led to concerns around overcrowding and environmental impact.

Last year, authorities introduced a rule requiring climbers to clear up their own poo and bring it back to base camp to be disposed of.

The EU is investigating Pornhub, Stripchat and two other pornography websites it believes may be falling foul of its online content laws.

The European Commission said the sites, which also include XVideos and XNXX, did not appear to have measures in place to safeguard children and their rights.

It said this included an apparent lack of “appropriate” age verification methods to stop children accessing adult material.

“Online platforms must ensure that the rights and best interests of children are central to the design and functioning of their services,” it said.

Pornhub’s parent company Aylo said it was aware of the investigation and “fully committed to ensuring the safety of minors online”.

“We will always comply with the law, but we hope that governments around the world will implement laws that protect the safety and security of users,” it added.

The BBC has also approached Stripchat for comment.

The Commission said its initial investigations found the four platforms had not put in place “appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors”.

It said the platforms also do not appear to be abiding by requirements for porn sites to use age verification tools to protect children from accessing adult content.

A Commission official said that “click away” pop-ups currently used by some porn sites, asking users if they are over 18, may not be an effective means of doing so.

The platforms were also found not to have put into place “risk assessment and mitigation measures of any negative effects on the rights of the child, the mental and physical well-being of users,” it said.

It comes amid wider scrutiny of online pornography services worldwide, with many regulators looking to crack down on those that do not have age verification in place.

The UK’s online safety regulator Ofcom recently announced two investigations into porn sites that did not appear to have any methods to check the age of users.

It said in early May that Itai Tech Ltd – which operates a so-called “nudifying” site – and Score Internet Group LLC had failed to detail how they were preventing children from accessing their platforms.

Pornhub is the most visited porn site in the world – and the 19th most visited on the entire web, according to data from Similarweb.

But it finds itself under increasing regulatory pressure.

It has blocked access to its site in 16 US states, including Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Texas, that passed laws requiring it to verify the age of users.

It argues age verification should take place on users’ devices, rather than on individual, age-restricted sites, to create a simpler process for regulators and enhance privacy for users.

The companies subject to the EU’s investigation were designated as very large online platforms under its Digital Services Act (DSA) in 2023.

Under the bloc’s sweeping set of digital content rules, they face tougher requirements to tackle harmful and illegal material on the platforms.

If suspected infringements of the DSA are confirmed, platforms could face further enforcement actions or, ultimately, a fines of up to 6% of their annual turnover.

The Commission said on Tuesday that Stripchat would no longer be designated a so-called VLOP, but its suspected non-compliance with its digital content rules would still be investigated.

Smaller platforms that do not meet the 45m EU user threshold must also abide by the bloc’s digital rules to safeguard children, it said.

Coordinated action by its member states will also seek to enforce requirements for smaller pornography sites.

“Our priority is to protect minors and allow them to navigate safely online,” said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.

“Together with the Digital Service Coordinators in the Member States we are determined to tackle any potential harm to young online users.”

An Iranian filmmaker has been cheered at home after winning Cannes Film Festival’s top prize.

Jafar Panahi touched down in Tehran’s international airport on Monday, two days after his Palme d’Or victory for revenge thriller It Was Just Accident.

Panahi has been imprisoned multiple times in Iran, most recently for protesting the detention of filmmakers criticising the authorities. This was his first visit to Cannes in 15 years, where his films have been shown in his absence due to a travel ban.

His winning film depicted torture in Iranian jails and ignited a back-and-forth between French and Iranian officials.

The celebrated director, who now holds prizes from Europe’s three major film festivals, was seen grinning and holding a bouquet of flowers as he embraced his friends.

Among the crowd was fellow Iranian film director Medhi Nadari, who shared footage of the moment on Instagram calling Panahi’s return “history-making”.

One person was heard shouting “woman, life, freedom” as Panahi passed through the airport, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency. The phrase was the slogan for protests that broke out across Iran following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022.

In his acceptance speech at Cannes, Panahi said, “What’s most important now is our country and the freedom of our country,” and called for Iranians to “join forces”.

“No-one should dare tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, what we should do, or what we should not do,” he said.

The film’s win has given rise to a diplomatic row between French and Iranian officials, after French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot dubbed it “a gesture of resistance against the Iranian regime’s oppression” in a post on X.

IRNA, Iran’s state media, reported that a French diplomat had been summoned in Tehran so that it could formally protest the comments as “insulting and unfounded”.

Returning to Tehran fulfils a pledge Panahi made while speaking to reporters in Cannes.

“As soon as I finish my work here I will go back,” he said, adding “I will ask myself what’s my next film going to be.”

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has signed into law a contentious bill that requires all motorists to buy a radio licence before acquiring vehicle insurance.

There has been an outcry from some motorists as they will now have to pay $92 (£68) annually in order to listen to the radio in their vehicles.

The introduction of the measure is part of a plan to widen revenue sources for the state broadcaster but critics say the licence fee is too high, especially given the difficult economic situation.

Leading opposition figure Nelson Chamisa said the new law was “too draconian, anti-citizens and outrightly heartless”.

Responding to motorists’ concerns on social media, Nick Mangwana, a senior official in the ministry of information, said the new law was “necessary” and “fair”.

There are about 1.2 million registered cars in the country but only 800,000 of them pay insurance, according to local media.

The loss-making Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) relies for income on the licence fee as well as government grants, It also generates some revenue through advertising.

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But the broadcaster is struggling to make people pay for their TV and radio licences.

Critics have been calling for the scrapping of the fee, accusing ZBC of biased coverage in favour of the governing Zanu-PF.

The opposition has complained of unfair coverage by the broadcaster, especially during elections. ZBC has denied the accusation.

Under the new Broadcasting Services Amendment Act, all motorists must now pay the radio licence fee before they can renew their vehicle insurance or obtain a licence from the Zimbabwe National Road Authority (Zinara).

The changes, which were recently approved by parliament, pegs the fee at $23 per quarter, amounting to $92 per year.

However, ZBC can grant exemptions to those who qualify, including tourists visiting the country.

But the new amendment aims to eliminate loopholes and boost compliance with the requirement to have a licence.

It prohibits all motor insurance companies from selling their products to motorists who do not hold a valid ZBC radio licence, unless they have a ZBC exemption certificate or the vehicle being insured does not have a radio receiver.

But the law has drawn sharp criticism from motorists and opposition groups, terming it a burden on taxpayers.

“Citizens are being pauperized left, right and centre, why does the citizenry of this country deserve so uncaring & heartless a leadership?” Chamisa posted on X.

Another X user described the measure as an “unjust assault on motorists”.

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North Korea has criticised the US’s plan for a futuristic “Golden Dome” missile shield, saying it could “turn outer space into a potential nuclear war field”.

The defence system, which President Donald Trump plans to unveil by the end of his term, is aimed at countering “next-generation” aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

Pyongyang’s foreign ministry slammed the plan as “the height of self-righteousness [and] arrogance”, state media reported.

It accused Washington of being “hell-bent… to militarise outer space” and warned that the plan might spark “a global nuclear and space arms race”.

North Korea considers Washington an adversary and has routinely condemned joint military drills between the US and South Korea.

Pyongyang probably sees the Golden Dome as a threat that can “significantly weaken” its nuclear arsenal, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP news agency.

“If the US completes its new missile defence programme, the North will be forced to develop alternative means to counter or penetrate it,” he said.

In 2022, the North passed a law declaring itself a nuclear weapons state, and it has tested a variety of ballistic and cruise missiles in recent years.

Early this year it claimed it fired a new intermediate-range ballistic missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead which it said “will reliably contain any rivals in the Pacific region”.

North Korea joins China in criticising the US’s plan. Beijing said last week that it is “seriously concerned” about the Golden Dome, which it said has “strong offensive implications”.

“The United States, in pursuing a ‘US-first’ policy, is obsessed with seeking absolute security for itself,” China’s foreign ministry said. “This violates the principle that the security of all countries should not be compromised and undermines global strategic balance and stability.”

Many analysts believe an update to the US’s limited defence systems is necessary, but some warn the process of developing the Golden Dome could face technical and political challenges.

For one, its hefty price tag could suck up a large chunk of the US defence budget.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill – although the government has estimated it could end up costing 20 times that over decades.

There were big wins for Billie Eilish, Beyoncé, Eminem and Sir Rod Stewart at the American Music Awards (AMAs).

Monday’s event in Las Vegas was hosted – and in some ways dominated – by the evening’s host, singer and actress Jennifer Lopez.

There were also peformances from stars including Benson Boone, Gwen Stefani and another award-winner, Janet Jackson.

Here’s some key takeaways from the ceremony.

Billie Eilish won seven prizes at the fan-voted awards show, sweeping most of the major catergories in the process, including artist and album of the year – for Hit Me Hard and Soft – as well as song of the year, Birds of a Feather.

The singer, 23, who also won the award for favourite touring artist, was not there to collect her awards in person however, as she was busy doing precisely that – being on tour in Europe.

Eminem took home the awards for favourite male hip-hop artist and favourite hip-hop album, but he wasn’t there either.

And nor was favourite female country artist-winner Beyoncé, who won favourite country album.

With many stars not in attendance, the focus fell almost fully on host Jennifer Lopez – aka J. Lo.

The star, 55, danced to a medley of hits including Eilish’s Birds of a Feather, Sabrina Carpenter’s Espresso and Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em.

But she will be remembered most on the night for having locked lips both male and female dancers during her performances.

One viewer joked online that it made them “cringe”, while another said the singer had “lost the plot”. The sweat dripping emoji was used by another fan to describe the situation.

Sir Rod Stewart got a huge surprise on stage when he was presented with the lifetime achievement award by his children.

The father-of-eight seemed shocked to be introduced to the stage by five of his own grown-up kids.

“I’m absolutely flabbergasted,” said Sir Rod. “I didn’t know they were here – my children.”

The former Faces frontman, 80, thanked his bandmates, past and present, noting how when he was young he had a “burning ambition to sing”.

“That’s all I wanted to do. I didn’t want to be rich or famous. And here I am a few years later, picking up this wonderful award,” he said.

Sing is precisely what he then did, performing his 1988 track Forever Young.

Another highlight on the night for many on social media it seems was Shaboozey’s reaction to Megan Moroney declaring that the Carter Family “basically invented country music”.

The Carter Family – which featured singer June Carter who later went on to perform with her husband Johnny Cash – was an influential American folk music group that recorded and performed between the 1920s and 1950s.

Shaboozey, whose hits include A Bar Song (Tipsy), appeared to pause and give Moroney a slightly sceptical look before letting out a little laugh in response, while they were jointly presenting an award.

The Hollywood Reporter noted Shaboozey’s apparent “side eye” look soon went viral.

But you knew that already, right?

Janet Jackson, 59, collected the icon award and showed why by performing a medley of her songs including Someone to Call My Lover and All for You.

“I’m so grateful. I mean, no disrespect in any way, but I don’t consider myself an icon,” she said.

Echoing Sir Rod, she added: “My family, myself, our dream wasn’t ever to be famous; we weren’t raised like that.”

She continued: “We always had a special love for music, dancing and singing, and fame came with the result of hard work and dedication.”

Or is this look more Captain Hook?

The back-flipping pop star performed on the night and he looked resplendent in his green suit jacket and trousers while posing for pictures on the red carpet.

The 22-year-old changed into a floral purple number for his typically acrobatic live performance of recent single Mystical Magical.

Other performances on the night saw Gloria Estefan celebrate the legacy of Latin music by doing the Conga, and Gwen Stefani celebrate her noughties hits.

Other winners on the night included R&B singer SZA, Post Malone, Gracie Abrams and Becky G, as well as Kendrick Lamar and collaborators Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.

Check out the full list of winners here, and a video of the action below.

Swedish authorities have charged a convicted terrorist over the 2015 killing of a Jordanian pilot who was burned to death in Syria.

Osama Krayem, 32 – a Swedish citizen – was on Tuesday charged with war and terrorism crimes relating to the death of Moaz al-Kasasbeh.

Krayem is currently in prison after being convicted for his role in the 2015 and 2016 terror attacks in Paris and Brussels respectively.

The BBC has contacted his lawyer for comment relating to the latest allegations. He has previously denied the charges, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported.

Krayem’s trial is expected to begin on 4 June.

“It is painful for my parents to be confronted with this event again, but we are grateful that the Swedish authorities want to give us justice,” the pilot’s brother, Jawdat al-Kasasbeh, told Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Radio following the announcement of the charges.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority last week announced they planned to charge a man with the “execution” of Lt Kasasbeh, along with other suspected members of the Islamic State (IS) group.

Jordan confirmed the death of Lt Kasasbeh in 2015, following the circulation of a gruesome video published online by IS that appeared to show the 26-year-old being burned alive in a cage.

He was captured when his plane came down near the city of Raqqa during a mission against IS in December 2014.

At the time of Lt Kasasbeh’s death, Jordan – which was part of a US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria during the civil war – had been attempting to secure his release as part of a prisoner swap.

Swedish prosecutors said in its statement last week the offences Krayem has now been charged with took place between 24 December 2014 and 3 February 2015.

They added an investigation had shown Krayem “armed and masked, together with others forced the pilot into a metal cage”.

“The cage was subsequently set on fire by one of the co-perpetrators, and the pilot died as a consequence of the fire.”

Krayem is originally from the Swedish city of Malmo and is thought to have travelled to Syria in September 2014 to fight for IS.

In June 2022, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison for his role in the November 2015 Paris terror attacks – in which 130 people were killed – and for planning a separate attack on Amsterdam airport.

A year later, he was also found guilty of terrorist murder for his role in the Brussels attacks that killed 32 people.

He has been temporarily transferred from France to Sweden in order to participate in this latest trial.

US President Donald Trump has issued a pardon to a former Virginia sheriff who was convicted on fraud and bribery charges.

A jury found former Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins guilty of accepting more than $75,000 (£55,000) in bribes last December, in exchange for making several businessmen into law enforcement officers without them being trained.

Jenkins, a long-time supporter of Trump, was sentenced in March to 10 years in prison. He was set to report to jail on Tuesday, but due to Trump’s pardon, he will not spend a single day behind bars.

“Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his wife Patricia, and their family have been dragged through HELL,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social network.

Trump said Jenkins was the “victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice”. The judge who presided over Jenkins’s case, Robert Ballou, was appointed by former President Joe Biden, but it was a jury trial.

Trump called Jenkins a “wonderful person” who was persecuted by “Radical Left monsters” and “left for dead”.

Jenkins was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of honest services fraud and seven counts of bribery concerning programmes receiving federal funds.

Prosecutors said he accepted bribes from eight people, including two undercover FBI agents. These were in the form of cash and campaign contributions. Jenkins’s position was an elected one.

The men who bribed Jenkins paid for auxiliary deputy sheriff positions so they could avoid traffic tickets and carry concealed firearms without a permit, the prosecutors said.

Although auxiliary deputy sheriffs are volunteer positions, they can have law-enforcement powers equivalent to those of paid officers.

Trump said Jenkins tried to offer evidence in his defence, but Judge Ballou “refused to allow it, shut him down, and then went on a tirade”.

The acting US attorney for Virginia said at the time of Jenkins’s sentencing that the ex-sheriff violated his oath of office. He said the case proved that officials who used their positions for “unjust personal enrichment” would be held accountable.

But Jenkins appealed to Trump for help after his conviction.

“I believe if he heard the information, I know he would help if he knew my story,” he reportedly said in April on a webinar hosted by the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association.

Jenkins was elected sheriff of Culpeper County in 2011 and took office in January 2012. He was re-elected in 2015 and 2019.

The former policeman is the latest in a long line of Trump supporters to receive a pardon.

In January, the president issued almost 1,600 pardons or commutations to people charged over the 2021 US Capitol riots.

The US Constitution says that a president has the “power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment”.

A pardon represents legal forgiveness, ends any further punishment and restores rights such as being able to vote or run for public office.

The EU is investigating Pornhub, Stripchat and two other pornography websites it believes may be falling foul of its online content laws.

The European Commission said the sites, which also include XVideos and XNXX, did not appear to have measures in place to safeguard children and their rights.

It said this included an apparent lack of “appropriate” age verification methods to stop children accessing adult material.

“Online platforms must ensure that the rights and best interests of children are central to the design and functioning of their services,” it said.

Pornhub’s parent company Aylo said it was aware of the investigation and “fully committed to ensuring the safety of minors online”.

“We will always comply with the law, but we hope that governments around the world will implement laws that protect the safety and security of users,” it added.

The BBC has also approached Stripchat for comment.

The Commission said its initial investigations found the four platforms had not put in place “appropriate and proportionate measures to ensure a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors”.

It said the platforms also do not appear to be abiding by requirements for porn sites to use age verification tools to protect children from accessing adult content.

A Commission official said that “click away” pop-ups currently used by some porn sites, asking users if they are over 18, may not be an effective means of doing so.

The platforms were also found not to have put into place “risk assessment and mitigation measures of any negative effects on the rights of the child, the mental and physical well-being of users,” it said.

It comes amid wider scrutiny of online pornography services worldwide, with many regulators looking to crack down on those that do not have age verification in place.

The UK’s online safety regulator Ofcom recently announced two investigations into porn sites that did not appear to have any methods to check the age of users.

It said in early May that Itai Tech Ltd – which operates a so-called “nudifying” site – and Score Internet Group LLC had failed to detail how they were preventing children from accessing their platforms.

Pornhub is the most visited porn site in the world – and the 19th most visited on the entire web, according to data from Similarweb.

But it finds itself under increasing regulatory pressure.

It has blocked access to its site in 16 US states, including Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Texas, that passed laws requiring it to verify the age of users.

It argues age verification should take place on users’ devices, rather than on individual, age-restricted sites, to create a simpler process for regulators and enhance privacy for users.

The companies subject to the EU’s investigation were designated as very large online platforms under its Digital Services Act (DSA) in 2023.

Under the bloc’s sweeping set of digital content rules, they face tougher requirements to tackle harmful and illegal material on the platforms.

If suspected infringements of the DSA are confirmed, platforms could face further enforcement actions or, ultimately, a fines of up to 6% of their annual turnover.

The Commission said on Tuesday that Stripchat would no longer be designated a so-called VLOP, but its suspected non-compliance with its digital content rules would still be investigated.

Smaller platforms that do not meet the 45m EU user threshold must also abide by the bloc’s digital rules to safeguard children, it said.

Coordinated action by its member states will also seek to enforce requirements for smaller pornography sites.

“Our priority is to protect minors and allow them to navigate safely online,” said Henna Virkkunen, the Commission’s executive vice-president for tech sovereignty, security and democracy.

“Together with the Digital Service Coordinators in the Member States we are determined to tackle any potential harm to young online users.”

A Canadian man has been sentenced to almost two years in prison for stealing a famous photograph of Sir Winston Churchill known as “The Roaring Lion”.

Jeffrey Wood had pleaded guilty to stealing the original print from Ottawa’s Château Laurier hotel between Christmas 2021 and early January 2022. He also admitted committing forgery.

The photo of Britain’s war-time prime minister, taken by Yousuf Karsh in 1941, features on the UK £5 note.

Ottawa Police said it was found last year in Genoa, Italy in the possession of a private buyer, who was unaware it was stolen.

The image depicts a frowning Churchill, who was 67 at the time, shortly after he delivered a speech to the Canadian parliament.

It wasn’t until August 2022 that a hotel staff member realised the original photo had been replaced with a fake.

According to Canadian media, Wood said he took the photo to find money for his brother, who was suffering from mental health problems.

During sentencing, Justice Robert Wadden said: “It is a point of national pride that a portrait taken by a Canadian photographer would have achieved such fame.”

“There is an element of trust in our society that allows such properties to be displayed, to be enjoyed by all Canadians. To steal, damage and traffic in such property is to breach that trust,” he added.

“We’re very happy to see that Canadian history is recognised,” said Geneviève Dumas, the general manager of the Château Laurier hotel, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Wood was sentenced to “two years less a day”, a distinction which means he will serve his sentence in a provincial institution instead of a federal prison.

The lawyer representing Wood said the sentence was “unnecessarily harsh” given that he was a first-time offender.

A controversial new aid distribution group backed by the US and Israel has begun working in Gaza.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said lorry loads of food had been delivered to secure sites on Monday and that distribution had begun. Hundreds of Palestinians collected food parcels from a site in southern city of Rafah on Tuesday.

The GHF, which uses armed American security contractors, aims to bypass the UN as the main supplier of aid to the 2.1 million people in Gaza, where experts have warned of a looming famine after an 11-week Israeli blockade that was recently eased.

A UN spokesman said the operation was a “distraction from what is actually needed” and urged Israel to reopen all crossings.

The UN and many aid groups have refused to co-operate with GHF’s plans, which they say contradict humanitarian principles and appear to “weaponise aid”.

They have warned that the system will practically exclude those with mobility issues, force further displacement, expose thousands of people to harm, make aid conditional on political and military aims, and set an unacceptable precedent for aid delivery around the world.

Israel says an alternative to the current aid system is needed to stop Hamas stealing aid, which the group denies doing.

In a statement sent to journalists on Monday night, GHF announced that it had “commenced operations in Gaza” and delivered “truck loads of food to its Secure Distribution Sites, where distribution to the Gazan people began”.

“More trucks with aid will be delivered [on Tuesday], with the flow of aid increasing each day,” it added.

Handout photos showed three lorries laden with pallets of supplies at an unspecified location and just over a dozen men carrying away boxes.

The BBC has asked the GHF how many lorry loads of aid got in and how many people were able to pick up aid, but it has not yet received a response.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military said in a statement that two distribution sites located in the Tal al-Sultan neighbourhood of Rafah and the Morag Corridor, which separates the city from the rest of Gaza, had begun operating and distributing food to thousands of families.

Hundreds of Palestinians were seen queueing at the site in Tal al-Sultan, where food parcels were handed out by Palestinian workers.

“We stood in a long queue. We did not deal with the Israeli army or any American staff,” one recipient told a local journalist.

A Palestinian working with one of the local companies involved in the operation told the BBC that “dozens of Palestinian workers from three Palestinian companies are overseeing the distribution process, which runs daily from 09:00 to 19:00”.

The employee, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media, added: “The distribution is co-ordinated with five American security personnel, who are present on-site, but there are no Israelis involved in the process.”

But many Palestinians stayed away from the sites.

A displaced woman from the neighbouring city of Khan Younis expressed concern about having to cross Israeli military lines to collect aid from the GHF’s sites.

“We have no idea what awaits us there – whether we will return or be lost forever. We are being forced to risk our lives just to feed our children,” she told BBC Arabic’s Middle East Daily radio programme.

A man who was still living in Khan Younis despite an Israeli evacuation order said he would “refuse to accept American aid under these terms”, and warned that it marked the beginning of a “broader strategy of displacement”.

When asked to comment on the GHF’s work by reporters in Geneva, a spokesman for the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Jens Laerke, said: “We do not participate in this modality for the reasons that we have given.”

“It is a distraction from what is actually needed, which is the reopening of all the crossings into Gaza, a secure environment within Gaza, and faster facilitation of permissions and final approvals of all the emergency supplies that we have just outside the border,” he added.

Under the GHF’s mechanism, Palestinians must collect boxes containing food and basic hygiene items for their families from four distribution sites in southern and central Gaza.

The sites will be secured by American contractors, with Israeli troops patrolling the perimeters. To access them, Palestinians were expected to have to undergo identity checks and screening for involvement with Hamas.

UN and other aid agencies have insisted they will not co-operate with any scheme that fails to respect fundamental humanitarian principles.

Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council and a former UN humanitarian chief, has described the GHF as “militarised, privatised, politicised”.

“The people behind it are military – ex-CIA, ex-security people. There is a security firm that is going to work closely with one party to the armed conflict, the Israel Defense Forces,” he told the BBC on Monday. “They will have some hubs… where people will be screened according to the needs of one side in this conflict – Israel.”

“We cannot have a party to the conflict decide where, how and who will get the aid,” he added.

On Sunday night, Jake Wood resigned as the GHF’s executive director, saying the group’s aid distribution system could not work in a way that would be able to fulfil the principles of “humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence”.

The GHF’s board rejected the criticism, accusing “those who benefit from the status quo” of being more focused on “tearing this apart than on getting aid in”.

It said the system was fully consistent with humanitarian principles and would feed a million Palestinians – just under half the population – by the end of the week.

John Acree, a former senior manager at USAID – the US government agency responsible for administering foreign aid – has been named interim executive director.

Hamas has warned Palestinians not to co-operate with GHF’s system, saying it would “replace order with chaos, enforce a policy of engineered starvation of Palestinian civilians, and use food as a weapon during wartime”.

GHF’s statement alleged that Hamas had also made “death threats targeting aid groups supporting humanitarian operations at GHF’s Safe Distribution Sites, and efforts to block the Gazan people from accessing aid at the sites”.

Israel imposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

It said the steps were meant to put pressure on the armed group to release the 58 hostages still held in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

On 19 May, the Israeli military launched an expanded offensive that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would see troops “take control of all areas” of Gaza. The plan reportedly includes completely clearing the north of civilians and forcibly displacing them to the south.

Netanyahu also said Israel would temporarily ease the blockade and allow a “basic” amount of food into Gaza to prevent a famine, following pressure from allies in the US.

Since then, Israeli authorities say they have allowed at least 665 lorry loads of humanitarian aid, including flour, baby food and medical supplies, into Gaza.

However, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme warned on Sunday that the aid was only a “drop in the bucket” of what was needed in the territory to reverse the catastrophic levels of hunger, amid significant shortages of basic foods and skyrocketing prices.

Half a million people face starvation in the coming months, according to an assessment by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response Hamas’ cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 54,056 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,901 over the past 10 weeks, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Founded in 1600 as a trading enterprise, the English East India Company gradually transformed into a colonial power.

By the late 18th Century, as it tightened its grip on India, Company officials began commissioning Indian artists – many formerly employed by the Mughals – to create striking visual records of the land they were now ruling.

A Treasury of Life: Indian Company Paintings, c. 1790 to 1835, an ongoing show in the Indian capital put together by DAG, an art gallery in Delhi, features over 200 works that once lay on the margins of mainstream art history. It is India’s largest exhibition of Company paintings, highlighting their rich diversity and the skill of Indian artists.

Painted by largely unnamed artists, these paintings covered a wide range of subjects, but mainly fall into three categories: natural history, like botanical studies; architecture, including monuments and scenic views of towns and landscapes; and Indian manners and customs.

“The focus on these three subject areas reflects European engagements with their Indian environment in an attempt to come to terms with all that was unfamiliar to Western eyes,” says Giles Tillotson of DAG, who curated the show.

“Europeans living in India were delighted to encounter flora and fauna that were new to them, and ancient buildings in exotic styles. They met – or at least observed – multitudes of people whose dress and habits were strange but – as they began to discern – were linked to stream of religious belief and social practice.”

Beyond natural history, India’s architectural heritage captivated European visitors.

Before photography, paintings were the best way to document travels, and iconic Mughal monuments became prime subjects. Patrons soon turned to skilled local artists.

Beyond the Taj Mahal, popular subjects included Agra Fort, Jama Masjid, Buland Darwaza, Sheikh Salim Chishti’s tomb at Fatehpur Sikri (above), and Delhi’s Qutub Minar and Humayun’s Tomb.

The once-obscure and long-anonymous Indian artist Sita Ram, who painted the tomb, was one of them.

From June 1814 to early October 1815, Sita Ram travelled extensively with Francis Rawdon, also known as the Marquess of Hastings, who had been appointed as the governor general in India in 1813 and held the position for a decade. (He is not to be confused with Warren Hastings, who served as India’s first governor general much earlier.)

The largest group in this collection is a set of botanical watercolours, likely from Murshidabad or Maidapur (in present-day West Bengal).

While Murshidabad was the Nawab of Bengal’s capital, the East India Company operated there. In the late 18th century, nearby Maidapur briefly served as a British base before Calcutta’s (now Kolkata) rise eclipsed it.

Originally part of the Louisa Parlby Album – named after the British woman who compiled it while her husband, Colonel James Parlby, served in Bengal – the works likely date to the late 18th Century, before Louisa’s return to Britain in 1801.

“The plants represented in the paintings are likely quite illustrative of what could be found growing in both the well-appointed gardens as well as the more marginal spaces of common greens, waysides and fields in the Murshidabad area during the late eighteenth century,” writes Nicolas Roth of Harvard University.

“These are familiar plants, domestic and domesticated, which helped constitute local life worlds and systems of meaning, even as European patrons may have seen them mainly as exotica to be collected.”

Another painting from the collection is of a temple procession showing a Shiva statue on an ornate platform carried by men, flanked by Brahmins and trumpeters.

At the front, dancers with sticks perform under a temporary gateway, while holy water is poured on them from above.

Labeled Ouricaty Tirounal, it depicts a ritual from Thirunallar temple in Karaikal in southern India, capturing a rare moment from a 200-year-old tradition.

By the late 18th Century, Company paintings had become true collaborations between European patrons and Indian artists.

Art historian Mildred Archer called them a “fascinating record of Indian social life,” blending the fine detail of Mughal miniatures with European realism and perspective.

Regional styles added richness – Tanjore artists, for example, depicted people of various castes, shown with tools of their trade. These albums captured a range of professions – nautch girls, judges, sepoys, toddy tappers, and snake charmers.

“They catered to British curiosity while satisfying European audience’s fascination with the ‘exoticism’ of Indian life,” says Kanupriya Sharma of DAG.

Most studies of Company painting focus on British patronage, but in south India, the French were commissioning Indian artists as early as 1727.

A striking example is a set of 48 paintings from Pondicherry – uniform in size and style – showing the kind of work French collectors sought by 1800.

One painting (above) shows 10 men in hats and loincloths rowing through surf. A French caption calls them nageurs (swimmers) and the boat a chilingue.

Among the standout images are two vivid scenes by an artist known as B, depicting boatmen navigating the rough Coromandel coast in stitched-plank rowboats.

With no safe harbours near Madras or Pondicherry, these skilled oarsmen were vital to European trade, ferrying goods and people through dangerous surf between anchored ships and the shore.

Company paintings often featured natural history studies, portraying birds, animals, and plants – especially from private menageries.

As seen in the DAG show, these subjects are typically shown life-size against plain white backgrounds, with minimal surroundings – just the occasional patch of grass. The focus remains firmly on the species itself.

Ashish Anand, CEO of DAG, says the the latest show proposes Company paintings as the “starting point of Indian modernism”.

Anand says this “was the moment when Indian artists who had trained in courtly ateliers first moved outside the court (and the temple) to work for new patrons”.

“The agendas of those patrons were not tied up with courtly or religious concerns; they were founded on scientific enquiry and observation,” he says.

“Never mind that the patrons were foreigners. What should strike us now is how Indian artists responded to their demands, creating entirely new templates of Indian art.”