Israel has agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalise a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, US President Donald Trump has said.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that during the proposed ceasefire the US would “work with all parties to end the War”.

“The Qataris and Egyptians, who have worked very hard to help bring Peace, will deliver this final proposal. I hope… that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” Trump wrote.

Israel has not confirmed it has agreed to the conditions of a deal, and there was no immediate comment from Hamas.

Trump’s announcement comes before a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled for next week, in which the US president has said he would be “very firm”.

The US president said on Tuesday that he believed Netanyahu wanted to end hostilities in Gaza.

“He wants to. I can tell you he wants to. I think we’ll have a deal next week,” Trump added.

On Tuesday, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was due to meet US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance in Washington.

Earlier, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the BBC Israel was “absolutely” ready for a ceasefire.

Speaking on the BBC News channel, Danon said that Hamas was “playing hardball”.

“We are putting pressure on Hamas, and if they will not come to the table, the only option we will have to bring back the hostages, is to apply more military pressure,” Danon said.

“The war will end when the hostages are back home,” he added.

Around 50 Israeli hostages are still in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Last week, a senior Hamas official told the BBC mediators have increased efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled.

Israel has said the conflict can only end when Hamas has been completely dismantled. Hamas has long called for a permanent truce and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Trump’s comments come shortly after Israel ordered evacuations in northern Gaza ahead of increased military action. At least 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a seafront cafe in Gaza City on Monday, according to medics and eyewitnesses.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed. At least 56,647 have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli military this week also said it was examining reports of civilians being “harmed” while approaching aid distribution centres in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

More than 170 charities and other NGOs have called for the controversial group to be shut down. Organisations like Oxfam and Save the Children say Israeli forces “routinely” open fire on Palestinians seeking aid.

Israel denies this accusation and says the organisation is necessary to bypass Hamas interference in aid distribution.

In March, a previous ceasefire deal collapsed when Israel launched fresh strikes on Gaza. The Israeli military described the action as “pre-emptive strikes… based on Hamas’s readiness to execute terror attacks, build up force and re-arm”.

The previous ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas – which started on 19 January – was set up to have three stages, but did not make it past the first stage.

Stage two included establishing a permanent ceasefire, the return of remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Get our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Sign up here.

Qantas is contacting customers after a cyber attack targeted their third-party customer service platform.

On 30 June, the Australian airline detected “unusual activity” on a platform used by its contact centre to store the data of six million people, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers.

Upon detection of the breach, Qantas took “immediate steps and contained the system”, according to a statement.

The company is still investigating the full extent of the breach, but says it is expecting the proportion of data stolen to be “significant”.

It has assured the public that passport details, credit card details and personal financial information were not held in the breached system, and no frequent flyer accounts, passwords or PIN numbers have been compromised.

Qantas has notified the Australian Federal Police of the breach, as well as the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

“We sincerely apologise to our customers and we recognise the uncertainty this will cause,” said Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson.

She asked customers to call the dedicated support line if they had concerns, and confirmed that there would be no impact to Qantas’ operations or the safety of the airline.

The attack comes just days after the FBI issued an alert on X warning that the airline sector was a target of cyber criminal group Scattered Spider.

US-based Hawaiian Airlines and Canada’s WestJet have both been impacted by similar cyber attacks in the past two weeks.

BBC revealed that the group has also been the key focus of an investigation into the wave of cyber attacks on UK retailers, including M&S.

The Qantas breach is the latest in a string of Australian data breaches this year, with AustralianSuper and Nine Media suffering significant leaks in the past few months.

In March 2025, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) released statistics revealing that 2024 was the worst year for data breaches in Australia since records began in 2018.

“The trends we are observing suggest the threat of data breaches, especially through the efforts of malicious actors, is unlikely to diminish,” said Australian Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind in a statement from the OAIC.

Ms Kind urged businesses and government agencies to step up security measures and data protection, and highlighted that both the private and public sectors are vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Get our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Sign up here.

After hours of stalemate, Republicans in the US Senate have narrowly passed Donald Trump’s mega-bill on tax and spending, meaning the proposed legislation has cleared one of its key hurdles.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed with Vice-President JD Vance casting a tie-breaking vote after more than 24 hours of debate.

It now heads back to the House, or lower chamber, where it still faces more opposition. An earlier version was cleared by House Republicans by a single-vote margin.

Trump had given the Republican-controlled Congress a deadline of 4 July to send him a final version of the bill to sign into law.

“The bill as amended is passed,” Vance said on Tuesday afternoon, a moment that was met by applause among Senate Republicans, while Democrats sank into their seats and shook their heads in disapproval.

Disputes over the deficit, social programmes and spending levels had created challenges for Republicans, stalling progress and prompting Trump to concede it would be “very hard” to meet his deadline for passing the bill.

Despite efforts to galvanise the party, Senate Majority Leader John Thune lost three Republicans – Maine’s Susan Collins, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Kentucky’s Rand Paul – in the narrow vote. Collins, Tillis and Paul joined all Democrats in voting against the bill.

After days of negotiations, Republican leaders were finally able to secure the support of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who had been withholding her support over concerns of the impact of cuts to Medicaid in her state.

Murkowski still appeared discontented with the bill, even after voting to support it, describing the process as “rushed” and under an “artificial timeline”.

“I struggled mightily with the impact on the most vulnerable in this country”, Murkowski said, adding the process was “probably the most difficult and agonising legislative 24-hour period” of her career.

“My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognise that we’re not there yet,” she told reporters just outside the Senate floor, moments after the vote.

Murkowski’s support made the final Senate vote tally 50-50, and prompted Vance to step in to cast his tie-breaking vote.

On a visit to a migrant detention facility in Florida, Trump celebrated the passage of the bill. “It’s a great bill,” he said. “There is something for everyone.”

The legislation, considered a cornerstone of Trump’s second-term agenda, would make permanent large tax cuts that were temporarily put in place when he was first in office.

To make up for the expected loss of revenue, Republicans have looked to cut spending in a wide range of programmes, including food subsidies and healthcare for lower-income Americans.

The vote came on Tuesday afternoon, concluding a whirlwind voting session on Capitol Hill.

Democrats had attempted to flex their muscles by putting up procedural hurdles against the bill to delay its passage.

That included requiring Senate clerks to read all of the bill’s 940 pages aloud, and launching a lengthy debate process over proposed amendments in what is called a “vote-a-rama”.

• A look at the key items in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
• ‘Our food doesn’t even last the month’ – Americans brace for Trump’s welfare cuts

It is now up to House Republicans to approve the changes made by the Senate before the president can sign the bill into law.

But its fate remains uncertain, as it has been opposed from different angles and Republicans can only afford to lose three votes.

A group of fiscal conservative hawks have signalled their unhappiness with how much the Senate proposal could add to the US national deficit – which refers to the difference between what the government spends and what it raises in revenue each year.

According to the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, the Senate proposal could add $650bn (£472bn) to the deficit each year. “That’s not fiscal responsibility,” caucus members said in a social media post on Monday. “It’s not what we agreed to.”

Meanwhile, other House Republicans are concerned that the Senate legislation would make steeper cuts to the Medicaid health insurance programme for lower-income Americans than they had approved.

Democrats in both chambers of Congress, too, have criticised the proposed welfare cuts.

Republicans in the House of Representatives will be working against a previously-imposed 4 July deadline from the president.

“I’d love to do July 4th but I think it’s very hard to do July 4th…. I would say maybe July 4th or somewhere around there,” Trump told reporters as he was departing the White House for Florida.

Among the other critics of the plans are tech billionaire Elon Musk, who helped Trump to win the White House last year and served as Trump’s cost-cutting tsar.

Musk is now actively working to spoil the chances of survival for Trump’s signature legislation, and has threatened to set up a new political party if the bill clears Congress.

On Monday, he threatened to back challengers to Republicans who vote for it.

“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!” Musk wrote on X.

The bill’s severe reductions to government support for renewable energy and electric vehicles could hurt the bottom line for a company where Musk made some of his fortune, Tesla, as well.

The jury in the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs will keep deliberating after reaching a partial verdict, but deadlocking on the most serious charge faced by the hip-hop mogul.

At the federal court in New York, the 12 jurors announced they had agreed on four of the five counts, but were unable to decide on the racketeering charge, which carries a possible life prison term.

The atmosphere was tense as the rapper sat with head bowed, hands folded in his lap. His lawyers occasionally put their arms around him. Deliberations will resume on Wednesday morning.

Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to all five charges, including sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Over the past two months, the jury has heard from 34 witnesses, including ex-girlfriends, former employees of Mr Combs, male escorts and federal agents.

At around 16:30 EDT on Tuesday (20:30 GMT), the jury announced they had reached a verdict on four of the five counts, after two days of deliberations.

The panel said they couldn’t come to an agreement on the racketeering charge because jurors on both sides have opinions that are unmovable.

Judge Arun Subramanian heard arguments from both the prosecution and the rapper’s defence attorneys on how to proceed, before urging the jurors to keep trying to come to a unanimous decision. Their verdicts on the other four counts were not disclosed.

The prosecution urged the judge to use an Allen charge, which is a set of instructions given to a hung jury to press its members to reach a unanimous decision.

Allen charges are controversial, as some believe they can put undue pressure on juries, forcing them to change their stances or cave to peer pressure – especially when their opinion is in the minority.

The jury will return on Wednesday, and could potentially continue deliberating on 3 July – when the court is normally closed ahead of the 4 July public holiday.

The panel’s unanimous decision on most of the counts after less than two days of deliberations could be a good sign for prosecutors, Robert Mintz, a criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor told the BBC.

But to gain a conviction on the racketeering charge, prosecutors needed to prove that Mr Combs established a criminal enterprise – a co-ordinated plan between the musician and at least one other person to commit at least two crimes over a span of several years.

“That was always going to be the most challenging charge for prosecutors to get a conviction on,” Mr Mintz said.

“It’s a very complicated charge, used typically in the past in organised crime prosecution and so it’s not surprising that that is the one charge giving the jury the most difficulty.”

The defendant has also gone by the names Puffy, Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Love and Brother Love.

He used his stature in the industry to found his successful Sean John clothing line and starred in multiple reality TV shows, including one where contestants competed to become part of his band.

In 2023, he released his fifth record The Love Album: Off The Grid and earned his first solo nomination at the Grammy awards. He was also named a Global Icon at the MTV Awards.

From his pocket, Serhiy Melnyk pulls out a small rusty shard, wrapped neatly in paper.

He holds it up. “It grazed my kidney, pierced my lung, and my heart,” says the Ukrainian serviceman quietly.

Traces of dried blood are still visible on the shrapnel from a Russian drone that became lodged in his heart while he was fighting in eastern Ukraine.

“I didn’t even realise what it was at first — I thought I was just short of breath under my body armour,” he says. “They had to extract shrapnel out of my heart.”

With the rise of drone warfare in Ukraine, these injuries are becoming more common. Drones often carry weapons and materials which fragment and cause more complex shrapnel wounds.

According to Ukrainian military medics, shrapnel wounds now make up to 80% of battlefield trauma.

Untreated, Serhiy’s injury would have been fatal.

“The fragment was as sharp as a blade. Doctors said it was a large piece, and that I was lucky to survive,” he says reflectively.

But it wasn’t just luck that saved him, it was a new piece of medical technology. A magnetic extractor.

Cardiovascular surgeon Serhiy Maksymenko shows footage of the metal fragment trapped in Serhiy’s beating heart before it is delicately removed by a thin magnet-tipped device.

“You don’t have to make large cuts in the heart,” explains Dr Maksymenko. “I just make a small incision, insert the magnet, and it pulls the shrapnel out.”

In just one year, Doctor Maksymenko’s team has performed over 70 successful heart operations with the device, which has changed the face of front-line medicine in Ukraine.

The development of these extractors came after front-line medics highlighted the urgent need for a safe, fast, minimally invasive way to remove shrapnel.

Oleh Bykov – who used to work as a lawyer – drove this development. Since 2014 he has been supporting the army as a volunteer. He met medics on the front line and from his conversations the magnetic extractors were created.

The concept isn’t new. Magnets were used for removing metal from wounds as far back as the Crimean War in the 1850s. But Oleh’s team modernised the approach, creating flexible models for abdominal surgery, micro-extractors for delicate work, and high-strength tools for bones.

Operations have become more precise and less invasive. The magnet can be run along the surface of a wound to draw fragments out. Surgeons then make a small incision and the piece is removed.

Holding a slim pen-shaped tool, Oleh demonstrates its power by lifting a sledgehammer with the magnetic tip.

His work has been commended by other war medics including David Nott, a veteran of war zones around the world.

“In war, things get developed which would never have been thought of in civilian life,” he says.

Fragmentation wounds have increased due to the changing face of war, and because they take a long time to find he believes this device could be a game changer.

He says looking for shrapnel in patients is like “looking for a needle in a haystack”- it is not always successful and delays treatment of other casualties.

Searching for fragments manually can be dangerous and requires bigger incisions that can cause more bleeding – “so to be able just to simply find them using a magnet is ingenious.”

What began as a field tool has now been rolled out across Ukraine, with 3,000 units distributed to hospitals and front-line medics, like Andriy Alban who says he has come to rely on the device.

He often works while under fire, in trenches or makeshift outdoor clinics, and sometimes without local anaesthetic.

“My job is to save lives – bandage wounds and get soldiers evacuated,” he says.

There has been no official certification of the magnetic extractor.

The Ukrainian Health Ministry says medical devices must comply fully with technical regulations. However, in exceptional cases, such as martial law or a state of emergency, the use of uncertified devices is allowed to meet the needs of the military and security forces.

At the height of war, there’s no time for red tape, mastermind Oleh explains. “These devices save lives. If someone thinks my actions are a crime, I’ll take responsibility. I’m even prepared to go to jail if it comes to that. But then all the doctors who use these devices should be incarcerated too,” he adds half jokingly.

David Nott agrees that certification is not a top priority for now and believes the device could prove helpful in other war zones such as Gaza.

“In war, it’s not really necessary. You only do the things which are important to save lives.”

Back in Lviv, Serhiy’s wife Yulia is just grateful her husband survived his injury.

“I just want to praise those people who invented this extractor,” she says tearfully. “Thanks to them, my husband is alive.”

The US has halted some weapons shipments to Kyiv, the White House has said, as Russia’s war against Ukraine has intensified.

The decision was taken “to put America’s interests first” following a Department of Defense review of US “military support and assistance to other countries”, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said on Tuesday.

The US has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, leading some in the Trump administration to voice concerns that US stockpiles are too low.

The Ukrainian government has not commented on the announcement. US officials did not immediately say which shipments were being halted.

Air defence missiles and precision munitions are understood to be among the weapons affected, according to the Reuters news agency.

The Department of Defense “continues to provide the President with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine,” said Elbridge Colby, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.

At the same time, Colby added, “the Department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving U.S. forces’ readiness for Administration defense priorities.”

A US official said the move was based on concerns about US military stockpiles falling too low, the BBC’s US media partner CBS News has reported.

“The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran,” Kelly added, referring to US strikes at three Iranian nuclear sites last month.

The decision comes shortly after US President Donald Trump met with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky at the Nato summit in the Netherlands last week.

On that occasion, Trump said US officials “are going to see if we can make some of them available” when asked by the BBC about providing extra Patriot anti-missile systems to Ukraine.

Referring to his conversation with Zelensky, Trump said: “We had a little rough sometimes, but he couldn’t have been nicer.”

The two had a heated confrontation in the Oval Office in March this year. Afterwards, Trump said he was pausing military aid to Ukraine that had been earmarked by the previous Biden administration. Intelligence sharing with Ukraine was also suspended.

But both pauses were subsequently lifted.

In late April, the US and Ukraine signed a deal that would give the US access to Ukraine’s mineral reserves in exchange for military assistance.

Separately, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday – the first time in over two-and-a-half years.

They spoke on the phone for more than two hours, Macron’s office said, adding that the French president urged a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Putin hit back by blaming the West for the conflict. A Kremlin statement said Putin reminded Macron that Western countries had “for many years ignored Russia’s security interests” and “created an anti-Russian bridgehead in Ukraine”.

The US military aid suspension comes as Russia stepped up its war against Ukraine.

Over the weekend, Russia launched one of its largest aerial attacks on Ukraine since the start of the war, using more than 500 different types of weapons, including drones, ballistic and cruise missiles.

On Tuesday, three people were killed in a Ukrainian attack on a Russian factory in Izhevsk, more than 1,000km (620 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea peninsula annexed in 2014.

Spain and England have recorded their hottest June ever, as scorching temperatures continue to grip Europe.

Spain’s weather service Aemet said the “extremely hot” June – with an average temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) – “has pulverised records”, surpassing the normal average for July and August.

In England, the Met Office said June’s mean temperature of 16.9C set a new record for that month, while the UK as a whole saw its second warmest June since records began in 1884.

Mainland Portugal experienced a record daily temperature for June of 46.6C. The monthly average data is yet to be released.

Wildfires in Turkey forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, while two people died in Italy following separate heat-related deaths.

Overnight, on the first day of July, Aemet said several places across the Iberian peninsula had topped 43C, but added a respite in temperatures was on its way from Thursday.

Night-time temperatures recorded overnight into Tuesday hit 28C in Seville and 27C in Barcelona.

Later on Tuesday, the UK recorded 34.7C in St James’s Park in London, making it the hottest day of the year so far.

On Monday, the highest daily UK temperature was recorded at Heathrow Airport in London at 33.1C. Meanwhile, Wimbledon recorded a temperature of 32.9C, the tennis tournament’s hottest opening day on record.

According to provisional data, the Met Office said the UK’s mean temperature of 15.2C for June was the second highest on record for that month.

It was “only surpassed by June 2023, which recorded 15.8C”, the agency said.

UK sees hottest day of the year: Live updates

In Turkey, rescuers earlier evacuated more than 50,000 people – mostly from the western province of Izmir – as firefighters continued to put out hundreds of wildfires that had broken out in recent days.

Fires have also swept through parts of Bilecik, Hatay, Sakarya, and Manisa provinces.

Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said over the past three days, emergency teams had responded to 263 wildfires nationwide.

In France, the heatwave continued across much of the country on Tuesday – a day after many cities experienced their hottest night and day on record for June.

At Paris Orly airport, a reading of 37.6C was recorded a short time ago.

The top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris has been closed because of the intense European heatwave; while Climate Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher called it an “unprecedented” situation.

For first time in five years the Paris region has activated a red alert – the highest extreme heat warning – along with 15 other French regions.

As many as 1,896 schools and colleges in France were closed as of lunchtime on Tuesday because of the heat.

The establishments were all in departments in the country covered by the red alert.

A reading of 46.6 C (115.9F) was registered in Mora, Portugal, about 60 miles east of Lisbon on Sunday, the country’s meteorological agency IPMA reported.

It was a record reading for mainland Portugal.

In Italy, the Tuscany region has seen hospital admissions rise by 20%, according to local reports.

Italians in 21 out of the 27 cities have been subjected to the highest heat alert and 13 regions, including Lombardy and Emilia, have been advised not to venture outside during the hottest periods of the day.

In Lombardy, working outdoors has been banned from 12:30 to 16:00 on hot days on building sites, roads and farms until September.

In Florence, central Italy, meteorologists registered a temperature of 38.9C on Tuesday, while the southern city of Cagliari was baking in 38.6C.

The temperatures are expected to get even higher later on Tuesday.

Temperatures in Greece have been approaching 40C for several days and wildfires hit several coastal towns near the capital Athens destroying homes and forcing people to evacuate.

In Germany, the country’s meteorological service warned that temperatures could reach almost 38C on Tuesday and Wednesday – further potentially record-breaking temperatures.

The heatwave lowered levels in the Rhine River – a major shipping route – limiting the amount cargo ships can transport and raising freighting costs.

Countries in and around the Balkans have also been struggling with the intense heat, although temperatures have begun to cool. Wildfires have also been reported in Montenegro.

Heatwaves are seen as a serious health hazard, and they are also impacting the environment.

Higher temperatures in the Adriatic Sea are encouraging invasive species such as the poisonous lionfish, while also causing further stress on alpine glaciers that are already shrinking at record rates.

The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Turk, warned on Monday that the heatwave highlighted the need for climate adaptation – moving away from practices and energy sources, such as fossil fuels, which are the main cause of climate change.

“Rising temperatures, rising seas, floods, droughts, and wildfires threaten our rights to life, to health, to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and much more,” he told the UN’s Human Rights Council.

Heatwaves are becoming more common due to human-caused climate change, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Extreme hot weather will happen more often – and become even more intense – as the planet continues to warm, it has said.

Richard Allan, Professor of Climate Science at the University of Reading in the UK, explained that rising greenhouse gas levels are making it harder for the planet to lose excess heat.

“The warmer, thirstier atmosphere is more effective at drying soils, meaning heatwaves are intensifying, with moderate heat events now becoming extreme.”

Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.

The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to block transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports after a federal civil rights investigation stemming from swimmer Lia Thomas.

The US Department of Education announced the agreement, saying the Ivy League institution would apologise and restore to female athletes titles and records that were “misappropriated by male athletes”.

The university said it would update its records set during the 2021–22 season to “indicate who would now hold the records under current eligibility guidelines”, but it did not say whether Thomas’ records would be erased.

Thomas became the first trans athlete to win the highest US national college title in March 2022.

The deal marks the latest development in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on transgender athletes participating in sports. He signed an executive order days after coming into office that sought to prevent transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.

The university was among several that his administration opened investigations into over possible violations of Title IX, a 1972 civil rights law that bans sex-based discrimination in any education programme or activity that receives federal funding.

Two months later, the Trump administration paused $175m (£127m) in federal funding to the college over its transgender athlete policy.

Under Tuesday’s deal, the university must stick to “biology-based definitions” of male and female, in line with the president’s executive orders, said the education department.

US Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement: “Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action.

“Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the University for future generations of female athletes.”

The University of Pennsylvania said its previous policies were in line with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) eligibility criteria at the time, but “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules”.

“We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time,” said a statement on its website.

The change at the school comes years after Thomas competed at UPenn – first with the school’s men’s team for three seasons before starting hormone replacement therapy in spring 2019.

Competing on the women’s swim team in 2022, Thomas shattered school swim records, posting the fastest times of any female swimmer. She has since graduated and no longer competes for the university.

She also has noted the transgender population of college athletes is “very small”. The NCAA has said it amounted to about 10 athletes.

“The biggest misconception, I think, is the reason I transitioned,” Thomas told ABC and ESPN in 2022. “People will say, ‘Oh, she just transitioned so she would have an advantage, so she could win.’ I transitioned to be happy, to be true to myself.”

Last year, Thomas took legal action in a bid to compete again in elite women’s sports, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland rejected the case.

It came two years after governing body World Aquatics voted to ban transgender women from such events if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty.

Human Rights Campaign, the largest political group lobbying for LGBT rights in the US, issued a statement criticising the deal.

“The American people deserve a White House that is laser focused on making sure every student thrives,” said spokesman Brandon Wolf.

“Instead, this administration is obsessed with making young people’s lives harder and scapegoating transgender people so they can attack independent institutions.”

Jihadist fighters have launched a series of simultaneous attacks on military posts across numerous towns in Mali – the third major assault on the army over the last month.

Mali’s army said it repelled Tuesday morning’s attacks, allegedly “neutralising” more than 80 militants, without saying if there were any other casualties.

However, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda-linked group who said it was behind the attacks, said it had taken control of three army barracks.

For more than a decade Mali has been wracked by a deadly Islamist insurgency, as well as attacks from separatist movements.

In a statement broadcast on national TV, army spokesperson Souleymane Dembele said: “The enemy suffered significant losses in every location where they engaged with the security and defence forces.”

Col Dembele added that the army recovered weapons, vehicles and motorcycles from the assailants.

Earlier, the armed forces said that the attacks had occurred across seven towns and cities, including Binoli, Kayes and Sandere, near the border with Senegal. There were also attacks further north, near Mali’s frontier with Mauritania.

One resident in Kayes told the AFP news agency: “We woke up in shock this morning. There’s gunfire, and from my house I can see smoke billowing towards the governor’s residence.”

JNIM called its attack “co-ordinated and high quality” in a statement posted on social media. They did not detail any casualties.

The group has also said it carried out two other significant recent attacks.

On 2 June, militants targeted both an army camp and airport in the ancient, northern city of Timbuktu.

Just a day before, a raid killed at least 30 soldiers in the centre of the country.

The attacks, the latest sign of rising insecurity in Mali and the wider Sahel region, came after the United States Africa Command warned about growing efforts by various different Islamist militant groups which operate in the Sahel to gain access to West Africa’s coastline.

During a press conference in May, the commander of United States Africa Command (Africom), Gen Michael Langley, described recent attacks in Nigeria, the wider Sahel, and the Lake Chad Basin as deeply troubling.

He warned that the groups’ access to the coast would significantly boost their capacity for smuggling and arms trafficking.

• Life in a Timbuktu under siege by Islamist fighters
• The region with more ‘terror deaths’ than rest of world combined
• Three military-run states leave West African bloc – what will change?

French journalists’ unions on Tuesday called on Algeria to release a French football writer who has been jailed for seven years for supporting terrorism.

Christophe Gleizes, who is 36, was sentenced on Sunday, after being found guilty of holding exchanges with a proponent of self-determination for Algeria’s Kabyle minority.

The journalist, who specialises in African football for the Paris-based So Foot magazine, travelled to Algeria in May 2024 for an article on the well-known club JSK (Jeunesse Sportive de Kabylie) based in Tizi Ouzou, some 100km (62 miles) from the capital Algiers.

He was detained a few days later in Tizi Ouzou and for the last 13 months has been under a form of limited freedom, unable to leave the country and obliged to report regularly to police.

Under advice from French diplomats, his family and fellow journalists kept his plight under wraps pending the result of the trial.

“The imprisonment of a journalist for carrying out his profession is a red line that must never be crossed. Christophe Gleizes must be given back his freedom, his family and his writing,” journalists’ representatives from around 40 different French media said in a statement.

“Nothing can justify the ordeal that Christophe is going through now,” his family said.

“In all his writing he showed a passionate interest in the lives of African footballers. Is this his reward?”

Gleizes’s case recalls that of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who has been in jail since being arrested at Algiers airport in November last year.

On Tuesday an appeals court in Algiers confirmed the five-year prison sentence handed down in March, after Sansal’s conviction for breaking state security laws.

The writer, who is 80 and suffers from cancer, was found to have “threatened national unity” in an interview he gave to a rightwing French website in which he questioned the official Algerian account of its pre-independence history.

Following the appeals court sentence, French prime minister Francois Bayrou expressed the hope that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune would use the occasion of Algeria’s 63rd independence anniversary on Saturday to grant a pardon to Sansal.

On the Gleizes case, the foreign ministry in Paris said Tuesday it “regretted the heavy sentence” imposed on the journalist, but fell short of calling for his release.

Relations between the two countries have been on a knife-edge for the last year, since President Emmanuel Macron appeared to shift France’s position on north Africa towards greater support for Algeria’s historic rival Morocco.

Since then there has been a series of diplomatic rows, with tit-for-tat expulsions and a breakdown of cooperation over extradition and visas.

Supporters of Sansal say he is in effect a hostage, and is being used by the Algerian government to put pressure on Paris.

Algeria says he was convicted following due process of the law.

Gleizes’s employer Franck Annese, founder of So Press media group, described him as a “super guy, enthusiastic, willing, and full of humour.”

“He has absolutely no political axe to grind. His interviews and articles prove it.”

According to Mr Annese, Gleizes “fell in love” with African football when he investigated the death in 2014 of Albert Ebossé, a Cameroonian forward who died after being struck on the head by a projectile while playing for JSK.

This led to his co-authoring a book – Magic System: Modern Slavery of African footballers – which strongly criticised the agents who “exploit the confidence and dreams of these young players.”

According to the campaigning group Reporters without Borders (RSF), in researching his article on JSK Gleizes had contacted an exiled Kabyle opposition figure who was once an influential figure at the football club.

This person is now leader of the Movement for Self-Determination of Kabylia (MAK), RSF said.

In 2021 MAK was proscribed as terrorist by the Algerian government.

Gleizes’s supporters contend that two of the journalist’s three exchanges with the opposition figure took place before the MAK was banned; and that all the exchanges concerned football, not politics.

Millions of websites – including Sky News, The Associated Press and Buzzfeed – will now be able to block artificial intelligence (AI) bots from accessing their content without permission.

The new system is being rolled out by internet infrastructure firm, Cloudflare, which hosts around a fifth of the internet.

Eventually, sites will be able to ask for payment from AI firms in return for having their content scraped.

Many prominent writers, artists, musicians and actors have accused AI firms of training systems on their work without permission or payment.

In the UK, it led to a furious row between the government and artists including Sir Elton John over how to protect copyright.

Cloudflare’s tech targets AI firm bots – also known as crawlers – which are programs that explore the web, indexing and collecting data as they go. They are important to the way AI firms build, train and operate their systems.

So far, Cloudflare says its tech is active on a million websites.

Roger Lynch, chief executive of Condé Nast, whose print titles include GQ, Vogue, and The New Yorker, said the move was “a game-changer” for publishers.

“This is a critical step toward creating a fair value exchange on the Internet that protects creators, supports quality journalism and holds AI companies accountable”, he wrote in a statement.

However, other experts say stronger legal protections will still be needed.

Initially the system will apply by default to new users of Cloudflare services, plus sites that participated in an earlier effort to block crawlers.

Many publishers accuse AI firms of using their content without permission.

Recently the BBC threatened to take legal action against US based AI firm Perplexity, demanding it immediately stopped using BBC content, and paid compensation for material already used.

However publishers are generally happy to allow crawlers from search engines, like Google, to access their sites, so that the search companies can in return can direct people to their content.

Perplexity accused the BBC of seeking to preserve “Google’s monopoly”.

But Cloudflare argues AI breaks the unwritten agreement between publishers and crawlers. AI crawlers, it argues, collect content like text, articles, and images to generate answers, without sending visitors to the original source—depriving content creators of revenue.

“If the Internet is going to survive the age of AI, we need to give publishers the control they deserve and build a new economic model that works for everyone,” wrote the firm’s chief executive Matthew Prince.

To that end the company is developing a “Pay Per Crawl” system, which would give content creators the option to request payment from AI companies for utilising their original content.

According to Cloudflare there has been an explosion of AI bot activity.

“AI Crawlers generate more than 50 billion requests to the Cloudflare network every day”, the company wrote in March.

And there is growing concern that some AI crawlers are disregarding existing protocols for excluding bots.

In an effort to counter the worst offenders Cloudflare previously developed a system where the worst miscreants would be sent to a “Labyrinth” of web pages filled with AI generated junk.

The new system attempts to use technology to protect the content of websites and to give sites the option to charge AI firms a fee to access it.

In the UK there is an intense legislative battle between government, creators and the AI firms over the extent to which the creative industries should be protected from AI firms using their works to train systems without permission or payment.

And, on both sides of the Atlantic, content creators, licensors and owners have gone to court in an effort to prevent what they see as AI firms encroachment on creative rights.

Ed Newton-Rex, the founder of Fairly Trained which certifies that AI companies have trained their systems on properly licensed data, said it was a welcome development – but there was “only so much” one company could do

“This is really only a sticking plaster when what’s required is major surgery,” he told the BBC.

“It will only offer protection for people on websites they control – it’s like having body armour that stops working when you leave your house,” he added.

“The only real way to protect people’s content from theft by AI companies is through the law.”

Filmmaker Baroness Beeban Kidron, who is campaigning for more protection for the creative industries, welcomed the news saying the company had shown leadership.

“Cloudflare sits at the heart of the digital world and it is exciting to see them take decisive action,” she told the BBC.

“If we want a vibrant public sphere we need AI companies to contribute to the communities in which they operate, that means paying their fair share of tax, settling with those whose work they have stolen to build their products, and, as Cloudflare has just shown, using tech creatively to ensure equity between digital and human creators on an ongoing basis.”

It has been a good year for gold. A host of turbulent events in the global economy has driven up prices for the glittery commodity to record highs in 2025.

In a world of tariffs and international conflict, gold appeals to investors as one of the few remaining stable assets. Everyone wants a piece of the action, from central banks to large institutions like hedge funds, and retail investors. But few know where their gold comes from, or much about the conflicts it may be fuelling in the countries where it is mined.

For the governments of West Africa’s Sahel region, the stakes are even higher. Gold is a lifeline for the military juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, who are beleaguered by jihadist insurgencies, regional isolation, and the ravages of climate change.

“Because gold prices have been at a historic high… the military governments are hoping that they will be able to benefit directly,” Beverly Ochieng, a senior researcher at global consultancy firm Control Risks, told the BBC.

Together, the three Sahel states produce around 230 tonnes of gold per year, according to the World Gold Council’s estimates, or about $15bn (£11bn) at the current market rate.

A lack of records for artisanal and small-scale gold mining means that this figure is probably an underestimate.

The combined gold production in these three states surpasses any other country in Africa, making the Sahel region a major global contributor to the gold market.

The governments say that the proceeds from the lucrative sector are benefitting citizens through increased “sovereignty” – though Russian firms are increasing their stake in the industry at the expense of Western-owned firms.

For example, Mali’s junta leader Gen Assimi Goïta laid the foundation stone last month for a gold refinery, in which a Russian conglomerate, the Yadran Group, will have a minority stake. The refinery will reportedly create 500 direct jobs and 2,000 indirect jobs.

Burkina Faso is also building its first-ever gold refinery, and has set up a state-owned mining company, requiring foreign firms to give it a 15% stake in their local operations and to transfer skills to Burkinabé people.

Fake AI media campaigns have even been launched to celebrate the country’s charismatic 37-year-old military ruler Capt Ibrahim Traoré for commanding such an important revenue stream for the nation.

“Mining gold from deepest dirt. But souls are rich and true,” croons an AI-generated Rihanna in one recent song, pouring her silky, auto-tuned praise on Capt Traoré.

The reality is very different, according to Ms Ochieng, who explained that Burkina Faso and its neighbours need quick cash to fund counterinsurgency campaigns.

In the case of Mali, much of this has been outsourced to Russian mercenaries, including the Wagner Group and its successor, Africa Corps, which falls under the command of Russia’s defence ministry.

Africa Corps has been involved in military training in Burkina Faso, but the junta officially denies its presence.

Although public spending transparency in the countries is poor, the governments are thought to devote large portions of their budgets to national security.

Military spending in Mali trebled since 2010, amounting to 22% of the national budget by 2020.

The governments are fighting jihadist groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State (IS).

But campaign group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the Malian government and the Wagner Group of committing atrocities against civilians, including unlawful killings, summary executions, and torture.

It has documented similar atrocities by Burkina Faso’s military and its allied militias.

For their services, the Wagner Group and now Africa Corps are often paid directly in gold or in mining concessions, according to Alex Vines of the London-based Chatham House think-tank.

“Very little [of the gold revenues] will trickle down to Malians and Burkinabés,” he told the BBC, adding that in fact the armed insurgents themselves may be benefiting from gold.

Since the coup in Mali in 2021, brutal government tactics against communities suspected of harbouring or sympathising with jihadists have increased, pushing more civilians to join the very groups they are fighting.

Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate which is the most active jihadist group in the region, staged an unprecedented number of attacks targeting Burkina Faso military during the first half of 2025, a sign of the group’s growing strength.

The armed groups are also literally cashing in on the increased global appetite for gold.

A large proportion of gold mining in the Sahel is from the artisanal and small-scale sector, which is often informal, meaning it takes place on unlicensed and undeclared sites away from government oversight, according to a 2023 report on gold mining in the Sahel by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Armed groups, including jihadist groups, and Sahel governments are in competition for control over many of these small-scale gold mines.

Gold provides an important revenue stream for militant groups, which appear to be expanding their territorial influence in both Mali and Burkina Faso.

The UNODC believes that most gold from this type of mining ends up in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a global centre for gold refining and trading.

“You do see overlap of violent extremist groups moving onto artisanal production areas for control,” said Dr Vines.

The global spike in gold prices may be prolonging and exacerbating conflict in the Sahel – but, unfortunately for the diggers in artisanal gold mines, it has not led to owners increasing their wages.

One gold miner in Mali’s northern Kidal region agreed to respond to written questions from the BBC on condition of anonymity, for fear of his safety.

He estimated that, on a “good day”, he earns 10,000 to 20,000 CFA francs, or approximately $18 to $36 (£13 to £26).

The amount he is paid has not increased alongside global gold prices, he said.

“Prices went up, but the extra profit goes to mine owners… It’s risky and uncertain, but for many of us, it’s the only option,” he added.

Dr Vines, who formerly worked as a blood diamond investigator for the UN, is concerned that gold has become Africa’s new main conflict commodity.

He noted that gold has not received the same international attention as diamonds, which fuelled bloodshed in several African states throughout the 20th Century, especially during the 1990s.

Intervention by human rights groups and the UN led to the establishment of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme in 2003, which did much to end the sale of so-called “blood diamonds” on the open market.

But attempts to crack down on “blood gold” have been less successful.

This is partly due to a lack of unified ethical standards. The London Bullion Market Association (LBMA), a major authority in the gold market, requires refiners to comply with standards based on guidelines set by a global body, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OED).

The UAE’s enforcement of these regulations has historically been patchy.

In 2021, the country announced its own standards for ethical gold mining – however, the framework remains voluntary. The issue of enforcement has caused tensions in the past between the Gulf state and the LBMA.

Tracing technology represents another hurdle.

“There is no ‘DNA testing’ for gold. With a lot of effort, you can trace diamonds before they get polished and cut… But I haven’t seen ways of tracing the origins of a gold nugget,” Dr Vines said.

Gold is smelted early on in the value chain, making it nearly impossible to trace and connect to potential conflict zones, he explained.

Dr Vines believes that it is likely that some blood gold from the Sahel ends up in UK markets.

“[Gold] gets smelted in [the] UAE, then goes onto the jewellery manufacturing industry, or into dentistry, or bullion. Some of it clearly comes into the UK. And once it is here, there is no way of testing what it is.”

Another reason that it will be difficult to repeat the successes of the Kimberley process, according to Dr Vines, is because the certification system was not designed to deal with state governments.

“Kimberley was designed to deal with armed non-state actors in places like Sierra Leone and Liberia,” he said.

For now, gold’s importance for Sahel governments and the patchy enforcement of ethical gold standards mean that the commodity is likely to continue changing hands, regardless of its origin.

Unfortunately for some communities in the Sahel, that may mean paying for the trade in blood.

• ‘I thought I would die’ – freed captive tells BBC of life in jihadist base
• Why Burkina Faso’s junta leader has captured hearts and minds
• ‘We are poisoning ourselves’: Ghana gold rush sparks environmental disaster
• The region with more ‘terror deaths’ than rest of world combined

Millions of fans are bidding farewell to Squid Game, the Emmy award-winning TV series that has topped Netflix’s charts and become a symbol of South Korea’s ascendance in Hollywood.

The fictional show follows cash-strapped players as they battle it out in a series of traditional Korean children’s games – with a gory twist, as losers are killed in every round.

Squid Game has sucked in viewers since 2021 with its candy-coloured sets and bleak messages about capitalism and humanity. And with its third and final season released last Friday, fans across the world are returning to reality.

Some South Koreans, however, have found themselves reflecting on the society that inspired the dystopian series.

“I feel like Squid Game 3 revealed the true feelings and raw inner thoughts of Korean people,” reads one YouTube comment under a clip from season three.

“It reflected reality so well like how in real life, at work, it’s just full of ruthless people ready to crush you. This show nailed it.”

Squid Game was born against the backdrop of cut-throat competition and widening inequality in South Korean society – where people are too stressed to have children and a university placement exam is seen as the defining moment of a person’s life.

The diverse characters of the show – which include a salaryman, a migrant factory worker and a cryptocurrency scammer – are drawn from figures many South Koreans would find familiar.

The backstory of protagonist Seong Gi-hun, a car factory worker who was laid off and later went on strike, was also inspired by a real-life event: a 2009 strike at the SsangYong Motor factory, where workers clashed with riot police over widespread layoffs. It’s remembered today as one of the country’s largest labour confrontations.

“The drama may be fictional, but it feels more realistic than reality itself,” Jeong Cheol Sang, a film enthusiast, wrote in his review of Squid Game’s final season.

“Precarious labour, youth unemployment, broken families – these aren’t just plot devices, but the very struggles we face every day.”

Those darker messages seemed to be brushed to the side on Saturday night, as a massive parade celebrated the release of the blockbuster’s final season. A giant killer doll and dozens of faceless guards in tracksuits – among other motifs of the deadly games – marched down central Seoul to much fanfare.

For South Korea’s leaders, Squid Game has become a symbol of K-drama’s success on the global stage. It is also part of a string of successes – along with K-pop act BTS and Oscar-winning film Parasite – on which newly elected president Lee Jae Myung wants to capitalise as he sets his sights on exporting K-culture far and wide.

There are signs the Squid Game hype may even go further: the show’s final scene, where Cate Blanchett plays a Korean game with a man in a Los Angeles alley, has fuelled rumours of an American spinoff.

The series ended on an “open-ended” note, Lee Jung-jae, the star of the series, told the BBC. “So it poses a lot of questions to the audience. I hope people will talk about those questions, ponder upon themselves about the questions and try to find an answer.”

In the show’s later seasons, viewers follow Gi-hun’s quest to bring down the eponymous games, which are packaged as entertainment for a group of wealthy VIPs.

But his rebellion fails, and by the end Gi-hun is forced to sacrifice himself to save another player’s baby – an ending that has polarised viewers.

Some argued that Gi-hun’s actions did not square with the dark portrait of reality that showrunners had developed – one that had so well captured the ruthless elements of human nature.

“The characters’ excessive altruism was disturbing – almost to the point of seeming unhinged,” reads a comment on popular South Korean discussion site Nate Pann. “It felt like a fake, performative kind of kindness, prioritising strangers over their own families for no real reason.”

But others said Gi-hun’s death was in line with the show’s commitment to uncomfortable truths.

“This perfectly describes humanity and the message of the show,” another commented on YouTube.

“As much as we wanted to see Gi-Hun win, kill the frontman and the VIPs, and stop the games once and for all before riding off into the sunset, that’s just not the world we live in and it’s certainly not the one that Gi-Hun lived in.”

Hwang Dong-hyuk, the show’s creator, told reporters on Monday that he understood the “mixed reaction” to the final season.

“In season one there were no expectations, so the shock and freshness worked. But by seasons two and three, expectations were sky high, and that makes all the difference,” Hwang said on Monday.

“Game fans wanted more games, others wanted deeper messages, and some were more invested in the characters. Everyone expected something different.”

For some, at least, Gi-hun’s final choice offered a hopeful reflection of reality: that even in times of adversity, kindness can prevail.

“That paradox – of cruelty and warmth coexisting – is what made the finale so moving,” said Mr Jeong, the film blogger. “Watching the Squid Game made me reflect on myself. As someone who has worked in education and counselling, I’ve questioned whether kindness can really change anything.”

“That’s why I stayed with this story. That’s why I call this ending beautiful.”

After nearly 24 hours of debate – starting yesterday morning and stretching overnight – the US Senate approved Donald Trump’s massive tax-cut and spending bill

Passing by the narrowest of margins, the bill, as it stood on Tuesday, contained key parts of the agenda he campaigned on last year.

Trump celebrated its passage during a visit to a migrant detention facility in Florida. “It’s a great bill,” he said. “There is something for everyone.”

But in fact, while lawmakers may have gotten “something” they wanted, they likely faced concessions to achieve that – and ultimately to push the bill through the House on Tuesday.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said she worked hard to ensure the bill provided for her state and ultimately voted for it, but was still unhappy. She called the process “rushed”.

“My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognise that we’re not there yet,” she told reporters just outside the Senate floor, moments after the vote.

• A look at the key items in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
• Watch: Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ triggers Senate face-off
• The woman who could bust Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’

In a game of political ping-pong, the bill now returns to the House, which passed its version of the bill weeks ago. If the narrow Republican majority in that chamber gives final approval, perhaps as early as Wednesday, the legislation can be presented to the president for his signature.

But it may be a tough pill for some House Republicans to swallow.

It includes massive new funding -$70bn – for Trump’s immigration priorities. It boosts defence spending and makes the tax cuts Republicans passed in Trump’s first term permanent. To offset this loss, it cuts funding for Biden-era environmental programmes and Medicaid, the health insurance programme for low-income Americans.

The financial ledger isn’t nearly balanced, however, as the package adds more than $3tn to the federal debt and raises the US borrowing authority by $5tn.

Fiscal hard-liners have complained that the Senate watered down some of their original budget cuts.

The right-wing House Freedom Caucus said the Senate proposal could add $650bn (£472bn) to the deficit each year. “It’s not what we agreed to,” caucus members said in a social media post on Monday.

And centrists still are concerned about cuts in the bill, including reductions in federal payments covering health insurance for low-income Americans.

The original House version was a balancing act that kept the various factions within the Republican Party just satisfied enough to vote yes. The Senate version now landing back in their laps may disrupt that balance.

But the pressure on House Republicans to sign off on what Trump has called his “big, beautiful bill” will be enormous.

The president has said he views the legislation as an integral part of his political legacy – a lasting change in government policy that, unlike executive orders, a future president cannot easily undo.

US President Donald Trump has visited the new Florida detention centre dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz”, where around 3,000 migrants are expected to be held as part of his crackdown on illegal immigration.

While touring the facility in the Florida Everglades, Trump said it will soon hold the most “menacing migrants, some of the most vicious people on the planet”.

The administration said alligators, crocodiles and pythons in the surrounding wetlands would keep detainees from escaping.

Some state lawmakers, the local mayor, environmental groups and neighbours oppose its construction, saying it could harm an important ecosystem.

“We’re surrounded by miles of treacherous swampland and the only way out is, really, deportation,” Trump said on the tour.

He added that he “wouldn’t want to run through the Everglades for long” and that anyone who attempted to do so would be met by “a lot of cops in the form of alligators”.

The facility is designed to hold 3,000 detainees, with the first expected to arrive as soon as Wednesday. A second facility – meant to house 2,000 people – is going to be built near Jacksonville.

During his visit, amid sweltering heat and humidity, Trump toured a medical facility in the complex, as well as a large air-conditioned tent that will house detainees, with several enclosures surrounded by chain-link fence.

Speaking to reporters, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he intends to deputise members of the state’s National Guard Judge Advocate Corps, or Jags, to act as immigration judges and facilitate rapid removals from the country.

The president said the facility “could be” a model for future such facilities, adding that his administration was actively working with the governments of several Republican-run states, such as Louisiana, to find other suitable locations.

“They can have their hearings, to get due process and then immediately be flown back home to their home countries,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who accompanied Trump on the trip.

Trump said he already approved of the governor’s plan.

Both Trump and Noem said they believed the facility would encourage undocumented migrants to self-deport.

Noem claimed one million had already done so, but admitted the government was unsure of the true figure, as some had left the country without using the official Customs and Border Protection app and because their countries of origin had not yet provided data.

The new facility will cost about $450m (£332m) a year to run, according to Noem, and funding will mostly come from a temporary shelter and services programme that the Federal Emergency Management Agency previously used to fund accommodation for undocumented immigrants in US cities.

Local residents who live near the site, like Betty Osceola, a member of the Miccosukee Native American community, have told the BBC they are worried that the temporary facility will become permanent.

“I have serious concerns about the environmental damage,” she said, as she stood next to a canal where an alligator was swimming.

Experts warn the damage to area wetlands and endangered species could undo the state’s massive effort to restore the Everglades, which has cost Florida billions of dollars. It is home to endangered species such as the Florida panther and the West Indian manatee.

Elise Pautler Bennett, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, described the Everglades as “the most sensitive place in Florida”, making development of a detention centre there “risky”.

“Any other project that would have been proposed in the Everglades would have gone through an intense environmental approval process, I’m convinced this one didn’t get that because it’s a political stunt,” Ms Bennett told the BBC.

The move to build a new centre comes as human rights organisations warn detentions centres are becoming overcrowded.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) currently has a record 59,000 detainees in custody nationwide, 140% above its capacity, according to data obtained by CBS, the BBC’s news partner.

Like the former prison Alcatraz in the middle of the San Francisco Bay, which Trump has said he wants to reopen, the facility will be hard to reach.

It will be situated on the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a public airport around 58km (36 miles) from Miami.

The wait is over, K-pop fans – BTS are back. The South Korean band confirmed their highly-anticipated comeback on Tuesday, scheduling a new album and tour for next year.

Announcing the news during their first live stream since all band members completed their mandatory military service, the seven-strong group said they would head to the US later this month to begin working on new music.

“Hey guys, we are back,” Jimin said, with the group adding that their album would be released in spring 2026.

“We’re also planning a world tour alongside the album. We’ll be visiting fans all around the world, so we hope you’re as excited as we are,” the band said.

It will be BTS’s first world tour since the group’s Permission to Dance on Stage tour back in 2022.

And the new album will be the band’s first full-length release since 2020.

All South Korean men must do 18 months in the military, which forced the world’s most successful boy band in recent years to pause their careers at the height of their global fame in 2022.

According to a statement, the band told fans on fan platform Weverse on Tuesday: “Starting in July, all seven of us will begin working closely together on new music.

“Since it will be a group album, it will reflect each member’s thoughts and ideas. We’re approaching the album with the same mindset we had when we first started.”

Fans – collectively known as the ARMY – have been desperate to see the boys back together again following their enforced hiatus.

Suga was the final member of the band to complete military service last month.

BTS are believed to have staggered their military service so that all seven members were unavailable for no more than six months. J-Hope, who was discharged last October, has since wrapped up a solo world tour and will headline Lollapalooza Berlin on 13 July.

The band made their debut in 2013, having formed three years earlier, and have gone on to become the most successful K-pop band globally.

They were the biggest-selling music artists in the world in 2020 and 2021, with six number one albums and the same number of chart-topping singles in the US.

Three former senior staff at the hospital where nurse Lucy Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to kill seven others have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

They worked on the senior leadership team at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016 and were bailed after being questioned on Monday.

The arrests came after an investigation into potential corporate manslaughter at the hospital was opened in 2023, and then widened in March this year to include gross negligence manslaughter.

Letby, 35, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole life prison sentences after targeting babies at the hospital’s neonatal unit between June 2015 and June 2016.

She was convicted of making two attempts to kill one of the babies.

Cheshire Police said the arrests “did not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder”.

Det Supt Paul Hughes said the corporate manslaughter element of the investigation focused on the senior leadership of the hospital and its decision-making, “to determine whether any criminality has taken place concerning the response to the increased levels of fatalities”.

He said gross negligence manslaughter was a separate offence and “focuses on the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals”.

Corporate manslaughter can carry an unlimited fine for an organisation but no jail sentence for any individual, whereas gross negligence manslaughter can result in a life sentence for a person convicted of it.

The three people arrested have not been named by police, in line with normal police procedure.

Cheshire Police said it was also carrying out a separate investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies in Chester and in the Liverpool Women’s Hospital, where Letby trained for periods, going back to 2012.

Det Supt Hughes said there were “no set timescales” for the manslaughter investigations.

Letby has maintained her innocence and her barrister, Mark McDonald, submitted an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) earlier this year.

The application included the findings of 14 medical experts who agreed to re-examine the evidence heard at trial and concluded Letby had not harmed any babies.

The CCRC, which has the power to refer cases back to the Court of Appeal, said it was reviewing the application and could give no timescale on when a decision would be reached.

Mr McDonald said the news of the arrests had come at a “very sensitive” time in his client’s case.

“Despite this the concerns many have raised will not go away, and we will continue to publicly discuss them,” he said.

He added that “internationally renowned experts” had concluded that no babies were murdered and called for a new public inquiry into “failings” in neonatal and paediatric care at the Countess of Chester.

Last month former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt called for an “urgent re-examination” of Letby’s case due to what he called “serious and credible” questions raised by the expert panel.

His Conservative Party colleague, Sir David Davis, has also been supportive of attempts to have Letby’s case looked at again.

But lawyers for the families of Letby’s victims described the expert panel’s conclusions as “full of analytical holes” and “a rehash” of the defence case.

A public inquiry into the circumstances around Letby’s offending is also due to publish its findings in early 2026.

The Thirwall Inquiry heard evidence from the senior leadership team at the hospital about when concerns were raised about a rise in the deaths of babies on the neonatal unit.

A father jumped into the ocean to save his daughter after she fell from the fourth deck of a Disney cruise ship travelling from the Bahamas to the US on Sunday afternoon, witnesses say.

Videos showed passengers cheering as the two were pulled onto a rescue boat after apparently treading water for 10 minutes.

The girl appeared to fall when her father took her picture against a railing, witnesses said. A man overboard alert was broadcast on the ship, and crew rushed to recover them.

“The ship was moving quickly, so quickly, it’s crazy how quickly the people became tiny dots in the sea, and then you lost sight of them,” passenger Laura Amador said.

“The captain slowed the ship and turned it around, and then they deployed a tender ship with people on it to go get them, and we saw them rescue the dad and daughter,” she told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

The identities of the father and daughter have not been publicly released. Several US media outlets are describing the girl as a child.

The 4,000-person capacity Disney Dream, was returning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after sailing for four days around the Bahamas.

Disney confirmed in a statement that two passengers were rescued, but offered few details about what occurred.

“The Crew aboard the Disney Dream swiftly rescued two guests from the water,” a Disney Cruise Line spokesperson said. “We commend our Crew Members for their exceptional skills and prompt actions, which ensured the safe return of both guests to the ship within minutes.

“We watched it, you could see two little things…it was crazy, it was horrific,” passenger Gar Frantz told NBC News, describing how he witnessed the two enter the ocean and nearly disappear into the horizon.

The incident took place on the last day of the cruise, and the ship returned to port in Florida as normal.

While it is rare for passengers to fall from cruise ships, rescues are not often successful when they do.

According to a Cruise Lines International Association report from 2019, 25 people fell overboard that year from cruise ships and only nine were saved from the water.

Three people have been killed and 45 injured following an attack by Ukraine on a factory in the city of Izhevsk – more than 1,000km (620 miles) from the border – Russian authorities say.

Of those injured six had suffered serious injuries, the governor of Udmurtia Aleksandr Brechalov said, adding he had briefed President Vladimir Putin on the attack. A state of emergency was later declared in the region.

Drones reportedly targeted the Kupol Electromechanical Plant – a military factory which is said to produce Tor surface-to-air missile systems and radar stations.

The plant also specialises in the production of Osa air defence systems and has developed drones, according to Ukrainian media.

An Ukrainian official confirmed to BBC Ukraine that two long-range drones operated by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck the Kupol plant from a distance of around 1,300 km (807 miles).

“Each such special operation reduces the enemy’s offensive potential, disrupts military production chains and demonstrates that even deep in Russia’s rear, there are no safe zones for its military infrastructure,” the source said in comments reported by Ukrainian media.

A video posted on social media and verified by the BBC showed an explosion on the roof of a building, followed by a large plume of black smoke rising over a factory-type chimney.

Russia’s civil aviation regulator Rosaviatsia imposed restrictions on operations at Izhevsk airport, before lifting them a few hours later.

This is second Ukrainian drone attack on the Kupol factory since November – although that strike had not resulted in any casualties.

For its part, Moscow continues to carry out attacks in Ukraine. At the weekend Russia launched a record 537 drones and missiles on various locations across the country, including Kyiv and the western city of Lviv.

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky granted the Hero of Ukraine award posthumously to an F-16 pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Maksym Ustymenko, who was killed while trying to repel the aerial attack.

In a separate development on Tuesday, President Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron held their first phone talks in more than two years.

Macron “emphasised France’s unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”, said a statement from his office.

The French leader also called for a ceasefire and negotiations between Ukraine and Russia “for a solid and lasting settlement of the conflict”, the French statement said.

Meanwhile, a Kremlin statement said that Putin “reminded that the Ukrainian conflict is a direct consequence of the policy of Western states, who for many years ignored Russia’s security interests”.

Any peace settlement must be “comprehensive and long-term” and should eliminate “the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis and be based on new territorial realities”, the Russian statement said.

Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula annexed in 2014.

On the battlefield, while Russia’s advance on the Sumy region seems to have stalled, Moscow appears to be targeting the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. Unconfirmed reports in Russian media suggested Moscow’s forces took control of the first village in the region.

Two rounds of talks aimed at agreeing a ceasefire between Kyiv and Moscow have taken place at the behest of Donald Trump since May, but have failed to produce tangible results.

Last week, Putin said Russia was ready to hold a new round of peace negotiations although he said that the Russian and Ukrainian peace proposals were “absolutely contradictory”.

On Monday, Zelensky again expressed scepticism of Putin’s intentions. “Putin has already stolen practically half a year from diplomacy… on top of the entire duration of this war,” the Ukrainian leader said.

“Russia is not changing its plans and is not looking for a way out of this war. On the contrary, they are preparing for new operations, including on the territory of European countries.”

US senior envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg echoed this on Monday, when he wrote on X that Russia could not “continue to stall for time while it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine”.

Moscow swiftly pushed back, saying it was not “interested in stalling anything” and thanking the US for its support.

The Congolese government says it targeted an aircraft which rebels claim was delivering food aid before it was blown up in the district of Minembwe, close to the country’s borders with Rwanda and Burundi.

It is the latest violent incident in the region since a ceasefire deal was signed in Washington last Friday.

The army claims it tracked the plane using radar, found it had entered Congolese airspace without legal permission and bore no identification number – giving the force no choice but to take “appropriate measures”.

But rebels allied to the M23 group, which has seized large parts of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo this year, dispute this.

A statement released on behalf of the Twerwaneho group, which controls Minembwe, said the plane was bombed in an act of “barbarity” that destroyed “food rations” and “essential supplies including medicines” intended for village residents.

The statement published by the wider rebel umbrella Congo River Alliance, which includes both the Twerwaneho and M23, threatened that the militia would hit back at the army in so-called “necessary measures” to keep locals safe.

The BBC has not been able to independently verify what cargo was on board the plane, nor where it had come from.

Yet daytime images circulating online, whose topography and details match other footage from the scene, appear to show that most of the wreckage was consumed by the fire.

Burundi defence forces and the Congolese army have blocked road access to rebel-held Minembwe, leaving it reliant on air access for all kinds of supplies.

Neither side has said that the plane originated in Rwanda. But all Rwandan civilian and military aircraft have been banned in DR Congo since February over accusations that Rwanda is backing the M23. Despite widespread evidence, Rwanda denies giving financial or military support to the M23 or its allies.

• DR Congo-Rwanda ceasefire deal still faces many challenges
• What’s the fighting in DR Congo all about?

Decades of conflict escalated earlier this year when M23 rebels seized control of large parts of eastern DR Congo including the regional capital, Goma, the city of Bukavu and two airports.

Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of civilians forced from their homes following the recent rebel offensive.

The plane’s destruction is one of many violent incidents that have happened since last week’s much-trumpeted peace agreement.

The M23 is one of the biggest parties in this conflict but was not directly involved in the US-brokered ceasefire deal. Instead it favours continuing talks mediated by Qatar, which it says will address “the root causes” of the conflict.

Both Rwanda and DR Congo last week committed to disarming and disengaging their alleged proxies.

However, dozens of armed groups are active in the region – several of whom have already shown they are not adhering to the ceasefire.

Even though US President Donald Trump told those signing the deal that “you’re going to do what is in the agreement”, what is happening in North and South Kivu provinces makes the prospect of lasting peace remote.

Crucially, no verification mechanism was enshrined in the Washington deal. But both DR Congo and Rwanda were given 30 days to set up a monitoring mechanism.

Analysts say last week’s deal does not immediately change the reality on the ground – despite Trump’s wishes – and matters remain tense and uncertain.

Monday’s incident is likely to spark fresh doubts about the prospect of lasting peace taking hold anytime soon.

• DR Congo-Rwanda peace deal met with scepticism in rebel-held city
• Congolese rebels want peaceful solution to crisis, UN says
• Ex-DR Congo president returns from self-imposed exile, party says
• DR Congo conflict tests China’s diplomatic balancing act
• How DR Congo’s Tutsis become foreigners in their own country

US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose a “30% or 35%” tariff on Japan if a deal between the two countries is not reached before a deadline next week.

That would be well above the 24% tariff Japan was hit with as part of Trump’s so-called “Liberation Day” on 2 April, when he announced steep import duties on countries around the world.

The tariffs on most US trading partners, including Japan, were later lowered to 10% for 90 days to give them time to negotiate deals with Washington.

That pause is due to expire on 9 July and Trump has said he is not planning to extend the deadline.

Trump also continued to cast doubt that an agreement could be reached with Tokyo.

“We’ve dealt with Japan. I’m not sure we’re going to make a deal. I doubt it,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.

Japan declined to comment on Trump’s threat to hike tariffs during a news conference on Wednesday.

“We are aware of what President Trump said, but we don’t comment on every remark made by US government officials,” the country’s Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiko Aoki said.

Like many other countries, most of Japan’s exports to the US currently face a 10% levy. There is also a 25% import tax on Japanese vehicles and parts, while steel and aluminium are subject to a 50% tariff.

On Tuesday, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said he would not make concessions that could hurt his country’s farmers to strike an agreement with Washington.

The comments came after Trump criticised countries over their trade policies towards the US, focussing on Japanese rice imports.

“To show people how spoiled Countries have become with respect to the United States of America, and I have great respect for Japan, they won’t take our RICE, and yet they have a massive rice shortage,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Trump originally said he would sign 90 trade agreements during the pause on the new tariffs but since then only the UK has struck a deal with the US.

Israel has agreed to the “necessary conditions” to finalise a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza, US President Donald Trump has said.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that during the proposed ceasefire the US would “work with all parties to end the War”.

“The Qataris and Egyptians, who have worked very hard to help bring Peace, will deliver this final proposal. I hope… that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” Trump wrote.

Israel has not confirmed it has agreed to the conditions of a deal, and there was no immediate comment from Hamas.

Trump’s announcement comes before a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scheduled for next week, in which the US president has said he would be “very firm”.

The US president said on Tuesday that he believed Netanyahu wanted to end hostilities in Gaza.

“He wants to. I can tell you he wants to. I think we’ll have a deal next week,” Trump added.

On Tuesday, Israel’s Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer was due to meet US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance in Washington.

Earlier, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told the BBC Israel was “absolutely” ready for a ceasefire.

Speaking on the BBC News channel, Danon said that Hamas was “playing hardball”.

“We are putting pressure on Hamas, and if they will not come to the table, the only option we will have to bring back the hostages, is to apply more military pressure,” Danon said.

“The war will end when the hostages are back home,” he added.

Around 50 Israeli hostages are still in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

Last week, a senior Hamas official told the BBC mediators have increased efforts to broker a new ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza, but that negotiations with Israel remain stalled.

Israel has said the conflict can only end when Hamas has been completely dismantled. Hamas has long called for a permanent truce and a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Trump’s comments come shortly after Israel ordered evacuations in northern Gaza ahead of increased military action. At least 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a seafront cafe in Gaza City on Monday, according to medics and eyewitnesses.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza after Hamas’s 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed. At least 56,647 have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The Israeli military this week also said it was examining reports of civilians being “harmed” while approaching aid distribution centres in Gaza run by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

More than 170 charities and other NGOs have called for the controversial group to be shut down. Organisations like Oxfam and Save the Children say Israeli forces “routinely” open fire on Palestinians seeking aid.

Israel denies this accusation and says the organisation is necessary to bypass Hamas interference in aid distribution.

In March, a previous ceasefire deal collapsed when Israel launched fresh strikes on Gaza. The Israeli military described the action as “pre-emptive strikes… based on Hamas’s readiness to execute terror attacks, build up force and re-arm”.

The previous ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas – which started on 19 January – was set up to have three stages, but did not make it past the first stage.

Stage two included establishing a permanent ceasefire, the return of remaining living hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

Get our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Sign up here.

The US has halted some weapons shipments to Kyiv, the White House has said, as Russia’s war against Ukraine has intensified.

The decision was taken “to put America’s interests first” following a Department of Defense review of US “military support and assistance to other countries”, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said on Tuesday.

The US has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, leading some in the Trump administration to voice concerns that US stockpiles are too low.

The Ukrainian government has not commented on the announcement. US officials did not immediately say which shipments were being halted.

Air defence missiles and precision munitions are understood to be among the weapons affected, according to the Reuters news agency.

The Department of Defense “continues to provide the President with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine,” said Elbridge Colby, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.

At the same time, Colby added, “the Department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving U.S. forces’ readiness for Administration defense priorities.”

A US official said the move was based on concerns about US military stockpiles falling too low, the BBC’s US media partner CBS News has reported.

“The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran,” Kelly added, referring to US strikes at three Iranian nuclear sites last month.

The decision comes shortly after US President Donald Trump met with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky at the Nato summit in the Netherlands last week.

On that occasion, Trump said US officials “are going to see if we can make some of them available” when asked by the BBC about providing extra Patriot anti-missile systems to Ukraine.

Referring to his conversation with Zelensky, Trump said: “We had a little rough sometimes, but he couldn’t have been nicer.”

The two had a heated confrontation in the Oval Office in March this year. Afterwards, Trump said he was pausing military aid to Ukraine that had been earmarked by the previous Biden administration. Intelligence sharing with Ukraine was also suspended.

But both pauses were subsequently lifted.

In late April, the US and Ukraine signed a deal that would give the US access to Ukraine’s mineral reserves in exchange for military assistance.

Separately, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday – the first time in over two-and-a-half years.

They spoke on the phone for more than two hours, Macron’s office said, adding that the French president urged a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Putin hit back by blaming the West for the conflict. A Kremlin statement said Putin reminded Macron that Western countries had “for many years ignored Russia’s security interests” and “created an anti-Russian bridgehead in Ukraine”.

The US military aid suspension comes as Russia stepped up its war against Ukraine.

Over the weekend, Russia launched one of its largest aerial attacks on Ukraine since the start of the war, using more than 500 different types of weapons, including drones, ballistic and cruise missiles.

On Tuesday, three people were killed in a Ukrainian attack on a Russian factory in Izhevsk, more than 1,000km (620 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the Crimea peninsula annexed in 2014.

The jury in the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs will keep deliberating after reaching a partial verdict, but deadlocking on the most serious charge faced by the hip-hop mogul.

At the federal court in New York, the 12 jurors announced they had agreed on four of the five counts, but were unable to decide on the racketeering charge, which carries a possible life prison term.

The atmosphere was tense as the rapper sat with head bowed, hands folded in his lap. His lawyers occasionally put their arms around him. Deliberations will resume on Wednesday morning.

Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to all five charges, including sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Over the past two months, the jury has heard from 34 witnesses, including ex-girlfriends, former employees of Mr Combs, male escorts and federal agents.

At around 16:30 EDT on Tuesday (20:30 GMT), the jury announced they had reached a verdict on four of the five counts, after two days of deliberations.

The panel said they couldn’t come to an agreement on the racketeering charge because jurors on both sides have opinions that are unmovable.

Judge Arun Subramanian heard arguments from both the prosecution and the rapper’s defence attorneys on how to proceed, before urging the jurors to keep trying to come to a unanimous decision. Their verdicts on the other four counts were not disclosed.

The prosecution urged the judge to use an Allen charge, which is a set of instructions given to a hung jury to press its members to reach a unanimous decision.

Allen charges are controversial, as some believe they can put undue pressure on juries, forcing them to change their stances or cave to peer pressure – especially when their opinion is in the minority.

The jury will return on Wednesday, and could potentially continue deliberating on 3 July – when the court is normally closed ahead of the 4 July public holiday.

The panel’s unanimous decision on most of the counts after less than two days of deliberations could be a good sign for prosecutors, Robert Mintz, a criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor told the BBC.

But to gain a conviction on the racketeering charge, prosecutors needed to prove that Mr Combs established a criminal enterprise – a co-ordinated plan between the musician and at least one other person to commit at least two crimes over a span of several years.

“That was always going to be the most challenging charge for prosecutors to get a conviction on,” Mr Mintz said.

“It’s a very complicated charge, used typically in the past in organised crime prosecution and so it’s not surprising that that is the one charge giving the jury the most difficulty.”

The defendant has also gone by the names Puffy, Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Love and Brother Love.

He used his stature in the industry to found his successful Sean John clothing line and starred in multiple reality TV shows, including one where contestants competed to become part of his band.

In 2023, he released his fifth record The Love Album: Off The Grid and earned his first solo nomination at the Grammy awards. He was also named a Global Icon at the MTV Awards.

From his pocket, Serhiy Melnyk pulls out a small rusty shard, wrapped neatly in paper.

He holds it up. “It grazed my kidney, pierced my lung, and my heart,” says the Ukrainian serviceman quietly.

Traces of dried blood are still visible on the shrapnel from a Russian drone that became lodged in his heart while he was fighting in eastern Ukraine.

“I didn’t even realise what it was at first — I thought I was just short of breath under my body armour,” he says. “They had to extract shrapnel out of my heart.”

With the rise of drone warfare in Ukraine, these injuries are becoming more common. Drones often carry weapons and materials which fragment and cause more complex shrapnel wounds.

According to Ukrainian military medics, shrapnel wounds now make up to 80% of battlefield trauma.

Untreated, Serhiy’s injury would have been fatal.

“The fragment was as sharp as a blade. Doctors said it was a large piece, and that I was lucky to survive,” he says reflectively.

But it wasn’t just luck that saved him, it was a new piece of medical technology. A magnetic extractor.

Cardiovascular surgeon Serhiy Maksymenko shows footage of the metal fragment trapped in Serhiy’s beating heart before it is delicately removed by a thin magnet-tipped device.

“You don’t have to make large cuts in the heart,” explains Dr Maksymenko. “I just make a small incision, insert the magnet, and it pulls the shrapnel out.”

In just one year, Doctor Maksymenko’s team has performed over 70 successful heart operations with the device, which has changed the face of front-line medicine in Ukraine.

The development of these extractors came after front-line medics highlighted the urgent need for a safe, fast, minimally invasive way to remove shrapnel.

Oleh Bykov – who used to work as a lawyer – drove this development. Since 2014 he has been supporting the army as a volunteer. He met medics on the front line and from his conversations the magnetic extractors were created.

The concept isn’t new. Magnets were used for removing metal from wounds as far back as the Crimean War in the 1850s. But Oleh’s team modernised the approach, creating flexible models for abdominal surgery, micro-extractors for delicate work, and high-strength tools for bones.

Operations have become more precise and less invasive. The magnet can be run along the surface of a wound to draw fragments out. Surgeons then make a small incision and the piece is removed.

Holding a slim pen-shaped tool, Oleh demonstrates its power by lifting a sledgehammer with the magnetic tip.

His work has been commended by other war medics including David Nott, a veteran of war zones around the world.

“In war, things get developed which would never have been thought of in civilian life,” he says.

Fragmentation wounds have increased due to the changing face of war, and because they take a long time to find he believes this device could be a game changer.

He says looking for shrapnel in patients is like “looking for a needle in a haystack”- it is not always successful and delays treatment of other casualties.

Searching for fragments manually can be dangerous and requires bigger incisions that can cause more bleeding – “so to be able just to simply find them using a magnet is ingenious.”

What began as a field tool has now been rolled out across Ukraine, with 3,000 units distributed to hospitals and front-line medics, like Andriy Alban who says he has come to rely on the device.

He often works while under fire, in trenches or makeshift outdoor clinics, and sometimes without local anaesthetic.

“My job is to save lives – bandage wounds and get soldiers evacuated,” he says.

There has been no official certification of the magnetic extractor.

The Ukrainian Health Ministry says medical devices must comply fully with technical regulations. However, in exceptional cases, such as martial law or a state of emergency, the use of uncertified devices is allowed to meet the needs of the military and security forces.

At the height of war, there’s no time for red tape, mastermind Oleh explains. “These devices save lives. If someone thinks my actions are a crime, I’ll take responsibility. I’m even prepared to go to jail if it comes to that. But then all the doctors who use these devices should be incarcerated too,” he adds half jokingly.

David Nott agrees that certification is not a top priority for now and believes the device could prove helpful in other war zones such as Gaza.

“In war, it’s not really necessary. You only do the things which are important to save lives.”

Back in Lviv, Serhiy’s wife Yulia is just grateful her husband survived his injury.

“I just want to praise those people who invented this extractor,” she says tearfully. “Thanks to them, my husband is alive.”

The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to block transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports after a federal civil rights investigation stemming from swimmer Lia Thomas.

The US Department of Education announced the agreement, saying the Ivy League institution would apologise and restore to female athletes titles and records that were “misappropriated by male athletes”.

The university said it would update its records set during the 2021–22 season to “indicate who would now hold the records under current eligibility guidelines”, but it did not say whether Thomas’ records would be erased.

Thomas became the first trans athlete to win the highest US national college title in March 2022.

The deal marks the latest development in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on transgender athletes participating in sports. He signed an executive order days after coming into office that sought to prevent transgender women from competing in female categories of sports.

The university was among several that his administration opened investigations into over possible violations of Title IX, a 1972 civil rights law that bans sex-based discrimination in any education programme or activity that receives federal funding.

Two months later, the Trump administration paused $175m (£127m) in federal funding to the college over its transgender athlete policy.

Under Tuesday’s deal, the university must stick to “biology-based definitions” of male and female, in line with the president’s executive orders, said the education department.

US Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement: “Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action.

“Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the University for future generations of female athletes.”

The University of Pennsylvania said its previous policies were in line with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) eligibility criteria at the time, but “we acknowledge that some student-athletes were disadvantaged by these rules”.

“We recognize this and will apologize to those who experienced a competitive disadvantage or experienced anxiety because of the policies in effect at the time,” said a statement on its website.

The change at the school comes years after Thomas competed at UPenn – first with the school’s men’s team for three seasons before starting hormone replacement therapy in spring 2019.

Competing on the women’s swim team in 2022, Thomas shattered school swim records, posting the fastest times of any female swimmer. She has since graduated and no longer competes for the university.

She also has noted the transgender population of college athletes is “very small”. The NCAA has said it amounted to about 10 athletes.

“The biggest misconception, I think, is the reason I transitioned,” Thomas told ABC and ESPN in 2022. “People will say, ‘Oh, she just transitioned so she would have an advantage, so she could win.’ I transitioned to be happy, to be true to myself.”

Last year, Thomas took legal action in a bid to compete again in elite women’s sports, but the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland rejected the case.

It came two years after governing body World Aquatics voted to ban transgender women from such events if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty.

Human Rights Campaign, the largest political group lobbying for LGBT rights in the US, issued a statement criticising the deal.

“The American people deserve a White House that is laser focused on making sure every student thrives,” said spokesman Brandon Wolf.

“Instead, this administration is obsessed with making young people’s lives harder and scapegoating transgender people so they can attack independent institutions.”

Banknotes issued by the Bank of England are about to get their first major redesign in more than 50 years.

Notable historical figures, such as Sir Winston Churchill on the current fiver, have featured on these banknotes since 1970 but could be on the way out.

The public are being asked for their views on new themes, such as nature, innovation, or key events in history.

It raises the possibility of British birds, bridges, or bangers and mash featuring on the next series of £5, £10, £20 and £50 notes.

The monarch has appeared on Bank of England notes since 1960. Images of historical characters, starting with William Shakespeare, were first seen on the reverse side a decade later.

At times the choices have landed the Bank in hot water. The absence of any women, apart from Queen Elizabeth II, on notes in 2013 prompted a huge backlash.

Now, the Bank is proposing that designs on the next series of notes could move on to a new theme. While notable historical figures remain an option, other possible subject matters suggested by the Bank include:

• architecture and landmarks, such as famous buildings or castles
• arts, culture and sport, including food, film and novels
• noteworthy events in history, which could include events or movements
• innovation, such as technology or discoveries
• nature, celebrating plants, animals or natural landscapes such as rivers or coastal scenes

The public are being invited to give their views. They can also suggest their own themes, which may prompt plenty of jokes – Notey McNoteface will undoubtedly feature – and debate.

“Banknotes are more than just an important means of payment. They serve as a symbolic representation of our collective national identity and an opportunity to celebrate the UK,” said Victoria Cleland, the Bank’s chief cashier, whose signature appears on notes.

“I am really keen to hear what themes the public would like to see represented.”

Ms Cleland said banknotes were “little pieces of art in our pocket”, but there were some extra considerations over what can go on them, such as accessibility and security features.

She told the BBC she was “open minded” over what theme should be introduced, but said continuing with historical figures was not being ruled out.

However, she was keen to widen the choice, albeit it needed to be enduring, and not divisive, she said.

Banknotes issued in Scotland and Northern Ireland already carry images of landmarks and animals such as otters. Euro banknotes feature architectural styles.

Some notes around the world are incredibly colourful.

Bermuda Monetary Authority’s $5 note won last year’s International Bank Note Society’s banknote of the year award.

It is predominantly pink and carries images of a blue marlin, dolphins and tuna fish as well as a profile of King Charles III. The back of the vertically designed note combines butterflies, flora, Horseshoe Bay, and a boat passing beneath Somerset Bridge.

The Bank of England’s notes have been less dramatic, featuring abstract geometric designs, lions or Britannia in years gone by.

The crop of historical characters on the current series of circulating notes, in ascending order of note value, are Churchill, Jane Austen, JMW Turner and Alan Turing.

This public consultation relates to the Bank’s next series, which will also continue to include an image of the monarch. People can submit their view via an online form on the Bank’s website, or by post, by the end of July.

The final decision on what exactly features on a banknote lies with the Bank’s governor.

More than 4.7 billion Bank of England notes are in circulation, collectively worth around £86bn.

Cash use has fallen to 12% of transactions as payments technology evolves, but the Bank has said it is committed to providing cash for those who wish to use it.

Get our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Sign up here.

After nearly 24 hours of debate – starting yesterday morning and stretching overnight – the US Senate approved Donald Trump’s massive tax-cut and spending bill

Passing by the narrowest of margins, the bill, as it stood on Tuesday, contained key parts of the agenda he campaigned on last year.

Trump celebrated its passage during a visit to a migrant detention facility in Florida. “It’s a great bill,” he said. “There is something for everyone.”

But in fact, while lawmakers may have gotten “something” they wanted, they likely faced concessions to achieve that – and ultimately to push the bill through the House on Tuesday.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski said she worked hard to ensure the bill provided for her state and ultimately voted for it, but was still unhappy. She called the process “rushed”.

“My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognise that we’re not there yet,” she told reporters just outside the Senate floor, moments after the vote.

• A look at the key items in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
• Watch: Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ triggers Senate face-off
• The woman who could bust Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’

In a game of political ping-pong, the bill now returns to the House, which passed its version of the bill weeks ago. If the narrow Republican majority in that chamber gives final approval, perhaps as early as Wednesday, the legislation can be presented to the president for his signature.

But it may be a tough pill for some House Republicans to swallow.

It includes massive new funding -$70bn – for Trump’s immigration priorities. It boosts defence spending and makes the tax cuts Republicans passed in Trump’s first term permanent. To offset this loss, it cuts funding for Biden-era environmental programmes and Medicaid, the health insurance programme for low-income Americans.

The financial ledger isn’t nearly balanced, however, as the package adds more than $3tn to the federal debt and raises the US borrowing authority by $5tn.

Fiscal hard-liners have complained that the Senate watered down some of their original budget cuts.

The right-wing House Freedom Caucus said the Senate proposal could add $650bn (£472bn) to the deficit each year. “It’s not what we agreed to,” caucus members said in a social media post on Monday.

And centrists still are concerned about cuts in the bill, including reductions in federal payments covering health insurance for low-income Americans.

The original House version was a balancing act that kept the various factions within the Republican Party just satisfied enough to vote yes. The Senate version now landing back in their laps may disrupt that balance.

But the pressure on House Republicans to sign off on what Trump has called his “big, beautiful bill” will be enormous.

The president has said he views the legislation as an integral part of his political legacy – a lasting change in government policy that, unlike executive orders, a future president cannot easily undo.

Spain and England have recorded their hottest June ever, as scorching temperatures continue to grip Europe.

Spain’s weather service Aemet said the “extremely hot” June – with an average temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) – “has pulverised records”, surpassing the normal average for July and August.

In England, the Met Office said June’s mean temperature of 16.9C set a new record for that month, while the UK as a whole saw its second warmest June since records began in 1884.

Mainland Portugal experienced a record daily temperature for June of 46.6C. The monthly average data is yet to be released.

Wildfires in Turkey forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people, while two people died in Italy following separate heat-related deaths.

Overnight, on the first day of July, Aemet said several places across the Iberian peninsula had topped 43C, but added a respite in temperatures was on its way from Thursday.

Night-time temperatures recorded overnight into Tuesday hit 28C in Seville and 27C in Barcelona.

Later on Tuesday, the UK recorded 34.7C in St James’s Park in London, making it the hottest day of the year so far.

On Monday, the highest daily UK temperature was recorded at Heathrow Airport in London at 33.1C. Meanwhile, Wimbledon recorded a temperature of 32.9C, the tennis tournament’s hottest opening day on record.

According to provisional data, the Met Office said the UK’s mean temperature of 15.2C for June was the second highest on record for that month.

It was “only surpassed by June 2023, which recorded 15.8C”, the agency said.

UK sees hottest day of the year: Live updates

In Turkey, rescuers earlier evacuated more than 50,000 people – mostly from the western province of Izmir – as firefighters continued to put out hundreds of wildfires that had broken out in recent days.

Fires have also swept through parts of Bilecik, Hatay, Sakarya, and Manisa provinces.

Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said over the past three days, emergency teams had responded to 263 wildfires nationwide.

In France, the heatwave continued across much of the country on Tuesday – a day after many cities experienced their hottest night and day on record for June.

At Paris Orly airport, a reading of 37.6C was recorded a short time ago.

The top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris has been closed because of the intense European heatwave; while Climate Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher called it an “unprecedented” situation.

For first time in five years the Paris region has activated a red alert – the highest extreme heat warning – along with 15 other French regions.

As many as 1,896 schools and colleges in France were closed as of lunchtime on Tuesday because of the heat.

The establishments were all in departments in the country covered by the red alert.

A reading of 46.6 C (115.9F) was registered in Mora, Portugal, about 60 miles east of Lisbon on Sunday, the country’s meteorological agency IPMA reported.

It was a record reading for mainland Portugal.

In Italy, the Tuscany region has seen hospital admissions rise by 20%, according to local reports.

Italians in 21 out of the 27 cities have been subjected to the highest heat alert and 13 regions, including Lombardy and Emilia, have been advised not to venture outside during the hottest periods of the day.

In Lombardy, working outdoors has been banned from 12:30 to 16:00 on hot days on building sites, roads and farms until September.

In Florence, central Italy, meteorologists registered a temperature of 38.9C on Tuesday, while the southern city of Cagliari was baking in 38.6C.

The temperatures are expected to get even higher later on Tuesday.

Temperatures in Greece have been approaching 40C for several days and wildfires hit several coastal towns near the capital Athens destroying homes and forcing people to evacuate.

In Germany, the country’s meteorological service warned that temperatures could reach almost 38C on Tuesday and Wednesday – further potentially record-breaking temperatures.

The heatwave lowered levels in the Rhine River – a major shipping route – limiting the amount cargo ships can transport and raising freighting costs.

Countries in and around the Balkans have also been struggling with the intense heat, although temperatures have begun to cool. Wildfires have also been reported in Montenegro.

Heatwaves are seen as a serious health hazard, and they are also impacting the environment.

Higher temperatures in the Adriatic Sea are encouraging invasive species such as the poisonous lionfish, while also causing further stress on alpine glaciers that are already shrinking at record rates.

The UN’s human rights chief, Volker Turk, warned on Monday that the heatwave highlighted the need for climate adaptation – moving away from practices and energy sources, such as fossil fuels, which are the main cause of climate change.

“Rising temperatures, rising seas, floods, droughts, and wildfires threaten our rights to life, to health, to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and much more,” he told the UN’s Human Rights Council.

Heatwaves are becoming more common due to human-caused climate change, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Extreme hot weather will happen more often – and become even more intense – as the planet continues to warm, it has said.

Richard Allan, Professor of Climate Science at the University of Reading in the UK, explained that rising greenhouse gas levels are making it harder for the planet to lose excess heat.

“The warmer, thirstier atmosphere is more effective at drying soils, meaning heatwaves are intensifying, with moderate heat events now becoming extreme.”

Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC’s Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.

At least 180 current and former armed forces aircrew with cancer they claim was caused by exposure to toxic fumes in helicopters are pursuing the Ministry of Defence for compensation.

RAF flight sergeant Zach Stubbings, who died aged 47 in January, is one of at least six people who have received an out-of-court settlement from the MoD although the MoD has not admitted liability.

A group that represents veterans has urged the MoD to take swift action to protect those still serving and also raise awareness among former servicemen and women.

The MoD said it believed engine exhaust emissions were of no risk to health but it was conducting monitoring to demonstrate this.

The MoD confirmed in February it was trying to determine the number of people who have served as aircrew who have been diagnosed with cancer and was testing the exhaust emissions of its rotary wing aircraft.

One law firm has said it had received inquiries from 180 aircrew and veterans.

Hugh James solicitors told the BBC it was pursuing claims relating to four military aircraft – the Sea King, the Westland Wessex, the Puma and the CH-47 Chinook.

The Sea King was used in British military operations between 1969 and 2018 and has in the past been flown by both King Charles and the Prince of Wales.

The Westland Wessex was retired in 2003 while the Puma and the CH-47 Chinook are both still in use.

Diseases contracted by some of the crew who flew the helicopters include lung cancer, throat cancer, testicular cancer and some rare forms of blood cancer.

Flight sergeant Zach, who trained the Prince of Wales on RAF Sea King helicopters at RAF Valley in north Wales, was 33 when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable form of blood cancer that mainly affects those over the age of 65.

“He started to think, ‘hang on a minute, I’m a 33-year-old man who’s had this diagnosis of a blood cancer that isn’t common in men in their thirties… I’m going to look into it’,” recalled his widow Anna-Louise.

She is the founder of an organ donation charity which she set up nine years ago after her husband Stuart and seven-year-old son Fraser were killed by a careless driver.

She met Zach when he contacted her charity Believe after receiving a stem cell transplant before marrying in 2020.

“He was appreciating every day after his struggles with this illness and I was just appreciating being part of a team again, having somebody that just completely had my back,” said Anna-Louise.

Zach knew his time was limited and was determined to understand the cause of his cancer and spread awareness. He later discovered others who had worked on military aircraft had also received a cancer diagnosis.

“Zach was never bitter, he wasn’t vengeful at all, he was the most kind man and he adored his years of service,” said Anna-Louise.

Zach’s case was settled without the MoD admitting liability.

“That settlement for Zach allowed him the opportunity to have some kind of recompense but more importantly, to be able to make some memories,” said Anna-Louise.

Now she is focused on continuing Zach’s work to encourage the MoD to launch a cancer screening programme and raise awareness of the issue to aircrew and veterans.

“How many more people are not aware?” she said.

“How many people don’t know because they have not been screened? How many people don’t know what’s around the corner?”.

Zach’s solicitor Louisa Donaghy has been working through the inquiries from veterans and aircrew with cancer and has so far submitted 50 claims.

“I do feel that is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Louisa, a senior associate in Hugh James’ military department in Cardiff.

“There will be people out there that don’t know they’ve got cancer and also that will be diagnosed in the future.”

Ms Donaghy said for each of the six claims she had settled without any admission of liability by the MoD, she had to establish that the MoD had a duty of care to its employees and that the duty had been breached.

Ms Donaghy added: “The people that I’m representing through no fault of their own have been exposed unnecessarily for long periods of time – and for thousands of flying hours – to these toxic fumes and these could have been prevented had the MoD given additional PPE such as filtration masks, which would have narrowed and lowered the levels of exposure.”

One charity for veterans has called for the MoD to be more proactive raising awareness.

“I don’t think the MoD are going far enough,” said Graham Jones of Woody’s Lodge.

“We need to get that message out to the veterans’ community and get people through a screening process so we can get an early indication of cancer and then we might be able to get a better survival rate within those veterans that are suffering.

Mr Jones said many veterans where he lives in north Wales were unaware of the issue.

“We all knew when we served in the armed forces there were going to be certain risks, but they were from conflict,” he said.

“You don’t expect it from the equipment that you’re using.”

Zach’s local Welsh Parliament member wants PPE introduced for those still serving on Puma and Chinook helicopters and has called for a cancer screening programme for personnel and veterans.

“It’s really important to remember that there’s human beings at the end of this, there’s families at the end of this who are very anxious… and my constituent has died,” said Cardiff North MS Julie Morgan.

“It’s a matter of huge concern. The MoD should be as transparent as it possibly can be and I urge the MoD to carry on their investigations as swiftly as they can because it’s owed to people.”

The MoD said it believed engine exhaust emissions were of no risk to health but it was conducting monitoring to enable it to demonstrate this.

In May, the Independent Medical Expert Group (IMEG), which advises the MoD, reviewed evidence about a possible link between exhaust emissions from Sea King helicopters and rare cancers, specifically multiple myeloma and leiomyosarcoma, and found insufficient evidence to establish a clear causal relationship.

“We take the health of our personnel extremely seriously and regularly review our processes to ensure that we’re doing our utmost to keep our people safe,” it said in a statement.

It added: “Any death is a tragedy and our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Zach Stubbings.”

Get our flagship newsletter with all the headlines you need to start the day. Sign up here.

After hours of stalemate, Republicans in the US Senate have narrowly passed Donald Trump’s mega-bill on tax and spending, meaning the proposed legislation has cleared one of its key hurdles.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed with Vice-President JD Vance casting a tie-breaking vote after more than 24 hours of debate.

It now heads back to the House, or lower chamber, where it still faces more opposition. An earlier version was cleared by House Republicans by a single-vote margin.

Trump had given the Republican-controlled Congress a deadline of 4 July to send him a final version of the bill to sign into law.

“The bill as amended is passed,” Vance said on Tuesday afternoon, a moment that was met by applause among Senate Republicans, while Democrats sank into their seats and shook their heads in disapproval.

Disputes over the deficit, social programmes and spending levels had created challenges for Republicans, stalling progress and prompting Trump to concede it would be “very hard” to meet his deadline for passing the bill.

Despite efforts to galvanise the party, Senate Majority Leader John Thune lost three Republicans – Maine’s Susan Collins, North Carolina’s Thom Tillis and Kentucky’s Rand Paul – in the narrow vote. Collins, Tillis and Paul joined all Democrats in voting against the bill.

After days of negotiations, Republican leaders were finally able to secure the support of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who had been withholding her support over concerns of the impact of cuts to Medicaid in her state.

Murkowski still appeared discontented with the bill, even after voting to support it, describing the process as “rushed” and under an “artificial timeline”.

“I struggled mightily with the impact on the most vulnerable in this country”, Murkowski said, adding the process was “probably the most difficult and agonising legislative 24-hour period” of her career.

“My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognise that we’re not there yet,” she told reporters just outside the Senate floor, moments after the vote.

Murkowski’s support made the final Senate vote tally 50-50, and prompted Vance to step in to cast his tie-breaking vote.

On a visit to a migrant detention facility in Florida, Trump celebrated the passage of the bill. “It’s a great bill,” he said. “There is something for everyone.”

The legislation, considered a cornerstone of Trump’s second-term agenda, would make permanent large tax cuts that were temporarily put in place when he was first in office.

To make up for the expected loss of revenue, Republicans have looked to cut spending in a wide range of programmes, including food subsidies and healthcare for lower-income Americans.

The vote came on Tuesday afternoon, concluding a whirlwind voting session on Capitol Hill.

Democrats had attempted to flex their muscles by putting up procedural hurdles against the bill to delay its passage.

That included requiring Senate clerks to read all of the bill’s 940 pages aloud, and launching a lengthy debate process over proposed amendments in what is called a “vote-a-rama”.

• A look at the key items in Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’
• ‘Our food doesn’t even last the month’ – Americans brace for Trump’s welfare cuts

It is now up to House Republicans to approve the changes made by the Senate before the president can sign the bill into law.

But its fate remains uncertain, as it has been opposed from different angles and Republicans can only afford to lose three votes.

A group of fiscal conservative hawks have signalled their unhappiness with how much the Senate proposal could add to the US national deficit – which refers to the difference between what the government spends and what it raises in revenue each year.

According to the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, the Senate proposal could add $650bn (£472bn) to the deficit each year. “That’s not fiscal responsibility,” caucus members said in a social media post on Monday. “It’s not what we agreed to.”

Meanwhile, other House Republicans are concerned that the Senate legislation would make steeper cuts to the Medicaid health insurance programme for lower-income Americans than they had approved.

Democrats in both chambers of Congress, too, have criticised the proposed welfare cuts.

Republicans in the House of Representatives will be working against a previously-imposed 4 July deadline from the president.

“I’d love to do July 4th but I think it’s very hard to do July 4th…. I would say maybe July 4th or somewhere around there,” Trump told reporters as he was departing the White House for Florida.

Among the other critics of the plans are tech billionaire Elon Musk, who helped Trump to win the White House last year and served as Trump’s cost-cutting tsar.

Musk is now actively working to spoil the chances of survival for Trump’s signature legislation, and has threatened to set up a new political party if the bill clears Congress.

On Monday, he threatened to back challengers to Republicans who vote for it.

“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!” Musk wrote on X.

The bill’s severe reductions to government support for renewable energy and electric vehicles could hurt the bottom line for a company where Musk made some of his fortune, Tesla, as well.