Kyiv has warned that an interruption of US weapons shipments will encourage Russia to prolong the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

On Tuesday the White House said it had cut off some weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the two countries were now “clarifying all the details on supplies”, while the foreign ministry warned any delays “would only encourage the aggressor to continue war and terror, rather than seek peace”.

The ministry particularly emphasised the need for Kyiv to strengthen its air defences – as Russia continues to pummel the country with missiles and drones on a near-nightly basis.

A Kyiv-based US diplomat was invited to the foreign ministry for talks on Wednesday.

However, Ukraine’s defence ministry said it had not received any official notification from the US about the “suspension or revision” of the weapons deliveries, and urged people not to speculate on the basis of partial information.

But in a statement the defence ministry also said the path to ending the war was “through consistent and joint pressure on the aggressor”.

At the weekend Ukraine endured its biggest aerial attack since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with more than 500 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles launched at its cities.

US officials did not immediately say which shipments were being halted.

According to American broadcaster NBC, the weapons being delayed could include Patriot interceptors, Howitzer munitions, missiles and grenade launchers.

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 Kremlin, for its part, welcomed news of the reduction in weapons shipments, saying reducing the flow of weapons to Kyiv will help end the conflict faster.

“The fewer the number of weapons that are delivered to Ukraine, the closer the end of the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Fedir Venislavskyi, an MP for Ukraine’s ruling party, said the decision was “painful, and against the background of the terrorist attacks which Russia commits against Ukraine… it’s a very unpleasant situation”.

A Ukrainian military source quoted by the AFP news agency said Kyiv was “seriously dependent on American arms supplies, although Europe is doing its best, but it will be difficult for us without American ammunition”.

Ukraine’s European allies have spent billions in military aid over the last three-and-a-half years.

However, military support for Kyiv is not endorsed by everyone on the political spectrum.

Czech President and former top Nato official, Petr Pavel, has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine – but he told BBC Russian he could “not guarantee” continued ammunition support for Kyiv, as that was dependent on the result of forthcoming Czech elections.

“I don’t know what will be the priorities of a new government,” he said.

The Pentagon’s move is based on concerns that US military stockpiles are falling too low, a source told CBS News, although Anna Kelly stressed “the strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran”.

Separately, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge Colby, said in a statement the Pentagon “continues to provide the President with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine”.

However, he added “the department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving US forces’ readiness for Administration defence priorities”.

The pause comes less than a week after President Donald Trump discussed air defences with Volodymyr Zelensky at the Nato summit in the Netherlands.

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 times sometimes, but he couldn’t have been nicer.”

The two had a heated confrontation in the Oval Office in February. 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.

Meanwhile, 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 the French president had urged a ceasefire in Ukraine and for talks to start on a “solid and lasting settlement of the conflict”.

The Kremlin said Putin had “reminded Macron” that the West’s policy was to blame for the war, because it had “for many years ignored Russia’s security interests”.

Last month, Russia’s long-time leader told a forum in St Petersburg that he saw Russians and Ukrainians as one people and “in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours”.

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

Despite heavy losses, Russia has made slow, grinding advances in Ukraine in recent months and announced full control of the eastern Luhansk region this week – this has not been independently verified.

Moscow also says it has seized territory in the south-eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk – a claim denied by the Ukrainian military.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday a Ukrainian attack killed three people at a Russian arms production factory making drones and radars in Izhevsk, more than 1,000km (620 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

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When you think about the food that astronauts eat in space, lobster, haddock and foie gras probably don’t spring to mind – but that’s exactly what France’s next visitor to the International Space Station (ISS) will be dining on.

Astronaut Sophie Adenot has teamed up with award-winning French chef Anne-Sophie Pic to create a menu of gastronomic delights that will travel with Adenot to the ISS next year.

Instead of the usual freeze-dried nutrients that astronauts eat, Adenot, 42, will be choosing from the likes of “Foie gras cream on toasted brioche” and “Lobster bisque with crab and caraway”.

The menu – which the European Space Agency (ESA) has dubbed “a pinch of France in space” – includes four starters, two main courses and two desserts.

Adenot said the dishes, which also include braised beef, and chocolate cream, will not only “delight our palates” but also help her feel connected to Earth, and her home country.

“Her (Pic’s) cuisine signature is deeply influenced by the terroir. This is important to me because I grew up in the countryside, and it will remind me of my roots,” she was quoted as saying in an ESA statement.

There are strict rules for food on the ISS – it must be crumb-free, lightweight and keep for at least 24 months, the ESA says.

Therefore, most meals are canned, vacuum packed or freeze-dried, with fresh fruit and vegetables a rare luxury that can only be enjoyed when a spacecraft arrives with new supplies.

But to keep things interesting, boost morale, and help with crew bonding, every tenth or so meal is one prepared especially for each astronaut, with these “bonus meals” often made in partnership with a chef.

Famous for her haute cuisine, Pic, 55, has the most Michelin stars of any female chef in the world – 10.

She says this project is “pushing the boundaries” of gastronomy, as she worked with her team to create special food, while keeping within the technical constraints.

“Cooking for space is an exhilarating challenge,” she was quoted as saying by the ESA.

Adenot says she will share the haute cuisine with her colleagues on board – it is after all an important moment – French gastronomic culture becoming for the first time… extra-terrestrial.

Adenot, a former helicopter test and rescue pilot, has won a string of awards, including a medal honouring her actions in gender equality in the sciences.

A wildfire in Spain and high temperatures elsewhere in Europe have claimed another six lives as the continent swelters in temperatures topping 40C.

Two farmers died when they became trapped by flames near the town of Coscó in Spain’s Catalonia region. Authorities said a farm worker had appealed to his boss for help, but they were unable to escape as fire spread over a large area.

In Italy, two men died after becoming unwell on beaches on the island of Sardinia, and a man in his 80s died of heart failure, after walking into a hospital in Genoa.

A 10-year-old American girl collapsed and died while visiting the Palace of Versailles south-west of Paris , reports said.

According to French broadcaster TF1, she collapsed at the courtyard of the royal estate, in front of her parents, at around 18:00 local time on Tuesday. Despite efforts by the castle’s security team and emergency services, she was pronounced dead an hour later.

France’s ecological transition minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher said earlier that two heat-related fatalities had been recorded in France and that more than 300 people had been given emergency care.

The European continent is experiencing extremely high temperatures, a phenomenon that the UN’s climate agency said is becoming more frequent due to “human-induced climate change”.

For Spain and England, the month of June marked their hottest June since records began. Spain’s weather service, Aemet, said last month’s average temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) “pulverised records”, surpassing the normal average for July and August.

The two men who died in the fire in Catalonia were identified later as the farmer owner and a worker aged 32 and 45.

Emergency services said the fire had spread to an area of up to 6,500 hectares.

Aemet forecast temperatures of 41C in the southern city of Córdoba on Wednesday, and said overnight temperatures were as high as 28C in the nearby town of Osuna the night before.

France has registered its second-hottest June since records began in 1900. June 2023 was hotter.

Four departments in France remained on the red alert level for heat on Wednesday, the highest level. These include Aube, Cher, Loiret and Yonne, according to Météo-France.

In Sardinia, where temperatures have exceeded 40C in recent days, a 75-year-old man died after falling ill on a beach in Budoni. Another man, 60, became sick while on the beach of Lu Impostu in San Teodoro.

Two construction workers in the Italian province of Vicenza were rushed to hospital at 15:30 local time on Tuesday because they fell ill as a result of the heat while working in a hole. One of the workers is in a coma, according to the Ansa news agency.

Meanwhile two wildfires have prompted emergency evacuations in Greece, as authorities warn of a very high fire risk across many regions, including Attica, Crete, and parts of the Peloponnese and Aegean islands.

In Halkidiki, a fast-moving blaze near the coastal village of Vourvourou burned through highly flammable pine forest, forcing residents and campers to flee. Power cuts have been reported in the area, while 65 firefighters, ground teams, and aerial units are battling the flames in steep terrain.

Meanwhile, in Crete, a separate wildfire near Ierapetra triggered emergency alerts in Achlia, Ferma, Agia Fotia and Galini, prompting evacuations of homes and hotels.

Strong winds pushed the fire dangerously close to tourist accommodation, with helicopters and fire crews working to prevent further spread.

Dimple Rana, heat and microclimate specialist at sustainable development consultancy Arup, told the BBC there was “a big link between heat-related impact and age”.

In the UK, for example, most heat-related deaths were among older adults, Ms Rana said. Younger children, particularly those under five, were also at risk.

Another factor to consider is that often people on lower incomes undertake more manual work, Ms Rana said, meaning they are more exposed to higher temperatures.

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.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which is the UN’s weather and climate agency, said on Tuesday that human-induced climate change meant “extreme heat is becoming more frequent and intense”.

In a statement, the WMO added: “The effect of heat on human health is more pronounced in cities as a result of the urban heat island effect.

“This is where urban environments are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas, especially during hot periods, due to an abundance of paved surfaces, buildings, vehicles, and heat sources.”

“This additional heat in cities exacerbates heat stress and can increase mortality during hot periods,” the agency said.

A 30-year-old man has admitted to murdering four roommates in a small Idaho college town in 2022, as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.

Bryan Kohberger, who was a PhD criminology student, was set to stand trial in August over the attacks that shocked America.

During a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Steven Hippler read the details of the agreement, including that Kohberger waived his right to appeal the case or ask for leniency.

Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were killed in their off-campus home in the city of Moscow, in November 2022.

“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” Judge Hippler asked the defendant.

“Yes,” Kohberger replied.

Before beginning proceedings, the judge stated that his office had received numerous messages and voicemails from members of the public that sought to “influence my decision making”.

He said he had not read or listened to any of the messages, and urged people to stop sending them.

The judge then read out the charges against Kohberger – one count of burglary, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and four counts of first degree murder, which each carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

He pleaded guilty to all the charges.

Judge Hippler said he will formally be sentenced on 23 July. It’s expected he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Some in the courtroom appeared to tear up as the names of the victims were read out. Kohberger did not show any emotion, including when he admitted to killing the four victims.

The brutal nature of the murders, the age of the victims and the suspect’s background in criminology sparked intense public interest in the case.

The plea deal has divided the families of the victims.

Outside court, the father of Kaylee Goncalves, Steve, said he felt “pretty let down”.

He said the state “made a deal with the devil”.

The family wanted a full confession, including details about the location of the murder weapon and confirmation the defendant acted alone.

However Madison Mogen’s mother and step-father said outside court they supported the plea agreement.

In a statement read out by their lawyer they expressed their gratitude to everyone who had supported them and for the “successful outcome”.

“We support the plea agreement 100%,” the lawyer read.

“We turn from tragedy and mourning… to the light of the future. We have closure,” he said.

Kohberger, who was a student at nearby Washington State University, was charged in January 2023. He had to this point maintained his innocence, and prosecutors did not state a motive. It’s not believed he knew the victims personally.

The defendant was arrested at his Pennsylvania family home weeks following the stabbings, after investigators said they found DNA evidence on a “leather knife sheath” at the crime scene. He was indicted by a grand jury in May 2023.

Court documents revealed police recovered a knife, a Glock pistol, black gloves, a black hat and a black face mask during a search of Kohberger’s family home.

His defence team questioned the accuracy of the DNA evidence and succeeded in its bid to move the trial location, after arguing their client would not receive a fair hearing from local jurors.

But they had failed to remove the death penalty as a sentencing option, after citing an autism diagnosis for Kohberger.

Idaho is one of 27 US states that allows for capital punishment, but there have been no executions since 2012, according to a database by the Death Penalty Information Center.

The director of Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital has been killed in an Israeli air strike on his home in Gaza City along with several family members, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

The ministry said Dr Marwan Sultan had a long career in medicine, and condemned “this heinous crime against our medical cadres”.

The Israeli military said it had struck a “key terrorist” from Hamas in the Gaza City area and that claims “uninvolved civilians” were harmed as a result of the strike were being reviewed.

Meanwhile, at least five people were killed and others injured, including children, in a strike on the al-Mawasi “safe zone”, one of several other attacks reported by news agencies.

The health ministry said Dr Sultan’s career was one of compassion “during which he was a symbol of dedication, steadfastness and sincerity, during the most difficult circumstances and most trying moments experienced by our people under continuous aggression”.

Dr Sultan was the director at the Indonesian Hospital, declared out of service by the health ministry after what the UN later described as “repeated Israeli attacks and sustained structural damage”. The Israeli military had said it was fighting “terrorist infrastructure sites” in the area.

There are now no functioning hospitals in the north Gaza governate, according to the UN.

The health ministry accused the Israeli military of targeting medical and humanitarian teams.

In its statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals” and “operates to mitigate harm to them as much as possible”.

The IDF said Hamas “systematically violates international law while using civilian infrastructure for terrorist activity and the civilian population as human shields”.

Across Gaza, at least 139 people were killed by Israeli military operations in the 24 hours before midday on Wednesday, the health ministry said.

In the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, at least five people were killed and others, including children, wounded in a strike that hit a tent housing displaced people, news agencies reported.

Family members of those killed said it hit at 00:40 local time (22:40 BST) while they were sleeping.

Tamam Abu Rizq told AFP the strike “shook the place like an earthquake”, and she “went outside and found the tent on fire”.

The al-Mawasi area was declared a “safe zone” by the Israeli military, as the UN says 80% of Gaza is either an Israeli military zone or under an evacuation order.

“They came here thinking it was a safe area and they were killed… What did they do?” Maha Abu Rizq said.

At the scene, surrounded by destruction and a jumble of personal items, one man held up a pack of nappies and asked: “Is this a weapon?”

Children were also wounded in the strike.

Footage recorded by AFP shows men alighting from a car in front of nearby Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and rushing inside carrying blood-covered children in their arms. Inside the hospital, young children cry as doctors treat their wounds.

Women weep over the bodies of their relatives in funerals at the hospital in other AFP footage.

“Anyone of any religion must take action and say: Enough! Stop this war!” Ekram al-Akhras, who lost several cousins in one of the strikes, said.

In Gaza City, another four people from the same family were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house, news agencies reported.

The four people killed were Ahmed Ayyad Zeno, his wife Ayat Zeno, and their daughters, Zahra Zeno and Obaida Zeno, according to Palestinian news outlet WAFA.

The BBC has contacted the IDF for comment about the two incidents.

Rachel Cummings, who is working in Gaza with Save the Children, told reporters that during “wishing circles” at the charity’s child-friendly spaces, children have recently been “wishing to die” in order to be with their mother or father who has been killed, or to have food and water.

As a heatwave spread across the UK and Europe this week, temperatures also topped 30C in Gaza.

Displaced people living in tents said they were struggling to stay cool without electricity and fans, and with little access to water.

Reda Abu Hadayed told the Associated Press the heat is “indescribable” and her children cannot sleep.

“They cry all day until sunset, when the temperature drops a little, then they go to sleep,” she said. “When morning comes, they start crying again due to the heat.”

Israel has continued to bomb Gaza and control the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid as mediators meet to negotiate a potential ceasefire proposal.

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

Since then, Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has confirmed he will have a successor, putting to rest speculation over whether the 600-year-old institution will end when he dies.

In a video message keenly-awaited by his followers, he said only the trust that he founded could appoint his successor and “no-one else has any authority to interfere in this matter”.

According to Tibetan tradition, Dalai Lamas are “reincarnated” after they die. China annexed Tibet in 1950 and the current Dalai Lama lives in exile in India, making succession a highly contentious issue.

Beijing rejected the statement, saying his successor would be from inside China and must be approved by the government.

Hundreds of followers gathered on Wednesday to hear the long-awaited announcement in the Indian town of Dharamshala where the Dalai Lama lives.

The Dalai Lama Library and Archive centre, where the video message was broadcast, resembled a sea of maroon with monks from all over the world in attendance.

“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” the Dalai Lama’s statement said.

He reiterated that “the Gaden Phodrang Trust, the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama… should accordingly carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition”.

Dharamshala is holding the Dalai Lama’s milestone 90th birthday celebrations which began on Monday – his birthday according to the Tibetan lunar calendar – and will conclude on 6 July, his official birthday.

Celebrations will be attended by more than 7,000 guests, including a number of Indian ministers. Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a long-time follower, is also taking part.

In the past, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism had been torn between whether to continue with the post of Dalai Lama or not. A few years ago, he said his successor might be a girl, or that there might be no successor at all.

But in recent years, he had also said that if there was widespread support among Tibetans-in-exile for the post – which there is – then it would continue and his office would choose a successor.

He has always insisted that his successor must be born outside China and his reiteration of the same on Wednesday did not go down well with Beijing.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation must comply with Chinese laws and regulations as well as “religious rituals and historical conventions” and would need to be approved by Beijing.

Even though the Dalai Lama has always advocated a “middle way” to resolve the status of Tibet – genuine self-rule within China – Beijing regards him as a separatist. It says the standard of living of people in Tibet has greatly improved under its rule and denies suppressing their human rights and freedom of expression.

The Dalai Lama’s message “affirming that the continuation of the institution” has been welcomed by his followers.

Tsayang Gyatso, a 40-year-old businessman, said that for most Tibetans, the announcement is “a great relief and a moment of happiness”.

“I always had a belief that the reincarnation will come. But having heard it from His Holiness, I feel elated,” he told the BBC in Dharamshala.

Mr Gyatso, who had travelled from Delhi, said he felt “blessed to be here in person to witness His Holiness’s birthday”.

He said there was “a lot of propaganda from China on the appointment of the next Dalai Lama” which made him fear that the appointment process could be corrupted “but all that has been put to rest by His Holiness’s announcement”.

Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, told the BBC that the Dalai Lama’s “message is indirect signalling” to China.

“He’s signalling two things here. One is he’s going to decide on his reincarnation, not China. And the other is he’s showing China that he’s made this decision through a kind of popular – almost democratic – process of asking the community whether they want his institution to continue.”

That’s a signal to China that his legitimacy is based on consent and not on force, Prof Barnett said.

Experts, however, say China is also expected to name its own Dalai Lama.

Dibyesh Anand, professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, said, “After a period of a few months or a few years, they will have their own proteges identify a small boy as the next Dalai Lama and impose that. Of course, a majority of Tibetans are going to reject it and the majority of people in the world are going to make fun of it. But remember China has immense authority in terms of resources so they will try to impose that.”

Youdon Aukatsang, an MP in the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, told the BBC that “despite all these years of trying to control the hearts and minds of Tibetan people inside Tibet”, Beijing has “completely failed”.

A Dalai Lama chosen by China, she says, “will not be recognised, not only by the Tibetans but the world will not recognise it because China doesn’t have the legitimacy to find the future Dalai Lama”.

“We are concerned but we know that irrespective of our concern, China will come up with their own Dalai Lama, we will call it the Chinese-recognised Dalai Lama. I am not worried that Dalai Lama will have any credibility in the Tibetan world or the Buddhist world.”

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 the US would “work with all parties to end the War”. He did not give details on the proposed truce.

“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 agreed to the conditions. A Hamas official told the BBC the group was “ready and serious” to reach a deal if it ended the war.

A Palestinian official familiar with Hamas’s negotiations with mediators told the BBC the proposal offered no substantive changes to an earlier offer the group rejected in June.

“The core issues remain unresolved,” the Palestinian official said, referring to the talks currently taking place with Qatari and Egyptian mediators.

Earlier, Hamas official Taher al-Nunu told the BBC that the group was “prepared to agree to any proposal if the requirements for ending the war are clearly met or if they lead to its complete end”.

In a statement the group said it was aiming to reach an agreement that “guarantees an end to the aggression, the withdrawal [of Israeli forces], and urgent relief for our people in the Gaza Strip”.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar posted on X that there is majority support in the government “for a framework to release hostages,” and this opportunity “must not be missed”.

For Israel, the key component of any deal will have to be the release of most, if not all, hostages still being held in Gaza.

Of the 50 or so hostages remaining in captivity, more than 20 are still thought to be alive and their plight has been at the forefront of regular demonstrations in Israel calling for an end to the war.

A recent Israeli newspaper poll suggested that a significant majority of Israelis wanted the war to end – but polling on Wednesday, from the Israel Democracy Institute, also suggested that most Israelis still did not trust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, or his intentions.

Netanyahu has for months insisted on “complete victory” over Hamas before ending the war. It’s unclear if his position will now change under renewed pressure from Washington – and the answer could be pivotal to reaching a deal.

But on the Hamas side, optimism remains low.

According to a source, Hamas’s representative in Cairo Ghazi Hamad is leading discussions on behalf of the group in Egypt.

However, the Palestinian official told the BBC that no new proposals had been put forward by the mediators. Instead, efforts appear focused on recycling, reworking the existing proposals by US special envoy Steve Witkoff – a framework that falls short of key Palestinian demands.

The current draft does not include guarantees that the war will come to a permanent end after the ceasefire expires, nor does it ensure an Israeli military withdrawal to positions held before 19 January.

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

He earlier said 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 said.

But without a guarantee to end the war, Hamas may question the value of releasing all the hostages if the Israeli military is likely to resume bombing Gaza.

Another consideration before an agreement could theoretically be signed is Hamas’s demand for a partial Israeli military withdrawal from Gaza, at least for the duration of the ceasefire.

The international community is also likely to lobby hard for the resumption of full-scale UN-backed aid deliveries into Gaza.

Prior to Trump’s announcement, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, told the BBC Israel was “absolutely” ready for a ceasefire.

Danon said 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.

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

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).

Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Tuesday that as of 28 June, 408 people had been killed trying to reach aid at GHF aid sites.

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.

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From Somalia to mainland Europe, the past two years have seen some of the most ravaging droughts in recorded history, made worse by climate change, according to a UN-backed report.

Describing drought as a “silent killer” which “creeps in, drains resources, and devastates lives in slow motion” the report said it had exacerbated issues like poverty and ecosystem collapse.

The report highlighted impacts in Africa, the Mediterranean, Latin America and Southeast Asia, including an estimated 4.4 million people in Somalia facing crisis-level food insecurity at the beginning of this year.

It recommends governments prepare for a “new normal” with measures including stronger early warning systems.

“This is a slow-moving global catastrophe, the worst I’ve ever seen,” said co-author Dr Mark Svoboda, founding director of the US National Drought Mitigation Center.

“This report underscores the need for systematic monitoring of how drought affects lives, livelihoods, and the health of the ecosystems that we all depend on.”

The Drought Hotspots Around the World report identifies the most severely impacted regions from 2023 to 2025.

During this time, the warming effects of climate change were made worse by an El Niño, a natural climate phenomenon that affects global weather patterns.

An El Niño happens when surface waters in the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean become unusually warm.

It often leads to drier conditions in regions such as southern Africa, parts of south-east Asia, northern South America, and south-east Australia.

Pressure from humans, for example the use of irrigation in agriculture, has also put a strain on water resources.

By January 2023, the worst drought in 70 years had hit the Horn of Africa, coming from years of failed rainy seasons in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia.

This followed the deaths of an estimated 43,000 people in Somalia in 2022 from drought-linked hunger.

African wildlife was also affected, with hippos in Botswana stranded in dry riverbeds, and elephants culled in Zimbabwe and Namibia to feed hungry communities and prevent overgrazing.

The report highlights how drought hits the world’s most vulnerable people including women hardest, with often far-reaching impacts on society.

Forced child marriages more than doubled in four regions of Eastern Africa hit hardest by drought, as families scrambled to secure dowries to survive, it noted.

“The coping mechanisms we saw during this drought grew increasingly desperate,” said lead author Paula Guastello. “Girls pulled from school and forced into marriage, hospitals going dark, and families digging holes in dry riverbeds just to find contaminated water – these are signs of severe crisis.”

While low- to middle-income countries bore the brunt of the devastation, none could afford to be complacent, the report says, noting how two years of drought and record heat cut Spain’s olive crop in half.

In the Amazon basin, record low water levels killed fish and put endangered dolphins more at risk as well as hitting drinking water supplies for hundreds of thousands of people.

And drought even had an effect on world trade – between October 2023 and January 2024, water levels fell so much in the Panama Canal that daily ship transits dropped from 38 to 24.

“Drought is not just a weather event – it can be a social, economic, and environmental emergency,” said report co-author Dr Kelly Helm Smith.

“The question is not whether this will happen again, but whether we will be better prepared next time.”

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 High Court has ordered a “robust and independent” new investigation into how MI5 gave false evidence to multiple courts, after rejecting two official inquiries provided by the Security Service as seriously “deficient”.

The two reviews took place after the BBC revealed MI5 had lied to three courts in a case concerning a neo-Nazi state agent who abused women.

A panel of three senior judges said it would be “premature” to decide whether to begin contempt of court proceedings against any individuals before the new investigation was complete.

They also “commended” the BBC for “bringing these matters to light”.

The two official inquiries, one of which was commissioned by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, absolved MI5 and its officers of deliberate wrongdoing.

But the judgement concludes that the “investigations carried out by MI5 to date suffer from serious procedural deficiencies” and that “we cannot rely on their conclusions”.

The three judges – England and Wales’ most senior judge, Lady Chief Justice Baroness Sue Carr, President of the King’s Bench Division Dame Victoria Sharp and Mr Justice Chamberlain, said: “It is to be hoped that events such as these will never be repeated.”

Their judgement says the new investigation should be carried out under the auspices of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner Sir Brian Leveson, who has oversight of MI5’s surveillance activities. His office, IPCO, was also provided with false evidence by MI5 in the case.

Sir Brian said: “It is clear that MI5’s compliance with its statutory duties fell short in this case.”

He noted the recommendation that IPCO should carry out the new investigation said he would await “direction from the prime minister”.

MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum repeated his “full and unreserved apology for the errors made in these proceedings”.

He said resolving this matter was “of the highest priority for MI5” and that they would co-operate fully with IPCO.

“MI5’s job is to keep the country safe. Maintaining the trust of the courts is essential to that mission,” he said.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We are pleased this decision has been reached and that the key role of our journalist Daniel De Simone in bringing this to light has been acknowledged by the judges.

“We believe our journalism on this story has always been in the highest public interest.”

The case began in 2022 with an attempt to block the BBC from publishing a story about a neo-Nazi agent known as X. It has become a major test of how the courts view MI5 and the credibility of its evidence.

MI5 gave evidence to three courts, saying that it had never breached its core secrecy policy of neither confirming nor denying (NCND) that X was a state agent.

But in February, the BBC was able to prove with notes and recordings of phone calls with MI5 that this was false.

An MI5 officer had confirmed the agent’s status as he tried to persuade me to drop an investigation into X, a violent misogynist who used his Security Service role to coerce and terrify his former girlfriend, known publicly as “Beth”.

Beth’s lawyer, Kate Ellis from the Centre for Women’s Justice, said the judgement was a “clear rejection” of MI5’s explanations so far and a “serious warning” to the Security Service to cooperate.

She said the judges expressed concerns about “the ease” with which MI5 was able to “hide behind” the NCND policy – and warned that none of the safeguards to hold it accountable can work properly without “high standards of candour”.

The two official inquiries criticised by the High Court were an internal MI5 inquiry and an “external” investigation by the government’s former chief lawyer, Sir Jonathan Jones KC. The latter was commissioned by the home sectary and Sir Ken.

But the judgement said that “there was in our view a fundamental incoherence in Sir Jonathan’s terms of reference”.

The ruling said he was asked to establish the facts of what happened but not to “make findings about why specific individuals did or did not do certain things”.

However, the judges said Sir Jonathan nevertheless “did make findings” that there was no deliberate attempt by anyone to mislead the court – without ever speaking to an MI5 officer at the centre of the case and without considering key additional BBC evidence about what took place.

The judgement also found that MI5’s director general of strategy, who is the organisation’s third-in-command, gave misleading assurances to the court in a witness statement.

He said its original explanations were “a fair and accurate account” of secret material which, at that point, had not been disclosed.

The court forced the government and MI5 to hand over the material, and the judges concluded that MI5’s explanations were not “fair and accurate” and “omitted several critical matters” – including that IPCO had been misled and what was known by several MI5 officers at relevant times.

Their judgement said that it was “regrettable that MI5’s explanations to this court were given in a piecemeal and unsatisfactory way – and only following the repeated intervention of the court”.

“The impression has been created that the true circumstances in which false evidence came to be given have had to be extracted from, not volunteered by, MI5,” they said.

Today’s highly critical judgement also found:

• In this one case MI5 has misled two separate branches of the High Court, as well as the Investigatory Powers Tribunal, the Investigatory Powers Commissioner, and security cleared barristers representing the BBC known as special advocates
• MI5’s core NCND secrecy policy about the status of agents was maintained in the legal proceedings long after “any justification for its maintenance had disappeared”
• The BBC and I, as well as our lawyers and special advocates, should be “commended” for the “central role” we have played in bringing these matters to light

The judgement said that a “major” failing by the official reviews is that they did not contact me, despite the fact I was the other person involved in the key events.

The judges said that, having “considered carefully” further evidence I submitted in response to the reviews – such as records and notes that showed both reviews included false statements – it “paints a significantly different picture” to the one presented by MI5.

They added that they accepted the internal investigators and Sir Jonathan in the external review later considered my evidence “in good faith”.

But they said that because they had already reached a conclusion that there had been no deliberate attempt to mislead the court, they would “inevitably find it difficult” to revise those conclusions in the light of evidence which “fundamentally affects” the basis of their conclusions.

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US will charge 20% tariffs on imports from Vietnam under a new trade deal reached during last-minute negotiations.

Products sent from Vietnam to the US had faced a 46% levy, which was set to go into effect next week as part of Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs announced in April.

Dozens of other economies, including the European Union and Japan, are still scrambling to make their own deals with the US before the planned increases.

Under the agreement, Vietnam will charge no tariffs on US products, Trump said in a social media post.

Tariffs, which are a tax on imports, are almost always paid by the company that is buying the goods rather than the business which makes the product.

While importers can decide to absorb the extra charge, they often choose to pass it on to the consumer. Many of the US trading partners are worried that will drive down demand for things made in their countries.

In the “Great Deal of Cooperation”, as Trump called it, the US will also impose a steeper tariff of 40% on goods that pass through Vietnam in a process known as “trans-shipping”.

Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counsellor on trade and manufacturing, has said that a third of all Vietnamese exports to the US were actually Chinese products shipped through Vietnam.

The president said on social media: “Vietnam will do something that they have never done before, give the United States of America TOTAL ACCESS to their Markets for Trade.

“In other words, they will ‘OPEN THEIR MARKET TO THE UNITED STATES,’ meaning that we will be able to sell our product into Vietnam at ZERO Tariff.”

Vietnam has become a major manufacturing hub for a number of major brands such as Nike, Apple, the Gap and Lululemon. It was a beneficiary of firms moving factories out of China to avoid the tariffs Trump announced during his first term in office.

Share prices of companies making goods in Vietnam initially rose on news of the deal, although those gains were trimmed after it emerged products will still face a 20% tax.

Vietnam’s General Secretary To Lam held a phone call with Trump on Wednesday, during which he reiterated an invitation for the US president to visit the country.

Separately, the Trump family has recently announced development projects in Vietnam.

The country’s government approved a plan by the Trump Organization and local business Kinh Bac City Development to invest $1.5bn in hotels, golf courses and luxury real estate.

The Trump Organization is also scouting for locations to build a Trump Tower in Ho Chi Minh City.

Trump initially imposed steep levies on trading partners around the world in April , citing a lack of “reciprocity”, but then announced a pause where they were all lowered to 10%.

Many countries then approached the US to negotiate trade deals, according to the White House.

Since April, Washington had so far only announced a pact with Britain and a deal to temporarily lower retaliatory duties with China.

A DNA bone test on a man who lived 4,500 years ago in the Nile Valley has shed new light on the rise of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation.

An analysis of his skeleton shows he was 60 years old and possibly worked as a potter, but also that a fifth of his DNA came from ancestors living 1,500km away in the other great civilisation of the time, in Mesopotamia or modern day Iraq.

It is the first biological evidence of links between the two and could help explain how Egypt was transformed from a disparate collection of farming communities to one of the mightiest civilisations on Earth.

The findings lend new weight to the view that writing and agriculture arose through the exchange of people and ideas between these two ancient worlds.

The lead researcher, Prof Pontus Skoglund at the Francis Crick Institute in London, told BBC News that being able to extract and read DNA from ancient bones could shed new light on events and individuals from the past, allowing black and white historical facts to burst into life with technicolour details.

“If we get more DNA information and put it side by side with what we know from archaeological, cultural, and written information we have from the time, it will be very exciting,” he said.

Our understanding of our past is drawn in part from written records, which is often an account by the rich and powerful, mostly about the rich and powerful.

Biological methods are giving historians and scientists a new tool to view history through the eyes of ordinary people.

The DNA was taken from a bone in the inner ear of remains of a man buried in Nuwayrat, a village 265km south of Cairo.

He died between 4,500 and 4,800 years ago, a transformational moment in the emergence of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Archaeological evidence indicated that the two regions may have been in contact at least 10,000 years ago when people in Mesopotamia began to farm and domesticate animals, leading to the emergence of an agricultural society.

Many scholars believe this social and technological revolution may have influenced similar developments in ancient Egypt – but there has been no direct evidence of contact, until now.

Adeline Morez Jacobs, who analysed the remains as part of her PhD at Liverpool John Moores University, says this is the first clear-cut evidence of significant migration of people and therefore information between the two centres of civilisation at the time.

“You have two regions developing the first writing systems, so archaeologists believe that they were in contact and exchanging ideas. Now we have the evidence that they were.

“We hope that future DNA samples from ancient Egypt can expand on when precisely this movement from West Asia started and its extent.”

The man was buried in a ceramic pot in a tomb cut into the hillside. His burial took place before artificial mummification was standard practice, which may have helped to preserve his DNA.

By investigating chemicals in his teeth, the research team were able to discern what he ate, and from that, determined that he had probably grown up in Egypt.

But the scientific detective story doesn’t stop there.

Prof Joel Irish at Liverpool John Moores University conducted a detailed analysis of the skeleton to build up a picture of the man as an individual.

“What I wanted to do was to find out who this guy was, let’s learn as much about him as possible, what his age was, his stature was, what he did for a living and to try and personalise the whole thing rather than treat him as a cold specimen,” he said.

The bone structure indicated that the man was between 45 and 65 years old, though evidence of arthritis pointed to the upper end of the scale. He was just over 5ft 2in tall, which even then was short.

Prof Irish was also able to establish he was probably a potter. The hook-shaped bone at the back of his skull was enlarged, indicating he looked down a lot. His seat bones are expanded in size, suggesting that he sat on hard surfaces for prolonged periods. His arms showed evidence of extensive movement back and forth, and there were markings on his arms where his muscles had grown, indicating that he was used to lifting heavy objects.

“This shows he worked his tail off. He’s worked his entire life,” the American-born academic told BBC News.

Dr Linus Girdland Flink explained that it was only because of a tremendous stroke of luck that this skeleton was available to study and reveal its historic secrets.

“It was excavated in 1902 and donated to World Museum Liverpool, where it then survived bombings during the Blitz that destroyed most of the human remains in their collection. We’ve now been able to tell part of the individual’s story, finding that some of his ancestry came from the Fertile Crescent, highlighting mixture between groups at this time,” he said.

The new research has been published in the journal Nature.

Twelve New York jurors gathered around 10:00 on Wednesday in a wood-paneled courtroom to tell Sean “Diddy” Combs that they found him not guilty of running a criminal enterprise with employees, and sex trafficking his ex-girlfriends.

The disgraced hip-hop mogul fell to his knees and buried his head in a chair at the defence table where he had just spent two months on trial for sex trafficking and racketeering.

Before the verdict came down, Combs sat quietly in his chair, looking forward, wearing the same off-white sweater and pants he wore for much of his trial.

The court grew quiet as the jury foreperson handed the verdict sheet to the court deputy. Then it was handed back to the foreperson.

And they began to read.

As the sound of the “not guilty” rung out in the courtroom for the first time, acquitting Combs of the most severe crime of racketeering, the rapper kept his head low.

By the time the foreperson announced Combs was not guilty of sex trafficking, Combs had his head in his hands.

The jury did find him guilty on the least severe charges of transporting people to engage in prostitution. As they confirmed their decision, Combs buried his face in his hands.

A flurry of small celebrations followed for Combs, who has been in a federal jail in Brooklyn since September. He made a prayer sign with his hands to the jury, then turned around and made the same gesture to his family – twin daughters, sons and 85-year-old mother.

He appeared to mouth: “I’m coming home.”

The moment seemed equally emotional for Combs’ many lawyers, including Teny Geragos, seated next to him and wiping away tears with a tissue after the verdict was read.

Combs’ attorneys wasted no time in telling the judge that the verdict, reached after roughly two days of deliberations, meant Combs should be able to walk out of the Manhattan courthouse a free man that very day.

His acquittal on the most serious charges meant he no longer needed to be jailed, his attorney Marc Agnifilo told the court, noting that his client’s plane was inaccessible – chartered and in Maui.

“Mr Combs has been given his life by this jury,” he said. “He will not run afoul of anything this court imposes on him.”

Then, in the perhaps the most emotional gesture of the day for Combs, he appeared to express his gratitude by pressing his head into his chair at the defence table.

He rose, clapping his hands loudly, to hug several of his lawyers. Many family members and supporters in the main courtroom and a packed overflow room joined him, cheering.

Then, with one final hug to his lawyer and a wave to his family – blocked by a mass of people and court benches – he was escorted out of the courtroom. He remains in custody pending a bail hearing.

The trial of American music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was accused of running a sprawling sex trafficking operation, has ended with two guilty verdicts and an acquittal on three others.

The rapper was convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution of his ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, and another woman known as “Jane” who had testified in the trial.

He was found not guilty of the most serious charge of racketeering conspiracy, as well as two charges of sex trafficking in relation to Ms Ventura and “Jane”.

Combs, 55, had pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations against him.

Here is a breakdown of the charges faced by the rapper and how the jury came to its decision.

• Verdict reached in court – follow live

Racketeering conspiracy, or directing an illegal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (Rico), is the formal name for the charge.

The law was created to take on mob bosses, but it has since been used in other trials, including for sex trafficking – such as in the case against disgraced R&B singer R Kelly.

It is also sometimes used against a group of defendants. US President Donald Trump and his allies were accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia – charges that Trump denied.

To convict Combs on this charge, prosecutors had to prove that he used his loyal network of associates to run a criminal enterprise to commit crimes including sex trafficking, kidnapping, drugging and obstruction of justice.

In this case, that network would include his employees, who prosecutors argued played a part in setting up the “freak-offs” at the centre of the case.

These were prolonged sexual encounters at which the prosecution’s key witnesses said they were coerced to have sex with male escorts while Combs watched.

In a raid on his Los Angeles mansion, police found supplies that they said were intended for use in freak-offs, including drugs and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil.

Combs’ acquittal on the most serious charge of racketeering will likely be seen as a big win by his legal team.

His lawyers had sought to undermine the allegation by asking witnesses whether Combs’ employees ever witnessed the freak-offs.

Cassie Ventura, the star witness for the prosecution, said she did not think they were present.

Defence lawyers argued that the case cannot be considered to be racketeering if members of Combs’ staff were not knowingly complicit.

“Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” said defence attorney Marc Agnifilo. “Did any witness get on that witness stand and say ‘yes, I was part of a racketeering enterprise, I engaged in racketeering’?”

Robert Mintz, a criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor, told the BBC that the racketeering charge was always going to be the most challenging one for prosecutors to prove to a jury.

To gain a conviction, lawyers needed to prove that Combs established a co-ordinated plan between himself and at least one other person to commit at least two crimes over a span of several years, Mr Mintz said.

“It’s a very complicated charge, used typically in the past in organized crime prosecution,” Mr Mintz said, adding it is unsurprising that this charge gave the jury the most difficulty.

Combs was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution relating to Ms Ventura and an anonymous victim known as “Jane”.

In simple terms, it means the jury found Combs guilty of transporting the two women to places where they would participate in sex acts and prostitution.

The felony dates back to the Mann Act, which was enacted in 1910.

The Mann Act is a US federal law that was passed to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women.

Initially referred to as the “White-Slave Traffic Act”, the more than 100-year-old law prohibits the transportation of individuals across state lines for illegal sex acts or prostitution.

Both Ms Ventura and “Jane”, who had dated the rapper, separately testified about “freak-offs” or “hotel nights”. They described these as sexual encounters in which the couple would hire male escorts to have sex with the female partner while Combs watched, at times recording or directing them.

In its early days, the Mann Act was used by federal prosecutors as a way to criminalise some forms of consensual activity, including interracial relationships.

Combs’ lawyers referenced that history in an unsuccessful attempt to get one of the charges against the rapper dismissed, arguing that he was being unfairly persecuted because of his race.

Transportation for purposes of prostitution – the charge that Combs was convicted of – carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey has said she will push for the full 20 years – a decade for each conviction. “It is clear that the defendant does pose a danger,” she said.

Combs has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, since his arrest on 16 September 2024.

Critics describe the prison as overcrowded and understaffed, with a culture of violence.

His lawyers argued for his release, citing the jail’s “horrific” conditions, but a New York federal judge denied the bail request, describing Combs as a “serious flight risk”.

After the verdict was read, Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked once again for his client to be released from federal detention until his sentencing hearing, and suggested a $1m bail.

Combs will be sentenced at a later hearing – the date has not yet been set by Judge Arun Subramanian.

While the rapper faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, it will be up to the judge to decide the length of time he will ultimately serve.

Separately, Combs faces a number of lawsuits accusing him of rape and assault.

Tony Buzbee, a Texas lawyer handling some of these cases, said that more than 100 women and men from across the US had either filed lawsuits against the rap mogul or intended to do so.

In December 2023, a woman known in court papers as Jane Doe alleged that she was “gang raped” by Combs and others in 2003, when she was 17. She said she was given “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol” before the attack.

Combs’s legal team dismissed the flurry of lawsuits as “clear attempts to garner publicity”.

Combs’ current legal issues began in late 2023 when he was sued by Ms Ventura, also known as Cassie, for violent abuse and rape.

That lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount a day after it was filed, with Combs maintaining his innocence.

Since then, dozens of other people have filed lawsuits accusing Combs of sexual assault, with accusations dating back to 1991. He denies all the claims.

His controversial history with Ms Ventura resurfaced in 2024, when CNN published leaked CCTV footage from 2016 showing Combs kicking his ex-girlfriend as she lay on a hotel hallway floor.

He apologised for his behaviour, saying: “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”

• ‘He thought of himself as a king’: The parties that led to Diddy’s downfall
• ‘Studio sex’ and ‘hitman threats’: Insiders speak out about Diddy’s 90s music
• Diddy’s violence left me broken, says Cassie

Dozens of potential jurors were vetted by the court.

The process included potential jurors looking through a long list of places and people that could be mentioned during trial, with names like Kanye West and Kid Cudi.

Potential jurors also had to fill out questionnaires that asked whether they had “views about hip hop artists” or “feelings concerning violence, sexual assault”.

The judge reminded the court several times of the importance of choosing a fair and impartial jury.

Combs – who has also gone by the names Puffy, Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Love, and Brother Love – emerged in the hip-hop scene in the 1990s.

His early music career success included helping launch the careers of Mary J Blige and Christopher Wallace – aka Biggie Smalls, or The Notorious B.I.G.

His music label Bad Boy Records became one of the most important labels in rap and expanded to include Faith Evans, Ma$e, 112, Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez.

Combs also had a prolific business career outside of music, including a deal with British drinks company Diageo to promote the French vodka brand Cîroc.

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

• Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: Who is the US rapper accused of sex trafficking?

Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending budget bill is returning to the US House of Representatives – as the clock ticks down to the president’s 4 July deadline for lawmakers to present him with a final version that can be signed into law.

The bill narrowly cleared the Senate, or upper chamber of Congress, on Tuesday. Vice-President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote after more than 24 hours of debate and resistance from some Republican senators.

It could prove equally tricky for Trump’s allies to pass the bill through the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson hopes to hold a vote as early as Wednesday.

The lower chamber approved an earlier version of the bill in May with a margin of just one vote, and this bill must now be reconciled with the Senate version.

Both chambers are controlled by Trump’s Republicans, but within the party several factions are fighting over key policies in the lengthy legislation.

Sticking points include the question of how much the bill will add to the US national deficit, and how deeply it will cut healthcare and other social programmes.

During previous signs of rebellion against Trump at Congress, Republican lawmakers have ultimately fallen in line.

What is at stake this time is the defining piece of legislation for Trump’s second term. Here are the factions standing in its way.

• Facing intense pressure, House must decide if Trump’s bill is good enough
• What’s in Trump’s budget bill?
• Trump and Musk feud again over budget plans

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the version of the bill that was passed on Tuesday by the Senate could add $3.3tn (£2.4tn) to the US national deficit over the next 10 years. That compares with $2.8tn that could be added by the earlier version that was narrowly passed by the House.

The deficit means the difference between what the US government spends and the revenue it receives.

This outraged the fiscal hawks in the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have threatened to tank the bill.

Many of them are echoing claims made by Elon Musk, Trump’s former adviser and campaign donor, who has repeatedly lashed out at lawmakers for considering a bill that will ultimately add to US national debt.

Shortly after the Senate passed the bill, Congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina, a Freedom Caucus member, called the move “unconscionable”.

“What the Senate did, I’ll vote against it here and I’ll vote against it on the floor,” he added.

Norman’s colleague from Texas, Chip Roy, was also quick to signal his frustration, saying the odds of meeting Trump’s 4 July deadline had lengthened.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Tennessee told Fox News that Musk was right to say the US cannot sustain these deficits. “He understands finances, he understands debts and deficits, and we have to make further progress.”

On Tuesday, Conservative Congressman Andy Ogles went as far as to file an amendment that would completely replace the Senate version of the bill, which he called a “dud”, with the original House-approved one.

Meanwhile, Ohio Republican Warren Davison posted on X: “Promising someone else will cut spending in the future does not cut spending.” He added: “We will eventually arrive at the crash site, because it appears nothing will stop this runaway spending train. A fatal overdose of government.”

Representatives from poorer districts are worried about the Senate version of the bill harming their constituents, which could also hurt them at the polls in 2026. According to the Hill, six Republicans planning to vote down the bill due to concerns about cuts to key provisions, including cuts to medical coverage.

Some of the critical Republicans have attacked the Senate’s more aggressive cuts to Medicaid, the healthcare programme relied upon by millions of low-income Americans.

“I’ve been clear from the start that I will not support a final reconciliation bill that makes harmful cuts to Medicaid, puts critical funding at risk, or threatens the stability of healthcare providers,” said Congressman David Valadao, who represents a swing district in California. This echoes the criticism of opposition Democrats.

Other Republicans have signalled a willingness to compromise. Randy Fine, from Florida, told the BBC he had frustrations with the Senate version of the bill, but that he would vote it through the House because “we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”.

House Republicans had wrestled over how much to cut Medicaid and food subsidies in the initial version their chamber passed. They needed the bill to reduce spending, in order to offset lost revenue from the tax cuts contained in the legislation.

The Senate made steeper cuts to both areas in the version passed on Tuesday.

Changes to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare) in the Senate’s bill would see roughly 12 million Americans lose health insurance by 2034, according to a CBO report published on Saturday.

Under the version originally passed by the House, a smaller number of 11 million Americans would have had their coverage stripped, according to the CBO.

The bill also deals with the question of how much taxpayers can deduct from the amount they pay in federal taxes, based on how much they pay in state and local taxes (Salt). This, too, has become a controversial issue.

There is currently a $10,000 cap, which expires this year. Both the Senate and House have approved increasing this to $40,000.

But in the Senate-approved version, the cap would return to $10,000 after five years. This change could pose a problem for some House Republicans.

In 2006, the world was gifted one of the most quotable and magnificent films of the 21st Century.

No, no. That wasn’t a question.

The Devil Wears Prada, based on a novel by Lauren Weisberger, starred Meryl Streep as a demon fashion magazine editor who made ridiculous demands on her long-suffering assistants, played by Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway.

The movie managed to both celebrate and send up the fashion industry at the same time. It has developed a cult following over the years and was recently adapted as a stage musical.

The film studios may have been moving at a glacial pace for the last two decades (you know how that thrills us), but now, we’re finally getting a sequel. Here’s everything we know so far.

Miranda Priestly, along with her anti-bacterial wipes and excellent taste in cerulean sweaters, will once again be portrayed by Hollywood royalty Meryl Streep. It will be the actress’s first film since 2021’s Don’t Look Up.

Anne Hathaway will reprise her role as Andrea “Andy” Sachs, provided there isn’t some kind of hideous skirt convention she has to go to.

Her fellow assistant Emily, played by Emily Blunt, will also return, having hopefully given up her diet where she doesn’t eat anything, unless she feels like she’s going to faint, and then she eats a cube of cheese.

Miranda’s right-hand man Nigel, played by Stanley Tucci, who must surely be due a promotion after his whole life went up in smoke, will be back as well.

New cast members include British actor Kenneth Branagh, who will reportedly play Miranda’s husband. We hope he knows how to spell Gabbana.

But one person who won’t be back is Andrea’s boyfriend Nate, played by Entourage star Adrian Grenier.

He and the couple’s group of friends were perceived as the villains of the first film as the movie was gradually reappraised over the years, and viewers have increasingly criticised Andy’s support network for not, well, supporting her and her career.

Weisberger did write a sequel to her original novel, 2013’s Revenge Wears Prada, but it’s not clear how closely the second film will resemble it.

In the second book, Andy had recently turned 30, was about to get married and was now a successful magazine editor in her own right, working closely with her former Runway survivor Emily – before Miranda re-enters her life.

The book is rumoured to be the basis of the film sequel, but according to Hollywood trade publication Variety, there will some new story elements too.

Viewers will reportedly join Miranda as she navigates the decline of traditional magazine publishing. It’s understood she will be forced to court her one-time assistant Emily, who is now a high-powered executive for a luxury brand, for advertising revenue.

In real life, Weisberger briefly worked at Vogue as an assistant to Dame Anna Wintour, who coincidentally announced last week she was stepping down as the magazine’s editor-in-chief after 37 years.

It’s not just the stars who are returning for The Devil Wears Prada 2 – the core creative team are back too.

David Frankel will return to direct, having helmed Marley & Me, Hope Springs and Collateral Beauty in the interim. The original film’s producer, Wendy Finerman, is also coming back.

And Aline Brosh McKenna will once again write the screenplay. Since 2006, she has also written Cruella, Morning Glory, 27 Dresses and I Don’t Know How She Does It.

It’s clear the stars and creative team have fond memories of the film, and Streep, Hathaway and Blunt reunited at the SAG Awards last year for a short sketch as their beloved characters.

The actors have often been asked what their characters might be up to today. In 2022, Hathaway mused: “I think [Andrea] is writing for a wonderful French women’s magazine. I think she’s a staff writer and she speaks French fluently. I don’t think she’s married, but she might have a child or two. I think she’s pretty fab.”

Gird your loins, The Devil Wears Prada 2 is due to be released in cinemas on Friday 1 May 2026.

With impeccable timing, that is the weekend before fashion’s biggest night, the Met Gala, which always takes place on the first Monday in May.

The teaser for the film gives nothing away – the famous red stiletto heel from the first film’s promotional poster is appropriately joined by a second, identical shoe.

The stylish visual is accompanied only by the words: “Now in production.” A full trailer should follow in due course.

A sequel? For Spring? Goundbreaking.

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 trial of American music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was accused of running a sprawling sex trafficking operation, has ended with two guilty verdicts and an acquittal on three others.

The rapper was convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution of his ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, and another woman known as “Jane” who had testified in the trial.

He was found not guilty of the most serious charge of racketeering conspiracy, as well as two charges of sex trafficking in relation to Ms Ventura and “Jane”.

Combs, 55, had pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations against him.

Here is a breakdown of the charges faced by the rapper and how the jury came to its decision.

• Verdict reached in court – follow live

Racketeering conspiracy, or directing an illegal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (Rico), is the formal name for the charge.

The law was created to take on mob bosses, but it has since been used in other trials, including for sex trafficking – such as in the case against disgraced R&B singer R Kelly.

It is also sometimes used against a group of defendants. US President Donald Trump and his allies were accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia – charges that Trump denied.

To convict Combs on this charge, prosecutors had to prove that he used his loyal network of associates to run a criminal enterprise to commit crimes including sex trafficking, kidnapping, drugging and obstruction of justice.

In this case, that network would include his employees, who prosecutors argued played a part in setting up the “freak-offs” at the centre of the case.

These were prolonged sexual encounters at which the prosecution’s key witnesses said they were coerced to have sex with male escorts while Combs watched.

In a raid on his Los Angeles mansion, police found supplies that they said were intended for use in freak-offs, including drugs and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil.

Combs’ acquittal on the most serious charge of racketeering will likely be seen as a big win by his legal team.

His lawyers had sought to undermine the allegation by asking witnesses whether Combs’ employees ever witnessed the freak-offs.

Cassie Ventura, the star witness for the prosecution, said she did not think they were present.

Defence lawyers argued that the case cannot be considered to be racketeering if members of Combs’ staff were not knowingly complicit.

“Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” said defence attorney Marc Agnifilo. “Did any witness get on that witness stand and say ‘yes, I was part of a racketeering enterprise, I engaged in racketeering’?”

Robert Mintz, a criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor, told the BBC that the racketeering charge was always going to be the most challenging one for prosecutors to prove to a jury.

To gain a conviction, lawyers needed to prove that Combs established a co-ordinated plan between himself and at least one other person to commit at least two crimes over a span of several years, Mr Mintz said.

“It’s a very complicated charge, used typically in the past in organized crime prosecution,” Mr Mintz said, adding it is unsurprising that this charge gave the jury the most difficulty.

Combs was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution relating to Ms Ventura and an anonymous victim known as “Jane”.

In simple terms, it means the jury found Combs guilty of transporting the two women to places where they would participate in sex acts and prostitution.

The felony dates back to the Mann Act, which was enacted in 1910.

The Mann Act is a US federal law that was passed to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women.

Initially referred to as the “White-Slave Traffic Act”, the more than 100-year-old law prohibits the transportation of individuals across state lines for illegal sex acts or prostitution.

Both Ms Ventura and “Jane”, who had dated the rapper, separately testified about “freak-offs” or “hotel nights”. They described these as sexual encounters in which the couple would hire male escorts to have sex with the female partner while Combs watched, at times recording or directing them.

In its early days, the Mann Act was used by federal prosecutors as a way to criminalise some forms of consensual activity, including interracial relationships.

Combs’ lawyers referenced that history in an unsuccessful attempt to get one of the charges against the rapper dismissed, arguing that he was being unfairly persecuted because of his race.

Transportation for purposes of prostitution – the charge that Combs was convicted of – carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey has said she will push for the full 20 years – a decade for each conviction. “It is clear that the defendant does pose a danger,” she said.

Combs has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, since his arrest on 16 September 2024.

Critics describe the prison as overcrowded and understaffed, with a culture of violence.

His lawyers argued for his release, citing the jail’s “horrific” conditions, but a New York federal judge denied the bail request, describing Combs as a “serious flight risk”.

After the verdict was read, Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked once again for his client to be released from federal detention until his sentencing hearing, and suggested a $1m bail.

Combs will be sentenced at a later hearing – the date has not yet been set by Judge Arun Subramanian.

While the rapper faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, it will be up to the judge to decide the length of time he will ultimately serve.

Separately, Combs faces a number of lawsuits accusing him of rape and assault.

Tony Buzbee, a Texas lawyer handling some of these cases, said that more than 100 women and men from across the US had either filed lawsuits against the rap mogul or intended to do so.

In December 2023, a woman known in court papers as Jane Doe alleged that she was “gang raped” by Combs and others in 2003, when she was 17. She said she was given “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol” before the attack.

Combs’s legal team dismissed the flurry of lawsuits as “clear attempts to garner publicity”.

Combs’ current legal issues began in late 2023 when he was sued by Ms Ventura, also known as Cassie, for violent abuse and rape.

That lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount a day after it was filed, with Combs maintaining his innocence.

Since then, dozens of other people have filed lawsuits accusing Combs of sexual assault, with accusations dating back to 1991. He denies all the claims.

His controversial history with Ms Ventura resurfaced in 2024, when CNN published leaked CCTV footage from 2016 showing Combs kicking his ex-girlfriend as she lay on a hotel hallway floor.

He apologised for his behaviour, saying: “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”

• ‘He thought of himself as a king’: The parties that led to Diddy’s downfall
• ‘Studio sex’ and ‘hitman threats’: Insiders speak out about Diddy’s 90s music
• Diddy’s violence left me broken, says Cassie

Dozens of potential jurors were vetted by the court.

The process included potential jurors looking through a long list of places and people that could be mentioned during trial, with names like Kanye West and Kid Cudi.

Potential jurors also had to fill out questionnaires that asked whether they had “views about hip hop artists” or “feelings concerning violence, sexual assault”.

The judge reminded the court several times of the importance of choosing a fair and impartial jury.

Combs – who has also gone by the names Puffy, Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Love, and Brother Love – emerged in the hip-hop scene in the 1990s.

His early music career success included helping launch the careers of Mary J Blige and Christopher Wallace – aka Biggie Smalls, or The Notorious B.I.G.

His music label Bad Boy Records became one of the most important labels in rap and expanded to include Faith Evans, Ma$e, 112, Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez.

Combs also had a prolific business career outside of music, including a deal with British drinks company Diageo to promote the French vodka brand Cîroc.

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

• Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: Who is the US rapper accused of sex trafficking?

In March 1959, as Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled into India.

Then a young man in his mid-20s, the future must have seemed bleak.

With few countries prepared to respond to China’s actions, he faced a difficult task to protect Tibetans and their traditions.

Yet despite decades in exile, his reach has extended far beyond his community. He is not just the Tibetans’ spiritual leader and a living symbol of their hopes of reclaiming their homeland, but also a global peace icon and one of the world’s leading religious figures.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his consistent opposition to the use of violence in his quest for Tibetan self-rule.

Beijing continues to view him as a dangerous separatist, though he has said his goal is for Tibetan autonomy rather than independence.

Now, after a lifetime spent at the centre of China’s fraught relationship with Tibet, the Dalai Lama is focusing on the future.

As he turned 90 in June 2025, he confirmed that there would be a successor after he dies, putting to rest doubts about the continuation of his 600-year-old Buddhist institution.

The 14th Dalai Lama was born on 6 July 1935, in a small village just outside the current boundaries of Tibet.

His parents, who named him Lhamo Dhondub, were farmers with several other children.

When he was two years old, a search party of Buddhist officials recognised him as the reincarnation of the 13 previous Dalai Lamas and he was enthroned before he turned four. He was given the monastic name Tenzin Gyatso.

He was educated at a monastery and went on to achieve the Geshe Lharampa Degree, a doctorate of Buddhist philosophy.

But in 1950, when he was 15, troops of China’s newly-installed Communist government marched into Tibet.

As soldiers poured in, the Dalai Lama assumed full power as head of state.

In May 1951, China drew up a 17-point agreement legitimising Tibet’s incorporation into China.

Then, on 10 March 1959, a Chinese general invited the Dalai Lama to attend a performance by a Chinese dance troupe. But Tibetans feared it was a trap aimed at abducting the Dalai Lama, and many began gathering by his palace to protect him.

This evolved into protests against the Chinese troops’ presence in Tibetan territory. The People’s Liberation Army launched a brutal crackdown, and thousands are said to have died.

Days later, the Dalai Lama fled the palace, a decision he said was based on divine orders from his personal oracle. He disguised himself as a soldier and slipped into the crowd one night.

Together with an entourage, he arrived at the Indian border after a gruelling 15-day trek across the Himalayas.

The Indian government granted asylum, and he eventually settled in Dharamshala in the north of India, which became home to the Tibetan government-in-exile.

The Dalai Lama was followed into exile by about 80,000 Tibetans, most of whom settled in the same area.

In exile, the Dalai Lama began the task of trying to preserve the culture of the Tibetan people and publicise their plight on the world stage.

He appealed to the United Nations and persuaded the General Assembly to adopt resolutions in 1959, 1961 and 1965 calling for the protection of the Tibetan people.

The Dalai Lama has advocated a “middle way” to resolve the status of Tibet – genuine self-rule for Tibet within China.

In 1987, amid protests in Lhasa against the large-scale relocation of Han Chinese into Tibet, the Dalai Lama proposed a five-point plan, in which he called for the establishment of Tibet as a zone of peace.

But he did not move from his stance of peaceful resistance and in 1989 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

The committee praised his policy of non-violence, which it called “all the more remarkable when it is considered in relation to the sufferings inflicted on the Tibetan people”.

Over the decades he has met many political and religious leaders around the world. He visited the late Pope John Paul II on several occasions and co-authored a book with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Along the way he has attracted support from Hollywood celebrities such as Richard Gere, Martin Scorsese and Lady Gaga.

But the non-violent philosophy that won the Dalai Lama recognition from the international community has been a source of frustration for some Tibetans who believe he has been too soft on Beijing.

In 2008 dozens were killed, rights groups estimated, as riots broke out in Lhasa over the Chinese government’s treatment of Tibetans.

The Dalai Lama has also at times been the subject of international controversy, most notably in 2023 when a video showed him telling a child to suck his tongue. His office said the spiritual leader often teased people in a “playful way”, and the Dalai Lama apologised for the incident.

His office also apologised in 2019 after he told the BBC that any future female Dalai Lama should be “attractive”.

Historically, the Dalai Lama acts as both the political and spiritual leader of Tibetans. But in March 2011, the current Dalai Lama relinquished his political authority to a democratically-elected government-in-exile.

In recent years, as he’s got older and faced minor health issues, there have been growing concerns about the issue of succession – and, by extension, the cause of exiled Tibetans of reclaiming their homeland.

These worries grew when the Dalai Lama suggested there might not be a reincarnated successor, and that it was up to the Tibetan people to decide.

But when he turned 90, he settled the question once and for all.

In a statement he said that after receiving many requests and feedback, “the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue”.

Some experts have interpreted his words as a signal to Beijing that his legitimacy is based on consent, in contrast to China’s annexation of Tibetan territory.

He also said that only his office had the authority to recognise the future reincarnation and that “no-one else has any such authority to interfere in this matter”, a clear rebuke to China that has insisted that it alone has a say on the matter of succession.

Beijing responded by reiterating that the Dalai Lama’s successor will have to be approved by them.

The Dalai Lama has said previously that his successor would be born in the “free world” outside China.

Who that person will be, however, remains unknown.

Punk duo Bob Vylan have been dropped from the line-up of a music festival in Manchester following their controversial appearance at Glastonbury.

The group had been due to headline the Radar Festival at Victoria Warehouse on Saturday, but organisers confirmed in a statement they would no longer appear.

In response, Bob Vylan posted a statement on Instagram, telling fans: “Manchester, we will be back.”

Bob Vylan had also been due to perform at French festival Kave Fest on Sunday, but organisers told the BBC their appearance there had been pulled too.

At Glastonbury, Bob Vylan’s lead singer led the crowd in chants of “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]”, prompting criticism from across the political spectrum, including the prime minister who called it “appalling hate speech”.

Bob Vylan responded to the outcry in a post on Instagram on Tuesday, saying they had been “targeted for speaking up”.

“We are not for the death of Jews, Arabs or any other race or group of people. We are for the dismantling of a violent military machine,” they said.

They added that “we, like those in the spotlight before us, are not the story. We are a distraction from the story, and whatever sanctions we receive will be a distraction”.

On Wednesday, following the music festival cancellations, they reiterated their position, telling followers: “Silence is not an option. We will be fine, the people of Palestine are hurting.” The group added they would return to Manchester in the future.

Organisers of Kave Fest, which is held in the town of Gisors, said they would release a statement later explaining their decision to drop the band.

A German music venue has also confirmed that Bob Vylan will no longer open for US band Gogol Bordello at a concert in Cologne in September.

The BBC has been criticised for broadcasting the Glastonbury set via a live stream which was available on iPlayer.

In an email sent to the BBC’s Jewish staff network on Tuesday, the corporation’s director general Tim Davie said: “I was, and remain, appalled by Bob Vylan’s deeply offensive and totally unacceptable behaviour during his Glastonbury set.”

He added the performance had “no place on the BBC” and that “there is absolutely no place for antisemitism at the BBC”.

On Tuesday, the UK’s chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis strongly criticised “the airing of vile Jew-hate at Glastonbury”.

In a statement on Monday, the BBC said: “The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.”

Broadcast regulator Ofcom also issued a statement, saying it was “very concerned” about the live stream, adding that “the BBC clearly has questions to answer”.

The bodies of eight Colombian religious and social leaders who had been reported missing in April have been found in a shallow grave in Guaviare province, in south-central Colombia.

The prosecutor’s office blamed members of a rebel group called Frente Armando Ríos for their killing.

Officials said the eight – two women and six men – had been summoned by the rebels to be interrogated about the alleged formation of a rival armed group in the area.

There has been no response from Frente Armando Ríos to the accusations.

Colombia is the deadliest country in the world for rights defenders and social leaders, according to a report by international rights organisation Front Line Defenders.

The bodies were found in a rural area known as Calamar, where members of the Frente Armando Ríos are active.

The group is an off-shoot of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc).

The Farc signed a peace deal with the Colombian government in 2016 and many of its members laid down their arms, but parts of the group refused to disarm and set up dissident rebel groups such as the Frente Armando Ríos.

These offshoots engage in the production and trafficking of cocaine as well as extortion and illegal mining.

They also engage in armed confrontations with the security forces and with members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) – a rival guerrilla group.

According to the statement released by the prosecutor’s office, leaders of the Frente Armando Ríos feared that the ELN was setting up a local cell in the area.

They reportedly summoned two of the victims for an “interrogation” on 4 April, and the remaining six people three days later.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a human rights organisation specialising in freedom of religion, said all but one were active leaders and members from two Protestant denominations: the Evangelical Alliance of Colombia Denomination (DEAC) and the Foursquare Gospel Church (ICCG). The eighth was the uncle of two of the other victims.

Among them is a married couple – Isaíd Gómez and Maribel Silva – who often preached in their Protestant church.

Also among those whose bodies have been found is Maryuri Hernández, who helped the evangelical pastor in the area. She is survived by her five-year-old daughter.

According to CSW, all eight had settled in the area after fleeing violence and violations of freedom of religion in Arauca, a province bordering Venezuela where several armed groups are active.

Religious leaders and social leaders are often targeted by armed groups in Colombia which do not tolerate any other authority than their own.

Relatives of the victims said the eight had received a message by the Frente Armando Ríos, which demanded that they present themselves for questioning.

According to the investigation by the prosecutor’s office, days later they were taken to an abandoned property, where they were killed.

Officials suspect the order to kill them was given by the inner circle of Iván Mordisco, one of the most powerful commanders of the dissident rebel factions.

The murder of the eight has been condemned by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who called it “heinous” and denounced it as “a grave attack on the right to life, religious freedom and spiritual and community work”.

Elon Musk’s Tesla has reported a 14% decline in vehicle deliveries in the second quarter of the year, as the electric car-maker’s problems show no sign of abating.

The just over 384,000 vehicles it delivered between April and June represents the second quarterly drop in a row.

Tesla faces increasing competition from rivals, including China’s BYD. Musk’s controversial role as a government efficiency czar in the Trump administration has also been blamed for the plummeting numbers.

Musk has since left the role – but has publicly sparred with US President Donald Trump over a massive spending bill pushed by the White House.

In response, Trump floated cutting the subsidies received by Musk’s firms or even deporting him.

Trump suggested that the ad-hoc Department of Government Efficiency – known as Doge – could be used to harm the billionaire’s companies.

“Elon may get more subsidy than any human being in history, by far,” Trump wrote on social media Tuesday. “Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”

“I am literally saying CUT IT ALL. Now,” Musk replied.

Trump has said that Musk’s opposition to the spending bill stems from a provision that removes incentives to buy electric vehicles.

“He’s upset that he’s losing his EV mandate, he’s very upset, he could lose a lot more than that, I can tell you that,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.

Though the quarterly deliveries metric is tracked closely by investors, some analysts have shrugged off the figures.

“The good news: that ~14% should mark the bottom,” wrote Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster on Musk’s social media site X. “I have September down 10% and December flat.”

Munster said he expected uncertainty about the US EV tax credit to boost near-term sales as buyers scramble to purchase before it expires.

Tesla’s push into robotaxis which kicked off in Austin, Texas last month in uncertain fashion could prove critical, he said.

“Over the next two years, I think investors will be fine with flat deliveries as long as autonomy shows measurable progress,” Munster added.

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Prosecutors are considering bringing further charges against Lucy Letby following the deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at hospitals where she worked.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed it had received evidence from Cheshire Police regarding alleged incidents at the Countess of Chester Hospital and Liverpool Women’s Hospital.

Former neonatal nurse Letby, 35, is serving 15 life sentences for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others – one of whom on two occasions – at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016.

Cheshire Police has been investigating other incidents going back to 2012, covering Letby’s career and training in Liverpool.

The force said it had “submitted a full file of evidence to the CPS for charging advice”.

Cheshire Police said the file regarded its “ongoing investigation into deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neonatal units of both the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women’s Hospital as part of Operation Hummingbird”.

Operation Hummingbird was set up after hospital bosses contacted the force in May 2017 to investigate an unexplained rise in incidents in the Countess of Chester’s neonatal unit.

The number and exact nature of the potential new offences has not been revealed and it is not known how long it could take the CPS to decide whether to bring new charges.

A CPS spokesperson said: “We will now carefully consider the evidence to determine whether any further criminal charges should be brought.

“As always, we will make that decision independently, based on the evidence and in line with our legal test.”

Before charging a suspect, prosecutors have to be satisfied they have sufficient evidence for a “realistic prospect of conviction”.

The Daily Mail reports that the government’s most senior lawyers, including Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson and Attorney General Lord Hermer KC, will be involved in the decision-making process.

Letby, originally from Hereford, has always maintained her innocence.

She has lost two separate bids to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal.

Earlier this year her legal team, led by barrister Mark McDonald, submitted an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), which has the power to refer cases back to the Court of Appeal for a full hearing.

The application contained a report from a panel of 14 international experts in neonatology and paediatric care.

After reviewing evidence heard at Letby’s trial, panel members concluded that they believed no babies had been deliberately harmed.

The CCRC said it was reviewing the application and could not give a timescale on when a decision would be reached.

Last month former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Letby’s case should be “urgently re-examined” due to what he called “serious and credible” questions raised by the expert panel.

In response to the news that the CPS was considering more charges, Mr McDonald said the evidence of his client’s innocence was “overwhelming”.

“We will cross every bridge when we get to it but if Lucy is charged I know we have a whole army of internationally renowned medical experts who will totally undermine the prosecution’s unfounded allegations,” he added.

In an unrelated development, Cheshire Police on Tuesday announced that three former senior managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

They were questioned on Monday and released on bail, pending further investigation.

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

The Thirlwall Inquiry examined events at the Countess of Chester Hospital as well as procedures and cultures within the NHS.

A Ugandan military helicopter crashed and caught fire at the main international airport in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, killing five people on board.

The pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer survived with “serious injuries and severe burns”, Ugandan military spokesman Maj Gen Felix Kulaigye said, adding that an investigation into the cause of the crash was under way.

“We heard the blast and saw smoke and flames over a helicopter. The smoke entirely covered the helicopter,” Farah Abdulle, one of the staff at the airport, told Reuters news agency.

Somalia’s state-run news agency reported that the fire was quickly contained by the emergency services at the Aden Adde International Airport.

Ugandan troops are part of an 11,000-strong African Union (AU) force helping the government fight the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group, which has been waging a brutal insurgency in Somalia for more than two decades.

The helicopter that crashed had been conducting a “routine combat escort mission”, Maj Gen Kulaigye said, without giving further details.

The head of the Somali Civil Aviation Authority, Ahmed Maalim, told the BBC that the helicopter had come down in the airport’s military section after flying in from the Balidogle airbase in the Lower Shabelle region, about 90km (56 miles) north-west of Mogadishu.

The crash delayed the departure of a Turkish Airlines passenger plane, but domestic flights continued to operate normally.

• The women at the centre of Somalia’s construction boom
• How Somalis see the ‘Black Hawk Down’ battle three decades on
• The city where shopkeepers fear their CCTV cameras could get them killed

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has officially closed its doors after President Donald Trump gradually dismantled the agency over its allegedly wasteful spending.

More than 80% of all the agency’s programmes were cancelled as of March, and on Tuesday the remainder were formally absorbed by the state department.

The shuttering of USAID – which administered aid for the US government, the world’s largest such provider – has been newly criticised by former Presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush.

These aid cuts could cause more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to a warning published by researchers in the Lancet medical journal.

The authors of the Lancet report called the numbers “staggering”, and projected that a third of those at risk of premature deaths were children.

A state department official said the study used “incorrect assumptions” and insisted that the US would continue to administer aid in a “more efficient” way, the AFP news agency reported.

Founded in 1961, USAID previously employed some 10,000 people, two-thirds of whom worked overseas, according to the Congressional Research Service.

The controversial cuts began early in Trump’s second term, when billionaire and former presidential adviser Elon Musk was tasked with shrinking the federal workforce.

The move was widely condemned by humanitarian organisations around the world.

Among the programmes that were curbed were efforts to provide prosthetic limbs to soldiers injured in Ukraine, to clear landmines in various countries, and to contain the spread of Ebola in Africa.

On Wednesday morning, the agency’s website continued to display a message saying that all USAID direct-hire personnel globally had been placed on administrative leave from 23 February.

• What is USAID and why is Trump closing it down?
• How a US freeze upended global aid in a matter of days
• ‘People will starve’ because of US aid cut to Sudan
• Inside an Islamic State camp shaken by US aid cuts

Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said that the remaining 1,000 programmes after the cuts would be administered under his department.

“This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to an end,” he added on Tuesday.

“Under the Trump Administration, we will finally have a foreign funding mission in America that prioritizes our national interests,” he wrote in a post on Substack.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants overseas spending to be closely aligned with his “America First” approach.

Bush and Obama delivered their messages of condemnation in a video conference they hosted with U2 singer Bono for thousands of members the USAID community.

Bush, a fellow member of Trump’s Republican Party, focused on the impact of cuts to an AIDS and HIV programme that was started by his administration and subsequently credited with saving 25 million lives.

“You’ve showed the great strength of America through your work – and that is your good heart,” Bush told USAID workers in a recorded statement, according to US media. “Is it in our national interests that 25 million people who would have died now live? I think it is, and so do you.”

Meanwhile Obama, a member of the opposition Democratic Party, affirmed the work that USAID employees had already done.

“Gutting USAID is a travesty, and it’s a tragedy. Because it’s some of the most important work happening anywhere in the world,” Obama was quoted as saying.

Long-time humanitarian advocate Bono spoke about the millions of people who he said could die because of the cuts.

“They called you crooks, when you were the best of us,” he told attendees of the video conference.

USAID was seen as integral to the global aid system. After Trump’s cuts were announced, other countries followed suit with their own reductions – including the UK, France and Germany.

Last month, the United Nations said it was dealing with “the deepest funding cuts ever to hit the international humanitarian sector”.

British colonists committed genocide against Australia’s Indigenous population in Victoria, a landmark Aboriginal-led inquiry has found.

The Yoorrook Justice Commission found violence and disease reduced the local Indigenous population by three quarters in the 20 years after the state was colonised, in the early 1830s.

Its report included 100 recommendations to “redress” harm caused by “invasion and occupation” – though several of the authors disagreed with unspecified “key findings”.

The Commission was set up in 2021 as Australia’s first formal “truth-telling” inquiry, and tasked with examining past and ongoing “systemic injustices” suffered by the Indigenous people in the state.

It is part of a wider national push for Australia to engage in a reconciliation process with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, which community leaders say should include inquiries into the nation’s history, treaty-making, and granting First Nations people greater political say.

Held over four years, The Yoorrook Justice Commission gave Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the opportunity to formally share their stories and experiences.

The commission’s brief covered a wide gamut of issues including land and water rights, cultural violations, killing and genocide, health, education and housing.

The report found that from 1834, “mass killings, disease, sexual violence, exclusion, linguicide, cultural erasure, environmental degradation, child removal” as well as assimilation contributed to the “near-complete physical destruction” of Victoria’s Indigenous community.

The population dropped from 60,000 to 15,000 by 1851.

“This was genocide,” the report said.

The report, which drew from more than two months of public hearings and over 1,300 submissions, called for “redress” to acknowledge a range of human rights violations, which could include reparations.

Among its other recommendations were a significant overhaul of the education system to include greater input from Indigenous people, and a government apology for Aboriginal soldiers who served during the world wars and were excluded from a scheme gifting diggers land when they returned from the battlefields.

On the state’s health system, the report found that racism was “endemic” and called for more funding for Indigenous health services and policies to get more Aboriginal staff in the system.

Three of the five commissioners – Sue-Anne Hunter, Maggie Walter and Anthony North – “did not approve of the inclusion of the key findings in the final report”, however no further detail was provided.

In response to the report, Victoria’s Labor government said it would “carefully consider” the findings, with Premier Jacinta Allan saying they “shine a light on hard truths”.

Jill Gallagher, head of Victoria’s peak body for Aboriginal health and wellbeing, said the genocide finding was “indisputable”.

“We don’t blame anyone alive today for these atrocities,” she told the ABC, “but it is the responsibility of those of us alive today to accept that truth – and all Victorians today must accept, recognise and reconcile with these factual findings.”

The commission’s report is the first of its kind in Australia, though similar inquiries are happening in other states and territories with varying degrees of progress, depending on which party is in government.

For example, in Queensland, a truth-telling inquiry was cancelled after the Labor government was replaced by a new Liberal-National government.

In recent years, the national dialogue on how to recognise the traditional owners of Australia at all levels of governments has prompted heated debate.

Australians voted against a historic referendum in October 2023, rejecting a change to the constitution that would have created an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, a national body for Indigenous people to give advice on laws.

Twelve New York jurors gathered around 10:00 on Wednesday in a wood-paneled courtroom to tell Sean “Diddy” Combs that they found him not guilty of running a criminal enterprise with employees, and sex trafficking his ex-girlfriends.

The disgraced hip-hop mogul fell to his knees and buried his head in a chair at the defence table where he had just spent two months on trial for sex trafficking and racketeering.

Before the verdict came down, Combs sat quietly in his chair, looking forward, wearing the same off-white sweater and pants he wore for much of his trial.

The court grew quiet as the jury foreperson handed the verdict sheet to the court deputy. Then it was handed back to the foreperson.

And they began to read.

As the sound of the “not guilty” rung out in the courtroom for the first time, acquitting Combs of the most severe crime of racketeering, the rapper kept his head low.

By the time the foreperson announced Combs was not guilty of sex trafficking, Combs had his head in his hands.

The jury did find him guilty on the least severe charges of transporting people to engage in prostitution. As they confirmed their decision, Combs buried his face in his hands.

A flurry of small celebrations followed for Combs, who has been in a federal jail in Brooklyn since September. He made a prayer sign with his hands to the jury, then turned around and made the same gesture to his family – twin daughters, sons and 85-year-old mother.

He appeared to mouth: “I’m coming home.”

The moment seemed equally emotional for Combs’ many lawyers, including Teny Geragos, seated next to him and wiping away tears with a tissue after the verdict was read.

Combs’ attorneys wasted no time in telling the judge that the verdict, reached after roughly two days of deliberations, meant Combs should be able to walk out of the Manhattan courthouse a free man that very day.

His acquittal on the most serious charges meant he no longer needed to be jailed, his attorney Marc Agnifilo told the court, noting that his client’s plane was inaccessible – chartered and in Maui.

“Mr Combs has been given his life by this jury,” he said. “He will not run afoul of anything this court imposes on him.”

Then, in the perhaps the most emotional gesture of the day for Combs, he appeared to express his gratitude by pressing his head into his chair at the defence table.

He rose, clapping his hands loudly, to hug several of his lawyers. Many family members and supporters in the main courtroom and a packed overflow room joined him, cheering.

Then, with one final hug to his lawyer and a wave to his family – blocked by a mass of people and court benches – he was escorted out of the courtroom. He remains in custody pending a bail hearing.

A 30-year-old man has admitted to murdering four roommates in a small Idaho college town in 2022, as part of a plea deal to avoid the death penalty.

Bryan Kohberger, who was a PhD criminology student, was set to stand trial in August over the attacks that shocked America.

During a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Steven Hippler read the details of the agreement, including that Kohberger waived his right to appeal the case or ask for leniency.

Kaylee Goncalves, Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle and Madison Mogen were killed in their off-campus home in the city of Moscow, in November 2022.

“Are you pleading guilty because you are guilty?” Judge Hippler asked the defendant.

“Yes,” Kohberger replied.

Before beginning proceedings, the judge stated that his office had received numerous messages and voicemails from members of the public that sought to “influence my decision making”.

He said he had not read or listened to any of the messages, and urged people to stop sending them.

The judge then read out the charges against Kohberger – one count of burglary, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and four counts of first degree murder, which each carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

He pleaded guilty to all the charges.

Judge Hippler said he will formally be sentenced on 23 July. It’s expected he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Some in the courtroom appeared to tear up as the names of the victims were read out. Kohberger did not show any emotion, including when he admitted to killing the four victims.

The brutal nature of the murders, the age of the victims and the suspect’s background in criminology sparked intense public interest in the case.

The plea deal has divided the families of the victims.

Outside court, the father of Kaylee Goncalves, Steve, said he felt “pretty let down”.

He said the state “made a deal with the devil”.

The family wanted a full confession, including details about the location of the murder weapon and confirmation the defendant acted alone.

However Madison Mogen’s mother and step-father said outside court they supported the plea agreement.

In a statement read out by their lawyer they expressed their gratitude to everyone who had supported them and for the “successful outcome”.

“We support the plea agreement 100%,” the lawyer read.

“We turn from tragedy and mourning… to the light of the future. We have closure,” he said.

Kohberger, who was a student at nearby Washington State University, was charged in January 2023. He had to this point maintained his innocence, and prosecutors did not state a motive. It’s not believed he knew the victims personally.

The defendant was arrested at his Pennsylvania family home weeks following the stabbings, after investigators said they found DNA evidence on a “leather knife sheath” at the crime scene. He was indicted by a grand jury in May 2023.

Court documents revealed police recovered a knife, a Glock pistol, black gloves, a black hat and a black face mask during a search of Kohberger’s family home.

His defence team questioned the accuracy of the DNA evidence and succeeded in its bid to move the trial location, after arguing their client would not receive a fair hearing from local jurors.

But they had failed to remove the death penalty as a sentencing option, after citing an autism diagnosis for Kohberger.

Idaho is one of 27 US states that allows for capital punishment, but there have been no executions since 2012, according to a database by the Death Penalty Information Center.

A DNA bone test on a man who lived 4,500 years ago in the Nile Valley has shed new light on the rise of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation.

An analysis of his skeleton shows he was 60 years old and possibly worked as a potter, but also that a fifth of his DNA came from ancestors living 1,500km away in the other great civilisation of the time, in Mesopotamia or modern day Iraq.

It is the first biological evidence of links between the two and could help explain how Egypt was transformed from a disparate collection of farming communities to one of the mightiest civilisations on Earth.

The findings lend new weight to the view that writing and agriculture arose through the exchange of people and ideas between these two ancient worlds.

The lead researcher, Prof Pontus Skoglund at the Francis Crick Institute in London, told BBC News that being able to extract and read DNA from ancient bones could shed new light on events and individuals from the past, allowing black and white historical facts to burst into life with technicolour details.

“If we get more DNA information and put it side by side with what we know from archaeological, cultural, and written information we have from the time, it will be very exciting,” he said.

Our understanding of our past is drawn in part from written records, which is often an account by the rich and powerful, mostly about the rich and powerful.

Biological methods are giving historians and scientists a new tool to view history through the eyes of ordinary people.

The DNA was taken from a bone in the inner ear of remains of a man buried in Nuwayrat, a village 265km south of Cairo.

He died between 4,500 and 4,800 years ago, a transformational moment in the emergence of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Archaeological evidence indicated that the two regions may have been in contact at least 10,000 years ago when people in Mesopotamia began to farm and domesticate animals, leading to the emergence of an agricultural society.

Many scholars believe this social and technological revolution may have influenced similar developments in ancient Egypt – but there has been no direct evidence of contact, until now.

Adeline Morez Jacobs, who analysed the remains as part of her PhD at Liverpool John Moores University, says this is the first clear-cut evidence of significant migration of people and therefore information between the two centres of civilisation at the time.

“You have two regions developing the first writing systems, so archaeologists believe that they were in contact and exchanging ideas. Now we have the evidence that they were.

“We hope that future DNA samples from ancient Egypt can expand on when precisely this movement from West Asia started and its extent.”

The man was buried in a ceramic pot in a tomb cut into the hillside. His burial took place before artificial mummification was standard practice, which may have helped to preserve his DNA.

By investigating chemicals in his teeth, the research team were able to discern what he ate, and from that, determined that he had probably grown up in Egypt.

But the scientific detective story doesn’t stop there.

Prof Joel Irish at Liverpool John Moores University conducted a detailed analysis of the skeleton to build up a picture of the man as an individual.

“What I wanted to do was to find out who this guy was, let’s learn as much about him as possible, what his age was, his stature was, what he did for a living and to try and personalise the whole thing rather than treat him as a cold specimen,” he said.

The bone structure indicated that the man was between 45 and 65 years old, though evidence of arthritis pointed to the upper end of the scale. He was just over 5ft 2in tall, which even then was short.

Prof Irish was also able to establish he was probably a potter. The hook-shaped bone at the back of his skull was enlarged, indicating he looked down a lot. His seat bones are expanded in size, suggesting that he sat on hard surfaces for prolonged periods. His arms showed evidence of extensive movement back and forth, and there were markings on his arms where his muscles had grown, indicating that he was used to lifting heavy objects.

“This shows he worked his tail off. He’s worked his entire life,” the American-born academic told BBC News.

Dr Linus Girdland Flink explained that it was only because of a tremendous stroke of luck that this skeleton was available to study and reveal its historic secrets.

“It was excavated in 1902 and donated to World Museum Liverpool, where it then survived bombings during the Blitz that destroyed most of the human remains in their collection. We’ve now been able to tell part of the individual’s story, finding that some of his ancestry came from the Fertile Crescent, highlighting mixture between groups at this time,” he said.

The new research has been published in the journal Nature.

Kyiv has warned that an interruption of US weapons shipments will encourage Russia to prolong the war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year.

On Tuesday the White House said it had cut off some weapons deliveries to Ukraine.

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the two countries were now “clarifying all the details on supplies”, while the foreign ministry warned any delays “would only encourage the aggressor to continue war and terror, rather than seek peace”.

The ministry particularly emphasised the need for Kyiv to strengthen its air defences – as Russia continues to pummel the country with missiles and drones on a near-nightly basis.

A Kyiv-based US diplomat was invited to the foreign ministry for talks on Wednesday.

However, Ukraine’s defence ministry said it had not received any official notification from the US about the “suspension or revision” of the weapons deliveries, and urged people not to speculate on the basis of partial information.

But in a statement the defence ministry also said the path to ending the war was “through consistent and joint pressure on the aggressor”.

At the weekend Ukraine endured its biggest aerial attack since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, with more than 500 drones and ballistic and cruise missiles launched at its cities.

US officials did not immediately say which shipments were being halted.

According to American broadcaster NBC, the weapons being delayed could include Patriot interceptors, Howitzer munitions, missiles and grenade launchers.

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 Kremlin, for its part, welcomed news of the reduction in weapons shipments, saying reducing the flow of weapons to Kyiv will help end the conflict faster.

“The fewer the number of weapons that are delivered to Ukraine, the closer the end of the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Fedir Venislavskyi, an MP for Ukraine’s ruling party, said the decision was “painful, and against the background of the terrorist attacks which Russia commits against Ukraine… it’s a very unpleasant situation”.

A Ukrainian military source quoted by the AFP news agency said Kyiv was “seriously dependent on American arms supplies, although Europe is doing its best, but it will be difficult for us without American ammunition”.

Ukraine’s European allies have spent billions in military aid over the last three-and-a-half years.

However, military support for Kyiv is not endorsed by everyone on the political spectrum.

Czech President and former top Nato official, Petr Pavel, has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine – but he told BBC Russian he could “not guarantee” continued ammunition support for Kyiv, as that was dependent on the result of forthcoming Czech elections.

“I don’t know what will be the priorities of a new government,” he said.

The Pentagon’s move is based on concerns that US military stockpiles are falling too low, a source told CBS News, although Anna Kelly stressed “the strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran”.

Separately, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Elbridge Colby, said in a statement the Pentagon “continues to provide the President with robust options to continue military aid to Ukraine”.

However, he added “the department is rigorously examining and adapting its approach to achieving this objective while also preserving US forces’ readiness for Administration defence priorities”.

The pause comes less than a week after President Donald Trump discussed air defences with Volodymyr Zelensky at the Nato summit in the Netherlands.

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 times sometimes, but he couldn’t have been nicer.”

The two had a heated confrontation in the Oval Office in February. 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.

Meanwhile, 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 the French president had urged a ceasefire in Ukraine and for talks to start on a “solid and lasting settlement of the conflict”.

The Kremlin said Putin had “reminded Macron” that the West’s policy was to blame for the war, because it had “for many years ignored Russia’s security interests”.

Last month, Russia’s long-time leader told a forum in St Petersburg that he saw Russians and Ukrainians as one people and “in that sense the whole of Ukraine is ours”.

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

Despite heavy losses, Russia has made slow, grinding advances in Ukraine in recent months and announced full control of the eastern Luhansk region this week – this has not been independently verified.

Moscow also says it has seized territory in the south-eastern region of Dnipropetrovsk – a claim denied by the Ukrainian military.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday a Ukrainian attack killed three people at a Russian arms production factory making drones and radars in Izhevsk, more than 1,000km (620 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

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

The prime minister has backed Rachel Reeves to remain chancellor for “many years to come” after she was seen crying during Prime Minister’s Questions.

Sir Keir Starmer had refused to say whether Reeves would remain in her job until the next election in front of MPs in the Commons, during a session in which the chancellor wiped away tears as she sat behind him.

But later Sir Keir told BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson he worked “in lockstep” with Reeves and she was “doing an excellent job as chancellor”.

After PMQs, Reeves’ spokesperson said she had been dealing with a “personal matter” and Sir Keir insisted to the BBC her tearful appearance had “nothing to do with politics”.

Asked if Reeves would remain in government Sir Keir said: “She’s done an excellent job as chancellor and we have delivered inward investment to this country in record numbers.

“She and I work together, we think together.

“In the past there have been examples – I won’t give any specifics – of chancellors and prime ministers who weren’t in lockstep. We’re in lockstep.”

He said Reeves’ tears had “nothing to do with politics” or this week’s welfare U-turns – which potentially blows a hole in her Budget plans.

“That’s absolutely wrong,” said Sir Keir. “Nothing to do with what’s happened this week. It was a personal matter for her, I’m not going to intrude on her privacy by talking to you.”

At a highly charged PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch laid into the government over its welfare U-turns.

She said the chancellor would now be forced to put up taxes “to pay for his incompetence” and asked if she would still be chancellor at the next election.

She said the chancellor “looks absolutely miserable”.

And she told the PM: “Labour MPs are going on the record saying that the chancellor is toast, and the reality is that she is a human shield for his incompetence.”

Sir Keir said: “No prime minister or chancellor ever stands at the dispatch box and writes budgets in the future.”

He ignored Badenoch’s questions and instead insisted the welfare reform bill would get more people back into work and blamed Tory “stagnation” for creating the problems it was trying to fix.

Reeves was seen to wipe away tears during the PMQs exchanges.

The extraordinary Commons scenes appeared to unsettle the financial markets, with the pound falling against major currencies and the cost of government borrowing rising.

Many colleagues and allies of Reeves in Parliament are blaming an altercation with the Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle for upsetting her.

Several have accused him of having been abrupt with the chancellor in a meeting before PMQs.

It is thought to have been about an interaction they had during Treasury questions on Tuesday in which Sir Lindsay asked her to give shorter answers.

However, no one who the BBC has spoken to is claiming to have witnessed the interaction personally.

The chancellor’s team have declined to comment, as has the Speaker’s office.

Speaking to ITV, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said, “it is easy to forget we are all humans as politicians, and we have lives like everyone else”.

As Reeves left PMQs her sister Ellie Reeves, who is also a Labour MP, took her hand in an apparent show of support.

Following PMQs, Badenoch’s spokesperson said a “personal matter doesn’t really clear it up” as “you normally tell people what the personal matter is”.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick went further than the Tory leader in a social media video, saying the chancellor’s career was now dead after an “embarrassing” U-turn and it was time for her to go.

But he later added: “I obviously hope that Rachel Reeves’s personal matter is resolved. It’s never nice to see someone upset. The PM had a chance to support her at PMQs but threw her under the bus.”

He said borrowing costs were soaring and the pound plummeting because “the market has lost confidence in the government’s ability to control spending”.

Stephen Flynn, the SNP’s Westminster leader, said: “Like almost all MPs I don’t know why the chancellor was upset in the chamber today, but I do hope she is okay and back to her duties this afternoon.

“Seeing another person in distress is always very difficult, and we are wishing her well.”

A wildfire in Spain and high temperatures elsewhere in Europe have claimed another six lives as the continent swelters in temperatures topping 40C.

Two farmers died when they became trapped by flames near the town of Coscó in Spain’s Catalonia region. Authorities said a farm worker had appealed to his boss for help, but they were unable to escape as fire spread over a large area.

In Italy, two men died after becoming unwell on beaches on the island of Sardinia, and a man in his 80s died of heart failure, after walking into a hospital in Genoa.

A 10-year-old American girl collapsed and died while visiting the Palace of Versailles south-west of Paris , reports said.

According to French broadcaster TF1, she collapsed at the courtyard of the royal estate, in front of her parents, at around 18:00 local time on Tuesday. Despite efforts by the castle’s security team and emergency services, she was pronounced dead an hour later.

France’s ecological transition minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher said earlier that two heat-related fatalities had been recorded in France and that more than 300 people had been given emergency care.

The European continent is experiencing extremely high temperatures, a phenomenon that the UN’s climate agency said is becoming more frequent due to “human-induced climate change”.

Both Spain and England had their hottest June since records began. Spain’s weather service, Aemet, said last month’s average temperature of 23.6C (74.5F) “pulverised records”, surpassing the normal average for July and August.

The two men who died in the fire in Catalonia were identified later as the farmer owner and a worker aged 32 and 45.

Emergency services said the fire had spread to an area of up to 6,500 hectares.

Aemet forecast temperatures of 41C in the southern city of Córdoba on Wednesday, and said overnight temperatures were as high as 28C in the nearby town of Osuna the night before.

France has registered its second-hottest June since records began in 1900. June 2023 was hotter.

Four departments in France remained on the red alert level for heat on Wednesday, the highest level. These include Aube, Cher, Loiret and Yonne, according to Météo-France.

In Sardinia, where temperatures have exceeded 40C in recent days, a 75-year-old man died after falling ill on a beach in Budoni. Another man, 60, became sick while on the beach of Lu Impostu in San Teodoro.

Two construction workers in the Italian province of Vicenza were rushed to hospital at 15:30 local time on Tuesday because they fell ill as a result of the heat while working in a hole. One of the workers is in a coma, according to the Ansa news agency.

Meanwhile two wildfires have prompted emergency evacuations in Greece, as authorities warn of a very high fire risk across many regions, including Attica, Crete, and parts of the Peloponnese and Aegean islands.

In the northern Halkidiki region, a fast-moving blaze near the coastal village of Vourvourou burned through highly flammable pine forest, forcing residents and campers to flee. Power cuts have been reported in the area, while 65 firefighters, ground teams, and aerial units are battling the flames in steep terrain.

On the island of Crete, a large fire was burning out of control near the seaside village of Achlia, threatening homes, tourist accommodation and critical infrastructure. Local residents and tourists have been ordered to leave. More than 100 firefighters have been deployed to tackle the blaze.

Dimple Rana, heat and microclimate specialist at sustainable development consultancy Arup, told the BBC there was “a big link between heat-related impact and age”.

In the UK, for example, most heat-related deaths were among older adults, Ms Rana said. Younger children, particularly those under five, were also at risk.

Another factor to consider is that often people on lower incomes undertake more manual work, Ms Rana said, meaning they are more exposed to higher temperatures.

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.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which is the UN’s weather and climate agency, said on Tuesday that human-induced climate change meant “extreme heat is becoming more frequent and intense”.

In a statement, the WMO added: “The effect of heat on human health is more pronounced in cities as a result of the urban heat island effect.

“This is where urban environments are significantly warmer than surrounding rural areas, especially during hot periods, due to an abundance of paved surfaces, buildings, vehicles, and heat sources.”

“This additional heat in cities exacerbates heat stress and can increase mortality during hot periods,” the agency said.

The trial of American music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, who was accused of running a sprawling sex trafficking operation, has ended with two guilty verdicts and an acquittal on three others.

The rapper was convicted on two counts of transportation for prostitution of his ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, and another woman known as “Jane” who had testified in the trial.

He was found not guilty of the most serious charge of racketeering conspiracy, as well as two charges of sex trafficking in relation to Ms Ventura and “Jane”.

Combs, 55, had pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations against him.

Here is a breakdown of the charges faced by the rapper and how the jury came to its decision.

• Verdict reached in court – follow live

Racketeering conspiracy, or directing an illegal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (Rico), is the formal name for the charge.

The law was created to take on mob bosses, but it has since been used in other trials, including for sex trafficking – such as in the case against disgraced R&B singer R Kelly.

It is also sometimes used against a group of defendants. US President Donald Trump and his allies were accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia – charges that Trump denied.

To convict Combs on this charge, prosecutors had to prove that he used his loyal network of associates to run a criminal enterprise to commit crimes including sex trafficking, kidnapping, drugging and obstruction of justice.

In this case, that network would include his employees, who prosecutors argued played a part in setting up the “freak-offs” at the centre of the case.

These were prolonged sexual encounters at which the prosecution’s key witnesses said they were coerced to have sex with male escorts while Combs watched.

In a raid on his Los Angeles mansion, police found supplies that they said were intended for use in freak-offs, including drugs and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil.

Combs’ acquittal on the most serious charge of racketeering will likely be seen as a big win by his legal team.

His lawyers had sought to undermine the allegation by asking witnesses whether Combs’ employees ever witnessed the freak-offs.

Cassie Ventura, the star witness for the prosecution, said she did not think they were present.

Defence lawyers argued that the case cannot be considered to be racketeering if members of Combs’ staff were not knowingly complicit.

“Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?” said defence attorney Marc Agnifilo. “Did any witness get on that witness stand and say ‘yes, I was part of a racketeering enterprise, I engaged in racketeering’?”

Robert Mintz, a criminal defence lawyer and former federal prosecutor, told the BBC that the racketeering charge was always going to be the most challenging one for prosecutors to prove to a jury.

To gain a conviction, lawyers needed to prove that Combs established a co-ordinated plan between himself and at least one other person to commit at least two crimes over a span of several years, Mr Mintz said.

“It’s a very complicated charge, used typically in the past in organized crime prosecution,” Mr Mintz said, adding it is unsurprising that this charge gave the jury the most difficulty.

Combs was convicted of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution relating to Ms Ventura and an anonymous victim known as “Jane”.

In simple terms, it means the jury found Combs guilty of transporting the two women to places where they would participate in sex acts and prostitution.

The felony dates back to the Mann Act, which was enacted in 1910.

The Mann Act is a US federal law that was passed to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women.

Initially referred to as the “White-Slave Traffic Act”, the more than 100-year-old law prohibits the transportation of individuals across state lines for illegal sex acts or prostitution.

Both Ms Ventura and “Jane”, who had dated the rapper, separately testified about “freak-offs” or “hotel nights”. They described these as sexual encounters in which the couple would hire male escorts to have sex with the female partner while Combs watched, at times recording or directing them.

In its early days, the Mann Act was used by federal prosecutors as a way to criminalise some forms of consensual activity, including interracial relationships.

Combs’ lawyers referenced that history in an unsuccessful attempt to get one of the charges against the rapper dismissed, arguing that he was being unfairly persecuted because of his race.

Transportation for purposes of prostitution – the charge that Combs was convicted of – carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Prosecutor Maurene Comey has said she will push for the full 20 years – a decade for each conviction. “It is clear that the defendant does pose a danger,” she said.

Combs has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, since his arrest on 16 September 2024.

Critics describe the prison as overcrowded and understaffed, with a culture of violence.

His lawyers argued for his release, citing the jail’s “horrific” conditions, but a New York federal judge denied the bail request, describing Combs as a “serious flight risk”.

After the verdict was read, Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo asked once again for his client to be released from federal detention until his sentencing hearing, and suggested a $1m bail.

Combs will be sentenced at a later hearing – the date has not yet been set by Judge Arun Subramanian.

While the rapper faces a maximum sentence of 10 years, it will be up to the judge to decide the length of time he will ultimately serve.

Separately, Combs faces a number of lawsuits accusing him of rape and assault.

Tony Buzbee, a Texas lawyer handling some of these cases, said that more than 100 women and men from across the US had either filed lawsuits against the rap mogul or intended to do so.

In December 2023, a woman known in court papers as Jane Doe alleged that she was “gang raped” by Combs and others in 2003, when she was 17. She said she was given “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol” before the attack.

Combs’s legal team dismissed the flurry of lawsuits as “clear attempts to garner publicity”.

Combs’ current legal issues began in late 2023 when he was sued by Ms Ventura, also known as Cassie, for violent abuse and rape.

That lawsuit was settled for an undisclosed amount a day after it was filed, with Combs maintaining his innocence.

Since then, dozens of other people have filed lawsuits accusing Combs of sexual assault, with accusations dating back to 1991. He denies all the claims.

His controversial history with Ms Ventura resurfaced in 2024, when CNN published leaked CCTV footage from 2016 showing Combs kicking his ex-girlfriend as she lay on a hotel hallway floor.

He apologised for his behaviour, saying: “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”

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Dozens of potential jurors were vetted by the court.

The process included potential jurors looking through a long list of places and people that could be mentioned during trial, with names like Kanye West and Kid Cudi.

Potential jurors also had to fill out questionnaires that asked whether they had “views about hip hop artists” or “feelings concerning violence, sexual assault”.

The judge reminded the court several times of the importance of choosing a fair and impartial jury.

Combs – who has also gone by the names Puffy, Puff Daddy, P Diddy, Love, and Brother Love – emerged in the hip-hop scene in the 1990s.

His early music career success included helping launch the careers of Mary J Blige and Christopher Wallace – aka Biggie Smalls, or The Notorious B.I.G.

His music label Bad Boy Records became one of the most important labels in rap and expanded to include Faith Evans, Ma$e, 112, Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez.

Combs also had a prolific business career outside of music, including a deal with British drinks company Diageo to promote the French vodka brand Cîroc.

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

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The former head of the Royal Navy has had his service terminated following an investigation into his behaviour, the Ministry of Defence has said.

Former Adm Sir Ben Key’s behaviour was found to have “fallen far short of the values and standards expected of service personnel” a statement said.

In response, Sir Ben said: “I deeply regret my conduct in the spring of last year, which fell well below the standard I set for myself and that which I set for the Royal Navy.”

He added that he fully accepted the decision and was “very sorry to those I have hurt personally”.

At the end of his statement, Sir Ben said he was “very grateful” for the support of his wife, family and friends during what he described as “a very difficult time”.

Sir Ben, 59, was due to retire from his position this summer, after serving as the head of the Royal Navy since 2021.

He was removed from his duties in May because of the investigation into allegations of misconduct.

Reports in the Sun at the time suggested Sir Ben had been having an affair with a more junior female colleague.

Such relationships are frowned upon and seen as a potential abuse of power and contrary to the military service code of conduct.

Chief of Defence Staff, Adm Sir Tony Radakin, said: “We expect the highest standards of behaviour from our service personnel and our civil servants.

“We investigate all allegations of inappropriate behaviour and will take robust action against anyone found to have fallen short of our standards, regardless of their seniority.”

Typically, senior officers keep their military title long after they’ve retired, but not Sir Ben. He has been stripped of his commission but retains his knighthood and his pension.

Sir Ben joined the navy as a university cadet in 1984 where he later qualified as both helicopter aircrew and as a principal warfare officer. As a junior officer he saw service around the world in a variety of frigates and destroyers.

He was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2016 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the 2021 New Years Honours List.

He was appointed to first sea lord in November 2021 and is succeeded by Gen Sir Gwyn Jenkins of the Royal Marines.

The director of Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital has been killed in an Israeli air strike on his home in Gaza City along with several family members, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

The ministry said Dr Marwan Sultan had a long career in medicine, and condemned “this heinous crime against our medical cadres”.

The Israeli military said it had struck a “key terrorist” from Hamas in the Gaza City area and that claims “uninvolved civilians” were harmed as a result of the strike were being reviewed.

Meanwhile, at least five people were killed and others injured, including children, in a strike on the al-Mawasi “safe zone”, one of several other attacks reported by news agencies.

The health ministry said Dr Sultan’s career was one of compassion “during which he was a symbol of dedication, steadfastness and sincerity, during the most difficult circumstances and most trying moments experienced by our people under continuous aggression”.

Dr Sultan was the director at the Indonesian Hospital, declared out of service by the health ministry after what the UN later described as “repeated Israeli attacks and sustained structural damage”. The Israeli military had said it was fighting “terrorist infrastructure sites” in the area.

There are now no functioning hospitals in the north Gaza governate, according to the UN.

The health ministry accused the Israeli military of targeting medical and humanitarian teams.

In its statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it “regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals” and “operates to mitigate harm to them as much as possible”.

The IDF said Hamas “systematically violates international law while using civilian infrastructure for terrorist activity and the civilian population as human shields”.

Across Gaza, at least 139 people were killed by Israeli military operations in the 24 hours before midday on Wednesday, the health ministry said.

In the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis, at least five people were killed and others, including children, wounded in a strike that hit a tent housing displaced people, news agencies reported.

Family members of those killed said it hit at 00:40 local time (22:40 BST) while they were sleeping.

Tamam Abu Rizq told AFP the strike “shook the place like an earthquake”, and she “went outside and found the tent on fire”.

The al-Mawasi area was declared a “safe zone” by the Israeli military, as the UN says 80% of Gaza is either an Israeli military zone or under an evacuation order.

“They came here thinking it was a safe area and they were killed… What did they do?” Maha Abu Rizq said.

At the scene, surrounded by destruction and a jumble of personal items, one man held up a pack of nappies and asked: “Is this a weapon?”

Children were also wounded in the strike.

Footage recorded by AFP shows men alighting from a car in front of nearby Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and rushing inside carrying blood-covered children in their arms. Inside the hospital, young children cry as doctors treat their wounds.

Women weep over the bodies of their relatives in funerals at the hospital in other AFP footage.

“Anyone of any religion must take action and say: Enough! Stop this war!” Ekram al-Akhras, who lost several cousins in one of the strikes, said.

In Gaza City, another four people from the same family were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house, news agencies reported.

The four people killed were Ahmed Ayyad Zeno, his wife Ayat Zeno, and their daughters, Zahra Zeno and Obaida Zeno, according to Palestinian news outlet WAFA.

The BBC has contacted the IDF for comment about the two incidents.

Rachel Cummings, who is working in Gaza with Save the Children, told reporters that during “wishing circles” at the charity’s child-friendly spaces, children have recently been “wishing to die” in order to be with their mother or father who has been killed, or to have food and water.

As a heatwave spread across the UK and Europe this week, temperatures also topped 30C in Gaza.

Displaced people living in tents said they were struggling to stay cool without electricity and fans, and with little access to water.

Reda Abu Hadayed told the Associated Press the heat is “indescribable” and her children cannot sleep.

“They cry all day until sunset, when the temperature drops a little, then they go to sleep,” she said. “When morning comes, they start crying again due to the heat.”

Israel has continued to bomb Gaza and control the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid as mediators meet to negotiate a potential ceasefire proposal.

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

Since then, Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 57,000 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has confirmed he will have a successor, putting to rest speculation over whether the 600-year-old institution will end when he dies.

In a video message keenly-awaited by his followers, he said only the trust that he founded could appoint his successor and “no-one else has any authority to interfere in this matter”.

According to Tibetan tradition, Dalai Lamas are “reincarnated” after they die. China annexed Tibet in 1950 and the current Dalai Lama lives in exile in India, making succession a highly contentious issue.

Beijing rejected the statement, saying his successor would be from inside China and must be approved by the government.

Hundreds of followers gathered on Wednesday to hear the long-awaited announcement in the Indian town of Dharamshala where the Dalai Lama lives.

The Dalai Lama Library and Archive centre, where the video message was broadcast, resembled a sea of maroon with monks from all over the world in attendance.

“I am affirming that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” the Dalai Lama’s statement said.

He reiterated that “the Gaden Phodrang Trust, the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama… should accordingly carry out the procedures of search and recognition in accordance with past tradition”.

Dharamshala is holding the Dalai Lama’s milestone 90th birthday celebrations which began on Monday – his birthday according to the Tibetan lunar calendar – and will conclude on 6 July, his official birthday.

Celebrations will be attended by more than 7,000 guests, including a number of Indian ministers. Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a long-time follower, is also taking part.

In the past, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism had been torn between whether to continue with the post of Dalai Lama or not. A few years ago, he said his successor might be a girl, or that there might be no successor at all.

But in recent years, he had also said that if there was widespread support among Tibetans-in-exile for the post – which there is – then it would continue and his office would choose a successor.

He has always insisted that his successor must be born outside China and his reiteration of the same on Wednesday did not go down well with Beijing.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation must comply with Chinese laws and regulations as well as “religious rituals and historical conventions” and would need to be approved by Beijing.

Even though the Dalai Lama has always advocated a “middle way” to resolve the status of Tibet – genuine self-rule within China – Beijing regards him as a separatist. It says the standard of living of people in Tibet has greatly improved under its rule and denies suppressing their human rights and freedom of expression.

The Dalai Lama’s message “affirming that the continuation of the institution” has been welcomed by his followers.

Tsayang Gyatso, a 40-year-old businessman, said that for most Tibetans, the announcement is “a great relief and a moment of happiness”.

“I always had a belief that the reincarnation will come. But having heard it from His Holiness, I feel elated,” he told the BBC in Dharamshala.

Mr Gyatso, who had travelled from Delhi, said he felt “blessed to be here in person to witness His Holiness’s birthday”.

He said there was “a lot of propaganda from China on the appointment of the next Dalai Lama” which made him fear that the appointment process could be corrupted “but all that has been put to rest by His Holiness’s announcement”.

Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, told the BBC that the Dalai Lama’s “message is indirect signalling” to China.

“He’s signalling two things here. One is he’s going to decide on his reincarnation, not China. And the other is he’s showing China that he’s made this decision through a kind of popular – almost democratic – process of asking the community whether they want his institution to continue.”

That’s a signal to China that his legitimacy is based on consent and not on force, Prof Barnett said.

Experts, however, say China is also expected to name its own Dalai Lama.

Dibyesh Anand, professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster, said, “After a period of a few months or a few years, they will have their own proteges identify a small boy as the next Dalai Lama and impose that. Of course, a majority of Tibetans are going to reject it and the majority of people in the world are going to make fun of it. But remember China has immense authority in terms of resources so they will try to impose that.”

Youdon Aukatsang, an MP in the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, told the BBC that “despite all these years of trying to control the hearts and minds of Tibetan people inside Tibet”, Beijing has “completely failed”.

A Dalai Lama chosen by China, she says, “will not be recognised, not only by the Tibetans but the world will not recognise it because China doesn’t have the legitimacy to find the future Dalai Lama”.

“We are concerned but we know that irrespective of our concern, China will come up with their own Dalai Lama, we will call it the Chinese-recognised Dalai Lama. I am not worried that Dalai Lama will have any credibility in the Tibetan world or the Buddhist world.”