Cyanide has been found in the blood of all six people who died in a luxury hotel suite in Bangkok, say doctors after examining their bodies.

Based on the initial post-mortem examination, they say there is “no other cause” that would explain their deaths “except for cyanide”.

But further tests are being carried out to determine the “intensity” of the deadly chemical and to rule out any other toxins.

Forensic investigators had earlier found traces of cyanide on the teacups used by the victims, all of whom are of Vietnamese origin including two with dual US citizenship. Police suspect that one of the dead was behind the poisoning and was driven by crushing debt – but have not said who.

The victims’ lips and nails had turned dark purple indicating a lack of oxygen, while their internal organs turned “blood red”, which is another sign of cyanide poisoning, said Professor Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin of the Department of Forensic Medicine at Chulalongkorn University.

Doctor Chanchai Sittipunt, the dean of the Faculty of Medicine, said they still needed to find out how much cyanide was in the blood of the deceased.

“But from what we have detected – from observation, from internal organ check, from finding cyanide in the blood during the screening test – there is no other cause that would be the factor that would cause their deaths, except for cyanide,” he told reporters.

The deceased were found by housekeepers at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in the Thai capital late on Tuesday.

Investigators believe they had been dead for between 12 and 24 hours by then.

The mystery around the shocking discovery made international headlines.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin ordered an urgent investigation into the case, stressing that the deaths were the result of a “private matter”, and there was no suggestion of public danger.

Police have since begun to piece together what might have happened.

Two of the six victims had loaned “tens of millions of Thai baht” to another of the deceased for investment purposes, authorities said. Ten million baht is worth nearly $280,000 (£215,000).

Earlier on Wednesday, Deputy Bangkok police chief Gen Noppassin Poonsawat told a press conference the group checked into the hotel separately over the weekend and were assigned five rooms – four on the seventh floor, and one on the fifth.

They had been scheduled to check out on Monday but failed to do so.

Four of the victims are Vietnamese nationals Thi Nguyen Phuong, 46, her husband Hong Pham Thanh, 49, Thi Nguyen Phuong Lan, 47, and Dinh Tran Phu, 37.

The other two are American citizens Sherine Chong, 56, and Dang Hung Van, 55.

The US state department has offered its condolences and said it is “closely monitoring” the situation. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting Thai authorities in the investigation, Mr Srettha said.

The motive is not clear, but police said two of the six had loaned a substantial amount of money to another person in the group, who had not been paid back.

Police say on Monday afternoon all six victims gathered in the room on the fifth floor.

The group ordered food and tea, which was delivered to the room around 14:00 local time (08:00 BST) and received by Ms Chong – who was the only person in the room at the time.

According to the deputy police chief, a waiter offered to make tea for the guests but Ms Chong refused this. The waiter recalled that she “spoke very little and was visibly under stress”, authorities said.

The waiter later left the room.

The rest of the group then began streaming into the room at various points, between 14:03 and 14:17. No one else is believed to have entered the room apart from the six inside and police have said the door to the room was locked from within.

Police say there were no signs of a struggle, robbery or forced entry. They later found traces of cyanide in all six tea cups.

Pictures released by the police show plates of untouched food left on a table in the room, some of them still covered in cling wrap.

There was a seventh name on the group’s hotel booking, whom police identified as the younger sister of one of the victims. She had left Thailand last week for the Vietnamese coastal city of Da Nang and is not involved in the incident, police said.

Relatives interviewed by the police said Thi Nguyen Phuong and Hong Pham Thanh, a couple, owned a road construction business and had given money to Ms Chong to invest in a hospital building project in Japan.

Police suspect that Mr Tran, a make-up artist based in Da Nang, had also been “duped” into making an investment.

Mr Tran’s mother Tuý told BBC Vietnamese that he had travelled to Thailand on Friday and had called home on Sunday to say he had to extend his stay until Monday. That was the last his family had heard from him. She rang him again on Monday but he did not answer the call.

Ms Chong had hired Mr Tran as her personal make-up artist for the trip, one of his students told BBC Vietnamese. Mr Tran’s father, Phu, told Vietnamese media that his son was hired last week by a Vietnamese woman to travel to Thailand.

The six bodies were discovered one day after Thailand expanded its visa-free entry scheme to travellers from 93 countries and territories to revitalise its tourism industry.

Cyanide is a rapidly-acting, highly toxic chemical that is potentially deadly. Low levels of cyanide occur in nature and in products we eat and use. But in larger doses it is a notorious poison, and has been used as a chemical warfare agent because of its fast-acting and highly lethal properties.

It can occur as a colourless gas or liquid or in crystal form. People can be exposed to cyanide by breathing it in, absorbing it through the skin, or eating food or liquids that contain it.

When consumed in large amounts, cyanide can lead to lung injury, coma and death within seconds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Even in smaller doses, cyanide is still very harmful, causing chest pain, nausea, shortness of breath and vomiting.

Cyanide can produce a “bitter almond” smell but not everyone can detect this and it doesn’t always give off an odour.

Ohio Senator JD Vance, Donald Trump’s newly minted running mate, will make his national debut on Wednesday as he delivers a prime-time address on the third day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

At 39, the junior senator and former venture capitalist is the first millennial to join a major party ticket, a youthful contrast to the 78-year-old Trump and the 81-year-old incumbent president, Joe Biden.

As Trump’s running mate, Mr Vance is an early favourite for the party’s 2028 Republican presidential nomination, but he remains politically unknown to most Americans and many in the party.

Donald Trump Jr, the former president’s son and a close friend of Mr Vance, is expected to speak before Mr Vance’s wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, introduces the Republican vice-presidential nominee.

As Mr Vance steps into the national spotlight, here are three things to look out for in his speech.

Mr Vance is expected to highlight his blue-collar background and his family roots in Appalachia as well as Middletown, Ohio, which inspired him to write his 2016 bestselling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.

The book – which focuses on his impoverished upbringing with a drug-addicted mother in southern Ohio, enlisting as US Marine and later attending Yale Law School – was published as Trump was elected to the White House. Later adapted into an Oscar-nominated film, it was upheld as a glimpse into understanding the white working-class voters that helped fuel Trump’s rise.

Republicans are hoping Mr Vance’s background will appeal to those voters, especially in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, three battleground states that were key to Trump’s 2016 coalition and will be critical for a White House victory in November.

Mr Vance is also expected to highlight his military background. The former Marine, who was deployed to Iraq for six months in 2005, is the first veteran – and the first post-9/11 veteran – to be named to a major party ticket since John McCain in 2008.

Mr Vance’s debut follows appearances by former Trump rivals Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, who offered their full support for the former president on Tuesday after challenging his candidacy during the Republican primary.

Republicans have sought to close ranks around Trump while Democrats remain divided over whether to proceed with President Biden at the top of their ticket.

The Ohio senator is expected to strike a similar tone of unity, which Trump has said would be an underlying theme of the convention in the wake of an attempt on his life at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Authorities have yet to determine the motive of the attacker, who was killed at the scene.

In the hours after the shooting, Mr Vance laid blame on President Biden as the country was still learning about the events that unfolded.

“Today is not just some isolated incident,” Mr Vance wrote on the platform X, formerly Twitter.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

Former Republican Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, a vocal critic of Trump who has endorsed Joe Biden, said Mr Vance’s response “should absolutely disqualify” him from the vice-presidential nomination.

Mr Vance is expected to emphasise the message of national unity that his running mate has promised, but so far speakers at the convention have continued heated attacks on the Biden administration and Democrats.

Wednesday’s convention theme, “Make America Strong Once Again,” is expected to focus on US foreign policy, highlighting the former president’s “America First” isolationist policies that reshaped US relationships on the world stage.

Mr Vance has been sharply critical of the Biden administration’s foreign policy on issues including the US withdrawal in Afghanistan, the Israel-Gaza war, southern border security and support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

The nomination of Mr Vance has stoked fears in Europe over the implications of a second Trump presidency for both the Nato alliance and continued US military and financial aid for Ukraine.

The Ohio senator told the Munich Security Conference in February that European countries needed to shoulder a bigger burden so the US could pivot to East Asia against a rising China.

He played a key role in delaying the $60bn (£46bn) military aid package from Washington earlier this year and has suggested that Ukraine should broker a peace deal with Russia, even if that means giving up territory.

But the Republican party remains divided over support for Ukraine and it’s unclear if Mr Vance’s scepticism of Ukraine aid will influence Trump.

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, traveled to Milwaukee on Tuesday to meet with Trump on continued aid. Following the meeting, he posted on X that he had “no doubt that [Trump] will be strong and decisive in supporting that country and defending democracy”.

Concerns about a second Trump presidency rattled stock markets after Trump told Bloomberg Businessweek that Taiwan should have to pay for its own defense.

In response to a question on whether he would defend Taiwan against China, which sees the self-governing island as a breakaway province, the former president said: “You know, we’re no different than an insurance company. Taiwan doesn’t give us anything.”

He also said Taiwan, which is critical to the global chipmaking industry, “took 100% of our chip industry”, sending semiconductor stocks tumbling on Wednesday.

As the war in Gaza grinds on, there are growing fears another Middle East war may erupt – with devastating consequences for the region, and beyond.

Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah (backed by Iran) have been trading fire across their shared border for the past nine months. If this conflict escalates to all-out war, it could dwarf the destruction in Gaza, draw in Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, spread embers around the Middle East and embroil the US. Iran itself could intervene directly.

The United Nations has warned of a “catastrophe beyond imagination”.

For now, a low-level war simmers in the summer heat, along a 120km (75 mile) stretch of border. One spark here could set the Middle East alight.

Over the lapping of the waves, and the thwack thwack of paddle games on the beach, a sound cuts through – a sudden deep boom.

Soon smoke billows from a hillside in the distance after an Israeli strike.

Around the pool in a resort hotel, a few sunbathers stand briefly to scan the horizon.

Others don’t move a tanned limb.

Explosions are part of the sound of summer 2024 in the ancient Lebanese city of Tyre, as Hezbollah and Israel exchange fire across the border 25 kilometres (15 miles) away.

“Another day, another bomb,” says Roland, 49, with a shrug, as he relaxes on a lilo. He lives abroad but is back home on holiday.

“We got used to it somehow over the months,” says his friend Mustafa, 39, “though children are still a little bit scared.” He nods towards his daughter Miral, 7, who is dripping wet from the pool.

“When she hears an explosion, she always asks, ‘will there be a bomb now?’” he says.

Earlier this month, there was a massive blast in his neighbourhood in Tyre, as his family of four were having a meal. Israel had assassinated a senior Hezbollah commander, Mohammed Nimah Nasser.

“We heard the noise,” Mustafa says, “and we carried on eating.”

But the sunbathers on the beach in Tyre may be on borrowed time. This city will be in the firing line in the event of all-out war, along with the rest of southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold.

We are now at the water’s edge of a potentially devastating war which both sides say they don’t want. Iran doesn’t seem to want it either.

How did we get here?

On October 8th last year – one day after Hamas gunmen stormed out of Gaza and killed about 1,200 Israelis as well as taking 251 others hostage – Hezbollah joined in, firing at Israeli targets from Lebanon.

The Shia Islamist armed group said it was acting in support of Gaza.

Soon Israel was firing back.

Hezbollah, which is also a political party, is the most powerful force in Lebanon.

Like Hamas, it is classed as a terrorist organisation by many countries, including the UK and the US.

But unlike Hamas, Hezbollah has the firepower to seriously threaten Israel.

It is believed to have an arsenal of more than 150,000 rockets and missiles – some precision-guided – capable of inflicting heavy damage around the country.

• What is Hezbollah in Lebanon and will it go to war with Israel?

Put simply Hezbollah – its English translation, the Party of God – has more arms than many countries.

Its backer Iran – which denies Israel’s right to exist – is happy to train and fund the enemies of the Jewish state.

The conflict has been heating up, with thousands of cross-border strikes.

Some countries have already told their nationals to leave Lebanon urgently, including Germany, the Netherlands, Canada and Saudi Arabia. The UK has advised against all travel to the country and is urging Britons who are here to leave – while they still can.

So far, both sides are mainly striking military targets, close to the border – staying within familiar red lines.

But here on the Lebanese side, we have seen destruction in civilian areas with scorched fields, flattened houses and abandoned villages.

And the current tit-for-tat has already driven tens of thousands from their homes – more than 90,000 in Lebanon and about 60,000 in Israel.

Israeli officials say 33 people have been killed so far in Hezbollah attacks, mostly soldiers.

Lebanon’s losses are far higher at 466, according to the Ministry of Health here. Most of the dead were fighters.

Sally Skaiki was not.

“I never called her Sally,” says her father Hussein Abdul Hassan Skaiki. “I always called her ‘my life’ – she was everything for me.”

“She was the only girl in the house, and we spoiled her, me and her three brothers.”

Sally, 25, was a volunteer paramedic. She was killed by an Israeli strike after sunset on 14 June as she stood in the doorway of her building.

Her father wears the black of mourning, and the green scarf of the Shia Amal movement, which is allied to Hezbollah.

We meet in his village of Deir Qanoun En-Naher, 30km (18 miles) from the border. The main road is dotted with sun-bleached posters of fighters killed in battle against Israel – some in recent months, others back in 2006 when the two sides last went to war.

In that conflict, Hezbollah fought Israel to a standstill but at huge cost to Lebanon and its people. There was massive destruction, and more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians were killed – according to official figures – along with an unconfirmed number of Hezbollah fighters.

Israel’s death toll was 160, according to the government, most of them soldiers.

By Hussein’s side there is a large poster of Sally, in her headscarf and paramedic uniform. He speaks of his daughter with pride and with anguish.

“She loved to help people,” he says. “Any problem that happened, she rushed there. She was well-loved in the village. She always had a smile on her face.”

As we speak there is a loud boom which rattles the windows.

Hussein says it is a normal, daily occurrence.

“Since a long time, Israel killed our people here,” he says.

“We can’t forgive them. There is no hope of peace with them.”

This time, there is no death or destruction. Instead, Israeli warplanes are breaking the sound barrier to spread fear.

And, since October, Israel has been spreading something else in southern Lebanon – choking, searing clumps of white phosphorus, contained in munitions.

The chemical substance ignites immediately on contact with oxygen. It sticks to skin and clothing and can burn through bone, according to the World Health Organization.

Moussa al-Moussa – a farmer stooped by his 77 years – knows only too well.

He says Israel fired white phosphorous shells at his land in the village of al-Bustan every day for over a month, robbing him of breath, and his livelihood.

“I had my scarf on, and I wrapped it around my mouth and nose until I was brought to the hospital,” he tells me, gesturing to the red and white keffiyeh – the traditional Arab scarf – on his head.

“We didn’t have any masks. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see a metre in front of me. And if you touch a fragment a week later it will ignite and burn again.”

The international campaign group, Human Rights Watch, has verified the use of white phosphorus over several populated areas in southern Lebanon, including al-Bustan.

It says Israel’s use of white phosphorus is “unlawfully indiscriminate in populated areas”.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dispute this, saying the use of white phosphorus shells to create a smokescreen “is lawful under international law”. It says these shells are not used in densely populated areas “with certain exceptions”.

Like many farmers along the border, Moussa fears Israel has poisoned his tobacco crop and his olive groves.

“White phosphorous burns the ground, it burns people and the crops and buildings,” he says.

Even if he can return home, he is afraid to bring in a harvest in case it harms his family or his buyers.

He lives in limbo – in classroom 4B of a vocational school in Tyre. About 30 families who fled the border area are sheltering in the building. Washing is strung across the school yard. A lone little boy races up and down the empty corridors on a bicycle.

When I ask Moussa how many wars he has seen, he begins to laugh.

“We spent our lives in wars,” he says. “Only God knows if another one is coming.”

As one of Hezbollah’s most senior commanders, Mohammed Nimah Nasser, was a wanted man. He fought Israel in 2006, and before, and went on to fight in Syria and Iraq. In recent months he “planned, led and supervised many military operations against the Israeli enemy”, according to Hezbollah.

Israel tracked him down in Tyre on 3 July. Death came from the sky in broad daylight, with an air strike which turned his car into a fireball.

In the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut, he was given a hero’s funeral, or rather a “martyr’s” one.

The event was carefully choreographed and strictly segregated – men in one area, women in another – including the press.

His coffin, draped in the yellow flag of Hezbollah, was carried by pall bearers in camouflage uniforms and red berets. Many more fighters stood to attention, lines deep. There was a brass band in spotless white uniforms, if not in perfect harmony.

It had the feel of a state funeral – in a country that lacks a functioning state.

Lebanon has no president, a caretaker government and a shattered economy. It is carved up by sect, and hollowed out by corruption, its citizens left to fend for themselves. Many Lebanese are weary. The last thing they want is another war.

But as the funeral prayers concluded, the talk among mourners was of “martyrdom” not death, and of readiness for war, if it comes.

Hassan Hamieh, a 35-year-old nurse, told us he would fight. “We are not afraid,” he said.

“In fact, we are longing for an all-out war. Martyrdom is the shortest path to God. Young or old, we will all take part in this war, if it is forced upon us.”

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has stressed the armed group is ready, but not eager, for war. He says if there is a ceasefire agreed in Gaza, Hezbollah will cease fire too, immediately.

Will that satisfy Israel? Maybe not.

It sees Hezbollah as a permanent threat too close for comfort. At the very least, it wants its heavily armed enemy to pull back from the border.

There have been plenty of bellicose threats. Israel’s Education Minister, Yoav Kish, said Lebanon would be “annihilated”. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant chimed in, saying the country would be returned “to the stone age”.

As the attacks and counter attacks continue, families are destroyed. This month parents have been ripped from children, and children from parents.

An Israeli couple were killed in their car by Hezbollah rockets as they headed for home in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in Syria. They left behind three teenage children.

And in southern Lebanon three children were killed in an Israeli strike earlier this week. They were aged between four and eight, and their parents were Syrian farm workers.

The IDF approved “operational plans for an offensive in Lebanon” a month ago.

For now, no tanks are rolling over the border. There has been no political decision to attack. Israel is still waging war in Gaza and fighting on two fronts could overstretch the military.

But without a diplomatic solution between Israel and Hezbollah – two old enemies – all-out war may be coming, if not now, then later.

Fourteen high school students in Tokyo were admitted to hospital after eating “super spicy” potato crisps, police said.

Around 30 students ate the fiery snacks after one of them brought them to school on Tuesday, Japanese local media reported.

Soon, some of them started complaining of nausea and acute pain around their mouth, prompting emergency calls to the fire department and police.

The 13 girls and one boy who were taken to hospital were conscious and reportedly had minor symptoms.

The company that makes the snack, Isoyama Corp, put out a statement, apologising for “any inconvenience” to customers, and wished the students a swift recovery.

The school and the company have not responded to the BBC’s questions so far.

The company website is full of warnings for those who may wish to try the crisps.

It “forbids” those under 18 from consuming the crisps which are called “R 18+ curry chips”, because of how spicy they are – and it warns even those who love hot food to “eat with caution”. The crisps are “so spicy that they may cause you pain”, it says.

The spiciness comes from the potent “ghost pepper”, cultivated in northeastern India, where it’s known as bhut jolokia. Although it is used in recipes in India and elsewhere, it’s known to be among the world’s hottest chillis.

• The kick from your chilli can have side effects

The Japanese firm, in fact, advises people not to “eat the chips when they are alone” and says they could cause diarrhoea if eaten “excessively”.

Those with high blood pressure and weak stomachs “are absolutely prohibited” from eating the crisps, according to the company’s website. It warns people who have cuts on their fingers to be careful while opening the packets.

Those who are “timid or too scared” are also discouraged from trying the snack.

One media report said one of the students, a boy, brought the crisps to school “just for fun”.

Responding to news about the hospitalisations, some X users posted a “spicy meter” to demonstrate how hot the crisps were, while others shared videos of their agonising experience of eating them.

In one video, a user who appears to be wincing, described it as “painful” and said it reminded him of the time he had urinary stones.

X owner Elon Musk also weighed in, saying “they must be next-level spicy!”

Prominent Democrat Adam Schiff – a California congressman running to be the state’s next senator – has called on President Joe Biden to “pass the torch” and allow another Democrat to challenge Donald Trump in November.

Mr Schiff said that Mr Biden “has been one of the most consequential presidents in our nation’s history”, and he could “secure his legacy of leadership” by allowing Democrats to support another candidate.

“Our nation is at a crossroads. A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November,” he added.

Mr Biden has repeatedly said he intends to stay in the race, despite the calls for him to step aside.

Mr Schiff’s announcement comes shortly after the Democratic National Committee announced its plans to hold a virtual roll-call vote in early August to formally elect Mr Biden as the party’s nominee.

Presidential nominees typically receive their formal nomination at their party’s in-person convention – which begins on 19 August in Chicago for Democrats – but Mr Biden’s party has sped up the process to comply with a 7 August candidate certification deadline in the state of Ohio.

With Biden facing calls to step aside after a poor debate performance raised concerns over his mental acuity, several Democrats have demanded the party cancel the virtual vote and allow for an open convention that would allow delegates to support other candidates.

It appears it is not just party insiders calling for such a change. New polling suggests nearly two-thirds of Democrats believe Mr Biden, 81, should step aside and let the party nominate somebody else.

Jaime Harrison, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, has sought to push back on rising doubts about the nominating process. He noted on X/Twitter that the party “will have this vote by August 5th”.

The announcement was also made in a letter obtained by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, that emphasised the Ohio candidacy deadline.

“We will not be implementing a rushed virtual voting process,” Leah Daughtry and Tim Walz, chairs of the convention rules committee, wrote, and “no voting will begin before August 1”.

But, they added, Ohio’s 7 August filing deadline could risk ballot access and ballot-related litigation. They feared any delay could “jeopardise whether the Democratic ticket appears on the ballot in must-win states”.

Some Democrats have criticised party leaders for this response, as Ohio lawmakers voted to move the state deadline to 1 September. The law, however, comes into effect on that same day, raising fears that this could lead to legal challenges.

Others have warned an early vote was a “terrible idea”, as forcing one through while discussions about replacing Mr Biden continued could “deeply undermine the unity and morale”.

Mr Biden is still working to salvage his candidacy nearly four weeks after a CNN debate against Donald Trump. The president has since admitted that he “screwed up” during the debate.

Polling of the 2024 race continues to show the two locked in a tight race, but with Mr Biden trailing his Republican rival in battleground states and leading him by surprisingly narrow margins in states usually won by Democrats, such as Virginia and Minnesota.

Frustrations also spilled over this weekend on a call between a group of moderate House Democrats and Mr Biden, according to CBS.

Participants described the president as “defensive” and “rambling” in his answers, at one point lashing out at Colorado Democrat Jason Crow when questioned about his campaign strategy.

The Biden campaign responded to the reporting by pointing to positive reactions from other participants on the call, who said he had “accepted criticisms” and laid out a “sharp, forceful message”.

But Mr Crow told CBS’ Face the Nation programme this Sunday there is now a “high risk” Democrats will lose the election “unless there is a major change”.

“Reading the tea leaves is very troubling for many of us right now,” he said. “So we want to see a change.”

Party members have largely stifled their public calls for Mr Biden to withdraw from the race since Saturday’s attempted assassination of Mr Trump.

After a brief pause following that incident, the president resumed campaigning on Tuesday and Wednesday in the battleground state of Nevada.

He was joined by some of his top defenders, including Congressman Jim Clyburn, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Steven Horsford and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragan. Both caucuses have recently reaffirmed their support for him.

In an interview with BET due to air on Wednesday, Mr Biden acknowledged he had once described himself as a “transitional candidate” but did not feel he could pass the mantle with the country so “divided”.

“I think I’ve demonstrated that I know how to get things done for the country in spite of the fact that we were told we cannot get it done,” he said.

“But there is more to do, and I am reluctant to walk away from that.”

The president added, for the first time, that he would consider dropping out if any of his doctors said he had a “medical condition”.

A New York grand jury has indicted a former US Central Intelligence Agency analyst on charges of acting as a spy for the South Korean government in exchange for luxury goods, bags and fancy meals.

Sue Mi Terry, who previously worked as a senior official for the White House National Security Council, faces two counts of failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Federal officials say Ms Terry – a prominent US expert on North Korea – acted as an agent for the South Korean government for over a decade, but she did not register as a foreign agent with American officials, according to court documents made public on Tuesday in the Southern District of New York.

The Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank where Ms Terry works as a senior fellow on Asia, has placed her on unpaid leave, a spokesperson told US outlets. The organisation has also removed her biography from its website.

Ms Terry, 54, denies the charges and her attorney, Lee Wolosky, told the BBC the allegations against her were “unfounded”.

The charges “distort the work of a scholar and news analyst known for her independence and years of service to the United States”, Mr Wolosky said. “In fact, she was a harsh critic of the South Korean government during times this indictment alleges that she was acting on its behalf.”

Born in South Korea, Ms Terry moved to the US at age 12, according to her previous employer at Columbia University.

In 2001, she earned her doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a prominent international relations school in Massachusetts. She is known to lecture in English and Korean.

Ms Terry, 54, then went on to work as a senior analyst for the CIA from 2001 to 2008, before holding a variety of posts in the federal government, including as Director for Korea, Japan, and Oceanic Affairs at the National Security Council during the George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations.

Prosecutors say Ms Terry’s work as an agent for the South Korean government began in 2013, about five years, after she stopped working for the CIA and the National Security Council.

In the 31-page indictment, officials say Ms Terry admitted to FBI agents in a voluntary interview in 2023 that she was a “source” for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

The indictment alleges that the South Korean government gifted Ms Terry a $2,845 (£2,100) Dolce & Gabbana coat, a $3,450 Louis Vuitton handbag and meals at upscale restaurants.

Officials say the government also gave her $37,000 and came up with a plan to hide the source of the funds, ultimately placing them in a gift fund at the think tank where she worked.

Ms Terry’s indictment comes just a day after Democratic Senator Robert Menendez was convicted of helping foreign governments in exchange for luxury items including gold bars and a Mercedes car.

In 2015 Australia’s multi-billion-dollar greyhound racing industry vowed it would clean up its act.

A damning investigation at the time had exposed the preventable deaths of as many as 17,000 young dogs a year – revelations so shocking the government of the day rushed to implement an ultimately short-lived ban.

Almost a decade later, Greyhound Racing New South Wales (GRNSW) – the epicentre of the sport in the country – is back in the spotlight for alleged abuse, due to the work of one whistleblower.

In an explosive report made public by lawmakers, the organisation’s former chief veterinarian has described the industry as a hotbed of “exploitation and suffering”, claiming that dogs are being raced at “barbaric” rates, euthanised without cause, or left to rot in metal cages when they can no longer compete.

Executive heads are rolling, and an inquiry, which GRNSW says it “welcomes”, has been announced to investigate the accusations, as calls from critics to have greyhound racing outlawed grow louder.

But despite evidence of slipping public support, the state’s premier has said he won’t shut down the sport, prompting a standoff with those calling for that to happen.

“The reality is the greyhound racing industry cannot exist without systemic animal cruelty,” says NSW Animal Justice MP Emma Hurst.

“It will be shut down – it’s just a matter of when.”

Australia has been touted as the world’s largest commercial greyhound racing industry – with roughly 60 tracks in operation. New Zealand, the US, the UK and Ireland are also home to markets, but none operate at the same velocity.

Thanks to online betting, Australia’s industry has seen rising profits in recent years, turning over A$8.3 bn ($5.6bn; £4.3bn) in 2023 – with 75% of the money coming from Victoria and New South Wales (NSW), according to the greyhound protection organisation GREY2K.

The spark that ignited the current outcry over the sport’s practices was a “handover” letter, from GRNSW’s Chief Veterinary Officer Alex Brittan to his incoming replacement – his final act in a job that by his own account, had nearly broken him.

The 54-page document contains a litany of accusations – including claims that GRNSW had worked with vets “unaccepting of modern medicine” who were prone to euthanising dogs without cause, and that the company’s leadership was directing staff to treat animal welfare groups “as the enemy”.

Within hours of Mr Brittan’s letter becoming public, the chief of GRNSW Rob Macaulay had resigned and the rest of the company’s board is now fighting for their survival.

NSW’s Gaming and Racing Minister David Harris has announced an inquiry into Mr Brittan’s claims which will be led by the industry’s regulator – something which GRNSW has been quick to embrace.

“We welcome the opportunity for an external examination of our processes and record,” its acting CEO Wayne Billett wrote in a statement. And a spokesperson for GRNSW told the BBC that the organisation takes concerns related to animal welfare “very seriously”.

But Mr Brittan’s account differs.

In his letter he described witnessing “cases of extreme distress” in which competing dogs had “recent pools of blood” around them after ripping off their toenails while “clawing” at their caged doors.

He also called out a flurry of “preventable” on-track deaths, due to greyhounds running into poles with “no padding on them” and questioned the figures GRNSW had put forward concerning how many retired dogs it had found homes for – a practice which gives the sport its social licence to operate.

Mr Brittan says that of the roughly 4,200 dogs entering the industry each year, only 1,600 were making it out and finding owners, with the rest living out their days in “industrial kennels”.

Further – he alleged that a company programme which had been set up to export retired greyhounds to the US, so that they could find homes there, had an alarming lack of oversight.

To prove his point, he told the story of Carey – a dog who died at Sydney airport after confusing its travelling box with a racer’s starter box and running into a fence at full speed when the door opened.

NSW’s premier Chris Minns said he would examine all the allegations put forward by Mr Brittan, but quickly ruled out a blanket ban on greyhound racing in the state.

“We’re not going to shut down the industry, but we do take this report seriously,” he told reporters last week.

And Mr Harris reiterated that the government would make sure the industry was held to “the highest standards of animal welfare and integrity” once the new investigation had concluded.

But given GRNSW has weathered multiple crises – including a government-backed inquiry in 2016 which delivered findings of “systemic animal cruelty” and mass killings – advocates are sceptical another inquiry will yield results.

“The greyhound racing industry was already given a chance to clean up its act eight years ago, and it’s monumentally failed,” Ms Hurst told the BBC.

Mr Brittan has also challenged the impartiality of the current investigation – saying it should be done by an external source, rather than the industry’s own regulator.

And he questioned why an all-out ban had been taken off the table already.

“It could be perceived as concerning that the premier and gaming minister have stated that the outcome of the inquiry is a foregone conclusion and that, irrespective of any findings, all bets are on, and the gambling will continue,” he said, according to the Guardian.

Around the world, the prominence and popularity of dog-racing for sport has been in decline.

In the US for example – which used to be one of the sport’s largest industries – betting on greyhounds has been outlawed in all but a handful of states, and only two active tracks remain, both in West Virginia.

Advocates like Ms Hurst argue that the practice endures in Australia not because of community fanfare, but gambling profits.

The last time the industry was in the spotlight in 2016, over 80% of people polled by the country’s national broadcaster said they wanted to see it shut down.

And in recent years, it has been outlawed in the Australian Capital Territory, while petitions calling for other jurisdictions to follow suit have made their way to several state parliaments.

GRNSW says it has no plans to go anywhere – and that racing, which first came to the nation’s shores in the late 1800s, can be done “sustainably”.

But Ms Hurst, and others calling for an end to the sport, say that the latest spate of allegations present a unique “opportunity” to “listen to the community and ban this cruel industry”.

A man from the southern Indian state of Kerala, who got trapped in a hospital lift for 42 hours without any food or water, has told the BBC he feared he would die there.

Ravindran Nair, 59, entered the lift to meet a doctor on Saturday afternoon – he then remained stuck inside until Monday morning, when a lift operator found him. He is now in hospital and is being treated for dehydration and back pain.

His family members initially thought he was at work, but later contacted police and began a desperate search for him.

The incident has made headlines, prompting the state government to suspend three technicians and launch an inquiry. Officials from the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, and the state’s health minister have apologised to Mr Nair.

Mr Nair told the BBC that when he got trapped, he tried calling the emergency number listed in the lift but there was no response. He also tried calling his wife Sreelekha CP, who works at the hospital, and “anyone else I could think of”, but the calls wouldn’t connect.

“I began panicking and started banging on the lift doors to attract attention. That’s when my phone fell on the floor and stopped working,” he says.

“I shouted and screamed for help and tried pulling apart the doors with my hands. It was now dark inside the lift, but thankfully, there was sufficient air to breathe.”

He then paced around the lift, pressing the alarm bell again and again, hoping it would ring and catch someone’s attention – but without any success.

“As the hours passed, I had no idea whether it was day or night as it was pitch dark inside. When I got tired, I slept in a corner. I had to use another corner to pee and poo,” he says.

Mr Nair said he began visiting the hospital regularly a few months ago after he fell in the bathroom and started suffering from back pain.

“On Saturday, my wife and I went to meet the doctor and I got an X-ray scan done of my back because I was experiencing severe pain after a recent trip,” he recalls.

When the doctor asked to see the results from his blood test, the couple realised that they had forgotten them at home. Since Ms Sreelakha had to report for work, Mr Nair went home to pick up the results.

Normally when he visits the hospital he and his wife use a lift earmarked for employees. But this time he stepped into Lift-11 – meant for patients and visitors – to head up to the second floor.

“It was just past noon then. There was no-one else in the lift but the light was on, so I didn’t think anything was wrong,” he says.

He pressed the button and the lift began ascending but as it neared the second floor, it lurched downwards with a thud and got stuck between the first and second floors.

He didn’t know then that his ordeal would last nearly two days.

At some point he remembered he had to take pills to keep his blood pressure under control.

“I had them on me, but couldn’t swallow them because I had no water and my mouth was dry from shouting for help,” he recalls.

“I started wondering whether I would die inside the lift. I worried about my wife and children and thought about my late parents and ancestors. But then, I somehow willed myself to be stronger and told myself that I had to overcome this frightening ordeal.”

One thing that gave him comfort, he says, was reciting poems written by his wife.

“I held on to the hope that someone would come along to repair the lift and find me there.”

Help arrived finally on Monday morning at around 06:00 local time when an operator opened the door and asked him to jump out – 42 hours after his ordeal began.

Once Mr Nair was rescued, the first thing he did was call his wife, who had no idea her missing husband was trapped at her workplace.

“He wanted me to come and take him home,” she says.

The hospital has since put up a warning outside the lift asking people not to use it while it is being repaired.

A drug has increased the lifespans of laboratory animals by nearly 25%, in a discovery scientists hope can slow human ageing too.

The treated mice were known as “supermodel grannies” in the lab because of their youthful appearance.

They were healthier, stronger and developed fewer cancers than their unmedicated peers.

The drug is already being tested in people, but whether it would have the same anti-ageing effect is unknown.

The quest for a longer life is woven through human history.

However, scientists have long known the ageing process is malleable – laboratory animals live longer if you significantly cut the amount of food they eat.

Now the field of ageing-research is booming as researchers try to uncover – and manipulate – the molecular processes of ageing.

The team at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Science, Imperial College London and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore were investigating a protein called interleukin-11.

Levels of it increase in the human body as we get older, it contributes to higher levels of inflammation, and the researchers say it flips several biological switches that control the pace of ageing.

The researchers performed two experiments.

• The first genetically engineered mice so they were unable to produce interleukin-11
• The second waited until mice were 75 weeks old (roughly equivalent to a 55-year-old person) and then regularly gave them a drug to purge interleukin-11 from their bodies

The results, published in the journal Nature, showed lifespans were increased by 20-25% depending on the experiment and sex of the mice.

Old laboratory mice often die from cancer, however, the mice lacking interleukin-11 had far lower levels of the disease.

And they showed improved muscle function, were leaner, had healthier fur and scored better on many measures of frailty.

I asked one of the researchers, Prof Stuart Cook, whether the data was too good to be believed.

He told me: “I try not to get too excited, for the reasons you say, is it too good to be true?

“There’s lots of snake oil out there, so I try to stick to the data and they are the strongest out there.”

He said he “definitely” thought it was worth trialling in human ageing, arguing that the impact “would be transformative” if it worked and was prepared to take it himself.

The big unanswered questions are could the same effect be achieved in people, and whether any side effects would be tolerable.

Interleukin-11 does have a role in the human body during early development.

People are, very rarely, born unable to make it. This alters how the bones in their skull fuse together, affects their joints, which can need surgery to correct, and how their teeth emerge. It also has a role in scarring.

The researchers think that later in life, interleukin-11 is playing the bad role of driving ageing.

The drug, a manufactured antibody that attacks interleukin-11, is being trialled in patients with lung fibrosis. This is where the lungs become scarred, making it harder to breathe.

Prof Cook said the trials had not been completed, however, the data suggested the drug was safe to take.

This is just the latest approach to “treating” ageing with drugs. The type-2 diabetes drug metformin and rapamycin, which is taken to prevent an organ transplant being rejected, are both actively being researched for their anti-ageing qualities.

Prof Cook thinks a drug is likely to be easier for people than calorie restriction.

“Would you want to live from the age of 40, half-starved, have a completely unpleasant life, if you’re going to live another five years at the end? I wouldn’t,” he said.

Prof Anissa Widjaja, from Duke-NUS Medical School, said: “Although our work was done in mice, we hope that these findings will be highly relevant to human health, given that we have seen similar effects in studies of human cells and tissues.

“This research is an important step toward better understanding ageing and we have demonstrated, in mice, a therapy that could potentially extend healthy ageing.”

Ilaria Bellantuono, professor of musculoskeletal ageing at the University of Sheffield, said: “Overall, the data seems solid, this is another potential therapy targeting a mechanism of ageing, which may benefit frailty.”

However, he said there were still problems, including the lack of evidence in patients and the cost of making such drugs and “it is unthinkable to treat every 50-year-old for the rest of their life”.

Hamas and at least four other Palestinian armed groups committed numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity against civilians during the 7 October attack on southern Israel, the campaign group Human Rights Watch says.

A new report accuses the hundreds of gunmen who breached the Gaza border fence of violations including deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, wilful killing of persons in custody, sexual and gender-based violence, hostage-taking, mutilation of bodies and looting.

It also found the killing of civilians and hostage-taking were “central aims of the planned attack” and not an “afterthought”.

Hamas angrily rejected what it called HRW’s “lies” and demanded an apology.

About 1,200 Israelis and foreigners – mostly civilians – were killed and 251 others were taken as hostages when more than Israeli communities and towns, as well as number of military bases, two music festivals and a beach party were attacked nine months ago.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza with the aims of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages.

More than 38,790 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

HRW’s report does not cover alleged violations of the laws of war by Israeli forces and Palestinian groups in the conflict that was triggered by the 7 October attack.

The report released by HRW on Wednesday is based on interviews with 144 people, including witnesses to the 7 October attack, as well as analysis of more than 280 photographs and videos posted on social media or shared with the group’s researchers.

“Across many attack sites, [Palestinian] fighters fired directly at civilians, often at close range, as they tried to flee, and at people who happened to be driving vehicles in the area,” it says.

“They hurled grenades and shot into safe rooms and other shelters and fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) at homes. They set some houses on fire, burning and suffocating people to death, and forcing out others who they then captured or killed,” it adds.

“They took hundreds hostage for transfer to Gaza or summarily killed them.”

Hamas’s armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, led the assault, but HRW says it has strong evidence of the participation of at least four other Palestinian armed groups, based on headbands the gunmen wore and their claims posted on social media:

• al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)
• Omar al-Qasim Forces, the armed wing of Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP)
• Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
• al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which is linked to the Fatah movement

The BBC has previously reported that they took part in military-style exercises with Hamas from 2020 onwards which closely resembled the tactics used on 7 October.

HRW’s report concludes that the Palestinian groups committed a widespread and systematic attack directed against a civilian population, which amounts to a crime against humanity, based on the numerous civilian sites that were targeted and “the planning that went into the crimes”.

It also found that the killing of civilians and the taking of hostages were “all central aims of the planned attack, and not actions that occurred as an afterthought, or as a plan gone awry, or as isolated acts, for example solely by the actions of unaffiliated Palestinians from Gaza, and as such, there is strong evidence of an organisational policy to commit multiple acts of crimes against humanity”.

The report says further investigation is needed into other potential crimes against humanity, including persecution against any identifiable group on racial, national, ethnic or religious grounds; rape or sexual violence of comparable gravity; and extermination, if there was a mass killing calculated to bring about the “destruction” of part of a population.

The report includes a letter from Hamas responding to the allegations, in which the group said it was “committed to respecting international law” and that the al-Qassam Brigades “was clear in directing its members and fighters not to target civilians”.

Hamas also said the participation of unaffiliated Palestinians from Gaza and other armed groups not involved in the initial, planned assault led to “chaos in the field”, a change in “the plan to conduct an operation against military targets” and “the occurrence of many mistakes”.

The report says HRW found Hamas’s claim that its forces did not seek to harm Israeli civilians was “false”, noting that photos and videos showed gunmen seeking out civilians and killing them at various sites from the first moments of the attack.

In a statement issued following the report’s publication, Hamas said: “We reject the lies and blatant bias towards the occupation [Israel] and the lack of professionalism and credibility in the Human Rights Watch report. We demand its withdrawal and an apology.”

In a separate report in April, HRW said an Israeli air strike on a residential building in central Gaza on 31 October that killed 106 people constituted a war crime. Israel says it tries to avoid harming civilians and accuses Hamas of operating in civilian structures.

The group has also accused the Israeli government of using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, which is a war crime. Israel says it facilitates deliveries of humanitarian aid and is not to blame for Gaza’s food shortages.

In May, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) applied for arrest warrants for Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar, military chief Mohammed Deif and political leader Ismail Haniyeh for crimes against humanity and war crimes from 7 October onwards. He also sought warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Both Hamas and Israel reacted with outrage to the announcement.

Schools and universities across Bangladesh have been shut until further notice after six people were killed in protests over quotas in government jobs.

University students have been holding rallies for days against the system of reserving some public sector jobs for the relatives of war heroes, who fought for the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Some jobs are also reserved for women, ethnic minorities and the disabled.

A third of posts are kept for the family members of those categorised as war heroes. The students argue that the system is discriminatory, and they want recruitment based on merit.

Several cities, including the capital Dhaka, this week witnessed clashes between supporters of the anti-quota movement and their opponents, particularly the student wing of the governing Awami League known as the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL).

Student groups attacked each other with bricks and sticks. Police fired tear gas and used rubber bullets to disperse the clashing groups. Student activists said hundreds of people had been injured in the attacks.

“We blame the BCL members for the violence. They killed the protesters. Police didn’t intervene to save the ordinary students,” Abdullah Shaleheen Oyon, one of the co-ordinators of the anti-quota movement, told the BBC.

Government jobs are highly coveted in Bangladesh because they pay well. In total, more than half of the positions – amounting to hundreds of thousands of jobs – are reserved for certain groups.

Critics say the system unfairly benefits the families of pro-government groups who support Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who won her fourth straight election in January.

Ms Hasina’s government abolished the reservation in 2018, following protests. But a court ordered the authorities to reinstate the quotas in early June, triggering the latest round of protests.

Officials say three people were killed in the southern port city of Chittagong and two in Dhaka, while one student was killed in the northern city of Rangpur by a stray bullet.

Media reports say at least three of those killed were students, though there is no official confirmation yet.

The government blames opposition groups for the violence.

“The student fronts of the opposition Jamaat-e-Islami and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP] have infiltrated this anti-quota movement. They are the ones who initiated the violence,” Law Minister Anisul Huq told the BBC.

Bangladesh’s top court suspended the current system last week, but protests are expected to continue until it is permanently removed.

“The case has been listed for hearing on 7 August. Students have been given an opportunity to present their argument in the court,” Mr Huq said.

In a late-night operation on Tuesday, police raided the headquarters of the BNP, the main opposition party, in Dhaka, following the violent clashes.

Senior BNP leader Ruhul Kabir Rizvi said the raid was nothing but a drama and it was a message for the students to return home.

The protests have seen students blocking roads in Dhaka and other major cities, bringing traffic to a halt.

Student leaders said they were angered by recent comments by Ms Hasina who, they say, described those opposed to the job quotas as – a term used for those who allegedly collaborated with the Pakistani army during the 1971 war.

Several student leaders said Ms Hasina had insulted them by comparing them to . The comparison, they said, also encouraged BCL members to attack them.

“They want to suppress our voices through creating a reign of terror in the country. If I don’t protest today, they will beat me another day. That’s why I am on the streets to protest,” Rupaiya Sherstha, a female student at Dhaka University, told the BBC.

But government ministers say Ms Hasina’s comments were misinterpreted, and she did not call the students .

Mohammad Ali Arafat, state minister for information and broadcasting, denied allegations that the student wing of the Awami League triggered the violence.

He said the trouble began after anti-quota students intimidated residents of a hall in Dhaka.

“If there’s chaos on the university campuses, there’s no benefit for the government. We want peace to be maintained,” Mr Arafat told the BBC.

UN Secretary General António Guterres called on the government to “protect the demonstrators against any form of threat or violence”, according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The students have vowed to continue their protests until their demands are met.

The government has strengthened security by deploying the paramilitary, Border Guards Bangladesh, in five main cities, including Dhaka and Chittagong.

Forty-eight boys in Zambia have been rescued from a male circumcision camp, after desperate complaints by some parents that their children had been abducted.

One of the boys was on HIV medication and had not taken his anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs for two weeks, officials confirmed to the BBC.

Secretive traditional rite-of-passage ceremonies see boys aged between 10 and 17 spending up to six months in seclusion in the bush.

The authorities said the site, on the outskirts of Livingstone town, near a national wildlife park, had been set up without permission – alleging the children were “caged” in unsanitary and dangerous conditions.

Three of the rescued boys were briefly admitted to hospital – some for treatment from complications after undergoing circumcision typically done using razor blades.

According to the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC), one of the boys was suffering from bilharzia, a chronic illness spread through contaminated water that impairs growth and brain development in children.

• Zambia – male circumcision diary
• LISTEN: Should male circumcision be a personal choice?

The initiation site, which was established a fortnight ago, has since been burnt down, the country’s national broadcaster says.

Those setting up such camps search for uncircumcised boys to undergo the ritual, known as “mukanda” – often going to schools and forcing their way into classrooms to pick up those they deem the right age.

Their parents are not consulted and teachers can do little to resist their bullying tactics. Some of the boys go along willingly but many are coerced and told they cannot buck the tradition.

The person who set up this camp was reprimanded on Monday by Mainga Kabika, the top civil servant in the gender ministry.

She led a team of officials from various ministries to Livingstone, a tourist hub for those visiting the nearby Victoria Falls, to investigate the parents’ complaints.

“We want to preserve our tradition but you have to follow regulations. You just don’t do things against the law like this,” Ms Kabika said.

According to Zambia’s Daily Mail newspaper, some of the boys had been physically abused by those in charge at the site after they had tried to escape at night – including the boy in need of ARVs.

Parents had reportedly been contacted by phone with demands of up to $75 (£58) for expenses, despite not giving permission for their child’s participation.

Although surgical male circumcision is available at both public and private hospitals in Zambia – often encouraged as a way of reducing HIV infection – certain ethnic groups prefer the traditional approach.

The procedure tends to take place in the Southern Hemisphere winter to minimise the discomfort associated with the healing process – though the rite of passage is intended to be a test of endurance.

The boys are expected to put up with pain and difficult living conditions – for example they sleep on the bare ground with no blankets – to prove their move from boyhood to manhood.

The initiation is steeped in secrecy – it is a cultural taboo to talk about it and women are not allowed to go near a circumcision site.

“How do you keep these children without their parents’ consent, is that what the tradition says?” Ms Kabika is quoted as saying.

Billy Milimo, secretary of the Livingstone District Education Board, welcomed the move, saying the tradition was harmful to the community.

“You do not know how excited we are. Our teachers will jubilate and dance,” he is quoted by the Daily Mail as saying.

The owner of the camp was initially arrested but released on condition he burn down the site of the camp – mainly made up of rough wooden shelters – which not only bordered the Mosi-Oa-Tunya National Park but was also next to a cemetery.

• Zambia made education free, now classrooms are crammed
• Zambia cholera: Families grieve as infection kills loved ones
• S Africa initiation schools suspended after circumcision deaths
• Uganda male circumcision truck brings hope on HIV

The stars of Baby Reindeer and The Crown are among those nominated for this year’s Emmy Awards.

Scottish comedian Richard Gadd, creator of controversial Netflix series Baby Reindeer, has three nominations – for acting, writing and producing.

Jessica Gunning, who plays stalker Martha, is also nominated for an acting award, as are co-stars Nava Mau (Teri) and Tom Goodman-Hill (Darrien).

The series has 11 nominations in all. Most nominated is Japan-set samurai epic Shogun with 25, while The Bear has set a record for a comedy programme with 23.

The top Emmy nominees:

• Shogun – 25
• The Bear – 23
• Only Murders in the Building – 21
• True Detective: Night Country – 19
• The Crown – 18

Imelda Staunton is up for best lead actress in a drama, for playing Elizabeth II in the final series of Netflix royal drama The Crown.

Jonathan Pryce (Prince Philip), Dominic West (the Prince of Wales, Prince Charles), Elizabeth Debicki (Diana, Princess of Wales) and Lesley Manville (Princess Margaret) also have nominations.

And Claire Foy – who played Elizabeth II in the first two series – has a nomination for best guest actress, for returning in a final scene in which the monarch reflects on her life.

Olivia Colman, The Crown’s other former lead actress, is nominated for a different role – Chef Terry in US restaurant drama The Bear.

The Bear has 10 acting nominations in total, including for its stars Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri, and British guest actor Will Poulter.

Other nominated British actors include Idris Elba for Hijack, Gary Oldman and Jack Lowden for Slow Horses, Tom Hollander for Feud, Jonathan Bailey for Fellow Travelers, Michaela Coel for Mr & Mrs Smith, Matt Berry for What We Do in the Shadows, and Juno Temple for Fargo.

For murder mystery comedy Only Murders in the Building, the central cast members Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez are all in the running, alongside Meryl Streep, who joined for season three.

Elsewhere, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon will go head-to-head for their roles in The Morning Show, while Jodie Foster and Robert Downey Jr are among the other big names on the shortlists.

The Emmys are the most prestigious honours in the US TV industry.

The winners will be announced on 15 September.

Outstanding drama series

• The Crown
• Fallout
• The Gilded Age
• The Morning Show
• Mr & Mrs Smith
• Shogun
• Slow Horses
• 3 Body Problem

Outstanding comedy series

• Abbott Elementary
• The Bear
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Hacks
• Only Murders in the Building
• Palm Royale
• Reservation Dogs
• What We Do in the Shadows

Outstanding limited or anthology series

• Baby Reindeer
• Fargo
• Lessons in Chemistry
• Ripley
• True Detective: Night Country

Outstanding lead actor in a drama series

• Idris Elba – Hijack
• Donald Glover – Mr & Mrs Smith
• Walton Goggins – Fallout
• Gary Oldman – Slow Horses
• Hiroyuki Sanada – Shogun
• Dominic West – The Crown

Outstanding lead actress in a drama series

• Jennifer Aniston – The Morning Show
• Carrie Coon – The Gilded Age
• Maya Erskine – Mr & Mrs Smith
• Anna Sawai – Shogun
• Imelda Staunton – The Crown
• Reese Witherspoon – The Morning Show

Outstanding lead actor in a comedy series

• Matt Berry – What We Do in the Shadows
• Larry David – Curb Your Enthusiasm
• Steve Martin – Only Murders in the Building
• Martin Short – Only Murders in the Building
• Jeremy Allen White – The Bear
• D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai – Reservation Dogs

Outstanding lead actress in a comedy series

• Quinta Brunson – Abbott Elementary
• Ayo Edebiri – The Bear
• Selena Gomez – Only Murders in the Building
• Maya Rudolph – Loot
• Jean Smart – Hacks
• Kristen Wiig – Palm Royale

Outstanding lead actor in a limited or anthology series or movie

• Matt Bomer – Fellow Travelers
• Richard Gadd – Baby Reindeer
• Jon Hamm – Fargo
• Tom Hollander – Feud: Capote vs The Swans
• Andrew Scott – Ripley

Outstanding lead actress in a limited or anthology series or movie

• Jodie Foster – True Detective: Night Country
• Brie Larson – Lessons in Chemistry
• Juno Temple – Fargo
• Sofía Vergara – Griselda
• Naomi Watts – Feud: Capote vs The Swans

Jotted down on paper, this playful story about a lazy lion is now a memento of a young life lost.

Chidera Onovo, 15, was a caring boy who loved to draw and was his mother’s unabashed favourite.

“He saved up his lunch money to buy biscuits to share with his siblings,” Blessing Onovo recalls. “And he was always the one who noticed my moods and would ask: ‘Mummy are you fine?’.”

Last Friday morning Chidera went to secondary school with his younger sister Chisom but only one of them would return.

Official reports from the Nigerian government say 22 students were killed in the building collapse at Saints Academy, a private school in the central city of Jos, but local residents say the number is closer to 50.

Using their bare hands and shovels, parents desperately searched for survivors, managing to tunnel through and free some of the trapped children. “It took about an hour before an excavator came,” says Chidera’s father, Chike Michael Onovo.

“I saw my daughter Chisom being dragged out. I was relieved, but I kept shouting: ‘Where is Chidera my son?’.”

The boy’s body was later found, crushed by the fallen concrete in his classroom on the first floor.

Also searching frantically that day was 43-year-old Victor Dennis. His worst fears were confirmed a day later when he found his son Emmanuel’s lifeless body at a local morgue.

“My boy was a good boy,” he tells the BBC. “He didn’t deserve to die. They killed my son. He didn’t do anything wrong. He just went to school to learn.”

Tears fall from Mr Dennis’ bloodshot eyes as mourners sing a farewell hymn at his son’s burial. Absent is his wife, Emmanuel’s mother, who is inconsolable with grief and stays at home.

People in Jos have rallied to support one another, and many young lives have been saved thanks to blood donors who have visited local hospitals.

But there is anger and disbelief that yet another building collapse has been allowed to happen in Nigeria. Residents even claim the children had felt the building shake the day before.

“Substandard materials were used - these could have been responsible for the collapse of the building,” says regulator and architect Olusegun Godwin Olukoya, who leads the Nigerian Institute of Architects in Plateau state. “Our preliminary investigations indicate that there was possible lack of adherence to building regulations.”

He is scathing in his criticism of builders and the Nigerian authorities, telling the BBC:

“Unfortunately, due to the kind of society that we live in, lack of will has prevent the authorities from adopting our suggestions in the past.

“People cut corners and when you try to raise alarm, some feel that you are trying to victimise or oppress them. They use their people in positions of authority to circumvent the rules.”

Following the building collapse at Saints Academy, the local governor has ordered a structural audit of all schools and public buildings in Plateau state, of which Jos is the capital.

Officials in his government say it is not clear whether the school’s owner, who has since died, ever had a construction permit for the site.

The BBC was unable to get comment from the school’s management.

Some also suspect that mining activity close by could have damaged the school building, so the governor has also ordered the arrest of any artisanal miners found digging in residential areas in the state.

But officials suspect that the main problem was with how the school was built.

“Even as a layman who is not a building professional, you can see that the materials used in the construction are not standard. But we will investigate the cause of the collapse and punish those found culpable,” Musa Ashom, the state Commissioner for Information, tells the BBC.

Similar promises came from Nigeria’s Housing Minister, Ahmed Dangiwa, who spoke scathingly of “unscrupulous” individuals whose actions he said had resulted in the Jos school collapse and caused unquantifiable loss.

But those words will come as little consolation to the many bereft families, like that of Chinecherem Joy Emeka.

The 13-year-old was one of the best dancers at her school and dreamed of becoming a doctor one day, says her mother Blessing Nwabuchi.

Chinecherem, or Chi Chi as loved ones called her, was sitting her end-of year exams the day she died.

Photos like this one, from her junior high graduation last year, are precious reminders of what she achieved – and everything she might have gone on to become.

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There was always his family. When he was bullied at school, and beaten, they were there to embrace him when he came home. And when the war started and he was terrorised by the sound of bombs falling, someone always said things were going to be ok.

Muhammed was heavy and found movement difficult. He spent his days sitting in an armchair. If he needed anything, there was a niece or nephew to help.

Muhammed Bhar was 24 and had Down’s syndrome and autism. His mother, Nabila Bhar, 70, told the BBC: “He didn’t know how to eat, drink, or change his clothes. I’m the one who changed his nappies. I’m the one who fed him. He didn’t know how to do anything by himself.”

On 27 June the war came back to the Bhar family’s neighbourhood and Muhammed’s small world shrank further. Along with other residents of Shejaiya, east of Gaza City centre, the Bhars were given orders to evacuate by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The IDF was advancing into Shejaiya in pursuit of Hamas fighters fighting from tunnels and houses. But the Bhars were tired of moving.

In a weary tone, Nabila, who is a widow, reeled off the names of relatives’ homes where they’d sought shelter.

“We evacuated around 15 times. We would go to Jibreel’s place, but then there would be bombing at Jibreel’s place. We would go to Haydar Square, but then there would be bombing at Haydar Square. We would go to Rimal, but then there would be bombing at Rimal. We would go to Shawa Square, but there would be bombing at Shawa Square.”

The fighting intensified in the streets around them. They would hide in different parts of the house, often in the bathroom when shooting became especially intense.

“We were under siege for seven days. The tanks and soldiers were all around the house… Muhammed was staying on his sofa…and he didn’t like sitting anywhere except for there,” says Nabila.

For Muhammed war meant loud, violent sounds, the air vibrating with the concussion from shells exploding nearby. None of this could be explained to him.

“He would panic and say, ‘I’m scared, scared’,” Nabila remembers.

“He would say, ‘Hey, hey’, thinking that someone wanted to hit him. He was always scared, fearful. We would come around him, comfort him. He didn’t understand much. His autism made it very difficult.”

On 3 July, according to the family, the IDF raided their home on Nazaz Street. Nabila says there were several dozen soldiers with a combat dog – animals used to find Hamas fighters, and check for booby traps and explosives.

At first she heard them “breaking in and smashing everything” before the soldiers and dog arrived in the room.

Referring to Muhammed, she says: “I told them, ‘He’s disabled, disabled. Have mercy on him, he’s disabled. Keep the dog away from him.’”

Nabila saw the animal attack Muhammed.

“The dog attacked him, biting his chest and then his hand. Muhammed didn’t speak, only muttering ‘No, no, no.’ The dog bit his arm and the blood was shed. I wanted to get to him but I couldn’t. No-one could get to him, and he was patting the dog’s head saying, ‘enough my dear enough.’ In the end, he relaxed his hand, and the dog started tearing at him while he was bleeding.”

Around this point, says Nabila, the soldiers took the young man into another room, and away from the dog. They tried to treat his wounds.

A terrified Muhammed, who had always depended on his family for help, was now in the care of combat soldiers, who had come from streets where they’d been fighting close quarter battles with Hamas.

“They took him away, put him in a separate room, and locked the door. We wanted to see what happened to him. We wanted to see Muhammed, to see what had become of him,” says Nabila.

“They told us to be quiet and aimed their guns at us. They put us in a room by ourselves, and Muhammed was alone in another room. They said, ‘We will bring a military doctor to treat him.’” At one point, according to Nabila, a military doctor arrived and went into the room where Muhammed was lying.

Muhammed’s niece, Janna Bhar, 11, described how the family pleaded with soldiers to help him. “We told them Muhammed was not well, but they kept saying he was fine.”

After several hours, it is not clear how many, the family was ordered at gunpoint to leave, leaving Muhammed behind with the soldiers. There were pleas and cries. Two of his brothers were arrested by the army. They have still not been released. The rest of the family found shelter in a bombed out building.

They returned a week later to a sight that haunts Muhammed’s brother Jibreel. He produces his mobile phone and shows our cameraman a video of the scene.

Muhammed’s body is lying on the floor. There is blood around him, and a tourniquet on his arm. This was most probably used to stop heavy bleeding from his upper arm. Jibreel points to gauze used to bandage a wound, and remarks on the blood that clotted after the tourniquet was applied.

“They were trying to stop the bleeding. Then they left him without stitches or care. Just these basic first aid measures. Of course, as you can see, Muhammed was dead for a period of time already because he was abandoned. We thought he wasn’t at home. But it turned out he had been bleeding and left alone at home all this time. Of course, the army left him.”

It is not clear what exact injury caused Muhammed’s death. Nor what happened to him in the time his family last saw him, and when his brother returned and filmed the dead young man on the floor. He was buried shortly after the family found him, in an alley between houses because it was too dangerous to take the corpse to the mortuary, or a graveyard. There was no post-mortem and no certificate of death.

The family is demanding an investigation but with fighting still going on, and so many dead, it is hard to be hopeful that will happen any time soon. In response to queries from the BBC the IDF said they were checking on the report.

Nabila is left with an image of her dead child that refuses to go away. “This scene I will never forget… I constantly see the dog tearing at him and his hand, and the blood pouring from his hand… It is always in front of my eyes, never leaving me for a moment. We couldn’t save him, neither from them nor from the dog.”

At the end of the Canadian Arctic summer, polar bears head inland to wait for the ice to form.

And while thousands of tourists flock to catch a glimpse of these magnificent predators, researchers are developing novel ways to keep people and bears safely separated.

New tracking devices that stick in polar bears’ fur could be the key to protecting both people and bears – by closely monitoring the animals’ locations.

Polar bears now spend more of the year on land, as Arctic sea ice melts, so conservationists are increasingly concerned about bears and people coming into contact.

The tracking tags, which have been tested on bears in Canadian Arctic, could help prevent those encounters, by “keeping a remote eye” on the bears.

Lead researcher Tyler Ross, a PhD candidate from York University in Toronto, said the fur tags were “particularly promising” for the prevention of these “human-bear interactions”.

In communities in the southern Canadian Arctic, where the scientists tested these tags, polar bears that wander too close to a community are sometimes caught, transported and released in carefully selected sites away from towns and villages.

“These tags could be fitted to those bears to monitor where they are after they’ve been released,” explained Mr Ross.

“If they’re coming back towards the community, conservation staff would have a sense of where they are, and they could head them off. I think that’s where they offer considerable promise.”

The researcher, who studies polar bear ecology, also says the tags could fill important gaps in knowledge about the bears. And as the Arctic climate warms up rapidly, the need to monitor bears becomes increasingly urgent.

“There’s a dearth of information about male polar bear movements, because they can’t be equipped with conventional tracking collars,” said Mr Ross.

The sea ice [that the polar bears use as a platform from which to hunt] is disappearing faster than it has in the past,” explained Mr Ross. “So the winter hunting season is getting shorter. We want to know where they’re moving in response.”

Polar bears are difficult to tag. Male bears’ heads are smaller than their necks, so tracking collars can just slip off.

Another option is ear tags – attached by piercing the bear’s ear. They require an animal to be recaptured in order to remove the tag and, in rare cases, can injure the ear.

The three new tags the researchers tested were designed by the company 3M in collaboration with the charity Polar Bears International. They all attach to the bears’ coarse fur.

To fit the tags, scientists had to locate and sedate bears. They then assessed the quality of the data they received from each device and noted when the tags fell off.

The best performing device was called a SeaTrkr tag, which is “crimped” into the bears’ fur. It stayed attached for an average of 58 days and – with an in-built GPS system – allowed the scientists to pinpoint the bears’ location to within just a few metres.

“It’s ideal to have something that falls off naturally – that’s not permanently attached to the bear,” explained Mr Ross. “But anything that lasts in the order of a few months would be great [for our research], because then you’re getting these important seasons that the bears are going through throughout the year.”

Climate change is bringing bears and humans into closer proximity, making places where polar bears and people coexist, riskier for both.

One US Geological Survey study in 2022 that that used data from satellite tracking collars on more than 400 polar bears in Alaska, shows the time they spend onshore has grown significantly in recent decades.

“Getting a better sense of polar bears’ movements is really crucial,” Mr Ross commented. “Particularly given the state of their environment at this point.”

This study of the bear tags is published in the journal Animal Biotelemetry.

An ex-police officer who claims to save children from human traffickers has faked stories to raise money for his charity, the BBC has discovered.

Adam Whittington, founder of Project Rescue Children (PRC) says he has helped more than 700 children in countries including Uganda, Kenya and The Gambia.

But BBC File on 4 has found that some of these children have never been trafficked, and that funds raised – sometimes with the help of celebrity supporters – have not always reached children in need.

PRC has described our allegations that it does not support children as being “completely without merit, misleading and defamatory”.

Our investigation shows Mr Whittington, a British-Australian citizen, has misled donors in a variety of ways – including by raising funds for a baby supposedly rescued from people traffickers, who has actually been with her mother all along. The mother, who lives in poverty, says she and her daughter have never received any money from PRC.

Mr Whittington started working in child rescue two decades ago, after leaving the Metropolitan Police.

He set up a company retrieving children taken abroad by a parent following custody disputes, but later switched his attention to trafficked or abused children.

Both his and PRC’s social media pages have accumulated 1.5 million followers and attracted celebrity support, thanks to their shocking and sometimes disturbing content.

Sam Faiers from ITV’s The Only Way is Essex became a PRC ambassador, and last September was taken to Uganda to meet orphaned and destitute children.

While there, she appealed to her millions of fans to donate and ended up raising £137,000 ($175,000) to build a rescue centre and cover its initial running costs.

It was this fundraising drive that gave me the first real sense that something was amiss.

In the weeks after Sam Faiers’ total was announced, allegations against PRC began popping up on social media, with former ambassadors and directors alleging financial mismanagement and suggesting stories about children were being fabricated.

Less than half of the money – £58,000 ($74,000) – that donors believed would fund the construction and running costs of the proposed rescue centre, was sent to PRC’s Ugandan partner organisation, Make a Child Smile.

Its founder, Alexander Ssembatya, who has apologised to donors, told the BBC he believed the rest of the money had been “eaten by Adam Whittington and PRC”. Construction work was on hold because of a lack of funds, he added.

Sam Faiers told the BBC she was “deeply appalled” and “heartbroken” to learn that not all the funds raised had reached the children and urged Mr Whittington to “do the right thing and release the remainder of the funds immediately to where they are so desperately needed”.

PRC said the money provided was sufficient to complete construction of the rescue centre, and told the BBC it had now withdrawn from the project, accusing Mr Ssembatya of refusing to sign a contract and mismanaging funds.

It said the remaining money had been spent on other children in Uganda and the Philippines.

File on 4: The Child Rescue Con

Charity claims to save children from trafficking and abuse but File on 4 has found that unsuspecting children are being used as props and the rescue centres have no children.

Listen on BBC Sounds now, or on Radio 4 (Tuesday 16 July at 20:00 and Wednesday 17 July at 11:00)

Watch the story on BBC iPlayer, or on the BBC News channel (Saturday 20 July at 13:30)

Although efforts to establish a rescue centre in Uganda fell flat, PRC already claimed to have operations up and running in other African countries, including Kenya.

Since 2020, Mr Whittington has told detailed and distressing stories about the children he has allegedly supported at PRC’s Kenya rescue centre – including siblings who had watched their parents being butchered by traffickers.

Within weeks of launching a sponsorship programme, PRC announced that all 26 Kenyan children pictured on its website had been sponsored.

The rescue centre is in a remote location on the outskirts of the city of Kisumu, which made verifying its existence difficult.

So in April 2024, I travelled with a BBC team, escorted by a police officer, and found the property – supposedly run by a woman known as Mama Jane.

I discovered Mama Jane was an elderly lady called Jane Gori, who lived in the house with her husband. We didn’t find any children, rescued or otherwise.

But I did find out that her son, Kupa Gori, was PRC’s director in Kenya and he had brought Mr Whittington to visit her home.

Mr Whittington uses pictures of improvement work PRC has funded at Mrs Gori’s house to convince donors he is running a rescue centre. Mrs Gori said she had no idea that her name, her house and her photograph were being used by PRC.

Nearby, I met a farmer called Joseph, whose two sons and a granddaughter have featured on the PRC website, described as orphaned, homeless, or victims of trafficking or exploitation. But none of this is true.

Not long after the photographs were taken in 2020, Joseph’s son Eugene died. But his picture remained online until at least February this year. According to PRC’s website, people continued to sponsor him.

Joseph says he has never received any money from PRC, adding: “It pains my heart that someone is using the photos of my child for money we did not get personally.”

When we put our findings to PRC, it told us that it stands by its claim that Jane Gori’s home is a PRC rescue centre that cares for children. It said that all funds for work carried out there were submitted to the Australian Charity Commission – where it was registered.

It did not respond to our question about the misuse of photographs of Joseph’s family.

The next case of deception I uncovered started in 2022, when Mr Whittington claimed to have carried out a dramatic rescue mission – saving a newborn baby from the clutches of traffickers in a busy marketplace in The Gambia.

On the morning of 17 December, his team chased two men who dropped a basket as they ran, he said. Inside was a newborn baby, whom he named Mireya. Mr Whittington posted a picture of her wrapped in a gold-coloured blanket.

To give the story further credibility he told his followers he had adopted the baby and said she was being looked after at PRC’s rescue centre in The Gambia.

He told his UK director Alex Betts the same story and asked her to adopt the child with him.

Ms Betts, an online influencer, hoped to bring the baby back to the UK. An online fundraising campaign was launched, along with a sponsorship programme.

In March 2023, Ms Betts visited the girl she thought was Mireya and took photos and videos of herself playing with a beautiful baby girl. The footage went viral – seen by more than 40 million people.

After Ms Betts arrived back in the UK, Mr Whittington asked her to sign a non-disclosure agreement that would have prevented her saying anything publicly about PRC. She did not understand why and raised concerns.

Then PRC terminated her contract on the grounds, it said, that she was “exploiting children for social media gain”. Ms Betts stopped receiving photo and video updates about Mireya and Mr Whittington attacked her online, falsely branding her a drug addict and alleging, again falsely, that a warrant had been issued for her arrest in The Gambia.

Ms Betts says she was recruited to PRC to “bring social media attention to the organisation”. She rejects the claims against her and says she has always acted “with honest and pure intentions”.

When Ms Betts decided to google “Gambia newborn baby” she discovered the photograph of the baby in a gold blanket was of another child. It had been posted on a maternity unit’s social media page two years before Mireya’s “rescue”.

PRC told us a member of staff had misguidedly used this image because they didn’t want to reveal Mireya’s identity, and that the PRC board had subsequently apologised publicly for any confusion.

The BBC has found no evidence that the marketplace rescue ever happened. But Ms Betts had met a baby – so who was the child?

In May 2024, a year after Ms Betts had posted her viral video, we travelled to The Gambia. Our first stop was the location of PRC’s supposed rescue centre.

But, just as we had found in Kenya, it was not a rescue centre and no rescued children had ever lived there. The man who owned the property told us it was just a family home.

His name was David Bass, the father of Ebou Bass, who had been recruited as PRC’s director in The Gambia. He told us that PRC fixed his roof and installed a fresh water supply. Again, Mr Whittington posted images of this construction work on social media and the PRC website to support his claim to be running a rescue centre.

Mr Bass senior told us he did not know the work on his home had been funded with money raised for the renovation of a rescue centre.

We were told the baby known as Mireya lived in a nearby village. Our search took us to a small compound, where we saw a toddler we recognised immediately from Ms Betts’ videos.

The child’s arms were covered in sores caused by a bacterial skin infection, as her mother couldn’t afford the medication she needed.

She told us her baby had been born and raised in the village and that she had been approached by Ebou Bass when her daughter was three months old. He had told her there were people who wanted to sponsor her baby, she said, so she had allowed him to take the child to meet Ms Betts.

She was amazed to hear the stories being told about her daughter online. She said she had never received any money but had been given some groceries on a few occasions.

Ebou Bass, who is no longer PRC’s director in The Gambia, acknowledged that Mireya’s story was false and that the rescue centre was his family’s home. When challenged, he said it was Mr Whittington’s idea to say they had rescued a baby from traffickers but that he had gone along with it because the child they had used as a prop was very poor and he had hoped she would receive financial help.

Lamin Fatty, from a Gambian organisation called the Child Protection Alliance, is now working with the country’s authorities to investigate Mr Whittington and PRC. He says multiple laws may have been broken in this incident.

PRC insists Mireya’s story is true and told us she was rescued by PRC in collaboration with the Gambian authorities. It has invited the BBC to carry out a DNA test on the child we found. It maintains the Bass home is a PRC rescue centre and that Mireya wasn’t at the property because she was overseas visiting relatives.

Adam Whittington served in the Australian Army before joining the Metropolitan Police in 2001, where he worked for at least five years.

We have not been able to find out what has happened to all the money raised for PRC or where it is being spent – Mr Whittington has set up companies and charities in multiple countries, many of which have never filed any detailed accounts.

But we do know some donations haven’t reached their intended targets.

The BBC has found that, in 2022, the UK’s Charity Commission rejected an application to register PRC as it had not demonstrated it was exclusively charitable and had failed to respond to what the commission described as “significant issues” with its application.

Mr Whittington also has other charitable organisations registered in The Gambia, Kenya, Ukraine and the Philippines.

PRC was a registered charity in Australia until we told the Australian Charity Commission about our investigation. Its charitable status has now been revoked.

Adam Whittington is currently living in Russia. He didn’t respond to our request for an interview.

Since we started our investigation, some content has been removed from PRC’s website and Mr Whittington has been banned from Instagram. He instructed solicitors in Kenya to block our investigation from being broadcast, though they have not succeeded. He has launched an online campaign against the BBC, calling me a “rogue journalist”.

On his remaining social media I can see he is currently travelling back and forth to the Philippines – raising money for a rescue centre and claiming to rescue children. And he says he will soon be expanding PRC into South Africa.

A drug commonly prescribed to thin blood can be repurposed as a cheap antidote to cobra venom, a team of scientists based in Australia, Canada, Costa Rica and the UK has discovered.

Snakebites kill about 138,000 people a year, mostly in poorer rural areas in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, South and South East Asia.

More than 400,000 others develop necrosis, when the tissue around the bite dies and turns black.

Cobras account for most bites in parts of Africa and India. And Heparin can neutralise the necrosis-causing toxins in some spitting cobras’ venom.

The drug is not effective against all snake venom – but the scientists say it could be cheaper and more flexible than existing antivenoms, many of which work against only a single snake species and cannot prevent necrosis.

Having already tested the drug on mice, the next step will be human trials.

Senior study author Prof Greg Neely, from the University of Sydney, said: “Our discovery could drastically reduce the terrible injuries from necrosis caused by cobra bites – and it might also slow the venom, which could improve survival rates.

“Biological agents like venoms and toxins all require some collaboration from the host side, the human side, so our study was to identify what, in humans, interacts with the venom to create this necrosis and death.

“What we’re finding is when we take different venoms from very different species, there’s a small number of ways they interact with human cells.

“One of the cool things from a science perspective is that we think we can identify four or five different ways that venoms as a whole interact with cells – and then we can make universal antidotes that can block big groups of species.

“We hope that the new cobra antidote we found can assist in the global fight to reduce death and injury from snakebite in some of the world’s poorest communities.”

Lead author, PhD student Tian Du, also from the University of Sydney, called it a big step forward.

“Heparin is inexpensive, ubiquitous and a World Health Organization-listed essential medicine,” she said.

“After successful human trials, it could be rolled out relatively quickly to become a cheap, safe and effective drug for treating cobra bites.”

Another of the scientists, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine Centre for Snakebite Research and Interventions head Prof Nicholas Casewell, said: “Snakebites remain the deadliest of the neglected tropical diseases, with its burden landing overwhelmingly on rural communities in low- and middle-income countries.

“Our findings are exciting because current antivenoms are largely ineffective against severe local envenoming, which involves painful progressive swelling, blistering and/or tissue necrosis around the bite site.

“This can lead to loss of limb function, amputation and lifelong disability.”

One by one, Donald Trump’s defeated rivals for the 2024 Republican nomination took the stage to sing his praises at the party’s convention on Tuesday night.

From his box just above the convention floor, Trump smiled at times as he watched his former opponents Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, and Vivek Ramaswamy voice their full support for his candidacy.

If there were any doubts that this was Trump’s party, Tuesday’s programming put them to rest.

“I’ll start by making one thing perfectly clear: Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” said Ms Haley, the former UN Ambassador who posed the strongest challenge to Trump earlier this year.

She said Trump had asked her to speak at the event in Milwaukee in the name of “unity”.

“For the sake of our nation we have to go with Donald Trump,” she told the crowd.

Ms Haley said in May that she would vote for the former president, but her headline speech on Tuesday was her most direct endorsement of the Republican nominee yet.

And when she declared her endorsement, Trump stood and clapped.

Ms Haley’s arrival, however, was not universally welcomed in the arena. There was a noticeable intake of breath as she acknowledged that she and Trump had their differences.

Some Republicans have struggled to forgive her for launching an aggressive campaign against their favoured candidate. Late in the race, she questioned whether Trump had the mental stamina to serve as president.

A smattering of boos greeted her as she took the podium, though they were soon drowned out by cheers and chants.

She deserves the booing, said Gregory Switzer, a conservative activist from Texas.

“She stayed in that race a lot longer than she needed to and dragged out the inevitable,” said Matt Bumela, a delegate from Washington state who had predicted the booing. “And said things about Trump that were negative all the way up to the end.”

Ms Haley notably broke from Trump when she called for the US to continue to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.

When she later said she would vote for him in November, she said the former president would be “smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me”.

On Tuesday night, she told supporters of hers who might be on the fence: “You don’t have to agree with Trump 100% of the time to vote for him – take it from me.”

“Tonight is our unity night,” said New Hampshire state Senator William Gannon, who had served as a delegate for Ms Haley. He believed Trump made the right choice to invite her to speak.

“I wanna win the national election,” he said. “It was a wise move to bring her in.”

The third-place finisher in the primary, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, received a far more enthusiastic welcome from the crowd.

He touched on several conservative social issues, including diversity initiatives, which he said were “indoctrination”.

He urged the crowd to rally behind Trump – though they were already solidly behind their current nominee. “We cannot let him down, and we cannot let America down,” Mr DeSantis said.

He also took a swipe at Mr Biden’s age, an issue that is currently roiling the Democratic Party. “We need a commander-in-chief who can lead 24 hours a day and seven days a week,” he said.

Daniel Willis, the 25-year-old chair of the Delaware Young Republicans, said Mr DeSantis and Ms Haley did more than enough “to bridge the gap” with Trump supporters.

• LISTEN: Americast discusses the Republican rivals reunited

Lara Trump, Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee, hit a conciliatory tone, telling the crowd: “You don’t have to admit that you like everything that he tweets, but Americans were better off when he was in office.”

She added: “Last Saturday reminded us that we Americans must remember that there is more that unites us than divides us.”

The rest of the night was devoted to the more common Republican campaign points, such as migrant crossings at the border, crime and an overarching commitment to defeating Mr Biden.

Ted Cruz, the US senator from Texas, said there was a “literal invasion” of the United States. Dr Ben Carson, who served in Trump’s cabinet, accused Democrats of “shredding the Constitution”.

Trump himself led a huge standing ovation for Madeline Brame, a woman whose son was killed in New York in 2018 and has since called for tough-on-crime policies.

Down on the floor, delegates said they were ready to move beyond the intra-party divisions of the primary and instead focus the party’s energy on President Biden.

“At the end of the day,” said Georgia delegate Pam Lightsey, “We’re all Republicans.”

Despite being Hollywood’s hottest new star, Glen Powell has said he will finish studying for his degree while shooting his next movie.

The actor – who recently starred in Top Gun: Maverick, Anyone But You and Twisters – plans to complete his Spanish and early American history degree at the University of Texas.

Powell, 35, is from Austin, Texas, and has recently moved back to his home state to be closer to his family, after living in Hollywood.

Speaking to IndieWire, Powell said he plans to attend Zoom classes while he’s working on his next film, a remake of 1987 sci-fi film The Running Man, in the UK.

“So I’m going to be in London, but I am going to be going back for proctored [supervised] exams,” he said.

“They’re letting me figure it out [with] distance learning.

“And I’m obviously going to be coming in, Zooming in for classes and whatnot, but I have to be back for the proctored exams.”

He will have to return to Texas “two or three times a semester”, and said The Running Man director Edgar Wright had been understanding.

“Edgar has been very nice about letting me finish my degree in the middle of his massive movie.”

In May, Powell was the cover star on a Hollywood Reporter issue about “the new A-list”.

He told the magazine he felt he was able to return to Texas because “getting to this point in Hollywood [means] that I can now leave Hollywood”.

He added that he felt “like I’ve earned the ability to go back to my family”, and was given the advice to move by fellow Texan actor Matthew McConaughey.

Powell also told the publication it was an “emotional thing” to finish the degree, which he started before he reached this level of fame.

“I think it’s really important to my mom and it’s more of an emotional thing for me,” he said.

The actor is incredibly close to his parents, who regularly attend press events with him, and two sisters.

In the interview with IndieWire, Powell clarified that he has “nothing against Hollywood” – but he would be happier spending time in Austin between projects.

“I love being around people who love entertainment, and I love what [Hollywood] represents.

“Coming here for little chunks of time and doing all the stuff I need to do here, it’s great.

“And I have nothing against Hollywood.

“I just realised, in terms of filling up the pieces of me that need to be refuelled between projects and doing stuff like that, that’s all Austin for me.”

Thailand has expanded its visa-free entry scheme to 93 countries and territories as it seeks to revitalize its tourism industry.

Visitors can stay in the South-East Asian nation for up to 60 days under the new scheme that took effect on Monday,

Previously, passport holders from 57 countries were allowed to enter without a visa.

Tourism is a key pillar of the Thai economy, but it has not fully recovered from the pandemic.

Thailand recorded 17.5 million foreign tourists arrivals in the first six months of 2024, up 35% from the same period last year, according to official data. However, the numbers pale in comparison to pre-pandemic levels.

Most of the visitors were from China, Malaysia and India.

Tourism revenue during the same period came in at 858 billion baht ($23.6bn; £18.3bn), less than a quarter of the government’s target.

Millions of tourists flock to Thailand every year for its golden temples, white sand beaches, picturesque mountains and vibrant night life.

The revised visa-free rules are part of a broader plan to boost tourism.

Also on Monday, Thailand introduced a new five-year visa for remote workers, that allows holders to stay for up to 180 days each year.

The country will also allow visiting students, who earn a bachelor’s degree or higher in Thailand, to stay for one year after graduation to find a job or travel.

In June, authorities announced an extension of a waiver on hoteliers’ operating fees for two more years. They also scrapped a proposed tourism fee for visitors flying into the country.

However some stakeholders are concerned that the country’s infrastructure may not be able to keep up with travellers’ demands.

“If more people are coming, it means the country as a whole… has to prepare our resources to welcome them,” said Kantapong Thananuangroj, president of the Thai Tourism Promotion Association.

“If not, [the tourists] may not be impressed with the experience they have in Thailand and we may not get a second chance,” he said.

Chamnan Srisawat, president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, said he foresees a “bottleneck in air traffic as the incoming flights may not increase in time to catch up with the demands of the travellers”.

Some people have also raised safety concerns after rumours that tourists have been kidnapped and sent across the border to work in scam centres in Myanmar or Cambodia.

A fatal shooting in Bangkok’s most famous shopping mall last year has also caused concern among visitors.

A man described as a “serial killer” by Kenya’s police was tortured into making a confession, his lawyer has told a court in capital, Nairobi.

Police said that Collins Jumaisi Khalusha, 33, confessed to having killed 42 women since 2022, including his own wife, after his arrest on Monday.

He was detained following the recent discovery of nine mutilated bodies at an abandoned quarry in Nairobi.

Prosecutors denied that he had been mistreated and the court said the suspect could be held for a month, pending further investigations.

John Maina Ndegwa, Mr Khalusha’s lawyer, said his client had been molested by officers and it was “laughable” to suggest that he had confessed.

After the hearing, at which Mr Khalusha appeared in handcuffs but did not speak, his lawyer said he hoped the confession would be expunged from the court records.

“He says he was strangled to confess. You could tell he was in distress, terrified and in anguish,” Mr Ndegwa told the BBC.

He added that he had asked that his client be taken to hospital for urgent treatment.

Mr Khalusha was arrested at a bar early on Monday morning as he was watching the Euro 2024 football final between Spain and England.

He then led officers to his house near the crime scene where 10 phones, a laptop, identity cards and personal female clothing were found, police said.

Since Friday, police have cordoned off the dumpsite, the Mukuru quarry, where the bodies were found in various stages of decomposition.

The victims were aged between 18 and 30 and were all killed in the same way, according to the police.

There has been shock and outrage in Kenya over the murders – and anger directed towards the police that such crimes could have gone unnoticed for so long.

Kenya’s police have been accused of widespread human rights abuses in the past – and the force is currently under investigation over deaths and abductions following recent anti-government protests.

• Kenya protesters traumatised by abductions – lawyer
• Mystery and heartbreak of the bodies found in a Kenyan river
• Kenya femicide: A woman’s murder exposes the country’s toxic online misogyny

Country singer Ingrid Andress has apologised and admitted being drunk while performing a much-derided rendition of the US national anthem, at a baseball stadium.

Andress’s erratic performance of The Star-Spangled Banner was widely shared after Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby, in Texas, on Monday.

“I was drunk last night,” wrote Andress, who has previously received four Grammy Award nominations.

“I’m checking myself into a facility today to get the help I need. That was not me last night. I apologize to MLB, all the fans, and this country I love so much for that rendition.”

She added: “I’ll let y’all know how rehab is – I hear it’s super fun.”

Andress’s a-capella version of the anthem was called “painful” and “one of the worst national-anthem renditions ever”, on social media.

The Daily Beast headline said: “America unites over new all-time worst national-anthem performance.”

Some people posted clips of Philadelphia Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm apparently smirking as Andress was singing.

But she also received sympathy and support following her apology.

“I’m so sorry you’re going through this,” singer and actress Lucy Hale wrote. Sending you a lot of my thoughts. Take care of you and you’re going to come out of this so much stronger.”

Country star Martina McBride said: “Sending lots of love and positivity. You got this.”

Singer-songwriter Julia Michaels said: “Love you, girl. I’m sorry you’re going through this. And I’m sorry the world can be so cruel. Here for you XX.”

Fellow singer-songwriter Carly Pearce said: “Being this open takes a lot. You’ve got this. Hang in there.”

And one fan posted a video of Andress on stage at a concert, to show her “true talent”.

Andress appeared as an a-cappella singer on NBC series The Sing-Off, in 2010 – and after forging a solo career, was nominated for the 2021 Grammy Award for Best New Artist.

She also co-wrote Charli XCX’s hit song Boys and Bebe Rexha’s Girl in the Mirror.

There has been outrage in Italy after a female tourist in Florence was pictured miming a lewd act on a statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and excess.

In the photos – which were shared online by the social media account Welcome To Florence – the woman can also be seen kissing the life-size statue at night-time.

The Bacchus stands on a plinth on a street corner near the famous Ponte Vecchio bridge and is a modern replica of the 16th Century work by sculptor Giambologna. The original is kept in the nearby Bargello museum.

The photos sparked angry reactions from social media users, some of whom called for the woman’s arrest.

“This is the result of years of attempts at turning Florence into Disneyland,” said another.

Patrizia Asproni, the president of Confcultura, an association that promotes Italy’s cultural heritage, told Italian media that these “repeated shows of rudeness and barbarity” take place “because everyone feels entitled to do whatever they want with impunity”.

Ms Asproni called for the application of the “Singapore model” with “tight checks, sky-high fines and zero tolerance” for bad behaviour.

Antonella Rinaldi, Florence’s archaeology and fine arts superintendent, said: “Tourists are welcome here but they need to respect our artworks, be they originals or replicas.”

“Although I doubt this lady – whom I condemn – even knows the difference,” she added.

Florence is one of the world’s foremost tourist destinations.

In 2023, around 1.5 million people visited the city – which has a population of just 382,000 – between June and September.

Local residents have long struggled with the huge influx of tourists, which in the summer months turns Florence’s narrow streets into steady streams of people.

The so-called “overtourism” phenomenon has prompted several cities around the world to make changes to the way they welcome tourists.

Last month, the mayor of Barcelona pledged to eliminate short-term tourist lets in the city within five years, while several hotspots – like Venice or Japan’s Mount Fuji – have started to introduce daily charges to try to limit numbers.

A drug has increased the lifespans of laboratory animals by nearly 25%, in a discovery scientists hope can slow human ageing too.

The treated mice were known as “supermodel grannies” in the lab because of their youthful appearance.

They were healthier, stronger and developed fewer cancers than their unmedicated peers.

The drug is already being tested in people, but whether it would have the same anti-ageing effect is unknown.

The quest for a longer life is woven through human history.

However, scientists have long known the ageing process is malleable – laboratory animals live longer if you significantly cut the amount of food they eat.

Now the field of ageing-research is booming as researchers try to uncover – and manipulate – the molecular processes of ageing.

The team at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Science, Imperial College London and Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore were investigating a protein called interleukin-11.

Levels of it increase in the human body as we get older, it contributes to higher levels of inflammation, and the researchers say it flips several biological switches that control the pace of ageing.

The researchers performed two experiments.

• The first genetically engineered mice so they were unable to produce interleukin-11
• The second waited until mice were 75 weeks old (roughly equivalent to a 55-year-old person) and then regularly gave them a drug to purge interleukin-11 from their bodies

The results, published in the journal Nature, showed lifespans were increased by 20-25% depending on the experiment and sex of the mice.

Old laboratory mice often die from cancer, however, the mice lacking interleukin-11 had far lower levels of the disease.

And they showed improved muscle function, were leaner, had healthier fur and scored better on many measures of frailty.

I asked one of the researchers, Prof Stuart Cook, whether the data was too good to be believed.

He told me: “I try not to get too excited, for the reasons you say, is it too good to be true?

“There’s lots of snake oil out there, so I try to stick to the data and they are the strongest out there.”

He said he “definitely” thought it was worth trialling in human ageing, arguing that the impact “would be transformative” if it worked and was prepared to take it himself.

The big unanswered questions are could the same effect be achieved in people, and whether any side effects would be tolerable.

Interleukin-11 does have a role in the human body during early development.

People are, very rarely, born unable to make it. This alters how the bones in their skull fuse together, affects their joints, which can need surgery to correct, and how their teeth emerge. It also has a role in scarring.

The researchers think that later in life, interleukin-11 is playing the bad role of driving ageing.

The drug, a manufactured antibody that attacks interleukin-11, is being trialled in patients with lung fibrosis. This is where the lungs become scarred, making it harder to breathe.

Prof Cook said the trials had not been completed, however, the data suggested the drug was safe to take.

This is just the latest approach to “treating” ageing with drugs. The type-2 diabetes drug metformin and rapamycin, which is taken to prevent an organ transplant being rejected, are both actively being researched for their anti-ageing qualities.

Prof Cook thinks a drug is likely to be easier for people than calorie restriction.

“Would you want to live from the age of 40, half-starved, have a completely unpleasant life, if you’re going to live another five years at the end? I wouldn’t,” he said.

Prof Anissa Widjaja, from Duke-NUS Medical School, said: “Although our work was done in mice, we hope that these findings will be highly relevant to human health, given that we have seen similar effects in studies of human cells and tissues.

“This research is an important step toward better understanding ageing and we have demonstrated, in mice, a therapy that could potentially extend healthy ageing.”

Ilaria Bellantuono, professor of musculoskeletal ageing at the University of Sheffield, said: “Overall, the data seems solid, this is another potential therapy targeting a mechanism of ageing, which may benefit frailty.”

However, he said there were still problems, including the lack of evidence in patients and the cost of making such drugs and “it is unthinkable to treat every 50-year-old for the rest of their life”.

Cyanide has been found in the blood of all six people who died in a luxury hotel suite in Bangkok, say doctors after examining their bodies.

Based on the initial post-mortem examination, they say there is “no other cause” that would explain their deaths “except for cyanide”.

But further tests are being carried out to determine the “intensity” of the deadly chemical and to rule out any other toxins.

Forensic investigators had earlier found traces of cyanide on the teacups used by the victims, all of whom are of Vietnamese origin including two with dual US citizenship. Police suspect that one of the dead was behind the poisoning and was driven by crushing debt – but have not said who.

The victims’ lips and nails had turned dark purple indicating a lack of oxygen, while their internal organs turned “blood red”, which is another sign of cyanide poisoning, said Professor Kornkiat Vongpaisarnsin of the Department of Forensic Medicine at Chulalongkorn University.

Doctor Chanchai Sittipunt, the dean of the Faculty of Medicine, said they still needed to find out how much cyanide was in the blood of the deceased.

“But from what we have detected – from observation, from internal organ check, from finding cyanide in the blood during the screening test – there is no other cause that would be the factor that would cause their deaths, except for cyanide,” he told reporters.

The deceased were found by housekeepers at the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel in the Thai capital late on Tuesday.

Investigators believe they had been dead for between 12 and 24 hours by then.

The mystery around the shocking discovery made international headlines.

Thailand’s Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin ordered an urgent investigation into the case, stressing that the deaths were the result of a “private matter”, and there was no suggestion of public danger.

Police have since begun to piece together what might have happened.

Two of the six victims had loaned “tens of millions of Thai baht” to another of the deceased for investment purposes, authorities said. Ten million baht is worth nearly $280,000 (£215,000).

Earlier on Wednesday, Deputy Bangkok police chief Gen Noppassin Poonsawat told a press conference the group checked into the hotel separately over the weekend and were assigned five rooms – four on the seventh floor, and one on the fifth.

They had been scheduled to check out on Monday but failed to do so.

Four of the victims are Vietnamese nationals Thi Nguyen Phuong, 46, her husband Hong Pham Thanh, 49, Thi Nguyen Phuong Lan, 47, and Dinh Tran Phu, 37.

The other two are American citizens Sherine Chong, 56, and Dang Hung Van, 55.

The US state department has offered its condolences and said it is “closely monitoring” the situation. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation is assisting Thai authorities in the investigation, Mr Srettha said.

The motive is not clear, but police said two of the six had loaned a substantial amount of money to another person in the group, who had not been paid back.

Police say on Monday afternoon all six victims gathered in the room on the fifth floor.

The group ordered food and tea, which was delivered to the room around 14:00 local time (08:00 BST) and received by Ms Chong – who was the only person in the room at the time.

According to the deputy police chief, a waiter offered to make tea for the guests but Ms Chong refused this. The waiter recalled that she “spoke very little and was visibly under stress”, authorities said.

The waiter later left the room.

The rest of the group then began streaming into the room at various points, between 14:03 and 14:17. No one else is believed to have entered the room apart from the six inside and police have said the door to the room was locked from within.

Police say there were no signs of a struggle, robbery or forced entry. They later found traces of cyanide in all six tea cups.

Pictures released by the police show plates of untouched food left on a table in the room, some of them still covered in cling wrap.

There was a seventh name on the group’s hotel booking, whom police identified as the younger sister of one of the victims. She had left Thailand last week for the Vietnamese coastal city of Da Nang and is not involved in the incident, police said.

Relatives interviewed by the police said Thi Nguyen Phuong and Hong Pham Thanh, a couple, owned a road construction business and had given money to Ms Chong to invest in a hospital building project in Japan.

Police suspect that Mr Tran, a make-up artist based in Da Nang, had also been “duped” into making an investment.

Mr Tran’s mother Tuý told BBC Vietnamese that he had travelled to Thailand on Friday and had called home on Sunday to say he had to extend his stay until Monday. That was the last his family had heard from him. She rang him again on Monday but he did not answer the call.

Ms Chong had hired Mr Tran as her personal make-up artist for the trip, one of his students told BBC Vietnamese. Mr Tran’s father, Phu, told Vietnamese media that his son was hired last week by a Vietnamese woman to travel to Thailand.

The six bodies were discovered one day after Thailand expanded its visa-free entry scheme to travellers from 93 countries and territories to revitalise its tourism industry.

Cyanide is a rapidly-acting, highly toxic chemical that is potentially deadly. Low levels of cyanide occur in nature and in products we eat and use. But in larger doses it is a notorious poison, and has been used as a chemical warfare agent because of its fast-acting and highly lethal properties.

It can occur as a colourless gas or liquid or in crystal form. People can be exposed to cyanide by breathing it in, absorbing it through the skin, or eating food or liquids that contain it.

When consumed in large amounts, cyanide can lead to lung injury, coma and death within seconds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Even in smaller doses, cyanide is still very harmful, causing chest pain, nausea, shortness of breath and vomiting.

Cyanide can produce a “bitter almond” smell but not everyone can detect this and it doesn’t always give off an odour.

A New York grand jury has indicted a former US Central Intelligence Agency analyst on charges of acting as a spy for the South Korean government in exchange for luxury goods, bags and fancy meals.

Sue Mi Terry, who previously worked as a senior official for the White House National Security Council, faces two counts of failing to register as a foreign agent and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

Federal officials say Ms Terry – a prominent US expert on North Korea – acted as an agent for the South Korean government for over a decade, but she did not register as a foreign agent with American officials, according to court documents made public on Tuesday in the Southern District of New York.

The Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank where Ms Terry works as a senior fellow on Asia, has placed her on unpaid leave, a spokesperson told US outlets. The organisation has also removed her biography from its website.

Ms Terry, 54, denies the charges and her attorney, Lee Wolosky, told the BBC the allegations against her were “unfounded”.

The charges “distort the work of a scholar and news analyst known for her independence and years of service to the United States”, Mr Wolosky said. “In fact, she was a harsh critic of the South Korean government during times this indictment alleges that she was acting on its behalf.”

Born in South Korea, Ms Terry moved to the US at age 12, according to her previous employer at Columbia University.

In 2001, she earned her doctorate from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, a prominent international relations school in Massachusetts. She is known to lecture in English and Korean.

Ms Terry, 54, then went on to work as a senior analyst for the CIA from 2001 to 2008, before holding a variety of posts in the federal government, including as Director for Korea, Japan, and Oceanic Affairs at the National Security Council during the George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations.

Prosecutors say Ms Terry’s work as an agent for the South Korean government began in 2013, about five years, after she stopped working for the CIA and the National Security Council.

In the 31-page indictment, officials say Ms Terry admitted to FBI agents in a voluntary interview in 2023 that she was a “source” for South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

The indictment alleges that the South Korean government gifted Ms Terry a $2,845 (£2,100) Dolce & Gabbana coat, a $3,450 Louis Vuitton handbag and meals at upscale restaurants.

Officials say the government also gave her $37,000 and came up with a plan to hide the source of the funds, ultimately placing them in a gift fund at the think tank where she worked.

Ms Terry’s indictment comes just a day after Democratic Senator Robert Menendez was convicted of helping foreign governments in exchange for luxury items including gold bars and a Mercedes car.

A man from the southern Indian state of Kerala, who got trapped in a hospital lift for 42 hours without any food or water, has told the BBC he feared he would die there.

Ravindran Nair, 59, entered the lift to meet a doctor on Saturday afternoon – he then remained stuck inside until Monday morning, when a lift operator found him. He is now in hospital and is being treated for dehydration and back pain.

His family members initially thought he was at work, but later contacted police and began a desperate search for him.

The incident has made headlines, prompting the state government to suspend three technicians and launch an inquiry. Officials from the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, and the state’s health minister have apologised to Mr Nair.

Mr Nair told the BBC that when he got trapped, he tried calling the emergency number listed in the lift but there was no response. He also tried calling his wife Sreelekha CP, who works at the hospital, and “anyone else I could think of”, but the calls wouldn’t connect.

“I began panicking and started banging on the lift doors to attract attention. That’s when my phone fell on the floor and stopped working,” he says.

“I shouted and screamed for help and tried pulling apart the doors with my hands. It was now dark inside the lift, but thankfully, there was sufficient air to breathe.”

He then paced around the lift, pressing the alarm bell again and again, hoping it would ring and catch someone’s attention – but without any success.

“As the hours passed, I had no idea whether it was day or night as it was pitch dark inside. When I got tired, I slept in a corner. I had to use another corner to pee and poo,” he says.

Mr Nair said he began visiting the hospital regularly a few months ago after he fell in the bathroom and started suffering from back pain.

“On Saturday, my wife and I went to meet the doctor and I got an X-ray scan done of my back because I was experiencing severe pain after a recent trip,” he recalls.

When the doctor asked to see the results from his blood test, the couple realised that they had forgotten them at home. Since Ms Sreelakha had to report for work, Mr Nair went home to pick up the results.

Normally when he visits the hospital he and his wife use a lift earmarked for employees. But this time he stepped into Lift-11 – meant for patients and visitors – to head up to the second floor.

“It was just past noon then. There was no-one else in the lift but the light was on, so I didn’t think anything was wrong,” he says.

He pressed the button and the lift began ascending but as it neared the second floor, it lurched downwards with a thud and got stuck between the first and second floors.

He didn’t know then that his ordeal would last nearly two days.

At some point he remembered he had to take pills to keep his blood pressure under control.

“I had them on me, but couldn’t swallow them because I had no water and my mouth was dry from shouting for help,” he recalls.

“I started wondering whether I would die inside the lift. I worried about my wife and children and thought about my late parents and ancestors. But then, I somehow willed myself to be stronger and told myself that I had to overcome this frightening ordeal.”

One thing that gave him comfort, he says, was reciting poems written by his wife.

“I held on to the hope that someone would come along to repair the lift and find me there.”

Help arrived finally on Monday morning at around 06:00 local time when an operator opened the door and asked him to jump out – 42 hours after his ordeal began.

Once Mr Nair was rescued, the first thing he did was call his wife, who had no idea her missing husband was trapped at her workplace.

“He wanted me to come and take him home,” she says.

The hospital has since put up a warning outside the lift asking people not to use it while it is being repaired.

Thailand has expanded its visa-free entry scheme to 93 countries and territories as it seeks to revitalize its tourism industry.

Visitors can stay in the South-East Asian nation for up to 60 days under the new scheme that took effect on Monday,

Previously, passport holders from 57 countries were allowed to enter without a visa.

Tourism is a key pillar of the Thai economy, but it has not fully recovered from the pandemic.

Thailand recorded 17.5 million foreign tourists arrivals in the first six months of 2024, up 35% from the same period last year, according to official data. However, the numbers pale in comparison to pre-pandemic levels.

Most of the visitors were from China, Malaysia and India.

Tourism revenue during the same period came in at 858 billion baht ($23.6bn; £18.3bn), less than a quarter of the government’s target.

Millions of tourists flock to Thailand every year for its golden temples, white sand beaches, picturesque mountains and vibrant night life.

The revised visa-free rules are part of a broader plan to boost tourism.

Also on Monday, Thailand introduced a new five-year visa for remote workers, that allows holders to stay for up to 180 days each year.

The country will also allow visiting students, who earn a bachelor’s degree or higher in Thailand, to stay for one year after graduation to find a job or travel.

In June, authorities announced an extension of a waiver on hoteliers’ operating fees for two more years. They also scrapped a proposed tourism fee for visitors flying into the country.

However some stakeholders are concerned that the country’s infrastructure may not be able to keep up with travellers’ demands.

“If more people are coming, it means the country as a whole… has to prepare our resources to welcome them,” said Kantapong Thananuangroj, president of the Thai Tourism Promotion Association.

“If not, [the tourists] may not be impressed with the experience they have in Thailand and we may not get a second chance,” he said.

Chamnan Srisawat, president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, said he foresees a “bottleneck in air traffic as the incoming flights may not increase in time to catch up with the demands of the travellers”.

Some people have also raised safety concerns after rumours that tourists have been kidnapped and sent across the border to work in scam centres in Myanmar or Cambodia.

A fatal shooting in Bangkok’s most famous shopping mall last year has also caused concern among visitors.

Jack Black has said he’s cancelled the rest of the Tenacious D world tour after his bandmate Kyle Gass sparked an outcry with a comment about the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

The comedy rock group were on stage in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday when Gass was asked to make a wish after being presented with a cake for his 64th birthday.

He appeared to reply: “Don’t miss Trump next time.”

In a statement on Instagram, Black said he was “blindsided” by the comment.

“I would never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form,” the comedian and actor wrote.

He said he didn’t feel it was “appropriate to continue the Tenacious D tour”, and that the rest of the group’s “creative plans are on hold”.

Black added that he is “grateful to the fans for their support and understanding”.

The controversy had already led to Tuesday’s gig in Newcastle, New South Wales, being postponed.

Gass apologised for the comment on Instagram, saying it was a “severe lack of judgement”.

He wrote: “The line I improvised onstage Sunday night in Sydney was highly inappropriate, dangerous and a terrible mistake.

“I don’t condone violence of any kind, in any form, against anyone. What happened was a tragedy, and I’m incredibly sorry for my severe lack of judgement. I profoundly apologise to those I’ve let down and truly regret any pain I’ve caused.”

Gass also split with his agent following the incident.

“Due to what occurred, we have parted ways,” Michael Greene of Greene Talent told BBC News.

While many in the Sydney crowd can be heard laughing in video from the concert, the comment launched an angry reaction on social media – with X owner Elon Musk calling it “evil”.

Senator Ralph Babet – the United Australia Party’s only parliamentarian – asked for the band to be deported.

In a statement, he said the duo should “be immediately removed from the country after wishing for the assassination of Donald Trump at their Sydney concert”.

Asked about the comments while attending the Republican National Convention, Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd said it made him “physically ill” that someone would joke about such violence.

“People might think that it is a bit of funny ha-ha at a concert to run off at the mouth about this stuff. It’s not. It’s about physical life,” the former prime minister of Australia said.

“These people just [need to] grow up and find a decent job.”

Trump was shot in the ear when a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday.

The FBI has identified the gunman who targeted Trump as Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, a kitchen worker from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who is a registered Republican.

A Secret Service sniper shot Crooks dead after he fired at the former president. One spectator was killed and two others were seriously injured.