President Donald Trump has warned that, if Venezuelan jets fly over US naval ships and "put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down".

His warning comes after Venezuela flew military aircraft near a US vessel off South America for the second time in two days, US officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

The reports follow a US strike against what Trump officials said was a "drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela" operated by a gang, killing 11 people.

President Nicolás Maduro has said US allegations about Venezuela are not true and that differences between the countries do not justify a "military conflict".

"Venezuela has always been willing to talk, to engage in dialogue, but we demand respect," he added.

When asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Friday what would happen if Venezuelan jets flew over US vessels again, Trump said Venezuela would be in "trouble".

Trump told his general, standing beside him, that he could do anything he wanted if the situation escalated.

Since his return to office in January, Trump has steadily intensified his anti-drug-trafficking efforts in Latin America.

Maduro has accused the US of seeking "regime change through military threat".

When asked about the comments, Trump said "we're not talking about that", but mentioned what he called a "very strange election" in Venezuela. Maduro was sworn in for his third term in January after a contested election.

Trump went on to say that "drugs are pouring" into the US from Venezuela and that members of Tren de Aragua - a gang proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the US - were living in the US.

• US strike on 'Venezuela drug boat': What do we know, and was it legal?

The US military has moved to bolster its forces in the southern Caribbean, including through the deployment of additional naval vessels and thousands of US Marines and sailors to stem the flow of drugs.

The White House said on Friday that the US is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.

When asked about the build-up of military assets in the Caribbean, Trump said: "I think it's just strong. We're strong on drugs. We don't want drugs killing our people."

Trump is a long-time critic of Maduro. The US president doubled a reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan leader to $50m (£37.2m) in August, accusing him of being "one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world".

During Trump's first term, the US government charged Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials with a range of offences, including narco-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking.

Maduro has previously rejected the US claims.

The leaders of about 30 Western countries are taking part in a summit in Paris with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, with the aim of giving Kyiv security assurances if a ceasefire is agreed, and persuading the US to provide support.

Hopes of a deal to end the fighting have receded since Russia's Vladimir Putin met Donald Trump in Alaska, although the US president said on the eve of Thursday's talks that "we're going to get it done".

Trump was due to talk to leaders of the "Coalition of the Willing" by phone after the Paris summit, and French officials said it was important for many European partners that any military guarantees for Kyiv involved an "American safety net".

Last month he said the US was willing to help "probably" with air support, and Western allies are keen for Trump to confirm that.

The summit opened on Thursday, chaired by France's Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and many of the leaders took part remotely.

Nato chief Mark Rutte said the aim was to have "clarity" on what the coalition could deliver so they could discuss what the Americans could provide.

Air support could include help with air defence or intelligence, but details so far are vague.

A source at the Élysée Palace said there were three aims behind the security guarantees: to strengthen Ukraine's armed forces; to support them by deploying a separate force to make it clear to Russia that Ukraine has Western backing; and to have a US safety net, which the Americans would obviously have to maintain.

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky said ahead of the talks that Kyiv had received "signals" from the Americans that they would provide a backstop.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Paris ahead of the summit and reports said he was due to meet Zelensky.

• 4,000 miles from Ukraine this Asian city is part of Russia's war

• Putin: Russia will achieve aims military with no deal

More than 40 months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin has said this week that there is "a certain light at the end of the tunnel" and that "there are options for ensuring Ukraine's security in the event the conflict ends".

However, Russia has made clear that no Western forces should be deployed to Ukraine and it has insisted that it should be one of the countries acting as "guarantors" - an idea rejected by Kyiv and its allies.

Putin has also raised the unrealistic prospect of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky coming to Moscow for talks.

Mark Rutte said on Thursday that Russia had no veto on Western troops being deployed to Ukraine: "Why are we interested in what Russia thinks about troops in Ukraine? It's a sovereign country. It's not for them to decide."

President Trump told CBS News on Wednesday that he remained committed to reaching a deal to end the war and said he continued to have a good relationship with both Putin and Zelensky.

"I think we're going to get it all straightened out," he said.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey has praised Trump, who he says "brought Putin into talks" and "not closed off any options".

Ukraine is looking to the Coalition of the Willing to come up with a reassurance force involving British, French and other European troops. Germany has said it is too soon to make that kind of commitment.

The Russian leader, who spent Wednesday with China's Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, claims that his country's military is pushing forward on all fronts in Ukraine.

He warned that without a deal Moscow was prepared to "resolve all our tasks militarily".

While Ukraine and its allies say a ceasefire should be agreed initially, Russia has insisted its campaign will not end before a full peace deal.

The source at the Élysée Palace said it had already become clear that Russia had no intention of having a ceasefire as part of a peace deal.

The source pointed to the demarcation line between North and South Korea, where a ceasefire had lasted for years with a powerfully armed, allied American deployment serving as a signal to North Korea. That concept was extremely important for the Ukrainians, the source added.

Sometimes it's not what's said that makes the biggest impression.

It's the reaction.

In the Russian Far East, Vladimir Putin delivered a warning to the West: don't even think about sending soldiers - and that includes peacekeepers - to Ukraine.

"If some troops appear there," the Russian president said, "especially now while the fighting's going on, we proceed from the premise that these will be legitimate targets for destruction."

Then the reaction.

The audience at the economic forum in Vladivostok burst into applause, with Russian officials and business leaders apparently welcoming the threat to "destroy" Western troops.

Observing the scene in the hall, I found the applause quite chilling.

And this came just a day after Kyiv's allies, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had pledged a post-war "reassurance force" for Ukraine.

• Putin rejects Western security in Ukraine, warning troops would be target

The audience applauded again when the Kremlin leader suggested that he would be prepared to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky - but only on home soil.

"The best place for this is the Russian capital, in Hero City Moscow," said Putin.

Outside Russia, Putin's proposal has been dismissed as unserious, a complete non-starter. A case of political trolling.

But in many ways it encapsulates the Kremlin's current position on the war in Ukraine: "Yes, we want peace, but only on our terms. You reject our terms? No peace then."

• Putin says Russia will achieve all aims militarily if Ukraine does not agree deal

This uncompromising stance is being fuelled by a combination of factors.

First, by the Kremlin's belief that, in Ukraine, Russian forces have the initiative on the battlefield.

Second, by diplomatic success. In China this week, Putin shook hands and shared smiles with a string of world leaders. The optics were all about demonstrating that Russia has powerful friends, such as China, India and North Korea.

And then there's America. Last month US President Donald Trump invited Putin to Alaska for a summit meeting. Back home pro-Kremlin commentators hailed the event as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine had failed.

To convince the Kremlin to end the fighting Trump has previously set ultimatums and deadlines; he's threatened further sanctions if Russia won't make peace.

But Trump hasn't followed through on his threats - and that's another reason for Russia's confidence.

Putin publicly praises Trump's peace efforts. And yet he has rejected Trump's ceasefire proposals and shown no desire to make concessions over the war in Ukraine.

So where does that leave prospects for peace?

Putin said recently that he could see "light at the end of the tunnel".

It seems to me that right now Russia on the one hand, and Ukraine and Europe (and to some extent America) on the other are in different tunnels, on different roads, with different destinations.

Ukraine and Europe are focused on ending the fighting, shaping security guarantees for Kyiv and making sure that the Ukrainian army is strong enough post-war to prevent another invasion.

When Putin talks about "light at the end of the tunnel", I believe he imagines a path that leads to a Russian victory in Ukraine, and more widely, to the construction of a new global order that benefits Russia.

In terms of peace, it's hard to see where and when these two very different highways will converge.

The Trump administration has revealed a plan to deport Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran man who has been at the centre of an immigration row, to the southern African kingdom of Eswatini.

In an email to his lawyers obtained by the BBC's US partner CBS, an immigration officer said they were changing last month's decision to send him to Uganda.

The officer said the change was made after Mr Ábrego García raised fears of persecution in Uganda. He added that although the claims were "hard to take seriously", US authorities would "nonetheless" agree not to send him there.

Mr Ábrego García was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, and then brought back to face criminal charges.

US officials acknowledged at the time that he was removed in error.

In June he was returned to the US, where he was detained and charged with human smuggling. He pleaded not guilty.

Trump officials claim that he is a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation he also denies.

His deportation case has become a focal point in the administration's crackdown on immigration. Mr Ábrego García has no connection to Eswatini, which is the fourth country floated as a potential deportation destination for him.

Previously known as Swaziland, Eswatini is surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique. It is one of the last remaining absolute monarchies in the world, and has been led by King Mswati III since 1986.

The US has already deported five people to Eswatini, describing them as "criminal illegal aliens" to the country.

The move sparked concern in the small nation that it was becoming a dumping ground for criminals.

Eswatini has not confirmed whether it receives payments for the deportation deal struck with the Trump administration.

The US is the fourth-largest market for the country's biggest export, sugar. Analysts suggest that Eswatini may be trying to safeguard this trade and avoid tariffs.

Mr Ábrego García entered the US illegally as a teenager from El Salvador. In 2019, he was arrested with three other men in Maryland and detained by federal immigration authorities.

The car workers arrested in one of the largest ever US workplace immigration raids had violated their visitor visas, officials say.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said 475 people, mostly South Korean citizens - were found to be illegally working at a Hyundai battery plant in the US state of Georgia on Thursday.

"People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorized to work in the US," ICE said, adding that the raid was necessary to protect American jobs.

South Korea, whose companies have promised to invest billions of dollars in key US industries in the coming years, partly to avoid tariffs, has sent diplomats to Georgia, and called for its citizens' rights to be respected.

The arrested workers were being held at an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, until the agency decides where to move them next.

Of those detained, 300 are reported to be Korean nationals. Hyundai said in a statement that none of them were directly employed by the company.

LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, told the BBC its top priority was to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its employees and partners and that it "will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities".

In a statement on Friday, the ICE office in the city of Savannah said the raid was "part of an active, ongoing criminal investigation".

"The individuals arrested during the operation were found to be working illegally, in violation of the terms of their visas and/or statuses," the statement added.

But Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta, told the New York Times that two of his clients were wrongly caught up in the raid.

He told the newspaper the pair were in the US under a visa waiver programme that allows them to travel for tourism or business for up to 90 days.

"My clients were doing exactly what they were allowed to do under the visa waiver - attend business meetings," he said on Friday.

He said one of them only arrived on Tuesday and was due to leave next week.

ICE said one of those detained was a Mexican citizen and green card holder with a lengthy rap sheet.

The individual had previously been convicted of possession of narcotics, attempting to sell a stolen firearm and theft, according to ICE.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Steven Schrank said: "We welcome all companies who want to invest in the US.

"And if they need to bring workers in for building or other projects, that's fine - but they need to do it the legal way.

"This operation sends a clear message that those who exploit the system and undermine our workforce will be held accountable."

South Korea's foreign ministry responded to the raid with a statement saying: "The economic activities of Korean investment companies and the rights and interests of Korean citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during US law enforcement operations."

The raid raises a possible tension between two of President Donald Trump's top priorities - building up manufacturing within the US and cracking down on illegal immigration. It could also put stress on the country's relationship with a key ally.

President Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday: "They were illegal aliens and ICE was just doing its job."

Asked by a reporter about the reaction from Seoul, he said: "Well, we want to get along with other countries, and we want to have a great, stable workforce.

"And we have, as I understand it, a lot of illegal aliens, some not the best of people, but we had a lot of illegal aliens working there."

Trump has worked to bring in major investments from other countries while also levying tariffs he says will give manufacturers incentives to make goods in the US.

The president also campaigned on cracking down on illegal immigration, telling supporters he believed migrants were stealing jobs from Americans.

The factory, which makes new electric vehicles, had been touted by Georgia's Republican governor as the biggest economic development project in the state's history, employing 1,200 people.

A man was discovered living in a crawl space of a home near Portland, Oregon without the owner's knowledge, authorities say.

The man had been living there for an extended period of time, having set up a bed and lights, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said.

The owner told deputies no one should be living there and they had heard "strange noises" coming from the space.

Deputies found 40-year-old Beniamin Bucur inside the crawl space and arrested him on charges of burglary and unlawful possession of methamphetamine.

Shortly before 23:00 local time on Wednesday, sheriff's deputies responded to investigate a suspicious circumstance in a residential area close to Happy Valley, a small city south-east of Portland.

A witness reported seeing a man who was not known to live in nearby homes parking his car and walking towards the back of the buildings. The witness also noticed the door to the crawl space was open and light was coming from inside.

When deputies arrived, they noticed the door was damaged and had been locked. An extension cord was seen running through a vent.

After contacting the owner and being told no one should be there, deputies tried to open the door with the owner's keys, but they did not work. Deputies forced the door open and discovered Bucur.

Bucur "was obviously living inside", law enforcement said, as the room was fitted with various electrics, including chargers, a television, and lights plugged into the power of the house, as well as a bed.

A meth pipe was also found in the search, the sheriff's office said.

Bucur was booked into jail and his bail was set at $75,000 (£55,524).

Marina, a 45-year-old freelance copywriter, has relied on WhatsApp for her work and personal life for years.

But one day last month that abruptly changed when a call to a colleague did not go through properly. They tried Telegram - another messaging app popular in Russia - but that did not work either.

She was one of millions of Russians facing new restrictions imposed in mid-August by Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, on calls made through the two platforms - the country's most popular apps.

The timing coincides with the rollout of a new "national messenger" app known as Max and created by a Russian firm closely controlled by the Kremlin.

Monthly user numbers of WhatsApp and Telegram are estimated to be 97 and 90 million respectively — in a country of 143 million people.

From parents' chats to tenants' groups, much of daily life runs through them. WhatsApp - whose owner, Meta, is designated an extremist organisation in Russia - is especially popular with older people because of how easy it is to register and use.

In some parts of Russia, particularly in remote and sparsely connected places in the Far East, WhatsApp is much more than chatting with friends and colleagues. Mobile browsing is sometimes painfully slow, so people use the app to coordinate local matters, order taxis, buy alcohol, and share news.

Both apps offer end-to-end encryption which means that no third party, not even those who own them, are able to read messages or listen to calls.

Officials say the apps refused to store Russian users' data in the country, as required by law, and they have claimed scammers exploit messaging apps. Yet Central Bank figures show most scams still happen over regular mobile networks.

Telecom experts and many Russians see the crackdown as the government trying to keep an eye on who people talk to and potentially what they say.

"The authorities don't want us, ordinary people, to maintain any kind of relationships, connections, friendships or mutual support. They want everyone to sit quietly in their own corner," says Marina who lives in Tula, a city 180km (110 miles) south of Moscow.

She asked us to change her name, worrying that speaking to foreign media can be dangerous.

A state-approved super-app

The new Max app is being aggressively promoted by pop stars and bloggers, and since 1 September all devices sold in Russia must have Max pre-installed.

It was launched by VK, which owns the country's largest social network of the same name. The Facebook-like platform is controlled by oil-and-gas giant Gazprom and one of Vladimir Putin's closest confidantes, billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk.

Max is set to become a super-app, bringing together multiple functions, including government digital services and banking.

The model mirrors China's WeChat - central to daily life but also a tool of censorship and surveillance.

Max's privacy policy states it can pass information to third parties and government bodies, potentially giving access to the security services or making user data vulnerable to leaks.

In Russia, where people are prosecuted for critical comments or private messages, and a black market of personal data feeds an epidemic of scam calls, this is a real concern.

Although many Russians are worried about the new restrictions on WhatsApp and Telegram, and by the introduction of Max, the state already has vast means to spy on its citizens.

By law, you can only buy a sim card with your national ID, and the security services have access to telecom operators' infrastructure. This means they can find out who you call as well as your whereabouts.

From this month it is now illegal to share your sim card with anyone other than a close relative.

But Max can potentially allow the authorities to read your messages as well - and avoiding the app is getting harder.

Schools are now obliged to move parent chats to the app.

In Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, Max is being adopted as an alert system; in St Petersburg, it is being tied to emergency services.

Despite the push, Max remains far behind its rivals - this week it claimed to have 30 million users.

The Kremlin has long been uneasy of the freedoms offered to people by the internet, which Vladimir Putin once called a CIA project.

The first legislative restrictions came in 2012, soon after mass opposition protests, officially to protect children from suicide-related content.

Ten years later, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the government blocked popular social media sites, such as Facebook, Instagram and X, and most independent media, leaving them accessible only through VPNs.

New restrictions keep coming: as of this month, Russians face fines for "deliberately searching" online for extremist materials - more than 5,000 resources from an ever-growing blacklist compiled by the ministry of justice. Examples include a book by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in 2024, and Ukrainian songs.

Another ban targets adverts on platforms linked to "extremist" organisations, in effect ending advertising on Instagram which many small businesses had relied on as a shopfront.

Ads for VPNs are also banned, and while using these apps is not illegal, it may now be treated as an aggravating factor in criminal cases.

State-induced digital detox

Apart from their problems with WhatsApp and Telegram, many Russians are now getting used to life without mobile internet altogether, as entire cities face regular cut-offs.

Since May, every Russian region has seen mobile internet go down.

Blackouts surged through the summer, with up to 77 regions hit by shutdowns simultaneously at the peak, according to the Na Svyazi (In Touch) project.

The authorities justify the measures by the need to protect people and infrastructure from attacks by Ukrainian drones - Kyiv's response to Russia's relentless and deadly bombardments of Ukrainian cities.

But some experts doubt that switching off mobile internet - which many Russians use instead of broadband - is an effective tool against long-distance drone attacks.

Local authorities, who were made responsible for countering drone attacks, have no other means to do it, explains telecom expert Mikhail Klimarev.

"There are no air defence systems, no army - everything's on the frontline," he says. "Their logic goes: we've switched off the internet and there were no drones, hence it works."

In Vladimir, 200km (125 miles) east of Moscow, two of the city's three districts have been offline for almost a month.

"It's impossible to check bus routes or timetables," says Konstantin, a resident who also asked to change his name. "The information boards at stops also show errors."

Taxi fares have risen as drivers cannot accept orders online.

State TV in Vladimir spun the shutdown as "digital detox", showing residents who said they now enjoyed more walking, reading and spending time with friends.

In Krasnoyarsk, a city of more than a million people in Siberia, mobile internet vanished citywide for three days in July and still works poorly.

Some officials rejected complaints, with one Krasnoyarsk bureaucrat suggesting remote workers who lost income should "go and work for the special military operation", as the war in Ukraine is known in Russia. She later apologised.

The government is now working on a scheme that will allow Russians to access only vital online services during shutdowns, such as banking, taxis, deliveries - and the Max messenger.

This is a dangerous step, warns Sarkis Darbinyan, lawyer and co-founder of digital rights group RKS Global.

"There's a possibility the authorities will use this measure for other goals apart from fighting drones," he tells the BBC.

He believes the Kremlin's current approach to the internet mirrors Beijing's.

"Unlike the Chinese, Russians have spent decades enjoying cheap, fast internet and foreign platforms," he says. "These services became deeply ingrained not only in people's daily lives but also in business processes."

For now those who are wary of installing Max on their devices can still find a way around it.

Marina from Tula says her mother, a school teacher, was instructed to download the messenger but claimed to her superiors that she didn't have a smartphone.

People can still call each other using regular mobile networks, although that is more expensive, especially when talking to someone abroad - and not secure.

There are other means available too, like using VPNs or alternative messaging apps, previously reserved for tech nerds and those handling sensitive information.

But as government control over the internet increases, fewer and fewer people will find ways to escape it - and that is assuming the internet is still available for them to try.

Additional reporting by Yaroslava Kiryukhina

Villagers in a remote area of Sudan's western Darfur region are trying to reach buried victims by hand after a devastating landslide on Sunday, aid group Save the Children says.

"People are excavating by hand to rescue the bodies of their relatives since there are no tools or machinery", Francesco Lanino, Save the Children's deputy Sudan director for programmes and operations, said.

It is unclear how many people died. Figures range from as high as 1,000 from an armed group in charge of the area, to a figure from the national health ministry that says only two bodies have been recovered.

Save the Children said at least 373 bodies had been recovered, according to the head of the Civil Authority.

Mr Lanino said "1,000 lives may have been lost, including an estimated 200 children."

Save the Children staff described scenes of "destruction and devastation" after the landslide caused by heavy rainfall. Mr Lanino said teams on location believe the landslide to be "one of the most tragic and large-scale disasters in the region's history".

He added that in the impacted Tarseen area, which is made up of five villages, there is only one known survivor in the worst-hit village.

Independently verifying the impact of the landslide has been difficult due to the remoteness of the area.

However, through analysis of satellite imagery, BBC Verify was able to identify nine buildings and structures that were washed away in the disaster.

It took Save the Children aid workers more than six hours to cross nearly 14 miles (22km) of rocky, muddy terrain from their office to the impacted area.

Aid workers had travelled on donkey to reach the Tarseen area in order to deliver the first batch of humanitarian supplies to survivors.

The ongoing civil war in Sudan has also made rescue efforts more challenging, another aid group World Vision stated.

Separately from the landslide, Sudan is currently facing a humanitarian crisis due to fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group and the army.

Estimates for the death toll from the civil war vary significantly, but a US official last year estimated up to 150,000 people had been killed since hostilities began in 2023.

Twelve million people have fled their homes.

More BBC stories about Sudan:

• A collapsing mountain and bodies still buried under rubble
• Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening
• A pregnant woman's diary of escape from war zone

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

A man has died on a Sydney beach after being bitten by a suspected "large shark", Australia's New South Wales police have said.

In a statement, the police said emergency services pulled the man out of the morning surf onto the shore at Long Reef Beach - but he "died at the scene".

"Two sections of a surfboard have been recovered and taken for expert examination," the statement read.

Saturday's incident has resulted in a string of closures in the popular area known as the Northern Beaches.

The state police said the emergency services acted after receiving reports shortly after 10:00am local time on Saturday (00:00 GMT) that "a man had suffered critical injuries".

The victim's identity was yet to be confirmed.

Local police officers and experts would work together to "determine the species of shark involved".

The last deadly shark attack in the Sydney area in 2022, when Simon Nellist - a British diving instructor - was mauled by a great white shark.

Prior to that, there had not been a fatal attack since 1963.

Australia typically records about 20 shark attacks each year, with most in New South Wales and Western Australia.

Historically, dying from a shark bite is uncommon. In over a century of records, Australia's shark attack mortality rate is 0.9 - less than one person per year.

In fiery Senate testimony this week, US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr once again set his sights on the nation's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

His appearance came days after he suddenly fired the new CDC director, Susan Monarez, provoking a group of senior staffers to resign in protest.

At the hearing, when asked for an explanation, Kennedy claimed he had asked Ms Monarez if she was a "trustworthy person" and she had replied "no", to some disbelief from his opponents in the room.

He then admitted he had once described the CDC as the "most corrupt" agency in government, and strongly hinted he's not finished with his plans to shake up the organisation.

Kennedy's words have sparked a furious backlash, with many doctors and scientists increasingly concerned that America's public health systems are being dangerously compromised.

It's a conflict that could have a significant impact not just on health policy in the US but across the world. In the past the CDC has been instrumental in global health, leading the response to crises from famine, to HIV, to Ebola.

Founded in 1946, the CDC tracks emerging infectious diseases like Covid and is also tasked with tackling long-term or chronic conditions such as heart disease and cancer.

It operates more than 200 specialised laboratories and employs 13,000 people, although that number has been cut by around 2,000 since President Donald Trump returned to office.

It does not approve or licence vaccines. That responsibility lies with the Food and Drug Administration.

But it does produce official recommendations on who should receive which vaccines through a panel of experts - known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) - and monitors their side effects and other safety concerns.

Vaccine dispute

It was Kennedy's record on vaccines which particularly worried many public health experts when he took office in February.

An activist group he ran for eight years, Children's Health Defense, repeatedly questioned the safety and efficacy of vaccination.

He has described the Covid jab as the "most deadly in history" and has blamed rising rates of autism on vaccines, an idea that has been categorically debunked by large scientific studies over many years.

So feathers were seriously ruffled just weeks into his tenure when it emerged he had hired a noted vaccine critic, David Geier, to look again at the CDC data on that scientifically disproven link.

Then in June Kennedy suddenly sacked the entire ACIP panel which advises the CDC on vaccine eligibility after accusing all 17 members of being "plagued with persistent conflicts of interest".

A new committee, handpicked by the administration, now has the power to change, or even drop, critical recommendations to immunise Americans for certain diseases, as well as shape the childhood vaccination programme, although the CDC itself still has the final say on whether to accept that advice.

It's that decision which has now been linked to the firing of the agency's new director in late August, only 29 days into the job.

In a newspaper article this week Ms Monarez said she was sacked from the CDC after being told, by Kennedy, to "pre-approve" the recommendations of the ACIP committee which she said had now been filled with people who have expressed "antivaccine rhetoric".

"It is imperative that the panel's recommendations aren't rubber-stamped but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed before being accepted or rejected," she wrote.

"I lost my job, America's children could lose far more."

In his testimony Kennedy stood his ground, accusing Ms Monarez of lying about that exchange and describing her dismissal as "absolutely necessary".

"We need bold, competent and creative new leadership at CDC, people able and willing to chart a new course," he said.

Ms Monarez's sacking led to a fresh wave of resignations at the agency as senior staff continue to walk out.

Over the last two weeks the CDC has lost its chief medical officer, its director of immunisation and its director of emerging diseases, amongst others.

"A huge top tier of CDC leadership has been removed, but this is also in the wake of the firing of thousands of CDC workers, including many well-respected experts," says Dr Fiona Havers, a senior vaccine researcher who herself resigned from the agency in June.

"I'm a physician, and for my own integrity as a scientist, I did not feel I could continue to serve in that administration when it felt like the data we were putting together was not going to be used in an evidenced, science-based way."

Kennedy was also criticised by some CDC staff for what they felt was a lacklustre response to a shooting at the agency's Atlanta headquarters in August.

The gunman, who reportedly believed the Covid vaccine had made him sick, killed a policeman before turning the weapon on himself.

Kennedy visited the offices in the aftermath but he did not meet with staff members and continued to criticise the agency's performance.

He did, though, start his testimony this week with a tribute to David Rose, the police officer who died in the shooting.

For the moment, Jim O'Neill, one of Kennedy's top advisers, has been tapped up to run the CDC on an interim basis, until a new permanent director can be found.

O'Neill served in several roles in the health department under President George W Bush, but he has a business rather than a science background.

"During the previous administration, CDC lost public trust by manipulating health data to support a political narrative," he wrote on social media on the day he was appointed.

"We are helping the agency earn back the trust it has squandered."

More changes are certainly likely.

In his Senate hearing Kennedy said the CDC had lied to Americans in the pandemic about mask wearing, social distancing and the ability of the vaccine to stop the transmission of coronavirus.

"I need to fire some of those people and make sure this doesn't happen again," he said.

Global repercussions

The next flashpoint could come later this month.

On 18 September the CDC's new vaccine advisory panel is due to meet to discuss Covid vaccines and other shots, including for hepatitis B and the RSV virus.

The panel's recommendations and the CDC's response will be carefully scrutinised, not just in the US but around the world.

"What happens in America is of great importance," says Anthony Costello, a former director at the World Health Organization (WHO) and a professor of public health at University College London.

"We've done so much to protect science from political interference over the past 200 years and the concern is that America will pay a price for it and we might too, if we go in that direction."

In the past, CDC teams have also had a major hands-on role in global health protection.

In 2015, for example, the agency had 3,000 staff working on the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, with 1,200 of those on the ground in west Africa.

After taking office, President Trump withdrew the US from the WHO and ordered the CDC to cut off all communication with the organisation.

The concern from former CDC staffers like Dr Fiona Havers is what might happen if and when the next Ebola or Covid is eventually spotted and starts spreading.

"Taking a sledgehammer to the CDC and undercutting its programmes has left the US much less prepared for another pandemic,” she says.

“And that really has huge implications globally if another health emergency were to arise.”

Hamas has released a video showing two Israeli hostages seized from a music festival during its cross-border attack in October 2023.

The video claims to show Guy Gilboa-Dalal in Gaza City in late August, where he says he and eight others are being held and will remain despite Israel's planned ground offensive. It also shows captive Alon Ohel.

Earlier videos of hostages released by their captors in Gaza have been condemned by world leaders and families as propaganda.

Israel's far-right national security minister called for the full occupation of Gaza in response, claiming this was the only way to "bring back the hostages in security".

The video shows Mr Gilboa-Dalal, who was seized from the Nova festival in southern Israel, pleading for his release. In footage dated 28 August, he is filmed in a car in what he says is Gaza City.

The footage also shows Mr Ohel for the first time since he was seized in the attack 700 days ago. Mr Gilboa-Dalal was previously seen in a Hamas video in February.

They are two of the 48 hostages still being held by Hamas, 20 of whom are thought to be alive.

Defence minister Israel Katz meanwhile said Israeli military activity would "intensify" until Hamas accepted Israel's conditions to end the war, which include the release of release of all hostages, threatening that the armed group would be "destroyed" otherwise.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Israeli negotiators to resume talks on a ceasefire deal to free the hostages.

On Friday, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said 30 Palestinians had been killed in the territory in the past 24 hours, including 20 in Gaza City.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that it had struck a tower block there, which it claimed was being used by Hamas.

It said precautionary measures had been taken to mitigate harm to civilians, "including advance warnings to the population" and the use of "precise munitions".

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans a month ago to take control of Gaza City after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down in July.

Israel has intensified its operations around Gaza City in recent weeks, and says its offensive has established control of some 40% of the city, which it claims is a stronghold of Hamas.

The UN and aid groups have warned that the offensive was already having "horrific humanitarian consequences" for displaced families sheltering in the city, which is home to a million people and where a famine was declared last month.

Satellite imagery shows several neighbourhoods in parts of the city have been levelled by Israeli strikes and demolitions over the past month.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led 7 October attack in 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 more were taken hostage.

At least 64,231 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.

US President Donald Trump is directing that the Pentagon be known as the Department of War.

He will sign an executive order on Friday for the Department of Defense to use the new name as a secondary title and for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to be known as Secretary of War.

The Pentagon - which oversees the US armed services - is the successor to the War Department, which was first established as a cabinet-level agency in 1789 and existed until 1947.

The responsibility of creating executive departments rests with the US Congress, meaning that an amendment would be required to legally change the department's name.

The BBC has seen the text of the executive order, which says: "The name 'Department of War' conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to 'Department of Defense,' which emphasizes only defensive capabilities."

Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of the name change, arguing that the US had "an unbelievable history of victory" in both world wars under the previous name.

He has also expressed optimism that lawmakers would support such a change.

"I'm sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don't even think we need that," the president said last week. "But, if we need that, I'm sure Congress will go along."

Trump and Hegseth have sought to refocus the department on "warfighting" and a "warrior ethos".

They have argued that the department has become too focused on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes and "woke ideology".

The Trump administration's effort to strip hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan and Haitian migrants of legal protections is unlawful, a US judge says.

The ruling by District Judge Edward Chen sets aside the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) attempt to end temporary protected status (TPS) for people from countries experiencing conditions that make it dangerous to return.

It will allow around 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians to continue living and working legally in the US. The DHS has indicated it will appeal the decision.

The TPS program was established by Congress in 1990 to give temporary protections for migrants from countries experiencing war and natural disasters.

In a 69-page decision, Judge Chen wrote that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's action in revoking their protected status "was not only unprecedented in the manner and speed in which it was taken but also violates the law."

He said conditions in their home countries was "so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel".

In response to the ruling, a DHS spokesperson told the BBC the scheme had been "abused, exploited, and politicised as a de facto amnesty program", while indicating it would assess its legal options.

"Unelected activist judges cannot stop the will of the American people for a safe and secure homeland," the spokesperson added.

There are about 600,000 migrants who have TPS from Venezuela, the largest country included in the program. Former President Joe Biden extended the program to include Haiti, Afghanistan, Cameroon and Ukraine.

President Donald Trump sought to reverse the extension when he returned to office earlier this year and also attempted to terminate the designation for Venezuela altogether.

In March, the administration, making good on Trump's campaign promise of cracking down on immigration, said it will revoke the temporary legal status of more than half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Those migrants were warned to leave the country before their permits and deportation shields were cancelled on 24 April.

The National TPS Alliance and Venezuelan TPS holders sued the Trump administration and DHS earlier this year, arguing that Noem did not have the authority to unilaterally roll back the extension granted by the previous administration.

In May, the Supreme Court froze an earlier ruling and allowed the Trump administration to end the TPS program for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans.

But Judge Chen, the California federal judge, said in his ruling on Friday that the high court's decision only dealt with preliminary relief he ordered.

It did not preclude him, he wrote, from issuing fresh orders.

Also on Friday, a federal appeals court in Washington DC ruled that the Trump administration cannot continue cuts to foreign aid.

The ruling requires the administration to move quickly to spend funds on projects authorised by Congress.

The administration has withheld $4bn (£3bn) in funding appropriated for the US Agency for International Development, which has been picked apart during Trump's second term.

Portugal is in mourning after at least 17 people died and some 20 more were injured when Lisbon's famous funicular cable railway derailed on Wednesday evening.

A transport worker was among those killed, while a three-year-old German boy was reported to have escaped with minor injuries.

Those hurt include four Portuguese, and 11 foreign nationals from Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, South Korea, Morocco and Cape Verde, according to emergency services.

Police have not yet confirmed the identities of those who died, but here is what we do know about the victims.

Transport worker and German father among the dead

Among the dead are seven men and eight women, and foreigners, Margarida Castro Martins, head of Lisbon's Civil Protection Agency, said on Thursday.

Some foreign nationals were also killed, but where they were from remains unclear.

Portuguese transport union Sitra said André Jorge Gonçalves Marques, who worked as the brake guard on the funicular, was among the dead.

In a statement on Facebook, the union wrote: "We send our condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the accident and wish them a speedy recovery as well as the best recovery to the others injured in the accident."

Ms Martins said the injured include 12 women and seven men aged between 24 and 65, and a three-year-old child.

Local media reported that a German family-of-three were on board the funicular when it crashed.

The father died at the scene, Portuguese news outlet Observador reported, while the mother was said to be in a critical condition in hospital, and a three-year-old boy sustained minor injuries.

• Lisbon funicular crash - live updates
• What we know about deadly crash

What we still don't know

The Glória funicular can carry about 40 passengers and is extremely popular with tourists - but it is also crucial for the city's residents, to help them travel up and down Lisbon's hilly streets.

We don't know how many people were on board, or the identity of all those who died. The death toll and number of people injured could change in the coming hours.

We also don't know if any UK nationals are involved - the UK foreign office has said it is aware of the incident and is ready to provide consular assistance to any affected British nationals.

Police have started arresting protesters at a demonstration against the government's ban of the campaign group Palestine Action.

Hundreds of people have gathered in Parliament Square in central London, some waving Palestinian flags and chanting "free Palestine". Others held placards saying: "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action."

Officers have been seen carrying people out of the crowd, after some protesters said they planned to refuse bail and go "floppy" if they were arrested.

The Metropolitan Police had earlier warned that people showing support for the group, which has been proscribed under terrorism law, would face arrest.

The government proscribed Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act in July, making membership of or support of the group a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Saturday's protest follows a major demonstration last month which saw more than 500 people arrested for displaying placards in support of Palestine Action.

The average age of those arrested at the August rally was 54, and the most arrests - 147 of them - were of people aged between 60 and 69.

The funeral of the Duchess of Kent will be held at Westminster Cathedral on 16 September, with the King and Queen among the senior royals who will be in attendance, Buckingham Palace has announced.

The duchess, Katharine, died on Thursday aged 92, prompting tributes for her kindness and support for tennis and music - including working as a primary school music teacher.

The duchess was a Catholic and there will be a Requiem Mass for her funeral, which will be the first royal Catholic funeral in the UK in modern history.

It will be a private family ceremony, after which the coffin will be taken to the royal burial ground in Frogmore in Windsor.

The duchess, who had been the oldest member of the Royal Family, died in Kensington Palace and her coffin will remain in the chapel there until the evening before the funeral, when she will brought to Westminster Cathedral.

In the Catholic tradition, there will be a service to mark the reception of the coffin into the cathedral, where it will remain in the Lady Chapel overnight, before the funeral the following day.

That will be attended by her close family, with the duchess being survived by her husband, the Duke of Kent, and their two sons and a daughter.

This first royal funeral at Westminster Cathedral, at 2pm on Tuesday 16 September, will be presided over by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, with the Anglican Dean of Windsor participating, before accompanying the coffin to Frogmore.

Prince Harry will be in the UK next week for charity events, but it is not known if he would stay for the funeral, which is expected to be attended by many senior royals.

The Prince and Princess of Wales said she would be a "much missed member of the family" who had "worked tirelessly to help others and supported many causes, including through her love of music".

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Duchess of Kent brought "compassion, dignity and a human touch to everything she did".

The duchess supported music charities and taught music at a Hull primary school, where pupils knew nothing of the royal background of "Mrs Kent".

She will be remembered as a familiar figure at the Wimbledon tennis championships, where she handed over trophies - and consoled those who had lost, famously including a tearful Jana Novotna in 1993.

Tennis player Martina Navratilova posted a tribute with a picture of herself and the duchess at Wimbledon, saying it was "amazing how many millions of people around the globe she affected in a positive way".

The duchess, who stepped back from her royal life in her later years, had supported charities including Childline and the Passage, which supports homeless people, based in Westminster not far from where her funeral will be held later this month.

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The national system for sending emergency alerts to mobile phones will be tested for the second time this Sunday, 7 September.

The alerts are designed for situations where there is an imminent danger to life, such as during extreme weather events or a terror attack.

The previous test, in April 2023, revealed a number of technical issues including some users receiving multiple messages and others getting nothing at all.

What time will the emergency alert be sent and what will happen?

The alert will be sent to millions of devices around 15:00 BST on Sunday 7 September.

Compatible phones - the vast majority of those currently in use - will vibrate and make a siren sound for roughly 10 seconds.

The text of the message will read:

"This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a UK government service that will warn you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby.

"You do not need to take any action. In a real emergency, follow the instructions in the alert to keep yourself and others safe.

"Find simple and effective advice on how to prepare for emergencies at gov.uk/prepare.

"Visit gov.uk/alerts for more information or to view this message in Welsh. Ewch i gov.uk/alerts am ragor o wybodaeth neu i weld y neges hon yn y Gymraeg."

• Welsh language error in government emergency alert

Which devices will receive the alerts?

The alert will be sent to all smartphones on the UK's 4G and 5G networks, even if they are not connected to mobile data or wi-fi.

There are about 87 million mobile phones in the UK and the goverment says about 95% of the population has 4G or 5G access.

Older phones, and phones connected to 2G or 3G networks, will not receive the message.

Phones that are switched off or in airplane mode will also not get the alert.

Can users opt out of receiving emergency alerts?

The government strongly recommends that users enable devices to receive emergency alerts, but it is possible to opt out.

This can be done by searching in your phone's settings for "emergency alerts" and turning off "severe alerts" and "extreme alerts".

The government has published a guide on how to opt out of the test.

What is the advice for victims of domestic abuse?

Ahead of the 2023 test, domestic abuse charities warned that the alert system could potentially endanger victims by alerting an abuser to the existence of a secret phone.

The National Centre for Domestic Violence advised people with concealed devices to make sure they were turned off for the duration of the test.

• What to do about the emergency alert if you’re a victim of domestic abuse
• BBC Action line: Information and support about domestic abuse

What went wrong during the 2023 test?

During the first test some users got the alert ahead of the scheduled time while others got it later.

Many mobile phones on the Three network did not get anything at all, along with some users on other networks.

Others received multiple messages.

The government later confirmed that the test alert had not reached around 7% of compatible devices, and promised to fix the problems before any future tests.

The issues did not arise when the system was subsequently used to circulate real alerts.

What have emergency alerts been used for?

The government says the alert system plays "a critical role in making sure that we are ready for all kinds of future emergencies".

It uses mobile phone masts to send targeted information to users in a particular area.

Five real life alerts have seen sent to more than seven million mobile phone users since the system began.

It was used to contact around 4.5 million phones in Scotland and Northern Ireland during Storm Eowyn in January 2025, and around three million in England and Wales during Storm Darragh the previous month.

It was also used to help co-ordinate the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents in Plymouth as an unexploded 500kg World War Two bomb was carefully removed and taken out to sea to be detonated.

• Anger after fire evacuation alert sent in error to millions in LA
• Hawaii missile false alarm triggers shock, blame and apologies