María Corina Machado, the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, is "safe" and will come to Oslo, but will not be able to make the awards ceremony scheduled for 12:00 GMT on Wednesday, the Nobel Institute has said.

The Nobel Institute awarded the Venezuelan opposition leader the prize for "her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy" in her home country.

There has been much speculation about whether Machado, who has been living in hiding, would be able to defy a travel ban to attend the ceremony in Norway's capital.

Organisers said her daughter would accept the award in her stead.

In an audio recording shared by the Nobel Institute, Machado said "I will be in Oslo, I am on my way."

However, the director of the Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, said that Machado was expected to arrive "sometime between this evening and tomorrow morning" - too late for the ceremony.

In her mother's absence, Ana Corina Sosa is expected to give the speech Machado had prepared.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Nobel Institute had said they were in the dark about Machado's whereabouts, triggering concern among her supporters.

Two of her children and her mother are in Oslo, hoping to be reunited with Machado after being separated for more than a year.

Machado went into hiding shortly after Venezuela's disputed presidential election in July 2024.

The last time she was seen in public was on 9 January when she spoke to her supporters at a rally protesting against the swearing-in of Nicolás Maduro to a third term as president.

The elections were widely dismissed both by the opposition in Venezuela and on the international stage as rigged, and sparked protests across the country.

Around 2,000 people were arrested in the crackdown which followed, among them many members of Machado's opposition coalition.

Machado, who had managed to unite the bitterly divided opposition ahead of the election, went into hiding for fear of arrest.

She continued to give interviews and uploaded videos onto social media urging her followers not to give up.

The announcement that she had been chosen as this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner galvanised her supporters and triggered immediate speculation as to whether she would be able to travel to Oslo.

Total secrecy has surrounded her travel plans and it is not know how she managed to leave her place of hiding or by what means she has reached Europe.

Sporadic gunfire and explosions have been reported as M23 rebels advance towards a key city in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, in an offensive that has forced thousands to flee across the border into Burundi.

Residents and military sources said soldiers were fleeing the assault on Uvira, the last government-held city in the mineral-rich region.

US President Donald Trump brokered a peace deal last week between DR Congo's President Félix Tshisekedi and Rwanda's Paul Kagame to end the long-running conflict.

Shops and schools have closed, with terrified residents staying indoors amid fears that rebels had taken control of some government buildings.

But South Kivu Governor Jean-Jacques Purusi dismissed reports that the rebels were in the city as "completely unfounded rumours".

Residents told local media that the rebels were patrolling central Uvira under the cover of darkness on Tuesday night, while the city remained deserted early on Wednesday.

A local rights official told AP news agency that there was a "risk of a massacre" if the remaining soldiers mounted strong resistance.

"It's chaotic, nobody's in charge. Uvira is done for," a Burundian officer told AFP news agency.

"Three bombs have just exploded in the hills. It's every man for himself," a resident told AFP, while another added: "We are all under the beds in Uvira - that's the reality."

Military and security sources said the rebel fighters advanced from the north, near the Burundian border.

In an interview with UN-backed Radio Okapi, Purusi denied Uvira had fallen to the M23, saying the city remained under the control of government forces.

The US, European Union, and eight European nations have accused Rwanda of supporting the rebel offensive, and have called for an immediate halt to the fighting

In a joint statement, they voiced "profound concern" about the violence, and said it had a "destabilising potential for the whole region".

Rwanda has denied any involvement in the fighting, accusing DR Congo's government and its ally, Burundi, of violating a ceasefire.

UN experts say Rwanda's army is in "de facto control of M23 operations".

About 200,000 people have fled their homes in eastern DR Congo since the latest round of fighting started early this month, the UN says.

It said at least 74 people had been killed, mostly civilians, and 83 admitted to hospital with wounds.

A Burundian administrative source told AFP that he had recorded more than 8,000 daily arrivals over the past two days, and 30,000 arrivals in one week.

The latest offensive comes nearly a year after the M23 rebels seized control of Goma and Bukavu, the other two main cities in eastern DR Congo.

The M23 is not part of the US-brokered peace deal, and is in separate talks with DR Congo's government in mediation efforts led by Qatar.

In a national address on Monday, Tshisekedi accused Rwanda of "deliberate violations" of the peace accord.

"This is a proxy war aimed at challenging our sovereignty over a highly strategic area, rich in critical minerals and economic potential that is crucial to the future of our nation," Tshisekedi said.

For its part, Rwanda accused the armies of DR Congo and Burundi of bombing villages near its border, forcing more than 1,000 civilians to flee into its territory.

Eastern DR Congo has been wracked by conflict for more than 30 years, since the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Several peace deals going back to the 1990s have collapsed.

Numerous armed groups have competed with the central authorities for power and control of the potential fortune in this vast nation.

More about the DR Congo conflict:

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Two US fighter jets were tracked circling the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday as tensions continue to escalate between the two countries.

The F/A-18 Super Hornets appeared on flight tracking sites near Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city, at around 13:00 (17:00 GMT), before circling the gulf for about 40 minutes.

A US defence official told the Associated Press the F/A-18 jets had conducted a "routine training flight" in the area.

The incident comes amid a wave of US strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea, which the White House said were trafficking drugs to the US from Venezuela. Experts have raised questions over the legality of the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused the US of using the strikes to destabilise the country and oust him from power.

In an interview conducted with Politico the day before the jets approached Venezuela's coastline, Trump declared that Maduro's days in power were "numbered", and declined to comment on whether US troops could be deployed to the country.

A separate jet, an EA-18G Growler, also appeared just before the F/A-18s on the tracking site FlightRadar24. Data shows the jet flew loops just north of Venezuela's coast.

They are the latest in a number of unusual US air force activities that have been tracked since September. B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer bombers previously flew up to and along the Venezuelan coast.

But the F/A-18s, which are capable of engaging targets both on the ground and in the air, appear to be the first to approach the Venezuelan coastline so publicly in recent months. The F/A-18s came within 20 nautical miles of the coastline, flight tracking data showed.

Neither the F/A-18s or the Growler showed a point of origin or a destination on FlightRadar24, and all three aircraft only turned on their transponders when they arrived near the Venezuelan coastline. Justin Crump, head of the risk consultancy Sibylline, suggested the move was intended to "support the administration's signalling and put pressure on the [Venezuelan] leadership".

The F/A-18s - which operated under the callsigns RHINO11 and RHINO12 - flew six loops up and down the Gulf of Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Growler jet - flying under the codename GRIZZLY2 - also flew circles along the coast.

Greg Bagwell, a former RAF air marshall and president of the Air and Space Power Association, told BBC Verify that the flights appeared to be "probing" Venezuelan defence and trying to check for responses such as radio traffic and encrypted signals related to defence systems.

"The Growlers would have been listening for [signals intelligence], whilst the Super Hornets would have been providing air defence cover for the Growlers," Baswell said. He said the Growlers would also detect "active missile sites".

"It could be construed as the early gathering of intelligence for subsequent operations, or just a warning of such," he added.

Crump said the jets also had the capacity to test out "jamming capabilities", adding: "This also helps send a message, when successful, potentially indicating to Venezuela's leadership that these systems cannot or should not be relied upon," he said.

The US has deployed troops, ships and jets to the Caribbean in recent months, which officials have said is to combat drug trafficking in the area.

On Tuesday the US Southern Command published photos of an F/A-18 operating from the USS Gerald Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, which has been sent to the Caribbean.

Analysis of satellite images and ship tracking websites by BBC Verify has made it possible to identify at least nine military vessels that have been deployed to the region over recent weeks.

Satellite images also show that an airbase in Puerto Rico, which was closed in 2004 by the Pentagon, has been re-activated. Repairs have been carried out to the runway at Roosevelt Roads base and F-35s - America's most advanced fighter - have been sent to the base.

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Four Afghan men were ordered to report to the Taliban government's department of vice and virtue for dressing in costumes inspired by the TV series Peaky Blinders.

The friends were told that their clothing was "in conflict with Afghan and Islamic values", a Taliban spokesman told the BBC, adding the values in Peaky Blinders went against Afghan culture.

In videos posted online, the men, who have been released, can be seen posing in flat caps and three-piece suits similar to those worn in the series set in England soon after World War One.

Since the Taliban seized power in 2021, they have imposed a number of restrictions on daily life in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

"Even jeans would have been acceptable, but the values in the Peaky Blinders series are against Afghan culture," Saiful Islam Khyber, a spokesman for the Taliban government's provincial department of Vice and Virtue in Herat city told the BBC.

The men, all in their early twenties, come from the town of Jibrail in Herat province. They were ordered to report to the Taliban's "morality police" on Sunday, and presented themselves for questioning in Herat the following day.

"They were promoting foreign culture and imitating film actors in Herat," Khyber wrote on social media, adding that they had undergone a "rehabilitation programme".

The were not formally arrested, "only summoned and advised and released", Khyber told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

"We have our own religious and cultural values, and especially for clothing we have specific traditional styles," he said.

"The clothing they wore has no Afghan identity at all and does not match our culture. Secondly, their actions were an imitation of actors from a British movie. Our society is Muslim; if we are to follow or imitate someone, we should follow our righteous religious predecessors in good and lawful matters."

The men could be seen thanking officials for their advice and saying they were unaware they had violated any laws in a video released by the ministry after they were questioned - though it is unclear under what circumstances the interview was recorded.

"I have innocently been sharing content that was against Sharia which had many viewers," one said in the recording.

He said he had been "summoned and advised", and would no longer do "anything like this".

In an interview with YouTube channel Herat-Mic uploaded at the end of November, before they were summoned, the friends said they admired the fashion displayed in the series, adding that they had received positive reactions from locals.

"At first we were hesitant, but once we went outside, people liked our style, stopped us in the streets, and wanted to take photos with us," one of the men said, according to a translation by CBS News.

The US has imposed sanctions on a network it says is recruiting former Colombian soldiers and training individuals to fight in Sudan's civil war.

Eight entities and individuals - primarily of Colombian nationality - have been aiding the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on Tuesday.

Its statement added that hundreds of Colombian mercenaries have travelled to Sudan since 2024, including to serve as infantry and drone pilots for the RSF.

Last year, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said those who "spill young blood for money in foreign countries must be punished criminally".

The participation of soldiers - both former and active - in foreign conflicts dates back decades to the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, in exchange for American military aid in Colombia's war on drugs and armed groups.

"This created an even greater number of Colombian soldiers who, two decades later, are beginning to retire without a sufficient source of income," a retired military officer turned academic told BBC Mundo.

Alfonso Manzur explained that as a result, "we see more Colombian ex-soldiers on missions abroad".

Retired Colombian soldiers are commonly recruited under false promises of low-risk work, before appearing on the frontlines, such as in the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and in Sudan.

In 2024, the Colombian foreign ministry said it was aware of citizens being deceived by what it called "sophisticated human trafficking networks", and becoming mercenaries in international conflicts.

On Tuesday, the US Treasury's OFAC said it was targeting a network for recruiting fighters for the RSF, which has been battling the Sudanese army since April 2023.

"The RSF has shown again and again that it is willing to target civilians - including infants and young children," said John Hurley, the Treasury's under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

"Its brutality has deepened the conflict and destabilized the region, creating the conditions for terrorist groups to grow."

The State Department has said the group and its allied militias have attacked civilians, systematically killed men and boys and deliberately targeted and raped women and girls.

Earlier this year, it determined that RSF members had committed genocide, although both the paramilitary group and the army have repeatedly been accused of war crimes.

The transnational network accused of aiding the group consists of four entities and four individuals, including a dual Colombian-Italian national who is a former military officer, now based in the United Arab Emirates, a country repeatedly accused of arming the RSF. It denies the allegations.

"All property and interests in property of the designated or blocked persons... or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported", the Treasury said.

The US has accused the primarily Colombian network of recruiting mercenaries to serve with the RSF, providing "tactical and technical expertise", and even training children to fight.

According to its statement, Colombian fighters were involved in "numerous battles across Sudan" including in the capital Khartoum, Omdurman, Kordofan, and el-Fasher.

On the ground, the RSF has been making gains, most notably seizing the city of el-Fasher in October, after a 500-day starvation siege.

It is estimated that more than 5,000 people were killed as the paramilitary rampaged through the army's last stronghold in Darfur.

The three states that make up Kordofan, home to almost eight million people, and situated between Khartoum and Darfur, has recently become a major frontline.

On Monday, at least 114 people, including 63 children, were killed in strikes on a kindergarten and hospital in South Kordofan, the World Health Organisation said.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the attack as "senseless" as he repeated calls for a ceasefire.

The RSF also claimed control of Sudan's largest oil field, Heglig, in what the paramilitary group hailed as "a turning point for the liberation" of the country.

Last month, US President Donald Trump pledged to "start working on Sudan" with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, posting on social media that "tremendous atrocities" were taking place.

Nearly 12 million people have been driven from their homes with famine conditions in parts of the country.

Additional reporting by BBC News Mundo correspondent José Carlos Cueto.

A daughter of South Africa's former President Jacob Zuma has been sworn into parliament, less than a fortnight after her half-sister was forced to step down.

Brumelda Zuma became one of South Africa's newest MPs on Wednesday, representing uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the opposition party led by her father.

Her half-sister, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, resigned from parliament following allegations that she had tricked 17 men into fighting for Russia as mercenaries in Ukraine. Zuma-Sambudla has denied these accusations.

Brumelda Zuma's appointment suggests the former president intends to ensure his family is represented in parliament.

She was sworn in alongside three other MK members, who, the party said, "bring a wealth of experience and dedication" to parliament.

She said she would focus mostly on ensuring that South Africans had "good public services" because "that is what I studied".

MK said Brumelda Zuma had a degree in public administration.

Brumelda Zuma has not previously had a national profile, unlike her half-sister who had represented South Africa in the Pan-African Parliament.

MK previously said it was Zuma-Sambudla's decision to resign as she wanted to focus her efforts on ensuring the return of those trapped in Ukraine's war-torn Donbas region.

She was implicated in the Russia recruitment scheme after South Africa's government revealed it had received distress calls from more than a dozen citizens who had joined mercenary forces.

The men are aged between 20 and 39 and are trapped in Donbas.

One of Zuma-Sambudla's most prominent accusers is another half-sister, Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube.

Zuma-Mncube filed a criminal complaint against Zuma-Sambudla and two other people, accusing them of luring the men to Russia "under false pretences" and then handing them to a Russian mercenary group "without their knowledge or consent".

She said that eight of them were her relatives.

Police have confirmed they are carrying out an investigation.

Working as a mercenary or fighting for another army is illegal under South African law, unless the government authorises it.

Zuma-Sambudla has said in an affidavit that she thought the men were going to Russia for "lawful" training.

She is currently also on trial on terrorism-related charges over social media messages she posted during deadly protests in 2021. She has denied the charges.

Jacob Zuma formed MK in 2023 after a massive fall-out with current President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The MK party came in third place in South Africa's general election last year, and became the main opposition party in parliament after the second-biggest party joined a coalition government led by Ramaphosa.

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South Korea has lodged a complaint with the Chinese and Russian defence attaches based in the country, a day after their warplanes entered its air defence zone.

Seoul said it sent up fighter jets to "take tactical measures in preparation for any emergencies" after seven Russian and two Chinese military aircraft "briefly entered" the zone on Tuesday, but noted they "did not violate" South Korea's airspace.

Some countries delineate air identification defence zones, wherein they require foreign planes to identify themselves. These are not part of sovereign airspaces under international law.

In March this year, Seoul also deployed fighter jets after several Russian warplanes flew into the zone.

The Russian aircraft entered Korea's Air Defense Identification Zone (Kadiz) near Ulleung Island and Dokdo, while the Chinese aircraft entered near Ieodo, a Joint Chiefs of Staff official said, according to South Korean media.

Both sides' aircraft then regrouped in the airspace near Japan's Tsushima Island, the official said.

"Our military will actively respond to aircraft activities from neighbouring countries in the Kadiz in compliance with international law," South Korea's defence ministry said on Wednesday when lodging the complaint.

Both Japan and South Korea have laid claims to the Dokdo island grouping, as has North Korea.

Ieodo - a submerged rock above the South Korean island of Jeju - is a point of dispute between Seoul and Beijing, each of whom have included it in their air defence zones.

China on Wednesday confirmed that its air force had conducted a joint patrol with Russia in the East China Sea and Western Pacific airspace.

The exercise was part of an "annual cooperation plan" between Beijing and Moscow to "address regional challenges and maintain regional peace and stability", said a national defence spokesman.

China and Russia have entered South Korea's air defence zone without notification on several occasions since 2019, often during similar exercises.

Russia does not recognise South Korea's air defence zone, describing it as "unilaterally" established and saying it should therefore not create any legal obligations for other countries.

A member of the UK armed forces who died in Ukraine has been named as Lance Corporal George Hooley of the Parachute Regiment.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Defence said the 28-year-old was killed observing Ukrainian forces test "a new defensive capability, away from the front lines".

Paying tribute to the paratrooper in the Commons on Wednesday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: "His life was full of courage and determination.

"He served our country with honour and distinction around the world in the cause of freedom and democracy, including as part of the small number of British personnel in Ukraine."

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A man has been found guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend's sister and her three children in a house fire in Bradford.

Sharaz Ali killed Bryonie Gawith, 29, and her children Denisty, nine, Oscar, five, and 22-month-old Aubree Birtle, after deliberately setting fire to their home in a revenge attack when Bryonie's sister, Antonia, ended their relationship.

The 40-year-old was also found guilty of the attempted murder of Antonia Gawith, following a trial at Doncaster Crown Court.

Co-accused Calum Sunderland, 26, was cleared of murder and attempted murder but found guilty of four counts of manslaughter for his role in breaking into the family's house where Antonia had been staying.

The trial heard Ali "motivated by jealousy and fuelled by drink and drugs" and Sunderland had arrived at Bryonie's home in Westbury Road, Bradford, in the early hours of 21 August 2024.

Prosecutors said Ali then ordered Sunderland to kick down the door before he went inside and poured petrol around the property.

In her evidence, Antonia told jurors she had confronted Ali on the ground floor of the property.

During a scuffle he poured petrol over her before she managed to run into the garden in the hope he would follow her out of the house.

The court heard he tried to get upstairs but was confronted by Bryonie and forced back down where he took a lighter from his pocket and set the house alight.

Bryonie and her three children, who were asleep upstairs, were unable to escape.

Sophie Kinsella, the author of the bestselling Shopaholic series of novels, has died aged 55, her family have announced.

The writer, whose real name is Madeleine Sophie Wickham, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2022.

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Four Afghan men were ordered to report to the Taliban government's department of vice and virtue for dressing in costumes inspired by the TV series Peaky Blinders.

The friends were told that their clothing was "in conflict with Afghan and Islamic values", a Taliban spokesman told the BBC, adding the values in Peaky Blinders went against Afghan culture.

In videos posted online, the men, who have been released, can be seen posing in flat caps and three-piece suits similar to those worn in the series set in England soon after World War One.

Since the Taliban seized power in 2021, they have imposed a number of restrictions on daily life in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

"Even jeans would have been acceptable, but the values in the Peaky Blinders series are against Afghan culture," Saiful Islam Khyber, a spokesman for the Taliban government's provincial department of Vice and Virtue in Herat city told the BBC.

The men, all in their early twenties, come from the town of Jibrail in Herat province. They were ordered to report to the Taliban's "morality police" on Sunday, and presented themselves for questioning in Herat the following day.

"They were promoting foreign culture and imitating film actors in Herat," Khyber wrote on social media, adding that they had undergone a "rehabilitation programme".

The were not formally arrested, "only summoned and advised and released", Khyber told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

"We have our own religious and cultural values, and especially for clothing we have specific traditional styles," he said.

"The clothing they wore has no Afghan identity at all and does not match our culture. Secondly, their actions were an imitation of actors from a British movie. Our society is Muslim; if we are to follow or imitate someone, we should follow our righteous religious predecessors in good and lawful matters."

The men could be seen thanking officials for their advice and saying they were unaware they had violated any laws in a video released by the ministry after they were questioned - though it is unclear under what circumstances the interview was recorded.

"I have innocently been sharing content that was against Sharia which had many viewers," one said in the recording.

He said he had been "summoned and advised", and would no longer do "anything like this".

In an interview with YouTube channel Herat-Mic uploaded at the end of November, before they were summoned, the friends said they admired the fashion displayed in the series, adding that they had received positive reactions from locals.

"At first we were hesitant, but once we went outside, people liked our style, stopped us in the streets, and wanted to take photos with us," one of the men said, according to a translation by CBS News.

María Corina Machado, the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, is "safe" and will come to Oslo, but will not be able to make the awards ceremony scheduled for 12:00 GMT on Wednesday, the Nobel Institute has said.

The Nobel Institute awarded the Venezuelan opposition leader the prize for "her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy" in her home country.

There has been much speculation about whether Machado, who has been living in hiding, would be able to defy a travel ban to attend the ceremony in Norway's capital.

Organisers said her daughter would accept the award in her stead.

In an audio recording shared by the Nobel Institute, Machado said "I will be in Oslo, I am on my way."

However, the director of the Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, said that Machado was expected to arrive "sometime between this evening and tomorrow morning" - too late for the ceremony.

In her mother's absence, Ana Corina Sosa is expected to give the speech Machado had prepared.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Nobel Institute had said they were in the dark about Machado's whereabouts, triggering concern among her supporters.

Two of her children and her mother are in Oslo, hoping to be reunited with Machado after being separated for more than a year.

Machado went into hiding shortly after Venezuela's disputed presidential election in July 2024.

The last time she was seen in public was on 9 January when she spoke to her supporters at a rally protesting against the swearing-in of Nicolás Maduro to a third term as president.

The elections were widely dismissed both by the opposition in Venezuela and on the international stage as rigged, and sparked protests across the country.

Around 2,000 people were arrested in the crackdown which followed, among them many members of Machado's opposition coalition.

Machado, who had managed to unite the bitterly divided opposition ahead of the election, went into hiding for fear of arrest.

She continued to give interviews and uploaded videos onto social media urging her followers not to give up.

The announcement that she had been chosen as this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner galvanised her supporters and triggered immediate speculation as to whether she would be able to travel to Oslo.

Total secrecy has surrounded her travel plans and it is not know how she managed to leave her place of hiding or by what means she has reached Europe.

Two US fighter jets were tracked circling the Gulf of Venezuela on Tuesday as tensions continue to escalate between the two countries.

The F/A-18 Super Hornets appeared on flight tracking sites near Maracaibo, Venezuela's second-largest city, at around 13:00 (17:00 GMT), before circling the gulf for about 40 minutes.

A US defence official told the Associated Press the F/A-18 jets had conducted a "routine training flight" in the area.

The incident comes amid a wave of US strikes against boats in the Caribbean Sea, which the White House said were trafficking drugs to the US from Venezuela. Experts have raised questions over the legality of the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has accused the US of using the strikes to destabilise the country and oust him from power.

In an interview conducted with Politico the day before the jets approached Venezuela's coastline, Trump declared that Maduro's days in power were "numbered", and declined to comment on whether US troops could be deployed to the country.

A separate jet, an EA-18G Growler, also appeared just before the F/A-18s on the tracking site FlightRadar24. Data shows the jet flew loops just north of Venezuela's coast.

They are the latest in a number of unusual US air force activities that have been tracked since September. B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer bombers previously flew up to and along the Venezuelan coast.

But the F/A-18s, which are capable of engaging targets both on the ground and in the air, appear to be the first to approach the Venezuelan coastline so publicly in recent months. The F/A-18s came within 20 nautical miles of the coastline, flight tracking data showed.

Neither the F/A-18s or the Growler showed a point of origin or a destination on FlightRadar24, and all three aircraft only turned on their transponders when they arrived near the Venezuelan coastline. Justin Crump, head of the risk consultancy Sibylline, suggested the move was intended to "support the administration's signalling and put pressure on the [Venezuelan] leadership".

The F/A-18s - which operated under the callsigns RHINO11 and RHINO12 - flew six loops up and down the Gulf of Venezuela. Meanwhile, the Growler jet - flying under the codename GRIZZLY2 - also flew circles along the coast.

Greg Bagwell, a former RAF air marshall and president of the Air and Space Power Association, told BBC Verify that the flights appeared to be "probing" Venezuelan defence and trying to check for responses such as radio traffic and encrypted signals related to defence systems.

"The Growlers would have been listening for [signals intelligence], whilst the Super Hornets would have been providing air defence cover for the Growlers," Baswell said. He said the Growlers would also detect "active missile sites".

"It could be construed as the early gathering of intelligence for subsequent operations, or just a warning of such," he added.

Crump said the jets also had the capacity to test out "jamming capabilities", adding: "This also helps send a message, when successful, potentially indicating to Venezuela's leadership that these systems cannot or should not be relied upon," he said.

The US has deployed troops, ships and jets to the Caribbean in recent months, which officials have said is to combat drug trafficking in the area.

On Tuesday the US Southern Command published photos of an F/A-18 operating from the USS Gerald Ford, the world's largest aircraft carrier, which has been sent to the Caribbean.

Analysis of satellite images and ship tracking websites by BBC Verify has made it possible to identify at least nine military vessels that have been deployed to the region over recent weeks.

Satellite images also show that an airbase in Puerto Rico, which was closed in 2004 by the Pentagon, has been re-activated. Repairs have been carried out to the runway at Roosevelt Roads base and F-35s - America's most advanced fighter - have been sent to the base.

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  16 August

  

Tourists from dozens of countries including the UK could be asked to provide a five-year social media history as a condition of entry to the United States, under a new proposal unveiled by American officials.

The new condition would affect people from dozens of countries who are eligible to visit the US for 90 days without a visa, as long as they have filled out an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) form.

Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has moved to toughen US borders more generally - citing national security as a key reason.

Analysts say the new plan could pose an obstacle to potential visitors, or harm their digital rights.

The US expects a major influx of foreign tourists next year, as it hosts the men's football World Cup alongside Canada and Mexico, and for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

The proposal document was filed by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), of which the agency is part.

US media reported that it appeared in the Federal Register, which is the official journal of the US government. The BBC has asked DHS for comment.

It says "the data element will require ESTA applicants to provide their social media from the last 5 years", without giving further details of which specific information will be required.

The existing ESTA requires a comparatively limited amount of information from travellers, as well as a one-off payment of $40 (£30). It is accessible to citizens of about 40 countries - including the UK, Ireland, France, Australia and Japan - and allows them to visit the US multiple times during a two-year period.

As well as the collection of social media information, the new document proposes the gathering of an applicant's telephone numbers and email addresses used over the last five and 10 years respectively, and more information about their family members.

The text cites an executive order from Trump in January, titled "Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats".

The Trump administration has previously required foreign nationals to make their social media accounts public if they are applying for student visas or H1B visas for skilled workers - the latter of which now also entail a much higher fee.

A senior state department official said of the student visa policy: "It is an expectation from American citizens that their government will make every effort to make our country safer, and that is exactly what the Trump Administration is doing every single day."

Officers were instructed to screen for those "who advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to national security; or who perpetrate unlawful anti-Semitic harassment or violence".

As part of the administration's broader effort to toughen borders, officials recently said an existing travel ban - affecting 19 countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Caribbean - could soon be expanded.

That move was announced in the wake of a shooting attack on two National Guard members in Washington DC, in which an Afghan man has been named as the suspect.

The new proposal regarding ESTA data collection for tourists invites views from the public for 60 days.

Sophia Cope, of digital rights organisation the Electronic Frontier Foundation, criticised the plan, telling the New York Times that it could "exacerbate civil liberties harms".

Meanwhile, immigration law practice Fragomen suggested there could be practical impacts as applicants could face longer waits for ESTA approvals.

Experts have previously suggested that the changes to travel policies introduced under Trump have had an impact on the American tourism industry.

Earlier this year, the World Travel & Tourism Council said the US was the only one of 184 economies that it analysed that was expected to see a decline in international visitor spending in 2025.

Other Trump administration policies have also appeared to impact tourism to the country, such as many Canadians boycotting US travel as a form of protest against Trump's tariffs.

October marked the 10th straight month of decline in the number of Canadian travellers to the US. In the past, Canadians have made up about a quarter of all international visitors to the US, spending more than $20bn (£15.1bn) a year, according to the US Travel Association.

María Corina Machado, the winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, is "safe" and will come to Oslo, but will not be able to make the awards ceremony scheduled for 12:00 GMT on Wednesday, the Nobel Institute has said.

The Nobel Institute awarded the Venezuelan opposition leader the prize for "her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy" in her home country.

There has been much speculation about whether Machado, who has been living in hiding, would be able to defy a travel ban to attend the ceremony in Norway's capital.

Organisers said her daughter would accept the award in her stead.

In an audio recording shared by the Nobel Institute, Machado said "I will be in Oslo, I am on my way."

However, the director of the Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, said that Machado was expected to arrive "sometime between this evening and tomorrow morning" - too late for the ceremony.

In her mother's absence, Ana Corina Sosa is expected to give the speech Machado had prepared.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Nobel Institute had said they were in the dark about Machado's whereabouts, triggering concern among her supporters.

Two of her children and her mother are in Oslo, hoping to be reunited with Machado after being separated for more than a year.

Machado went into hiding shortly after Venezuela's disputed presidential election in July 2024.

The last time she was seen in public was on 9 January when she spoke to her supporters at a rally protesting against the swearing-in of Nicolás Maduro to a third term as president.

The elections were widely dismissed both by the opposition in Venezuela and on the international stage as rigged, and sparked protests across the country.

Around 2,000 people were arrested in the crackdown which followed, among them many members of Machado's opposition coalition.

Machado, who had managed to unite the bitterly divided opposition ahead of the election, went into hiding for fear of arrest.

She continued to give interviews and uploaded videos onto social media urging her followers not to give up.

The announcement that she had been chosen as this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner galvanised her supporters and triggered immediate speculation as to whether she would be able to travel to Oslo.

Total secrecy has surrounded her travel plans and it is not know how she managed to leave her place of hiding or by what means she has reached Europe.

At least 19 people have been killed and a further 16 injured after two buildings collapsed in the Moroccan city of Fez.

The two four-storey residential buildings that came down early on Wednesday morning contained eight families, state media report, citing local officials.

Several Moroccan news outlets report that the buildings - located in the south-westerly Al Massira suburb of the new part of the city - had shown signs of deterioration for several years.

Fez, in north-eastern Morocco, is one of the North African nation's oldest cities, with parts dating back to the 8th Century, as well as being its third-most populous.

A search and rescue operation is ongoing to find anyone who may still be trapped under the rubble. Footage from the scene shows people and diggers sifting through the debris under the cover of darkness.

In one clip, published by news site Akhbarona, a body can be seen being carried away on a stretcher by emergency services.

Residents of nearby buildings have been evacuated as a preventative measure, state media report.

Those taken to hospital suffered varying injuries.

Nine were killed when a condemned building collapsed in a different neighbourhood of Fez in May.

Prior to that, five people were killed when a house in the old city crumbled in February 2024, following heavy rain and strong winds.

Elon Musk says he would not lead the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) if he had his time again, but has maintained that its tumultuous efforts to shrink the size of the US government under President Donald Trump was "a little bit successful".

The billionaire boss of Tesla and SpaceX gave his reflections during a nearly-hour long interview on The Katie Miller Podcast on Tuesday.

Musk left Doge in May after initially promising to save as much as $2tn (£1.5bn) a year by slashing federal jobs and shuttering government programmes, among other cost-cutting measures.

Doge's website, which was last updated on 4 October, claims to have saved an estimated $214bn so far this year.

Conservative podcast host Miller, a former White House adviser herself who worked as a spokesperson for Doge, asked Musk whether he would do his work for the organisation again if he could rewind to the start of the year.

"I mean no, I don't think so," Musk replied.

Instead, he said he would have "worked in my companies, essentially", explaining that "they wouldn't have been burning the cars".

His comments reference a series of vandalism attacks on Tesla showrooms and vehicles earlier this year, which came in response to the highly visible political role in the Trump administration for the world's richest man.

Musk's involvement in US politics sparked global protests and boycotts against Tesla, and led to a spike in vandalism of Tesla's Cybertruck vehicles. In April, the firm said sales had fallen to their lowest level in three years and warned investors that "changing political sentiment" could continue to hurt demand.

But Musk said he believed Doge had been "a little bit successful, we were somewhat successful".

"You really want the least amount done by government as possible," he explained, adding that Doge had "stopped a lot of funding that really just made no sense".

Musk told Miller that Doge, which was created by an executive order on Trump's first day back in the White House, was a "made-up" name "based on internet suggestions".

The advisory group, which is not an official government department, tackled Musk's vision at a fierce pace. It pushed for massive reductions in the federal workforce, as well as the shuttering of programmes and even agencies such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Some of Doge's moves were met with legal fights, or were reversed. When the group's cost-cutting resulted in bird flu officials at the US Department of Agriculture being fired, the Trump administration looked to re-hire them days later.

Musk's time at the helm of Doge not only appeared to cause issues for his business empire - it also led to an explosive falling-out with the president himself.

Musk donated millions of dollars to the Trump campaign during the election and was a fixture at the White House for months, speaking at cabinet meetings and standing behind the president at events in the Oval Office.

But that relationship came to a grinding halt in June when Musk broke with the White House narrative and criticised a Trump-backed spending bill.

It led to a war of words on social media, with Trump at one point threatening to order Doge to look into Musk's own business dealings with the US government.

The pair's relationship now seems to be mended. Musk was spotted at a White House dinner with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in November.

And Musk spoke positively of Trump in his interview with Miller, saying the president was the funniest person he knows and has "great sense of humour".