Families in the UK say they are angry at the decision by prosecutors not to charge a Canadian man who is alleged to have sold a lethal chemical linked to the deaths of 73 British people.

The father of one of those who died told the BBC that Kenneth Law had caused "devastation" and that he wanted Law to face charges in the UK.

Law, a former chef, is expected to admit 14 counts of assisting suicides in Canada when he appears in court in Ontario later on Friday.

Prosecutors there say he marketed and sold lethal quantities of a substance online, which he sent to about 1,200 people around the world.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the Canadian legal system will take the losses of UK families into account.

A letter from the CPS, seen by the BBC, said Law would not face charges in the UK because of legal complexities.

David Parfett's 22 year-old son, Thomas, used the substance said to have been sold to him by Law.

"Tom was somebody who really saw the joy in life. He would find humour in the weirdest places. I often think about his laugh," Parfett said.

"Tom was a massive football fan and he was a good footballer as well. I miss the opportunity to enjoy the 2026 World Cup with him."

Parfett said: "I had wanted Law to face charges in the UK... he really needed to face justice over here."

Parfett is calling on the UK government to hold a public inquiry into the deaths.

"I think that a public inquiry is needed because we need action across multiple government departments and unfortunately, we are not seeing that coordination and that understanding of how to address the problem today," he said.

"Fundamentally, the government is failing in its duty to protect life."

The BBC has approached the Home Office for comment.

Law was charged with 14 counts of assisting suicides in Canada and 14 counts of second degree murder following his arrest in 2023.

His capture followed a complex investigation by at least 11 law-enforcement agencies and involved investigators from around a dozen countries, including the UK, Italy and the US.

British detectives were initially investigating whether 88 deaths were linked to Law's chemical packages, but in its letter to UK families, the CPS said it believed 73 deaths could be linked to Law and that he was expected to accept sending 330 packages to the UK.

If you or anyone you know has been affected by the issues raised in this article, details of organisations offering information are available at BBC Action Line.

The former head of China's famous Shaolin Temple - known as the birthplace of kung fu - has been sentenced to 24 years in jail for crimes including embezzlement and bribery.

Shi Yongxin had misappropriated temple assets worth more than 282m yuan ($42m; £31m) from 2003 to 2025, a court in the central Henan province said.

It said Shi had also used his official position to illegally obtain millions from temple construction projects, as well as offering huge bribes to Chinese officials.

Shi - whose birth name is Liu Yingcheng - had earlier admitted his guilt, China's state Xinhua news agency reported. On Friday, he said he would not appeal against the verdict.

The 1,500-year-old Shaolin Temple - located on a mountain range - attracts thousands of disciples from China and elsewhere every year.

Shi took office there as abbot in 1999, soon earning the nickname "CEO monk" for transforming the institution into a global brand.

Under his leadership, the temple started opening schools outside China and formed a travelling troupe of monks who performed Shaolin kung fu shows - the temple's signature style of martial arts.

Last year he was defrocked, China's Buddhist association said.

Shi was investigated for embezzlement and fathering several children in 2015, but was later cleared of the charges.

In an interview with BBC Chinese that year, he said: "If there were a problem, it would have surfaced long ago."

The name "Shaolin Temple" has gained prominence in pop culture over the years, including being the title of a 1982 film starring Jet Li.

The temple is referenced in songs by American hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan and inspired a spin-off of the video game Mortal Kombat.

Families in the UK say they are angry at the decision by prosecutors not to charge a Canadian man who is alleged to have sold a lethal chemical linked to the deaths of 73 British people.

The father of one of those who died told the BBC that Kenneth Law had caused "devastation" and that he wanted Law to face charges in the UK.

Law, a former chef, is expected to admit 14 counts of assisting suicides in Canada when he appears in court in Ontario later on Friday.

Prosecutors there say he marketed and sold lethal quantities of a substance online, which he sent to about 1,200 people around the world.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the Canadian legal system will take the losses of UK families into account.

A letter from the CPS, seen by the BBC, said Law would not face charges in the UK because of legal complexities.

David Parfett's 22 year-old son, Thomas, used the substance said to have been sold to him by Law.

"Tom was somebody who really saw the joy in life. He would find humour in the weirdest places. I often think about his laugh," Parfett said.

"Tom was a massive football fan and he was a good footballer as well. I miss the opportunity to enjoy the 2026 World Cup with him."

Parfett said: "I had wanted Law to face charges in the UK... he really needed to face justice over here."

Parfett is calling on the UK government to hold a public inquiry into the deaths.

"I think that a public inquiry is needed because we need action across multiple government departments and unfortunately, we are not seeing that coordination and that understanding of how to address the problem today," he said.

"Fundamentally, the government is failing in its duty to protect life."

The BBC has approached the Home Office for comment.

Law was charged with 14 counts of assisting suicides in Canada and 14 counts of second degree murder following his arrest in 2023.

His capture followed a complex investigation by at least 11 law-enforcement agencies and involved investigators from around a dozen countries, including the UK, Italy and the US.

British detectives were initially investigating whether 88 deaths were linked to Law's chemical packages, but in its letter to UK families, the CPS said it believed 73 deaths could be linked to Law and that he was expected to accept sending 330 packages to the UK.

If you or anyone you know has been affected by the issues raised in this article, details of organisations offering information are available at BBC Action Line.

A Russian drone hit an apartment building in Romania, the country's defence ministry said early on Friday, causing a fire and injuring two people.

The drone crashed in the eastern city of Galati as Russia carried out attacks in Ukraine near the border, the ministry said in a statement.

The Romanian General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations said the drone's entire explosive payload detonated, causing a fire on the 10th floor of the residential building.

Russian drones have strayed across the border of the Nato member country a number of times during the four-year war with Ukraine, but this was the first time citizens from Romania had been hurt. Russia has yet to comment on the incident.

"This incident represents a serious and irresponsible escalation on the part of the Russian Federation," Romania's foreign ministry said, adding Bucharest had informed the Nato secretary general and "requested measures to accelerate the transfer of anti-drone capabilities to Romania".

The emergency services said two people received medical treatment after suffering abrasions and around 70 people were evacuated as the fire was put out.

Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled after the drones were detected in Romanian airspace, the defence ministry said.

"One of these drones entered Romanian airspace, was tracked by radar as far as the southern part of the city of Galati, and crashed onto the roof of an apartment building, with the impact triggering a fire," it said.

The River Danube nearby forms the border with Ukraine, and Ukrainian ports are regularly targets of Russian air attacks.

In an incident in April, another Russian drone caused material damage in Galati, but no injuries.

Romania's defence ministry says that since the start of the war in Ukraine, drone fragments have been found on Romanian territory on 47 separate occasions, 12 of them this year alone.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Meanwhile, a nationwide air raid alert was also issued overnight in Ukraine, where officials in the south of the country said the port of Izmail in the Odesa region came under drone attack early on Friday.

And in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, three utility workers were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Thursday, the Kremlin-installed head of the region said.

A fourth man was seriously injured in the incident, Denis Pushilin said on the Telegram messaging app.

The next Call of Duty game has been revealed, with much of the reaction focused on its campaign set around a fictional renewed conflict on the Korean Peninsula.

Modern Warfare 4, due out 23 October, partly follows South Korean soldiers battling a full-scale North Korean invasion.

Dr Sarah Son, Senior Lecturer in Korean Studies at the University of Sheffield, said the move "could be controversial" as it "turns still-unresolved war into entertainment". Some Koreans reacted more positively, with one calling Korea's inclusion in one of gaming's biggest franchises a "symbolic moment".

Developer Infinity Ward said the game will be "grounded in the military authenticity Modern Warfare is known for".

The game will launch on current-generation consoles, PC and Nintendo Switch 2, marking the first mainline Call of Duty to skip PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The game's trailer, which has already been viewed almost 22 million times within a day of release, focuses on a group of young South Korean conscripts on what appears to be a routine patrol, before a missile attack from North Korea throws them into full-scale war.

Players will also get to play once again as fan-favourite Captain Price, who will appear in different missions in several cities alongside the Korean campaign.

The release of any Call of Duty game is a global cultural event and posts about the latest version have amassed more than three million interactions within 24 hours of the announcement across Instagram, TikTok, X and Facebook.

Among them, some Koreans reacting to the setting have embraced Infinity Ward's decision to tell the story from the perspective of ordinary South Korean soldiers caught up in the conflict.

"The soldiers' faces and the atmosphere of the locations all have that familiar Korean feel, so I'm genuinely excited," said one.

"When I heard the rumour that the ROK Army would be in it, my immediate reaction was 'obviously just an extra...'," posted another.

"Then I heard they're not just present but one of the playable protagonists? And not even special forces, handled from the perspective of an ordinary conscripted soldier, that's what gets me."

Beyond the setting, Infinity Ward announced significant changes to gameplay, including revamped movement mechanics and more interactive environments.

The studio is also overhauling DMZ, its extraction-style multiplayer mode, and introducing a new 'Frontlines' system designed to make battles feel more dynamic and reactive.

Previous controversies

Modern Warfare has previously courted controversy through storylines inspired by real-world events and conflicts.

Missions such as "No Russian", where players had the option to shoot civilians in an airport in Moscow, and later depictions of war crimes and terrorism have prompted debate about how far games should go in portraying realistic warfare.

Dr Son said while the idea of a renewed inter-Korean conflict is "not unheard of" in Korean popular culture, these stories were often told "from a South Korean perspective".

"A global gaming franchise might be judged differently," she said.

The Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty in 1953, meaning North and South Korea remain technically at war.

George Osborn, author of "Power Play: Video Games, Politics and the Battle for Global Influence" told the BBC the setting was "likely to attract scrutiny" in the territory and pointed to previous games, such as Homefront, which depicted a unified Korea under northern control and which had received bans in South Korea.

"The studio will have to show that it has handled possible conflict in the country with great care, or face significant backlash – and possible challenges selling the game – in South Korea specifically," he added.

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Former US Attorney General Pam Bondi is appearing in front of a congressional panel probing convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Bondi, who was removed from her post as America's top law enforcement officer by US President Donald Trump in April, will testify on the US Justice Department's handling of its release of the Epstein files.

The testimony in Washington DC is taking place behind closed doors, but transcripts or video might be released at a later time.

Bondi was formally summoned by the House Oversight Committee in March, just before Trump announced her ouster as his administration's top prosecutor.

In opening remarks to the committee, Bondi said she was "proud" of the department's release of documents related to the convicted sex offender, for which she has been widely criticised.

"We demonstrated an unprecedented commitment to transparency in the Department's search for, collection, and review of the Epstein files, producing nearly 3 million pages of material, including thousands of videos and hundreds of thousands of images," she said.

The committee's Republican chairman, James Comer, wrote in a subpoena letter that they are investigating the "possible mismanagement" of the Epstein investigation and compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. That bill - which mandated US Department of Justice to publicly release unclassified records - was signed into law by Trump.

Ahead of today's meeting, Comer told reporters that successive governments had failed Epstein's victims and that Bondi will be pressed about her handling of the release of the documents.

"We're going to try to determine whether or not there could be more documents legally turned over," Comer said. "I want every document. I don't want anything held back and I think the majority of the committee's the same way."

The committee's leading Democrat Robert Garcia also said his side was "incredibly disappointed of the decision to not have this interview videotaped and then released to the American public."

Bondi's summons came weeks after Nancy Mace, a Republican lawmaker, accused the justice department of a "cover-up" in releasing the files and introduced a motion to subpoena Bondi - the former attorney general of Florida and who served on Trump's 2020 impeachment defence team.

The Trump administration and Bondi have faced enormous bipartisan pressure to release all documents related to the probe of the sex-trafficking financier and faced criticism over its handling of the files, including its failure to redact the names of Epstein's victims. Epstein died in prison while awaiting trial in 2019.

In February 2025, Bondi declared during a Fox News interview that she had a list of Epstein's high-profile clients "sitting on my desk right now", only to have the justice department walk back the statement that July when it said there was no "client list" and that Bondi had meant the overall case file was on her desk.

While her tenure as the country's top law enforcement official was dogged by the Epstein files, Bondi also came under fire by Democrats for weaponising the justice department after Trump called on her to more aggressively investigate his political adversaries.

She was replaced as AG on an interim basis by Trump's personal lawyer Todd Blanche.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that Bondi, 60, had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She told the BBC's US media partner CBS News that she is undergoing treatment, which included surgery a few weeks ago.

Bondi is set to join the White House's new advisory council on AI, the Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

When Bondi was ousted from the Department of Justice at the beginning of April, she said she was excited to be entering a role in the private sector. Bondi's inclusion on the president's council, known as PCAST, is the first news of her work beyond the department.

Eight students alleged to have been involved in a suspected arson attack at a Kenyan girls' school that killed 16 pupils have been arrested, police say.

The fire in the early hours of Thursday morning at the Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil, about 120km (77 miles) north-west of capital city Nairobi, tore through the upper floor of a dormitory which had 135 bunk beds.

After interviews with students and staff and a forensic review of CCTV footage, eight pupils at the school were identified as "persons of interest in connection with the planning and execution" of the fire, the National Police Service said in a statement.

Investigations are continuing into the exact cause of the blaze.

Kenya has had a long history of school fires - just two years ago at least 21 people died in a dormitory fire in central Kenya.

Many fires reported in boarding schools have been the result of arson, with disgruntled pupils - angry about the discipline and living conditions - accused of being responsible, while others were caused by accident.

Overcrowding in dormitories and the failure to follow safety guidelines, such as keeping exits clear and windows unlocked, have frequently been blamed for the high number of casualties.

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The fireball that lit up the sky over Florida's Kennedy Space Centre last night has put a big question mark over whether Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin can deliver on a string of commitments to Nasa in its efforts to send astronauts to the lunar surface and build a Moon base.

Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket exploded at about 21:00 local time during a routine test of its engines.

The 98m (322ft) rocket had been due to launch 48 satellites for Amazon's Leo broadband network, as early as 4 June.

The explosion is obviously a big setback for the Leo network, which is struggling to be the main competitor for Elon Musk's SpaceX and its Starlink service. But the ramifications will go much further.

The good news was that no-one was injured, despite the spectacular explosion.

"All personnel are accounted for and safe," Bezos wrote on X. "Very rough day, but we'll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It's worth it."

But the blast which tore through Space Launch Complex 36 (LC-36) has caused extensive damage. Footage shows one of the pad's lightning protection towers toppling in the aftermath.

LC-36 is the only facility in the world built to launch the New Glenn rocket. That means that until the launch pad is rebuilt and re-certified, Blue Origin has no way to fly its largest rocket - and analysts expect that to take months, not weeks.

The setback comes just days after Nasa's administrator, Jared Isaacman, announced the first three missions of the agency's plans to build a lunar base - a project he billed as the start of a "permanent presence" at the Moon's south pole.

The first, Moon Base 1, is due to be flown on Blue Origin's robotic Blue Moon Mark 1 "Endurance" lander, and is targeted for launch no earlier than autumn 2026.

It is intended to carry two Nasa science payloads to the Shackleton Connecting Ridge and demonstrate the precision-landing techniques needed to keep future crewed landings safe.

But the lander was to ride to the Moon on top of a New Glenn - the same type of rocket that is now scattered across LC-36 - raising immediate doubts as to whether that timetable is now possible.

Earlier this week, Nasa also handed Blue Origin a contract worth up to $468m to deliver two commercial lunar terrain vehicles, built by Astrolab and Lunar Outpost, to the Moon's south pole by 2028.

Those rovers are meant to be in place before astronauts arrive. Nasa has set a target date of 2028 for a crewed landing, though that date had been questioned even before last night's explosion.

The destroyed rocket had been due to deploy a batch of 48 satellites for Amazon's Leo broadband constellation - the network formerly known as Project Kuiper which is designed to challenge Elon Musk's Starlink.

Just over 300 Amazon Leo satellites are currently in orbit, all of them lifted by SpaceX, United Launch Alliance and Arianespace rather than by Blue Origin itself.

The gap between Leo and Starlink - which has more than 10,000 satellites in orbit - is now a serious commercial problem for Bezos' group.

Under its US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licence, Amazon is required to have half of its 3,236-satellite constellation in orbit by 30 July 2026.

As of late May, the company was already more than 1,300 satellites short of that target, with delays blamed in part on "launch vehicle availability" from Blue Origin and other providers.

With New Glenn now expected to be grounded for months, Amazon will be even more dependent on its rivals - chief among them SpaceX - to keep its rollout alive, and is almost certain to need a fresh extension to its timetable from the FCC.

Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO, responded on X to footage of the blast saying only: "Most unfortunate. Rockets are hard."

More problems

Nasa's next crewed Moon mission, Artemis III, is scheduled to launch next year and is designed to be a low earth orbit flight test of two commercial lunar landers - built by Blue Origin and SpaceX.

Until the explosion, Blue Origin was seen as the more prepared of the two. Its Mark 1 demonstrator was already in final stacking in Florida, while SpaceX's Starship has yet to complete a successful in-space propellant transfer.

All this leaves Nasa's plan to land astronauts back to the Moon by 2028 and to build a Moon base there with several problems which will inevitably now lead to delays.

The lander test for Artemis III depends on the same rocket family, and the Moon Base rover deliveries are contractually tied to New Glenn.

Meanwhile, China is forging ahead with its own plans to land its astronauts on the Moon by 2030, leaving Nasa without much room for manoeuvre.

Nasa Administrator Jared Isaacman responded to the latest setback on X: "Spaceflight is unforgiving, and developing new heavy-lift launch capability is extraordinarily difficult."

But Isaacman's drive to push Nasa's Moon programme to a more ambitious frequency of launches is now seriously in doubt after last night's setback.

India's top anti-crime agency has arrested the mother-in-law of an Indian woman whose death has sparked conflicting claims of murder and suicide.

Twisha Sharma's parents and siblings have alleged that she was tortured by her lawyer husband, Samarth Singh, and his mother - retired judge Giribala Singh - over dowry demands and that she was murdered, allegations they have denied.

The 33-year-old model and actor had been married for just five months when she was found dead in her matrimonial home in Madhya Pradesh state's Bhopal city on 12 May.

On Thursday, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Giribala Singh after questioning her for several hours.

The Madhya Pradesh High Court had earlier cancelled her anticipatory bail, finding that a trial court had ignored key evidence and witness testimony.

Following Twisha's death, the police had registered a case of dowry death against the Singhs. Earlier this week, the investigation was taken over by the CBI.

Twisha's death has made national headlines and has once against brought the issue of dowry deaths into the spotlight. Every year, thousands of women are murdered for bringing in insufficient dowries, even though the practice was banned in 1961.

• An Indian bride dies. Rival claims of murder and suicide set off media frenzy

The case has drawn significant attention because of the family's prominence. Twisha was a former beauty pageant winner and actor, while her husband and mother-in-law were lawyers.

Twisha's parents allege that dowry-related harassment began soon after her marriage to Singh. They also claim that when she became pregnant, Singh and his mother accused her of infidelity and forced her to terminate the pregnancy.

The Singhs deny the allegations, saying Twisha had mental health issues and took her own life. They also contend that the decision to terminate the pregnancy was hers.

Singh is currently in police custody. He had reportedly absconded after Twisha's death and was arrested by police in Jabalpur on 22 May.

Twisha was cremated on Sunday after a second autopsy. Her family had alleged that the first post-mortem was flawed and accused the police of a cover-up, a charge the police denied.

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A Russian drone hit an apartment building in Romania, the country's defence ministry said early on Friday, causing a fire and injuring two people.

The drone crashed in the eastern city of Galati as Russia carried out attacks in Ukraine near the border, the ministry said in a statement.

The Romanian General Inspectorate for Emergency Situations said the drone's entire explosive payload detonated, causing a fire on the 10th floor of the residential building.

Russian drones have strayed across the border of the Nato member country a number of times during the four-year war with Ukraine, but this was the first time citizens from Romania had been hurt. Russia has yet to comment on the incident.

"This incident represents a serious and irresponsible escalation on the part of the Russian Federation," Romania's foreign ministry said, adding Bucharest had informed the Nato secretary general and "requested measures to accelerate the transfer of anti-drone capabilities to Romania".

The emergency services said two people received medical treatment after suffering abrasions and around 70 people were evacuated as the fire was put out.

Two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled after the drones were detected in Romanian airspace, the defence ministry said.

"One of these drones entered Romanian airspace, was tracked by radar as far as the southern part of the city of Galati, and crashed onto the roof of an apartment building, with the impact triggering a fire," it said.

The River Danube nearby forms the border with Ukraine, and Ukrainian ports are regularly targets of Russian air attacks.

In an incident in April, another Russian drone caused material damage in Galati, but no injuries.

Romania's defence ministry says that since the start of the war in Ukraine, drone fragments have been found on Romanian territory on 47 separate occasions, 12 of them this year alone.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Meanwhile, a nationwide air raid alert was also issued overnight in Ukraine, where officials in the south of the country said the port of Izmail in the Odesa region came under drone attack early on Friday.

And in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, three utility workers were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Thursday, the Kremlin-installed head of the region said.

A fourth man was seriously injured in the incident, Denis Pushilin said on the Telegram messaging app.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that he directed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to increase control of Gaza to 70%.

Speaking at a conference on Thursday, he said, "We are currently squeezing Hamas; we now control 60 percent of the territory of the Strip – you know this. We were at 50, we moved to 60. My directive is to move to," he said before pausing as someone in the crowd said, "100".

"Let's go step by step. First of all, 70. Let's start with that. We're pressing them from all sides, we'll deal with the remnants."

The expansion in control by Israel contradicts the terms of the Donald Trump-led ceasefire agreement, which Israel and Hamas agreed to in October 2025.

Netanyahu's statement comes as Israel continues strikes on Gaza despite the ceasefire, as Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked in indirect, US-brokered talks to advance President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza.

At least 738 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire came into effect in October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable.

Netanyahu has made several public remarks confirming that the IDF controls more than 60% of the Strip, up from the 53% agreed at the time of the US-brokered ceasefire deal in October 2025.

Under that agreement, the IDF withdrew to a demarcation line, known as the "yellow line", which left Israel in control of roughly 53% of Gaza.

The next steps in the 20-point peace proposal would see Hamas disarm and Israeli troops withdraw, but indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian armed group have stalled.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that his country had "pledged to eliminate everyone who led the October 7 massacre" in 2023.

"We pledged that Hamas will not rule Gaza civilly or militarily," he said.

He also said that what he called the "plan for voluntary emigration from Gaza" would be implemented "at the proper time and in the proper manner".

Israel's far-right National Security minister Itamar Ben Gvir and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich have previously publicly defended what they describe as the "voluntary migration" of Palestinians from Gaza - which could amount to the forced displacement of civilians, a war crime - and resettling it with Jews.

This week has also seen several strikes in Gaza. At least 10 people, including five children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a building in Gaza City late on Wednesday, according to local hospitals.

The Israeli military has released a short statement saying it struck "two central Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip", without disclosing their identities.

The target of the attack appeared to have been Hamas battalion commander Imad Asleem, who was killed alongside his teenage daughter Israa.

The Gaza City attack came a day after the newly chosen head of the Hamas military wing, Mohammed Odeh, was killed along with his wife and two sons in an Israeli strike. One other woman was reportedly killed.

The Israeli military has also said a strike on a car in Khan Younis on Tuesday killed Ihab Khrizim, the head of a Hamas funds transfer network, and Mohammed al-Habash, a unit commander in Hamas's production headquarters who was said to have been involved in weapons manufacturing.

About 1,200 people were killed in the 2023 Hamas-led attack which triggered the Gaza war and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel responded by launching a massive military campaign in Gaza, which reduced much of the Palestinian territory to ruins and left many of its 2.1 million residents displaced.

As of 12 May 2026, 72,742 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, and 172,565 injured, according to its Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable. Of those killed, at least 21,283 were children.

On a scorching afternoon in one of Delhi's busiest markets, two different worlds exist side by side.

One is inside brightly-lit, air-conditioned showrooms, where customers move slowly between racks of clothes, escaping the worst of the summer heat.

The other is outside, under a blazing sun - where street vendors, fruit sellers, cycle-rickshaw drivers and ice-cream cart operators continue working through temperatures soaring above 40C.

In the afternoon, even walking through the market feels exhausting. But for millions of informal workers across Delhi, staying out of the heat isn't an option.

Nearly 90% of India's workforce is informal - most without contracts or job security, many dependent on outdoor work for daily wages.

Among them is 52-year-old Harish Chandra, who pedals a cycle-rickshaw through Delhi's crowded streets until the heat becomes too much to bear.

At a public tap, he splashes water over his face before settling into a narrow strip of shade near the market.

"The body gives up," he says.

Dressed in thin, worn cotton clothes, Chandra says Delhi's summers have become harder to bear with each passing year.

"My day starts around nine in the morning, when the weather is still manageable. But by noon, it becomes difficult. The sun is so harsh that sometimes I feel my body giving up while I pedal," he says.

"But if we stop, we don't earn," says Chandra. "And if we don't earn, the family doesn't eat."

He recently sent his wife and three children back to their village in Bihar state. The temperatures there are equally high, he says, but open spaces and better ventilation make it easier to cope than Delhi's cramped neighbourhoods and congested lanes.

For workers like Chandra, who spend most of their time outdoors, summer is no longer just a season, but an annual struggle for survival.

India's heat season typically lasts from April until early July, before the monsoon brings relief. But climate scientists say extreme heat is becoming longer, harsher and more unpredictable as heatwaves across South Asia intensify under global warming.

Dr Soumya Swaminathan, former chief scientist at the World Health Organization, told ANI news agency this week that temperatures now being recorded in India are approaching the limits of "human tolerability" and pose a "threat to both lives and livelihoods".

Since mid-May, Delhi and surrounding areas have recorded daily temperatures above 40C, at times crossing 45C in the afternoon.

While some relief is expected over the weekend, heatwaves like these have become an increasingly familiar part of India's summers.

Experts say cities like Delhi are especially vulnerable because of the "urban heat island effect", where concrete, traffic and limited green cover trap heat and keep cities hotter than surrounding areas.

The weather office and Delhi government have also been issuing regular heat warnings.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X urging people to stay hydrated, carry water outdoors and watch for signs of heat exhaustion, especially among children, the elderly and outdoor workers.

Delhi is also among cities with heat action plans. It includes colour-coded heat alerts, public advisories urging people to avoid peak afternoon exposure, water kiosks and cooling centres.

But much of this advice is difficult to follow in practice. Even when temperatures rise, rent has to be paid and food has to be bought.

Mohammad Umar, 50, has been sitting inside his tuk-tuk near a busy traffic signal since morning, waiting for passengers.

He says he rarely takes a day off but last week, the heat finally forced him to stay home.

"My heart was racing and my body had no strength left. I must have bathed five times that day just to stay conscious," he says.

But missing work comes with a cost.

"On a single day, I can lose 500-700 rupees (around $5-$7) if I don't work. And we still have to pay for food and daily needs. That money comes out of our small savings," he says.

A report by the International Labour Organization estimates heat stress could reduce India's total working hours by 5.8% by 2030, with outdoor workers in agriculture and construction among the worst affected.

A Lancet Countdown report found India lost around 247 billion potential labour hours to heat in 2024, resulting in economic losses of $194bn.

Doctors say prolonged exposure to extreme heat puts immense strain on the body, especially for people spending long hours outdoors without shade, cooling or adequate hydration.

Dr Satish Koul, principal director and unit head of internal medicine at Fortis Hospital Gurgaon, says hospitals routinely see cases of dehydration, low blood pressure, kidney stress and heat exhaustion during extended heatwaves.

"Early warning signs people often ignore include dizziness, weakness, headache, nausea and confusion," he says.

"If someone stops sweating, becomes disoriented or collapses, it can quickly become a medical emergency."

But for many daily wage workers, escaping the heat is impossible even after work ends.

Much of Delhi's informal migrant workforce lives in densely-packed settlements with unreliable electricity, poor ventilation and no air-conditioning.

Homes here are built from tin sheets and plastic which absorb heat through the day and release it slowly through the night.

Doctors warn that heat-related illnesses become especially dangerous when temperatures remain high overnight, preventing the body from properly recovering.

"When the body does not cool down properly during sleep, exhaustion keeps building day after day," adds Dr Koul.

That exhaustion shapes daily life in these neighbourhoods, where most families depend on physically demanding work to survive.

Men leave early for outdoor jobs, while many women take up low-paying domestic work nearby. Alongside long hours of labour, many women also manage cooking, childcare and household chores in cramped homes with little relief from the heat.

Many try to keep cool by covering their heads, drinking salted water or adjusting work hours to avoid the harshest afternoon sun - but such measures offer only limited relief.

Sanjeeda, a 40-year-old widow who has spent years working in factories, small shops and private homes to raise her children, says in mid-May, she was bedridden for days with severe headaches and fever after heat exposure.

"The sun starts to feel harsh right from the morning," she says. "By the time I reach the houses and start sweeping and mopping, my clothes are already soaked. Some days I also have to clean rooftops where the marble floors feel like they are on fire."

Her employers occasionally offer water, lemonade or a place to sit in front of a fan.

"But no matter what the temperature is," she says, "the work has to be done."

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A famous bull mosaic in one of Italy's grand arcades is getting some much-needed care after being worn down by tourists honouring a tradition involving its delicate body parts.

As the legend goes, tourists in Milan who grind their heels on the bull's testicles and spin in place three times are guaranteed good fortune and are destined to return.

Visitors twirling clockwise for luck have left a small crater on the bull's "lucky spot".

"Thousands of people every day have performed the famous heel-spinning gesture," city councillors said. "The pink tiles that make up its testicles are being worn away."

The beige and blue mosaic of a prancing bull surrounded by a coat of arms is located in the city's historic 19th-Century Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II arcade. It is representative of the city of Turin, which was the first capital of Italy.

Restoration began this week, with a small construction site erected around the mosaic and a restorer working to return the artwork to its former glory, Milan's city council said in a statement.

Artisan Gianluca Galli was seen kneeling before the mosaic, working to cut new pieces of stone by hand as curious onlookers gathered around him.

Of the spinning ritual, which was popular among Milanese in the 19th Century, Galli told AFP news agency: "It's probably a charming gesture, but also quite damaging for a work of art."

City councillors Emmanuel Conte and Marco Granelli said the last restoration of the bull mosaic was in 2017.

"The Galleria is a living heritage, which can wear away precisely because it is loved and experienced: we take care of it so that it continues to be so," they added.

Negotiators for the US and Iran have agreed a framework of a deal that would extend their ceasefire for 60 days and launch negotiations on the future of Iran's nuclear programme, US sources say.

US sources told the BBC that the new ceasefire agreement has not yet been approved by the leadership of either country.

The deal comes amid renewed attacks in the region, with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying it targeted an American air base in the region, after fresh US strikes on southern Iran overnight.

Both Iran and the US have accused each other of violating the fragile ceasefire in the past few days.

On Wednesday, Iranian state media reported elements of what they described as an unofficial draft of a 14-point memorandum of understanding (MOU).

The report included the lifting of Washington's naval blockade of Iranian ports, the withdrawal of US forces from the "vicinity of Iran", and the restoration of non-military traffic through the Strait of Hormuz with Iran and Oman in control of the management and routing of vessels.

One-fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas and oil normally pass through the shipping channel, and its closure has impacted global fuel trade.

The White House issued a terse statement, calling the purported MOU draft a "complete fabrication".

Both sides signalled progress had been made towards a deal late last week, prompting speculation an announcement was close.

Since the initial ceasefire between the US and Iran came into effect on 8 April, Trump has suggested - repeatedly - that the two sides are close to a deal and that negotiations are progressing, only to have any hopes of a negotiated end to the conflict dashed.

Talks that took place in Islamabad just days later, for example, ended without any substantive agreement.

In nearly every case, and as recently as Wednesday, Trump and other officials have warned that "option B", a return to combat operations, remains on the table.

Just last week, Trump told reporters that he had been an hour from ordering renewed strikes on Iran but ultimately held off at the request of US allies.

In a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump said that talks were progressing but insisted that the Iranian proposal was "not there yet" and that work remained.

It is unclear what took place in the subsequent 24 hours, or when - or even if - Trump will give his final approval for the agreement to extend the ceasefire.

Doing so, however, would allow US and Iranian teams to discuss the far more complicated and technical issues at play, particularly about Iran's nuclear programme and its remaining stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Trump had suggested that that US could take it, or, together with Iran, dilute it in place or in a third location.

Axios, which first reported the tentative agreement on Thursday, said that Trump had been briefed on the proposal but did not immediately sign off on it and would take a couple of days to consider it.

The confirmation from US sources of anonymously sourced Axios reporting on the contours of the agreement is rare, suggesting that the two sides may be closer to a deal than they were at any previous point during the more than six-week-old ceasefire.

Reports say the deal could allow "unrestricted" passage through the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran would have 30 days to remove mines from the narrow shipping passageway.

The US would also lift its blockade, and issue sanction waivers to allow Iran to resume selling oil.

Fibre-optic drones have become Hezbollah's primary weapon against Israeli soldiers and civilians, along both sides of the Lebanese border, and are now seen as the biggest threat there, as fighting continues six weeks into a supposed ceasefire.

One Israeli soldier was killed and two others injured in a drone attack near the Israeli border community of Shomera on Wednesday.

Of the 11 Israeli soldiers and one civilian defence contractor killed since the ceasefire came into force, eight have been killed by fibre-optic drones.

Most of the attacks have targeted Israeli forces, which are currently occupying a large area of southern Lebanon, but Hezbollah is also increasingly attacking Israeli communities across the border, according to the Alma Research Center, an Israeli think tank which monitors the conflict.

It has recorded more than 100 drone attacks against communities inside Israel since the ceasefire began in April.

In Shomera, a leafy town at the western end of the border, drone attacks have left trails of fibre-optic wires along the roads – and a new sense of fear in this battle-hardened community.

"The problem is you don't feel them coming. You're sitting there, and suddenly it arrives," said Shomera's council chief, Sami Zanetti. "And if you run away, it follows you."

He showed me a bus-stop, scarred by a recent drone attack this week that struck minutes after a school bus had left.

The fibre-optic drones used by Hezbollah – also known as First-Person View or FPVs – are much harder to detect than the rockets and mortars this town is used to. The drones are loaded with explosives and fly low, without a radio signal that can be jammed by Israel's military. They are connected to their operators by a thin optical wire, which allow them to see and chase targets on the ground. It's a tactic learned from the war in Ukraine.

Several times a day, sirens sound in these frontier communities, warning of a drone crossing the border from Lebanon. Here, the warnings and the weapons come seconds apart; sometimes there's no warning at all.

"With rockets, I've got 15 seconds to go into a bomb shelter. With drones, you have no way of knowing when it will fall," Sami Zanetti said.

As we were talking, sirens erupted.

The alerts on our phones said a drone had been spotted, heading straight for Shomera.

From inside the public bomb shelter, we scan the sky.

Israel's army sometimes intercepts drones that cross the border, but also often loses contact with the small, low-flying devices.

This time in Shomera, the attack never arrives.

But the road we're standing in is strewn with the fine silvery filaments left from previous drone strikes.

Just the day before, members of the community's security team were filmed chasing and firing at a drone flying along this street, right next to the house of Amichai Ben David, a peach and nectarine farmer with seven children.

"[The drone] came and we rushed into the house," he told me. "The soldiers outside shot at it, and managed to knock it out of the air. They saved us, thank god."

Amichai has lived here all his life. His home has a large hole in the roof where a rocket hit the family home last year. But the drones are a new and different threat, he says.

"The missiles stopped because of the ceasefire – and the drones started coming instead. They have cameras attached – if there's a soldier in uniform, or they don't like the look of someone, it simply drops and explodes."

The Alma Research Center says Israel's military assessment is that Hezbollah has dozens of trained drone operators and that it has accumulated a significant stockpile of the small, cheaply-made drones, which cost around $300-$400 each.

"They intensified the amount of attacks across the border inside Israel," said Sarit Zehavi, who heads the center. "And I think that's a direct order from Iran, against the background of what is happening with the [US] deal. Iran wants to see a situation where Israel is attacking Hezbollah, and everything explodes, and goes back to the beginning."

"[Hezbollah's] goal is to harm as many lives as possible, and when they see that Israeli soldiers are finding more ways to protect themselves physically, then they try to harm civilians in civilian communities," said Capt Adi Stoler, a spokesperson for Israel's military. "They go outside more, they live their life, take their children to school, and if [Hezbollah] can harm them while they're doing that, that's what they'll do."

Israel's military chief of staff has reportedly called for attacks on "buildings in Beirut", in response to Hezbollah's growing use of explosive drones.

"For every drone that harms one of our soldiers," the far-right Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich said, Israeli forces should "bring down 100 buildings" in Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold.

Earlier this week, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to deal Hezbollah "a crushing blow".

"It is true they are launching drones at us," he said. "We have a special team working on this, and we will solve this."

Israeli forces have been criticized for being slow to learn from the experience of troops in Ukraine, who have battled the threat of fibre-optic drones launched by Russia for the past two years.

Sarit Zehavi said Alma's researchers had warned in 2024 about fibre-optic drones becoming the next threat from Hezbollah.

"We knew this was coming because it was obvious Hezbollah would adopt the methods from Ukraine and that as we had success at intercepting rockets and became better in intercepting UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], that FPVs were next."

"It's a tactical problem that Israel is dealing with, it's not something we see as an existential threat," said the IDF's Adi Stoler. "But yes, these type of drones are a challenge for us. It is something we're trying to solve as soon as possible."

An Israeli military official admitted that the primary bottleneck in combatting the threat came from "gaps in weapons development".

"The response is not hermetic, and capabilities for detection and interception must continue to be developed," the official said, adding that countering drones was now a "central mission" for the Israel Defense Forces' Northern Command, with significant resources being invested.

Learning from troops in Ukraine, Israeli forces have begun covering their positions with netting to entrap and tangle the tiny drones.

And several Israeli defence companies are working on new ways to defeat Hezbollah's drone warfare.

According to the Alma Research Center, they include an advanced interceptor drone, specialist fragmenting anti-drone ammunition, and automatic firing systems with electro-optical sensors.

In one project being developed by the Israeli company, Smart Shooter, a sensor continuously scans the environment, sending information to a computer mounted on a soldier's personal weapon, which can then analyse the threat, lock onto a target, and give the soldier a firing window.

But Israel's widely-read daily newspaper, Israel Hayom, says the defensive systems developed so far are falling short, and that Israel's preferred military option for now, the paper says, is to destroy the drones in warehouses or eliminate operators before launch.

Earlier this week, the IDF put out a video showing what it says is a strike on an operator retrieving a drone in southern Lebanon.

The race to adapt on the battlefield has been sharpened by a parallel public relations war.

Hezbollah regularly releases edited footage of what it says are drone attacks on Israeli targets, underlaid with doom-laden music.

One video released this week was apparently filmed from a Hezbollah drone as it flew towards a military vehicle full of Israeli troops in the Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil. It ends with two soldiers leaping from the truck as the drone flies straight into it.

On Wednesday, the IDF issued more evacuation notices for villages, towns and cities in southern Lebanon, culminating in a sweeping evacuation order for the whole of the country below the Zahrani river, which runs around 40km from the border.

Israel has also continued bombing targets across Lebanon, and clearing areas it says are being used by Hezbollah fighters in the south.

In Shomera, there are calls to go further, despite the political restrictions supposedly imposed by Israel's ceasefire agreement with the Lebanese government, and the constraints of current efforts of US president Donald Trump, to reach a ceasefire deal with Hezbollah's backer, Iran.

"How do we stop this? Go deeper into Lebanon, with a very strong attack," the peach farmer Amichai Ben David told me.

Sami Zanetti, the council chief, said he wanted either a "real peace" with Hezbollah or all-out war.

"I would like the country to take a brave decision, and clear out the terrorists once and for all. Finish off Hezbollah," he told me. "Today, our hands are tied by US President Trump."

Negotiators for the US and Iran have agreed a framework of a deal that would extend their ceasefire for 60 days and launch negotiations on the future of Iran's nuclear programme, US sources say.

US sources told the BBC that the new ceasefire agreement has not yet been approved by the leadership of either country.

The deal comes amid renewed attacks in the region, with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) saying it targeted an American air base in the region, after fresh US strikes on southern Iran overnight.

Both Iran and the US have accused each other of violating the fragile ceasefire in the past few days.

On Wednesday, Iranian state media reported elements of what they described as an unofficial draft of a 14-point memorandum of understanding (MOU).

The report included the lifting of Washington's naval blockade of Iranian ports, the withdrawal of US forces from the "vicinity of Iran", and the restoration of non-military traffic through the Strait of Hormuz with Iran and Oman in control of the management and routing of vessels.

One-fifth of the world's liquefied natural gas and oil normally pass through the shipping channel, and its closure has impacted global fuel trade.

The White House issued a terse statement, calling the purported MOU draft a "complete fabrication".

Both sides signalled progress had been made towards a deal late last week, prompting speculation an announcement was close.

Since the initial ceasefire between the US and Iran came into effect on 8 April, Trump has suggested - repeatedly - that the two sides are close to a deal and that negotiations are progressing, only to have any hopes of a negotiated end to the conflict dashed.

Talks that took place in Islamabad just days later, for example, ended without any substantive agreement.

In nearly every case, and as recently as Wednesday, Trump and other officials have warned that "option B", a return to combat operations, remains on the table.

Just last week, Trump told reporters that he had been an hour from ordering renewed strikes on Iran but ultimately held off at the request of US allies.

In a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Trump said that talks were progressing but insisted that the Iranian proposal was "not there yet" and that work remained.

It is unclear what took place in the subsequent 24 hours, or when - or even if - Trump will give his final approval for the agreement to extend the ceasefire.

Doing so, however, would allow US and Iranian teams to discuss the far more complicated and technical issues at play, particularly about Iran's nuclear programme and its remaining stockpile of highly enriched uranium.

Trump had suggested that that US could take it, or, together with Iran, dilute it in place or in a third location.

Axios, which first reported the tentative agreement on Thursday, said that Trump had been briefed on the proposal but did not immediately sign off on it and would take a couple of days to consider it.

The confirmation from US sources of anonymously sourced Axios reporting on the contours of the agreement is rare, suggesting that the two sides may be closer to a deal than they were at any previous point during the more than six-week-old ceasefire.

Reports say the deal could allow "unrestricted" passage through the Strait of Hormuz, and that Iran would have 30 days to remove mines from the narrow shipping passageway.

The US would also lift its blockade, and issue sanction waivers to allow Iran to resume selling oil.

A 21-year-old Austrian man, who has admitted plotting a jihadist attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna during the singer's Eras tour in August 2024, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The man, named only as Beran A in line with Austrian privacy laws, also admitted other terrorism-related offences, including an attack in Mecca.

He told the court earlier on Thursday that he was sorry, before the jury at a court in Wiener Neustadt retired for several hours to consider its verdicts.

Beran A was arrested after a tip-off from the CIA, just before the first of three sold-out Taylor Swift concerts that were supposed to take place in Vienna's Ernst Happl stadium.

All three Austrian shows were immediately cancelled, to the dismay of almost 200,000 fans, and the singer herself.

Prosecutors said Beran A had become radicalised and had sworn allegiance to jihadist group Islamic State (IS). They said he tried but had not succeeded in buying weapons illegally, including a machine gun and a hand grenade.

Court psychiatrist Peter Hoffmann said that Beran A showed no signs of mental illness, adding that there was "no psychiatric explanation" for his radicalisation.

Beran A, and another 21-year-old man named as Arda K from Slovakia, went on trial in Wiener Neustadt accused of being part of a cell with jihadist group Islamic State (IS). Arda K was not involved in the Taylor Swift plot.

At least 10 people, including five children, were killed in an Israeli strike on a building in Gaza City late on Wednesday, according to local hospitals.

The target of the attack appeared to have been a local Hamas battalion commander Imad Asleem, who was killed alongside his teenage daughter Israa and buried on Thursday.

Hamas has not officially commented.

The Israeli military has released a short statement saying it struck "two central Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip", without disclosing their identities.

It is the latest Israeli strike targeting senior Hamas figures in Gaza in recent days.

Footage from Thursday's attack showed a badly damaged residential building in central Gaza City and destroyed tents in a neighbouring displaced people's camp.

Around 20 people were reportedly injured.

Raslan Bajou, who was asleep in his tent at the time of the latest strike, said: "This is a sin, I swear it's a sin."

He told BBC News his "neighbours were in pieces" as he described the chaotic aftermath of the attack in which his wife was injured.

"We didn't know what was going on," said Um Azzam al-Zaim, whose relative was visiting her for the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

She continued: "We were soaked when a water tank on the roof above was hit.

"Our tent broke and rubble fell on me from outside. It was difficult for us to get out of the tent."

Um Azzam said that she had seen the bodies of children who had been blown off the top of the neighbouring building after gathering there to share their Eid chocolates.

Pictures from Gaza City on Thursday showed a large funeral procession taking place, with a body wrapped in the flag of Hamas carried on a stretcher through the crowds with a gun placed on top of it.

Several people were seen waving green flags, the colour associated with Hamas.

The Gaza City attack came a day after the newly chosen head of the Hamas military wing, Mohammed Odeh, was killed along with his wife and two sons in an Israeli strike. One other woman was reportedly killed.

On 15 May, Israel killed Odeh's predecessor, Izz al-Din al-Haddad.

Israel has targeted a long list of Hamas leaders since the start of the Israel-Gaza war.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz wrote on X that his country had "pledged to eliminated everyone who led the October 7 massacre" in 2023, adding: "We pledged that Hamas will not rule Gaza civilly or militarily."

The Israeli military has also said a strike on a car in Khan Younis on Tuesday killed Ihab Khrizim, the head of a Hamas funds transfer network, and Mohammed al-Habash, a unit commander in Hamas's production headquarters who was said to have been involved in weapons manufacturing.

Another Israeli attack on the same day killed at least five Palestinians in al-Meghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, according to a local hospital.

The strikes come at a critical time when Israel and Hamas remain deadlocked in indirect, US-brokered talks to advance President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza.

The next steps involve the Palestinian armed group giving up its weapons and Israeli troop withdrawals.

About 1,200 people were killed in the 2023 Hamas-led attack which triggered the Gaza war and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel responded by launching a massive military campaign in Gaza, which reduced much of the Palestinian territory to ruins and left many of its 2.1 million residents displaced.

Israeli forces have killed more than 72,800 people in Gaza, according to its Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable.

Portugal has set a new hottest day in May with 40.3C recorded in the central town of Mora, as countries in western Europe grapple with sweltering-hot weather.

The temperature recorded on Wednesday bests Portugal's previous record of 40C set in May 2001.

Ministers in France are meeting to assess the country's preparedness for heatwaves, while tennis number one Jannik Sinner bowed out of the French Open after suffering from the heat. Meanwhile, Italian authorities have issued a red heatwave alert for the capital, Rome, where it could top out at 32C on Thursday.

The heatwave is forecast to continue into the weekend, with Germany, Spain and Switzerland having also faced unusually hot conditions.

Parts of Portugal will peak above 35C on Thursday and Friday before the heat begins to recede, according to the nation's meteorological office.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu chaired a ministerial meeting on Thursday afternoon to develop a readiness plan for extreme heat events, including combatting forest fires and ensuring adequate water supplies over the summer.

Baccalaureate exams - the French equivalent of A-levels - will continue during the heatwaves, despite some schools having to shut their doors due to inhospitable temperatures inside.

A primary school in Souston, in the Landes region, will remain shut on Thursday and Friday after it reached 53C inside earlier in the week, a local official told French media.

Education Minister Édouard Geffray told BFMTV that exam centres would be able to choose rooms with the most shade, adding that exams would go ahead "simply because the students are prepared and... there is also a schedule according to which they expect their results".

The decision has attracted criticism from education unions and teachers, with one telling French radio of teachers "forced to bring in their own fans".

A survey by France's secondary school union found nearly 78% had recorded temperatures above 30C this week, and said it had received reports of teachers bringing in screwdrivers to prise windows open.

Seventeen departments of France - in the north-west, as well as Paris - are under an orange alert, indicating people should be "very vigilant" about the weather.

Temperatures are expected to reach 33C in Paris on Thursday, and top out at 34C on both Saturday and Sunday.

Police have announced measures to ease traffic in the capital until Saturday, including only allowing lower-emission cars on roads and lowering speed limits. A single fare for the entire public transport network will be offered at the same time.

At the French Open in Paris, Sinner appeared to be cruising to a victory before suddenly taking a turn for the worse.

The Italian complained of dizziness and feeling lethargic before hitting a wall.

"It was a tough spot to be in," he commented afterwards, but added: "Really it was nothing against the heat, nothing against the weather. It was just me today, but it happens."

Meanwhile, Italy's red alert in Rome - as well as in Florence, Bologna, Brescia and Turin - is the first of the year, warning of "possible negative effects on the health of healthy, active people".

Temperatures will climb to 35C in Madrid over the weekend. Though the current spell does not officially qualify as a heatwave in Spain, the nation's meteorological office has said the heat is that usually seen in July and August.

The immediate cause of the heatwave is a "heat dome" - an area of high pressure that becomes "stuck", trapping warm air underneath it.

While it is difficult to link individual extreme weather events to climate change, scientists say climate change makes heatwaves more frequent and more intense.

Over the last 30 years, Europe has been warming by 0.56C per decade, according to the Copernicus climate service - enough to make heat extremes significantly more severe.

The UN warned on Thursday that global average temperatures are likely to continue at or near record levels this year and for the next four years.

The 11 hottest years ever recorded all happened from 2015 onwards, and the UN's weather and climate agency said this trend was predicted to continue, with a new hottest-ever year "likely" before 2031.

A ceasefire "hanging by a thread". A diplomatic process "making progress". A president "not satisfied". And explosions echoing around the Gulf.

What to make of the current, confusing state of relations between the US and Iran - are we close to peace or sliding back to war?

This week has certainly tested the ceasefire, which came into effect on 8 April and has now lasted considerably longer than the active phase of fighting which preceded it.

Iran responded to the latest US strikes - which included what US Central Command (Centcom) described as a "ground control site" in the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas - with a warning that "aggression will not go unanswered".

Its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) then said it had attacked an American air base. It did not say which, but Centcom later said a ballistic missile had been intercepted over Kuwait, where the US has several bases.

Echoing Tehran's language, Centcom called the attack "an egregious ceasefire violation".

It all sounds ominous, but this is still a far cry from the furious exchanges that characterised the first five-and-a-half weeks of this conflict. In that time, the US and Israel launched thousands of sorties against targets all across Iran, and Tehran responded with volleys of drones and ballistic missiles against US bases, Gulf countries and Israel.

The US said on Thursday it had shot down five Iranian drones which "posed a threat around the Strait of Hormuz", suggesting shipping - commercial or military - was once again the focus of concern.

But neither side seems to regard the sort of tit for tat exchanges we have seen this week as marking a return to all-out war.

All the while, a tortured diplomatic process, involving multiple actors, is playing out in the background.

We get glimpses of that process from time to time, but they are partial and fleeting.

On Wednesday, Iranian state media reported elements of what they described as an unofficial draft of a 14-point memorandum of understanding.

The report included everything Tehran would like to see: the lifting of Washington's naval blockade of Iranian ports, the withdrawal of US forces from the "vicinity of Iran", and the restoration of non-military traffic through the Strait of Hormuz with Iran and Oman in control of the management and routing of vessels.

Notably absent from the report was any talk of Iranian concessions, especially on the all-important nuclear issue.

The White House issued a terse statement, calling the purported draft a "complete fabrication". Later, during the latest televised cabinet meeting at the White House, US President Donald Trump said he was not yet satisfied with proposals for a deal.

Trump said Iran was "starting to give us the things that they have to give us". He did not elaborate and repeated his warning that Tehran's failure to comply would trigger a return to war.

"If they won't, then the man on my left is going to finish them off," he said, turning to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.

There were characteristic signs of impatience too. Asked about reports that Iran and Oman might seek to control the movement of ships through the strait, Trump issued a stark warning to a traditional US ally.

"Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we'll have to blow them up," he said.

Meanwhile, the US Treasury on Wednesday sanctioned Iran's newly formed "Persian Gulf Strait Authority", set up by Tehran to oversee traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) called the scheme "a new attempt by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to monetise its campaign of state-sponsored terror".

As always, Trump was doing his best to sound as if the war were going to plan, brushing aside any suggestion that he needed to strike a deal quickly to avoid further spikes in the oil market - or political blowback at November's midterm elections.

But there is no denying that he is in a bind.

A satisfactory deal remains tantalisingly out of reach, and there are some in his own party - to say nothing of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - who would like him to go back to war to finish the job.

Similar pressures are at play in Tehran too, where some of the country's most hardline voices are insisting on maximalist goals, arguing that Iran has shown that it cannot be subjugated.

The diplomatic effort, spearheaded by Pakistan, is immensely complex.

The issues which divide the two sides are profound: Iran's nuclear programme, the future management of the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of sanctions and unfreezing of assets.

The immediate objective - a memorandum which would end the war and set out a road map for the complex diplomatic negotiations that would follow - is proving elusive.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the coming hours or days would show whether progress was possible.

For all the domestic pressures at play on both sides and the febrile atmosphere in and around the Gulf, neither Iran nor the US seems interested in a return to war.

Despite appearances, the ceasefire - now more than seven weeks old - is still holding.

You may find some of the details of Messina Denaro's crimes disturbing

Anti-mafia investigators in Italy have seized cash, companies and other assets worth more than €200m (£175m) in an operation they say targeted the network of notorious late Sicilian mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro.

The funds, described as "huge amounts of capital" by the financial police in Palermo, are said to be proceeds from over four decades of drugs trafficking linked to the presumed former head of the Cosa Nostra group.

Announcing their results in Sicily on Thursday, investigators released a video showing masked police officers, some in riot gear, barging down doors and scaling walls to raid a series of vast luxury villas surrounded by palm tree-lined lawns.

Messina Denaro spent three decades on the run until his arrest in 2023 as he left a clinic where he was being treated for cancer. He died in custody soon after.

Whilst a fugitive, he had been sentenced to life for multiple murders including the assassination of two anti-mafia prosecutors in 1992 in bomb attacks several weeks apart.

He was also convicted of kidnapping and killing the 12-year-old son of a mafia man-turned-informer. After two years in captivity, the child was strangled and his body dissolved in acid so it could never be found.

Police say their latest investigation follows some of the Cosa Nostra money trail. It spanned multiple countries including Spain and Switzerland as well as the Cayman Islands.

Three people have been arrested and eight firms identified, including real estate companies said to be tied to the illicit funds.

The head of the National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor's Office, Giovanni Melillo, called the operation "strategically significant", not only because of the recovered cash.

"It also aims to prevent the reformation of a criminal organisation that existed until a few years ago," he told a news conference.

"Seizing this wealth means continuing the disintegration process [of the criminal group] and the process of re-establishing structures capable of projecting the full intimidating power and economic and social influence of the Cosa Nostra on a global scale."

Italy's finance police say their operation began with a report from Andorra on an Italian woman with "significant financial resources".

She turned out to be married to a drugs trafficker said to have close ties to the Cosa Nostra and to Messina Denaro himself.

The inquiry produced leads in several other countries.

In total, police say more than 150 officers were involved in a global operation which ranged from using drones and thermal scanners to search for hidden stashes of cash - to deploying IT experts to trace digital wallets and crypto currency.

Italian media are calling the haul "Denaro's drugs trove" although the amount recovered is thought to be only a fraction of the vast wealth of his network which has since been reinvested all over the world.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into writer E Jean Carroll, who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, CBS News, the BBC's US partner, has reported.

The investigation is looking into whether Carroll committed perjury in connection with civil cases she brought against Trump, the news outlet quotes sources as saying.

Carroll, a former magazine columnist, accused Trump of sexual assault and defamation, and successfully sued him in two cases. Both judgements were upheld on appeal, but Trump has since asked the Supreme Court to overturn the first of them.

He has denied the accusations. The BBC has contacted the DOJ and Carroll's lawyer for comment.

In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual assault. He was also found liable for defamation for comments he made the previous year in a post on Truth Social.

In that post, he denied Carroll's claim that she had been attacked by him in the mid-1990s in a New York department store dressing room.

A second lawsuit in 2024 found Trump again liable for defamation in connection with comments he made about Carroll in 2019, in which he accused her of making up the claims against him to sell a book.

Trump has appealed to the US Supreme Court to overturn the first judgement, for which he was ordered to pay $5m (£3.7m) to Carroll. He has also vowed to do the same with the other case, in which Carroll was awarded $83m.

The new criminal case is looking into whether Carroll lied when she said in a 2022 deposition that she received no outside funding for her civil lawsuit against Trump, a source told CBS.

It was revealed in legal papers first filed by Trump's lawyers in 2023 that the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, had helped to pay for some of Carroll's legal fees and expenses.

The issue was brought up during the case's appeal, and the court found that Carroll had "plausibly represented" in her deposition "that she had forgotten about the limited outside funding counsel obtained".

The "additional discovery... showed that Ms Carroll simply was not involved in the matter of who was or was not funding her litigation costs," the US Court of Appeals for the Second District continued in a 2024 ruling.

The new investigation is being led by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, one source told CBS.

CNN, which first reported the story, reported that while Carroll's deposition took place in New York, one of the individuals who helped cover some of Carroll's legal fees, Hoffman, has a non-profit organisation based in Chicago.

The BBC has also approached Hoffman's non-profit for comment.

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, who personally represented Trump in the appeal cases against Carroll, is recused from the case, a source told CBS.

Since returning to office last year, Trump has repeatedly called on the DOJ to prosecute a range of his adversaries.

Israel has hit the Lebanese capital, Beirut, for only the second since the start of a ceasefire last month.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the attack at about 14:00 (11:00 GMT) was carried out in a "targeted manner", but gave no details. Israeli media cited unnamed sources as saying the target of the strike had been the head of an Iranian militia.

Israel had spared Beirut at the request of US President Donald Trump and the attack came after waves of Israeli strikes aimed at Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, according to the IDF.

Both Israel and Hezbollah - the powerful Shia group supported by Iran - have accused each other of repeated violations of a ceasefire.

Thick smoke was seen billowing across residential buildings in Dahieh, the densely populated Shia suburb that serves as Hezbollah's stronghold in the capital, after the latest Israeli attack.

Residents could be heard calling out to neighbours and relatives to check on their safety as rescue crews rushed in.

According to Israeli media, the target of the strike was Ali al-Husni, head of the missile force in the Imam Hossein Division - an Iranian militia allied to Hezbollah.

The strikes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced an expansion of a ground operation following Hezbollah drone attacks on troops occupying part of southern Lebanon and on civilians in northern Israel.

On Wednesday, the IDF urged residents to move north of the Zahrani River, about 40km (25 miles) from the Israeli border, saying it would act "with extreme force".

At least 11 people were killed in two sets of Israeli strikes which hit Tyre and an area to the city's east early on Thursday, according to the Lebanese health ministry.

Social media videos from Tyre, one of Lebanon's biggest cities, showed streets lit orange by flames, smoke-filled roads, and at least one vehicle engulfed in fire.

By daylight, a massive fireball was filmed erupting near a cluster of high-rise residential buildings, sending a mushroom-shaped column of smoke rising above the city skyline.

Stunned residents looked on as debris spread through surrounding streets.

A Hezbollah member in Tyre told the BBC rescue and recovery crews had been forced to stop their work because conditions remain "too dangerous" and workers received calls from the Israeli military warning them to evacuate the area.

Wednesday's evacuation order was the largest since the ceasefire took effect, covering about 300 towns and villages - about 14% of Lebanese territory. Many residents, including those already displaced from other parts of southern Lebanon, have nowhere obvious to go.

The streets of Saida were oddly busy on Thursday - the marina area filled with beach goers eating lunch, and not a tent for the displaced in sight.

But with shelters exceeding capacity, humanitarian workers and city officials told those displaced to keep going north. There is no more room here.

Saida is a coastal city north of the Zahrani River, but south of Beirut. It has not been hit as hard as other cities like Tyre or Nabatieh.

It was not named in the latest set of evacuation orders, so Hanaa Jamaa, 46, was shocked when she was woken up in the middle of the night to hear an apartment she owned had been hit.

She had been renting it out as a source of income.

A missile struck the building at approximately 02:40, appearing to hit the roof before tearing downward through the structure.

Four people were killed in the building - two displaced people and two residents from Saida.

The man renting the apartment from Hanaa had been living there for three years.

She said he was a civilian. "We aren't with Hezbollah and we aren't with Israel," she said through tears. "We just want peace."

Israeli officials have said Hezbollah's attacks are violating the temporary ceasefire deal between the Israeli and Lebanese governments, which has been extended twice since it came into force last month.

Lebanese officials have pointed to the Israeli strikes themselves as violations.

The escalation threatens to derail talks aimed at ending the war between the US and Israel on one side and Iran on the other. Iran insists that any deal must also cover Lebanon. Israel says it reserves the right to continue to fight the threat from Hezbollah.

Lebanon was drawn into the war on 2 March, when Hezbollah launched rockets into Israel in retaliation for an Israeli strike that killed Iran's supreme leader. Israel responded with an air campaign across Lebanon and a ground invasion.

At least 3,224 people have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the war, according to the country's health ministry - its figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Israel says 23 of its soldiers and four Israeli civilians have been killed over the same period on both sides of the border.

Additional reporting by Angie Mrad.

A man has been arrested after three people were injured in a stabbing attack at a train station in Switzerland, police said.

They said the three victims - Swiss nationals aged 28, 43 and 52 - were hospitalised after the attack at Winterthur train station.

The suspect, a 31-year-old Swiss man, used a bladed weapon and that the motive was under investigation, police added.

An eyewitness working in an office building nearby told a local newspaper he heard a man yell "Allahu Akbar" - meaning "God is greatest" in Arabic - at around 08:30 local time before attacking people with a knife.

A group of schoolchildren were passing through the area at a time and a school teacher was seen standing in front of them to protect them, according to local media.

Another eyewitness, a taxi driver, told Zurich-based daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung that a man had been walking around the station's underpass attacking people.

Photos published by Swiss news outlets show several areas around the station being cordoned off.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a criminal investigation into writer E Jean Carroll, who accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, CBS News, the BBC's US partner, has reported.

The investigation is looking into whether Carroll committed perjury in connection with civil cases she brought against Trump, the news outlet quotes sources as saying.

Carroll, a former magazine columnist, accused Trump of sexual assault and defamation, and successfully sued him in two cases. Both judgements were upheld on appeal, but Trump has since asked the Supreme Court to overturn the first of them.

He has denied the accusations. The BBC has contacted the DOJ and Carroll's lawyer for comment.

In 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual assault. He was also found liable for defamation for comments he made the previous year in a post on Truth Social.

In that post, he denied Carroll's claim that she had been attacked by him in the mid-1990s in a New York department store dressing room.

A second lawsuit in 2024 found Trump again liable for defamation in connection with comments he made about Carroll in 2019, in which he accused her of making up the claims against him to sell a book.

Trump has appealed to the US Supreme Court to overturn the first judgement, for which he was ordered to pay $5m (£3.7m) to Carroll. He has also vowed to do the same with the other case, in which Carroll was awarded $83m.

The new criminal case is looking into whether Carroll lied when she said in a 2022 deposition that she received no outside funding for her civil lawsuit against Trump, a source told CBS.

It was revealed in legal papers first filed by Trump's lawyers in 2023 that the co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, had helped to pay for some of Carroll's legal fees and expenses.

The issue was brought up during the case's appeal, and the court found that Carroll had "plausibly represented" in her deposition "that she had forgotten about the limited outside funding counsel obtained".

The "additional discovery... showed that Ms Carroll simply was not involved in the matter of who was or was not funding her litigation costs," the US Court of Appeals for the Second District continued in a 2024 ruling.

The new investigation is being led by the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, one source told CBS.

CNN, which first reported the story, reported that while Carroll's deposition took place in New York, one of the individuals who helped cover some of Carroll's legal fees, Hoffman, has a non-profit organisation based in Chicago.

The BBC has also approached Hoffman's non-profit for comment.

Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche, who personally represented Trump in the appeal cases against Carroll, is recused from the case, a source told CBS.

Since returning to office last year, Trump has repeatedly called on the DOJ to prosecute a range of his adversaries.

The European Union has imposed a €200m ($232m; £173m) fine on Chinese-owned online retailer Temu for having illegal products such as dangerous baby toys and faulty chargers for sale on its platform.

The European Commission said the company had "failed to diligently identify, analyse and assess the systemic risks" of the products and the harm they could cause to consumers.

Temu has been under investigation since October 2024 over whether it has been meeting its obligations as a designated Very Large Online Platform under EU law.

The online retailer said it disagreed with the decision and deemed the fine disproportionate, and was now considering available options.

The investigation involved a mystery shopping exercise carried out by an independent testing organisation, which found that a high percentage of chargers purchased through Temu failed basic electrical safety tests. It also found that a high proportion of baby toys posed safety risks, containing chemicals above legal limits or featuring small detachable parts that presented suffocation hazards, Euronews reported.

As well as paying the fine, Temu has to present an action plan to address the failures by 28 August. The Commission then has two months to decide whether the company has done enough to comply.

EU tech commissioner Henna Virkkunen told reporters that the decision was intended to send a "very strong message" to Temu.

A Temu spokesperson said in a statement that the retailer respected the need for clear, consistent rules, but that the decision related to 2024 and did not reflect the current state of its systems.

"We disagree with the European Commission's decision and consider the fine to be disproportionate," they said.

"We are reviewing the decision carefully and considering all available options."

The fine is only the second imposed under the EU's Digital Services Act for content, the first being a €120m penalty against Elon Musk's X social media network last December.