The world's tropical forests, which provide a crucial buffer against climate change, disappeared faster than ever recorded last year, new satellite analysis suggests.

Researchers estimate that 67,000 sq km (26,000 sq mi) of these pristine, old-growth forests were lost in 2024 – an area nearly as large as the Republic of Ireland, or 18 football pitches a minute.

Fires were the main cause, overtaking land clearances from agriculture for the first time on record, with the Amazon faring particularly badly amid record drought.

There was more positive news in South East Asia, however, with government policies helping to reduce forest loss.

Tropical rainforests store hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon in soils and woody trunks. But this new global record raises further questions about their resilience on a warming planet.

Many researchers are concerned some forests, such as parts of the Amazon, may be approaching a "tipping point", beyond which they could fall into irreversible decline.

"The tipping point idea is, I think, increasingly the right one," said Prof Matthew Hansen, co-director of GLAD laboratory at the University of Maryland, which produces the data.

Prof Hansen described the new results as "frightening", and warned of the possible "savannisation" of the rainforest, where old-growth tropical forests die back and permanently switch to savanna.

"It's still a theory, but I think that that's more and more plausible looking at the data."

A separate study, published last week, made a similar warning of possible significant dieback of the Amazon if global warming exceeds the international target of 1.5C.

This would not only threaten the vibrant array of wildlife living in these most biodiverse habitats, but would also have serious ramifications for the global climate.

Until recently, the Amazon had been doing humanity a favour, absorbing more planet-warming carbon dioxide (CO2) than it released.

But the burning of these forests emits huge amounts of CO2 – adding to warming rather than limiting it.

In 2023-24, the Amazon experienced its worst drought on record, fuelled by climate change and the natural warming El Niño weather pattern.

Many fires are started deliberately to clear land for agriculture, making it difficult to disentangle the two.

But the drought provided ideal conditions for fires to spread out of control, with Brazil and Bolivia most badly affected.

While only a single year, it fits the expected pattern of more intense tropical fires in a warming world.

"I think we are in a new phase, where it's not just the clearing for agriculture that's the main driver," said Rod Taylor of the World Resources Institute (WRI), which is also behind the latest report.

"Now we have this new amplifying effect, which is a real climate change feedback loop, where fires are just much more intense and much more ferocious than they've ever been."

In total, the record loss of the world's old-growth (primary) tropical forests released 3.1 billion tonnes of planet-warming gases, the researchers estimate.

That's roughly the same as the emissions of the European Union.

Signs of progress

Countries in South East Asia, however, bucked the global trend.

The area of primary forest loss in Indonesia fell by 11% compared to 2023, for example, despite drought conditions.

This was the result of a concerted effort by governments and communities working together to enforce "no burning" laws, according to Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of the Global Forest Watch project at WRI.

"Indonesia serves as a bright spot in the 2024 data," she said.

"Political will is a key factor of success - it's impossible otherwise," agreed Gabriel Labbate, head of climate change mitigation at the United Nations forests programme UNREDD, which was not involved in today's report.

Other countries, including Brazil, have seen success in the past with similar approaches, but started to see losses increase again in 2014 following a change in government policies.

Prof Hansen said that although the progress in South East Asia was positive, the fluctuations in forest loss in Brazil show that protection policies have to be consistent.

"The key we haven't seen yet is sustained success in reducing and maintaining low levels of conversion of these ecosystems and if you were interested in conserving the environment you have to win always and forever," he told BBC News.

The researchers agree that this year's UN climate summit COP30 - which is being hosted in the Amazon - will be critical for sharing and promoting forest protection schemes.

One proposal is to reward countries which maintain tropical forests through payments. The detail is still to be worked out but has promise, according to Rod Taylor.

"I think it's an example of an innovation that addresses one of the fundamental issues that at the moment there's more money to be made by chopping forests down than keeping them standing," he said.

Graphics by Erwan Rivault

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A former prime minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo has been sentenced to a decade's forced labour for corruption.

Augustin Matata Ponyo was found guilty of embezzling about $245m (£182m) of public funds by the Congolese Constitutional Court on Tuesday, alongside Deogratias Mutombo, the former governor of the DR Congo's central bank.

Matata's lawyer told Reuters news agency that the ruling was unfair and politically motivated.

Part of the funds were taken from a major agricultural development intended to tackle the country's chronic food shortages.

Matata served as prime minister of the DRC from 2012 to 2016 and now heads the country's Leadership and Governance for Development party (LGD).

Prior to his premiership, he was finance minister and received praise from the International Monetary Fund at the time for stabilising the country's economy.

Deogratias Mutombo, the central bank's former governor, has also been sentenced to five years of forced labour in the same case and has not commented publicly on the ruling.

Forced labour is legal in DR Congo when mandated by a court for a criminal penalty, according to the US State Department.

Both men have been barred from public service for five years from the end of their terms of forced labour, the AFP news agency reports.

Matata, who campaigned against DRC President Felix Tshisekedi in the 2023 vote before dropping out, has consistently denied the charges.

The case has stretched over almost four years since the country's Inspectorate General of Finance reported the theft from the Bukanga-Lonzo Agro-Industrial Park in 2020.

The park was one of Africa's largest ever agricultural investments according to the Reuters news agency and the African Development Bank Group had expected to provide 22,000 jobs.

It was intended to provide reprieve to the 28 million people who currently face acute food insecurity in DR Congo, which has been plagued by conflict for more than 30 years, since the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

The UN says no aid has yet been distributed in Gaza despite aid lorries starting to cross the border after an 11-week blockade.

Israeli officials said 93 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday, carrying aid including flour, baby food, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs.

But the UN said, despite trucks reaching the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, no aid had yet been distributed.

Its spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said a team "waited several hours" for Israel to allow them to access the area but "unfortunately, they were not able to bring those supplies into our warehouse".

Israel agreed on Sunday to lift its aid blockade on the Gaza Strip, where global experts have warned of a looming famine.

But international pressure on Israel has continued to grow.

The UK said it would be suspending trade talks over what it described as Israel's "morally unjustifiable" military escalation in Gaza, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer describing the situation as "intolerable".

Meanwhile, the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc would be reviewing its trade agreement with Israel in light of its actions in Gaza.

Dujarric said the aid operation was made "complex" as Israel required the UN to "offload supplies on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, and reload them separately once they secure our teams' access from inside the Gaza Strip".

He added the arrival of the supplies was a positive development but described it as "a drop in the ocean of what's needed".

UN bodies estimate 600 trucks a day are required to begin tackling Gaza's chronic humanitarian crisis.

Earlier, the UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the BBC thousands of babies could die in Gaza if Israel does not immediately let aid in.

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Mr Fletcher said: "There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them."

When pressed on how he had arrived at that figure, he said there were "strong teams on the ground" operating in medical centres and schools - but did not provide further details.

The BBC later asked for clarification on the figure from the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), which said: "We are pointing to the imperative of getting supplies in to save an estimated 14,000 babies suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Gaza, as the IPC partnership has warned about. We need to get the supplies in as soon as possible, ideally within the next 48 hours."

It highlighted a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) which stated 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition are expected to occur among children aged six to 59 months between April 2025 and March 2026.

The IPC report says this could take place over the course of about a year - not 48 hours.

When pressed on the figures at a news conference, UNOCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said: "For now let me just say that we know for a fact that there are babies who are in urgent life-saving need of these supplements that need to come in because their mothers are unable to feed themselves."

"And if they do not get those, they will be in mortal danger," he said.

Last week, the Hamas-run health ministry reported 57 children had died from the effects of malnutrition over the past 11 weeks.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday welcomed Israel's decision to allow some aid into Gaza, telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "We are pleased to see that aid is starting to flow in again."

Replying to a Democrat who said the number of aid trucks allowed in was too little, Rubio said: "I understand your point that it's not in sufficient amounts, but we were pleased to see that decision was made."

On Monday, the leaders of the UK, France and Canada issued a statement calling on the Israeli government to "stop its military operations" and "immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza".

As part of its announcement today, the UK also issued sanctions on several prominent Israeli settlers and settler-linked groups.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 53,475 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,340 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the territory's health ministry.

US President Donald Trump's administration has illegally deported two Asian men to South Sudan, immigration lawyers have told a court.

In a submission to a federal judge in Boston, the attorneys said a flight carrying a dozen people, including citizens of Myanmar and Vietnam, landed in South Sudan on Tuesday.

A previous court order bars the US government from deporting migrants to third countries without being given "meaningful opportunity" to challenge such removals.

The BBC has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for comment. South Sudan is one of the world's poorest countries, and has been plagued by conflict and political instability in recent years.

Attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance asked the federal judge on Tuesday for an emergency order to prevent the deportations.

Judge Brian Murphy issued a ruling on 18 April requiring that illegal migrants have a chance to challenge removal to countries other than their homelands.

After reports surfaced that some of the migrants were going to be sent to Libya, Judge Murphy, a Biden appointee, said any such move would violate his ruling.

Lawyers for the Burmese man said in Tuesday's court filing that their client speaks limited English and had refused to sign a notice of removal served on him by officials at an immigration detention centre in Texas.

On Tuesday morning an attorney emailed the centre after noticing her client was no longer showing up on a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee locator, says the court filing. She was informed he had been removed from the US.

When she asked to which country her client had been removed, the email reply said: "South Sudan."

The lawyers said another client, a Vietnamese man, "appears to have suffered the same fate" and "is or was on the same flight" as the man from Myanmar.

The Vietnamese man's spouse emailed his lawyer and said that the group of around 10 other individuals who were believed to have been deported included nationals of Laos, Thailand, Pakistan and Mexico, Reuters news agency reports.

"Please help!" the spouse said in an email. "They cannot be allowed to do this."

The US government's travel advisory states "do not travel to South Sudan due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict".

Africa's youngest nation, it endured a bloody civil war soon after its independence in 2011.

The UN says no aid has yet been distributed in Gaza despite aid lorries starting to cross the border after an 11-week blockade.

Israeli officials said 93 trucks entered Gaza on Tuesday, carrying aid including flour, baby food, medical equipment, and pharmaceutical drugs.

But the UN said, despite trucks reaching the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, no aid had yet been distributed.

Its spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said a team "waited several hours" for Israel to allow them to access the area but "unfortunately, they were not able to bring those supplies into our warehouse".

Israel agreed on Sunday to lift its aid blockade on the Gaza Strip, where global experts have warned of a looming famine.

But international pressure on Israel has continued to grow.

The UK said it would be suspending trade talks over what it described as Israel's "morally unjustifiable" military escalation in Gaza, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer describing the situation as "intolerable".

Meanwhile, the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc would be reviewing its trade agreement with Israel in light of its actions in Gaza.

Dujarric said the aid operation was made "complex" as Israel required the UN to "offload supplies on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, and reload them separately once they secure our teams' access from inside the Gaza Strip".

He added the arrival of the supplies was a positive development but described it as "a drop in the ocean of what's needed".

UN bodies estimate 600 trucks a day are required to begin tackling Gaza's chronic humanitarian crisis.

Earlier, the UN's humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher told the BBC thousands of babies could die in Gaza if Israel does not immediately let aid in.

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme, Mr Fletcher said: "There are 14,000 babies that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them."

When pressed on how he had arrived at that figure, he said there were "strong teams on the ground" operating in medical centres and schools - but did not provide further details.

The BBC later asked for clarification on the figure from the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), which said: "We are pointing to the imperative of getting supplies in to save an estimated 14,000 babies suffering from severe acute malnutrition in Gaza, as the IPC partnership has warned about. We need to get the supplies in as soon as possible, ideally within the next 48 hours."

It highlighted a report from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) which stated 14,100 severe cases of acute malnutrition are expected to occur among children aged six to 59 months between April 2025 and March 2026.

The IPC report says this could take place over the course of about a year - not 48 hours.

When pressed on the figures at a news conference, UNOCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said: "For now let me just say that we know for a fact that there are babies who are in urgent life-saving need of these supplements that need to come in because their mothers are unable to feed themselves."

"And if they do not get those, they will be in mortal danger," he said.

Last week, the Hamas-run health ministry reported 57 children had died from the effects of malnutrition over the past 11 weeks.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday welcomed Israel's decision to allow some aid into Gaza, telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee: "We are pleased to see that aid is starting to flow in again."

Replying to a Democrat who said the number of aid trucks allowed in was too little, Rubio said: "I understand your point that it's not in sufficient amounts, but we were pleased to see that decision was made."

On Monday, the leaders of the UK, France and Canada issued a statement calling on the Israeli government to "stop its military operations" and "immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza".

As part of its announcement today, the UK also issued sanctions on several prominent Israeli settlers and settler-linked groups.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 53,475 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,340 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the territory's health ministry.

The US has selected a design for the futuristic "Golden Dome" missile defence system, says US President Donald Trump, adding that it will be operational by the end of his time in office.

Just days after returning to the White House in January, Trump unveiled his intentions for the system, aimed at countering "next-generation" aerial threats to the US, including ballistic and cruise missiles.

An initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) has been earmarked in a new budget bill - although the government has estimated it will end up costing much more than that over decades.

Officials warn that existing systems have not kept pace with increasingly sophisticated weapons possessed by potential adversaries.

President Trump also announced that Space Force General Michael Guetlein will oversee the project. Gen Guetlein is currently vice chief of space operations at Space Force.

Seven days into his second administration, Trump ordered the defence department to submit plans for a system that would deter and defend against aerial attacks, which the White House said remain "the most catastrophic threat" facing the US.

Speaking in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump said the system would consist of "next-generation" technologies across land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors. He added that Canada had asked to be a part of the system.

During a visit to Washington earlier this year, then-Canadian defence minister Bill Blair acknowledged that Canada was interested in participating in the dome project, arguing that it "makes sense" and was in the country's "national interest".

He added that "Canada has to know what's going on in the region" and be aware of incoming threats, including in the Arctic.

Trump added that the system would be "capable even of intercepting missiles launched from the other side of the world, or launched from space".

The system is partly inspired by Israel's Iron Dome, which the country has used to intercept rockets and missiles since 2011.

The Golden Dome, however, would be many times larger and designed to combat a wider range of threats, including hypersonic weapons able to move faster than the speed of sound and fractional orbital bombardment systems - also called Fobs - that could deliver warheads from space.

"All of them will be knocked out of the air," Trump said. "The success rate is very close to 100%."

US officials had previously said that the Golden Dome will have the aim of allowing the US to stop missiles at various stages of their deployment, including before they launch and while they are still in the air.

The many aspects of the system will fall under one centralised command, US defence officials have said.

Trump said on Tuesday that the programme would require an initial investment of $25bn, with a total cost of $175bn over time. The initial $25bn has been identified within his One Big Beautiful Bill on tax, which has not yet been passed.

The Congressional Budget Office, however, has estimated that the government could ultimately spend more, up to $542bn over 20 years, on the space-based parts of the system alone.

Pentagon officials have long-warned that existing systems have not kept pace with new missile technology designed by Russia and China.

"There really is no current system," Trump said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. "We have certain areas of missiles and certain missile defence, but there is no system... there has never been anything like this."

A briefing document recently released by the Defense Intelligence Agency noted that missile threats "will expand in scale and sophistication", with China and Russia actively designing systems "to exploit gaps" in US defences.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called for Syria's transitional authorities to be supported, warning that the country could be only weeks away from "potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions".

At a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he defended President Donald Trump's decision last week to lift sanctions on Syria before meeting President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former al-Qaeda commander who led the rebel offensive that overthrew Bashar al-Assad in December.

Trump's rationale was that other countries wanted to help Sharaa's administration and send aid but were afraid of the sanctions, Rubio explained.

There was no immediate comment from Syrian officials.

The US imposed sanctions on Syria in response to atrocities committed by forces loyal to Assad during the country's devastating 13-year civil war, in which more than 600,000 people were killed and 12 million others were forced from their homes.

The State Department had previously insisted on several conditions being met before they were lifted, including protecting religious and ethnic minorities.

Although Sharaa has promised to do that, the country has been rocked by two waves of deadly sectarian violence in recent months.

In March, almost 900 civilians, mainly members of Assad's Alawite sect, were killed by pro-government forces across the western coastal region during fighting between security forces and former regime loyalists, according to one monitoring group. The loyalists reportedly killed almost 450 civilians and 170 security personnel.

And at the start of May, more than 100 people were reportedly killed in clashes between gunmen from the Druze religious minority, the new security forces and allied Sunni Islamist fighters in two suburbs of the capital Damascus and the southern province of Suweida.

Even before the violence, many members of minority communities were worried about the new transitional authorities, which are dominated by Sharaa's Sunni Islamist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). It is a former al-Qaeda affiliate still designated as a terrorist organisation by the UN, the US, the EU and the UK.

Sharaa himself also continues to be listed by the US as a "specially designated global terrorist", although the Biden administration announced in December that the US would scrap the $10m (£7.5m) bounty offered for his arrest.

Despite Sharaa's past, Trump took the opportunity to meet him while attending a summit of Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia last week.

Afterwards, the US president told reporters that he was a "young, attractive guy", adding: "Tough guy. Strong past. Very strong past. Fighter."

"He's got a real shot at pulling it [Syria] together," he said, adding, "it's a torn-up country".

Sharaa meanwhile said Trump's decision to lift the sanctions on Syria "was a historic and courageous decision, which alleviates the suffering of the people, contributes to their rebirth and lays the foundations for stability in the region".

Speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington DC on Tuesday, Rubio quipped that "the bad news is that the transitional authority figures... didn't pass their background check with the FBI".

"But on the flip side of it is, if we engage them, it may work out, it may not work out. If we did not engage them it was guaranteed to not work out," he added.

"In fact, it is our assessment that, frankly, the transitional authority, given the challenges they're facing, are maybe weeks, not many months, away from potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions, basically the country splitting up."

He did not elaborate but said Syria's minorities were "dealing with deep internal distrust... because Assad deliberately pitted these groups against each other".

He said the Trump decided to lift the sanctions quickly because "nations in the region want to get aid in, want to start helping them. And they can't because they are afraid of our sanctions".

As Rubio spoke, European Union foreign ministers agreed to also lift economic sanctions on Syria.

"We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new, inclusive and peaceful Syria," the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas wrote on X.

"The EU has always stood by Syrians throughout the last 14 years - and will keep doing so."

The Syrian foreign ministry said the decision marked "the beginning of a new chapter in Syrian-European relations built on shared prosperity and mutual respect".

Indian writer-lawyer-activist Banu Mushtaq has scripted history by winning the International Booker prize for the short story anthology, Heart Lamp.

It is the first book written in the Kannada language, which is spoken in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, to win the prestigious prize.

The stories in Heart Lamp were translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi.

Featuring 12 short stories written by Mushtaq over three decades from 1990 to 2023, Heart Lamp poignantly captures the hardships of Muslim women living in southern India.

Mushtaq's win comes off the back of Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand - translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell - winning the prize in 2022.

Her body of work is well-known among book lovers, but the Booker International win has shone a bigger spotlight on her life and literary oeuvre, which mirrors many of the challenges the women in her stories face, brought on by religious conservatism and a deeply patriarchal society.

It is this self-awareness that has, perhaps, helped Mushtaq craft some of the most nuanced characters and plot-lines.

"In a literary culture that rewards spectacle, Heart Lamp insists on the value of attention — to lives lived at the edges, to unnoticed choices, to the strength it takes simply to persist. That is Banu Mushtaq's quiet power," a review in the Indian Express newspaper says about the book.

Mushtaq grew up in a small town in the southern state of Karnataka in a Muslim neighbourhood and like most girls around her, studied the Quran in the Urdu language at school.

But her father, a government employee, wanted more for her and at the age of eight, enrolled her in a convent school where the medium of instruction was the state's official language - Kannada.

Mushtaq worked hard to become fluent in Kannada, but this alien tongue would become the language she chose for her literary expression.

She began writing while still in school and chose to go to college even as her peers were getting married and raising children.

It would take several years before Mushtaq was published and it happened during a particularly challenging phase in her life.

Her short story appeared in a local magazine a year after she had married a man of her choosing at the age of 26, but her early marital years were also marked by conflict and strife - something she openly spoke of, in several interviews.

In an interview with Vogue magazine, she said, "I had always wanted to write but had nothing to write (about) because suddenly, after a love marriage, I was told to wear a burqa and dedicate myself to domestic work. I became a mother suffering from postpartum depression at 29".

In the another interview to The Week magazine, she spoke of how she was forced to live a life confined within the four walls of her house.

Then, a shocking act of defiance set her free.

"Once, in a fit of despair, I poured white petrol on myself, intending to set myself on fire. Thankfully, he [the husband] sensed it in time, hugged me, and took away the matchbox. He pleaded with me, placing our baby at my feet saying, 'Don't abandon us'," she told the magazine.

In Heart Lamp, her female characters mirror this spirit of resistance and resilience.

"In mainstream Indian literature, Muslim women are often flattened into metaphors — silent sufferers or tropes in someone else's moral argument. Mushtaq refuses both. Her characters endure, negotiate, and occasionally push back — not in ways that claim headlines, but in ways that matter to their lives," according to a review of the book in The Indian Express newspaper.

Mushtaq went on to work as a reporter in a prominent local tabloid and also associated with the Bandaya movement - which focussed on addressing social and economic injustices through literature and activism.

After leaving journalism a decade later, she took up work as a lawyer to support her family.

In a storied career spanning several decades, she has published a copious amount of work; including six short story collections, an essay collection and a novel.

But her incisive writing has also made her a target of hate.

In an interview to The Hindu newspaper, she spoke about how in the year 2000, she received threatening phone calls after she expressed her opinion supporting women's right to offer prayer in mosques.

A fatwa - a legal ruling as per Islamic law - was issued against her and a man tried to attack her with a knife before he was overpowered by her husband.

But these incidents did not faze Mushtaq, who continued to write with fierce honesty.

"I have consistently challenged chauvinistic religious interpretations. These issues are central to my writing even now. Society has changed a lot, but the core issues remain the same. Even though the context evolves, the basic struggles of women and marginalised communities continue," she told The Week magazine.

Over the years Mushtaq's writings have won numerous prestigious local and national awards including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe Award.

In 2024, the translated English compilation of Mushtaq's five short story collections published between 1990 and 2012 - Haseena and Other Stories - won the PEN Translation Prize.

George Wendt, who starred as Norm Peterson in the popular comedy series Cheers, has died at the age of 76.

The beloved actor and comedian died peacefully in his sleep at his home early on Tuesday morning, his family confirmed.

"George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him. He will be missed forever," a representative told the BBC.

Wendt starred as Norm in all 275 episodes of Cheers, which ran from 1982 to 1993, earning six consecutive Emmy nominations for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series.

He reunited with some of the cast of Cheers at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2024, including Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, Kelsey Grammer and John Ratzenberger.

In addition to the NBC sitcom, Wendt appeared in several movies such as Dreamscape, Forever Young and Gung Ho.

He has been married to fellow actor Bernadette Birkett since 1978, with whom he has three children.

He is also the uncle of actor and comedian Jason Sudeikis.

Italy has backed President Donald Trump's suggestion the Vatican might mediate talks on negotiating a ceasefire in Ukraine, while he appears keen to step back from the process himself.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's office said Italy was ready to "facilitate contacts and work towards peace" in Ukraine and it "viewed positively" what it said was the Pope's willingness to host the talks at the Vatican.

In fact there's no firm agreement yet on further discussions: last Friday's meeting between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul brought additional demands from Moscow, not progress.

Pope Leo said last week the Vatican was "always ready" to bring enemies together and he would "make every effort" for peace to prevail.

But the Holy See says the idea of hosting, or even mediating, talks – which Trump suggested was an option - is more a hope for now than any concrete plan.

If direct engagement does continue, Ukraine seems open to the notion of the Vatican as host.

Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X on Tuesday that he had talked to Giorgia Meloni, including about "possible platforms for talks with the Russians".

The Italian prime minister had, he said, "as always, cool ideas", although he has raised Turkey and Switzerland as alternative venues too.

The Kremlin might prefer to stay in Turkey. It talks about a process called "Istanbul Plus", styling any talks as a follow-up on the deal initially discussed in Turkey shortly after the full-scale invasion.

Those terms, which included Ukraine drastically reducing its own military, would represent capitulation for Kyiv now.

But Russia has added more: the "plus" part means recognition of its annexation of four partially occupied regions of Ukraine as well as Crimea.

The actual venue matters little to the Kremlin: all it wants is for the discussion to be on Vladimir Putin's terms.

The prospect of meaningful progress, bluntly, looks slim.

But might the Vatican lend some extra moral authority in the push for some kind of compromise?

The Catholic Church has a history of helping to mediate conflicts and it has already been involved in talks to free prisoners and return Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

Its real input there isn't clear, though, as others have fulfilled the same role.

On the other hand, the Vatican – especially any involvement of the new Pope – would introduce a different tone to proceedings.

Its quiet style couldn't be further from Donald Trump's capitalised social media posts and his brutal public showdown with Zelensky in the Oval Office. And the setting already seems to have worked wonders on the men's relationship.

It was at Pope Francis' funeral that they were snapped deep in conversation, heads close, inside St Peter's Basilica.

The Vatican prides itself on its diplomacy: that's why, when others severed ties with Moscow after it began bombing Ukraine, the Catholic Church sent a cardinal envoy to talk to the Kremlin. It made no impact.

Pope Francis, like Donald Trump, always avoided openly identifying Russia as the aggressor. Vatican sources say that was to keep the door for dialogue ajar, even when it seemed hopeless.

But Francis upset Ukrainians more by suggesting that Russia had been "provoked" by Nato into its invasion. He then agreed it might be wise for Kyiv to "raise the white flag" and surrender.

For Kyiv, Pope Leo might be a preferable potential peace-broker. He is on record as bishop denouncing Russia's invasion as an imperialist war and condemning crimes against humanity being committed by Putin's troops.

That's unlikely to faze the Kremlin, if the Vatican were ever to host talks.

"Putin can explain his position to the Pope, he believes it's just. In his mind, it's Ukraine that's not serious about peace talks," argued Tatiana Stanovaya, from the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Centre.

"I don't believe for one second that the Pope could affect Putin's understanding in any way."

At this point, Russia is under no major pressure to give ground: all Donald Trump's talk of punishing Putin for his intransigence has turned into talk of trade with Russia. Offering incentives, not threating sanctions.

It's true that Moscow wanted a lot more.

"They want Zelensky removed and for the US and EU to stop military aid, but on this, the US has been on Ukraine's side – from the Russian perspective," Tatiana Stanovaya says.

So Russia is prepared to play the long game - which doesn't involve compromise.

"If the Pope could help pressure Ukraine, Putin wouldn't have a problem [with his involvement]," she says.

That seems to be the real issue here. It runs far deeper than whether the two sides eat meze or antipasti between hypothetical rounds of fresh talks.

The European Union has proposed a two-euro flat fee on billions of small parcels sent directly to people's homes, which mainly come from China at the moment.

The new tax would mean that packages worth less than 150 euros (£126) are no longer customs-free.

Online marketplaces, including Chinese giants Temu and Shein, would be expected to pay the fee, said EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic.

Last year, 4.6 billion such parcels entered the EU, with more than 90% coming from China.

Such a volume had created a huge workload for EU customs staff, Sefcovic said. He argued it had presented challenges in ensuring the safety and standard of goods entering the bloc was properly checked.

The proposed fee would "compensate the cost", he told the European Parliament. Brussels also hopes some of the revenue generated will go towards the EU budget.

The two-euro fee will apply to packages sent directly to consumers, while parcels sent to warehouses would be taxed at a lower rate of 0.50 euros (£0.42).

The EU's move comes after the US's new tariffs on Chinese goods under President Donald Trump's administration - which include a fee on small packages.

Following negotiations last week, the tariff on small packages worth up to $800 (£606) was revised down to 54% from 120%. However a flat fee per parcel of $100 remains.

There had been fears that the Chinese e-commerce giants could then flood the European market with cheap goods, as products originally destined for the US would have to be dumped elsewhere.

European retailers have complained before that they face unfair competition with overseas competitors, who they argue do not comply with the EU's strict product standards.

Shein and Temu have previously said they would co-operate with regulators and consumer standards. Temu says it has 92 million users in the EU, while Shein has said it has over 130 million.

Prior to the US tariffs, platforms like Shein and Temu had relied on the so-called "de minimis" exemption to ship low-value items directly to customers in the US without having to pay duties or import taxes.

An exotic dancer called The Punisher discovered his client's identity when he turned on a hotel suite television before an encounter and the screen said, "Welcome Sean Combs".

Sharay Hayes testified at the hip-hop mogul's sex-trafficking trial that he was hired to create what he called "sexy, erotic scenes" with Combs' then-girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura while a naked man watched from the corner.

But he did not realise at first that the man was Mr Combs. That changed when Mr Hayes was in a luxury hotel suite in New York waiting for his clients and he saw his name on the television's welcome screen.

Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Mr Hayes testified in a New York courtroom on Tuesday about his first meeting with the couple. He was "specifically told to not acknowledge" the man in the room and he said Mr Combs wore a veil over his face.

They were in a hotel room in Trump Tower on Central Park West and Ms Ventura greeted him at the door wearing a bath robe, Mr Hayes said.

Inside the room, the furniture was covered in sheets and there were "little bowls" on the floor with bottles of baby oil.

Mr Hayes' testimony comes after the court heard from Daniel Phillip, who last week claimed he was paid to have sex with Ms Ventura while Mr Combs watched.

Cassie's mother took photographs of daughter's injuries

Also on Tuesday, the court heard from Regina Ventura, the mother of R&B singer Cassie.

An email from Ms Ventura to her mother from 23 December, 2011 was shown as evidence. In it, she wrote that Mr Combs had made threats towards her, and that he would "release 2 explicit sex tapes of me".

The email also said Mr Combs had told Ms Ventura he would be "having someone hurt me" and "he made a point that it wouldn't be by his hands, he actually said he'd be out of the country when it happened".

After the email was shown in court, Ms Ventura's mother identified several images of her daughter taken in her family home in Connecticut around the same time.

They show bruises across Ms Ventura's upper and lower back, and her leg.

Ms Ventura's mother alleged the bruises were from being her being "beaten by Sean Combs".

She also testified that Mr Combs had demanded $20,000, because "he was angry that he had spent money" on Ms Ventura.

Ms Ventura's mother testified that she took out a loan with her husband and sent the money to an account as directed by Mr Combs' "bookkeeper".

"I was scared for my daughter's safety," Ms Ventura told the court, adding that she felt she had to pay "because he demanded it".

The money then reappeared in their account about four days later, Ms Ventura said. There was no communication about its return.

Earlier on Tuesday, the defence vigourously cross-examined a former personal assistant of Mr Combs and pointed out some inconsistencies in the versions of events he had previously told the government.

The trial is expected to last several weeks and Mr Combs could face a life sentence if found guilty.

The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group, which has been engaged in a two-year war with Sudan's army, has been entirely pushed out of Khartoum state, says the military.

"Khartoum State is completely free of rebels", the army said in a statement published by Sudan's News Agency.

The announcement comes nearly two months after the military recaptured Khartoum city - including the presidential palace - from its rivals in a major victory.

Earlier on Tuesday, fighting had broken out between the warring groups in the city of Omdurman - which is also in Khartoum state and part of the capital region.

The army said on Monday that it had started a "large-scale offensive" in Omdurman, according to the AFP news agency.

The RSF has not yet commented on the army's latest claim.

Khartoum had once been at the heart of Sudan's government, but the country's military leaders were forced to move east to Port Sudan after their rivals took control of the area.

Until recently Port Sudan had been viewed as relatively safe, however it was at the centre of escalating fighting when it came under drone attack earlier this month, which the army blamed on the RSF.

The attacks hit key infrastructure and led to water shortages and worsening blackouts.

The war has also had diplomatic reverberations, with relations souring between Sudan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), after Sudan accused the gulf nation of supporting the RSF, which it denies.

Those accusations continued on Tuesday, with Sudan saying the UAE was responsible for an attack on Port Sudan earlier this month, Reuters news agency reported.

The UAE has strongly denied the accusations, describing them as "unfounded allegations".

Since the civil war erupted three years ago, thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced from their homes - creating the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Both the army and the RSF have been accused of war crimes, which they deny.

More BBC Africa stories about Sudan:

• Drone attacks raise stakes in new phase of Sudan's civil war
• Inside Khartoum, a city left in ruins
• Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening

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

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

This story contains distressing details from the start

Joel Le Scouarnec, a former surgeon on trial in France who has admitted to sexually abusing hundreds of patients, mostly under age, said he considers himself "responsible" for the death of two of his victims.

Over the last few weeks, the court was shown the photos of two people whose relatives say died by suicide, following the trauma of being sexually assaulted by Le Scouarnec when they were children.

One is not being named; the other is Mathias Vinet, who died at in 2021 after struggling with addiction. His grandparents told the BBC they blame Le Scouarnec for his death.

"I keep the memory of those two photos, [shown] right towards the end, during the last examinations," the former surgeon said. "They died, and I am responsible."

Le Scouarnec, 74, was being questioned in court in Vannes, Brittany, during the penultimate week of a long and gruelling trial which began in late February.

In March, during a session held behind closed doors, Le Scouarnec - once a respected small-town surgeon - admitted to sexually abusing all 299 victims, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations, between 1989 and 2014. More than 250 of them were under the age of 15.

His lawyer Maxime Tessier said he had asked Le Scouarnec if he admitted that the numerous people mentioned in his diaries were "all potential victims of his acts and he said: 'Yes'".

At the start of the trial Le Scouarnec also told the court he "committed despicable acts" and "understood and shared the suffering" caused to many of his patients.

Police were able to identify hundreds of victims thanks to meticulously-compiled diaries in which Le Scouarnec logged assaults he carried out in graphic detail.

Many had no recollection of the abuse they are said to have sustained, and had to be told by police that their names appeared in Le Scouarnec's diaries.

For hundreds of hours over the course of the trial, Le Scouarnec has come face to face with dozens of his victims and their relatives.

Many of them became emotional as they described how the abuse they endured shaped their lives; several said they have suffered from eating disorders, anxiety, depression or addiction.

"You got into my head, it's destroyed me, I became a whole other person I don't recognise anymore," Le Monde newspaper reported one victim as saying.

One of the few victims who had memories of the abuse sustained at the hands of Le Scouarnec said that she was relieved when police contacted her to say her name appeared in the former surgeon's diaries.

"I have been waiting for your call for 30 years," she said, according to Le Monde.

The newspaper also told the story of another victim who had no recollection of the abuse but said she nonetheless was "convinced" she had been raped. "I wanted to die without even knowing why. He stole my youth," she told the court.

Throughout the trial Le Scouarnec has apologised to his victims, often acknowledging that his acts had been "revolting".

Romane Codou, a lawyer representing several victims, told French media that his admission of guilt had "appeased" the victims and "allowed them to shut the door on an awful debate in which we were at the mercy of Joel Le Scouarnec".

A section of the trial was devoted to the cross-examination of medical professionals who worked in the same establishments as Le Scouarnec.

Victims' lawyers and child protection advocacy groups have said "institutional failings" allowed the surgeon to continue working with children even after an FBI alert - issued in the early 2000s - warned French authorities that Le Scouarnec had been accessing child abuse websites.

The National Order of Doctors (Cnom), which has also filed a lawsuit against Le Scouranec, said in March that it "expressed its deep regrets" as he should have been "prevented from practicing".

"This situation has highlighted poor communication between the different entities of the Order of Doctors, and we deeply regret this," they said in a statement.

Despite being the largest child abuse trial in French history, many victims have felt the proceedings have garnered relatively little attention in France.

The Victims of Joel Le Scouarnec Collective group said it was "stunned" to see how the trial had failed to capture the attention of politicians and society at large.

"No lesson has been drawn from this, neither from the medical world nor from politicians," the group said in a statement.

Le Scouarnec is already in prison after being sentenced in December 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces. Now, he faces an additional 20-year sentence.

A verdict is expected on 28 May.

At least three people have died in floods caused by heavy rainfall and storms which have battered southern France since Monday.

The bodies of an elderly couple were found in the seaside resort town of Le Lavandou, while another person died after becoming trapped in a car in Vidauban, local authorities reported on Tuesday.

The rains have caused widespread damage across the region, flooding streets and causing power and water outages. At least two regional trains stopped their journeys overnight after railway tracks were damaged.

The couple who died had tried to leave their home but were swept away, "surprised by the very rapid rise in water levels", the Toulon public prosecutor said.

An investigation has been opened into their deaths.

"We are in shock at the scale of the natural disaster that struck the Cavalière district this morning," officials in Le Lavandou said. They said the town centre had been inundated by 256mm of rain in just an hour.

The town, about 30km (18 miles) east of St Tropez, is a holidaying destination along the French Riviera.

"It was a truly violent, nasty, incomprehensible phenomenon," said local mayor Gil Bernardi, describing "roads torn up" and "bridges broken apart".

Le Lavandou was still suffering electricity and water outages on Tuesday and access had also been restricted as the town's main road remained flooded.

Meanwhile, officials further north in Vidauban said one person had died after the car they were in drove onto a flooded road and fell into a ditch.

A passer-by tried to save both occupants - the driver and the passenger - but was only able to rescue the driver, Vidauban's town mayor Claude Pianetti said.

More than 500 calls have been made to emergency services in the Var region over the past day, authorities said. Several hundred emergency rescuers have also been deployed to the region, including from nearby cities like Cannes.

Var was placed on further emergency warnings for thunderstorms and flooding on Tuesday morning, but these were later downgraded to the lowest level.

More than 600 homes remain without electricity, local authorities said earlier.

Heavy rains and hailstorms had struck south-west France on Monday night. The Bordeaux-Toulouse railway line has been affected with some trains on the route cancelled for the next few days.

The UK government has announced sanctions on Daniella Weiss, a far-right Israeli settler known as the "godmother" of the settler movement.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the move "demonstrates our determination to hold extremist settlers to account as Palestinian communities suffer violence and intimidation".

Weiss, 79, is the leader of a radical settler organisation called Nachala - or homeland - which has also been sanctioned.

For decades, Weiss has been prominent in the founding of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, on land captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

In the sanctions sheet, she was described as having been involved in "threatening, perpetrating, promoting and supporting, acts of aggression and violence against Palestinian individuals".

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson described the sanctions - which also target two other settlers, two illegal settler outposts, and two organisations - as "unjustified, and regrettable".

Weiss was recently featured in Louis Theroux's documentary "The Settlers" - and has been active in the movement to rebuild settlements in Gaza.

Speaking to BBC News last year, she said: "Gaza Arabs will not stay in the Gaza Strip. Who will stay? Jews."

"The world is wide," she added. "Africa is big. Canada is big. The world will absorb the people of Gaza. How we do it? We encourage it. Palestinians in Gaza, the good ones, will be enabled. I'm not saying forced, I say enabled because they want to go."

In response to the sanctions, Weiss said hundreds of families "are prepared and ready to implement settlement in Gaza - immediately".

Nachala called for "conquest, immigration and settlement in Gaza" and added that it wants Israel to "continue the war until the enemy is destroyed".

The UK also announced sanctions on two other settlers - Zohar Sabah and Harel David Libi, as well as the outposts Coco's Farm, and Neria's Farm, and the organisation Libi Construction and Infrastructure LTD.

Outposts are settlements built without official Israeli authorisation.

"The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions. Their consistent failure to act is putting Palestinian communities and the two-state solution in peril," Lammy added.

Additionally, the UK government announced it would pause free trade negotiations with Israel with immediate effect, saying "it is not possible to advance discussions" with "a Netanyahu government that is pursuing egregious policies in the West Bank and Gaza".

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson responded: "If, due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy — that is its own prerogative."

The move follows a strongly-worded joint-statement from the leaders of the UK, France and Canada on Monday which called on the Israeli government to "stop its military operations" and "immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza".

Israel has said it will allow a "basic amount of food" into Gaza, ending an 11-week blockade of the territory, which it said was aimed at pressuring Hamas to release remaining hostages.

But United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said the amount of aid was a "drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed".

Joe Biden's announcement that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer has revived questions about what health issues the former US president was dealing with while he was in the White House.

In a statement on Sunday, Biden's office said the 82 year old had received the diagnosis on Friday after seeing a doctor for urinary symptoms.

Some doctors have expressed surprise that the aggressive form of cancer, which has spread to his bones, had not been detected earlier.

Others pointed out that cancers can grow fast without the patient displaying symptoms - and that men over 70 are not routinely screened.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday his predecessor should have been more transparent with the public, seeming to suggest - without offering evidence - that the cancer diagnosis had been covered up.

"I think it is very sad actually. I am surprised that the public wasn't notified a long time ago," Trump said at an event at the White House.

"It could take years to get to this level of danger. So, look, it's a very, very sad situation. I feel very badly about it, and I think people should try and find out what happened."

Biden has yet to respond to Trump's comments, which came amid reports that the Democrat's aides sought to conceal other deteriorating health conditions from the public ahead of the 2024 election.

• Cancer touches us all, says Biden after outpouring
• What we know about Biden's cancer

Republicans claim that Biden, who ran for re-election as the oldest president in history at 81, was mentally and physically unfit for office. He dropped out of the race last summer after a disastrous debate performance against Trump.

According to Original Sin, a new book by journalists Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson, Biden was unable to recognise Hollywood actor and Democratic donor George Clooney or to recall the names of key aides in his final year in office.

The authors write: "Biden's physical deterioration - most apparent in his halting walk - had become so severe that there were internal discussions about putting the president in a wheelchair, but they couldn't do so until after the election."

The publicity generated by the book has forced senior Democrats to field questions on why they did not do more to respond to Americans' concerns about Biden's health as he campaigned for re-election.

"It was a mistake for Democrats to not listen to the voters earlier," Senator Chris Murphy said on Sunday.

After the news of Biden's diagnosis, Vice-President JD Vance wished him well but then asked whether Biden's doctors or staff members sought to keep the public from knowing about the true state of his health.

"This is not child's play, and we can pray for good health, but also recognise that if you're not in good enough health to do the job, you shouldn't be doing the job," he added.

Dr Ezekiel Emanuel, an oncologist who worked as a Covid adviser to the Biden White House, was among those claiming that Biden probably had been ill with cancer for some time, without necessarily knowing it.

"He did not develop in the last 100, 200 days. He had it while he was president," he told MSNBC's Morning Joe show. "He probably had it at the start of his presidency in 2021. Yes, I don't think there's any disagreement about that."

US medical guidelines do not recommend routine blood screenings for men over 70 because prostate cancers can be very slow-growing, and the harm of testing and treatment may outweigh the risk from the cancer.

Biden had previously been diagnosed with benign enlargement of the prostate. In 2019, before he was elected, his campaign released the report from his medical screening, saying he had been treated with medication and surgery, "and has never had prostate cancer".

That's led to questions about whether Biden was tested at any point during his four-year presidency - and why the diagnosis came so late.

"I would assume the former president gets a very thorough physical every year," Dr Chris George of the Northwestern Health Network told Reuters. "It's sort of hard for me to believe that he's had a (blood test) within the past year that was normal."

However, Dr Robert Figlin, interim director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer, told the BBC that the aggressive way Biden's cancer had presented was not that unusual. And he warned critics against "assuming that somehow something was missed along the way".

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer for men, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), out of every 100 American men, 13 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, and two or three men will die from it.

Seven Mexican youths have been shot dead at a festivity organised by the Catholic Church in the central state of Guanajuato.

Gunmen opened fire on a group of people who had stayed behind in the central square of the village of San Bartolo de Berrios after an event organised by the local parish.

Eyewitnesses said the assailants had driven straight to the village square in the early hours of Monday and fired dozens of shots seemingly at random.

The authorities have not yet said what the motive behind the shooting may have been but messages scrawled on signs left at several nearby locations appear to indicate it was carried out by the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel.

While attacks on nightclubs, bars and cockfighting venues are not unusual in Mexican states hit by cartel violence, an attack on an event organised by the Catholic Church is rare.

The Episcopal Conference of Mexico, which represents the country's bishops, condemned the fatal shooting saying it "cannot remain indifferent in the face of the spiral of violence that is wounding so many communities".

The local archbishop, Jaime Calderón, also released a statement blaming the attack on a fight for territory between rival cartels.

Guanajuato, where San Bartolo de Berrios is located, had the highest number of murders of any state in Mexico in 2024 with a total of 2,597 homicides.

Both the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel are active in the state and have been locked in a deadly battle for control over territory.

While the two groups engage in extortion and drug trafficking, they have also increasingly tapped pipelines which run through the state carrying petrol from refineries to major distribution points.

The practice of stealing and selling fuel on the black market - known as huachicoleo - is a major source of revenue for the criminal gangs in the region.

In their fight for territorial control, the gangs often try to spread fear amid the local population in order to ensure their silence and compliance.

Bloody shootings such as the one in San Bartolo de Berrios and the subsequent display of threatening messages are a particularly brutal way gangs use to show they have expanded into a particular town.

Residents of San Bartolo de Berrios said they had heard around 100 shots ring out in the early hours of Monday within the space of a few minutes.

They said the scene in the central square resembled "a bloodbath" with the bodies of the seven youths, two of them aged under 18, strewn across the pavement.

No arrests have so far been made in connection with the attack.

Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of "trying to buy time" to continue its war in Ukraine, a day after Donald Trump said progress towards a ceasefire had been made in a call with Vladimir Putin.

"If Russia continues to put forward unrealistic conditions and undermine progress, there must be tough consequences," Ukraine's president wrote on social media, adding that Kyiv was ready to negotiate.

Following separate calls with Zelensky and Putin on Monday, Trump said truce talks between Russia and Ukraine would start "immediately".

Putin said he was ready to work on a "memorandum on a possible future peace agreement", but did not address calls for a 30-day pause in fighting.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin downplayed suggestions that negotiations were close, with Russian state news agencies citing spokesperson Dmitry Peskov as saying "there are no deadlines and there cannot be any".

Meanwhile, Zelensky launched a fresh round of diplomacy, speaking to Western allies in a bid to shore up support.

Following a phone call with the Finnish president, Zelensky wrote on social media that Ukraine was working with partners to ensure pressure on Moscow "forces the Russians to change their behaviour".

It came as the European Union and UK announced that they had adopted new rounds of sanctions against Russia.

The EU said it was blacklisting nearly 200 more oil tankers in Russia's "shadow fleet", and warned of a "tougher response" if Moscow did not agree to a truce in Ukraine.

The UK placed sanctions 18 more tankers, as part of its package targeting Russian military suppliers, energy exports and financial institutions.

It followed a record drone assault in Ukraine over the weekend, which Kyiv officials described as the largest since the start of the full-scale invasion.

On Monday, Trump indicated he would not join in any new sanctions on Russia, telling reporters that they could hinder recent progress.

It came as heavy fighting continued along the front line, with Ukraine reporting 177 clashes and claiming over 1,000 Russian casualties in 24 hours.

Speaking ahead of a meeting of EU ministers on Tuesday, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said Russia's continued attacks "speak louder than the lip service we have heard for so long".

"Putin is clearly playing for time. Unfortunately, we have to say he is not really interested in peace," he said.

Putin has so far rebuffed a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a 30-day ceasefire and last week rejected Zelensky's invitation to meet for talks in Istanbul. Trump had offered to attend the talks if Putin would be there, but the Russian leader declined.

The Kremlin has previously announced temporary ceasefires, including from 8-11 Mayto coincide with Russia's Second World War victory celebrations. Kyiv refused to join, citing mistrust and demanding an immediate, sustained cessation of hostilities.

A similar 30-hour truce over Easter saw a brief lull in fighting, though both sides accused each other of hundreds of violations.

Russia and Ukraine have been at war since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Iran's Supreme Leader has expressed doubt that nuclear talks with the US will lead to a new agreement, saying it had made "excessive and outrageous" demands on uranium enrichment.

"We don't think it will lead to any outcome. We don't know what will happen," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

US President Donald Trump said last week that Iran had "sort of" agreed to the terms of a deal following four rounds of talks mediated by Oman since 12 April.

But ahead of another round scheduled for this weekend, Iran's chief negotiator rejected his US counterpart's assertion that it would have to commit to stop producing enriched uranium, which can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons.

Trump, who pulled the US out of a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers during his first term in office, has warned Iran that it could face US and Israeli military action if the talks are not successful.

Iran insists its nuclear activities are entirely peaceful and it will never seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons.

However, it has breached restrictions imposed by the existing nuclear deal in retaliation for crippling US sanctions reinstated seven years ago, and has stockpiled enough highly-enriched uranium to make several bombs.

Khamenei addressed the latest developments in Iran's negotiations with the US at a ceremony honouring late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash one year ago.

He praised Raisi, a fellow hardline cleric, for refusing direct talks with the US while in office.

"He clearly said 'no' without ambiguity," Khamanei noted, adding that Raisi did not let enemies "drag Iran to the negotiating table through threats or tricks".

Khamenei said nuclear talks under Raisi's predecessor, the moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani, had failed to achieve results, and that he did not think there would be any breakthrough under his successor, Masoud Pezeshkian, who is a reformist.

The supreme leader also criticised the Trump administration's approach, saying: "The American side in these indirect talks should avoid nonsensical remarks."

"Saying they will not allow Iran to enrich is a big mistake. No-one waits for their permission."

US special envoy Steve Witkoff told ABC News in an interview on Sunday: "We cannot allow even 1% of an enrichment capability. We've delivered a proposal to the Iranians that we think addresses some of this without disrespecting them."

He added: "We want to get to a solution here. And we think that will be able to."

"But everything begins from our standpoint with a deal that does not include enrichment. We cannot have that. Because enrichment enables weaponisation, and we will not allow a bomb to get here."

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi swiftly responded by warning Witkoff: "Unrealistic expectations stop negotiations, enrichment in Iran is not something that can be stopped."

"I think he is completely at a distance from the reality of the negotiations," he added.

The 2015 deal that Iran reached with then-US President Barack Obama's administration, as well as the UK, France, China, Russia and Germany, saw it limit its nuclear activities and allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in return for sanctions relief.

Iran was only permitted to enrich uranium up to 3.67% purity, which can be used to produce fuel for commercial nuclear power plants.

In February, the International Atomic Energy Agency warned that Iran had stockpiled almost 275kg (606lb) of uranium enriched to 60% purity, which is near weapons grade. That would theoretically be enough, if enriched to 90%, for six nuclear bombs.

French authorities have launched a nationwide hunt for thousands of tiny Chinese-made telephones used by convicts to continue criminal activities from inside prison.

The telephones, no bigger than a cigarette-lighter, are almost entirely plastic, and have a reputation for being virtually invisible to metal detectors.

Under Operation Prison Break, announced on Tuesday by the cyber crime branch of the Paris prosecutor's office, prison officers have been authorised to conduct searches in 500 cells in 66 detention centres.

According to Le Monde newspaper, the devices were nicknamed "suppositories" by prison inmates because of their ease of concealment.

"Investigations have established that some of these telephones were used to commit crimes from inside detention, including drugs trafficking, racketeering, arson and attempted murder," a statement from the prosecutor's office said.

The French supplier of the devices – a company called Oportik – has been stopped from trading and three staff members arrested. It is believed to have sold about 5,000 of the phones, the cheapest of which cost just €20 (£16.84).

France's Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin has pledged to crack down on drug gangs and other criminal organisations, whose leaders he said are too often able to continue to conduct operating even after being jailed.

In 2024 some 40,000 mobile phones were confiscated in prisons. Conventional devices are projected over prison walls or dropped by drones. Others are smuggled in by corrupt prison staff. Phone-jamming is deployed in some jails, but there are doubts about its efficacity.

Similar mini-phones are manufactured in large numbers in China, according to Le Monde. While they are themselves perfectly legal in France, it is a crime to supply a prisoner with a phone.

The French prosecutor's office said it had passed information on how it traced the Oportik phones to the EU's judicial cooperation agency Eurojust, so that other countries can conduct similar clampdowns.

The Spanish government has called for the removal of the listings of nearly 66,000 properties on rental platform Airbnb on the grounds that they breach regulations for tourist accommodation.

The clampdown comes as protests against over-tourism have begun ahead of the summer season. Demonstrations in the Canary Islands on Sunday attracted thousands of people.

The minister for social rights, consumer affairs and the 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, said the rental properties in question had "violated various norms regarding housing for tourist use".

The announcement followed a Madrid court ruling that Airbnb must immediately withdraw from the market 5,800 of the properties cited by the ministry.

The properties are in six regions: Madrid, Andalusia, Catalonia, Valencia, the Basque Country and the Balearic Islands.

Bustinduy's ministry is now awaiting further judicial rulings on the other 60,000 or so properties whose listings it deems unlawful.

According to the ministry, the properties it has identified either did not provide a licence number, provided an erroneous number, or did not specify the legal status of the owner to show whether they were renting on a professional basis or as a private individual.

He described the court's decision as "a clear victory for those who fight to protect the right to housing".

Bustinduy added that "it can be possible to ensure that no economic interest has priority over housing and that no company, however big or powerful, is above the law".

Housing has emerged as Spaniards' biggest concern in recent months, due to spiralling rental costs, particularly in larger towns and cities.

Read more: Spanish fightback against record tourism

The cost of an average rental has doubled over the last decade, while salaries have failed to keep up.

Tourist apartments have been identified by many as a major cause of the problem, depriving local residents of accommodation.

Spain is the world's second most popular tourist destination after France, with 94 million foreign visitors in 2024, a 13% rise on the previous year.

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said earlier this year "there are too many Airbnbs and not enough homes", and he promised to prevent the "uncontrolled" expansion of the use of properties for tourism.

Some local governments have also started to act against Airbnb.

Barcelona City Hall has said it will eliminate its 10,000 short-term tourist apartments by the end of 2028.

Others have taken a different approach. In recent months, Airbnb has reached agreements with local authorities in the Canary Islands, Ibiza and Murcia aimed at ensuring property owners comply with tourist rental rules.

Airbnb responded to the court ruling and Bustinduy's announcement by insisting it would appeal against decisions linked to this case and that no evidence of rule-breaking by hosts had been provided.

It also cited a 2022 ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court which found that the responsibility for listing information lay with the host of each property, not the company, which was a "neutral intermediary" and not a real estate provider.

The firm also made a broader point about the Spanish housing problem.

"The root cause of the affordable housing crisis in Spain is a lack of supply to meet demand," said a spokesperson. "Governments across the world are seeing that regulating Airbnb does not alleviate housing concerns or return homes to the market – it only hurts local families who rely on hosting to afford their homes and rising costs."

Last summer, Spain saw a wave of protests against over-tourism in many popular destinations, with its impact on housing the biggest grievance.

With the number of foreign visitors to Spain fast approaching 100 million per year, the unrest is expected to continue this summer.

On Sunday, several thousand people took to the streets across the Canary Islands under the slogan "Canaries have a limit".

In Majorca, a group called Menys Turisme, Més Vida (Less tourism, more life) is preparing for similar actions, with a protest scheduled for 15 June.

At least 38 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip during a half-hour period overnight, according to Palestinian medics.

Israeli warplanes struck several locations, including a school in eastern Gaza City, and an abandoned fuel station sheltering displaced families in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Hamas-run civil defence agency.

It added that rescue teams were facing major difficulties reaching the wounded due to a lack of equipment and the intensity of the bombardment.

The attack comes after Israel issued a sweeping evacuation order for civilians in Gaza in preparation for what it said was an "unprecedented attack".

Ten people were killed when an Israeli air strike hit classrooms at the Musa bin Nusayr School, where hundreds of displaced people were sheltering, according to local activists in Gaza City.

In central Gaza, 15 people were reported killed in a strike targeting tents at an abandoned fuel station in Nuseirat.

Meanwhile, local journalists said 13 Palestinians were killed in an air strike on the Abu Samra family's three-story home in central Deir al-Balah.

Separately, Israeli jets launched 10 air strikes on the Shujaiya neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.

Local reports described the blasts as causing tremors similar to an earthquake. The strikes are believed to have targeted Hamas's network of underground tunnels.

The attack comes as the leaders of the UK, France and Canada issued a joint statement threatening action if Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu persisted with his goal to "take control" of all of Gaza.

Netanyahu described the statement as a "huge prize" for Hamas.

Earlier, Israel said it would allow a "basic amount" of food into Gaza, ending an 11-week blockade of the territory.

But United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said the amount of aid was a "drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed".

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which saw about 1,200 people killed and 251 taken hostage.

Some 58 hostages remain in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

At least 53,486 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's military campaign in Gaza, according the Hamas-run health ministry.

Parts of the southern Indian city of Bengaluru, often called India's Silicon Valley are under water after heavy rainfall.

The city is on high alert for more pre-monsoon showers on Tuesday due to cyclonic formations over the Andaman Sea, according to authorities.

Three people, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed in rain-related incidents on Monday.

Bengaluru is home to major global technology companies, many of whom have asked their employees to work from home due to flooded roads.

Many parts of the city received 100 mm (4in) of rain on Monday, a record since 2011.

This is "rare" for Bengaluru, CS Patil, a director at the regional weather department told news agencies.

Apart from severe water-logging and traffic disrupting daily life, heavy rainfall has also caused property damage.

In one of the city's major IT corridors, the compound wall of a software firm - i-Zed - collapsed on Monday morning, killing a 35-year-old female employee.

Videos also showed commuters wading through knee-deep water, with several cars parked on waterlogged streets. Water has also entered houses in some parts of the city.

Authorities say the city corporation has identified 210 flood-prone areas where they were working round the clock to "rectify" the situation.

"There is no need for the people of Bengaluru to be worried," DK Shivakumar, deputy chief minister of Karnataka state told reporters on Monday.

Karnataka, of which Bengaluru is the capital is currently run by the Congress party. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which sits in the opposition in the state has accused the local government of failing to tackle rain-related issues in the city and the state, despite spending million of rupees on its infrastructure.

The BJP has demanded the immediate release of 10bn rupees ($117m, £87.5m) for relief operations.

The state government has, however, defended itself saying these were long-standing issues.

"The issues we face today are not new. They have been ignored for years, across governments and administrations," Shivakumar said.

Floods have been a recurring phenomenon in Bengaluru in recent years. Experts partly blame rapid construction over the city's lakes and wetlands and poor urban planning for the crisis.

Officials are facing heavy criticism for the recurring problem on social media with many complaining about the city's crumbling infrastructure and deluged roads.

Some have called it an "eyesaur". Many more have described it as "fabulous".

But one word Boom Boom, a seven-metre tall stainless steel dinosaur sculpture in New Zealand, could never be associated with is "boring".

Just days after the sauropod statue was installed in Taupō Sculpture Park, in the scenic centre of New Zealand's North Island, Boom Boom has already prompted heated debate among locals.

The artist - and the team that commissioned it - say that's exactly the point.

The mirror-finish sculpture was commissioned by the Taupō Sculpture Trust and created by Slovenian-born artist Gregor Kregar.

Kregar said that he wasn't "particularly surprised" by the furore that quickly surrounded his work.

"Sculpture sometimes stops people from their everyday interactions with the world," he told the BBC from his home in Auckland. "It's really hard to hate a sculpture of a dinosaur."

Still, public opinion on Boom Boom is split.

"Fantastic! Getting people talking about art. Broadening the conversation," said one commenter on a social media post announcing Boom Boom's arrival.

But another wrote: "Public investment of $100,000 from the local ratepayers, many of who would have rather seen the money spent elsewhere in the community."

Funding for Boom Boom was finalised in 2018, before recent hikes in Taupō District Council's rate which is similar to a council tax.

After several years of negotiations, the work was completed and installed in the park last week.

Others still criticised the work as having no connection with Taupō, named New Zealand's most beautiful town in the 2023 Keep New Zealand Beautiful Awards.

But Kregar said the rock that the dinosaur stands on is inspired by the volcanic history of the area.

Lake Taupō, from which the town takes its name, is a large caldera, a volcano that has collapsed in on itself. It last erupted around 1,800 years ago.

Sauropods, the inspiration for Boom Boom, are one of a few species of dinosaurs that paleontologists say lived in New Zealand.

They became extinct 66 million years ago, along with most other non-avian dinosaurs.

Kregar says the spirited debate around the sculpture means Boom Boom could eventually win round "the haters".

"You put the sculpture out there, there is reaction, people start falling in love with it, and then it becomes something that they start embracing, part of the local identity," he said.

Kim Gillies, secretary of the Taupō Sculpture Trust, told the BBC that the decision to commission Boom Boom was not taken "lightly", but that it was chosen because "it would help put Taupō on the map".

Gillies added that when it comes to the art, "safe is a bit boring, right?"

No bones about it.

Israel went to war after the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023 armed with an arsenal of weapons mostly paid for, supplied and then resupplied by the United States.

Its other allies gave Israel something just as potent in its own way: a deep credit of goodwill and solidarity, based on revulsion at the killings of 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, and the sight of 251 people being dragged into captivity in Gaza as hostages.

Now it seems that Israel's credit has gone, at least as far as France, the United Kingdom and Canada are concerned. They have issued their strongest condemnation yet of the way Israel is fighting the war in Gaza.

Israel, they say, must halt its new offensive, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says will destroy Hamas, rescue the remaining hostages and put all of Gaza under direct Israeli military control.

• Israel lets aid into Gaza after 11-week blockade but UN calls it 'drop in ocean'

Their statement dismisses Netanyahu's arguments and calls for a ceasefire. Together, the three governments say that they "strongly oppose the expansion of Israel's military operations in Gaza" adding: "The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable."

They call for the release of the remaining hostages and recall that after the "heinous attack" on 7 October they believed that the Israeli state "had a right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate".

Netanyahu's decision to allow what he called "minimal" food into Gaza was they said "wholly inadequate".

Netanyahu has hit back, saying the "leaders in London, Ottowa and Paris are offering a huge prize for the genocidal attack on Israel on October 7 while inviting more such atrocities".

He insisted the war could end if Hamas returned hostages, laid down its arms, agreed for its leaders to go into exile and Gaza was demilitarised. "No nation can be expected to accept anything less and Israel certainly won't," he said.

Netanyahu - who is sought under an International criminal Court warrant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, which he has dismissed as "antisemitic" - had been under heavy international pressure to end the blockade of Gaza after a respected international survey warned of imminent famine.

At the London summit between the EU and the UK the President of the European Council, António Costa, called the humanitarian crisis in Gaza "a tragedy where international law is being systematically violated, and an entire population is being subjected to disproportionate military force".

"There must be safe, swift and unimpeded access for humanitarian aid," he said.

Netanyahu's reluctant decision to allow in limited supplies was condemned by his ultra nationalist coalition partners.

The Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, convicted in 2007 for incitement to racism and supporting an extremist Jewish group that Israel classifies as a terrorist organisation, complained that Netanyahu's decision would "fuel Hamas and give it oxygen while our hostages languish in tunnels".

Only five trucks made it into Gaza on Monday, as Israeli troops advanced and air and artillery strikes killed more Palestinian civilians including many young children.

Opponents of Israel's destruction of Gaza and the killing of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians will say the governments of France, the UK and Canada are speaking out far too late.

Many of them have held months of demonstrations protesting about the death and destruction in Gaza – and more killing of Palestinian civilians and confiscation of land in the West Bank, the other side of the Palestinian territories, during military operations and raids by armed Jewish settlers.

But sometimes in the politics of war, a single incident carries symbolic power that clarifies and crystallises so sharply that it can force governments to action. This time it was the killing on 23 March by Israeli forces in Gaza of 15 paramedics and aid workers.

It came after Israel, on 18 March, had broken a ceasefire that had held for two months with a series of massive air strikes.

Five days into the renewed war an Israeli unit attacked the medical convoy, and covered the men they had killed and their bullet ridden vehicles with the sand. The Israeli account of what happened was shown to be untrue when a mobile phone was recovered from a body in the mass grave.

Its owner had filmed the incident before he was killed. Far from proving Israel's claim that the emergency workers were a potential threat to the Israeli combat soldiers, the video from the grave showed that clearly marked and well-lit ambulances and emergency vehicles were attacked systematically until almost everyone inside them was killed.

Alarm has been growing fast since then, not just among Israel's usual opponents. Its European allies, with President Macron of France leading the way, have been toughening their language. The statement calling for an end to Israel's offensive is their harshest criticism of Israel so far.

A senior European diplomatic source involved in their discussions told me that the tough language reflected a "real sense of growing political anger at the humanitarian situation, of a line being crossed, and of this Israeli government appearing to act with impunity".

More ominously for Israel, the statement says that "we will not stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete steps in response".

They do not specify what those might be. Sanctions could be one possibility. A bigger step would be to recognise Palestine as an independent state.

France has been considering joining the 148 other states that have done so at a conference it is co-chairing with Saudi Arabia in New York in early June. The UK has also talked about Palestinian recognition with the French.

Israel, pushing back hard, has told them they would be presenting Hamas with a victory. But the tone of the statement made by the French, the Canadians and the British suggests that Israel is losing its ability to pressurise them.

Acclaimed Russian ballet choreographer, Yuri Grigorovich, has died aged 98.

Described as one of the greatest choreographers of the 20th century, he was artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet from 1964 to 1995, which he is said to have led with an iron fist.

Grigorovich's productions of the Stone Flower, Ivan the Terrible and Romeo and Juliet redefined Soviet ballet. Praised for revitalising male dance, he created parts for men demanding exceptional strength and artistry.

Born in 1927, a decade after the Bolshevik Revolution, his work was steeped in the traditions of classical ballet.

His uncle, Georgy Rozai, had studied under the legendary Vaslav Nijinsky and the young Grigorovich went on to dance as a soloist with the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad before turning to choreography.

His departure from the Bolshoi in 1995, amid disputes over performers' contracts, led to the first ever dancers' strike at the theatre in its 200-year history. During a scheduled performance, a dancer emerged to inform the audience the show was cancelled, leaving a stunned silence.

Following the Soviet Union's collapse, the Bolshoi faced instability. Grigorovich moved to Krasnodar to found a new ballet company. He returned to the Bolshoi in 2008 as a choreographer and ballet master.

Grigorovich received top Soviet and Russian honours, including the titles People's Artist of the USSR and Hero of Socialist Labour. His wife, renowned ballerina Natalia Bessmertnova, died in 2008.

His death came on the same day as that of one of his most celebrated collaborators, dancer Yuri Vladimirov, aged 83.

Valery Gergiev, head of the Bolshoi and Mariinsky theatres, told Izvestia newspaper that Grigorovich was "a legendary figure who will continue to command respect and admiration for decades to come".

Vietnamese authorities have arrested a beauty queen and social media influencer for consumer fraud after she promoted a counterfeit fibre supplement.

Nguyen Thuc Thuy Tien had heavily marketed gummies said to be rich in fibre on her social media channels.

But a public backlash erupted after product tests revealed this was untrue.

A former winner of the Miss Grand International beauty competition, Ms Nguyen is a well-known personality in Vietnam and previously received accolades from the government.

Ms Nguyen had promoted Kera Supergreens Gummies along with social media influencers, Pham Quang Linh and Hang Du Muc.

Investigators said the product was the result of a joint venture between Ms Nguyen and a company set up by the two other influencers.

The influencers claimed that each of their gummies contained fibre equivalent to a plate of vegetables.

A member of the public sent the product for testing at a lab, which found that each gummy only contained 16mg of fibre, far from 200mg as claimed.

Authorities then launched an investigation, which found that sub-standard ingredients that were low in fibre were used in the manufacture of the gummies.

The product's packaging also did not state the fibre content, nor did it state that the product contained a high level of sorbitol, which is used in laxatives.

The three influencers were fined in March, and apologised to the public.

The following month, Vietnamese authorities arrested Mr Pham and Hang Du Muc as well as officials from their company and the gummies' manufacturer.

They were charged with producing counterfeit goods and defrauding customers.

On Monday, authorities announced the arrest of Ms Nguyen for allegedly deceiving customers.

More than 100,000 boxes of the gummies were reportedly sold before sales were halted due to the scandal.

After winning the Bangkok-based beauty pageant in 2021, Ms Nguyen became a celebrity sought after by many Vietnamese brands, and appeared on several reality TV shows.

She also received certificates of merit from the prime minister and Vietnam's ruling Communist Party.

Sean "Diddy" Combs allegedly used a hammer to try to break into his ex-girlfriend's apartment after the now-infamous assault at an Intercontinental Hotel in 2016, a New York court has heard.

Security video of Mr Combs' assault on his then-girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura has been shown to the jury several times in his sex-trafficking trial.

Ms Ventura's former best friend Kerry Morgan on Monday recounted how Mr Combs allegedly tried to smash his way into Ventura's apartment in the aftermath, and described the incident as terrifying.

Mr Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He could face life in prison if convicted.

Ms Morgan told the court she was at Ms Ventura's Los Angeles apartment after the hotel incident and watched through the peephole as Mr Combs was "banging on the door with a hammer".

Ms Morgan told the court that as it unfolded, she didn't think Ms Ventura cared if Mr Combs "came in and killed her".

Mr Combs did not enter the apartment and police officers arrived about three hours later, Ms Morgan said. No complaint was filed.

The court heard more allegations of violent outbursts by the hip-hop mogul. Ms Morgan said that during a vacation in Jamaica, she saw him drag Ms Ventura down a 50-yard hallway by her hair because she was "taking too long in the bathroom".

The witness told the court she too had experienced violence at the hands of Mr Combs, alleging he choked her and threw a wooden hanger at her head in 2018 while demanding to know who Ms Ventura was cheating on him with.

The court heard Ms Morgan had a concussion and had to go to urgent care.

The two women were best friends for 17 years, but after that, their friendship was over, Ms Morgan said.

She told the court that Ms Ventura met her at a West Hollywood pizza place about a month later and offered her $30,000 (£22,450) to sign a non-disclosure agreement. They agreed, and have not spoken in the seven years since.

"I draw my line at physical abuse," Ms Morgan said.

After Ms Morgan stepped down from the witness stand, David James, the former personal assistant of Mr Combs, testified.

Mr James, who told the court he often worked 20 hours a day for six to seven days a week, was once shown a photograph of Mr Combs at his Bad Boy Entertainment office and a high-ranking staff member told him "this is Mr Combs' kingdom. We're all here to serve it".

The former assistant also recounted a conversation he overheard in Manhattan, when he was in an Escalade SUV with Combs and some of his entourage.

When a friend asked how Ms Ventura was, Mr Combs allegedly said: "Cassie's good. I got her right where I want her, she's young".

"He said she was very mouldable," Mr James recalls his boss saying.

The trial will continue on Tuesday with Mr James on the witness stand.