Intensified Israeli ground operations and new evacuation orders are stretching Gaza's health system beyond breaking point, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Indonesian, Kamal Adwan and al-Awda hospitals in the northern towns of Beit Lahia and Jabalia were inside an evacuation zone announced on Tuesday. Another two hospitals are within 1km (0.6 miles) of it.

Kamal Adwan was out of service due to hostilities nearby and the Indonesian hospital was inaccessible because of the presence of Israeli forces around it, he added.

Al-Awda hospital is still functioning, but its director told the BBC on Wednesday that it was "totally under siege".

"Nobody can move out and we can't receive any cases from outside the hospital," Dr Mohammed Salha said.

He added that there was a quadcopter drone "shooting in the surroundings of the hospital and the outdoor area of the hospital".

"We also hear shooting from the tanks... maybe 400 or 500 metres [away]."

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC that it was "operating in the area against terror targets", but that it was "not aware of any siege on the hospital itself".

Dr Tedros said: "Even if health facilities are not attacked or forced to evacuate, hostilities and military presence obstruct patients and staff from accessing care, and WHO from resupplying hospitals, which can quickly make them non-functional."

"We've seen this too many times - it must not be allowed to happen again."

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) also said that at least 20 medical facilities across Gaza had been damaged, or forced partially or completely out of service, in the past week by Israeli ground operations, air strikes and evacuation orders.

The charity demanded that Israeli authorities stop what it called the "deliberate asphyxiation of Gaza and the annihilation of its healthcare system".

Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive against Hamas two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on Hamas to release its remaining 58 hostages, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

After several days of intense bombardment, the IDF launched an expanded offensive on Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would see ground forces "take control of all areas" of Gaza. The plan reportedly includes completely clearing the north of civilians and forcibly displacing them to the south.

More than 600 people have been killed and 2,000 injured across Gaza over the past week, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. The UN says tens of thousands of people have been newly displaced.

Netanyahu also said Israel would allow a "basic" amount of food into Gaza to prevent a famine. But the UN has so far been unable to collect the dozens of lorry loads of supplies allowed in since Monday.

MSF said the volume of aid allowed in so far was not nearly enough, describing it as "a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over".

On Tuesday, the WHO's representative in the Palestinian territories said he had recently returned from Gaza and witnessed how the health system was facing attacks and acute shortages of supplies.

"Every time you get into Gaza you always think it cannot get worse. But it gets worse," Dr Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva.

He described how al-Awda hospital was "overwhelmed with injuries" and running low on supplies. Hostilities had damaged the facility, disrupted access and deterred people from seeking healthcare, he added.

He said the Indonesian hospital was barely functioning, almost inaccessible, and that most patients had left last week after a staff member was killed, one patient was injured and the facility was damaged during intensified hostilities.

Only 15 people, including patients and staff, were still inside the hospital as of Tuesday, urgently in need of food and water, he added.

The hospital's generator was also struck by an Israeli quadcopter on Monday night, causing a large fire and a blackout, according to MER-C Indonesia, the NGO that built the facility.

On Wednesday, a woman inside the hospital told the BBC by telephone that two of the patients were in a "serious condition".

In the background of the call, crashes could be heard.

"Five minutes ago, there was intense shooting in the surroundings of the hospital," she said, adding that she could see tanks.

The woman also said that they still had supplies of food inside the hospital, but were "facing a water crisis".

The IDF told the BBC it was operating in the area around the hospital and targeting "terrorist infrastructure sites", but that it was not targeting the hospital itself.

In another incident on Tuesday, a paramedic said his ambulance was shot at by an Israeli drone while he was transporting staff and food between al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals.

Khaled Sadeh said he was with another ambulance when bullets hit both vehicles' windshields. Nobody was injured.

Dr Salha shared photos of the ambulances and confirmed that Mr Sadeh was unable to return to al-Awda because of the threat of Israeli fire.

The BBC supplied details of the allegations and photos to the IDF, but it said it "could not confirm" the reports.

Hospitals and medical personnel are specially protected under international humanitarian law.

Hospitals only lose that protection in certain circumstances. They include being used as a base from which to launch an attack, as a weapons depot, or to hide healthy fighters.

The IDF has insisted that its forces operate in accordance with international law. In most instances where it has attacked hospitals, it has said they were being used improperly by Hamas - an allegation the group has denied.

In the southern city of Khan Younis, the European hospital - the only facility providing neurosurgery, cardiac care and cancer treatment in Gaza - has been out of service since 13 May.

That day, the hospital's courtyard and surrounding area was hit by a series of Israeli air strikes that Israel's defence minister said targeted an underground bunker where the head of Hamas's military wing, Mohammed Sinwar, was hiding. Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said the attack killed at least 28 people, but it is not clear yet whether Sinwar died.

The facility has also been inside an Israeli-designated evacuation zone covering almost the entire eastern half of Khan Younis since Monday.

Dr Tedros said Nasser, al-Amal and al-Aqsa hospitals, as well as one field hospital, were within 1km of the zone.

Dr Victoria Rose, a British surgeon working at Nasser hospital, said in a video posted on social media on Wednesday that she was very worried about the facility being evacuated or cut off by an Israeli troops advance from al-Aqsa, which in the central town of Deir al-Balah.

"If we get cut off from the Middle Area, there really are no other hospitals around us that could cope with the evacuation of Nasser," she explained.

"We have some amazing field hospitals... but none of them are capable of doing the type of surgery that we're doing here. And none of them have ICU capacity or generated oxygen. So, even all of them together couldn't cope with the amount of patients that we have."

She warned: "If Nasser is evacuated, we really are looking at the imminent death of hundreds of patients because we won't be able to take them anywhere."

Nasser was also hit by an Israeli strike on 13 May, killing two people including a Palestinian journalist who was being treated for injuries he sustained in a previous strike on a tented camp at the complex. The attack also destroyed 18 beds in a burns unit, according to the WHO.

The IDF accused the journalist of being a Hamas operative and alleged that the hospital was being used by the group to "carry out terrorist plots".

Another strike on Monday severely damaged Nasser's medical warehouse and destroyed critical WHO supplies, according to the hospital's director.

Suha Shaath, a pharmacist from Khan Younis who has been told by the IDF to evacuate and head to camps in the coastal al-Mawasi area, told the BBC in a voice note: "I have not left my house until now because I haven't found any place to set up my tent."

"The humanitarian situation is very serious - no water, no food, no fuel. The shelling is hitting everywhere," she added.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response 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 53,655 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,509 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the territory's health ministry.

The US has accepted a plane from Qatar, a gift that sparked criticism including from some of President Trump's biggest supporters.

"The secretary of defense has accepted a Boeing 747 from Qatar in accordance with all federal rules and regulations," Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement on Wednesday.

The plane will need to be modified before it can be used as part of the Air Force One fleet - the president's official mode of air transport.

The White House insists that the gift is legal, but the announcement of the transfer a week ago caused huge controversy.

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A number of countries have condemned the Israeli military's actions after troops fired warning shots in the vicinity of a diplomatic delegation on a visit to the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military accused the group of straying from an approved route and said warning shots were fired into the air "to distance them away". It said it "regrets the inconvenience caused".

No injuries were reported in the incident, which happened in the city of Jenin, where Israel has been fighting armed Palestinian groups for years.

Many countries, some of whom had diplomats on the visit, have condemned Israel's actions - including Spain, Egypt, France, Turkey and Italy.

Some nations involved have said they will summon Israeli ambassadors to account for the incident, calling for investigations and explanations from Israel.

The Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the occupied West Bank, has accused the Israeli security forces of deliberately targeting the delegation in a "heinous crime".

It said the group were there on an official visit with Palestinian authorities to "observe and assess the humanitarian situation and document the ongoing violations perpetrated by the [Israeli] occupying forces against the Palestinian people".

The Israeli military has been fighting armed Palestinian factions based there for a number of years, with a recent uptick in clashes following the outbreak of the Gaza war.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that its troops had fired "warning shots" to ensure the delegation did not enter "an area where they were not authorised to be" in Jenin.

It said the diplomats had "deviated from the approved route" and that it "regrets the inconvenience caused" by the incident.

The IDF added it would speak to representatives of the nations involved to update them on the result of an internal investigation into the incident.

A European diplomat said the group had gone to the area "to see the destruction" caused by months of Israeli operations.

The PA said dozens of countries were involved, including Egypt, Jordan, Spain, Turkey, France and the UK.

Condemnation has come in from nations in Europe and the wider Middle East, with particular criticism saved for the risk it posed to the lives of diplomats.

Spain, Italy and France were among those that said they would summon their Israeli ambassadors to clarify what happened, while the EU's foreign policy chief said any threats to the lives of diplomats are "unacceptable" and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

Egypt said the shots being fired on the group "violates all diplomatic norms", while Turkey said it was "yet another demonstration of Israel's systematic disregard for international law and human rights".

Both nations called for an immediate investigation and explanation from Israel.

The UK has exposed what it says is a "malicious cyber campaign" targeting multiple organisations, including those involved in delivering foreign assistance to Ukraine

After a joint investigation with allies including the US, Germany and France, the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said a Russian military unit had been targeting both public and private organisations since 2022.

These include organisations involved in supplying defence, IT services and logistics support.

The security bodies of 10 Nato countries and Australia said Russian spies had used a combination of hacking techniques to gain access to networks.

Some of the targets were internet-connected cameras at Ukrainian borders which monitored aid shipments going into the country.

The report also says a rough estimate of 10,000 cameras were accessed near "military installations, and rail stations, to track the movement of materials into Ukraine.

It adds the "actors also used legitimate municipal services, such as traffic cams."

The Russian military unit blamed for the espionage is called GRU Unit 26165 but goes by a number of informal names, including Fancy Bear.

The notorious hacking team is known to have previously leaked World Anti-Doping Agency data, and played a key role in the 2016 cyber-attack on the US's Democratic National Committee, according to security experts.

"This malicious campaign by Russia's military intelligence service presents a serious risk to targeted organisations, including those involved in the delivery of assistance to Ukraine," Paul Chichester, NCSC Director of Operations, said in a statement.

"We strongly encourage organisations to familiarise themselves with the threat and mitigation advice included in the advisory to help defend their networks," he added.

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Hundreds of tiles have fallen from the roof of a centuries old tower in China's Anhui province, smashing to the ground near visitors to the site.

Eyewitness footage showed sections of the roof collapsing, narrowly missing a number of people.

Local media cited a Fengyang County Culture and Tourism Bureau statement that said no one was injured in the incident, which happened at around 18:30 local time (11:30 BST) on Monday.

The Drum Tower - reportedly the largest in China - was built in 1375 during the Ming Dynasty but had undergone an extensive rebuild in 1995.

Officials for the county, around 200 miles away from the capital Beijing, said an investigation was under way, in a post shared on China's instant messaging app, WeChat.

Fengyang county is famous for being the hometown of the Ming Dynasty's founding emperor - Hongwu Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang.

Local authorities reportedly moved bystanders from the scene following the collapse and secured the area. The investigation will be looking at the repair project's design and construction, a statement seen by local media added.

Reports say supervision units were also sent to the site with experts invited to assist in the investigation and verification process.

The tower is closed while repairs are carried out, with a reopening date due to be announced at a later date.

Italy has approved a law that tightens the rules for people with Italian heritage to get passports.

Previously, anyone with an Italian ancestor who lived after 17 March, 1861 - when the Kingdom of Italy was created - qualified to be a citizen under the 'jus sanguinis', or descendent blood line law.

Under the amended law, which parliament ratified on Tuesday, applicants for an Italian passport must now have one parent or grandparent who was a citizen by birth.

The government said it changed the rules to "enhance" the link between Italy and the citizen abroad, avoid 'abuse' and 'commercialisation' of passports, and free up resources to clear backlogged applications.

From the end of 2014 to the end of 2024, the number of citizens residing abroad increased by 40%, from around 4.6 million to 6.4 million, the government said.

As of the end of March, when Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government introduced the law, there were more than 60,000 pending legal proceedings for citizenship verification.

Italy's foreign ministry said in a statement then that the change "will free up resources to make consular services more efficient, to the extent that they can be dedicated exclusively to those who have a real need, by virtue of their concrete connection with Italy".

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the principle "will not be lost" and descendants of Italians will still be able to become citizens, but "precise limits will be set, especially to avoid abuse or phenomena of 'commercialization' of Italian passports".

"Citizenship must be a serious thing," he said.

The Canadian government said it is in talks with the US over joining its proposed "Golden Dome" missile defence system, aimed at countering "next-generation" aerial threats.

Prime Minister Mark Carney's office said there are "active discussions" between Canada and the US on security, including on existing and new programmes like the Golden Dome.

US president Donald Trump unveiled the plan for the new missile defence system earlier on Tuesday, announcing an initial sum of $25bn (£18.7bn) to build it. He added Canada has expressed interest in joining.

There are doubts from experts on how the US would deliver a comprehensive system and it is unclear how Canada would participate or how much it would pay.

Canada's openness to joining the proposed Golden Dome system comes amid ongoing trade and security negotiations between the two countries, after Trump threatened steep tariffs on Canada and said it would be better off as a US state.

This galvanised a wave of national patriotism in Canada that ushered in a historic election win for Carney's Liberal government.

"Canadians gave the prime minister a strong mandate to negotiate a comprehensive new security and economic relationship with the United States," said Audrey Champoux, a spokesperson for Carney.

"To that end, the prime minister and his ministers are having wide-ranging and constructive discussions with their American counterparts," she said.

"These discussions naturally include strengthening NORAD and related initiatives such as the Golden Dome."

But Ms Champoux added it is too early to say what Canada might pay into the programme, or how it would work for the country.

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said that Canada has expressed interest in being part of the Golden Dome.

"We'll be talking to them," the US president said. "They want to have protection also, so as usual, we help Canada."

Trump said that the new Golden Dome defence missile programme would be operational by the end of his time in office, and that it would come with a price tag of $175bn. He added that he his administration is looking for Canada to "pay their fair share."

Canada and the US already partner on the North American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD - a system that is responsible for aerospace and maritime surveillance, warning and defence of the region, and that can detect and shoot down cruise missiles.

NOARD has been in place since 1958, and both countries in recent years have been engaged in discussions to modernise it.

Trump said the proposed Golden Dome is meant to target increasingly sophisticated aerial weapons, and will include space-based sensors and interceptors.

He said the system would be "capable even of intercepting missiles launched from the other side of the world, or launched from space".

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

Experts have expressed doubts on whether the US would be able to build a similarly comprehensive defence system, given its larger land mass.

Shashank Joshi, defence editor at the Economist, told the BBC that one way the Golden Dome could work was by using thousands of satellites to spot and track missiles and then use interceptors in orbit to fire at the missiles as they take off and take them out.

He said the US military would take the plan seriously but it was unrealistic to think it would be completed during Trump's term, and the huge cost would suck up a large chunk of the US defence budget.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated the eventual price tag could be $542bn over 20 years, on the space-based parts of the system alone.

US singer Chris Brown has been freed on bail by a court in London after being charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm in an "unprovoked attack".

The 36-year-old star, who has not yet been asked to enter a plea, was arrested at Salford's Lowry Hotel last week and later charged over an alleged assault at a central London nightclub in 2023.

He was not present at Southwark Crown Court when Judge Tony Baumgartner granted him bail.

A former leading Ukrainian official has been shot dead outside an American school in the Spanish capital Madrid, authorities have confirmed.

Andriy Portnov, 51, had just dropped his children off at the school in the Pozuelo de Alarcón area of the city.

At least one unidentified attacker fired several shots at the victim before fleeing into a wooded area in a nearby public park, witnesses said.

Portnov had been an MP and deputy head in the administration of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president ousted in 2014 after months of protests.

He had previously been an MP in Yulia Tymoshenko's governing party.

He left Ukraine after the revolution only to return in 2019 after Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president.

He then left Ukraine again, and in 2021 was sanctioned by the US Treasury, which said he had been "widely known as a court fixer" who had taken steps to control the judiciary and undermine reform efforts.

The European Union had earlier imposed sanctions on Portnov, but he challenged the move in court and won the case.

It was not clear who was behind the shooting that took place at about 09:15 local time (07:15 GMT) on Wednesday, reportedly as children were still entering the school.

Police drones and a helicopter searched the area for a gunman who, according to witnesses, was a thin man in a blue tracksuit. Spanish reports suggested the gunman may have had at least one accomplice riding on a motorbike.

A similar gun attack took place in 2018, when a Colombian drug trafficker was fatally shot outside a British Council school a few kilometres away.

But the motive behind Wednesday's attack is not yet known. Emergency services at the scene could only confirm that that Portnov had suffered several bullet wounds in the back and the head.

Portnov's black Mercedes car was cordoned off and the school wrote to parents to confirm that all the students inside were safe.

Although Ukraine's intelligence services have been linked to several killings in Russia and occupied areas of Ukraine, a fatal attack in Spain in February last year was linked to Russian hitmen.

The victim, a Russian helicopter pilot, was shot dead near Alicante, months after defecting to Ukraine.

Authorities in Kyiv said they had offered to protect Maxim Kuzminov in Ukraine, but he is believed to have moved to Spain's south-east coast under a false identity.

A British national has been arrested in Namibia for allegedly sexually molesting minors and taking nude photographs of them.

Douglas Robert Brook is also accused of touching the children inappropriately while on a holiday in central Namibia.

Police said the suspect targeted young boys and girls from the indigenous San community in the central Otjozondjupa region.

The 65-year old Briton faces 38 charges, including rape, indecent assault and child exploitation, Namibia local media reported.

The British national, who arrived in Namibia last week for a holiday, is yet to respond to the charges.

He was arrested on Sunday after he allegedly lured 34 young children with sweets and money to take their photos while they were naked.

• Namibia angered by tourists posing naked in dune safari
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Maureen Mbeha, a regional police boss, told state media that the tourist sexually abused 16 teenage girls and 14 boys.

Some of the nude photographs of the children were reportedly found on the Briton's camera, which was confiscated by police after his arrest.

He appeared in the Grootfontein Magistrate court, north of the capital, Windhoek, on Tuesday where he was denied bail and remanded in custody, the Namibia Press Agency reported.

The case was postponed to next month after the state prosecutor requested more time for investigations.

"The tourist remains in police custody," Information Minister Emma Theofelus told the BBC.

The UK embassy in Namibia said it had "no information beyond what has been reported in the media".

In a statement, the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism said the actions were "deeply disrespectful to the cultural heritage of the San community".

"It is unacceptable for any visitor, foreign or local, to exploit or objectify indigenous communities or their children for any purpose, including photography," the ministry said in a statement cited by Informanté newspaper.

The southern African country is a popular tourism destination for its breath-taking desert landscapes and rich cultural heritage.

More about Namibia from the BBC:

• Namibian minister sacked after being accused of rape
• 'Fees have fallen' in Namibia as president announces free higher education
• Namibia and Iceland caught in jaws of fish scandal
• Namibia baby abandonment law: 'I wanted someone to take better care of my baby'

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

South Africa's president has faced tough challenges before - he was the chief negotiator for Nelson Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) during talks to end white-minority rule in the early 1990s - but his forthcoming meeting in the White House will require all his charm.

Cyril Ramaphosa wants to mend his nation's fractured relationship with the US - and his famous negotiating skills will be put to the test as he tries to win over the world's most powerful leader.

US President Donald Trump and his team have been uncharacteristically quiet about the trip, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt declining on Monday to provide any details - or even publicly acknowledge that the visit is taking place.

"The trade relations are what's most important — that's what has brought us here," Ramaphosa said in Washington on Tuesday. "We want to come out of the United States with a really good trade deal. We want to strengthen those relations and we want to consolidate good relations between our two countries."

The two have been at loggerheads for months, with Trump repeatedly insisting that South Africa's Afrikaner community is facing a "genocide" - a claim amplified by his close adviser Elon Musk, the South African-born tech billionaire, even though it has been widely discredited.

Tensions ramped up days after Trump took office for his second term in January when President Ramaphosa signed into law a controversial bill allowing South Africa's government to expropriate privately owned land without compensation in certain circumstances, when it is deemed "equitable and in the public interest".

This only served to tarnish the image of Africa's biggest economy in the eyes of the Trump administration - already angered by its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In February, the US president announced the suspension of critical aid to South Africa and offered to help members from the Afrikaner community, who are mostly white descendants of early Dutch and French settlers, to settle in the US as "refugees".

South Africa's ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, was also expelled in March after accusing Trump of "mobilising a supremacism" and trying to "project white victimhood as a dog whistle".

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Rasool was a "race-baiting politician" who was "no longer welcome in our great country".

The arrival of the first group of Afrikaners in the US last week further inflamed the situation, with Trump again doubling down on his claims that white farmers were being "brutally killed" and their "land is being confiscated" - which has been repeatedly denied by the South Africa government.

According to South African political analyst Anthoni van Nieuwkerk, Ramaphosa's decision to go the White House is a "high-risk strategy", especially given Trump's recent hard-line stance.

Ramaphosa's spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, told the BBC it was hoped the trip would "set in motion a process towards the normalisation of diplomatic relations" and "lay the foundation" for improved trade relations.

Given that it had all been confirmed at short notice, the South African delegation - which includes four senior cabinet ministers - had had little time to set up a "formal programme", he said.

But he suggested it was likely to focus on extending the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), a 25-year-old piece of US legislation guaranteeing duty-free access to American consumers for certain goods from Africa.

South Africa is one of the largest exporters under Agoa, generating about $2.7bn (£2bn) in revenue in 2023, mostly from the sale of vehicles, jewellery and metals.

There is concern the deal may not be renewed when it comes up for review later this year or that if it is, South Africa may be excluded from the new agreement.

"In the absence of that continuation or extension of Agoa, we are ready to engage with the Trump administration over a new trade relationship framework that we believe will be mutually beneficial," Mr Magwenya said.

On the souring of relations between Pretoria and Washington, he said South Africa hoped to have a "frank, constructive discussion about them".

Interestingly Agricultural Minister John Steenhuisen is part of the delegation. His Democratic Alliance political party is part of South Africa's coalition government and has been a vocal critic of the ANC's empowerment policies, saying they lead to cronyism and corruption. The ANC denies this.

Speaking of the ICJ case, in which South Africa accused Israel in December 2023 of committing genocide against Palestinians living in Gaza - an allegation Israel denies, Mr Magwenya admitted it might "lead to a robust discussion".

"Procedurally, we can't withdraw that issue [and it] will remain in contention.

"However, with respect to the humanitarian crisis and its alleviation - there's agreement there with President Trump and we will focus more on what we can do together on those areas where we agree."

On Friday, Trump acknowledged "a lot of people are starving" in Gaza following Israel's recent blockade of humanitarian supplies to the territory - comments that have led to a "basic amount of food" entering Gaza.

Prof Van Nieuwkerk predicts two likely scenarios playing out - the first sees "pleasant and cordial" interaction and the reset that South Africa is keen on "if rational minds prevail and if a lot of homework has been done" on both sides.

But he warns should "emotional minds prevail" and the focus be on white genocide claims, things could unravel quickly.

"If the South African delegation cannot convince the Trump administration of the right of South Africa to exercise its own policy choices domestically and internationally… then the Oval Office moment will be used by Trump to humiliate Ramaphosa and to read him the riot act," the University of South Africa academic said.

"That second scenario is not what we want."

He hopes that South Africa's delegation has arrived in the US with an "enticing proposal", adding: "The negotiations cannot start in the Oval Office, in front of the cameras. That live moment must be the conclusion of a negotiation that should have happened earlier."

On this score, he says South Africa does have an ace up its sleeve: Ramaphosa, known for his negotiating skills and warmth.

He knows what buttons to press - and finding common ground over golf could be the swing he takes - the 72-year-old has already invited the US leader for a friendly round of golf during the G20 Summit taking place in South Africa in November.

"Whether people like Cyril Ramaphosa or not, we have to acknowledge that he was one of the key players in the transition from apartheid to democracy. He made it happen because of his personality and style," Prof Van Nieuwkerk said.

Dr Lubna Nadvi, a political analyst based at South Africa's University of KwaZulu-Natal, agrees the South African president has the personality to "handle the situation should things get out of hand".

"I anticipate that this face-to-face meeting will allow for the relationship to be strengthened, for facts to be placed on the table," she said, adding that the "propaganda" that had influenced Trump would have to be tackled.

It was important for Ramaphosa's team to get the US to "accept that South Africa is a sovereign country and is entitled to take the decisions it wants to take", Dr Nadvi said.

Mr Magwenya also made the point that South Africa would not be heading into Wednesday's meeting "with a begging bowl".

"As much as South Africa needs access to one of the world's largest markets... the United States equally needs certain products and goods out of South Africa."

South Africa currently exports a variety of minerals to the US, including platinum, iron and manganese, as well as precious stones, metals and fruit.

Its "geo-strategic location" also made it "attractive" to the US, Prof Van Nieuwkerk added.

Painting a worst-case scenario, the analyst said: "There are players who would like to see us fail and then step in and... displace our role in Africa. This is the price we will pay if it goes wrong in the Oval Office".

But Mr Magwenya was at pains to explain the White House meeting was not a "sprint" to a solution.

"What it represents is the beginning of a process towards resolving the current impasse and normalising diplomatic relations," he said.

"Whether that meeting has a negative or positive outcome, it will be nonetheless a major opportunity for us to begin towards normalising the relationship."

Additional reporting by the BBC's Bernd Debusmann Jr in Washington DC.

More on South African-US relations:

• Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?
• Is it checkmate for South Africa after Trump threats?
• Do Afrikaners want to take Trump up on his South African refugee offer?
• Racially charged row between Musk and South Africa over Starlink
• South Africa and Ukraine woo each other - as relationships with Trump turn sour

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

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

A gunman has shot dead two top aides of the mayor of Mexico City, Clara Brugada.

The mayor's private secretary, Ximena Guzmán, and Brugada's adviser, José Muñoz, were killed on their way to work on Tuesday morning local time.

Witnesses said an armed man first opened fire on Guzmán, who had stopped her car by the side of a busy avenue to pick up her colleague, and then on Muñoz, who was about to get into Guzmán's car for their morning commute.

The gunman is believed to have escaped on a motorbike and have had at least one accomplice. The possible motive for the killing is still unknown but the attack is the latest in a series of murders of local politicians across the country.

Mayor Brugada was visibly upset during a news conference when she recalled how she had "shared dreams and struggles" with her two aides over the years they had worked for her.

She said she would ensure the murders would not go unpunished.

President Claudia Sheinbaum was informed of the shooting during her daily morning news conference by the security minister, Omar García Harfuch, who has himself been a target of an armed ambush in the past.

President Sheinbaum described it as "a deplorable incident" and offered Mayor Brugada, who is from the same party as the president, all the support she may need.

Police seized a motorbike and another vehicle they think was used in the attack, while forensic experts examined Guzmán's bullet-pierced car.

CCTV footage from a nearby building shows a man carrying a motorcycle helmet in one hand and a gun in another, approach Guzmán's car from the front.

He fires through the windscreen, then shoots Muñoz, before again firing at Guzmán.

As he runs away, he turns around and fires another shot at Muñoz, who is collapsing on the pavement.

Brugada, 61, was elected mayor of Mexico City in June of last year. The position is considered the second most powerful in the country after that of the president.

While local politicians, especially the mayors of small towns, are often targeted in Mexico, attacks on politicians in the capital are more unusual.

One high-profile exception is the ambush in 2020 of García Harfuch, who was Mexico City's chief of police at the time.

More than two dozen gunmen opened fire on his car and killed two of his bodyguards and a passer-by in one of the most brazen attacks to have occurred in the city.

García Harfuch was hit three times, but survived and went on to become Mexico's security minister in October of last year.

He said the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of Mexico's most powerful criminal groups, was behind that incident.

Investigators have not yet said who they think was behind Tuesday's murder of the two aides, but security experts say the deliberate and precise way the gunman operated indicates that he is a professional hitman.

Access to the social media platform X has been restricted in Tanzania after some official accounts of government and private institutions were targeted by hackers.

On Tuesday, the official police account was compromised, with sexually explicit material and false information that the president had died being posted.

The police dissociated itself from the information and said an investigation was under way to identify those responsible.

Hours later data from the internet monitoring organisation Netblocks showed that X was "unreachable on major internet providers" across the country.

Users in Dar es Salaam, the country's biggest city, could still not access the site on Wednesday, unless they use virtual private networks (VPNs), which is illegal without a permit, although some people in other regions indicated they were able to log on.

The authorities have not commented on whether they are blocking access to X.

But Information Minister Jerry Silaa has acknowledged the hacking and assured MPs in parliament that the affected government social media accounts had since been secured.

Earlier, government spokesman Gerson Msigwa warned those responsible that immediate action was being taken.

The problems with accessing X come amid the continued uproar over the deportation of prominent Kenyans - a move that prevented them from attending the court case of opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who is accused of treason.

On Monday, the president warned activists from its northern neighbour that she would not allow them to "meddle" in her country's affairs and cause "chaos".

She spoke after Kenya's former Justice Minister Martha Karua along with some others, who had all travelled to attend Lissu's court case, were deported.

Another Kenyan activist, Boniface Mwangi, and Ugandan Agather Atuhaire were arrested in Dar es Salaam by suspected military officers on Monday and their whereabouts remain unknown.

Tanzanian authorities have not commented on their whereabouts.

Mwangi's wife, Njeri, told the BBC's Newsday programme that she had last heard from him on Monday and had not been able to establish where he was.

"I'm actually concerned for his life. I know my husband, he would have communicated, he'd find a way to call or text me and because he hasn't, makes me very worried about what state he is in," she said.

Boniface Mwabukusi, the president of the Tanganyika Law Society, the body representing lawyers in mainland Tanzania, said on Wednesday that they had learnt that the two were being held by the immigration department. He had earlier said they had been deported.

"Our legal team on the ground is actively monitoring the situation and exploring appropriate legal remedies to facilitate a just and timely resolution," he said on X.

You may also be interested in:

• Why Samia's hesitant reforms are fuelling Tanzanian political anger
• 'Manhandled and choked' - Tanzanian activist recounts abduction
• The Tanzanians searching for their grandfathers' skulls in Germany

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

Fragments of West Nile virus have been detected in UK mosquitoes for the first time, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

A research programme by the UKHSA and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) found the genetic material in mosquitoes collected in Britain in 2023.

West Nile virus is a vector borne disease usually found in birds that typically circulates through bird-biting mosquitoes. In rare cases, mosquitoes can transmit the virus to humans.

A UKHSA spokesman said the risk to the general public is "very low" but advice to healthcare professionals will be issued.

A Russian missile strike on a training exercise in Ukraine's Sumy border region has killed six servicemen and wounded more than 10 others, says Ukraine's National Guard.

Russia's defence ministry had earlier released a video purporting to show an Iskander missile attack on a training camp, and state news agency Tass said up to 70 people had died.

The Sumy region has come under repeated bombardment, and Ukraine launched a months-long occupation of part of Russia's neighbouring Kursk region from there.

The Ukrainian military said the aim of the offensive had been to help create a buffer zone to protect Sumy, but some have complained of the scale of military losses.

Separately, the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had visited officials in Kursk the previous day, in his first visit to the region since Ukrainian forces were pushed out of the region.

He met volunteers as well as acting local governor Alexander Khinshtein, and he toured a nearby nuclear power plant, state media reported.

The deadly Russian strike on Ukrainian servicemen in Sumy was confirmed early on Wednesday by Ukraine's National Guard, which said the attack took place while the unit was carrying out exercises at a firing range. The commander was suspended and an official investigation launched, it added.

The unverified Russian military video showed dozens of servicemen walking on a path near a wooded area followed by an explosion and a large plume of smoke.

Research by BBC Verify showed the training camp was targeted in the far north of the Sumy region, some way south of the Russian border.

The attack comes as a heavy blow to the Ukrainian military, and the National Guard said it had previously developed an "algorithm of actions" as well as orders to deal with the threat of air strikes and people gathered in one place.

Italy ready to help talks if Vatican agrees to Trump war mediation plan

Ukraine's general staff said this week that it had thwarted Russia's bid to establish a "security zone" in Sumy region, and argued that its Kursk operation had "strategic significance", forcing Russia to divert its "most capable units" to tackle the offensive.

The Kremlin also sent thousands of North Koreans soldiers to the region in a bid to recapture the area.

However, last week a battalion commander called Oleksandr Shyrshyn was quoted as criticising the "moronic tasks" set by the military leadership as well as unjustified losses.

Hopes of an imminent ceasefire are fading, despite low-level talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul last Friday.

Although President Donald Trump suggested the Vatican might mediate further talks, the Vatican said the idea of hosting, or even mediating talks was more a hope for now than any concrete plan.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he expected Russia to present its "broad terms that would allow us to move towards a ceasefire", however Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia is merely "trying to buy time in order to continue its war and occupation".

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.

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

Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC's Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.

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.