Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is joining European leaders in talks aimed at increasing pressure on US President Donald Trump to side with Ukraine during Friday's summit with his Russian counterpart in Alaska.

In an online call with Trump, the leaders are expected to reiterate that no decisions should be taken without Ukraine, including changing its borders by force.

Trump has said any peace deal would involve "some swapping of territories" and it is believed one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's demands is that Kyiv surrenders the parts of the Donbas it still controls.

On Tuesday, Zelensky said such a concession could be used as a springboard for future attacks by Russia, which has been making gains recently.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A Russian summer offensive has been progressing with troops making a sudden thrust near the eastern town of Dobropillia and advancing 10km (six miles) in a short period of time.

While downplaying Russia's advance, Zelensky said it was "clear to us" that Moscow's objective was to create a "certain information space" before Putin meets Trump that "Russia is moving forward, advancing, while Ukraine is losing".

No official details have emerged on what demands Putin could make when he meets Trump in Anchorage on Friday.

The Donbas - made up of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk - has been partly occupied by Russia since 2014.

Moscow now holds almost all of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk but speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Zelensky reaffirmed that Ukraine would reject any proposal to leave the Donbas.

• Ukraine's borders must not be changed by force, EU leaders say
• Why Trump and Putin are meeting in Alaska
• Why did Putin's Russia invade Ukraine?

Zelensky has previously insisted that Ukrainians would not "gift their land to the occupier", and pointed to the country's constitution, which requires a referendum before a change in its territory.

Last week, Trump said there would be "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both" Russia and Ukraine - sparking concern in Kyiv and across Europe that Moscow could be allowed to redraw Ukraine's borders by force.

Russia currently controls just under 20% of Ukrainian territory.

The White House on Tuesday said the Alaska talks would be a "listening exercise" for Trump and added having him and Putin sit down in the same room would give the US president "the best indication on how to end this war".

It follows Trump describing the summit as a "feel-out meeting" on Monday, seeming to tone down expectations that Friday's meeting could bring Ukraine and Russia closer to peace.

When he announced the summit last week, Trump sounded positive that the meeting could result in concrete steps towards peace.

"I think my gut instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it," he said.

The Ukrainian leader has previously said any agreements without Kyiv's involvement would amount to "dead decisions".

A political row has erupted in India over allegations of "vote theft", with opposition parties accusing the country's election body of irregularities, which they say favoured the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 general elections.

On Tuesday, parliament was adjourned after opposition MPs demanded a debate on the integrity of India's electoral process.

A day earlier, dozens of opposition leaders, including Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, were briefly detained by the police in the capital Delhi, as they tried to march to the Election Commission of India's (ECI) headquarters.

Gandhi first raised the issue at a 7 August press conference in Delhi, and has since managed to galvanise strong support from hundreds of opposition lawmakers.

The Election Commission and the BJP have aggressively rejected the allegations.

What are Rahul Gandhi's allegations against the Election Commission?

Gandhi has alleged widespread voter manipulation during the 2024 parliamentary elections, citing granular data obtained from the electoral body itself - though the ECI and the ruling party dispute his interpretation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi secured a historic third term in the elections, but his BJP-led alliance fell short of the sweeping majority predicted. Voter turnout averaged 66% in the world's largest election, with nearly a billion registered voters - one in eight people on Earth.

Gandhi cited electoral data for Mahadevapura, a part of the Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency, and claimed that the voter list had more than 100,000 manipulated entries, including duplicate voters, invalid addresses, and bulk registrations of votes at single locations.

He presented examples of voters like Shakun Rani, who he claimed cast her ballots twice - a claim disputed by the election body.

Gandhi also alleged CCTV footage from polling booths was deleted and pointed out an instance of 80 people registered in a single address in Mahadevapura.

The Congress leader says his party lost at least 48 seats in the elections due to such irregularities and has accused India's election body of failing to enforce the "one man, one vote" principle. The Congress won 99 of the 543 seats in the elections, behind BJP's 240.

Gandhi has demanded that the ECI release digital voter rolls, so that they can be audited by his party and the public.

The BBC hasn't independently verified Gandhi's claims.

What have the ECI and BJP said?

Soon after Gandhi's press conference, ECI responded on social media platform X, calling his allegations "absurd" and denying many of his claims.

The polling body has demanded that he either submit a signed declaration under oath or apologise to the nation.

ECI's Karnataka state unit further said that the Congress didn't file formal objections when the electoral roll was being revised ahead of the 2024 parliamentary elections.

The poll body earlier said it keeps CCTV footage only for 45 days after results - the window for filing election disputes.

BJP leaders have also strongly rebutted the allegations.

"This anarchy is extremely worrying and dangerous for democracy," BJP leader and federal education minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.

Federal agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said Gandhi and the opposition alliance were "defaming democracy, tearing it to shreds, and tampering with the dignity of constitutional institutions".

What has been the political fallout?

Gandhi's allegations have led to an uproar as they come in the backdrop of a controversy over a month-long revision of electoral rolls in Bihar state, where key elections are scheduled for November.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), held between June and July, saw officials visit all 78.9 million voters in the state for verification - the first update since 2003.

The ECI says the drive targets duplicate and deceased voters, but critics say its haste has disenfranchised many, especially migrants and minorities.

Many voters in Bihar have told the BBC that the draft rolls have wrong photos and include dead people.

India's Supreme Court is currently hearing a batch of petitions challenging the SIR, with petitioners demanding publication of the deleted names - about 6.5 million - with reasons for their removal.

The election body says deletions include 2.2 million dead, 700,000 enrolled more than once and 3.6 million who have migrated from the state.

Corrections are open until 1 September, with over 165,000 applications received. A similar review will be conducted nationwide to verify nearly a billion voters.

The court has said that the allegations of disenfranchisement "largely appears to be a case of trust deficit, nothing else" and that it would "step in immediately" if mass exclusion of voters is proven.

On 12 August, Gandhi escalated his claims of vote theft, saying such manipulation was happening "at a national level and systematically".

Highlighting the case of a 124-year-old voter's name found in the draft electoral list of Bihar he said: "There are unlimited cases like that. 'Abhi picture baki hai' [the story is not over yet]."

Four teenagers have been arrested over a burglary that left actor Brad Pitt's home ransacked, police said.

The suspects are allegedly behind a number of "celebrity burglaries" that targeted the houses of actors and professional athletes, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said.

He said the male suspects, two 18-year-olds, a 17-year-old and a 16-year-old, are street gang members, and property stolen in the burglaries was found when police searched their homes.

Police did not name those whose properties were targeted, but celebrities including Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, LA Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto and ex-LA Football Club striker Olivier Giroud have reported break-ins this year.

The investigation started in late June after Pitt's home was raided by a trio of masked thieves.

McDonnell said the group hopped a perimeter fence surrounding the Los Feliz home and shattered a window, hopping inside and taking items before fleeing.

Police did not confirm the home belonged to the Oscar-winning actor, but the address matched that of a property Pitt bought in 2023.

The large three-bedroom house sits just outside Griffith Park, where the famous Hollywood Sign sits. It is surrounded by a fence and greenery that shields the property from public view.

Pitt was not home at the time of the burglary and was promoting his new film, F1. The BBC has contacted representatives for the actor.

McDonnell said investigators found the suspects were part of a crew that "were burglarizing various high-profile residents throughout the city", which he said included homes of "actors and professional athletes".

Last week, authorities followed the four suspects and were able to arrest them on burglary charges, he added.

Police did not elaborate on what items were recovered after police searched their homes.

McDonnell said burglars like this group had become increasingly smart in their crimes - planting surveillance cameras in nearby flowerbeds or across the street from homes they target to monitor a victim's routine.

He said thieves had also been using wi-fi jammers to knock out home surveillance systems and cameras that could alert homeowners or police of a break-in.

He noted that celebrities and athletes can be easier targets since their appearances and games are publicised online.

He noted, though, that anyone posting on social media about their travels can unknowingly be alerting a potential thief to their location.

"We don't really give enough thought to... [while] we want our friends to know where we are and what we're doing, you're telling everybody else then who may be looking to exploit your situation," McDonnell said.

US National Guard troops have begun appearing on the streets of Washington DC, a day after President Donald Trump deployed the troops to the city and took control of its police force as he argued violent crime was out of control.

Armoured vehicles were spotted at urban centres and tourist sites around the US capital on Tuesday evening.

Officials have said that 800 National Guard troops are expected to be deployed, as well as 500 federal law enforcement agents.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, who has denied crime is out of control in her city, described the troop deployment as an "authoritarian push".

Trump, a Republican, has also threatened similar deployments against New York and Chicago, two other Democratic-controlled cities.

The camouflaged troops have been trickling into the US capital since Trump's announcement on Monday.

They have been seen erecting barricades outside several government buildings, and taking photos with tourists.

Twenty-three people were arrested by federal agents on Monday night, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The agents are aiding local law enforcement.

She said the arrests were for homicide, gun offences, drug dealing, lewd acts, stalking, reckless driving, and other crimes.

"This is only the beginning," said Leavitt.

"Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the District who breaks the law, undermines public safety, and endangers law-abiding Americans."

FBI Director Kash Patel later said FBI agents were involved in around half of those arrests.

Both the mayor of Washington and the city's police chief said earlier in the day they shared the same goal as the federal agents.

"What I'm focused on is the federal surge and how to make the most of the federal officers that we have," Bowser said after a meeting on Tuesday with US Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said: "We know that we have to get illegal guns off of our streets, and if we have this influx of enhanced presence, we know that it's going to make our city even better."

But at a town hall on Tuesday night, the mayor sharpened her criticism of Trump.

Bowser called on community members to "protect our city, to protect our autonomy, to protect our home rule and get to the other side of this guy and make sure we elect a Democratic House so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push", according to the New York Times.

It comes as a manhunt was launched for an armed assailant who killed a man on Monday night in Logan Circle, one of Washington DC's trendiest neighbourhoods, just a mile from the White House.

It was the 100th homicide recorded in Washington DC this year, according to local media.

Police say the suspect was last seen wearing a black shirt and carrying a rifle.

The shooting prompted US Secret Service to bolster security outside the president's home as a precaution.

According to crime figures published by Washington DC's Metropolitan Police, violent offences peaked in 2023 and fell 35% last year to their lowest level in three decades.

But DC Police Union chairman Gregg Pemberton has disputed those figures, previously accusing the city police department of "deliberately falsifying crime data, creating a false narrative of reduced crime while communities suffer".

FBI data has also indicated a drop in crime in Washington DC last year - a more modest decrease of 9%.

Studies suggest the capital's homicide rate is higher than average compared with other major US cities.

The wife of South Korea's jailed former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested over a raft of charges, including stock manipulation and bribery.

Former first lady Kim Keon Hee denied all charges during a four-hour court hearing in Seoul on Tuesday. But the court issued a detention warrant, citing the risk that she may destroy evidence.

South Korea has a history of former presidents being indicted and imprisoned. However, this is the first time both the former president and former first lady have been jailed.

Yoon was detained in January to face trial over a failed martial law bid last year that plunged the country into chaos and eventually led to his ouster.

Prosecutors say Kim, 52, made over 800 million won ($577,940; £428,000) by participating in a price-rigging scheme involving the stocks of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea.

While this allegedly happened before her husband was elected the country's leader, it continued to cast a shadow throughout his presidency.

"I sincerely apologise for causing trouble despite being a person of no importance," Kim told reporters.

She allegedly also accepted two Chanel bags and a diamond necklace as bribes from the controversial Unification Church in exchange for business favours.

Among other charges, Kim is also accused of meddling in candidate nominations during the parliamentary by-elections in 2022 and the general elections last year.

Kim appeared solemn as she attended Tuesday's hearing wearing a black suit and a black skirt.

"I sincerely apologise for causing trouble despite being a person of no importance," she told reporters.

While he was president, Yoon vetoed three opposition-led bills that sought a special counsel investigation into allegations against Kim.

He issued the last veto in November, a week before he declared martial law.

A special counsel was set up in June this year after Yoon's rival Lee Jae Myung became president.

A standout feature of the India-UK free trade agreement signed last month was the Narendra Modi government's decision to open India's vast government procurement market to UK suppliers.

This typically includes a range of things the government buys - from goods and services to contracts for public works such as roads.

Some 40,000 high-value tenders worth £38bn from federal ministries will now be open to bidding for UK businesses in strategic sectors like transport, green energy and infrastructure - areas which have thus far been heavily protected from foreign competition.

The access is unprecedented, trade experts say.

It is "far greater" than what India had offered in its earlier agreement with the United Arab Emirates and "sets a new benchmark", Ajay Srivastava of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think-tank, told the BBC.

Under the agreement, UK firms bidding for Indian government contracts in specified areas will be treated almost on par with Indian suppliers and also have real-time access to information on forthcoming public tenders and procurement opportunities.

Also, goods from the UK made with just 20% domestic input can now be supplied to the Indian government, allowing UK companies the flexibility to source up to 80% of the parts or raw material from other countries and still qualify for procurement preference in India.

The minimum contract value at which these firms can bid for government projects has also been sharply reduced as a result of which "UK companies can now bid on a wide range of lower-value projects - such as rural roads, solar equipment for schools, or IT systems for government offices - that were previously out of reach", said Mr Srivastava.

But for British companies, realising this opportunity on the ground will be easier said than done, several experts told the BBC.

While UK suppliers are eligible to participate as Class-II local suppliers, Indian companies will continue to get preferential treatment as Class-I suppliers, says Dr Arpita Mukherjee, a trade expert with the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.

Moreover, pricing plays a key role in winning contracts, and "UK companies tend to have higher prices" compared with Indian companies, which will be a major challenge for them, she adds.

A more significant deterrent will be delayed payments and difficult contract enforcement, which are "major legacy issues when it comes to public procurement in India", says Srijan Shukla of the Observer Research Foundation think-tank.

He says a study on procurement by India's central public sector enterprises from 2017 to 2020 found that pending payments to suppliers were often more than the total average procurement in a year.

"This will impact UK players trying to enter India's public procurement markets, especially when it comes to public contracts that have long-time horizons and are subject to regulatory and political uncertainties," Mr Shukla told the BBC.

Pending dues have been a major irritant for India's small businesses too, leading to short-term liquidity issues that often "force them out of these procurement markets and reallocate that business to the big players", according to Mr Shukla.

Much of this is reflected in India's poor ranking - 163 out of 190 - on contract enforcement in the World Bank's Doing Business report, the latest round of which was in 2020.

While things have improved since these rankings were published - with one-stop-shop portals like Government e-Marketplace, the Central Public Procurement Portal or the recently launched online dispute resolution portal bringing more transparency to the public tendering process - payment discipline by government entities continues to remain a challenge, says Mr Shukla.

According to Ms Mukherjee, the India-UK trade agreement emphasises transparency in procurement but omits issues like pending dues, contract enforcement and penalties.

She adds the deal excludes the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement's dispute settlement provisions for four years after the CETA takes effect - these provisions usually define how disputes are resolved.

"Doing business in India is an acquired skill. Over time, companies from the UK will have to learn the way to work around complexities regarding the art of winning public tenders and navigating though complex regulations," Mr Shukla says.

Despite the niggling issues, allowing foreign players entry into India's government procurement market marks a far-reaching policy shift.

It shows the Indian government's intentions to open up a space that has long been reserved for local small and medium enterprises, and could be reflective of the concessions Delhi is willing to give foreign players in future trade agreements like the one being negotiated with the US, according to GTRI.

India is late to including deep government procurement clauses in trade deals, making its current efforts a catch-up game, says Mr Shukla.

It is also a sign, he says, of the Indian government's "confidence that its own firms can compete with global firms both externally and at home".

The hope is that more foreign players will force more accountability from the Indian government and "help standardise" its tendering and public procurement process - marked by payment delays and poor contract enforcement - to global standards.

Follow BBC News India on Instagram, YouTube, X and Facebook.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reaffirmed his "friendship" with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ahead of his talks with Donald Trump on Friday.

It also comes as the BBC reported the "slave-like" condition facing thousands of North Korean workers sent to Russia to take part in construction projects.

Putin and Kim spoke on Tuesday, with the Russian leader praising Pyongyang's military support for his country's war against Ukraine.

This week, Russia has been making fresh military advances in Ukraine, leading to a sudden thrust near the eastern town of Dobropillia and advancing 10km (six miles) in a short period of time.

Kim and Putin "reaffirmed their commitment to the further development of friendship relations, good-neighbourliness and cooperation," the Kremlin said in a statement.

Putin gave the North Korean leader an update on the Alaska summit's preparation, sharing with him "information in the context of the upcoming talks with US President Donald Trump," the Kremlin said.

The official North Korean statement did not mention this.

Repeating his earlier statement, Putin "praised the assistance provided by [North Korea's] support during the liberation of the territory of the Kursk region", according to his office.

The Ukrainian army briefly invaded Russia's Kursk region last year in an unexpected offensive that showed Western allies its capability to fight back against Russia, which currently occupies about 20% of Ukraine's territories.

Putin and Kim spoke just days before the Russian leader is expected to travel to Alaska to meet Trump, his first face-to-face meeting with a US president since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The war, while causing Russia near-complete economic and diplomatic isolation from the West, has seen unprecedented collaboration between Moscow and Pyongyang. At least 10,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to fight side by side with their Russian counterparts, according to Ukraine and South Korea.

North Korea also provided Russia with missiles, artillery shells and labourers.

With many of Russia's men either killed or tied up fighting - or having fled the country - South Korean intelligence officials have told the BBC that Moscow is increasingly relying on North Korean workers.

• Read more: North Koreans tell BBC they are being sent to work 'like slaves' in Russia

A South Korean former tech executive accused of a helping to spark a cryptocurrency crisis that cost investors more than $40bn (£31.8bn) has pleaded guilty to two criminal counts of fraud.

Do Kwon was the boss of Singapore-based Terraform Labs, which operated two cryptocurrencies - TerraUSD and Luna - both of which collapsed in 2022, triggering a wider sell-off in the crypto market.

The US says he was responsible for the failure of the two digital currencies, accusing him of "orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud".

As part of the plea deal, prosecutors have agreed to refrain from seeking a sentence longer than 12 years. Kwon is due to be sentenced on 11 December.

Kwon's guilty plea in a New York court comes after a lengthy legal battle.

He initially fled South Korea after a warrant for his arrest was issued in 2023, eventually ending up in Montenegro where he was arrested and jailed before being extradited to the US.

US prosecutors said Kwon misrepresented features that were supposed to keep the so-called stablecoin at $1 without outside intervention.

They alleged that in 2021, Kwon arranged for a trading firm to surreptitiously purchase millions of dollars worth of the token to restore TerraUSD's value, even as he told investors that a computer algorithm called Terra Protocol was responsible.

Prosecutors say the alleged misrepresentation prompted a wide array of investors to buy Terraform's offerings, which helped prop up the value of the company's Luna token, which was closely linked to TerraUSD.

The following year, Kwon's TerraUSD and the Luna cryptocurrency crashed.

"In 2021, I made false and misleading statements about why [TerraUSD] regained its peg," he said in court on Tuesday.

"What I did was wrong and I want to apologise for my conduct," he added.

Kwon had originally pleaded not guilty to nine counts stemming from the crash, including securities and wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy.

He had faced up to 135 years in prison if convicted of the charges in the original indictment.

As part of his plea deal, Kwon agreed to refrain from challenging the allegations in the indictment.

He must also forfeit up to $19.3m plus interest and several properties and pay restitution.

While prosecutors have agreed to limit their requested sentence to 12 years, Judge Paul Engelmayer maintained that he was entitled to prescribe a longer sentence.

That sentence could be up to 25 years in prison.

He still faces charges in South Korea, according to his attorney.

US federal prosecutors have announced criminal charges against Jimmy Cherizier, the Haitian gang leader known as "Barbecue" who leads an alliance of gangs that control much of the capitol of Port-au-Prince.

The indictment alleges that Mr Cherizier, as well as US citizen Bazile Richardson, 48, solicited funds from Haitian diaspora community in the US to help pay gang members and buy firearms in violation of US sanctions.

Mr Cherizier, a former police officer who is at large in Haiti, leads the group Viv Ansanm (Live Together). The US is offering $5m (£3.7m) for information leading to his arrest.

The group has been accused of multiple murders, kidnappings and attacks on infrastructure.

"There's a good reason that there's a $5m reward for information leading to Cherizier's arrest," US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said at a news conference on Tuesday.

"He's a gang leader responsible for heinous human rights abuses, including violence against American citizens in Haiti."

Prosecutors say he is suspected of playing a key role in the 2018 La Saline massacre, in which 71 people were killed, more than 400 houses were destroyed, and at least seven women raped.

Mr Richardson, who was arrested in Texas last month, is a naturalised US citizen who grew up in Haiti, prosecutors say. He was residing in North Carolina before he was taken into custody.

Also known as Fredo, Fred Lion, Leo Danger, and Lepe Blode, he helped raise funds that were then used to pay gang leaders and purchase weapons, according to officials.

Both men helped "bankroll Cherizier's violent criminal enterprise, which is driving a security crisis in Haiti", said Assistant US Attorney General John Eisenberg.

He added that the US "will continue to pursue those who enable Haiti's violence and instability".

In May, US officials designated Viv Ansanm, which has controlled the capital since around 2020, as a foreign terrorist organisation. Earlier this year, the group announced that it was declaring itself a political party.

In addition to the US, Mr Cherizier is also under sanctions from the United Nations, Canada and Britain, which accuse him of fueling violence in Haiti.

If arrested, he could be extradited to the US. However, he remains in a position of significant power on the streets and is protected by his group's members.

In 2021, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by unidentified gunmen in Port-au-Prince.

Since then the country - the poorest in the Americas - has been wracked by economic chaos, little functioning political control and increasingly violent gang warfare.

Gang control in Port-au-Prince has led to an almost complete breakdown of law and order, the collapse of health services and emergence of a food security crisis.

In recent months, a UN backed Kenyan led security force has failed to take back control of the Haitian capital.

Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in the country has sunk to new levels. UN reports estimate that 5.7 million people – more than half of Haiti's population – are facing acute food insecurity and there are over one million internally displaced people.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine would reject any Russian proposal to give up the Donbas region in exchange for a ceasefire, warning it could be used as a springboard for future attacks.

Zelensky was speaking ahead of a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday.

Trump has insisted any peace deal would involve "some swapping of territories" and could see Russia taking the entire eastern Donbas region and keeping Crimea.

Meanwhile Moscow's troops have continued their summer offensive, making a sudden thrust near the eastern Ukrainian town of Dobropillia and advancing 10km (six miles) in a short period of time.

Zelensky admitted the advance had taken place in "several spots" but said Kyiv would soon destroy the units involved in the attack.

No official details have emerged on what demands Vladimir Putin could make when he meets Donald Trump in Anchorage on Friday.

The Donbas - made up of the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk - has been partly occupied by Russia since 2014.

Moscow now holds almost all of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk but speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Zelensky reaffirmed that Ukraine would reject any proposal to leave the Donbas.

"If we withdraw from the Donbas today - our fortifications, our terrain, the heights we control - we will clearly open a bridgehead for the Russians to prepare an offensive," he said.

In his nightly address on Tuesday, Zelensky also said Moscow was preparing new offensives on three parts of the front - Zaporizhzhia, Pokrovsk and Novopavlov areas.

Last week Trump said there would be "some swapping of territories to the betterment of both" Russia and Ukraine - sparking concern in Kyiv and across Europe that Moscow could be allowed to redraw Ukraine's borders by force.

Russia currently controls just under 20% of Ukrainian territory.

The White House on Tuesday said the Alaska talks would be a "listening exercise" for Trump and added having him and Putin sit down in the same room would give the US president "the best indication on how to end this war".

It follows Trump describing the summit as a "feel-out meeting" on Monday, seeming to tone down expectations that Friday's meeting could bring Ukraine and Russia closer to peace.

When he announced the summit last week, Trump sounded positive that the meeting could result in concrete steps towards peace.

"I think my gut instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it," he said.

But Ukrainian President Zelensky once again expressed serious doubts that the talks could result in a positive outcome for Kyiv, which has been excluded from the summit. "I don't know what they will talk about without us," he said.

Zelensky has steered clear of criticising Trump but in recent days his frustration at being sidelined has become apparent, and on Tuesday he said the choice of Alaska as a location was a "personal victory" for Putin.

"He is coming out of isolation, because they are meeting with him on US territory," he said.

On Wednesday, Zelensky is due to join a virtual meeting with Donald Trump, EU leaders, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Nato chief Mark Rutte.

All sides will try to convince Trump of the need not to be swayed by Putin when the two meet at the hastily-organised summit.

A scorching heatwave is fuelling dozens of wildfires across parts of southern Europe, forcing thousands of people from their homes and pushing temperatures above 40C (104F).

Red heat alerts have been issued in parts of Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and the Balkans, warning of significant risks to health.

Spain's weather service Aemet said temperatures could reach 44C (111.2F) in Seville and Cordoba, while authorities in southern Portugal also warned of possible 44C highs.

In Italy, a child died of heatstroke on Monday, and in Tres Cantos, north of Spain's capital Madrid, a man who suffered serious burns died in hospital, officials said.

Hundreds of Tres Cantos residents were forced to leave their homes amid Spain's wildfires and the regional environment minister described the fire as having "explosive characteristics because of a dry storm that has brought winds of more than 70km/h (43.5mph)".

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X on Tuesday and said that rescue services "are working tirelessly to extinguish the fires". "We are at extreme risk of forest fires. Please be very cautious," he added.

In Spain's north-western region of Castile and Leon, almost 4,000 people were evacuated and more than 30 blazes were reported - with one threatening Las Medulas, a Unesco World Heritage site renowned for its ancient gold mines.

Another 2,000 people were evacuated from hotels and homes near the tourist hotspot of Tarifa in the southern region of Andalusia.

Almost 1,000 soldiers were deployed to battle wildfires around the country, Spain's national military emergency unit said on Tuesday morning.

In neighbouring Portugal, firefighters battled three large wildfires, with the most serious near Trancoso contained in the centre of the country on Tuesday.

More than 1,300 firefighters and 14 aircraft were deployed, with Morocco sending two planes after Portuguese water bombers broke down, Reuters reported. Authorities warned southern regions could hit 44C, with the temperature not expected to dip below 25C.

One child died of heatstroke in Italy on Monday, where temperatures of 40C are expected to hit later this week and red heat alerts were in place for 16 cities including Rome, Milan and Florence.

The four-year-old Romanian boy, who was found unconscious in a car in Sardinia was airlifted to a hospital in Rome but died due to irreversible brain damage, reportedly caused by heatstroke, medical authorities told AFP.

Almost three-quarters of France was placed under heat alerts on Tuesday, with temperatures forecast to top 36C in the Paris region and 40C in the Rhône Valley.

French Health Minister Catherine Vautrin said hospitals were braced for fallout from the country's second heatwave in just a few weeks. On Monday, 80 weather stations broke August records, 58 reaching all-time highs.

In Greece, gale-force winds fanned fires on tourist islands Zakynthos and Cephalonia, prompting village and hotel evacuations. Another blaze near the western Greek town Vonitsa threatened homes, while four areas of the mainland also faced evacuations.

Turkey's northwestern Canakkale province saw a major fire force hundreds from their homes. Canakkale Governor Omer Toraman said in a post on X that seven planes and six helicopters were tackling the blaze on Tuesday.

He added the Dardanelles Strait, a waterway linking the Aegean Sea to the Sea of Marmara, was closed to allow water-dropping planes and helicopters to operate safely.

Wildfires in Albania forced people to evacuate their homes on Monday, while in Croatia a large fire raged in Split and was contained on Tuesday. A major wildfire swept through Piperi village near Montenegro's capital Podgorica, devastating houses in the area.

Parts of the UK are sweltering in its fourth heatwave of the year, with amber and yellow heat health alerts in place for all of England and potential highs of 34C forecast.

Scientists warn global warming is making Mediterranean summers hotter and drier, fuelling longer and more intense fire seasons.

Gaza City has come under intense air attack, the territory's Hamas-run civil defence agency has said, as Israeli forces prepare to occupy the city.

Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman, said the residential areas of Zeitoun and Sabra had for three days been hit by bombs and drone strikes that "cause massive destruction to civilian homes", with residents unable to recover the dead and injured.

Meanwhile the UK, EU, Australia, Canada and Japan issued a statement saying "famine is unfolding in front of our eyes" and urged action to "reverse starvation".

They demanded "immediate, permanent and concrete steps" to facilitate the entry of aid to Gaza. Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza.

It has accused UN agencies of not picking up aid at the borders and delivering it.

The joint statement also demanded an end to the use of lethal force near aid distribution sites and lorry convoys, where the UN says more than 1,300 Palestinians have been killed, mostly by the Israeli military.

Separately, the World Health Organisation on Tuesday appealed to Israel to let it stock medical supplies to deal with a "catastrophic" health situation before it seizes control of Gaza City.

"We all hear about 'more humanitarian supplies are allowed in' - well it's not happening yet, or it's happening at a way too low a pace," said Rik Peeperkorn, the agency's representative in the Palestinian territories.

"We want to as quickly stock up hospitals," he added. "We currently cannot do that. We need to be able to get all essential medicines and medical supplies in."

Israel's war cabinet voted on Monday to occupy Gaza City, a move condemned at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later that day. On Tuesday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was "at the beginning of a new state of combat".

The Israeli government has not provided an exact timetable on when its forces would enter the area. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's forces had been instructed to dismantle the "two remaining Hamas strongholds" in Gaza City and a central area around al-Mawasi.

He also outlined a three-step plan to increase aid in Gaza, including designating safe corridors for aid distribution, as well as more air drops by Israeli forces and other partners.

On the ground, however, residents of Gaza City said they had come under unrelenting attack from the air. Majed al-Hosary, a resident in Zeitoun in Gaza City, told AFP that the attacks had been "extremely intense for two days".

"With every strike, the ground shakes. There are martyrs under the rubble that no one can reach because the shelling hasn't stopped," he said.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said that 100 dead had been brought to hospitals across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including 31 people who were killed at aid sites. Five more people had also died of malnutrition, it added.

Israel has faced mounting criticism over the 22-month-long war with Hamas, with UN-backed experts warning of widespread famine unfolding in the besieged territory.

On Tuesday members of an international group of former leaders known as "The Elders" for the first time called the war in Gaza an "unfolding genocide" and blamed Israel for causing famine among its population.

Following a visit to the Gaza border, Helen Clark and Mary Robinson, a former prime minister of New Zealand and a former president of Ireland, said in a joint statement: "What we saw and heard underlines our personal conviction that there is not only an unfolding, human-caused famine in Gaza. There is an unfolding genocide."

The statement mirrors those of leading Israeli rights groups, including B'Tselem, which said it had reached an "unequivocal conclusion" that Israel was attempting to "destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip".

Israel strongly rejects the accusations, saying its forces target terrorists and never civilians, and that Hamas was responsible for the suffering in Gaza.

On Sunday, the IDF killed five Al Jazeera journalists in a targeted attack on a media tent in Gaza City, sparking widespread international condemnation. It said it had killed well known reporter Anas al-Sharif, whom it alleged "served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas", and made no mention of the others.

Media freedom groups said it had provided little evidence for its claims. Al Jazeera's managing editor said Israel wanted to "silence the coverage of any channel of reporting from inside Gaza".

Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel's response in Gaza has killed at least 61,599 Palestinians, according to the health ministry, whose toll the UN considers reliable.

An investigation by the British army has found that some soldiers stationed at a controversial base in Kenya continue to use sex workers despite being banned from doing so.

Soldiers at the British Army Training Unit Kenya (Batuk) used sex workers "at a low or moderate" level, a report said, adding that more work was needed to stamp out the practice.

The investigation covered a period of more than two years, examining conduct at the base dating back to July 2022.

It was commissioned in October 2025 following an investigation by British media outlet ITV into the behaviour of soldiers at Batuk, including allegations some army personnel were paying local women for sex.

The ITV documentary followed previous concerns raised about Batuk after the death in 2012 of a local woman Agnes Wanjiru, allegedly killed by a British soldier stationed at the base.

Since then a string of allegations have been made about the conduct of troops at the training site, which lies near the town of Nanyuki 200km (125 miles) north of Kenya's capital Nairobi.

UK Chief of Defence Staff Gen Sir Roly Walker said in a statement that the army was committed to stopping sexual exploitation by those in its ranks.

"The findings of the Service Inquiry I commissioned conclude that transactional sex is still happening in Kenya at a low to moderate level. It should not be happening at all," he said.

"There is absolutely no place for sexual exploitation and abuse by people in the British Army. It is at complete odds with what it means to be a British soldier. It preys on the vulnerable and benefits those who seek to profit from abuse and exploitation," he added.

The service inquiry investigation was carried out over more than two years by a panel of four people, including two serving officers, a civil servant and an independent adviser.

It investigated the behaviour of troops stationed at Batuk and assessed the army's systems to prevent breaches of its regulation JSP 769 which bans soldiers from paying for sex.

The report details 35 instances in which Batuk soldiers were suspected to have paid for sex, since guidance for soldiers on the rule was published in July 2022. During that period 7,666 British soldiers served at the base.

It notes that of those, 26 cases happened before training on the new rule was initiated for all army staff in November of that year, with nine reported cases since then. In the majority of cases, the allegation that soldiers had paid for sex was never proven.

In addition to those detailed in the report, the Foreign Office told the BBC there was a small number - less than five - cases of alleged use of sex workers currently under investigation. The alleged incidents happened after the inquiry was concluded.

The report said that despite the training given by the Army and the control measures in place, the reality was that "transactional sexual activity" by UK personnel in Kenya was still happening, and that "the level is somewhere between low and moderate".

"It is not out of control, but the best way for the Army to manage the risk is for the Army to assume it may be at the upper end of that scale between low and moderate," the report added.

The report noted efforts by the Army to stamp out the practice, including regular training and the use of "sharkwatch" patrols with a senior officer of Sargeant rank or above deployed to monitor the conduct of junior personnel when they left the base for nights out.

The army said it would implement recommendations from the report, including making it easier to dismiss soldiers found to have used sex workers and the implementation of additional training.

The report follows years of controversy about the conduct of soldiers at Batuk sparked by an investigation by the Sunday Times in 2021 which revealed the alleged involvement of a British soldier in the murder of Ms Wanjiru, a mother of one whose body was found dumped in a septic tank near a hotel where she had been seen with soldiers on the night she vanished.

Separately in Kenya, MPs have been conducting an inquiry into wider allegations of mistreatment of local people by soldiers at Batuk and have heard claims at public hearings of injuries allegedly sustained through the behaviour of British troops and of soldiers fathering children to Kenyan mothers and then abandoning them when they returned home.

In June this year a soldier stationed at the base was sent back to the UK after being accused of rape.

The Service Inquiry behind the latest report said it had spoken to many local Kenyans and found "the vast majority" of local residents were happy with the presence of the Batuk camp.

You may also be interested in:

• British soldier accused of rape in Kenya sent back to UK
• Agnes Wanjiru murder: Kenya family's anger over UK army 'cover-up
• Kenyans sue the British army over fire at wildlife sanctuary

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

Madonna has urged Pope Leo XIV to visit Gaza and bring his "light to the children before it is too late".

The US queen of pop shared her plea on social media, saying the supreme pontiff was "the only one of us who cannot be denied entry."

Her intervention came as the UK, EU, Australia, Canada and Japan issued a statement saying "famine is unfolding in front of our eyes" and urged action to "reverse starvation".

"Most Holy Father, please go to Gaza and bring your light to the children before it's too late," Madonna posted on Instagram. "As a mother, I cannot bear to watch their suffering.

Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza.

'Please say you will go'

"The children of the world belong to everyone.

"You are the only one of us who cannot be denied entry."

The Like a Prayer singer added: "We need the humanitarian gates to be fully opened to save these innocent children."

She signed off by saying: "There is no more time. Please say you will go. Love, Madonna."

In July, the new Pope renewed his call for a Gaza ceasefire after three people sheltering in the Catholic church in Gaza City were killed in an Israeli strike.

According to PA News, he said: "I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of populations."

Madonna - who last month released her long-rumoured remix album Veronica Electronica - has made impassioned speeches on stage about Gaza since the war began.

This includes while performing at London's O2 in 2023, when she told fans: "It breaks my heart to see children suffering, teenagers suffering, elderly people suffering - all of it is heartbreaking, I'm sure you agree.

"But even though our hearts are broken our spirits cannot be broken."

She urged fans to bring "light and love" into the world - both individually and collectively, via words and actions - in order to "bring peace to the Middle East" and beyond.

In the caption of her latest online post, she noted how it was her son Rocco's birthday and "the best gift I can give to him as a mother - is to ask everyone to do what they can to help save the innocent children caught in the crossfire in Gaza."

The star, who also asked for donations to three different organisations, continued: "I am not pointing fingers, placing blame or taking sides.

"Everyone is suffering. Including the mothers of the hostages. I pray that they are released as well."

U2's solidarity statement

Madonna's comments come as U2 frontman Bono - along with the rest of his bandmates - also released a statement letting fans know where they stand on the matter.

While condemning the actions of both Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas, the Irish frontman offered: "Our band stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine who truly seek a path to peace and coexistence with Israel and with their rightful and legitimate demand for statehood.

"We stand in solidarity with the remaining hostages and plead that someone rational negotiate their release."

Hamas killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in its attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. Israel's response in Gaza has killed at least 61,599 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, whose toll the UN considers reliable.

Israel has faced mounting criticism over the 22-month-long war with Hamas, with UN-backed experts also warning of widespread famine unfolding in the besieged territory.

On Tuesday the health ministry said five more people had died from malnutrition, bringing the total number of such deaths to 227 including 103 children.

Last week the UN's humanitarian agency said the amount of aid entering Gaza continued to be "far below the minimum required". It said it continued to see impediments and delays as it tries to collect aid from Israeli-controlled border zones.

Israel has continued to deny there is starvation in Gaza and has accused UN agencies of not picking up aid at the borders and delivering it.

At least 40 people have been killed in an attack on a camp for displaced people in Sudan's western Darfur region, according to an aid group that works there.

The Abu Shouk Emergency Response Room said Monday's assault was carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The resistance committee in nearby el-Fasher city, made up of local citizens and activists, also reported this.

El-Fasher, which came under intense attack as well, is the last major foothold in Darfur for the army and its allies, which have been fighting the paramilitary RSF in the two-year civil war.

The conflict has triggered a humanitarian crisis with the UN warning that families trapped in the besieged city faced starvation.

Sudanese media reported that the camp was caught in the crossfire of the fighting in el-Fasher.

But the aid group inside Abu Shouk, where at least 200,000 people live, said some of those killed in the attack were shot in their homes while others were gunned down in public.

• Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening
• Sudan in danger of self-destructing as conflict and famine reign
• Sudanese eating charcoal and leaves to survive, aid agency warns

A US-based organisation that analyses satellite imagery and videos said that it identified a large grouping of 40 light vehicles in the north-west neighbourhoods of the camp, which appear to corroborate reports that the attack came from the north.

The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab added that it was investigating images and videos "allegedly showing RSF shooting at people crawling away from them and berating and using ethnic slurs".

The camp was created more than two decades ago by people from non-Arab communities - including the Fur and Zaghawa - who were fleeing attacks by the Janjaweed militia.

The RSF has its origins in this notorious militia that was accused of carrying out a genocide.

The RSF has also been widely accused of ethnic cleansing in Darfur during this war, and the US has sanctioned it with allegations of genocide.

The RSF has previously denied such charges, saying it is not part of what it calls tribal conflicts.

Zaghawa fighters have joined the army in defending el-Fasher, so it is possible that the RSF was deliberately targeting Zaghawa civilians in the camp.

The camps for displaced people near el-Fasher have frequently come under attack during the war.

In April, more than 100 people died and thousands fled Zamzam camp as the RSF occupied it and took it over.

Since the conflict began in April 2023, tens of thousands of people have died, 12 million have been forced from their homes and famine has been declared in parts of the country.

You may also be interested in:

• BBC smuggles in phones to reveal hunger and fear
• Last surgeons standing in Sudan's siege city
• The mother and children trapped between two conflicts
• Will recapture of presidential palace change course of Sudan war?
• Sudan's 'invisible crisis' - where more children are fleeing war than anywhere else

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

The Nigerian air force has killed scores of gunmen, known locally as "bandits", who were members of criminal gangs operating in Zamfara state, the military has said.

The air force said in a statement on Monday that it carried out a raid in Makakkari forest, north-west Nigeria, which was the hideout of the gunmen who were believed to be behind some high-profile kidnappings in the area.

It said it conducted the operation after surveillance detected more than 400 gang members preparing to attack a village.

Over the past two weeks, armed gangs have targeted nearby settlements, killing scores and kidnapping many more. At least 13 security personnel have also been killed.

The aerial strikes, in coordination with attacks on the ground, led to the deaths of "several notorious bandit kingpins and scores of their foot soldiers," air force spokesperson Air Commodore Ehimen Ejodame said.

He added that the ground forces intercepted and killed others trying to flee the forest.

In parts of Nigeria, kidnapping for ransom has become a lucrative business for some.

The bandits, motivated by financial gain, have also increased their cooperation with jihadist groups that have been waging a 16-year armed insurgency in the north-east.

In recent years, the military has launched a number of operations against the gangs, including last month when at least 95 gang members were killed - but the violence has persisted.

You may also be interested in:

• Aid cuts will push Nigerians into arms of Boko Haram militants, UN warns
• Nigeria's Chibok girls: Parents of kidnapped children heartbroken - again
• Nigeria's kidnap crisis: Inside story of a ransom negotiator
• What is behind the wave of killings in central Nigeria?

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

European leaders have warned against Ukrainian borders being redrawn by force – two days before a US-Russia summit on Ukraine is due to take place in Alaska.

In a statement, European leaders said "the people of Ukraine must have the freedom to decide their future."

It added the principles of "territorial integrity" must be respected and "international borders must not be changed by force".

The statement was signed by 26 of 27 leaders. Missing from the signatories was Hungary's leader Viktor Orban, who has maintained friendly relations with Russia and has repeatedly tried to block EU support for Ukraine.

The statement underscored the nervousness felt by Europeans about Moscow's actions in Ukraine, which many countries – particularly those bordering Russia or those in which the memory of Soviet occupation still lingers – believe could pose a direct threat in the near future.

In recent years Sweden and Finland have joined Nato, Baltic countries have reinstated conscription, and Poland has set aside billions to build a barrier alongside its border with Russia.

European countries have a long history of borders being redrawn by bloody wars and are extremely concerned by the prospect of the US allowing that to happen in Ukraine. A legal recognition of Russia's sovereignty over territories it conquered by force is unacceptable to the EU.

However, the notion that some Ukrainian regions currently under Russian control may not return to Kyiv is gaining ground.

US President Donald Trump has insisted that any peace deal would involve "some swapping of territories" and could see Russia taking the entire Donbas region in eastern Ukraine and keeping Crimea. In exchange it would give up the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, which it partially occupies.

Last week, while admitting that some Ukrainian territory might end up being de facto controlled by Russia, Nato chief Mark Rutte stressed that this should not be formally recognised.

In their statement, European leaders said "Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine has wider implications for European and international security", and stressed the need for a "just and lasting peace".

They also said Ukraine should be capable of "defending itself effectively" and pledged to continue providing military support to Kyiv, which was "exercising its inherent right of self-defence".

"The European Union underlines the inherent right of Ukraine to choose its own destiny and will continue supporting Ukraine on its path towards EU membership," the statement concluded.

Denting the apparent unity of the declaration was a line in smaller print at the bottom of the page pointing out that "Hungary does not associate itself with this statement".

In a post on social media its leader Viktor Orban said he had opted out of supporting the statement as it attempted to set conditions for a meeting to which the EU was not invited and warned leaders not to start "providing instructions from the bench".

He also urged the EU to set up its own summit with Russia – though EU leaders have been shunning direct talks with Moscow since it launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

On Monday Trump revealed he had sought Orban's advice over the chances of Ukraine winning against Russia on the battlefield. "He looked at me like, 'What a stupid question'," Trump said, suggesting that Orban felt Russia would continue to wage war until it beat its adversary.

EU leaders are due to hold talks with Trump on Wednesday. They will be hoping to put the security of the European continent and Ukrainian interests at the forefront of his mind – at a time when nervousness is growing that the peace imposed on Ukraine may end up being neither "just" nor "lasting".

Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are then expected to meet in Alaska on Friday.

Nigerian Afropop star Tems has told the BBC "people don't really respect women" in her industry.

The two-time Grammy award-winner told the BBC that at the start of her career, she struggled to be taken seriously.

"I realised that there's always a cost. There's always a price that you pay. And a lot of those prices I wasn't willing to pay and there wasn't a lot of options," Tems said.

Afropop has gained immense global popularity over the past decade, but despite this growth it remains notoriously male-dominated.

The industry's so-called "Big Three" - Burna Boy, Davido and Wizkid - are all male - while their female counterparts, such as Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade, have spoken out about the barriers they face because of their gender.

Earlier this year, Tems hit out following negative comments about her body, which were made online after a video of her performing was posted onto X.

She wrote on the social media platform: "It's just a body, I will add and lose weight. I never once hid my body, I just didn't feel the need to prove or disprove anyone. The more you don't like my body the better for me actually."

Tems told the BBC she wants "to change the way women see themselves in music", and hopes to achieve this through her new platform, The Leading Vibe Initiative.

The project aims to provide opportunities for young women throughout Africa's music industries.

"I promised myself that if I get to a place where I can do more, I will make this initiative for women like me and maybe make it easier for women to access platforms and access a wider audience and success," Tems said.

The initiative kicked off on Friday in Tems' hometown, Lagos. Vocalists, songwriters and producers were invited to a series of workshops, masterclasses and panel discussions, all with the aim of developing skills and connections.

Asked what advice she would give to young women wanting to crack the industry, she said: "I think it's important to have an idea of what you want for yourself, what your brand is, what's your boundary.

"What are the things that you wouldn't do for fame and the things that you would do?"

Tems, who has scored hits with the likes of Love Me Jeje and Free Mind, said anyone trying to break into the industry must be passionate about their craft.

"It's not everybody that sings that loves music. If I wasn't famous, I would still be doing music. I would be in some kind of jazz club... randomly on a Friday night," she said.

But this is far from Tems' reality. Five years on from her debut EP, she has collaborated with the likes of Beyoncé and Rihanna, racked up more than 17m monthly listeners on Spotify and headlined international festivals.

And next month, she will be supporting British band Coldplay during their sold-out run of gigs at the UK's Wembley Stadium.

Tems puts her success down to being "authentic" and "audacious".

"Even when people tell you to change your sound, change your style, you look at them and you say: 'No'. If it meant me not being signed, I was okay not being signed. I went to a couple of places that didn't sign me and I was okay with that," she said.

Music is not Tems' only passion - she is an avid football fan and recently became part-owner of US football club San Diego FC.

"I never imagined myself owning or being in an ownership of any football team," she said, adding that her brother initially got her into the sport.

Tems joined San Diego's ownership with Pave Investments, a West African private investment firm which also helped raise funds for the NBA-linked African Basketball League.

Tems' involvement with San Diego gives her hope that "people can be bold enough to try things that nobody ever thought was possible".

She said: "I don't see myself as just a singer, just a musician, just an artist. I'm much more than that."

You may also be interested in:

• Rare photos capture Afrobeats' rise to take over the world
• Tiwa Savage: I always wanted to be an actor
• South African singer Tyla sparks culture war

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

At least 66 people are still missing a week after flash floods hit the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, according to an official statement.

Only one body has been recovered so far, the statement added, revising an earlier death toll of four.

Nearly half of Dharali village was submerged on 5 August in a mudslide caused by heavy rains and flash floods. An army camp nearby also suffered extensive damage.

Rescue operations are continuing at the site of the disaster as workers search for missing people. The work has been affected by inclement weather and the blockage of a key highway near the site due to the mudslide.

Weeks of heavy rain have pounded Uttarakhand, with Uttarkashi region - home to Dharali village - among the worst hit by flooding.

Around 1,300 people have been rescued from near Dharali since last week, officials said.

Heavy rains last week had led to the swelling of the Kheerganga river in the region, sending tonnes of muddy waters gushing downwards on the hilly terrain, covering roads, buildings and shops in Dharali and nearby Harsil village.

Videos showed a giant wave of water gushing through the area, crumpling buildings in its path, giving little time for people to escape.

Uttarakhand's chief minister and other officials initially said the flash floods were caused by a cloudburst, but India's weather department has not confirmed this.

Vinay Shankar Pandey, a senior local official, said a team of 10 geologists has been sent to the village to determine the cause of the flash floods.

The sludge from Kheerganga blocked a part of the region's main river Bhagirathi [which becomes India's holiest river Ganges once it travels downstream] and created an artificial lake, submerging vast tracts of land, including a government helipad.

Rescue workers are still trying to drain the lake, which had initially receded but filled up again after more rains.

Mr Pandey said in a statement that a list of missing people included 24 Nepalese workers, 14 locals, nine army personnel and 13 and six individuals from the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, respectively.

Locals, however, have told reporters that more people from the area are still unaccounted for.

Rescue officials are using helicopters to reach Dharali, which is still blocked by debris.

A temporary bridge has also been built to allow easier access as workers continue to try and clear the blocked roads.

"Efforts are continuously being made to remove the debris and construct roads in Dharali to restore order," Mr Pandey said.

Sniffer dogs and earth-moving machinery are searching for those trapped beneath the rubble.

A rescue worker told the Press Trust of India that they were manually digging through the debris where a hotel had stood before the disaster hit.

"There was some movement of people in front of it when the disaster struck. The debris here is being dug manually with the help of radar equipment as people might be buried here," he said.

On Monday, a road-repair machine near Kheerganga plunged into a swollen river; its driver is missing, and the machine remains unrecovered.

India's weather department has predicted heavy rains and thunderstorms for various parts of Uttarakhand till 14 August with high alerts issued for eight districts, including Garhwal.

World-famous coral reefs along Western Australia's (WA) coast have suffered the worst bleaching on record after the state's "longest, largest and most intense" marine heatwave, scientists say.

Between last August and this May, warmer water temperatures led to significant heat stress on the reefs, causing many of the coral to expel the algae which gives them life and colour - a process called bleaching, which is often fatal.

The damage - which will take months to assess - spans 1,500km (932 miles) and includes areas previously unscathed by climate change.

Coral reefs worldwide have been suffering from a two-year-long global coral bleaching event, due to record high ocean temperatures.

Eight weeks of heat stress is usually enough to kill coral, and early estimates showed many WA reefs suffered between 15 and 30, said Australia's marine science agency.

"The length and intensity of the heat stress, and its footprint across multiple regions, is something we've never seen before on most of the reefs in Western Australia," James Gilmour, from the Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims), said.

In a new report, the Aims researchers found the 2024-25 season was the "most severe coral bleaching on record" for WA coral reefs across both the northwestern and central reefs.

"Areas which had given us hope because they'd rarely or not bleached before - like the Rowley Shoals, north Kimberley and Ningaloo - have been hit hard this time. Finally, climate heating has caught up with these reefs," he said.

Climate change means bleaching events are becoming more frequent, more intense and more widespread, which Dr Gilmore says gives coral reefs - which need 10 to 15 years to recover - little time to bounce back.

"Climate change caused by carbon emissions remains the greatest threat to our coral reefs, and all reefs globally," he said.

Taylor Swift has announced her twelfth studio album The Life of a Showgirl, after an intense 24 hours of speculation from fans.

Rumours began on Monday morning, when the singer's marketing team posted a carousel of 12 photos with the caption "Thinking about when she said 'See you next era…"

In the hours that followed, her boyfriend Travis Kelce confirmed that she would be a guest on his podcast New Heights and Swift's official website began a countdown to 00:12 ET (05:12 BST).

The pop star's eleventh album The Tortured Poets Department, released last year, broke the Spotify record for being the most-streamed album in a day.

The title of the album was announced on social media with a clip from Kelce's podcast, and simultaneously made available for pre-order on Swift's official website.

The release date for the new music is yet to be confirmed.

After years of headlines during her record-breaking Eras tour, Swift appeared to have a relatively quiet start to 2025.

In May this year, it was announced that she had bought back the rights to her first six albums, ending a long-running and highly publicised battle over the ownership of her music.

After her original masters sold, she vowed to re-record all six albums, which became known as "Taylor's Versions". To date, she has re-released four of the original six.

Swift announced her purchase of her original masters with a heartfelt letter to fans, where she wrote that the final two albums would "have their moments to re-emerge when the time is right."

The singer wrapped up the Eras tour in December 2024, after playing 149 shows in 53 cities.

In the UK alone, she played to almost 1.2 million people, including eight nights at Wembley Stadium. The tour generated an estimated £1bn for the country's economy.

Charges against an American influencer and teen pilot who has been stranded on a remote island in the Antarctic since June have been dropped.

Ethan Guo, 19, is alleged to have illegally landed his plane in Chilean territory after embarking on a solo trip to all seven continents to raise money for cancer research, according to local authorities.

They accused him of providing false flight plan information to officials who detained him and opened an investigation.

A judge has ordered him to leave the area, pay a $30,000 (£22,332) donation to a children's cancer foundation and is banned from re-entering Chilean territory for three years.

Mr Guo made headlines last year when he began an attempt to become the youngest person to fly solo to all seven continents and collect donations for research into childhood cancer.

Having already visited six of seven continents, in June he flew his small Cessna 182Q aircraft from the city of Punta Arenas, near the southernmost point of Chile, to King George island off the Atlantic coast, which is claimed by Chile and named after the UK's King George III.

He was taken into custody after landing on the island, which is home to a number of international research stations and their staff.

Authorities said he submitted a plan to fly over Punta Arenas, but not beyond that, according to CBS News, the BBC's US partner.

He was charged on 29 June with allegedly handing false information to ground control and landing without authorisation, but these were dropped by a judge on Monday.

"I remain in Antarctica awaiting approval for my departure flight," Mr Guo told the Associated Press (AP) news agency following the judge's ruling on Monday. "I sincerely hope they give it to me soon so that I and my plane can continue with my original mission."

Mr Guo has been staying at a military base on the island for the last six weeks, AP reported. He was told he could travel to other parts of Chile but because of frigid temperatures was unable to leave the island, it added.

Mr Guo is hoping to become the first pilot to complete solo flights across all seven continents in the Cessna aircraft, and has already spent 140 days in the air on his travels.

He decided to raise money for cancer research after his cousin was diagnosed with cancer.

He is aiming to raise $1m for cancer research at St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Nigerian Afropop star Tems has told the BBC "people don't really respect women" in her industry.

The two-time Grammy award-winner told the BBC that at the start of her career, she struggled to be taken seriously.

"I realised that there's always a cost. There's always a price that you pay. And a lot of those prices I wasn't willing to pay and there wasn't a lot of options," Tems said.

Afropop has gained immense global popularity over the past decade, but despite this growth it remains notoriously male-dominated.

The industry's so-called "Big Three" - Burna Boy, Davido and Wizkid - are all male - while their female counterparts, such as Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade, have spoken out about the barriers they face because of their gender.

Earlier this year, Tems hit out following negative comments about her body, which were made online after a video of her performing was posted onto X.

She wrote on the social media platform: "It's just a body, I will add and lose weight. I never once hid my body, I just didn't feel the need to prove or disprove anyone. The more you don't like my body the better for me actually."

Tems told the BBC she wants "to change the way women see themselves in music", and hopes to achieve this through her new platform, The Leading Vibe Initiative.

The project aims to provide opportunities for young women throughout Africa's music industries.

"I promised myself that if I get to a place where I can do more, I will make this initiative for women like me and maybe make it easier for women to access platforms and access a wider audience and success," Tems said.

The initiative kicked off on Friday in Tems' hometown, Lagos. Vocalists, songwriters and producers were invited to a series of workshops, masterclasses and panel discussions, all with the aim of developing skills and connections.

Asked what advice she would give to young women wanting to crack the industry, she said: "I think it's important to have an idea of what you want for yourself, what your brand is, what's your boundary.

"What are the things that you wouldn't do for fame and the things that you would do?"

Tems, who has scored hits with the likes of Love Me Jeje and Free Mind, said anyone trying to break into the industry must be passionate about their craft.

"It's not everybody that sings that loves music. If I wasn't famous, I would still be doing music. I would be in some kind of jazz club... randomly on a Friday night," she said.

But this is far from Tems' reality. Five years on from her debut EP, she has collaborated with the likes of Beyoncé and Rihanna, racked up more than 17m monthly listeners on Spotify and headlined international festivals.

And next month, she will be supporting British band Coldplay during their sold-out run of gigs at the UK's Wembley Stadium.

Tems puts her success down to being "authentic" and "audacious".

"Even when people tell you to change your sound, change your style, you look at them and you say: 'No'. If it meant me not being signed, I was okay not being signed. I went to a couple of places that didn't sign me and I was okay with that," she said.

Music is not Tems' only passion - she is an avid football fan and recently became part-owner of US football club San Diego FC.

"I never imagined myself owning or being in an ownership of any football team," she said, adding that her brother initially got her into the sport.

Tems joined San Diego's ownership with Pave Investments, a West African private investment firm which also helped raise funds for the NBA-linked African Basketball League.

Tems' involvement with San Diego gives her hope that "people can be bold enough to try things that nobody ever thought was possible".

She said: "I don't see myself as just a singer, just a musician, just an artist. I'm much more than that."

You may also be interested in:

• Rare photos capture Afrobeats' rise to take over the world
• Tiwa Savage: I always wanted to be an actor
• South African singer Tyla sparks culture war

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 Chinese man has pleaded guilty in a US district court to exporting around 850 protected turtles wrapped in socks and falsely labelled as toys, the US Department of Justice said.

Between August 2023 and November 2024, Wei Qiang Lin exported to Hong Kong more than 200 parcels containing the turtles, according to a Justice Department statement on Monday.

The boxes packed with the turtles had been labelled as "containing 'plastic animal toys', among other things", the authorities said.

Lin primarily shipped eastern box turtles and three-toed box turtles. Both species are native to the US and highly prized by some pet owners.

The turtles have unique markings on their shells, and are seen as a status symbol in China where they are often kept as pets.

US authorities estimated that Lin's seized turtles had a combined market value of $1.4m (£1m). He was caught when the animals were intercepted by law enforcement during one border inspection.

Both species, which were smuggled in large quantities in the 1990s, are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Trade of the turtles can only be authorised with export permits or re-export certificates.

The eastern box turtle is also deemed vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Besides the turtles, Lin also exported 11 other parcels filled with reptiles, including venomous snakes, according to the Justice Department.

Lin, who is set to be sentenced on 23 December, faces up to five years in prison.

In March, another Chinese national was sentenced to 30 months in prison for smuggling more than 2,000 eastern box turtles.

The animals were also wrapped in socks and packed in boxes, which were labelled as containing almonds and chocolate cookies.

US authorities estimated at the time that each turtle could have been sold for $2,000 (£1,500).

Thousands of North Koreans are being sent to work in slave-like conditions in Russia to fill a huge labour shortage exacerbated by Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, the BBC has learned.

Moscow has repeatedly turned to Pyongyang to help it fight the war, using its missiles, artillery shells and its soldiers.

Now, with many of Russia's men either killed or tied up fighting - or having fled the country - South Korean intelligence officials have told the BBC that Moscow is increasingly relying on North Korean labourers.

We interviewed six North Korean workers who have fled Russia since the start of the war, along with government officials, researchers and those helping to rescue the labourers.

They detailed how the men are subjected to "abysmal" working conditions, and how the North Korean authorities are tightening their control over the workers to stop them escaping.

One of the workers, Jin, told the BBC that when he landed in Russia's Far East, he was chaperoned from the airport to a construction site by a North Korean security agent, who ordered him not to talk to anyone or look at anything.

"The outside world is our enemy," the agent told him. He was put straight to work building high-rise apartment blocks for 18 hours a day, he said.

All six workers we spoke to described the same punishing workdays – waking at 6am and being forced to build high-rise apartments until 2am the next morning, with just two days off a year.

We have changed their names to protect them.

"Waking up was terrifying, realising you had to repeat the same day over again," said another construction worker, Tae, who managed to escape Russia last year. Tae recalled how his hands would seize up in the morning, unable to open, paralysed from the previous day's work.

"Some people would leave their post to sleep in the day, or fall asleep standing up, but the supervisors would find them and beat them. It was truly like we were dying," said another of the workers, Chan.

"The conditions are truly abysmal," said Kang Dong-wan, a professor at South Korea's Dong-A University who has travelled to Russia multiple times to interview North Korean labourers.

"The workers are exposed to very dangerous situations. At night the lights are turned out and they work in the dark, with little safety equipment."

The escapees told us that the workers are confined to their construction sites day and night, where they are watched by agents from North Korea's state security department. They sleep in dirty, overcrowded shipping containers, infested with bugs, or on the floor of unfinished apartment blocks, with tarps pulled over the door frames to try to keep out the cold.

One labourer, Nam, said he once fell four metres off his building site and "smashed up" his face, leaving him unable to work. Even then his supervisors would not let him leave the site to visit a hospital.

In the past, tens of thousands of North Koreans worked in Russia earning millions of pounds a year for the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, and his cash-strapped regime. Then in 2019, the UN banned countries from using these workers in an attempt to cut off Kim's funds and stop him building nuclear weapons, meaning most were sent home.

But last year more than 10,000 labourers were sent to Russia, according to a South Korean intelligence official speaking to the BBC on the condition of anonymity. They told us that even more were expected to arrive this year, with Pyongyang possibly dispatching more than 50,000 workers in total.

The sudden influx means North Korean workers are now "everywhere in Russia," the official added. While most are working on large-scale construction projects, others have been assigned to clothing factories and IT centres, they said, in violation of the UN sanctions banning the use of North Korean labour.

Russian government figures show that more than 13,000 North Koreans entered the country in 2024, a 12-fold increase from the previous year. Nearly 8,000 of them entered on student visas but, according to the intelligence official and experts, this is a tactic used by Russia to bypass the UN ban.

In June, a senior Russian official, Sergei Shoigu, admitted for the first time that 5,000 North Koreans would be sent to rebuild Kursk, a Russian region seized by Ukrainian forces last year but who have since been pushed back.

The South Korean official told us it was also "highly likely" some North Koreans would soon be deployed to work on reconstruction projects in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories.

"Russia is suffering a severe labour shortage right now and North Koreans offer the perfect solution. They are cheap, hard-working and don't get into trouble," said Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul and a renowned expert in North Korea-Russia relations.

These overseas construction jobs are highly coveted in North Korea as they promise to pay better than the work at home. Most workers go hoping to escape poverty and be able to buy a house for their family or start a business when they return. Only the most trusted men are selected after being rigorously vetted, and they must leave their families behind.

But the bulk of their earnings is sent straight to the North Korean state as "loyalty fees". The remaining fraction – usually between $100-200 (£74-£149) a month - is marked down on a ledger. The workers only receive this money when they return home – a recent tactic, experts say, to stop them running away.

Once the men realise the reality of the harsh work and lack of pay, it can be shattering. Tae said he was "ashamed" when he learnt that other construction workers from central Asia were being paid five times more than him for a third of the work. "I felt like I was in a labour camp; a prison without bars," he said.

The labourer Jin still bristles when he remembers how the other workers would call them slaves. "You are not men, just machines that can speak," they jeered. At one point, Jin's manager told him he might not receive any money when he returned to North Korea because the state needed it instead. It was then he decided to risk his life to escape.

Tae made the decision to defect after watching YouTube videos showing how much workers in South Korea were paid. One night, he packed his belongings into a bin liner, stuffed a blanket under his bed sheets to make it look as if he was still sleeping, and crept out of his construction site. He hailed a taxi and travelled thousands of kilometres across the country to meet a lawyer who helped arrange his journey on to Seoul.

In recent years, a small number of workers have been able to orchestrate their escapes using forbidden second-hand smartphones, bought by saving the small daily allowance they received for cigarettes and alcohol.

In an attempt to prevent these escapes, multiple sources have told us that the North Korean authorities are now cracking down on workers' already limited freedom.

According to Prof Kang from Dong-A University, one way the regime has tried to control the workers over the last year is by subjecting them to more frequent ideological training and self-criticism sessions, in which they are forced to declare their loyalty to Kim Jong Un and log their failings.

Rare opportunities to leave construction sites have also been cut. "The workers used to go out in groups once a month, but recently these trips have reduced to almost zero," Prof Kang added.

Kim Seung-chul, a Seoul-based activist who helps rescue North Korean workers from Russia, said these outings were being more tightly controlled. "They used to be allowed to leave in pairs, but since 2023 they have had to travel in groups of five and are monitored more intensely."

In this climate, fewer workers are managing to escape. The South Korean government told us the number of North Koreans making it out of Russia each year and arriving in Seoul had halved since 2022 - from around 20 a year to just 10.

Mr Lankov, the expert in North Korea-Russia relations, said the crackdowns were likely in preparation for many more workers arriving.

"These workers will be the lasting legacy of Kim and Putin's wartime friendship," he said, arguing the workers would continue arriving long after the war had ended, and the deployment of soldiers and weapons had ceased.

Additional reporting by Jake Kwon and Hosu Lee

It's the bilateral summit every European leader wants to be at.

And for good reason. On Friday, Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

Territorial concessions will likely be discussed, and Europe (not least Ukraine) doesn't want its borders to be redrawn through force.

But, as things stand, there are no invites for the country being invaded, nor the continent it sits in.

"Brace ourselves for some pretty outrageous Russian demands," warns Lord Simon McDonald, a former head of the UK Foreign Office.

"It will be theatrical," he adds. "Putin is going to ask for things that nobody else would concede - with the possible exception of Donald Trump."

• Trump says he will try to get back territory for Ukraine in talks with Putin

President Zelensky has said he won't agree to the giving up of any land, or even freezing the conflict along the current front lines.

His argument is that it won't slow a Russian war machine that has waged a full-scale war for more than three and a half years. Concessions, he claims, would only speed it up.

"It's clear Putin wants a photo with the most influential people on Earth, which is President Trump, and he wants sanctions to be postponed, which he'll probably get," the EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, tells me.

"The question is, what is success for the US in the meeting?" she asks. "If President Zelensky is there, it would be a clear success."

But if Ukraine's leader isn't at the Alaskan table, how might the Kremlin's proposals be challenged?

"He could go," said the US president on that possibility. But Kyiv and Europe want it to go from a "maybe" to a "yes".

Adding to their anxiety is the one-on-one format being a Kremlin idea the White House agreed to.

A European scramble

Brussels' European Quarter isn't its usual flurry of political activity during August, but these US-Russia talks have changed that.

On Monday, Kallas hosted a virtual meeting of foreign ministers where they called for an unconditional ceasefire before any deal. New sanctions for Moscow were announced as well.

I asked Kallas what she thought Donald Trump meant by suggesting some land could be swapped.

"We have to ask President Trump," she says. "But it is clear an aggressor can't be awarded for aggression. Otherwise, we will just see more aggression around the world because it pays off."

Europe is trying to do two things: rally around Ukraine, as well as muscle in on this American-led peace process.

Whether or not Zelensky does make the trip, the door for Europe has firmly remained shut since Trump retook office at the start of the year.

At the time his envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said the bloc wouldn't be involved in any peace talks. It's a position the Europeans have been unable to change through diplomacy.

Their relationship with the US has still improved, not least with significant increases in their defence spending. But Radoslaw Sikorski, Poland's foreign minister, believes they need a more central role.

"This is a matter of existential European security interest," he explains.

"We appreciate Trump's efforts but we'll be taking our own decision in Europe too.

"A simple ceasefire would not resolve the problem."

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has secured a remote sit down between European leaders, as well as Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, this Wednesday.

They hope to be consulted on America's plan to end Russia's invasion, but ex-UK Foreign Office head Lord McDonald would be surprised to see a last-minute European invite for Friday.

"The end will be as protracted as the war has been long," he warned.

"The meeting is a milestone, but it doesn't actually mean it will lead anywhere."

The US and China have extended their trade truce for 90 days just hours before a jump in tariffs had been set to kick in.

An executive order signed by US President Donald Trump on Monday keeps in place an agreement from May, when the two sides temporarily suspended some of the tariffs on each others' goods.

The US had warned higher tariffs could kick in on Tuesday unless that truce was extended.

Talks last month ended with both sides calling the discussions "constructive". China's top negotiator said at the time that both sides would push to preserve the truce, while US officials said they were waiting for final sign-off from Trump.

A return of higher duties would have risked further trade turmoil and uncertainty amid worries about the effect of tariffs on prices and the economy.

Trade tensions between the US and China reached fever pitch in April, after Trump unveiled sweeping new tariffs on goods from countries around the world, with China facing some of the highest levies.

Beijing retaliated with tariffs of its own, sparking a tit-for-tat fight that saw tariffs soar into the triple digits and nearly shut down trade between the two countries.

The two sides had agreed to set aside some of those measures in May.

That agreement left Chinese goods entering the US facing an additional 30% tariff compared with the start of the year, with US goods facing a new 10% tariff in China.

The two sides remain in discussions about issues including access to China's rare earths, its purchases of Russian oil, and US curbs on sales of advanced technology, including chips to China.

Trump recently relaxed some of those export restrictions, allowing firms such as AMD and Nvidia to resume sales of certain chips to firms in China in exchange for sharing 15% of their revenues with the government.

The US is also pushing for the spin-off of TikTok from its Chinese owner ByteDance, a move that has been opposed by Beijing.

Earlier on Monday in remarks to reporters, Trump did not commit to extending the truce but said dealings had been going "nicely". A day earlier he called on Beijing to increase its purchases of US soybeans.

Even with the truce, trade flows between the countries have been hit this year, with US government figures showing US imports of Chinese goods in June cut nearly in half compared with June 2024.

In the first six months of the year, the US imported $165bn (£130bn) worth of goods from China, down roughly 15% from the same time last year. American exports to China n roughly 20% year-on-year for the same period.

Nepal will make 97 of its Himalayan mountains free to climb for the next two years in a bid to boost tourism in some of its more remote areas.

It comes as permit fees to summit Mount Everest, the world's highest peak, during peak season will go up to $15,000 (£11,170) from September - the first increase in nearly a decade.

Nepal's tourism department said it hopes the initiative will highlight the country's "unexplored tourism products and destinations".

Mountaineering generates a significant source of revenue for Nepal, which is home to the world's 10 tallest mountains. Climbing fees brought in $5.9m last year, with Everest accounting for more than three quarters of that.

The peaks for which fees will be waived are located in Nepal's Karnali and Sudurpaschim provinces, standing between 5,970m (19,590 ft) and 7,132m high.

Both provinces, located in the far-western region of Nepal, are among the country's poorest and least developed provinces.

"Despite their breathtaking beauty, the number of tourists and mountaineers here is very low as access is so difficult. We hope the new provision will help," said Himal Gautam, director of Nepal's Tourism Department.

"They can create jobs, generate income, and strengthen the local economy," he said, as reported by The Kathmandu Post.

But it is unclear if authorities have plans to improve infrastructure and connectivity to these remote areas - and how well communities in these areas might cope with an influx of climbers, if the free-to-climb initiative does take off.

Climbers have historically shown little interest in these 97 remote peaks - only 68 of them have ventured there in the last two years. In contrast, some 421 climbing permits were issued for Everest in 2024 alone.

Everest, the world's highest peak at over 8,849m, has in recent years been plagued by overcrowding, environmental concerns and a series of fatal climbing attempts.

In April 2024, Nepal's Supreme Court ordered the government to limit the number of mountaineering permits issued for Everest and several other peaks, saying that the mountains' capacity "must be respected".

In January this year, authorities announced a 36% mark-up in permit fees. For those attempting the summit outside the peak April to May season, it will now cost $7,500 to climb Everest during September to November and $3,750 during December to February.

Nepal's parliament is also debating a new law that will require anyone wanting to scale Everest to have first summited a mountain over 7,000m in the country.

This makes the peaks in Karnali and Sudurpaschim "ideal training grounds", according to The Kathmandu Post.