A leading conservationist in South Africa, charged with smuggling rhino horns worth $14m (£10m), has insisted he has "nothing to hide".

In a statement, John Hume, the former owner of what is thought to be the world's largest rhino farm, denied allegations that he trafficked the horns from South Africa to South East Asia.

The 83-year-old Mr Hume and five others, including a lawyer and a game reserve manager, have appeared in court on 55 charges, including theft, money laundering and fraud.

The group was allegedly part of an international rhino horn trafficking syndicate between 2017 and 2024, prosecutors said.

Mr Hume and his co-defendants are accused of smuggling more than 960 horns, obtaining permits to sell them locally, when the true intention was to export the horns to South East Asia, where they are used in traditional medicine.

The sale of rhino horns is legal between citizens in South Africa, but exporting them is not allowed.

The accused appeared in a magistrate's court in the capital city Pretoria on Tuesday and were granted bail. They did not enter a plea - this is not required in South Africa during an initial court appearance.

Mr Hume, however, proclaimed his innocence in a statement.

"I have nothing to hide and have fully cooperated with investigators for years," he said.

"I categorically reject the allegations against me and maintain that I have never acted unlawfully. I am confident that, once the facts are tested in court, I will be vindicated and my innocence confirmed."

Mr Hume's former farm, Platinum Rhino, was home to approximately 2,000 southern white rhinos.

He sold the farm in 2023, saying he could no longer continue to support the rhinos, which he had been breeding for over two decades.

Mr Hume was born in Zimbabwe and raised on a sheep farm. He made a living developing holiday resorts, before turning his hand to conservation in the 1990s.

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The Danish government has announced it will abolish a 25% sales tax on books, in an effort to combat a "reading crisis".

The tax is is one of the highest in the world. Culture Minister Jacob Engel-Schmidt says he hopes scrapping it will lead to more books flying off the shelves.

The measure is expected to cost about 330 million kroner ($50m, £38m) a year.

Data from the OECD, an intergovernmental think tank, shows that a quarter of Danish 15-year-olds cannot understand a simple text.

"The reading crisis has unfortunately been spreading in recent years," said Engel-Schmidt. He added that he was "incredibly proud" of the move to scrap the tax.

He said "massive money should be spent on investing in the consumption and culture" of the Danish people.

In Finland, Sweden and Norway - which also have a standard Value Added Tax (VAT) of 25% like Denmark - the VAT on books is 14%, 6% and 0% respectively. In the UK, books are also VAT-free.

Surveys have shown declining levels of reading and comprehension among Danish teenagers, said Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, vice-chair of the government's working group on literature.

Younger children can easily improve their reading skills "but at 15 the ability to understand a text is pretty important", he told the BBC.

The numbers were "pretty shocking," he said, referring to the OECD research.

Young people struggle with reading because they have "so many options" and can be "easily distracted".

He said removing VAT on books was not a complete solution, but it would make books "more accessible".

The government's working group on literature also looked into ways to export Danish literature, the digitalisation of the book market and the impact on authors' pay.

A controversy has broken out in Germany about whether a trans right-wing extremist should serve a prison sentence in a women's or a men's facility.

In July 2023, Marla-Svenja Liebich was sentenced by the Halle District Court in Saxon-Anhalt to a total of one year and six months in prison without parole for extreme right incitement to hatred, defamation, and insult.

Liebich appealed against her sentence and lost.

At the time she was known as Sven Liebich. German media reports say Liebich used to be a member of a neo-Nazi group called Blood and Honour.

At the end of 2024, Liebich had her gender entry in official records changed from male to female. She also changed her first name.

The basis for this was Germany's Self-Determination Act, which had just come into force and strengthened the rights of transgender people. The Act allows people to change their gender marker and first name through a simple declaration at a registry office, instead of a judicial ruling.

German media have questioned whether Liebich's change was serious.

"Whether the change is serious is doubtful," wrote Der Spiegel. "Liebich has been known for years for her right-wing extremist views and has also made queerphobic statements in the past."

Liebich has taken legal action against media outlets for what she considers to be false representations of her gender identity.

A complaint against Spiegel to the Press Council was unanimously rejected by the Council as unfounded. Spiegel said the letter said it was likely that Liebich "made the change of civil status in an abusive manner in order to provoke and embarrass the state".

Liebich will shortly begin her prison term.

The Chief Public Prosecutor in Halle, Dennis Cernota told German public broadcaster MDR in Saxony-Anhalt that Liebich would serve her prison sentence at the Chemnitz women's prison.

Liebich confirmed this in a post on X. "I will begin my prison sentence as scheduled," she said. "On August 29, 2025, at 10pm, I will arrive at the Chemnitz correctional facility with my suitcases."

A decision on where to place Liebich will then be made at the start of incarceration. The chief public prosecutor said the prison administration would decide whether Liebich could pose a threat to security and order, which could lead to her transfer to another jail.

Meanwhile German media report that Liebich has recently lost another case, against journalist Julian Reichelt at Berlin Regional Court.

Reichelt, editor-in-chief of Nius, posted on X in July: "Anyone who follows the reporting on neo-Nazi Sven Liebich can only come to one conclusion: The traffic-light coalition government has managed, by law, to force almost the entire German media landscape to tell untruths and make grotesquely false claims. Sven Liebich is not a woman."

Die Welt said the court's Second Civil Chamber decided to reject Liebich's application for a preliminary injunction, saying it was unfounded.

Firefighters in Oregon are racing to save the Doerner Fir - one of the world's tallest and oldest trees - from a fire that has been burning since Saturday.

The giant fir, more than 325ft (99m) tall and estimated to be over 450 years old, has already lost about 50ft to the blaze, which may jeopardise its standing in global height rankings, officials say.

With more hot and dry weather forecast along Oregon's Coast Range, firefighters are struggling to put the fire out.

Officials have discussed some unconventional ways to put out the blaze including building scaffolding to reach and suppress flames higher up the tree.

The cause of the blaze remains unknown, though lightening has been ruled out.

On Tuesday, an infrared drone found no active flames or smoke at the top of the tree, but it detected heat inside a cavity in the trunk some 280 ft high, federal Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Megan Harper told the BBC.

Ms Harper told ABC News that the fire may impact the tree's standing in global height rankings.

"We've lost about 50 ft of it, just from fire and pieces falling out," she said, noting that the 50 ft were lost through the top burning. "So I don't know where it'll stand after this, but it's still a magnificent tree."

She also said there was not a risk of the tree fully burning down.

"The tree is so big, it's got so much mass that it would take a while for it to burn all the way through the tree," she said.

The Coos Forest Protective Association has said helicopter bucket drops have reduced fire activity near the top, while sprinklers and containment lines have been set up around the base. A helicopter remains on standby.

The entire US-Mexico border wall will be painted black to make it hotter and harder to climb, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said, crediting the idea to Donald Trump.

While domestic detentions and deportations have been the primary focus of the current immigration crackdown, Trump's policy bill passed earlier this summer also allocated $46m (£34m) for additional wall construction.

About a half mile (0.8km) of wall is going up each day along the nearly 2,000 mile (3,218km) border, according to Noem.

The number of border crossings has plummeted in recent months, and the Trump administration says sweeping arrests and detentions are acting as a deterrent to illegal migration.

Speaking to reporters along a section of the border in New Mexico, Noem said on Tuesday that the black paint was "specifically at the request of the president".

"[He] understands that in the hot temperatures down here, when something is painted black it gets even warmer and it will make it even harder for people to climb," she added.

Border Patrol officials also say that black paint will help prevent the wall from rusting.

Additionally, Noem said the administration is planning to install more "waterborne infrastructure" along the Rio Grande, which makes up more than half of the border between the two countries.

While Noem did not provide any more details on those projects, Texas authorities have previously installed floating barriers - large orange buoys - and fortified riverbank fencing guarded by state troopers, local police officers and the Texas National Guard along parts of the river.

Crossings and detentions of undocumented immigrants have plummeted since Trump returned to the office, with record lows of approximately 4,600 in July and 6,000 in June - a 92% year-on-year reduction.

During the Biden administration, detentions sometimes spiked to averages of 6,000 per day.

Earlier in August, Noem said that a total of 1.6m undocumented immigrants have left the US during the first 200 days of the Trump administration, although she did not specify how many have been deported and how many left on their own.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier in August that a total of 300,000 undocumented immigrants had been detained in the interior of the US since January.

While the administration continues to say it is prioritising those with criminal histories, immigration advocates have warned that many with no criminal charges or only minor infractions have been caught up in the sweeps.

White House officials also contend that increased border security and mass deportations have been deterrents, saying they are the primary reason for plummeting figures at the US-Mexico border.

A prominent South African MP fired shots to fend off a violent attack by a gang on him and two of his colleagues in Cape Town.

Ian Cameron - along with two other members of parliament's police committee, Lisa Schickerling and Nicholas Gotsell - were returning from a work trip when their vehicle was ambushed in the township of Philippi on Tuesday.

The assailants smashed the car's windows with bricks, injuring Cameron and Gotsell.

Cameron, whose teeth were broken, retaliated by opening fire, injuring one of the attackers.

Police said two teenagers, aged 16 and 18, have been arrested as they investigate a case of attempted murder and attempted hijacking.

Crime is a major problem in South Africa and the country has one of the highest murder rates in the world.

One of the suspects was apprehended while seeking medical treatment at a hospital on Tuesday while another was arrested on a farm early Wednesday, police said, adding that a search is under way for a third suspect.

Cameron, who chairs the police committee, told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that they were returning from an unannounced visit to a police academy in Philippi when "the first brick came through [the window]" on the driver's side and hit him in the face.

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Cameron said that while he was trying to fend off his attacker, he saw his colleagues also face a barrage of attacks from the other assailants.

"I realised that if we don't do something, then this can go really bad. So I did my best to act in self-defence with my firearm and then we sped off to the closest secure location," he added.

In South Africa, it is legal to carry a firearm, so long as you have a licence.

Cameron, who was seen with a cut lip in the interview, said some of his teeth had been broken, while Gotsell had to be briefly hospitalised after he was hit on the head.

Gotsell, speaking after being discharged from hospital, praised Cameron, saying he "acted with such bravery".

All three MPs are members of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the second-biggest party in South Africa's coalition government.

The party said the attack showed how "out-of-control" crime is in South Africa.

More BBC stories on South Africa:

• Top cop shakes South Africa with explosive allegations about his boss
• On the hunt for the fugitive linked to illegal South African gold mine
• Caught in the crossfire - the victims of Cape Town's gang warfare

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 Trump administration has revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former US officials, accusing them of politicising intelligence for partisan or personal gain.

In a memo posted on social media, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard directed several national security agency heads to immediately strip the officials of their clearances, stating the move was ordered by President Donald Trump.

The officials include several national security staffers who served under former Democratic presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

Gabbard offered no evidence to support the accusations in the memo.

Security clearances grant access to sensitive government information, and some former officials retain them to advise successors. Some private sector jobs such as those in defence and aerospace can require access to security clearances as a pre-condition for employment.

It remains unclear whether all 37 individuals listed in the memo still held active clearances.

Gabbard said Trump ordered the revocations because the officials "abused the public trust by politicizing and manipulating intelligence, leaking classified intelligence without authorization, and or committing intentional egregious violations of tradecraft standards".

"Being entrusted with a security clearance is a privilege, not a right," Gabbard wrote on X. "Those in the Intelligence Community who betray their oath to the Constitution and put their own interests ahead of the interests of the American people have broken the sacred trust they promised to uphold."

The memo did not lay out specific charges against specific individuals.

This is not the first time the Trump administration has revoked security clearances for intelligence officials. The administration has previously revoked clearances of Biden, his Vice-President Kamala Harris, and former lawmakers involved in investigations of the 6 January Capitol riot.

In recent weeks, Gabbard has led the charge against intelligence officials under former President Barack Obama who concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections, which Trump won.

Trump and Gabbard have described the intelligence community's assessment as a "treasonous conspiracy" to undermine the president's electoral success.

Democrats have dismissed the moves as a political distraction, and accused the White House of deflecting attention from unpopular policies and Trump's alleged ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

"These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," a spokesman for Obama said last month.

French police are questioning a man on suspicion of murder after four bodies were found in the Seine near Paris.

The first victim was spotted by a passer-by near a bridge in Choisy-le-Roi, a south-eastern suburb of the capital, on 13 August. Later that day police searching the area discovered three more bodies immersed nearby.

Prosecutors say that one of the victims was strangled and another showed violent injuries.

The suspect is being held in Paris. Police have given no details about him or how many murders he is being questioned over.

The first body had only been in the water for a short time and was identified as a local 40-year-old man, prosecutors said.

The three others were found in "a very advanced state of decomposition", they added.

The prosecutors stressed there was so far no evidence of a link between the victims. They could have been submerged in separate places upstream and taken by the current to the foot of the Choisy bridge.

Police in Jeju have for the first time released guidelines reminding foreign visitors to behave or face fines, as the South Korean holiday island sees an increasing number of tourists.

Jeju police issued the guide following complaints from locals over foreigners' misbehaviour, including littering and letting children defecate on the street.

The guide - printed in Chinese, English and Korean - is the first of its kind in the country, local police say, and comes during the peak summer season.

Jeju, a volcanic island south of the Korean peninsula, is popular for its beaches, walking trails and windswept mountain views. Foreign visitors also come to Jeju for shopping and gambling.

The guide aims to "prevent misunderstandings due to language and cultural differences and improve foreigners' understanding of Korean culture and laws", said Jeju Police Agency chief Kim Su-young.

An initial eight thousand copies of the guide will be printed and distributed immediately, Kim said.

The guide lists down "minor offences" that are punishable by fines. These include smoking in prohibited areas, littering, jaywalking, drunk and disorderly behaviour, running away from restaurants without paying for meals, urinating or defecating in public, using a fake ID, and trespassing and breaking into empty houses.

First time violators are let off with with a warning, but repeat offenders could be fined by as much as 200,000 won ($143; £106), according to a copy of the guide released by police.

South Korea has seen a strong post-pandemic rebound in tourism. Jeju alone has welcomed seven million visitors so far this year, according to local media.

In 2024, foreign visitors pumped a record 9.26 trillion won into the local economy. Nearly 70% of these visitors visiting Jeju were from China.

The island's crackdown on misbehaviour also highlights how tourism hotspots across Asia have been responding to over-tourism.

Last year, a Japanese town blocked a famous roadside view of Mount Fuji to ward off tourists seeking to take pictures and selfies.

The Israeli military says it is calling up about 60,000 reservists ahead of a planned ground offensive to capture and occupy all of Gaza City.

A military official said the reservists would report for duty in September and that most of the troops mobilised for the offensive would be active-duty personnel.

They added that troops were already operating in the Zeitoun and Jabalia areas as part of the preparations for the plan, which Defence Minister Israel Katz approved on Tuesday and will be put to the security cabinet later this week.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City are expected to be ordered to evacuate and head to shelters in southern Gaza.

Many of Israel's allies have condemned the plan, while the UN and non-governmental organisations have warned that another offensive and further mass displacement will have a "horrific humanitarian impact" after 22 months of war.

Israel's government announced its intention to conquer the entire Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down last month.

Regional mediators are trying to secure an agreement before the offensive begins and have presented a new proposal for a 60-day truce and the release of around half of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza, which Hamas said it had accepted on Monday.

Israel has not yet submitted a formal response, but Israeli officials insisted on Tuesday that they would no longer accept a partial deal and demanded a comprehensive one that would see all the hostages released. Only 20 of the hostages are believed to be alive.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that orders calling up 60,000 reservists were issued on Wednesday as part of the preparations for "the next phase of Operation Gideon's Chariots" - the offensive that it launched in May.

In addition, 20,000 reservists who had already been called up would receive a notice extending their current orders, it added.

The Israeli military official said senior commanders had approved the plan for a "gradual" and "precise" operation in and around Gaza City, and that the chief of staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, was expected to finalise them in the coming days.

Five divisions are expected to take part in the offensive, according to the official.

The Haaretz newspaper quoted Defence Minister Katz as saying on Tuesday: "Once the operation is completed, Gaza will change its face and will no longer look as it did in the past."

He also reportedly approved a plan to "accommodate" Gaza City residents in the south of the territory, including the coastal al-Mawasi area, where the military has begun establishing additional food distribution points and field hospitals.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the military's objectives are to secure the release of all the hostages held by Hamas and "complete the defeat" of the Palestinian armed group.

The IDF also announced on Wednesday that the Givati Brigade had resumed operations in the northern town of Jabalia and on the outskirts of Gaza City, where it said they were "are dismantling military infrastructures above and below ground, eliminating terrorists, and consolidating operational control".

It said civilians were being told to move south for their safety "to mitigate the risk of harm".

A spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, Mahmoud Bassal, told AFP news agency on Tuesday that the situation was "very dangerous and unbearable" in the city's Zeitoun and Sabra neighbourhoods, where he said "shelling continues intermittently".

The agency said Israeli strikes and fire had killed 21 people across Gaza on Wednesday.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that three children and their parents were killed when a house in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City, was bombed.

UN agencies and NGOs have warned of the humanitarian impact of a new offensive.

"The Israeli plan to intensify military operations in Gaza City will have a horrific humanitarian impact on people already exhausted, malnourished, bereaved, displaced, and deprived of basics needed for survival," they said in a joint statement on Monday.

"Forcing hundreds of thousands to move south is a recipe for further disaster and could amount to forcible transfer."

They also said the areas of the south where displaced residents were expected to move were "overcrowded and ill-equipped to sustain human survival at scale".

"Southern hospitals are operating at several times their capacity, and taking on patients from the north would have life-threatening consequences."

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 62,122 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times; more than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and UN-backed global food security experts have warned that the "worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out" due to food shortages.

A busy Italian airport as been partially evacuated after a man set fire to a check-in area.

Video footage posted on social media shows chaotic scenes inside Terminal 1 of Milan's Malpensa airport as a fire rages at one of the desks while a man attacks digital screens before being detained.

A man has been arrested and the situation brought under control, according to the Lombardy Airports Association.

However, it warned of potential delays and cancellations to departures at the bustling tourist hub popular with Brits.

M23 rebels killed at least 140 people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last month in one of the worst atrocities by the armed group since its resurgence in late 2021, Human Rights Watch has said in a report.

This is despite a peace process, brokered by the US and Qatar, to end the conflict in the region.

Witnesses told the advocacy group that the Rwanda-backed rebels "summarily executed" local residents, including women and children, largely from the ethnic Hutu group in the Rutshuru area, near the Virunga National Park.

The rebels have previously strongly denied any role in these killings, calling the charges a "blatant misrepresentation of the facts".

It did not respond to a request to comment on the report, the rights group said.

The alleged massacre appears to have taken place during an M23 campaign against an armed Hutu group, the FDLR, formed by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.

HRW said the total killings in July may exceed 300, corroborating similar findings by the UN earlier this month.

Fighting between government troops and the M23 escalated in January, when the rebels captured large parts of the mineral-rich east, including the regional capital Goma.

Thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands of civilians forced from their homes in the ongoing conflict, the UN says.

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In the report, released on Wednesday, HRW said the M23 used machetes and gunfire to attack people in at least 14 villages and farming areas near Virunga National Park between 10 and 30 July.

The M23 fighters surrounded and blocked off all roads into the area to prevent people from leaving, witnesses said.

"We woke up on 11 July and [the M23] were there in large numbers.… [T]hey were already on our doorstep.… [T]hey killed people with guns and machetes," a man said, adding that five members of his family were killed in Katanga area.

A woman who saw M23 fighters kill her husband with a machete on 11 July said that M23 fighters that day rounded up about 70 women and children.

"They told us to sit on the edge of the riverbank, and then they started shooting at us," the woman was quoted as saying, adding that she survived after falling into the river without being shot.

Another man said that he watched as the rebels killed his wife and four children aged nine months to 10 years from afar, according to the report.

Locals said that M23 fighters told them to immediately bury the bodies in the fields or leave them unburied, preventing families from organising funerals.

"M23 fighters also threw bodies, including of women and children, into the Rutshuru River," the report added.

Citing 25 witness accounts plus medical workers, military and UN personnel, the report said that members of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF), were backing the M23 operation.

Earlier this month, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also reported that the RDF had supported the M23 killings of "at least 319 between 9 and 21 July in four villages in Rutshuru".

Kigali has not responded to the HRW claim, but it has angrily denied the UN accusations, calling them "gratuitous" and "sensational allegations," saying they risked undermining the peace process, and claiming that an armed group opposed to the M23 carried out the killings.

Rwanda denies persistent and widespread allegations that it provides military support to the M23, which is largely made up of the Tutsi ethnic group that was targeted by Hutu militias in the genocide.

But Kigali does see eastern Congo as a security threat, primarily because of the continued existence of the armed Hutu group, the FDLR, which fights alongside the army.

The killings occur amid stalled regional and international peace efforts to end the prolonged deadly conflict, including an agreement between Rwanda and the DRC with provisions for Kinshasa to "neutralise" the FDLR.

Separately in Qatar last month, the M23 and the DR Congo government also signed a ceasefire deal, intended as a step towards a permanent peace.

But last week, as negotiations were set to resume, the M23 walked away from the peace talks, saying Kinshasa had failed to meet commitments outlined in the declaration of principles.

The Congolese army has also accused the M23 of violating the ceasefire.

HRW has urged the UN Security Council, the European Union, and governments to condemn grave abuses witnessed in east DR Congo, impose further sanctions on those responsible and press for the arrest and appropriate prosecution of commanders implicated in the conflict.

More stories from DR Congo:

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• Inside the Congolese mine vital to mobile phones, as rebels give BBC rare access

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 man has died after being run over by a bulldozer he was operating while fighting wildfires in Portugal, bringing the death toll in the country to three, officials said.

The 65-year-old worked for a firm hired to fight fires northern municipality of Mirandela and was reportedly run over after falling from his vehicle while trying to avoid the flames.

Portugal has been battling wildfires since late July, with the north and centre of the country hit the hardest.

In neighbouring Spain, wildfires have killed four people and burned an area larger than Long Island in New York State - although temperatures are beginning to cool after 16 days of extreme heat.

Fires have also broken out in Greece, France, Turkey and the Balkans as a heatwave has swept through Europe.

Meteorologists say such extremes are becoming more frequent and intense because of human-induced climate change.

Climate change is causing weather to become harsher, according to research from Spain's state meteorological agency.

In Portugal, around 15 people were also injured - one critically - while fighting fires on Tuesday near the central city of Sabugal, AFP news agency reported.

Local media in Spain reports that 40 fires are still active despite temperatures dropping.

The most intense heat, when temperatures surpassed 40C in many regions of Spain, has now passed but Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged people to "exercise extreme caution".

"Critical moments remain, difficult hours remain," he added.

At least 373,000 hectares have been scorched in Spain this year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

Dozens of villages have been evacuated due to the fires.

"We had to run away because the fire was coming in from everywhere - everywhere - above us, below us, all around," Isidoro, 83, a resident in the Ourense province of Galicia, told AFP.

Spanish officials said many fires had been sparked by lightning during dry storms, but arson is suspected in some cases.

The interior ministry says 32 people have been arrested and 188 investigations had been launched.

In 2025, the EFFIS reported that Portugal's wildfires had burned about 216,000 hectares of land.

Spain and Portugal have activated the European Civil Protection Mechanism, under which countries can request emergency assistance.

Wildfires are a common occurrence across southern Europe in the summer, but their severity can often be exacerbated by heatwave conditions.

A traffic accident in western Afghanistan has killed 79 people, including 17 children, most of whom were on a bus carrying Afghan migrants deported from Iran, a Taliban interior ministry spokesperson confirmed to the BBC.

The bus, en route to Kabul, caught fire on Tuesday night after colliding with a truck and motorcycle in Herat province.

Everyone aboard the bus was killed, as well as two people from the other vehicles, Ahmadullah Mottaqi, the Taliban's director of information and culture in Herat, told BBC Pashto earlier.

In recent months Iran has stepped up its deportations of undocumented Afghan migrants who have fled conflict in their homeland.

"All the passengers were migrants who had boarded the vehicle in Islam Qala," provincial governor spokesman Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi told AFP, referring to a town near the Afghanistan–Iran border.

Herat police said the accident happened because of the bus driver's "excessive speed and negligence", AFP reported.

Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, where roads have been damaged by decades of conflict and driving regulations are not strongly enforced.

Since the 1970s, millions of Afghans have fled to Iran and Pakistan, with major waves during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and following the Taliban's return to power in 2021.

This has contributed to growing anti-Afghan sentiment in Iran, with refugees facing systemic discrimination.

Iran had previously given a July deadline for undocumented Afghans to depart voluntarily.

But since a brief war with Israel in June, Iranian authorities have forcibly returned hundreds of thousands of Afghans, alleging national security concerns - though critics say Tehran may simply be looking for scapegoats for its security failures against Israeli attacks.

More than 1.5 million Afghans have left Iran since January, according to the UN Refugee Agency. Some had been in Iran for generations.

Experts warn Afghanistan lacks the capacity to absorb the growing number of nationals forcibly returned to a country under Taliban government. The country is already struggling with a large influx of returnees from Pakistan, which is also forcing hundreds of thousands of Afghans to leave.

"The return of so many people is creating an additional strain on already overstretched resources, and this new wave of refugees comes at a time when the Afghanistan is starting to feel the brutal impacts of aid cuts," said Arshad Malik, country director of Save the Children Afghanistan.

Heavy rainfall in India's financial capital Mumbai has disrupted the lives of millions of people, submerging roads and leading to flight and train cancellations.

Many parts of the city remain inundated in waist-deep water, with videos showing residents swimming through waterlogged roads as garbage gushed out from clogged sewers.

Authorities on Tuesday rescued nearly 600 people who got stuck on an overcrowded monorail system that stopped mid-journey. At least 23 of them had to be treated for suffocation, civic authorities have said.

Most schools and colleges remain shut. Some 350 people have been evacuated from the city's low-lying areas and have been shifted to temporary shelters.

India's weather department has issued a red alert for the city and its neighbouring districts, predicting very heavy rains on Wednesday, but has said the situation would improve later in the week.

Monsoon rains are common in Maharashtra state - where Mumbai is located - around this time of the year.

But the region is experiencing particularly heavy rains this time. In just four days, Mumbai has seen 800mm of rainfall, according to the India Meteorological Department, which is well above the average rain the city gets in August.

At least 21 people have died in the last four days in rain-related accidents in the state.

Mumbai's local trains - a lifeline for millions of commuters - have seen heavy disruptions with thousands of people waiting on platforms on Tuesday as services were delayed for hours.

"Trains scheduled for last night have left this morning and those supposed to leave this morning have been delayed to later," a passenger told news agency ANI.

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• India's 'Silicon Valley' flooded after heavy rains

Flight operations to and from the city's international airport have also taken a hit, with 50 flights reportedly cancelled over the past few days.

"While we want your journey to be as hassle-free as possible, Mother nature has her own plans. With heavy rains expected again in Mumbai, there's a chance this could lead to air traffic congestion and impact flight operations," budget carrier IndiGo said on X.

Meanwhile, chaos erupted on Tuesday after a monorail system, which was reportedly full far beyond its capacity, halted mid-track.

A passenger who was on the train told BBC Marathi that with the air-conditioning switched off, passengers tried to open the doors to call for help.

Fire department and police teams had to use cranes to bring stranded passengers down from the elevated tracks.

A preliminary investigation suggested the incident took place due to "overcrowding in the train", according to reports.

Opposition lawmakers have blamed the government for being ill-prepared to handle the situation.

Aaditya Thackeray of the opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) party said several areas, including Mumbai, were witnessing an "absolute collapse of governance".

He alleged that the government had done "zero planning" despite red alerts being issued, pointing out that the city's airport was flooded on Tuesday and new water-logging spots had emerged - particularly around recently built infrastructure.

Several citizens also took to social media, criticising the city's collapsing infrastructure and poor planning.

More than 12 million people live in Mumbai, which sees an influx of migrants from across the country every year, who come in search of better opportunities.

While the city has seen a bevy of infrastructure upgrades in recent years - including coastal roads, sea bridges and a new metro system - experts say, investments to improve ageing drainage systems and climate-resilient infrastructure haven't kept pace with the growing population.

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

The US has reached bilateral deportation agreements with Honduras and Uganda as part of its crackdown on illegal immigration, according documents obtained by the BBC's US partner CBS.

Uganda has agreed to take an unclear number of African and Asian migrants who had claimed asylum on the US-Mexico border, and Honduras will receive several hundred deported people from Spanish-speaking countries, CBS said.

The move is part of an attempt by Donald Trump's administration to get more countries to accept deported migrants that are not their own citizens.

Human rights campaigners have condemned the policy, saying migrants face the risk of being sent to countries where they could be harmed.

Under the agreement, Uganda has agreed to accept deported migrants as long as they don't have criminal histories, but it's unclear how many the country would ultimately take, CBS reported.

Honduras agreed to receive migrants over two years, including families travelling with children, but documents suggest it could decide to accept more.

Both deals are part of the Trump administration's broader push for deportation arrangements with countries on several continents - including those with controversial human rights records.

So far, at least a dozen nations have agreed to accept deported migrants from other countries.

Last week, the US State Department announced it had signed a "safe third country" agreement with Paraguay to "share the burden of managing illegal immigration".

The White House has also been actively courting several African nations, with Rwanda saying earlier this month it will take up to 250 migrants from the US.

A condition of the deal specifies that Rwanda would have "the ability to approve each individual proposed for resettlement", a government spokesperson told the BBC.

Rwanda has previously been criticised for its human rights record, including the risk that those sent to the East African nation could be deported again to countries where they may face danger.

Earlier this year, Panama and Costa Rica agreed to take in several hundred African and Asian migrants from the US.

Government documents show the Trump administration has also approached countries like Ecuador and Spain to receive deported migrants, CBS reported.

Since the start of his second term, Trump has embarked on sweeping efforts to remove undocumented migrants - a key election promise that drew mass support during this campaign.

In June, the US Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to resume deportations of migrants to countries other than their homeland without giving them the chance to raise the risks they might face.

At the time, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the majority ruling, calling the decision "a gross abuse".

UN rights experts and human rights groups have also argued that these removals to a nation that is not the migrant's place of origin could violate international law.

Walmart has recalled some shrimp products in 13 US states after one shipment of seafood tested positive for radioactive contamination.

The US Food and Drug Administration said varieties of frozen shrimp sold under Walmart's Great Value label could have been exposed to a dangerous isotope in shipping containers.

One sample of breaded shrimp tested positive for the substance, but this positive sample "did not enter US commerce", the FDA said.

Consumers are advised to throw away recently bought Walmart shrimp that matches this description - and not to eat or serve it.

"The health and safety of our customers is always a top priority," a Walmart spokesperson told the BBC. "We have issued a sales restriction and removed this product from our impacted stores. We are working with the supplier to investigate."

The spokesperson added that consumers who bought the recalled products can visit any Walmart location for a full refund.

The recalled shrimp was sold at Walmart locations in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia, and shoppers in those states were advised to be cautious.

It came from an Indonesian supplier that has since had a number of shipping containers denied entry to the US, the FDA said.

One shipment tested positive for Cesium-137, the radioactive form of the chemical element Cesium.

The amount contained in the tested shipment held by the FDA was not enough to pose acute harm to consumers, but exposure over time could pose an elevated risk of cancer by damaging living cells in the body, said officials from the agency.

The family of a father who vanished with his three children into New Zealand's wilderness almost four years ago have pleaded for him to come home.

A national search has been ongoing for Tom Phillips since he took Ember, nine, Maverick, 10, and Jayda, 12, away from their family home in December 2021 after a dispute with their mother.

They were seen in public for the first time since vanishing last October, when a group of teenagers spotted them trekking through the bush and filmed the encounter.

For the first time since their disappearance, Mr Phillips' family have directly appealed to him, with his mother writing: "Everyday I wake up and hope that today will be the day that you all come home."

"There's a lot of love and there's a lot of support, and we're ready to help you walk through what you need to walk through," his sister, Rozzi Phillips, told New Zealand news site Stuff in an exclusive interview.

"I miss you, and I miss being part of your life, and I really want to see you and the kids and be part of your lives again."

Ms Phillips said her brother was a capable builder who she believed would have built a hut or "nest" in the bush as shelter.

She also provided Stuff with a handwritten note from their mother, Julia, which reads: "Tom - I feel really sad that you thought you had to do this. Not considering how much we love you and can support you. It hurts every time I see photos of the children and of you and see some of your stuff that is still here."

"Jayda, Maverick, Ember - I love you so much and really miss being part of your lives."

Police believe Mr Phillips and his children have been hiding and camping in the North Island's western Waikato region and last year posted an NZ$80,000 (£37,200) reward for information on their whereabouts.

There have been occasional sightings of the family, including in October when a group of teenage pig hunters who had been trekking through an untamed area of Marokopa - a tiny coastal community where Mr Phillips hails from - spotted them and filmed the encounter on their phones.

In the video, Tom Phillips can be seen leading his children through the rugged terrain. They are all wearing camouflaged clothing.

New Zealand media reported the teenagers had briefly spoken to one of their children - asking if anyone knew they were there. The child had replied "only you" and kept walking, the father of one of the teenagers told New Zealand's 1News.

The teenagers reported that Mr Phillips had been carrying a gun and had a long beard while the children were masked and carrying their own packs.

New Zealand Police described the sighting as "credible". That prompted an unsuccessful three-day search involving police and army helicopters.

Last year, a warrant was issued for the arrest of Mr Phillips over his suspected involvement in a bank robbery in Te Kuiti, a small town on the North Island.

Police said he had an accomplice during the alleged incident, and cautioned the public against approaching him as he was probably armed.

Police have said they believe Mr Phillips is being helped in his evasion of the law by other parties.

A Chinese national has been sentenced to eight years in prison for smuggling firearms and other military items to North Korea, the US justice department has said.

Shenghua Wen, 42, received around $2m (£1.5m) from North Korean officials to ship the items from California, according to a statement from the agency on Monday.

A resident of Ontario, California, Wen has been detained since December 2024. He pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and being an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Wen's case shines a light on the various ways in which North Korea circumvents international sanctions on its arms trade.

Describing Wen as an "illegal alien", the justice department said he entered the US on a student visa in 2012 and remained in the country after his visa expired in December 2013.

"Prior to entering the United States, Wen met with officials from North Korea's government at a North Korean embassy in China," the agency said. "These government officials directed Wen to procure goods on behalf of North Korea."

Two North Korean officials reached Wen via an online messaging platform in 2022 and told him to smuggle firearms and other goods from the US to North Korea, according to the justice department.

In 2023, he shipped at least three containers of firearms from the Port of Long Beach to China, with their final destination being North Korea. He filed false export information about the container's contents.

One such container, which he had reported as carrying a refrigerator, arrived in Hong Kong in January 2024 before being sent to Nampo, North Korea.

He also purchased a firearms business in Houston with money from a North Korean contact, and drove the weapons from Texas to California, where they were arranged to be shipped.

Last September, Wen bought around 60,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition with plans to ship them to North Korea.

US authorities also said that Wen obtained "sensitive technology" which he had meant to send to North Korea, such as a chemical threat identification device and a handheld broadband receiver.

"Wen admitted in his plea agreement that at all relevant times he knew that it was illegal to ship firearms, ammunition, and sensitive technology to North Korea," the justice department said.

Under sanctions by the UN Security Council, North Korea is banned from trading arms and military equipment. The US has also imposed its own sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile activities.

But North Korea has developed ways to get around the sanctions.

In 2015, the US blacklisted a Singapore-based shipping firm for allegedly supporting illicit arms shipments to North Korea. In 2016, Egyptian authorities intercepted a North Korean ship containing more than 30,000 grenades bound for Egypt.

And in 2023, British American Tobacco had to pay more than $600m (£445m) for selling cigarettes to North Korea in violation of the sanctions.

Heavy rainfall in India's financial capital Mumbai has disrupted the lives of millions of people, submerging roads and leading to flight and train cancellations.

Many parts of the city remain inundated in waist-deep water, with videos showing residents swimming through waterlogged roads as garbage gushed out from clogged sewers.

Authorities on Tuesday rescued nearly 600 people who got stuck on an overcrowded monorail system that stopped mid-journey. At least 23 of them had to be treated for suffocation, civic authorities have said.

Most schools and colleges remain shut. Some 350 people have been evacuated from the city's low-lying areas and have been shifted to temporary shelters.

India's weather department has issued a red alert for the city and its neighbouring districts, predicting very heavy rains on Wednesday, but has said the situation would improve later in the week.

Monsoon rains are common in Maharashtra state - where Mumbai is located - around this time of the year.

But the region is experiencing particularly heavy rains this time. In just four days, Mumbai has seen 800mm of rainfall, according to the India Meteorological Department, which is well above the average rain the city gets in August.

At least 21 people have died in the last four days in rain-related accidents in the state.

Mumbai's local trains - a lifeline for millions of commuters - have seen heavy disruptions with thousands of people waiting on platforms on Tuesday as services were delayed for hours.

"Trains scheduled for last night have left this morning and those supposed to leave this morning have been delayed to later," a passenger told news agency ANI.

• Why monsoon rains wreak havoc annually in India's cities
• India's 'Silicon Valley' flooded after heavy rains

Flight operations to and from the city's international airport have also taken a hit, with 50 flights reportedly cancelled over the past few days.

"While we want your journey to be as hassle-free as possible, Mother nature has her own plans. With heavy rains expected again in Mumbai, there's a chance this could lead to air traffic congestion and impact flight operations," budget carrier IndiGo said on X.

Meanwhile, chaos erupted on Tuesday after a monorail system, which was reportedly full far beyond its capacity, halted mid-track.

A passenger who was on the train told BBC Marathi that with the air-conditioning switched off, passengers tried to open the doors to call for help.

Fire department and police teams had to use cranes to bring stranded passengers down from the elevated tracks.

A preliminary investigation suggested the incident took place due to "overcrowding in the train", according to reports.

Opposition lawmakers have blamed the government for being ill-prepared to handle the situation.

Aaditya Thackeray of the opposition Shiv Sena (UBT) party said several areas, including Mumbai, were witnessing an "absolute collapse of governance".

He alleged that the government had done "zero planning" despite red alerts being issued, pointing out that the city's airport was flooded on Tuesday and new water-logging spots had emerged - particularly around recently built infrastructure.

Several citizens also took to social media, criticising the city's collapsing infrastructure and poor planning.

More than 12 million people live in Mumbai, which sees an influx of migrants from across the country every year, who come in search of better opportunities.

While the city has seen a bevy of infrastructure upgrades in recent years - including coastal roads, sea bridges and a new metro system - experts say, investments to improve ageing drainage systems and climate-resilient infrastructure haven't kept pace with the growing population.

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

A Chinese national has been sentenced to eight years in prison for smuggling firearms and other military items to North Korea, the US justice department has said.

Shenghua Wen, 42, received around $2m (£1.5m) from North Korean officials to ship the items from California, according to a statement from the agency on Monday.

A resident of Ontario, California, Wen has been detained since December 2024. He pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and being an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Wen's case shines a light on the various ways in which North Korea circumvents international sanctions on its arms trade.

Describing Wen as an "illegal alien", the justice department said he entered the US on a student visa in 2012 and remained in the country after his visa expired in December 2013.

"Prior to entering the United States, Wen met with officials from North Korea's government at a North Korean embassy in China," the agency said. "These government officials directed Wen to procure goods on behalf of North Korea."

Two North Korean officials reached Wen via an online messaging platform in 2022 and told him to smuggle firearms and other goods from the US to North Korea, according to the justice department.

In 2023, he shipped at least three containers of firearms from the Port of Long Beach to China, with their final destination being North Korea. He filed false export information about the container's contents.

One such container, which he had reported as carrying a refrigerator, arrived in Hong Kong in January 2024 before being sent to Nampo, North Korea.

He also purchased a firearms business in Houston with money from a North Korean contact, and drove the weapons from Texas to California, where they were arranged to be shipped.

Last September, Wen bought around 60,000 rounds of 9mm ammunition with plans to ship them to North Korea.

US authorities also said that Wen obtained "sensitive technology" which he had meant to send to North Korea, such as a chemical threat identification device and a handheld broadband receiver.

"Wen admitted in his plea agreement that at all relevant times he knew that it was illegal to ship firearms, ammunition, and sensitive technology to North Korea," the justice department said.

Under sanctions by the UN Security Council, North Korea is banned from trading arms and military equipment. The US has also imposed its own sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile activities.

But North Korea has developed ways to get around the sanctions.

In 2015, the US blacklisted a Singapore-based shipping firm for allegedly supporting illicit arms shipments to North Korea. In 2016, Egyptian authorities intercepted a North Korean ship containing more than 30,000 grenades bound for Egypt.

And in 2023, British American Tobacco had to pay more than $600m (£445m) for selling cigarettes to North Korea in violation of the sanctions.

The Kremlin has played down talk of an imminent summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, as Donald Trump renewed his call for the two leaders to meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

The push for a bilateral meeting comes after the US president met Putin in Alaska last week, and welcomed seven European leaders and Zelensky to the White House on Monday.

Trump admitted the conflict was "a tough one" to solve and conceded it was possible the Russian president was not interested in ending hostilities.

"We're going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks," he said on Tuesday. "It's possible that he doesn't want to make a deal."

Putin faced a "rough situation" if that were the case, Trump added, without offering any details.

The Russian president on Monday told Trump he was "open" to the idea of direct talks with Ukraine, but the next day foreign minister Sergei Lavrov watered down that already vague commitment.

Any meeting would have to be prepared "gradually... starting with the expert level and thereafter going through all the required steps," he said, repeating a frequent Kremlin line.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, a Russian deputy representative to the UN, told the BBC "nobody [had] rejected" the opportunity for direct talks, "but it shouldn't be a meeting for the sake of a meeting".

On Tuesday, it was reported that Putin had suggested to Trump that Zelensky could travel to Moscow for talks, something Ukraine was never likely to accept.

The proposal may have been Russia's way of putting forward an option so far-fetched Kyiv could not possibly have agreed to it.

Talks over the last few days appear to have given Trump a renewed understanding of the complexities of the war and the gulf between Moscow's demands and Kyiv's position.

The much-vaunted ceasefire he said he could get Putin to agree to has not materialised - and now the US president has said Ukraine and Russia should move directly to a permanent peace deal instead - but some headway was made in terms of security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelensky and European leaders seem to have convinced Trump that such commitments would be paramount to Kyiv's sovereignty in the event of a peace deal.

On Tuesday, Trump said the US was willing to help the Europeans "by air" if they provided boots on the ground in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal, although he ruled out deploying US troops.

The US president, however, did not go into the specifics of whether such air support may entail intelligence or the use of fighter jets and war planes.

While Trump's commitments remain vague, the France and UK-led Coalition of the Willing said it had been working to firm up plans for a reassurance force that could be sent to Ukraine if the hostilities end.

After a virtual meeting of the group on Tuesday, a Downing Street spokesperson said the group would meet US counterparts in the coming days to "further strengthen plans to deliver robust security guarantees".

Following his summit with Putin and latest talks with Zelensky, Trump now appears to think direct talks between Ukraine and Russia could bring a peace deal closer - although he acknowledged there had been "tremendous bad blood" between the two leaders.

The last time they met was in 2019. Since then, Moscow's war on Kyiv has resulted in tens of thousands of casualties as well as widespread destruction and ongoing aerial attacks on civilian targets.

Putin considers Zelensky illegitimate and views him as responsible for Ukraine's growing proximity to the West. For years now, he has made baseless claims about Kyiv being ruled by a "neo-Nazi regime" and has said any ceasefire with Ukraine would need to entail a change in Kyiv's leadership.

Russia also has little interest in agreeing to talks while its troops have the upper hand on the front line.

Still, European leaders and Zelensky have spoken out in favour of the idea of a bilateral meeting. The Ukrainian president said on Monday he was open to "any format" of meeting Putin, while the Europeans have been putting forward ideas for potential summit locations.

By enthusiastically supporting direct talks, they are likely hoping to convince Trump to revert to a tougher stance against Moscow should Putin remain unwilling to take steps to end the war.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's European partners appear significantly less optimistic than Trump that a resolution of the conflict could be within reach.

On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron called Putin "a predator, and an ogre at our doorstep" and expressed "the greatest doubt" that the Russian president was willing to work towards peace.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Putin was "rarely to be trusted", adding he was sceptical about a meeting with Zelensky materialising.

More high-level talks are planned for the coming days as questions over Trump's level of support for Europe remain.

Britain's military chief, Admiral Tony Radakin, is travelling to Washington for discussions on the deployment of a reassurance force in Ukraine, while Nato military chiefs are expected to hold a virtual meeting on Wednesday.

Six severed heads have been found on a road in central Mexico, in an area not normally associated with cartel violence.

Local authorities made the discovery early on Tuesday morning on a route that links the broadly peaceful states of Puebla and Tlaxcala.

Police have not given a motive for the killings or said which of the criminal groups operating in Mexico might have carried them out.

Local media has reported that a blanket was left at the scene with a message issuing a warning to rival gangs and apparently signed by a group called "La Barredora", meaning "the sweeper".

It is the same name as a little-known criminal group operating in the western state of Guerrero but it isn't clear if they were behind the attack or why.

The local prosecutor's office said the heads found in Tlaxcala were those of men and it has launched an investigation into the killings, according to news agency AFP.

As well as drug-trafficking, there is an issue in the region with fuel smuggling, known as "huachicolea", which generates billions of dollars a year for the groups behind the illegal activity.

So far, federal authorities have not commented on the killings.

They come amid a major crackdown by the administration of President Claudia Sheinbaum on fentanyl trafficking.

Puebla and Tlaxcala are not prone to the kind of extreme cartel violence prominent in other parts on the country.

In June, the bodies of 20 people - four of them decapitated - were found in Sinaloa, a state gripped by gang violence.

Seven Mexican youths were also killed in a shooting at a Catholic Church festivity in the central state of Guanajuato in May.

Violence between cartels has surged in recent years, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and tens of thousands missing since the government first began to use the Mexican military against gangs in 2006.

Hurricane Erin has strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane as it threatens to bring life-threatening surf and rip currents to the eastern coast of the United States.

The rains caused by the storm are already beginning to hit the south-eastern Bahamas, and the Turk and Caicos Islands, where a tropical storm warning is in effect.

While Erin is not expected to make landfall on the islands, it is expected to bring rainfall of up to six inches (15.2cm) to the Turks and Caicos and the eastern Bahamas.

Erin, the first hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic season, "explosively deepened and intensified" on Saturday into a Category 5 storm, before briefly losing force and now regaining strength.

More than 150,000 people were left without power in Puerto Rico after high winds damaged electricity lines, according to local energy company Luma.

But the firm said it had carried out emergency repairs and that by Sunday evening local time, 95% of its customers had working electricity.

The hurricane's outer rain bands have started to affect the Bahamas, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

While the storm is not expected to hit the islands directly, the country's Disaster Risk Management Authority encouraged residents to prepare.

Its managing director, Aarone Sargent, told Bahamians to check which shelters were nearest to them and to ensure they knew of alternative shelters should the first one be full.

"These storms are very volatile and can make sudden shifts in movement," he said.

The NHC forecast is for the core of Erin to pass to the east of the south-eastern Bahamas today and move between Bermuda and the eastern coast of the US by the middle of the week.

It also said that Erin would remain "a large and dangerous hurricane" through this time.

The Outer Banks - a string of islands off the coast of North Carolina - are already bracing for heavy surf and high winds.

The authorities there have ordered a mandatory evacuation of Hatteras Island, warning that the main highway linking Hatteras to other islands could become impassable.

Forecasters have also warned of dangerous rip tides which could affect the entire US East Coast.

The Kremlin has played down talk of an imminent summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, as Donald Trump renewed his call for the two leaders to meet to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

The push for a bilateral meeting comes after the US president met Putin in Alaska last week, and welcomed seven European leaders and Zelensky to the White House on Monday.

Trump admitted the conflict was "a tough one" to solve and conceded it was possible the Russian president was not interested in ending hostilities.

"We're going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks," he said on Tuesday. "It's possible that he doesn't want to make a deal."

Putin faced a "rough situation" if that were the case, Trump added, without offering any details.

The Russian president on Monday told Trump he was "open" to the idea of direct talks with Ukraine, but the next day foreign minister Sergei Lavrov watered down that already vague commitment.

Any meeting would have to be prepared "gradually... starting with the expert level and thereafter going through all the required steps," he said, repeating a frequent Kremlin line.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, a Russian deputy representative to the UN, told the BBC "nobody [had] rejected" the opportunity for direct talks, "but it shouldn't be a meeting for the sake of a meeting".

On Tuesday, it was reported that Putin had suggested to Trump that Zelensky could travel to Moscow for talks, something Ukraine was never likely to accept.

The proposal may have been Russia's way of putting forward an option so far-fetched Kyiv could not possibly have agreed to it.

Talks over the last few days appear to have given Trump a renewed understanding of the complexities of the war and the gulf between Moscow's demands and Kyiv's position.

The much-vaunted ceasefire he said he could get Putin to agree to has not materialised - and now the US president has said Ukraine and Russia should move directly to a permanent peace deal instead - but some headway was made in terms of security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelensky and European leaders seem to have convinced Trump that such commitments would be paramount to Kyiv's sovereignty in the event of a peace deal.

On Tuesday, Trump said the US was willing to help the Europeans "by air" if they provided boots on the ground in Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal, although he ruled out deploying US troops.

The US president, however, did not go into the specifics of whether such air support may entail intelligence or the use of fighter jets and war planes.

While Trump's commitments remain vague, the France and UK-led Coalition of the Willing said it had been working to firm up plans for a reassurance force that could be sent to Ukraine if the hostilities end.

After a virtual meeting of the group on Tuesday, a Downing Street spokesperson said the group would meet US counterparts in the coming days to "further strengthen plans to deliver robust security guarantees".

Following his summit with Putin and latest talks with Zelensky, Trump now appears to think direct talks between Ukraine and Russia could bring a peace deal closer - although he acknowledged there had been "tremendous bad blood" between the two leaders.

The last time they met was in 2019. Since then, Moscow's war on Kyiv has resulted in tens of thousands of casualties as well as widespread destruction and ongoing aerial attacks on civilian targets.

Putin considers Zelensky illegitimate and views him as responsible for Ukraine's growing proximity to the West. For years now, he has made baseless claims about Kyiv being ruled by a "neo-Nazi regime" and has said any ceasefire with Ukraine would need to entail a change in Kyiv's leadership.

Russia also has little interest in agreeing to talks while its troops have the upper hand on the front line.

Still, European leaders and Zelensky have spoken out in favour of the idea of a bilateral meeting. The Ukrainian president said on Monday he was open to "any format" of meeting Putin, while the Europeans have been putting forward ideas for potential summit locations.

By enthusiastically supporting direct talks, they are likely hoping to convince Trump to revert to a tougher stance against Moscow should Putin remain unwilling to take steps to end the war.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's European partners appear significantly less optimistic than Trump that a resolution of the conflict could be within reach.

On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron called Putin "a predator, and an ogre at our doorstep" and expressed "the greatest doubt" that the Russian president was willing to work towards peace.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Putin was "rarely to be trusted", adding he was sceptical about a meeting with Zelensky materialising.

More high-level talks are planned for the coming days as questions over Trump's level of support for Europe remain.

Britain's military chief, Admiral Tony Radakin, is travelling to Washington for discussions on the deployment of a reassurance force in Ukraine, while Nato military chiefs are expected to hold a virtual meeting on Wednesday.

Last Friday, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin met in Alaska for a summit that was high on pomp and pageantry and low on diplomatic breakthroughs in the push to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

On Monday, six European leaders rushed to Washington DC to meet with Trump and assess the consequences of that Putin meeting. While the gathering at the White House was historic, it too was heavy on rhetoric and light on tangible progress.

With little to show from two summits, pressure is intensifying on a president who made ending foreign wars a key campaign promise. But there were two potentially significant developments.

In Monday's White House confab, Trump appeared open to providing US security guarantees for Ukraine if a deal is struck. That is viewed by the Ukrainians, and their European allies, as an essential component in reaching a durable peace.

On Tuesday morning, Trump hedged a bit, saying a US commitment might entail "air support" rather than American soldiers in Ukraine and that Europe would have to shoulder most of the burden.

He also said "arrangements" were being made for a bilateral summit between Putin and Zelensky - although the location and details remain very much up in the air - after which he would directly participate in a three-way meeting with the two men.

European leaders also want a ceasefire in place before any bilateral meeting, something Trump has said is not likely.

Still, any steps however small towards direct, leader-level negotiations between Zelensky and Putin is an accomplishment.

The simple fact that yesterday's meetings between Trump and Zelensky, and the larger gathering of European leaders, was conducted in a friendly, co-operative fashion is itself notable given Zelensky's acrimonious White House visit in February and the sometimes contentious relations Trump has had with his European counterparts.

Trump seemed to enjoy being the gracious host both in Alaska and at the White House, and his comments suggest he views ending the war in Ukraine as a key to cementing his legacy.

"If I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons," he said in a Tuesday television interview.

But the path to heaven is narrow, as the saying goes, and there are still numerous obstacles to ending the war in Ukraine, not the least of which is that it is still not clear that Putin wants the war to end when he is making grinding progress on the battlefield.

The Russian leader may feel that his position only grows stronger as time goes by and that the best strategy is to slow negotiations while avoiding new US sanctions that could further damage its economy.

Trump has put those sanctions, which appeared likely as recently as two weeks ago, on indefinite hold, and he appears to legitimately believe that Putin wants to make a deal.

In private comments to French President Emmanuel Macron that were picked up by a live microphone, Trump said as much.

"I think he wants to make a deal for me, you understand that?" Trump said. "As crazy as it sounds."

It may sound crazy given that Putin has continued his relentless attacks on Ukraine for nearly four years. It may also sound naïve. But the American president is putting a considerable amount of faith in Putin's supposed good intentions.

Even if Putin proves to be a reliable negotiating partner – a big if – Trump himself can be a mercurial ally. While the meetings at the White House went smoothly, he has made hairpin turns in American foreign policy before and he could do so again. Just in the last eight months, his views on Zelensky have careened between sharply critical to supportive.

A peace that depends on American assurances may not be a firm foundation on which to build. The sometimes unseemly efforts of European leaders to lavish Trump with praise on Monday hinted at their concerns about his sometimes tempestuous nature.

"I think in the past two weeks we've probably had more progress in ending this war than we have in the past three and a half years," Finnish President Alexander Stubb said.

The Europeans' hastily arranged trip to Washington DC was designed to sandwich Putin to limit his ability to influence Trump's thinking.

Besides the key players, there is another voice factoring into Trump's decision making process - his political base that takes his "America first", non-interventionist rhetoric to heart.

Any security assurances, any commitment of military resources or any new foreign obligations Trump might consider taking on to reach a peace deal may be viewed sceptically by his supporters.

They were uneasy during the US strikes on Iran in June, and that was only one night of action. More permanent American obligations to Ukraine at a time when a large segment of the nation would prefer focusing inward could put Trump in a difficult position – one that he might prefer to avoid entirely.

Whatever progress has been made, there is still one fundamental reality that undergirds American involvement in the peace process in the days ahead. Trump may want to be viewed by the world – and history – as a peacemaker. But when compared to Europe, Russia or certainly Ukraine, he has the least at stake during these negotiations.

In the end, Trump could just leave the table. The ability to walk away is also a kind of power.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

The French government has launched an investigation into the death of online personality Raphaël Graven, known as "Jean Pormanove", who died in his sleep aged 46.

The streamer had been livestreaming on the platform Kick prior to his death according to French media reports.

France's digital affairs and artificial intelligence (AI) minister Clara Chappaz wrote in a post on X on Tuesday Pormanove had been "humiliated" and "mistreated" during streams on the platform for months, and said an inquiry into his death was underway.

A Kick spokesperson said the company was "urgently reviewing" circumstances around the streamer's death and working with stakeholders to investigate it.

"We are deeply saddened by the loss of Jean Pormanove and extend our condolences to his family, friends and community," they told the BBC.

The spokesperson said the platform's community guidelines were "designed to protect creators" and said Kick is "committed to upholding these standards across our platform".

Mr Graven had amassed hundreds of thousands of followers across his various social media accounts.

Reports say he was found dead on Monday at his home in Contes, near Nice.

Posts on social media and local reports claim that prior to his death, Mr Graven was subjected to sleep deprivation and bouts of physical violence during lengthy streams on Kick.

Ms Chappaz called his death and experience of violence "an absolute horror".

In addition to a judicial investigation, Ms Chappaz said she had referred the issue to Arcom, the French media regulator, and Pharos, a French system used to report online content.

Owen Cenazandotti, a fellow French streamer who appeared alongside Mr Graven in his recent streaming marathon, has asked followers not to share videos of his "last breath" in a post on Instagram.

A Peruvian woman has been accused of attempting to smuggle $70,000-worth (£52,000) of cocaine and ecstasy into Bali, concealed in her underwear and a sex toy.

The woman, who was only identified by the initials N.S., was stopped by customs officials who felt she was acting oddly, police said.

"The narcotics were hidden in six plastic packages wrapped in black duct tape inside a green bra, three similar packages in black underwear, and a sex toy containing drugs, which was inserted into her body," Radiant, Bali police's narcotics unit director, who goes by one name, told reporters.

The 42-year-old has been charged under Indonesia's drug laws, and if found guilty could face the death penalty.

Radiant said that 1.4kg (3.1lb) of cocaine and 43 ecstasy pills were found in total.

He added that the woman revealed she had been paid $19,000 to smuggle the drugs into Bali by someone she met on the dark web in April.

She took a flight from Barcelona, Spain, to the Indonesian island with a stopover in Doha, police said, arriving at the international airport on 12 August.

The woman was arrested shortly after being stopped at the airport, when customs officials alerted police.

Indonesia is known for the severe punishments it hands out for drug smuggling and has previously executed foreigners, but has upheld a temporary halt on the death sentence since 2017.

Last month, three British nationals avoided the death penalty after they were found guilty of smuggling cocaine disguised as packets of Angel Delight into Indonesia.

Israel's prime minister accused his Australian counterpart of having "betrayed Israel" and "abandoned" Australia's Jewish community, after days of increasingly strained relations between the two countries.

Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that history would remember Anthony Albanese "for what he is: a weak politician".

It came after Australia barred a far-right member of Netanyahu's ruling coalition from entering the country on Monday, with his visa cancelled ahead of a planned visit.

Israel in turn revoked the visas of Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority, also blaming Canberra's announcement last week that it would recognise a Palestinian state in September.

There was no immediate response from Prime Minister Albanese.

Israel's opposition leader criticised Netanyahu's remarks, branding them a "gift" to the Australian leader.

Yair Lapid wrote on X: "The thing that most strengthens a leader in the democratic world today is a confrontation with Netanyahu, the most politically toxic leader in the Western world.

"It is unclear why Bibi is rushing to give the Prime Minister of Australia this gift."

Diplomatic tensions flared on Monday after far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman's Australian visa was cancelled ahead of a visit to the country, where he had been due to speak at events organised by the Australian Jewish Association.

Australia's home affairs minister told Sky News at the time the government took "a hard line on people who seek to come to our country and spread division".

Tony Burke added: "If you are coming to Australia to spread a message of hate and division, we don't want you here."

A few hours later, Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa'ar said he had "instructed the Israeli Embassy in Canberra to carefully examine any official Australian visa application for entry to Israel".

He added in a post on X: "While antisemitism is raging in Australia, including manifestations of violence against Jews and Jewish institutions, the Australian government is choosing to fuel it".

There have been a string of antisemitic attacks in Australia in recent months, amid tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.

Australia announced in early August that it would recognise a Palestinian state, with Prime Minister Albanese saying at the time that Netanyahu was "in denial" about the consequences of the war on innocent people.

"The stopping of aid that we've seen and then the loss of life that we're seeing around those aid distribution points, where people queuing for food and water are losing their lives, is just completely unacceptable," he said.

The announcement followed similar moves by the UK, France and Canada.

In response, Netanyahu launched a scathing attack on the leaders of the three countries, accusing Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Mark Carney of siding with "mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers".

The state of Palestine is currently recognised by 147 of the UN's 193 member states.