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.

Australia's prime minister has accused his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu of being "in denial" over the consequences of the war in Gaza.

Anthony Albanese on Monday announced his country would recognise a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September, following similar moves by the UK, France and Canada.

Albanese said frustration with the Israeli government had played a role in the move, saying Australians "want to see the killing and the cycle of violence stop".

Israel, under increasing pressure to end the war in Gaza, has said recognising a Palestinian state "rewards terrorism" and Netanyahu called the decision taken by Australia and other allies "shameful".

Netanyahu and his government have been facing growing condemnation over reports of starvation in Gaza.

Five people have died from malnutrition in the past 24 hours, including one child, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, bringing the total number of malnutrition deaths to 222 - including 101 children.

Israel denies there is starvation in Gaza and has accused UN agencies of not picking up aid at the borders and delivering it. The UN has rejected this, saying it faces obstacles and delays while collecting aid from Israeli-controlled border zones.

Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Tuesday, Albanese said he had spoken to PM Netanyahu last Thursday to inform him of Australia's decision.

"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. And we have said that," he said.

"I spoke with PM Netanyahu. He again reiterated to me what he has said publicly as well, which is to be in denial about the consequences that are occurring for innocent people."

Albanese had earlier said the decision to recognise a Palestinian state was made after receiving commitments from the Palestinian Authority (PA), which controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, that Hamas would play no role in any future state

The move has drawn a mixed response in Australia, with the Executive Council of Australian Jewry calling it a "betrayal", and some Palestinian activists saying it doesn't go far enough.

Right-leaning opposition leader Sussan Ley said the decision was "disrespectful" to the US, a key Australian ally.

Earlier this month, a pro-Palestinian protest drew at least 90,000 supporters who walked across Sydney Harbour Bridge, a day after a court ruling allowed the demonstration to happen.

Netanyahu said in a press conference over the weekend that it was "shameful" for countries including Australia to recognise a Palestinian state.

"They know what they would do if, right next to Melbourne or right next to Sydney, you had this horrific attack. I think you would do at least what we're doing."

More than 61,000 people have been killed as a result of Israel's military campaign since 7 October, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Israel launched the offensive in response to the Hamas-led attack on 7 October, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

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.

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has gotten engaged to his long-term partner Georgina Rodríguez.

She announced the news on social media alongside a picture of a large ring, writing "Yes I do. In this and in all my lives" in her native Spanish.

No further details have been shared. Ronaldo, who is the most followed person on Instagram, has not yet made a comment about their engagement.

The couple have been together for nine years, after they met at a Gucci shop in Madrid where Rodríguez was working. He was playing at the Spanish club Real Madrid at the time.

The Portugal and Al-Nassr player has five children in total, two of whom he shares with Rodríguez.

Their youngest daughter Bella was born in April 2022, alongside a baby boy who was stillborn.

Rodríguez has also helped to raise Ronaldo's other three children.

The 31-year-old, who starred in her own Netflix reality show I Am Georgina, previously addressed speculation around her engagement status. On the programme, she said her friends were "always joking about the wedding."

"Since Jennifer Lopez's song 'The Ring Or When' came out, they started singing it to me. And well, this is not up to me," she added.

Famous faces including Kim Kardashian have liked the engagement announcement on social media. Piers Morgan, who interviewed Ronaldo in 2022, wished them "as much success in their marriage as he's had on the football pitch!"

Celebrity make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury commented that it was "fabulous news". Lauren Sanchez-Bezos, who married Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in June, said she was "so happy" for the couple.

The family currently live in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh, where the Ronaldo plays for Al-Nassr. He joined the club in December 2022 for a reported annual salary of £177m ($238m).

In June 2025, it was announced that the 40-year-old's contract had been extended until 2027 after speculation that he was preparing to retire.

In a post on X, Ronaldo wrote: "A new chapter begins. Same passion, same dream. Let's make history together."

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.

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador has been sentenced to life without parole for killing an American mother of five – in a case invoked by President Donald Trump to support his border security crackdown.

Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, was found guilty this year in the rape and murder of Rachel Morin, 37, on a hiking trail in Bel Air, Maryland, in August 2023.

He assaulted her, bludgeoned her head with rocks and strangled her before hiding her body in a drainage culvert, the court heard.

The killer was also linked to a 2023 home invasion in Los Angeles and is wanted in El Salvador for the murder of another woman, according to prosecutors.

He showed little emotion as he learned his fate on Monday.

Judge Yolanda Curtin sentenced him to life for the first-degree murder conviction, life for the rape charge, and an additional 40 years for a third-degree sex offence and kidnapping. He will serve the entire sentence in a Maryland prison.

He was arrested in June 2024 after a 10-month manhunt in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

"Arguably, Harford County has never seen a case or a defendant more deserving of every single day of the maximum sentences this court imposed," prosecutor Alison Healey said outside the courthouse.

In a victim-impact statement before the sentence was handed down, the victim's mother, Patty Morin, said: "The brutality of her murder will haunt us for the rest of our lives."

Voice recordings of Ms Morin's children, ranging in age from nine to 15, were played for the court.

In a message addressed to their mother, one of the children said: "Now I have to spend more time without you than I did with you."

Rachel's older brother, Michael Morin, told the court his Christian faith compelled him to offer the killer forgiveness.

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the killer illegally entered the US and was sent back across the US-Mexico border three times in 2023.

During last year's White House election campaign, Trump held up Ms Morin's killing and other so-called angel families - those with loved ones who have been killed by illegal immigrants - as he pledged to close the US-Mexico border.

Most studies indicate undocumented immigrants are not more likely to engage in criminality than American citizens.

The Morin family has supported Trump's campaign for border security.

Michael Morin addressed the Republican National Convention last summer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

"Open borders are often portrayed as compassionate and virtuous, but there is nothing compassionate about allowing violent criminals into our country and robbing children of their mother," he said.

In April, amid an escalating showdown between the president and the judiciary on immigration, the White House invited Ms Morin's mother to address a media briefing.

Patty Morin shared graphic details of her daughter's death.

An explosion was reported at the US Steel Clairton plant outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday, causing multiple injuries and trapping several people, officials say.

Allegheny County Emergency Services spokesperson Kasey Reigner confirmed there were "dozens" of injuries but could not confirm fatalities or a cause, CBS News reported.

Another spokesperson confirmed a rescue operation was underway for people trapped.

Governor Josh Shapiro posted on social media that the state's emergency management services and police had been deployed to the plant.

US Senator John Fetterman wrote on X that he was also at the scene and witnessed "an active search and rescue underway."

KDKA News, a local broadcaster, reported at least one person was unaccounted for.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have announced they are extending their deal for films and TV shows with Netflix.

This has been described as a "multi-year, first look deal", which would give Netflix a first option on proposals from Prince Harry and Meghan's Archewell production company.

It's a looser arrangement than their previous deal - but it disproves claims that the Sussexes and Netflix are going to completely part company.

Meghan said that she and Harry were inspired by the partnership with Netflix to "create thoughtful content across genres that resonates globally, and celebrates our shared vision".

It's not known how many years the deal is set to last or what financial arrangement is attached. The previous deal, launched in 2020, was believed to be worth about $100m (£75m).

The announcement comes ahead of the second series of the cookery show, With Love, Meghan, being screened later this month.

Audience figures from Netflix showed the first series was not even in the streaming service's top 300 most popular shows in the first half of 2025.

With Love, Meghan, a lifestyle series which showed Meghan cooking with celebrity friends, had 5.3 million views. In comparison, the most-watched programme on Netflix during that time was the drama Adolescence with 145 million views.

A previous Netflix documentary, Harry & Meghan, recounting the couple's departure from their lives as "working royals", had a bigger audience, with 23.4 million views following its launch in December 2022.

Archewell has also announced a special Christmas season edition of With Love, Meghan, which invites viewers to "join Meghan in Montecito for a magical holiday celebration".

With Love, Meghan has been accompanied by a food and drink range, called As Ever, which includes rosé wine and jams.

And there will be a show on Netflix later this year, with Harry and Meghan as producers, called Masaka Kids, A Rhythm Within, about an orphanage in Uganda being a beacon of hope in a situation "where the shadows of the HIV/Aids crisis linger".

Bela Bajaria, Netflix's chief content officer, said: "Harry and Meghan are influential voices whose stories resonate with audiences everywhere.

"The response to their work speaks for itself - Harry & Meghan gave viewers an intimate look into their lives and quickly became one of our most-watched documentary series."

Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

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.

An explosion was reported at the US Steel Clairton plant outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday, causing multiple injuries and trapping several people, officials say.

Allegheny County Emergency Services spokesperson Kasey Reigner confirmed there were "dozens" of injuries but could not confirm fatalities or a cause, CBS News reported.

Another spokesperson confirmed a rescue operation was underway for people trapped.

Governor Josh Shapiro posted on social media that the state's emergency management services and police had been deployed to the plant.

US Senator John Fetterman wrote on X that he was also at the scene and witnessed "an active search and rescue underway."

KDKA News, a local broadcaster, reported at least one person was unaccounted for.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

The bones of a British man who died in a terrible accident in Antarctica in 1959 have been discovered in a melting glacier.

The remains were found in January by a Polish Antarctic expedition, alongside a wristwatch, a radio, and a pipe.

He has now been formally identified as Dennis "Tink" Bell, who fell into a crevasse aged 25 when working for the organisation that became the British Antarctic Survey.

"I had long given up on finding my brother. It is just remarkable, astonishing. I can't get over it," David Bell, 86, tells BBC News.

"Dennis was one of the many brave personnel who contributed to the early science and exploration of Antarctica under extraordinarily harsh conditions," says Professor Dame Jane Francis, director of the British Antarctic Survey .

"Even though he was lost in 1959, his memory lived on among colleagues and in the legacy of polar research," she adds.

It was David who answered the door in his family home in Harrow, London, in July 1959.

"The telegram boy said, 'I'm sorry to tell you, but this is bad news'," he says. He went upstairs to tell his parents.

"It was a horrendous moment," he adds.

Talking to me from his home in Australia and sitting next to his wife Yvonne, David smiles as stories from his childhood in 1940s England spill out.

They are the memories of a younger sibling admiring a charming, adventurous big brother.

"Dennis was fantastic company. He was very amusing. The life and soul of wherever he happened to be," David says.

"One of the funniest things was, and I still can't get over this, one evening when me, my mother and father came home from the cinema," David continues.

"And I have to say this in fairness to Dennis, he had put a newspaper down on the kitchen table, but on top of it, he'd taken a motorbike engine apart and it was all over the table," he says.

"I can remember his style of dress, he always used to wear duffel coats. He was just an average sort of fellow who enjoyed life," he adds.

Dennis Bell, nicked-named "Tink", was born in 1934. He worked with the RAF and trained as a meteorologist, before joining the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey to work in Antarctica.

"He was obsessed with Scott's diaries," David says, referring to Captain Robert Scott who discovered the South Pole and died on an expedition in 1912.

Dennis went to Antarctica in 1958. He was stationed for a two-year assignment at Admiralty Bay, a small UK base with about 12 men on King George Island, which is roughly 120 kilometres (75 miles) off the northern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

The British Antarctica Survey keeps meticulous records and its archivist Ieuan Hopkins has dug out detailed base camp reports about Dennis's work and antics on the harsh and "ridiculously isolated" island.

Reading aloud, Mr Hopkins says: "He's cheerful and industrious, with a mischievous sense of humour and fondness for practical jokes."

Dennis's job was to send up meteorological weather balloons and radio the reports to the UK every three hours, which involved firing up a generator in sub-zero conditions.

Described as the best cook in the hut, he was in charge of the food store over the winter when no supplies could reach them.

Antarctica felt even more cut off than it is today, with extremely limited contact with home. David recalls recording a Christmas message at BBC studios with his parents and sister Valerie to be sent to his brother.

He was best known for his love of the husky dogs used to pull sledges around the island, and he raised two litters of dogs.

He was also involved in surveying King George Island to produce some of the first mapping of the largely unexplored place.

It was on a surveying trip that the accident happened, a few weeks after his 25th birthday.

On 26 July 1958, in the deep Antarctic winter, Dennis and a man called Jeff Stokes left the base to climb and survey a glacier.

Accounts in the British Antarctic Survey records explain what happened next and the desperate attempts to rescue him.

The snow was deep and the dogs had started to show signs of tiredness. Dennis went on ahead alone to encourage them, but he wasn't wearing his skis. Suddenly he disappeared into a crevasse, leaving a hole behind him.

According to the accounts, Jeff Stokes called into the depths and Dennis was able to shout back. He grabbed onto a rope that was lowered down. The dogs pulled on the rope and Dennis was hitched up to the lip of the hole.

But he had tied the rope onto his belt, perhaps because of the angle he lay in. As he reached the lip, the belt broke and he fell again. His friend called again, but this time Dennis didn't reply.

"That's a story I shall never get over," says David.

The base camp reports about the accident are business-like.

"We heard from Jeff […] that yesterday Tink fell down a crevasse and was killed. We hope to return tomorrow, sea ice permitting," it continues.

Mr Hopkins explains that another man, called Alan Sharman, had died weeks earlier, and the morale was very low.

"The sledge has got back. We heard the sad details. Jeff has badly bitten frostbitten hands. We are not taking any more risks to recover," the report reads the day after the accident.

Reading the reports again, Mr Hopkins discovered that earlier in the season, it had been Dennis who'd made the coffin for Alan Sharman.

"My mother never really got over it. She couldn't handle photographs of him and couldn't talk about him," David says.

He recalls that two men on Dennis's base visited the family, bringing a sheepskin as a gesture.

"But there was no conclusion. There was no service, there was no anything. Just Dennis gone," David says.

About 15 years ago, David was contacted by Rod Rhys Jones, chair of the British Antarctic Monument Trust.

Since 1944, 29 people have died working on British Antarctic Territory on scientific missions, according to the trust.

Rod was organising a voyage for relatives of some of the 29 to see the spectacular and remote place where their loved ones had lived and died.

David joined the expedition, called South 2015.

"The captain stopped at the locations and give four or five hoots of the siren," he says.

The sea ice was too thick for David to reach his brother's hut on King George Island.

"But it was very, very moving. It lifted the pressure, a weight off my head, as it were," he says.

It gave him a sense of closure.

"And I thought that would be it," he says.

But on 29 January this year, a team of Polish researchers working from the Henryk Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station stumbled across something practically on their doorstep.

Dennis had been found.

Some bones were in the loose ice and rocks deposited at the foot of Ecology Glacier on King George Island. Others were found on the glacier surface.

The scientists explain that fresh snowfall was imminent, and they put down a GPS marker so their "fellow polar colleague" would not be lost again.

A team of scientists made up of Piotr Kittel, Paulina Borówka and Artur Ginter at University of Lodz, Dariusz Puczko at the Polish Academy of Sciences and fellow researcher Artur Adamek carefully rescued the remains in four trips.

It's a dangerous and unstable place, "criss-crossed with crevasses", and with slopes of up to 45 degrees, according to the Polish team.

Climate change is causing dramatic changes to many Antarctic glaciers, including Ecology Glacier, which is undergoing intense melting.

"The place where Dennis was found is not the same as the place where he went missing," the team explains.

"Glaciers, under the influence of gravity, move their mass of ice, and with it, Dennis made his journey," they say.

Fragments of bamboo ski poles, remains of an oil lamp, glass containers for cosmetics, and fragments from military tents were also collected.

"Every effort was made to ensure that Dennis could return home," the team say.

"It's an opportunity to reassess the contribution these men made, and an opportunity to promote science and what we've done in the Antarctic over many decades," says Rod Rhys Jones.

David still seems overwhelmed by the news, and repeats how grateful he is to the Polish scientists.

"I'm just sad my parents never got to see this day," he says.

David will soon visit England where he and his sister, Valerie, plan to finally put Dennis to rest.

"It's wonderful, I'm going to meet my brother. You might say we shouldn't be thrilled, but we are. He's been found - he's come home now."

The death of a one-month-old baby girl who was the victim of female genital mutilation (FGM) in The Gambia has sparked widespread outrage.

The baby was rushed to a hospital in the capital, Banjul, after she developed severe bleeding, but was pronounced dead on arrival, police said.

Although an autopsy is still being conducted to establish the cause of her death, many people have linked it to FGM, or female circumcision, a cultural practice outlawed in the West African state.

"Culture is no excuse, tradition is no shield, this is violence, pure and simple," a leading non-governmental organisation, Women In Leadership and Liberation (WILL), said in a statement.

Two women had been arrested for their alleged involvement in the baby's death, police said.

The MP for the Kombo North District where the incident happened emphasised the need to protect children from harmful practices that rob them of their health, dignity, and life.

"The loss of this innocent child must not be forgotten. Let it mark a turning-point and a moment for our nation to renew its unwavering commitment to protecting every child's right to life, safety, and dignity," Abdoulie Ceesay said.

FGM is the deliberate cutting or removal of a female's external genitalia.

The most frequently cited reasons for carrying it out are social acceptance, religious beliefs, misconceptions about hygiene, a means of preserving a girl or woman's virginity, making her "marriageable", and enhancing male sexual pleasure.

The Gambia is among the 10 countries with the highest rates of FGM, with 73% of women and girls aged 15 to 49 having undergone the procedure, with many doing so before the age of six years.

• 'I wanted my clitoris back' - FGM survivor

WILL founder Fatou Baldeh told the BBC that there was an increase in FGM procedures being performed on babies in The Gambia.

"Parents feel that if they cut their girls when they're babies, they heal quicker, but also, because of the law, they feel that if they perform it at such a young age, it's much easier to disguise, so that people don't know," she said.

FGM has been outlawed in The Gambia since 2015, with fines and jail terms of up to three years for perpetrators, and life sentences if a girl dies as a result.

However, there have only been two prosecutions and one conviction, in 2023.

A strong lobby group has emerged to demand the decriminalisation of FGM, but legislation aimed at repealing the ban was voted down in parliament last year.

FGM is banned in more than 70 countries globally but continues to be practised particularly in Africa's Muslim-majority countries, such as The Gambia.

You may also be interested in:

• What is FGM, where does it happen and why?
• FGM survivor refuses to let mutilation define her life
• 'Why I broke the law to be circumcised aged 26'

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

Five Al Jazeera journalists were killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza City on Sunday - among them 28-year-old correspondent Anas al-Sharif, who had reported prominently on the war since its outset.

The other four Al Jazeera journalists killed were correspondent Mohammed Qreiqeh, and cameramen Ibrahim Zaher, Mohammed Noufal and Moamen Aliwa, Al Jazeera said.

Two others were also killed, the broadcaster said. Hospital officials named Mohammed al-Khaldi, a local freelance journalist, as one of them.

The targeted attack on a tent used by journalists has drawn strong international condemnation including from the UN, Qatar where Al Jazeera is based, and media freedom groups.

Israel says Sharif was "the head of a Hamas terrorist cell" but has produced little evidence to support that. Sharif previously denied it, and Al Jazeera and media rights groups have rejected the allegation.

The BBC understands Sharif worked for a Hamas media team in Gaza before the current conflict.

In some of his social media posts before his death, the journalist can be heard criticising Hamas.

Committee for the Protection of Journalists CEO Jodie Ginsberg told the BBC there was no justification for Sharif's killing.

"International law is very clear on this point that the only individuals who are legitimate targets during a war are active combatants. Having worked as a media advisor for Hamas, or indeed for Hamas currently, does not make you an active combatant", she said.

"And nothing that the Israeli forces has produced so far in terms of evidence gives us any kind of assurance that he was even an active member of Hamas."

The 'only voice' left in Gaza City

Anas al-Sharif became one of Al Jazeera's most prominent reporters in Gaza during the war.

Born in the densely populated Jabalia area in the north of the Strip, he worked for Al Jazeera for about two years, the broadcaster said.

"He worked for the whole length of the war inside Gaza reporting daily on the situation of people and the attacks which are committed in Gaza," Salah Negm, director of news at Al Jazeera English, told the BBC.

Married with a four-year-old daughter, Sham, and a one-year-old son, Salah, he was separated from them for long stretches during the war while he continued to report from the north of the territory after refusing to follow Israeli evacuation orders.

A joint Instagram post on his official account along with his wife's in January this year showed a picture of Sharif smiling with his two children. The caption said it was the first time he was meeting Salah, after 15 months of war.

Sharif appeared frequently in live broadcasts, reporting extensively on the situation in Gaza.

He reported on the targeting of his colleagues, including prominent Al Jazeera correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and cameraman Rami al-Rifi, who were killed in 2024 in an air strike in Gaza City.

His father had already been killed in December 2023 when the family home was targeted in an Israeli strike. Hours before he himself was killed, he posted about an intense Israeli bombardment of Gaza City.

Mohamed Moawad, Al Jazeera's managing editor, described him as the "only voice left in Gaza City" - which Israel now plans to militarily occupy.

Raed Fakih, input manager at Al Jazeera's Arabic-language channel, told the BBC Sharif was "courageous, dedicated, and honest - that's what made him successful as a journalist with hundreds of thousands of social media followers from all over the world".

Fakih, who is in charge of the channel's bureaux and correspondents, added: "His dedication took him to areas where no other reporter ventured to go, especially those that witnessed the worst massacres. His integrity kept him true to his message as a journalist."

Fakih said he spoke to Sharif many times on the phone throughout the war.

"In our last conversations, he told me about the famine and starvation he was enduring, about how hard it is to survive with so little food," he said.

"He felt he had no choice but to amplify the voice of the Gazans. He was living the same hardships they are living now, suffering from famine, mourning loved ones.

"His father was killed in an Israeli bombing. In that way, he was like all Gazans: carrying loss, pain, and resilience. And even in the face of death, he persisted, because this is a story that must be told."

Mohammed Qreieh, 33, was a father of two from Gaza City, the Associated Press news agency reported. Like Sharif, he was separated from his family for months during the war as he reported from the front lines in northern Gaza, AP added.

Qreieh's last live broadcast was on Sunday evening, minutes before he was targeted, Al Jazeera Arabic reported.

Israel alleges Sharif led 'terrorist cell', with little evidence

The Israeli military accused Sharif of posing as a journalist, saying he had "served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas" and was responsible for launching rocket attacks at Israelis - but it has produced little evidence to support these claims.

In a statement, the IDF said it had documents which "unequivocally prove" his "military affiliation" with Hamas, including "personnel rosters, lists of terrorist training courses, phone directories, and salary documents".

It has publicly released some screenshots of spreadsheets apparently listing Hamas operatives from the northern Gaza Strip, noting injuries to Hamas operatives and a section of what is said to be a phone directory for the armed group's East Jabalia battalion.

Israel had previously accused Sharif of being a member of Hamas's military wing - something he and his employer strongly denied.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a media freedom group, said the allegations against him were "baseless" and called on the international community to intervene.

"Without strong action from the international community to stop the Israeli army... we're likely to witness more such extrajudicial murders of media professionals," RSF said.

Nearly 200 journalists have been killed in the war Israel launched in response to Hamas's October 7, 2023 assault, according to RSF.

Fakih from Al Jazeera accused the Israeli military of fabricating stories about journalists before killing them, to "hide what [it] is committing in Gaza". Israel has previously denied targeting journalists.

He described this as a "longstanding pattern" and referred to the Israeli military's killing of veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqla, who was shot in the head during an Israeli army raid in the occupied West Bank in 2022.

The Israeli military concluded that one of its soldiers probably killed her, but called her death unintentional. Al Jazeera said its evidence showed it was a "deliberate killing".

"Here is a crucial fact: had Israel been held accountable for Shireen's assassination, it would not have dared to kill 200 journalists in Gaza," said Fakih.

Sharif knew he risked being targeted by Israel after its Arabic-language spokesman posted a video of him in July and accused him of being a member of Hamas' military wing.

In a post published on his X account, which was prewritten in the event of his death, Sharif said he "gave every effort and all my strength to be a support and a voice for my people... Do not forget Gaza."

A US judge has ruled grand jury materials in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex-trafficking case will remain sealed, saying that making them public "would not reveal new information of any consequence".

The justice department had asked Judge Paul Engelmayer to unseal the documents, in an effort to assauge anger among President Donald Trump's supporters over the decision not to release all federal files on Maxwell's associate, deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell, currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for crimes tied to Epstein, opposed unsealing the materials.

The judge wrote it was important to protect the secrecy of grand juries, who decide whether to indict people accused of crimes.

There are special circumstances where that secrecy is broken, Judge Engelmayer wrote in his 31-page decision.

But he wrote that "applying the exception casually or promiscuously, as the government's motion to unseal the summary-witness grand jury testimony here invites" would hurt the grand jury system. It could, he wrote, set a precedent where people do not believe the proceedings will be kept secret, which may discourage witnesses from testifying and jurors from focusing solely on the merits of the case.

He dismissed the government's argument that much of the information given to the grand jury was made public during her trial, although he agreed that "a member of the public familiar with the Maxwell trial record who reviewed the grand jury materials...would thus learn next to nothing new".

The materials "do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor" and "do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein's or Maxwell's," he wrote.

Maxwell, 63, was convicted in December 2019 and was recently moved from a Florida prison to a new minimum-security facility in Texas.

Last week, one of her accusers said outside the court in New York that she should stay in prison for the rest of her life.

The BBC has reached out to Maxwell's lawyers for comment.

Last month, she was interviewed by justice department officials under the Trump administration's directive to gather and release credible evidence relating to the Epstein case.

On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to release what are known as "The Epstein Files". But this summer the justice department and FBI said they had concluded that Epstein did not keep a "client list" and that the justice department would not be making additional files public.

In response to the backlash, Trump said Bondi should release "whatever she thinks is credible". Meanwhile, a congressional committee has sent a subpoena to the justice department related to federal investigations into the allegations against Epstein and Maxwell, which go back 20 years.

The president, who was friends with Epstein, has denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes and has said that he and the financier, who died in federal custody while awaiting trial, fell out in the early 2000s.

President Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard to Washington DC and taken control of the city's police force as he pledges to crack down on crime and homelessness in the nation's capital.

Trump declared a "public safety emergency" on Monday, deploying 800 National Guard troops who will bolster hundreds of federal law enforcement officers who were deployed over the weekend.

"It's becoming a situation of complete and total lawlessness," he told reporters at the White House.

The city's Mayor Muriel Bowser has rejected the president's claims about crime and while there was a spike in 2023, statistics show it has fallen since then. Violent crime in the city is also at a 30-year low.

"I'm announcing a historic action to rescue our nation's capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse," Trump said during a news conference in which he was flanked by US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who will lead the city's police force while it is under federal control.

"This is liberation day in DC, and we're going to take our capital back," he said.

Trump said Washington DC had been "taken over by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals" as well as "drugged out maniacs and homeless people".

According to data from the city's Metropolitan Police Department, homicides dropped by 32 percent between 2023 and 2024 and reached their lowest level since 2019.

There has been another substantial drop this year of 12 percent, the data shows.

Mayor Bowser, a Democrat, acknowledged there had been a "terrible" spike in crime in 2023, which mirrored a national trend, but she pushed back against any claims of a crimewave in the city.

"We are not experiencing a crime spike," she told MSNBC on Sunday. "The president is very aware of our efforts."

When asked about White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller's comment that Washington is more violent than Baghdad, Bowser said "any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false".

Of the 800 National Guard troops who will be activated, between 100-200 will be deployed and supporting law enforcement at any given time, the army said in a statement.

As well as that deployment, Trump said he would place the city's police department under direct federal control using the District of Columbia Home Rule Act.

That act was instituted by former President Richard Nixon to allow residents of Washington DC - which is the only US city that is not in any of the 50 states - to elect a city council and a mayor.

But it also has a caveat that allows the president to take control of the city's police force if "special conditions of an emergency nature exist".

If the president intends to take control for longer than 48 hours, they need to provide a written notice to Congress. And even if that notice is provided, they cannot keep control of the police for longer than 30 days.

On Sunday, when asked about the possibility of the president taking control of the city's police department, Mayor Bowser said: "There are very specific things in our law that would allow [that]. None of those conditions exist in our city right now."

She said she was "concerned" about the National Guard enforcing local laws.

The mayor's office has not yet responded to a request for comment from the BBC on Trump's Monday announcement.

As well as crime, Trump also spoke at length about homelessness in Washington DC.

"We're getting rid of the slums," he said, without giving further details. He said homeless people would be sent elsewhere but did not say where.

Trump added that "everything should be perfect" when dignitaries and foreign leaders visit the city.

"It's a very strong reflection of our country," he said. "If our capital is dirty, our whole country is dirty and they don't respect us."

Local groups working with homeless people in the capital told the BBC they had actually seen progress in recent years.

Homelessness is down almost 20% for individuals in Washington DC in 2025 compared to five years ago, said Ralph Boyd, the president and chief executive of So Others Might Eat (SOME) - a group that provides people in the city with housing, clothing and other social services.

He also said Trump's proposal to move people out of the city was not a long-term solution.

"All it will do is transfer the problem somewhere else into communities that are perhaps less equipped to deal with it than we are," Boyd said.

Meanwhile, outside the White House, protesters concerned about Trump's actions gathered and chanted "hands off DC" and "protect home rule".

"Trump does not care about DC's safety, he cares about control," a speaker at the event said.

The president's actions follow a series of social media posts in recent days in which he has criticised the running of Washington DC. Trump has long complained about the city's Democratic leadership for their handling of crime and homelessness.

He has also responded angrily to a former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) who was attacked recently in in the city.

During Monday's press conference, Trump said the employee was "savagely beaten by a band of roaming thugs" and was "left dripping in blood".

He also mentioned other federal government employees and elected officials who have been attacked, including a Democratic lawmaker and an intern.

"This is a threat to America," Trump said.

The first time Trump deployed the National Guard was in June, when he ordered 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to deal with unrest over raids on undocumented migrants.

The last time the National Guard was deployed to Washington DC was in response to the Capitol riot in 2021.

US President Donald Trump has said he will try to get some territory back for Ukraine during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

"Russia's occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They occupied prime territory. We're going to try to get some of that territory back for Ukraine," he told a news conference.

Trump said the talks in Alaska would be a "feel-out meeting" aimed at urging Putin to end the war, and that there would be "some swapping, changes in land".

It is not the first time he has used the phrase "land-swapping", though it is unclear what land Russia could cede to Ukraine. Kyiv has never lay claim to any Russian territories.

Trump said he will update European leaders if Putin proposes a "fair deal" during the talks, adding that he would speak to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky first "out of respect".

"I'll call him first... I'll call him after, and I may say, 'lots of luck, keep fighting,' or I may say, 'we can make a deal'", he said.

Trump also said that while he and Zelensky "get along", he "very severely disagrees with what he has done". Trump has previously blamed Zelensky for the war in Ukraine, which was sparked by Russia's full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

The US president announced the meeting with Putin last Friday - the day of his self-imposed deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire or face more US sanctions.

In response to news of the Alaska summit, Zelensky said any agreements without input from Kyiv would amount to "dead decisions".