ABC has pulled late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off air indefinitely over comments he made about the shooting of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.

"Jimmy Kimmel Live will be pre-empted indefinitely," a spokesperson for the Disney-owned network said in a statement to the BBC.

On Monday night's monologue, Kimmel said the "MAGA gang" was trying to score political points off Kirk's murder.

On Tuesday, a 22-year-old suspect appeared in court charged with aggravated murder over last Wednesday's shooting of the 31-year-old conservative influencer.

The announcement came after one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the US, Nexstar Media, said it would not air Jimmy Kimmel Live! "for the foreseeable future beginning with tonight's show".

Nexstar said on Wednesday that the comedian's remarks about Kirk "are offensive and insensitive at a critical time in our national political discourse".

"[W]e do not believe they reflect the spectrum of opinions, views, or values of the local communities in which we are located," said Andrew Alford, president of Nexstar's broadcasting division.

"Continuing to give Mr Kimmel a broadcast platform in the communities we serve is simply not in the public interest at the current time, and we have made the difficult decision to preempt his show in an effort to let cooler heads prevail as we move toward the resumption of respectful, constructive dialogue."

Representatives for Kimmel did not immediately respond to the BBC's requests for comment.

Kimmel said in his Monday night monologue: "The Maga Gang desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it."

The late-night host, who has frequently been in the crosshairs of US President Donald Trump, also criticised flags being flown at half staff in honour of Kirk, and mocked Trump's reaction to the shooting.

He spliced a clip of the president speaking with reporters about his reaction to Kirk's death and redirecting to talk about a ballroom being built at the White House.

"He's at the fourth stage of grief," Kimmel said. "Construction. It's demolition, construction.

"This is not how an adult grieves the murder of someone he calls a friend. This is how a four-year-old mourns a gold fish."

Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, are planning to present photographic and scientific evidence to a US court to prove Mrs Macron is a woman.

Their lawyer says the French president and Mrs Macron will present the documentation in a defamation suit they have taken against the right-wing influencer Candace Owens after she promoted her belief that Brigitte Macron was born male.

Ms Owens' lawyers have responded with a motion to dismiss the claim.

Speaking to the BBC's Fame Under Fire podcast, the Macrons' lawyer in the case, Tom Clare, said Mrs Macron had found the claims "incredibly upsetting" and they were a "distraction" to the French president.

"I don't want to suggest that it somehow has thrown him off his game. But just like anybody who is juggling a career and a family life as well, when your family is under attack, it wears on you. And he's not immune from that because he's the president of a country," he said.

Mr Clare said there would be "expert testimony that will come out that will be scientific in nature" and while he would not reveal, at this stage, its exact nature, he said the couple were prepared to demonstrate fully "both generically and specifically" that the allegations are false.

"It is incredibly upsetting to think that you have to go and subject yourself, to put this type of proof forward," he said.

"It is a process that she will have to subject herself to in a very public way. But she's willing to do it. She is firmly resolved to do what it takes to set the record straight.

"If that unpleasantness and that discomfort that she has of opening herself up in that way is what it takes to set a record straight and stop this, she's 100% ready to meet that burden."

When asked if the Macrons would be supplying pictures of Brigitte pregnant and raising her children, Mr Clare said they existed and would be presented in court where there are rules and standards.

Ms Owens, a former commentator for conservative US outlet Daily Wire who has millions of followers on social media, has repeatedly promoted her view that Brigitte Macron is a man.

In March 2024, she claimed she would stake her "entire professional reputation" on the allegation.

The allegation originated in fringe online spaces years earlier, notably through a 2021 YouTube video by French bloggers Amandine Roy and Natacha Rey.

The Macrons initially won a defamation case in France against Roy and Rey in 2024, but that ruling was overturned on appeal in 2025 on freedom of expression grounds, not on the basis of truth. The Macrons are appealing the decision.

In July, the Macrons filed a lawsuit against Ms Owens in the US. It alleges she "disregarded all credible evidence disproving her claim in favour of platforming known conspiracy theorists and proven defamers".

In American defamation cases against public figures, plaintiffs are required to prove "actual malice" - that the defendant knowingly spread false information or acted with reckless disregard for the truth.

In August, Emmanuel Macron explained to French magazine, Paris Match, why they had chosen to pursue legal action.

"This is about defending my honour! Because this is nonsense. This is someone who knew full well that she had false information and did so with the aim of causing harm, in the service of an ideology and with established connections to far-right leaders."

Ms Owens' lawyers have responded to the Macrons' lawsuit with a motion to dismiss, arguing that the case should not have been filed in Delaware, as she says it does not relate to her businesses, which are incorporated in the state. They claim forcing her to defend the case in Delaware would cause "substantial financial and operational hardship".

The BBC has approached Candace Owens' legal team for a comment. She has previously said she believes what she is saying is true and there is nothing more American than free speech and the ability to criticise.

An immigration judge in the US has ordered the deportation of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil to either Algeria or Syria, over claims he omitted information from a green card application.

Judge Jamee Comans, based in Louisiana, said Mr Khalil "wilfully misrepresented material fact(s) for the sole purpose of circumventing the immigration process".

In a statement to the American Civil Liberties Union, Mr Khalil said: "It is no surprise that the Trump administration continues to retaliate against me for my exercise of free speech."

Mr Khalil, a permanent US resident of Palestinian descent, was a prominent figure during the 2024 Gaza war protests at Columbia University, where he studied.

Lawyers for Mr Khalil, 30, said they would appeal against the decision, and added that separate federal court orders remained in effect that prohibit the government from deporting or detaining him.

In March, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials detained Mr Khalil as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on universities it claims have failed to tackle antisemitism.

Mr Khalil, born in Syria and a citizen of Algeria, was held in an immigration facility in Louisiana for three months before a federal judge ruled that he was neither a flight risk nor a threat to his community.

On 20 June, the judge ruled Mr Khalil must be released.

While detained, Mr Khalil's wife, a US citizen, gave birth to their son.

In March, the US government also accused Mr Khalil of leaving out details of his previous associations on immigration documentation, including membership of Unwra - the UN agency that works with Palestinians - and "continuing employment" at the British Embassy in Beirut.

Responding to the recent decision, Mr Khalil added: "When their first effort to deport me was set to fail, they resorted to fabricating baseless and ridiculous allegations in a bid to silence me for speaking out and standing firmly with Palestine, demanding an end to the ongoing genocide."

In June, Mr Khalil's lawyers filed a claim for $20m (£14.7m) in damages alleging false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and being smeared as an antisemite.

Trump has repeatedly alleged that pro-Palestinian activists, including Mr Khalil, support Hamas, a group designated a terrorist organisation by the US. The president argues these protesters should be deported and called Mr Khalil's arrest "the first of many to come".

Mr Khalil's role in Columbia's 2024 protests placed him in the public eye. On the front lines of negotiations, he played a role in mediating between university officials and the activists and students who attended the protests.

Activists supporting Israel have accused Mr Khalil of being a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest (Cuad), a student group that demanded, among other things, the university to divest from its financial ties to Israel and a ceasefire in Gaza.

Mr Khalil has denied that he led the group, telling the Associated Press (AP) that he only served as a spokesperson for protesters and as a mediator with the university.

Israel's culture minister has threatened to axe funding for the country's national film awards after The Sea, a story about a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, won its top award.

The film, which follows a boy from the occupied West Bank who wants to travel to Tel Aviv to see the sea for the first time, won best film at the Ophir Awards - Israel's equivalent of the Oscars.

In a statement on X, Miki Zohar said: "There is no greater slap in the face of Israeli citizens than the embarrassing and detached annual Ophir Awards ceremony."

As winner of the best film category at the Ophir awards, The Sea now becomes Israel's entry to the international film category at next year's Oscars.

It is not yet clear whether Zohar has the authority to defund the awards, according to local media.

Stars of The Sea won other major prizes at the awards ceremony, including 13-year-old Muhammad Gazawi who won the best actor award - the youngest ever winner.

In the film, Gazawi plays 12-year-old Khaled who is denied entry to Israel at an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint during a class trip to Tel Aviv.

Khaled then sneaks into Israel and attempts to reach the sea while his father, an undocumented labourer in Israel, tries to find him.

During the ceremony, the film's producer Baher Agbariya said the film was about "every child's right to live in peace, a basic right we will not give up on".

But in his statement, Zohar described the Ophir Awards as "embarrassing and detached".

He added: "Under my watch, Israeli citizens will not pay from their pockets for a ceremony that spits in the faces of our heroic soldiers."

Responding to Zohar's comments, Assaf Amir, chair of the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, said: "As the never-ending war in Gaza takes a terrible toll in death and destruction, the ability to see the 'other'... gives small hope."

Amir added: "In the face of the Israeli government's attacks on Israeli cinema and culture, and the calls from parts of the international film community to boycott us, the selection of The Sea is a powerful and resounding response."

It comes after thousands of Hollywood industry professionals signed a pledge vowing not to work with Israeli film institutions that are "implicated in genocide".

Israel launched its war 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 65,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since then, almost half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

On Tuesday, a UN commission of inquiry said Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel's foreign ministry rejected the report and denounced it as "distorted and false".

The leader of the controversial Unification Church has denied allegations that her organisation bribed South Korea's former first lady with luxury gifts in exchange for business favours.

Han Hak-ja flatly rejected claims that she directed the bribery when confronted by reporters as she emerged from nine hours of questioning at the prosecutor's office.

"No... Why would I do that?" said the 82-year-old widow of the church's founder Moon Sun-myung, who had to be supported by assistants as she walked.

Former first lady Kim Keon Hee, the wife of ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, is accused of accepting two Chanel bags and a diamond necklace, together worth 80 million won ($57,900; £42,500), from the church.

Kim was indicated last month for various charges, including bribery and stock manipulation, which she denies.

Her arrest marked the first time that both a former president and former first lady have been jailed in South Korea.

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

On Wednesday, Han pinned the blame on a former church official, saying the official acted on his own in offering Kim those gifts. The official has since been arrested.

Her appearance comes after she refused the special prosecutor's summons thrice. "I was in pain after [heart] surgery," she said.

An ambulance was put on standby while she was being interrogated, Reuters reported citing the special prosecutor's office.

On Wednesday, authorities arrested conservative lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong, who is also accused of receiving 100 million won in bribes from the church. Kweon, once seen as a close confidante of Yoon, denied the allegation.

The Unification Church, known formally as The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, was founded in South Korea in the 1950s by Moon Sun-myung, who proclaimed himself the messiah.

The church is best known for holding mass weddings involving thousands of couples, some of whom would have only recently been matched by the church.

Critics have described the group as "cult -like". Lawyers have accused it of coercing devotees, known colloquially as "Moonies" after its founder, to donate large sums of money.

The Unification Church had come under the spotlight in Japan after the assassination of the country's former leader Shinzo Abe. The alleged assassin blamed the group for bankrupting his family and held a grievance against Abe for allegedly promoting it.

The group is banned in parts of the world, including Singapore and more recently, Japan.

The families of four passengers who died on an Air India jet that crashed in June have filed a lawsuit in the US against planemaker Boeing and aircraft parts maker Honeywell, accusing the companies of negligence.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday, and seen by the BBC, said faulty fuel switches caused the accident and accused the companies of doing "nothing" despite being aware of the risks of the aircraft's design.

Air India Flight 171 bound for London Gatwick, a Boeing 787, crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad, killing 260 people.

Fuel switches have become a focus for investigators after a preliminary inquiry found that fuel to the engines was cut off moments after the plane left the ground.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has said earlier that fuel control switches in Boeing aeroplanes are safe.

The BBC has contacted Boeing and Honeywell for a response.

The US plane manufacturer did not comment on the case. Instead it pointed to India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau's (AAIB) preliminary investigation report into the crash.

The lawsuit alleges that both firms knew about the risk of a crash since they developed and marketed the 787 Dreamliner and its components.

It cited a 2018 FAA advisory that urged - but did not mandate - operators to inspect the fuel switches' locking mechanism to ensure that it could not be accidentally moved, thereby cutting off fuel supply.

In the case of Air India Flight 171, the switch was moved from "run" to the "cut-off" position, hampering the thrust of the plane, according to the AAIB's preliminary investigation report.

The families said this amounted to a design "defect" that "allowed for inadvertent cutoff of fuel supply and total loss of thrust necessary to propel" the plane.

They said: "And what did Honeywell and Boeing do to prevent the inevitable catastrophe? Nothing."

The companies also failed to warn airlines that the switches required inspection and repair, and did not supply replacement parts to enable its customers to install them, according to the lawsuit.

Boeing and Honeywell "sat idly" behind a gentle advisory that merely recommended inspecting the switches, said the families, who are represented by Texas-based Lanier Law Firm.

A more detailed report of the crash is expected sometime in 2026.

A total of 229 passengers, 12 cabin crew and 19 people on the ground perished when the plane crashed.

Australia, one of the world's biggest polluters per capita, will aim to cut its carbon emissions by at least 62% compared to 2005 levels over the next decade.

The nation - which has faced global criticism for its continued reliance on fossil fuels - had previously pledged to reduce greenhouse gases by 43% by 2030.

"This is a responsible target supported by science and a practical plan to get there, built on proven technology," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said when unveiling the new target on Thursday.

A landmark risk assessment commissioned by the government this week warned Australia faced a future of increasingly extreme weather conditions as a result of man-made climate change.

Setting a target to reduce emissions from 2005 levels is part of Australia's obligation under the Paris Climate Agreement.

The new target is in line with an emission reduction benchmark – of between 62% and 70% – that was recommended by the Climate Change Authority, a government body which provides climate policy advice, Albanese said.

The prime minister will confirm the commitment at a meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York later this month.

The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement saw world leaders agree to keep global temperatures from rising 1.5C above those of the late 19th Century, which is seen as crucial to preventing the most damaging impacts of climate change.

Australia, like much of the world, has faced an increasing number of climate-related weather extremes in recent years including severe drought, historic bushfires and successive years of record-breaking floods.

Warmer seas have also caused mass bleaching at its world-famous Great Barrier Reef in Queensland and Ningaloo Reef in Western Australia.

On Monday, a report into the impact of climate change - the first of its kind in the country - found Australia had already reached warming of above 1.5C and that no community would be immune from "cascading, compounding and concurrent" climate risks.

It warned that if the government failed to take stronger action there would be more heatwave-related deaths, poorer water quality due to severe flooding and bushfires, and sea level rises that would threaten 1.5 million people. It also warned of a A$611bn ($406bn; £300bn) drop in property values as a result of such threats.

However, Australia's climate agenda and its ambition to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 remain divisive political topics.

The country's opposition party, the Liberal National coalition, is internally debating whether it should continue to support the net zero emissions goal, while other parliamentarians - including many independent and Greens MPs - are calling for faster cuts.

Opposition leader Sussan Ley on Thursday said the coalition was "dead against" the new target, saying that it failed on both "cost and credibility".

Shortly after Albanese's Labor government was elected in 2022 it set higher climate targets, up from the conservative coalition's previous target of between 26% and 28%.

It has sought to make Australia a "renewable energy superpower", but has also continued to approve fossil fuel projects.

Last week, one of the country's largest gas projects - Woodside's North West Shelf - was given the greenlight to keep operating for another 40 years until 2070, in a move that was widely condemned by climate experts and environmental advocates. Australian Greens Larissa Waters labelled the move a "betrayal" by Labor.

Five police officers have been shot in the US state of Pennsylvania, with three of them said to be in a grave condition.

A fourth officer shot in Wednesday afternoon's incident in rural York County is said to be in a critical condition.

The suspect in the shooting is believed to have died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, sources told the BBC's US partner CBS.

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said he was travelling to the scene in North Codorus Township, about 100 miles (160km) east of Philadelphia.

"I've been briefed on the situation involving law enforcement in York County, and am on my way there now," Shapiro wrote on X.

"We ask those in the area to please follow the directions of local law enforcement," he added.

The incident happened just after 14:00 local time (19:00 BST). Images from the scene showed a police officer being airlifted out of the scene in a medical helicopter.

The shooting forced a nearby school district in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania - a small town of about 2,500 people - to briefly shelter in place. The district later said the school had not been affected.

Officials said there was no threat to the public.

A Spirit Airlines flight received repeated warnings from air traffic controllers to "pay attention" and "turn away" after it came too close to President Donald Trump's aircraft as he flew to the United Kingdom for a state visit.

"Pay attention. Get off the iPad," was the stern message issued to the Spirit pilot as the aircraft flew eight miles (12.8km) parallel to Air Force One, the US president's official plane, over New York on Tuesday.

The planes were never within a distance that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would classify as unsafe, but it was close enough to alarm officials.

"Safety is always our top priority," a Spirit spokesman told CBS, the BBC's US partner.

Spirit Flight 1300 "followed procedures and Air Traffic Control instructions" and "landed uneventfully" as planned in Boston, the airline said.

The Spirit flight was travelling from Florida to Massachusetts. According to flight tracking site Flightradar24, the two planes were flying parallel to each other 8 miles apart, and were on paths on which they could have converged 11 miles apart,

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) "Preliminary investigation shows aircraft maintained the required separation."

Air traffic control audio obtained by the BBC recorded controllers urgently and repeatedly telling the Spirit Airbus A321 to keep its distance.

"Spirit 1300 turn 20 degrees right," an air traffic controller said, according to LiveATC audio. "Pay attention, Spirit 1300 turn 20 degrees right. Spirit 1300 turn 20 degrees right, now. Spirit wings 1300 turn 20 degrees right, immediately."

The budget airline pilots acknowledged the transmission, although their responses were difficult to hear due to the static sounds on the recording.

The controller responded with: "Pay attention. Spirit 1300 traffic off your left wing by six mi— or eight miles, 747. I'm sure you can see who it is. ... Keep an eye out for him — he's white and blue" - the white and blue being a reference to the exterior colours of the president's aircraft.

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in the UK on Tuesday evening.

Prosecutors have downgraded some of the most serious sex abuse charges against veteran broadcaster and former Wallabies coach Alan Jones after a court hearing on Thursday.

Mr Jones now faces 27 charges which allege that he indecently assaulted or groped nine men over two decades.

Eleven charges of aggravated indecent assault - deemed more serious as they allegedly related to people under his authority - were downgraded on Thursday. Some charges were also dropped altogether.

The influential 84-year-old media figure has denied all charges and the case - which will now be heard before a magistrate, not a jury - will return to court next month.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Sharon Freund said there was a reformation of the case after two alleged victims withdrew, though there was no explanation as to why they were no longer part of the case.

Mr Jones now faces 25 counts of indecent assault and two counts of sexual touching.

His lawyer Bryan Wrench told the court the dropped charges was a "very big development" and "significant concession," according to the reports from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"There is no suggestion that... he had these complainants in his authority. He did not have any power over these complainants," Mr Wrench said.

Police have previously said some of the alleged victims knew the radio titan personally, and that at least one had been employed by him.

Others were allegedly assaulted the first time they met him, NSW Police's Michael Fitzgerald told reporters late last year.

Speaking to journalists outside court in December, Jones told reporters the allegations were either "baseless" or "distort the truth".

A former teacher, Mr Jones coached Australia's national rugby union team between 1984 and 1988, before pivoting to a radio career.

He also, at times, worked as a speechwriter and advisor for Liberal Party figures - including former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser - and launched several failed bids to represent the party in both state and federal politics.

A staple of Sydney airwaves on local station 2GB for decades, Mr Jones juggled those duties with TV commentary gigs before he retired from full time work in 2020 citing health issues.

The broadcaster is a polarising figure, for years boasting one of the nation's biggest audiences but often courting controversy.

He made headlines in 2012 for suggesting that then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard's father had "died of shame", and in 2019 faced a massive advertiser boycott after saying someone should "shove a sock" down the throat of New Zealand's leader at the time, Jacinda Ardern.

Mr Jones has also been successfully sued for defamation many times.

A decomposing body found in a car registered to singer D4vd has been identified as a missing 15-year-old girl, US authorities say.

Police officers discovered the remains of Celeste Rivas inside the boot of the impounded Tesla on 8 September, after responding to reports of a foul smell at the Hollywood tow yard in Los Angeles.

Authorities said both the cause and time of her death remained unknown.

Rivas, from Lake Elsinore in California, was 13 at the time of her disappearance and was last seen on 5 April 2024, according to a missing person flyer cited by CBS, the BBC's US partner.

Earlier, officers said the Tesla was likely to have been at the Hollywood tow yard for "a couple of days" before the remains were found.

The car, which has a Texas licence plate, was towed from the Hollywood Hills after it was abandoned five days earlier.

The car is registered to 20-year-old David Anthony Burke, the official name of singer D4vd.

Last week, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner said the person whose remains were discovered was 5ft 2in tall (157cm), had wavy black hair and was wearing a tube top and black leggings.

It added that the remains had a tattoo on the right index finger that read: "Shhh."

The remains were not intact and it appeared the girl had been dead for an extended period of time, according to law enforcement sources cited by NBC News.

D4vd, who has millions of followers on social media, is best best known for his viral hits Here With me and Romantic Homicide.

He released his debut album in April and was on tour when the remains were found in the Tesla. The tour's scheduled show in Seattle on Wednesday was cancelled.

Police say D4vd is co-operating with the investigation.

It's finally happening.

After months of economic debate and mounting attacks from US President Donald Trump, the US central bank is poised to cut interest rates on Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve is widely expected to announce it is lowering the target for its key lending rate by 0.25 percentage points. That will put it in a range of 4% to 4.25% - the lowest level since late 2022.

The move - the bank's first rate cut since last December - is expected to kick off a series of additional reductions in the months ahead, which should help bring down borrowing costs across the US.

But they carry a warning about the economy, reflecting increased consensus at the Fed that a stalling job market needs a boost in the form of lower interest rates.

Nor are they likely to satisfy the president, who has called for far deeper cuts.

In many ways, it is no surprise that the Fed, which sets interest rate policy independent of the White House, is cutting.

The inflation that ripped through the post-pandemic economy and prompted the bank to raise interest rates in 2022 has come down significantly.

In the UK, Europe, Canada and elsewhere, central banks have already responded with lower rates, while the Fed's own policymakers have said for months that they expected to lower borrowing costs by at least half a percentage point this year.

At the Fed's last meeting, two members of the board even backed a cut.

They were outvoted, as other members remained worried that Trump's economic policies, including tax cuts, tariffs and mass detentions of migrant workers, might cause inflation to flare back up again.

And it's true that the US in recent months has seen inflation tick higher. Prices rose 2.9% over the 12 months to August, the fastest pace since January, and still above the Fed's 2% target.

But in recent weeks, those concerns have been eclipsed by weakness in the labour market. The US reported meagre job gains in August and July and an outright loss in June - the first such decline since 2020.

"It really comes down to what we've seen in the jobs market - the deterioration that we've seen over the past few months," said Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo, which is expecting rates to drop by 0.75 percentage points by the end of the year.

"The Fed knows that when the labour market turns, it turns very quickly, so they're wanting to make sure they're not stepping on the brakes of the economy at the same time the labour market has already slowed."

Though Trump has rejected concerns about economic weakness, the rate cut should not be unwelcome to him - he has spent months blasting the Fed's hesitance to cut rates, which he says should be as low as 1%.

On social media, he has called Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell "a real dummy", accusing him of holding back the economy by leaving interest rates too high for too long.

"Too Late" MUST CUT INTEREST RATES, NOW, AND BIGGER THAN HE HAD IN MIND. HOUSING WILL SOAR!!!" Trump wrote in a social media post this week, referring to Powell.

Trump's pressure is not just rhetorical. He moved quickly to install the chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, Stephen Miran, on the Fed in time for this week's meeting after a short-term vacancy opened up last month.

His administration has also threatened Powell with firing and investigation and is locked in a legal battle over its effort to fire economist Lisa Cook, another member of the board.

To critics, Trump's moves amount to an assault on the Fed's independence that is unprecedented in recent history.

But whatever awkwardness in the air at this week's Fed meeting, analysts say they believe the Fed's decision to cut would have come regardless of his campaign.

"The president's policies are certainly causing the economic activity that is forcing the hand of the Fed," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.

"The president's jawboning of the Fed to lower rates I think has had zero impact whatsoever."

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has told the BBC in an exclusive interview that he has "no relationship" with US President Donald Trump.

Lula has frequently criticised Trump, but this is the clearest signal yet that he thinks communication between him and his US counterpart is now broken.

Even though the US has a trade surplus with Brazil, Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods in July, citing the trial on coup charges of Brazil's right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro as a trigger.

Lula described the tariffs as "eminently political" and said US consumers would be facing higher prices for Brazilian goods as a result.

The tariffs imposed by Trump have hit Brazilian exports to the US, like coffee and beef, which Lula said would become more expensive: "The American people will pay for the mistakes President Trump is incurring in his relationship with Brazil."

The two leaders have never spoken directly to each other. When pushed on why he had not just tried to pick up the phone or form a relationship, President Lula said: "I never tried that call because he never wanted to have a conversation."

Trump has previously said that Lula can "call him anytime." But Lula insisted that members of the Trump Administration "do not want to talk".

He told the BBC that he had found out about the US tariffs from Brazilian newspapers.

Referring to Trump, he said that the US president "didn't communicate in a civilised manner. He just published them [the tariffs] on his portal - on social media."

When asked how he would describe his relationship with his US counterpart he simply said: "There's no relationship."

'He's not emperor of the world!'

Lula said that his poor relations with the US leader were the exception, listing how he had built relationships with former US presidents, UK prime ministers, the EU, China, Ukraine, Venezuela and "all the countries in the world".

The Brazilian president attended the World War Two anniversary celebrations in Russia this year and has not cut ties with President Putin. Asked who he had a better relationship with - Trump or Putin - he defended his ties to the latter, saying they had formed them when they had both been presidents "in previous times".

"I don't have a relationship with Trump because when Trump was elected the first time, I wasn't president. His relationship is with Bolsonaro, not Brazil," Lula responded.

He also said that if he passed Trump at next week's United Nations General assembly he would "greet him because I am a civilised citizen", but added that Trump may be "president of the United States, [but] he's not emperor of the world!".

The BBC approached the White House for comment on Lula's criticism of Trump but had not yet received a response at the tine of publishing.

He also spoke about his predecessor in office, Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted last week.

A 4-1 majority of justices on Brazil's Supreme Court found the ex-president guilty of plotting a coup after losing the election to Lula and sentenced him to 27 years in prison.

Lula told the BBC that Bolsonaro and his co-conspirators had "hurt the country, attempted a coup, and plotted my death".

Referring to the appeals Bolsonaro's lawyers said they would lodge, Lula said that he hoped that Bolsonaro would continue "to present his defence" but that "for now he is guilty".

He also criticised Trump for "inventing untruths" by claiming Bolsonaro was being persecuted and denouncing what the US leader said was a lack of democracy in Brazil.

Lula also told the BBC that if the 6 January Capitol riots had happened in Brazil rather than in the US, Trump would have been put on trial.

In the wide-ranging BBC interview, he also advocated for reform of the United Nations.

He criticised the fact that five countries - the permanent members of the UN Security Council - have the power to veto decisions and argued that this tilted the balance in favour of those who won World War Two, excluding nations representing billions of people like Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, as well as African countries.

The result, he said, was that the UN didn't "have the strength to solve conflicts" and the five permanent members made "unilateral" decisions about going to war.

He defended his continued alliances with Russia and China – two nations where unfair elections and human rights abuses have been documented – while calling for a more "democratic" UN.

Pressed on Brazil's continuing purchases of Russian oil while Russia wages war in Ukraine, he said Brazil was one of the first countries to condemn Russia's occupation of Ukraine and that "Brazil doesn't finance Russia, we buy oil from Russia because we need to buy oil just like China, India, the UK or the US needs to buy oil".

He said that if the UN was "functioning" then neither the Ukraine war nor the Gaza war - which he described as "not a war" but a "genocide" - would have happened.

The BBC also asked President Lula about November's COP30 climate summit, when Brazil will host world leaders in the Amazon city of Belém.

Domestically, the Brazilian president has faced criticism over his support for exploratory drilling for oil near the mouth of the Amazon River.

Brazil's state oil company Petrobas and other firms have bought blocks for exploration and are awaiting licenses.

His own environment minister, Marina Silva, has strongly opposed the plans and some conservation groups fear it could risk oil spills in waters close to the Amazon.

President Lula insisted Brazil was strictly following the law in its research and if there were any oil spills then "Brazil would be liable and responsible and take care of any problem".

He added that he supported a world without fossil fuels but "this moment has not come yet".

"I want to know of any country that is prepared to have an energy transition and capable of giving up fossil fuels," he replied. But the issue has proven controversial with left-wing voters.

Lula, who is 79, said he had not yet decided if he would run for re-election in the 2026 presidential elections.

He said that his health and his party would determine that – as well as whether it was politically opportune and whether he stood a chance of winning.

Lula slipped in the polls recently, but received a boost after Trump imposed tariffs on Brazil.

He concluded by saying that his legacy included reducing hunger, lowering unemployment, and the incomes of the working classes growing.

Local residents and eyewitnesses say dozens of Israeli tanks and military vehicles have pushed into a major residential district of Gaza City, on the second day of Israel's ground offensive aimed at occupying the area.

Video footage shows tanks, bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers moving on the edges of Sheikh Radwan, in northern Gaza City. Thick clouds of smoke can be seen as Israeli forces fire artillery shells and smoke bombs to cover their advance.

The Sheikh Radwan district was home to tens of thousands of people before the war and is considered one of the city's most densely populated areas.

Israel says the aim of its Gaza City offensive is to free hostages held by Hamas and defeat up to 3,000 fighters in what it describes as the group's "last stronghold" - but the operation has drawn widespread international condemnation.

The leaders of more than 20 major aid agencies, including Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that "the inhumanity of the situation in Gaza is unconscionable".

Residents in Sheikh Radwan said Wednesday's incursion followed a wave of heavy airstrikes targeting buildings and main streets across the neighbourhood, in what appeared to be preparation for the ground assault.

Saad Hamada, a local resident who fled south with his family earlier on Wednesday, told the BBC: "The drones didn't leave anything. They hit solar panels, power generators, water tanks, even the internet network.

"Life became impossible, and that is what forced most people to leave despite the danger."

Sheikh Radwan includes the areas of Abu Iskandar, al-Tawam, and al-Saftawi, and is intersected by al-Jalaa Street, a vital artery linking central Gaza City with its northern districts.

Locals say Israeli control of the neighbourhood could open the way for forces to advance deeper into the city and reach its central areas.

The images of tanks in Gaza City's streets have caused widespread panic among residents, particularly those still living in the western and central parts of the city.

Witnesses said the sight of tanks approaching their homes revived memories of previous incursions, that ended with entire neighbourhoods being flattened.

The incursion into Sheikh Radwan has triggered yet another wave of displacement, with thousands of families fleeing south.

Long lines of cars and carts loaded with belongings were seen on the roads, as the Israeli army opened a route to the south via the Salahedin Road. Residents reported journeys taking hours and costing hundreds of shekels due to the scarcity of transport and soaring prices.

Before the war, Sheikh Radwan was one of Gaza City's busiest districts, home to dozens of schools, mosques, and marketplaces.

It had already been struck repeatedly by air raids in recent months, and there is widespread destruction, but the sight of tanks inside the area now marks a significant new phase in Israel's ground campaign.

• Israel launches ground offensive on Gaza City
• Thousands of Palestinians flee as Israeli troops push into Gaza City
• The frantic race to save historic treasures from Israeli bombs

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced on Wednesday morning that it had struck more than 150 targets across Gaza City in two days in support of its ground troops.

As part of its operations, the IDF is also reportedly utilising old military vehicles loaded with explosives that have been modified to be controlled remotely. They are being driven to Hamas positions and detonated, according to Israeli media.

Resident Nidal al-Sherbi told the BBC Arabic's Middle East Daily programme: "Last night was extremely difficult, with continuous explosions and shelling that lasted from night until dawn."

"Israeli vehicles advanced from Sheikh Radwan, Tal al-Hawa, and also from Shejaiya. It was a very, very frightening night."

Aid groups, UN agencies and others say the "humanitarian area" people are expected to move to is heavily overcrowded and insufficient to support the roughly two million Palestinians who are expected to cram into it.

Some who followed the military's orders to evacuate to the zone say they found no space to pitch their tents, so they returned north.

"Everyday leaflets are thrown at us ordering evacuation, while the Israeli army shells buildings in every direction," Munir Azzam, who is in northern Gaza, told the BBC. "But where can we go? We have no refuge in the south."

The IDF said on Tuesday that around 350,000 people had fled Gaza City, while the UN put the figure at 190,000 since August. Estimates suggest at least 650,000 remain.

Israel launched its war 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 65,062 people have been killed in Israeli attacks since then, almost half of them women and children, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

It said on Wednesday that 98 people had been killed and 385 injured by Israeli fire in the past 24 hours. Another four people had died from malnutrition, taking the total number of malnutrition-related deaths since a UN-backed body declared famine in Gaza City in late August to 154, it added.

The UN has warned that an intensification of the offensive will push civilians into "even deeper catastrophe".

On Tuesday, a UN commission of inquiry said Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel's foreign ministry rejected the report and denounced it as "distorted and false".

Spanish police say they have arrested 19 people suspected of murder and torture after more than 50 went missing from a migrant boat that was travelling from Senegal to the Canary Islands.

Police suspect some of the victims were accused of being "witches" after several incidents during the journey, including engine failure, bad weather and food shortages.

The wooden vessel was rescued south of Gran Canaria on 24 August with 248 survivors on board, the Spanish National Police said.

But officials believe that about 300 people were originally on the boat, and that some had been thrown overboard.

Survivors told police that some of their fellow passengers began "attacking dozens of people, beating and abusing them in various ways", a police statement said.

"In some cases, they threw migrants into the sea alive and refused to rescue those who fell in by accident."

Suspected killings were also documented "simply because some people protested or expressed their dissatisfaction with the conditions of the voyage", the statement said.

One male passenger died in hospital after being found seriously ill when the vessel was intercepted, according to police.

Those on board included people from Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea-Bissau, local media reported.

All 19 suspects are in pretrial detention facing charges of facilitating irregular immigration, homicide, assault and torture.

Spain is one of the frontline entry points for irregular migration into Europe, with most entering via the Canary Islands.

Almost 47,000 migrants reached the archipelago in 2024, setting a record for a second year, but numbers have been far lower so far this year, the Spanish Interior Ministry said.

Four of Scotland's most high profile gangland figures have been arrested in Dubai.

BBC Scotland News understands that Steven Lyons, Ross McGill, Stephen Jamieson and Steven Larwood were taken into custody on Tuesday.

Police Scotland believe all four are linked to criminality ranging from drug importation to a feud between rival criminal gangs in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The dispute has resulted in a series of assaults, shootings and firebombings since March.

It is understood detectives have been sharing intelligence with police in the United Arab Emirates, where the men are all based.

It is unclear if officers in Scotland were made aware of the Dubai raids in advance.

And it remains to be seen whether the authorities will press charges or whether moves will be made to extradite the men - who may be deemed a flight risk - back to Scotland.

Detectives working on Operation Portaledge, which was set up in response to the gang violence, have so far made 57 arrests.

Sources have told BBC Scotland News the significance of the Dubai arrests cannot be underestimated.

One said: "All four are operating at the highest level of organised crime, both at a UK and an international level."

Steven Lyons is the head of the Lyons crime group, which has been involved in a bloody feud with the rival Daniel clan for more than 20 years.

In 2006 he survived a shooting at a garage in Lambhill, in the north of Glasgow, which claimed the life of his cousin, Michael Lyons.

He later moved to Spain before settling in Dubai.

In May, Steven Lyons' brother, Eddie Lyons Jnr, and Ross Monaghan were shot dead in a beachfront bar in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol.

Both men had spent the evening watching the Champions League final before they were targeted by a lone gunman.

Michael Riley, 44, from Liverpool, has been accused by Spanish police of the murders with a full extradition hearing scheduled for later this year.

In the days after the double shooting a Spanish National Police detective said the suspect was a member of the rival Glasgow-based Daniel gang.

But Police Scotland have maintained there is nothing to suggest the murders in Spain are linked to the ongoing gang war or that it was planned in Scotland.

McGill first became known to police for his activities while a senior member of Rangers ultras group, the Union Bears.

But since March he has emerged as a key figure in the gangland feud which has been responsible for a wave of violence in the east and west of the country.

BBC Scotland News understands it was triggered by a fall out between McGill and Edinburgh drug dealer Mark Richardson, who is currently in prison.

Larwood is a known associate of Lyons and previously lived in Spain before relocating to Dubai.

Jamieson, who has lived in the desert city for a number of years, has links to Jamie "Iceman" Stevenson, who was last year jailed for orchestrating a plot to smuggle cocaine worth £100m from South America in boxes of bananas.

Police Scotland said it was unable to confirm the arrests.

It is understood the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office has not been approached for consular assistance.

Dubai Police referred BBC Scotland News to the UK Embassy in Dubai but it has yet to comment.

Former US President Barack Obama has warned of a "political crisis of the sort that we haven't seen before" in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk.

At an event in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Obama said he did not know Kirk and disagreed with many of his views, but called the killing "horrific and a tragedy".

He criticised Donald Trump's remarks towards his political opponents and pointed to previous Republican presidents who, he said, emphasised national unity in moments of high tension, US media report.

In response, the White House called Obama the "architect of modern political division".

Kirk, 31, died of a single gunshot wound while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem on 10 September.

On Tuesday, Tyler Robinson, 22, was formally charged with Kirk's murder, weapons offenses and other charges. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty.

Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray said Robinson had sent text messages which allegedly said he shot Kirk because he "had enough of his hatred".

Before Robinson was captured, top Trump allies pinned blame for the killing on left-wing activists and rhetoric from Democratic lawmakers and their supporters.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has suggested that the administration will crack down on "hate speech" – although there is no specific US hate speech law. Vice-President JD Vance has led calls to expose people who celebrated or condoned Kirk's killing or were critical of him after his slaying.

"Call them out, and hell, call their employer," Vance said as he guest-hosted Kirk's podcast.

Speaking in Erie, Pennsylvania, Obama said: "I think at moments like this, when tensions are high, then part of the job of the president is to pull people together."

He urged Americans to "respect other people's right to say things that we profoundly disagree with".

Obama praised Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a conservative Republican who he said had shown "that it is possible for us to disagree while abiding by a basic code of how we should engage in public debate".

He also endorsed the response of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, whose official residence was firebombed earlier this year in what police called a targeted attack.

The former president contrasted those reactions with comments made by Trump and his allies.

Obama said that he did not use a 2015 mass shooting by a white supremacist at a black church in South Carolina to go after his political enemies, and pointed out that after the 11 September 2001 attacks, President George W Bush "explicitly went out of his way to say, 'We are not at war against Islam'."

"And so when I hear not just our current president, but his aides, who have a history of calling political opponents 'vermin', enemies who need to be 'targeted,' that speaks to a broader problem that we have right now and something that we're going to have to grapple with, all of us," Obama told the crowd, according to reports.

In a statement to the BBC, a White House spokesperson rejected the allegations and accused Obama of stoking division while he was president.

"Obama used every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other," the spokesperson said.

"His division has inspired generations of Democrats to slander their opponents as 'deplorables,' or 'fascists,' or 'Nazis.'"

After leaving office, US presidents generally tend to temper criticism of their successors, however in recent months Obama has hit out at Trump's moves against universities and judges, and has also criticised Democratic party leaders for failing to push back harder against White House policies.

Authorities across Egypt are searching for a 3,000-year-old bracelet reported missing from a leading museum in Cairo.

The rare gold band, adorned with spherical lapis lazuli beads, dates back to the reign of King Amenemope, a pharaoh of ancient Egypt's 21st Dynasty who ruled from 993 to 984BC.

The antiquities ministry said it had taken immediate measures after the bracelet disappeared from the Egyptian Museum's restoration laboratory, and that the case had been referred to police.

An image of the bracelet has been circulated to all Egyptian airports, seaports and land border crossings as a "precautionary step to prevent smuggling attempts", the ministry added.

A specialist committee has also been formed to carry out an inventory and review of all artefacts being kept at the restoration laboratory.

The ministry said it had deliberately delayed announcing the bracelet's disappearance "to ensure an appropriate environment for the progress of investigations", but it did not mention when the piece of jewellery was last seen.

Egyptian newspaper, Al-Misri al-Yawm, reported that the disappearance was detected in recent days as museum staff were preparing to ship dozens of artefacts to Rome for an exhibition which is due to open next month.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East. It houses more than 170,000 artefacts, including Amenemope's gilded wooden funerary mask.

The bracelet's disappearance comes six weeks before the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum in nearby Giza, where the world renowned treasures of King Tutankhamun's tomb have been transferred and will go on display.

Artificial intelligence can predict people's health problems over a decade into the future, say scientists.

The technology has learned to spot patterns in people's medical records to calculate their risk of more than 1,000 diseases.

The researchers say it is like a weather forecast that anticipates a 70% chance of rain – but for human health.

Their vision is to use the AI model to spot high-risk patients to prevent disease and to help hospitals understand demand in their area, years ahead of time.

The model – called Delphi-2M - uses similar technology to well-known AI chatbots like ChatGPT.

AI chatbots are trained to understand patterns of language so they can predict the sequence of words in a sentence.

Delphi-2M has been trained to find patterns in anonymous medical records so it can predict what comes next and when.

It doesn't predict exact dates, like a heart attack on October 1, but instead estimates the likelihood of 1,231 diseases.

"So, just like weather, where we could have a 70% chance of rain, we can do that for healthcare," Prof Ewan Birney, the interim executive director of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, told me.

"And we can do that not just for one disease, but all diseases at the same time - we've never been able to do that before. I'm excited," he said.

The AI model was initially developed using anonymous UK data - including hospital admissions, GP records and lifestyle habits such as smoking - collected from more than 400,000 people as part of the UK Biobank research project.

The model was then tested to see if its predictions stacked up using data from other Biobank participants, and then with 1.9 million people's medical records in Denmark.

"It's good, it's really good in Denmark," says Prof Birney.

"If our model says it's a one-in-10 risk for the next year, it really does seem like it turns out to be one in 10."

The model is best at predicting diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart attacks and sepsis that have a clear disease progression, rather than more random events like infections.

What can you do with the results?

People are already offered a cholesterol-lowering statin based on a calculation of their risk of a heart attack or stroke.

The AI tool is not ready for clinical use, but the plan is to use it in a similar way, to spot high-risk patients while there is an opportunity to intervene early and prevent disease.

This could include medicines or specific lifestyle advice - such as people likely to develop some liver disorders benefitting from cutting back their alcohol intake more than the general population.

The artificial intelligence could also help inform disease-screening programmes and analyse all the healthcare records in an area to anticipate demand - such as how many heart attacks a year there will be in Norwich in 2030, to help plan resources.

"This is the beginning of a new way to understand human health and disease progression," said Prof Moritz Gerstung, head of the division of AI in oncology at DKFZ, the German Cancer Research Centre.

He added: "Generative models such as ours could one day help personalise care and anticipate healthcare needs at scale."

The AI model, described in the scientific journal Nature, needs refining and testing before it is used clinically.

There are also potential biases as it was built from UK Biobank data which is drawn mostly from people aged 40 to 70, rather than the whole population.

The model is now being upgraded to account for more medical data such as imaging, genetics and blood analysis.

But Prof Birney says: "Just to stress, this is research – everything needs to be tested and well-regulated and thought about before it's used, but the technology is here to make these kinds of predictions."

He anticipates it will follow a similar path to the use of genomics in healthcare where it took a decade to go from scientists being confident in the technology to healthcare being able to use it routinely.

The study was a collaboration between the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) and the University of Copenhagen.

Prof Gustavo Sudre, a neuroimaging and AI researcher at King's College London, commented: "This research looks to be a significant step towards scalable, interpretable, and – most importantly – ethically responsible form of predictive modelling in medicine."

The European Commission has unveiled plans to restrict trade with Israel and impose sanctions on extremist ministers in its government, which - if adopted - would be the EU's toughest response to the war in Gaza.

The plans, trailed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week, would suspend trade-related provisions of the EU–Israel Association Agreement.

This would strip Israeli goods of privileged access to European markets, with tariffs imposed on billions of euros of exports - particularly agricultural produce like dates and citrus fruit.

But despite the forceful language, the measures appear unlikely to pass and have been dismissed by Israel as "morally and politically distorted".

Trade restrictions require approval by a qualified majority of member states, while sanctions on individuals demand unanimity.

Because of the objection of key members, including Germany and Italy, and Ireland and Spain calling for far tougher action, adoption looks unlikely.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged the challenge in the European Council, telling reporters: "Political lines are very much in the place where they have been so far."

She said the package also targeted "Hamas terrorists", unnamed "extremist ministers" in the Israeli government and "violent settlers and entities supporting the impunity going on in the West Bank".

The EU is Israel's number one trading partner, accounting for 32% of its trade in goods in 2024, worth €42.6bn (£35.8bn). Yet the economic impact of ending tariff preferences would be limited. Trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič estimated the effect at just €227m a year.

The only measure that takes immediate effect is the suspension of bilateral support to the Israeli government. But this too is largely symbolic with a mere €9.4m out of €14m allocated for 2020–24 – and does not require approval from member states.

Mediterranean Commissioner Dubravka Šuica stressed that funding for programmes tackling antisemitism and supporting civil society would not be affected.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar dismissed the Commission's proposals as "morally and politically distorted", warning on X that actions against Israel would damage Europe's own interests and vowing that any steps taken against his country would be answered "in kind."

It's not immediately clear when the measures will be voted on by members.

President Trump was greeted by the King and Queen as well as other senior royals at Windsor Castle.

It is his second state visit to the UK and is accompanied by the usual pomp and pageantry.

The wife of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has said he was killed by poisoning while serving a prison sentence in an Arctic penal colony in 2024.

In a video shared on social media, Yulia Navalnaya said analysis of smuggled biological samples carried out by laboratories in two countries showed that her husband had been "murdered".

She did not provide details on the poison allegedly used, on the samples or on the analysis – but challenged the two laboratories to publish their results.

Navalny – an anti-corruption campaigner and Russia's most vociferous opposition leader - died suddenly in jail on 16 February 2024 at the age of 47.

In 2020 he was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent and almost died. Upon his return to Russia he was arrested at the airport.

At the time of his death he had been in jail for three years on trumped-up charges and had recently been transferred to a penal colony in the Arctic Circle.

Navalny's supporters and colleagues at his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) have always maintained the Russian government was involved in his demise.

Navalnaya said that after her husband's death in February 2024 his team were able to "obtain and securely transfer" biological samples abroad and that two laboratories in different countries had concluded he had been poisoned.

She did not share the location of the laboratories - but she implied that they were not making their findings public due to "political considerations".

"They don't want an inconvenient truth to surface at the wrong time," she said.

Navalnaya also suggested she would get pushback on trying to investigate her husband's death further: "'You are the wife, of course, but there is no criminal case, there are no legal grounds to hand documents to you.'"

"But I have grounds. Not legal, but moral grounds."

• Did democratic opposition in Russia die with Alexei Navalny?
• Russian opposition leader's 'principled and fearless' widow

She added that Navalny had been her husband, friend and closest person – and "a symbol of hope for a better future for our country".

"I know he was a symbol to you too," she said over images of Navalny's Moscow funeral which drew thousands despite warnings from the authorities not to attend.

"I will not be silent. I affirm that Vladimir Putin is guilty of killing my husband, Alexei Navalny... I urge the laboratories which conducted studies to make the results public."

On Wednesday Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of Navalnaya's statements.

In the video put out on Wednesday, Navalnaya also detailed the last days of her husband based on what she said was testimony by employees at the penal colony, which the BBC has not been able to verify.

According to her, on the day he died Navalny was taken out for a walk but felt ill. When he was taken back to his cell "he lay down on the floor, pulled his knees up, and started moaning in pain... then he started vomiting".

"Alexei was having convulsions... the prison guards watched [his] agony through the bars of the cell window," she said, citing the alleged testimonies.

An ambulance wasn't called until 40 minutes after Navalny became ill, his widow said, and he died shortly after. Prison authorities later told his mother Lyudmila that her son had experienced "sudden death syndrome". Later, state investigators said the death had been caused by a medical condition and arrythmia.

Navalny's associates have shared previously unseen images on social media purporting to show his cell on the day he died and the tiny exercise yard where he was allowed out.

Vladimir Putin, who studiously avoided naming Navalny while he was alive, briefly referred to him a month after his death by stating that a person passing was "always a sad event".

The Russian president also said he had agreed to a planned prisoner swap between Navalny and "some people" held in Western jails, on condition that Navalny did not come back to Russia.

"But such is life. There's nothing to be done about it," Putin said.

It is highly unlikely Moscow will issue any further comment on Navalny's death.

His popularity and internet savviness long rattled the Kremlin, while senior figures were irritated by his investigations into high-profile government corruption.

With Navalny's death Russia lost the last towering opposition figure who challenged Putin's rule.

Many of his associates have been jailed or have fled Russia. Navalnaya herself faces arrest, and she and her two children live abroad.

The crackdown on civil society ramped up further following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and punitive new laws leading to mass arrests have muzzled any opposition.

In both life and death Navalny managed to draw out huge crowds onto the streets. Thousands of mourners turned out for his funeral in Moscow in March 2024 despite well-founded fears of a police crackdown.

No large opposition gatherings have taken place in Russia since.

Two flying cars crashed into each other at a rehearsal for an air show in China which was meant to be a showcase for the technology.

The Xpeng AeroHT vehicles collided in mid-air, with one catching fire during landing, the company said in a statement to Reuters.

The company said people at the scene were safe, but CNN reported one person was injured in the crash, citing an anonymous company employee.

The rehearsals on Tuesday were for the Changchun Air Show, set to start later this week in north-east China.

BBC News has contacted Xpeng for comment.

Footage on Chinese social media site Weibo appeared to show a flaming vehicle on the ground which was being attended to by fire engines.

One vehicle "sustained fuselage damage and caught fire upon landing," Xpeng AeroHT said in a statement to CNN.

The electric flying cars take off and land vertically, and the company is hoping to sell them for around $300,000 (£220,000) each.

In January, Xpeng claimed to have around 3,000 orders for the vehicle.

The Chinese company is one of the largest manufacturers of electric vehicles (EVs) in the world, recently expanding into Europe.

The flying cars are made by its subsidiary, AeroHT.

There are still considerable hurdles for this form of transport in terms of infrastructure, regulation and public acceptance.

However, some analysts say China is attempting to replicate the success it has had with EVs, by pushing early adoption of a tech that will eventually become widely used.

It has said it wants to lead the world in the "low-altitude economy".

Last year, a pioneering European flying car firm was bought by a Chinese firm.

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Mali's military government has sought to calm anger over a blockade by Islamist militants on major highways where lorry drivers have been facing ambushes and arson attacks.

In a rare acknowledgement of the seriousness of the situation affecting the landlocked country, Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga has said measures are under way to improve security on the routes.

The blockade - a potentially serious escalation of Mali's jihadist insurgency - is particularly affecting the supply of fuel, which could cripple the country.

The Sahel region of West Africa is known as the epicentre of global terrorism, accounting for more than 50% of all terrorism-related deaths.

Several analysts say the aim of the al-Qaeda-linked militants is to impose a blockade of the capital, Bamako.

When did it start?

The blockade appears to have started with the kidnapping and subsequent release of six Senegalese lorry drivers along the Dakar-Bamako corridor in early September.

This is not a new tactic by al-Qaeda's Sahel affiliate - Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) - but the scale is increasingly ambitious.

They have imposed a blockade on two key locations: the Kayes region - which serves as the gateway for all food supplies entering from Senegal by road and train, and Nioro-du-Sahel - which sits on the main route linking Mali to Mauritania.

Reports say Islamist fighters have erected checkpoints to restrict the flow of goods and extort "taxes" from traders.

They are said to have torched fuel tankers, lorries and buses, abducted foreign drivers and attacked convoys carrying fuel imports from Senegal and Mauritania.

Entire villages have reportedly been brought to economic standstill, with markets shuttered, transport halted and public services disrupted.

Suspected JNIM militants have also ambushed fuel lorries from Ivory Coast in Bougouni, in Mali's southern Sikasso region. Several lorries were torched.

"Economic asphyxiation" is the militants' goal, Mamadou Bodian of Senegal's Cheikh Anta Diop University told the BBC.

He and others point to a strategic shift by the militants, who no longer rely solely on military confrontation to assert territorial control.

Analysts fear that, if successfully implemented, the embargo announced by JNIM on Kayes and Nioro-du-Sahel could paralyse western Mali.

What does the army say?

The Malian army initially downplayed the blockade, with spokesman Col Souleymane Dembélé dismissing reports of a siege as an "information war orchestrated by foreign media".

Footage circulating on social media of besieged vehicles on the Dakar-Bamako corridor had been taken out of context, he insisted. ''The video of the bus being set on fire dates from April and has no connection with the so-called blockade."

According to the army spokesman, "no systemic interruption of transport has been observed" in western Mali and the real challenge facing people in the Kayes region is "the rainy season and not the actions of terrorist groups".

Col Dembélé also characterised JNIM's increased activity as "the last gasps of an enemy at bay and in retreat". It is a refrain often used by Malian officials since the junta seized power five years ago.

Last week, the army said it had conducted an airstrike on a JNIM camp in Mousafa, in Kayes, killing "several dozen militants" and destroying a site allegedly used for logistics and planning.

Reinforcements were sent to Kayes and Nioro-du-Sahel, it said, with the military announcing "hunting and destruction operations" along major roads and a "large-scale offensive" on the Diéma-Nioro corridor.

State media reported that hostages were freed during the operations, but did not say how many.

Such efforts by the army do not appear to have lessened locals' fears nor the disruption to their lives. Residents report that militant checkpoints remain in place, while transport companies have suspended operations and lorry drivers continue to face intimidation.

Why is this part of Mali so important?

Kayes is said to account for approximately 80% of the country's gold production, and is also deemed Mali's "gateway to Senegal". It is a logistics hub where international trade routes converge.

Mali is a landlocked country heavily dependent on neighbouring ports for fuel, food and manufactured goods, so control of Kayes is essential.

The blockade not only disrupts local life, but directly threatens Bamako's economic stability.

"The Kayes region has become a major strategic target for JNIM, which considers it a vital space," says the Dakar-based Timbuktu Institute.

"The jihadists intend to disrupt the country's supplies, to destabilise, or even suffocate the Malian economy, isolate the capital Bamako and increase economic pressure on the Malian transitional regime," it says.

The blockade also signals the geographic expansion of JNIM's insurgency.

Traditionally, the group's operations have been concentrated in northern and central Mali - in Mopti, Segou and Timbuktu. However, JNIM has in recent years made significant inroads into southern Mali, including Sikasso and Koulikoro regions.

By turning its attention to Kayes, the group is not only widening its footprint but threatening to encircle Bamako.

What else is at stake?

Since 2012, Mali has been in the grip of a profound security crisis fuelled by violence from groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) organisation, as well as other armed militia.

Local and international media warn that JNIM's recent isolation of parts of southern Mali could pave the way for similar incursions into neighbouring coastal countries.

The crisis underscores the limits of Mali's reliance on military force, supported by Russian Africa Corps mercenaries, as the Wagner Group is now known, whose role in operations is not officially acknowledged.

By disrupting trade routes from Senegal and Mauritania, JNIM has shown it can project influence westward, raising fears of an expansion into those countries.

The Union of Senegalese Truckers (URS) blamed militants and described the recent abductions of lorry drivers as a threat to regional trade.

Mali is Senegal's main African trade partner, accounting for more than $1.4bn (£1bn) in exports last year. The Bamako-Kayes route carries fuel, cement, foodstuffs and manufactured goods critical to both economies.

There is a risk that what began as a tactical disruption may evolve into a prolonged siege, eroding confidence in Malian state institutions and exposing its fragility.

JNIM's "choice to target buses and tankers is not insignificant - it aims to strike at the heart of Mali's social and economic mobility", Bamada.net reported last week.

More than a local flare-up, the siege of Kayes is a warning sign that the jihadist insurgency in Mali has entered a new phase with the repercussions of economic sabotage reaching well beyond Mali's borders.

More BBC stories on Mali:

• Suspected French spy arrested in alleged Mali coup plot
• How an al-Qaeda offshoot became one of Africa's deadliest militant groups
• Mali signs trade deal with Russia as ties strengthen
• How 'blood gold' is fuelling conflict in West Africa

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

Thousands of Palestinians are continuing to flee Gaza City, a day after Israel said it had begun a major ground offensive aimed at occupying the city.

Amid large-scale bombing overnight, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said al-Ranitisi children's hospital was targeted in three separate attacks, forcing half of its patients and their families to flee.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. Earlier, it announced that it had struck more than 150 "terror targets" across Gaza City in two days.

Israel says its aim is to defeat up to 3,000 Hamas fighters in what it describes as the group's "last stronghold" and free its hostages.

But the offensive has drawn widespread international condemnation.

The heads of more than 20 aid agencies have called on world leaders to act, saying "the inhumanity of the situation in Gaza is unconscionable" and calling for "urgent intervention".

For days, huge columns of Palestinians have streamed southwards from Gaza City in donkey carts, rickshaws, vehicles strapped high with belongings, and on foot.

Until now, they have been forced to flee down a single coastal road to an Israel-designated "humanitarian area" in al-Mawasi.

But on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it would open a second route to leave, down the central Salah al-Din road. It said the route would be open for 48 hours from 12:00 local time (10:00 BST).

Many Palestinians say they are unable to move south due to the rising costs associated with the journey. Some say renting a small truck now costs around 3,000 shekels ($900; £660), while a tent for five people sells for about 4,000 shekels.

Lina al-Maghrebi, 32, a mother of three from the city's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, told the BBC: "I was forced to sell my jewellery to cover the cost of displacement and a tent."

"It took us 10 hours to reach Khan Younis, and we paid 3,500 shekels for the ride. The line of cars and trucks seemed endless."

Aid groups, UN agencies and others say the "humanitarian area" they are expected to move to is heavily overcrowded and insufficient to support the roughly 2 million Palestinians who are expected to cram into it.

Some Palestinians who followed the military's orders to evacuate to the zone say they found no space to pitch their tents and so returned north.

The IDF said on Tuesday that around 350,000 people had fled Gaza City, while the UN put the figure at 190,000 since August. Estimates suggest at least 650,000 remain.

As part of its operations, the IDF is reportedly utilising old military vehicles loaded with explosives that have been modified to be controlled remotely.

They are being driven to Hamas positions and detonated, according to Israeli media.

Meanwhile, families of the 48 remaining hostages held by Hamas - 20 of whom are believed to be alive - protested near Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday and Wednesday, arguing that the offensive would endanger their loved ones.

"All day long, you boast about killing and destruction," said Macabit Mayer, aunt of hostages Gali and Ziv Berman. "Bringing down buildings in Gaza - who are you bringing these buildings down on?"

"Could it be that you are bringing these buildings down right now on Gali and Ziv and all the souls left there - the living and the deceased?"

The offensive has drawn widespread international condemnation, with UN human rights chief Volker Türk describing it as "totally and utterly unacceptable" and UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper calling it "utterly reckless and appalling".

But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to offer tacit support for Israel's operation during a joint press conference with Netanyahu on Monday.

He said the US preferred a negotiated end to the war, but that "sometimes when you're dealing with a group of savages like Hamas, that's not possible".

It came as a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Among its findings were that Israeli security forces perpetrated sexual and gender-based violence, directly targeted children with the intention to kill them, and carried out a "systemic and widespread attack" on religious, cultural and education sites in Gaza.

Israel's foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the report, denouncing it as "distorted and false".

Israel launched its war 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 64,964 people have been killed by Israel during its campaign since then, almost half of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.

With famine having already been declared in Gaza City by a UN-backed food security body, the UN has warmed an intensification of the offensive will push civilians into "even deeper catastrophe".

American tennis star Taylor Townsend has apologised after coming under fire for comments she made on social media about Chinese food.

The 29-year-old who is in the Chinese city of Shenzhen for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, had posted videos on Instagram in which she talked about dishes that featured frogs, turtles and sea cucumber, saying: "This is the craziest thing I've ever seen... Imma have to talk to HR... [eating] turtle and bullfrog is WILD."

She quickly faced backlash on both English and Chinese social media platforms.

Ms Townsend, who is the world's top-ranked doubles player, later apologised saying: "There's no excuse, there's no words and, for me, I will be better."

"I understand that I am so privileged as a professional athlete to be able to travel all around the world and experience cultural differences, which is one of the things I love so much about what I do," she said in a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, adding that she had "the most amazing experience" at the tournament.

Townsend had a day earlier taken to Instagram to share her reaction to some of the food she saw being served at a restaurant, including dishes like braised soft-shell turtle with fish maw and dry pot bullfrog.

These are considered traditional delicacies in China, particularly in the south.

"These people are literally killing frogs... bullfrogs. Aren't those poisonous? Aren't those the ones that be giving you warts and boils and stuff? And turtles?... All in all I'd give this like a solid two out of 10 so far, because this is crazy," Ms Townsend said then.

She also posted another video where she appeared to be at a buffet with her teammate Hailey Baptiste, with the two making fun of a sea cucumber dish.

She was quickly called out on social media.

"Won't defend Taylor here, clearly offensive and shocks a lack of understanding [that] there are different cultures other than USA," said one user on X.

"It's really offensive to mock other people's cultural food," said another.

Chinese social media quickly caught light of her comments, and the hashtag "American tennis player publicly insults Chinese food" started trending.

"When you go overseas, respect the local customs and culture. You can choose not to eat it. There is no need to belittle our food," said one comment on Weibo.

The latest backlash comes less than a month after Ms Townsend got into a heated confrontation with her Latvian rival Jelena Ostapenko in which the latter said she had "no class" and "no education".

Ms Ostapenko apologised but denied being racist, saying her comments were in reference to tennis etiquette. "But I understand how the words used could have offended many people beyond the tennis court," she wrote in an Instagram post.

Ms Townsend and her teammates are due to face Kazakhstan for the quarter finals on Thursday.

Former Arsenal footballer Thomas Partey has denied raping two women and sexually assaulting a third woman.

The Ghanaian midfielder pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape and one charge of sexual assault when he appeared at Southwark Crown Court.

The alleged offences took place between 2021 and 2022, when the 32-year-old played for Arsenal. He was charged four days after leaving the north London club, following the expiration of his contract at the end of June.

Mr Partey spoke to confirm his name, date of birth and his not guilty pleas during the hearing.

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Timor-Leste has scrapped a plan to give its lawmakers free cars after thousands of people took to the streets to protest against it.

On Tuesday, demonstrators burned tyres and set a government vehicle alight, while police responded with tear gas - hours later, the government bowed to public pressure and dropped the plan.

Despite this, many returned to the streets, with one protester telling the BBC that they estimated a turn out of around 2,000 demonstrators in the capital Dili on Wednesday.

Though the protests were initially triggered by the cars, they have now expanded to cover calls to remove lifetime pensions for retired lawmakers.

The unrest comes as governments across Asia, from Nepal to Indonesia, have been rocked by angry young protesters taking aim at the perceived excesses of lawmakers.

One student who has chosen not to be identified told the BBC that she was hit by tear gas while she was in front of her university campus.

She says she is angry at the lawmakers for "[wanting] to buy luxury cars for work while their people are still suffering".

Lawmakers in Timor-Leste have an annual basic salary of $36,000 (£26,377) as of 2023, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.

That's more than 10 times the country's average income, which a government report in 2021 estimated to be around $3,000.

The plan to buy lawmakers cars is not a new one - and in fact there have been regular demonstrations against free cars provided to lawmakers since the 2000s, said Cezario Cesar, one of the key figures leading the protests told the BBC.

In 2008, police arrested several students for protesting against a plan to spend $1m (£730,000) on new cars for MPs.

But it's only now that the movement has really taken off - as the country continues to grapple with high inequality and unemployment.

"We started this protest… when they decided to buy the cars," said Mr Cesar.

But the demonstrations this week blew up because "people are tired of things", he added

"People don't have access to good education, water and sanitation… we have a lack of facilities, but they're still creating so many laws to benefit themselves," Mr Cesar said.

"We think it's injustice."

The 30-year-old university student added that the lawmakers already owned cars provided by the government - but there were plans to buy them new cars, despite their existing cars "still [being] in good condition".

Parliamentarians voted unanimously on Tuesday to scrap the plan to buy new Toyota Prado SUVs for each of the country's 65 MPs.

But, the protests continued on Wednesday, with some sceptical about the policy U-turn.

"Rumours are that the cars are already on the way," 42-year-old Trinito Gaio told AFP news agency.

"This is why all of these students and myself are here today, to make sure my tax money is not going in the... wrong direction."

Demonstrators are also seeking to reform a law that promises former MPs lifetime pensions.

Timor-Leste has one of the youngest populations in South East Asia, with more than 70% of its population under the age of 35, according to the UN.

It's also among the region's poorest states - though it's often held up as a beacon of democracy among its neighbours.

Fidelis Leite Magalhães, a former minister and the president of the Institute of Politics and International Affairs in Timor-Leste, told the BBC that "people are accustomed to the idea that protests are part of a democratic system".

"Life is normal in Dili," he told the BBC on Wednesday. "This is one of the biggest protests but protests no longer induce panic in society."

It comes as neighbouring countries across Asia have seen similar recent anti-government protests driven by anger at corruption and inequality.

In Nepal, dozens were killed in large-scale demonstrations last week, as Gen Z youth took to the streets to protest against "nepo babies" and the wider political elite. The unrest drove out the country's leaders in just 48 hours.

In August, cost-of-living woes and similar anger at elites also led to mass demonstrations in Indonesia, which escalated sharply after a motorcycle rider was killed by a police vehicle.

Additional reporting by Gavin Butler

Gunmen on motorbikes have shot dead 22 people, most of them attending a baptism ceremony, in an attack on a village in western Niger, reports say.

A resident told the French news agency AFP that 15 people were killed at the ceremony in Tillabéri region, which borders Mali and Burkina Faso, before moving elsewhere and killing seven others.

"While people celebrated a baptism ceremony, gunmen opened fire, sowing death and terror," local civil rights activist Maikoul Zodi said on social media.

Niger's military government has struggled to contain jihadist violence in the region, carried out by groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

The AFP news agency also cited local media outlet Elmaestro TV as reporting a "gruesome death toll of 22 innocent people cowardly killed without reason or justification".

• The region with more 'terror deaths' than rest of world combined

Last week, Human Rights Watch said jihadist groups had increased attacks in the country since March, summarily killing over 127 villagers and Muslim worshippers.

Dozens of homes have been looted and burned over the same period, it said.

The group blamed authorities for not adequately responding to warnings of attacks and ignoring calls for help by villagers.

Last Wednesday, 14 Nigerien soldiers were killed in an ambush in the Tillabéri region, a figure that the army announced in its weekly bulletin on Saturday.

The army said one of its units was deployed following reports of a cattle theft by armed men, but the operation turned out to be "an ambush".

It is often difficult to independently verify the real numbers of casualties in such attacks due to access restrictions and the fear of reprisals among witnesses and local media.

On Tuesday, Mr Zodi questioned why civilians were still being exposed to such insecurity, and urged the government to prioritise the safety and dignity of citizens.

"It is time for concrete answers, strengthen state presence in vulnerable areas, and show that every Nigerien life matters," he posted on Facebook.

Niger has been under military control since 2023 when Gen Abdourahmane Tchiani deposed the country's elected President, Mohamed Bazoum.

Its neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali, battling the same jihadist insurgency, are also ruled by military leaders but have similarly struggled to contain the problem.

The three have expelled French and US forces that were previously heavily involved in the fight against jihadists that operate across the Sahel region.

Besides scaling back their ties with the West, they have since formed an alliance to fight the jihadist threat, turning to Russia and Turkey for their security needs. However, the violence has continued.

You may also be interested in:

• Niger military leaders to nationalise uranium firm
• Three military-run states leave West African bloc - what will change?
• WATCH: How has Niger changed since the coup?

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

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