At the time, Israel's air strike against the Hamas negotiating team in Qatar seemed like yet another escalation that pushed the prospect of peace further away.

The attack on 9 September violated the sovereignty of an American ally and risked expanding the conflict into a region-wide war.

Diplomacy appeared to be in ruins.

Instead it turned out to be a key moment that has led to a deal, announced by President Donald Trump, to release all remaining hostages.

This is a goal that he, and President Joe Biden before him, had sought for nearly two years.

It is just the first step towards a more durable peace, and the details of Hamas disarmament, Gaza governance and full Israeli withdrawal remain to be negotiated.

But if this agreement holds, it could be Trump's signature achievement of his second term - one that eluded Biden and his diplomatic team.

Trump's unique style and crucial relationships with Israel and the Arab world appear to have contributed to this breakthrough.

But, as with most diplomatic achievements, there were also factors at play beyond control of either man.

A close relationship that Biden never had

In public, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are all smiles.

Trump likes to say that Israel has no better friend, and Netanyahu has described Trump as Israel's "greatest ever ally in the White House". And these warm words have been matched by actions.

During his first presidential term, Trump moved the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and abandoned a long-held US position that Israeli settlements in the Palestinian West Bank are illegal, the position under international law.

When Israel began its air strikes against Iran in June, Trump ordered US bombers to target the nation's nuclear enrichment facilities with its most powerful conventional bombs.

Those public demonstrations of support may have given Trump the room to exert more pressure on Israel behind the scenes. According to reports, Trump's negotiator, Steve Witkoff, browbeat Netanyahu in late 2024 into accepting a temporary ceasefire in exchange for the release of some hostages.

When Israel launched strikes against Syrian forces in July, including bombing a Christian church, Trump pressured Netanyahu to change course.

Trump exhibited a degree of will and pressure on an Israeli prime minister that is virtually unprecedented, says Aaron David Miller of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "There is no example of an American president literally telling an Israeli prime minister that you're going to have to comply or else."

• LIVE: Trump announces Gaza agreement
• ANALYSIS: Gaza deal is huge moment but just the start

Biden's relationship with Netanyahu's government was always more tenuous.

His administration's "bear hug" strategy held that the US had to embrace Israel publicly in order to allow it to moderate the nation's war conduct in private.

Underneath this was Biden's nearly half-century of support for Israel, as well as sharp divisions within his Democratic coalition over the Gaza War. Every step Biden took risked fracturing his own domestic support, whereas Trump's solid Republican base gave him more room to manoeuvre.

In the end, domestic politics or personal relationships may have had less importance than the simple fact that, during Biden's presidency, Israel was not ready to make peace.

Eight months into Trump's second term, with Iran chastened, Hezbollah to its immediate north greatly diminished and Gaza in ruins, all its major strategy objectives had been accomplished.

Business history helped secure Gulf's backing

The Israeli missile attack in Doha, which killed a Qatari citizen but no Hamas officials, prompted Trump to issue an ultimatum to Netanyahu. The war had to stop.

Trump had given Israel a relatively free hand in Gaza. He lent American military might to Israel's campaign in Iran. But an attack on Qatar soil was a different matter entirely, moving him towards the Arab position on how best to end the war.

Several Trump officials have told the BBC's US partner CBS this was a turning point which galvanised the president to exert maximum pressure to get a peace deal done.

This US president's close ties with the Gulf states are well documented. He has business dealings with Qatar and the UAE. He began both his presidential terms with state visits to Saudi Arabia. This year, he also stopped in Doha and Abu Dhabi.

His Abraham Accords, which normalised relations between Israel and several Muslim states, including the UAE, was the biggest diplomatic achievement of his first term.

The time he spent in the capitals of the Arabian Peninsula earlier this year helped change his thinking, says Ed Husain of the Council on Foreign Relations. The US president did not visit Israel on this Middle East trip but visited the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar where he heard repeated calls to bring an end to the war.

• World reacts to first stage of Gaza peace deal
• 'Joy and pain': Palestinians celebrate ceasefire deal
• What we know about the 'first phase' of the Gaza peace deal

Less than a month after that Israeli strike on Doha, Trump sat nearby as Netanyahu personally phoned Qatar to apologise. And later that day, the Israeli leader signed off on Trump's 20-point peace plan for Gaza - one that also had the backing of key Muslim nations in the region.

If Trump's relationship with Netanyahu gave him the room to pressure Israel to strike a deal, his history with Muslim leaders may have secured their support, and helped them convince Hamas to commit to the deal.

"One of the things that clearly happened was that President Trump developed leverage with the Israelis, and indirectly with Hamas," says Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

"That made a difference. His ability to do this on his timing, and not succumb to the desires of the combatants has been a problem that lot of previous presidents have struggled with, and he seems to do relatively successfully."

The fact that Trump is much more popular in Israel than Netanyahu himself was leverage that he used to his benefit, he adds.

Now Israel has committed to releasing more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and has agreed to a partial withdrawal from Gaza.

Hamas will release all the remaining hostages, living and dead, taken during the original 7 October Hamas attack, which resulted in the death of more than 1,200 Israelis.

An end to the war, which has resulted in the devastation of Gaza and the deaths of more than 67,000 Palestinians is now imaginable.

Europeans exert their influence

The global condemnation of Israel over its actions in Gaza also weighed on Trump's thinking.

Conditions on the ground are unprecedented in terms of destruction and the humanitarian catastrophe for Palestinians. Over recent months the Netanyahu government became increasingly isolated internationally.

As Israel took military control of the food supply to Palestinians and then announced a planned assault on Gaza City, several major Europeans countries, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, decided they couldn't stay aligned with Washington's position of unequivocal support for Israel.

A historic split followed between the Americans and European allies when it came to key elements of diplomacy and the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Trump administration castigated France when it said it would recognise a Palestinian state, a move followed by the UK. They were trying to keep the idea of a two-state solution on life support, but more fundamentally marginalise the extremes on both sides and revive a diplomatic path to a shared Israeli-Palestinian future.

But Macron was astute in getting the Saudis on board for his peace plan.

Ultimately Trump was faced with a European-Arab alliance versus Israeli nationalists and the far right when it came to visions for Gaza's longer term future. He chose his friends in the Gulf.

• ANALYSIS: A realistic chance to end the war but not over yet
• What is Hamas and why is it fighting Israel in Gaza?

Under a French-Saudi peace plan, Arab countries also issued an unprecedented condemnation of Hamas' October 7 attacks and called for the group to end its rule on Gaza and hand over its weapons to the Palestinian Authority under independent statehood.

This was a diplomatic win for the Arabs and Europeans. Trump's 20-point plan drew on the France-Saudi plan in key areas, including a reference to eventual Palestinian "statehood" even if this was vague and highly conditional.

Trump, while asking Turkey, Qatar and Egypt to maintain pressure on Hamas, boxed in Netanyahu, putting unprecedented pressure on him to end the war.

No-one could be the side to say no to Trump.

Trump's unique style unlocked stalemate

Trump's unorthodox manner still has the capacity to shock. It starts with bluster or bombast but then develops into something more conventional.

In his first term, his "little rocket man" insults and "fire and fury" warnings appeared to be taking the US to the brink of war with North Korea. Instead he engaged in direct talks.

Trump kicked off his second term with an eye-popping suggestion that Palestinians should be required to relocate from Gaza as it was turned into an international oceanfront resort.

Muslim leaders were incensed. Seasoned Middle East diplomats were aghast.

Trump's 20-point peace plan, however, isn't that different from the kind of deal Biden would have struck and that America's allies had long endorsed. A blueprint for a Gaza Riviera it was not.

Trump has taken a very unconventional path to what is a conventional result. It has been messy. It may not be how they teach diplomacy in Ivy League universities. But, at least in this case and at this moment, it has proven effective.

Tomorrow the Nobel Committee will announce this year's Peace Prize winner. And while it is unlikely that Trump will be the recipient, that prospect doesn't seem nearly as unlikely as it did just a few weeks ago.

Additional reporting by Kayla Epstein

New York Attorney General Letitia James has been criminally indicted on federal charges by a grand jury.

James, who led a civil fraud investigation against Trump in 2023, was indicted on charges of bank fraud in the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria, according to court documents.

Prosecutors accuse James of alleged bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution regarding a mortgage loan for a house in Norfolk, Virginia, the documents state.

In a statement, James accused the president - who recently publicly pressured prosecutors to file criminal charges against her - of a "desperate weaponization of our justice system".

"He is forcing federal law enforcement agencies to do his bidding, all because I did my job as the New York State attorney general," she said.

"These charges are baseless, and the president's own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost."

The US prosecutor assigned to the case, Lindsey Halligan, meanwhile, said the case proved that "no one is above the law".

"The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public's trust," she said.

"The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served."

Trump appointed Halligan, his former personal attorney, to oversee the case after another US prosecutor, Erik Siebert, resigned. Siebert was reportedly ousted after he told the justice department he had not found sufficient evidence to charge James.

James' first court appearance is scheduled for 24 October in Norfolk.

The federal government alleges James bought a three-bedroom home in Norfolk using a mortgage loan that required her to use the property as her secondary residence and did not allow for shared ownership or "timesharing" of the home.

The indictment claims the property "was not occupied or used" by James as a secondary residence, but was instead "used as a rental investment property", which was being rented to a family of three.

The "misrepresentation" allowed James to obtain favourable loan terms that would not have been available for an investment property, prosecutors claim.

"We are deeply concerned that this case is driven by President Trump's desire for revenge," James's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said.

Trump last month called on US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who leads the justice department, in a social media post to prosecute his political opponents, including James.

"We can't delay any longer, it's killing our reputation and credibility," he wrote.

James was one of several Trump adversaries named in that post. He also called on Bondi to investigate former FBI Director James Comey, who was criminally charged shortly after the post. He pleaded not guilty on Wednesday after being charged with making a false statement to Congress.

The justice department has also reportedly opened investigations into Trump's ex-national security adviser John Bolton and California Democratic Senator Adam Schiff.

In the civil fraud case brought by James, Trump was found liable of falsifying records to secure better loan deals, leading to a $500m (£375m) fine. The penalty was thrown out by an appeals court, which called the fine excessive, though it upheld that Trump was liable for fraud.

During the case, Trump frequently attacked James outside of the courtroom, accusing her of carrying out a "political witch hunt" against him. James said the courts had ruled that Trump was "not above the law".

Mark Zuckerberg is said to have started work on Koolau Ranch, his sprawling 1,400-acre compound on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, as far back as 2014.

It is set to include a shelter, complete with its own energy and food supplies, though the carpenters and electricians working on the site were banned from talking about it by non-disclosure agreements, according to a report by Wired magazine. A six-foot wall blocked the project from view of a nearby road.

Asked last year if he was creating a doomsday bunker, the Facebook founder gave a flat "no". The underground space spanning some 5,000 square feet is, he explained, is "just like a little shelter, it's like a basement".

That hasn't stopped the speculation - likewise about his decision to buy 11 properties in the Crescent Park neighbourhood of Palo Alto in California, apparently adding a 7,000 square feet underground space beneath.

Though his building permits refer to basements, according to the New York Times, some of his neighbours call it a bunker. Or a billionaire's bat cave.

Then there is the speculation around other Silicon Valley billionaires, some of whom appear to have been busy buying up chunks of land with underground spaces, ripe for conversion into multi-million pound luxury bunkers.

Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, has talked about "apocalypse insurance". This is something about half of the super-wealthy have, he has previously claimed, with New Zealand a popular destination for homes.

So, could they really be preparing for war, the effects of climate change, or some other catastrophic event the rest of us have yet to know about?

In the last few years, the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has only added to that list of potential existential woes. Many are deeply worried at the sheer speed of the progression.

Ilya Sutskever, chief scientists and a co-founder of the technology company Open AI, is reported to be one them.

By mid-2023, the San Francisco-based firm had released ChatGPT - the chatbot now used by hundreds of millions of people across the world - and they were working fast on updates.

But by that summer, Mr Sutskever was becoming increasingly convinced that computer scientists were on the brink of developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) - the point at which machines match human intelligence - according to a book by journalist Karen Hao.

In a meeting, Mr Sutskever suggested to colleagues that they should dig an underground shelter for the company's top scientists before such a powerful technology was released on the world, Ms Hao reports.

"We're definitely going to build a bunker before we release AGI," he's widely reported to have said, though it's unclear who he meant by "we".

It sheds light on a strange fact: many leading computer scientists who are working hard to develop a hugely intelligent form of AI, also seem deeply afraid of what it could one day do.

So when exactly - if ever - will AGI arrive? And could it really prove transformational enough to make ordinary people afraid?

An arrival 'sooner than we think'

Tech billionaires have claimed that AGI is imminent. OpenAI boss Sam Altman said in December 2024 that it will come "sooner than most people in the world think".

Sir Demis Hassabis, the co-founder of DeepMind, has predicted in the next five to ten years, while Anthropic founder Dario Amodei wrote last year that his preferred term - "powerful AI" - could be with us as early as 2026.

Others are dubious. "They move the goalposts all the time," says Dame Wendy Hall, professor of computer science at Southampton University. "It depends who you talk to." We are on the phone but I can almost hear the eye-roll.

"The scientific community says AI technology is amazing," she adds, "but it's nowhere near human intelligence."

There would need to be a number of "fundamental breakthroughs" first, agrees Babak Hodjat, chief technology officer of the tech firm Cognizant.

What's more, it's unlikely to arrive as a single moment. Rather, AI is a rapidly advancing technology, it's on a journey and there are many companies around the world racing to develop their own versions of it.

But one reason the idea excites some in Silicon Valley is that it's thought to be a pre-cursor to something even more advanced: ASI, or artificial super intelligence - tech that surpasses human intelligence.

It was back in 1958 that the concept of "the singularity" was attributed posthumously to Hungarian-born mathematician John von Neumann. It refers to the moment when computer intelligence advances beyond human understanding.

More recently, the 2024 book Genesis, written by Eric Schmidt, Craig Mundy and the late Henry Kissinger, explores the idea of a super-powerful technology that becomes so efficient at decision-making and leadership we end up handing control to it completely.

It's a matter of when, not if, they argue.

Money for all, without needing a job?

Those in favour of AGI and ASI are almost evangelical about its benefits. It will find new cures for deadly diseases, solve climate change and invent an inexhaustible supply of clean energy, they argue.

Elon Musk has even claimed that super-intelligent AI could usher in an era of "universal high income".

He recently endorsed the idea that AI will become so cheap and widespread that virtually anyone will want their "own personal R2-D2 and C-3PO" (referencing the droids from Star Wars).

"Everyone will have the best medical care, food, home transport and everything else. Sustainable abundance," he enthused.

There is a scary side, of course. Could the tech be hijacked by terrorists and used as an enormous weapon, or what if it decides for itself that humanity is the cause of the world's problems and destroys us?

"If it's smarter than you, then we have to keep it contained," warned Tim Berners Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, talking to the BBC earlier this month.

"We have to be able to switch it off."

Governments are taking some protective steps. In the US, where many leading AI companies are based, President Biden passed an executive order in 2023 that required some firms to share safety test results with the federal government - though President Trump has since revoked some of the order, calling it a "barrier" to innovation.

Meanwhile in the UK, the AI Safety Institute - a government-funded research body - was set up two years ago to better understand the risks posed by advanced AI.

And then there are those super-rich with their own apocalypse insurance plans.

"Saying you're 'buying a house in New Zealand' is kind of a wink, wink, say no more," Reid Hoffman previously said. The same presumably goes for bunkers.

But there's a distinctly human flaw.

I once met a former bodyguard of one billionaire with his own "bunker", who told me his security team's first priority, if this really did happen, would be to eliminate said boss and get in the bunker themselves. And he didn't seem to be joking.

Is it all alarmist nonsense?

Neil Lawrence is a professor of machine learning at Cambridge University. To him, this whole debate in itself is nonsense.

"The notion of Artificial General Intelligence is as absurd as the notion of an 'Artificial General Vehicle'," he argues.

"The right vehicle is dependent on the context. I used an Airbus A350 to fly to Kenya, I use a car to get to the university each day, I walk to the cafeteria… There's no vehicle that could ever do all of this."

For him, talk about AGI is a distraction.

"The technology we have [already] built allows, for the first time, normal people to directly talk to a machine and potentially have it do what they intend. That is absolutely extraordinary… and utterly transformational.

"The big worry is that we're so drawn in to big tech's narratives about AGI that we're missing the ways in which we need to make things better for people."

Current AI tools are trained on mountains of data and are good at spotting patterns: whether tumour signs in scans or the word most likely to come after another in a particular sequence. But they do not "feel", however convincing their responses may appear.

"There are some 'cheaty' ways to make a Large Language Model (the foundation of AI chatbots) act as if it has memory and learns, but these are unsatisfying and quite inferior to humans," says Mr Hodjat.

Vince Lynch, CEO of the California-based IV.AI, is also wary of overblown declarations about AGI.

"It's great marketing," he says "If you are the company that's building the smartest thing that's ever existed, people are going to want to give you money."

He adds, "It's not a two-years-away thing. It requires so much compute, so much human creativity, so much trial and error."

Asked whether he believes AGI will ever materialise, there's a long pause.

"I really don't know."

Intelligence without consciousness

In some ways, AI has already taken the edge over human brains. A generative AI tool can be an expert in medieval history one minute and solve complex mathematical equations the next.

Some tech companies say they don't always know why their products respond the way they do. Meta says there are some signs of its AI systems improving themselves.

Ultimately, though, no matter how intelligent machines become, biologically the human brain still wins.

It has about 86 billion neurons and 600 trillion synapses, many more than the artificial equivalents. The brain doesn't need to pause between interactions, and it is constantly adapting to new information.

"If you tell a human that life has been found on an exoplanet, they will immediately learn that, and it will affect their world view going forward. For an LLM [Large Language Model], they will only know that as long as you keep repeating this to them as a fact," says Mr Hodjat.

"LLMs also do not have meta-cognition, which means they don't quite know what they know. Humans seem to have an introspective capacity, sometimes referred to as consciousness, that allows them to know what they know."

It is a fundamental part of human intelligence - and one that is yet to be replicated in a lab.

Top picture credits: The Washington Post via Getty Images/ Getty Images MASTER. Lead image shows Mark Zuckerberg (below) and a stock image of an unidentified bunker in an unknown location (above)

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The US National Basketball Association (NBA) will return to China this week for the first time since 2019.

Two pre-season games are scheduled for Friday and Sunday between the Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns at an arena in Macau's Venetian casino and hotel.

China effectively froze the NBA out six years ago when one of the organisation's managers wrote in support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, a former British colony that has seen a clampdown on civil liberties.

The games come after the NBA and Chinese technology giant Alibaba announced a multi-year partnership at the end of last year. The Brooklyn Nets are owned by the company's chair, Joseph Tsai.

It is the first time an NBA fixture has been played in Macau - a special administrative region like Hong Kong, known for its casinos - since 2007.

The NBA has cast the games as part of efforts to tap into a burgeoning viewership of American basketball in the country, with commissioner Adam Silver telling news agency AFP that there was "tremendous interest in the NBA throughout China".

Analysis by US sports broadcaster ESPN in 2022 suggested the value of NBA China, the arm that manages its operations in the country, was estimated at approximately $5bn (£3.7bn).

Basketball's popularity in the east Asian nation skyrocketed when Chinese player Yao Ming was drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2002.

The NBA estimated in 2019 that 300 million people in China played the sport.

The games could be interpreted as the culmination of a slow but steady reconciliation between the NBA and China, on a backdrop of tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade.

China suspended NBA broadcasts on Chinese TV channels and streaming platforms after the NBA refused to apologise or discipline then-manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, who posted on social media: "Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong."

At the time, the city was engulfed in regular protests over the erosion of free speech and assembly rights, which culminated in China passing a security law to crack down on dissent. Beijing maintains this was necessary to maintain order.

Mr Morey backpedalled after a backlash from Chinese fans, while the NBA said it was "regrettable" that fans in China were upset and acknowledged he had "deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China".

Since then, NBA games have gradually returned to Chinese TV channels.

Chinese fans have expressed their excitement about the upcoming games.

"We'd been preparing and planning for this two months in advance," Lyu Yizhe, from Xiamen, told Reuters in Macau. "It feels extra special because we're long-time NBA fans - we've been watching since 1998, back in the Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls era."

Mole Zeng, who travelled from Hangzhou, told the news agency: "I believe that in the future, as the NBA continues to grow in China, more and more star players will come here to meet us in person."

A South African farm worker has described to a court how he was forced by his boss to feed the bodies of two black women to pigs in an attempt to hide evidence after they were shot.

Adrian De Wet, 21, said he was told to throw the bodies inside a pig enclosure, explaining that "when pigs are hungry enough, they'll eat anything".

He admitted opening fire on the two women with his boss - farm owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier - before he ordered him to help dispose of their bodies.

Mr Olivier and another man, William Musora, are accused of murder after Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were killed while allegedly looking for food on a farm near Polokwane in South Africa's northern Limpopo province last year.

Farm supervisor Mr De Wet was also previously accused of murder, but charges were dropped by the prosecution when he turned state witness. He had argued he was under duress when he was forced to throw the bodies into the pig enclosure.

• South African farm worker says he was forced to feed women to pigs
• Outrage over farmer accused of feeding women to pigs

On Thursday, Mr De Wet told Polokwane High Court that he and Mr Olivier, 60, armed themselves with hunting rifles and waited for trespassers to enter the farm on the night of 17 August 2024.

He said after waiting for 30 minutes they heard voices of people talking and walking towards their direction.

They then opened fire and heard a person screaming, before inspecting the area and finding a person lying face down.

After leaving the area and going to sleep, they returned the next morning and found it was the body of a woman.

Mr De Wet said he was asked by Mr Olivier to help him throw the body inside the enclosure where eight to ten big adult pigs were kept.

The following day another body was found about 25 metres from where the first was found.

Mr Olivier, Mr De Wet and Mr Musora, 50, are said to have then thrown the second body inside the pigsty.

On the following Tuesday they returned to it and found that the pigs had bitten off large chunks of flesh on the women.

Pictures presented as exhibits in court show missing buttocks, face, thighs and shoulders.

State prosecutor Advocate George Sekhukhune asked Mr De Wet what the purpose of placing the bodies inside the pigsty was, to which he answered: "We were disposing the evidence because when pigs are hungry enough, they'll eat anything."

Mr De Wet also said Mr Olivier chopped up the hunting rifles with an angle grinder and burnt the wooden parts of the gun. They then threw away the cut up weapons including the spent cartridges inside a borehole.

The son of victim Ms Makgato cried repeatedly in court, while Mr Olivier was seen wiping away tears as Mr De Wet gave his evidence.

The case has sparked outrage across South Africa, exacerbating racial tensions between black and white people in the country.

This is especially rife in rural areas of the country, despite the end of the racist system of apartheid 30 years ago.

Most private farmland remains in the hands of the white minority, while most farm workers are black and poorly paid, fuelling resentment among the black population, while many white farmers complain of high crime rates.

Cross examination by defence lawyers of Mr Olivier and Mr Musora will resume next Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas have "both signed off" on the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza.

"This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The announcement comes after three days of indirect talks in Egypt - mediated by officials from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US - aimed at bringing an end to the two-year conflict.

Both Israel and Hamas also confirmed an agreement had been reached.

• Follow the latest updates here

However, Trump's post did not provide clarity on other known sticking points in negotiations - notably the disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza.

In a post on X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "great day", adding that he would "convene the government tomorrow to ratify the agreement and bring all of our precious hostages home".

Hamas confirmed that the agreement included an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a hostage-prisoner exchange.

The group also called on Trump, the guarantor countries and other Arab states to compel Israel "to fully implement the agreement's requirements".

A senior White House official told CBS, the BBC's US news partner, that "our assessment is that hostages will begin getting released on Monday".

Qatari Foreign Minister Majed al-Ansari said more details would be announced later, adding that the agreement would "lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid".

Earlier on Wednesday, expectations that a deal could be imminent were heightened after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered an event with Trump and handed him a note.

The message appeared to ask that Trump approve a Truth Social post about Gaza so that "you can announce first".

Trump said that note informed him that "we are very close to a deal". He exited the room shortly thereafter, saying he had to focus on the Middle East.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli fire had killed at least eight people over the previous 24 hours – the lowest death toll it has reported in the past week.

Hospitals said two people had been killed on Wednesday while trying to collect food from aid distribution centres in central and southern Gaza.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its troops had killed "several terrorists" who attempted to attack their position in Gaza City.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.

At least 67,183 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, according to the territory's health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies, although Israel disputes them.

The ministry has said another 460 people have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since a famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza and said Israel was facilitating deliveries of food and other aid.

A court in southern France has increased by a year the jail term of the only man who challenged his conviction for raping Gisèle Pelicot.

The 72-year-old retired grandmother was drugged unconscious by her then-husband Dominique for over a decade and raped by dozens of men he recruited on the internet.

Husamettin Dogan, 44, had argued he was innocent, despite graphic video footage shown in court of him penetrating a motionless Gisèle Pelicot.

But the court of appeal in Nîmes rejected his argument and extended his original nine-year jail term to 10 years. He was convicted of aggravated rape last December, during a trial in which 50 other men were convicted.

Prosecutors had asked the court to impose a 12-year term on Dogan, who said he himself had been a victim, "trapped" by Dominique Pelicot.

Although Dogan did spent time in pre-trial detention ahead of last year's trial, he has not spent time in jail since.

Police were able to track down the men who raped Gisèle because of the videos that Dominique Pelicot filmed during the rapes.

Of the 51 men handed jail terms, 17 initially lodged appeals only to withdraw them soon after.

Husamettin Dogan - a Turkish-born married father - was the only one who decided to take his appeal to court.

Like many of the other men convicted last December, Dogan's defence was that he could not be guilty of raping Gisèle because he did not realise she had been drugged by her husband against her will.

Proceedings in Nîmes were effectively a retrial but, unlike the initial trial last December, this case was judged by a jury made up of nine members of the public and three professional judges.

• Pelicot case returns to court as French women fear nothing has changed
• Gisèle Pelicot and the trial that tore her family apart

Evidence from the first trial was shown again, including videos of the rapes in which an unconscious Gisèle could be heard snoring and having no reaction despite the abuse she was subjected to.

Nevertheless, Dogan again denied any intention to rape her even though he acknowledged she was clearly a victim of her husband.

"I performed a sexual act, I never raped anyone," he said. "For me, rape means forcing someone, tying them up, I don't know… I am a victim."

Gisèle Pelicot told the court this week "I am the only victim", denying she had ever given her consent.

In an attempt to shift the blame on to Dominique Pelicot, Dogan also said that while at one point he had "suspicions" that something about the situation was not quite right, Pelicot had put him at ease. "This guy is a manipulator," he said.

Pelicot - who was present in court as a witness - denied he had ever pretended his wife would be anything but unconscious.

All the men he recruited on chatrooms "were told she would be drugged", Pelicot said, adding he had explicitly told Dogan he was looking for "someone to abuse my sleeping wife without her knowledge".

Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in Mali's capital a month after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a fuel blockade by attacking tankers on major highways.

"Our business is at a standstill," one motorbike taxi driver told the BBC, as many others pushed their vehicles to join the petrol lines amidst chaotic scenes in Bamako.

Some of the garages forced to shut last week, paralysing the city, have now reopened after more 300 petrol tankers arrived under army escort from Ivory Coast on Tuesday.

The military government has assured residents it is only a temporary issue, but there are fears the new stock will quickly run out - as others complain about price hikes.

Other cities and areas have also been suffering from such shortages, power cuts and fuel inflation for several weeks.

"My business is dying," a vendor in the central town of Mopti told the AFP news agency about her problems keeping fish refrigerated.

Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought into the country by road from neighbours such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

• Trucks set ablaze as militants block key Senegal-Mali trade route

The junta had popular support when it seized power five years ago, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping force and French counter-terror forces deployed in 2013 in the wake of the uprising have left and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries instead.

But the jihadist insurgency has continued, and has made much of the north and east of the country ungovernable.

The latest blockade by al-Qaeda linked Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) - which has seen lorries ambushed, some set alight and drivers kidnapped - points to the geographic expansion of its insurgency as its fighters are targeting highways linking Mali to its neighbours to the west and south.

Images widely shared on social media highlight the rowdy lines at petrol stations in Bamako, with people waiting for hours.

Those caught up in the queues spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity.

"I had to push my motorcycle from Djikoroni to Badalabougou, about 9km (nearly six miles) away, without fuel," said one rider.

"I had all the difficulties in the world [over the past two days]."

Another person told the BBC: "We are asking fuel traders to make things easier for the population. They have no reason to increase fuel prices because it does not help the country."

Community radio station Nostalgie reported that fuel prices in parts of Bamako have increased by more than 200%.

Following a crisis meeting chaired by Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga on Tuesday, the deputy director general of commerce said that an action plan had been adopted and, amongst other things, teams were being sent out to ensure state-capped prices were adhered to at garages.

"The situation will improve in the coming days," said Soumaïla Djitteye, thanking those involved in transporting the fuel for their "sacrifice and patriotism" and paying tribute to the security forces.

The situation is also reportedly exacerbating power cuts in Bamako. AFP quoted an official from the state-owned electricity firm as saying the supply had been reduced to just six hours a day in some areas, down from the usual 19 hours.

According to French public broadcaster Radio France Internationale (RFI), Malian officials are in "discreet" talks with the militants to lift the blockade.

It quoted a security source close to the negotiations as saying demands include the release of captured fighters and a relaxation of fuel restrictions.

There have been reports that JNIM began the blockade because of a ban on the sale of fuel at locations other than service stations in rural areas - a move intended to cut the jihadists' supplies.

RFI said another demand by the Islamist militants was that women wear veils on buses.

More about Mali from the BBC:

• 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

Tesla is being investigated by the US government after reports the firm's self-driving cars had broken traffic laws, including driving on the wrong side of the road and not stopping for red lights.

It said it was aware of 58 reports where the electric cars had committed such violations, according to a filing from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

An estimated 2.9 million cars equipped with full self-driving tech will fall under the investigation.

Tesla, whose boss Elon Musk recently became the world's first half-trillionaire, has been approached for comment.

The NHTSA's preliminary evaluation will "assess the scope, frequency, and potential safety consequences" of the "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" mode.

In this mode - which costs extra for Tesla owners - the cars can make lane changes and turns, but drivers must always be alert to take over at any time.

According to the NHTSA report, there were six crashes caused by cars stopping at a traffic light before setting off while the light was still red.

Four of the crashes resulted in injuries.

The traffic authority said Tesla had taken action "to address the issue" of cars going through red lights at a particular intersection in Maryland, where the problem repeatedly occurred.

The agency will also investigate reports of vehicles going into the opposite lane when making a turn.

It said some of the reported incidents gave "little notice to a driver or opportunity to intervene".

Tesla is already facing an investigation from the NHTSA over the cars' door locking mechanisms, after cases where children were reportedly trapped inside Model Y cars.

In some instances, car owners chose to smash the windows to let them out.

Tesla recently unveiled cheaper models of two of its most popular cars, as it tries to compete with cheaper electric vehicles often made by Chinese companies.

Its boss Elon Musk was formerly a close ally of President Donald Trump before a public falling-out earlier in the year.

In July, he announced the formation of a new political party, the America Party, in an attempt to rival the Republicans and Democrats.

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Even for Donald Trump, a president who revels in his place at the centre of world events, it was a dramatic moment.

The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupted a televised meeting Trump was chairing in Washington DC on Wednesday. He handed over a message that the President needed to tell the world that they had a deal. Trump told the audience in the room – and millions more who have now seen the video – that he would have to leave.

"They're going to need me…" he said, interrupting the day's business. "I have to go now to try to solve some problems in the Middle East."

Israel and Hamas signed off the first phase of what Donald Trump intends to be a wider agreement after three days of indirect talks in Egypt.

Mediators from Qatar and Egypt went between the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators who were on separate floors of a hotel in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.

To add heft to the talks, and to keep the pressure on the Israelis, Donald Trump sent his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his envoy Steve Witkoff.

The prime minister of Qatar and the intelligence chiefs of Egypt and Turkey were there to do the same job for the Hamas delegation.

The agreement is a major breakthrough. It does not mean the war is over. But for the first time since the Hamas attacks on Israel, there is a realistic chance of ending the horrors of the last two years.

One big step - but more steps are needed

The plan is that a ceasefire will be followed by the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, in return for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.

The Israeli military, the IDF, will pull back from its current positions, leaving it in 53% of Gaza according to the government spokesperson.

Israel will lift enough of its restrictions on humanitarian aid entering Gaza to allow in 400 lorry loads a day, which would be distributed by the UN and other agencies.

The controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the discredited system which Israel wanted to replace the UN, is not mentioned in Donald Trump's 20-point plan.

The deal is a big step, but more need to be taken to get to the war's end. Trump's plan is a framework, with the details left to be negotiated. Serious obstacles lie ahead.

Hamas wants Israel out of the Gaza Strip. Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that will not happen. Hamas is prepared to give up heavy weapons but wants to keep some armaments. Netanyahu wants the complete demilitarisation of Gaza.

He has defined victory for Israel as more than simply the return of the hostages. He has said many times that Hamas must be destroyed, with no chance of regenerating itself in Gaza as a danger to Israelis.

How the Biden plan measured up

In May 2024 President Joe Biden put a deal on the table that resembles Trump's plan. Then, Hamas agreed that it would release Israeli hostages if the IDF pulled out of the Gaza Strip and there were guarantees that Israel would not restart the war. Netanyahu was not prepared to agree.

Over the past two years he has said repeatedly that continuing the war was the only way to get the hostages back and to destroy Hamas.

Perhaps the Biden plan was too early for both sides. The difference between what has happened now and what didn't happen in May of last year is that Trump has used the leverage America has over Israel to bring Netanyahu to the table.

Despite expressing concern about Israel's conduct of the war, Biden never threatened to end US diplomatic, financial and military support, with the exception of one consignment of 2,000 pound bombs. Israel could not have fought the war with US help. Biden was not prepared to exploit that dependence. Netanyahu was confident he could defy him.

Trump has kept up the military and political support, but he wants much more in return.

Knock-on effect of the Doha attack

A crucial event that led to a breakthrough was Israel's failed attempt to kill the Hamas leadership in Doha on 9 September.

Its main target, the senior leader Khalil al-Hayya and his top lieutenants were discussing the latest version of Trump's peace plan when the attack happened.

They survived but his son was among the dead. Al Hayya is leading the Hamas delegation in Egypt.

The Israelis did not tell the Americans in advance that they were going to hit Doha. Trump was furious.

When Netanyahu asked to meet him in the Oval Office at the White House, he forced him to ring the Qatari prime minister to make a fulsome apology.

As Netanyahu read out the apology he had prepared, the cable from the handset was at full stretch back to a scowling Donald Trump who held the phone in his lap.

The White House released photos that looked like a headmaster making an errant pupil say sorry.

Trump also issued an executive order giving unprecedented security guarantees to Qatar if it is attacked again. He needed that apology because Qatar is an American ally, hosting the biggest US military base in the Middle East, and is a key part of the wider plan he has for peace in the region.

At its heart is a grand bargain based on Saudi Arabia normalising relations with Israel.

Instead, the Israeli raid made the Americans look like an ally that cannot protect their friends.

Other things have changed: the IDF has killed many more Palestinians and destroyed much more of Gaza. Israel is as isolated as at any time since it became independent in 1948. Netanyahu's appearance at the speaker's podium at the UN General Assembly in New York in September sparked a mass walkout of diplomats.

America remains a powerful ally, but the polls in the US show that the Israelis cannot rely any more on the support of a majority of Americans. That reduces the political jeopardy of overruling the objections of Israel's prime minister.

Israel's European allies, led by the UK and France, have recognised an independent state of Palestine. Their public statements have expressed horror over the killing and destruction in Gaza, and the starvation and in places famine caused by Israel's blockades of aid.

The 9 September attack on Doha also created a new sense of urgency among Arab and Muslim majority countries. A rare united front pressed Donald Trump to get Israel to the table.

If the Trump 20-point plan is to end the war US, pressure on Israel will have to continue.

One major question is whether Benjamin Netanyahu will find a way to resume the war after the hostages come home. His ultra-nationalist allies in the cabinet want that to happen.

The rich gulf states - that Trump admires and wants to play a big role in a relaunch and redevelopment of Gaza - will keep the pressure on the US president to try to make sure that does not happen.

Bittersweet celebrations on both sides

The breakthrough in Sharm El-Sheikh was greeted by celebrations in Israel and inside the Gaza Strip, bittersweet on both sides after so much loss.

In Israel the families of hostages and their supporters have been waging a constant campaign of pressure and demonstrations to get their people out of Gaza.

Opinion polls have shown consistently that a majority of Israelis are prepared to end the Gaza war if the hostages, living and dead, come home.

It is thought 20 hostages may be alive. Hamas has also agreed to return the bodies of around 28 others, though it is not certain that all their graves can be located.

• Israelis delight at deal to return hostages

Palestinians celebrated in the ruins of Gaza. In return for the hostages Israel has agreed to free 250 prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 detainees who have been taken by the IDF from Gaza in the last two years.

Palestinians will welcome them as heroes.

Israel has ruled out freeing Marwan Barghouti, who was arrested in 2002 and later given five life sentences plus 40 years for orchestrating attacks on Israelis. Many Palestinians see him as their Nelson Mandela, who served 27 years in prison for planning attacks on the apartheid regime in South Africa before he was released to win a democratic election.

Hamas wants freedom for some of their most prominent commanders who Israelis regard as dangerous terrorists. Releasing them will be controversial.

Yahya Sinwar, who led the 7 October attacks before he was killed by Israel, was freed in a prisoner exchange in 2011. The Hamas list is believed to include, among others, Abbas al Sayyed who is serving 35 life sentences plus 100 years for attacks, including one in 2002 that killed 35 Israelis celebrating Passover.

Another name mentioned is Hassam Salama who was given 46 life sentences for sending suicide bombers to blow up buses in Jerusalem in 1996, killing and wounding dozens of Israelis.

Donald Trump says that the deal could be the biggest thing in the Middle East for 3,000 years. That is Trumpian hyperbole on a grand scale.

But if the exchange of Israeli hostages for jailed Palestinians is followed by progress on the other points that need agreement in the Trump plan, there is a real chance that some of the agony on both sides will end.

Despite the risks ahead in a hugely challenging negotiation, optimists are already hoping that an end of the war in Gaza might kickstart a new era in the Middle East. That would take a level of application and consistency that Trump has not yet displayed.

A short sharp negotiation in Egypt suits his brash, bullying style. Finding a way to end the conflict that is well into its second century between Israelis and Palestinians for control of the land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean would require a wholly different set of skills.

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Palestinians in Gaza have celebrated the agreement of a ceasefire and hostage release deal - but many fear confronting the grief that has built up over two years of war.

"This morning, when we heard the news about the truce, it brought both joy and pain," 38-year-old Umm Hassan, who lost his 16-year-old son during the war, told the BBC.

"Out of joy, both the young and the old began shouting," he said. "And those who had lost loved ones started remembering them and wondering how we would return home without them."

Mr Hassan added: "Every person who lost someone feels that sorrow deeply and wonders how they'll return home."

• LIVE REACTION: Trump announces Gaza agreement
• Fireworks and a toast to life: Israelis' delight at deal to return hostages

The deal announced by US President Donald Trump - which still must be agreed by Israel's war cabinet - will see the release of 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead hostages in return for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.

It is the first phase of a 20-point peace plan that could lead to an end to the war - though the latter phases still need to be negotiated.

"We, the civilians, are the ones who've suffered - truly suffered," Daniel Abu Tabeekh, from the Jabalia refugee camp, told the BBC.

"The factions don't feel our pain. Those leaders sitting comfortably abroad have no sense of the suffering we're enduring here in Gaza."

"I have no home," he said. "I've been living on the streets for a year and a half."

Israel launched the war in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and 251 others taken hostage.

Israel's offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, most of whom are civilians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies.

More than 90% of Gaza's housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

"God rewarded us for our patience," said Umm Nader Kloub from northern Gaza, who lost seven relatives during the war, including her sons.

"God willing, he will help [the negotiators] and allow us all to return to our homes, and for their hostages to return safely," she said. "We don't want war."

Mousa, a doctor in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Strip, said: "We have lost a lot during the two years of war. The Gaza Strip is destroyed. A difficult time still awaits us, but the important thing is we hope to be safe."

As news of a possible ceasefire deal broke over the weekend, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, told the BBC: "The worst part in the last two years, is that while you are losing loved ones, your relatives, your friends, your neighbours, you are unable to allow yourself to grieve, or to feel the deep sadness and to process your human feelings.

"Because your main focus is to try and stop what's happening."

He added: "When our people and our families were being killed, the feeling was: how do you stop this? How do you bury your dead and how do you tend to your wounded?

"But after the event, which I hope to be very soon, the main feeling will be grief, mourning, and a deep, deep sense of loss. Because what we've lost is huge."

Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has asked for one year to fix the country's challenges, promising that if they persist, he will resign.

He said this during a town-hall style meeting at his palace with various groups of government supporters. Many attendees had the opportunity to ask the president questions or simply share their views - to which he responded.

"I don't want flattery. I want to hear the truth. It's the people who kept telling me that everything was fine who are responsible for our current situation," he said.

The movement behind the protest, known as Gen Z Mada, has been calling for the president to resign - and rejected an invitation to attend the talks.

They argue that they cannot engage a government that has been repressing them as they demand basic human rights. The group has called for new protests on Thursday.

"We refuse the president's invitation to talks. We will not engage in dialogue with a regime that represses, assaults, and humiliates its youth in the streets," they wrote on their Facebook page.

• Behind the Gen Z protesters who want to force Madagascar's president from power

Rajoelina has been holding these meetings as part of his pledge to "listen more", emphasising that the challenges facing the Indian Ocean island nation can only be solved through honest conversations and not protests.

The president assured those at the dialogue that ongoing power projects would address the recurring outages by adding 265 megawatts to the national grid.

"I swear that if power cuts persist in the capital within a year, I will resign," he said.

The protests began on 25 September triggered by anger over persistent power and water shortages, and have escalated into broader dissatisfaction over corruption, high unemployment and the cost-of-living crisis.

Last week, Rajoelina sacked his entire government and appointed an army general as prime minister on Monday. The protest movement rejected the appointment and vowed to continue their struggle.

Rajoelina came to power in 2009 after leading mass protests that triggered military intervention and overthrew then-President Marc Ravalomanana.

Although the youth-led movement continues to demand his resignation, street protests appear to have weakened.

Life in most parts of the capital, Antananarivo, continues as normal, except in a few neighbourhoods with a heavy police presence, where some roads have been blocked or are being closely monitored.

At least 22 people have died in clashes with security forces and scores more have been injured, according to the United Nations. The authorities have disputed these figures.

You may also be interested in:

• Army general named as Madagascar PM to quell Gen Z protests
• France returns slain king's skull to Madagascar
• Why Russia's Africa propaganda warrior was sent home

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

Palestinians in Gaza have celebrated the agreement of a ceasefire and hostage release deal - but many fear confronting the grief that has built up over two years of war.

"This morning, when we heard the news about the truce, it brought both joy and pain," 38-year-old Umm Hassan, who lost his 16-year-old son during the war, told the BBC.

"Out of joy, both the young and the old began shouting," he said. "And those who had lost loved ones started remembering them and wondering how we would return home without them."

Mr Hassan added: "Every person who lost someone feels that sorrow deeply and wonders how they'll return home."

• LIVE REACTION: Trump announces Gaza agreement
• Fireworks and a toast to life: Israelis' delight at deal to return hostages

The deal announced by US President Donald Trump - which still must be agreed by Israel's war cabinet - will see the release of 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead hostages in return for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.

It is the first phase of a 20-point peace plan that could lead to an end to the war - though the latter phases still need to be negotiated.

"We, the civilians, are the ones who've suffered - truly suffered," Daniel Abu Tabeekh, from the Jabalia refugee camp, told the BBC.

"The factions don't feel our pain. Those leaders sitting comfortably abroad have no sense of the suffering we're enduring here in Gaza."

"I have no home," he said. "I've been living on the streets for a year and a half."

Israel launched the war in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and 251 others taken hostage.

Israel's offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, most of whom are civilians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies.

More than 90% of Gaza's housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

"God rewarded us for our patience," said Umm Nader Kloub from northern Gaza, who lost seven relatives during the war, including her sons.

"God willing, he will help [the negotiators] and allow us all to return to our homes, and for their hostages to return safely," she said. "We don't want war."

Mousa, a doctor in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Strip, said: "We have lost a lot during the two years of war. The Gaza Strip is destroyed. A difficult time still awaits us, but the important thing is we hope to be safe."

As news of a possible ceasefire deal broke over the weekend, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, told the BBC: "The worst part in the last two years, is that while you are losing loved ones, your relatives, your friends, your neighbours, you are unable to allow yourself to grieve, or to feel the deep sadness and to process your human feelings.

"Because your main focus is to try and stop what's happening."

He added: "When our people and our families were being killed, the feeling was: how do you stop this? How do you bury your dead and how do you tend to your wounded?

"But after the event, which I hope to be very soon, the main feeling will be grief, mourning, and a deep, deep sense of loss. Because what we've lost is huge."

A Dutch beekeeper has spoken of his shock after his 10 beehives were burned down in a park in the central city of Almere, with the loss of an estimated half a million bees.

Harold Stringer said each hive had a colony of 40-60,000 bees, and the thought that anyone could kill them was horrific.

"It really hurts that my 10 hives have died," he told local broadcaster Omroep Flevoland.

Police in Almere, which sits to the east of Amsterdam, have appealed for witnesses after the arson attack on Tuesday evening in the city's scenic Beatrixpark. They posted pictures of the fire on social media.

The Dutch government says more than half of the country's 360 species of bee are at risk of extinction, as the population of bees declines around the world.

Mr Stringer said police had told him an accelerant had been used to burn the hives, which were sitting on pallets in a wooded part of the park.

Barely any of the bees survived and he said that he had little faith the arsonist would be caught.

Fellow beekeeper Heleen Nieman told Dutch radio that she had three bee colonies and wanted to give him one of them.

For Mr Stringer, who looked after the bees for about nine years, the fire means starting a new colony in the park from scratch.

But he insists he will not give up.

At least 13 people have been killed after an attack on one of the last remaining hospitals in el-Fasher, a Sudanese city trapped under siege.

Sixteen others, including a doctor and nurse, were injured after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shelled Saudi hospital several times on Tuesday night, a source there told the BBC.

Pictures showed shattered windows, cracks from shrapnel, a gaping hole in the mud-brick wall and twisted metal from hospital beds covering the floor.

A group of Sudanese medics has called the attack a war crime. The RSF has been besieging el-Fasher for more than 17 months, leaving hundreds of thousands of people stuck in the city facing starvation.

The paramilitary group is fighting the army for full control of el-Fasher, the last military stronghold in the vast Darfur region.

This is the second strike on the Saudi hospital this year - the first in January killed three children and injured three others.

The latest shelling ripped through part of the hospital, destroying wards.

In recent weeks, the RSF has intensified its assault on the city, leading experts to believe the city could soon fall unless the army receives immediate reinforcements.

The two sides have been engaged in a ferocious civil war for more than two years, causing the world's worst humanitarian crisis and tens of thousands of deaths.

The incessant fighting in el-Fasher has forced most health facilities to shut. Aid convoys carrying food and healthcare have been blocked from reaching civilians.

"After over 500 days of unremitting siege by the RSF and incessant fighting, El Fasher is on the precipice of an even greater catastrophe if urgent measures are not taken [to] loosen the armed vice upon the city and to protect civilians," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said last Thursday.

More BBC stories about the war in Sudan:

• Medics under siege: 'We took this photo, fearing it would be our last'
• A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan
• A front-row seat to my country falling apart

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

US President Donald Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas have "both signed off" on the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza.

"This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The announcement comes after three days of indirect talks in Egypt - mediated by officials from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US - aimed at bringing an end to the two-year conflict.

Both Israel and Hamas also confirmed an agreement had been reached.

• Follow the latest updates here

However, Trump's post did not provide clarity on other known sticking points in negotiations - notably the disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza.

In a post on X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "great day", adding that he would "convene the government tomorrow to ratify the agreement and bring all of our precious hostages home".

Hamas confirmed that the agreement included an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a hostage-prisoner exchange.

The group also called on Trump, the guarantor countries and other Arab states to compel Israel "to fully implement the agreement's requirements".

A senior White House official told CBS, the BBC's US news partner, that "our assessment is that hostages will begin getting released on Monday".

Qatari Foreign Minister Majed al-Ansari said more details would be announced later, adding that the agreement would "lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid".

Earlier on Wednesday, expectations that a deal could be imminent were heightened after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered an event with Trump and handed him a note.

The message appeared to ask that Trump approve a Truth Social post about Gaza so that "you can announce first".

Trump said that note informed him that "we are very close to a deal". He exited the room shortly thereafter, saying he had to focus on the Middle East.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli fire had killed at least eight people over the previous 24 hours – the lowest death toll it has reported in the past week.

Hospitals said two people had been killed on Wednesday while trying to collect food from aid distribution centres in central and southern Gaza.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its troops had killed "several terrorists" who attempted to attack their position in Gaza City.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.

At least 67,183 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, according to the territory's health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies, although Israel disputes them.

The ministry has said another 460 people have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since a famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza and said Israel was facilitating deliveries of food and other aid.

Palestinians in Gaza have celebrated the agreement of a ceasefire and hostage release deal - but many fear confronting the grief that has built up over two years of war.

"This morning, when we heard the news about the truce, it brought both joy and pain," 38-year-old Umm Hassan, who lost his 16-year-old son during the war, told the BBC.

"Out of joy, both the young and the old began shouting," he said. "And those who had lost loved ones started remembering them and wondering how we would return home without them."

Mr Hassan added: "Every person who lost someone feels that sorrow deeply and wonders how they'll return home."

• LIVE REACTION: Trump announces Gaza agreement
• Fireworks and a toast to life: Israelis' delight at deal to return hostages

The deal announced by US President Donald Trump - which still must be agreed by Israel's war cabinet - will see the release of 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead hostages in return for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.

It is the first phase of a 20-point peace plan that could lead to an end to the war - though the latter phases still need to be negotiated.

"We, the civilians, are the ones who've suffered - truly suffered," Daniel Abu Tabeekh, from the Jabalia refugee camp, told the BBC.

"The factions don't feel our pain. Those leaders sitting comfortably abroad have no sense of the suffering we're enduring here in Gaza."

"I have no home," he said. "I've been living on the streets for a year and a half."

Israel launched the war in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and 251 others taken hostage.

Israel's offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, most of whom are civilians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies.

More than 90% of Gaza's housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

"God rewarded us for our patience," said Umm Nader Kloub from northern Gaza, who lost seven relatives during the war, including her sons.

"God willing, he will help [the negotiators] and allow us all to return to our homes, and for their hostages to return safely," she said. "We don't want war."

Mousa, a doctor in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Strip, said: "We have lost a lot during the two years of war. The Gaza Strip is destroyed. A difficult time still awaits us, but the important thing is we hope to be safe."

As news of a possible ceasefire deal broke over the weekend, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, told the BBC: "The worst part in the last two years, is that while you are losing loved ones, your relatives, your friends, your neighbours, you are unable to allow yourself to grieve, or to feel the deep sadness and to process your human feelings.

"Because your main focus is to try and stop what's happening."

He added: "When our people and our families were being killed, the feeling was: how do you stop this? How do you bury your dead and how do you tend to your wounded?

"But after the event, which I hope to be very soon, the main feeling will be grief, mourning, and a deep, deep sense of loss. Because what we've lost is huge."

US President Donald Trump's announcement of an agreement which is expected to result in the release of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip for more than two years has caused delight and relief across Israel.

The Hostages Families Forum, an organisation that has advocated for the return of Israeli captives in Gaza, expressed "profound gratitude" to Trump for what it called an "historic breakthrough".

The deal - which still must be agreed upon by Israel's war cabinet - will see the release of 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead hostages in return for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.

So far, 148 hostages have been returned - most as part of previous ceasefire deals - 51 bodies have been recovered and eight hostages have been rescued.

Jubilant scenes have unfolded in Hostages' Square in Tel Aviv as hundreds of people gathered ahead of the deal being signed.

A crowd began clapping and dancing under US and Israeli flags - one woman holding up a sign saying: "We love Trump."

"It's a magical day," the woman said.

Another, 50-year-old Yael, cried as she watched the crowd dancing.

"I'm very excited - it's such a relief," she said. "We need to see them come back home to their families."

• LIVE REACTION: Trump announces Gaza deal
• Joy and pain: Palestinians celebrate deal
• ANALYSIS: Major breakthrough, but war not over yet

The mother and sister of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker lit fireworks in celebration of the news that he would be returned home.

"They're coming back!... Matan is coming home!" Einav Zangauker said as she held her daughter.

Viki Cohen, the mother of Israeli hostage Nimrod Cohen, posted on social media: "My child, you are coming home."

Former British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari celebrated with another freed hostage Romi Gonen, reciting prayers of gratitude, then toasting "L'chaim", meaning "to life". She has been campaigning for the release of her friends, twins Gali and Ziv Berman.

Their brother Liran Berman posted: "My Gali and Ziv, I love you so much. You're coming home."

Gil Dickman's cousin Carmel Gat was taken hostage on 7 October 2023, and her body recovered from a tunnel in Gaza almost a year later. He has been joining other hostage families in pushing for a deal that brings the return of all those still being held in Gaza.

"I can't quite believe this is actually happening. We've been waiting for so long and here it is," he said.

He said he felt "broken" that Carmel will not be among those returning home but was "glowing with joy for the families of the hostages who are finally coming back".

Dalia Cusnir, whose brother-in-law Eitan Horn remains captive in Gaza, said she felt like she was living "in a dream".

"We're more than grateful to President Trump and everything he has done for us. We feel like it might be the beginning of the end of this nightmare, and hugging Eitan feels closer than ever," she said.

But she cautioned that it was still too soon to celebrate.

"Until the last hostage is here, we're not opening the champagne. We're going to keep fighting... until the end," she said.

"So many things can happen until the last moment so this is why we're being so, so careful. We just want to thank everyone who was involved in the efforts and make sure this agreement is done... We will celebrate only once we have the last hostage back home."

Eitan was taken from kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel along with his brother Iair, who was released from captivity in a ceasefire deal earlier this year.

The ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, announced after intense negotiations in Egypt, is a long-awaited breakthrough that brings them closer to ending the two-year-old war in Gaza.

But, despite the momentum, there is no guarantee that this will happen.

The main difference in these efforts has been the personal involvement of President Donald Trump, who has put pressure not only on Hamas but also on Israel for an agreement. This is a major diplomatic victory for someone who wants to be seen as the man who ended the war – and, in the process, be rewarded for it.

Israel launched the war in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 people were killed, mostly Israeli civilians, and 251 were taken hostage.

Israel's military offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians and including more than 18,000 children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies. It has destroyed most of the territory and led to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

What has been agreed is the first phase of a plan the president announced at the White House last week alongside the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been accused of sabotaging efforts for a deal in the past.

This time, Trump, reportedly impatient and irritated with Netanyahu, appears to have used the power only the Americans have to influence Israel, leaving the prime minister with no option other than to engage with the process.

Threatened by Trump with "complete obliteration", Hamas was under intense pressure too. Arab and Muslim countries embraced the president's plan, and there was heavy involvement from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey in the negotiations.

Details of the deal have not yet been published but the outline is that the remaining hostages will be freed – the 20 believed to be alive at once, possibly as soon as Sunday, while the remains of up to 28 deceased captives will be returned in stages.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli jails, Israeli troops will withdraw from parts of Gaza, and there will be an increase in humanitarian aid entering the territory.

Trump has publicly expressed his desire to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced on Friday, a deadline that could have guided the negotiations. On social media, he employed his usual hyperbole, calling it a "historic and unprecedented event" and the "first steps toward a strong, durable and everlasting peace".

This is, without a doubt, a significant moment but it gives no certainty that a peace deal for Gaza will happen, as crucial details still need to be worked out. They include the key Israeli demand that Hamas must disarm, the extent of the Israeli withdrawal and a plan for who will govern Gaza.

In Gaza, Palestinians celebrated the announcement in the middle of the night, hoping that this will bring an end to their suffering. In Tel Aviv, people gathered in Hostages Square, which has become a symbol of the ordeal of the captives.

Hamas knows that, by releasing the hostages, it will lose the leverage it has in negotiations. It has demanded guarantees that Israel will not resume the fighting once they have been freed - but has reasons to be suspicious: in March, Israel broke down a ceasefire and returned to war with devastating air strikes.

In Israel, however, a country exhausted by the conflict, polls have consistently suggested that most people want the conflict to end.

But Netanyahu still faces political hurdles. He relies on the support of ultranationalist ministers who have threatened to quit the coalition in the case of a deal, which could lead to the government's collapse, a concern that many suspect has led him to prolong the war. He has promised to achieve "total victory" against Hamas, and any deal will have to allow him to say he has done that.

Netanyahu has called the announcement a "diplomatic and a national and moral victory for the State of Israel". Notably, unlike Hamas, his statement did not say it would end the war.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said that a boat recently bombed by the US was "Colombian with Colombian citizens inside", an allegation the White House called "baseless".

The US has struck at least four vessels in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing 21 people. The US government has said the strikes in international waters were targeting "narco-traffickers".

But it has not provided evidence or details about who or what is aboard, and the strikes have attracted condemnation in countries in the region amid concerns they breach international law.

The US Senate rejected a measure on Wednesday that would have barred President Donald Trump from using military force against the boats.

Petro replied to a post on X by US Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat, who said he would vote to block strikes against vessels in the Caribbean as some lawmakers sought to challenge the use of the armed forces in Congress.

The Colombian president said that a "new war scenario has opened up: the Caribbean".

Petro added that "indications show that the last boat bombed was Colombian with Colombian citizens inside it.

"I hope their families come forward and report it. There is no war against smuggling; there is a war for oil and it must be stopped by the world. The aggression is against all of Latin America and the Caribbean."

Petro did not provide further details about the alleged identities of those on board. The US has not commented on the identities of the individuals killed in the strikes.

The White House said in a statement that it "looks forward to President Petro publicly retracting his baseless and reprehensible statement".

It said that while the two nations had "policy differences", the US remained "committed to close co-operation on a range of shared priorities, including regional security and stability".

The US says its strikes, which began on 2 September, had targeted vessels off the coast of Venezuela that it alleges were carrying illegal drugs.

• First US strike on 'Venezuela drug boat': Was it legal?
• What is Trump's goal after bombing 'Venezuela drugs boat'?

The measure considered by the Senate on Wednesday, which would have required Trump to seek congressional approval for the strikes, was rejected in a 48-51 vote.

It had been introduced by Democratic Senators Schiff and Tim Kaine. The vote broke down mostly along partisan lines.

Earlier this month, a leaked memo sent to Congress said that the US was now categorising itself as being in a "non-international armed conflict".

Framing this as an active armed conflict is likely a way for the administration to justify the use of wartime powers, including killing "enemy fighters", even if they pose no violent threat.

Trump has already designated many cartels, including in Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela, as terrorist organisations – granting US authorities more powers in their response to them.

China has tightened its rules on the export of rare earths - the elements that are crucial to the manufacture of many high-tech products.

New regulations announced by the country's Ministry of Commerce formalise existing rules on processing technology and unauthorised overseas cooperation.

China is also likely to block exports to foreign arms manufacturers and some semiconductor firms.

Rare earth exports are a key sticking point in the months-long negotiations between Beijing and Washington over trade and tariffs. The announcement comes as China's President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump are expected to meet later this month.

Technology used to mine and process rare earths, or to make magnets from rare earths, can only be exported with permission from the government, the Ministry of Commerce said.

Many of these technologies are already restricted. China had added several rare earths and related material to its export control list in April, which caused a major shortage back then.

But the new announcement makes clear that licenses are unlikely to be issued to arms manufacturers and certain companies in the chip industry.

Chinese firms are also banned from working with foreign companies on rare earths without government permission.

China has been accused by the US and other Western countries of aiding Russia's war on Ukraine by allowing dual technology exports - materials that can be used for either civilian or military purposes - to be sent to Moscow. Beijing has repeatedly denied this.

The latest announcement also clarifies the specific technologies and processes that are restricted.

These include mining, smelting and separation, magnetic material manufacturing, and recycling rare earths from other resources.

The assembly, debugging, maintenance, repair, and upgrading of production equipment are also prohibited from export without permission, the announcement added.

This could have an impact on the US, which has a significant rare earths mining industry but lacks processing facilities.

What are rare earths?

Rare earths are a group of 17 chemically similar elements that are crucial to the manufacture of many high-tech products.

Most are abundant in nature, but they are known as "rare" because it is very unusual to find them in a pure form, and they are very hazardous to extract.

Although you may not be familiar with the names of these rare earths - like neodymium, yttrium and europium - you will be very familiar with the products that they are used in.

For instance, neodymium is used to make the powerful magnets used in loudspeakers, computer hard drives, electric car motors and jet engines that enable them to be smaller and more efficient.

China has a near monopoly on extracting rare earths as well as on refining them - which is the process of separating them from other minerals.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that China accounts for about 61% of rare earth production and 92% of their processing.

• The price of the rare earth metals the world buys from China

Additional reporting by Ian Tang of BBC Monitoring.

US President Donald Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas have "both signed off" on the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza.

"This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The announcement comes after three days of indirect talks in Egypt - mediated by officials from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US - aimed at bringing an end to the two-year conflict.

Both Israel and Hamas also confirmed an agreement had been reached.

• Follow the latest updates here

However, Trump's post did not provide clarity on other known sticking points in negotiations - notably the disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza.

In a post on X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "great day", adding that he would "convene the government tomorrow to ratify the agreement and bring all of our precious hostages home".

Hamas confirmed that the agreement included an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a hostage-prisoner exchange.

The group also called on Trump, the guarantor countries and other Arab states to compel Israel "to fully implement the agreement's requirements".

A senior White House official told CBS, the BBC's US news partner, that "our assessment is that hostages will begin getting released on Monday".

Qatari Foreign Minister Majed al-Ansari said more details would be announced later, adding that the agreement would "lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid".

Earlier on Wednesday, expectations that a deal could be imminent were heightened after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered an event with Trump and handed him a note.

The message appeared to ask that Trump approve a Truth Social post about Gaza so that "you can announce first".

Trump said that note informed him that "we are very close to a deal". He exited the room shortly thereafter, saying he had to focus on the Middle East.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli fire had killed at least eight people over the previous 24 hours – the lowest death toll it has reported in the past week.

Hospitals said two people had been killed on Wednesday while trying to collect food from aid distribution centres in central and southern Gaza.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its troops had killed "several terrorists" who attempted to attack their position in Gaza City.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.

At least 67,183 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, according to the territory's health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies, although Israel disputes them.

The ministry has said another 460 people have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since a famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza and said Israel was facilitating deliveries of food and other aid.

Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has asked for one year to fix the country's challenges, promising that if they persist, he will resign.

He said this during a town-hall style meeting at his palace with various groups of government supporters. Many attendees had the opportunity to ask the president questions or simply share their views - to which he responded.

"I don't want flattery. I want to hear the truth. It's the people who kept telling me that everything was fine who are responsible for our current situation," he said.

The movement behind the protest, known as Gen Z Mada, has been calling for the president to resign - and rejected an invitation to attend the talks.

They argue that they cannot engage a government that has been repressing them as they demand basic human rights. The group has called for new protests on Thursday.

"We refuse the president's invitation to talks. We will not engage in dialogue with a regime that represses, assaults, and humiliates its youth in the streets," they wrote on their Facebook page.

• Behind the Gen Z protesters who want to force Madagascar's president from power

Rajoelina has been holding these meetings as part of his pledge to "listen more", emphasising that the challenges facing the Indian Ocean island nation can only be solved through honest conversations and not protests.

The president assured those at the dialogue that ongoing power projects would address the recurring outages by adding 265 megawatts to the national grid.

"I swear that if power cuts persist in the capital within a year, I will resign," he said.

The protests began on 25 September triggered by anger over persistent power and water shortages, and have escalated into broader dissatisfaction over corruption, high unemployment and the cost-of-living crisis.

Last week, Rajoelina sacked his entire government and appointed an army general as prime minister on Monday. The protest movement rejected the appointment and vowed to continue their struggle.

Rajoelina came to power in 2009 after leading mass protests that triggered military intervention and overthrew then-President Marc Ravalomanana.

Although the youth-led movement continues to demand his resignation, street protests appear to have weakened.

Life in most parts of the capital, Antananarivo, continues as normal, except in a few neighbourhoods with a heavy police presence, where some roads have been blocked or are being closely monitored.

At least 22 people have died in clashes with security forces and scores more have been injured, according to the United Nations. The authorities have disputed these figures.

You may also be interested in:

• Army general named as Madagascar PM to quell Gen Z protests
• France returns slain king's skull to Madagascar
• Why Russia's Africa propaganda warrior was sent home

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

Discord, a messaging platform popular with gamers, says official ID photos of around 70,000 users have potentially been leaked after a cyber-attack.

The platform, which has more than 200 million users worldwide, says hackers had targeted a firm that helped to verify the ages of its users but the Discord platform itself was not breached.

People can provide ID photos to verify their age on Discord - a networking hub for players to chat and share files with others in the gaming community.

The leaked data may involve personal information, partial credit card details and messages that were exchanged with Discord's customer service agents, the San-Francisco-based company says.

No full credit card details, passwords, or messages and activity beyond conversations with Discord's customer support agents were leaked, the firm said.

All impacted users have been contacted and Discord is working with law enforcement to investigate the matter, it added.

The platform said it has revoked the customer support provider's access to the system that was targeted in the breach. Discord did not name the third-party company involved.

A representative from Zendesk, a customer service software provider for Discord, told the BBC that its systems had not been compromised and that the breach did was not caused by a vulnerability within its platform.

Some online commentators have claimed that the data breach was bigger than Discord has revealed.

A spokesperson for Discord told the BBC that those claims are inaccurate and "part of an attempt to extort payment".

"We will not reward those responsible for their illegal actions," the spokesperson added.

Cybercriminals frequently target personal data, which can command a high price on the black market for use in scams.

Information like full names and official ID numbers is especially valuable because, unlike credit card details, it typically remains unchanged over time.

Discord has previously strengthened its age-verification measures in response to concerns that some servers on the platform were being used to distribute pornographic and extremist material.

There is a higher risk of a serious fall in US stocks than is currently being reflected in the market, the head of JP Morgan has told the BBC.

Jamie Dimon, who leads America's largest bank, said he was "far more worried than others" about a serious market correction, which he said could come in the next six months to two years.

In a rare and wide-ranging interview, the bank boss also said that the US had become a "less reliable" partner on the world stage.

He cautioned he was still "a little worried" about inflation in the US, but insisted he thought the Federal Reserve would remain independent, despite repeated attacks by the Trump administration on its chair Jerome Powell.

Jamie Dimon was in Bournemouth, where he was announcing an investment of about £350m in JP Morgan's campus there, as well as a £3.5m philanthropic investment in local non-profits.

Commenting on the investment, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: "As one of Dorset's biggest private sector employers, JP Morgan Chase expanding their Bournemouth campus is fantastic news for the local economy and people who live here."

Ahead of the interview, Dimon appeared before a town hall on the campus - cutting a figure more akin to an off-duty rock star than bank CEO - wearing an open-collar shirt and jeans, and high-fiving staff on his way to the stage.

Opening with his take on the UK's economy, Dimon said he felt Rachel Reeves was doing a "terrific job", and he felt optimistic about some of the government's attempts to boost innovation and cut regulation.

However, in the broader economic picture, he felt there were increased risks US stock markets were overheated.

"I am far more worried about that than others," he said.

There were a "lot of things out there" creating an atmosphere of uncertainty, he added, pointing to risk factors like the geopolitical environment, fiscal spending and the remilitarisation of the world.

"All these things cause a lot of issues that we don't know how to answer," he said.

"So I say the level of uncertainty should be higher in most people's minds than what I would call normal."

Much of the rapid growth in the stock market in recent years has been driven by investment in AI.

On Wednesday, the Bank of England drew a comparison with the dot com boom (and subsequent bust) of the late 1990s - and warned that the value of AI tech companies "appear stretched" with a rising risk of a "sharp correction".

"The way I look at it is AI is real, AI in total will pay off," he said.

"Just like cars in total paid off, and TVs in total paid off, but most people involved in them didn't do well."

He added some of the money being invested in AI would "probably be lost".

Bullets, guns and bombs

Global security has been a recent focus for the JP Morgan boss, with his letter to shareholders earlier this year warning the US would run out of missiles in seven days of a South China Sea war.

Reflecting on how the world could combat risk factors, he pointed to greater military investment.

"People talk about stockpiling things like crypto, I always say we should be stockpiling bullets, guns and bombs.

"The world's a much more dangerous place, and I'd rather have safety than not."

Another risk factor which many in the global economy believe the US could be facing is pressure placed on the independence of the Federal Reserve, America's central bank.

On this, he said he thought central bank independence was important - but was willing to take Trump "at his word" that he would not interfere in Fed independence, despite the president describing current Fed chair Jerome Powell as a "moron" and a "numbskull" for failing to lower interest rates more quickly.

Dimon acknowledged the US had become a "little less reliable" but said that some of the Trump administration's action had pushed Europe to act over underinvestment in Nato and its lack of economic competitiveness.

Dimon also shared insights into a potential breakthrough in trade negotiations between India and the US.

He said he wanted to "bring India closer" and he believed a deal was close to reduce additional tariffs on India, which were imposed as a penalty for its continued trade with Russia, particularly its oil purchases.

"In fact, I've spoken to several of the Trump officials who say they want to do that, and I've been told that they are going to do that."

Jamie Dimon's name has been frequently mentioned among the big financial players capable of making a transition into politics.

Ahead of Trump's re-election last year, influential investor Bill Ackman said he would be an "incredible choice" as treasury secretary, and he has also been the subject of speculation about a potential presidential run.

Asked about his political ambitions, Dimon said it "wasn't on the cards", and his focus was on keeping JP Morgan as a "healthy and vibrant company".

"If you gave me the presidency, I'd take it," he joked. "I think I'd do a good job."

The parents of Tom Phillips, who vanished with his three children into the New Zealand wilderness in 2021, have made a public apology - their first comments since Phillips was shot dead by police on 8 September.

"We would like to send our sincere apology... for all the trouble, inconvenience, loss of privacy and property caused by Tom," Neville and Julia Phillips wrote in a letter published in King Country News, a small community newspaper, on Thursday.

"We in no way supported him or agreed with any of his actions in the past four years. We are truly sorry for all that you had to endure."

Phillips evaded capture for nearly four years, despite a nationwide search and multiple sightings.

He was killed in a shoot-out in September, in which a police officer was seriously injured.

The officer has since been discharged from hospital, local media reported.

One of his children had been with him during the shoot-out, and provided information to help locate Phillips' two other children later that day.

Before Phillips disappeared with his children, they had been living in Marokopa, a small rural town in the region of Waikato surrounded by dense bush and forested terrain.

"The vast area in which Phillips kept the children is difficult, steep terrain almost completely obscured from all angles by dense bush," Detective Superintendent Ross McKay said weeks after the deadly shoot-out.

The main goal of the police during the operation had been "locating and returning the children safely" he said. He added that they "knew Phillips had firearms and was motivated to use them".

Police said they could not provide further details amid ongoing investigations.

Phillips' family had previously made public appeals to him to return.

In a message to Phillips during a television interview, his sister Rozzi said "we're ready to help you walk through what you need to walk through".

Phillips' mother Julia also wrote him a letter - provided to New Zealand outlet Stuff - saying that everyday she hoped "today will be the day that you all come home".

A new law in California is aimed at stopping advertisements from pumping up the volume on streaming services.

The law, which says adverts cannot be louder than the primary video content being watched, builds on a federal one that sets the volume of ads on broadcast TV and cable stations to include streaming platforms.

Opponents, including the influential entertainment industry, had argued it would be difficult to implement because streaming services do not have the same control over ad volume as broadcasters.

California is home to the headquarters of streaming platforms Netflix and Hulu, and Amazon produces many of its Prime Video shows and movies there.

In 2010, Congress pass the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act to dial down the volume on TV and radio stations.

The law that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed on Monday forces streaming services to comply with the Obama-era federal law too.

The services were in their nascence when the CALM Act was passed but have since become the primary viewing option in many US households.

"We heard Californians loud and clear, and what's clear is that they don't want commercials at a volume any louder than the level at which they were previously enjoying a program," Newsom said upon signing the bill.

Existing federal law requires the federal regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to develop regulations that require commercials to have the same average volume as the programs they accompany, according to the bill.

In February, the FCC said it had received thousands of complaints about loud commercials over past several years - many regarding streaming services.

This law, which takes effect on and after July 1, 2026, prohibits a video streaming service that serves consumers in the state from transmitting the audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content the people are watching.

"This bill was inspired by baby Samantha and every exhausted parent who's finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work," said State Senator Thomas Umberg, who introduced the bill.

Samantha is the daughter of Umberg's legislative director, Zach Keller, who told him about a noisy ad waking up his infant daughter while he was watching a streaming show.

However, the Motion Picture Association and the Streaming Innovation Alliance, which represent streaming services including Disney and Netflix, initially opposed the bill.

They said they do not have the ability to control volume settings on the devices on which their content is offered, unlike broadcast and cable TV providers.

Streaming ads come from several different sources and cannot necessarily or practically be controlled, the MPA's vice-president of state government affairs Melissa Patack said in June.

The bill was later amended with a legal provision that would bar individuals or private parties from suing streaming services for violating the law.

Both groups remained neutral on the amended bill as a result, according to the Los Angeles Times.

US President Donald Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas have "both signed off" on the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza.

"This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace," Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The announcement comes after three days of indirect talks in Egypt - mediated by officials from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US - aimed at bringing an end to the two-year conflict.

Both Israel and Hamas also confirmed an agreement had been reached.

• Follow the latest updates here

However, Trump's post did not provide clarity on other known sticking points in negotiations - notably the disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza.

In a post on X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "great day", adding that he would "convene the government tomorrow to ratify the agreement and bring all of our precious hostages home".

Hamas confirmed that the agreement included an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a hostage-prisoner exchange.

The group also called on Trump, the guarantor countries and other Arab states to compel Israel "to fully implement the agreement's requirements".

A senior White House official told CBS, the BBC's US news partner, that "our assessment is that hostages will begin getting released on Monday".

Qatari Foreign Minister Majed al-Ansari said more details would be announced later, adding that the agreement would "lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid".

Earlier on Wednesday, expectations that a deal could be imminent were heightened after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered an event with Trump and handed him a note.

The message appeared to ask that Trump approve a Truth Social post about Gaza so that "you can announce first".

Trump said that note informed him that "we are very close to a deal". He exited the room shortly thereafter, saying he had to focus on the Middle East.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli fire had killed at least eight people over the previous 24 hours – the lowest death toll it has reported in the past week.

Hospitals said two people had been killed on Wednesday while trying to collect food from aid distribution centres in central and southern Gaza.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its troops had killed "several terrorists" who attempted to attack their position in Gaza City.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.

At least 67,183 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, according to the territory's health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies, although Israel disputes them.

The ministry has said another 460 people have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since a famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).

Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza and said Israel was facilitating deliveries of food and other aid.

James Comey, the former director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, has pleaded not guilty to making false statements to lawmakers and obstructing a congressional proceeding.

Mr Comey's lawyer entered the plea on his behalf in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Wednesday morning.

Patrick Fitzgerald said he would seek to have the case dismissed for several reasons including that his client, a critic of President Donald Trump, was being targeted.

Mr Comey was indicted a few days after Trump urged his attorney general to take action against him.

A judge set a trial date of 5 January after Mr Comey's lawyers requested a speedy trial.

Both the prosecution and defence expected the trial to last just two to three days.

In court on Wednesday, Comey's lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald told the judge they planned to file several motions to dismiss the case before a trial, arguing the prosecution was vindictive and that a US attorney was unlawfully appointed to take over the case.

Mr Comey's case was originally overseen by Erik Siebert, a Virginia prosecutor who resigned under pressure from Trump after his investigation into another political adversary - New York Attorney General Letitia James - failed to bring criminal charges. Trump then appointed Lindsey Halligan to replace him.

Mr Comey appeared in good spirits as he entered the courtroom on Wednesday, chatting with his attorneys and making jokes. He was joined by his wife, Patrice Failor and daughter Maureen Comey, a federal prosecutor who the Trump administration recently fired.

• What is Comey accused of?

After listening to the judge read his rights and the two counts against him in court on Wednesday, Mr Comey was asked if he understood the charges.

"I do your honour. Thank you very much," he told the court.

US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff said the two charges each carry a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to a $200,000 (£149,442).

Representing the government, Ms Halligan took over the role of top federal prosecutor in Virginia's eastern district in September.

In less than a week on the job, she secured a grand jury indictment against Mr Comey after prosecutors before her had declined to take on the case due to a lack of evidence.

The hasty turnaround was reflected in Wednesday's court proceedings, when defence lawyers complained they did not have access to classified documents that prosecutors intended to submit as evidence.

"We feel the cart has been put before the horse," Mr Fitzgerald said.

Judge Nachmanoff warned the government: "I will not slow this case down because the government does not promptly turn over information."

Mr Comey was the FBI Director from 2013 to 2017 and was fired about four months into Trump's first term as president. At the time, Mr Comey was leading an investigation into Russian election interference and whether there were any links between Moscow and Trump's campaign.

During his tenure, Mr Comey sparked a backlash from Democrats when he announced just days before the 2016 presidential election that he was investigating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. Charges against Clinton were never brought, leading to criticism from Republicans as well.

Since leaving government, Mr Comey has been an ardent critic of the Trump administration.

The federal government alleges Mr Comey lied to Congress during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in September 2020 when he was being questioned about both the Clinton investigation as well as the Russia election probe. They say he misled the Senate by saying he had not authorised someone at the FBI to leak to news outlets information about the FBI investigations.

Prosecutors also accuse Mr Comey of "corruptly endeavor[ing] to influence, obstruct and impede" the panel by making false statements to it.

In a video Mr Comey posted to his Instagram after he was indicted, he said he was innocent and accused Trump of acting like a "tyrant".

"My family and I have know for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump," he said. "We will not live on our knees."

"I'm innocent," he added. "So let's have a trial."

The charges against Mr Comey came after Trump posted on social media demanding his attorney general, Pam Bondi, prosecute Mr Comey and others.