For many young girls in Japan today, the image of Sanae Takaichi taking the helm of power as the country's first ever female leader is powerful and formative.

It means a patriarchal society and a political system that has long been dominated by men is now led by a woman.

But while the optics speak of a progressive moment, some women don't see her as an advocate for change.

"It was quite interesting to see how people outside Japan have reacted to the news." Ayda Ogura, 21, says.

"Everyone's like, 'wow, she's the first female prime minister in Japanese history and that would be a great opportunity for women empowerment and gender equality in Japan'.

"I think that's a very naive interpretation."

Instead, Ms Ogura points to her "political beliefs and what she stands for", adding: "She perpetuates the patriarchal system."

A big fan of Margaret Thatcher, Britain's first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi has always wanted to be the "Iron Lady" of her country.

And like Thatcher, Takaichi is a staunch conservative.

Observers say her leadership is a tactical move from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to appeal to the more conservative base which had recently gravitated towards Japan's parties further to the right.

Takaichi opposes same-sex marriage and has long stood against legislation that would allow married couples to have separate surnames, preventing many women from keeping their maiden names.

She's also against women being in line for succession in the imperial family.

However, she did soften some of her messaging during her campaign - saying she favours giving tax incentives to companies that provide childcare facilities to their employees and spoke of possible tax breaks for families spending on childcare.

But she has over the years backed the idea of a more traditional role for women in society and in the family.

When it comes to women's issues, Takaichi is consistent with her country's less than impressive record on gender issues.

Japanese women are among the best educated and highest qualified in the world and yet they struggle with the expectations of a conservative society that still pushes them in traditional roles.

According to the 2025 gender gap index by the World Economic Forum, Japan ranked 118th among 148 countries, with female representation in the field of politics notably low.

Leadership positions have traditionally been dominated by men and Japan has struggled to increase the number of female lawmakers and business leaders.

The world's fourth largest economy ranks last among the G7 countries when it comes to the share of women in its national parliament. Specifically, women make up about 15.7% of lawmakers in Japan, the lowest figure among the G7.

It is even slow when it comes to women's reproductive health: only this week was it announced that the "morning after" pill - a form of emergency contraception available without prescription in more than 90 countries - had finally been approved for over the counter use in Japan.

Even so, some see Takaichi's rise to power as a pivotal moment that could change how women view their prospects.

"There is great significance in Ms Takaichi becoming prime minister, with a broader impact on society," Naomi Koshi - who became the country's youngest female mayor in 2012 - told Japan's Kyodo news agency.

Koshi argued Japan having a female prime minister will "lower psychological barriers" for women and girls, helping them feel it is normal to "stand out" as leaders in companies and society, even as gender-based stereotypes and expectations still remain.

But Audrey Hill-Uekawa, 20, points out that, while it is remarkable Japan has its first female leader, one must remember it took her more than 30 years to get to that position.

"She's also not really going against the grain. She's saying the same thing as the men."

Ms Hill-Uekawa adds that she shouldn't be put on a pedestal simply because she is a woman.

"We need to make sure we're talking about her policies. We need to be able to criticise her equally as everyone else."

It is not just what Takaichi has said which has led people to label her as a defender of the patriarchy.

It's also evident by who her champions inside the party have been.

She's the protégé of the late former hawkish prime minister Shinzo Abe, and was backed in the leadership election by Taro Aso - a senior figure in the LDP at the head of one of the ruling party's most influential conservative blocs.

His faction's support for Sanae Takaichi was pivotal in uniting the party's right wing behind her.

"I do feel that it is difficult for women to sort of relate to her success because it furthers this idea that we must be compliant with the status quo," 21-year-old Minori Konishi says.

Ms Ogura agrees, saying that with her as a figurehead for women in politics, "people are going to expect the same from us as well".

"They're going to expect us to be compliant, not go against the ideals that they have, and it might make our job more difficult."

Making history, however, was just the first of the challenges Takaichi will face - not least tackling a sluggish economy and inflation and winning back the trust of a frustrated and angry electorate, as well as hosting president Trump within days of taking power.

It's safe to say that no-one expects gender equality issues to be high on her priority list.

French police are desperate to retrieve priceless jewels stolen from the Louvre in a brazen daylight robbery, but experts have warned it may already be too late to save them.

In Paris on Sunday, thieves broke into the world's most-visited museum, stealing eight valued items before escaping on scooters, in a daring heist that took about eight minutes.

Dutch art detective Arthur Brand told the BBC he feared the jewels may already be "long gone", having been broken up into hundreds of parts.

It is highly likely the pieces will be sold for a fraction of their worth and smuggled out of France, other experts have said.

Who may be behind the heist

The group were professionals, Mr Brand believes, as demonstrated by the fact they were in and out of the Louvre so quickly.

"You know, as a normal person, you don't wake up in the morning thinking, I will become a burglar, let's start with the Louvre," he said.

"This won't be their first heist," he said. "They have done things before, other burglaries. They are confident and they thought, we might get away with this, and went for it."

In another sign the professionalism of the gang is being taken seriously, a specialist police unit with a "high success rate in cracking high-profile robberies" has been tasked with tracking them down.

Authorities have said they suspect the heist is linked to an organised crime network. Mr Brand says it means the perpetrators will likely have criminal records and be known to the police.

Organised crime groups like these generally have two objectives, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said. "Either to act for the benefit of a sponsor, or to obtain precious stones to carry out money laundering operations."

Mr Brand thinks it would be impossible to sell the items intact, and he said stealing-to-order for a private collector is something that only happens in Hollywood films.

"Nobody wants to touch a piece so hot," he explained. "You cannot show it to your friends, you cannot leave it to your children, you cannot sell it."

Potential £10m price tag

Mr Brand believes the objects will be dismantled and broken up, with the gold and silver melted down and the gems cut up into smaller stones that will be virtually impossible to track back to the Louvre robbery.

Jewellery historian Carol Woolton, who presents the podcast If Jewels Could Talk and was Vogue magazine's jewellery editor for 20 years, told the BBC the robbers had "cherry-picked" the most important gemstones from the Louvre's collection.

The "beautiful large flawless stones" would likely be dug out of their mountings and sold, she said, except for the crown from Empress Eugénie which has smaller stones set in it and was "too hot to handle", she added.

This could explain why it was dropped during the escape, along with one other item, and found by authorities.

Empress Eugenie's tiara, which was stolen, has rare natural pearls which have a very large value, experts say.

While the items have been described as being priceless, Ms Woolton expects them to be sold for a fraction of their worth.

"They will go to someone who is willing to handle these," she said. "Everyone will be looking for these – they will take what they can get."

How much exactly could they fetch in money if sold on? When asked about the potential value of the haul, Mr Brand said the cut-up parts could be worth "many millions".

The gems and gold stolen could fetch up to £10 million (€11.52m; $13.4m), says Tobias Kormind, managing director of 77 Diamonds, an online jeweller.

He told the BBC the gang would need a skilled expert to remove the gems, and a professional diamond cutter to change the larger recognisable stones.

Smaller stones that were not easily identifiable could be sold immediately and while it was hard to tell the exact price of all the stones stolen, the larger ones could be worth around £500,000 each, he said.

"There are at least four of that size, so adding all of those up plus the gold, you are probably approaching £10m," he said.

"The diamond and gemstone market is liquid and there are many buyers on the fringes that don't ask too many questions."

There are hopes that the items could reappear intact one day - but those hopes are narrowing as the days pass.

There is a precedent - the Cartier exhibition at the V&A Museum features an item of jewellery stolen in 1948 before reappearing in an auction several decades later.

What is certain is many in France are deeply shocked by the Louvre heist, having felt an emotional attachment to the jewels.

"We don't necessarily like jewellery because it's a question of power, and that doesn't necessarily have a good connotation in France," Alexandre Leger, head of heritage at French jeweller Maison Vever, said.

"But inevitably, what was stolen belonged as much to you as it did to me. It belongs to France, so everyone owns a little piece of these objects, just as everyone owns a little piece of the Mona Lisa.

"It's as if someone had stolen the Mona Lisa from us... Someone stole France."

Additional reporting by Izumi Yoneyama.

South Korean police said they would seek an arrest warrant for a woman who set fire to her apartment building while trying to kill a cockroach with an improvised flamethrower, local media report.

One of the woman's neighbours died after falling to the ground in a failed attempt to escape through a window.

The woman, who is in her 20s, told police that she tried to torch a cockroach with a lighter and a flammable spray, adding she had used the method before. But on Monday, items in her home caught fire.

Police in the northern city of Osan said the woman could be charged with accidentally starting a fire and causing death by negligence.

Blasting cockroaches - with blowtorches or homemade flamethrowers - have emerged as a novel way of getting rid of house pests, made popular by videos on social media.

In 2018, an Australian man set fire to his kitchen while trying to kill cockroaches with a homemade flamethrower made from insect spray.

The woman who died in the Osan city fire, a Chinese national in her 30s, lived on the fifth floor of the building with her husband and two-month-old baby.

When they realised that a fire had broken out, the couple opened their home window and called for help.

They handed their baby through the window to a neighbour in the adjacent block, before trying to evacuate themselves.

The woman's husband managed to climb over to the next block. She tried to do the same, but fell from the window. She was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead hours later.

Police said they believed the couple had tried escaping through the window because thick smoke from the fire had blocked the stairway, local media report.

The building houses commercial shops on its first floor and 32 residential units from its second to fifth floor.

Eight other residents suffered from smoke inhalation because of the fire.

A semi-transparent crab about the size of an almond and a tiny, glowing lantern shark are among two new species discovered by Australian scientists exploring the deep sea.

In late 2022, scientists from Australia's science agency CSIRO embarked on a research voyage in the Gascoyne Marine Park, about 20km (12 miles) off the coast of Western Australia.

Australia is one of the world's biggest biodiversity hotspots, home to more than a million different species, many of which are not found anywhere else on earth.

But - like much of the globe - large swathes of its water remain unexplored, and the animal and plant life within them unknown to science.

Among the hundreds of specimens collected during the 2022 voyage was the newly described West Australian Lantern Shark. Growing up to 40cm, it has large eyes and a glowing belly, and was found more than 600m below the ocean's surface.

"Lantern sharks are bioluminescent, with light produced by photophores located on their belly and flanks, which is where their common name comes from," Dr Will White, a fish scientist, said.

They also discovered a new type of porcelain crab, about 1.5cm in length and found about 122m below sea level. They use hairs to catch food, instead of their claws.

"Porcelain crabs are known as filter feeders, feeding on plankton by using modified mouthparts with long hairs to sweep the water for small pieces of food such as plankton, rather than the typical crab method of grabbing and pinching food with their claws," said Dr Andrew Hosie, curator of aquatic zoology from the Western Australian Museum.

About 20 new species have been unearthed as a result of the voyage so far, including the Carnavon Flapjack Octopus, a rusty red creature around 4cm big.

Researchers estimate about 600 more are yet to be described and named, as it can take years for scientists to gather the information to prove they're unique.

Nicolas Sarkozy will become the first French ex-president to go to jail, as he starts a five-year sentence for conspiring to fund his election campaign with money from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Not since World War Two Nazi collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain was jailed for treason in 1945 has any French ex-leader gone behind bars.

Sarkozy, who was president from 2007-2012, has appealed against his jail term at La Santé prison, where he is will occupy a cell roughly measuring 9 sq m (95 sq ft) in the jail's isolation wing.

More than 100 people stood outside the jail, after his son Louis, 28, called on supporters for a show of support.

Another son, Pierre, called for a message of love - "nothing else, please".

Nicolas Sarkozy, 70, was due to arrive at 10:00 (08:00 GMT) at the infamous 19th-Century prison in the Montparnasse district south of the River Seine. He continues to protest his innocence in the highly controversial Libyan money affair.

Sarkozy has said he wants no special treatment at the notorious La Santé prison, although he has been put in the isolation section for his own safety as other inmates are notorious drugs dealers or have been convicted for terror offences.

Other than Philippe Pétain, the only other former French head of state to have been jailed was King Louis XVI before his execution in January 1793.

Inside his cell he will have a toilet, shower, desk and small TV. He will be allowed one hour a day for exercise, by himself.

At the end of last week he was received at the Élysée Palace by President Emmanuel Macron, who told reporters on Monday "it was normal that on a human level I should receive one of my predecessors in that context".

In a further measure of official support for the ex-president, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said he would go to visit him in prison as part of his role in ensuring Sarkozy's safety and the proper functioning of the jail.

"I cannot be insensitive to a man's distress," he added.

• Read more: Former French president Sarkozy given five-year sentence after Libya case

Ahead of his arrival at La Santé prison, Sarkozy gave a series of media interviews, telling La Tribune: "I'm not afraid of prison. I'll keep my head held high, including at the prison gates."

Sarkozy has always denied doing anything wrong in a case involving allegations that his 2007 presidential campaign was funded by millions of euros in Libyan cash.

The former centre-right leader was cleared of personally receiving the money but convicted of criminal association with two close aides, Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéant, to talk to the Libyans about secret campaign financing.

The two men both had talks with Gadaffi's intelligence chief and brother-in-law in 2005, in a meeting arranged by a Franco-Lebanese intermediary called Ziad Tiakeddine, who died in Lebanon shortly before Sarkozy's conviction.

As he lodged an appeal, Sarkozy is still considered innocent but he has been told he must go to jail in view of the "exceptional seriousness of the facts".

Sarkozy said he would take two books with him into prison, a life of Jesus and the Count of Monte Christo, the story of a man wrongly imprisoned who escapes to wreak vengeance on his prosecutors.

A man who shot and seriously injured the Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in an attack last year has been sentenced to 21 years in prison after being found guilty of terrorism.

Juraj Cintula, a 72-year-old pensioner, fired five shots at the prime minister in May 2024 when he was on a visit to Handlova, about 180km (112 miles) from the capital Bratislava.

The gunman shot Fico at extremely close range, just as he was reaching out to shake his hand - thinking he was a supporter.

In court, Cintula denied trying to kill the prime minister, saying he had deliberately aimed away from his vital organs.

Footage from the scene of the shooting showed a man raising a gun and firing at the prime minister before being subdued by bodyguards. Other members of Fico's security team rushed the prime minister into his car.

He was seriously injured in his abdomen and was airlifted by helicopter to a nearby hospital for surgery, with his condition described as life threatening.

The attacker, an amateur poet in his 70s, claimed he only wanted to injure Fico in order to stop policies he believed were harming Slovakia.

The prime minister has tried to blame the opposition for the attack and for whipping up hatred, though he is known for deeply divisive rhetoric himself.

Cintula was sentenced on terror charges, with Judge Igor Kralik stating: "The court considers proven that the defendant did not attack a citizen but specifically the prime minister."

The gunman's lawyer had attempted to reduce the charge to attacking a public official, which has a lower penalty, but that was rejected by the judge.

Cintula's lawyer said he would likely appeal the verdict.

A Chinese-born woman has been charged for the theft of six gold nuggets worth about 1.5 million euros ($1.75m; £1.3m) from the Museum of Natural History in Paris last month, French prosecutors have said.

The woman was arrested in Barcelona trying to dispose of some melted gold, according to officials, and is being held in pre-trial detention.

Famous for its stuffed animals and bone collections, the museum is home to a mineralogy gallery, from the where the gold was taken. Police found an angle-grinder and a blowtorch at the scene.

The museum's alarm and surveillance systems had been disabled by a cyberattack, with thieves apparently aware of this, French media reported at the time.

• Can France retrieve its priceless crown jewels - or is it too late?
• How Louvre gang carried out France's most shocking theft

"The thieves, clearly very experienced and well-informed, exploited a security flaw that had not been identified during the last audit conducted in 2024 ," a museum spokesperson told French newspaper Le Figaro.

Cleaners discovered the break-in when they arrived for work before dawn at the museum, which is part of the Sorbonne university and located near the Jardin des Plantes in central Paris.

The suspect was arrested by Spanish police on 30 September on a European Arrest Warrant and handed over to the French on the same day, officials said in a statement.

At the time of her arrest, she was in possession of around a kilo of melted-down gold. Investigations are continuing, the statement added. It is believed she was preparing to leave for China.

One of the largest stolen nuggets, originally from Australia, weighs 5kg. At the current gold price, it would be worth around €585,000.

"We are dealing with an extremely professional team, perfectly aware of where they needed to go, and with professional equipment," Emmanuel Skoulios, the museum director, said to French broadcasters.

"It is absolutely not by chance that they went for these specific items," he told France 2 television last month.

The charges come just days after a separate daring heist at the Louvre saw thieves make off with the priceless French crown jewels.

On Sunday, "professional" thieves broke into the world's most-visited museum, stealing eight valued items before escaping on scooters. The raid took less than eight minutes, police said.

Experts told the BBC that items are likely to be broken up and sold for a fraction of their worth.

"This won't be their first heist," Dutch art detective Arthur Brand said on Monday.

"They have done things before, other burglaries. They are confident and they thought, 'we might get away with this', and went for it."

At least four French museums - including the Louvre and the natural history museum - have been robbed in recent months, according to media reports.

The small Central American nation of Belize has signed an agreement with Washington to act as a "safe third country" for migrants as they seek asylum in the United States.

Belize PM John Antonio Briceño said the deal - which must be approved by the Belize Senate - will mean that migrants deported from the US could apply for asylum instead of returning to their home countries.

The US State Department called it "an important milestone in ending illegal immigration", and "shutting down abuse" of the US asylum system.

The deal appears to be similar to one with Paraguay announced in August.

This year Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Honduras have also taken in people deported by the US.

Human rights groups in the US and abroad have strongly criticised such deals, saying migrants face the risk of being sent to countries where they could be harmed.

Belize's ministry of foreign affairs posted on social media that the agreement "includes strict security measures to protect Belize's national security and sovereignty".

"The Agreement gives Belize full authority to approve or reject transfers, limits eligibility to specific nationalities, and ensures comprehensive background checks, among other measures," it said.

Prime Minister Briceño told local media that for Belize it will be "more like a job programme, whereby people with certain qualifications can come to Belize" and "participate meaningfully in our economy."

He added that the country - which has a population of 417,000 - would prefer to take people from Central America, adding "we're not going to open up to the whole world".

But leader of the opposition, Tracy Taegar Panton, expressed "grave concern" about the deal, saying it "could reshape Belize's immigration and asylum systems, impose new financial burdens on taxpayers, and raise serious questions about national sovereignty and security".

The US State Department posted on X that the agreement was "an important milestone in ending illegal immigration, shutting down abuse of our nation's asylum system, and reinforcing our shared commitment to tackling challenges in our hemisphere together".

Further details of the agreement have not yet been released.

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

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

Sanae Takaichi has been elected Japan's prime minister by parliament, making her the first woman to hold the office.

The 64-year-old won a clear majority on Monday - 237 votes in the powerful Lower House and another 125 in the Upper House - as leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

A staunch conservative and admirer of the late former British PM Margaret Thatcher, Takaichi takes over at a challenging economic moment as Japan grapples with rising cost-of-living and a frustrated public.

It's also been an uncertain time for the world's fourth-largest economy. She is the fourth PM in just five years, after her predecessors' terms were cut short by plunging ratings and scandals.

Although she defeated four men to win the LDP race in early October, her path to the top job appeared to be blocked when the LDP's long-time coalition partner, the Komeito party, withdrew support.

But a last-minute deal on Monday night with another opposition party - the right- leaning Japan Innovation Party (JIP), known as Ishin - saved her. She and the LDP will face voters next in 2028.

Meanwhile aside from domestic challenges, she faces tricky relationships abroad. South Korea, which had started to mend historically delicate ties with Japan, is wary because of her right-wing politics, which lean nationalist. And, like some of her predecessors, including the late former PM Shinzo Abe, she is seen as hawkish when it comes to an increasingly powerful China.

But the most important relationship is with the US and a test is around the corner - a meeting with US President Donald Trump next week.

While both sides have reached a tariff deal, Trump's past comments questioning the value of a security treaty between them and demanding Tokyo pay more for defence have raised concerns - Takaichi must navigate these alongside an unpredictable US administration.

At the age of 64, Takaichi is no stranger to Japanese politics.

A known ally of Abe, she has held several ministerial roles over her career and has run for the PM job before.

She was elected LDP leader after former PM and LDP leader Shigeru Ishiba resigned following major losses in midterm elections.

Nicknamed the "Iron Lady" for her admiration of Thatcher, Takaichi is known for conservative views, including her opposition to same-sex marriage and a growing demand to allow married women to keep their maiden surnames.

This has made some young women sceptical of the significance of her win.

"Everyone's like, 'Wow, she's the first female prime minister in Japanese history and that's a great opportunity for women's empowerment'," said 21-year-old student Ayda Ogura.

"[But] if you look into her political beliefs and what she stands for, you realise that some of the things are very traditional. Instead of creating structural change, she rather perpetuates the patriarchal system."

During her recent campaign she proposed expanded hospital services for women's health and giving household support workers greater recognition.

She still has a major task ahead of her - to rebuild the trust of the public in the LDP.

The party has governed Japan for most of the past seven decades, but under Ishiba it lost its majority in the lower house for the first time in 15 years. Then it lost its majority in the upper house in July, amid public anger after a fundraising scandal.

In electing Takaichi, the LDP had hoped to win back conservative voters, many of whom had gravitated towards the far-right Sanseito party after being disillusioned with the usual options.

But first Takaichi has to turn her attention to public anger as prices continue to soar. An ongoing rice shortage, for example, has resulted in record prices for the Japanese staple.

Local media are reporting that she may apppoint Satsuki Katayama as finance minister, yet another historic first for a woman. Like Takaichi, Katayama too is a protege of Abe.

While concern over Japan's rising debt and lacklustre growth has been worrying investors, her win seemed to offer some optimism to the markets.

US Vice-President JD Vance has arrived in Israel as part of the Trump administration's efforts to strengthen the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

He is expected to push the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to start negotiations on long-term issues for a permanent end to the war with Hamas.

The two special US envoys who helped negotiate the deal, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, also held talks with Netanyahu on Monday.

Their visits come after a flare-up of violence on Sunday that threatened to derail the 12-day-old truce. Israel said a Hamas attack killed two soldiers, triggering Israeli air strikes which killed dozens of Palestinians.

US President Donald Trump insisted on Monday that the ceasefire was still on track but also warned Hamas that it would be "eradicated" if it violated the deal.

Trump is said to have dispatched his deputy and envoys to Israel to keep up the momentum and push for the start of talks on the second critical phase of his 20-point Gaza peace plan.

It would involve setting up an interim government in the Palestinian territory, deploying an international stabilisation force, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, and disarmament of Hamas.

Vance, Witkoff and Kushner are also attempting to ensure the ceasefire deal, which is based on the first phase of the peace plan, does not collapse first.

The New York Times cited US officials as saying they were concerned that Israel's prime minister might "vacate" the deal and resume an all-out assault against Hamas.

Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament on Monday that he would discuss "security challenges" and "political opportunities" with Vance during his visit.

He also said Israeli forces had dropped 153 tonnes of bombs on Gaza in response to what he called a "blatant" breach of the ceasefire by Hamas on Sunday.

"One of our hands holds a weapon, the other hand is stretched out for peace," he said. "You make peace with the strong, not the weak. Today Israel is stronger than ever before."

The Israeli military blamed Hamas for an anti-tank missile attack on Sunday that killed two Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza and then carried out dozens of strikes across the territory which hospitals said killed at least 45 Palestinians.

Afterwards, the Israeli military said it was resuming enforcement of the ceasefire, while Hamas said it remained committed to the agreement.

However, four Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli fire east of Gaza City on Monday. The Israeli military said its troops fired towards " terrorists" who crossed the agreed-upon ceasefire line in the Shejaiya area.

Later, Trump told reporters at the White House: "We made a deal with Hamas that they're going to be very good. They're going to behave. They're going to be nice."

"If they're not, we're going to go and we're going to eradicate them, if we have to. They'll be eradicated, and they know that," he added.

Hamas's chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, who is in Cairo, meanwhile insisted that his group and other Palestinian factions were committed to the ceasefire deal and "determined to fully implement it until the end".

"What we heard from the mediators and the US president reassures us that the war in Gaza is over," he told Egypt's Al-Qahera News TV .

Hayya also said Hamas was serious about handing over the bodies of all the deceased hostages still in Gaza despite facing what he described as "extreme difficulty" in its efforts to recover them under rubble because of a lack of specialist equipment.

Overnight, Israeli authorities confirmed that Hamas had handed over the body of another deceased Israeli hostage to the Red Cross in Gaza.

The remains were identified as those of Tal Haimi, 41, who the Israeli military said was killed in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October, which triggered the war.

That means 13 of the 28 hostages' bodies held in Gaza when the ceasefire took effect on 10 October have so far been returned.

Twenty living Israeli hostages were also released last week in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails.

There has been anger in Israel that Hamas has not yet returned all the dead hostages, with the Israeli prime minister's office saying that the group "was required to uphold its commitments".

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 68,216 have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

A drone attack has hit an area near the international airport in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, a day before it was set to resume domestic flights for the first time since war broke out in 2023.

Residents of the city reported hearing explosions in several districts early on Tuesday morning. Social media images - yet to be verified by the BBC - appear to show a series of blasts.

There is no information on casualties or damage, and no-one has claimed responsibility.

On Monday, Sudan's Civil Aviation Authority had announced the airport would reopen on Wednesday, months after the army recaptured Khartoum from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and began repairing the heavily damaged airport.

Tuesday's strike marked the third attack in the capital within a week, following strikes on two army bases in north-west Khartoum on consecutive days last week.

The Sudan Tribune news website cites a security source as saying that anti-aircraft defences had intercepted several drones after 04:00 local time (02:00 GMT) but gave no details on any damage.

The international airport shut down shortly after fighting erupted between the army and the RSF in April 2023, when the paramilitary force took control of it.

• Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening
• Sudanese city under siege: 'My son's whole body is full of shrapnel'

Port Sudan, in the east, has the country's only functioning international airport, although it has been targeted by drones.

Khartoum has remained relatively calm since the army retook control of the city in March, but attacks have persisted, with the RSF accused of targeting civilian and military infrastructure from a distance.

Since the loss of the capital, the RSF has intensified efforts to capture el-Fasher - the army's last stronghold in the western Darfur region.

The ongoing conflict has killed tens of thousands and forced millions from their homes.

What started as power struggle between the army and the RSF has since drawn in other Sudanese armed groups and foreign backers, plunging the country into what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

You may also be interested in:

• 'I can't afford to save both twins': Sudan's war left one mother with an impossible choice
• War crimes alert as food runs out in besieged Sudan city
• Oil-rich Sudanese region becomes new focus of war between army and rival forces
• 'I lost a baby and then rescued a child dodging air strikes in Sudan's civil war'

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

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

Nicolas Sarkozy will become the first French ex-president to go to jail, as he starts a five-year sentence for conspiring to fund his election campaign with money from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Not since World War Two Nazi collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain was jailed for treason in 1945 has any French ex-leader gone behind bars.

Sarkozy, who was president from 2007-2012, has appealed against his jail term at La Santé prison, where he is will occupy a cell roughly measuring 9 sq m (95 sq ft) in the jail's isolation wing.

More than 100 people stood outside the jail, after his son Louis, 28, called on supporters for a show of support.

Another son, Pierre, called for a message of love - "nothing else, please".

Nicolas Sarkozy, 70, was due to arrive at 10:00 (08:00 GMT) at the infamous 19th-Century prison in the Montparnasse district south of the River Seine. He continues to protest his innocence in the highly controversial Libyan money affair.

Sarkozy has said he wants no special treatment at the notorious La Santé prison, although he has been put in the isolation section for his own safety as other inmates are notorious drugs dealers or have been convicted for terror offences.

Other than Philippe Pétain, the only other former French head of state to have been jailed was King Louis XVI before his execution in January 1793.

Inside his cell he will have a toilet, shower, desk and small TV. He will be allowed one hour a day for exercise, by himself.

At the end of last week he was received at the Élysée Palace by President Emmanuel Macron, who told reporters on Monday "it was normal that on a human level I should receive one of my predecessors in that context".

In a further measure of official support for the ex-president, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said he would go to visit him in prison as part of his role in ensuring Sarkozy's safety and the proper functioning of the jail.

"I cannot be insensitive to a man's distress," he added.

• Read more: Former French president Sarkozy given five-year sentence after Libya case

Ahead of his arrival at La Santé prison, Sarkozy gave a series of media interviews, telling La Tribune: "I'm not afraid of prison. I'll keep my head held high, including at the prison gates."

Sarkozy has always denied doing anything wrong in a case involving allegations that his 2007 presidential campaign was funded by millions of euros in Libyan cash.

The former centre-right leader was cleared of personally receiving the money but convicted of criminal association with two close aides, Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéant, to talk to the Libyans about secret campaign financing.

The two men both had talks with Gadaffi's intelligence chief and brother-in-law in 2005, in a meeting arranged by a Franco-Lebanese intermediary called Ziad Tiakeddine, who died in Lebanon shortly before Sarkozy's conviction.

As he lodged an appeal, Sarkozy is still considered innocent but he has been told he must go to jail in view of the "exceptional seriousness of the facts".

Sarkozy said he would take two books with him into prison, a life of Jesus and the Count of Monte Christo, the story of a man wrongly imprisoned who escapes to wreak vengeance on his prosecutors.

Many of the world's largest websites, including Snapchat, Reddit and Roblox, were knocked offline on Monday after a huge Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage.

More than 1,000 apps and websites - including banks such as Lloyds and Halifax - were impacted by problems at the heart of the cloud computing giant's operations in the US, according to platform outage monitor Downdetector.

It said reports from users of problems globally had soared to more than 6.5 million during the outage on Monday morning.

While Amazon said it had resolved the outage by 12:00 BST, experts say it demonstrates the perils that come with lots of companies relying on a single, dominant provider.

"What this episode has highlighted is just how interdependent our infrastructure is," said Prof Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey.

"So many online services rely upon third parties for their physical infrastructure, and this shows that problems can occur in even the largest of those third-party providers.

"Small errors, often human made, can have widespread and significant impact."

The issues appear to have begun at around 07:00 BST on Monday, as users began to report problems accessing a slew of platforms.

This included a wide range of different sites and services, from massive online games like Fortnite to the language-learning app Duolingo.

Downdetector told the BBC it had seen more than four million reports from users across 500 sites within just a few hours - more than double the amount it would see across an entire regular weekday.

These later peaked at more than six million, it said, as more services including Reddit and Lloyds Bank attempted to recover.

At around 11:00 BST, Amazon said most of its affected services had recovered.

What went wrong?

Amazon has not yet fully detailed what caused Monday's outage or issued an official statement regarding it.

It said in an update on its service status web page the issue "appears to be related to DNS resolution of the DynamoDB API endpoint in US-EAST-1".

DNS, which stands for Domain Name System, is often likened to a phone book for the internet.

It effectively translates the website names people use (like bbc.co.uk) into numbers which can be read and understood by computers.

This process basically underpins the way we use the internet, and disruptions to it can leave web browsers unable to locate the content they are looking for.

Matthew Prince, chief executive of Cloudflare, told the BBC the AWS outage highlighted the power cloud services have over how the internet works.

"Everyone has a bad day, today Amazon had a bad day," he said.

"There are amazing things about the cloud, it allows you to scale… but if you have an outage like this it can take down a lot of services we rely on."

And Cori Crider, head of the Future of Technology Institute, told the BBC it was "a bit like a bridge collapsing".

"An essential part of the economy has fallen to pieces," she said.

And with so much of cloud computing relying on Amazon, Microsoft and Google - estimated at around 70% - she said the status quo was "unsustainable".

"Once you have a concentrated supply in a handful of monopoly providers, when something like this falls over, it takes a huge percentage of the economy out with it," she said.

"We should really look at trying to buy more local services, rather than relying on a handful of American monopoly platforms.

"That's a risk to our security, our sovereignty and our economy and we need to look at structural separations to make our markets more resilient to these kind of shocks."

Additional reporting by Esyllt Carr.

Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.

US chess grandmaster and online commentator Daniel Naroditsky has died aged 29.

The popular chess player's family announced his "unexpected" death in a statement released by his club, the Charlotte Chess Center, on Monday. No cause of death was given.

"It is with great sadness that we share the unexpected passing of Daniel Naroditsky," the statement said. "Daniel was a talented chess player, commentator and educator, and a cherished member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world."

The US and International chess federations have paid tribute to Naroditsky, along with other professional players.

American world number two Hikaru Nakamura said he was "devastated" at the news.

"This is a massive loss for the world of chess," Nakamura said in a social media post.

Naroditsky first took an interest in chess at the age of six, when his older brother Alan introduced him to the game to help entertain a group of children at a birthday party.

His father Vladimir and multiple coaches soon noticed his talents.

"As far as I was concerned, I was just playing games with my brother," Naroditsky told the New York Times in a 2022 interview.

He gained international attention in 2007 when he won the under-12 boys world youth championship in Antalya, Turkey. In 2010, at the age of 14, he became one of the youngest ever published chess authors when he wrote a book titled Mastering Positional Chess, covering practical skills and technical manoeuvrings.

In 2013 Naroditsky won the US Junior Championship, helping him earn the title of grandmaster, the international chess federation's highest-ranked chess competitor, while he was still a teenager.

Naroditsky later graduated from Stanford University and worked as a chess coach in Charlotte, North Carolina.

While still competing in high-level events, he transferred his talents to the online chess universe.

Naroditsky's YouTube channel gained nearly 500,000 subscribers and his Twitch stream drummed up 340,000 followers, with hundreds of thousands of viewers drawn to his regular video tutorials and livestreams against competitors. Fans praised his insight and passion, casually referring to him as 'Danya'.

In 2022 the New York Times named Naroditsky as its "new chess columnist" and invited him to contribute to a series of chess puzzles for the newspaper's games section.

In the publication's accompanying interview, the young grandmaster mused on chess's influence in his life.

"Even at my level, I can still discover beautiful things about the game every single time I train, teach, play or am a commentator at a tournament," he said.

India's capital Delhi woke up to a toxic haze as air quality worsened after the Hindu festival of Diwali, despite a court directive to use less-polluting crackers.

People in the city and its suburbs burst crackers late into Monday night, defying the court's order to use only 'green' fireworks for a limited period of time.

Delhi, which has high pollution through the year due to factors including vehicular emissions and dust, had already seen air quality dipping over the past few days.

On Tuesday, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi was 360, according to government data. The AQI measures the level of PM 2.5 - fine particulate matter that can clog lungs and cause a host of diseases - in the air.

Levels between 101 and 200 are considered moderate, while those between 201 and 300 are "poor". Between 301 and 400 is categorised as "very poor" and a figure higher than 400 is considered "severe".

The World Health Organization's guidelines say that exposure to PM 2.5 over a 24-hour-period should be limited to 15 micrograms per cubic metre - but Delhi's AQI in some parts is 24 times higher than the recommended level.

The city's pollution problem becomes worse in winter as farmers in neighbouring states burn crop stubble. Low wind speeds also trap pollutants - such as those produced by firecrackers - in the lower atmosphere, making it hard to breathe.

That's why firecrackers had been banned in Delhi and its suburbs during Diwali since 2020. However, this rule was not strictly enforced on the ground and crackers were still available for purchase in many shops, leading to its use during the festival.

Last week, India's Supreme Court relaxed the blanket ban, allowing people to use so-called green crackers, which its makers say emit 20-30% less pollutants than traditional ones and generate minimal ash. Critics, however, have pointed out that even though comparatively less harmful, these crackers still release toxic substances into the air.

In the run-up to Diwali, BBC reporters saw traditional crackers still being sold openly in shops. And while the court had allowed green crackers to be burst only during a limited window - one hour in the morning and two in the evening on Diwali and the day before it - the sound of fireworks could be heard well past midnight in many areas.

On Tuesday, when BBC reporter Vikas Pandey left his home in Noida (a suburb of Delhi) at around 0600 local time (0030 GMT) to catch an early morning flight, he realised "the familiar smell of burning charcoal was back".

"The air was filled with smoke and visibility was poor. I could taste ash in my mouth. As the taxi entered Delhi, visibility became even poorer. The tall buildings which are usually visible at this hour had disappeared behind a thick veil of smog," he says.

Experts are worried that the relaxing of rules around crackers could affect awareness around the dangers of air pollution which was being developed over the past few years.

To be sure, Delhi's air quality was already in the "very poor" category, with AQI crossing 300, for around a week now, due to several factors such as low wind speed, vehicular emissions and stubble burning in neighbouring states.

On Sunday, officials invoked the next stage of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi and its suburbs, imposing restrictions on the use of diesel generators and burning of coal and firewood in a bid to improve air quality.

For now, as the familiar smog descends on Delhi, its residents appear resigned.

"You can't even think of stepping outside. The situation seems to be equally bad in densely populated areas and rural areas in Delhi today," said Paras Tyagi, who lives in the capital.

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

Hamas has handed over a body that it says is a hostage, the Israeli military has said.

The body was transported by the Red Cross to Israeli forces in Gaza, and will now be returned to Israel for formal identification.

Before Monday, Hamas had handed over all 20 living hostages and 12 out of 28 deceased hostages under the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire deal that began on 10 October.

There has been anger in Israel that Hamas has not yet returned all the deceased hostages, with the Israeli military saying the Palestinian armed group "is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the hostages".

Hamas has said it faces difficulty finding bodies under rubble in Gaza.

Under the agreement, Israel has also freed 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza, and returned 15 bodies of Palestinians in return for every Israeli hostage's remains.

The first phase has also seen an increase of aid into the Gaza Strip, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, and a halt in fighting - though deadly violence flared up on Sunday as both sides accused one another of breaching the deal.

Israel said it struck dozens of Hamas targets across the Strip after accusing Hamas of an attack that killed two of its soldiers in Rafah. Hamas had said it was "unaware" of any clashes in the area, which is under Israeli control.

At least 45 Palestinians were killed in the strikes, local hospitals said.

On Sunday evening, Israel said it was resuming enforcement of the ceasefire, adding that it would "respond firmly to any violation of it". Hamas had earlier said it remained committed to the agreement.

US President Donald Trump said the truce remained in place, as his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner travelled to Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) currently holds about half of Gaza, demarcated by a so-called Yellow Line.

With Palestinians expressing confusion about the exact location of the line, the IDF has put out a video showing bulldozers towing yellow blocks into place to mark it out.

On Monday, Palestinian health officials said Israeli fire killed three people east of Gaza City. The IDF said its troops fired towards "several terrorists" who crossed the Yellow Line in the Shejaiya area.

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

At least 68,216 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable.

Many of the world's largest websites, including Snapchat, Reddit and Roblox, were knocked offline on Monday after a huge Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage.

More than 1,000 apps and websites - including banks such as Lloyds and Halifax - were impacted by problems at the heart of the cloud computing giant's operations in the US, according to platform outage monitor Downdetector.

It said reports from users of problems globally had soared to more than 6.5 million during the outage on Monday morning.

While Amazon said it had resolved the outage by 12:00 BST, experts say it demonstrates the perils that come with lots of companies relying on a single, dominant provider.

"What this episode has highlighted is just how interdependent our infrastructure is," said Prof Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey.

"So many online services rely upon third parties for their physical infrastructure, and this shows that problems can occur in even the largest of those third-party providers.

"Small errors, often human made, can have widespread and significant impact."

The issues appear to have begun at around 07:00 BST on Monday, as users began to report problems accessing a slew of platforms.

This included a wide range of different sites and services, from massive online games like Fortnite to the language-learning app Duolingo.

Downdetector told the BBC it had seen more than four million reports from users across 500 sites within just a few hours - more than double the amount it would see across an entire regular weekday.

These later peaked at more than six million, it said, as more services including Reddit and Lloyds Bank attempted to recover.

At around 11:00 BST, Amazon said most of its affected services had recovered.

What went wrong?

Amazon has not yet fully detailed what caused Monday's outage or issued an official statement regarding it.

It said in an update on its service status web page the issue "appears to be related to DNS resolution of the DynamoDB API endpoint in US-EAST-1".

DNS, which stands for Domain Name System, is often likened to a phone book for the internet.

It effectively translates the website names people use (like bbc.co.uk) into numbers which can be read and understood by computers.

This process basically underpins the way we use the internet, and disruptions to it can leave web browsers unable to locate the content they are looking for.

Matthew Prince, chief executive of Cloudflare, told the BBC the AWS outage highlighted the power cloud services have over how the internet works.

"Everyone has a bad day, today Amazon had a bad day," he said.

"There are amazing things about the cloud, it allows you to scale… but if you have an outage like this it can take down a lot of services we rely on."

And Cori Crider, head of the Future of Technology Institute, told the BBC it was "a bit like a bridge collapsing".

"An essential part of the economy has fallen to pieces," she said.

And with so much of cloud computing relying on Amazon, Microsoft and Google - estimated at around 70% - she said the status quo was "unsustainable".

"Once you have a concentrated supply in a handful of monopoly providers, when something like this falls over, it takes a huge percentage of the economy out with it," she said.

"We should really look at trying to buy more local services, rather than relying on a handful of American monopoly platforms.

"That's a risk to our security, our sovereignty and our economy and we need to look at structural separations to make our markets more resilient to these kind of shocks."

Additional reporting by Esyllt Carr.

Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.

A preliminary report into last month's funicular crash in Lisbon that killed 16 people including three British nationals has detailed a litany of failings.

Portugal's Air and Rail Accident Investigations Bureau said an underground cable - which acted as a counterweight between two carriages and broke, prompting the crash - was defective and had never been certified for passenger transportation.

It said the cable was not technically suitable and was acquired in 2022 by the company that runs Lisbon's public transport, Carris.

The 140-year-old Glória funicular, popular with tourists, derailed and crashed into a building on 3 September.

There were 11 foreigners among those killed, including the three British nationals, while another 20 people were injured.

The preliminary report released on Monday said there had been no oversight by engineers at Carris and the cable was not tested in advance before being installed.

The supervision and maintenance of the funicular by a company outsourced by Carris also did not work properly, apparently giving the Glória funicular the all-clear on the morning of the disaster - though it is not certain if the check actually took place that day.

In addition, the state body that looks after all of Lisbon's funiculars did not cover the Glória one, as it should have done, the report said.

The emergency brake system, which the driver correctly tried to apply when the cable snapped, did not function properly and was never tested in advance, it says.

Lisbon's mayor Carlos Moedas, who was re-elected on 12 October despite opposition accusations he had failed in his duty of oversight over the city's funiculars, told SIC television that the report "reaffirms that the unfortunate tragedy... was due to technical and not political causes".

Carris issued a statement stressing it was "not possible at this time to state whether or not the non-conformities in the use of the cable are relevant to the accident", referring to a passage in the report that notes the same cables had previously been in use in the Glória funicular for 601 days without incident.

"At this point in time, it cannot be said whether the use of this type of non-compliant cable intervened, or what intervention it had, in the rupture... and it is certain for the investigation that there were other factors that had to intervene," the statement added.

The company stressed that although the cables had been brought into use under the current board of directors, who took office in May 2022, the acquisition process took place under the previous board.

The full report will take about 11 months to be completed.

Meanwhile, all Lisbon cable cars have been ordered to be out of service until the necessary safety checks are put in place.

US chess grandmaster and online commentator Daniel Naroditsky has died aged 29.

The popular chess player's family announced his "unexpected" death in a statement released by his club, the Charlotte Chess Center, on Monday. No cause of death was given.

"It is with great sadness that we share the unexpected passing of Daniel Naroditsky," the statement said. "Daniel was a talented chess player, commentator and educator, and a cherished member of the chess community, admired and respected by fans and players around the world."

The US and International chess federations have paid tribute to Naroditsky, along with other professional players.

American world number two Hikaru Nakamura said he was "devastated" at the news.

"This is a massive loss for the world of chess," Nakamura said in a social media post.

Naroditsky first took an interest in chess at the age of six, when his older brother Alan introduced him to the game to help entertain a group of children at a birthday party.

His father Vladimir and multiple coaches soon noticed his talents.

"As far as I was concerned, I was just playing games with my brother," Naroditsky told the New York Times in a 2022 interview.

He gained international attention in 2007 when he won the under-12 boys world youth championship in Antalya, Turkey. In 2010, at the age of 14, he became one of the youngest ever published chess authors when he wrote a book titled Mastering Positional Chess, covering practical skills and technical manoeuvrings.

In 2013 Naroditsky won the US Junior Championship, helping him earn the title of grandmaster, the international chess federation's highest-ranked chess competitor, while he was still a teenager.

Naroditsky later graduated from Stanford University and worked as a chess coach in Charlotte, North Carolina.

While still competing in high-level events, he transferred his talents to the online chess universe.

Naroditsky's YouTube channel gained nearly 500,000 subscribers and his Twitch stream drummed up 340,000 followers, with hundreds of thousands of viewers drawn to his regular video tutorials and livestreams against competitors. Fans praised his insight and passion, casually referring to him as 'Danya'.

In 2022 the New York Times named Naroditsky as its "new chess columnist" and invited him to contribute to a series of chess puzzles for the newspaper's games section.

In the publication's accompanying interview, the young grandmaster mused on chess's influence in his life.

"Even at my level, I can still discover beautiful things about the game every single time I train, teach, play or am a commentator at a tournament," he said.

India's capital Delhi woke up to a toxic haze as air quality worsened after the Hindu festival of Diwali, despite a court directive to use less-polluting crackers.

People in the city and its suburbs burst crackers late into Monday night, defying the court's order to use only 'green' fireworks for a limited period of time.

Delhi, which has high pollution through the year due to factors including vehicular emissions and dust, had already seen air quality dipping over the past few days.

On Tuesday, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi was 360, according to government data. The AQI measures the level of PM 2.5 - fine particulate matter that can clog lungs and cause a host of diseases - in the air.

Levels between 101 and 200 are considered moderate, while those between 201 and 300 are "poor". Between 301 and 400 is categorised as "very poor" and a figure higher than 400 is considered "severe".

The World Health Organization's guidelines say that exposure to PM 2.5 over a 24-hour-period should be limited to 15 micrograms per cubic metre - but Delhi's AQI in some parts is 24 times higher than the recommended level.

The city's pollution problem becomes worse in winter as farmers in neighbouring states burn crop stubble. Low wind speeds also trap pollutants - such as those produced by firecrackers - in the lower atmosphere, making it hard to breathe.

That's why firecrackers had been banned in Delhi and its suburbs during Diwali since 2020. However, this rule was not strictly enforced on the ground and crackers were still available for purchase in many shops, leading to its use during the festival.

Last week, India's Supreme Court relaxed the blanket ban, allowing people to use so-called green crackers, which its makers say emit 20-30% less pollutants than traditional ones and generate minimal ash. Critics, however, have pointed out that even though comparatively less harmful, these crackers still release toxic substances into the air.

In the run-up to Diwali, BBC reporters saw traditional crackers still being sold openly in shops. And while the court had allowed green crackers to be burst only during a limited window - one hour in the morning and two in the evening on Diwali and the day before it - the sound of fireworks could be heard well past midnight in many areas.

On Tuesday, when BBC reporter Vikas Pandey left his home in Noida (a suburb of Delhi) at around 0600 local time (0030 GMT) to catch an early morning flight, he realised "the familiar smell of burning charcoal was back".

"The air was filled with smoke and visibility was poor. I could taste ash in my mouth. As the taxi entered Delhi, visibility became even poorer. The tall buildings which are usually visible at this hour had disappeared behind a thick veil of smog," he says.

Experts are worried that the relaxing of rules around crackers could affect awareness around the dangers of air pollution which was being developed over the past few years.

To be sure, Delhi's air quality was already in the "very poor" category, with AQI crossing 300, for around a week now, due to several factors such as low wind speed, vehicular emissions and stubble burning in neighbouring states.

On Sunday, officials invoked the next stage of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) in Delhi and its suburbs, imposing restrictions on the use of diesel generators and burning of coal and firewood in a bid to improve air quality.

For now, as the familiar smog descends on Delhi, its residents appear resigned.

"You can't even think of stepping outside. The situation seems to be equally bad in densely populated areas and rural areas in Delhi today," said Paras Tyagi, who lives in the capital.

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

The US and Australia have signed a deal intended to boost supplies of rare earths and other critical minerals, as the Trump administration looks for ways to counter China's dominance of the market.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the deal would support a pipeline of $8.5bn (£6.3bn) "ready-to-go" projects that would expand his country's mining and processing abilities.

It includes $1bn to be invested by the two countries in projects in the US and Australia over the next six months, a framework text says.

The US and Australia have been working on these issues since Trump's first term, but Albanese said the latest agreement would take the partnership to the "next level".

China currently controls about 70% of rare earths mining and 90% of the processing of the materials, which are found in everything from defence equipment to computer chips and cars.

US companies rely heavily on the materials, making them vulnerable this year as China has taken steps to restrict access to supplies in response to new US tariffs and other tensions.

Albanese said the agreement was aimed at speeding investment in three types of projects, including US investments in processing facilities in Australia.

The two countries also agreed to work together on issues such as pricing, permitting, and rules for government review of the sales of companies and projects in the sector.

The US separately said it would invest in the construction of a 100 tonnes-per-year advanced gallium refinery in Western Australia and was preparing to offer some $2.2bn in financing to advance critical minerals projects via its Export-Import Bank.

The Trump administration in recent months has already announced a series of investments in companies such as US rare earths miner MP Materials and Canada's Trilogy Metals and Lithium America's, which have projects in the US.

In exchange for the support, it has received ownership stakes in the firms.

Ahead of the meeting, shares in Australian companies such as Lynas Rare Earths had jumped on the prospect of increased support. Lynas was awarded a contract by the US Defense Department a few years ago and is working on a project in Texas.

The framework published by the White House was light on details, reflecting the delicate issues at play.

Australia is a major source of critical minerals but like the US, it relies on China for the processing required to turn the materials into something companies can use.

China is also Australia's biggest trade partner.

Security measures "failed" in preventing a major jewellery heist in the Louvre museum in Paris on Sunday, creating a very negative image of the country, the French justice minister has said.

"People were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of Paris, get people up it in several minutes to grab priceless jewels and give France a terrible image," Gérald Darmanin said.

Thieves wielding power tools broke into the world's most-visited museum in broad daylight, stealing eight items described as being of inestimable value, before escaping on scooters.

There are fears that unless the thieves are caught quickly, the priceless items - including a diamond and emerald necklace Emperor Napoleon gave to his wife - will be broken up and smuggled out of the country.

Darmanin told France Inter radio he was certain police would eventually arrest the thieves.

But the head of an organisation specialising in the location and recovery of stolen and looted artworks warned that if the thieves are not caught in the next 24 to 48 hours, the stolen jewellery will likely be "long gone".

"There is a race going on right now," Chris Marinello, the chief executive of Art Recovery International, told BBC World Service's Newshour programme.

Crowns and diadems - which were stolen in the heist - can easily be broken apart and sold in small parts.

The thieves "are not going to keep them intact, they are going to break them up, melt down the valuable metal, recut the valuable stones and hide evidence of their crime," Mr Marinello said, adding it would be difficult to sell these jewels intact.

The French police "know that in the next 24 or 48 hours, if these thieves are not caught, those pieces are probably long gone," he said.

"They may catch the criminals but they won't recover the jewels."

The theft took place between 09:30 and 09:40 local time on Sunday morning, shortly after the museum opened to visitors.

Four masked thieves used a truck equipped with a mechanical lift to gain access to the Galerie d'Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) via a balcony close to the River Seine.

Pictures from the scene showed a vehicle-mounted ladder leading up to a first-floor window.

Two of the thieves cut through glass panes with a battery-powered disc cutter and entered the museum.

They then threatened the guards, who evacuated the building.

The thieves smashed the glass display cases and stole the jewels, which collectively contained thousands of diamonds and precious gemstones.

The robbery took just seven minutes.

As the museum's alarms started blaring, staff followed protocol by contacting security forces, the culture ministry said in a statement.

The thieves had tried to set fire to their vehicle outside but were prevented by the intervention of a museum staff-member, it added.

Eight items of jewellery were stolen in total, including an emerald and diamond necklace that Napoleon gave his wife, Empress Marie Louise.

Also taken was a diadem (jewelled headband) that once belonged to the Empress Eugénie - wife of Napoleon III - which has nearly 2,000 diamonds.

They also took a necklace that once belonged to Marie-Amelie, the last queen of France, and which contains eight sapphires and 631 diamonds, according to the Louvre's website.

One week ago, US President Donald Trump was given a hero's welcome in Israel after securing the Gaza ceasefire and exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners.

But the days since have shown just how precarious the ceasefire is, and Sunday brought its biggest test so far.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of deadly strikes across Gaza, after two soldiers were killed in an attack it blamed on Hamas. An Israeli security official announced the suspension of aid deliveries.

It appears US pressure ensured the truce was not derailed and that Israel's crossings with Gaza reopened on Monday. Now it is clear mediators must stay closely involved to shore up the deal and settle key issues on the future of Gaza and Hamas.

Already, the president's special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner are back in the region while Hamas negotiators are meeting Egyptian mediators and Palestinian factions in Cairo.

All are expected to discuss the second phase of Trump's 20-point peace plan, which involves deploying an international stabilisation force in Gaza, the eventual withdrawal of the IDF and critically, the disarmament of Hamas.

Palestinians and Israelis have been shaken by the latest breakdown.

"From the start of the war I was with him 24 hours a day, I never left him," bereaved father, Shadi Abu Obeid told the BBC in Khan Younis as he fought back tears at the funeral of his 14-year-old son Mohammed early on Monday.

"Because of the ceasefire I was a bit more relaxed, and I let him go out with his friends," Shadi added. "It was quiet and there were meant to be international guarantees."

Mohammed was killed with two others in an Israeli strike on a tent in al-Mawasi. The IDF would not comment on who or what was specifically being targeted.

At least 45 Palestinians were killed, local hospitals say, after the IDF said it struck "dozens of Hamas terror targets throughout the Gaza Strip".

The BBC understands that several members of Hamas's armed wing, including a commander, were killed in a strike on a makeshift café in central Gaza. However, footage from other locations showed civilians, including children, among the dead.

Trump's envoys – who played a key role in negotiations with Hamas – had been expected in Israel to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, prior to the latest events.

Before they left the US, the two men gave an interview to 60 Minutes on CBS, in which they described how they had broken with diplomatic protocols to hold direct talks with Hamas leaders during ceasefire talks in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt.

They said this was intended to give guarantees that fighting would not resume after Israeli hostages were returned. Kushner - Trump's son-in-law – said the president had been "very, very comfortable" with such an approach.

He also said the signs were that Hamas was acting "in good faith" to return the bodies of deceased hostages – a main point of contention with Israel, prior to Sunday's events, threatening the ceasefire. Sixteen bodies have yet to be handed back. Hamas has said it has recovered another corpse which will be handed back when "conditions allow."

Speaking to journalists on Air Force One on Sunday, President Trump stressed the truce remained in place and that "we want to make sure it's going to be very peaceful".

When it came to the threat of internal violence and score-settling by Hamas in Gaza, he said that Hamas had been "quite rambunctious" and "they've been doing some shooting". But he added that "maybe the leadership isn't involved", and that it could be "some rebels within".

The IDF denied reports that its actions on Sunday were triggered by a clash between Hamas and a militia allied to Israel in the city of Rafah, in southern Gaza. It said Hamas had launched several direct attacks on its troops in an area still under its control with an anti-tank missile and gunfire.

An Israeli government spokeswoman said forces had been working near Rafah "to dismantle terrorist infrastructure all in accordance with the ceasefire agreement."

Hamas, which has accused Israel of multiple ceasefire violations, said communication with its remaining cells in Rafah had been cut off for months and that it was "not responsible for any incidents occurring in those areas".

The latest events have Israeli commentators focusing once again on the weaknesses of the deal agreed by Israel and Hamas.

In Israel's Haaretz newspaper, journalist and author Amir Tibon notes that it was "full of vague wording that left significant loopholes."

One problem that he says it left unresolved "was the fate of Hamas fighters stranded in the areas of Gaza held by Israel when the ceasefire went into effect". Israel's military currently holds about half of the territory, demarcated by a so-called Yellow Line.

In Israel Hayom, military columnist Yoav Limor describes the firefight near Rafah as "a warning", adding: "If Israel fails to establish tough and clear rules vis-à-vis Hamas it could find itself on a slippery slope."

Israel's Defence Minister, Israel Katz, has since appeared to do that, putting out a message that any Hamas fighters beyond the Yellow Line, in Israeli-controlled parts of Gaza must leave immediately and that Hamas leaders will be held responsible for their actions.

With Palestinians expressing confusion about the exact location of the line, the IDF has put out a video showing bulldozers towing yellow blocks into place to mark it out.

On Monday, Palestinian health officials said Israeli fire killed three people east of Gaza City. The IDF said its troops fired towards "several terrorists" who crossed the Yellow Line in the Shejaiya area.

Tough rhetoric and domestic pressure on Netanyahu are now anticipated as Israel's parliament begins its winter session, and with an internal election due within the prime minister's Likud party.

Netanyahu directed the military to take "strong action" against breaches of the deal, but he refrained from threatening a return to war.

On the Palestinian side, Hamas spokesman Mohammed Nazzal has called for the speedy approval of a committee of politically independent Palestinian technocrats to govern Gaza, telling Al Jazeera that Hamas had submitted a list of more than 40 proposed names to mediators.

However, in a separate interview with Reuters, he indicated that Hamas intended to maintain security control in Gaza for an interim period, illustrating another major obstacle to cementing the full end of the war in Gaza.

In the US, Vice President JD Vance has downplayed the shakiness of the ceasefire, saying: "There's going to be fits and starts." It was, he said, "the best chance for a sustainable peace".

Meanwhile, Witkoff and Kushner are expected to go on to further meetings in Cairo. There are significant obstacles to overcome before there can be more celebrations over the Gaza ceasefire.

A 55-year-old Palestinian woman has been taken to hospital after being clubbed over the head by a masked Jewish settler as she was picking olives.

The unprovoked attack, which took place on Sunday morning in the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya in the occupied West Bank, was captured on video by US journalist Jasper Nathaniel.

Mr Nathaniel said the settler knocked the woman unconscious with the first strike of his stick, before hitting her again as she lay on the ground. She has been named locally as Umm Saleh Abu Alia.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the BBC the confrontation was dispersed after its forces arrived, and that it "strongly condemns any form of violence" by settlers.

However, Mr Nathaniel said Israeli soldiers were on-site prior to the attack and had "lured" him and others into an "ambush". He said soldiers "sped off" just before the settlers launched the assault. The BBC has put this specific allegation to the IDF.

At least 80% of residents of Turmus Ayya hold US citizenship or residency, according to Israeli media. The BBC has reached out to the US State Department and US embassy for comment.

The young male attacker is seen wielding a large wooden stick with a knot at one end, reminiscent of a club, before he swings it overhead and strikes Mrs Abu Alia.

The mother of five is seen bleeding as she is carried into a vehicle to be taken to hospital. She was initially admitted to an intensive care unit but is now in a stable condition, doctors say.

Her cousin, Hamdi Abu Alia, told the BBC that medical staff found she had been struck twice in the head. Amin Abu Alia, the mayor of the adjacent village al-Mughayyir, confirmed details of the attack to the BBC.

The attack came amid a wider incident in which at least 15 masked settlers were seen hurling stones and attacking other Palestinians who were harvesting olives - as well as activists who had arrived to support them, including Mr Nathaniel.

At least one car was torched. Others had their windows smashed.

The assault comes amid a spate of attacks in recent weeks linked to the olive harvest, which officially began on 9 October.

The harvest is an age-old ritual that forms a major part of Palestinian culture. It is also an economic necessity for many, but is increasingly precarious.

Farmers across the West Bank - internationally regarded as Palestinian land occupied by Israel - face heightened risks during harvest season, including organised assaults and the use of force by Israeli security forces to block roads and Palestinians' access to their lands.

Of the 71 settler attacks documented by the UN's humanitarian office, Ocha, across the West Bank between 7 and 13 October, half were related to the ongoing harvest season. The attacks affected Palestinians in 27 villages.

In 2025, more than 3,200 Palestinians have been injured in settler attacks across the West Bank, according to Ocha.

Attacks are intended, monitors say, to intimidate Palestinians and eventually drive them from their land so settlers can seize it. The vast majority go unpunished, with just 3% of official investigations into settler violence between 2005 and 2023 ending in a conviction, according to Israeli civil rights group Yesh Din. Many incidents are not investigated.

Shortly after entering office, US President Donald Trump cancelled a range of sanctions imposed on Israeli settlers by his predecessor Joe Biden.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he would be ready to join Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin at a proposed summit in Hungary if he were invited.

The US and Russian presidents announced on Thursday they planned to hold talks on the war in Ukraine in Budapest, possibly in the coming weeks.

In comments released on Monday, Zelensky told reporters: "If it is an invitation in a format where we meet as three or, as it's called, shuttle diplomacy… then in one format or another, we will agree."

Meanwhile, media reports have suggested his White House meeting with Trump on Friday descended into a "shouting match" - with the US side urging Ukraine to accept Russia's terms to end the war.

Zelensky was guarded during his first press briefing since the talks, but still his comments made clear there were large areas of disagreement between the two sides.

He described the meeting as frank, and said he had told Trump that his main aim was a just peace, not a quick peace.

He criticised Hungary as the location of the prospective Trump-Putin talks, saying the country's Prime Minister Viktor Orban could not do "anything positive for Ukrainians or even provide a balanced contribution".

When asked by reporters on Friday if Zelensky would be involved in the meeting in Budapest, Trump said he wanted to "make it comfortable for everybody".

"We'll be involved in threes, but it may be separated," he said, adding the three leaders "have to get together".

Zelensky had hoped to secure US Tomahawk missiles to strike deep into Russia at the talks, but appeared to walk away empty-handed as Trump struck a non-committal tone on the matter.

On Monday, media reports suggested the atmosphere at the US and Ukrainian leaders' meeting had been far more acrimonious than previously understood.

The Financial Times reported Trump warned Zelensky that Putin would "destroy" Ukraine if he did not agree to its terms, citing sources familiar.

The US side was said to have echoed Russian talking points at the "volatile" meeting. It also reported that Trump tossed aside maps of the frontline in Ukraine and insisted Zelensky surrender the entire Donbas region to Putin.

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

Just last month, Trump appeared to take a major shift in his position on ending the war by saying Kyiv could "win all of Ukraine back in its original form".

He said his position had changed "after getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia military and economic situation".

Trump had previously warned the process would likely involve Ukraine giving up some territory - an outcome Zelensky has consistently rejected.

The US president has been pressuring Nato nations, as well as China and India, to stop purchasing Russian oil in a bid to create further economic pressure on Moscow to end the conflict.

He also previously threatened Russia with tougher sanctions if Putin did not meet deadlines to make progress in ending the war, though he did not follow through with those threats.

Trump's public relations with Zelensky had also vastly improved in recent months, most notably from an Oval Office meeting in February when he and Vice-President JD Vance berated the Ukrainian president on live television.

During his re-election campaign, Trump claimed he would be able to end the war in Ukraine within days but has since admitted resolving the conflict has been more challenging than any he has been involved in since returning to office.

Former National Football League (NFL) running back Doug Martin has died aged 36 while in police custody in California.

The Oakland Police Department said the former American football star - who played for teams including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers - died after being involved in an alleged home break-in and a struggle with officers on Saturday.

"While attempting to detain the individual, a brief struggle ensued," the department said, adding Martin became unresponsive and was taken to a hospital, where he later died.

His family announced his passing and said his cause of death was "unconfirmed".

"It is with great sadness to inform you all that Doug Martin passed away Saturday morning," his family told US media. The family asked for "privacy at this time".

In a statement, Martin's former team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, said they were "deeply saddened to learn of the sudden and unexpected passing of Doug Martin".

"From his record-setting rookie season in 2012 to his multiple Pro Bowl selections during his six seasons as a Buccaneer, Doug made a lasting impact on our franchise," the team added.

Born in Oakland, California, Martin was Tampa Bay's first-round pick in the 2012 NFL draft. During his first season, Martin rushed for 1,454 yards and made 11 touchdowns.

Martin spent six of his seven NFL seasons playing for the Buccaneers, and was nicknamed the "Muscle Hamster" because of his high strength despite being relatively short for a professional player at 5ft 9in (1.75m) tall.

But he struggled with injuries and was also suspended in 2016 for four games for violating the NFL's drug policy, after testing positive for a banned substance. He apologised and went to a drug treatment facility.

Martin also played for the Oakland Raiders, which is now in Las Vegas, at the end of his career in 2018.

Hamas has handed over a body that it says is a hostage, the Israeli military has said.

The body was transported by the Red Cross to Israeli forces in Gaza, and will now be returned to Israel for formal identification.

Before Monday, Hamas had handed over all 20 living hostages and 12 out of 28 deceased hostages under the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire deal that began on 10 October.

There has been anger in Israel that Hamas has not yet returned all the deceased hostages, with the Israeli military saying the Palestinian armed group "is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the hostages".

Hamas has said it faces difficulty finding bodies under rubble in Gaza.

Under the agreement, Israel has also freed 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza, and returned 15 bodies of Palestinians in return for every Israeli hostage's remains.

The first phase has also seen an increase of aid into the Gaza Strip, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, and a halt in fighting - though deadly violence flared up on Sunday as both sides accused one another of breaching the deal.

Israel said it struck dozens of Hamas targets across the Strip after accusing Hamas of an attack that killed two of its soldiers in Rafah. Hamas had said it was "unaware" of any clashes in the area, which is under Israeli control.

At least 45 Palestinians were killed in the strikes, local hospitals said.

On Sunday evening, Israel said it was resuming enforcement of the ceasefire, adding that it would "respond firmly to any violation of it". Hamas had earlier said it remained committed to the agreement.

US President Donald Trump said the truce remained in place, as his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner travelled to Israel.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) currently holds about half of Gaza, demarcated by a so-called Yellow Line.

With Palestinians expressing confusion about the exact location of the line, the IDF has put out a video showing bulldozers towing yellow blocks into place to mark it out.

On Monday, Palestinian health officials said Israeli fire killed three people east of Gaza City. The IDF said its troops fired towards "several terrorists" who crossed the Yellow Line in the Shejaiya area.

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

At least 68,216 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable.

Victims of sex abuse by members of the Catholic clergy have expressed hope after meeting Pope Leo at the Vatican for the first time.

Gemma Hickey, board president of Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA Global), told the BBC it spoke "volumes" he had met them so soon in his papacy.

The group is pushing for a global zero-tolerance policy, already adopted in the US, of permanently removing a priest who admits or is proven to have sexually abused a child. The Pope acknowledged there was "resistance in some parts of the world" to this, Hickey said.

The new Pope, who assumed the role in May, has inherited the issue, which has haunted the Catholic Church for decades and the Vatican has struggled to root out.

His predecessor, Pope Francis, tried to address the problem by holding an unprecedented summit on paedophilia in the Church, and by changing its laws to explicitly criminalise sexual abuse, but problems remain.

A recent Vatican-commissioned report was unusually critical of Church leaders, saying victims and survivors had frequently raised the lack of accountability of bishops and superiors. Many historic cases were allegedly covered up.

ECA Global also acknowledged pockets of resistance to a zero-tolerance policy, Hickey said. "We were all being realistic."

For Hickey, who uses they/them pronouns, the drive to see such a policy adopted worldwide is personal, as the Canadian said they were abused by a priest who was then shuffled between parishes.

Hickey said Monday's meeting was "historic" and "a big step for all of us".

"Hopefully this will set the tone for his papacy, because we want to work with him. We have the same goal, we want to end clergy abuse."

Six board members and one other representative of ECA, a coalition of victims and advocates representing survivors from more than 30 countries, sat in a semi-circle in the Pope's Vatican office, with the pontiff at the head.

During the meeting - which was scheduled for 20 minutes but lasted an hour - the Pope "mostly listened to us", Hickey said.

The Pope was "quite empathetic" hearing the story of a woman abused at a Catholic residential school for Indigenous children in Canada, and "tender" about Hickey's own experience, they added.

The first North American leader of the Catholic Church was "very humble, funny, [and] very down to earth", Hickey said.

"Survivors have long wanted a seat at the table and I didn't feel like he was giving us lip service. I felt like he was genuine, realistic, and very open and eager to collaborate with us."

The group is hoping a change of canon law will bring about the zero-tolerance policy worldwide, and has spoken to experts and compiled documents that they will give to Pope Leo.

"He seemed interested in looking at it," Hickey said.

The Vatican's child protection commission 100-page report emphasised the "importance of a streamlined protocol for the resignation and/or removal of Church leaders or personnel in cases of abuse or negligence".

It said victims and survivors stressed the "urgent need for bishops and major superiors to be held accountable for negligence and cover-up was repeatedly stressed".

It also relayed concerns about information not being provided to victims on how their reports of abuse were being handled, and said the public should know when a Church official had resigned or been removed due to abuse or negligence.

Hickey said they told the Pope at the start of the meeting: "This is as much a risk for him to engage in a dialogue as it was for us."

After the meeting, they were hopeful for change.

"We realise it's not something that's going to happen overnight, but at the end of the day, coming together and establishing a relationship and continuing to build that relationship is a step in the right direction."

Hickey said they told Pope Leo that "just because it's a dark chapter, I feel like we can change how the story ends - he appreciated that".

Brazil's state oil firm has received a licence to conduct exploratory oil drilling in the sea off the Amazon, despite environmental concerns about the project.

The approval will allow Petrobras to drill in a block located in Amapá, 500km (311 miles) from the mouth of the Amazon River on the Brazilian Equatorial Margin.

The company said it had demonstrated to the government that it had robust environmental protection structures in place.

But many conservationists have raised concerns about plans, including fears that any oil spills would be in proximity, via sea currents, to the Amazon, which is home to around 10% of the world's known species.

Groups such as Greenpeace have also raised concerns it could undermine Brazil's climate leadership ahead of hosting the COP30 climate summit in the Amazonian city of Belém in November.

The International Energy Agency has also been clear that no new oil projects should be approved if the target of net zero global emissions is to be reached by 2050.

Petrobras said in a statement that drilling was scheduled to begin "immediately" and that it would last for five months. The company is seeking to assess whether there is oil and gas in the area on an economically viable scale.

It would not produce oil commercially at this stage.

Brazil's environment minister, Marina Silva, has opposed oil exploration in the Amazon region.

But the South American nation's President Lula da Silva has supported it for economic reasons and recently defended his stance.

Lula told the BBC in September: "Brazil is a country that has oil. And possibly we have oil in the Equatorial Margin, and we are making surveys. We're following the law strictly."

He said that if there was a problem or an oil spill, then "we will be the ones that are liable and responsible to take care of the problem, if it comes".

He added: "I am totally in favour of a world one day that will not need any more fossil fuels, but this moment has not come yet.

"I want to know [of] any country on the planet that is prepared to have an energy transition and can give up fossil fuels."

Other international oil companies, including Exxonmobil and Chevron, have bought "blocks" in the Amazon region and are awaiting licences to explore.

Petrobras said it was committed to ensuring the country's "energy security and the resources needed for a just energy transition".

It added that the company was able to "demonstrate the robustness of the entire environmental protection structure that will be available during drilling".