Dozens of people have been injured in an explosion during Friday prayers at a mosque inside a high school complex in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

Fifty-four people were admitted to hospital, city police chief Asep Edi Suheri told a televised news conference, with the injuries ranging from minor to serious and including burns.

Authorities said three people had suffered serious injuries and 17 others came away with minor injuries. Others have been treated and discharged, local media reports.

The Jakarta Metropolitan Police is now investigating the cause of the explosion at the site in Kelapa Gading, a district in North Jakarta, with a bomb disposal team deployed to the search area.

Images from the scene show bystanders watching on as military personnel cordon off and guard the entrance to the state-run high school complex.

The explosion occurred around 12:15 local time (05:15 GMT), according to local reports.

A high-ranking Jakarta Metropolitan Police officer confirmed the presence of two objects resembling firearms at the scene.

Images from Indonesia's government-owned news agency Antara suggest one of the objects appeared to be a submachine gun and another looked like a pistol.

The submachine gun-type object appears to be inscribed on its barrel with: "14 words. For Agartha."

On its body, it says: "Brenton Tarrant. Welcome to Hell."

Brenton Tarrant is the perpetrator of a 2019 mass shooting at a mosque and Islamic centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 and injured dozens of others.

A minister who visited the scene later on Friday sought to dispel suggestions that weapons were present at the site, telling CNN Indonesia what had been pictured "turned out to be a toy gun, not a real gun".

Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus also called on the public not to presume the explosion was a "terrorist act" as investigators were still combing over the scene.

Another object found at the site was a dark green belt for storing gun cartridges.

A pupil at the school alleged to Antara that a homemade bomb had been brought in by a student who had often been bullied by other students.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population.

One day, some 85 years ago, Mutuku Ing'ati left his home in southern Kenya and was never seen again.

The 30-something Mr Ing'ati had disappeared with no explanation - for years his family desperately tried to track him down, following lead after lead that would eventually dry up.

As decades passed, memories of Mr Ing'ati faded. He had no children and many of those close to him passed away. But then, roughly eight decades later, his name re-emerged in British military records.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), which works to commemorate those who died in the two world wars, contacted Mr Ing'ati's nephew, Benjamin Mutuku, after mining old documents.

He learnt that on the day his uncle left his village, Syamatani, he travelled roughly 180km (110 miles) westwards to Nairobi - the seat of the British colonial government then in control of the country.

There, he signed up as a private with the East African Scouts, a regiment in the British army that fought in World War Two. The UK recruited millions of men from its empire to fight in both of the 20th Century's global conflicts in theatres across the world.

Mr Ing'ati responded to the call for recruits - when exactly is not clear - and then on 13 June 1943, he was killed in action, according to the records unearthed by CWGC. Where and how he died is not known.

Like thousands of Kenyans who fought in the British army, he died without his family being notified and was buried in a location unknown to this day.

Decades on, as the UK marks Remembrance Sunday to honour those who contributed to the war effort, the sacrifices of many Kenyan soldiers, like Mr Ing'ati, remain unrecognised.

The world knows little of their service and they were not formerly commemorated in the way their white counterparts were.

After all these years, Mr Mutuku was pleased to learn where his uncle had disappeared to and when he died. Despite being born after Mr Ing'ati left the village, Mr Mutuku feels a strong connection to his uncle, from whom he got his name.

"I used to ask my father, where is the person I was named after?" Mr Mutuku, now 67, tells the BBC.

Although he welcomes the fresh information, Mr Mutuku feels angry that his uncle's body is somewhere out in the world, and not buried in Syamatani.

His family are from the Akamba ethnic group, who believe being laid to rest near the family home is very important.

"I never got a chance to see a tomb where my uncle got buried," Mr Mutuku says. "I would have liked so much to see that."

The CWGC is trying to find out where Mr Ing'ati died and where his body is, along with the details of other forgotten Kenyan soldiers.

A search is also on for details about East Africans who fought and died during World War One.

With help from the Kenyan Defence Forces, the CWGC recently unearthed a treasure trove of rare colonial military records in Kenya dating from that conflict. As a result researchers have been able to recover the names and stories of more than 3,000 soldiers who served at that time.

The records, thought to have been destroyed decades ago, concern the King's African Rifles. Comprised of East African soldiers, the regiment fought against German troops in the region, in what is now Tanzania in World War One, and Japanese troops in what is now Myanmar in World War Two.

"These are not just dusty files - they are personal stories. For many African families, this may be the first time they learn about a relative's wartime service," George Hay, a historian at the CWGC, tells the BBC.

For example, there is George Williams, a decorated sergeant major with the Kings African Rifles. Described as 5ft 8in (170cm) with a scar on the right side of his chin, Mr Williams received several medals for gallantry and was recognised as a first-class shot. He died, aged 44, in Mozambique just four months before the war ended.

There are also records for Abdulla Fadlumulla, a Ugandan soldier who enlisted with the King's African Rifles in 1913, aged only 16. He was killed just 13 months later, while assaulting an enemy position in Tanzania.

The records demonstrate how the wars "touched every fabric in Kenya", Patrick Abungu, a historian at CWGC's Kenya office, says.

"Because the narrative is, they went and never came back. And now we are answering those questions: where they went and where [their bodies] could be," he adds.

The historian wants to answer these questions for thousands of families across Kenya - his own included.

His great uncle, Ogoyi Ogunde, was conscripted into the British army during World War One and never returned home.

"It's very traumatic to lose a loved one and not know where they are," he tells the BBC.

"It does not matter how many years go by, people will always look at the gate and hope that he will walk in one day."

Mr Abungu and the CWGC hope to build memorials to finally commemorate the thousands of soldiers identified from the newly discovered documents.

The organisation also wants the records to help inform Kenya's school curriculum, so that new generations come to understand the outsized, yet overlooked role Africans played in the world wars.

"The only way any of this matters is that it isn't coming from people like me saying, 'This is your history'," CWGC's Mr Hay says.

"It's about people saying, 'This is our history' - and using the materials that we're working with."

The CWGC will continue recovering the details of Kenyan individuals who served in the British forces until every fallen soldier is commemorated.

"There is no end date... I mean this could go on for 1,000 years," Mr Abungu says.

"The process that is taking place is ensuring that those thousands of people who went away and never came back... we keep their memories going so that we don't forget them."

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Nobel Prize-winning American scientist James Watson has died aged 97.

His co-discovery of the structure of DNA opened the door to help explain how DNA replicates and carries genetic information, setting the stage for rapid advances in molecular biology.

But his honorary titles were stripped in 2019 after he repeated comments about race and intelligence. In a TV programme, he made a reference to a view that genes cause a difference on average between blacks and whites on IQ tests.

The death of Watson, who co-discovered the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953, was confirmed to the BBC by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he worked and researched for decades.

Watson shared the Nobel in 1962 with Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick for the DNA's double helix structure discovery.

"We have discovered the secret of life," they said at the time.

His comments on race led to him saying that he felt ostracised by the scientific community.

In 2007, the scientist, who once worked at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, told the Times newspaper that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa", because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really".

The comments led to him losing his job as chancellor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

His additional comments in 2019 - when he once again suggested a link between race and intelligence - led the lab to strip his honorary titles of chancellor emeritus, Oliver R Grace professor emeritus and honorary trustee.

"Dr Watson's statements are reprehensible, unsupported by science," the laboratory said in a statement, adding that they effectively reverse his apology.

DNA was discovered in 1869, but researchers had yet to discover its structure, and it took until 1943 before scientists realised that DNA made up the genetic material in cells.

Working with images obtained by King's College researcher Rosalind Franklin, without her knowledge, Crick and Watson were able to construct a physical model of the molecule.

Watson sold his Nobel Prize gold medal at auction for $4.8m (£3.6m) in 2014.

He had said he planned to sell the medal because he was ostracised by the scientific community after his remarks on race.

A former British soldier is facing extradition to Kenya in connection with the alleged murder of a 21-year-old woman there in 2012.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Robert James Purkiss was arrested in Tidworth, Wiltshire on 6 November and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.

He was arrested by specialist officers from the NCA's National Extradition Unit in connection with the killing of Agnes Manjiru after a warrant was issued in September, the agency added.

Mr Purkiss, 38, told the court he intended to contest the extradition and was remanded into custody ahead of his next appearance at the same court on 14 November.

His lawyers told the court that he "vehemently denies" murder.

Ms Wanjiru's body was discovered in a septic tank near a hotel in the town of Nanyuki, about 124 miles (200km) north of Nairobi, three months after she had gone missing on 31 March 2012. She had a five-month-old baby at the time.

Her body was found near a British army training camp. On the night she was killed, she had reportedly been at a bar with friends where British soldiers were also present.

Ms Wanjiru's niece, Esther Njoki, met the UK's defence minister last month in order to push for Mr Purkiss's extradition.

In a statement issued through Leigh Day, the lawyers acting for Ms Wanjiru's family, on Friday Ms Njoki said: "My family is incredibly relieved to hear that the suspect in my aunt's case has been arrested.

"We have waited so many years for this moment which marks an important step towards finally obtaining justice for our beloved Agnes."

Leigh Day partner Tessa Gregory said: "This is a huge moment for our client and her family who have been fighting for over a decade to obtain justice for Agnes.

"We hope the UK and Kenyan authorities will now work together to ensure that the suspect can face trial in Kenya as quickly as possible."

Ms Wanjiru's family has long accused the British army of covering up her death and the Kenyan authorities of failing to properly investigate the case at the time.

An inquest into her death was opened in 2018 following pressure from Ms Wanjiru's family, as well as Kenyan rights groups and feminists.

In 2019, it concluded that Ms Wanjiru had been unlawfully killed by one or two British soldiers and that she had suffered stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.

Later in 2021, a Sunday Times investigation reported that a British soldier had confessed to colleagues that he killed Ms Wanjiru. The soldier left the army after the incident and reportedly continued to live in the UK.

In 2024, the army announced it was launching an internal review into the conduct of British soldiers in Kenya, including in Nanyuki.

It found 35 suspected cases of soldiers having engaged in sexual exploitation and abuse, including transactional sex, with local women - nine of these being after the army officially banned such conduct in 2022.

Israel has received a coffin that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad said contains the body of a hostage, Israel's military says.

Hamas's armed wing said the body had been found on Friday in Khan Younis in southern Gaza. The body has been transported to Israel via the Red Cross for identification.

Before this handover, Hamas had returned all 20 living hostages and 22 out of 28 deceased hostages under the first phase of a ceasefire deal that started on 10 October. Five of the six dead hostages still in Gaza were Israelis and one was Thai.

Israel has criticised Hamas for not yet returning all the bodies. Hamas says it is hard to find them under rubble.

During the first phase of the US-brokered ceasefire deal, Israel freed 250 Palestinian prisoners in its jails and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.

Israel has also handed over the bodies of 285 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 19 Israeli hostages returned by Hamas, along with those of three foreign hostages - one of them Thai, one Nepalese and one Tanzanian.

The parties also agreed to an increase of aid to the Gaza Strip, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, and a halt to fighting, although violence has flared up as both sides accused one another of breaching the deal.

Israel launched air strikes after accusing Hamas fighters of killing two of its soldiers on 19 October and of killing another soldier on 28 October. Hamas said it was unaware of clashes in the area of the first incident and had no connection to the second attack.

Israeli military actions have killed at least 241 people since the start of the ceasefire, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable.

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. All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were abducted in the attack.

At least 68,875 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, the health ministry reported.

Lady Gaga and Kendrick Lamar lead the nominees for the 2026 Grammy Awards, while K-Pop has broken into the song of the year category for the first time.

For the second year in a row, Compton rapper Lamar has the most nominations - nine in total - including a coveted album of the year nod for the sleek, fiery GNX.

Gaga is also up for the main prize for Mayhem, a record that leans into her own history, and marks a return to her electro-pop roots. She has seven nominations overall.

Meanwhile, two K-Pop songs are shortlisted for song of the year: Rosé and Bruno Mars' frothy pop hit APT, and Hunter/x's Golden, the breakout hit from Netflix's animated film K-Pop Demon Hunters.

Both Gaga and Lamar have five previous nominations for album of the year, but neither has ever lifted the coveted gold gramophone in that category.

If Lamar wins next February, GNX would become the first rap album to earn the night's main prize since Outkast's Speakerboxxx/The Love Below in 2004.

He faces competition from fellow rap maverick Tyler, The Creator with his wildly inventive Chromakopia; and reunited hip-hop duo Clipse, whose Let God Sort Em Out is their first release since 2009.

It is the first time in Grammy history that three rap albums have made the shortlist for album of the year.

Also nominated is Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny - who is also set to headline next year's Super Bowl half time show.

He's shortlisted for the musically ambitious Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which fuses live instrumentation with the hip-swaying pulse of reggaeton.

British stars Olivia Dean and Lola Young have got their first ever Grammy nominations in the best new artist category, where they will compete against pop star Addison Rae and global girl group Katseye.

The nominees were revealed in a live stream by a host of stars, including 2025 winners Chappell Roan, Doechii and Sabrina Carpenter, and British stars such as Sam Smith and Marcus Mumford.

Who has the most nominations?

• Kendrick Lamar - nine
• Lady Gaga - seven
• Bad Bunny, Sabrina Carpenter, Leon Thomas - six

The 'big four' awards

Song of the year

• Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
• Doechii - Anxiety
• Rosé & Bruno Mars - APT
• Bad Bunny - DtMF
• Hunter/x - Golden
• Kendrick Lamar feat SZA - Luther
• Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild
• Billie Eilish - Wildflower

Record of the year

• Bad Bunny - DtMF
• Sabrina Carpenter - Manchild
• Doechii - Anxiety
• Billie Eilish - Wildflower
• Lady Gaga – Abracadabra
• Kendrick Lamar feat SZA - Luther
• Chappell Roan - The Subway
• Rosé & Bruno Mars - APT

Album of the year

• Bad Bunny - Debí Tirar Más Fotos
• Justin Bieber - Swag
• Sabrina Carpenter - Man's Best Friend
• Clipse – Let God Sort Em Out
• Lady Gaga - Mayhem
• Kendrick Lamar - GNX
• Leon Thomas – Mutt
• Tyler, the Creator – Chromakopia

Best new artist

• Olivia Dean
• Katseye
• The Marias
• Addison Rae
• Sombr
• Leon Thomas
• Alex Warren
• Lola Young

Why isn't Taylor Swift nominated?

This is the first time since 2006 that Taylor Swift hasn't been eligible for the Grammys.

The star's latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, was released in October, missing the cut-off point for nominations.

To qualify, a song or album must have been released between 31 August, 2024, and 30 August, 2025.

The Life of a Showgirl will therefore be eligible for the 2027 ceremony, and looks certain to secure Swift her eighth nomination for album of the year.

How are the Grammys decided?

Almost 23,000 entries were submitted for the 2026 Grammys awards.

The biggest field was for song of the year, which had 1,015 entries.

The least populated category was best compilation soundtrack for visual media, with just 48 entries.

Once the submissions are screened and verified, voting members take over. Nearly 15,000 musicians, critics and music industry professionals cast ballots to decide the final nominees.

After the publication of the shortlist, a final round voting will take place between 12 December and 5 January.

The winners will be announced at a star-studded ceremony in Los Angeles on 1 February 2026.

Survivors of the reign of terror inflicted by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in Uganda have told the BBC they welcome the move by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to confirm charges against the group's leader Joseph Kony.

An arrest warrant was issued for him in 2005, but he remains at large - believed to be hiding in the Central African Republic (CAR).

On Thursday, the ICC said he was being charged with 39 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder, rape, using child soldiers, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy.

A woman abducted by the LRA as a child and forced to become one of Kony's wives said she hoped the move would renew efforts to capture him.

"I cannot be happy like other women who went to school. I need justice for women who went through abduction like me," Evelyn Amon, 42, told the BBC.

She spent 11 years in the bush with the LRA after being abducted from her home at age 11 - and she said she even forgot her own name as the rebels called her Betty Achol.

Ms Amon said victims like her wanted him to be tried so they could get compensation from the court.

Kony's ICC trial cannot begin unless he is arrested and present in court in The Hague.

The LRA was formed by Kony in the late 1980s in northern Uganda, where it said its goal was to install a government based on the biblical Ten Commandments.

The group, which was notorious for hacking off its victims' limbs or parts of their faces and taking sex slaves, was eventually forced out of the country in 2005.

It moved to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and was also active in South Sudan and the CAR, where remnants of the rebels are understood to have engaged in poaching and illegal mining.

Kony's notoriety increased in 2012 because of a social media campaign to highlight the LRA's alleged atrocities. The following year, the US offered a $5m (£3.8m) reward for information leading to his arrest.

Despite those efforts, and years of manhunts, he remains a fugitive - and the US and Ugandan armies officially ended their operations to track him down in 2017.

Twenty-eight-year-old Patrick Ochieng, who was born in LRA captivity after his mother was abducted and sexually assaulted, also hopes the confirmation of charges will lead to Kony's capture.

"He should first be arrested. The victims who suffered can't wait - some of these victims are already dying," Mr Ochieng told the BBC.

"We grew up in the rebel barracks, deep in the forest," he said.

He is among thousands of children who were forced to become child soldiers. His mother was killed by the rebels when he just five years old.

"She tried to escape with us - me and my twin sister - but the policy was clear: if you try to escape and you're caught, they [must] finish you. They'll kill you," the visibly emotional young man said.

Over nearly two decades in northern Uganda during the LRA insurgency more than 100,000 people were killed, between 60,000 and 100,000 children were abducted and 2.5 million people fled their homes - many moving into camps for better protection.

But these also came under attack, like one in the village of Lukodi, just a few kilometres from the town of Gulu. More than 70 people, including women and children, were killed there in 2004.

Muhammad Olanya, who was 17 at the time, still remembers that night vividly.

"We heard strange sounds like drumbeats followed by whistles - those were bullets," he told the BBC.

"I ran, but by the time I reached the market, I was exhausted. I sat down by the roadside."

He was lucky not to be abducted as he was rescued by a Ugandan army officer.

But he says the conflict devastated his life - he lost relatives and got no formal education.

There were attempts by the Ugandan government to strike a peace deal with Kony, but talks fell apart in 2008 because the LRA leader wanted assurances that he and his allies would not be prosecuted.

The victims hope the ICC's decision to press forward with the confirmation of charges without him present means the LRA leader will one day be held accountable.

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France has advised its citizens in Mali to leave as soon as possible, as Islamist insurgents continue their blockade of the country.

The French foreign ministry advised citizens to depart on commercial flights while they are still available, and to avoid overland travel.

A two-month-old fuel blockade on Mali, imposed by al-Qaeda-affiliated group has upended daily life in the capital, Bamako, and other regions of the landlocked West African country - a former French colony.

France's announcement came as MSC - the world's biggest shipping company - said it was halting its operations in Mali, citing the blockade and deteriorating security.

The jihadist group Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has caused the obstruction by attacking tankers on major highways.

Mali has no coast so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from neighbouring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Last month, the US embassy in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave Mali amid the crisis.

It said the fuel disruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the "potential to disrupt the overall security situation in unpredictable ways".

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who first seized power in a coup in 2020.

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

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have left since the junta took over, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.

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European Union naval forces have rescued 24 sailors from a Maltese-flagged oil tanker that was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia.

The Hellas Aphrodite, carrying petrol from India to South Africa, was seized on Thursday when armed pirates opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades before boarding the vessel.

The crew locked themselves inside a fortified citadel while the attackers took control of the ship.

A Spanish warship, the ESPS Victoria, operating under the EU's anti-piracy mission Operation Atalanta, reached the tanker on Friday afternoon. Special forces boarded the vessel and found all 24 crew members unharmed.

"The crew is safe and no injuries have been reported. Throughout the incident, they remained in the citadel in direct contact with Atalanta," the EU mission said, adding that a "show of force" had prompted the pirates to abandon the ship before the warship arrived.

It added that the threat risk in the area "remains critical" as the pirates are still in the area.

The rescue operation involved a helicopter, drone and surveillance aircraft. Just hours earlier, another ship in the same area was approached by a small speedboat but managed to evade it.

It is the latest in a spate of attacks that have created concern about a resurgence of piracy in the area.

Such activity had declined when international naval patrols and security measures were introduced after peaking more than a decade ago.

However, attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea, which have been carried out for the past two years, have led vessels to be diverted through East Africa's Indian Ocean - creating new opportunities for Somali gangs.

There were seven reported incidents of piracy that took place off the coast of Somalia last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau - including three hijackings. It reported only one incident of piracy in 2023.

A former Israeli hostage who was released last month has told Israeli TV that he was sexually assaulted during his two years in captivity in Gaza.

In an interview with Channel 13's Hazinor programme, Rom Braslavski, 21, described being stripped naked and tied up by members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

"It was sexual violence, and its main purpose was humiliation. Its goal was to humiliate me, to crush my dignity," he said.

He is the first man held hostage to allege publicly that he was sexually assaulted.

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find disturbing.

Rom Braslavski was on leave from his service as a soldier in the Israeli military and was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival when Hamas and allied Palestinian armed groups attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others as hostages.

Israel responded to the attacks by launching a military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 68,800 people, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Four weeks ago, Mr Braslavski was among the last 20 living Israeli hostages who were released under a US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

In the interview with Channel 13, broadcast late on Thursday, Mr Braslavski said his treatment by PIJ deteriorated rapidly after he had refused to convert from Judaism to Islam in March this year, which was also when the previous ceasefire collapsed.

He said he was kept blindfolded for three weeks, had stones pushed into his ears to limit his hearing, and had his rations of food and water reduced.

Then, he added, his captors received what they described as an order to torture him.

Mr Braslavski said they tied him up, punched him, and whipped him with a metal cable – and that this was repeated several times a day.

"I entered into a loop, which I doubted I would come out of alive," he recalled.

In August 2025, PIJ posted a video in which Mr Braslavski was seen crying and saying that he had run out of food and water, was unable to stand or walk, and was "at death's door".

Following the publication of the video, Mr Braslavski told Channel 13, his captors also began to sexually assault him.

"They stripped me of all my clothes, my underwear, everything. They tied me up from the... When I was completely naked I was wiped out, dying without food and I prayed to God: 'Save me, get me out of this already'," he said.

When asked whether his captors did "more things like that", Mr Braslavski replied: "Yes. It's hard for me to talk about this part specifically. I don't like to talk about it. And it's hard. It was a horrific thing."

He added: "You just pray to God for it to stop. And while I was there, every day, every beating, every day, I'd say to myself: 'I survived another day in hell. Tomorrow morning, I'll wake up to another hell. And another hell'."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Mr Braslavski had shown "extraordinary courage in sharing the horrors of his captivity, including a horrific sexual assault he endured".

"The world must understand the scale of the crimes committed by the terrorists in Gaza, heinous cruelty, sexual violence, and abuse," he wrote on X.

At least four women held as hostages have spoken publicly about alleged incidents of sexual abuse against themselves or fellow captives, according to Reuters.

A PIJ official told Reuters news agency that Mr Braslavski's allegation of sexual assault was "incorrect", without elaborating.

The UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict said in March 2024 that she and a team of experts had found "convincing information" of rape and sexualised torture being committed against some hostages in Gaza. They also found reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence occurred in multiple locations, including rape and gang rape, during the 7 October attacks. Hamas said the report's findings were "baseless".

A separate report by a UN commission of inquiry in March 2025 concluded that Israel had "increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians", including "forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, as well as sexual assault". Israel called the allegations "unfounded".

Last week, the former top lawyer in the Israeli military resigned after saying she was responsible for the leaking of a video that purportedly shows soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee at a base in Israel last year. The detainee was treated for severe injuries after allegedly being stabbed in the rectum. Five soldiers have been charged over the incident.

Four people have been detained by French police after protesters set off flares during a concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris on Thursday night.

Clashes broke out in the auditorium during one of three disruptions to the performance by conductor Lahav Shani and pianist Sir Andras Schiff.

The concert, which featured a programme of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, had already been criticised by a French union for the performing arts, and pro-Palestinian activists had called for a boycott.

However, Culture Minister Rachida Dati strongly defended freedom of creativity as a French value and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said nothing could excuse the "serious disturbances in the hall".

Ticket-holders tried to disrupt the concert three times including twice with a flare, the Philharmonie de Paris said in a statement. At one point concertgoers said the hall became filled with smoke.

Video filmed inside the Pierre Boulez auditorium showed one man brandishing a flare as he walked down steps in a seating area. He was confronted by spectators and clashes broke out.

"The troublemakers were removed and the concert, which had to be interrupted, resumed and came to a peaceful conclusion," the venue said, adding that it was taking legal action.

The disruption prompted an angry response from government figures on Friday, with Laurent Nuñez firmly condemning the incidents and praising police for their rapid response.

But Manon Aubry, a European Parliament member for the radical left France Unbowed, refused to condemn the disruption on French TV, arguing that the orchestra's artists "represent the Israeli state [which] commits war crimes".

Ahead of the concert, pro-Palestinian activists had pushed for its cancellation. Although the CGT-Spectacle union, which represents workers in the performing arts, did not go that far. It had called on the Philharmonie de Paris to "remind its audience of the extremely serious accusations levelled against [Israel's] leaders" and saw the concert as "an attempt at normalisation by the State of Israel".

Rachida Dati said nothing justified a call for a cultural boycott and said there was "no excuse for antisemitism".

The Israel Philharmonic's star conductor, 36-year-old Lahav Shani, was at the centre of another controversy in September when the organisers of the Flanders Festival in the Belgian city of Ghent cancelled his performance with the Munich Philharmonic, citing "insufficient clarity" on his attitude towards the Israeli government.

Its decision was criticised by both the Belgian and German governments and days later Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever attended a Munich Philharmonic concert with Lahav Shani conducting in the German city of Essen.

Condemning Thursday night's disruption, the Philharmonie de Paris said that "regardless of people's opinions, it is utterly unacceptable to threaten the safety of the public, staff and artists... bringing [violence] into a concert hall is extremely serious".

The Belgian government has told the BBC it is urgently trying to acquire drone defences after a sighting forced its main airport near Brussels to close temporarily.

Flights were paused at Zaventem airport on Thursday night, after drones were spotted nearby. They were also seen in other locations, including a military base.

"At first, drones flying over our military bases were seen as our problem," Defence Minister Theo Francken said. "Now it has become a serious threat affecting civilian infrastructure across multiple European countries."

Francken said several European allies have offered assistance, and he had accepted help from the German military which is providing anti-drone defences.

About 3,000 passengers of Brussels Airlines were affected by the disruptions, and the carrier said it faced "considerable costs" from cancelling or diverting dozens of flights.

"EU compensation schemes don't apply here," Joelle Neeb of Brussels Airlines told the BBC.

"But we do have an obligation to make sure passengers get to their final destination as soon as possible by offering refunds of alternative flights, as well as covering their hotels and transport."

She added that drones were a "new threat" and as such, the airline was adapting its contingency plans.

"When our main airport is closed even for just 30 minutes, that has a big impact and we need to act fast."

Drone sightings have caused major flight disruptions across Europe in recent months, including in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Some officials have blamed "hybrid warfare" by Russia, but the Kremlin has denied it has anything to do with it.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius also alleges Moscow's involvement, suggesting these latest sightings could be linked to European Union discussions to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.

The controversial plan would see Kyiv receive a €140bn loan, but with the money being held in a Belgium-based bank, Euroclear. Brussels is nervous that it could be legally forced to pay Moscow back once the war in Ukraine ends.

Belgian security services also suspect Russia, but Francken admits there is currently no accompanying evidence.

In fact, amongst all the European finger pointing, there is no public proof suggesting Russia is responsible for these disruptions.

Suspicions are nevertheless being fuelled by more serious airspace incursions that Moscow has recently carried out in Eastern Europe, involving fighter jets and larger attack drones.

The Kremlin's likely goals are to both test European defences, as well as try to distract the bloc from supporting Ukraine, which is still on the receiving end of its invasion.

Additional reporting by Bruno Boelpaep.

Explosions have been heard near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, a day after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said it would agree to a humanitarian ceasefire.

Residents in Khartoum, which is controlled by the army, told the AFP news agency that they were woken overnight by the sound of drones and explosions.

The blasts appeared to take place near a military base and a power station in the early hours of Friday morning, the residents said.

The RSF has not addressed these accounts, but Sudan's military-led government said it would be wary of agreeing to a truce as the group did not "respect" ceasefires.

The two sides have been embroiled in a civil war that has killed at least 150,000 people and forced 12 million others from their homes since it erupted in April 2023.

This week a UN-backed global hunger monitor confirmed that famine conditions were spreading in conflict zones.

On Friday, drones were heard not only in Khartoum, but also 300km (186 miles) north of the city, in the military-controlled town of Atbara.

"Anti-aircraft defences shot them down, but I saw fires breaking out and heard sounds of explosions in the east of the city," a resident there told AFP.

The day before, the RSF announced it had agreed to a humanitarian truce proposed by the US, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The four countries put forward the plan in September - and said it should be followed by a permanent ceasefire and a transition to civilian rule.

At the time the Sudanese government rejected "foreign interference" and any attempts that equated it with a "racist terrorist militia that relies on foreign mercenaries".

It is not clear if the proposal has been modified since then.

But during a press conference on Friday, Sudan's ambassador to South Africa said it was too early for his country to agree to the plan.

"From our experience, we had many truces at the beginning of the war but every time there was no respect from [the RSF]," Osman Abufatima Adam Mohammed said.

"They use these truces to move to new areas and make moves against the government."

The ambassador opposed the UAE's presence at the ceasefire talks, repeating his government's allegation that the Gulf nation was supplying the RSF with weapons and foreign fighters.

UN experts say accusations of such military support are credible, but the UAE has denied all involvement with the RSF.

The RSF and the military have agreed to ceasefire proposals before, but none have stuck.

This time, the RSF waited until it had finally seized el-Fasher, a key city that it had been blockading for 18 months, before announcing it was on board with the truce.

Now that the paramilitary group has consolidated control over el-Fasher and, consequently, the vast wider western region of Darfur, it may have greater leverage in future ceasefire negotiations.

But the RSF is also facing an international backlash against widespread reports of mass killings and sexual violence during the fall of el-Fasher, which it has denied.

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

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The safety of Kenyans caught up in post-election violence in neighbouring Tanzania must be guaranteed, Kenya's foreign minister has told his Tanzanian counterpart.

Kenyan citizens are living in fear in Tanzania after being reportedly targeted in a brutal crackdown on the protests that followed last week's disputed election.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan won the poll with 98% of the vote - and in her inauguration speech condemned the violence and blamed foreigners for stoking the unrest.

Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister Musalia Mudavadi said the rights of some Kenyans had been violated and that "formal reports" had been submitted to the Tanzanian authorities "for appropriate action".

During a phone conversation, Mudavadi said he had told Tanzanian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo that concerns would be "addressed through the established diplomatic and consular channels".

But he had reaffirmed "the importance of safeguarding the rights, safety, and dignity" of Kenyans living in Tanzania.

In May, Mudavadi had said that about 250,000 Kenyans lived, worked or did business in Tanzania.

The Tanzanian government has come under intense international scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force to quell post-election protests, which reportedly left hundreds of people dead.

It has sought to downplay the scale of the violence and has dismissed the number of deaths given by the opposition as greatly exaggerated.

Earlier a Tanzanian police spokesman said the country had intelligence that some foreigners had crossed the border through illegal points "with the intention to commit crimes, including causing unrest".

Several families in Kenya have expressed concern for the safety of their relatives in Tanzania, following reports that some Kenyans have been killed, injured, or detained, while others are nursing injuries allegedly inflicted by Tanzanian security officers.

Kenyan human rights activist Hussein Khalid urged the government to take urgent measures to protect them, saying that Tanzanian authorities were using Kenyans as "scapegoats for the atrocities committed by police against Tanzanians".

"Kenyans in Tanzania are not safe. They are being targeted and harassed," Mr Khalid told Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper.

John Ogutu, a Kenyan teacher working in Tanzania's main city of Dar es Salaam, was shot dead by police while on his way to buy food, his older sister told the BBC.

But rights groups say his body can not be traced for repatriation and burial.

On Tuesday, a doctor at Muhimbili Hospital in Dar es Salaam told the BBC that vehicles marked "Municipal Burial Services" had been collecting bodies of those believed to have died in the protests.

Kenya's foreign affairs ministry has now asked relatives of Kenyans who may be in distress in Tanzania to share their names, addresses and emergency contacts.

It acknowledged rising public concern over the government's perceived slow response in tracing Kenyans possibly affected by the Tanzanian unrest and said it was taking steps to ensure all nationals abroad were accounted for.

Reports say many Kenyans, especially those working in private schools, are now fleeing Tanzania after the government warned employers not to engage people without work permits.

Election observers say the polls fell short of democratic standards, but the government insists the election was fair and transparent.

President Samia faced little opposition with key rival candidates either imprisoned or barred from running.

Her inauguration ceremony was held at a military parade ground in the capital, Dodoma, instead of a stadium as in previous years. It was closed to the public but was shown live on state TV.

She first came into office in 2021 as Tanzania's first female president following the death of President John Magufuli - and was initially praised for easing political repression, but the political space has since narrowed.

Tanzania and Kenya, which are both part of the Economic African Community, have experienced periodic political and economic tensions.

In May diplomatic relations were strained over Tanzania's treatment of Kenyans who had gone to Dar es Salaam to observe the treason trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu.

Several of them were deported while prominent Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, along with Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, went missing and were later reported to have been tortured and sexually mistreated.

More about Tanzania from the BBC:

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Dozens of people have been injured in an explosion during Friday prayers at a mosque inside a high school complex in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

Fifty-four people were admitted to hospital, city police chief Asep Edi Suheri told a televised news conference, with the injuries ranging from minor to serious and including burns.

Authorities said three people had suffered serious injuries and 17 others came away with minor injuries. Others have been treated and discharged, local media reports.

The Jakarta Metropolitan Police is now investigating the cause of the explosion at the site in Kelapa Gading, a district in North Jakarta, with a bomb disposal team deployed to the search area.

Images from the scene show bystanders watching on as military personnel cordon off and guard the entrance to the state-run high school complex.

The explosion occurred around 12:15 local time (05:15 GMT), according to local reports.

A high-ranking Jakarta Metropolitan Police officer confirmed the presence of two objects resembling firearms at the scene.

Images from Indonesia's government-owned news agency Antara suggest one of the objects appeared to be a submachine gun and another looked like a pistol.

The submachine gun-type object appears to be inscribed on its barrel with: "14 words. For Agartha."

On its body, it says: "Brenton Tarrant. Welcome to Hell."

Brenton Tarrant is the perpetrator of a 2019 mass shooting at a mosque and Islamic centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 and injured dozens of others.

A minister who visited the scene later on Friday sought to dispel suggestions that weapons were present at the site, telling CNN Indonesia what had been pictured "turned out to be a toy gun, not a real gun".

Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus also called on the public not to presume the explosion was a "terrorist act" as investigators were still combing over the scene.

Another object found at the site was a dark green belt for storing gun cartridges.

A pupil at the school alleged to Antara that a homemade bomb had been brought in by a student who had often been bullied by other students.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population.

Typhoon Kalmaegi made landfall in Vietnam on Thursday after killing at least 114 people and flooding entire towns in the Philippines.

More than 260,000 soldiers are on standby for rescue efforts as winds of up to 92mph (149km/h) hit the country's coastline, according to Vietnamese media and the government's online portal.

Six airports in the country have been forced to close and hundreds of flights are expected to be affected, the government warned.

The country, which has already been battling record rains and floods, is now facing one of Asia's strongest typhoons this year.

The typhoon could generate waves of up to 8m (26ft) on the South China Sea, according to Vietnam's weather bureau.

The country's environment ministry said on Thursday that "the storm is on land, in the provinces of Dak Lak and Gia Lai" in a statement quoted by various outlets, including the AFP news agency.

The Vietnamese national weather forecaster says hundreds of localities in seven cities and provinces are at risk of flooding and landslides in the next six hours.

There have already been reports of damage from several provinces, including roofs torn off homes, shattered glass panels at hotels, and trees uprooted or snapped along city streets and rural roads by powerful gusts.

In the Quy Non area, trees have fallen on main roads and windows in hotels have smashed.

About 30 minutes after the typhoon made landfall, hundreds of residents in two communes of Dak Lak province called for help, local media reported.

Many people reported that their homes had collapsed or been flooded, while strong winds and heavy rain continued to batter the area.

Dak Lak province is approximately 350km (215 miles) north-east of Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam's military has deployed more than 260,000 soldiers and personnel, along with more than 6,700 vehicles and pieces of equipment, including six aircraft, to help with storm relief efforts.

On Wednesday morning, a reporter from AFP news agency saw officials knocking on the doors of homes in coastal communities and warning people to evacuate.

According to local media reports, Prime Minister of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh held an online meeting to direct the emergency response.

"We must reach isolated areas and ensure people have food, drinking water, and essential supplies," he was quoted as saying.

"No one should be left hungry or cold."

Before making landfall in Vietnam, the typhoon, known locally as Tino, left a trail of devastation in the Philippines.

At least 114 people were killed and tens of thousands were evacuated, particularly from central areas including the populous island and tourist hotspot of Cebu, where cars were swept through the streets.

Early on Thursday, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr declared a state of emergency, the threshold of which involves mass casualty, major damage to property, and disruption to means of livelihoods and the normal way of life for people in the affected areas.

Vietnam has already been battling with floods and record rains for the past week.

Burst riverbanks have flooded some of the country's most popular tourist spots, including the Unesco-listed city of Hue and historic hotspot Hoi An, where residents have been pictured navigating the city in wooden boats after the Hoai river overflowed.

Seaside communities in Vietnam are expected to be hit hard by Typhoon Kalmaegi.

A sea-level rise of 4 to 6m (13 to 20ft) in at least two provinces could capsize boats and devastate fishing farms, according to a forecast issued at 16:00 local time (9:00 GMT) by a senior official at Vietnam's National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

Meanwhile, deputy director Nguyen Xuan Hien says Typhoon Damrey - which struck Vietnam in 2017 with less intensity than Kalmaegi, but still caused severe damage to coastal communities - should serve as a warning and urged people to remain highly alert.

Thailand is also bracing for the storm's impact. Local officials have warned of flash floods, landslides and river overflows.

Dozens of people have been injured in an explosion during Friday prayers at a mosque inside a high school complex in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta.

Fifty-four people were admitted to hospital, city police chief Asep Edi Suheri told a televised news conference, with the injuries ranging from minor to serious and including burns.

Authorities said three people had suffered serious injuries and 17 others came away with minor injuries. Others have been treated and discharged, local media reports.

The Jakarta Metropolitan Police is now investigating the cause of the explosion at the site in Kelapa Gading, a district in North Jakarta, with a bomb disposal team deployed to the search area.

Images from the scene show bystanders watching on as military personnel cordon off and guard the entrance to the state-run high school complex.

The explosion occurred around 12:15 local time (05:15 GMT), according to local reports.

A high-ranking Jakarta Metropolitan Police officer confirmed the presence of two objects resembling firearms at the scene.

Images from Indonesia's government-owned news agency Antara suggest one of the objects appeared to be a submachine gun and another looked like a pistol.

The submachine gun-type object appears to be inscribed on its barrel with: "14 words. For Agartha."

On its body, it says: "Brenton Tarrant. Welcome to Hell."

Brenton Tarrant is the perpetrator of a 2019 mass shooting at a mosque and Islamic centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 51 and injured dozens of others.

A minister who visited the scene later on Friday sought to dispel suggestions that weapons were present at the site, telling CNN Indonesia what had been pictured "turned out to be a toy gun, not a real gun".

Lodewijk Freidrich Paulus also called on the public not to presume the explosion was a "terrorist act" as investigators were still combing over the scene.

Another object found at the site was a dark green belt for storing gun cartridges.

A pupil at the school alleged to Antara that a homemade bomb had been brought in by a student who had often been bullied by other students.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population.

The safety of Kenyans caught up in post-election violence in neighbouring Tanzania must be guaranteed, Kenya's foreign minister has told his Tanzanian counterpart.

Kenyan citizens are living in fear in Tanzania after being reportedly targeted in a brutal crackdown on the protests that followed last week's disputed election.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan won the poll with 98% of the vote - and in her inauguration speech condemned the violence and blamed foreigners for stoking the unrest.

Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister Musalia Mudavadi said the rights of some Kenyans had been violated and that "formal reports" had been submitted to the Tanzanian authorities "for appropriate action".

During a phone conversation, Mudavadi said he had told Tanzanian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo that concerns would be "addressed through the established diplomatic and consular channels".

But he had reaffirmed "the importance of safeguarding the rights, safety, and dignity" of Kenyans living in Tanzania.

In May, Mudavadi had said that about 250,000 Kenyans lived, worked or did business in Tanzania.

The Tanzanian government has come under intense international scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force to quell post-election protests, which reportedly left hundreds of people dead.

It has sought to downplay the scale of the violence and has dismissed the number of deaths given by the opposition as greatly exaggerated.

Earlier a Tanzanian police spokesman said the country had intelligence that some foreigners had crossed the border through illegal points "with the intention to commit crimes, including causing unrest".

Several families in Kenya have expressed concern for the safety of their relatives in Tanzania, following reports that some Kenyans have been killed, injured, or detained, while others are nursing injuries allegedly inflicted by Tanzanian security officers.

Kenyan human rights activist Hussein Khalid urged the government to take urgent measures to protect them, saying that Tanzanian authorities were using Kenyans as "scapegoats for the atrocities committed by police against Tanzanians".

"Kenyans in Tanzania are not safe. They are being targeted and harassed," Mr Khalid told Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper.

John Ogutu, a Kenyan teacher working in Tanzania's main city of Dar es Salaam, was shot dead by police while on his way to buy food, his older sister told the BBC.

But rights groups say his body can not be traced for repatriation and burial.

On Tuesday, a doctor at Muhimbili Hospital in Dar es Salaam told the BBC that vehicles marked "Municipal Burial Services" had been collecting bodies of those believed to have died in the protests.

Kenya's foreign affairs ministry has now asked relatives of Kenyans who may be in distress in Tanzania to share their names, addresses and emergency contacts.

It acknowledged rising public concern over the government's perceived slow response in tracing Kenyans possibly affected by the Tanzanian unrest and said it was taking steps to ensure all nationals abroad were accounted for.

Reports say many Kenyans, especially those working in private schools, are now fleeing Tanzania after the government warned employers not to engage people without work permits.

Election observers say the polls fell short of democratic standards, but the government insists the election was fair and transparent.

President Samia faced little opposition with key rival candidates either imprisoned or barred from running.

Her inauguration ceremony was held at a military parade ground in the capital, Dodoma, instead of a stadium as in previous years. It was closed to the public but was shown live on state TV.

She first came into office in 2021 as Tanzania's first female president following the death of President John Magufuli - and was initially praised for easing political repression, but the political space has since narrowed.

Tanzania and Kenya, which are both part of the Economic African Community, have experienced periodic political and economic tensions.

In May diplomatic relations were strained over Tanzania's treatment of Kenyans who had gone to Dar es Salaam to observe the treason trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu.

Several of them were deported while prominent Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, along with Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, went missing and were later reported to have been tortured and sexually mistreated.

More about Tanzania from the BBC:

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

In the midst of a still shaky ceasefire, Gazans are taking the first tentative steps along the long road to recovery.

Bulldozers are clearing roads, shovelling the detritus of war into waiting trucks. Mountains of rubble and twisted metal are on either side, the remains of once bustling neighbourhoods.

Parts of Gaza City are disfigured beyond recognition.

"This was my house," says Abu Iyad Hamdouna. He points to a mangled heap of concrete and steel in Sheikh Radwan, which was once one of Gaza City's most densely populated neighbourhoods.

"It was here. But there's no house left."

Abu Iyad is 63. If Gaza ever rises from the ashes, he doesn't expect to be around to see it.

"At this rate, I think it'll take 10 years." He looks exhausted and resigned. "We'll be dead... we'll die without seeing reconstruction."

Nearby, 43-year-old Nihad al-Madhoun and his nephew Said are picking through the wreckage of what was once a home.

The building might well collapse but it doesn't deter them - they collect old breeze blocks and brush thick dust off an old red sofa.

"The removal of rubble alone might take more than five years," he says. "And we will wait. We have no other option."

The sheer scale of the challenge is staggering. The UN estimates the cost of damage at £53bn ($70bn). Almost 300,000 houses and apartments have been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN's satellite centre Unosat.

The Gaza Strip is littered with 60 million tonnes of rubble, mixed in with dangerous unexploded bombs and dead bodies.

In all, more than 68,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the past two years, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are accepted by the United Nations and other international bodies.

In the midst of such destruction, it's hard to know where to begin.

There's no shortage of ideas - including grand designs conceived by those with money and power in faraway capitals. The US President Donald Trump had his say too.

But Gazans we spoke to are sceptical of schemes drawn up abroad, and they have visions of their own. So the fight is on to shape Gaza's future.

The question is, who will prevail?

From Trump's riviera to the Phoenix plan

Yahya al-Sarraj, Gaza City's Hamas-appointed mayor, is out on the streets wearing a hi-vis jacket and surveying the ruins. Already, shops and restaurants are starting to reopen, he points out.

"Of course it's very modest," he says, "but they want to live, and they deserve to live."

Gaza is no stranger to these destructions, he adds, recalling several conflicts prior to the cataclysm that erupted, following the devastating attack that Hamas launched on Israel on 7 October 2023.

"We heard about a lot of plans, international, local, regional plans. [But] we have our own plan.

"We call it the Phoenix of Gaza."

This was the first home-grown Palestinian plan to emerge during the war - in a computer-generated video that accompanied it, shattered communities are seen transformed, as if by magic, into modern neighbourhoods.

"We wanted to fill the vacuum," says Yara Salem, an infrastructure specialist, formerly of the World Bank, with experience in conflict areas including post-war Iraq.

"You cannot have foreign-imposed reconstruction plans while you don't have any vision about your own country."

The publication of the Phoenix plan in February followed 13 months of work by a broad coalition of around 700 Palestinian reconstruction experts, some based abroad. It drew on the knowledge and experience of architects and engineers across the Gaza Strip too. Students at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank were also involved as the idea evolved.

Hamas, which exercises political control over the municipalities, was not involved.

Today, the creators of the Phoenix plan know that its fate is out of their hands, as competing interests, in the Middle East and beyond, jostle for control of Gaza's future.

This vision stands in sharp contrast to the glitzy "Gaza Riviera", a controversial proposal first described in February by President Trump during a meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

Trump famously reposted a bizarre AI-generated video on his social media account, showing himself, Netanyahu and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk enjoying the high life in a kind of Dubai-style fantasy.

A giant golden statue of the president towered over a street and bearded male belly dancers wearing green headbands were pictured on the beach.

Though the video was clearly a spoof, President Trump had already spoken of the US taking "a long-term ownership position" in Gaza.

"Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable," his son-in-law Jared Kushner told an audience at Harvard University last year, "if people would focus on building up livelihoods."

Trump's 20-point Gaza ceasefire proposal, agreed in October, also includes references to a "Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energise Gaza", alongside an international "Board of Peace" to oversee governance - there has been speculation about whether former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair could end up at its helm.

High-tech, AI-powered 'smart cities'

But Trump's "Gaza Riviera" is not the only glossy vision of a futuristic Gaza that has emerged.

A leaked document, published in August by The Washington Post, painted a similar vision of a high-tech Gaza Strip, under US trusteeship for 10 years.

Dubbed the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust - "Great" for short – the plan was said to be the work of Israeli and American consultants, with input from members of Tony Blair's Institute for Global Change.

The plan envisaged the creation of a series of "modern and AI-powered smart planned cities", noting that poor urban design lay at the heart of "Gaza's ongoing insurgency."

"From a Demolished Iranian Proxy to a Prosperous Abrahamic Ally," the plan's subtitle read, in a nod to the Abraham Accords brokered during Trump's first presidential term, suggesting that a revived Gaza could form part of a much larger regional peace initiative.

The plan also nodded to the idea of "voluntary relocation," under which a quarter of Gaza's population would leave the Strip, in return for a $5,000 (£3,780) relocation package and subsidised rent abroad.

It all stands in sharp contrast to the Phoenix plan that sets out to protect Gaza's existing infrastructure and, where possible, restore the area's social and geographical fabric.

"These sort of almost hallucinatory plans are creating an opening for disaster capitalism that is worrying," argues Raja Khalidi, director general of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, an independent think tank.

"The state has the ability to plan… what sort of Gaza we want to build, and when we want to build it and how much it's going to cost us.

"It has to be a Palestinian vision - my concern [is that] we will be sidelined."

Shelly Culbertson, a senior researcher at the US-based RAND non-partisan think tank and co-author of a detailed study on Gaza reconstruction, also believes that the Gaza Strip is not simply a blank slate waiting to be turned into a new version of Dubai.

"There's a lot of heritage, cities that have been around for… millennia," she says. "It's not good practice to just wipe it all out and start over, but rather build with what you have."

'The soul and spirit of Gaza'

These are not the only plans however. Another, drafted by Egypt and adopted hastily by the Arab League at a summit in Cairo in March, spoke of rebuilding Gaza over a period of five years - like the Phoenix plan, it emphasised the importance of involving Gazans in every stage "to foster a sense of ownership and ensure that the needs of the local community are met".

Meanwhile the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by President Mahmoud Abbas, has been developing its own proposals for the Gaza Strip, as part of a wider plan to reconnect Gaza and the occupied West Bank in a future Palestinian state.

At his office in Ramallah, Estephan Salameh, the PA planning minister told me that whatever plan is settled upon, Gaza of the future would look different, but that some things would have to stay the same.

"Don't forget that 70% of Gaza's population are Palestinian refugees," he says. "And we need to preserve the refugee identity. We need to preserve the soul and the spirit of Gaza."

For Salameh, that means recreating Gaza's pre-war refugee camps, where hundreds of thousands of descendants of Palestinians, who fled or were driven from their homes in the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948-9, have lived ever since.

Over time, the camps have evolved, from the canvas tents and tin shacks of the 1950s into busy, overcrowded communities with some of the highest population densities in the world.

The PA plan is not to recreate slums, but to make sure that tight-knit communities can be restored.

"We want to have Jabalia rebuilt where it was," Salameh says, referring to the biggest camp that was once home to more than 100,000 people, and that is now largely destroyed.

But for the time being, the Palestine Authority's rule only extends to the West Bank, not Gaza. Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan says the Board of Peace will handle Gaza's redevelopment "until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform programme".

A slow, painstaking process

Reconstruction is likely to be a slow, painstaking process, one that Shelly Culbertson calls "incremental urbanism".

"Living in the damaged but habitable communities and rebuilding while in them, we think is going to be a key way of preserving communities and allowing people to move back," she says.

"[But] some places have been so destroyed and damaged and dangerous that the only thing to do really is wall them off, raise them down and completely rebuild.

"This is not going to be a five-year recovery - it's probably going to take decades."

The Palestinian Authority's planning minister predicts a quicker timeline but says nothing can begin until political and security arrangements are in place, borders are open (to allow the import of building materials) and funding is secured.

But therein lies the rub. In order for international donors to pledge the tens of billions of dollars needed to rebuild Gaza, there has to be agreement on what a recovery plan will look like.

Egypt plans to hold a reconstruction summit but a date has not yet been set. And the most likely funders - Saudi Arabia and the UAE - will need reassurances that their colossal investments are not simply going to go up in smoke in some future Gaza war.

But with the current Israeli government strongly opposing the creation of a Palestinian state - something that Saudi Arabia is also pushing for - the political obstacles are formidable.

Israel has previously said that it is not opposed to investors and builders from a variety of countries beginning efforts to rebuild in areas controlled by the IDF.

On a recent visit to Israel, Jared Kushner spoke of building "a new Gaza" on territory still under Israeli military control, saying no reconstruction funds would go to areas controlled by Hamas.

But nothing substantial can happen while the Gaza ceasefire hangs by a thread, and Israel and Hamas still trade occasional blows.

Back in the shattered remains of Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, Abu Iyad Hamdouna has more immediate concerns.

"Reconstruction?" he exclaims. "What about water?"

After five forced displacements during the war, Abu Iyad just wants to stay put, in whatever shelter he can find, or make for himself.

He's not waiting for the Phoenix to rise or indeed for any sort of Gaza Riviera to materialise.

"Here we are, making tents," he says. "We are sitting making tents, next to the house we still cannot live in."

Lead image credit: Bloomberg/Reuters/ Phoenix. Image shows destroyed buildings in Gaza (bottom left) and an AI-generated impression of the Phoenix plan (top left)

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China's most advanced aircraft carrier, the Fujian, has entered service days after a grand commissioning ceremony overseen by Chinese leader Xi Jinping, state media said.

The Fujian, the country's third warship, is equipped with electromagnetic catapults which will allow planes to be launched at higher speeds.

Its launch marked a significant step forward for Beijing, which now has the world's largest navy in terms of sheer number of ships.

China has been expanding its navy at breakneck speed under Xi, putting pressure on the United States and its allies to keep up.

The Fujian can launch three different types of aircraft with its electromagnetic catapult and flat flight deck, according to state media.

The domestically-built vessel can carry planes with heavier weapons and fuel loads so they can strike enemy targets from a greater distance, making it more powerful than China's first two carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong - both built by the Russians.

State media hailed the Fujian as a "major milestone" in the development of China's navy.

The US is the only other country in the world to have an aircraft carrier with the same electromagnetic catapult system as Fujian.

The Fujian's commissioning ceremony was held in southern Hainan province on Wednesday, during which Xi toured the ship's deck to hear more details about its performance at sea.

State media claimed Xi had personally made the decision to adopt electromagnetic catapult technology.

The reports also said Xi spoke to sailors who lined up along the flight deck and dock, saluting and shouting in unison: "Follow the party's command, fight to win, and uphold fine conduct!"

In the midst of a still shaky ceasefire, Gazans are taking the first tentative steps along the long road to recovery.

Bulldozers are clearing roads, shovelling the detritus of war into waiting trucks. Mountains of rubble and twisted metal are on either side, the remains of once bustling neighbourhoods.

Parts of Gaza City are disfigured beyond recognition.

"This was my house," says Abu Iyad Hamdouna. He points to a mangled heap of concrete and steel in Sheikh Radwan, which was once one of Gaza City's most densely populated neighbourhoods.

"It was here. But there's no house left."

Abu Iyad is 63. If Gaza ever rises from the ashes, he doesn't expect to be around to see it.

"At this rate, I think it'll take 10 years." He looks exhausted and resigned. "We'll be dead... we'll die without seeing reconstruction."

Nearby, 43-year-old Nihad al-Madhoun and his nephew Said are picking through the wreckage of what was once a home.

The building might well collapse but it doesn't deter them - they collect old breeze blocks and brush thick dust off an old red sofa.

"The removal of rubble alone might take more than five years," he says. "And we will wait. We have no other option."

The sheer scale of the challenge is staggering. The UN estimates the cost of damage at £53bn ($70bn). Almost 300,000 houses and apartments have been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN's satellite centre Unosat.

The Gaza Strip is littered with 60 million tonnes of rubble, mixed in with dangerous unexploded bombs and dead bodies.

In all, more than 68,000 people have been killed in Gaza in the past two years, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are accepted by the United Nations and other international bodies.

In the midst of such destruction, it's hard to know where to begin.

There's no shortage of ideas - including grand designs conceived by those with money and power in faraway capitals. The US President Donald Trump had his say too.

But Gazans we spoke to are sceptical of schemes drawn up abroad, and they have visions of their own. So the fight is on to shape Gaza's future.

The question is, who will prevail?

From Trump's riviera to the Phoenix plan

Yahya al-Sarraj, Gaza City's Hamas-appointed mayor, is out on the streets wearing a hi-vis jacket and surveying the ruins. Already, shops and restaurants are starting to reopen, he points out.

"Of course it's very modest," he says, "but they want to live, and they deserve to live."

Gaza is no stranger to these destructions, he adds, recalling several conflicts prior to the cataclysm that erupted, following the devastating attack that Hamas launched on Israel on 7 October 2023.

"We heard about a lot of plans, international, local, regional plans. [But] we have our own plan.

"We call it the Phoenix of Gaza."

This was the first home-grown Palestinian plan to emerge during the war - in a computer-generated video that accompanied it, shattered communities are seen transformed, as if by magic, into modern neighbourhoods.

"We wanted to fill the vacuum," says Yara Salem, an infrastructure specialist, formerly of the World Bank, with experience in conflict areas including post-war Iraq.

"You cannot have foreign-imposed reconstruction plans while you don't have any vision about your own country."

The publication of the Phoenix plan in February followed 13 months of work by a broad coalition of around 700 Palestinian reconstruction experts, some based abroad. It drew on the knowledge and experience of architects and engineers across the Gaza Strip too. Students at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank were also involved as the idea evolved.

Hamas, which exercises political control over the municipalities, was not involved.

Today, the creators of the Phoenix plan know that its fate is out of their hands, as competing interests, in the Middle East and beyond, jostle for control of Gaza's future.

This vision stands in sharp contrast to the glitzy "Gaza Riviera", a controversial proposal first described in February by President Trump during a meeting with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

Trump famously reposted a bizarre AI-generated video on his social media account, showing himself, Netanyahu and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk enjoying the high life in a kind of Dubai-style fantasy.

A giant golden statue of the president towered over a street and bearded male belly dancers wearing green headbands were pictured on the beach.

Though the video was clearly a spoof, President Trump had already spoken of the US taking "a long-term ownership position" in Gaza.

"Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable," his son-in-law Jared Kushner told an audience at Harvard University last year, "if people would focus on building up livelihoods."

Trump's 20-point Gaza ceasefire proposal, agreed in October, also includes references to a "Trump economic development plan to rebuild and energise Gaza", alongside an international "Board of Peace" to oversee governance - there has been speculation about whether former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair could end up at its helm.

High-tech, AI-powered 'smart cities'

But Trump's "Gaza Riviera" is not the only glossy vision of a futuristic Gaza that has emerged.

A leaked document, published in August by The Washington Post, painted a similar vision of a high-tech Gaza Strip, under US trusteeship for 10 years.

Dubbed the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust - "Great" for short – the plan was said to be the work of Israeli and American consultants, with input from members of Tony Blair's Institute for Global Change.

The plan envisaged the creation of a series of "modern and AI-powered smart planned cities", noting that poor urban design lay at the heart of "Gaza's ongoing insurgency."

"From a Demolished Iranian Proxy to a Prosperous Abrahamic Ally," the plan's subtitle read, in a nod to the Abraham Accords brokered during Trump's first presidential term, suggesting that a revived Gaza could form part of a much larger regional peace initiative.

The plan also nodded to the idea of "voluntary relocation," under which a quarter of Gaza's population would leave the Strip, in return for a $5,000 (£3,780) relocation package and subsidised rent abroad.

It all stands in sharp contrast to the Phoenix plan that sets out to protect Gaza's existing infrastructure and, where possible, restore the area's social and geographical fabric.

"These sort of almost hallucinatory plans are creating an opening for disaster capitalism that is worrying," argues Raja Khalidi, director general of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, an independent think tank.

"The state has the ability to plan… what sort of Gaza we want to build, and when we want to build it and how much it's going to cost us.

"It has to be a Palestinian vision - my concern [is that] we will be sidelined."

Shelly Culbertson, a senior researcher at the US-based RAND non-partisan think tank and co-author of a detailed study on Gaza reconstruction, also believes that the Gaza Strip is not simply a blank slate waiting to be turned into a new version of Dubai.

"There's a lot of heritage, cities that have been around for… millennia," she says. "It's not good practice to just wipe it all out and start over, but rather build with what you have."

'The soul and spirit of Gaza'

These are not the only plans however. Another, drafted by Egypt and adopted hastily by the Arab League at a summit in Cairo in March, spoke of rebuilding Gaza over a period of five years - like the Phoenix plan, it emphasised the importance of involving Gazans in every stage "to foster a sense of ownership and ensure that the needs of the local community are met".

Meanwhile the Palestinian Authority (PA), led by President Mahmoud Abbas, has been developing its own proposals for the Gaza Strip, as part of a wider plan to reconnect Gaza and the occupied West Bank in a future Palestinian state.

At his office in Ramallah, Estephan Salameh, the PA planning minister told me that whatever plan is settled upon, Gaza of the future would look different, but that some things would have to stay the same.

"Don't forget that 70% of Gaza's population are Palestinian refugees," he says. "And we need to preserve the refugee identity. We need to preserve the soul and the spirit of Gaza."

For Salameh, that means recreating Gaza's pre-war refugee camps, where hundreds of thousands of descendants of Palestinians, who fled or were driven from their homes in the war surrounding Israel's creation in 1948-9, have lived ever since.

Over time, the camps have evolved, from the canvas tents and tin shacks of the 1950s into busy, overcrowded communities with some of the highest population densities in the world.

The PA plan is not to recreate slums, but to make sure that tight-knit communities can be restored.

"We want to have Jabalia rebuilt where it was," Salameh says, referring to the biggest camp that was once home to more than 100,000 people, and that is now largely destroyed.

But for the time being, the Palestine Authority's rule only extends to the West Bank, not Gaza. Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan says the Board of Peace will handle Gaza's redevelopment "until such time as the Palestinian Authority has completed its reform programme".

A slow, painstaking process

Reconstruction is likely to be a slow, painstaking process, one that Shelly Culbertson calls "incremental urbanism".

"Living in the damaged but habitable communities and rebuilding while in them, we think is going to be a key way of preserving communities and allowing people to move back," she says.

"[But] some places have been so destroyed and damaged and dangerous that the only thing to do really is wall them off, raise them down and completely rebuild.

"This is not going to be a five-year recovery - it's probably going to take decades."

The Palestinian Authority's planning minister predicts a quicker timeline but says nothing can begin until political and security arrangements are in place, borders are open (to allow the import of building materials) and funding is secured.

But therein lies the rub. In order for international donors to pledge the tens of billions of dollars needed to rebuild Gaza, there has to be agreement on what a recovery plan will look like.

Egypt plans to hold a reconstruction summit but a date has not yet been set. And the most likely funders - Saudi Arabia and the UAE - will need reassurances that their colossal investments are not simply going to go up in smoke in some future Gaza war.

But with the current Israeli government strongly opposing the creation of a Palestinian state - something that Saudi Arabia is also pushing for - the political obstacles are formidable.

Israel has previously said that it is not opposed to investors and builders from a variety of countries beginning efforts to rebuild in areas controlled by the IDF.

On a recent visit to Israel, Jared Kushner spoke of building "a new Gaza" on territory still under Israeli military control, saying no reconstruction funds would go to areas controlled by Hamas.

But nothing substantial can happen while the Gaza ceasefire hangs by a thread, and Israel and Hamas still trade occasional blows.

Back in the shattered remains of Gaza City's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, Abu Iyad Hamdouna has more immediate concerns.

"Reconstruction?" he exclaims. "What about water?"

After five forced displacements during the war, Abu Iyad just wants to stay put, in whatever shelter he can find, or make for himself.

He's not waiting for the Phoenix to rise or indeed for any sort of Gaza Riviera to materialise.

"Here we are, making tents," he says. "We are sitting making tents, next to the house we still cannot live in."

Lead image credit: Bloomberg/Reuters/ Phoenix. Image shows destroyed buildings in Gaza (bottom left) and an AI-generated impression of the Phoenix plan (top left)

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Multiple people have fallen ill after opening a "suspicious package" delivered to the base of operations for Air Force One.

A spokesperson for Joint Base Andrews (JBA) in Maryland, near the US capital, Washington DC, said the building the package was opened in was evacuated and those taken ill were found to be in a stable condition by medical staff.

The package contained an unidentified white powder, CNN reports, citing unnamed sources taking part in an investigation.

The air base houses the US presidential plane and its support craft, and is where the president usually departs on trips.

The JBA spokesperson said the building in which the package was opened and a connecting building were evacuated "as a precaution" and a cordon established around the area.

They added: "First responders were dispatched to the scene, determined there were no immediate threats, and normal operations have resumed. An investigation is currently ongoing."

Initial tests by a Hazmat team did not detect anything hazardous, according to CNN.

It reports that investigators are also assessing political propaganda that was included in the package.

It is unclear the extent or the nature of the illness suffered by those near the package when it was opened.

Typhoon Kalmaegi made landfall in Vietnam on Thursday after killing at least 114 people and flooding entire towns in the Philippines.

More than 260,000 soldiers are on standby for rescue efforts as winds of up to 92mph (149km/h) hit the country's coastline, according to Vietnamese media and the government's online portal.

Six airports in the country have been forced to close and hundreds of flights are expected to be affected, the government warned.

The country, which has already been battling record rains and floods, is now facing one of Asia's strongest typhoons this year.

The typhoon could generate waves of up to 8m (26ft) on the South China Sea, according to Vietnam's weather bureau.

The country's environment ministry said on Thursday that "the storm is on land, in the provinces of Dak Lak and Gia Lai" in a statement quoted by various outlets, including the AFP news agency.

The Vietnamese national weather forecaster says hundreds of localities in seven cities and provinces are at risk of flooding and landslides in the next six hours.

There have already been reports of damage from several provinces, including roofs torn off homes, shattered glass panels at hotels, and trees uprooted or snapped along city streets and rural roads by powerful gusts.

In the Quy Non area, trees have fallen on main roads and windows in hotels have smashed.

About 30 minutes after the typhoon made landfall, hundreds of residents in two communes of Dak Lak province called for help, local media reported.

Many people reported that their homes had collapsed or been flooded, while strong winds and heavy rain continued to batter the area.

Dak Lak province is approximately 350km (215 miles) north-east of Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam's military has deployed more than 260,000 soldiers and personnel, along with more than 6,700 vehicles and pieces of equipment, including six aircraft, to help with storm relief efforts.

On Wednesday morning, a reporter from AFP news agency saw officials knocking on the doors of homes in coastal communities and warning people to evacuate.

According to local media reports, Prime Minister of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh held an online meeting to direct the emergency response.

"We must reach isolated areas and ensure people have food, drinking water, and essential supplies," he was quoted as saying.

"No one should be left hungry or cold."

Before making landfall in Vietnam, the typhoon, known locally as Tino, left a trail of devastation in the Philippines.

At least 114 people were killed and tens of thousands were evacuated, particularly from central areas including the populous island and tourist hotspot of Cebu, where cars were swept through the streets.

Early on Thursday, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr declared a state of emergency, the threshold of which involves mass casualty, major damage to property, and disruption to means of livelihoods and the normal way of life for people in the affected areas.

Vietnam has already been battling with floods and record rains for the past week.

Burst riverbanks have flooded some of the country's most popular tourist spots, including the Unesco-listed city of Hue and historic hotspot Hoi An, where residents have been pictured navigating the city in wooden boats after the Hoai river overflowed.

Seaside communities in Vietnam are expected to be hit hard by Typhoon Kalmaegi.

A sea-level rise of 4 to 6m (13 to 20ft) in at least two provinces could capsize boats and devastate fishing farms, according to a forecast issued at 16:00 local time (9:00 GMT) by a senior official at Vietnam's National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

Meanwhile, deputy director Nguyen Xuan Hien says Typhoon Damrey - which struck Vietnam in 2017 with less intensity than Kalmaegi, but still caused severe damage to coastal communities - should serve as a warning and urged people to remain highly alert.

Thailand is also bracing for the storm's impact. Local officials have warned of flash floods, landslides and river overflows.

A British grandmother who spent 12 years on death row in Indonesia after being convicted of drug trafficking flew home on Friday, as part of a deal between the UK and Indonesian governments.

Lindsay Sandiford, 69, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013, after she was found with nearly 5kg of cocaine worth £1.6m ($2.1m) when she arrived on a flight from Thailand in 2012.

Indonesia has some of the world's most stringent drug laws, but it has freed several high-profile detainees, including the infamous "Bali Nine" drug ring, in the past year.

Sandiford was repatriated along with another British national Shahab Shahabadi, who had been serving a life sentence for drug smuggling.

Their flight left Bali at about 00:30 local time (16:30 GMT Thursday), Indonesian officials said.

Sandiford and Shahabadi were both said to be suffering from health problems while in prison. Last month, Indonesia's senior law and human rights minister, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, said Sandiford was "seriously ill" while Shahabadi had "various serious illnesses, including mental health issues", AFP news agency reported.

Sandiford attended a press conference in the Bali prison in a wheelchair hours before she was due to fly home.

She had admitted to the offences in 2013, but said she only agreed to carry the cocaine after a drug syndicate threatened to kill her son.

The UK's Deputy Ambassador to Indonesia Matthew Downing said Sandiford and Shahabadi were being repatriated on "humanitarian grounds".

They will be given necessary treatment while being "governed by the law and procedures of the UK" upon their return, he added.

In December 2024, Indonesia repatriated the five remaining members of the "Bali Nine" drug ring, after they served nearly 20 years in Indonesian prisons. The two ringleaders were executed by firing squad in 2015.

Also in December, Filipina Mary Jane Veloso was repatriated to the Philippines. The mother of two, who was nearly executed, had always maintained she was tricked into carrying the drugs found on her.

The Duke of Sussex has apologised to Canada for wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers hat while attending a World Series game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Prince Harry joked that he was "under duress" when he wore the bright blue cap during the epic Game 4 of the World Series in Los Angeles. He thought it was "the polite thing to do" after being invited to the game by the Dodgers' owner.

His headgear choice upset many in Canada - a Commonwealth nation- who criticised him for not showing his allegiance to the realm, or to the only Canadian team in Major League Baseball.

Prince Harry's father King Charles is the head of state of Canada and of 13 other Commonwealth realms.

"Firstly, I would like to apologise to Canada for wearing it," he said in a CTV interview while in the commonwealth this week for Remembrance events. "Secondly, I was under duress. There wasn't much choice."

The prince - wearing a Blue Jays hat during the interview - quipped that "when you're missing a lot of hair on top, and you're sitting under flood lights, you'll take any hat that's available".

He plans to wear a Blue Jays hat from now on and rooted for the Toronto team in subsequent games, appearing to do so in a clip posted on social media by the Duchess of Sussex - a Los Angeles native - when the Dodgers won the series in Game 7 a few days later.

Prince Harry, who was given a Blue Jays hat while meeting with Canada's oldest veterans on Thursday, also said that admitting that he is a Toronto fan would likely make his reception in California more difficult.

The prince and his wife, a former actress who lived in Canada while filming her TV drama Suits, moved to California after stepping back as full-time royals in 2020.

The couple's presence in the Chavez Ravine-set stadium in Los Angeles also disgruntled many Dodgers fans in the US. They took to social media to voice their upset over the couple's plum front-row seats during the 18-inning game, while local legends such as Magic Johnson and former pitcher Dodgers Sandy Koufax were seated behind them.

Incidentally, Prince Harry published an essay this week about "What it means to be British" ahead of his visits with military veterans in Canada this week.

In it, he said "banter" in pubs and sports grounds and a spirit of good-humoured "self-deprecation" are some of the things that he loves about Britain and what he thinks define British culture.

A man has caught fire at Melbourne international airport after a lithium power bank in his pocket ignited, leaving him with burns to his leg and fingers.

The man, aged in his 50s, was in the Qantas business lounge on Thursday morning when the overheated power bank burst into flames, filling the exclusive area with smoke and prompting about 150 people to be evacuated.

Staff quickly helped the man into a shower before paramedics arrived to treat his injuries. He was taken to hospital in a stable condition and later released.

A witness said they saw "battery acid flying everywhere," according to the Age newspaper. A Qantas spokesperson said the lounge was cleaned and re-opened two hours later.

Australian film producer Leanne Tonkes was in the lounge on Thursday morning when she heard the commotion. She posted an image of the burnt power bank moments after it had exploded.

"Hoping the man who caught fire holding it is ok," she wrote on Instagram.

"Quick thinking from the man who jumped in to help and the staff who got him in the shower and everyone else out of the lounge."

Qantas is currently reviewing its policy on passengers carrying any type of lithium batteries, including portable power banks, and is expected to provide an update shortly.

Many airlines now advise passengers travelling with power banks to keep them within reach - either in their seat pocket or in a bag under the seat in front of them - and not in the overhead luggage compartment.

In July, a fire broke out on a Virgin Australia flight from Sydney to Hobart, with a power bank in an overhead locker to blame.

The airline is looking to update its policy and customers are asked to keep portable power banks "in sight and within easy reach" during flights.

A portable power bank was also likely the cause of a fire that engulfed and destroyed a passenger plane in South Korea in January.

Several international airlines such as Emirates, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, Korean Air and Singapore Airlines have banned the use of power banks and the charging of them during flights.

There are also limits on how many rechargeable batteries passengers can carry based on their capacity. For instance, some airlines only allow two power banks with a capacity between 100Wh and 160Wh.

Typhoon Kalmaegi made landfall in Vietnam on Thursday after killing at least 114 people and flooding entire towns in the Philippines.

More than 260,000 soldiers are on standby for rescue efforts as winds of up to 92mph (149km/h) hit the country's coastline, according to Vietnamese media and the government's online portal.

Six airports in the country have been forced to close and hundreds of flights are expected to be affected, the government warned.

The country, which has already been battling record rains and floods, is now facing one of Asia's strongest typhoons this year.

The typhoon could generate waves of up to 8m (26ft) on the South China Sea, according to Vietnam's weather bureau.

The country's environment ministry said on Thursday that "the storm is on land, in the provinces of Dak Lak and Gia Lai" in a statement quoted by various outlets, including the AFP news agency.

The Vietnamese national weather forecaster says hundreds of localities in seven cities and provinces are at risk of flooding and landslides in the next six hours.

There have already been reports of damage from several provinces, including roofs torn off homes, shattered glass panels at hotels, and trees uprooted or snapped along city streets and rural roads by powerful gusts.

In the Quy Non area, trees have fallen on main roads and windows in hotels have smashed.

About 30 minutes after the typhoon made landfall, hundreds of residents in two communes of Dak Lak province called for help, local media reported.

Many people reported that their homes had collapsed or been flooded, while strong winds and heavy rain continued to batter the area.

Dak Lak province is approximately 350km (215 miles) north-east of Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam's military has deployed more than 260,000 soldiers and personnel, along with more than 6,700 vehicles and pieces of equipment, including six aircraft, to help with storm relief efforts.

On Wednesday morning, a reporter from AFP news agency saw officials knocking on the doors of homes in coastal communities and warning people to evacuate.

According to local media reports, Prime Minister of Vietnam Pham Minh Chinh held an online meeting to direct the emergency response.

"We must reach isolated areas and ensure people have food, drinking water, and essential supplies," he was quoted as saying.

"No one should be left hungry or cold."

Before making landfall in Vietnam, the typhoon, known locally as Tino, left a trail of devastation in the Philippines.

At least 114 people were killed and tens of thousands were evacuated, particularly from central areas including the populous island and tourist hotspot of Cebu, where cars were swept through the streets.

Early on Thursday, Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr declared a state of emergency, the threshold of which involves mass casualty, major damage to property, and disruption to means of livelihoods and the normal way of life for people in the affected areas.

Vietnam has already been battling with floods and record rains for the past week.

Burst riverbanks have flooded some of the country's most popular tourist spots, including the Unesco-listed city of Hue and historic hotspot Hoi An, where residents have been pictured navigating the city in wooden boats after the Hoai river overflowed.

Seaside communities in Vietnam are expected to be hit hard by Typhoon Kalmaegi.

A sea-level rise of 4 to 6m (13 to 20ft) in at least two provinces could capsize boats and devastate fishing farms, according to a forecast issued at 16:00 local time (9:00 GMT) by a senior official at Vietnam's National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting.

Meanwhile, deputy director Nguyen Xuan Hien says Typhoon Damrey - which struck Vietnam in 2017 with less intensity than Kalmaegi, but still caused severe damage to coastal communities - should serve as a warning and urged people to remain highly alert.

Thailand is also bracing for the storm's impact. Local officials have warned of flash floods, landslides and river overflows.

Peru's Congress has voted to declare Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum as persona non grata - or unwelcome in the country.

The decision comes days after Peru severed diplomatic ties with Mexico, after the Mexican government granted asylum to a former Peruvian prime minister facing charges for a 2022 coup attempt.

Betssy Chávez denies allegations that she played a role in ousted Peruvian President Pedro Castillo's plan to dissolve congress. She has taken refuge in the Mexican embassy in Lima.

Mexico says it has offered Chávez asylum in accordance with international law, and rejected Peru's accusation that it was an "unfriendly act".

The declaration - passed in a 63-33 vote in the Peruvian Congress - marks the latest escalation in worsening ties between the two Latin American nations.

During the vote, Peruvian legislators also accused the Mexican leader of having close ties to drug trafficking - a claim they gave no evidence for.

Chávez had been imprisoned in June 2023 over her alleged role in Castillo's plan to dissolve Peru's legislative body. She was released by a judge on bail in September and has denied the charges against her.

Prosecutors are seeking a 25-year sentence for Chávez.

Peruvian Foreign Minister Hugo de Zela told the Reuters news agency that legal experts were reviewing the 1954 Caracas Convention on diplomatic asylum, which Mexico used to justify their offer of asylum.

Earlier this week, de Zela said Mexico had tried to "portray the authors of the coup attempt as victims".

"In reality, Peruvians live and want to continue living in democracy, as recognised by all countries in the world, with the sole and lonely exception of Mexico," he added.

Peru also accused Mexico of "repeated instances in which the current and former presidents of that country have interfered in Peru's internal affairs".

In 2022, Lima expelled Mexico's ambassador following its decision to grant asylum to Castillo's wife and children following his arrest.

Last September, the Foreign Relations Committee of Peru's Congress proposed declaring Sheinbaum a persona non grata for failing to condemn Castillo's attempted coup and advocating for his release.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says he has sued Roblox over "flagrantly ignoring" safety laws and "deceiving parents" about the dangers the online video gaming platform poses to young people.

In a social media post he said Roblox is a "breeding ground for predators", accusing Roblox of putting "pixel paedophiles and corporate profit" over the safety of Texas children.

The lawsuit adds to the legal challenges related to online safety and internet predators faced by the gaming giant, which has tens of millions of daily active users.

Roblox told the BBC it is "disappointed" that it is being sued based on "misrepresentations and sensationalised claims".

The company's spokesperson said in a statement that it shares Paxton's commitment to keeping children safe online and that it has introduced measures to remove bad actors and protect its users.

Roblox, which is especially popular with children, operates a massive online platform where users can play solo or with friends.

Users can also go in to servers and interact with strangers online - a feature that has been criticised for potentially exposing young players to dangerous individuals.

Parents and children have raised concerns about Roblox, saying that they have seen distressing content or suffered abuse on the platform.

Paxton called on the company to do more to protect children from "sick and twisted freaks hiding behind a screen".

"Any corporation that enables child abuse will face the full and unrelenting force of the law," he said in a statement on X.

Texas joins the US states of Kentucky and Louisiana which have also sued Roblox over potential harms to children.

Dave Baszucki, Roblox's chief executive, previously told the BBC that parents who are uncomfortable with their children playing games on the platform should not let them use it.

"That sounds a little counter-intuitive, but I would always trust parents to make their own decisions," Mr Baszucki said.

Roblox has introduced features in recent years to tighten age verification and safety for young players.

The platform said it is rolling out technology to estimate a player's age using video selfies and other measures before they are allowed to communicate on Roblox.

Last year, Roblox also announced it will block under-13s from messaging others on the platform unless a parent or guardian grants permission.

Roblox has been banned in some countries, including Turkey over concerns about child exploitation.

The platform came under scrutiny in Singapore in 2023 after the government said that a self-radicalised teenager had been groomed online by people on the game's servers.