Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has announced she will resign from office in January, an unexpected turn for the high-profile Republican days after a public feud with President Donald Trump.

Greene, who became one of Trump's Maga superstars in US politics, posted a video statement on social media announcing she would leave Congress on 5 January 2026.

"I look forward to a new path ahead," she said in a social media post.

The announcement came just a few days after she and President Donald Trump had vehement disagreements over the release of Justice Department files related to late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In a video statement, Greene ticked off a list of achievements and criticised the president, who threatened to back a Republican candidate to unseat her in next year's election.

"I have too much self respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms."

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US President Donald Trump met New York City's newly elected mayor Zohran Mamdani at the White House in what was billed as the political showdown of the year - but instead became a praise fest.

In his election victory speech, the self-described Democratic socialist mayor called Trump a "despot."

And before Friday's meeting, the president's spokeswoman had billed Mamdani's visit as a "communist coming to the White House".

But standing side-by-side in the Oval Office, the two men struck a surprisingly conciliatory tone.

Over and over, both men emphasised their shared interest in addressing New York City's affordability crisis. They smiled often, and Trump even appeared amused as reporters asked him about the political attacks Mamdani had fired his way.

The tone of the meeting appeared to strike political observers off guard, but offered a signal that both men understand that tackling the affordability crisis is critical to their political success.

Whether the truce will last once Mamdani takes office on 1 January remains to be seen.

Until then, "I'll be cheering for him," Trump said.

Trump full of praise

The conciliatory tone was evident from the moment they started speaking to the press.

Facing the media after a private meeting, Mamdani stood to Trump's right with his hand clasped, as the president sat behind the Resolute Desk. Their body language was relaxed – particularly Trump.

Not only did Trump refrain from attacking Mamdani, he actually praised him numerous times.

Trump expressed hope that Mamdani would be a "really great mayor".

Later, the president added he was "confident that he can do a very good job".

Brushing off questions about jihad and fascism

Mamdani and Trump traded political barbs throughout the mayoral election. A reporter in the room reminded the two men that Trump had called Mamdani a "communist" and Mamdani referred to the president as a "despot".

But today, both deflected multiple questions about their previous statements and pivoted back to praise.

Trump even let Mamdani answer a question about whether the mayor-elect thought the president was a "fascist".

"That's ok, you can just say yes," Trump interjected, giving Mamdani a light tap on the arm and smiling. "It's easier than explaining."

The closest Trump got to criticising Mamdani's politics was telling reporters, "He's got views that are little out there".

Perhaps most strikingly, Trump swatted away an attack that one of his top political allies running for governor of New York had lodged against Mamdani.

"Do you think you're standing next to a 'jihadist' right now in the oval office?" a reporter asked, quoting Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik.

"No I don't," Trump quickly said.

"You say things sometimes in a campaign," Trump said of Stefanik. "She's a very capable person."

Bonding over New York roots

Mamdani and Trump have something in common: they're both New Yorkers, and both have called the borough of Queens home.

Trump's childhood home is in the neighbourhood of Jamaica Estates, while Mamdani currently resides in Astoria.

The two had a "shared love" of the city, Mamdani said.

Though Trump rarely spends time in his namesake Manhattan skyscraper these days, he spoke fondly of his hometown throughout the news conference.

"This city could be unbelievable, if he could be a spectacular success, I'll be very happy," Trump said.

At one point, Trump even suggested that in a different political lifetime, he would have liked to be mayor of New York himself.

Affordability focus

Perhaps part of the reason the two men appeared in lock step on Friday was their shared focus on cost-of-living issues.

Trump won his re-election last year by relentlessly hammering the issue of high inflation that had frustrated voters in 2024. As consumers grow restless about the cost of groceries, housing, and other essentials, Trump has tried to convey a message of economic stability.

But in elections earlier this month, Republicans struggled and Democrats won key races. All eyes are peering forward to the midterm elections next year, where control of the US Congress will be up for grabs.

During his election campaign, Mamdani maintained a laser-focus on the lack of affordable housing and proposed freezing rent increases on certain rent-stabilised apartments, among other housing proposals.

Mamdani said he and the president had discussed how to "deliver affordability to New Yorkers".

Whenever he was asked a question about their differing views, the mayor-elect brought the conversation back to this topic.

Facing one question about their different views on achieving peace in the Middle East, Mamdani responded that Trump voters had expressed to him a wish for "an end to forever wars" and for leaders to address "the cost of living crisis".

A complication for Republicans' strategy?

There are still major political issues that could quickly put the two men back in opposition.

A reporter asked about the potential for federal immigration enforcement in the city, which has outraged Democrats and some immigrant communities in New York.

Mamdani said he discussed federal immigration enforcement operations in New York, and the concerns from residents about how they are being conducted.

Trump said they discussed crime more than immigration.

"He doesn't want to see crime and I don't want to see crime," the president said. He had "very little doubt" the two would get along on that issue.

Trump even stunningly said he would feel safe living in a Mamdani-led New York.

But as the Trump administration continues to set aggressive deportation goals, it's possible that the two men could wind up in opposition to each other once again.

Also, another potential problem lingers beyond the pair and their specific policies.

Republicans have hinted that they want to use Mamdani as a political foil in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections, where control of the US Congress will be on the ballot.

But in the Oval Office while praising Mamdani, the president said he believed the new mayor would "surprise some conservative people".

This could complicate Trump's own political party's strategy.

When it assumed the presidency of the G20 last year, South Africa hoped that as the first African country to host the gathering of world leaders, it could champion issues that mattered the most to developing nations.

For instance, it wanted the 20 heads of state from the world's biggest economies to consider arguments that borrowing should be cheaper for developing countries, which pay two to four times more in interest on debts than more advanced economies.

Other themes of this weekend's summit include securing climate change financing, increasing the participation of African countries in multilateral forums and ensuring that they get the best value out of their critical minerals.

But so far, discourse surrounding the meeting has been dominated by Donald Trump's very public decision not to attend.

The US president said he would not go due to the widely discredited claim that South Africa's white minority is the victim of large-scale killings and land grabs.

The relationship between the two countries has become increasingly fraught over the past year - the US expelled the South African ambassador to Washington, cut some of its aid funding and slapped South Africa with tariffs of 30% (the highest rate in sub-Saharan Africa).

And finally, after initially saying he would send Vice-President JD Vance to the G20 summit, Trump abruptly announced two weeks ago that no US representatives would attend.

The government in South Africa's capital, Pretoria, has tried to maintain a defiant but diplomatic tone. It has firmly denied claims of a white genocide and insisted that the summit would proceed with or without the US.

In a sudden about face, and with less than 48 hours to go before the G20 conference, the US announced that it would be sending a small team of its in-country diplomats to the handover ceremony, but that it wouldn't take part in any discussions.

As tension between the two nations shows no sign of letting up, there are concerns that South African diplomats may be frozen out of meetings when the US takes over the G20 presidency next year.

South Africa's Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana, told reporters earlier this week that there's only one way they would not attend next year's meetings.

"We are members of the G20, we're not an invited country. So we don't need an invitation from anybody," he said.

"If the United States do not want us to participate, the only way they can do it is to decline us visas."

So will South Africa manage to reach its aims without the presence of the world's wealthiest nation? Professor Richard Calland, from the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, thinks it can.

"I think that people who are serious-minded in their analysis will not attach much weight to [the US' absence]," he says.

"Ironically, the absence of President Trump may create more space for real consensus, because people won't be constantly looking over their shoulder at him and trying to anticipate or navigate his conduct and his positioning."

Prof Calland adds that the absence of the US may enable middle powers to step up and push for the reforms they want by issuing a joint declaration.

Answering reporters' questions at the summit's venue in Johannesburg on Monday, South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola echoed this sentiment.

"[The United States] are absent, so in their absence, the countries that are present must make a decision.

"We are forging ahead to persuade the countries that are present that we must adopt a leaders' declaration because the institution cannot be bogged down by someone who's absent," he said.

The leaders' declaration is a culmination of work done throughout the year to build consensus on issues affecting the global economy, including trade barriers, technological advancements and climate change. It outlines what decisions the members have agreed to act on moving forward.

President Trump isn't the only head of state who will not be attending. China's Xi Jinping is sending his Premier Li Qiang, who has represented the president in a number of meetings this year.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin will also be absent due to the International Criminal Court's warrant against him.

Mexico's Claudia Sheinbaum is another leader who will not be attending.

And Argentinian President and Trump ally, Javier Milei, is skipping the summit in solidarity with Washington.

However, unlike the US, all of these countries are sending senior delegations to represent their countries' interests.

Mr Lamola was keen to downplay the significance of these absences, saying sometimes heads of state are not able to attend major events, and it is "nothing abnormal" for them to send a replacement.

Other global powers have expressed their support of South Africa's presidency of the G20, including France, the UK and the European Union, which signed a deal with South Africa on Thursday agreeing to boost the extraction and, more importantly, the domestic processing, of critical minerals.

African countries have long argued that processing minerals in their countries before exporting them would boost their economies by providing much-needed development, jobs and income.

These are the types of initiatives that Pretoria has spent the year lobbying for across various working groups and ministerial meetings.

South Africa is the last G20 country to take over the presidency in this current cycle. It's also the last country in the global south to host the gathering. Indonesia, India and Brazil have led the summit over the past three years.

As such, the South African government says it wants to use its presidency to bridge the developmental divide between the global north and south. It wants to push for equity, sustainability and shared prosperity.

Although building consensus through multilateral institutions like the G20 is becoming increasingly fraught in a divided world, Prof Calland argues that it is needed more than ever.

"Human life on Earth is facing an existential set of challenges, whether it's climate change, demographic shifts, technological revolution and so on.

"All of these are hugely difficult pressure points for human society. And you can't deal with them unless there is international collaboration and cooperation," he says.

President Trump and his supporters argue that multilateral organisations do little to change real people's lives, preferring instead bilateral deals done directly between two countries.

But South Africa and other developing countries argue that issues like reducing the cost of borrowing for poorer countries require the input of international institutions like the IMF and cannot be done through one-on-one deals.

In many ways, South Africa's presidency of the G20 is part of a wider debate around multilateralism and its effectiveness.

If South Africa is able to convince other G20 members to issue a joint declaration on Sunday, it might have succeeded in proving that consensus can be reached without the participation of the world's most powerful country.

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

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Kyiv risks losing US support over a White House plan on how to end the war with Russia.

Addressing the nation on Friday, Zelensky said Ukraine "might face a very difficult choice: either losing dignity, or risk losing a key partner", adding that "today is one of the most difficult moments in our history".

The widely leaked US peace plan includes proposals that Kyiv had previously ruled out: ceding eastern areas it now controls, significantly cutting its army size, and pledging not to join Nato.

These provisions are seen as heavily slanted towards Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin said the plan could be a "basis" for peace settlement.

At Friday's meeting with his security cabinet, Putin said Moscow had received the plan, which had not been discussed with the Kremlin in detail.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In his 10-minute address in front of the presidential office in Kyiv, Zelensky warned that Ukraine would face "a lot of pressure... to weaken us, to make divide us", adding that "the enemy is not sleeping".

Urging Ukrainians to stay united, he stressed that the country's "national interest must be taken into account".

"We're not making loud statements," he went on, "we'll be calmly working with America and all the partners... offering alternatives" to the proposed peace plan.

Zelensky also said he had been reassured of continuous support during a phone call with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

After the talks, Starmer stressed that "the principle that Ukraine must determine its future under its sovereignty is a fundamental principle".

Separately, Zelensky said he had spoken "for almost an hour" with US Vice-President JD Vance and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, adding that Ukraine "always respected" President Donald Trump's efforts to end the war.

In Washington, Trump warned that Ukraine would lose more territory to Russia "in a short amount of time".

He said it was "appropriate" to give Ukraine until 27 November - Thanksgiving in the US - to agree to the peace deal, but added deadlines could be extended if things were "going well".

Washington has been pressing Kyiv to quickly accept the plan, and sent senior Pentagon officials to the Ukrainian capital on Thursday.

On Thursday, President Putin sounded determined to continue the war despite reported heavy Russian combat casualties.

"We have our tasks, our goals," the Kremlin leader, wearing a military uniform, told his army commanders. "The chief one is the unconditional achievement of the aims of the special military operation [full-scale war]."

The 28-point US peace plan emerged as Russia claims small territorial gains in south-eastern Ukraine, while Zelensky faces a domestic crisis implicating top officials in a $100m (£76m) corruption scandal.

The White House has pushed back on claims that Ukraine was frozen out of the drafting of the proposal, following meetings between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev.

An unnamed US official told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that the plan was drawn up "immediately" following discussions with Ukraine's top security official Rustem Umerov, who agreed to the majority of it.

Umerov is said to have made several modifications before he presented it to Zelensky.

The leaked draft proposes Ukrainian troops' withdrawal from the part of the eastern Donetsk region that they currently control, and de facto Russian control of Donetsk, as well as the neighbouring Luhansk region and the southern Crimea peninsular annexed by Russia in 2014.

The plan also includes freezing the borders of Ukraine's southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions along the current battle lines. Both regions are partially occupied by Russia.

The US plan also limits Ukraine's military to 600,000 personnel, with European fighter jets stationed in neighbouring Poland.

Kyiv would receive "reliable security guarantees", the plan says, although no details have been given. The document says "it is expected" that Russia will not invade its neighbours and that Nato will not expand further.

The draft also suggests Russia will be "reintegrated into the global economy", through the lifting of sanctions and by inviting Russia to rejoin the G7 group of the world's most powerful countries - making it the G8 again.

Ukrainians both under and free of Russian occupation struck a defiant tone in reaction to news of the US proposal.

In Kyiv, the widow of a Ukrainian soldier told the BBC: "This is not a peace plan, it is a plan to continue the war."

Another person speaking from one of the occupied territories in Ukraine told the BBC: "I'm trying to keep my sanity here in the conditions of constant propaganda that Ukraine has forgotten us. I hope they will not sign this."

Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory and its troops have been making slow advances along the vast front line, despite reported heavy losses.

It was quite a contrast.

On Thursday, a US Pentagon delegation was in Kyiv. They were talking to President Zelensky about a draft plan to end the war in Ukraine.

The same day, on Russian state TV, President Putin was in military fatigues. He was talking to his army chiefs about fighting on.

"We have our tasks, our goals," the Kremlin leader declared. "The chief one is the unconditional achievement of the aims of the special military operation."

The Izvestia newspaper called President Putin's visit to a command post "a signal to America that he's prepared to negotiate on Ukraine, on Russia's terms."

Which brings us back to the peace plan.

The Kremlin claims it "hasn't received anything official" from Washington. But a 28-point proposal has been widely leaked and reported on - and widely interpreted as favouring Russia's peace terms.

What's more, the reported plan appeared after a visit to America by President Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev. He took part in three days of discussions in Miami with President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff.

According to drafts of the peace proposal widely available, Ukraine would cede to Russia parts of the Donbass still under Kyiv's control; the Ukrainian armed forces would be reduced in size and Ukraine would vow not to join Nato.

The Kremlin won't confirm the contents. But it's advising Kyiv to agree terms.

"The Russian military's effective work should convince Zelensky and his regime that it's better to strike a deal and do it now," President Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on a Kremlin conference call.

A peace proposal does not automatically mean peace.

What if there's no agreement?

Pro-Kremlin commentators insist that, deal or no deal, Russia will prevail.

"Everyone thought that the idea of a peace deal had sunk in a swamp," wrote Russian news outlet Moskovsky Komsomolets. "But suddenly, a rocket has shot out of this bog with a new, or rather an 'old new' peace plan, with something of the Alaska summit about it. It shot out like a jack in the box.

"How long and how far will this missile fly? Will it crash, sabotaged by Europe and Kyiv? Even if the launch is a false start, it's unlikely to change the general trend. The balance of power is shifting in Russia's favour."

But after nearly four years of war Russia is under pressure, too. Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, not only has Russian's army suffered huge losses on the battlefield, but back home the economy is faltering. Russia's budget deficit is growing, revenues from oil and gas falling.

"Russia's industry is somewhere between stagnation and decline," declared the broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta this week.

It's unclear, though, whether economic pressures will change President Putin's calculations and convince him that now is the moment to end his so-called special operation: even on terms that many believe benefit Moscow.

Many. But not everyone.

Some elements of the peace plan haven't gone down well in Russia. Some reports suggest that Ukraine could be offered security guarantees modelled on Nato's Article 5. That might commit Western allies to treat any future Russian attack on Ukraine as an attack on the transatlantic community as a whole and trigger a combined military response.

"This is, in effect, Ukraine in Nato," wrote Moskovsky Komsomolets, "only without the deployment of bases and weapons on its territory."

The full details of the peace plan have yet to be confirmed. We may be entering another period of intense diplomacy.

For now, though, Russia's war on Ukraine continues.

Lizbeth Perez looks fearful as she gazes out onto the postcard-perfect fishing bay of Taganga, on Colombia's Caribbean coast, recalling the moment she last spoke to her uncle in September.

"He was a kind man, a good person, a friend. A good father, uncle son. He was a cheerful person. He loved his work and his fishing."

Alejandro Carranza said goodbye to his family early on the morning on 14 September, before going out on his boat as usual, his cousin Audenis Manjarres told state media. He left from La Guajira, a region in neighbouring Venezuela, he said.

The next day, US President Donald Trump announced that a US strike in international waters had targeted a vessel which had departed Venezuela, and that three people he described as "extraordinarily violent drug-trafficking cartels and narco-terrorists" were killed.

Ms Perez has not seen her uncle since. His five children are missing their dad, she says, and the family are still waiting anxiously for answers, not knowing if he was even on the boat hit in the strike.

"The truth is we don't know it was him, we don't have any proof that it was him, apart from what we saw on the news."

The US began striking alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean in September, before expanding the operation to the Pacific. So far 83 people have been killed in at least 21 strikes, according to US statements.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says that the campaign is aimed at removing "narco-terrorists from our hemisphere" and securing the US from "the drugs that are killing our people".

The Trump administration justifies them as a necessary self-defence measure aimed at saving American lives by stopping drugs from entering the US.

But the strikes have attracted condemnation in countries in the region and concern that they breach international law.

Colombia's President Gustavo Petro has criticised the strikes, saying Colombian citizens were on board the boat hit on 15 September, and later claiming Mr Carranza was among those killed.

Responding to his first statement about Colombian citizens being killed, the White House said it looked forward to President Petro "publicly retracting his baseless and reprehensible statement".

Trump has also accused Petro of encouraging the production of drugs and threated to cut off US aid to Colombia.

Mr Carranza comes from a huge family, living with about 20 relatives in a small house off a dirt track in the fishing village of Gaira.

Earlier this month, Petro alleged that he wanted to help his daughter study at university, and so accepted a payment from a drug trafficker to transport some drugs to an island, when his boat was struck.

"But whether it was fish or cocaine [he was transporting], he wasn't subject to the death penalty," Petro said. He accused the US of "murder" and since said he ordered Colombian public security forces to suspend intelligence sharing with the US until the strikes end. His defence minister later said the president had given "clear instructions to maintain, as has been done, a continuous flow of information with international agencies to combat drug trafficking".

Mr Carranza has a past criminal record over stealing weapons from the police nine years ago, but his family deny – and say they are hurt by – characterisations of him as a narco-trafficker.

"What the president of the United States is doing isn't right. He has to prove if they are or aren't [trafficking]," Lizbeth says.

She says while Trump may want to tackle issues affecting his "territory" that "doesn't mean he should resort to these methods… of taking someone's life".

A US lawyer working for some of Mr Carranza's family, Daniel Kovalik, who also works for President Petro, says Mr Carranza's wife and older daughter recognised his boat from the US-released footage of the strike.

He intends to sue the US government on the family's behalf. International law says the military cannot kill civilians unless they pose an imminent threat of violence, even if engaging in criminal activity.

"Even if you claim that the people you're killing are trafficking drugs, you don't have the right to just engage in extrajudicial killings," Mr Kovalik said.

"They're tiny boats… If you really believe they were doing something wrong, those people should be arrested, tried in a court of law, convicted, and sentenced."

"And, by the way, none of them would be sentenced to the death penalty – this is not a capital crime."

The Trump administration has told Congress that it believes the US is in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels in the region.

In doing so, it appears to be invoking war-time powers, such as killing enemy combatants even if they pose no immediate violent threat, to justify the strikes.

President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have said the US is "under threat" from "terrorist organisations" and said drugs kill thousands of Americans.

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says seizures of cocaine – the major drug trafficked and produced in South America – rose by about 18% in 2024 compared to the previous year.

But the main driver of drug deaths in the US is Fentanyl, which is produced and arrives in the US from Mexico.

Mr Kovalik does not buy the US's self-defence argument, saying "these boats have never attacked the United States".

Back in Taganga, the strikes are causing apprehension for fishermen like 81-year-old Juan Assis Tejeda, whose skin is tanned and leathered from 70 years fishing these waters under the Caribbean's baking sun – just like his grandfather and father before him.

He regularly fishes near the border with Venezuela, just along the coast.

He describes how he has sometimes seen drones flying over them while out fishing that "hover quietly, come back again, and disappear".

Even though he is just fishing, he is now fearful because of the ongoing strikes.

"At any moment they could see us and think we're doing the same thing. Because sometimes we also go 60 miles or so out to sea, looking for tuna."

He says some fishermen do get involved in transporting drugs due to poverty. He says he was once offered money himself, but he said no.

He would prefer to stick to the little money that he earns and live "peacefully" than run the risks associated with transporting drugs, he says.

Most in this region do not believe that this is just about targeting small, alleged drug-trafficking boats, but instead about the US also wanting to put military pressure on Venezuela's president Nicolás Maduro to step aside – or on his allies, for example in the military, to oust him.

The US accuses Maduro of leading a criminal trafficking organisation which it calls the Cartel de los Soles, something Maduro strongly denies. The US state department intends to designate this group a foreign terrorist organisation on Monday.

This has added to growing speculation over whether the US will strike targets on Venezuelan soil itself.

Trump said the US "may be having some discussions with Maduro" and Maduro responded by saying he would be prepared to talk "face to face".

As the US mulls its next move, the sleepy fishing villages that dot the Caribbean coast wonder whether diplomacy, or war, is on their horizon.

At least five people have been killed, including one child, and more than 450 injured after a 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit Bangladesh.

The epicentre of the earthquake was close to the Narsingdi district, about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.

People rushed from residential buildings as buildings shook and makeshift structures collapsed. At least 10 students were injured in a stampede as they tried to leave Dhaka University on Friday.

"We have never experienced an earthquake this powerful in the last five years," said the country's environmental adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan.

At least three people were killed when a railing and debris fell from a five-storey building in Dhaka's Armanitola area, deputy police commissioner Mallik Ahsan Uddin Sami said.

Nitai Chandra De Sarkar, director of the department's monitoring division, said 461 people have been reported injured across the country, including 252 in the Gazipur district, north of Dhaka.

Sarker told the BBC: "Our main task at the moment is to assess casualties and damage. We are not yet seeing the challenge of rescue from the rubble or debris management at that level."

Bengali Sadman Sakib told Reuters news agency: "I have never felt such tremor in my 30 years of life. We were at the office when the furniture started shaking.

"We rushed down the stairs on the street and saw other people on the road already."

A student called Abdullah, who was sleeping at the time of the earthquake, told Reuters the "whole building was shaking".

Tremors were felt in eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh, but there were no reports of major damage.

The earthquake caused Ireland's second cricket test match in Bangladesh to stop temporarily.

Coaches and players not involved gathered at the boundary, while those in the stands took shelter. The game was stopped for three minutes but play soon resumed.

Ireland's head coach Heinrich Malan said: "I've been involved in a couple of earthquakes from my time living in New Zealand.

"It's never a nice feeling and you're trying to understand what is happening in the moment around you, but also the bigger impacts about where the earthquake struck.

"Everything stood still for a couple of minutes and we got back to business, but we're thinking of everyone and hoping there wasn't too much damage done."

South African women's rights groups are calling for nationwide protests to demand that gender-based violence (GBV) be declared a national disaster in a country where attacks on women have become commonplace.

The campaign began with a viral social media movement and will culminate in a nationwide "shutdown" on Friday, ahead of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.

Celebrities, citizens and nations have shown their solidarity by changing their social media profile pictures to purple – a colour often linked to GBV awareness.

South Africa experiences some of the world's highest levels of GBV, with the rate at which women are killed five times higher than the global average, according to UN Women.

Between January and March this year, 137 women were murdered and more than 1,000 raped, according to South African crime statistics.

Warning: This report contains descriptions of sexual assault

On Friday, women are being urged to refrain from going to work or school, "withdraw from the economy for one day", and lie down for 15 minutes at 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT) in honour of the women murdered in the country.

They are also being urged to wear black as a sign of "mourning and resistance".

The protest, dubbed the G20 Women's Shutdown, has been organised by Women for Change, which has also been spearheading the online campaign.

There has also been an online petition, signed by over one million people, calling for the government to take an even tougher stance against the scourge.

The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) has rejected the calls to declare GBV a national disaster, saying it doesn't fall within the legal requirements.

On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the G20 Social Summit that South Africa had "declared gender-based violence and femicide a national crisis" in 2019.

However, activists say that little has changed and they want the government to take more action.

Women for Change spokesperson Cameron Kasambala lamented the enactment of "so many beautiful acts and legislations" over the years to try and tackle the issue, which are followed by "lack of implementation and transparency" on the government's part.

"We've integrated violence… into our culture [and] into our social norms," she told the BBC.

"Once the government truly reacts to this issue, I feel like we'll already be able to see a reaction on the ground. Because they set the precedent and the tone for how the country responds," she said.

Grammy-award winning singer Tyla is among the thousands of celebrities and citizens who have rallied behind the call and changed their social media profiles. Some have gone further, posting pictures of purple hearts, nail polish and even clothing in what has since been dubbed the "purple movement".

A South African professor who asked to remain anonymous told the BBC she had taken leave so she could travel to Johannesburg from Free State province to take part in the silent protest.

It's important for her because she said she had second thoughts about simple things like jogging and hopes that the protest will "slow the scourge" of GBV.

However, some women have faced a backlash from employers for wanting to participate in the protest. One product designer who works for a major cooperation said they were strongly advised against taking part.

Some women who feel the government is not doing enough have taken matters into their own hands.

Lynette Oxeley founded Girls on Fire to help women protect themselves through gun ownership. It is legal to own a firearm in South Africa for self-defence if a person has a valid licence.

Most of the women in her group have been raped, attacked, robbed, or experienced some level of violence.

Prudence joined the group after she was raped in 2022.

"I said: 'No'. I screamed, I cried but he didn't take no for an answer," she told the BBC.

Trying to find justice was an "uphill battle" as her case was withdrawn because her rape kit - the DNA they take after the crime - was lost.

It isn't a "police problem, it is a nation problem," she said.

Although the women are trained to shoot firearms, Ms Oxeley said using a gun was a "last resort".

"It's not about actually defending yourself with a firearm. I want ladies to change what they think about themselves. Stop being silent," she said.

"Even if you do not win the fight, at least you are fighting back."

More about South Africa from the BBC:

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All mention of fossil fuels, by far the largest contributor to climate change, has been dropped from the draft deal under negotiation at the COP30 UN climate talks in Belém, Brazil enter their final stretch.

Draft agreements at the meeting of nearly 200 countries usually go through multiple revisions as all parties must agree in order for a deal to pass.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and some countries including the UK want the summit to commit countries to stronger, faster action to reduce their use of fossil fuels.

An earlier text included three possible routes to achieve this, but that language has now been dropped after opposition from oil-producing nations.

A source close to the negotiations said that Saudi Arabia and a bloc of nations called the Arab Group are blocking the fossil fuel deal. The BBC has approached Saudi Arabia for comment.

"We express deep concern regarding the current proposal under consideration for a take it or leave it," it said.

"We cannot support an outcome that does not include a roadmap for implementing a just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels."

A source close to the negotiations said that Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations are blocking the fossil fuel deal. The BBC has approached Saudi Arabia for comment.

Dropping the language is likely to be a negotiating tactic to raise the temperature at the talks and force countries to come to agreement.

The meeting is a fraught and delicate diplomatic process as countries jostle to protect their national interests, while also attempting to address the issue of climate change.

Some observers question the value of the complex, legalistic talks which almost always over-run.

But others point to the significant advances in measures to tackle climate change, including renewable energy, electric vehicles, and protection of nature in recent years linked to COP agreements.

Other issues discussed at the COP include the gap in climate finance promised by richer nations to developing nations that are most impacted by climate change.

The new draft deal called for global efforts to triple financing available to countries by 2030.

But it did not say if this should come from richer nations or from other sources, like the private sector.

This could anger poorer countries who want stronger support from richer nations and heavily criticised a deal at last year's COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, which they considered paltry.

Deforestation has been been a fraught issue at the meeting, which takes place on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon.

The new draft also weakened language around tackling deforestation.

"For a COP hosted in the Amazon, it's shattering that deforestation is taking a back seat," said Kelly Dent, Director of External Engagement for World Animal Protection.

"The wildlife and indigenous people who call the forest their home deserve better than this."

The two-week meeting has been interrupted by two evacuations.

Last week a group of protesters broke into the COP venue in Belém carrying signs reading "Our forests are not for sale".

On Thursday a fire broke out, burning a hole through the sheeting covering the venue and causing 13 smoke inhalation injuries. The summit was evacuated and closed for at least six hours.

The summit has been praised for including the largest numbers delegates from of indigenous groups yet.

A Missouri court is all shook up following the resignation of a judge who was disciplined for wearing an Elvis Presley wig in court and occasionally playing the singer's songs during proceedings.

Matthew EP Thornhill, the longest-serving circuit judge in St Charles County, is a self-described Elvis lover, according to his biography page.

But his love for the King of Rock'n'Roll contributed to a disciplinary commission demanding his suspension, citing his frequent "irrelevant" Elvis references in court.

In a letter explaining his actions, Judge Thornhill said his aim was "to add levity at times when I thought it would help relax litigants".

"I now recognize that this could affect the integrity and solemnity of the proceedings," Judge Thornhill wrote in a letter dated 12 November to the Missouri Supreme Court.

According to a report by Missouri's Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline of Judges, which investigates allegations of judicial misconduct, Judge Thornhill "would routinely wear an Elvis Presley wig on or about October 31" - or Halloween - in court while conducting court business.

The report shows images of the judge sitting on the bench while donning an Elvis wig with his signature black pompadour and sunglasses.

It adds that, on occasion, Judge Thornhill would give litigants or witnesses the option of being sworn in while playing Elvis music from his phone.

He would also refer to the singer occasionally during court proceedings, including mentioning his date of birth or death and lyrics from his music, according to the inquiry report.

Judge Thornhill's burning love for all things Elvis is well-documented.

In an interview with a local media outlet last year, he said he had visited Graceland, where the singer lived and is buried, 13 times.

He added that Elvis was always on his mind since he was a child.

The disciplinary report also cites unrelated conduct, like sharing his political affiliation or preferred candidates in elections from the bench, as well as promoting his own election campaign by asking witnesses, lawyers and litigants if they had seen his "Thornhill for Judge" signs around town.

The commission found that Judge Thornhill had "failed to maintain order and decorum in the courtroom", and recommended he be suspended without pay for six months, then serve for another 18 months before retiring.

In the 12 November letter, Judge Thornhill did not dispute any of the allegations, saying they are "substantially accurate" and acknowledged he had made a mistake.

He agreed to the terms set out by the commission, which allowed him to conclude his service on the bench and retire after 20 years.

A grizzly bear is on the loose after attacking a school group in Canada, leaving 11 people injured, two critically.

The incident happened on Thursday afternoon on a walking trail in the town of Bella Coola, in the province of British Columbia.

Residents have been warned to remain indoors while armed officers try to track down the animal.

A male teacher "got the whole brunt of it" and some children were hit with bear spray as the adults tried to fend off the animal, Veronica Schooner, a parent, told the Canadian Press.

Ms Schooner said her 10-year-old son was part of the school group, though he was not attacked.

"He said that bear ran so close to him, but it was going after somebody else," she said, adding that "he even felt its fur".

British Columbia Emergency Health Services said two people were critically injured, two more were seriously hurt, and seven others were treated at the scene, reports the Canadian Press.

The group were from Acwsalcta School, which is run by the indigenous Nuxalk Nation, in the town located 700km (435 miles) north-west of Vancouver.

"Officers are armed" the Nation wrote on Facebook. "Remain indoors and off the highway."

"It's hard to know what to say during this very difficult time. We are so grateful for our team and our students."

The Nation's officials have temporarily shut the school, offering counselling services.

A Missouri court is all shook up following the resignation of a judge who was disciplined for wearing an Elvis Presley wig in court and occasionally playing the singer's songs during proceedings.

Matthew EP Thornhill, the longest-serving circuit judge in St Charles County, is a self-described Elvis lover, according to his biography page.

But his love for the King of Rock'n'Roll contributed to a disciplinary commission demanding his suspension, citing his frequent "irrelevant" Elvis references in court.

In a letter explaining his actions, Judge Thornhill said his aim was "to add levity at times when I thought it would help relax litigants".

"I now recognize that this could affect the integrity and solemnity of the proceedings," Judge Thornhill wrote in a letter dated 12 November to the Missouri Supreme Court.

According to a report by Missouri's Commission on Retirement, Removal and Discipline of Judges, which investigates allegations of judicial misconduct, Judge Thornhill "would routinely wear an Elvis Presley wig on or about October 31" - or Halloween - in court while conducting court business.

The report shows images of the judge sitting on the bench while donning an Elvis wig with his signature black pompadour and sunglasses.

It adds that, on occasion, Judge Thornhill would give litigants or witnesses the option of being sworn in while playing Elvis music from his phone.

He would also refer to the singer occasionally during court proceedings, including mentioning his date of birth or death and lyrics from his music, according to the inquiry report.

Judge Thornhill's burning love for all things Elvis is well-documented.

In an interview with a local media outlet last year, he said he had visited Graceland, where the singer lived and is buried, 13 times.

He added that Elvis was always on his mind since he was a child.

The disciplinary report also cites unrelated conduct, like sharing his political affiliation or preferred candidates in elections from the bench, as well as promoting his own election campaign by asking witnesses, lawyers and litigants if they had seen his "Thornhill for Judge" signs around town.

The commission found that Judge Thornhill had "failed to maintain order and decorum in the courtroom", and recommended he be suspended without pay for six months, then serve for another 18 months before retiring.

In the 12 November letter, Judge Thornhill did not dispute any of the allegations, saying they are "substantially accurate" and acknowledged he had made a mistake.

He agreed to the terms set out by the commission, which allowed him to conclude his service on the bench and retire after 20 years.

It was quite a contrast.

On Thursday, a US Pentagon delegation was in Kyiv. They were talking to President Zelensky about a draft plan to end the war in Ukraine.

The same day, on Russian state TV, President Putin was in military fatigues. He was talking to his army chiefs about fighting on.

"We have our tasks, our goals," the Kremlin leader declared. "The chief one is the unconditional achievement of the aims of the special military operation."

The Izvestia newspaper called President Putin's visit to a command post "a signal to America that he's prepared to negotiate on Ukraine, on Russia's terms."

Which brings us back to the peace plan.

The Kremlin claims it "hasn't received anything official" from Washington. But a 28-point proposal has been widely leaked and reported on - and widely interpreted as favouring Russia's peace terms.

What's more, the reported plan appeared after a visit to America by President Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev. He took part in three days of discussions in Miami with President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff.

According to drafts of the peace proposal widely available, Ukraine would cede to Russia parts of the Donbass still under Kyiv's control; the Ukrainian armed forces would be reduced in size and Ukraine would vow not to join Nato.

The Kremlin won't confirm the contents. But it's advising Kyiv to agree terms.

"The Russian military's effective work should convince Zelensky and his regime that it's better to strike a deal and do it now," President Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on a Kremlin conference call.

A peace proposal does not automatically mean peace.

What if there's no agreement?

Pro-Kremlin commentators insist that, deal or no deal, Russia will prevail.

"Everyone thought that the idea of a peace deal had sunk in a swamp," wrote Russian news outlet Moskovsky Komsomolets. "But suddenly, a rocket has shot out of this bog with a new, or rather an 'old new' peace plan, with something of the Alaska summit about it. It shot out like a jack in the box.

"How long and how far will this missile fly? Will it crash, sabotaged by Europe and Kyiv? Even if the launch is a false start, it's unlikely to change the general trend. The balance of power is shifting in Russia's favour."

But after nearly four years of war Russia is under pressure, too. Since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, not only has Russian's army suffered huge losses on the battlefield, but back home the economy is faltering. Russia's budget deficit is growing, revenues from oil and gas falling.

"Russia's industry is somewhere between stagnation and decline," declared the broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta this week.

It's unclear, though, whether economic pressures will change President Putin's calculations and convince him that now is the moment to end his so-called special operation: even on terms that many believe benefit Moscow.

Many. But not everyone.

Some elements of the peace plan haven't gone down well in Russia. Some reports suggest that Ukraine could be offered security guarantees modelled on Nato's Article 5. That might commit Western allies to treat any future Russian attack on Ukraine as an attack on the transatlantic community as a whole and trigger a combined military response.

"This is, in effect, Ukraine in Nato," wrote Moskovsky Komsomolets, "only without the deployment of bases and weapons on its territory."

The full details of the peace plan have yet to be confirmed. We may be entering another period of intense diplomacy.

For now, though, Russia's war on Ukraine continues.

Urgent questions are being raised over a patchwork of armed groups that have emerged to fight Hamas in Gaza over recent months.

They include groups based around family clans, criminal gangs and new militia – some of which are backed by Israel, as its prime minister recently admitted.

Elements within the Palestinian Authority - which governs parts of the occupied West Bank and is a political rival to Hamas - are also believed to be covertly sending support.

But these militia - each operating in its own local area inside the 53% of Gaza's territory currently controlled by Israeli forces - have not been officially included in the US President Donald Trump's peace plan, which calls for an International Stabilisation Force and a newly-trained Palestinian police force to secure Gaza in the next stage of the deal.

One of the largest militia is headed by Yasser Abu Shabab, whose Popular Forces operate near the southern city of Rafah.

In one recent social media video, his deputy talks about working in co-ordination with the Board of Peace - the international body to be tasked with running Gaza under the plan.

Hossam al-Astal, who leads a militia called the Counter-Terrorism Strike Force near the southern city of Khan Younis, told Israeli media this week that "US representatives" had confirmed his group would have a role in Gaza's future police force.

A US official said they had nothing to announce at this time.

Earlier this month, Astal grinned when I asked if he had spoken to the Americans about the future, and told me he would share the details soon.

I asked if those conversations left him happy.

"Yes," he said, with a big smile.

Hossam al-Astal once worked for the Palestinian Authority. His group is small - maybe tens of fighters - but is increasingly confident, and runs a well-supplied tent city near Khan Younis.

"Let's say it's not the right time for me to answer this question," Astal smiled when I asked if Israel was supplying him. "But we co-ordinate with the Israeli side to bring in food, weapons, everything."

I asked how he paid for them.

"People all over the world are supporting us," he replied. "It's not all from Israel. They claim Israel is the only one supporting us and that we are agents of Israel. We are not Israel's agents."

He told me tens of families had come to live in his new site, just inside the Yellow Line that marks the territory currently controlled by Israel under the ceasefire deal - and that more people were arriving every week.

"We are the next day for the new Gaza," he told me. "We have no problem co-operating with the Palestinian Authority, with the Americans, with anyone who aligns with us. We are the alternative to Hamas."

But many Gazans - including those disillusioned with Hamas - are unhappy with the new power given to these small and fragmented armed groups.

"Only a small number of men who have no religion, faith, or ethics have joined these criminals," said Saleh Sweidan, who is currently living in Gaza City. "Gaza's government was ruling us, and although there were many burdens on civilians, any government is better than gangs."

"These groups that co-operate with the occupation [Israel] are the worst thing that the war has produced," said Zaher Doulah, another Gaza City resident. "Joining them is not only dangerous, it is a great betrayal."

Thirty-one year old Montaser Masoud told me he had joined al-Astal's new tent city two months ago with his wife and four children, crossing the Yellow Line at night to avoid Hamas, and after coordination with Israeli forces.

But he said relatives who had stayed behind in Hamas-controlled areas were critical of the move.

"They've been harassing us, saying what we're doing it wrong and has no future," he told me. "I tell them that they're the ones we worry about, because they live outside the Yellow Line and anyone from Hamas could hide next to them, and they could be bombed."

As we spoke by phone, the sound of heavy gunfire around him repeatedly punctured our conversation.

"It's the [Israeli] army nearby," he explained. "But it's not a problem because we know we're not the target."

Several armed groups are now ranged against Hamas, with complex and overlapping ties.

Abu Shabab's group, for example, is accused of looting aid trucks sent into Gaza during the war, and reports in Israel have also suggested that two of its members have previous links to the Islamic State group (IS).

"What's wrong with it?" Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said last month in response to the news that his country had secretly backed militia groups. "It's a good thing. It saves soldiers' lives."

Disclosing the information, he said, had "only helped Hamas".

Netanyahu has insisted Gaza will not be run by either Hamas or its rival, the Palestinian Authority. Under the US peace plan, a non-political, technocratic committee of Palestinians will run Gaza in the short term under international oversight, until the PA reforms are complete.

But a senior Palestinian official has rejected Astal's claims that his fighters will form part of the future police force there.

Maj-Gen Anwar Rajab, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority's security forces, told the BBC that there could be no blanket integration of men from Gaza's armed groups, some of which are backed by Israel.

"Israel might demand the integration of these militia, due to Israel's own specific political and security considerations," he said in an interview in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "But Israel's demands don't necessarily benefit the Palestinians. Israel wants to continue imposing its control in one way or another in the Gaza Strip."

The question of what will happen to Gaza's new militia under a durable peace still remains unanswered.

Israel's decision to back the enemies of their enemy in Gaza is a sign they have not learned from history, according to Michael Milshtein, formerly the head of Palestinian affairs for Israel's military intelligence.

"This is the same risk the Americans took in Afghanistan 30 years ago," he said. "They supported the Taliban against the Soviets, then the Taliban took the weapons they got from the Americans and used them against the Americans."

He said Israel was now relying on groups with dubious pasts in the hope they would provide a political social and ideological alternative to Hamas.

"There will be a moment when they will turn their rifles – the rifles they got from Israel – against the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces]," he said.

Aside from helping to weaken Hamas, Israel's support for armed groups could make it easier to divide Palestinian opposition to Israel, and maintain influence inside Gaza once its forces withdraw.

Some critics say that arming disparate local groups will make it harder to persuade Hamas to disarm, and for international forces to step into the role of securing Gaza.

But the risk for Israel is that the same groups it is helping to arm will one day become the new enemy it faces.

Forty years ago, it encouraged a hardline Islamist organisation in Gaza to offset the growing power of Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.

That organisation became Hamas.

Additional reporting by Naomi Scherbel-Ball, Samantha Granville and the Gaza freelance team

At least five people have been killed, including one child, and more than 450 injured after a 5.5 magnitude earthquake hit Bangladesh.

The epicentre of the earthquake was close to the Narsingdi district, about 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) from the capital, Dhaka.

People rushed from residential buildings as buildings shook and makeshift structures collapsed. At least 10 students were injured in a stampede as they tried to leave Dhaka University on Friday.

"We have never experienced an earthquake this powerful in the last five years," said the country's environmental adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan.

At least three people were killed when a railing and debris fell from a five-storey building in Dhaka's Armanitola area, deputy police commissioner Mallik Ahsan Uddin Sami said.

Nitai Chandra De Sarkar, director of the department's monitoring division, said 461 people have been reported injured across the country, including 252 in the Gazipur district, north of Dhaka.

Sarker told the BBC: "Our main task at the moment is to assess casualties and damage. We are not yet seeing the challenge of rescue from the rubble or debris management at that level."

Bengali Sadman Sakib told Reuters news agency: "I have never felt such tremor in my 30 years of life. We were at the office when the furniture started shaking.

"We rushed down the stairs on the street and saw other people on the road already."

A student called Abdullah, who was sleeping at the time of the earthquake, told Reuters the "whole building was shaking".

Tremors were felt in eastern Indian states bordering Bangladesh, but there were no reports of major damage.

The earthquake caused Ireland's second cricket test match in Bangladesh to stop temporarily.

Coaches and players not involved gathered at the boundary, while those in the stands took shelter. The game was stopped for three minutes but play soon resumed.

Ireland's head coach Heinrich Malan said: "I've been involved in a couple of earthquakes from my time living in New Zealand.

"It's never a nice feeling and you're trying to understand what is happening in the moment around you, but also the bigger impacts about where the earthquake struck.

"Everything stood still for a couple of minutes and we got back to business, but we're thinking of everyone and hoping there wasn't too much damage done."

South African women's rights groups are calling for nationwide protests to demand that gender-based violence (GBV) be declared a national disaster in a country where attacks on women have become commonplace.

The campaign began with a viral social media movement and will culminate in a nationwide "shutdown" on Friday, ahead of the G20 Summit in Johannesburg.

Celebrities, citizens and nations have shown their solidarity by changing their social media profile pictures to purple – a colour often linked to GBV awareness.

South Africa experiences some of the world's highest levels of GBV, with the rate at which women are killed five times higher than the global average, according to UN Women.

Between January and March this year, 137 women were murdered and more than 1,000 raped, according to South African crime statistics.

Warning: This report contains descriptions of sexual assault

On Friday, women are being urged to refrain from going to work or school, "withdraw from the economy for one day", and lie down for 15 minutes at 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT) in honour of the women murdered in the country.

They are also being urged to wear black as a sign of "mourning and resistance".

The protest, dubbed the G20 Women's Shutdown, has been organised by Women for Change, which has also been spearheading the online campaign.

There has also been an online petition, signed by over one million people, calling for the government to take an even tougher stance against the scourge.

The National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) has rejected the calls to declare GBV a national disaster, saying it doesn't fall within the legal requirements.

On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the G20 Social Summit that South Africa had "declared gender-based violence and femicide a national crisis" in 2019.

However, activists say that little has changed and they want the government to take more action.

Women for Change spokesperson Cameron Kasambala lamented the enactment of "so many beautiful acts and legislations" over the years to try and tackle the issue, which are followed by "lack of implementation and transparency" on the government's part.

"We've integrated violence… into our culture [and] into our social norms," she told the BBC.

"Once the government truly reacts to this issue, I feel like we'll already be able to see a reaction on the ground. Because they set the precedent and the tone for how the country responds," she said.

Grammy-award winning singer Tyla is among the thousands of celebrities and citizens who have rallied behind the call and changed their social media profiles. Some have gone further, posting pictures of purple hearts, nail polish and even clothing in what has since been dubbed the "purple movement".

A South African professor who asked to remain anonymous told the BBC she had taken leave so she could travel to Johannesburg from Free State province to take part in the silent protest.

It's important for her because she said she had second thoughts about simple things like jogging and hopes that the protest will "slow the scourge" of GBV.

However, some women have faced a backlash from employers for wanting to participate in the protest. One product designer who works for a major cooperation said they were strongly advised against taking part.

Some women who feel the government is not doing enough have taken matters into their own hands.

Lynette Oxeley founded Girls on Fire to help women protect themselves through gun ownership. It is legal to own a firearm in South Africa for self-defence if a person has a valid licence.

Most of the women in her group have been raped, attacked, robbed, or experienced some level of violence.

Prudence joined the group after she was raped in 2022.

"I said: 'No'. I screamed, I cried but he didn't take no for an answer," she told the BBC.

Trying to find justice was an "uphill battle" as her case was withdrawn because her rape kit - the DNA they take after the crime - was lost.

It isn't a "police problem, it is a nation problem," she said.

Although the women are trained to shoot firearms, Ms Oxeley said using a gun was a "last resort".

"It's not about actually defending yourself with a firearm. I want ladies to change what they think about themselves. Stop being silent," she said.

"Even if you do not win the fight, at least you are fighting back."

More about South Africa from the BBC:

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All mention of fossil fuels, by far the largest contributor to climate change, has been dropped from the draft deal under negotiation at the COP30 UN climate talks in Belém, Brazil enter their final stretch.

Draft agreements at the meeting of nearly 200 countries usually go through multiple revisions as all parties must agree in order for a deal to pass.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and some countries including the UK want the summit to commit countries to stronger, faster action to reduce their use of fossil fuels.

An earlier text included three possible routes to achieve this, but that language has now been dropped after opposition from oil-producing nations.

A source close to the negotiations said that Saudi Arabia and a bloc of nations called the Arab Group are blocking the fossil fuel deal. The BBC has approached Saudi Arabia for comment.

"We express deep concern regarding the current proposal under consideration for a take it or leave it," it said.

"We cannot support an outcome that does not include a roadmap for implementing a just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels."

A source close to the negotiations said that Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations are blocking the fossil fuel deal. The BBC has approached Saudi Arabia for comment.

Dropping the language is likely to be a negotiating tactic to raise the temperature at the talks and force countries to come to agreement.

The meeting is a fraught and delicate diplomatic process as countries jostle to protect their national interests, while also attempting to address the issue of climate change.

Some observers question the value of the complex, legalistic talks which almost always over-run.

But others point to the significant advances in measures to tackle climate change, including renewable energy, electric vehicles, and protection of nature in recent years linked to COP agreements.

Other issues discussed at the COP include the gap in climate finance promised by richer nations to developing nations that are most impacted by climate change.

The new draft deal called for global efforts to triple financing available to countries by 2030.

But it did not say if this should come from richer nations or from other sources, like the private sector.

This could anger poorer countries who want stronger support from richer nations and heavily criticised a deal at last year's COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, which they considered paltry.

Deforestation has been been a fraught issue at the meeting, which takes place on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon.

The new draft also weakened language around tackling deforestation.

"For a COP hosted in the Amazon, it's shattering that deforestation is taking a back seat," said Kelly Dent, Director of External Engagement for World Animal Protection.

"The wildlife and indigenous people who call the forest their home deserve better than this."

The two-week meeting has been interrupted by two evacuations.

Last week a group of protesters broke into the COP venue in Belém carrying signs reading "Our forests are not for sale".

On Thursday a fire broke out, burning a hole through the sheeting covering the venue and causing 13 smoke inhalation injuries. The summit was evacuated and closed for at least six hours.

The summit has been praised for including the largest numbers delegates from of indigenous groups yet.

A grizzly bear is on the loose after attacking a school group in Canada, leaving 11 people injured, two critically.

The incident happened on Thursday afternoon on a walking trail in the town of Bella Coola, in the province of British Columbia.

Residents have been warned to remain indoors while armed officers try to track down the animal.

A male teacher "got the whole brunt of it" and some children were hit with bear spray as the adults tried to fend off the animal, Veronica Schooner, a parent, told the Canadian Press.

Ms Schooner said her 10-year-old son was part of the school group, though he was not attacked.

"He said that bear ran so close to him, but it was going after somebody else," she said, adding that "he even felt its fur".

British Columbia Emergency Health Services said two people were critically injured, two more were seriously hurt, and seven others were treated at the scene, reports the Canadian Press.

The group were from Acwsalcta School, which is run by the indigenous Nuxalk Nation, in the town located 700km (435 miles) north-west of Vancouver.

"Officers are armed" the Nation wrote on Facebook. "Remain indoors and off the highway."

"It's hard to know what to say during this very difficult time. We are so grateful for our team and our students."

The Nation's officials have temporarily shut the school, offering counselling services.

Venezuela's opposition leader will be considered a "fugitive" if she travels to Norway to collect her Nobel Peace Prize, the nation's attorney general has said.

Tarik William Saab told news agency AFP that María Corina Machado - who has been living in hiding to avoid arrest - was accused of "acts of conspiracy, incitement of hatred, and terrorism".

The 58-year-old was named as the prestigious prize's recipient in October, being praised for her efforts towards a "peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy".

She has long denounced President Nicolás Maduro's government as "criminal" and called on Venezuelans to unite to depose it. Many nations view his rule as illegitimate.

Machado - who has long been one of the most respected voices in Venezuela's opposition - was barred from running in last year's presidential elections, in which Maduro won a third six-year term in office.

The elections were widely dismissed on the international stage as neither free nor fair, and sparked protests across the country.

Despite her barring, Machado was able to unite Venezuela's opposition behind her little-known surrogate on the ballot, Edmundo González.

The government-controlled National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner - even though tallies from polling stations showed that González had won by a landslide.

González later fled to Spain, fearing repression. This was followed by attempts to detain other opposition officials.

The Nobel Committee, when announcing the recipient of the prize at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, hailed Machado as "one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times".

Nobel chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes said at the time he hoped Machado would be able to attend an award ceremony in Oslo on 10 December, but acknowledged the serious security situation she faced.

Machado expressed shock at winning the prize, saying: "I am just one person. I certainly do not deserve this."

She added that it was the "achievement of a whole society".

Among the leaders to congratulate her at the time was US President Donald Trump, who was also up for the award and whom tensions with Maduro's government have become increasingly strained.

Attorney General Saab also said Machado was under investigation for her support of the deployment of US military forces in the Caribbean.

The Trump administration has launched an operation targeting boats, mostly in the Caribbean, it accuses of transporting drugs from South America to the US. More than 80 people have been killed in the strikes, most of whom were Venezuelan.

Trump has accused Maduro of being the leader of a drugs cartel, something the Venezuelan leader has denied.

Maduro has, in turn, accused Trump of trying to incite a war to gain control of Venezuela's oil reserves, but recently said he was willing to hold face-to-face talks with representatives of the Trump administration.

Meanwhile, Machado has been trying to encourage the Venezuelan military to switch sides and turn on Maduro, outlining her vision for a post-Maduro Venezuela in what she called a "freedom manifesto" in a video posted on Tuesday.

"We stand at the edge of a new era - one where our natural rights will prevail," she told viewers.

A Canadian man has lost a 16-year legal battle to reclaim more than C$1.2m (£651,000) in cash seized from his home.

Police found the large amount of money stashed in various places around Marcel Breton's north-western Ontario home during a search for an illegal firearm in 2009, as well as a variety of drugs.

Breton was convicted of various offences but was acquitted at a retrial after arguing the search of his property had not been lawful.

But earlier this week, an Ontario appeals court upheld a 2023 ruling that decided most of the seized money should go to the Canadian government, putting an end to his chances of recouping it.

The trial judge had concluded that Breton did not lawfully possess the cash found around his property.

Police recovered C$1,235,620 buried under his garage, C$32,000 stored elsewhere in the garage, and bundles of money totalling $15,000 in the under-floor heating ducts of the living room.

In particular, the trial judge noted that it was "unusual for an average person to have such a large amount of money buried in tubs underneath their property", that the most common denomination was C$20 - an amount an expert said was commonly associated with the drug trade - and that the cash was found near drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Breton also did not report any income to the revenue agency between 2001 and 2008, the judge said.

But the appeals court upheld the decision for the $15,000 found inside the vents of his home to be returned to him, as the judge could not rule out that it had been obtained lawfully as it was not bundled in consistent denominations like the cash found in the garage.

An unknown number of pupils have been abducted by armed men from a Catholic school in central Nigeria, marking the second school kidnapping in less than a week.

The latest attack targeted St Mary's School in Papiri, Niger state, where authorities had already ordered the temporary closure of all boarding schools due to rising security threats.

"The exact number of abducted pupils is yet to be confirmed as security agencies continue to assess the situation," Niger state authorities said in a statement.

Nigeria has faced a renewed wave of attacks by armed groups in recent days, including the kidnapping on Monday of 25 schoolgirls from a boarding school in nearby Kebbi state.

The surge in attacks has underscored the deepening insecurity in the West African nation and prompted President Bola Tinubu to postpone planned foreign trips.

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

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When the golden crown studded with diamonds and pearls is placed on the head of the new Miss Universe in Thailand on Friday, it will mark the end of an exceptionally chaotic edition.

In the days leading up to the glittering coronation in Bangkok, contestants alleging mistreatment walked out and two judges resigned with one claiming the contest is rigged.

The controversies, analysts say, underscore the cultural and strategic differences between the pageant's Thai and Mexican owners.

The crowning of the new Miss Universe, the 74th since 1952, also signals the resolve of an organisation to stay relevant and evolve from a once-a-year television spectacle to a media brand that is ready for TikTok.

Miss Universe, founded in the US, is one of the longest-running beauty pageants on the planet, alongside UK-based Miss World.

It aims to provide a platform for women to promote global causes such as HIV and Aids awareness and education for children. The title can also be a springboard to become a local and international celebrity.

Thailand is hosting Miss Universe for the fourth time and its delegate this year is considered a frontrunner by fan websites. If Thai-Indian Praveenar Singh wins, she will be the country's third Miss Universe and the first since 1988.

The country's 2018 staging of the pageant is regarded as among the best in recent years, so expectations were high for Thailand to outdo itself and put on a show.

Drama in Bangkok

The pageant events are being organised by Thai media mogul Nawat Itsaragrasil, who is known to fans as the founder and owner of Miss Grand International, a smaller Thai-based contest that is known for its loud social media presence.

Mr Nawat holds the licence to host this year's Miss Universe pageant, while the organisation is being run out of Mexico by businessman Raul Rocha.

North, Central and South American queens dominated the contest in its early years, but recent decades have seen the rise of fandoms in South East Asia, most especially in Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia, where pageant crowns have become a way out of poverty or an express pass for girls dreaming of becoming a celebrity.

But things took a dramatic turn at a pre-pageant ceremony early this month, when Mr Nawat told off Miss Mexico, Fatima Bosch, in front of dozens of contestants for failing to post promotional content.

When she objected, Mr Nawat called security and threatened to disqualify those supporting her. Ms Bosch then left the room and others joined her in solidarity.

The Miss Universe Organisation condemned Mr Nawat's behaviour as "malicious" and Mr Rocha, speaking by video from Mexico, told his Thai business partner to just "stop".

Mr Nawat later apologised and claimed that some of his words were misunderstood - but a delegation of international executives were sent to take over running the competition.

A week later, two judges resigned with one of them accusing organisers of rigging the selection process.

Lebanese-French musician Omar Harfouch, who announced his resignation from the eight-member jury on Instagram, alleged that an "impromptu jury" had pre-selected finalists ahead of the final on Friday. Hours later, former French football star Claude Makelele also announced he'd pulled out, citing "unforeseen personal reasons".

The Miss Universe Organisation rejected Mr Harfouch's claims, saying that "no external group has been authorised to evaluate delegates or select finalists".

It suggested that Mr Harfouch may have been referring to the Beyond the Crown programme - a "social impact initiative" that operates independently from the main Miss Universe competition, and has a separate selection committee.

Then during the preliminary evening gown round on Wednesday night, Miss Jamaica accidentally fell onstage and had to be rushed out of the theatre in a stretcher. She is recovering in hospital.

Turbulence at the top

The string of controversies comes as Miss Universe transitions to a new leadership after Thai transgender media mogul Anne Jakrajutatip resigned as CEO just before the pre-pageant events and was replaced by Guatemalan diplomat Mario Bucaro.

Ms Jakrajutatip acquired the pageant from US entertainment company Endeavor in 2022. She made sweeping changes towards inclusivity, allowing transgender women, married women and women with children to participate. She also scrapped the age cap for contestants.

As audiences declined over the years, she sought to monetise the Miss Universe brand, stamping it on merchandise such as bottled water and bags.

In 2023, her entertainment company JKN, filed for bankruptcy, citing "liquidity problems".

Before she resigned, Ms Jakrajutatip brought in Mr Rocha from Mexico as business partner and later tapped Mr Nawat to organise the 2025 pageant.

It has been a "very rocky transition" for the pageant's leadership, Dani Walker, an American beauty queen and pageant coach told the BBC. She said important roles were now split between leaders in Bangkok and Mexico.

The leadership structure was much clearer when the pageant was being run by Endeavor, and before that, Donald Trump, she said.

"For fans and outsiders, it's very confusing. No one knows who the real leaders are or who to ask when they have questions, and that's very damaging to the brand," Paula Shugart, who served as Miss Universe Organization president under the previous two owners, told the BBC.

Thitiphong Duangkhong, a scholar of women's and Latin American studies and an expert on beauty pageants, said those behind the pageant should be aware of their cultural differences.

"In our country, we use the Thai language to communicate with our fellow Thais. We understand the social context, we understand social structure, we understand the inequality of power in society, and we constantly try to negotiate with it using the Thai language," he told the BBC.

Mr Thitiphong said Ms Jakrajutatip being a transwoman might not have sat well with some Latin American fans who subscribe to macho culture.

"There's talk of women who aren't women suddenly buying a pageant that's supposed to be about women's entertainment. What's going to happen?"

What's next for Miss Universe?

For years, audiences for the Miss Universe broadcast have been declining steadily as fans to shift on social media. On TikTok and Instagram, former titleholders, even runners up, maintain accounts with millions of followers, transforming them into influencers.

It is in this e-commerce universe that Mr Nawat's Miss Grand International queens are expected to embrace - selling merchandise in live broadcasts - which he tried to introduce to Miss Universe.

But on the Latin American side, beauty queens are still regarded as glamorous television celebrities. A Miss Universe reality show was even staged for that audience and the winner - a Dominican crowned Miss Universe Latina - is competing in the main pageant in Bangkok.

But while the controversies highlight the business side of Miss Universe, former queens continue to use their platform to promote their causes. The 2018 titleholder, Catriona Gray, urged her 13.8 million Instagram followers to help a charity bring safe drinking water to thousands left homeless by back-to-back super typhoons in the Philippines.

Pageants also continue to face constant criticism for objectifying women. But while majority of contestants wore two piece bikinis for the 2025 contest, those from conservative countries were allowed to wear full-body covering in the swimsuit round.

"Of course, it won't be for everyone, and there will always be those who disagree. But as long as the core values ​​are intact, I think pageants will always have a role to play in society," said Ms Shugart, the former president.

She said empowering women should be at the organisation's core.

"Miss Universe is nothing if you're not empowering the women that compete."

Relentless rains and floods have killed at least 41 people in central Vietnam since the weekend, while a search continues for nine still missing, state media reported.

The deluge has submerged more than 52,000 homes and left half a million households and businesses without power, according to reports.

Rainfall exceeded 1.5m (5ft) in several areas over the past three days, even rising beyond the 1993 flood peak of 5.2m in some parts.

The worst-hit areas include the coastal cities of Hoi An and Nha Trang, as well as a key coffee production belt in the central highlands - where farmers are already reeling from a stalled harvest because of earlier storms.

Extreme weather has battered Vietnam in recent months. Two typhoons, Kalmaegi and Bualoi, left a trail of deaths and destruction within weeks of each other.

Natural disasters in Vietnam have wreaked damage amounting to $2bn between January to October this year, according to government estimates.

Photographs published by local media show people stranded on roofs as floodwaters creep into their homes, while a video circulating online shows a suspension bridge in Lam Dong province getting torn off its anchors.

The province has declared a state of emergency after landslides damaged major roads and highways.

Traffic was completely halted after part of the Mimosa Pass, a key entry route into the popular tourist city of Da Lat, collapsed into a ravine, while a bus narrowly avoided falling into the gap, AFP news agency reported.

Tens of thousands of residents have been evacuated across the flood-affected regions. Military toops and police officers have been deployed to set up emergency shelters to relocate people to safety.

A restaurant owner in Nha Trang told AFP his shops were submerged by about a metre of water.

"I am worried about our furniture in my restaurants and shops, but of course I cannot do anything now," said the restaurant owner, Bui Quoc Vinh.

"I don't think the water is going to recede soon, as the rain has not stopped."

Authorities have warned of moderate to heavy downpours in central Vietnam through Sunday at least.

Countries enforcing race or gender diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies will now be at risk of the Trump administration deeming them as infringing on human rights.

The State Department is issuing the new rules to all US embassies and consulates involved in compiling its annual report on global human rights abuses.

The new instructions also deem countries that subsidise abortion or facilitate mass migration as infringing on human rights.

The changes, which the State Department says are intended to stop "destructive ideologies", have been condemned by rights campaigners who argue the Trump administration is re-defining long-established human rights principles to pursue ideological goals.

The changes reflect a major shift in Washington's established focus on global human rights protection, and signal the expansion into foreign policy of the Trump administration's domestic agenda on issues that have become a lightning rod of division in the US over recent years.

A senior State Department official said the new rules were "a tool to change the behaviour of governments".

DEI policies were designed with the objective of improving outcomes for specific racial and identity-based groups. Since assuming office, US President Donald Trump has aggressively sought to terminate DEI and restore what he calls merit-based opportunity in the US.

The senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "The United States remains committed to the Declaration of Independence's recognition that all men are endowed by the Creator with certain unalienable rights."

The official added that rights were "given to us by God, our creator, not by governments".

Other policies by foreign governments which US embassies will be told to categorise as human rights infringements include:

• Subsidising abortions, "as well as the total estimated number of annual abortions"
• Gender-transition surgery for children, defined by the state department as "operations involving chemical or surgical mutilation... to modify their sex"
• Facilitating mass or illegal migration "across a country's territory into other countries"
• Arrests or "official investigations or warnings for speech" - a reference to the Trump administration's opposition to internet safety laws adopted by some European countries to deter online hate speech

State Department deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the new instructions are intended to stop "new destructive ideologies [that] have given safe harbour to human rights violations".

He said: "The Trump administration will not allow these human rights violations, such as the mutilation of children, laws that infringe on free speech, and racially discriminatory employment practices, to go unchecked."

He added: "Enough is enough."

Critics have accused the administration of redefining long-established universal human rights principles to pursue its own ideological goals.

Uzra Zeya, a former senior State Department official who now runs the charity Human Rights First, said the Trump administration was "weaponising international human rights for domestic partisan ends".

"Attempting to label DEI as a human rights violation sets a new low in the Trump administration's weaponization of international human rights," she said.

She added that the new instructions excluded the rights of "women, LGBTQI+ persons, religious and ethnic minorities, and non-believers - all of whom enjoy equal rights under US and international law, despite the meandering and obtuse rights rhetoric of the Trump Administration".

The new rules conveyed "jaw-dropping" animosity towards LGBTQI+ people, Ms Zeya added.

The State Department's annual human rights report has been seen historically as the most comprehensive study of its kind by any government.

It has documented abuses, including torture, extrajudicial killing and political persecution of minorities. Much of its focus and scope had remained broadly similar across Republican and Democrat administrations.

The new instructions follow the Trump administration's publication of the latest annual report in August, which was significantly rewritten and downscaled compared to those of previous years.

It reduced criticism of some US allies while escalating disapproval of perceived foes. Entire sections included in reports from previous years were eliminated, dramatically reducing coverage of issues including government corruption and persecution of LGBTQ+ individuals.

The report also said the human rights situation had "worsened" in some European democracies, including the UK, France and Germany, due to laws against online hate speech.

The language in the report echoed previous criticism by some US tech bosses who oppose online harm reduction laws, portraying them as attacks on free speech.

Armed men posing as officials from India's central bank have robbed a vehicle transporting 70m rupees ($800,000; £600,000) in the southern state of Karnataka, police say.

A massive operation has been launched to find the men who robbed the van in the heart of Bengaluru city in daylight.

The robbery occurred on Wednesday afternoon when six men in an SUV stopped a cash-transport van on a busy road as it was moving money between bank branches, Bengaluru police commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh told the BBC.

The van was carrying a driver, a cash custodian and two armed security guards.

Mr Singh says the robbers told the people in the van that they were officials from the Reserve Bank of India and needed to verify if they had the correct documents to transport such a huge amount of money.

The gang told the cash custodian and guards to leave their weapons in the van and get into the SUV, while the driver was instructed to continue driving with the cash, police said.

The SUV followed the cash van for a few kilometres before the gang forced the driver out of the van, made the cash custodian and guards get out of the SUV, transferred the cash at gunpoint, and fled.

The area had little CCTV coverage, and police are investigating if the gang used multiple vehicles in the operation.

The cash transportation service company has filed a police complaint.

The SUV used in the heist had a fake number plate and a sticker that read 'Government of India', a police official told the BBC on condition of anonymity. The official added that police were also investigating if the company employees had anything to do with the heist.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters that police have recovered the SUV used in the heist.

But Home Minister G Parameshwara has said that it is not yet clear which vehicle the suspects had used to escape.

"It was verified that they changed vehicles and moved the money," he told reporters.

He said he was confident police would solve the case soon, as they had with other recent high-profile bank robberies in Karnataka.

In May, 59kg of gold worth 532.6m rupees was stolen from a Vijayapura district bank using a duplicate locker key. Police have since recovered 39kg of gold and some cash, and arrested 15 people, including two former employees.

A surrealist painting from the 1940s by Frida Kahlo has sold for $54.7m (£41.8m) - shattering the auction record for an artwork by a female artist.

The painting went for more than 1,000 times its original auction price in 1980, after a tense bidding battle between two collectors, according to the Sotheby's auction house.

The auction also broke the previous record for the highest amount paid for a Kahlo portrait, which sold for $34.9 million in 2021.

The work - titled El sueño (la cama), which is translated to The dream (The bed) - depicts Kahlo asleep in a canopy bed beneath a skeleton entwined with dynamite.

It marks one of the Mexican artist's most "psychologically charged" self portraits, Sotheby's said, and was painted during a turbulent chapter in Kahlo's life - the year her former lover was assassinated and shortly after her divorce and remarriage.

Kahlo, who died in 1954, is widely regarded as one of the greatest painters in the past century and became known for her personal portraits.

Her work often conveyed her painful relationship with her body, disabled through polio in her childhood and serious injuries following a bus accident.

Few could have imagined El sueño (la cama) selling for $55m when it was first went under the hammer at Sotheby's in 1980 for $51,000, the auction house's head of Latin American art, Anna Di Stasi, said.

"This record-breaking result shows just how far we have come, not only in our appreciation of Frida Kahlo's genius, but in the recognition of women artists at the very highest level of the market," she added.

El sueño (la cama) is one of the few Kahlo paintings in public markets since the Mexican authorities declared her artworks as artistic monuments in the 1980s, preventing them from being exported without authorisation.

Kahlo's story was adapted into a biographical film starring Salma Hayek in 2002, telling her story of her rocky relationship with her husband, artist Diego Rivera, and her injuries.

The previous highest price at auction for a work by a female artist is Georgia O'Keeffe's Jimson Weed / White Flower No.1, which was sold at Sotheby's in 2014 for $44m.

Russia has said it is yet to receive anything official from the US on its peace plan, after Ukraine's Volodymr Zelensky said he was ready to work with the Trump administration on its "vision" to bring an end to the war.

The widely leaked US plan includes proposals that Kyiv had previously ruled out, such as ceding areas of the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls, reducing its army in size, and pledging not to join Nato.

These provisions come across as heavily slanted towards Moscow and received a carefully-worded response from Zelensky's office on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Russian strikes continue with six people killed overnight - five in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and one in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

The draft plan has emerged as Russia claims small territorial gains in eastern Ukraine and Zelensky faces a domestic crisis implicating top officials in a $100m (£76m) corruption scandal.

The White House has pushed back on claims that Ukraine was frozen out of its drafting, following meetings between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev.

An unnamed US official told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that the plan was drawn up "immediately" following discussions with Rustem Umerov, one of the most senior members of Zelensky's administration, who agreed to the majority of it.

Umerov is said to have made several modifications before he presented it to Zelensky.

In a post on Telegram, Umerov said he did not provide any assessments or approvals of the plan, adding that Ukraine was still "carefully considering our partners' proposals".

Zelensky has been careful not to publicly criticise or reject the plan, saying he "appreciated the efforts of President Trump and his team to return security to Europe" – perhaps a way to keep the US president onside despite his administration's apparent soft approach to Russia.

His office said the plan "in the American side's assessment, could help reinvigorate diplomacy".

Zelensky said that he would discuss the proposals with Donald Trump in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said it had not received anything official from the US on its peace plan.

"We are seeing some new elements, but officially we haven't received anything. There has been no substantive discussion of those points," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said.

He added that Russia remained "completely open to peace talks".

Russia has long said that any deal would have to address the "root causes of the conflict" - a phrase Moscow has used as shorthand for a series of maximalist demands which, to Ukraine, are tantamount to surrender.

Trump has become increasingly frustrated with negotiations with Moscow, culminating in him imposing fresh sanctions on Russia's two biggest oil producers which came into force on Friday.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukraine's territory, and Russian troops have been making slow advances along the vast front line - despite reported huge combat casualties.

Kyiv and its European allies have long pushed for a "just and lasting" peace in Ukraine that would ensure no more of its territory is taken by Russia.

However, when asked if Europe was involved in the process of drafting the plan, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: "Not that I know of."

She added: "For any plan to work, it needs Ukrainians and Europeans onboard."

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the draft document was not fully fledged, describing it instead as a "list of topics and options".

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have discussed the plan with Zelensky.

The leaked draft proposes limiting Ukraine's military limited to 600,000 personnel, with European fighter jets stationed in neighbouring Poland, as well as plans for Ukraine to forgo many of its weapons.

Kyiv would receive "reliable security guarantees", although no details have been given. The document says "it is expected" that Russia will not invade its neighbours and that Nato will not expand further.

The draft also suggests Russia will be "reintegrated into the global economy", through the lifting of sanctions and by inviting Russia to rejoin the G7 group of the world's most powerful countries - making it the G8 again.

In Kyiv, the widow of a Ukrainian soldier told the BBC: "This is not a peace plan, it is a plan to continue the war."

Another person speaking from one of the occupied territories in Ukraine told the BBC: "I'm trying to keep my sanity here in the conditions of constant propaganda that Ukraine has forgotten us. I hope they will not sign this."

Meanwhile, a soldier in Zaporizhzhia, where several buildings were damaged in deadly overnight strikes, said that if Ukraine did not receive support to end the war then it was up to Europe to help out.

All mention of fossil fuels, by far the largest contributor to climate change, has been dropped from the draft deal under negotiation at the COP30 UN climate talks in Belém, Brazil enter their final stretch.

Draft agreements at the meeting of nearly 200 countries usually go through multiple revisions as all parties must agree in order for a deal to pass.

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and some countries including the UK want the summit to commit countries to stronger, faster action to reduce their use of fossil fuels.

An earlier text included three possible routes to achieve this, but that language has now been dropped after opposition from oil-producing nations.

A source close to the negotiations said that Saudi Arabia and a bloc of nations called the Arab Group are blocking the fossil fuel deal. The BBC has approached Saudi Arabia for comment.

"We express deep concern regarding the current proposal under consideration for a take it or leave it," it said.

"We cannot support an outcome that does not include a roadmap for implementing a just, orderly and equitable transition away from fossil fuels."

A source close to the negotiations said that Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations are blocking the fossil fuel deal. The BBC has approached Saudi Arabia for comment.

Dropping the language is likely to be a negotiating tactic to raise the temperature at the talks and force countries to come to agreement.

The meeting is a fraught and delicate diplomatic process as countries jostle to protect their national interests, while also attempting to address the issue of climate change.

Some observers question the value of the complex, legalistic talks which almost always over-run.

But others point to the significant advances in measures to tackle climate change, including renewable energy, electric vehicles, and protection of nature in recent years linked to COP agreements.

Other issues discussed at the COP include the gap in climate finance promised by richer nations to developing nations that are most impacted by climate change.

The new draft deal called for global efforts to triple financing available to countries by 2030.

But it did not say if this should come from richer nations or from other sources, like the private sector.

This could anger poorer countries who want stronger support from richer nations and heavily criticised a deal at last year's COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, which they considered paltry.

Deforestation has been been a fraught issue at the meeting, which takes place on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon.

The new draft also weakened language around tackling deforestation.

"For a COP hosted in the Amazon, it's shattering that deforestation is taking a back seat," said Kelly Dent, Director of External Engagement for World Animal Protection.

"The wildlife and indigenous people who call the forest their home deserve better than this."

The two-week meeting has been interrupted by two evacuations.

Last week a group of protesters broke into the COP venue in Belém carrying signs reading "Our forests are not for sale".

On Thursday a fire broke out, burning a hole through the sheeting covering the venue and causing 13 smoke inhalation injuries. The summit was evacuated and closed for at least six hours.

The summit has been praised for including the largest numbers delegates from of indigenous groups yet.

Russia has said it is yet to receive anything official from the US on its peace plan, after Ukraine's Volodymr Zelensky said he was ready to work with the Trump administration on its "vision" to bring an end to the war.

The widely leaked US plan includes proposals that Kyiv had previously ruled out, such as ceding areas of the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls, reducing its army in size, and pledging not to join Nato.

These provisions come across as heavily slanted towards Moscow and received a carefully-worded response from Zelensky's office on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Russian strikes continue with six people killed overnight - five in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and one in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region.

The draft plan has emerged as Russia claims small territorial gains in eastern Ukraine and Zelensky faces a domestic crisis implicating top officials in a $100m (£76m) corruption scandal.

The White House has pushed back on claims that Ukraine was frozen out of its drafting, following meetings between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev.

An unnamed US official told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, that the plan was drawn up "immediately" following discussions with Rustem Umerov, one of the most senior members of Zelensky's administration, who agreed to the majority of it.

Umerov is said to have made several modifications before he presented it to Zelensky.

In a post on Telegram, Umerov said he did not provide any assessments or approvals of the plan, adding that Ukraine was still "carefully considering our partners' proposals".

Zelensky has been careful not to publicly criticise or reject the plan, saying he "appreciated the efforts of President Trump and his team to return security to Europe" – perhaps a way to keep the US president onside despite his administration's apparent soft approach to Russia.

His office said the plan "in the American side's assessment, could help reinvigorate diplomacy".

Zelensky said that he would discuss the proposals with Donald Trump in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin said it had not received anything official from the US on its peace plan.

"We are seeing some new elements, but officially we haven't received anything. There has been no substantive discussion of those points," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said.

He added that Russia remained "completely open to peace talks".

Russia has long said that any deal would have to address the "root causes of the conflict" - a phrase Moscow has used as shorthand for a series of maximalist demands which, to Ukraine, are tantamount to surrender.

Trump has become increasingly frustrated with negotiations with Moscow, culminating in him imposing fresh sanctions on Russia's two biggest oil producers which came into force on Friday.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukraine's territory, and Russian troops have been making slow advances along the vast front line - despite reported huge combat casualties.

Kyiv and its European allies have long pushed for a "just and lasting" peace in Ukraine that would ensure no more of its territory is taken by Russia.

However, when asked if Europe was involved in the process of drafting the plan, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said: "Not that I know of."

She added: "For any plan to work, it needs Ukrainians and Europeans onboard."

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said the draft document was not fully fledged, describing it instead as a "list of topics and options".

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have discussed the plan with Zelensky.

The leaked draft proposes limiting Ukraine's military limited to 600,000 personnel, with European fighter jets stationed in neighbouring Poland, as well as plans for Ukraine to forgo many of its weapons.

Kyiv would receive "reliable security guarantees", although no details have been given. The document says "it is expected" that Russia will not invade its neighbours and that Nato will not expand further.

The draft also suggests Russia will be "reintegrated into the global economy", through the lifting of sanctions and by inviting Russia to rejoin the G7 group of the world's most powerful countries - making it the G8 again.

In Kyiv, the widow of a Ukrainian soldier told the BBC: "This is not a peace plan, it is a plan to continue the war."

Another person speaking from one of the occupied territories in Ukraine told the BBC: "I'm trying to keep my sanity here in the conditions of constant propaganda that Ukraine has forgotten us. I hope they will not sign this."

Meanwhile, a soldier in Zaporizhzhia, where several buildings were damaged in deadly overnight strikes, said that if Ukraine did not receive support to end the war then it was up to Europe to help out.