The opening of HS2 will be delayed beyond the target date of 2033, the BBC understands.

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander is expected to tell Parliament on Wednesday that there is "no reasonable way to deliver" the railway line on schedule and within budget - but is not expected to say how long the delay will be.

She is set to outline the findings of an independent review into HS2, in which a "litany of failure" has been blamed for ballooning costs.

It is the latest setback for the high-speed rail project, which has been scaled back and delayed repeatedly.

Alexander is expected to say that Conservative governments presided over the cost of HS2 rising by £37bn between 2012, when the line was first approved, and the general election last year.

Under the original plans, HS2 was intended to create high-speed rail links between London and major cities in the Midlands and North of England.

It was designed to cut journey times and expand capacity on the railways, but has has faced myriad challenges and soaring costs.

It has already been pared down to a high-speed link between Birmingham and London, with the Birmingham to Manchester leg cancelled in 2023.

Confirming that decision, the then-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said costs were getting "totally out of control".

That was two years after a planned eastern leg between Birmingham and Leeds was axed.

In 2010, it was estimated HS2 would cost £33bn and open in 2026.

Last year, the Department for Transport said the remaining project cost was estimated at between £45bn and £54bn in 2019 prices - but HS2 management has estimated it could be as high as £57bn.

On Wednesday, the transport secretary is expected to announce the findings of a review conducted by the former chief executive of Crossrail, James Stewart, which was commissioned last year to "investigate the oversight of major transport infrastructure projects".

In October last year, a new chief executive, Mark Wild, was put in place as part of efforts to get control of rising costs.

When Israel launched Operation Rising Lion, officials in Russia described the current escalation in the Middle East as "alarming" and "dangerous."

Still, Russian media were quick to stress the potential positives for Moscow.

Among them:

• A rise in global oil prices which is forecast to boost Russia's coffers
• The distraction of global attention away from Russia's war on Ukraine. "Kyiv has been forgotten" was a headline in Moskovsky Komsomolets
• And if the Kremlin's offer to mediate in the conflict was accepted, Russia could portray itself as a key player in the Middle East and as a peacemaker, despite its actions in Ukraine

However, the longer Israel's military operation goes on, the greater the realisation that Russia has much to lose from current events.

"The escalation of the conflict carries serious risks and potential costs for Moscow," wrote Russian political scientist Andrei Kortunov in business daily Kommersant on Monday.

"The fact remains that Russia was unable to prevent a mass strike by Israel on a country with which five months ago [Russia] signed a comprehensive strategic partnership.

"Clearly Moscow is not prepared to go beyond political statements condemning Israel, it's not ready to provide Iran with military assistance."

The Russian-Iranian strategic partnership deal which Vladimir Putin and President Masoud Pezeshkian signed earlier this year is not a military alliance.

It does not oblige Moscow to come to Tehran's defence.

At the time, though, Moscow talked it up.

In an interview with the Ria Novosti news agency, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted that the agreement paid "special attention to the strengthening of co-ordination in the interests of peace and security on the regional and global levels, and the desire of Moscow and Tehran for closer co-operation on security and defence".

In the last six months Moscow has already lost one key ally in the Middle East, Bashar al-Assad.

After the Syrian leader was deposed last December he was offered asylum in Russia. The prospect of regime change in Iran, the thought of losing another strategic partner in the region, will be of major concern to Moscow.

Commenting on developments in the Middle East on Tuesday, Moskovsky Komsomolets concluded: "In global politics right now, massive changes are taking place in real time which will affect life in our country, either directly or indirectly."

Vladimir Putin will be spending much of this week in St Petersburg where the city is hosting its annual International Economic Forum.

The event was once dubbed "Russia's Davos", but the label doesn't really apply now.

In recent years the chief executives of big Western companies have stayed away – especially since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Nonetheless, the organisers claim that this year representatives from more than 140 countries and territories will attend.

Russian authorities will almost certainly use the event to try to demonstrate that attempts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine have failed.

An economic forum it may be, but geopolitics is never far away.

We'll be watching closely for any comments the Kremlin leader makes about the Middle East and about Ukraine.

Less than 40 seconds.

That's how long Air India Flight 171 was airborne before it plunged into a densely populated neighbourhood in Ahmedabad in one of India's rarest aviation disasters in recent memory.

Investigators now face the grim task of sifting through the wreckage and decoding the cockpit voice and flight data recorders of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to piece together what went catastrophically wrong in the seconds after take-off. Under international rules set by the UN aviation body ICAO, a preliminary investigation report should be released within 30 days, with the final report ideally completed within 12 months.

The London Gatwick-bound aircraft, piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kundar, lifted off from the western Indian city of Ahmedabad at 13:39 local time [08:09 GMT] on Thursday, with 242 people and nearly 100 tonnes of fuel on board. Within moments, a mayday call crackled from the cockpit. It would be the last transmission. This was followed by a loss of altitude and a crash engulfed in flames.

• What could have caused Air India plane to crash in 30 seconds?

Captain Kishore Chinta, a former investigator with India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), calls this "the rarest of the rare" crashes - a controlled flight into terrain just 30 seconds after take-off. "To my knowledge, nothing quite like this has ever happened," he told the BBC.

Did both engines fail due to bird strikes or fuel contamination? Were the flaps improperly extended, reducing lift on a heavily loaded jet in extreme heat? Was there a maintenance error during engine servicing? Or did an inadvertent crew action cut off fuel to both engines?

Investigators will be probing all these possibilities - and more. Air crash investigations rely on triangulation and elimination - matching physical evidence from the wreckage with recorded aircraft performance data to build a coherent picture of what went wrong.

Every scorched cable, damaged turbine blade, airplane maintenance log, and signals and sounds from the flight data and cockpit voice recorders - the so-called "black box" - will be examined. The BBC spoke to accident experts to understand how the investigation will proceed.

Critically, the first clues on the ground may come from the wreckage of the two engines, at least three investigators said.

"You can tell from the damage whether the engines were generating power at impact - turbines fracture differently when spinning at high speed," says Peter Goelz, a former managing director of US's National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). "That's the first clue to what went wrong."

Turbines are crucial rotating components that play a key role in extracting energy to generate thrust.

"If the engines weren't producing power, investigators have a serious case on their hands - and the focus will shift sharply to the cockpit."

What happened in the cockpit will be revealed by the Boeing 787's Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorders (EAFRs) - or the "black boxes" - which, investigators say, will help tell the story. (Indian officials say the recorders have been recovered from the crash site.)

These devices capture extensive flight data and cockpit audio - from pilot radio calls to ambient cockpit sounds. Voice recordings come from individual pilot mics, radio transmissions and an area microphone that picks up background noise in the cockpit.

Data recorders track with high precision the position of gear and flap levers, thrust settings, engine performance, fuel flow and even fire handle activation.

"If the flight data recorder shows the engines were making full power, then the attention will move to the flaps and slats. If they are found to be extended as needed, then it becomes a very difficult investigation," says Mr Goelz.

Flaps and slats increase lift at lower speeds, helping an aircraft take off and land safely by allowing it to fly slower without stalling.

"If [the trail leads] to a problem in the flight management control system, that would raise serious concerns - not just for Boeing, but for the entire aviation industry."

The Boeing 787's flight management control system is a highly automated suite that manages navigation, performance and guidance. It integrates data from a number of sensors to optimise the aircraft's flight path and fuel efficiency.

With over 1,100 Boeing 787s flying worldwide since 2011, investigators must determine whether this was a systemic issue that could affect the global fleet - or a one-off failure unique to this flight, experts say. "If it points to a system problem, then the regulatory bodies have to make some tough decisions very quickly," says Mr Goelz.

So far, there is no indication of fault on anyone's part. India's civil aviation ministry said on Tuesday that a recent inspection of Air India's Boeing 787 fleet - 24 of 33 aircraft have been checked so far - "did not reveal any major safety concern," adding that the planes and maintenance systems complied with existing standards.

Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg said on 12 June: "Boeing will defer to India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) for information on Air India Flight 171, in line with UN ICAO protocol."

Decoding of the data at the AAIB lab in Delhi will be led by Indian investigators, with experts from Boeing, engine-maker GE, Air India and Indian regulators. Investigators from the NTSB and UK will also be participating.

"In my experience, teams can usually determine what happened fairly quickly," Mr Goelz says. "But understanding why it happened can take much longer."

The wreckage may yield other clues. "Every part - wire, nut, bolt - will be meticulously collected," says Mr Chinta.

Typically, wreckage is moved to a nearby hangar or secure facility, laid out to identify the nose, tail and wingtips, and then pieced together. In this case, depending on what the flight data and voice recorders reveal, a full reconstruction may not be necessary, investigators say.

The importance of wreckage varies by accident, say investigators. For Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, shot down over eastern Ukraine in July 2014, it was crucial - reconstruction of the nose revealed clear shrapnel damage from a Russian-made missile.

In the wreckage, investigators will also examine fuel filters, lines, valves and residual fuel to check for contamination - something that's easy to detect or rule out, a crash investigator who preferred to remain unnamed, said. Also, he believed that the refuelling equipment used before departure "has likely been quarantined and already inspected".

That's not all. Investigators will gather maintenance and fault history records from the airline and Boeing's ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting system) which transmits data via radio or satellite to both Boeing and Air India, says Mr Chinta.

They will review all flights operated by the aircraft and the crew over recent months, along with the technical log of pilot-reported faults and corrective actions taken before release of aircraft to service.

Investigators will also examine pilot licenses, training records, simulator performance and instructor remarks - including how pilots handled scenarios like engine failures in advanced flight simulators. "I reckon Air India would have already provided these records to the investigation team," says Mr Chinta.

Investigators will review the service history of all components of the aircraft that were removed and replaced, examining reported defects for any recurring issues - or signs of problems that could have affected this flight.

"These investigations are extraordinarily complex. They take time, but there will be early indicators of what likely went wrong," says Mr Goelz.

A big reason is how far technology has come. "One of the first accidents I investigated in 1994 had a flight data recorder tracking just four parameters," he says.

"Today's recorders capture hundreds - if not thousands - every second. That alone has transformed the way we investigate crashes."

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One of Indonesia's most active volcanoes spewed a huge ash cloud more than 11 kilometres into the sky on Tuesday after officials issued the country's highest alert.

Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, erupted at 17:35 local time (10:35 BST), the country's volcanology agency said, sending the vast cloud above the tourist island of Flores.

A 7km exclusion zone was in place around the crater of the 1,584m (one mile) high twin-peaked volcano. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The volcano erupted multiple times in November, killing nine people and forcing thousands to flee. The ash cloud also forced flight cancellations.

Geology agency head Muhammad Wafid said no one should carry out any activities within 7km of the eruption, and warned of potential lahar floods - a type of mud or debris flow of volcanic materials - if heavy rain occurs.

Residents were also urged to wear face masks to protect themselves from volcanic ash.

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency meanwhile said that at least one village had been evacuated, and ash rain was reported in several others outside the exclusion zone.

A spokesman called on residents around the volcano "to evacuate to safe locations" as tremors were still being detected, which indicated ongoing volcanic activity.

Lewotobi Laki-laki's last eruption was in May, when authorities also raised the level to the most severe.

Laki-Laki, which means "man" in Indonesian, is twinned with the calmer but taller 1,703m named Perempuan, the Indonesian word for "woman".

"My son died like an animal," said Meshack Ojwang, before breaking down in tears in front of journalists outside Central Police Station in Kenya's capital, Nairobi.

His only son Albert Ojwang had been arrested in their village of Kakoth, near the western town of Homa Bay, the day before - on Saturday 7 June 2025 - as he was having lunch with his wife Nevnina Onyango.

One of the five arresting officers told the family he was accused of insulting a police boss on social media.

"We asked the police if he was going to be safe, because we had heard stories of some people being abducted," Ms Onyango told the BBC. "They assured us, at the point of even them giving us their numbers."

When Mr Ojwang was booked into Central Police Station at around 21:30 on the Saturday night he was allowed to phone his wife.

"When we talked, he was like: 'As much as I'm stressed, don't worry that much. I'll see you soon.' I think those were his last words," she said.

But his father was concerned and decided to follow his son, making the 350km (220 miles) journey to Nairobi - carrying the family's land title deed as security in case it was needed to pay bail.

He says he arrived early on the Sunday morning at the station, and after being kept waiting for several hours, was eventually told that his son had died from self-inflicted wounds.

In disbelief and standing next to his lawyer, he described seeing his son's body: "He was bleeding from the nose and had a bruised torso and face. He was also shirtless, but this is not how I handed him over to the police on Saturday."

His candid interview in heartfelt Swahili and his refusal to stay silent touched Kenyans and the hashtag #JusticeForAlbertOjwang immediately began trending, with calls for an investigation.

Kenya has a history of police brutality, but the subsequent revelations have stunned the nation - not only the details about the death in police custody of the trained teacher turned blogger, but the ensuing allegations of police lies and subterfuge.

Parliament even called in the chief of police, the head of the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), the internal affairs minister and the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) for questioning.

It is hard to imagine why the 31-year-old Bachelor of Education graduate could have died such brutal circumstances.

It is clear that his father, who used to work in a quarry in south-eastern Kenya, was proud that his son from such humble beginnings had done so well academically.

"He could never hurt anyone either online or physically," David Bwakali, a former teaching colleague at Kituma Secondary School, told Kenya's Daily Nation's newspaper.

Albert Ojwang, a passionate Manchester United football fan, had taught religious studies, history and rugby at the school in the town of Mwatate in south-eastern Kenya.

He was only there for a couple of terms last year as he had not been employed on a government contract but privately through the school's management board.

This is common for new teachers - he had not long graduated from Pwani University - and such arrangements tend not to be well paid.

Mr Bwakali said his friend had recently been in touch to discuss how he hoped to get a posting as a government teacher.

And it was an exciting time for Mr Ojwang, who lived in the coastal town of Malindi, as he and his 26-year-old wife had gone back to his rural Homa Bay home for a long visit so she could be properly introduced to his family.

They had arrived in April and were, according to Luo customs, formalising their marriage.

Part of these traditions involved refurbishing his "simba" - or bachelor's pad within his father's homestead - into a home suitable for the couple and their three-year-old son George.

He was helping his parents out by doing some farm work on the family's two-acre plot of land - and he and his wife were making plans for their future with Ms Onyango's imminent graduation as a health worker.

Mr Ojwang was also trying to make money as a digital content creator - and was part of a movement of young people on social media posting about political and social issues.

This is what led to his death.

It is not clear how many followers he had on X as his account was deleted after his arrest, but fellow influencers said he had a strong online presence and often participated in social media campaigns.

He used a pseudonym - something that is not unusual with Kenyans online given recent crackdowns on youth dissent.

Activists have linked his death to a broader trend of police impunity, citing the unresolved deaths of more than 60 young people during last year's anti-tax protests.

"Ojwang's death is not an isolated incident but a chilling reminder of the institutionalised impunity and rogue behaviour within the National Police Service (NPS)," Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) director and renowned human rights defender, Khelef Khalifa, told local media.

But what is unusual about Albert Ojwang's case is the how swiftly and detailed the investigation has been. In addition, two days of the televised parliamentary hearings have meant that Kenyans have heard for themselves the disturbing details that led to his death.

When appearing before the parliament last Wednesday, police chief Douglas Kanja was forced to retract an earlier police statement that said that Mr Ojwang was found unconscious in his cell and rushed to hospital, where he died of head injuries sustained after he banged his own head against a wall.

The post-mortem examination and an unusually speedy investigation by the IPOA ruled out the possibility that the blogger had killed himself.

The police chief apologised and blamed the error on "misinformation" from his juniors.

He went on to say that the arrest of Mr Ojwang had stemmed from defamatory online posts targeting his deputy, Eliud Lagat - who has since stepped aside. Mr Lagat said he was doing so in the "good and conscious thought" of his responsibilities as deputy police chief and that he would provide any support he could to the investigation into the blogger's death.

According to Mr Kanja's statement to parliament, the posts on X had alleged Mr Lagat was running corrupt operations in the police by placing trusted officers in specific departments and traffic shifts to "control both revenue streams and intelligence flow".

Mr Kanja's statement detailed various posts including one that claimed Mr Lagat was under investigation by the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) along with his photo and the phrase "Mafia Cop".

According to the police chief's parliamentary statement, Mr Lagat had submitted a complaint to the DCI on 4 June about the posts. The next day when the EACC confirmed there was no investigation into Mr Lagat, the police proceeded with what was regarded as a "serious case" under the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act.

Mr Kanja said the Communications Authority was contacted about two accounts linked to the posts. It led to the arrest of a man on 5 June who revealed that he and four others were involved in the campaign - one being Albert Ojwang.

Two days later, the police had tracked Mr Ojwang down to his home village in western Kenya.

In her testimony, IPOA Vice Chair Anne Wanjiku gave some shocking details about the last few hours of Mr Ojwang's life.

She said two witnesses, who were in a neighbouring cell, told the IPOA that they had heard loud screams on the night he died.

IPOA investigators claim that a technician was paid $30 (£22) to disconnect the CCTV in the station.

After the parliamentary hearings ended, two police officers were arrested in connection with Mr Ojwang's death.

The IPOA, which is bringing the case, said junior officer PC James Mukhwana had told investigators the intention had been to "discipline" Mr Ojwang, not kill him.

He said the officer in charge of the station, Samson Talam, had been contacted by Mr Lagat with the order and had given the constable $15 to pay two inmates to beat up Mr Ojwang.

Mr Talam, through his lawyers, has denied the allegation and Mr Lagat has not commented.

Under Kenyan law, individuals in police custody are entitled to specific protections, including the right to legal representation and communication with advocates or support persons.

Mr Ojwang's family are still having difficulty absorbing their loss.

"I had not believed it until I saw his body in the morgue," said Ms Onyango, telling the BBC it bore signs of torture. It was like "things that we just see in movies… I've never seen such a body. It was so heart breaking," she said.

President William Ruto, who pledged to end Kenya's history of police brutality and extrajudicial deaths when he came into power in 2022, has spoken out about his shock, saying: "This tragic occurrence, at the hands of police, is heart-breaking and unacceptable."

He urged the police to co-operate fully to facilitate a "swift, transparent and credible investigation".

"I fully expect that the truth about what happened to Ojwang will be established in due course and that justice will be served," he added.

However nearly 160 cases of suspected extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances were reported across Kenya last year, according to the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC).

IPOA chairperson Ahmed Issack Hassan told MPs when he was questioned on Thursday that at least 20 people had died while held by police in the past four months alone.

"It is as if our constitution only is there like a newspaper to be read, and tomorrow we forget about it," Mr Ojwang's father told the BBC.

Grief has overwhelmed Mr Ojwang's widow: "I don't know what will happen next, because that one person that was my best friend… he's not there. So, I feel like my world is so small and it's dark."

But like her father-in-law, Ms Onyango believes the case, which has sparked protests, could be a turning point.

"I think Albert's death should be an eye-opening to us, because it has shown us some of the things that are happening in the cells that maybe we don't know.

"I really want to talk to my fellow Kenyans to stand on our feet and try and talk about this matter, so that everybody can be accountable."

You may also be interested in:

• BBC identifies security forces who shot Kenya anti-tax protesters
• Batons, tear gas, live fire - Kenyans face police brutality
• WATCH: Inside the world of Kenya's 'killer cop'
• New faces of protest - Kenya's Gen Z anti-tax revolutionaries
• Kenyan tax protesters take on Christian leaders
• Kenyan president's humbling shows power of African youth

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

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