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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are rare earths?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Additional reporting by Ian Tang of BBC Monitoring.

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

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

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

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

• Follow the latest updates here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• What is Comey accused of?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Five months after 10 inmates broke out of a Louisiana jail, the last escapee has been captured, Louisiana State Police confirmed on Wednesday.

The escaped inmate, 28-year-old Derrick Groves, was taken into custody in Atlanta, Georgia, after a brief stand-off, police said.

Police released several gas canisters into a house where Groves was believed to be hiding, and then found him hiding in a crawl space, CBS News, BBC's US partner, reported.

The 10 inmates, including Groves, had fled the Orleans Parish Justice Center in May by ripping a toilet from the wall and breaking metal bars around the hole in the wall before climbing down a hall and running across a highway.

The inmates had scrawled a few messages into the wall above the hole, including "To Easy LoL", a smiley face with its tongue sticking out, and another that appeared to tell officers to catch them if they can.

The inmates' escape was made easier by a "perfect storm" of staffing issues and building design flaws, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson told CBS News in August.

Three were found within 24 hours of their escape and several others were captured in the following weeks.

Deputy US Marshal Brian Fair, of the Eastern District of Louisiana, told CBS News that a tip led investigators to track Groves to the Atlanta area.

When police first approached the home, it appeared that there was no one there, he said.

"We did have concerns maybe he wasn't in the house," Fair told CBS. "But ultimately, they found him hiding in a crawl space. I believe that crawl space was in the basement … and he had put some thought and work into the hiding space he was in."

Groves was convicted of second degree murder in October 2024 after he fired an assault rifle into a Mardi Gras block party, killing two adults, CBS reported.

He was also convicted of attempted murder and a federal firearms charge, and had been sentenced to life imprisonment, according to the Atlanta Police Department.

Now, Groves faces additional charges for his role in the escape, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said.

"I will ensure that he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law," she added.

Groves will be extradited to Louisiana for processing, Atlanta police said.

It was another busy day at work.

Russian forces had attacked my home region of Zaporizhzhia again: a region in the south of Ukraine, split between the Russian invaders, who claim it all as theirs, and the defending Ukrainians.

Sitting in my office in central London, I was feeling nostalgic. I decided to take a quick look at the latest satellite images of my childhood village - the poetically titled Verkhnya Krynytsya (or Upper Spring in English), in the Russian-occupied part of the region, just a few kilometres from the front lines.

I could see the familiar dirt tracks, and the houses drowning in lush vegetation. But something caught my eye.

Amid all the apparent quiet of a small village that I remember so well, a new feature had appeared: a well-used road. And it led right to my childhood home.

Satellite images show a path first appearing in the summer of 2022, four months after the occupation began. Images from winter showed it reappearing and a car making use of it in January 2023.

I could think of only one group of people who could be using the path in an occupied village so close to the front line: Russian soldiers. Only they have reason to be out and about in a war zone.

Verkhnya Krynytsya

The truth is that my childhood village is not quiet anymore. Verkhnya Krynytsya was occupied by Russia shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

By that point, my old house was likely vacant. My family had sold it long ago, but I visited Verkhnya Krynytsya at least once a year before it was occupied, and saw the house sitting apparently abandoned, its garden overgrown.

It was hardly surprising: the village was small and sleepy at the best of times, and for anyone still under retirement age, looking for work meant moving elsewhere.

But many stayed, and more than a thousand people were still there when Russia launched its invasion. Two days later, Ukrainian authorities handed out 43 Kalashnikov rifles to help the villagers fight off the Russians.

At a community gathering, residents decided not to use them against the invaders. A month later, village head Serhiy Yavorsky was captured by the Russians, who beat and tortured him with electricity, needles and acid, according to testimony given in a Ukrainian court.

The Russians also targeted a sewage treatment works outside the village and set up a command post there once the Ukrainians had abandoned the facility.

Even the village's surroundings have changed irreparably.

Before Russia's full-scale invasion, Verkhnya Krynytsya sat on the beautiful Kakhovka reservoir, which was so vast we used to call it "the Sea".

You could see it from pretty much anywhere in the village. It's where locals went swimming in the summer, and where visitors from across the region came in the winter to go ice-fishing. One of my earliest memories is of local women singing Ukrainian folk songs as the sun was setting into the Kakhovka on a warm summer evening.

The Sea disappeared after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed in June 2023, leading to devastating floods that ruined homes and farmland.

To find out what conditions in Verkhnya Krynytsya are like now, I tried reaching out to locals.

Predictably, obtaining answers was very difficult.

Many have left, and those who are still in the village - as is the case in the other occupied parts of Ukraine - are afraid of speaking to the media. Frontline locations are particularly lawless places, where retribution from Russian forces can be swift and brutal.

Social media groups about Verkhnya Krynytsya went silent after it was occupied, and the questions I posted there were left unanswered.

Asking someone to go and have a look at my house was out of the question. What used to be a peaceful, sleepy village has turned into a zone of fear.

The danger in Verkhnya Krynytsya also comes from the sky. The village's proximity to the front line means it is a dangerous location, exposed to frequent aerial attacks from the Ukrainians.

One acquaintance told me that locals preferred to stay indoors for fear of being hit by drones. "It's very dangerous there," I was told. "They are active, and they can target you, your house or your car. Our village has changed a lot, Vitaly."

New residents

So, given the danger and devastation caused to Verkhnya Krynytsya by the war, who could have possibly made the track marks leading to and from my old home?

It is highly unlikely anyone would choose to move to the village now - with the exception of Russian soldiers.

Many of them moved into vacant houses after capturing Verkhnya Krynytsya. In June 2022 authorities in Zaporizhzhia said they had information that Russian troops were staying in the village. This is when satellite images first show signs of the path at my old home.

To check if I was right in assuming that Russian soldiers had likely moved into my old house, I approached the Ukrainian 128th Detached Heavy Mechanised Brigade, which is involved in operations in the area.

"You're not wrong. It's extremely likely," its spokesman Oleksandr Kurbatov told me.

As locals have been fleeing frontline areas, they are being replaced with Russian military, he said.

"If there are not enough empty houses, demand is running high. Of course, it's usually military personnel from the occupation army," he told me.

Because nobody in the village was willing to take the risk of having a look at my house, I asked my BBC Verify colleague Richard Irvine-Brown to obtain and analyse recent satellite images. They showed a pattern of movement around the house where I grew up.

There was no sign of a path to the property in March 2022, a month into the invasion.

Aside from the faint path seen in two satellite images in June, the property seemed ignored. Then the path reappeared in December, and a car was seen using it in January 2023. We don't have any images for the property again until August, by when the track had become well established.

The path fades and reappears with the seasons, showing that whoever is using it only does so periodically.

It seems the property is being used during the winter - and likely by Russian soldiers, who have been moving into vacant properties. This is plausible, as biting Ukrainian winters can make it too cold for men or their supplies to stay in trenches, makeshift dwellings and storage.

The truth about what happened to my house may not become known for a long time yet - certainly not while the village is under occupation.

For now, it seems that my old home has become a tiny cog in the wider machine of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Additional reporting by Richard Irvine-Brown

For more on this story listen to Vitaly Shevchenko on Ukrainecast

"It's not about him, it's about me," declares Victoria Beckham ("him" being her husband Sir David Beckham).

And that's exactly what we get in a new three-part documentary, which drops on Netflix on Thursday.

The former Spice Girl and fashion entrepreneur, 51, is determined to tell her own story – two years after former England captain Sir David, 50, released his own, hugely successful TV series.

The episodes take us inside Victoria's pop career, family life, struggles to reinvent herself and preparation for a major show at Paris Fashion Week.

We also learn about the serious financial troubles her fashion business faced, and how she feared she might "lose everything".

There are contributions from famous friends including Eva Longoria, and fashion titans such as Dame Anna Wintour and Donatella Versace.

Here are our main takeaways from her documentary.

Before the Spice Girls, Victoria was 'not cool'

Lady Beckham achieved dizzying fame in the Spice Girls, so it's hard to believe that at school, she was "that uncool kid" who didn't fit in.

"I was definitely a loner at school", she says, explaining she was bullied.

The Spice Girls came together in 1994, after Mel B, Mel C, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Victoria responded to an advert for candidates.

After the release of their chart-topping debut single Wannabe in 1996, "Spice mania" swept the planet, with their self-styled "Girl Power" mantra - a brand of female empowerment that made them a global pop culture phenomenon.

Lady Beckham credits her bandmates for making her "more lighthearted, more fun" and says it was the first time she felt popular.

She still had to face negative headlines about her weight, and discusses having an eating disorder. She says she never talked about it publicly, or even very much with her parents, but that it made her become “very good at lying".

But Lady Beckham says the other Spice Girls made her "feel good enough" about being herself. It's a message she continues to instil in her daughter Harper, 14.

"I tell Harper every day, be who you are," she says.

What was buried in Baden-Baden?

Geri Halliwell left the Spice Girls in 1998 and the group split up in 2001.

Lady Beckham says she found the transition "really, really difficult".

She carried on making music, but the criticism she received "really hurt".

Then came the infamous WAG period. Pictures of Victoria and other wives-and-girlfriends supporting their footballer partners in the German town of Baden-Baden in 2006 were plastered all over the tabloids.

"It was fun," says Lady Beckham of that time in her life.

But she now concedes there was an "element of attention seeking" to it all. "I was trying to find myself, I felt incomplete, sad, frozen in time maybe," she says.

After the family moved to the US, Lady Beckham decided she wanted to work in fashion.

But to do that, she knew she had to shed her other personas – the Spice Girl, the WAG. "I buried those boobs in Baden-Baden," she says.

Victoria 'almost lost everything' in struggles with fashion business

Lady Beckham is strikingly honest about the struggles her fashion business faced.

She says people didn't see her as "cool at all", and that a lot of people refused to take her seriously.

And Vogue giant Dame Anna cements that view, when she says of Victoria's fashion aspirations: "I thought maybe this was a hobby. I didn't quite believe it."

We see the growth of Victoria Beckham Ltd but also the serious financial troubles it faced. Sir David says he didn't think her business would survive, while Lady Beckham agrees.

"I almost lost everything and that was a dark, dark time," she says. "I used to cry before I went to work every day because I felt like a firefighter."

She says her firm was "tens of millions in the red".

In a later scene, her voice breaks, and she wells up in tears, when she recalls how Sir David stepped in to help her business out.

But the series also shows her turn things around, and we see her pull out all the stops in the run-up to her triumphant Spring/Summer show at Paris Fashion Week in September 2024.

Supermodel Gigi Hadid walked for her, wearing a striking emerald green gown. Dame Anna is shown in attendance, and, in an earlier clip, says Lady Beckham "totally proved us wrong".

Today, Victoria's business has offices in London and New York, with its flagship store in Mayfair, London. The brand's products are in 230 stores across 50 countries around the world, according to the company's website.

Family life carries on, amid reports of feud with Brooklyn

The couple's eldest son, 26-year-old Brooklyn, gets a few mentions in the show and appears briefly. Lady Beckham brings him up in conversation, when discussing the morning sickness she faced while pregnant with him and performing with the Spice Girls.

But for the past few months, much of the online interest around the Beckhams has focused on reports that Brooklyn and his wife Nicola have fallen out with the rest of the family.

The couple were absent from David Beckham's 50th birthday celebrations and did not post a birthday message online, fuelling the intrigue.

Nicola has in the past denied there was a feud in the family. Sir David and Lady Beckham have never acknowledged the rumoured rift, and declined to comment when asked by BBC News.

• Can the Beckham brand survive reports of family feud?

We did get a hint on the topic recently from Victoria, who told the Sunday Times how she felt Liam and Noel Gallagher's reconciliation must have made their mother "so happy".

"As a mum, that must be... she must feel so happy to see her boys getting on," she said.

Showbiz reporter Catrina Rose notes there was “no hint” of any alleged feud in the series.

"Victoria's setting a lot of records straight here, but she's not being drawn on this particular topic."

There's a good explanation for why she doesn't smile

Lady Beckham's pout became her defining look in the 1990s. But in the new series, she admits there's a deeper reason as to why she never smiles.

"The minute I see a camera, I change," she says.

"The barrier goes up, my armour goes on, and that's when, you know, the miserable cow that doesn't smile - that's when she comes out. And I'm so conscious of that."

She adds that she would "rather not be that person" and wishes she had the confidence to walk out in front of cameras and smile.

Elsewhere, she insists that she does actually smile.

"I've looked miserable for all these years because when we stand on the red carpet, this guy has always gone on the left," she says, gesturing at Sir David.

"When I smile, I smile from the left, because if I smile from the right, I look unwell. So consequently I'm smiling on the inside, but no one ever sees it, so that's why I look so moody."

That's one use of a noisy kitchen blender

The programme is filled with small details about the Beckhams' relationship – many of which we didn't know before.

For example, Sir David starts a blender when he doesn't want to listen to Victoria (so she says, anyway).

The pair have fond memories of their whirlwind romance in the 1990s, which led to them getting married and having a baby within two years.

Sir David reflects that his parents - and his manager - would have preferred him to marry a local girl who stayed in Manchester, where he was playing for Manchester United. "But I didn't want that," he says, opting instead for globe-trotting celebrity Victoria.

"I was so excited, I wanted everyone to know I was dating Posh Spice," the former England captain says.

Lady Beckham, for her part, says she was never a young girl dreaming of getting married or becoming a mum. "It wasn't until I met David that those things even occurred to me," she says.

There won't be another Beckham baby

In the final episode, which was filmed before Sir David's 50th birthday this year, the pair get reflective about everything they have achieved, and what lies ahead for them.

"Success, it feels good, I'm not going to lie," says Victoria. "I've still got a lot that I want to do."

Sir David, for his part, seems to have something else on his mind.

"Now we're both, well I'm almost 50, you're 51, what's next? Another baby?," David asks his wife.

Victoria laughs. "Another baby? My God. No."

Victoria Beckham, a three-part documentary series, is available now on Netflix.

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