America's late-night TV hosts have rallied behind fellow comedian Jimmy Kimmel after he was suspended by ABC in a row over comments he made about the killing of Charlie Kirk.

Stephen Colbert began his show by saying "we are all Jimmy Kimmel", and said the star's removal was a "blatant assault on freedom of speech".

Seth Meyers declared it was "a privilege and honour to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend", while Jon Stewart and Jimmy Fallon tackled the free speech issue by doing satirical sketches in which they were apparently forced to praise Donald Trump.

Their broadcasts came shortly after the US president said the main networks were overwhelmingly negative about him and could have their licences "taken away".

The row started after Kimmel said in his monologue on Monday that the "Maga gang" were "desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them" and trying to "score political points from it".

He also likened Trump's reaction to the conservative political activist's death to "how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish".

Meyers, the host of NBC's Late Night, began his show on Thursday by saying Trump's administration was "pursuing a crackdown on free speech", before adding sarcastically: "And completely unrelated, I just want to say before we get started here that I've always admired and respected Mr Trump."

To audience laughter, Meyers continued: "I've always believed he was a visionary, an innovator, a great president and an even better golfer."

The host went on to play a succession of clips of Trump declaring he had banned government censorship and brought back free speech in America.

After playing further clips about the Kimmel situation, Meyers said: "It is a privilege and honour to call Jimmy Kimmel my friend, in the same way it's a privilege and honour to do this show every night.

"I wake up every day and I count my blessings to live in a country that at least purports to value freedom of speech.

"And we're going to keep doing our show the way we've always done it - with enthusiasm and integrity..." That was followed by a fart noise, calling back to a previous joke about a horse defecating in front of Trump during his state visit to the UK.

Returning to his point, Meyers continued: "This is a pivotal... this is a big moment in our democracy and we must all stand up for freedom of expression.

"There is a reason free speech is in the very First Amendment. It stands above all others."

On CBS, The Late Show presenter Colbert said: "To Jimmy, I say I stand with you and your staff 100%."

He said Kimmel's suspension was "blatant censorship" and the "latest and boldest action in a long campaign against media critics".

Colbert has had his own show cancelled, which CBS said in July was "purely a financial decision", but which some observers have linked to a looming federal decision on a merger involving CBS's parent company Paramount.

Kimmel's removal came after Nexstar Media, one of America's largest TV station owners, said it would not air Kimmel's show "for the foreseeable future" because his remarks had been "offensive and insensitive". Nexstar is also currently awaiting federal approval for a separate takeover deal.

"So a company apparently capitulating to the whims of the president in order to ensure their merger goes through - has that ever happened before?" Colbert joked.

"Everything is about corporate relationships."

Following his state visit, Trump told reporters of late night shows and networks: "All they do is hit Trump... They are licensed. They are not allowed to do that."

Colbert responded: "Yes they are! Since the beginning... these shows have always talked about the current president, and that happens to be you."

He added: "So no matter what they claim, this is not entirely about what Jimmy said on Monday, this was part of a plan. How do I know that? Two months ago, when the president was tastefully celebrating my cancellation, he posted 'Jimmy Kimmel is next to go'."

On NBC's The Tonight Show, Fallon told viewers: "I don't know what's going on and no-one does. But I do know Jimmy Kimmel and he's a decent, funny and loving guy and I hope he comes back."

He continued: "A lot of people are worried that we won't keep saying what we want to say or that we'll be censored. But I'm going to cover the president's trip to the UK just like I normally would.

"Here we go. Well guys, President Trump just wrapped up his three-day trip to the UK and he..."

A voiceover then cut in to dub Kimmel with the words: "...looked incredibly handsome."

'Perfectly-tinted Trump'

On Comedy Central, Stewart took a similar satirical approach, becoming a fawning and "patriotically obediant host" of an "all-new government approved Daily Show".

He reluctantly lavished praise on the "perfectly-tinted Trump", known for his "charm, elegance and an undeniable sexual charisma".

Stewart later asked the show's seven correspondents if the "naysayers and critics" were right. "Is Donald Trump stifling free speech?"

"Of course not Jon," they replied in unison in robotic voices. "Americans are free to express any opinion we want. To suggest otherwise is laughable. Ha ha ha."

Meanwhile, Former long-serving late-night host David Letterman spoke about Kimmel's suspension at The Atlantic Festival in New York on Thursday.

"I feel bad about this, because we all see where see this is going, correct?" he said. "It's managed media. It's no good. It's silly. It's ridiculous."

Limits to free speech

But not all late-night hosts were in agreement.

Fox News's Greg Gutfeld said: "People come up to me and go, 'If you're a comedian and you're on TV, you should be upset by this'. I'm not really."

Gutfeld's panel of guests criticised Kimmel's comments and argued there were limits to free speech on network TV.

The host also said people who are now defending Kimmel had previously tried to silence right-wing outlets and commentators. "The only way they were going to stop that is if they know it can happen to them," Gutfeld said. "But is that actually fair thinking? I don't know."

Elsewhere, former CNN presenter Piers Morgan said Kimmel had caused "understandable outrage all over America", adding: "Why is he being heralded as some kind of free speech martyr?"

A British couple who were detained for nearly eight months by the Taliban in Afghanistan have been released, an official with knowledge of the case has said.

Peter Reynolds, 80, and his wife Barbie, 76, who have lived in the country for nearly two decades, were held after being stopped while travelling home on 1 February.

The couple were freed through Qatari mediation, after they were transferred from Kabul's central prison to a larger prison during the final phase of negotiations, the official said.

It follows months of public lobbying by their family for their release.

Just six days ago, an American woman who was detained with them and subsequently released told the BBC they were "literally dying" in prison and that "time is running out".

Faye Hall, who was let go two months into her detention, highlighted that the elderly couple's health had deteriorated rapidly while in prison.

A South African hospital cleaner has been arrested after being found in possession of a bag of human placentas in eastern Mpumalanga province, police say.

Rose Mnisi was allegedly seeking potential buyers for the human body tissue when she was picked up by security officers following a tip-off.

"Upon being approached by police, the woman was caught with human tissues. The woman confirmed that she is a cleaner in the maternity ward," police said in a statement.

The 39-year-old woman appeared in court on Thursday, facing charges of illegal possession of human tissues. The body parts were seized and sent for forensic analysis. She is yet to respond to the charges.

Police said the suspect was "hitchhiking" to the Nelspruit area when she was arrested by officers who were conducting routine patrols in the town of Lydenburg, also known as Mashishing.

She was carrying an unknown number of human placentas in a plastic bag when she was picked up, according to the police.

The woman was "charged accordingly", police said, adding that they could not rule out the possibility of additional charges as the investigation continues.

She is expected back in court next month for a bail application.

The police did not say what the placentas were allegedly going to be used for but some believe eating the body tissue can boost breast milk production and even prevent post-natal depression, although there is no scientific evidence.

In South Africa, some killings and mutilations have been linked to the use of human body parts in traditional rituals.

Earlier this month, a Mozambican traditional healer appeared in court after he was found in possession of human body parts in the city of Tshwane.

Investigators linked the body parts to the brutal murder of a young woman who was killed in 2023 and her body parts removed.

More BBC stories on South Africa:

• South Africa's frontline volunteer crime fighters
• Survivors of South Africa's horrific building fire now live in fear of guns
• Childhood obesity: The South African campaigners fighting for healthy food

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

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

An Australian doctor who raised the alarm about Erin Patterson has been sanctioned by the medical regulator over disparaging comments made about the triple murderer.

Chris Webster was a key witness in Patterson's trial, at which a jury found her guilty of killing three relatives and attempting to kill another with a deadly mushroom lunch in 2023.

After the verdicts, Dr Webster told BBC that Patterson - now serving a life sentence - was a "heinous individual" and called her a "disturbed sociopathic nut-bag" in an interview with the Herald Sun.

The Medical Board of Australia found his actions were inappropriate and ordered that the general practitioner undergo ethics, privacy and social media training.

An investigation was launched when the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) received a flood of complaints about Dr Webster's media interviews and use of explicit language.

Dr Webster told the BBC on Friday that he understood and accepted the decision from regulators - who have not publicly commented on his case but listed the conditions on a public register.

"As far as my comments go, I stand by them," said Dr Webster, who still works as a GP in Patterson's home town of Leongatha, in regional Victoria.

He said that regulators did not find any breach of patient confidentiality, as he was talking about matters that had been openly discussed in the murder trial.

"I was found to be inappropriate in my professionalism," he said, "and that has to do with the use of salty language and my use of social media."

Earlier this month, Patterson, 50, was sentenced to life, with no chance of release for at least 33 years, for the murder of her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson.

She was also found guilty of trying to kill Heather's husband Ian Wilkinson by serving them a toxic mushroom lunch at her home.

Dr Webster treated the Wilkinsons at a tiny hospital in Leongatha, before their mushroom poisoning was identified and they were urgently transferred to a major Melbourne facility.

He also saw Patterson - who claimed to have gastro-like symptoms - at the hospital, and says he knew she was guilty almost immediately.

"I knew," he had earlier told the BBC.

"I thought, 'Okay, yep, you did it, you heinous individual. You've poisoned them all'."

An audio recording of his call to police about her decision to discharge herself from hospital against medical advice was played at the trial.

The Aphra investigation concluded that Dr Webster must do at least eight hours of training in topics including professionalism and ethics, professional communication, privacy and confidentiality, and social media.

He must also be mentored by another doctor for five hours a month for a period of one year, Dr Webster says. He called it an "onerous condition", which might require him to take one day off each week to travel to Melbourne, and could mean he has less time with patients.

"Ultimately, the community is getting punished as well, and that's disappointing," he said.

"There's never been any question about my competency and skills as a doctor. It's all about my attitude and presentation, and maybe in this modern world, that kind of thinking might be a bit archaic. Doctors are human beings."

He added that he has the "full support" of the local community: "I'm not going anywhere. I just have to go back to school."

Crissa Tolentino has long been resigned to floods as a way of life.

The 36-year-old public school teacher takes a paddle boat through the inundated streets nearly every day. It's the only way to travel from her home in the suburbs to the heart of Apalit, a low-lying town near the Philippine capital Manila.

The boat takes her to work, and to the clinic where she is being treated for cancer. She says she only sees dry streets for about two months in the year.

But this year she is very angry.

An unusually fierce monsoon has derailed daily life more than ever in the South East Asian nation, and sparked anger and allegations about corruption in flood control projects.

The rains have stranded millions mid-commute, left cars floating in streets that have turned into rivers and caused outbreaks of leptospirosis, a liver ailment that spreads through the excrement of sewer rats.

"I feel betrayed," Ms Tolentino says. "I work hard, I don't spend too much and taxes are deducted from my salary every month. Then I learn that billions in our taxes are being enjoyed by corrupt politicians."

It's a charge that is resonating across the Philippines, where people are asking why the government cannot tame the floods with the billions of pesos it pours into infrastructure like roads, bridges and embankments.

Their anger is palpable on TikTok, Facebook and X, where they are venting against lawmakers and construction tycoons who they allege win contracts for "ghost" projects that never materialise.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr himself acknowledged this as a continuing challenge on a visit to inspect a flood control dam that he then found did not exist. The economic planning minister later said corruption had claimed 70% of public funds allotted for flood control.

The House Speaker, who has been implicated, has resigned, although he denies any wrongdoing. And the leader of the Senate has been ousted after it was found that a contractor who won a government bid was found to have donated money to his 2022 campaign, which is illegal.

Outraged Filipinos have been stitching together AI videos of lawmakers as crocodiles, a symbol of greed. A lot of the ire is also aimed at "nepo babies", the children of wealthy politicians or contractors, whose extravagant lives are all over social media.

Scrolling through her feeds, Ms Tolentino says she relates most to a rap song from 2009 which has become the soundtrack to the public fury.

Upuan, by local artist Gloc-9, questions why politicians are unable to empathise with common folk. The song's title means "seat" in Tagalog, a local language, and it channels the anger at those with parliamentary seats who seem far removed from the lives of ordinary Filipinos.

"That [song] is our real situation," Ms Tolentino says. "It explains everything."

A huge anti-corruption protest is already planned for Sunday, 21 September - the anniversary of the day in 1972 when then leader Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law.

His son, who is now president - Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr - is well aware of how far public anger can go. It was anti-corruption protests that drove his father from power in 1986, ending a decades-long dictatorship that embezzled billions from the state.

More recently, anti-corruption protests forced legislative reform in Indonesia and, just last week, toppled the government in Nepal. And so on Monday, as Filipinos demanded an explanation, President Marcos Jr announced an inquiry that would "unmask the swindlers and find out how much they stole".

"If I wasn't president, I might be out on the streets with them," he told reporters.

"Let them know how much they hurt you, how they stole from you. Let them know, shout at them, demonstrate - just make it peaceful."

It echoed earlier comments when he promised relief from the floods, while appearing to pin the blame elsewhere. He faulted corrupt politicians and constructions firms for the severe lack of infrastructure: "Shame on you," he said.

Then in a press conference he said he had uncovered a "disturbing" fact: the public works ministry had contracted only 15 firms to build flood control projects worth 545bn pesos ($9bn; £7.1bn).

All of those firms are now under scrutiny and the central bank has frozen their assets, but the most attention has gone to one family-owned business. It belongs to Pacifico and Sarah Discaya, who were raised in poor families but are now a wealthy, high-flying couple active on social media. Before the floods controversy, Ms Discaya was best known for her unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Pasig city.

Late last year the couple were interviewed on popular YouTube channels, where they shared their rags-to-riches story. One interviewer described it as "inspiring". But in the wake of the disastrous flooding, those videos have resurfaced as subjects of anger.

They show the couple showing off their three dozen luxury cars, including a Mercedes Benz Maybach, a Lincoln Navigator and a Porsche Cayenne. They bought some models in two separate colours, black and white.

The backlash was swift. The Discayas were summoned by the Senate and the House of Representatives for investigations, and authorities blacklisted their firm, while protesters smeared the gates to their office with mud and spray-painted the word "thief".

At a recent House hearing, Mr Discaya admitted to paying kickbacks to lawmakers - "We couldn't do anything but play along with them" - but the Congressmen disputed his allegation.

The Discayas and other contractors have accused more than a dozen lawmakers, including key allies of President Marcos, but they all denied the allegations.

The Filipino internet has also taken aim at the children of politicians and contractors suspected of misusing funds, branding them with the hashtag "nepo babies". Many are young women whose designer-clad jet-setting lifestyle on social media has drawn sarcastic comments about how they should thank taxpayers for funding their shopping and travel.

One daughter of a former congressman was called out for a single outfit, when she paired Fendi with Dior, and carried Hermes' coveted and high-priced Birkin bag. Some of these people have turned off comments on their accounts, or deactivated them altogether.

The outrage has galvanised the people behind some of the most popular social media accounts. "We will be relentless. We will be loud. We will be a mirror held up to power, and we will not look away until justice is served," said the collective called Creators Against Corruption.

And there is anger offline too. Employees of the public works department, whose engineers have been accused of aiding in the graft, have been allowed to stop wearing their uniforms following reports that they were being heckled and harassed in public.

Life under the difficulties caused by extreme weather and poor urban planning continues meanwhile.

Rhens Rafael Galang has even made a thriving business out of it. He sells overalls with rain boots sewed in to them on TikTok. His regular job is as a researcher in the government.

"I'm angry and dismayed because money allocated for flood control projects in our province went to waste, to people who used it for their personal gain," he says.

The 28-year-old, who lives in Calumpit town in one of the worst-hit provinces, always leaves the house in shorts. He then walks through flooded streets before changing into another set of clothes on dry land. Videos of his challenges have gone viral. One, which shows him wading deeper as he walked down an inundated street, got three million views.

He is at the mercy of such routines until his area gets proper storm drains and levees. "But I am hopeful that, in time, a long-term flood control project will be built in our area, that funds will be used honestly," he says.

Filipinos are no strangers to allegations of corruption - they've ousted two presidents over it.

More than a decade ago - in 2013 - lawmakers were accused of pocketing billions from their discretionary budgets for ghost projects.

Congresswoman Leila de Lima, then the secretary of justice, investigated the allegations. Now, as she finds herself confronting another huge corruption scandal, she is worried the scale has magnified, from tens of billions to hundreds of billions, she told the podcast Facts First recently.

"I don't know how to feel any more. This is such a mess."