A hacker has been sentenced to five years in a US prison for laundering the proceeds of one of the biggest ever cryptocurrency thefts.

Ilya Lichtenstein pleaded guilty last year to hacking into the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange in 2016 and stealing almost 20,000 bitcoin.

He laundered the stolen cryptocurrency with the help of his wife Heather Morgan, who used the alias Razzklekhan to promote her hip hop music.

At the time of the theft, the bitcoin was worth around $70m (£55.3m), but had risen in value to more than $4.5bn by the time of they were arrested.

The $3.6bn worth of assets recovered in the case was the biggest financial seizure in the DOJ's history, deputy attorney General Lisa Monaco said at the time.

“It’s important to send a message that you can’t commit these crimes with impunity, that there are consequences to them,” district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said.

Lichtenstein, who has been in prison since his arrest in February 2022, expressed remorse for his actions.

He also said that he hopes to apply his skills to fight cybercrime after serving his sentence.

Morgan also pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. She is due to be sentenced on 18 November.

According court documents, Lichtenstein used advanced hacking tools and techniques to hack into Bitfinex.

Following the hack, he enlisted Morgan's help to launder the stolen funds.

They "employed numerous sophisticated laundering techniques", the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a statement.

The methods included using fictitious identities, switching the funds into different cryptocurrencies and buying gold coins.

Lichtenstein, who was born in Russia but grew up in the US, would then meet couriers while on family trips and move the laundered money back home, prosecutors said.

Morgan's Razzlekhan persona went viral on social media when the case emerged.

Even as the couple attempted to cover up the hack, she published dozens of expletive-filled music videos and rap songs filmed in locations around New York.

In her lyrics she called herself a "bad-ass money maker" and "the crocodile of Wall Street".

In articles published in Forbes magazine, Morgan also claimed to be a successful technology businesswoman, calling herself an "economist, serial entrepreneur, software investor and rapper".

The alliance of Sri Lanka's new leader is headed for victory in the country's snap parliamentary elections, according to partial official results.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's National People's Power (NPP) coalition has so far won 97 seats and more than 60% of the vote. It needs 113 seats in the 225-member house to secure a majority.

Dissanayake, who was elected in September, needs a clear majority to deliver his promise to combat corruption and restore stability after the island's worst-ever economic crisis.

The high cost of living was one of the key issues for many voters.

Analysts expect the NPP to do well in the elections but what remains to be determined is the margin of victory, and whether it gets the two-thirds majority it wants to be able to pass its ambitious reforms.

In the outgoing assembly, Dissanayake's Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) party, which now leads the NPP, had just three seats. More results are expected later on Friday.

"We believe that this is a crucial election that will mark a turning point in Sri Lanka," the 55-year-old Dissanayake told reporters on Thursday after voting in the capital Colombo.

Nearly two-thirds of former MPs chose not to run for re-election, including prominent members of the former ruling Rajapaksa dynasty.

Sajith Premadasa, the man Dissanayake defeated in the presidential elections, led the opposition alliance.

Dissanayake called for snap elections shortly after he became president to seek a fresh mandate to pursue his policies. There was "no point continuing with a parliament that is not in line with what the people want", he had said.

Out of 225 seats in the parliament, 196 MPs will be directly elected. The rest will be nominated by parties based on the percentage of votes they get in what is known as proportional representation.

High inflation, food and fuel shortages precipitated a political crisis in 2022 which led to the ousting of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. His successor Ranil Wickremesinghe managed to negotiate a bailout package worth $3bn with the International Monetary Fund - but many Sri Lankans continue to feel economic hardship.

"We are still stuck with the problems we faced before. We still don't have financial help even to fulfil our daily needs," 26-year-old garment factory worker Manjula Devi, who works in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone near Colombo, told the BBC.

The number of people living below the poverty line in Sri Lanka has risen to 25.9% in the past four years. The World Bank expects the economy to grow by only 2.2% in 2024.

Disenchantment with established political players greatly helped the left-leaning Dissanayake during September's election. His party has traditionally backed strong state intervention and lower taxes, and campaigned for leftist economic policies.

Dissanayake made history as Sri Lanka's first president to be elected with less than 50% of the vote. Many observers think his alliance will do better this time.

How his alliance fares will be partly due to a fragmented opposition – with many leaders and parties breaking away into either smaller groups, or contesting as independent candidates.

Observers say the JVP-led alliance ran a more vibrant campaign than the opposition, which is likely to have a significant impact on the outcome of the election.

What is clear is that whoever comes into power will be under massive pressure to perform and live up to their campaign promises.

Sri Lanka's economic situation remains precarious – and the main focus is still on providing essential goods and services. How the country progresses from this point will be a real challenge for the new government.

Additional reporting by Kelly Ng

Hollywood actress Eva Longoria has revealed that her family no longer lives in the United States, and is splitting time between Mexico and Spain.

In an interview with French magazine Marie Claire for its November cover story, Longoria attributed the decision to the country's "changing vibe" after the Covid-19 pandemic, homelessness and high taxation in California, and the re-election of Donald Trump.

She also acknowledged she was "privileged" enough to move, saying: “Most Americans aren’t so lucky. They’re going to be stuck in this dystopian country."

The Desperate Housewives star is viewed as a power broker for women and Latinos in Democratic Party politics.

With a keen interest in immigration policy, she has been visibly involved with Democratic candidates at the national and local level since at least 2012.

She spoke at the Democratic National Convention and hit the campaign trail on behalf of Kamala Harris this year, with a tagline for the 2024 presidential candidate that adopted the Spanish translation of Barack Obama's famed "Yes, we can" slogan ("Si se puede") into the phrase "She se puede".

In her Marie Claire interview, published on Thursday, Longoria described being dispirited at Trump's victory over Harris last week

“If he keeps his promises, it’s going to be a scary place," she said.

She added that Trump's win in 2016 had crushed her belief that "the best person wins" in politics.

“I had my whole adult life here,” Longoria said of Los Angeles, adding that “it just feels like this chapter in my life is done now”.

She said work now has her often spending time in Europe or South America.

Longoria is a ninth-generation Texan who moved to California in her twenties. In 2006, she earned a Golden Globe nomination in her starring role as Gabrielle Solis in Desperate Housewives.

More recently, she has hosted the CNN mini-series Searching for Mexico and Searching for Spain.

She is married to José "Pepe" Bastón, her third husband and the president of Mexican broadcaster Televisa.

The couple share a six-year-old boy, Santiago, while Bastón also has three children from a previous marriage.

One of the innovations at this year's Paris Olympics was supposed to be an electric flying taxi service.

Germany's Volocopter promised its electric-powered, two-seater aircraft, the VoloCity, would be ferrying passengers around the city.

It never happened. Instead the company ran demonstration flights.

While missing that deadline was embarrassing, behind the scenes a more serious issue was playing out - Volocopter was urgently trying to raise fresh investment to keep the firm going.

Talks to borrow €100m (£83m; $106m) from the government failed in April.

Now hopes are pinned on China's Geely, which is in talks to take an 85% stake in Volocopter in return for $95m of funding, according to a Bloomberg report. The deal could mean that any future manufacturing would be moved to China.

Volocopter is one of dozens of companies around the world developing an electric vertical take-off and landing (EVTOL) aircraft.

Their machines promise the flexibility of a helicopter, but without the cost, noise and emissions.

However, faced with the massive cost of getting such novel aircraft approved by regulators and then building up manufacturing capabilities, some investors are bailing out.

One of the most high-profile casualties is Lilium.

The German company had developed a radical take on the EVTOL theme.

Lilium's aircraft uses 30 electric jets that can be tilted in unison to swing between vertical lift and forward flight.

The concept proved attractive, with the company claiming to have orders and memoranda of understanding for 780 jets from around the world.

It was able to demonstrate the technology using a remote controlled scale model. Construction had begun on the first full-sized jets, and testing had been due to begin in early 2025.

As recently as the Farnborough Airshow in July, Lilium’s COO Sebastian Borel was sounding confident.

“We are definitely burning through cash," he told the BBC. “But this is a good sign, because it means we are producing the aircraft. We’re going to have three aircraft in production by the end of the year, and we have also raised €1.5bn”.

But then the money ran out.

Lilium had been attempting to arrange a loan worth €100m from the German development bank, KfW. However, that required guarantees from national and state governments, which never materialised.

In early November, the company put its main operating businesses into insolvency proceedings, and its shares were removed from the Nasdaq stock exchange.

For the moment, work on the new aircraft is continuing, as the company works with restructuring experts to sell the business or bring in new investment. However, getting the new e-jet into production is looking more challenging than ever.

The high-profile British player in the eVTOL market is Vertical Aerospace. The Bristol-based company was founded in 2016 by businessman Stephen Fitzpatrick, who also set up OVO Energy.

Its striking VX4 design uses eight large propellers mounted on slim, aircraft style wings to generate lift. Mr Fitzpatrick has made ambitious claims about the aircraft, suggesting it would be “100 times” safer and quieter than a helicopter, for 20% of the cost.

The company has made progress. After completing a programme of remote-controlled testing, it began carrying out piloted tests earlier this year. Initially, these were carried out with the aircraft tethered to the ground. In early November, it carried out its first untethered take-off and landing.

But there have also been serious setbacks. In August last year, a remotely-piloted prototype was badly damaged when it crashed during testing at Cotswold Airport, after a propeller blade fell off.

In May one of its key partners, the engineering giant Rolls Royce pulled out of a deal to supply electric motors for the aircraft.

Ambitions remain sky high. Vertical Aerospace says it will deliver 150 aircraft to its customers by the end of the decade. By then, it also expects to be capable of producing 200 units a year, and to be breaking even in cash terms.

Yet financial strains have been intensifying. Mr Fitzpatrick invested an extra $25m into the company in March. But a further $25m, due in August if alternative investment could not be found, has not been paid. As of September, Vertical had $57.4m on hand – but it expects to burn through nearly double that over the coming year.

Hopes for the future appear to be pinned on doing a deal with the American financier Jason Mudrick, who is already a major creditor through his firm Mudrick Capital Management.

He has offered to invest $75m into the business – and has warned the board of Vertical that rejecting his plan would inevitably lead to insolvency proceedings. But the move has been resisted by Mr Fitzpatrick, who would lose control of the company he founded.

Sources close to the talks insist an agreement is now very close. The company believes if a deal can be done, it will unlock further fundraising opportunities.

Amid the turbulence, one European project is quietly on track, says Bjorn Fehrm who has a background in aeronautical engineering and piloted combat jets for the Swedish Air Force. He now works for aerospace consultancy Leeham.

He says that the EVTOL project underway at Airbus is likely to survive.

Called the CityAirbus NextGen, the four-seater aircraft has eight propellers and a range of 80km.

"This is a technology project for their engineers, and they've got the money, and they've got the know how," says Mr Fehrm.

Elsewhere in the world, other well funded start-ups stand a good change of getting their aircraft into production. That would include Joby and Archer in the US.

Once the aircraft are being produced, the next challenge will be to see if there's a profitable market for them.

The first routes are likely to be between airports and city centres. But will they make money?

"The biggest problem area when it comes to the cost of operation is the pilot and the batteries. You need to change the batteries a couple of times per year," points out Mr Fehrm.

Given all the uncertainty and expense, you might wonder why investors put money into new electric aircraft in the first place.

"No one wanted to miss out on the next Tesla," laughs Mr Fehrm.

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Decades of caste discrimination have contributed to India having higher levels of child stunting rates than across Sub-Saharan Africa, new research has revealed.

The two regions together are home to 44% of the world’s under-five population but account for about 70% of stunted children globally - a key indicator of malnutrition.

But, while both have made significant strides in recent years, India’s rate stands at 35.7%, with the average across Sub-Saharan Africa’s 49 countries at 33.6%.

A child is considered stunted when they fall short of the expected height for their age - a clear sign of critical nutritional gaps.

However, the study by Ashwini Deshpande (Ashoka University) and Rajesh Ramachandran (Monash University, Malaysia) found that focusing only on the height gap - or why Indian children are shorter than children in Sub-Saharan Africa - overlooks an important factor: the crucial role of social identity, especially caste, in child malnutrition in India.

The first 1,000 days of a child's life, often called the "golden period", are pivotal: by age two, 80% of the brain develops, laying the foundation for lifelong potential. In these early years, access to healthcare, good nutrition, early learning, and a safe environment profoundly shapes a child's future.

India and Sub-Saharan Africa, both with rapidly growing middle classes, young populations and significant workforce potential, share longstanding comparisons. In 2021, the World Bank reported, “Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia [including India] account for over 85% of the global poor,” underscoring similar challenges in poverty and development.

Using official data, the authors looked at the most recent estimates of the stunting gaps between India and a sample of 19 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Official data shows that more than 35% of India’s 137 million children under five are stunted, with over a third also underweight. Globally, 22% of children under five are stunted.

Then they examined six broad socially disadvantaged groups in India. Among them are adivasis (tribespeople living in remote areas) and Dalits (formerly known as untouchables), who alone comprise more than a third of the under-five population.

The economists found that children from higher-ranked, non-stigmatised caste groups in India stood at 27% - markedly lower than the Sub-Saharan African rate.

They also found that children from higher-ranking caste groups in India are some 20% less likely to experience stunting compared with those from marginalised groups, who occupy the lowest tiers of the caste hierarchy.

This conclusion remains significant even after accounting for factors like birth order, sanitation practices, maternal height, sibling count, education, anaemia and household socio-economic status.

This difference is despite seven decades of affirmative action, India's caste system - a four-fold hierarchy of the Hindu religion - remains deeply entrenched.

“This should not be surprising given that children from better-off groups in India have access to more calories and face a better disease environment,” the authors say.

The reasons behind high stunting rates among Indian children have sparked a complex debate over the years.

Some economists have argued that the differences are genetic - that Indian children are genetically disposed to lower heights.

Others believe that improved nutrition over generations has historically closed height gaps thought to be genetic.

Some studies have found that girls fare worse than boys and others just the opposite, using different global standards.

To be sure, stunting has decreased across social groups - a separate 2022 study found that improvements in health and nutrition interventions, household living conditions and maternal factors led to reduction in stunting in four Indian states. (More than half of India's under-five children were stunted, according to a federal family health survey of 1992-93).

Children from marginalised groups like adivasis are likely to be more malnourished.

In Africa, the rate of stunting has also fallen since 2010, although the absolute number increased.

But what is clear is that children from poor families, with less-educated mothers, or from marginalised groups, are especially vulnerable to stunting in India.

“The debate on the height gap between Indian and Sub-Saharan African children has resulted in overlooking the role of social identity, especially caste status,” the authors say.

“This is a crucial dimension to understanding the burden of child nutrition in India.”

The analysis uses data from demographic and health surveys. For India, it includes the latest data from 2019-21, and for Sub-Saharan Africa, it includes data from 19 countries with surveys from 2015 onwards. The dataset covers anthropometric - measurements related to the physical dimensions and composition of the human body- outcomes for 195,024 children under five in India and 202,557 children under five in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The United Nations' COP climate talks are "no longer fit for purpose" and need an urgent overhaul, key experts including a former UN secretary general and former UN climate chief have said.

In a letter to the UN, senior figures say countries should not host the talks if they don’t support the phase out of fossil energy.

This week the Azerbaijani president told world leaders gathered in his country for COP29 that natural gas was a “gift from God” and he shouldn’t be blamed for bringing it to market.

That came days after the BBC reported that a senior Azerbaijani official appeared to have used his role at COP to arrange a meeting to discuss potential fossil fuel deals.

The UN’s climate talks have made significant progress in recent years, despite the fact that unanimous agreement is needed among almost 200 countries to take action.

The Paris climate agreement, signed in 2015, outlines a long-term plan to rein in rising temperatures, as countries strive to keep that rise under 1.5C this century.

They have also agreed to transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, and to treble renewable power by 2030.

But while the authors of this letter recognise these achievements, they feel that the slow-moving COP process is “no longer fit for purpose” in dealing with a fast-moving climate crisis.

"Its current structure simply cannot deliver the change at exponential speed and scale, which is essential to ensure a safe climate landing for humanity," said its signatories. They include former UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and former president of Ireland Mary Robinson.

This year will likely be the warmest on record, with emissions of planet warming gases still rising, while the impacts of warming often outpace the ability of countries to cope.

“Planet Earth is in critical condition,” said leading climate scientist Johan Rockström, another signatory.

“There is still a window of opportunity for a safe landing for humanity, but this requires a global climate policy process that can deliver change at exponential speed and scale,” Prof Rockström said.

The letter has been prompted by growing concerns about some of the countries chosen to host COP talks and their ability to deliver a significant advance in the fight against rising temperatures.

Just before the latest conference started, a secret recording showed the chief executive of Azerbaijan's COP29 team, Elnur Soltanov, discussing "investment opportunities" in the state oil and gas company with a man posing as a potential investor.

At the start of COP29, the country’s authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev, defended Azerbaijan’s current exports of gas and plans to expand production by a third in the next decade.

“It's a gift of God,” he told an audience here in Baku.

“Every natural resource whether it's oil, gas, wind, sun, gold, silver, copper, all that are natural resources," he said. "And countries should not be blamed for having them and should not be blamed for bringing these resources to the market because the market needs them, the people need them."

The use of oil and gas are major causes of global warming, as they release planet-warming gases like carbon dioxide when they are burned.

President Aliyev also hit out at France for carrying out colonialist “crimes” and “human rights violations” in overseas territories.

Such strongly expressed views are extremely rare from the leader of a COP host, where the aim is to build consensus on how to tackle rising temperatures.

The authors of the letter are also concerned by the selection process for hosting COPs. Azerbaijan followed on from another major oil producer, the United Arab Emirates, which held the conference in Dubai last year.

“At the last COP, fossil fuel lobbyists outnumbered representatives of scientific institutions, Indigenous communities and vulnerable nations," said former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres.

"We cannot hope to achieve a just transition without significant reforms to the COP process that ensure fair representation of those most affected.”

The authors say that host countries “must demonstrate their high level of ambition to uphold the goals of the Paris agreement."

They also want smaller, more frequent COPs with clear accountability for the promises that countries make.

A former professional American football player has been charged in connection with the riot at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021.

Antwoine Williams is facing felony charges of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding police, along with several lesser misdemeanour charges.

He was charged on 7 November, in what is reportedly the first Capitol riot-related case filed since Donald Trump won the presidential election.

Mr Williams, a defensive player from Georgia, was a college star at Georgia Southern University before being drafted by the National Football League’s Detroit Lions.

He played one season in 2016 before being released by the Lions and had brief stints with several other American football teams.

According to court documents, Mr Williams, 31, was seen on videos from the Capitol riot, where thousands of pro-Trump activists broke into the building after his 2020 election loss, pulling on barricades and hitting a police officer on the head, and struggling with other officers.

Prosecutors say he stayed on the Capitol grounds until the evening of 6 January.

He was identified by a golf hat and a distinct key fob that he was wearing during the riot that matched other online photos of Mr Williams.

Online volunteers known as “sedition hunters,” who use online videos and pictures to hunt for rioters, identified the brand of the hat and nicknamed Mr Williams “RiotingGolfer”.

More than 1,500 people have been arrested in connection with the riot, when a crowd of Donald Trump supporters stormed the building that houses the US Congress in an attempt to stop certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.

Donald Trump has promised to pardon some of the rioters, although he has not made clear what criteria he would use to do so.

Several convicted or accused rioters have asked for their trials or sentencing hearings to be delayed because Trump’s promise might affect their cases. On Thursday, two judges delayed such hearings, however other judges have turned down similar requests.

The FBI is still looking to identify dozens of other suspects who were present at the Capitol that day.

All primary schools in Delhi will close due to worsening air pollution, officials have announced.

In a post on X, the Indian capital's chief minister, Atishi Marlena Singh, said classes will move online until further notice due to a thick smog that has enveloped the city.

Delhi and nearby cities are experiencing pollution levels that are deemed hazardous to people's health. On Thursday, fine particulate matter in the air was more than 50 times what is considered safe by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Delhi and northern states annually face smog during the winter due to a confluence of dropping temperatures, smoke, dust, low wind speeds, vehicle emissions and crop stubble burning.

According to IQAir, a Swiss-based Air Quality Index (AQI) monitoring group, Delhi had on average 254 pieces of fine particulate matter - or PM 2.5 - per cubic metre of air on Thursday. The WHO considers no more than 15 in a 24-hour period safe.

This is because fine particles can penetrate through lungs and affect organs. It can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, while research shows it can also delay development in young children.

Levels of larger particulate matter - PM 10 - reached an average of 495, more than 10 times the daily amount considered safe by the WHO.

At the same time, monitoring by IQAir suggests the neighbouring cities of Gurugram and Noida had hazardous air pollution, as did the northern Indian city of Chandigarh.

Residents in Delhi have reported eye irritations and breathing issues, according to local media.

A study published in The Lancet in July found that 7.2% of daily deaths in the city could be attributed to fine particulate pollution.

Air pollution is expected to decrease in the coming days, but will remain at unhealthy levels.

Authorities in Delhi - which has an estimated population of more than 33 million - have already enacted measures aimed at tackling the pollution, including spraying roads with water containing dust suppressants.

Non-essential construction has also been banned, and citizens told to avoid burning coal.

But critics argue these measures have proven ineffective.

The smog is extensive enough to be visible from space. Recently, Nasa shared satellite imagery showing it stretching across northern India and into Pakistan.

Earlier in the month, air pollution in the Pakistani city of Lahore forced officials to temporarily close its primary schools.

Four people have been arrested after allegedly filing fake insurance claims stating that a bear had damaged the interiors of three luxury cars.

Video footage submitted to insurers as evidence showed what appeared to be the animal climbing into the front seat of Rolls Royce, then clawing its way toward the back.

The footage drew suspicion from investigators with the California Department of Insurance, who after executing a search warrant, found a bear costume in the suspects’ home.

"Upon further scrutiny of the video, the investigation determined the bear was actually a person in a bear costume," the department said in a press release.

The four Los Angeles-area residents have been charged with insurance fraud and conspiracy after having received $141,839 (£111,619) in insurance payments.

Those arrested in what investigators dubbed "Operation Bear Claw" are: Ruben Tamrazian, 26; Ararat Chirkinian, 39; Vahe Muradkhanyan, 32; and Alfiya Zuckerman, 39.

There were three total incidents where the suspects filed insurance claims for cars-damaged-by-bear, investigators said.

The initial claim was in January, when the suspects allegedly said that a bear entered a 2010 Rolls Royce Ghost - retailing for around $100,000 - and damaged its interior.

Fuzzy night-time footage shows the bear spending about 30-45 seconds in the car, rummaging around the front and back, before falling out of the open passenger door.

Photos of the damage reveal claw marks on the leather seats and the leather lining of one of the doors.

There were two additional insurance claims filed with two different insurance companies, each with the same date of loss, the same address and the same alleged bear damage.

Those incidents involved a 2015 Mercedes G63 AMG and a 2022 Mercedes E35.

To confirm the footage showed a costumed human and not a bear, department officials asked for assistance from a California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist, who determined that "it was clearly a human in a bear suit".

The Glendale Police Department and the California Highway Patrol assisted in the investigation, the state's Insurance Department said.

The San Bernadino County District Attorney's Office is prosecuting the charges.

The sister of a 16-year-old boy who drowned while swimming naked at a Christian holiday camp in Zimbabwe run by child abuser John Smyth blames the Church of England for his death.

"The Church knew about the abuses that John Smyth was doing. They should have stopped him. Had they stopped him, I think my brother [Guide Nyachuru] would still be alive," Edith Nyachuru told the BBC.

The British barrister had moved to Zimbabwe with his wife and four children from Winchester in England in 1984 to work with an evangelistic organisation.

This was two years after an investigation revealed he had subjected boys in the UK, many of whom he had met at Christian holiday camps run by a charity he chaired that was linked to the Church, to traumatic physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

The 1982 report, prepared by Anglican clergyman Mark Ruston, about the canings said "the scale and severity of the practice was horrific", with accounts of boys beaten so badly they bled, with one describing how he needed to wear nappies until his wounds scabbed over.

Despite these shocking revelations, mainly involving boys from elite British public schools, the Rushton report was not widely circulated.

A decade on, aged 50, Smyth had established himself as a respected member of the Christian community in Zimbabwe. He had set up his own organisation, Zambesi Ministries, with funding from the UK - and was meting out similar punishments at camps that he marketed at the country’s top schools.

Ms Nyachuru says her brother’s trip had been an early Christmas present from one of his other sisters, who had picked up one of Smyth’s brochures and been impressed with all the activities on offer for the week.

As she looks at an old photograph of Guide, she says he was the youngest of eight siblings, and the only boy: "He was very loved by everyone.

"A lovely boy... Guide was due to be made head boy the following year," she remembers, adding that he was "an intelligent boy, a good swimmer, strong, healthy with no known medical conditions".

But within 12 hours of him being dropped at the camp at Ruzawi School in Marondera, 74km (46 miles) from the capital, Harare, on the evening of 15 December 1992, the family received a call to say he had died.

Witnesses say that like all the boys, Guide had gone swimming naked in a pool before bed - a camp tradition. The other boys returned to the dormitory, but Guide’s absence was not noticed - which his sister finds surprising - and his body was found at the bottom of the pool the next morning.

His family rushed to the mortuary but Ms Nyachuru’s shock was compounded by confusion when she was stopped by officers from viewing his body: "They told me: 'You can’t go in there because he is indecently dressed.'

"It was only my father, my brother-in-law and our pastor who went in and put him in the coffin."

Nakedness appears to be something Smyth was fixated on at his camps. Camp attendees have told of how he would often parade around without clothes in the boys’ dormitories - where he also slept, unlike other staff members.

He would also shower naked with them in the communal showers and the boys were ordered not to wear underpants in bed.

"He promoted nakedness and encouraged the boys to walk around naked at the summer camp," a former student who attended a camp at Ruzawi in 1991 told the BBC.

But his jocular manner put many of them at ease, he said.

"Smyth was very friendly, laid-back, approachable, he was really fun, always joking.

"Smyth would also walk the dorms and shower area wearing nothing but a towel slung over his shoulder."

The reason given for the no-underwear-in-the-evening rule was "because it would make them grow", he recalled.

Smyth gave talks on masturbation, would sometimes lead prayers in the nude and encouraged naked trampolining, an activity he described as "flappy jumping" - all behaviour noted in an investigation by Zimbabwean lawyer David Coltart that was launched in May 1993.

It was the thrashings that Smyth was giving boys with a notorious table tennis bat, dubbed "TTB", that led a parent to the door of Coltart, who worked at a law practice in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo.

She wanted to know why one of her sons had returned from a holiday camp with bruises on his buttocks so severe that she took him to a doctor, who found a "12cm x 12cm bruise".

"She saw these and demanded to know what happened and then it came out that her son had been badly beaten in the nude, and she came to me for advice," Coltart, now mayor of Bulawayo, told the BBC.

"When I heard that this was a Christian organisation - I’m an elder in the Presbyterian Church - I got hold of my pastor and we got hold of the Baptist Church Methodist Church and two other churches in the city and then I was instructed by those churches to investigate the matter," he said.

Forty-four-year old Jason Leanders, who went on the camp that immediately followed Guide’s death, said he was beaten three to four times a day by Smyth, who would put his hands into his pants to check he had not put on extra layers to cushion his buttocks.

"My bum was black," he told the BBC. "But being a boy, you act tough."

For many boarding school students, corporal punishment was regarded as "normal", former Zimbabwean cricketer Henry Olonga, who was attending the camp the night Guide died, said in his 2015 autobiography.

But after Coltart managed to track down the Rushton report, the severity of the problem became apparent. He wrote to Smyth instructing him to immediately stop the Zambesi Ministries camps.

"It was calculated, he focused on boys. He groomed young men. He encouraged them to take showers in the nude with him. There was a pattern of violence," he said.

But Coltart’s dealings with Smyth proved difficult.

"He was a highly articulate man and quite aggressive in the meetings that I had with him. He employed all his skills as a barrister to seek to intimidate. He was older than me. I was then a relatively young lawyer in my 30s. He exploited the fact that he was an English QC [Queen's Counsel]."

Rather than comply with Coltart’s various requests, he doubled down and in a letter to parents ahead of the August 1993 camps, described himself as "a father figure to the camp" and defended the nudity and corporal punishment, writing: "I never cane the boys, but I do whack with a table tennis bat when necessary… although most regard TTB (as it is affectionately known) as little more than a joke."

This time there appears to have been no cloaking of the beatings as "spiritual discipline" as had been the case in the UK. He also admitted to Coltart that he took photographs of naked boys, but said they were "from shoulders up" for publicity purposes.

Coltart contacted two psychologists with his findings, both of whom advised that Smyth should stop working with children.

His 21-page report was then published in October 1993, and circulated to head teachers and church leaders in Zimbabwe.

"The report was never published widely, conscious of the dangers of a defamation suit," Coltart said.

However it "basically stopped him in his tracks in Zimbabwe" as the private schools were his harvesting ground, he said. Zambesi Ministries camps did continue in some guise, but not at schools or under Smyth’s leadership

Coltart then instructed another law firm to pursue a legal case against Smyth who was eventually charged with culpable homicide over Guide’s death, as well as charges relating to the beatings.

But, according to former BBC TV producer Andrew Graystone in his 2021 book about the abuse, the case was bedevilled with problems, police documents were missing and Smyth’s legal prowess led to the prosecutor being removed - another one was never appointed, so the case was essentially shelved in 1997.

Ms Nyachuru says no post-mortem was carried out at the time - Guide was buried on the day he drowned in the family's home village, with Smyth presiding over the funeral.

Following the Coltart report, Smyth faced deportation from Zimbabwe but Graystone says he used his significant connections to avoid this, lobbying various cabinet ministers - some of whose sons had attended his camps - with suggestions that even then-President Robert Mugabe was approached by one of Smyth’s associates.

But from the time of Smyth’s prosecution, the family were given temporary residency permits, which had to be renewed every 30 days.

In 2001, having spent too long out of the country on a trip, Smyth and his wife Anne were refused re-entry, prompting their move to South Africa’s coastal city of Durban and then a few years later to Cape Town, where the couple were living when the Church of England became fully aware in 2013 of the abuses he had committed in the UK.

"The Anglican church in Cape Town in which John Smyth worshipped… has reported that it never received any reports suggesting he abused or groomed young people," Thabo Makgoba, the archbishop of Cape Town, said in statement responding to this week's resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Smyth was only excommunicated by his local church the year before his death in 2018, after he was named publicly as an abuser in a Channel 4 News report.

Ms Nyachuru told the BBC it was not until 2021 that she received a written apology from Welby about the death of her brother, in which he admitted that Smyth was responsible and the church had failed her family.

She wrote back describing the apology as "too little, too late" and is now calling for other senior church leaders who failed to intervene to prevent Smyth's abuse to resign: "I just think people of the church, if they see something not going in the right direction, if it needs the police they should go to the police."

Coltart feels it is not just the Church that is to blame, and suggests other institutions in the UK need to face up to their failure to warn people in Zimbabwe.

He commended the Church of England’s recent Makin report, saying it "left no stone unturned". The report estimates that around "85 boys and young men were physically abused in African countries, including Zimbabwe".

Coltart urged the Church to reach out to them.

"I think possibly there are still victims in Zimbabwe, perhaps in South Africa, who are suffering from PTSD and I think the Anglican church has a responsibility to identify those individuals and to supply them with the medical assistance that they might require," he said.

Mr Leanders says many of friends are still "so traumatised by the beatings they are not even prepared to talk about it".

"Smyth was protected in England and he was protected in Zimbabwe. The protection went on for so long it robbed victims the chance to confront Smyth as adults."

Additional reporting from the BBC's Gabriela Pomeroy.

You may also be interested in:

• Church at precarious moment after Welby resignation
• The abuse scandal that led to the archbishop's resignation

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 estimated 4,000 illegal gold miners are hiding underground in South Africa after the government cut off food and water in an effort to "smoke them out" and arrest them.

The miners have been in a mineshaft in Stilfontein, in the North West province, for about a month.

They have refused to cooperate with authorities as some are undocumented - coming from neighbouring countries like Lesotho and Mozambique - and fear being deported.

Illegal miners are called "zama zama" (take a chance in Zulu) and operate in abandoned mines in the mineral-rich country. Illegal mining costs the South African government hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales each year.

Many South African mines have closed down in recent years and workers have been sacked.

To survive, the miners and undocumented migrants go beneath the surface to escape poverty and dig up gold to sell it on the black market.

Some spend months underground - there is even a small economy of people selling food, cigarettes and cooked meals to the miners.

• WATCH: The dangerous world of illegal mining in South Africa
• South African miner feared for his life during 'hostage situation'

Local residents have pleaded with the authorities to assist the miners, but they have refused.

"We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. We are not sending help to criminals. Criminals are not to be helped - they are to be persecuted [sic]," said Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni on Wednesday.

Police are hesitant to go into the mine as some of those underground may be armed.

Some are part of criminal syndicates or "recruited" to be in one, Busi Thabane, from Benchmarks Foundation, a charity which monitors corporations in South Africa, told the BBC's NewsDay programme.

Without any access to supplies, conditions underground are said to be dire.

"It is no longer about illegal miners – this is a humanitarian crisis," said Ms Thabane.

On Thursday, community leader Thembile Botman told the BBC that volunteers had used ropes and seat belts to pull a body out of the mine.

"The stench of decomposing bodies has left the volunteers traumatised," he said.

It's not clear how the person died.

Although the authorities have been blocking food and water, they have temporarily allowed local residents to send some supplies down by rope.

Mr Botman said they had been communicating with the miners by notes written on pieces of paper.

Police have blocked off entrances and exits in an effort to compel the miners to come out.

This is part of the Vala Umgodi, or "Close the Hole", operation to curb illegal mining.

Five miners were pulled out on Wednesday by rope, but they were frail and weak. Paramedics attended to them, and then they were taken into police custody.

In the last week, 1,000 miners have emerged and been arrested.

Police and the army are still at the scene waiting to detain those who are not in need of medical care after resurfacing.

"It’s not as easy as the police make it seem – some of them are fearing for their lives," said Ms Thabane.

Many miners spend months underground in unsafe conditions to provide for their families.

"For many of them it's the only way they know how to put food on the table," said Ms Thabane.

Local residents have also attempted to convince the miners to come out of the mineshaft.

"Those people must come out because we have brothers there, we have sons there, the fathers of our kids are there, our children are struggling," local resident Emily Photsoa told AFP.

The South African Human Rights commission says it will investigate the police for depriving the miners of food and water.

It said there is concern that the government’s operation could have an impact on the right to life.

Minister Ntshavheni's remarks have provoked mixed reaction from South Africans, with some praising the government's unyielding approach.

"I love this. Finally, our government is not tiptoeing on these serious matters. Decisiveness will help this country," one person wrote on X.

While others felt the stance was inhumane.

"In my view, this kind of talk from the Minister in the Presidency is disgraceful and dangerous hate speech," one user said.

Another wrote: "They are criminals but they have rights too."

Illegal mining is a lucrative business across many of South Africa's mining towns.

Since December last year, nearly 400 high-calibre firearms, thousands of bullets, uncut diamonds and money have been confiscated from illegal miners.

This is part of an intensive police and military operation to stop the practice that has severe environmental implications.

More BBC stories from South Africa:

• Beauty contest sparks row over who counts as South African
• Tyla’s racial identity: South African singer sparks culture war
• Chris Brown concert shines spotlight on violence against women in South Africa

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

A Swedish minister's phobia of bananas has reportedly led to government officials asking for rooms to be free of the fruit.

Local media outlet Expressen has quoted from leaked emails it has seen, in which staff working for minister Paulina Brandberg ask for any bananas to be removed before official visits.

Brandberg, the country's gender equality minister, is said to have posted on X in 2020, saying she has the "world's weirdest phobia of bananas". The posts have since been deleted.

Fellow Swedish politician, Teresa Carvalho, also said on X that she too had bananaphobia, and was united with Brandberg on the issue.

Although uncommon, bananaphobia can be triggered by seeing or smelling the fruit and can cause serious symptoms like anxiety and nausea.

Emails reportedly sent in advance of official visits, including to a VIP lunch, ask for "no bananas" to be allowed on certain premises and refer to Brandberg having a "strong allergy" to the fruit.

In a response to Expressen, the Liberal party minister confirmed it was phobia, but described the impact it has on her as "sort of an allergy" and "something I'm getting professional help for".

BBC News has contacted Brandberg's office for comment.

Carvalho, MP and Social Democratic spokesperson for legal policy, said she suffered "from the same ailment" as Brandberg, and told her: "We may have had many tough debates about conditions in working life, but on this issue we stand united against a common enemy."

As with many rare phobias, causal factors for people with bananaphobia can be hard to determine, but experts say it can often stem from childhood.

A necklace thought to be linked to a scandal that prompted the downfall of the doomed French queen Marie Antoinette has been sold at auction for $4.81m (£3.8m).

The Georgian piece contains about 500 diamonds and was bought for almost double the amount estimated by Sotheby's auction house.

"It was an electric night," said Andres White Correal, a jewellery specialist from Sotheby's, adding the unnamed female buyer was "ecstatic".

The jewels were sold on Wednesday evening at an auction in Geneva.

• Marie Antoinette's bracelets sell at auction for $8m

White Correal said the buyer "said something beautiful to me: 'I'm exceptionally happy that I won this lot; but I don't own it, I'm merely the custodian until the next person will come along'."

"There is obviously a niche in the market for historical jewels with fabulous provenances.

"People are not only buying the object, they are buying all the history that is attached to it."

Marie Antoinette was born in Austria in 1755 and sent to France to be the child bride of the future King Louis XVI.

The last queen of France was guillotined in 1793 at the age of 37, along with her husband at the height of the French Revolution.

It is believed some of the jewels in the necklace sold on Wednesday were the original ones at the centre of the "affair of the diamond necklace" scandal in the 1780s, that may have hastened Marie Antoinette's demise.

Jeanne de la Motte, a noblewoman fallen on hard times, pretended to be French Queen and tricked a cardinal into giving her the necklace, without paying.

When Marie Antoinette, who had no knowledge of the transaction, was contacted about the absence of the final payment, the cardinal was arrested but declared innocent.

La Motte was found and branded with a V, for voleuse (thief) - with a hot iron.

Although Marie Antoinette was found to be blameless, her reputation is thought to have been tarnished by the affair and she was unpopular among the French people, who accused her of being wasteful and a dangerous influence on the king.

Jewels from the original, which was set with 650 diamonds and weighed around 2,800 carats, were sold piecemeal on the black market.

A jeweller working on London's Bond Street confirmed he bought more than half of them for £10,000 shortly after their disappearance, Sotheby's said.

Some experts say the age and quality of the diamonds in the necklace sold on Wednesday point to a match with the originals.

The necklace was previously worn by the Marquess of Anglesey at Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953, and it was also worn 16 years earlier at King George VI's crowning.

It was part of the Anglesey family jewellery collection for about 100 years before it was sold to a private Asian collector in the 1960s.

The sister of a 16-year-old boy who drowned while swimming naked at a Christian holiday camp in Zimbabwe run by child abuser John Smyth blames the Church of England for his death.

"The Church knew about the abuses that John Smyth was doing. They should have stopped him. Had they stopped him, I think my brother [Guide Nyachuru] would still be alive," Edith Nyachuru told the BBC.

The British barrister had moved to Zimbabwe with his wife and four children from Winchester in England in 1984 to work with an evangelistic organisation.

This was two years after an investigation revealed he had subjected boys in the UK, many of whom he had met at Christian holiday camps run by a charity he chaired that was linked to the Church, to traumatic physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

The 1982 report, prepared by Anglican clergyman Mark Ruston, about the canings said "the scale and severity of the practice was horrific", with accounts of boys beaten so badly they bled, with one describing how he needed to wear nappies until his wounds scabbed over.

Despite these shocking revelations, mainly involving boys from elite British public schools, the Rushton report was not widely circulated.

A decade on, aged 50, Smyth had established himself as a respected member of the Christian community in Zimbabwe. He had set up his own organisation, Zambesi Ministries, with funding from the UK - and was meting out similar punishments at camps that he marketed at the country’s top schools.

Ms Nyachuru says her brother’s trip had been an early Christmas present from one of his other sisters, who had picked up one of Smyth’s brochures and been impressed with all the activities on offer for the week.

As she looks at an old photograph of Guide, she says he was the youngest of eight siblings, and the only boy: "He was very loved by everyone.

"A lovely boy... Guide was due to be made head boy the following year," she remembers, adding that he was "an intelligent boy, a good swimmer, strong, healthy with no known medical conditions".

But within 12 hours of him being dropped at the camp at Ruzawi School in Marondera, 74km (46 miles) from the capital, Harare, on the evening of 15 December 1992, the family received a call to say he had died.

Witnesses say that like all the boys, Guide had gone swimming naked in a pool before bed - a camp tradition. The other boys returned to the dormitory, but Guide’s absence was not noticed - which his sister finds surprising - and his body was found at the bottom of the pool the next morning.

His family rushed to the mortuary but Ms Nyachuru’s shock was compounded by confusion when she was stopped by officers from viewing his body: "They told me: 'You can’t go in there because he is indecently dressed.'

"It was only my father, my brother-in-law and our pastor who went in and put him in the coffin."

Nakedness appears to be something Smyth was fixated on at his camps. Camp attendees have told of how he would often parade around without clothes in the boys’ dormitories - where he also slept, unlike other staff members.

He would also shower naked with them in the communal showers and the boys were ordered not to wear underpants in bed.

"He promoted nakedness and encouraged the boys to walk around naked at the summer camp," a former student who attended a camp at Ruzawi in 1991 told the BBC.

But his jocular manner put many of them at ease, he said.

"Smyth was very friendly, laid-back, approachable, he was really fun, always joking.

"Smyth would also walk the dorms and shower area wearing nothing but a towel slung over his shoulder."

The reason given for the no-underwear-in-the-evening rule was "because it would make them grow", he recalled.

Smyth gave talks on masturbation, would sometimes lead prayers in the nude and encouraged naked trampolining, an activity he described as "flappy jumping" - all behaviour noted in an investigation by Zimbabwean lawyer David Coltart that was launched in May 1993.

It was the thrashings that Smyth was giving boys with a notorious table tennis bat, dubbed "TTB", that led a parent to the door of Coltart, who worked at a law practice in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo.

She wanted to know why one of her sons had returned from a holiday camp with bruises on his buttocks so severe that she took him to a doctor, who found a "12cm x 12cm bruise".

"She saw these and demanded to know what happened and then it came out that her son had been badly beaten in the nude, and she came to me for advice," Coltart, now mayor of Bulawayo, told the BBC.

"When I heard that this was a Christian organisation - I’m an elder in the Presbyterian Church - I got hold of my pastor and we got hold of the Baptist Church Methodist Church and two other churches in the city and then I was instructed by those churches to investigate the matter," he said.

Forty-four-year old Jason Leanders, who went on the camp that immediately followed Guide’s death, said he was beaten three to four times a day by Smyth, who would put his hands into his pants to check he had not put on extra layers to cushion his buttocks.

"My bum was black," he told the BBC. "But being a boy, you act tough."

For many boarding school students, corporal punishment was regarded as "normal", former Zimbabwean cricketer Henry Olonga, who was attending the camp the night Guide died, said in his 2015 autobiography.

But after Coltart managed to track down the Rushton report, the severity of the problem became apparent. He wrote to Smyth instructing him to immediately stop the Zambesi Ministries camps.

"It was calculated, he focused on boys. He groomed young men. He encouraged them to take showers in the nude with him. There was a pattern of violence," he said.

But Coltart’s dealings with Smyth proved difficult.

"He was a highly articulate man and quite aggressive in the meetings that I had with him. He employed all his skills as a barrister to seek to intimidate. He was older than me. I was then a relatively young lawyer in my 30s. He exploited the fact that he was an English QC [Queen's Counsel]."

Rather than comply with Coltart’s various requests, he doubled down and in a letter to parents ahead of the August 1993 camps, described himself as "a father figure to the camp" and defended the nudity and corporal punishment, writing: "I never cane the boys, but I do whack with a table tennis bat when necessary… although most regard TTB (as it is affectionately known) as little more than a joke."

This time there appears to have been no cloaking of the beatings as "spiritual discipline" as had been the case in the UK. He also admitted to Coltart that he took photographs of naked boys, but said they were "from shoulders up" for publicity purposes.

Coltart contacted two psychologists with his findings, both of whom advised that Smyth should stop working with children.

His 21-page report was then published in October 1993, and circulated to head teachers and church leaders in Zimbabwe.

"The report was never published widely, conscious of the dangers of a defamation suit," Coltart said.

However it "basically stopped him in his tracks in Zimbabwe" as the private schools were his harvesting ground, he said. Zambesi Ministries camps did continue in some guise, but not at schools or under Smyth’s leadership

Coltart then instructed another law firm to pursue a legal case against Smyth who was eventually charged with culpable homicide over Guide’s death, as well as charges relating to the beatings.

But, according to former BBC TV producer Andrew Graystone in his 2021 book about the abuse, the case was bedevilled with problems, police documents were missing and Smyth’s legal prowess led to the prosecutor being removed - another one was never appointed, so the case was essentially shelved in 1997.

Ms Nyachuru says no post-mortem was carried out at the time - Guide was buried on the day he drowned in the family's home village, with Smyth presiding over the funeral.

Following the Coltart report, Smyth faced deportation from Zimbabwe but Graystone says he used his significant connections to avoid this, lobbying various cabinet ministers - some of whose sons had attended his camps - with suggestions that even then-President Robert Mugabe was approached by one of Smyth’s associates.

But from the time of Smyth’s prosecution, the family were given temporary residency permits, which had to be renewed every 30 days.

In 2001, having spent too long out of the country on a trip, Smyth and his wife Anne were refused re-entry, prompting their move to South Africa’s coastal city of Durban and then a few years later to Cape Town, where the couple were living when the Church of England became fully aware in 2013 of the abuses he had committed in the UK.

"The Anglican church in Cape Town in which John Smyth worshipped… has reported that it never received any reports suggesting he abused or groomed young people," Thabo Makgoba, the archbishop of Cape Town, said in statement responding to this week's resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Smyth was only excommunicated by his local church the year before his death in 2018, after he was named publicly as an abuser in a Channel 4 News report.

Ms Nyachuru told the BBC it was not until 2021 that she received a written apology from Welby about the death of her brother, in which he admitted that Smyth was responsible and the church had failed her family.

She wrote back describing the apology as "too little, too late" and is now calling for other senior church leaders who failed to intervene to prevent Smyth's abuse to resign: "I just think people of the church, if they see something not going in the right direction, if it needs the police they should go to the police."

Coltart feels it is not just the Church that is to blame, and suggests other institutions in the UK need to face up to their failure to warn people in Zimbabwe.

He commended the Church of England’s recent Makin report, saying it "left no stone unturned". The report estimates that around "85 boys and young men were physically abused in African countries, including Zimbabwe".

Coltart urged the Church to reach out to them.

"I think possibly there are still victims in Zimbabwe, perhaps in South Africa, who are suffering from PTSD and I think the Anglican church has a responsibility to identify those individuals and to supply them with the medical assistance that they might require," he said.

Mr Leanders says many of friends are still "so traumatised by the beatings they are not even prepared to talk about it".

"Smyth was protected in England and he was protected in Zimbabwe. The protection went on for so long it robbed victims the chance to confront Smyth as adults."

Additional reporting from the BBC's Gabriela Pomeroy.

You may also be interested in:

• Church at precarious moment after Welby resignation
• The abuse scandal that led to the archbishop's resignation

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

Satirical news publication The Onion has bought Infowars, the media organisation headed by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, for an undisclosed price at a court-ordered auction.

The Onion said that the bid was secured with the backing of families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who won a $1.5b (£1.18b) defamation lawsuit against Jones for spreading false rumours about the victims.

A judge in Texas ordered the auction in September, and various groups – both Jones’s allies and detractors – had suggested they would bid for the company.

Jones founded Infowars in 1999. He has vowed to continue broadcasting using a different platform.

Ben Collins, a former NBC News journalist who is chief executive of The Onion’s parent company, said on X: “We're planning on making a very stupid website.”

In a rambling video message posted Thursday morning, Jones called the takeover a “total attack on free speech”.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen but I’m going to be here until they come in and turn the lights off.”

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

E.coli linked to slivered onions on some McDonald's Quarter Pounder burgers in America has caused 104 people to become ill, according to US health officials.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in an update on Wednesday that 34 people had been hospitalised in connection to the outbreak and that one man had died in October.

McDonald's supplier Taylor Farms recalled the onions in October after the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced E.coli - a type of bacteria that can cause serious stomach problems - in the onions were the "likely source".

The BBC has contacted McDonald's and Taylor Farms for comment.

According to the CDC, start dates for when people became ill range from 12 September and 21 October.

The onions were directly distributed in many western and midwestern states, including Colorado, Iowa, and Kansas. Other areas were also affected, such as Oklahoma, Idaho, and New Mexico.

Onion and environmental samples from McDonald's stores and distribution centres have been collected by the FDA, the Colorado Department of Agriculture, and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Of those who have become ill, four people developed haemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) - a rare kidney condition that can damage red blood cells.

The federal agency said that tests on the samples were ongoing, adding that it had completed onsite inspections at an onion grower in the state of Washington and at a Taylor Farms processing centre in Colorado.

In the FDA's update, health officials said it was continuing to work with the food supplier and their customers.

"At this time, there does not appear to be a continued food safety concern related to this outbreak at McDonald’s restaurants," the update said.

It added that it was "unlikely" the recalled onions were "sold to grocery stores or directly to consumers".

'We offer our deepest sympathies'

McDonald's suspended sales of the Quarter Pounder burger in October in about a fifth of its US restaurants in response to the outbreak.

Some consumers have taken legal action against the firm, including a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in October.

The firm said in October it had stopped working with the supplier of the onions and had removed them from its supply chain.

The fast food giant resumed sales of the burger in all of its restaurants in America after it said samples of its beef patties, taken by the Colorado Department of Agriculture, tested negative for the bacteria.

On 29 October, McDonald's chief executive Chris Kempczinski apologised for the outbreak, saying the firm was "sorry for what our customers experienced".

"We offer our sincere and deepest sympathies and we are committed to making this right," he added.

The BBC has contacted McDonald's and Taylor Farms for comment.

The sister of a 16-year-old boy who drowned while swimming naked at a Christian holiday camp in Zimbabwe run by child abuser John Smyth blames the Church of England for his death.

"The Church knew about the abuses that John Smyth was doing. They should have stopped him. Had they stopped him, I think my brother [Guide Nyachuru] would still be alive," Edith Nyachuru told the BBC.

The British barrister had moved to Zimbabwe with his wife and four children from Winchester in England in 1984 to work with an evangelistic organisation.

This was two years after an investigation revealed he had subjected boys in the UK, many of whom he had met at Christian holiday camps run by a charity he chaired that was linked to the Church, to traumatic physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

The 1982 report, prepared by Anglican clergyman Mark Ruston, about the canings said "the scale and severity of the practice was horrific", with accounts of boys beaten so badly they bled, with one describing how he needed to wear nappies until his wounds scabbed over.

Despite these shocking revelations, mainly involving boys from elite British public schools, the Rushton report was not widely circulated.

A decade on, aged 50, Smyth had established himself as a respected member of the Christian community in Zimbabwe. He had set up his own organisation, Zambesi Ministries, with funding from the UK - and was meting out similar punishments at camps that he marketed at the country’s top schools.

Ms Nyachuru says her brother’s trip had been an early Christmas present from one of his other sisters, who had picked up one of Smyth’s brochures and been impressed with all the activities on offer for the week.

As she looks at an old photograph of Guide, she says he was the youngest of eight siblings, and the only boy: "He was very loved by everyone.

"A lovely boy... Guide was due to be made head boy the following year," she remembers, adding that he was "an intelligent boy, a good swimmer, strong, healthy with no known medical conditions".

But within 12 hours of him being dropped at the camp at Ruzawi School in Marondera, 74km (46 miles) from the capital, Harare, on the evening of 15 December 1992, the family received a call to say he had died.

Witnesses say that like all the boys, Guide had gone swimming naked in a pool before bed - a camp tradition. The other boys returned to the dormitory, but Guide’s absence was not noticed - which his sister finds surprising - and his body was found at the bottom of the pool the next morning.

His family rushed to the mortuary but Ms Nyachuru’s shock was compounded by confusion when she was stopped by officers from viewing his body: "They told me: 'You can’t go in there because he is indecently dressed.'

"It was only my father, my brother-in-law and our pastor who went in and put him in the coffin."

Nakedness appears to be something Smyth was fixated on at his camps. Camp attendees have told of how he would often parade around without clothes in the boys’ dormitories - where he also slept, unlike other staff members.

He would also shower naked with them in the communal showers and the boys were ordered not to wear underpants in bed.

"He promoted nakedness and encouraged the boys to walk around naked at the summer camp," a former student who attended a camp at Ruzawi in 1991 told the BBC.

But his jocular manner put many of them at ease, he said.

"Smyth was very friendly, laid-back, approachable, he was really fun, always joking.

"Smyth would also walk the dorms and shower area wearing nothing but a towel slung over his shoulder."

The reason given for the no-underwear-in-the-evening rule was "because it would make them grow", he recalled.

Smyth gave talks on masturbation, would sometimes lead prayers in the nude and encouraged naked trampolining, an activity he described as "flappy jumping" - all behaviour noted in an investigation by Zimbabwean lawyer David Coltart that was launched in May 1993.

It was the thrashings that Smyth was giving boys with a notorious table tennis bat, dubbed "TTB", that led a parent to the door of Coltart, who worked at a law practice in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo.

She wanted to know why one of her sons had returned from a holiday camp with bruises on his buttocks so severe that she took him to a doctor, who found a "12cm x 12cm bruise".

"She saw these and demanded to know what happened and then it came out that her son had been badly beaten in the nude, and she came to me for advice," Coltart, now mayor of Bulawayo, told the BBC.

"When I heard that this was a Christian organisation - I’m an elder in the Presbyterian Church - I got hold of my pastor and we got hold of the Baptist Church Methodist Church and two other churches in the city and then I was instructed by those churches to investigate the matter," he said.

Forty-four-year old Jason Leanders, who went on the camp that immediately followed Guide’s death, said he was beaten three to four times a day by Smyth, who would put his hands into his pants to check he had not put on extra layers to cushion his buttocks.

"My bum was black," he told the BBC. "But being a boy, you act tough."

For many boarding school students, corporal punishment was regarded as "normal", former Zimbabwean cricketer Henry Olonga, who was attending the camp the night Guide died, said in his 2015 autobiography.

But after Coltart managed to track down the Rushton report, the severity of the problem became apparent. He wrote to Smyth instructing him to immediately stop the Zambesi Ministries camps.

"It was calculated, he focused on boys. He groomed young men. He encouraged them to take showers in the nude with him. There was a pattern of violence," he said.

But Coltart’s dealings with Smyth proved difficult.

"He was a highly articulate man and quite aggressive in the meetings that I had with him. He employed all his skills as a barrister to seek to intimidate. He was older than me. I was then a relatively young lawyer in my 30s. He exploited the fact that he was an English QC [Queen's Counsel]."

Rather than comply with Coltart’s various requests, he doubled down and in a letter to parents ahead of the August 1993 camps, described himself as "a father figure to the camp" and defended the nudity and corporal punishment, writing: "I never cane the boys, but I do whack with a table tennis bat when necessary… although most regard TTB (as it is affectionately known) as little more than a joke."

This time there appears to have been no cloaking of the beatings as "spiritual discipline" as had been the case in the UK. He also admitted to Coltart that he took photographs of naked boys, but said they were "from shoulders up" for publicity purposes.

Coltart contacted two psychologists with his findings, both of whom advised that Smyth should stop working with children.

His 21-page report was then published in October 1993, and circulated to head teachers and church leaders in Zimbabwe.

"The report was never published widely, conscious of the dangers of a defamation suit," Coltart said.

However it "basically stopped him in his tracks in Zimbabwe" as the private schools were his harvesting ground, he said. Zambesi Ministries camps did continue in some guise, but not at schools or under Smyth’s leadership

Coltart then instructed another law firm to pursue a legal case against Smyth who was eventually charged with culpable homicide over Guide’s death, as well as charges relating to the beatings.

But, according to former BBC TV producer Andrew Graystone in his 2021 book about the abuse, the case was bedevilled with problems, police documents were missing and Smyth’s legal prowess led to the prosecutor being removed - another one was never appointed, so the case was essentially shelved in 1997.

Ms Nyachuru says no post-mortem was carried out at the time - Guide was buried on the day he drowned in the family's home village, with Smyth presiding over the funeral.

Following the Coltart report, Smyth faced deportation from Zimbabwe but Graystone says he used his significant connections to avoid this, lobbying various cabinet ministers - some of whose sons had attended his camps - with suggestions that even then-President Robert Mugabe was approached by one of Smyth’s associates.

But from the time of Smyth’s prosecution, the family were given temporary residency permits, which had to be renewed every 30 days.

In 2001, having spent too long out of the country on a trip, Smyth and his wife Anne were refused re-entry, prompting their move to South Africa’s coastal city of Durban and then a few years later to Cape Town, where the couple were living when the Church of England became fully aware in 2013 of the abuses he had committed in the UK.

"The Anglican church in Cape Town in which John Smyth worshipped… has reported that it never received any reports suggesting he abused or groomed young people," Thabo Makgoba, the archbishop of Cape Town, said in statement responding to this week's resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Smyth was only excommunicated by his local church the year before his death in 2018, after he was named publicly as an abuser in a Channel 4 News report.

Ms Nyachuru told the BBC it was not until 2021 that she received a written apology from Welby about the death of her brother, in which he admitted that Smyth was responsible and the church had failed her family.

She wrote back describing the apology as "too little, too late" and is now calling for other senior church leaders who failed to intervene to prevent Smyth's abuse to resign: "I just think people of the church, if they see something not going in the right direction, if it needs the police they should go to the police."

Coltart feels it is not just the Church that is to blame, and suggests other institutions in the UK need to face up to their failure to warn people in Zimbabwe.

He commended the Church of England’s recent Makin report, saying it "left no stone unturned". The report estimates that around "85 boys and young men were physically abused in African countries, including Zimbabwe".

Coltart urged the Church to reach out to them.

"I think possibly there are still victims in Zimbabwe, perhaps in South Africa, who are suffering from PTSD and I think the Anglican church has a responsibility to identify those individuals and to supply them with the medical assistance that they might require," he said.

Mr Leanders says many of friends are still "so traumatised by the beatings they are not even prepared to talk about it".

"Smyth was protected in England and he was protected in Zimbabwe. The protection went on for so long it robbed victims the chance to confront Smyth as adults."

Additional reporting from the BBC's Gabriela Pomeroy.

You may also be interested in:

• Church at precarious moment after Welby resignation
• The abuse scandal that led to the archbishop's resignation

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

A man suspected of being a significant supplier of small boats equipment to people smugglers has been arrested.

The man is suspected of supplying engines and boats to smugglers in northern France, according to the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA).

The Turkish national, 44, was arrested at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam on Wednesday, as part of an operation involving the NCA and Dutch and Belgian partners.

He will be extradited to Belgium to face charges of human smuggling.

Authorities said the man, who has not been named, shipped supplies from Turkey, stored them in Germany, then transported them to northern France.

He was arrested after authorities learned he was travelling from Turkey to the Netherlands.

NCA director general for operations Rob Jones said the man is thought to be a "major supplier" of "highly dangerous" boats and engines to smugglers operating in Belgium and northern France.

He called the arrest a milestone in one of the agency's "most significant investigations into organised immigration crime".

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the investigation showed the importance of working "with our international partners to get results".

"We will stop at nothing to root out criminal networks wherever we find them.”

More than 50 people have died trying to cross the English Channel in 2024.

Over 32,000 people have made the crossing in 2024 so far - more than the total figure of 29,437 for 2023.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced an extra £75m to police the UK’s borders in November, vowing to "treat people smugglers like terrorists".

Anyone But You star Sydney Sweeney has said the idea of women supporting each other in the film and TV industry is "fake".

In an interview with Vanity Fair, the actress, who's also known for Euphoria and White Lotus, said: "This entire industry, all people say is 'women empowering other women'.

"None of it's happening. All of it is fake and a front for all the other [stuff] that they say behind everyone’s back."

Earlier this year, the star hit back at "shameful" comments made about her by a female Hollywood producer who said: "She's not pretty, she can't act. Why is she so hot?"

Asked about the incident for the latest issue of Vanity Fair, Sweeney said: "It’s very disheartening to see women tear other women down, especially when women who are successful in other avenues of their industry see younger talent working really hard - hoping to achieve whatever dreams that they may have - and then trying to bash and discredit any work that they’ve done."

Sweeney, one of Hollywood's biggest breakout stars of recent years, went on to discuss why this might be the case.

"I've read that our entire lives, we were raised - and it’s a generational problem - to believe only one woman can be at the top," she said.

"There’s one woman who can get the man. There’s one woman who can be, I don’t know, anything.

"So then all the others feel like they have to fight each other or take that one woman down instead of being like, let’s all lift each other up.

"I'm still trying to figure it out. I’m just trying my best over here. Why am I getting attacked?"

In April, Carol Baum, who produced films including Dead Ringers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, spoke about Sweeney after a film screening.

According to Variety, Baum had said: "There's an actress who everybody loves now - Sydney Sweeney. I don't get Sydney Sweeney. I was watching on the plane Sydney Sweeney's movie [Anyone But You] because I wanted to watch it.

"I wanted to know who she is and why everybody's talking about her. I watched this unwatchable movie - sorry to people who love this... romantic comedy where they hate each other."

Baum, who also teaches at the University of Southern California, added: "I said to my class, 'Explain this girl to me. She's not pretty, she can't act. Why is she so hot?' Nobody had an answer."

In response, Sweeney's representative told Variety: "How sad that a woman in the position to share her expertise and experience chooses instead to attack another woman."

French military technology is being used in Sudan's brutal civil war in violation of a UN arms embargo, rights organisation Amnesty International has said.

It says the Rapid Support Forces militia is using vehicles in the Darfur region supplied by the United Arab Emirates that are fitted with French hardware as it battles the army.

"Our research shows that weaponry designed and manufactured in France is in active use on the battlefield in Sudan," said Amnesty’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard.

French authorities have not responded to the accusations while the UAE has previously denied arming the RSF.

The Galix defence system - made in France by companies KNDS and Lacroix – is used for land forces to help counter close-range attacks.

Amnesty said the weapons could be used to commit or facilitate serious rights violations, adding that the French government must ensure the companies "immediately stop the supply of this system to the UAE".

• 'Rape me, not my daughter' - women tell BBC of sexual violence in Sudan
• Women raped in war-hit Sudan die by suicide, activists say
• A simple guide to the Sudan war

The rights group shared images, which it said it had verified, of destroyed vehicles on the ground that had the Galix system visible on them.

"If France cannot guarantee through export controls, including end user certification, that arms will not be re-exported to Sudan, it should not authorise those transfers," it said.

The UN first imposed an arms embargo in Darfur in 2004, following allegations of ethnic cleansing against the region's non-Arabic population.

Amnesty has called for the embargo to be expanded to the rest of Sudan, and to strengthen its monitoring mechanism following the outbreak of a civil war last year.

Amnesty has urged all countries to stop directly and indirectly supplying arms to Sudan’s fighting factions.

The paramilitary RSF, led by general Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been at war with Sudan’s regular army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan since April 2023 when the two former allies took up arms against each other in a ferocious power struggle.

The RSF has been accused of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, which it has denied, blaming local militias.

Both parties have been accused of committing war crimes, with the ongoing fighting leaving thousands dead and millions displaced.

You may also be interested in:

• Watch: 'They ransacked my home and left my town in ruins'

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

A new recording has emerged of notorious cult leader Charles Manson appearing to admit to additional killings.

Manson's followers, known as the Manson Family, killed nine people in 1969.

The cult leader directed the killings in the hope they would start a race war. He died in prison in 2017.

In newly released audio recorded while he was in jail and featured in a new documentary, Manson appears to speak about previously unknown killings.

“See, there’s a whole part of my life that nobody knows about,” Manson is heard saying in one of the tapes, which feature in a new documentary series Making Manson.

“I lived in Mexico for a while. I went to Acapulco, stole some cars. I just got involved in stuff over my head, man. Got involved in a couple of killings. I left my .357 Magnum in Mexico City, and I left some dead people on the beach.”

Associates of Manson, as well as his former cellmate, Phil Kaufman, are also interviewed.

“Charlie was very good at being evil and not showing it,” says Mr Kaufman in the series teaser.

“Anything that detracted from his game plan at that time, he would squash it, but he did it with velvet gloves.”

In the series, Manson "recounts the early crimes that led to the murder spree in the summer of ‘69", according to the Peacock streaming service.

The Manson Family killed nine people including the heavily pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate, wife of Roman Polanski.

One of Manson's young followers, Susan Atkins, stabbed Tate to death and scrawled "PIG" on the home's front door with the actress's blood.

Four other people at Tate's home were brutally stabbed to death. The next day, a wealthy couple in Los Angeles, Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, were also killed by the clan. The killings became known collectively as the Tate-LaBianca murders.

Separately Donald Shea, a Hollywood stuntman, and Gary Hinman, an acquaintance of the group, were killed by members of the Manson Family.

Manson was not at the scene of the killings, but was nonetheless convicted of murder for directing his followers in seven of the killings.

He died of natural causes behind bars in 2017.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has recorded his own version of rap track Get Low alongside US star T-Pain, in tribute to his wife Priscilla Chan for their "dating anniversary".

Zuckerberg sings with the help of Autotune on an acoustic reworking of the filthy floor-filler, which was originally a hit for Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz in 2003.

"Get Low was playing when I first met Priscilla at a college party, so every year we listen to it on our dating anniversary," the Meta boss explained on his own platform Instagram.

Zuckerberg, 40, perhaps ironically described the track as a "lyrical masterpiece", and has released his version under the name Z-Pain.

In the replies, Chan described the gesture as "so romantic", adding: "Can’t get quite as low anymore but more in love and grateful for that love than ever."

Zuckerberg's post included photographs of himself and T-Pain working on the song in a recording studio.

Singer-songwriter and producer T-Pain, aka Faheem Najm, noted on his own social media how "Z-Pain has arrived".

Zuckerberg leads the vocals on the uncensored take on the hip-hop tune, with T-Pain offering ad-libs, backing vocals and a verse of his own.

The billionaire buisnessman's version comes three months after Lil Jon gave a surprise performance of the song at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to mark Kamala Harris becoming the party’s presidential nominee.

Zuckerberg has a history of elaborote displays of affection for his other half.

In August, he unveiled a bizarre statue of Chan, apparently made of oxidised green copper and steel, by artist Daniel Arsham.

"Bringing back the Roman tradition of making sculptures of your wife," he wrote at the time.

Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity by deliberately causing the mass displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, a report by Human Rights Watch says.

About 1.9 million people - 90% of Gaza’s population - have fled their homes over the past year, and 79% of the territory is under Israeli-issued evacuation orders, according to the UN.

HRW’s report says this amounts to “forcible transfer” and that “evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy”. It also says Israeli actions appear to “meet the definition of ethnic cleansing”.

The Israeli military has not commented, but it has previously said the evacuations are designed to protect civilians and that its actions comply with international law.

It has also accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields by operating inside homes and civilian infrastructure.

The report was published as Israeli forces continued a ground offensive in northern Gaza that has displaced up to 130,000 people over the past five weeks.

The UN has said 75,000 people remain under siege with dwindling supplies of water and food in the towns of Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun, where the Israeli military says it is preventing a Hamas resurgence.

Under the laws of war, the forced displacement of any civilians inside an occupied territory is prohibited, unless it is necessary for their security or for an imperative military reason.

For displacement to be lawful, civilians must be moved safely and provided with accommodation and essential supplies. They must also be able to return to their homes after the end of hostilities in the area.

HRW’s report - based on interviews with displaced Palestinians, analysis of Israeli evacuation orders, satellite imagery showing destruction of buildings, and videos and photos of strikes - concludes that there is no plausible imperative military reason to justify the displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population and that the other conditions for it be lawful have also not been met.

The US-based group says the Israeli evacuation orders have been “inconsistent, inaccurate, and frequently not communicated to civilians with enough time”, and that they “did not consider the needs of people with disabilities and others who are unable to leave”. Israeli forces have also “repeatedly struck designated evacuation routes and safe zones”, it adds.

It accuses Israeli authorities of blocking “all but a small fraction of the necessary humanitarian aid, water, electricity, and fuel from reaching civilians in need”, as well as carrying out attacks that have damaged and destroyed vital resources like hospitals and bakeries.

HRW also alleges that Israel’s military has “intentionally demolished or severely damaged civilian infrastructure, including controlled demolitions of homes, with the apparent aim of creating an extended ‘buffer zone’ along Gaza’s perimeter with Israel and a corridor which will bifurcate Gaza”. “The destruction is so substantial that it indicates the intention to permanently displace many people,” it warns.

Israeli government ministers are also cited as saying that Gaza’s territory would decrease and that land would be handed to Israeli settlers.

“Forced displacement has been widespread, and the evidence shows it has been systematic and part of a state policy. Such acts also constitute crimes against humanity,” HRW says.

It also says that the “organised, violent displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, who are members of another ethnic group, is likely planned to be permanent in the buffer zones and security corridors”, and that such actions “amount to ethnic cleansing”.

The Israeli military has denied that it is seeking to create permanent buffer zones and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar recently said that displaced people from northern Gaza would be allowed to return home at the end of the war.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been approached for a response to the HRW report.

Israel launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 43,700 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

New Zealand's parliament was brought to a temporary halt by MPs performing a haka, amid anger over a controversial bill seeking to reinterpret the country's founding treaty with Māori people.

Opposition party MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke began the traditional ceremonial group dance after being asked whether her party supported the bill, which faced its first vote on Thursday.

At the same time, a hīkoi - or peaceful protest march - organised by a Māori rights group is continuing to make its way towards the capital, Wellington.

Thousands have already joined the 10-day march against the bill, which reached Auckland on Wednesday, having begun at the top of New Zealand on Monday.

The country is often considered a leader in indigenous rights, but opponents of the bill fear those same rights are being put at risk by this bill.

Act, the political party that introduced the bill, argues there is a need to legally define the principles of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, which has been fundamental to race relations in New Zealand.

The core values of the treaty have, over time, been woven into New Zealand's laws in an effort to redress the wrong done to Māori during colonisation.

But Act - a minor party in the ruling centre-right coalition - say this has resulted in the country being divided by race, and the bill will allow the treaty to be interpreted more fairly through parliament, rather than the courts. The party's leader, David Seymour, has dismissed opponents as wanting to "stir up" fear and division.

Critics, however, say the legislation will divide the country and lead to the unravelling of much-needed support for many Māori.

The first reading passed on Thursday after a 30-minute break, backed by all parties from the ruling coalition. Maipi-Clarke was suspended from the house.

It is unlikely to pass a second reading, as Act's coalition partners have indicated they will not support it.

But this has not placated those worried about the bill, and its impact, with the hikoi still making progress along its 1,000km (621-mile) route.

In Auckland, it took an estimated 5,000 marchers two hours to cross the harbour bridge. Officials had closed two lanes, the New Zealand Herald reported, to allow them to continue along the route.

Danielle Moreau, who is Māori, walked over the Harbour Bridge with her two sons, Bobby and Teddy, and told the BBC she "was hoping it [the hīkoi] would be big but it was much more epic than I expected".

"I marched to make the point that Te Tiriti [the Treaty of Waitangi] is very important to our national identity," said Winston Pond, who also took part in the march on Wednesday.

"We are a multi-cultural society built on a bicultural base - something that cannot be altered."

Juliet Tainui-Hernández, from the Māori tribe Ngāi Tahu, and her Puerto Rican partner Javier Hernández, brought their daughter Paloma to the hīkoi.

Ms Tainui-Hernández said those who turned out in support did so "for the respectful and inclusive nation we want Aotearoa [New Zealand] to be for our tamariki mokopuna - our children and grandchildren".

Kiriana O’Connell, who is also Māori, said that the current treaty principles were already a compromise for her people, and she would not support a "rewrite".

Under the proposed legislation, the treaty principles that would be defined in law are:

• that the government has a right to govern and that parliament has the full right to make laws
• that the rights of Māori are respected by the Crown
• that everyone is equal before the law and is entitled to equal protection under it.

Act leader Seymour - who is also New Zealand's associate justice minister - argues that because the principles have never been properly defined legally, the courts "have been able to develop principles that have been used to justify actions that are contrary to the principle of equal rights".

He says these include "ethnic quotas in public institutions" that go against the spirit of fairness for all New Zealanders.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, however, has called the bill "divisive" - despite being part of the same coalition.

Meanwhile, the Waitangi Tribunal, which was set up in 1975 to investigate alleged breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi, notes the bill "purposefully excluded any consultation with Māori, breaching the principle of partnership, the Crown’s good-faith obligations, and the Crown’s duty to actively protect Māori rights and interests".

It also said that the principles of the bill misinterpreted the Treaty of Waitangi and that this "caused significant prejudice to Māori".

The tabling of the Treaty Principles Bill comes following a series of measures introduced by the government that have affected Māori.

They include the closure of the Māori Health Authority, which was set up under Jacinda Ardern's Labour government to help create health equity, and reprioritising English over Māori when it comes to the official naming of government organisations, for example.

While roughly 18% of New Zealand's population consider themselves to be Māori, according to the most recent census, many remain disadvantaged compared with the general population when assessed through markers such as health outcomes, household income, education levels and incarceration and mortality rates. There remains a seven-year gap in life expectancy.

The Treaty of Waitangi is an agreement between the British and many, but not all, Māori tribes, which was signed in 1840.

It is contentious as it was written in both English and Māori - which had only been a spoken language until colonisation - and the two versions contain fundamental differences when it comes to issues such as land ownership.

While the treaty itself is not enshrined in law, its principles have been adopted over time into various pieces of legislation.

The bill will now be sent to a select committee for a six-month public hearing process.

Floods and torrential rain returned to the Valencia region on Wednesday night, but this time they were ready for it, and the areas hit two weeks ago escaped further disaster.

More than 220 people died in this eastern coastal area, and the town of Paiporta was hit hardest with the loss of 60 lives.

In the midst of despair the local population are understandably searching for beacons of hope, for example the remarkable story of what happened at the Whitby English language school.

As the whole road became engulfed in water, the college’s co-director, Daniel Burguet, repeatedly pounded against a door with a chair leg that he’d just picked up.

Filmed from a 3rd floor balcony across the street, Daniel is seen smashing constantly against the glass.

He is trapped with his 11-year-old daughter, Noa, and three younger children inside the school, unable to reach a higher floor.

Eventually, Danny breaks down the door of the next building along and, one by one, he pulls the children to safety.

“When I got through that door, I felt so relieved. Finally, we were safe,” Daniel tells me as he carries on repairs to the school.

In the quest for fragments of solace, it’s also perhaps understandable that when tales of bravery are found, they are celebrated unashamedly.

Local media have hailed Danny as the "Hero of Pairporta".

“There are a lot of people who did the same thing that day, many ‘heroes’ like me, if you want to call us that,” he says.

“I feel good about it. I feel the love of people around here. I was the one who was filmed, but there were many other heroes.”

Rebuilding Spain’s shattered and traumatised communities will require an heroic effort that goes on for months.

The threat hasn’t gone away.

A fortnight after the worst floods to hit a single European country this century, Paiporta is still full of firefighters, police officers as well as the Red Cross and an army of daily volunteers.

But many residents feel the unofficial community-generated effort is not being matched by the authorities – either at the regional or national level.

“It was a tsunami,” declares Juan José Montane.

He shows me the video he took from his apartment as floating cars were hurled against the walls below him.

“It was only thanks to God that I survived,” he exclaims, furiously making the sign of the cross three times.

Divine intervention aside, it’s the lack of intervention from the Valencia and central government which is now infuriating him.

“This is shameful, we feel abandoned," says Juan José.

"For four days we didn’t see the army coming to help. We need more troops here.”

His sister, Lourdes, fears for how the town will re-build with so much lost and now a severe lack of infrastructure.

“We feel imprisoned here. There are no roads, it is horrible,” she explains.

"We lost everything in this town, everything.”

Although the vast majority of houses are still standing, there is a lack of electricity, hot or drinking water in the streets that were the worst hit.

In Paiporta, piles of mangled cars have been created on roundabouts and at other places out of the way of traffic.

It’s estimated as many as 100,000 cars were destroyed during the floods.

Some abandoned vehicles that look pretty much intact, apart from a dented bonnet here or a flat tyre there, are not spared either.

Instead, they are grabbed by giant claw cranes that smash down through the windscreen and lift the vehicles away.

The loss of possessions has been immense in this region. The loss of life crushing.

And the trauma’s not over.

The mayor has urged people to stay inside, as the local population waits for the latest flood alert to subside.

Additional reporting by Bruno Boelpaep and Juan A. Dominguez

A brief yearly silence has once again enveloped South Korea, as half a million students across the country sit for the most important test of their lives.

Planes were grounded, construction work halted, and car honking discouraged as the Suneung, an eight-hour university placement exam billed as one of the toughest in the world, kicked off on Thursday.

But this year, there was one sound that students were especially scared of: "APT".

The global hit by Blackpink's Rosé and Bruno Mars emerged as a "forbidden" song among students who feared that its catchiness could cause them to lose focus during the test.

No distractions are too minor when it comes to the Suneung, which many see as a culmination of years of formal education - and a turning point that determines their university placements, careers, and social statuses.

"I’m worried that the song will play in my head even during the exam," one student told Yonhap News of the chart-topper. "Adults might laugh and say, 'Why stress over something like that?' But for us, with such an important test ahead, it can feel unsettling."

Suneung students have previously been encouraged to avoid other so-called earworms, with songs such as "Go Go" by BTS and "Ring Ding Dong" by SHINee repeatedly cited online as tracks that should be forbidden.

Ensuring that the exam runs smoothly is a nationwide effort. Shops and the stock market opened late on Thursday to reduce traffic congestion, and authorities adjusted public transport operating hours and put more than a dozen spare trains on standby in case of breakdowns.

More than 10,000 police officers were deployed, including some tasked to ferry students to school during emergencies.

Besides grounding planes to minimise noise disturbances during the 20-minute English listening test, authorities have also asked bus and taxi drivers to refrain from honking while the tests are taking place.

Disruptions to the Suneung are treated as a serious matter. Last December, dozens of students sued the government after teachers accidentally cut their test short by 90 seconds.

There are a record number of candidates retaking the exam this year, after authorities announced they would expand enrolment in medical schools - a move that was met with widespread protests among trainee doctors while being welcomed by aspiring medical students.

French military technology is being used in Sudan's brutal civil war in violation of a UN arms embargo, rights organisation Amnesty International has said.

It says the Rapid Support Forces militia is using vehicles in the Darfur region supplied by the United Arab Emirates that are fitted with French hardware as it battles the army.

"Our research shows that weaponry designed and manufactured in France is in active use on the battlefield in Sudan," said Amnesty’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard.

French authorities have not responded to the accusations while the UAE has previously denied arming the RSF.

The Galix defence system - made in France by companies KNDS and Lacroix – is used for land forces to help counter close-range attacks.

Amnesty said the weapons could be used to commit or facilitate serious rights violations, adding that the French government must ensure the companies "immediately stop the supply of this system to the UAE".

• 'Rape me, not my daughter' - women tell BBC of sexual violence in Sudan
• Women raped in war-hit Sudan die by suicide, activists say
• A simple guide to the Sudan war

The rights group shared images, which it said it had verified, of destroyed vehicles on the ground that had the Galix system visible on them.

"If France cannot guarantee through export controls, including end user certification, that arms will not be re-exported to Sudan, it should not authorise those transfers," it said.

The UN first imposed an arms embargo in Darfur in 2004, following allegations of ethnic cleansing against the region's non-Arabic population.

Amnesty has called for the embargo to be expanded to the rest of Sudan, and to strengthen its monitoring mechanism following the outbreak of a civil war last year.

Amnesty has urged all countries to stop directly and indirectly supplying arms to Sudan’s fighting factions.

The paramilitary RSF, led by general Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been at war with Sudan’s regular army under Abdel Fattah al-Burhan since April 2023 when the two former allies took up arms against each other in a ferocious power struggle.

The RSF has been accused of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, which it has denied, blaming local militias.

Both parties have been accused of committing war crimes, with the ongoing fighting leaving thousands dead and millions displaced.

You may also be interested in:

• Watch: 'They ransacked my home and left my town in ruins'

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

Ear covers and pro-Tyson crowd

Bellew performs stunt as Paul puts on a show

From his wheelchair, Michael Northey watches quietly over his father’s grave, and lays a flower for the very first time.

“This is the closest I’ve been to him in 70 years, which is ridiculous,” he jokes poignantly.

Born into a poor family in the backstreets of Portsmouth, Michael was still a baby when his father, the youngest of 13 children, left to fight in the Korean War. He was killed in action and his body was never identified.

For decades, it lay in an unmarked grave in the UN cemetery in Busan, on Korea’s south coast, adorned with the plaque ‘Member of the British Army, known unto God’.

Now it bears his name – Sergeant D. Northey, died 24 April 1951, age 23.

Sergeant Northey, along with three others, are the first unknown British soldiers killed in the Korean War to be successfully identified, and Michael is attending a ceremony, along with the other families, to rename their graves.

Michael had spent years doing his own research, hoping to find out where his father was, but had eventually given up.

“I’m ill and don’t have a lot of time left myself, so I’d written it off, I thought I’d never find out,” he says.

But a couple of months ago, Michael received a phone call. Unknown to him, researchers at the Ministry of Defence had been conducting their own investigation. When he heard the news he says he “wailed like a banshee for 20 minutes”.

“I can’t describe the emotional release,” he says smiling. “This had haunted me for 70 years. The poor lady who phoned me, I felt sorry for her.”

The woman on the other end of the phone was Nicola Nash, a forensic researcher from the Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre in Gloucester, who ordinarily works to identify victims from the First and Second World Wars.

Tasked for the first time with finding the Korean War dead, she had to start from scratch by first compiling a list of the 300 British soldiers still missing, of which 76 were buried in the cemetery in Busan.

Nicola went through their burial reports, and found just one man had been buried wearing sergeant stripes from the Gloucester Regiment, as well as one major.

After trawling the national archives and cross referencing eye-witness accounts, family letters and war office reports, Ms Nash was able to identify these men as Sergeant Northey and Major Patrick Angier.

Both were killed in the famous Battle of Imjin River in April 1951, as the Chinese Army, which had joined the war on the North Korean side, tried push the allied forces down the peninsula to retake the capital Seoul. Despite being hugely outnumbered, the men held their position for three days, giving their comrades enough time to retreat and successfully defend the city.

The issue at the time, Ms Nash explains, is that because the battle was so bloody, most of the men were either killed or captured, leaving no one to identify them. The enemy had removed and scattered their dog tags. It was not until the prisoners of war were released that they could share their accounts, and no one had thought to go back and piece the puzzles together – until now.

For Ms Nash, this has been a six-year “labour of love”, made slightly easier, she admits, by having some of the men’s children still alive to draw on, something that has also made the process more special.

“The children have spent their whole lives not knowing what happened to their fathers, and for me to be able to do this work and bring them here to their graves, to say their goodbyes and have that closure, means everything”, she says.

At the ceremony, the families sit on chairs amidst the long rows of small stone graves, marking the thousands of foreign soldiers who fought and died in the Korean War. They are accompanied by serving soldiers from their loved ones’ old regiments.

Major Angier’s daughter Tabby, now 77, and his grandson Guy, stand to read excerpts of letters he wrote from the frontline. In one of his final addresses, he tells his wife: “Lots of love to our dear children. Do tell them how much Daddy misses them and will come back as soon as he has finished his work”.

Tabby was three when her father left for the war, and her memories of him are fractured. “I can remember someone standing in a room and canvas bags pilling up, which must have been his equipment to go to Korea, but I can’t see his face,” she says.

At the time of her father’s death, people didn’t like to talk about wars, Tabby says. Instead, those in her small Gloucestershire village used to remark: “Oh, those poor children, they’ve lost their father."

“I used to think that if he’s lost, they’re going to find him,” Tabby says.

But as the years passed and she learnt what had happened, Tabby was told her father’s body would never be found. The last recorded trace was that it had been left under an upturned boat on the battlefield.

Tabby has visited this cemetery twice before, in an attempt to get as close to her father as she thought possible, not knowing he was here all along. “I think it will take some time to sink in,” she says, from his newly adorned graveside.

The shock has been even greater for 25-year-old Cameron Adair from Scunthorpe, whose great, great uncle, Corporal William Adair, is one of two soldiers from the Royal Ulster Rifles Ms Nash has also managed to identify. The other is Rifleman Mark Foster from County Durham.

Both men were killed in January 1951 as they were forced to retreat by a wave of Chinese soldiers. Corporal Adair did not have children, and when his wife died so did his memory, leaving Cameron and his family unaware of his existence.

Finding out his relative “helped bring freedom to so many people” has brought Cameron “a real sense of pride,” he says. “Coming here and witnessing this first hand has really brought it home”.

Now a similar age to his uncle when he was killed, Cameron feels inspired and says he would like to serve if the need ever arose.

Ms Nash is now gathering DNA samples from the relatives of the other 300 missing soldiers, in the hope she can give more families the same peace and joy she has brought Cameron, Tabby and Michael.

“If there are still British personnel missing, we will keep trying to find them,” she says.