Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has gone on trial in Paris, accused of taking millions of euros of illicit funds from the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign.
In exchange, the prosecution alleges Sarkozy promised to help Gaddafi combat his reputation as a pariah with Western countries.
Sarkozy, 69, was the president of France from 2007 to 2012.
He has always denied the charges, saying they were brought against him by people with motivations to bring him down.
The investigation was opened in 2013, two years after Saif al-Islam, son of the then-Libyan leader, first accused Sarkozy of taking millions of his father's money for campaign funding.
The following year, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine - who for a long time acted as a middleman between France and the Middle East - said he had written proof that Sarkozy's campaign bid was "abundantly" financed by Tripoli, and that the €50m (£43m) worth of payments continued after he became president.
Twelve other people - accused of devising the pact with Gaddafi - are standing trial along Sarkozy. They all deny the charges.
Since losing his re-election bid in 2012, Sarkozy has been targeted by several criminal investigations.
He also appealed against a February 2024 ruling which found him guilty of overspending on his 2012 re-election campaign, then hiring a PR firm to cover it up. He was handed a one-year sentence, of which six months were suspended.
In 2021, he was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 and became the first former French president to get a custodial sentence. In December, the Paris appeals court ruled that he could serve his time at home wearing a tag instead of going to jail.
Sarkozy was not wearing the tag as he arrived in court in Paris on Monday morning.
However, that is only because the details of that sentence have yet to be worked out.
It is likely that in the course of this three-month trial over the so-called Libya connection, the former president will appear wearing the device.
The trial is set to continue until 10 April. If found guilty, Sarkozy faces up to 10 years in prison.
Four young Kenyan men who went missing just before the Christmas holidays have been found alive, family members and rights groups say.
Kenya has been gripped by a wave of disappearances, with the state-funded rights group saying that over 80 people have been abducted in the last six months.
The abductions generally target government critics and are widely believed to be the work of security agents, although the government has not admitted responsibility.
They began in June last year during nationwide anti-tax protests, but they increased in December, when AI-generated photos of the president in a coffin were widely shared.
Those released on Monday include 24-year-old student Billy Mwangi in Embu, in the central Mount Kenya region.
Local MP Gitonga Mukunji told journalists that Mr Mwangi "was whipped and beaten while in a dark room. He is traumatised".
His father said he was not able to discuss what he had gone through and had been taken to hospital.
"He came home around eight in the morning. He walked by himself - his mother and I saw him. We thank everyone who has prayed and supported him," he told the Daily Nation news site.
Last week, Mr Mwangi's father broke down in court as he pleaded for his son to be released.
A relative of 22-year-old Peter Muteti, who was seized in the capital on 21 December, told the BBC that he had been reunited with the family but was disoriented and unable to speak about the ordeal.
Amnesty International Kenya welcomed the releases and urged "the State to free all abductees and hold those responsible accountable".
Two weeks ago the police denied responsibility for the abductions carried out by men in plain clothes across the country, some of which were captured on CCTV.
On Monday the police released an update acknowledging the freeing of the abducted men, saying they were in already contact with one who had presented himself at a police station.
The police said investigations into all cases of missing people were underway.
Rights groups and other Kenyans have linked the abductions to a shadowy intelligence and counter-terrorism unit of the security forces.
Amid the public uproar, President William Ruto said last month: "We are going to stop the abductions so that our youth can live peacefully and have discipline", while urging parents to take care of their children.
Until now, no-one had been freed since he spoke on 27 December, with activists planning protests on Monday to push the government to act.
Two other youths - Ronny Kiplangat and Bernard Kavuli – have also been released, their families told local media.
Mr Kavuli, a content creator, was seized on the outskirts of the city in December, while Mr Kiplangat is the brother of satirical cartoonist Kibet Bull, who is still missing.
Kibet Bull is known for his silhouette cartoon memes critical of the president. Two others were seized after posting AI-generated images of the president in a coffin.
Police said that Mr Kavuli had been assisting them with their investigations after he had presented himself to a police station at Moi's Bridge in western Kenya.
A statement said that they would reach out to the three others "and their families and give them all the necessary support as we seek further information to assist ongoing investigations".
The Law Society of Kenya has filed a legal case against the state, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of seven individuals abducted last month, including those who have now been released.
The situation continues to stoke fear across the country, with parents worried about the safety of their children and activists vowing to maintain pressure until all missing persons are accounted for.
Exactly 10 years after the jihadist gun-attack that killed most of its editorial staff, France's Charlie Hebdo has put out a special issue to show its cause is still kicking.
Things changed for France on 7 January 2015, marking in bloodshed the end of all wilful naivety about the threat of militant Islamism.
Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi burst into a meeting at the Paris office of the satirical weekly, murdering its star cartoonists Cabu, Wolinski, Charb and Tignous.
Overall, 12 people were killed by the brothers, including a Muslim policeman on duty outside. Two days later they were cornered and shot dead by police at a sign-making business near Charles-de-Gaulle airport.
That same day saw Amedy Coulibaly – a one-time prison associate of Cherif – kill four Jews in a synchronised hostage-taking at a supermarket in eastern Paris. Coulibaly – who was then shot dead by police – had killed a policewoman the day before.
A decade on, Charlie Hebdo continues to bring out a weekly edition and has a circulation (print and online combined) of around 50,000.
It does so from an office whose whereabouts are kept secret, and with staff who are protected by bodyguards.
But in an editorial in Tuesday's memorial edition, the paper's main shareholder said its spirit of ribald anti-religious irreverence was still very much alive.
"The desire to laugh will never disappear," said Laurent Saurisseau – also known as Riss – a cartoonist who survived the 7 January attack with a bullet in the shoulder.
"Satire has one virtue that has got us through these tragic years – optimism. If people want to laugh, it is because they want to live.
"Laughter, irony and caricature are all manifestations of optimism," he wrote.
Also in the 32-page special are the 40 winning entries in a cartoon competition on the theme of "Laughing at God".
One contains the image of a cartoonist asking himself: "Is it okay to draw a picture of a man drawing a picture of a man drawing a picture of Muhammed?"
The Charlie Hebdo and Hypercacher attacks appear now as the overture to a grim and deadly period in modern France, during which – for a time – fear of jihadist terrorism became part of daily life.
In November 2015, there followed gun attacks at the Bataclan theatre and nearby bars in Paris. In the following July, 86 people were killed on the promenade in Nice.
Some 300 French people have died in Islamist attacks in the last decade.
Today the frequency has fallen sharply, and the defeat of the Islamic State group means there is no longer a support base in the Middle East.
But the killer individual, self-radicalised over the Internet, remains a constant threat in France as elsewhere.
The original pretext for the Charlie Hebdo murders – caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad – are now strictly off-limits to publications everywhere.
In 2020, a French teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded outside his school by a jihadist after he showed one of the Charlie cartoons in a discussion over freedom of speech.
And this week the trial opens in Paris of a Pakistani man who – a short time before Paty's murder – seriously injured two people with a butcher's cleaver at the Paris offices he thought were still being used by Charlie-Hebdo (in fact they had long since moved).
So as with every anniversary since 2015, the question once again being asked in France is: what - if anything - has changed? And what - if anything - survives of the great outpouring of international support, whose clarion call in the days after the murders was Je suis Charlie?
That was when a march of two million people through the centre of Paris was joined by heads of state and government from countries all over the world at the invitation of then President François Hollande.
Today, pessimists say the battle is over and lost. The chances of a humorous newspaper ever taking up the cudgel against Islam – in the way that Charlie Hebdo used regularly and scabrously to do against Christianity and Judaism – are zero.
Worse, for these people, is that parts of the political left in France are also now clearly distancing themselves from Charlie Hebdo, accusing it of becoming overly anti-Islam and adopting positions from the far-right.
Jean-Luc Melenchon, who leads the France Unbowed party, has accused the weekly of being a "bag-carrier for (right-wing magazine) Valeurs Actuels", and the Greens' Sandrine Rousseau said Charlie Hebdo was "misogynistic and at times racist".
This has in turn led to accusations aimed at the far-left that it has betrayed the free-speech spirit of Je suis Charlie in order to curry electoral support among French Muslims.
But speaking in the run-up to the anniversary, Riss – who counted the dead among his greatest friends and says he does not go through a day without reliving the moment of the attack – refused to renounce hope.
"I think [the Charlie spirit] is anchored more deeply in society than one might think. When you talk to people, you can see it's very much alive. It's a mistake to think it's all disappeared.
Justin Trudeau's nine years as Canadian prime minister is coming to an end after he announced he will step down as leader of the governing Liberal Party.
It means his party must now find a new leader to compete in a general election in which polls suggest they are heading to defeat.
Here are some of the people expected to enter the Liberal leadership race.
The Toronto member of parliament is seen as one of the top contenders to replace the outgoing leader and became one of the most well-known members of Trudeau's team.
While she had long been seen as a trusted senior official in his inner circle, a rift with the prime minister's office led to her recent abrupt resignation in December.
Her criticism of Trudeau in her public resignation letter piled the pressure on him and made his departure seem inevitable.
Born to a Ukrainian mother in the western province of Alberta, the 56-year-old was a journalist before entering politics.
She entered the House of Commons in 2013 and two years later joined Trudeau's cabinet with a trade brief after he swept the party to power.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs she helped Canada renegotiate a free trade deal with the US and Mexico.
She was later named deputy prime minister and minister of finance - the first woman to hold the job - and oversaw Canada's financial response to the Covid pandemic.
Quitting last month, she criticised Trudeau as insufficiently strong in his handling of Donald Trump's threat to levy US tariffs on Canadian goods.
A 2019 Globe and Mail profile said depending who you asked, Freeland is either a last, best hope for the liberal world order or an out-of-touch idealist.
Her steadfast support of Ukraine earned praise in some quarters but the Harvard-educated MP has had her share of critics, including Trump who recently called her "toxic".
Former central banker Mark Carney
Trudeau himself admitted that he had long been trying to recruit Mark Carney to his team, most recently as finance minister.
"He would be an outstanding addition at a time when Canadians need good people to step up in politics," he told reporters on the sidelines of a Nato conference in July 2024.
Carney, 59, who has been serving in recent months as a special adviser to Trudeau, has long been considered a contender for the top job.
The Harvard graduate has never held public office but has a strong economic background, serving at the top of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.
He also brings with him expertise on environmental matters through his role as the United Nations special envoy on climate action, recently calling the goal of net zero "the greatest commercial opportunity of our time".
Carney is a champion of some Liberal policies that have been unpopular within the country's conservative circles like the federal carbon tax policy, the party's signature climate policy that critics argue is a financial burden for Canadians.
He has also already criticised Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, saying his vision for the future of the country is "without a plan" and "just slogans".
"I'm the one in the conversation who's actually been in business, who actually is in business, and makes decisions," he said.
Anita Anand, transport minister
Anand is often touted as one of the more ambitious members of the Liberal caucus.
The 57-year-old lawyer entered the political scene in 2019 when she was elected to represent the riding of Oakville, just outside of Toronto.
An Oxford-educated academic, she has a background in financial market regulation and corporate governance.
She was immediately awarded the ministerial brief of public services and procurement, putting her at the helm of a mission to secure vaccines and personal protective equipment during the Covid pandemic.
Anand was then appointed minister of defence in 2021, leading Canada's efforts to provide aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia and overseeing a personnel crisis at the Canadian Armed Forces mired by sexual misconduct scandals.
When Anand was shuffled out of that department to oversee the Treasury Board, many saw it as a demotion and critics of Trudeau went as far as to speculate that it was punishment for her ambitions to one day lead the party.
In December, she was moved again during a cabinet shuffle, into the role of transport minister and minister of internal trade.
François-Philippe Champagne, minister of innovation, science and industry
The former businessman and international trade specialist is another Liberal minister said to be eyeing the party's top job.
But his journey through the ranks to a major portfolio was slower than Anand's.
Champagne, 54, entered the Commons in 2015 but since then has gone through international trade, foreign affairs and most recently the department of innovation, science and industry.
But there are several things that work in his favour. Champagne is from Quebec, a province whose voice has often been consequential in federal Canadian elections.
He has also been dubbed "Canada's Energizer Bunny" by some pundits, who have watched his enthusiasm as he travelled around the world under his innovation portfolio with a mission to sell all that is Canada-made.
And because of his business acumen, political watchers see him as a viable option for luring centrist Liberals back into the fold.
Mélanie Joly, minister of foreign affairs
Like Trudeau, Joly represents a Montreal-area riding.
To foreign leaders, the 45-year-old is a familiar face, having represented Canada on the world stage since 2021.
As the current foreign minister, she has taken several trips to Ukraine in a show of Canada's support. She travelled to Jordan to aid in the evacuation of Canadian citizens in the region when the Israel-Hamas war erupted.
Joly has also been at the heart of some of the government's greatest foreign policy challenges, including the diplomatic crisis sparked by the alleged assassination of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil by Indian agents.
The Oxford-educated lawyer is a well-connected francophone politician who previously ran for mayor of Montreal.
She was tapped by Trudeau personally to run for a federal job in politics.
"He would periodically call me to say, 'Mélanie you need to run, we want you to run,'" Joly has said.
Senior advisers have hailed her ability to work a room of either seven or 700, and she has long held ambitions to run for Liberal party leader, close friends told Canadian magazine Macleans.
Dominic LeBlanc, minister of finance and intergovernmental affairs
LeBlanc, 57, is one of Trudeau's closest and most trusted allies.
Their friendship runs deep, with LeBlanc even babysitting Trudeau and his siblings when they were young.
He has a record of stepping into portfolios at difficult moments, including becoming finance minister within hours of Freeland's bombshell resignation.
LeBlanc also took on the tricky assignment of accompanying Trudeau to Mar-a-Lago in November to meet Trump.
The former lawyer has been a parliamentarian for more than two decades, having been first elected in 2000 to represent a riding in the Atlantic province of New Brunswick.
Like Trudeau, LeBlanc was born into a political family. His father served as a minister in the cabinet of Trudeau's fabled father, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and later as Canada's governor-general.
LeBlanc has shown previous ambitions to lead the party, running in 2008 but losing to Michael Ignatieff. He did not run again in the next leadership race, which was won by Trudeau.
He is in remission after cancer treatment and is known to be an affable and a strong political communicator.
Christy Clark, a former provincial premier
The former premier of British Columbia has expressed an interest in throwing her hat into the Liberal leadership ring.
In a statement in October, she said she was "would want to be part of the conversation on the future direction of the Liberal Party and of the country" if Trudeau stepped down.
Clark, 59, served as the leader of Canada's western-most province from 2011 to 2017, where she built a reputation of being able to balance environmental priorities while developing BC's energy industry.
She has repeatedly said in interviews in the past couple of years that Trudeau had become a drag on the federal Liberals.
She has also reportedly been taking French lessons, according to broadcaster Radio-Canada. A fluency in French is considered a prerequisite for federal politicians in Canada.
Austria's president Alexander Van der Bellen has tasked the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, Herbert Kickl, with forming a coalition government.
If the talks are successful, Austria will, for the first time, have a government led by the Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPO).
The FPO has been in power before, but only as a junior coalition partner.
The party came first in September's elections, with roughly 29% of the vote, but was then sidelined.
President Van der Bellen infuriated the FPO by not tasking it with forming a government soon after the election.
At the time, the leaders of all of the other parties ruled out making an alliance with Kickl.
In October, Van der Bellen gave the conservative People's Party (OVP), which came second in the election with 26%, the task of forming a coalition.
The former leader of the OVP, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, had called Kickl a conspiracy theorist and a threat to security.
But Nehammer's attempts to form a three-party and then a two-party centrist coalition collapsed this weekend.
He then resigned and the new leader of the conservatives, Christian Stocker, said his party would be willing to hold talks with Kickl.
President Van der Bellen has now tasked Kickl with forming a government.
The step is a dramatic reversal for the president, a former leader of the Green Party, who has long been critical of the FPO and has expressed reservations about Kickl as Chancellor.
On Monday, Van der Bellen said he had not taken "this step lightly". He said he would "continue to ensure that the principles and rules of our constitution are correctly observed and adhered to".
In recent months, Van der Bellen has repeatedly said he will remain vigilant to ensure "cornerstones of democracy" including human rights, independent media and Austria's membership of the European Union are respected.
The Freedom Party and the OVP overlap on a number of issues and both take a tough line on migration.
However they have clashed on the EU and the Freedom Party's opposition to aid for Ukraine in its war against Russia.
There is no timeframe for the coalition talks, which would usually take two or three months, but could be quicker.
If the talks fail, a snap election is likely. Polls suggest that support for the Freedom Party has grown since September.
Four young Kenyan men who went missing just before the Christmas holidays have been found alive, family members and rights groups say.
Kenya has been gripped by a wave of disappearances, with the state-funded rights group saying that over 80 people have been abducted in the last six months.
The abductions generally target government critics and are widely believed to be the work of security agents, although the government has not admitted responsibility.
They began in June last year during nationwide anti-tax protests, but they increased in December, when AI-generated photos of the president in a coffin were widely shared.
Those released on Monday include 24-year-old student Billy Mwangi in Embu, in the central Mount Kenya region.
Local MP Gitonga Mukunji told journalists that Mr Mwangi "was whipped and beaten while in a dark room. He is traumatised".
His father said he was not able to discuss what he had gone through and had been taken to hospital.
"He came home around eight in the morning. He walked by himself - his mother and I saw him. We thank everyone who has prayed and supported him," he told the Daily Nation news site.
Last week, Mr Mwangi's father broke down in court as he pleaded for his son to be released.
A relative of 22-year-old Peter Muteti, who was seized in the capital on 21 December, told the BBC that he had been reunited with the family but was disoriented and unable to speak about the ordeal.
Amnesty International Kenya welcomed the releases and urged "the State to free all abductees and hold those responsible accountable".
Two weeks ago the police denied responsibility for the abductions carried out by men in plain clothes across the country, some of which were captured on CCTV.
On Monday the police released an update acknowledging the freeing of the abducted men, saying they were in already contact with one who had presented himself at a police station.
The police said investigations into all cases of missing people were underway.
Rights groups and other Kenyans have linked the abductions to a shadowy intelligence and counter-terrorism unit of the security forces.
Amid the public uproar, President William Ruto said last month: "We are going to stop the abductions so that our youth can live peacefully and have discipline", while urging parents to take care of their children.
Until now, no-one had been freed since he spoke on 27 December, with activists planning protests on Monday to push the government to act.
Two other youths - Ronny Kiplangat and Bernard Kavuli – have also been released, their families told local media.
Mr Kavuli, a content creator, was seized on the outskirts of the city in December, while Mr Kiplangat is the brother of satirical cartoonist Kibet Bull, who is still missing.
Kibet Bull is known for his silhouette cartoon memes critical of the president. Two others were seized after posting AI-generated images of the president in a coffin.
Police said that Mr Kavuli had been assisting them with their investigations after he had presented himself to a police station at Moi's Bridge in western Kenya.
A statement said that they would reach out to the three others "and their families and give them all the necessary support as we seek further information to assist ongoing investigations".
The Law Society of Kenya has filed a legal case against the state, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of seven individuals abducted last month, including those who have now been released.
The situation continues to stoke fear across the country, with parents worried about the safety of their children and activists vowing to maintain pressure until all missing persons are accounted for.
Djokovic still has 'trauma' over Covid deportation
Published
Novak Djokovic says he still experiences "trauma" when he visits Melbourne, three years after he was deported because of Australia's Covid-19 regulations.
He was forced to stay at an immigration hotel for five days while he unsuccessfully appealed against the decision and was eventually forced to leave the country, meaning he missed the 2022 Australian Open.
The Serb, 37, is back in Australia preparing for the 2025 tournament, which begins on Sunday.
"The last couple of times I landed in Australia, to go through passport control and immigration - I had a bit of trauma from three years ago," Djokovic told Melbourne's Herald Sun., external
"And some traces still stay there when I'm passing passport control, just checking out if someone from immigration zone is approaching.
"The person checking my passport - are they going to take me, detain me again or let me go? I must admit I have that feeling."
He added: "I don't hold a grudge. I came right away the year after and I won.
"My parents and whole team were there and it was actually one of the most emotional wins I've ever had, considering all that I'd been through the year before."
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan said she prefers to focus on this year's tournament.
"The responsibility of granting visas is a matter for the federal government and those decisions were made by the federal government at the time," said Allan, who was part of a government crisis cabinet leading the Australian response to Covid in 2022 - but was not involved in the Djokovic case.
"Covid was tough for all of us. It didn't matter who you were, where you came from, Covid didn't discriminate in who it infected, how sick it made you and how sick it made others in our community."
Australia prime minister Anthony Albanese criticised the previous government's handling of the situation, particularly the decision to deny Djokovic access to an Orthodox priest in the build-up to Christmas, which is celebrated on 7 January by most Orthodox Christians.
"I made comments at the time about it. I found it astonishing that in the lead up to Christmas, Novak Djokovic was denied by the then federal government the opportunity to see his Orthodox minister, priest, during that period," said Albanese, who became prime minister in May 2022.
"I think that was something that I think was hard to justify at that time."
Djokovic is hoping to win a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title when he competes in the Australian Open at Melbourne Park next week.
Nippon Steel and US Steel are suing the US government over blocking a takeover, claiming that President Joe Biden "ignored the rule of law to gain favor" with trade unions.
The two companies also alleged that President Biden, who is entering the last weeks of his administration, stopped Nippon Steel buying US Steel to pursue his own political agenda.
In rejecting the proposed deal on Friday, President Biden said a strong domestically-owned steel industry was essential for national security and resilient supply chains, including for the car and defence industries.
If the $14.9bn (£11.8bn) deal goes ahead it would create one of the world's biggest steel companies outside of China.
The takeover has been in limbo since it was first announced in December 2023.
In one lawsuit, Nippon Steel and US Steel have asked asked the court to set aside the review process of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, which has the power to vet foreign takeovers of US firms, saying it "failed to conduct a good faith, national security-focused regulatory review process".
Additionally, the companies are also suing the president of the United Steelworkers trade union, David McCall, and the chief executive of rival steel firm Cleveland-Cliffs, Lourenco Goncalves, for "their illegal and coordinated actions aimed at preventing the transaction".
On Friday, the United Steelworkers trade union said it had "no doubt" that blocking the takeover was the "right move for our members and our national security".
The union accused Nippon of undermining the US steel industry for decades through measures including dumping its products on the US market.
Nippon Steel and US Steel said they have "engaged in good faith with all parties" to show how the deal "will enhance, not threaten, United States national security" and how it would strengthen America's domestic steel industry "against the threat from China".
They also reiterated that Nippon was prepared to invest $2.7bn in Pittsburgh-based US Steel.
Earlier on Monday, Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed his concerns about the US decision to block the takeover and the impact it might have on trade relations between the two G7 countries.
"Unfortunately, it is true that we have heard concerns voiced by the Japanese industries over future investments between Japan and the US. We must view this issue as a grave matter," Mr Ishiba said.
He added that while it was inappropriate for his government to comment on individual companies: "We must insist on an explanation as to why there are security concerns, otherwise there will be no progress in future discussions."
South Korea's suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol remains defiant in his newly-fortified residence, with the arrest warrant over his short-lived martial law order set to expire on Monday.
Yoon's security team, which stopped investigators arresting him on Friday, installed barbed wire and barricaded the compound with buses over the weekend, to prevent another attempt.
Yoon had ignored multiple summonses to appear for questioning on insurrection and abuse of power charges, before investigators showed up at his residence - only to call off their operation after a six-hour standoff with the presidential security service.
Investigators may try to extend their warrant. They told the BBC they have asked the police to execute it, in the hope their efforts carry more weight.
Public anger has spiralled in recent weeks, as thousands of protesters braved heavy snow over the weekend, both in support of and against Yoon.
South Korea has been in crisis for the past month, ever since Yoon tried to impose martial law citing a threat from the North and "anti-state forces". The fallout continues as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Seoul, seeking to stabilise ties ahead of a Donald Trump presidency.
A looming deadline
Time has almost run out for the investigators leading the criminal case against Yoon.
Yoon's lawyers have claimed that his arrest warrant was "illegal" as the anti-corruption investigators did not have the authority to oversee a case as serious as insurrection.
The presidential security team has cited this as a reason for blocking Yoon's arrest - along with the fact that Yoon remains a sitting president until the constitutional court rules on his impeachment.
"For the PSS, whose primary mission is the absolute safety of the president, to comply with the execution of an arrest warrant amidst ongoing legal disputes would be tantamount to abandoning its duty," security service chief Park Jong-joon said on Sunday.
Mr Park denied accusations that his team was serving as a "private militia" for Yoon.
Yoon's lawyers, who on Monday filed complaints against investigators over the arrest attempt, said Yoon has been "practically detained in his residence".
They also filed an injunction against the warrant, which was rejected by the court, and then said they were considering appealing the decision.
Meanwhile, acting president Choi Sang-mok has resisted the opposition's calls to sack key security officials obstructing the arrest.
The BBC understands that opposition lawmakers had asked investigators to try arresting Yoon again, but "more firmly and with sufficient means".
Investigators could also apply for a new detention warrant, which has to be approved by a judge. That would allow Yoon to be detained for up to 20 days, while an arrest warrant only allows him to be held for 48 hours.
But without a change to either the situation or their approach, it seems unlikely investigators or police will be able to make the arrest.
As seen last Friday, they may again be blocked by the presidential security service which formed a "human wall" to protect Yoon. He himself has vowed to "fight to the end", dividing public opinion and spurring on his supporters, who have been demonstrating for days outside his home.
The tense standoff has also raised urgent questions about the robustness and effectiveness of South Korea's political and legal institutions.
Diplomatic headwinds
The situation also has consequences beyond domestic politics.
Up until last month, the Biden administration had sung Yoon's praises, delighted by his willingness to work with Washington to tackle the security threats posed by North Korea and China. The US put a lot of effort into helping South Korea repair its strained relations with Japan, so the three countries could address these issues together.
Mr Blinken's ongoing visit to Seoul, where he will meet South Korean foreign minister Cho Tae-yul on Monday, therefore comes at a difficult time for these two allies.
Yoon did not tell the US about his plans to impose martial law, meaning Washington did not have the chance to dissuade him and was unprepared for the chaos that ensued.
Blinken will not want to be drawn on the current political situation. He will instead want to focus on preserving the trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo beyond Biden's tenure.
Speaking during a joint presser on Monday, Blinken said the US had "full confidence" in South Korea's institutions, and reaffirmed the US government's "unwavering support for the Korean people as they work tirelessly to uphold those institutions".
"Over the past four decades Korea has written one of the most powerful, inspiring democratic stories in the world," Blinken said.
Korea's democracy has been tested in recent weeks - just as American democracy has faced challenges throughout our history. But you are responding by demonstrating your democratic resilience."
But it's hard to disentangle the domestic and geopolitical situations. South Korea could be months away from electing a new president, and that leader may well want to break with Yoon's foreign policies.
Trump, who enters the White House in a fortnight, will also pursue his own agenda.
Additional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi in Seoul
The new Syrian authorities promise justice for crimes under the Assad regime. But it's a tall order, with many having suffered losses of every kind in the civil war. Sebastian Usher met people in Damascus for whom justice is key to how they see Syria's future.
On the edge of Douma, one of the Damascus suburbs most devastated by the war, in a shrouded living room next to a stove, Umm Mazen recounts the 12 years she desperately sought news of two of her sons, who were arrested in the first years of the uprising and civil war, and swallowed up in the Assad-era security system.
For her oldest son, Mazen, she finally received a death certificate, but for Abu Hadi, no trace of him has ever been divulged.
Her third son, Ahmed, spent three years in the security system, including eight months in the red block for political prisoners in that byword for brutality, Saydnaya prison.
His front teeth stoved in by a torturer's hammer, he remembers one moment when he believes he heard his brother Mazen's voice answering a roll call in the same jail, but nothing more.
What justice does Umm Mazen seek for the destruction of her family?
"There should be divine justice, coming from God," she says.
"I saw some local men bringing a shabiha (an armed regime supporter) to be killed.
"I told them: 'Don't kill him. Rather, torture him exactly the same way he tortured our young men'."
"My two children died - or probably have died, but there are thousands of other young men who were subjected to torture.
"I pray to God that Bashar [al-Assad] stays in a dungeon underground and that Russia, which used to protect him, can't help him.
"I pray to God to put him somewhere underground and that he is left in oblivion - just as he left our young men in his jails."
Lawyer Hussein Issa sought justice for dozens of people accused of political crimes under the Assads.
He faced constant pressure from the authorities over his advocacy, but persisted and managed to save some of his clients from being crushed under the wheels of the security system.
But for those assigned to the special terrorism courts, there was usually nothing that could be done.
The terrorism law loomed ever more darkly over Syria as the civil war continued.
Now, with the mountain on the edge of Damascus glimpsed through the window of his scruffy, smoke-filled office, the 54-year-old lawyer says he believes that many of the judges who were complicit with the Assad regime should be kicked out and legal action taken against them.
But others from that era, he says, could still play a role in the new judiciary.
As for the huge challenge of trying to deliver retrospective justice for the horrors of the past 50 years, Mr Issa says that establishing a judicial system capable of this is the most important task for Syria's new authorities.
"If this system is not good, the future of the new state will be grim.
"We don't know how bad it could then get. We are already afraid that some parties could cause strife and conflict.
"If we have a strong system and state, then we won't be afraid of these things.
"If we don't have them, we will be fearful. However, since I'm optimistic by nature, I think the new regime will definitely be better."
The monumental building in the Syrian capital where the justice ministry is located has been in suspension for several weeks after the fall of Assad.
Now, clusters of lawyers have gathered in the lifts and corridors ahead of the reopening of the civil and criminal courts.
In her fifth-floor office, the Deputy to the Minister of Justice, Khitam Haddad, says that criminal and civil cases will once again be dealt with, but the task of dealing with the crimes committed under the previous regime will not be tackled for now.
With her big, heavy desk covered in official papers, she says she's been working as a judge since 2013.
She was appointed deputy justice minister in 2023. For now, she remains in place.
"I felt a personal responsibility about the matter," she says.
"It is necessary for the work to continue, for the judges to go back to their work and for the courts to return, because as a Syrian I want my job to continue and I want this victory to continue, so that people have nothing to be afraid of.
"I want to send real and realistic messages of reassurance, not just talk."
But some lawyers are already concerned over a move by the transitional authorities to establish a council to oversee the Bar Association without putting it to a vote.
In a petition, they said such an approach would replace one form of authoritarianism with another.
For now, the laws and judicial structure of the Assad era remain in place, including the terrorism law.
It could be a long time before the cases of any of those accused of crimes under the ousted regime are brought to trial.
The new authorities have told Syrians not to take matters into their own hands, as videos have circulated of brutal summary justice being meted out to some former officials.
There have been raids and arrests - and some of those who escaped across the border to Lebanon or Iraq have been returned.
But there remains a big question over whether the justice system - which was for so long an instrument of repression – is capable of being reconfigured to take on this immense moral and logistical challenge.
High up on the mountain above Damascus, Syrians, young and old, are for now still breathing free - intoxicated by the cold clear winter air - in a place they were banned from entering by the security forces for more than a decade.
At cafes and kiosks that have sprung up in the weeks since the overthrow of Assad, they stare down at the city spread out before them – with both its dark memories and the promise of a different future, in which justice and accountability might just be allowed to play a part.
The Arctic recently made headlines after Donald Trump repeated his desire to buy Greenland. Trump cited national security interests, but for many the territory's vast mineral wealth is the main attraction. Yet economic development elsewhere in the vast polar region has ground to a halt.
Working conditions in the Arctic Ocean are extremely challenging at this time of the year for Norwegian fisherman Sondre Alnes-Bonesmo.
The sun last rose at the end of October, and it is not due to appear in the sky again until the middle of February.
In addition to the endless dark, temperatures can plummet below minus 40C, and storms can bring vast waves.
Mr Alnes-Bonesmo, 30, works two six-hour shifts a day, during five-week tours on a ship called Granit. One of the largest factory trawlers fishing in Arctic waters north of Norway, and off the coast of Greenland, it doesn't stop for winter.
Unsurprisingly, he prefers the endless daylight of summer. "I do like it when the weather is nice, as we're not sent crashing into the walls and such, the way we are during storms, when the waves can be fairly big," he grins in understatement.
Mr Alnes-Bonesmo is a participant in the so-called Arctic "cold rush".
A play on words with gold rush, it began in earnest around 2008 when a series of reports identified vast mineral and hydrocarbon reserves across the Arctic region. Reserves that, together with large fishing stocks, could continue to become more accessible as climate change reduces ice levels.
This reduction in ice has also increasingly opened up Arctic sea routes, north of the Canadian mainland and Russia.
So much so that, in the decade from 2013 to 2023, the total recorded annual distances sailed by ships in the Arctic Sea more than doubled from 6.1 million to 12.9 million miles.
The hope in the longer term is that cargo ships can travel from Asia to Europe and the east coast of the US, through Arctic waters above Canada and Russia.
But the question Mr Alnes-Bonesmo now asks himself is this – did he arrive too late?
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 much of the planned economic development of the Arctic region ground to a halt as relations between Russia and the West deteriorated.
"Russia had great plans in the Arctic," says Morten Mejlaender-Larsen, Arctic operation and technology director from Norwegian firm DNV. His company sets rules and standards for the maritime sector.
"They began constructing regional rescue centres complete with ships and helicopters to facilitate both destination shipping for gas, oil and coal projects in Siberia, as well as for shipping along the Northeast Passage [north of Russia].
"[But] since the invasion of Ukraine, international shipping in the Northeast passage has all but stopped, apart from a few Chinese ships," observes Mr Mejlaender-Larsen.
He adds that Norway has also halted oil and gas exploration in the region. "It's completely stopped," he says.
"We don't expect to see any further developments in the Barents Sea north of Bear Island." This small Norwegian island is some 400km (250 miles) north of Norway's mainland.
Norway's scaled back ambitions in the Arctic have pleased environmentalists who have consistently warned about the impact of drilling for hydrocarbons on both wildlife and the fragile environment of the polar region.
Last month Greenpeace welcomed the decision of the Norwegian government to stop the first round of licencing for deep sea mining in Arctic waters between Norway's Svalbard and Jan Mayen islands.
Commentators say that while poor relations with Russia is a key reason why Norway is wary of ploughing money into Arctic projects, its interest in the polar region had already cooled.
Helene Tofte, director of international cooperation and climate at the Norwegian Shipowners Association, says that in hindsight the outlook for shipping in the Arctic had been "exaggerated".
She points out that despite the impact of climate change, the Arctic remains a difficult place in which to operate. "Conditions in the Arctic can be extremely challenging, even when the absence of sea ice allows passage," she says.
"Large parts of the route are far from emergency response capacities, such as search and rescue, and environmental clean-up resources.
"Increased shipping in this area would require substantial investments in ships, emergency preparedness, infrastructure, and weather forecasting systems, for a route that is unpredictable and has a short operational season. At present, we have no indication that our members view this as commercially interesting."
Mr Mejlaender-Larsen points to a "belief that thanks to global warming there'll be summers up there. That'll never happen. If it's minus 40C and it gets 3C warmer, it's still not warm."
Moreover, Prof Arild Moe, from Norwegian research group Fridtjof Nansen Institute, says the entire cold rush of the Arctic was based on exaggerated assumptions. "The exuberance was excessive," says the expert on oil and gas exploration in the region.
"What the reports from 2008 referred to weren't actual reserves, but potential and highly uncertain resources, which would be risky, expensive, and difficult to locate and exploit."
Regarding Trump's renewed interest in Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory, authorities in Greenland and Denmark were again quick to reply that it was not for sale.
Prof Moe says that Trump's "crude and undiplomatic statement" shows that the US under Trump eyes both security and economic interests in the island, including its "rich mineral resources".
The Danish government also responded by announcing a huge increase in defence spending for Greenland.
Elsewhere in the Arctic, Trump is expected to allow increased oil and gas exploration in Alaska, specifically in the resource rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
This 19 million acre expanse is the US's largest wildlife refuge, and back in 2020 Trump authorised drilling in one section of it.
Meanwhile, Canada is continuing to build a deep-water port at Grays Bay, on the north coast of Nunavut, its most northern territory. Grays Bay is approximately in the centre of the so-called Northwest Passage, the Arctic sea route north of the Canadian mainland.
Back on the Granit fishing ship, Mr Alnes-Bonesmo says that, while he has earned good money, fishing quotas continue to go down to try to preserve stocks in Norwegian Arctic waters.
Nevertheless, he is philosophical. "After a few years at sea I've grown more scared of the Arctic Ocean, but I've also come to respect and value it for all its power and beauty."
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could announce his resignation within days, according to media reports.
He is considering stepping down as leader of the governing Liberal Party, which would also bring to an end his nine years as prime minister.
It follows months of pressure from his own MPs. Last month, his finance minister quit, citing disagreements on how to deal with Donald Trump's threat to levy US tariffs on Canadian goods.
Opinion polls suggest Trudeau's Liberal Party trails well behind the Conservatives with a general election looming some time this year.
The Globe and Mail reports that he could announce his intention to quit before he meets his party caucus on Wednesday, to avoid the perception that his own MPs forced him out.
Their sources said it was unclear whether Trudeau would leave immediately or stay on as prime minister until a new leader was selected.
And they stressed he had yet to make a final decision on his future.
Whoever takes over will have to lead the party through an election campaign while also navigating a possible trade war with the US.
The election must take place before October, but a change in leadership of the Liberal Party could increase calls for a snap vote in the coming months.
Trudeau's departure would bring to an end a defining era in Canadian politics.
He unexpectedly swept his party to power in 2015, winning a campaign that began with them in third place.
The fresh-faced young leader, aged 43 back then, promised a new kind of politics centred on an open immigration policy, increased taxes on the wealthy and battling climate change.
But his first term was dogged by scandals. In more recent years, he had been battling sinking popularity as frustration grew with the cost of living and his own style of governing.
More than a dozen of his own MPs have called for him to step down, while polls suggest two-thirds of voters disapprove of him.
Just 26% of respondents in a September Ipsos said Trudeau was their top pick for prime minister, putting him 19 points behind Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
History is also not on Trudeau's side, with only two prime ministers ever serving four consecutive terms.
Poilievre rose to the top of his party in 2022 on a promise to reduce taxes, tackle inflation and protect individual liberties.
The 45-year-old also rallied support behind the Freedom Convoy truckers protesting about Covid mandates - a blockade that brought Canadian cities including Ottawa to a standstill.
Canada's next prime minister will have to address the threat of tariffs from incoming US President Donald Trump.
He has vowed to impose a 25% tariff on Canadian goods if the country does not secure its shared border to the flow of irregular migrants and illegal drugs.
The "grave challenge" this posed was referred to in the resignation letter of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who quit hours before she was due to deliver her annual budget.
Trudeau had informed her he no longer wanted her to be his government's top economic adviser.
Three Israelis have been killed and eight wounded in a Palestinian shooting attack on a bus and other vehicles in the north of the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military and paramedics say.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service identified the dead as two women in their 60s and a man in his 40s. The driver of the bus was seriously wounded.
The Israeli military said "terrorists" opened fire at the vehicles near the village of al-Funduq, located on Highway 55, and then fled the scene.
Israeli media cited a military official as saying the attackers were two Palestinians and that security forces were pursuing them, setting up roadblocks and encircling several towns in the area.
Magen David Adom paramedic Avichai Ben Tzurya described it as "a very serious attack spread across the road involving multiple vehicles".
"We conducted quick searches and identified two females and a male in private cars without a pulse, suffering from severe gunshot wounds. We had no choice but to pronounce them dead at the scene," he said in a statement.
"Inside the bus, we treated victims of gunshots and shattered glass injuries, including the bus driver - who was conscious and suffering from gunshot wounds - as well as additional victims in mild to moderate condition."
The wounded were evacuated to two hospitals in central Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to bring to justice what he called the "abhorrent murderers" along with anyone who aided them.
"No-one will get away," he wrote on X.
There was no immediate claim from Palestinian armed groups, although Hamas praised the attack as a "heroic response against [Israel's] continued crimes", including the war in Gaza.
Hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis have been killed in a surge in violence in the West Bank since the start of the war, which was triggered by Hamas's deadly attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.
On Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry said that two Palestinians - a 17-year-old boy and a 40-year-old man - were killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank.
The teenager was shot dead during an Israeli raid in Askar refugee camp near the city of Nablus, which is 10km (6 miles) east of al-Funduq, it said.
The Israeli military said its troops fired on people who had hurled explosives at them in the Nablus area, according to Reuters news agency. It added that "a hit was identified" and that the incident was under review.
The man was killed in the town of Meithalun, 21km north-east of al-Funduq, where the Israeli military said Border Police officers killed an armed suspect during a wider operation in which 19 other people were arrested.
The Golden Globe Awards take place later, with Emilia Pérez, Conclave, Anora and The Brutalist in the running for the top prizes.
Film acting nominees include Zendaya, for tennis drama Challengers, and Timothée Chalamet for his starring role in Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.
Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are both up for their roles as sorcery students in Wicked, the musical adaptation of the hit stage show, while Daniel Craig is nominated for 1950s romance Queer, Demi Moore is up for body horror The Substance, and Nicole Kidman for erotic drama Babygirl.
Kate Winslet has two nominations - for Lee, a film about war photojournalist Lee Miller, and for her leading TV role in political satire The Regime. Selena Gomez is also up for two - for the film Emilia Pérez, about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender, and TV mystery comedy Only Murders in the Building.
The event marks the first major ceremony of the film awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on 2 March.
The Globes will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on Sunday evening, beginning at 01:00 GMT on Monday for UK audiences.
A win at the Globes can help boost a film's profile at a crucial time, when Bafta and Oscar voters are preparing to fill in their nomination ballots.
But the Globes is a much less formal event than the Academy Awards, with celebrities generally in a good mood after the Christmas break, ready to mingle over a few drinks and have fun with their acceptance speeches.
The main film contenders:
10 nominations - Emilia Pérez
7 - The Brutalist
6 - Conclave
5 - Anora, The Substance
4 - Challengers, A Real Pain, Wicked, The Wild Robot
Baby Reindeer, Shogun and The Bear are among the shows competing in the TV categories.
In recent years, the voting body behind the Globes has expanded and diversified its membership and brought in a new code of conduct.
The changes follow a scathing investigation by the LA Times in 2021 which exposed various ethical lapses, such as voters accepting "freebies" from studios and PR agencies lobbying for nominations.
Which films are nominated at the Globes?
The Golden Globes split their film categories by drama and comedy/musical, which allows them to nominate more movies and hand out more prizes than other ceremonies.
The film with the most nominations is Emilia Pérez, a largely Spanish-language musical about a dangerous cartel leader who wants to quit the world of crime and live a new life as a woman.
However, several of its 10 nominations are in the same categories - with two nods in best original song and two in best supporting actress.
Other contenders in the musical/comedy category include Anora, the story of a New York stripper who falls for the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch.
The Substance, which sees a woman trade her body for a younger, more beautiful version of herself is also nominated, along with A Real Pain, about two cousins travelling across Poland after the death of their grandmother.
In the drama category, acclaimed historical epic The Brutalist follows a Hungarian architect who tries to build a new life for himself in America following World War Two.
It's up against Conclave, based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris, which depicts a group of gossipy and scheming cardinals who gather in Rome to select the new Pope.
Nickel Boys, about two young men forced to attend a reform school in 1960s Florida, and September 5, which dramatises the terror attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics from the perspective of the sports journalists who covered it, are also in the running.
The other drama contenders include the sandy sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Two and A Complete Unknown, about Bob Dylan’s rise to fame in the 1960s.
Blockbusters including Deadpool & Wolverine, Twisters, Inside Out 2, Gladiator II and The Wild Robot will compete for the cinematic and box office achievement award, which was introduced last year to recognise more mainstream films.
Dune: Part Two was not submitted in that category despite its huge financial success, reportedly because the film's producers wanted Globe voters to focus on its artistic merits.
That means if members want to vote for the film, they will have to do so in the main categories.
Which actors are in the running?
There's a much higher chance of an actor being nominated at the Globes, where there are 36 slots available, than at the Oscars, which have 20.
As a result, the Globes are able to lean in to big celebrity names, ensuring their ceremony is well attended by A-listers, not all of whom will necessarily go on to score an Oscar nomination.
British acting nominees this year include Daniel Craig (Queer) Kate Winslet (Lee), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) Hugh Grant (Heretic), Tilda Swinton (The Room Next Door) and Felicity Jones (The Brutalist).
They are joined by stars including Angelina Jolie (Maria), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Demi Moore (The Substance), Glen Powell (Hit Man), Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) and Zendaya (Challengers).
There are two pop stars in the race - with Ariana Grande (Wicked) and Selena Gomez (Emilia Pérez) both in the running for best supporting actress.
Other well-known nominees include Amy Adams (Nightbitch), Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) and Denzel Washington (Gladiator II).
The supporting actor category will see two former Succession stars go head to head - Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) and Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice).
Strong's co-star Sebastian Stan has two nominations - one for playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice and one for A Different Man.
But some of the strongest contenders this awards season aren't necessarily Hollywood A-listers, such as relative newcomer Mikey Madison (Anora), Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), Brazil's Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here) and Russian actor Yura Borisov (Anora).
Away from the top categories, other notable nominees include singer Robbie Williams in the best original song category, for Forbidden Road, from his biopic Better Man.
Two of this year's winners have already been announced: Viola Davis will take home the Cecil B DeMille Award, for outstanding contribution to film, while Ted Danson will be honoured with the Carol Burnett Award, for excellence in television.
Who is hosting the Golden Globes?
The Globes have traditionally had excellent taste in hosts, regularly enlisting an acerbic personality to make cutting jokes about the A-list guests.
They are continuing that model this year with US comic Nikki Glaser, who gave a barnstorming performance at The Roast of Tom Brady last summer.
Glaser said she was "absolutely thrilled" to be hosting the Globes, adding she was looking forward to getting a "front row seat" at "one of my favourite nights in television".
"It's one of the few times that show business not only allows, but encourages itself to be lovingly mocked (at least I hope so). (God I hope so)," she said in a statement.
"Some of my favourite jokes of all time have come from past Golden Globes opening monologues when Tina [Fey], Amy [Poehler] or Ricky [Gervais] have said exactly what we all didn't know we desperately needed to hear.
"I just hope to continue in that time-honoured tradition (that might also get me cancelled). This is truly a dream job."
How to watch the Golden Globes
US viewers can watch the show live on the CBS network, which is airing the Globes as part of a five-year deal.
It will also stream on Paramount+ with Showtime. The ceremony starts at 01:00 GMT and usually lasts between three and four hours.
UK viewers without a VPN can expect to see highlights on social media, YouTube and news bulletins on Monday morning.
Ukraine has launched a fresh offensive in Russia's Kursk region, the Russian Defence Ministry says.
In a statement, the military said efforts to destroy the Ukrainian attack groups are ongoing. Officials in Ukraine have also suggested an operation is under way.
Ukraine first launched its incursion into Russia's Kursk region in August last year, seizing a large chunk of territory.
In recent months, Russian forces have made big gains in the area, pushing the Ukrainians back, but failing to eject them entirely.
In a statement posted on Telegram on Sunday, Russia's defence ministry said: "At around 9am Moscow time, in order to stop the offensive by the Russian troops in the Kursk direction, the enemy launched a counter-attack by an assault detachment consisting of two tanks, one counter-obstacle vehicle, and 12 armoured fighting vehicles."
The head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said there "was good news from Kursk Region" and that Russia was "getting what it deserves".
Ukraine's top counter-disinformation official Andriy Kovalenko said in a Telegram post on Sunday: "The Russians in Kursk are experiencing great anxiety because they were attacked from several directions and it came as a surprise to them."
It's unclear whether the offensive is sufficiently large-scale to lead to any significant changes on the frontline.
Kyiv's forces are reportedly suffering from manpower shortages and have been losing ground in the east of Ukraine in recent months, as Russian troops advance.
It comes as the Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched another drone attack on Ukraine overnight.
It said it had shot down 61 drones over Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyy regions
There were no direct hits, but a few houses were damaged in Kharkiv Region by an intercepted drone, the air force said.
In November, Ukraine reported its troops had engaged in combat with North Korean troops in the Kursk region.
The appearance of North Korean soldiers was in response to a surprise attack launched across the border by Ukrainian troops in August, advancing up to 18 miles (30km) into Russian land.
Moscow evacuated almost 200,000 people from areas along the border and President Vladimir Putin condemned the Ukrainian offensive as a "major provocation".
After a fortnight, Ukraine's top commander claimed to control more than 1,200 sq km of Russian territory and 93 villages.
Some of that territory has been regained by Russia but Ukraine still has troops in the Kursk region.
A woman has died from injuries sustained after a man drove his car into a German Christmas market last month, bringing the total death toll from the attack to six.
The 52-year-old died in hospital two weeks after a car ploughed into a packed market in Magdeburg, prosecutors said.
At least 299 people were injured in the attack on 20 December, according to the latest figures from the interior ministry of Saxony-Anhalt.
Four other women aged 45 to 75, and nine-year-old André Gleißner were also killed.
The Federal Victims' Commissioner Roland Weber told German media that as many as 531 people may have been traumatised or suffered economic losses as a result of the attack.
Fifty-year-old Taleb al-Abdulmohsen was arrested at the scene, but the suspected attacker's motives remain unclear.
He has lived in Germany since 2006 and is described as a Saudi psychiatrist who was living about 50km (30 miles) south of Magdeburg, in the town of Bernburg.
Abdulmohsen was granted asylum in 2016 and ran a website that aimed to help other former Muslims flee persecution in their Gulf homelands.
In many online posts Abdulmohsen voiced strongly anti-Islam views and support for far-right conspiracy narratives on the "Islamisation" of Europe.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said it was "clear to see" the suspect held "Islamophobic" views.
"The perpetrator does not fit into any previous categorisation. Every stone will be turned over here," she said.
Abdulmohsen has been ordered into pre-trial detention on counts of murder, attempted murder and dangerous bodily harm.
Police believe he acted alone, but German authorities are facing questions about security and what they knew about the suspect accused of using an access lane for emergency vehicles to drive into the market.
They are also fielding questions after reports they were warned last year about the suspect, with police saying they had evaluated whether he might be a threat a year ago.
A source close to the Saudi government told the BBC it had sent four official notifications known as "Notes Verbal" to German authorities, warning them about what they said were "the very extreme views" held by Abdulmohsen.
However, a counter-terrorism expert told the BBC the Saudis may have been mounting a disinformation campaign to discredit someone who tried to help young Saudi women seek asylum in Germany.
With his leopard-like spots, Navarro - a male lynx - calls out during mating season as he walks towards a camera trap.
Just short of 100cm (39 inches) in length and 45cm in height, the Iberian lynx is a rare sight. But there are now more than 2,000 in the wild across Spain and Portugal, so you're much more likely to see them than you were 20 years ago.
"The Iberian lynx was very, very close to extinction," says Rodrigo Serra, who runs the reproduction programme across Spain and Portugal.
At the lowest point there were fewer than 100 lynxes left in two populations that didn't interact, and only 25 of them were females of reproductive age.
"The only feline species that was threatened at this level was the sabre tooth tiger thousands of years ago."
The decline of the lynx population was partly down to more and more land being used for agriculture, a rise in fatalities on the roads, and a struggle for food.
Wild rabbits are essential prey for the lynx and two pandemics led to a 95% fall in their number.
By 2005, Portugal had no lynxes left, but it was also the year that Spain saw the first litter born in captivity.
It took another three years before Portugal decided on a national conservation action plan to save the species. A National Breeding Centre for Iberian lynxes was built in Silves in the Algarve.
Here they are monitored 24 hours a day. The aim is twofold – to prepare them for life in the wild and to pair them for reproduction.
Serra speaks in a whisper, because even from a distance of 200m you can cause stress to the animals in the 16 pens where most of the animals are kept.
Sometimes, though, stress is exactly what the lynxes need.
"When we notice a litter is becoming a bit more confident, we go in and chase them and make noise so they are scared again and climb the fences," says Serra. "We're training them not to get close to people in the wild."
That's partly for their own protection, but also so they stay away from people and their animals. "A lynx should be a lynx, not be treated like a house cat."
So the lynxes never associate food with people, they are fed through a tunnel system at the centre.
Then, when the time comes, they are released into the wild.
Genetics determines where they end up, to diminish the risks of inbreeding or disease. Even if a lynx was born in Portugal it might be taken to Spain.
Pedro Sarmento is responsible for reintroducing the lynx in Portugal and has studied the Iberian lynx for 30 years.
"As a biologist there are two things that strike me when I'm handling a lynx. It's an animal with a fairly small head for its body and extraordinarily wide paws. That gives them an impulse and ability to jump which are rare."
The breeding programme and the return of the lynx have been hailed as great successes, but as their numbers climb there may be problems too.
As lynxes are often released on private land in Portugal, the organisers of the reproduction programme have to reach an agreement with the owners first.
Where the animals go after that is up to them, and although there have been some attacks on chicken coops, Sarmento says there have not been many.
"This can lead to uneasiness within locals. We've been strengthening the coops so lynxes can't access them, and in some cases we keep monitoring the lynxes and scare them off if needed."
He recounts the story of Lítio, one of the first lynxes released in Portugal.
For six months Lítio stayed in the same area but then the team lost track of him.
He eventually made his way to Doñana, a national park in southern Spain where he had come from originally.
As Lítio was sick, he was treated and then returned to the reproduction team in the Algarve.
Within days of his release from the centre he began heading back to Doñana, swimming across the Guadiana river to reach Spain.
For a time he disappeared, but eventually he was brought back to the Algarve.
When he was released for a third time, Lítio did not venture back to Spain but instead he walked 3km (two miles), found a female and never moved again.
"He is the oldest lynx we have here, and he's fathered plenty of cubs ever since," says Sarmento.
Three decades after Spain decided to save the lynx, the species is no longer endangered, and Sarmento hopes it'll reach a favourable conservation status by 2035.
For that to happen, the numbers need to reach 5,000-6,000 in the wild.
"I saw the species disappearing. It's surreal that we're in a place where we can see lynxes in nature or through camera trapping almost daily," says Sarmento.
The reproduction team are not being complacent and there are risks involved in their work. Last year 80% of lynx deaths took place on the roads.
For now, though, they feel confident the Iberian lynx has been saved.
Tens of millions of Americans are bracing for a huge winter storm that could bring the heaviest snowfall and coldest temperatures in over a decade.
The storm, which started in the middle of the US, will move east in the next couple of days, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
Parts of the US not accustomed to severe cold, including Mississippi and Florida, have been warned to expect treacherous conditions.
Forecasters say the extreme weather is being caused by the polar vortex, an area of cold air that circulates around the Arctic.
"For some, this could be the heaviest snowfall in over a decade," the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
AccuWeather forecaster Dan DePodwin said: "This could lead to the coldest January for the US since 2011."
He added that "temperatures that are well below historical average" could linger for a week.
Those low temperatures will be on the east coast as well, where the storm is expected to reach by Sunday evening.
In the central US, there will be "considerable disruptions to daily life" and "dangerous or impossible driving conditions and widespread closures" into Sunday, according to the NWS.
Some areas of Kansas and Indiana could see at least 8in (20.3cm) of snow.
In parts of the Midwest, blizzards are possible.
"Whiteout conditions will make travel extremely hazardous, with impassable roads and a high risk of motorists becoming stranded," the NWS warned.
Sleet and freezing rain is forecast for Missouri, Illinois, and swathes of Kentucky and West Virginia.
As the storm moves east, millions more Americans will see record low temperatures, forecasters said.
Cities including Washington DC, Baltimore and Philadelphia are preparing for snowy and icy conditions from Sunday into Monday. Snowfall of between 5-12in could be recorded in parts of Virginia.
Also on Sunday, portions of the southern US including Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi may see severe thunderstorms.
Private meteorologist Ryan Maue said: "It's going to be a mess, a potential disaster. This is something we haven't seen in quite a while."
American, Delta, Southwest and United airlines are waiving change fees for passengers because of the potential flight disruptions.
A "panic-stricken" elephant killed a Spanish woman while she was bathing the animal at an elephant centre in Thailand, local police said.
Blanca Ojanguren García, 22, was washing the elephant at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre last Friday when she was gored to death by the animal.
Experts told Spanish language newspaper Clarín that the elephant could have been stressed by having to interact with tourists outside its natural habitat.
García, who was a law and international relations student at Spain's University of Navarra, was living in Taiwan as part of a student exchange programme.
She was visiting Thailand with her boyfriend, who witnessed the attack.
Spain's foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said the Spanish consulate in Bangkok was assisting García's family.
BBC News has reached out to the elephant care centre for comment.
Bathing elephants is a popular activity among tourists in Thailand, which is home to more than 4,000 wild animals and has a similar number kept in captivity, according to the Department of National Parks.
The Koh Yao centre offers "elephant care" packages which let tourists make food for and feed the animals, as well as shower and walk with them. These packages cost between 1,900 baht ($55; £44) and 2,900 baht.
Animal activists have previously criticised elephant bathing activities, noting that they disrupt natural grooming behaviours and expose the animals to unnecessary stress and potential injury.
World Animal Protection, an international charity, has for years urged countries including Thailand to stop breeding elephants in captivity.
More than six in 10 elephants used for tourism in Asia are living in "severely inadequate" conditions, the charity said.
"These intelligent and socially intricate animals, with a capacity for complex thoughts and emotions, endure profound suffering in captivity, as their natural social structures cannot be replicated artificially," the charity said.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could announce his resignation within days, according to media reports.
He is considering stepping down as leader of the governing Liberal Party, which would also bring to an end his nine years as prime minister.
It follows months of pressure from his own MPs. Last month, his finance minister quit, citing disagreements on how to deal with Donald Trump's threat to levy US tariffs on Canadian goods.
Opinion polls suggest Trudeau's Liberal Party trails well behind the Conservatives with a general election looming some time this year.
The Globe and Mail reports that he could announce his intention to quit before he meets his party caucus on Wednesday, to avoid the perception that his own MPs forced him out.
Their sources said it was unclear whether Trudeau would leave immediately or stay on as prime minister until a new leader was selected.
And they stressed he had yet to make a final decision on his future.
Whoever takes over will have to lead the party through an election campaign while also navigating a possible trade war with the US.
The election must take place before October, but a change in leadership of the Liberal Party could increase calls for a snap vote in the coming months.
Trudeau's departure would bring to an end a defining era in Canadian politics.
He unexpectedly swept his party to power in 2015, winning a campaign that began with them in third place.
The fresh-faced young leader, aged 43 back then, promised a new kind of politics centred on an open immigration policy, increased taxes on the wealthy and battling climate change.
But his first term was dogged by scandals. In more recent years, he had been battling sinking popularity as frustration grew with the cost of living and his own style of governing.
More than a dozen of his own MPs have called for him to step down, while polls suggest two-thirds of voters disapprove of him.
Just 26% of respondents in a September Ipsos said Trudeau was their top pick for prime minister, putting him 19 points behind Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
History is also not on Trudeau's side, with only two prime ministers ever serving four consecutive terms.
Poilievre rose to the top of his party in 2022 on a promise to reduce taxes, tackle inflation and protect individual liberties.
The 45-year-old also rallied support behind the Freedom Convoy truckers protesting about Covid mandates - a blockade that brought Canadian cities including Ottawa to a standstill.
Canada's next prime minister will have to address the threat of tariffs from incoming US President Donald Trump.
He has vowed to impose a 25% tariff on Canadian goods if the country does not secure its shared border to the flow of irregular migrants and illegal drugs.
The "grave challenge" this posed was referred to in the resignation letter of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who quit hours before she was due to deliver her annual budget.
Trudeau had informed her he no longer wanted her to be his government's top economic adviser.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris will on Monday preside over the official certification in Congress of the result of November's presidential election - a contest that she lost to Donald Trump.
The date also marks the fourth anniversary of a riot at the US Capitol, when Trump's supporters tried to thwart the certification of Democratic President Joe Biden's election victory in 2020. Normally the occasion is a mere formality.
Heavy security is in place in Washington DC, and Biden has vowed there will be no repeat of the violence on 6 January 2021 - which led to several deaths.
As lawmakers meet in Washington DC, heavy snow forecast for the American capital could prove disruptive.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has vowed to go ahead with the certification at 13:00 EST (18:00 GMT) in spite of the weather, telling Fox News: "Whether we're in a blizzard or not, we're going to be in that chamber making sure this is done."
As the current vice-president, Harris is required by the US Constitution to officially preside over the certification of the result, after Trump beat her in the nationwide poll on 5 November.
Trump won all seven of the country's swing states, helping him to victory in the electoral college, the mechanism that decides who takes the presidency. It will be Harris's job on Monday to read out the number of electoral college votes won by each candidate.
Trump's second term will begin after he is inaugurated on 20 January. For the first time since 2017, the president's party will also enjoy majorities in both chambers of Congress, albeit slender ones.
Trump's win marked a stunning political comeback from his electoral defeat in 2020, and a criminal conviction in 2024 - a first for a current or former US president.
Amid the dramatic recent presidential campaign, Trump also survived a bullet grazing his ear when a gunman opened fire at one of his rallies in Pennsylvania.
While away from the White House, he has faced a slew of legal cases against him - including over his attempts to overturn the 2020 result, which he continues to dispute.
Following his defeat that year, Trump and his allies made baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud - claiming the election had been stolen from them.
In a speech in Washington DC on certification day, 6 January 2021, Trump told a crowd to "fight like hell" but also asked them to "peacefully" make their voices heard.
He also attempted to pressurise his own vice-president, Mike Pence, to reject the election result - a call that Pence rejected.
Rioters went on to smash through barricades and ransack the Capitol building before Trump ultimately intervened by telling them to go home. Several deaths were blamed on the violence.
Trump's pledges after returning to office include pardoning people convicted of offences over the attack. He says many of them are "wrongfully imprisoned", though has acknowledged that "a couple of them, probably they got out of control".
Conversely, Biden has called on Americans never to forget what happened.
"We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it," Biden wrote in the Washington Post over the weekend.
For Trump's Republican Party, the new Senate Majority Leader John Thune has signalled a desire to move on, telling the BBC's US partner CBS News: "You can't be looking in the rearview mirror."
Mozambique's opposition leader Venâncio Mondlane, who has been calling for protests for weeks from exile, has said he will return to the country on Thursday.
Mondlane said he would arrive ahead of the swearing-in of a new president next week.
Daniel Chapo of the ruling Frelimo party is due to be sworn next Wednesday after a court confirmed his election victory.
But Mondlane, the runner-up, rejected the outcome, sparking violent protests that have left dozens dead since October.
Mondlane left Mozambique the same month saying he feared for his life, after two of his aides were shot dead.
In a Facebook live address on Sunday, he sent out a defiant message to the authorities saying he "will be in Maputo. They don't need to chase me any more".
He said he would arrive at 08:05 local time (06:05 GMT) on Thursday at the international airport in Maputo, calling for people to welcome him there.
"If they are killing my brothers... then I will be there. You can do what you want. If you want to murder, murder. If you want to arrest, arrest too. I will be there," he said.
Mondlane maintains that he won the election and has called for more protests until there is "electoral truth".
His supporters have frequently staged violent protests across the country to demand an end to the 49-year-rule of the Frelimo party.
He has previously said he would install himself as president on 15 January - on the presidential inauguration day - despite the court upholding his rival's victory.
The electoral commission initially declared Chapo the winner of the election with 71% of the vote, compared to Mondlane's 20%.
The final official results from the constitutional court two weeks ago gave Chapo 65% and Mondlane 24%.
International election observers have previously said that the vote was flawed, pointing to doctored numbers and other irregularities during the counting process.
Security forces have sought to end the nationwide protests in a violent crackdown that has tested the country's stability.
More than 270 people have been killed, including protesters, children and members of the security forces, according to rights groups.
The unrest has also affected the economy, with more than 12,000 people losing their jobs and over 500 companies being vandalised.
Neighbouring countries have also been affected by the political unrest, with thousands of Mozambicans fleeing across the border.
Outgoing President Filipe Nyusi has in the past called for dialogue to resolve the dispute. On 27 December, Chapo called for "non-violence" and "unity".
More Vietnamese attempted small-boat Channel crossings in the first half of 2024 than any other nationality. Yet they are coming from one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Why, then, are so many risking their lives to reach Britain?
Phuong looked at the small inflatable boat and wondered whether she should step in. There were 70 people packed in, and it was sitting low in the water. She recalls the fear, exhaustion and desperation on their faces. There weren't enough lifejackets to go around.
But Phuong was desperate. She says she had been stuck in France for two months, after travelling there from Vietnam via Hungary, sleeping in tents in a scrubby forest.
Already she had refused to travel on one boat because it seemed dangerously overcrowded, and previously had been turned back in the middle of the Channel three times by bad weather or engine failure.
Her sister, Hien, lives in London, and recalls that Phuong used to phone her from France in tears. "She was torn between fear and a drive to keep going.
"But she had borrowed so much - around £25,000 - to fund this trip. Turning back wasn't an option." So, she climbed on board.
Today Phuong lives in London with her sister, without any legal status. She was too nervous to speak to us directly, and Phuong is not her real name. She left it to her sister, who is now a UK citizen, to describe her experiences.
In the six months to June, Vietnamese made up the largest number of recorded small boat arrivals with 2,248 landing in the UK, ahead of people from countries with well-documented human rights problems, including Afghanistan and Iran.
The extraordinary efforts made by Vietnamese migrants to get to Britain is well documented, and in 2024 the BBC reported on how Vietnamese syndicates are running successful people-smuggling operations.
It is not without significant risks. Some Vietnamese migrants end up being trafficked into sex work or illegal marijuana farms. They make up more than one-tenth of those in the UK filing official claims that they are victims of modern slavery.
And yet Vietnam is a fast-growing economy, acclaimed as a "mini-China" for its manufacturing prowess. Per capita income is eight times higher than it was 20 years ago. Add to that the tropical beaches, scenery and affordability, which have made it a magnet for tourists.
So what is it that makes so many people desperate to leave?
A tale of two Vietnams
Vietnam, a one-party Communist state, sits near the bottom of most human rights and freedom indexes. No political opposition is permitted. The few dissidents who raise their voices are harassed and jailed.
Yet most Vietnamese have learned to live with the ruling party, which leans for legitimacy on its record of delivering growth. Very few who go to Britain are fleeing repression.
Nor are the migrants generally fleeing poverty. The World Bank has singled Vietnam out for its almost unrivalled record of poverty reduction among its 100 million people.
Rather, they are trying to escape what some call "relative deprivation".
Despite its impressive economic record, Vietnam started far behind most of its Asian neighbours, with growth only taking off well after the end of the Cold War in 1989. As a result, average wages, at around £230 a month, are much lower than in nearby countries like Thailand, and three-quarters of the 55-million-strong workforce are in informal jobs, with no security or social protection.
"There is a huge disparity between big cities like Hanoi and rural areas," says Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnamese academic at the Institute of South East Asian Studies-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. "For a majority of workers with limited skills, there is a glass ceiling. Even if you work 14 hours a day you cannot save enough to build a house or start a family."
This was what Phuong felt, despite coming from Haiphong, Vietnam's third-largest city.
Her sister Hien had made it to Britain nine years earlier, smuggled inside a shipping container. It had cost her around £22,000 but she was able to pay that back in two years, working long hours in kitchens and nail salons. Hien married a Vietnamese man who already had British citizenship, and they had a daughter; all three are now UK citizens.
In Haiphong, jobs were scarce after the pandemic and at 38 years old, Phuong wanted what her sister had in London: the ability to save money and start a family.
"She could survive in Vietnam, but she wanted a home, a better life, with more security," explains Hien.
Lan An Hoang, a professor in development studies at Melbourne University, has spent years studying migration patterns. "Twenty to thirty years ago, the urge to migrate overseas was not as strong, because everyone was poor," she says. "People were happy with one buffalo, one motorbike and three meals a day.
"Suddenly a few people successfully migrated to countries like Germany or the UK, to work on cannabis farms or open nail salons. They started to send a lot of money home. Even though the economic conditions of those left behind have not changed, they feel poor relative to all these families with migrants working in Europe."
'Catch up, get rich'
This tradition of seeking better lives overseas goes back to the 1970s and 80s, when Vietnam was allied to the Soviet Union following the defeat of US forces in the south.
The state-led economy had hit rock bottom. Millions were destitute; some areas suffered food shortages. Tens of thousands left to work in eastern bloc countries like Poland, East Germany and Hungary.
This was also a time when 800,000 mainly ethnic Chinese boat people fled the communist party's repressive actions, making perilous sea journeys across the South China Sea, eventually resettling in the USA, Australia or Europe.
The economic hardships of that time threatened the legitimacy of the communist party, and in 1986 it made an abrupt turn, abandoning the attempt to build a socialist system and throwing the doors open to global markets. The new theme of Vietnam's national story was to catch up, and get rich, any way possible. For many Vietnamese, that meant going abroad.
"Money is God in Vietnam," says Lan An Hoang. "The meaning of 'the good life' is primarily anchored in your ability to accumulate wealth. There is also a strong obligation to help your family, especially in central Vietnam.
"That is why the whole extended family pools resources to finance the migration of one young person because they believe they can send back large sums of money, and facilitate the migration of other people."
New money: spoils of migration
Drive through the flat rice fields of Nghe An, one of Vietnam's poorer provinces lying south of Hanoi, and where there were once smaller concrete houses, you will now find large, new houses with gilded gates. More are under construction, thanks, in part, to money earned in the West.
The new houses are prominent symbols of success for returnees who have done well overseas.
Vietnam is now enjoying substantial inflows of foreign investment, as it is considered an alternative to China for companies wanting to diversify their supply chains. This investment is even beginning to reach places like Nghe An, too.
Foxconn, a corporate giant that manufactures iPhones, is one of several foreign businesses building factories in Nghe An, offering thousands of new jobs.
But monthly salaries for unskilled workers only reach around £300, even with overtime. That is not enough to rival the enticing stories of the money to be made in the UK, as told by the people smugglers.
From travel agents to labour brokers
The business of organising the travel for those wishing to leave the province is now a very profitable one. Publicly, companies present themselves as either travel agents or brokers for officially-approved overseas labour contracts, but in practice many also offer to smuggle people to the UK via other European countries. They usually paint a rosy picture of life in Britain, and say little about the risks and hardships they will face.
"Brokers" typically charge between £15,000 and £35,000 for the trip to the UK. Hungary is a popular route into the EU because it offers guest-worker visas to Vietnamese passport holders. The higher the price, the easier and faster the journey.
The communist authorities in Vietnam have been urged by the US, the UK and UN agencies to do more to control the smuggling business.
Remittances from abroad earn Vietnam around £13bn a year, and the government has a policy of promoting migration for work, although only through legal channels, mostly to richer Asian countries.
More than 130,000 Vietnamese workers left in 2024 under the official scheme. But the fees for these contracts can be high, and the wages are much lower than they can earn in Britain.
The huge risks of the illicit routes used to reach the UK were brought home in 2019, when 39 Vietnamese people were found dead in Essex, having suffocated while being transported inside a sealed container across the Channel.
Yet this has not noticeably reduced demand for the smugglers' services. The increased scrutiny of container traffic has, however, pushed them to find alternative Channel crossings, which helps explain the sharp rise in Vietnamese people using small boats.
'Success stories outweigh the risks'
"The tragedy of the 39 deaths in 2019 is almost forgotten," says the cousin of one of the victims, Le Van Ha. He left behind a wife, two young children and a large debt from the cost of the journey. His cousin, who does not want to be named, says attitudes in their community have not changed.
"People hardly care anymore. It's a sad reality, but it is the truth.
"I see the trend of leaving continuing to grow, not diminish. For people here, the success stories still outweigh the risks."
Three of the victims came from the agricultural province of Quang Binh. The headteacher of a secondary school in the region, who also asked not to be named, says that 80% of his students who graduate soon plan to go overseas.
"Most parents here come from low-income backgrounds," he explains. "The idea of [encouraging their child to] broaden their knowledge and develop their skills is not the priority.
"For them, sending a child abroad is largely about earning money quickly, and getting it sent back home to improve the family's living standards."
In March the UK Home Office started a social media campaign to deter Vietnamese people from illegal migration. Some efforts were also made by the Vietnamese government to alert people to the risks of using people-smugglers. But until there are more appealing economic opportunities in those provinces, it is likely the campaigns will have little impact.
"They cannot run these campaigns just once," argues Diep Vuong, co-founder of Pacific Links, an anti-trafficking organisation. "It's a constant investment in education that's needed."
She has first-hand experience, leaving Vietnam to the US in 1980 as part of the exodus of Vietnamese boat people.
"In Vietnam, people believe they have to work hard, to do everything for their families. That is like a shackle which they cannot easily escape. But with enough good information put out over the years, they might start to change this attitude."
But the campaigns are up against a powerful narrative. Those who go overseas and fail – and many do – are often ashamed, and keep quiet about what went wrong. Those who succeed come back to places like Nghe An and flaunt their new-found wealth. As for the tragedy of the 39 people who died in a shipping container, the prevailing view in Nghe An is still that they were just unlucky.
Top image credit: Getty Images
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"I know that you can die twice. First comes physical death... to be forgotten is a second death," notes screenwriter Eve Blouin, in an epilogue at the end of her mother's autobiography.
Eve understands this sentiment more than most.
In the 1950s and 60s, her mother, the late Andrée Blouin, threw herself into the fight for a free Africa, mobilising the Democratic Republic of Congo's women against colonialism and rising to become a key adviser to Patrice Lumumba, DR Congo's first prime minister and a revered independence hero.
She traded ideas with famed revolutionaries like Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah, Guinea's Sékou Touré and Algeria's Ahmed Ben Bella, yet her story is hardly known.
In an attempt to remedy this injustice, Blouin's memoir, titled My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria, is being re-released, having spent decades out of print.
In the book, Blouin explained that her yearning for decolonisation was sparked by a personal tragedy.
She grew up between Central African Republic (CAR) and Congo-Brazzaville, which at the time were French colonies named Ubangi-Shari and the French Congo respectively.
In the 1940s, her two-year-old son, René, was being treated in hospital for malaria in the CAR.
René was mixed-racelike his mother, and because he was one-quarter African, he was denied medication. Weeks later, René was dead.
"The death of my son politicised me as nothing else could," Blouin wrote in her memoir.
She added that colonialism "was no longer a matter of my own maligned fate but a system of evil whose tentacles reached into every phase of African life".
Blouin was born in 1921, to a 40-year-old white French father and a 14-year-old black mother from the CAR.
The two met when Blouin's father passed through her mother's village to sell goods.
"Even today, the story of my father and my mother, while giving me much pain, astonishes me still," Blouin said.
When she was just three, Blouin's father placed her in a convent for mixed-racegirls, which was run by French nuns in the neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville.
Blouin wrote: "The orphanage served as a kind of waste bin for the waste products of this black-and-white society: the children of mixed blood who fit nowhere."
Blouin's experience in the orphanage was extremely negative - she wrote that the children at the institution were whipped, underfed and verbally abused.
But she was headstrong - she escaped from the orphanage aged 15 after the nuns attempted to force her into marriage.
Blouin eventually married by her own will, twice. After René's death, she moved with her second husband to Guinea, a West African country which was also governed by the French.
At the time, Guinea was in the midst of a "political tempest", she wrote. France had promised the country independence, but also required Guineans to vote in a referendum on whether or not the country should maintain economic, diplomatic and military ties with France.
The Guinean branch of the pan-African movement the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA) wanted the country to vote "No", arguing that the country needed total liberation. In 1958, Blouin joined the campaign, driving throughout the country to speak at rallies.
A year later, Guinea secured its independence by voting "No" and Sékou Touré, Guinea's RDA leader, became the nation's first president.
By this point, Blouin had begun to develop considerable clout in post-colonial, pan-African circles. She wrote that after Guinea became independent, she used this influence to advise the CAR's new President Barthélemy Boganda, persuading him stand down in a diplomatic row with Congo-Brazzaville's post-independence leader, Fulbert Youlou.
But counselling was not all Blouin had to offer this fast-changing Africa.
In a restaurant in Guinea's capital, Conakry, she met a group of liberation activists from what would later become DR Congo. They urged her to help them mobilise Congolese women in the fight against Belgian colonial rule.
Blouin was pulled in two directions. On one hand, she had three young children - including Eve - to raise. On the other, "she had the restlessness of an idealist with a certain anger at the world as it was", Eve, now 67, told the BBC.
In 1960, with Nkrumah's encouragement, Andrée Blouin flew alone to DR Congo. She joined prominent male liberation activists, such as Pierre Mulele and Antoine Gizenga, on the road, campaigning across the country's 2.4 million sq km (906,000 sq miles) expanse. She cut a striking figure, travelling through the bush with her coiffed hair, form-fitting dresses and chic, translucent shades.
In Kahemba, near the border with Angola, Blouin and her team paused their campaign to help build a base for Angolan independence fighters who had fled from the Portuguese colonial authorities.
She addressed crowds of women, encouraging them to push for gender equality as well as Congo's independence. She also had a knack for organising and strategy.
Soon, the colonial powers and international press caught wind of Blouin's work. They accused her of being, among many things, Nkrumah's mistress, Sékou Touré's agent and "the courtesan of all the African chiefs of state".
She attracted even more attention when she met Lumumba.
In her book, Blouin describes him as a "lithe and elegant" man whose "name was written in letters of gold in the Congo skies".
When the country clinched its independence in 1960, Lumumba became its first prime minister. He was just 34 years old.
Lumumba selected Blouin as his "chief of protocol" and speechwriter. The pair worked together so closely that the press dubbed them "Lumum-Blouin".
Blouin was described by the US's Time magazine as a "handsome 41-year-old" whose "steel will and quick energy make her an invaluable political aide".
But a slew of disasters struck team Lumum-Blouin - and the newly formed government - just a few days into their tenure.
Firstly, the army revolted against their white Belgium commanders, sparking violence across the nation. Then, Belgium, the UK and US backed secession in Katanga, a mineral-rich region that all three Western nations had interests in. Belgian paratroopers swooped back into the country, supposedly to restore security.
Blouin described the events as a "war of nerves", with traitors "organising everywhere".
She wrote that Lumumba was a "true hero of modern times", but also admitted she thought he was naïve and, at times, too soft.
"It is true that those who are of the best faith are often the most cruelly deceived," she said.
Within seven months of Lumumba taking charge, army chief of staff Joseph Mobutu seized power.
On the 17 January Lumumba was assassinated by firing squad, with the tacit backing of Belgium. It is possible the UK was complicit, while the US had organised previous plots to kill Lumumba - fearing that he was sympathetic to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
In her book, Blouin said the shock and grief caused by Lumumba's death left her speechless.
"Never before had I been left without torrents of things to say," she wrote.
She was living in Paris at the time of the killing, having being forced into exile after Mobutu's coup.
To ensure Blouin would not talk to the international press, the authorities made her family - who had moved to Congo - stay in the country as "hostages".
The separation was crushing for Blouin, who, as Eve describes, was "very protective" and "very maternal".
Reflecting on her mother's personality, Eve adds: "One wouldn't want to antagonise her because even though she had a big and generous heart, she could be rather volatile."
While Blouin was in exile, soldiers looted her family home and brutally beat her mother with a gun, permanently damaging her spine.
Blouin's family were finally able to join her after months of separation.
They spent a brief period in Algeria - where they were offered sanctuary by the country's first post-independence President, Ahmed Ben Bella.
They then settled in Paris. Blouin remained involved in pan-Africanism from afar "in the form of articles and almost daily meetings", Eve wrote in the memoir's epilogue.
When Blouin began writing her autobiography in the 1970s, she still had great reverence for the independence movements she had dedicated herself to.
She had high praise for Sékou Touré, who by that point had established a one-party state and was ruthlessly suppressing freedom of expression.
Blouin did however grow deeply despondent that Africa had not become "free", as she had hoped.
"It is not the outsiders who have damaged Africa the most, but the mutilated will of the people and the selfishness of some of our own leaders," she wrote.
She grieved the death of her dream, so much so that she refused to take medication for the cancer that was ravaging her body.
"It was terrible to watch. I was absolutely powerless," Eve said.
Blouin passed away in Paris on 9 April 1986, at the age of 65. According to Eve, her mother's death was met by the world with "dreary indifference".
She remains an inspiration in some corners, however. In DR Congo's capital, Kinshasa, a cultural centre named after Blouin offers the likes of educational programmes, conferences, and film screenings - all underpinned by a pan-African ethos.
And through My Country, Africa, Blouin's extraordinary story is being released for a second time, this time into a world that shows greater interest in the historical contributions of women.
New readers will learn of the girl who went from being stashed away by the colonial system, to fighting for the freedom of millions of black Africans.
My Country, Africa: Autobiography of the Black Pasionaria, published by Verso Books, goes on sale on 7 January in the UK
A "panic-stricken" elephant killed a Spanish woman while she was bathing the animal at an elephant centre in Thailand, local police said.
Blanca Ojanguren García, 22, was washing the elephant at the Koh Yao Elephant Care Centre last Friday when she was gored to death by the animal.
Experts told Spanish language newspaper Clarín that the elephant could have been stressed by having to interact with tourists outside its natural habitat.
García, who was a law and international relations student at Spain's University of Navarra, was living in Taiwan as part of a student exchange programme.
She was visiting Thailand with her boyfriend, who witnessed the attack.
Spain's foreign minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said the Spanish consulate in Bangkok was assisting García's family.
BBC News has reached out to the elephant care centre for comment.
Bathing elephants is a popular activity among tourists in Thailand, which is home to more than 4,000 wild animals and has a similar number kept in captivity, according to the Department of National Parks.
The Koh Yao centre offers "elephant care" packages which let tourists make food for and feed the animals, as well as shower and walk with them. These packages cost between 1,900 baht ($55; £44) and 2,900 baht.
Animal activists have previously criticised elephant bathing activities, noting that they disrupt natural grooming behaviours and expose the animals to unnecessary stress and potential injury.
World Animal Protection, an international charity, has for years urged countries including Thailand to stop breeding elephants in captivity.
More than six in 10 elephants used for tourism in Asia are living in "severely inadequate" conditions, the charity said.
"These intelligent and socially intricate animals, with a capacity for complex thoughts and emotions, endure profound suffering in captivity, as their natural social structures cannot be replicated artificially," the charity said.
North Korea has fired what appears to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile towards the sea to its east, South Korea's military said, in what is Pyongyang's first missile launch in two months.
The missile flew 1,100km before falling into the sea, the military said, adding that it "strongly condemns" this "clear act of provocation".
The launch comes as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Seoul for talks with some of South Korea's key leaders.
Earlier on Monday, Blinken met with acting president Choi Sang-mok, where he described the alliance between Washington and Seoul as a "cornerstone of peace and stability on the Korean peninsula".
South Korea's military says it has strengthened surveillance for the North's future missile launches and is "closely sharing information" on today's launch with the US and Japan.
Today's launch also comes amid political chaos in South Korea, which has embroiled the country for weeks after suspended President Yoon Suk Yeol's short-lived martial law attempt in December.
Yoon, who was stripped of his presidential powers after lawmakers voted to impeach him, now faces arrest. The constitutional court is also deliberating whether he should be removed from office.
Pyongyang previously mocked Yoon's shock martial law declaration as an "insane act" and accused Yoon of "brazenly brandishing blades and guns of fascist dictatorship at his own people".
The international community considers North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un a dictator. Kim's family has ruled the hermit nation for decades by developing and promoting a cult of personality.
The last time Pyongyang fired missiles was in November, a day before the US presidential election, when it launched at least seven short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast.
Earlier that week, the US had flown a long-range bomber during trilateral military drills with South Korea and Japan in a show of power, drawing condemnation from Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong.
South Korea's suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol remains defiant in his newly-fortified residence, with the arrest warrant over his short-lived martial law order set to expire on Monday.
Yoon's security team, which stopped investigators arresting him on Friday, installed barbed wire and barricaded the compound with buses over the weekend, to prevent another attempt.
Yoon had ignored multiple summonses to appear for questioning on insurrection and abuse of power charges, before investigators showed up at his residence - only to call off their operation after a six-hour standoff with the presidential security service.
Investigators may try to extend their warrant. They told the BBC they have asked the police to execute it, in the hope their efforts carry more weight.
Public anger has spiralled in recent weeks, as thousands of protesters braved heavy snow over the weekend, both in support of and against Yoon.
South Korea has been in crisis for the past month, ever since Yoon tried to impose martial law citing a threat from the North and "anti-state forces". The fallout continues as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Seoul, seeking to stabilise ties ahead of a Donald Trump presidency.
A looming deadline
Time has almost run out for the investigators leading the criminal case against Yoon.
Yoon's lawyers have claimed that his arrest warrant was "illegal" as the anti-corruption investigators did not have the authority to oversee a case as serious as insurrection.
The presidential security team has cited this as a reason for blocking Yoon's arrest - along with the fact that Yoon remains a sitting president until the constitutional court rules on his impeachment.
"For the PSS, whose primary mission is the absolute safety of the president, to comply with the execution of an arrest warrant amidst ongoing legal disputes would be tantamount to abandoning its duty," security service chief Park Jong-joon said on Sunday.
Mr Park denied accusations that his team was serving as a "private militia" for Yoon.
Yoon's lawyers, who on Monday filed complaints against investigators over the arrest attempt, said Yoon has been "practically detained in his residence".
They also filed an injunction against the warrant, which was rejected by the court, and then said they were considering appealing the decision.
Meanwhile, acting president Choi Sang-mok has resisted the opposition's calls to sack key security officials obstructing the arrest.
The BBC understands that opposition lawmakers had asked investigators to try arresting Yoon again, but "more firmly and with sufficient means".
Investigators could also apply for a new detention warrant, which has to be approved by a judge. That would allow Yoon to be detained for up to 20 days, while an arrest warrant only allows him to be held for 48 hours.
But without a change to either the situation or their approach, it seems unlikely investigators or police will be able to make the arrest.
As seen last Friday, they may again be blocked by the presidential security service which formed a "human wall" to protect Yoon. He himself has vowed to "fight to the end", dividing public opinion and spurring on his supporters, who have been demonstrating for days outside his home.
The tense standoff has also raised urgent questions about the robustness and effectiveness of South Korea's political and legal institutions.
Diplomatic headwinds
The situation also has consequences beyond domestic politics.
Up until last month, the Biden administration had sung Yoon's praises, delighted by his willingness to work with Washington to tackle the security threats posed by North Korea and China. The US put a lot of effort into helping South Korea repair its strained relations with Japan, so the three countries could address these issues together.
Mr Blinken's ongoing visit to Seoul, where he will meet South Korean foreign minister Cho Tae-yul on Monday, therefore comes at a difficult time for these two allies.
Yoon did not tell the US about his plans to impose martial law, meaning Washington did not have the chance to dissuade him and was unprepared for the chaos that ensued.
Blinken will not want to be drawn on the current political situation. He will instead want to focus on preserving the trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo beyond Biden's tenure.
Speaking during a joint presser on Monday, Blinken said the US had "full confidence" in South Korea's institutions, and reaffirmed the US government's "unwavering support for the Korean people as they work tirelessly to uphold those institutions".
"Over the past four decades Korea has written one of the most powerful, inspiring democratic stories in the world," Blinken said.
Korea's democracy has been tested in recent weeks - just as American democracy has faced challenges throughout our history. But you are responding by demonstrating your democratic resilience."
But it's hard to disentangle the domestic and geopolitical situations. South Korea could be months away from electing a new president, and that leader may well want to break with Yoon's foreign policies.
Trump, who enters the White House in a fortnight, will also pursue his own agenda.
Additional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi in Seoul
A senior Hamas official has shared with the BBC a list of 34 hostages that the Palestinian group says it is willing to release in the first stage of a potential ceasefire agreement with Israel.
It is unclear how many hostages remain alive.
Among those named are 10 women and 11 older male hostages aged between 50 and 85, as well as young children that Hamas previously said had been killed in an Israeli air strike.
A number of hostages that Hamas says are sick are also included on the list.
Reports from Hamas-run Gaza say Israeli air strikes killed more than 100 people there at the weekend.
The Israeli prime minister's office denied reports that Hamas had provided Israel with a list of hostages.
Ceasefire negotiations resumed in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend, but the talks do not appear to have made significant progress yet.
A Hamas official told Reuters news agency any agreement to return Israeli hostages would depend on a deal for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire or end to the war.
"However, until now, the occupation continues to be obstinate over an agreement over the issues of the ceasefire and withdrawal, and has made no step forward," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
She was captured along with six other female conscript soldiers at the Nahal Oz army base on the Gaza border during Hamas's attack on 7 October 2023.
On that day Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.
Israel's military campaign to destroy Hamas had killed at least 45,805 people in Gaza as of Saturday, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
The same source says Israeli air strikes killed 88 people in Gaza on Saturday itself while on Sunday, Reuters news agency quoted health sources as saying a further 17 had died in four separate Israeli attacks on the territory.
The Israeli military said on Sunday that its air force had attacked more than 100 "terrorist" sites across the Gaza Strip over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas militants.