The Sussi Tower is the second Gaza City high-rise to be destroyed in as many days
The Israeli military has destroyed a high-rise block in Gaza City, the second major tower it has targeted in as many days.
Defence Minister Israel Katz posted video of the building collapsing on X, with the caption: "We're continuing".
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has been expanding operations in Gaza, said the Sussi Tower was being used by Hamas - a claim denied by the militant group.
It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties. Ahead of Saturday's strike, Israel dropped leaflets repeating calls for Palestinians to relocate to what it calls a humanitarian zone in the south.
In a social media post, IDF Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee urged residents to "join the thousands of people who have already gone" to al-Mawasi - an area between Khan Younis and the coastline.
However, the UN has said the tent camps in al-Mawasi are overcrowded and unsafe, and that southern hospitals are overwhelmed.
On Tuesday, five children were killed while queuing for water in al-Mawasi. Witnesses said they were struck by an Israeli drone, an incident which the IDF said was "under review".
The Mushtaha Tower, located west of Gaza City, was destroyed on Friday
The Sussi Tower is the second high-rise to be destroyed in as many days. On Friday social-media footage showed the Mushtaha Tower, in the city's al-Rimal neighbourhood, collapsing after a massive explosion at its base.
The IDF said precautionary measures had been taken to mitigate harm to civilians, "including advance warnings to the population" and the use of "precise munitions".
But Palestinians said displaced families had been sheltering in the Mushtaha Tower, and Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal accused Israel of enacting "a policy of forced displacement".
Satellite imagery shows several neighbourhoods in parts of the city have been levelled by Israeli strikes and demolitions over the past month.
The residential and commercial tower blocks in Gaza City represented an important chapter in the city's history, tied to hopes of ending the Israeli occupation and building an independent Palestinian state.
The rise of multi-storey towers – more than five floors – began after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, which allowed tens of thousands of Palestinians to return from exile to Gaza and parts of the West Bank.
Following the Israeli withdrawal from most of Gaza in 1994, vertical expansion became a necessity to accommodate the influx of returnees.
The Palestinian Authority encouraged large investments in the construction sector, with entire neighbourhoods named after the towers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel's intention to seize all of the Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down in July.
The UN estimates nearly one million people remain in Gaza City, where it declared a famine last month. It has warned of an imminent "disaster" if the assault proceeds.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 63,746 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
The ministry also says 367 people have so far died during the war as a result of malnutrition and starvation.
One of the two cabins hurtled down the steep road, derailed and crashed into a building
Portuguese officials investigating Wednesday's deadly funicular crash in Lisbon say a cable along the railway's route snapped, but the rest of the mechanism was functioning properly.
"After examining the wreckage at the site, it was immediately determined that the cable connecting the two carriages had given way," the preliminary report said.
The carriages of Lisbon's iconic, 140-year-old Glória funicular railway are designed to travel up and down steep slopes.
Sixteen people died and about 20 were injured when one of the carriages derailed on Wednesday evening.
Five of those killed were Portuguese along with three Britons, two South Koreans, two Canadians, an American, a Ukrainian, a Swiss and a French national, police said.
Portugal's prime minister, Luis Montenegro, described the incident as "one of the biggest tragedies of our recent past".
President Donald Trump has warned that, if Venezuelan jets fly over US naval ships and "put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down".
His warning comes after Venezuela flew military aircraft near a US vessel off South America for the second time in two days, US officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News.
The reports follow a US strike against what Trump officials said was a "drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela" operated by a gang, killing 11 people.
President Nicolás Maduro has said US allegations about Venezuela are not true and that differences between the countries do not justify a "military conflict".
"Venezuela has always been willing to talk, to engage in dialogue, but we demand respect," he added.
When asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Friday what would happen if Venezuelan jets flew over US vessels again, Trump said Venezuela would be in "trouble".
Trump told his general, standing beside him, that he could do anything he wanted if the situation escalated.
Since his return to office in January, Trump has steadily intensified his anti-drug-trafficking efforts in Latin America.
Maduro has accused the US of seeking "regime change through military threat".
When asked about the comments, Trump said "we're not talking about that", but mentioned what he called a "very strange election" in Venezuela. Maduro was sworn in for his third term in January after a contested election.
Trump went on to say that "drugs are pouring" into the US from Venezuela and that members of Tren de Aragua - a gang proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the US - were living in the US.
The US military has moved to bolster its forces in the southern Caribbean, including through the deployment of additional naval vessels and thousands of US Marines and sailors to stem the flow of drugs.
The White House said on Friday that the US is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.
When asked about the build-up of military assets in the Caribbean, Trump said: "I think it's just strong. We're strong on drugs. We don't want drugs killing our people."
Trump is a long-time critic of Maduro. The US president doubled a reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan leader to $50m (£37.2m) in August, accusing him of being "one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world".
During Trump's first term, the US government charged Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials with a range of offences, including narco-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking.
The Trump administration has revealed a plan to deport Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran man who has been at the centre of an immigration row, to the southern African kingdom of Eswatini.
The officer said the change was made after Mr Ábrego García raised fears of persecution in Uganda. He added that although the claims were "hard to take seriously", US authorities would "nonetheless" agree not to send him there.
Mr Ábrego García was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, and then brought back to face criminal charges.
US officials acknowledged at the time that he was removed in error.
In June he was returned to the US, where he was detained and charged with human smuggling. He pleaded not guilty.
Trump officials claim that he is a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation he also denies.
His deportation case has become a focal point in the administration's crackdown on immigration. Mr Ábrego García has no connection to Eswatini, which is the fourth country floated as a potential deportation destination for him.
Previously known as Swaziland, Eswatini is surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique. It is one of the last remaining absolute monarchies in the world, and has been led by King Mswati III since 1986.
The US has already deported five people to Eswatini, describing them as "criminal illegal aliens" to the country.
The move sparked concern in the small nation that it was becoming a dumping ground for criminals.
Eswatini has not confirmed whether it receives payments for the deportation deal struck with the Trump administration.
The US is the fourth-largest market for the country's biggest export, sugar. Analysts suggest that Eswatini may be trying to safeguard this trade and avoid tariffs.
Mr Ábrego García entered the US illegally as a teenager from El Salvador. In 2019, he was arrested with three other men in Maryland and detained by federal immigration authorities.
South Korea is mounting an "all-out" response, as the country reels over the arrest of more than 300 of its citizens in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in the US.
Seoul has dispatched diplomats to the site in Georgia, while LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, said it was suspending most business trips to the US.
US officials detained 475 people - mostly South Korean nationals - who they said were found to be illegally working at the battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in the state.
The White House defended the operation, dismissing concerns that the raid could deter foreign investment.
"They were illegal aliens and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] was just doing its job," President Donald Trump said following the raids on Friday.
Video released by ICE officials showed Asian workers shackled in front of a building, with some wearing yellow vests with names such as "Hyundai" and "LG CNS."
"People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorized to work in the US," ICE said, adding that the raid was necessary to protect American jobs.
"This operation sends a clear message that those who exploit the system and undermine our workforce will be held accountable," Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Steven Schrank said in a statement on Saturday.
South Korea, a close US ally, has pledged tens of billions of dollars in American manufacturing investment, partly to offset tariffs.
The timing of the raid, as the two governments engage in sensitive trade talks, has raised concern in Seoul.
Trump has actively encouraged major investments from other countries while also tightening visa allocations for foreign companies.
Many of the LG employees arrested were on business trips with various visas or under a visa waiver programme, officials say.
South Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun said he felt a "great sense of responsibility for the arrest of our citizens" as he presided over an emergency meeting about the issue on Saturday.
He said the government had set up a team to respond to the arrests and that he may travel to Washington if needed.
On Saturday, LG Energy Solution said it was sending its Chief Human Resources Officer Kim Ki-soo to the Georgia site on Sunday.
"We are making all-out efforts to secure the swift release of detained individuals from our company and partner firms," it said in a statement to the South Korean media.
"We are confirming regular medications for families through an emergency contact network for detainees and plan to request that necessary medications be delivered to those detained."
The company said it was suspending most business trips to the US and directing employees on assignment in the US to return home immediately.
South Korean media widely described the raid as a "shock," with the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper warning it could have "a chilling effect on the activities of our businesses in the United States".
The factory, which makes new electric vehicles, had been touted by Georgia's Republican governor as the biggest economic development project in the state's history, employing 1,200 people.
The arrested workers were being held at an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, until the agency decides where to move them next.
LG Energy Solution said 47 of its employees and about 250 workers for contractors at the joint venture factory were detained.
Clackamas County Sheriff's Office released this picture of the crawl space
A man was discovered living in a crawl space of a home near Portland, Oregon without the owner's knowledge, authorities say.
The man had been living there for an extended period of time, having set up a bed and lights, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said.
The owner told deputies no one should be living there and they had heard "strange noises" coming from the space.
Deputies found 40-year-old Beniamin Bucur inside the crawl space and arrested him on charges of burglary and unlawful possession of methamphetamine.
Shortly before 23:00 local time on Wednesday, sheriff's deputies responded to investigate a suspicious circumstance in a residential area close to Happy Valley, a small city south-east of Portland.
A witness reported seeing a man who was not known to live in nearby homes parking his car and walking towards the back of the buildings. The witness also noticed the door to the crawl space was open and light was coming from inside.
When deputies arrived, they noticed the door was damaged and had been locked. An extension cord was seen running through a vent.
After contacting the owner and being told no one should be there, deputies tried to open the door with the owner's keys, but they did not work. Deputies forced the door open and discovered Bucur.
Bucur "was obviously living inside", law enforcement said, as the room was fitted with various electrics, including chargers, a television, and lights plugged into the power of the house, as well as a bed.
A meth pipe was also found in the search, the sheriff's office said.
Bucur was booked into jail and his bail was set at $75,000 (£55,524).
Watch: What’s in the “missing minute” of Epstein’s jail video?
If Republican leaders in Washington had hoped that a month-long congressional recess would help the Jeffrey Epstein controversy die down, this week's frenzy of activity has dashed those hopes - at least for now.
Last Friday, the Justice Department released more than 33,000 pages of documents related to its Epstein investigation into child sex trafficking. By Monday, a consensus had formed that most of the information was already publicly available or of little interest.
Early in the week, Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California resumed their efforts to gather support for a "discharge petition" in the House of Representatives that would force a vote on publicly releasing the entirety of the government's Epstein case information.
On Wednesday, a group of Epstein victims and their families held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol to support the discharge petition and call for full disclosure in the Epstein case.
Taken together, it's the kind of drumbeat of attention that has helped the story break into the larger public's awareness. But will it stay there? Here are possible scenarios for what happens next.
Getty Images
The heat on Trump rises
The victims' press conference could mark a dramatic turn in the Epstein saga.
Missing from the Washington dialogue, which had focused on client lists and the possible involvement of the rich and powerful, were the faces of those whose lives were damaged or destroyed as children by Epstein's crimes.
The gathering at the Capitol on Wednesday put those victims front and centre - with an added promise that they would not be silenced.
Donald Trump has for months tried to brush off the criticisms of his administration's handling of the Epstein case as a "hoax" perpetrated by his political enemies.
That strategy, while effective in the past, is becoming harder in this case.
And if Massie and Khanna succeed in forcing a House vote to publicly release all remaining Epstein files - and there is new, politically damaging information in them involving Trump or other high-profile political figures - the dam could break.
The White House has denied a Wall Street Journal report that Trump was told in May by his attorney general that his name appeared in files related to the investigations against Epstein, who took his own life in prison awaiting trial.
He was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, but being named is not evidence of any criminal activity. Trump has never been accused by investigators of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein matter.
Even if there no "client list" of the Epstein's rich and powerful comes to light, the victims may will one into existence. They've promised to gather the names of those they said had close ties to Epstein and were connected to his misdeeds.
"I'm not afraid to name names," said Majorie Taylor Green of Georgia, one of the Republican members of Congress and usually a Trump loyalist. "And so if they want to give me a list, I will walk in that Capitol on the House floor and I'll say every damn name that abused these women."
These are the kind of ingredients that could fan the flames in the Epstein story as summer turns to autumn.
It rumbles on but little damage
Maybe there's nothing new in any new Epstein-related documents that make it into the public domain. Or maybe the congressional efforts to force public disclosure fall just short. Even with the victims and their families becoming more visible, new revelations or information are what drive news cycles and substantively move public opinion.
In this scenario, the Epstein story doesn't go away completely but it never becomes the kind of crisis that causes lasting political damage to the Trump administration. It is a distraction, not a disruption.
As the Republican Party prepares for midterm congressional elections next year that are shaping up to be closely contested, even a modest drag on their public approval - a diversion that keeps them from focusing on a more beneficial campaign message - could have significant ballot-box consequences.
As Trump pointed out on Tuesday, it's hard to squash a conspiracy theory. He drew parallels to the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy and his recent orders to release more government documents.
"You know it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation," he said. "We gave them everything over and over again, more and more and more and nobody is satisfied."
Trump will be more familiar with the recent conspiracy around former President Barack Obama's birthplace. The White House released short- and long-form certificates showing Obama was born on US soil but doubters, most notably Trump himself, were never satisfied.
Turnabout, as they say, is fair play.
Fade to black, scandal subsides
If there's one undeniable power that Trump has shown over his 10 years in the national political spotlight, it's the ability to outlast every scandal and controversy that comes his way. While the Epstein story has a toxic blend of power, abuse, sex and influence, there's no indication that this will be any different.
"He's done it before, and he will do it again" is the mantra that a White House looking for a best-case scenario might want to repeat. Without new revelations, the public will eventually tire of this story - or it will be buried by a new scandal, conflict or media frenzy.
If so, the Epstein saga will return to corners of the internet and the political fringes, joining the Kennedy assassination, US moon landing and, yes, Obama's birth certificate as the focus of only an obsessed few.
It may not be justice - it may be too late for that - but it would not be an unfamiliar ending in modern American politics.
Watch: Epstein survivors speak publicly outside US Capitol
South Korea is mounting an "all-out" response, as the country reels over the arrest of more than 300 of its citizens in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in the US.
Seoul has dispatched diplomats to the site in Georgia, while LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, said it was suspending most business trips to the US.
US officials detained 475 people - mostly South Korean nationals - who they said were found to be illegally working at the battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in the state.
The White House defended the operation, dismissing concerns that the raid could deter foreign investment.
"They were illegal aliens and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] was just doing its job," President Donald Trump said following the raids on Friday.
Video released by ICE officials showed Asian workers shackled in front of a building, with some wearing yellow vests with names such as "Hyundai" and "LG CNS."
"People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorized to work in the US," ICE said, adding that the raid was necessary to protect American jobs.
"This operation sends a clear message that those who exploit the system and undermine our workforce will be held accountable," Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Steven Schrank said in a statement on Saturday.
South Korea, a close US ally, has pledged tens of billions of dollars in American manufacturing investment, partly to offset tariffs.
The timing of the raid, as the two governments engage in sensitive trade talks, has raised concern in Seoul.
Trump has actively encouraged major investments from other countries while also tightening visa allocations for foreign companies.
Many of the LG employees arrested were on business trips with various visas or under a visa waiver programme, officials say.
South Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun said he felt a "great sense of responsibility for the arrest of our citizens" as he presided over an emergency meeting about the issue on Saturday.
He said the government had set up a team to respond to the arrests and that he may travel to Washington if needed.
On Saturday, LG Energy Solution said it was sending its Chief Human Resources Officer Kim Ki-soo to the Georgia site on Sunday.
"We are making all-out efforts to secure the swift release of detained individuals from our company and partner firms," it said in a statement to the South Korean media.
"We are confirming regular medications for families through an emergency contact network for detainees and plan to request that necessary medications be delivered to those detained."
The company said it was suspending most business trips to the US and directing employees on assignment in the US to return home immediately.
South Korean media widely described the raid as a "shock," with the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper warning it could have "a chilling effect on the activities of our businesses in the United States".
The factory, which makes new electric vehicles, had been touted by Georgia's Republican governor as the biggest economic development project in the state's history, employing 1,200 people.
The arrested workers were being held at an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, until the agency decides where to move them next.
LG Energy Solution said 47 of its employees and about 250 workers for contractors at the joint venture factory were detained.
President Donald Trump has warned that, if Venezuelan jets fly over US naval ships and "put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down".
His warning comes after Venezuela flew military aircraft near a US vessel off South America for the second time in two days, US officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News.
The reports follow a US strike against what Trump officials said was a "drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela" operated by a gang, killing 11 people.
President Nicolás Maduro has said US allegations about Venezuela are not true and that differences between the countries do not justify a "military conflict".
"Venezuela has always been willing to talk, to engage in dialogue, but we demand respect," he added.
When asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Friday what would happen if Venezuelan jets flew over US vessels again, Trump said Venezuela would be in "trouble".
Trump told his general, standing beside him, that he could do anything he wanted if the situation escalated.
Since his return to office in January, Trump has steadily intensified his anti-drug-trafficking efforts in Latin America.
Maduro has accused the US of seeking "regime change through military threat".
When asked about the comments, Trump said "we're not talking about that", but mentioned what he called a "very strange election" in Venezuela. Maduro was sworn in for his third term in January after a contested election.
Trump went on to say that "drugs are pouring" into the US from Venezuela and that members of Tren de Aragua - a gang proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the US - were living in the US.
The US military has moved to bolster its forces in the southern Caribbean, including through the deployment of additional naval vessels and thousands of US Marines and sailors to stem the flow of drugs.
The White House said on Friday that the US is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.
When asked about the build-up of military assets in the Caribbean, Trump said: "I think it's just strong. We're strong on drugs. We don't want drugs killing our people."
Trump is a long-time critic of Maduro. The US president doubled a reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan leader to $50m (£37.2m) in August, accusing him of being "one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world".
During Trump's first term, the US government charged Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials with a range of offences, including narco-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking.
Ukraine is looking for security guarantees as part of a deal to end the 40-month full-scale Russian war
The leaders of about 30 Western countries are taking part in a summit in Paris with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, with the aim of giving Kyiv security assurances if a ceasefire is agreed, and persuading the US to provide support.
Hopes of a deal to end the fighting have receded since Russia's Vladimir Putin met Donald Trump in Alaska, although the US president said on the eve of Thursday's talks that "we're going to get it done".
Trump was due to talk to leaders of the "Coalition of the Willing" by phone after the Paris summit, and French officials said it was important for many European partners that any military guarantees for Kyiv involved an "American safety net".
Last month he said the US was willing to help "probably" with air support, and Western allies are keen for Trump to confirm that.
The summit opened on Thursday, chaired by France's Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and many of the leaders took part remotely.
Nato chief Mark Rutte said the aim was to have "clarity" on what the coalition could deliver so they could discuss what the Americans could provide.
Air support could include help with air defence or intelligence, but details so far are vague.
A source at the Élysée Palace said there were three aims behind the security guarantees: to strengthen Ukraine's armed forces; to support them by deploying a separate force to make it clear to Russia that Ukraine has Western backing; and to have a US safety net, which the Americans would obviously have to maintain.
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky said ahead of the talks that Kyiv had received "signals" from the Americans that they would provide a backstop.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Paris ahead of the summit and reports said he was due to meet Zelensky.
More than 40 months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin has said this week that there is "a certain light at the end of the tunnel" and that "there are options for ensuring Ukraine's security in the event the conflict ends".
However, Russia has made clear that no Western forces should be deployed to Ukraine and it has insisted that it should be one of the countries acting as "guarantors" - an idea rejected by Kyiv and its allies.
Putin has also raised the unrealistic prospect of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky coming to Moscow for talks.
Mark Rutte said on Thursday that Russia had no veto on Western troops being deployed to Ukraine: "Why are we interested in what Russia thinks about troops in Ukraine? It's a sovereign country. It's not for them to decide."
President Trump told CBS News on Wednesday that he remained committed to reaching a deal to end the war and said he continued to have a good relationship with both Putin and Zelensky.
"I think we're going to get it all straightened out," he said.
Watch: 'My job is to make sure Ukraine stays in the fight', says John Healey
UK Defence Secretary John Healey has praised Trump, who he says "brought Putin into talks" and "not closed off any options".
Ukraine is looking to the Coalition of the Willing to come up with a reassurance force involving British, French and other European troops. Germany has said it is too soon to make that kind of commitment.
The Russian leader, who spent Wednesday with China's Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, claims that his country's military is pushing forward on all fronts in Ukraine.
He warned that without a deal Moscow was prepared to "resolve all our tasks militarily".
While Ukraine and its allies say a ceasefire should be agreed initially, Russia has insisted its campaign will not end before a full peace deal.
The source at the Élysée Palace said it had already become clear that Russia had no intention of having a ceasefire as part of a peace deal.
The source pointed to the demarcation line between North and South Korea, where a ceasefire had lasted for years with a powerfully armed, allied American deployment serving as a signal to North Korea. That concept was extremely important for the Ukrainians, the source added.
Foreign troops in Ukraine "considered a danger to Russia", Kremlin tells BBC
Sometimes it's not what's said that makes the biggest impression.
It's the reaction.
In the Russian Far East, Vladimir Putin delivered a warning to the West: don't even think about sending soldiers - and that includes peacekeepers - to Ukraine.
"If some troops appear there," the Russian president said, "especially now while the fighting's going on, we proceed from the premise that these will be legitimate targets for destruction."
Then the reaction.
The audience at the economic forum in Vladivostok burst into applause, with Russian officials and business leaders apparently welcoming the threat to "destroy" Western troops.
Observing the scene in the hall, I found the applause quite chilling.
And this came just a day after Kyiv's allies, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had pledged a post-war "reassurance force" for Ukraine.
Putin said he would only meet Zelensky in Moscow - a proposal dismissed outside Russia as a non-starter
The audience applauded again when the Kremlin leader suggested that he would be prepared to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky - but only on home soil.
"The best place for this is the Russian capital, in Hero City Moscow," said Putin.
Outside Russia, Putin's proposal has been dismissed as unserious, a complete non-starter. A case of political trolling.
But in many ways it encapsulates the Kremlin's current position on the war in Ukraine: "Yes, we want peace, but only on our terms. You reject our terms? No peace then."
This uncompromising stance is being fuelled by a combination of factors.
First, by the Kremlin's belief that, in Ukraine, Russian forces have the initiative on the battlefield.
Second, by diplomatic success. In China this week, Putin shook hands and shared smiles with a string of world leaders. The optics were all about demonstrating that Russia has powerful friends, such as China, India and North Korea.
And then there's America. Last month US President Donald Trump invited Putin to Alaska for a summit meeting. Back home pro-Kremlin commentators hailed the event as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine had failed.
To convince the Kremlin to end the fighting Trump has previously set ultimatums and deadlines; he's threatened further sanctions if Russia won't make peace.
But Trump hasn't followed through on his threats - and that's another reason for Russia's confidence.
Putin publicly praises Trump's peace efforts. And yet he has rejected Trump's ceasefire proposals and shown no desire to make concessions over the war in Ukraine.
So where does that leave prospects for peace?
Putin said recently that he could see "light at the end of the tunnel".
It seems to me that right now Russia on the one hand, and Ukraine and Europe (and to some extent America) on the other are in different tunnels, on different roads, with different destinations.
Ukraine and Europe are focused on ending the fighting, shaping security guarantees for Kyiv and making sure that the Ukrainian army is strong enough post-war to prevent another invasion.
When Putin talks about "light at the end of the tunnel", I believe he imagines a path that leads to a Russian victory in Ukraine, and more widely, to the construction of a new global order that benefits Russia.
In terms of peace, it's hard to see where and when these two very different highways will converge.
The Trump administration has revealed a plan to deport Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran man who has been at the centre of an immigration row, to the southern African kingdom of Eswatini.
The officer said the change was made after Mr Ábrego García raised fears of persecution in Uganda. He added that although the claims were "hard to take seriously", US authorities would "nonetheless" agree not to send him there.
Mr Ábrego García was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, and then brought back to face criminal charges.
US officials acknowledged at the time that he was removed in error.
In June he was returned to the US, where he was detained and charged with human smuggling. He pleaded not guilty.
Trump officials claim that he is a member of the MS-13 gang, an accusation he also denies.
His deportation case has become a focal point in the administration's crackdown on immigration. Mr Ábrego García has no connection to Eswatini, which is the fourth country floated as a potential deportation destination for him.
Previously known as Swaziland, Eswatini is surrounded by South Africa and Mozambique. It is one of the last remaining absolute monarchies in the world, and has been led by King Mswati III since 1986.
The US has already deported five people to Eswatini, describing them as "criminal illegal aliens" to the country.
The move sparked concern in the small nation that it was becoming a dumping ground for criminals.
Eswatini has not confirmed whether it receives payments for the deportation deal struck with the Trump administration.
The US is the fourth-largest market for the country's biggest export, sugar. Analysts suggest that Eswatini may be trying to safeguard this trade and avoid tariffs.
Mr Ábrego García entered the US illegally as a teenager from El Salvador. In 2019, he was arrested with three other men in Maryland and detained by federal immigration authorities.
Watch: ICE was 'just doing its job' with Hyundai arrests, Trump says
The car workers arrested in one of the largest ever US workplace immigration raids had violated their visitor visas, officials say.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said 475 people, mostly South Korean citizens - were found to be illegally working at a Hyundai battery plant in the US state of Georgia on Thursday.
"People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorized to work in the US," ICE said, adding that the raid was necessary to protect American jobs.
South Korea, whose companies have promised to invest billions of dollars in key US industries in the coming years, partly to avoid tariffs, has sent diplomats to Georgia, and called for its citizens' rights to be respected.
Official: Raid at US Hyundai factory "biggest" in Homeland Security history
The arrested workers were being held at an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, until the agency decides where to move them next.
Of those detained, 300 are reported to be Korean nationals. Hyundai said in a statement that none of them were directly employed by the company.
LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, told the BBC its top priority was to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its employees and partners and that it "will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities".
In a statement on Friday, the ICE office in the city of Savannah said the raid was "part of an active, ongoing criminal investigation".
"The individuals arrested during the operation were found to be working illegally, in violation of the terms of their visas and/or statuses," the statement added.
But Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta, told the New York Times that two of his clients were wrongly caught up in the raid.
He told the newspaper the pair were in the US under a visa waiver programme that allows them to travel for tourism or business for up to 90 days.
"My clients were doing exactly what they were allowed to do under the visa waiver - attend business meetings," he said on Friday.
He said one of them only arrived on Tuesday and was due to leave next week.
ICE said one of those detained was a Mexican citizen and green card holder with a lengthy rap sheet.
The individual had previously been convicted of possession of narcotics, attempting to sell a stolen firearm and theft, according to ICE.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Steven Schrank said: "We welcome all companies who want to invest in the US.
"And if they need to bring workers in for building or other projects, that's fine - but they need to do it the legal way.
"This operation sends a clear message that those who exploit the system and undermine our workforce will be held accountable."
South Korea's foreign ministry responded to the raid with a statement saying: "The economic activities of Korean investment companies and the rights and interests of Korean citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during US law enforcement operations."
The raid raises a possible tension between two of President Donald Trump's top priorities - building up manufacturing within the US and cracking down on illegal immigration. It could also put stress on the country's relationship with a key ally.
President Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday: "They were illegal aliens and ICE was just doing its job."
Asked by a reporter about the reaction from Seoul, he said: "Well, we want to get along with other countries, and we want to have a great, stable workforce.
"And we have, as I understand it, a lot of illegal aliens, some not the best of people, but we had a lot of illegal aliens working there."
Trump has worked to bring in major investments from other countries while also levying tariffs he says will give manufacturers incentives to make goods in the US.
The president also campaigned on cracking down on illegal immigration, telling supporters he believed migrants were stealing jobs from Americans.
The factory, which makes new electric vehicles, had been touted by Georgia's Republican governor as the biggest economic development project in the state's history, employing 1,200 people.
Clackamas County Sheriff's Office released this picture of the crawl space
A man was discovered living in a crawl space of a home near Portland, Oregon without the owner's knowledge, authorities say.
The man had been living there for an extended period of time, having set up a bed and lights, the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office said.
The owner told deputies no one should be living there and they had heard "strange noises" coming from the space.
Deputies found 40-year-old Beniamin Bucur inside the crawl space and arrested him on charges of burglary and unlawful possession of methamphetamine.
Shortly before 23:00 local time on Wednesday, sheriff's deputies responded to investigate a suspicious circumstance in a residential area close to Happy Valley, a small city south-east of Portland.
A witness reported seeing a man who was not known to live in nearby homes parking his car and walking towards the back of the buildings. The witness also noticed the door to the crawl space was open and light was coming from inside.
When deputies arrived, they noticed the door was damaged and had been locked. An extension cord was seen running through a vent.
After contacting the owner and being told no one should be there, deputies tried to open the door with the owner's keys, but they did not work. Deputies forced the door open and discovered Bucur.
Bucur "was obviously living inside", law enforcement said, as the room was fitted with various electrics, including chargers, a television, and lights plugged into the power of the house, as well as a bed.
A meth pipe was also found in the search, the sheriff's office said.
Bucur was booked into jail and his bail was set at $75,000 (£55,524).
For many Russians, going online has become harder as censorship has tightened access to popular apps
Marina, a 45-year-old freelance copywriter, has relied on WhatsApp for her work and personal life for years.
But one day last month that abruptly changed when a call to a colleague did not go through properly. They tried Telegram - another messaging app popular in Russia - but that did not work either.
She was one of millions of Russians facing new restrictions imposed in mid-August by Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, on calls made through the two platforms - the country's most popular apps.
The timing coincides with the rollout of a new "national messenger" app known as Max and created by a Russian firm closely controlled by the Kremlin.
Monthly user numbers of WhatsApp and Telegram are estimated to be 97 and 90 million respectively — in a country of 143 million people.
From parents' chats to tenants' groups, much of daily life runs through them. WhatsApp - whose owner, Meta, is designated an extremist organisation in Russia - is especially popular with older people because of how easy it is to register and use.
AFP via Getty Images
For years, WhatsApp and Telegram have been the most popular ways for Russians to stay connected
In some parts of Russia, particularly in remote and sparsely connected places in the Far East, WhatsApp is much more than chatting with friends and colleagues. Mobile browsing is sometimes painfully slow, so people use the app to coordinate local matters, order taxis, buy alcohol, and share news.
Both apps offer end-to-end encryption which means that no third party, not even those who own them, are able to read messages or listen to calls.
Officials say the apps refused to store Russian users' data in the country, as required by law, and they have claimed scammers exploit messaging apps. Yet Central Bank figures show most scams still happen over regular mobile networks.
Telecom experts and many Russians see the crackdown as the government trying to keep an eye on who people talk to and potentially what they say.
"The authorities don't want us, ordinary people, to maintain any kind of relationships, connections, friendships or mutual support. They want everyone to sit quietly in their own corner," says Marina who lives in Tula, a city 180km (110 miles) south of Moscow.
She asked us to change her name, worrying that speaking to foreign media can be dangerous.
A state-approved super-app
The new Max app is being aggressively promoted by pop stars and bloggers, and since 1 September all devices sold in Russia must have Max pre-installed.
It was launched by VK, which owns the country's largest social network of the same name. The Facebook-like platform is controlled by oil-and-gas giant Gazprom and one of Vladimir Putin's closest confidantes, billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk.
Max is set to become a super-app, bringing together multiple functions, including government digital services and banking.
The model mirrors China's WeChat - central to daily life but also a tool of censorship and surveillance.
Max's privacy policy states it can pass information to third parties and government bodies, potentially giving access to the security services or making user data vulnerable to leaks.
In Russia, where people are prosecuted for critical comments or private messages, and a black market of personal data feeds an epidemic of scam calls, this is a real concern.
Although many Russians are worried about the new restrictions on WhatsApp and Telegram, and by the introduction of Max, the state already has vast means to spy on its citizens.
Getty Images
Russians don't want to lose their favourite messaging apps, but the Kremlin is forcing them to install Max.
By law, you can only buy a sim card with your national ID, and the security services have access to telecom operators' infrastructure. This means they can find out who you call as well as your whereabouts.
From this month it is now illegal to share your sim card with anyone other than a close relative.
But Max can potentially allow the authorities to read your messages as well - and avoiding the app is getting harder.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
Vladimir Putin has spent more than a decade pushing to bring the internet under government control
Schools are now obliged to move parent chats to the app.
In Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, Max is being adopted as an alert system; in St Petersburg, it is being tied to emergency services.
Despite the push, Max remains far behind its rivals - this week it claimed to have 30 million users.
The Kremlin has long been uneasy of the freedoms offered to people by the internet, which Vladimir Putin once called a CIA project.
The first legislative restrictions came in 2012, soon after mass opposition protests, officially to protect children from suicide-related content.
Ten years later, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the government blocked popular social media sites, such as Facebook, Instagram and X, and most independent media, leaving them accessible only through VPNs.
New restrictions keep coming: as of this month, Russians face fines for "deliberately searching" online for extremist materials - more than 5,000 resources from an ever-growing blacklist compiled by the ministry of justice. Examples include a book by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in 2024, and Ukrainian songs.
Another ban targets adverts on platforms linked to "extremist" organisations, in effect ending advertising on Instagram which many small businesses had relied on as a shopfront.
Ads for VPNs are also banned, and while using these apps is not illegal, it may now be treated as an aggravating factor in criminal cases.
State-induced digital detox
Apart from their problems with WhatsApp and Telegram, many Russians are now getting used to life without mobile internet altogether, as entire cities face regular cut-offs.
Since May, every Russian region has seen mobile internet go down.
Blackouts surged through the summer, with up to 77 regions hit by shutdowns simultaneously at the peak, according to the Na Svyazi (In Touch) project.
The authorities justify the measures by the need to protect people and infrastructure from attacks by Ukrainian drones - Kyiv's response to Russia's relentless and deadly bombardments of Ukrainian cities.
But some experts doubt that switching off mobile internet - which many Russians use instead of broadband - is an effective tool against long-distance drone attacks.
Local authorities, who were made responsible for countering drone attacks, have no other means to do it, explains telecom expert Mikhail Klimarev.
"There are no air defence systems, no army - everything's on the frontline," he says. "Their logic goes: we've switched off the internet and there were no drones, hence it works."
In Vladimir, 200km (125 miles) east of Moscow, two of the city's three districts have been offline for almost a month.
"It's impossible to check bus routes or timetables," says Konstantin, a resident who also asked to change his name. "The information boards at stops also show errors."
Taxi fares have risen as drivers cannot accept orders online.
State TV in Vladimir spun the shutdown as "digital detox", showing residents who said they now enjoyed more walking, reading and spending time with friends.
In Krasnoyarsk, a city of more than a million people in Siberia, mobile internet vanished citywide for three days in July and still works poorly.
Some officials rejected complaints, with one Krasnoyarsk bureaucrat suggesting remote workers who lost income should "go and work for the special military operation", as the war in Ukraine is known in Russia. She later apologised.
The government is now working on a scheme that will allow Russians to access only vital online services during shutdowns, such as banking, taxis, deliveries - and the Max messenger.
This is a dangerous step, warns Sarkis Darbinyan, lawyer and co-founder of digital rights group RKS Global.
"There's a possibility the authorities will use this measure for other goals apart from fighting drones," he tells the BBC.
He believes the Kremlin's current approach to the internet mirrors Beijing's.
"Unlike the Chinese, Russians have spent decades enjoying cheap, fast internet and foreign platforms," he says. "These services became deeply ingrained not only in people's daily lives but also in business processes."
For now those who are wary of installing Max on their devices can still find a way around it.
Marina from Tula says her mother, a school teacher, was instructed to download the messenger but claimed to her superiors that she didn't have a smartphone.
People can still call each other using regular mobile networks, although that is more expensive, especially when talking to someone abroad - and not secure.
There are other means available too, like using VPNs or alternative messaging apps, previously reserved for tech nerds and those handling sensitive information.
But as government control over the internet increases, fewer and fewer people will find ways to escape it - and that is assuming the internet is still available for them to try.
Villagers in a remote area of Sudan's western Darfur region are trying to reach buried victims by hand after a devastating landslide on Sunday, aid group Save the Children says.
"People are excavating by hand to rescue the bodies of their relatives since there are no tools or machinery", Francesco Lanino, Save the Children's deputy Sudan director for programmes and operations, said.
It is unclear how many people died. Figures range from as high as 1,000 from an armed group in charge of the area, to a figure from the national health ministry that says only two bodies have been recovered.
Save the Children said at least 373 bodies had been recovered, according to the head of the Civil Authority.
Mr Lanino said "1,000 lives may have been lost, including an estimated 200 children."
Save the Children staff described scenes of "destruction and devastation" after the landslide caused by heavy rainfall. Mr Lanino said teams on location believe the landslide to be "one of the most tragic and large-scale disasters in the region's history".
He added that in the impacted Tarseen area, which is made up of five villages, there is only one known survivor in the worst-hit village.
Independently verifying the impact of the landslide has been difficult due to the remoteness of the area.
It took Save the Children aid workers more than six hours to cross nearly 14 miles (22km) of rocky, muddy terrain from their office to the impacted area.
Aid workers had travelled on donkey to reach the Tarseen area in order to deliver the first batch of humanitarian supplies to survivors.
The ongoing civil war in Sudan has also made rescue efforts more challenging, another aid group World Vision stated.
Separately from the landslide, Sudan is currently facing a humanitarian crisis due to fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group and the army.
Estimates for the death toll from the civil war vary significantly, but a US official last year estimated up to 150,000 people had been killed since hostilities began in 2023.
Signs warning swimmers and saying "shark sighted" on a beach in the Sydney area
A man has died on a Sydney beach after being bitten by a suspected "large shark", Australia's New South Wales police have said.
In a statement, the police said emergency services pulled the man out of the morning surf onto the shore at Long Reef Beach - but he "died at the scene".
"Two sections of a surfboard have been recovered and taken for expert examination," the statement read.
Saturday's incident has resulted in a string of closures in the popular area known as the Northern Beaches.
The state police said the emergency services acted after receiving reports shortly after 10:00am local time on Saturday (00:00 GMT) that "a man had suffered critical injuries".
The victim's identity was yet to be confirmed.
Local police officers and experts would work together to "determine the species of shark involved".
Prior to that, there had not been a fatal attack since 1963.
Australia typically records about 20 shark attacks each year, with most in New South Wales and Western Australia.
Historically, dying from a shark bite is uncommon. In over a century of records, Australia's shark attack mortality rate is 0.9 - less than one person per year.
In fiery Senate testimony this week, US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr once again set his sights on the nation's top public health agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
His appearance came days after he suddenly fired the new CDC director, Susan Monarez, provoking a group of senior staffers to resign in protest.
At the hearing, when asked for an explanation, Kennedy claimed he had asked Ms Monarez if she was a "trustworthy person" and she had replied "no", to some disbelief from his opponents in the room.
He then admitted he had once described the CDC as the "most corrupt" agency in government, and strongly hinted he's not finished with his plans to shake up the organisation.
Kennedy's words have sparked a furious backlash, with many doctors and scientists increasingly concerned that America's public health systems are being dangerously compromised.
It's a conflict that could have a significant impact not just on health policy in the US but across the world. In the past the CDC has been instrumental in global health, leading the response to crises from famine, to HIV, to Ebola.
Founded in 1946, the CDC tracks emerging infectious diseases like Covid and is also tasked with tackling long-term or chronic conditions such as heart disease and cancer.
It operates more than 200 specialised laboratories and employs 13,000 people, although that number has been cut by around 2,000 since President Donald Trump returned to office.
It does not approve or licence vaccines. That responsibility lies with the Food and Drug Administration.
But it does produce official recommendations on who should receive which vaccines through a panel of experts - known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) - and monitors their side effects and other safety concerns.
Vaccine dispute
Politico AP
It was Kennedy's record on vaccines which particularly worried many public health experts when he took office in February.
An activist group he ran for eight years, Children's Health Defense, repeatedly questioned the safety and efficacy of vaccination.
He has described the Covid jab as the "most deadly in history" and has blamed rising rates of autism on vaccines, an idea that has been categorically debunked by large scientific studies over many years.
So feathers were seriously ruffled just weeks into his tenure when it emerged he had hired a noted vaccine critic, David Geier, to look again at the CDC data on that scientifically disproven link.
Then in June Kennedy suddenly sacked the entire ACIP panel which advises the CDC on vaccine eligibility after accusing all 17 members of being "plagued with persistent conflicts of interest".
A new committee, handpicked by the administration, now has the power to change, or even drop, critical recommendations to immunise Americans for certain diseases, as well as shape the childhood vaccination programme, although the CDC itself still has the final say on whether to accept that advice.
It's that decision which has now been linked to the firing of the agency's new director in late August, only 29 days into the job.
In a newspaper article this week Ms Monarez said she was sacked from the CDC after being told, by Kennedy, to "pre-approve" the recommendations of the ACIP committee which she said had now been filled with people who have expressed "antivaccine rhetoric".
"It is imperative that the panel's recommendations aren't rubber-stamped but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed before being accepted or rejected," she wrote.
"I lost my job, America's children could lose far more."
In his testimony Kennedy stood his ground, accusing Ms Monarez of lying about that exchange and describing her dismissal as "absolutely necessary".
"We need bold, competent and creative new leadership at CDC, people able and willing to chart a new course," he said.
Ms Monarez's sacking led to a fresh wave of resignations at the agency as senior staff continue to walk out.
Over the last two weeks the CDC has lost its chief medical officer, its director of immunisation and its director of emerging diseases, amongst others.
"A huge top tier of CDC leadership has been removed, but this is also in the wake of the firing of thousands of CDC workers, including many well-respected experts," says Dr Fiona Havers, a senior vaccine researcher who herself resigned from the agency in June.
"I'm a physician, and for my own integrity as a scientist, I did not feel I could continue to serve in that administration when it felt like the data we were putting together was not going to be used in an evidenced, science-based way."
Kennedy was also criticised by some CDC staff for what they felt was a lacklustre response to a shooting at the agency's Atlanta headquarters in August.
For the moment, Jim O'Neill, one of Kennedy's top advisers, has been tapped up to run the CDC on an interim basis, until a new permanent director can be found.
O'Neill served in several roles in the health department under President George W Bush, but he has a business rather than a science background.
"During the previous administration, CDC lost public trust by manipulating health data to support a political narrative," he wrote on social media on the day he was appointed.
"We are helping the agency earn back the trust it has squandered."
More changes are certainly likely.
In his Senate hearing Kennedy said the CDC had lied to Americans in the pandemic about mask wearing, social distancing and the ability of the vaccine to stop the transmission of coronavirus.
"I need to fire some of those people and make sure this doesn't happen again," he said.
Global repercussions
The next flashpoint could come later this month.
On 18 September the CDC's new vaccine advisory panel is due to meet to discuss Covid vaccines and other shots, including for hepatitis B and the RSV virus.
The panel's recommendations and the CDC's response will be carefully scrutinised, not just in the US but around the world.
"What happens in America is of great importance," says Anthony Costello, a former director at the World Health Organization (WHO) and a professor of public health at University College London.
"We've done so much to protect science from political interference over the past 200 years and the concern is that America will pay a price for it and we might too, if we go in that direction."
In the past, CDC teams have also had a major hands-on role in global health protection.
In 2015, for example, the agency had 3,000 staff working on the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, with 1,200 of those on the ground in west Africa.
After taking office, President Trump withdrew the US from the WHO and ordered the CDC to cut off all communication with the organisation.
The concern from former CDC staffers like Dr Fiona Havers is what might happen if and when the next Ebola or Covid is eventually spotted and starts spreading.
"Taking a sledgehammer to the CDC and undercutting its programmes has left the US much less prepared for another pandemic,” she says.
“And that really has huge implications globally if another health emergency were to arise.”
Guy Gilboa-Dalal is seen in the video shared by Hamas, claiming to be in Gaza City
Hamas has released a video showing two Israeli hostages seized from a music festival during its cross-border attack in October 2023.
The video claims to show Guy Gilboa-Dalal in Gaza City in late August, where he says he and eight others are being held and will remain despite Israel's planned ground offensive. It also shows captive Alon Ohel.
Earlier videos of hostages released by their captors in Gaza have been condemned by world leaders and families as propaganda.
Israel's far-right national security minister called for the full occupation of Gaza in response, claiming this was the only way to "bring back the hostages in security".
The video shows Mr Gilboa-Dalal, who was seized from the Nova festival in southern Israel, pleading for his release. In footage dated 28 August, he is filmed in a car in what he says is Gaza City.
The footage also shows Mr Ohel for the first time since he was seized in the attack 700 days ago. Mr Gilboa-Dalal was previously seen in a Hamas video in February.
They are two of the 48 hostages still being held by Hamas, 20 of whom are thought to be alive.
Defence minister Israel Katz meanwhile said Israeli military activity would "intensify" until Hamas accepted Israel's conditions to end the war, which include the release of release of all hostages, threatening that the armed group would be "destroyed" otherwise.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Israeli negotiators to resume talks on a ceasefire deal to free the hostages.
On Friday, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said 30 Palestinians had been killed in the territory in the past 24 hours, including 20 in Gaza City.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed that it had struck a tower block there, which it claimed was being used by Hamas.
It said precautionary measures had been taken to mitigate harm to civilians, "including advance warnings to the population" and the use of "precise munitions".
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced plans a month ago to take control of Gaza City after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down in July.
Israel has intensified its operations around Gaza City in recent weeks, and says its offensive has established control of some 40% of the city, which it claims is a stronghold of Hamas.
The UN and aid groups have warned that the offensive was already having "horrific humanitarian consequences" for displaced families sheltering in the city, which is home to a million people and where a famine was declared last month.
Satellite imagery shows several neighbourhoods in parts of the city have been levelled by Israeli strikes and demolitions over the past month.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led 7 October attack in 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 more were taken hostage.
At least 64,231 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.
US President Donald Trump is directing that the Pentagon be known as the Department of War.
He will sign an executive order on Friday for the Department of Defense to use the new name as a secondary title and for Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to be known as Secretary of War.
The Pentagon - which oversees the US armed services - is the successor to the War Department, which was first established as a cabinet-level agency in 1789 and existed until 1947.
The responsibility of creating executive departments rests with the US Congress, meaning that an amendment would be required to legally change the department's name.
The BBC has seen the text of the executive order, which says: "The name 'Department of War' conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to 'Department of Defense,' which emphasizes only defensive capabilities."
Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of the name change, arguing that the US had "an unbelievable history of victory" in both world wars under the previous name.
He has also expressed optimism that lawmakers would support such a change.
"I'm sure Congress will go along if we need that. I don't even think we need that," the president said last week. "But, if we need that, I'm sure Congress will go along."
Trump and Hegseth have sought to refocus the department on "warfighting" and a "warrior ethos".
They have argued that the department has become too focused on diversity, equity and inclusion programmes and "woke ideology".
A group of migrants from Venezuela, Ecuador and Haiti cross the Rio Muerto in Colombia in 2023
The Trump administration's effort to strip hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan and Haitian migrants of legal protections is unlawful, a US judge says.
The ruling by District Judge Edward Chen sets aside the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) attempt to end temporary protected status (TPS) for people from countries experiencing conditions that make it dangerous to return.
It will allow around 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians to continue living and working legally in the US. The DHS has indicated it will appeal the decision.
The TPS program was established by Congress in 1990 to give temporary protections for migrants from countries experiencing war and natural disasters.
In a 69-page decision, Judge Chen wrote that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's action in revoking their protected status "was not only unprecedented in the manner and speed in which it was taken but also violates the law."
He said conditions in their home countries was "so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel".
In response to the ruling, a DHS spokesperson told the BBC the scheme had been "abused, exploited, and politicised as a de facto amnesty program", while indicating it would assess its legal options.
"Unelected activist judges cannot stop the will of the American people for a safe and secure homeland," the spokesperson added.
There are about 600,000 migrants who have TPS from Venezuela, the largest country included in the program. Former President Joe Biden extended the program to include Haiti, Afghanistan, Cameroon and Ukraine.
President Donald Trump sought to reverse the extension when he returned to office earlier this year and also attempted to terminate the designation for Venezuela altogether.
In March, the administration, making good on Trump's campaign promise of cracking down on immigration, said it will revoke the temporary legal status of more than half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Those migrants were warned to leave the country before their permits and deportation shields were cancelled on 24 April.
The National TPS Alliance and Venezuelan TPS holders sued the Trump administration and DHS earlier this year, arguing that Noem did not have the authority to unilaterally roll back the extension granted by the previous administration.
But Judge Chen, the California federal judge, said in his ruling on Friday that the high court's decision only dealt with preliminary relief he ordered.
It did not preclude him, he wrote, from issuing fresh orders.
Also on Friday, a federal appeals court in Washington DC ruled that the Trump administration cannot continue cuts to foreign aid.
The ruling requires the administration to move quickly to spend funds on projects authorised by Congress.
The administration has withheld $4bn (£3bn) in funding appropriated for the US Agency for International Development, which has been picked apart during Trump's second term.
Portugal is in mourning after at least 17 people died and some 20 more were injured when Lisbon's famous funicular cable railway derailed on Wednesday evening.
A transport worker was among those killed, while a three-year-old German boy was reported to have escaped with minor injuries.
Those hurt include four Portuguese, and 11 foreign nationals from Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, South Korea, Morocco and Cape Verde, according to emergency services.
Police have not yet confirmed the identities of those who died, but here is what we do know about the victims.
Transport worker and German father among the dead
Among the dead are seven men and eight women, and foreigners, Margarida Castro Martins, head of Lisbon's Civil Protection Agency, said on Thursday.
Some foreign nationals were also killed, but where they were from remains unclear.
Portuguese transport union Sitra said André Jorge Gonçalves Marques, who worked as the brake guard on the funicular,was among the dead.
In a statement on Facebook, the union wrote: "We send our condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the accident and wish them a speedy recovery as well as the best recovery to the others injured in the accident."
Ms Martins said the injured include 12 women and seven men aged between 24 and 65, and a three-year-old child.
Local media reported that a German family-of-three were on board the funicular when it crashed.
The father died at the scene, Portuguese news outlet Observador reported, while the mother was said to be in a critical condition in hospital, and a three-year-old boy sustained minor injuries.
The Glória funicular can carry about 40 passengers and is extremely popular with tourists - but it is also crucial for the city's residents, to help them travel up and down Lisbon's hilly streets.
We don't know how many people were on board, or the identity of all those who died. The death toll and number of people injured could change in the coming hours.
We also don't know if any UK nationals are involved - the UK foreign office has said it is aware of the incident and is ready to provide consular assistance to any affected British nationals.
President Donald Trump has warned that, if Venezuelan jets fly over US naval ships and "put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down".
His warning comes after Venezuela flew military aircraft near a US vessel off South America for the second time in two days, US officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News.
The reports follow a US strike against what Trump officials said was a "drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela" operated by a gang, killing 11 people.
President Nicolás Maduro has said US allegations about Venezuela are not true and that differences between the countries do not justify a "military conflict".
"Venezuela has always been willing to talk, to engage in dialogue, but we demand respect," he added.
When asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Friday what would happen if Venezuelan jets flew over US vessels again, Trump said Venezuela would be in "trouble".
Trump told his general, standing beside him, that he could do anything he wanted if the situation escalated.
Since his return to office in January, Trump has steadily intensified his anti-drug-trafficking efforts in Latin America.
Maduro has accused the US of seeking "regime change through military threat".
When asked about the comments, Trump said "we're not talking about that", but mentioned what he called a "very strange election" in Venezuela. Maduro was sworn in for his third term in January after a contested election.
Trump went on to say that "drugs are pouring" into the US from Venezuela and that members of Tren de Aragua - a gang proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the US - were living in the US.
The US military has moved to bolster its forces in the southern Caribbean, including through the deployment of additional naval vessels and thousands of US Marines and sailors to stem the flow of drugs.
The White House said on Friday that the US is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.
When asked about the build-up of military assets in the Caribbean, Trump said: "I think it's just strong. We're strong on drugs. We don't want drugs killing our people."
Trump is a long-time critic of Maduro. The US president doubled a reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan leader to $50m (£37.2m) in August, accusing him of being "one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world".
During Trump's first term, the US government charged Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials with a range of offences, including narco-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking.
Villagers in a remote area of Sudan's western Darfur region are trying to reach buried victims by hand after a devastating landslide on Sunday, aid group Save the Children says.
"People are excavating by hand to rescue the bodies of their relatives since there are no tools or machinery", Francesco Lanino, Save the Children's deputy Sudan director for programmes and operations, said.
It is unclear how many people died. Figures range from as high as 1,000 from an armed group in charge of the area, to a figure from the national health ministry that says only two bodies have been recovered.
Save the Children said at least 373 bodies had been recovered, according to the head of the Civil Authority.
Mr Lanino said "1,000 lives may have been lost, including an estimated 200 children."
Save the Children staff described scenes of "destruction and devastation" after the landslide caused by heavy rainfall. Mr Lanino said teams on location believe the landslide to be "one of the most tragic and large-scale disasters in the region's history".
He added that in the impacted Tarseen area, which is made up of five villages, there is only one known survivor in the worst-hit village.
Independently verifying the impact of the landslide has been difficult due to the remoteness of the area.
It took Save the Children aid workers more than six hours to cross nearly 14 miles (22km) of rocky, muddy terrain from their office to the impacted area.
Aid workers had travelled on donkey to reach the Tarseen area in order to deliver the first batch of humanitarian supplies to survivors.
The ongoing civil war in Sudan has also made rescue efforts more challenging, another aid group World Vision stated.
Separately from the landslide, Sudan is currently facing a humanitarian crisis due to fighting between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) group and the army.
Estimates for the death toll from the civil war vary significantly, but a US official last year estimated up to 150,000 people had been killed since hostilities began in 2023.
Foreign troops in Ukraine "considered a danger to Russia", Kremlin tells BBC
Sometimes it's not what's said that makes the biggest impression.
It's the reaction.
In the Russian Far East, Vladimir Putin delivered a warning to the West: don't even think about sending soldiers - and that includes peacekeepers - to Ukraine.
"If some troops appear there," the Russian president said, "especially now while the fighting's going on, we proceed from the premise that these will be legitimate targets for destruction."
Then the reaction.
The audience at the economic forum in Vladivostok burst into applause, with Russian officials and business leaders apparently welcoming the threat to "destroy" Western troops.
Observing the scene in the hall, I found the applause quite chilling.
And this came just a day after Kyiv's allies, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had pledged a post-war "reassurance force" for Ukraine.
Putin said he would only meet Zelensky in Moscow - a proposal dismissed outside Russia as a non-starter
The audience applauded again when the Kremlin leader suggested that he would be prepared to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky - but only on home soil.
"The best place for this is the Russian capital, in Hero City Moscow," said Putin.
Outside Russia, Putin's proposal has been dismissed as unserious, a complete non-starter. A case of political trolling.
But in many ways it encapsulates the Kremlin's current position on the war in Ukraine: "Yes, we want peace, but only on our terms. You reject our terms? No peace then."
This uncompromising stance is being fuelled by a combination of factors.
First, by the Kremlin's belief that, in Ukraine, Russian forces have the initiative on the battlefield.
Second, by diplomatic success. In China this week, Putin shook hands and shared smiles with a string of world leaders. The optics were all about demonstrating that Russia has powerful friends, such as China, India and North Korea.
And then there's America. Last month US President Donald Trump invited Putin to Alaska for a summit meeting. Back home pro-Kremlin commentators hailed the event as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine had failed.
To convince the Kremlin to end the fighting Trump has previously set ultimatums and deadlines; he's threatened further sanctions if Russia won't make peace.
But Trump hasn't followed through on his threats - and that's another reason for Russia's confidence.
Putin publicly praises Trump's peace efforts. And yet he has rejected Trump's ceasefire proposals and shown no desire to make concessions over the war in Ukraine.
So where does that leave prospects for peace?
Putin said recently that he could see "light at the end of the tunnel".
It seems to me that right now Russia on the one hand, and Ukraine and Europe (and to some extent America) on the other are in different tunnels, on different roads, with different destinations.
Ukraine and Europe are focused on ending the fighting, shaping security guarantees for Kyiv and making sure that the Ukrainian army is strong enough post-war to prevent another invasion.
When Putin talks about "light at the end of the tunnel", I believe he imagines a path that leads to a Russian victory in Ukraine, and more widely, to the construction of a new global order that benefits Russia.
In terms of peace, it's hard to see where and when these two very different highways will converge.
Watch: ICE was 'just doing its job' with Hyundai arrests, Trump says
The car workers arrested in one of the largest ever US workplace immigration raids had violated their visitor visas, officials say.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said 475 people, mostly South Korean citizens - were found to be illegally working at a Hyundai battery plant in the US state of Georgia on Thursday.
"People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorized to work in the US," ICE said, adding that the raid was necessary to protect American jobs.
South Korea, whose companies have promised to invest billions of dollars in key US industries in the coming years, partly to avoid tariffs, has sent diplomats to Georgia, and called for its citizens' rights to be respected.
Official: Raid at US Hyundai factory "biggest" in Homeland Security history
The arrested workers were being held at an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, until the agency decides where to move them next.
Of those detained, 300 are reported to be Korean nationals. Hyundai said in a statement that none of them were directly employed by the company.
LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, told the BBC its top priority was to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its employees and partners and that it "will fully cooperate with the relevant authorities".
In a statement on Friday, the ICE office in the city of Savannah said the raid was "part of an active, ongoing criminal investigation".
"The individuals arrested during the operation were found to be working illegally, in violation of the terms of their visas and/or statuses," the statement added.
But Charles Kuck, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta, told the New York Times that two of his clients were wrongly caught up in the raid.
He told the newspaper the pair were in the US under a visa waiver programme that allows them to travel for tourism or business for up to 90 days.
"My clients were doing exactly what they were allowed to do under the visa waiver - attend business meetings," he said on Friday.
He said one of them only arrived on Tuesday and was due to leave next week.
ICE said one of those detained was a Mexican citizen and green card holder with a lengthy rap sheet.
The individual had previously been convicted of possession of narcotics, attempting to sell a stolen firearm and theft, according to ICE.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Steven Schrank said: "We welcome all companies who want to invest in the US.
"And if they need to bring workers in for building or other projects, that's fine - but they need to do it the legal way.
"This operation sends a clear message that those who exploit the system and undermine our workforce will be held accountable."
South Korea's foreign ministry responded to the raid with a statement saying: "The economic activities of Korean investment companies and the rights and interests of Korean citizens must not be unfairly infringed upon during US law enforcement operations."
The raid raises a possible tension between two of President Donald Trump's top priorities - building up manufacturing within the US and cracking down on illegal immigration. It could also put stress on the country's relationship with a key ally.
President Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday: "They were illegal aliens and ICE was just doing its job."
Asked by a reporter about the reaction from Seoul, he said: "Well, we want to get along with other countries, and we want to have a great, stable workforce.
"And we have, as I understand it, a lot of illegal aliens, some not the best of people, but we had a lot of illegal aliens working there."
Trump has worked to bring in major investments from other countries while also levying tariffs he says will give manufacturers incentives to make goods in the US.
The president also campaigned on cracking down on illegal immigration, telling supporters he believed migrants were stealing jobs from Americans.
The factory, which makes new electric vehicles, had been touted by Georgia's Republican governor as the biggest economic development project in the state's history, employing 1,200 people.
Three British nationals were killed in the Lisbon funicular crash, Portuguese police have said.
The Glória funicular, a popular tourist attraction, derailed and crashed into a building on Wednesday, killing 16.
More than 20 people were also injured, with five in a critical condition.
Nationals of Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland, Canada, Ukraine, France, and the US are also among the dead, police said.
It is not known what caused the crash. The capital's public transport operator, Carris, said all funiculars would be inspected and that it had launched an independent investigation.
The 140-year-old carriage derailed at around 18:15 local time (17:15 GMT) near the city's Avenida da Liberdade boulevard.
More than 60 rescue personnel raced to the scene to pull people from the wreckage.
Videos and images of the site showed an overturned, crumpled yellow carriage lying on the cobblestone street.
Portugal's Prime Minister Luís Montenegro called the crash "one of the biggest human tragedies of our recent history" and a national day of mourning was declared.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
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A group of migrants from Venezuela, Ecuador and Haiti cross the Rio Muerto in Colombia in 2023
The Trump administration's effort to strip hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan and Haitian migrants of legal protections is unlawful, a US judge says.
The ruling by District Judge Edward Chen sets aside the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) attempt to end temporary protected status (TPS) for people from countries experiencing conditions that make it dangerous to return.
It will allow around 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians to continue living and working legally in the US. The DHS has indicated it will appeal the decision.
The TPS program was established by Congress in 1990 to give temporary protections for migrants from countries experiencing war and natural disasters.
In a 69-page decision, Judge Chen wrote that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's action in revoking their protected status "was not only unprecedented in the manner and speed in which it was taken but also violates the law."
He said conditions in their home countries was "so dangerous that even the State Department advises against travel".
In response to the ruling, a DHS spokesperson told the BBC the scheme had been "abused, exploited, and politicised as a de facto amnesty program", while indicating it would assess its legal options.
"Unelected activist judges cannot stop the will of the American people for a safe and secure homeland," the spokesperson added.
There are about 600,000 migrants who have TPS from Venezuela, the largest country included in the program. Former President Joe Biden extended the program to include Haiti, Afghanistan, Cameroon and Ukraine.
President Donald Trump sought to reverse the extension when he returned to office earlier this year and also attempted to terminate the designation for Venezuela altogether.
In March, the administration, making good on Trump's campaign promise of cracking down on immigration, said it will revoke the temporary legal status of more than half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Those migrants were warned to leave the country before their permits and deportation shields were cancelled on 24 April.
The National TPS Alliance and Venezuelan TPS holders sued the Trump administration and DHS earlier this year, arguing that Noem did not have the authority to unilaterally roll back the extension granted by the previous administration.
But Judge Chen, the California federal judge, said in his ruling on Friday that the high court's decision only dealt with preliminary relief he ordered.
It did not preclude him, he wrote, from issuing fresh orders.
Also on Friday, a federal appeals court in Washington DC ruled that the Trump administration cannot continue cuts to foreign aid.
The ruling requires the administration to move quickly to spend funds on projects authorised by Congress.
The administration has withheld $4bn (£3bn) in funding appropriated for the US Agency for International Development, which has been picked apart during Trump's second term.
For many Russians, going online has become harder as censorship has tightened access to popular apps
Marina, a 45-year-old freelance copywriter, has relied on WhatsApp for her work and personal life for years.
But one day last month that abruptly changed when a call to a colleague did not go through properly. They tried Telegram - another messaging app popular in Russia - but that did not work either.
She was one of millions of Russians facing new restrictions imposed in mid-August by Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, on calls made through the two platforms - the country's most popular apps.
The timing coincides with the rollout of a new "national messenger" app known as Max and created by a Russian firm closely controlled by the Kremlin.
Monthly user numbers of WhatsApp and Telegram are estimated to be 97 and 90 million respectively — in a country of 143 million people.
From parents' chats to tenants' groups, much of daily life runs through them. WhatsApp - whose owner, Meta, is designated an extremist organisation in Russia - is especially popular with older people because of how easy it is to register and use.
AFP via Getty Images
For years, WhatsApp and Telegram have been the most popular ways for Russians to stay connected
In some parts of Russia, particularly in remote and sparsely connected places in the Far East, WhatsApp is much more than chatting with friends and colleagues. Mobile browsing is sometimes painfully slow, so people use the app to coordinate local matters, order taxis, buy alcohol, and share news.
Both apps offer end-to-end encryption which means that no third party, not even those who own them, are able to read messages or listen to calls.
Officials say the apps refused to store Russian users' data in the country, as required by law, and they have claimed scammers exploit messaging apps. Yet Central Bank figures show most scams still happen over regular mobile networks.
Telecom experts and many Russians see the crackdown as the government trying to keep an eye on who people talk to and potentially what they say.
"The authorities don't want us, ordinary people, to maintain any kind of relationships, connections, friendships or mutual support. They want everyone to sit quietly in their own corner," says Marina who lives in Tula, a city 180km (110 miles) south of Moscow.
She asked us to change her name, worrying that speaking to foreign media can be dangerous.
A state-approved super-app
The new Max app is being aggressively promoted by pop stars and bloggers, and since 1 September all devices sold in Russia must have Max pre-installed.
It was launched by VK, which owns the country's largest social network of the same name. The Facebook-like platform is controlled by oil-and-gas giant Gazprom and one of Vladimir Putin's closest confidantes, billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk.
Max is set to become a super-app, bringing together multiple functions, including government digital services and banking.
The model mirrors China's WeChat - central to daily life but also a tool of censorship and surveillance.
Max's privacy policy states it can pass information to third parties and government bodies, potentially giving access to the security services or making user data vulnerable to leaks.
In Russia, where people are prosecuted for critical comments or private messages, and a black market of personal data feeds an epidemic of scam calls, this is a real concern.
Although many Russians are worried about the new restrictions on WhatsApp and Telegram, and by the introduction of Max, the state already has vast means to spy on its citizens.
Getty Images
Russians don't want to lose their favourite messaging apps, but the Kremlin is forcing them to install Max.
By law, you can only buy a sim card with your national ID, and the security services have access to telecom operators' infrastructure. This means they can find out who you call as well as your whereabouts.
From this month it is now illegal to share your sim card with anyone other than a close relative.
But Max can potentially allow the authorities to read your messages as well - and avoiding the app is getting harder.
Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images
Vladimir Putin has spent more than a decade pushing to bring the internet under government control
Schools are now obliged to move parent chats to the app.
In Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, Max is being adopted as an alert system; in St Petersburg, it is being tied to emergency services.
Despite the push, Max remains far behind its rivals - this week it claimed to have 30 million users.
The Kremlin has long been uneasy of the freedoms offered to people by the internet, which Vladimir Putin once called a CIA project.
The first legislative restrictions came in 2012, soon after mass opposition protests, officially to protect children from suicide-related content.
Ten years later, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the government blocked popular social media sites, such as Facebook, Instagram and X, and most independent media, leaving them accessible only through VPNs.
New restrictions keep coming: as of this month, Russians face fines for "deliberately searching" online for extremist materials - more than 5,000 resources from an ever-growing blacklist compiled by the ministry of justice. Examples include a book by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in 2024, and Ukrainian songs.
Another ban targets adverts on platforms linked to "extremist" organisations, in effect ending advertising on Instagram which many small businesses had relied on as a shopfront.
Ads for VPNs are also banned, and while using these apps is not illegal, it may now be treated as an aggravating factor in criminal cases.
State-induced digital detox
Apart from their problems with WhatsApp and Telegram, many Russians are now getting used to life without mobile internet altogether, as entire cities face regular cut-offs.
Since May, every Russian region has seen mobile internet go down.
Blackouts surged through the summer, with up to 77 regions hit by shutdowns simultaneously at the peak, according to the Na Svyazi (In Touch) project.
The authorities justify the measures by the need to protect people and infrastructure from attacks by Ukrainian drones - Kyiv's response to Russia's relentless and deadly bombardments of Ukrainian cities.
But some experts doubt that switching off mobile internet - which many Russians use instead of broadband - is an effective tool against long-distance drone attacks.
Local authorities, who were made responsible for countering drone attacks, have no other means to do it, explains telecom expert Mikhail Klimarev.
"There are no air defence systems, no army - everything's on the frontline," he says. "Their logic goes: we've switched off the internet and there were no drones, hence it works."
In Vladimir, 200km (125 miles) east of Moscow, two of the city's three districts have been offline for almost a month.
"It's impossible to check bus routes or timetables," says Konstantin, a resident who also asked to change his name. "The information boards at stops also show errors."
Taxi fares have risen as drivers cannot accept orders online.
State TV in Vladimir spun the shutdown as "digital detox", showing residents who said they now enjoyed more walking, reading and spending time with friends.
In Krasnoyarsk, a city of more than a million people in Siberia, mobile internet vanished citywide for three days in July and still works poorly.
Some officials rejected complaints, with one Krasnoyarsk bureaucrat suggesting remote workers who lost income should "go and work for the special military operation", as the war in Ukraine is known in Russia. She later apologised.
The government is now working on a scheme that will allow Russians to access only vital online services during shutdowns, such as banking, taxis, deliveries - and the Max messenger.
This is a dangerous step, warns Sarkis Darbinyan, lawyer and co-founder of digital rights group RKS Global.
"There's a possibility the authorities will use this measure for other goals apart from fighting drones," he tells the BBC.
He believes the Kremlin's current approach to the internet mirrors Beijing's.
"Unlike the Chinese, Russians have spent decades enjoying cheap, fast internet and foreign platforms," he says. "These services became deeply ingrained not only in people's daily lives but also in business processes."
For now those who are wary of installing Max on their devices can still find a way around it.
Marina from Tula says her mother, a school teacher, was instructed to download the messenger but claimed to her superiors that she didn't have a smartphone.
People can still call each other using regular mobile networks, although that is more expensive, especially when talking to someone abroad - and not secure.
There are other means available too, like using VPNs or alternative messaging apps, previously reserved for tech nerds and those handling sensitive information.
But as government control over the internet increases, fewer and fewer people will find ways to escape it - and that is assuming the internet is still available for them to try.
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