The UK government set up a secret Afghan relocation scheme after the personal data of thousands of people was inadvertently leaked, it can be revealed.

A dataset containing the details of nearly 19,000 people who applied to move to the UK following the Taliban takeover of the country was released in error by a British defence official in February 2022.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) learned of the breach in August 2023 when some details were anonymously posted on Facebook.

Nearly 9,000 Afghans have arrived in the UK or are en route via the previously secret scheme, which is estimated to have cost £850m.

The existence of this confidential Afghan Response Route, which was established in April 2024, was kept confidential by an injunction but can now be reported following a High Court ruling on Tuesday.

The MoD declined to say how many have been arrested or killed as a result of the data breach.

Defence secretary John Healey is expected to confirm further details in the House of Commons later on Tuesday.

The unauthorised data breach was committed by an unnamed individual at the MoD. The data related to Afghans who worked with international forces following the 2001 invasion of the country.

As US troops completed their withdrawal in August 2021, the UK government set up Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, which was designed to rapidly process applications by people who feared reprisals from the Taliban and move them to the UK.

But it emerged on Tuesday that thousands of those who applied for that scheme had sensitive personal data leaked by a British official.

Arap has already been heavily criticised in the years since it was launched, with a 2022 inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Committee finding it was a "disaster" and a "betrayal".

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

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

At least 12 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley, a regional governor says.

Seven Syrians, including a family of five, and three Lebanese were killed when the Wadi Faara area was hit, Baalbek-Hermel Governor Bachir Khodr wrote on X. The other two deaths were reported in Shmustar.

The Israeli military said it had struck a number of military compounds belonging to the armed group Hezbollah, including training camps affiliated to its elite Radwan Force.

These were the deadliest strikes since a ceasefire ended a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, including two months of all-out war that left the group severely weakened.

Hezbollah has not yet commented on the attacks, although its Al-Manar TV channel said they constituted violations of both the ceasefire and Lebanon's sovereignty.

The Arabic-language spokesperson of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Lt Col Avichay Adraee, said on X that Tuesday's strikes hit several Hezbollah targets.

"As part of the strikes, military compounds belonging to the Radwan Force have been targeted, where terrorist operatives and warehouses used to store combat equipment employed by Hezbollah have been identified," Adraee said.

The Radwan Force is Hezbollah's elite commando unit.

The IDF said in a separate English statement that it had killed the Radwan Force's commanders in September 2024 - when it launched an intense air campaign against Hezbollah and invaded southern Lebanon - and that since then the unit had been "operating to re-establish its capabilities".

The IDF asserted that Hezbollah's storage of weapons and military activities in the Bekaa Valley constituted a "blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon and constitute a future threat to the State of Israel".

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the strikes sent "a clear message" to Hezbollah and the Lebanese government, emphasising that Israel was prepared to "respond with maximum force against any attempt at rebuilding" Hezbollah's military capabilities.

The basis of the ceasefire agreement between the Israeli and Lebanese governments, brokered by US mediators in November, was the full implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the last war in 2006.

Hezbollah was required to withdraw its forces to positions north of the Litani River - approximately 30km (20 miles) from the Israeli border - leaving only the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers authorized to operate with arms in that area.

Israel was required to fully pull its forces out of Lebanon, but it has maintained a military presence at five sites in the south that it considers strategically important.

The agreement also noted that the resolution reaffirmed previous Security Council calls for the "disarmament of all armed groups" in Lebanon.

A total of 13 people have been arrested and extra police have been deployed after an attack on a pensioner sparked anti-migrant unrest in a small town in southern Spain.

Three people of North African origin have been detained on suspicion of attacking the 68-year-old man in Torre Pacheco last Wednesday.

The unrest began after a video circulated on social media, inflaming the town of 40,000 people which is home to a large immigrant population.

The pensioner and police later said the video was unrelated to the incident but social media calls to find and attack the perpetrators multiplied quickly.

By Friday groups armed with batons could be seen roaming the streets of Torre Pacheco.

One far-right group called "Deport Them Now" called for attacks on people of North African origin. Further messages on social media have called for renewed attacks on immigrants over three days this week.

A leading member of the extremist group was detained in the north-eastern town of Mataró on suspicion of spreading hate speech.

The 68-year-old victim of last Wednesday's attack, named locally as Domingo Tomás Domínguez, told Spanish media he was thrown to the ground and hit while taking his morning walk.

A photo circulating on social media showed his face bearing extensive bruising.

Police said the motive for the attack was unclear. Mr Domínguez said he was not asked to hand over money or his belongings and did not understand the language his attackers were speaking.

Police presence has been beefed up, with more than 130 officers from both the local police in the province of Murcia and Guardia Civil.

The three people arrested on suspicion of attacking the pensioner are all of Moroccan origin and in their early 20s, according to Spanish media, and none are residents of Torre Pacheco.

One of the suspects was arrested on Monday as he prepared to take a train from the Basque region to cross the border to France.

The worst of the unrest occurred at the weekend, when groups of youths - some hooded - attacked vehicles and businesses. Clashes were also reported between far-right groups and people of North African origin.

On Sunday night journalists witnessed several dozen youths hurling glass bottles and other objects at riot police.

In a CCTV video shared by several Spanish outlets, a group of men, some armed with bats and sticks, could be seen vandalising a kebab shop on the same night.

Torre Pacheco mayor Pedro Ángel Roca called on the "migrant community not to leave their homes and not to confront rioters".

Many of the town's residents of migrant origin work in the area's booming agricultural sector, and some have complained of no longer feeling safe in the town. The mayor said they had been living in Torre Pachecho for more than 20 years.

Users of an extreme-right Telegram group reportedly called on people to flock in from other parts of Spain and take part in "hunts" of North Africans over three days this week. Their channel has since been shut down.

Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska attributed the violence to anti-immigration rhetoric from far-right groups and parties such as Vox - Spain's third largest political force.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal denied responsibility for the riots and blamed "mass immigration" policies for allowing the alleged perpetrators of last week's attack to enter the country.

Talking about migration, Abascal said: "It has stolen our borders, it has stolen our peace, and it has stolen our prosperity."

Murcia prosecutors have opened an investigstion for hate crimes into the regional president of Vox, José Ángel Antelo, who last week said the violence was the "fault" of Spain's two main parties - the Popular Party (PP) and Socialist Party (PSOE).

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on X: "What we are seeing in Torre-Pacheco challenges us all. We must speak out, act firmly, and defend the values that unite us. Spain is a country of rights, not hate."

Muhammadu Buhari's life tracked the dramatic changes in politics in Nigeria over the last five decades – and he was often at the centre of events.

The former Nigerian president, who died on Sunday at the age of 82, became the country's military leader after a coup, was imprisoned by a new junta, then reinvented himself decades later to win the presidency in a democratic election.

Often pictured in dark glasses or thick, black-framed spectacles, traditional zanna cap and sporting a broad smile, much of Buhari's life was played out in public.

Buhari - pictured here in 1977 with the then-King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf and Saudi Arabia's Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani in 1977 - began his military career straight out of school.

By the time this picture was taken, Buhari had risen to become a regional military commander.

A few years later, in 1983, soldiers overthrew elected President Shehu Shagari.

Although Buhari took the role of military ruler, he denied having plotted the coup, saying he was simply installed by senior commanders who needed a figurehead. Other accounts describe Buhari as playing a more active role in the takeover.

After two years of iron-fisted rule, characterised by a crusade against corruption and various human rights abuses, Buhari was himself ousted. The new junta placed him under house arrest for three years.

In 2003, following decades away from politics, Buhari decided have another go at the leading the country.

This time, he bid for the top job through a democratic election - running for the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP).

Here he can be seen on the right, with his running mate Chuba Okadigbo on the left and ANPP chairman Don Etiebet.

Buhari was well beaten by Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003, and he made two other unsuccessful runs for the presidency in 2007 and 2011.

Despite these failed bids, he accumulated supporters, including disaffected youngsters, with his pledges to fight corruption and insecurity.

Buhari was particularly popular in Nigeria's north, the region in which he was born.

Here, a sign displayed in the city of Kaduna during the 2015 election, tells passers-by that locals will only vote for "Baba" Buhari.

Buhari was eventually elected in 2015, besting incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.

He made history, becoming the first ever opposition candidate to win a general election.

The historic moment in which Jonathan called Buhari to concede was captured on camera.

But after finally taking office, Buhari's first term was rocky. The economy entered a recession for the first time in a decade and security crises piled up.

When Buhari's wife - pictured below - publicly criticised his administration, the president sparked outrage by saying she belonged to the kitchen.

Despite the challenges of his first term, Buhari was re-elected in 2019.

As the president of one of Africa's largest economies, he travelled the world, attending high-profile summits and meeting his fellow heads of state.

Buhari was greeted by Queen Elizabeth at a Commonwealth leaders gathering in 2015.

Earlier in 2015, he was welcomed to the White House by then-US President Barack Obama.

And in 2018, Buhari was the first leader from sub-Saharan Africa to meet President Donald Trump in Washington.

Following his death, at a clinic in London, Buhari is being remembered by some as a man who broke his campaign promises and crushed dissent.

By others, he was champion of order who tried his best amid a dysfunctional political system.

In a tribute to his old rival, Jonathan described Buhari as someone who "was selfless in his commitment to his duty and served the country with character and a deep sense of patriotism".

You may also be interested in:

• Buhari - the austere Nigerian military ruler who defeated a sitting president
• Big shake-up in Nigerian politics as heavyweights join forces
• I learnt government was suing me on the news - Nigerian senator

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

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

Torrential rains in New York and New Jersey on Monday night brought flash flooding that killed two people and led New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to declare a state of emergency.

Officials had to perform rescues as flooding left drivers stranded as their vehicles rose in the waters.

In Plainfield, New Jersey, two people died when a car was sept away by floodwaters as the storm hit, Governor Murphy said on Tuesday.

Additional storms are expected on Tuesday with the potential for more flooding in the north-east as well as Florida and the mid-western US, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

As of Tuesday morning, several main roads in New Jersey were closed because of the floods, while both New York City and New Jersey experienced subway delays.

New Jersey saw more than 6in (15 cm) of rain in a matter of hours on Tuesday evening, leading to flight delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport.

In Scotch Plains, New Jersey, people had to be rescued, including one instance in which responders had to use a rope to pull a man out of his car to escape the floodwaters, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.

Flood waters also rushed through subway stations in New York City on Monday evening, pouring into subway cars and forcing passengers to kneel on their seats to avoid getting wet.

New York City saw its second-ever highest hourly rainfall in over 80 years - 2in of rainfall in just 30 minutes.

The flooding hit parts of Virginia as well, with two cities, Colonial Heights and Petersburg, at risk of "catastrophic" damage from floods, according to the NWS.

The heaviest rainfall is now moving to the east and weakening in intensity, the NWS in New York said, encouraging people to heed road closures.

The rain comes two weeks after extreme flash floods killed over 130 people in south central Texas, with many people still declared missing.

Donald Trump makes a habit of calling reporters out of the blue. The US president seems to prefer an off-the-cuff telephone conversation to a sit-down interview on camera.

On Monday evening it was my turn. And I'll be frank with you - I was asleep when the White House rang.

I'd spent the best part of five days believing there was an outside chance I would get an interview with him, to mark a year since the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.

My reporting from that shooting had made global headlines and probably caught the president's attention. So I judged that perhaps that connection might be a way of securing a presidential interview - pretty rare things for foreign news organisations in the US.

On Sunday night I was told I was minutes away from the call so my team and I were standing by ready to record, but it didn't come.

By last night, I'd given up on the interview happening and after a long few weeks on the road without a day off, I was exhausted and taking a nap. Then the phone rang.

I blearily answered, and the voice of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt came over the speaker: "Hi Gary, I'm here with the president, here you go."

I dashed into my living room, scrambling for my digital recorder; the line dropped and I thought I'd lost it. But they came back on the line and I spent almost 20 minutes speaking to Trump about everything from that fateful night in Butler, to his frustrations with Vladimir Putin, to his new-found belief in Nato and to his view of the UK.

Here are my five key takeaways from our surprise conversation.

1. Trump shows a different side, touching on Butler

He was very reflective on a couple of things and he sounded pretty vulnerable talking about the assassination attempt - it's clear he's uncomfortable talking about that.

For a president often seen in public shooting from the hip, and loved by his supporters for doing so, there were moments of reflection and some long pauses before answers that are rarely seen.

When asked if the assassination attempt had changed him, the president conveyed a hint of vulnerability as he said he tries to think about it as little as he can.

"I don't like dwelling on it because if I did, it would be, you know, might be life-changing, I don't want it to have to be that."

Elaborating, he said he liked "the power of positive thinking, or the power of positive non-thinking".

There was also a very long pause when I asked him if he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Eventually he replied: "I trust almost nobody to be honest with you."

• I'm 'disappointed but not done' with Putin, Trump says

2. No commitment to US deportation numbers

Turning to domestic American politics, I asked whether the president's plan for mass deportations was working - both in terms of speed, and given that some individuals were being swept up who the president perhaps wouldn't want to see deported.

The president insisted his team had done a "great job" at fulfilling his campaign promises, citing the drastic decrease in migrants crossing into the US from southern neighbour Mexico.

Some of Trump's team have expressed frustration that deportations are being carried out too slowly. When I pushed him on the question of how many deportations in this second presidential term would mark a success, Trump refused to give a figure.

"Well I don't put a number on but I want to get the criminals out quickly, and we're doing that, as you know," he said. "We're bringing them to El Salvador, lots of other places."

3. More frustration with Putin

Trump expressed his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin - capping off a day in which he threatened to hit Moscow's economy with secondary sanctions if a deal over the war in Ukraine was not reached within 50 days.

Having campaigned on a promise to quickly end the war, Trump seemed perplexed that he had not yet managed to strike an agreement with his Russian counterpart to end the years-long conflict.

He again indicated there was a gap between words and actions on Putin's part: "I thought we had a deal done four times and then you go home, and you see, just attacked a nursing home or something in Kyiv. I said: 'What the hell was that all about?'"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders have long accused Putin of not being serious about ending the war. To them, feelings of doubt will be nothing new.

But, when I asked Trump whether he had finished with the Russian leader, he continued to leave the door open: "I'm not done with him, but I'm disappointed in him."

• Trump weapons pledge marks major step forward for Ukraine
• Rosenberg: Russia more relieved than rattled by US threat

4. New tone on Nato

I pointed out to Trump that he once suggested Nato was obsolete, and he replied that he now thought the Western military alliance was "becoming the opposite of that".

He was fresh from hosting Nato chief Mark Rutte - a man he seems to be able to work well with. The pair exchanged warm words in front of the world's cameras, and announced that the US would sell weapons to Nato which would then be passed on to Kyiv.

During our call, Trump indicated that he was shaking off his grudge that his country spent proportionately more on defence than its allies.

"It was very unfair because the United States paid for almost a hundred percent of it, but now they're paying their own bills and I think that's much better," he said, appearing to refer to a pledge last month by Nato members to ramp up defence spending to 5% of each country's economic output.

"We changed Nato a lot," he told me.

5. Respect for Starmer and UK

Trump emphasised his respect for the UK and its prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, with whom he last month signed an agreement to remove some trade barriers. "I really like the prime minister a lot, even though he's a liberal," Trump explained.

Trump emphasised that the relationship between the two countries was just as "special" as many Britons like to believe, adding that he believed the UK would fight alongside the US in a war.

He sounded relaxed over perceived slights against him. Although his state visit to the UK later this year will not entail a speech to Parliament, he was not insistent that lawmakers be recalled. "Let them go and have a good time," he said.

Trump labelled his future host King Charles "a great gentleman". He shrugged off a recent speech that was given to Canada's parliament by the monarch that was seen as an endorsement of Canadian sovereignty in the face of Trump's threats.

He even had a joke. "You have many different names you go by," he said. "England, if you want to cut off a couple of areas. And you go UK, and you have Britain and you have Great Britain. You got more names than any other country in history, I think."

The UK government set up a secret Afghan relocation scheme after the personal data of thousands of people was inadvertently leaked, it can be revealed.

A dataset containing the details of nearly 19,000 people who applied to move to the UK following the Taliban takeover of the country was released in error by a British defence official in February 2022.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) learned of the breach in August 2023 when some details were anonymously posted on Facebook.

Nearly 9,000 Afghans have arrived in the UK or are en route via the previously secret scheme, which is estimated to have cost £850m.

The existence of this confidential Afghan Response Route, which was established in April 2024, was kept confidential by an injunction but can now be reported following a High Court ruling on Tuesday.

The MoD declined to say how many have been arrested or killed as a result of the data breach.

Defence secretary John Healey is expected to confirm further details in the House of Commons later on Tuesday.

The unauthorised data breach was committed by an unnamed individual at the MoD. The data related to Afghans who worked with international forces following the 2001 invasion of the country.

As US troops completed their withdrawal in August 2021, the UK government set up Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, which was designed to rapidly process applications by people who feared reprisals from the Taliban and move them to the UK.

But it emerged on Tuesday that thousands of those who applied for that scheme had sensitive personal data leaked by a British official.

Arap has already been heavily criticised in the years since it was launched, with a 2022 inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Committee finding it was a "disaster" and a "betrayal".

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

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

Ukrainians are tired, run down by the emotional toll of the invasion and the physical toll of sleepless nights due to air raid sirens, explosions and the screeching sounds of attack drones. "It was a long night," is a common remark you will hear in Kyiv.

So, US President Donald Trump's decision to give Russia 50 days to agree to a ceasefire or face "very severe tariffs… at about 100%" has not gone down well.

One of Ukraine's most prominent politicians, Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko, asked "why such a delay?" while speaking on German television. Russian attacks had become "more intense", he said, and more people could be killed in that 50-day period.

President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to Trump after the president said "top-of-the-line weapons" would be sent from the US via Nato partners in Europe, and thanked him for his "willingness to support Ukraine". If implemented, the "secondary tariffs" would hit countries that buy Russia's oil exports.

But Ukrainian MP Kira Rudik says Trump's announcement was "bitttersweet", as it gave Putin another 50 days to continue his deadly bombardment and maintain his offensive on the front line.

"It is very hard and very personal for us because we don't know if some of us will survive for these 50 days," she told the BBC.

More than 230 civilians were killed in Ukraine last month and many more wounded, according to UN human rights monitors - the biggest number for three years, as Russia unleashed record numbers of drone and missile attacks.

Read More:

Trump threatens Russia while unveiling Ukraine weapons plan

Rosenberg: Russia more relieved than rattled by US tariff threat

Trump weapons pledge a big step for Ukraine

Among the weapons being sent to Ukraine are Patriot air defence batteries to help protect cities from attack.

"[There] hasn't been a single fact that would prove Russia wants to stop the war. Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire, we have done everything by the book," Rudik added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that Trump's announcement was "very serious" and warned such decisions were seen by Kyiv "not as a signal for peace but as a signal to continue the war".

There was little faith in Trump's promises on the streets of Kyiv.

Residents Yuliia and Alisa said they both worried about his relationship with the Kremlin.

"I don't believe it is real help for Ukraine… it's all about his ego," Yuliia told the BBC. "I guess these four years [of Trump's presidency] are going to be very tough for Ukraine."

"Everything that happened during the last six months just proved that nothing will change despite what Trump does or does not say," Alisa added.

Nina, who also lives in Kyiv, was more optimistic that additional weapons sent by the US and paid for by Nato member states in Europe could "speed up the end of the war".

It could have come to an end sooner if Russia had not have been helped by allies like North Korea and China, she said.

Artem, whose father is serving in the Ukrainian army, was "hoping for the best".

"People say a lot, let's see how it goes. I hope that everything will be the way we want. And we want peace, for the war in Ukraine to end, and for all the guys to return alive," he said.

Walking around the wall encircling St Michael's monastery in Kyiv, photos of the fallen stare out at you - some were taken before the war, featuring men and women posing with family members and pets.

As Trump talks of imposing new tariffs on Russia, the war continues - with these images a reminder of the soldiers who will never come home.

Some conservative members of Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement have reacted angrily to the president's plans to sell weapons to Nato, arguing it is a betrayal of his promise to end US involvement in foreign wars.

On Monday, Trump said he would send weapons to Ukraine via Nato, while also threatening Russia with more tariffs if a deal to end the war is not reached in 50 days.

Republican Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene, a key Trump ally, and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon are among those who have criticised the decision, with Bannon telling his podcast listeners that Ukraine is a "European war".

The White House has emphasised that Europe will pay for the US-made weapons.

In an interview with the New York Times, Greene - an isolationist member of Congress from Georgia who has been one of the most loyal Trump supporters on Capitol Hill - said the move was at odds with what she had promised voters on the campaign trail.

"It's not just Ukraine; it's all foreign wars in general and a lot of foreign aid," she said. "This is what we campaigned on. This is what I promised also to my district. This is what everybody voted for. And I believe we have to maintain the course."

• I'm 'disappointed but not done' with Putin, Trump tells BBC
• Trump unveils Ukraine weapons plan at White House

Trump sought to emphasise that the weapons would be paid for rather than given as direct aid, saying on Monday: "We're not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they're going to be paying for it."

But in a rare public disagreement with the president, Greene expressed scepticism that US taxpayers would ultimately avoid bearing any cost and, in a post on social media, criticised "backdoor deals through Nato".

"Without a shadow of a doubt, our tax dollars are being used," she told the New York Times, arguing that indirect costs such as US training missions and contributions to Nato qualify as US involvement.

"I said it on every rally stage: no more money to Ukraine. We want peace. We just want peace for those people," she said. "And guess what? People haven't changed."

'We still hate it'

One former Trump campaign official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to Politico, said Europe's purchase of the weapons "mitigates" the anger from Trump's isolationist supporters.

"But we still hate it," the official said. "This is not our war, and escalation isn't in America's interest."

Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Trump, said on his War Room podcast that "Ukraine is getting so dangerous".

"It's a European war. Let Europe deal with it," he said. "They have the resources. They have the manpower."

"We're about to arm people we have literally no control over," Bannon said of Ukraine. "This is old-fashioned, grinding war in the bloodlands of Europe - and we're being dragged into it."

In a statement quoted by Politico, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said that Trump's MAGA base "aren't panicans like the media".

"They trust in Trump, and they know that this president is restoring peace through strength."

The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.

A White House official who spoke to Politico on the condition of anonymity disagreed that the president's base opposed his moves. They pointed to one recent poll that suggested nearly two-thirds of Trump voters support continuing to send arms to Ukraine.

Officials in the Trump administration have also defended the president's decision, with Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby writing on X that Trump's "America First message is that our alliances have to be fair and equitable".

"This is eminently reasonable but was treated for many years as heresy," he added. "Yet now with the historic Nato commitment we see that it can work."

That recent commitment from Nato leaders to ramp up defence spending to 5% of their economic output was praised by Trump supporters on Monday, who argued that even with the new weapons deal Europe was taking on more responsibility for its defence.

And in an exclusive interview with the BBC on Monday, just hours after he met Nato chief Mark Rutte at the White House, Trump said the alliance was now "paying its own bills".

He affirmed his support for the organisation's common defence principle, and said he was "disappointed but not done" with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

The president said that he had thought a deal to end the war in Ukraine was on the cards with Russia four different times.

The UK government set up a secret Afghan relocation scheme after the personal data of thousands of people was inadvertently leaked, it can be revealed.

A dataset containing the details of nearly 19,000 people who applied to move to the UK following the Taliban takeover of the country was released in error by a British defence official in February 2022.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) learned of the breach in August 2023 when some details were anonymously posted on Facebook.

Nearly 9,000 Afghans have arrived in the UK or are en route via the previously secret scheme, which is estimated to have cost £850m.

The existence of this confidential Afghan Response Route, which was established in April 2024, was kept confidential by an injunction but can now be reported following a High Court ruling on Tuesday.

The MoD declined to say how many have been arrested or killed as a result of the data breach.

Defence secretary John Healey is expected to confirm further details in the House of Commons later on Tuesday.

The unauthorised data breach was committed by an unnamed individual at the MoD. The data related to Afghans who worked with international forces following the 2001 invasion of the country.

As US troops completed their withdrawal in August 2021, the UK government set up Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, which was designed to rapidly process applications by people who feared reprisals from the Taliban and move them to the UK.

But it emerged on Tuesday that thousands of those who applied for that scheme had sensitive personal data leaked by a British official.

Arap has already been heavily criticised in the years since it was launched, with a 2022 inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Committee finding it was a "disaster" and a "betrayal".

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

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

Israel says it has bombed Syrian government forces around Suweida, as they entered the predominantly Druze city following two days of deadly clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes.

About 100 people have reportedly been killed since the fighting erupted on Sunday.

Syria's defence minister announced a ceasefire in Suweida on Tuesday morning, saying an agreement had been reached with local dignitaries for security forces to deploy there. However, one Druze spiritual leader urged local fighters to resist.

Later, Israel's prime minister said he had ordered strikes on forces and weapons in the Suweida area because the government "intended to use [them] against the Druze".

Benjamin Netanyahu said he was committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria because of their deep ties to those living in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

This is the first time that Syrian government forces have been deployed to Suweida since Islamist-led rebel forces overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Minority communities are suspicious of the country's new leaders despite their pledges to protect them, and until now the province of Suweida had remained largely under the control of Druze militias which resisted calls to join the government's forces.

Ethiopian government forces "executed" three employees of medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) while they were on a humanitarian mission in Ethiopia's war-hit northern Tigray region four years ago, a senior MSF official has told the BBC.

Raquel Ayora's comments came as MSF released its findings on what it called the "intentional and targeted" killing of the three - a Spanish national and two Ethiopians - at the height of the now-ended conflict in Tigray.

"They were executed," said Ms Ayora, MSF Spain's general director. "They were facing their attackers [and] were shot at very close range… several times."

The BBC has asked the Ethiopian government for a response to the allegation.

MSF said it was releasing its findings as the government had failed to provide a "credible account" of the deaths despite 20 face-to-face meetings over the last four years.

Thirty-five-year-old Spaniard María Hernández Matas, along with 32-year-old Yohannes Halefom Reda and 31-year-old Tedros Gebremariam, were killed on 24 June 2021 while travelling in central Tigray to assess medical needs.

"They were very professional and passionate," Ms Ayora told the BBC.

She added that the three were fully identifiable in MSF vests and their vehicle had the charity's flag and logos on either side when they were shot.

"So, they [Ethiopian troops] knew that they were killing humanitarian aid workers," she said, adding that the team's travel route had also been shared in advance with fighting groups.

The Tigray conflict broke out in 2020 following a massive fall-out between the regional and federal governments, with neighbouring Eritrea entering the war on the side of the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF).

The conflict ended two years later following a peace deal brokered by the African Union (AU). Its envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, put the number of people who died in the conflict at around 600,000.

Researchers said the deaths were caused by fighting, starvation and a lack of health care.

The killings took place at a time when the conflict was intensifying, and Ethiopian and Eritrean troops were becoming increasingly hostile towards aid workers in the region, MSF said in its report.

Ms Matas had been working in Tigray since before the war and "was very much loved" by people in the region, Ms Ayora said.

Her death has been particularly devastating for her mother as she was her only child, the MSF official added.

Mr Tedros was killed soon after his wife had given birth to a baby girl. His widow named the baby Maria, after her father's killed Spanish colleague, Mr Ayora said.

The bodies of Ms Matas and Mr Yohannes were found between 100m (300ft) and 400m from the wreckage of their vehicle.

The body of Mr Tedros, the driver, was found by the vehicle."In line with MSF travel policy, the driver stays close to the vehicle", Ms Ayora said.

The vehicle was shot at multiple times and burned on the main road from the town of Abi Adi to Yech'illa, Ms Ayora said.

Ms Matas and Mr Yohannes were walking when they were shot, she said, adding: "We don't know if they were called for interrogation or they decided to engage with the soldiers."

MSF said it had relied on satellite images, witnesses and publicly available information on the Ethiopian military's movements at the time of the killings to draw its conclusions.

Its investigation placed Ethiopian troops at the "precise location" where the killings occurred, the charity added.

MSF's report quoted witnesses as saying they overhead an officer informing the local commander of an approaching white car and the commander giving an order to shoot.

Moments later, the commander was allegedly informed that the soldiers had tried to shoot but that the car had turned towards Abi Adi and stopped, at which point the commander gave the order to "go and catch them" and "remove them", the report alleged.

Ms Ayora told the BBC that officials from Ethiopia's Ministry of Justice had verbally informed MSF in mid-2022 that their preliminary investigation showed that government troops were not at the scene of the killing.

However, the officials refused to give this in writing, and the charity kept engaging with the government in order to end "impunity" at a time when an increasing number of aid workers were being killed in conflicts around the world, Ms Ayora said.

More BBC stories on Tigray conflict:

• 'I lost my leg on the way home from school'
• How a massacre in the sacred city of Aksum unfolded
• The war is over but the rapes continue

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

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

The US is imposing a 17% tariff on most tomatoes imported from Mexico with immediate effect, the government said.

The duty came into force after the US withdrew from a long-standing agreement with its southern neighbour, arguing that the deal "had failed to protect US tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports".

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that "for far too long our farmers have been crushed by unfair trade practices that undercut pricing on produce like tomatoes".

Mexico rejected accusations it had dumped its tomatoes on the US market at low prices and said the popularity of Mexican tomatoes was down to their good quality.

The measure is expected to lead to higher prices at supermarkets and restaurants, such as pizza parlours and Mexican eateries.

Tomato-based pizza sauces and salsas are among the products likely to be most hit.

About 70% of tomatoes consumed in the US are imported from Mexico, according to advocacy group Florida Tomato Exchange.

Backers of the newly imposed tariff argue that it will encourage consumers to buy tomatoes grown in the US, thereby boosting local trade.

But the Mexican economy and agriculture ministry said it would be "impossible to substitute Mexican tomatoes" given the volume imported from Mexico.

The Mexican government said it would try to negotiate a new deal before its producers were hit, but also promised to help Mexican tomato growers find new markets.

US tomato growers first petitioned the US government for help in 1996, arguing that they were being undercut by Mexican growers, whom they accused of dumping their tomatoes in the US at a price lower than their normal value.

In order to protect its tomato growers, the US issued an antidumping order, imposing duties on imported tomatoes in order to make US tomatoes more attractive to consumers.

Since then, the two countries have signed five agreements which suspended those tariffs in exchange for Mexico agreeing to sell their tomatoes at or above a minimum price.

It is the latest of these suspension agreements - signed in 2019 - that the US has now withdrawn from.

The US president has also threatened to impose 30% tariffs on all Mexican goods from 1 August.

Trump said this was because Mexico, in his view, had not done enough to stop North America becoming a "Narco-Trafficking Playground".

Other countries, such as Brazil and China, as well as the EU trading bloc have also been threatened with US tariffs.

The Australian government has won a landmark climate case against residents of islands under siege from the impacts of climate change.

In 2021, community elders Pabai Pabai and Paul Kabai launched legal action against the then-Liberal government for breaching its duty of care to protect the Torres Strait Islands from the impacts of climate change.

But a Federal Court judge dismissed the case and said climate policy was a matter for parliament, not the courts.

The ruling also found that the government did not owe a duty of care to protect the islands from the impacts of climate change.

The Torres Strait Islands - located between far-north Queensland and Papua New Guinea - are made up of about 270 islands, of which only a few dozen are inhabited.

About 4,000 people live on the islands, according to the latest official figures, with 90% identifying as Indigenous.

In their submission, Uncle Pabai Pabai and Uncle Paul Kabai said sea levels in the north of Australia had been rising "significantly higher than the global average".

Between 1993 and 2019, sea levels in the Torres Strait rose by about 6 cm per decade, the court was told.

The court also heard that the islands are home to a "distinctive customary culture known as Ailan Kastom", where the residents have a "unique spiritual and physical connection" to the islands and waters.

The case added that by failing to take greater action against climate change in its emissions targets, the islands' unique culture would be lost, and residents would become climate refugees.

However, Justice Michael Wigney said that while he recognised the "devastating impact" caused to the islands by climate change, current negligence laws in Australia do not allow for compensation where the loss of culture, customs and traditions were the result of a government's policies.

He acknowledged that while "climate change related flooding and inundation events had damaged their sacred sites and the burial grounds of their ancestors", matters of "core government policy" such as emissions targets was "ordinarily to be decided through political processes, not by judges".

He did however recognise that action was needed: "There could be little, if any, doubt that the Torres Strait Islands and their traditional inhabitants will face a bleak future if urgent action is not taken to address climate change and its impacts."

For Uncle Pabai the decision was devastating.

"My heart is broken for my family and my community," he said in statement according to local media.

In his submission to the court, Uncle Pabai - a community leader from Boigu island - described the deep spiritual connection he and other locals have with the land and waters, especially the cemeteries as "talking to my ancestors is a big part of my culture".

"If Boigu was gone, or I had to leave it, because it was underwater, I will be nothing," he wrote in his court submission.

Uncle Paul, the other elder behind the court action, was equally stunned by the findings.

"I thought that the decision would be in our favour, and I'm in shock," he said.

"This pain isn't just for me, it's for all people Indigenous and non-Indigenous who have been affected by climate change. What do any of us say to our families now?"

During earlier court hearings, Uncle Paul had described his childhood memories of Saibai in the 1970s and 1980s when it was a "land of plenty", with an abundance of barramundi and crabs in inland freshwater swamps.

But now, more extreme weather events and higher sea levels meant an increase in saltwater coming inland, and coupled with less rain, the higher salt levels in the swamps have made it impossible for fish and crabs to survive, he said.

He told the court about a seawall - built around 2017 - that was breached by a king tide in 2000, destroying crops and flooding homes.

"If the water keeps on rising, in the way it has in the last 10 years or so, the seawall will not be able to protect Saibai at all," he said in his submission.

"My country would disappear. I would lose everything: my home, my community, my culture, my stories, my identity. Without Saibai, I do not know who I would be," the court heard.

In handing down his decision, Justice Wigney said that while the previous government "paid scant if any regard to the best available science" in setting emissions reductions, the new targets set by Labor were "significantly higher and more ambitious".

In a joint statement following the court decision, Australia's Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy, said they "understand that the Torres Strait Islands are vulnerable to climate change, and many are already feeling the impacts".

"Where the former Government failed on climate change, the Albanese Government is delivering – because it's in the interest of all Australians," the statement said.

Riona Moodley, from the University of NSW's Institute of Climate Risk and Response said while the decision was "definitely a setback" for Torres Strait Islanders, it does not mean the law can not change.

"The reality is that Australian law will need to adapt to meet the challenges of climate change," she told the BBC.

Her colleague Wesley Morgan said the court's finding should also propel greater action from government on its climate policies.

"It must listen to the science telling us we need to be as ambitious as possible in the decade ahead," he said.

Fauja Singh, a British-Indian man believed to be the world's oldest marathon runner, has died after being hit by a car in India at the age of 114.

Police say Singh was crossing a road in the village where he was born in Punjab when an unidentified vehicle hit him. Locals took him to hospital, where he died.

Singh, a global icon, set records by running marathons across multiple age categories, including when he was over 100. He began running at 89 and ran nine full marathons between 2000 and 2013, when he retired.

His running club and charity, Sikhs In The City, said its upcoming events in Ilford, east London, where he had lived since 1992, would be a celebration of his life and achievements.

The hit and run happened on Monday as the centenarian was walking in his birth village, Beas Pind, near Jalandhar.

"A search is under way, and the accused will be caught soon," said Harvinder Singh, a top district police officer.

As news of the death broke, tributes poured in.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him an "exceptional athlete with incredible determination".

Harmander Singh, Fauja Singh's coach at Sikhs In The City, confirmed his death in a statement posted to the running club.

The statement said: "It is with great sadness that we can confirm our icon of humanity and powerhouse of positivity Fauja Singh has passed away in India.

"His running club and charity Sikhs In The City will be devoting all of its events until the Fauja Singh Birthday Challenge on Sunday 29 March 2026 to celebrate his life of success and achievements.

"We will be doubling the efforts to raise funds to building the Fauja Singh Clubhouse on the route in Ilford where he used to train."

When the BBC met Singh in June in Beas Pind, he was agile and active, walking several miles every day.

"I still go for walks around the village to keep my legs strong. A person has to take care of his own body," he said.

A torchbearer for the 2012 London Olympics, Singh clocked several milestones during his running career, including reportedly becoming the first centenarian to complete a full marathon in 2011 in Toronto.

However, his claim of being the world's oldest marathon runner was not recognised by Guinness World Records as he could not show a birth certificate from 1911. The BBC reported at the time that Singh's British passport showed his date of birth as being 1 April 1911, and that he had a letter from the Queen congratulating him on his 100th birthday.

His trainer, Harmander Singh, said that birth certificates were not made in India at the time Singh was born.

Guinness World Records officials said they would have loved "to give him the record", but that they could only "accept official birth documents created in the year of the birth".

As a young boy growing up in Punjab, Singh was teased by people in his village as his legs were weak and he could not walk properly until the age of five.

"But the same boy, once mocked for his weakness, went on to make history," he told BBC Punjabi in June.

Before he turned 40, Singh, a farmer, had lived through the turbulence of both the World Wars and experienced the trauma of Partition.

"In my youth, I didn't even know the word 'marathon' existed," Singh told BBC Punjabi. "I never went to school, nor was I involved in any kind of sports. I was a farmer and spent most of my life in the fields."

He first took to running to cope with grief.

After the death of his wife Gian Kaur in the early 1990s, he moved to London to live with his eldest son Sukhjinder. But during a visit to India, he witnessed his younger son Kuldeep's death in an accident which left him devastated.

Overtaken by grief, Singh would spend hours sitting near the spot where his son had been cremated. Concerned villagers advised his family to take him back to the UK.

Back in Ilford in London, during one of his visits to the gurdwara, Singh met a group of elderly men who would go on runs together. He also met Harmander Singh, who would go on to become his coach.

"Had I not met Harmander Singh, I wouldn't have got into marathon running," he said in June.

Singh made his debut at the London Marathon in 2000, a month shy of turning 89. He participated through a Golden Bond entry - a system where charities pre-purchase a fixed number of spots for a fee. He chose to run for BLISS, a charity that supports premature infants. His tagline: "Oldest running for the youngest! May they live as long as him."

Singh says that before the run, he was told by event officials that he could only wear a patka (headgear worn by many Sikh boys and men) and not a turban.

"I refused to run without my turban. Eventually, the organisers allowed me to run with it, and for me, that's my biggest achievement," he said.

He finished the race in six hours and 54 minutes, marking the beginning of a remarkable journey.

By his third successive appearance at the London marathon, he had shaved off nine minutes from his previous best.

In 2003, at the Toronto Waterfront Marathon, he bettered his timing by an astonishing one hour and five minutes, completing the race in five hours and 40 minutes.

"I don't remember my timings; it is my coach, Harmander Singh, who keeps the record of all my timings. But whatever I have achieved is all because of his training, and I sincerely followed his schedule," Singh said in June.

"In London, he used to make me run uphill, and because of that, I kept on improving," he added. "Almost after every training session in London, I used to go to the gurdwara, where my diet was taken care of. Everyone there motivated me to run long distances."

Singh shot to international fame in 2003 when Adidas signed him for their Nothing Is Impossible advertising campaign which also featured legends such as Muhammad Ali.

In 2005, he was invited by the then Prime Minister of Pakistan to participate in the inaugural Lahore Marathon. A year later, in 2006, he received a special invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to visit Buckingham Palace.

Among the many mementos and certificates displayed at Singh's home in Punjab is a framed photograph of him with the Queen.

He continued to compete in marathons well into his 100s and earned the nickname "Turbaned Tornado". Most of his earnings from endorsements went directly to charitable foundations.

"I was the same Fauja Singh before I entered the world of running - but running gave my life a mission and brought me global recognition," he recalled.

In 2013, he participated in his last long-distance competitive race in Hong Kong, completing a 10km run in one hour, 32 minutes and 28 seconds.

He credited his health and longevity to a simple lifestyle and disciplined diet.

"Eating less, running more, and staying happy - that is the secret behind my longevity. This is my message to everyone," he said in June.

In his final years, Singh divided his time between India, where his younger son lives, and the UK.

When the BBC met him in June, he was hoping to visit London again soon to meet his family and coach.

British MP Preet Kaur Gill shared a photo of herself with him on X, writing: "A truly inspiring man. His discipline, simple living, and deep humility left a lasting mark on me."

Jas Athwal MP said Singh "inspired millions across the world". He wrote on X: "His spirit and legacy of resilience will run on forever."

Additional reporting by Pardeep Sharma

The Faroese prime minister says Shetland could boost growth and revitalise island life by following his country in replacing ageing ferries with undersea tunnels.

Shetland Islands Council says it is pushing ahead with plans to build tunnels to four outlying isles in the archipelago including Unst, the most northerly place in the UK.

"I think we have learned in the Faroe Islands that investment in infrastructure is a good investment," Aksel Johannesen told BBC News.

Shetland Islands Council says its multi-million pound project is likely to be funded by borrowing money and paying it back through tolls, potentially providing a new transport model for other Scottish islands.

Critics say politicians in Scotland have wasted years talking about tunnels while the Faroes, nearly 200 miles further out into the Atlantic, have actually built them.

"It is frustrating," says Anne Anderson of salmon producer Scottish Sea Farms, which employs nearly 700 people in Scotland, including just under 300 in Shetland.

The island chain produces a quarter of all Scottish salmon - the UK's most valuable food export with international sales of £844m in 2024.

"Ten years ago Scottish salmon used to have 10 per cent of the global market. Nowadays we're slipping ever closer to five per cent," adds Ms Anderson, who blames that slide, in part, on a lack of investment in public infrastructure .

She agrees that the UK should look to the Faroes for inspiration.

"Identify what works well for them and then just copy and paste and let's get moving," urges Ms Anderson.

They have been building tunnels in the Faroes since the 1960s.

The 18 islands which make up the self-governing nation under the sovereignty of Denmark are connected by 23 tunnels, four of which run below the sea.

More are under construction.

Most dramatic is a 7.1 mile (11.4km) tunnel which connects the island of Streymoy to two sides of a fjord on the island of Eysturoy.

It includes the world's only undersea roundabout.

At its deepest point it is 187m (614ft) below the waves and has halved the driving time between the capital Tórshavn and the second biggest town, Klaksvik.

Speaking in his grass-roofed office looking out over a busy harbour in Tórshavn, Johannesen says tunnels helped to grow the population and the economy of the archipelago, which is home to some 54,000 people, in contrast to Shetland's 23,000.

"It's about ambition," says tunnel builder Andy Sloan, whose company worked on part of the Faroese tunnel project.

He adds the islands have led the world "in connecting an archipelago in the middle of the North Atlantic through blood, sweat and tears – and focus.

"They have delivered a remarkable piece of infrastructure," says Mr Sloan, who is executive vice-president of engineering firm COWI.

It is now advising Shetland Islands Council on the technicalities and financing of tunnels.

The Faroese tunnels were constructed using a technique known as drill and blast – where holes are drilled in rock, explosives are dropped in, and the rubble is then cleared away – which Mr Sloan says could also be used in Scotland.

"Without doubt, Shetland can copy what has been achieved in these islands," he adds.

Prof Erika Anne Hayfield, dean of the Faculty of History and Social Sciences at the University of the Faroe Islands, says the tunnels have delivered significant benefits.

"People can live and thrive in smaller settlements," while still participating fully in island life and commuting to "the central labour market" in Tórshavn, she explains.

"In the long term, in terms of demography, social sustainability, a lot of people on islands believe that it is necessary," adds Prof Hayfield.

But she said the costs of some tunnels had been controversial, with some Faroese arguing that they are being built at the expense of investing in schools and hospitals.

Shetland's main town, Lerwick, may be closer to Tórshavn than it is to Edinburgh – and closer to Copenhagen than London – but advocates of tunnels insist the islands are not a remote backwater but an advanced economy constrained by poor infrastructure.

The archipelago of 100 islands at the confluence of the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean boasts the UK's only spaceport and a thriving fishing industry.

"We land more fish in Shetland than we do in the whole of England, Northern Ireland and Wales," says council leader Emma Macdonald.

"Tunnels could be incredibly transformational," she continues.

Macdonald adds: "We're really excited about the opportunity."

The 20th Century oil and gas boom brought Shetland riches but the islands have since embraced the shift to renewable energy and are home to the UK's most productive onshore wind farm.

"Shetland's really integral to Scotland and to the wider UK," says Macdonald.

The council has authorised a £990,000 feasibility study into building tunnels to four islands – Unst, Yell, Bressay and Whalsay.

It has not yet published an estimated cost for construction.

"Tunnels would really open up this island for businesses," says Elizabeth Johnson, external affairs manager of Saxavord Spaceport on Unst.

She adds that they would "enhance the economic viability of the island".

But with neither the Scottish nor UK governments volunteering to pay for Shetland's tunnels, the Faroese funding model of borrowing paid back by tolls looks likely to be adopted.

"I think people recognise that there is probably a need for tolling and I think people understand that," says Macdonald.

She adds: "They already have to pay to go on the ferries."

At present the council runs ferry services to nine islands, carrying around 750,000 passengers each year on 12 vessels at a cost of £23m per year.

The average age of the fleet is 31.5 years, costs have risen sharply in the past decade, and some routes are struggling to meet demand for vehicle places.

Hebridean and Clyde ferries, off the west of Scotland, run by Scottish government-owned Caledonian MacBrayne, are also ageing and have been beset by problems.

Mr Sloan says tunnels could provide more robust transport links for the west coast as well as the Northern Isles.

"Quite frankly, it can be repeated in Shetland, and not just Shetland, possibly elsewhere in Scotland."

Mr Sloan agrees that tolls are the most feasible funding option.

Tolls were abolished on the Skye Bridge in 2004 after a long-running campaign of non payment, and were scrapped on the Forth and Tay road bridges in 2008.

But Ms Johnson, of the Saxavord Spaceport, reckons Shetlanders would be happy to pay their way.

"I don't think anybody that I've spoken to would be against tolls," she says.

Although there is no organised opposition to tunnels in Shetland some locals do express concern about whether they would change what it means to be an island.

Pat Burns runs the northernmost shop in the British Isles, The Final Checkout on Unst.

She was not convinced about tunnels at first, fearing that they would alter the nature of island life.

"I like the challenges of trying to get from A to B," she explains.

However after years of worrying about bad weather interrupting supplies for her shop and seeing tourists turned away because ferries are full, she has changed her mind.

"I was a wee bit iffy-iffy about it before," she says, "but now I realise that if Unst doesn't get a tunnel, the challenge is going to be too big."

Donald Trump has said that he is disappointed but not done with Vladimir Putin, in an exclusive phone call with the BBC.

The US president was pressed on whether he trusts the Russian leader, and replied: "I trust almost no-one."

Trump was speaking hours after he announced plans to send weapons to Ukraine and warned of severe tariffs on Russia if there was no ceasefire deal in 50 days.

In a wide-ranging interview from the Oval Office, the president also endorsed Nato, having once described it as obsolete, and affirmed his support for the organisation's common defence principle.

The president made the phone call, which lasted 20 minutes, to the BBC after conversations about a potential interview to mark one year on since the attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Asked about whether surviving the assassination attempt had changed him, Trump said he liked to think about it as little as possible.

"I don't like to think about if it did change me," Trump said. Dwelling on it, he added, "could be life-changing".

Having just met with Nato chief Mark Rutte at the White House, however, the president spent a significant portion of the interview expanding on his disappointment with the Russian leader.

Trump said that he had thought a deal was on the cards with Russia four different times.

When asked by the BBC if he was done with Putin, the president replied: "I'm disappointed in him, but I'm not done with him. But I'm disappointed in him."

Pressed on how Trump would get Putin to "stop the bloodshed" the US president said: "We're working it, Gary."

"We'll have a great conversation. I'll say: 'That's good, I'll think we're close to getting it done,' and then he'll knock down a building in Kyiv."

The conversation moved onto Nato, which Trump has previously criticised as "obsolete".

Asked if he still thought this was the case, he said: "No. I think Nato is now becoming the opposite of that" because the alliance was "paying their own bills".

He said he still believed in collective defence, because it meant smaller countries could defend themselves against larger ones.

President Trump was also asked about the UK's future in the world and said he thought it was a "great place - you know I own property there".

He spoke about how he was looking forward to an unprecedented second state visit to the UK in September this year.

On what he wanted to achieve during the visit, Trump said: "Have a good time and respect King Charles, because he's a great gentleman."

In the Oval Office on Monday, Donald Trump was talking tough, announcing new US arms shipments to Ukraine paid for by European governments, and threatening new tariffs which, if imposed, would hit Russia's war chest.

But, back in Moscow, how did the stock exchange react? It rose 2.7%.

That's because Russia had been bracing for even tougher sanctions from President Trump.

"Russia and America are moving towards a new round of confrontation over Ukraine," Monday's edition of the tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets had warned.

"Trump's Monday surprise will not be pleasant for our country."

It wasn't "pleasant". But Russia will be relieved, for example, that the secondary tariffs against Russia's trading partners will only kick in 50 days from now.

That gives Moscow plenty of time to come up with counter proposals and delay the implementation of sanctions even further.

Nonetheless, Donald Trump's announcement does represent a tougher approach to Russia.

It also reflects his frustration with Vladimir Putin's reluctance to sign a peace deal.

• Trump weapons pledge marks major step forward for Ukraine

On his return to the White House in January, Donald Trump had made ending Russia's war in Ukraine one of his foreign policy priorities.

For months, Moscow's response was: "Yes, but…"

Yes, Russia said in March, when it welcomed President Trump's proposal for a comprehensive ceasefire. But first, it said Western military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv should end, along with Ukrainian military mobilisation.

Yes, Moscow has been insisting, it wants peace. But the "root causes" of the war must be resolved first. The Kremlin views these very differently to how Ukraine and the West see them. It argues that the war is the result of external threats to Russia's security: from Kyiv, Nato, 'the collective West.'

Yet, in February 2022, it wasn't Ukraine, Nato or the West that invaded Russia. It was Moscow that launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, triggering the largest land war in Europe since World War Two.

For quite some time, the "Yes, but…" approach enabled Moscow to avoid additional US sanctions, while continuing to prosecute the war. Keen to improve bilateral relations with Russia and negotiate a peace deal on Ukraine, the Trump administration prioritised carrots to sticks in its conversations with Russian officials.

Critics of the Kremlin warned that with "Yes, but"… Russia was playing for time. But President Trump hoped he could find a way of persuading Vladimir Putin to do a deal.

The Russian president has appeared in no rush to do so. The Kremlin believes it holds the initiative on the battlefield. It insists it wants peace, but on its terms.

Those terms include an end to Western arms shipments to Ukraine. From Donald Trump's announcement it is clear that is not going to happen.

President Trump claims that he is "not happy" with Vladimir Putin.

But disillusionment is a two-way street. Russia, too, has been falling out of love with America's president. On Monday, Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote:

"[Trump] clearly has delusions of grandeur. And a very big mouth."

Ethiopian government forces "executed" three employees of medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) while they were on a humanitarian mission in Ethiopia's war-hit northern Tigray region four years ago, a senior MSF official has told the BBC.

Raquel Ayora's comments came as MSF released its findings on what it called the "intentional and targeted" killing of the three - a Spanish national and two Ethiopians - at the height of the now-ended conflict in Tigray.

"They were executed," said Ms Ayora, MSF Spain's general director. "They were facing their attackers [and] were shot at very close range… several times."

The BBC has asked the Ethiopian government for a response to the allegation.

MSF said it was releasing its findings as the government had failed to provide a "credible account" of the deaths despite 20 face-to-face meetings over the last four years.

Thirty-five-year-old Spaniard María Hernández Matas, along with 32-year-old Yohannes Halefom Reda and 31-year-old Tedros Gebremariam, were killed on 24 June 2021 while travelling in central Tigray to assess medical needs.

"They were very professional and passionate," Ms Ayora told the BBC.

She added that the three were fully identifiable in MSF vests and their vehicle had the charity's flag and logos on either side when they were shot.

"So, they [Ethiopian troops] knew that they were killing humanitarian aid workers," she said, adding that the team's travel route had also been shared in advance with fighting groups.

The Tigray conflict broke out in 2020 following a massive fall-out between the regional and federal governments, with neighbouring Eritrea entering the war on the side of the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF).

The conflict ended two years later following a peace deal brokered by the African Union (AU). Its envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, put the number of people who died in the conflict at around 600,000.

Researchers said the deaths were caused by fighting, starvation and a lack of health care.

The killings took place at a time when the conflict was intensifying, and Ethiopian and Eritrean troops were becoming increasingly hostile towards aid workers in the region, MSF said in its report.

Ms Matas had been working in Tigray since before the war and "was very much loved" by people in the region, Ms Ayora said.

Her death has been particularly devastating for her mother as she was her only child, the MSF official added.

Mr Tedros was killed soon after his wife had given birth to a baby girl. His widow named the baby Maria, after her father's killed Spanish colleague, Mr Ayora said.

The bodies of Ms Matas and Mr Yohannes were found between 100m (300ft) and 400m from the wreckage of their vehicle.

The body of Mr Tedros, the driver, was found by the vehicle."In line with MSF travel policy, the driver stays close to the vehicle", Ms Ayora said.

The vehicle was shot at multiple times and burned on the main road from the town of Abi Adi to Yech'illa, Ms Ayora said.

Ms Matas and Mr Yohannes were walking when they were shot, she said, adding: "We don't know if they were called for interrogation or they decided to engage with the soldiers."

MSF said it had relied on satellite images, witnesses and publicly available information on the Ethiopian military's movements at the time of the killings to draw its conclusions.

Its investigation placed Ethiopian troops at the "precise location" where the killings occurred, the charity added.

MSF's report quoted witnesses as saying they overhead an officer informing the local commander of an approaching white car and the commander giving an order to shoot.

Moments later, the commander was allegedly informed that the soldiers had tried to shoot but that the car had turned towards Abi Adi and stopped, at which point the commander gave the order to "go and catch them" and "remove them", the report alleged.

Ms Ayora told the BBC that officials from Ethiopia's Ministry of Justice had verbally informed MSF in mid-2022 that their preliminary investigation showed that government troops were not at the scene of the killing.

However, the officials refused to give this in writing, and the charity kept engaging with the government in order to end "impunity" at a time when an increasing number of aid workers were being killed in conflicts around the world, Ms Ayora said.

More BBC stories on Tigray conflict:

• 'I lost my leg on the way home from school'
• How a massacre in the sacred city of Aksum unfolded
• The war is over but the rapes continue

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

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

While the preliminary report into what caused the loss of Air India Flight 171 last month has provided some answers, it has also prompted a wave of speculation about its cause.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a building less than a minute after take-off from the city of Ahmedabad in western India en route to London, killing 241 people on board, along with 19 on the ground. One passenger survived.

Information contained in India's Air Accident Investigation Bureau report, the first official account of what happened, has raised questions about the role of the pilots.

However, experts within the aviation industry claim investigators have been highly selective in what they have chosen to say.

What the report says

Under international protocols, the state leading an air accident investigation is meant to issue a preliminary report within 30 days. The 15-page document published by India's Air Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on Saturday fulfils this requirement.

Although the AAIB has been leading the investigation, US interests are also represented, because Boeing, the maker of the aircraft, and GE Aerospace, the engine manufacturer are American.

The report does not set out any conclusions as to the cause of the accident. Nevertheless, it has sparked considerable controversy.

In its account of the accident flight, the AAIB states that two fuel cut-off switches were moved from the 'run' to the 'cut-off' position seconds after take-off.

This deprived the engines of fuel and caused them to lose thrust. Although data from the flight recorder shows the engines were subsequently restarted, it was too late to prevent the crash.

These switches are normally only used to turn the engines on before a flight and off afterwards. They have a locking mechanism, which means they need to be pulled out before being flipped, a system designed to prevent accidental deployment.

The report also states that one pilot asks the other "why did he cutoff", while his colleague "responded that he did not do so".

However, it does not provide any direct transcript of the conversation, which would have been picked up by the cockpit voice recorder (CVR). Nor does it identify which pilot asked the question.

It is worth remembering that preliminary reports are not intended to offer a full picture of what happened or draw firm conclusions. They are meant to be a factual summary of the information obtained in the early stages of what could be a lengthy investigation.

The investigating authority is also under no obligation to make their preliminary reports public.

Missing information

The information released so far has prompted a number of commentators to claim, in the media and online, that the accident was the result of deliberate and intentional action by one of the pilots.

It is a view that has attracted an angry response from the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association, which warned that "invoking such a serious allegation based on incomplete or preliminary information is not only irresponsible – it is deeply insensitive to the individuals and families involved".

• Don't vilify Air India crash crew: Indian pilots' association

It added that "to casually suggest pilot suicide in the absence of verified evidence is a gross violation of ethical reporting".

In a memo to staff, the chief executive of Air India struck a similar note. Campbell Wilson warned against drawing "premature conclusions".

Since the report was issued, the BBC has spoken to a range of people within the industry, including pilots, accident investigators and engineers. While theories as to what actually happened vary widely, the dominant view is that important information is currently missing.

"They've told us stuff they want us to know at the moment, and withheld what they don't want us to know," explained one pilot, who asked not to be identified. "It's not a complete report."

One of the main criticisms is the lack of a transcript from the cockpit voice recorder, which would enable the reported conversation between the pilots about the fuel cut-off switches to be put in context.

Bjorn Fehrm, an aeronautical analyst at consultants Leeham News said this was "totally unacceptable".

"They have all this technical detail. Then you have this reference to dialogue, but it doesn't even tell you who's speaking," he said.

Mr Fehrm was also concerned that there was no reference to what happened in the cockpit between the switches being flipped from run to cut-off, and the first switch being pushed back into position to relight the first engine 10 seconds later.

"It's someone trying to hide something," he said.

An engineering source, meanwhile, said the report was "very selective", and did not have any detailed information about what the engines were doing immediately before the switches were flipped. The document does say that the engine speed began to decrease from take-off values "as the fuel supply to the engines was cut off."

This, they said was important - because flipping the switches to cut-off and back was something a pilot would be trained do to in order to restart an engine that was already losing power.

Tim Atkinson, an aviation consultant and former air accident investigator in the UK said, "it is very disappointing to read a report which does provide a few salient facts, leaves many more questions".

Another element of the report that has caused controversy is a reference to a safety bulletin – known as a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin – published by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 2018.

This was used to alert the aviation community that operators of some Boeing 737 models had reported cases in which the fuel cut-off switches had been fitted with the locking feature disengaged - potentially enabling the switch to be flipped by accident.

At the time, the FAA described this as an "airworthiness concern", but said it was "not an unsafe condition" that would require mandatory action via what is known as an Airworthiness Directive.

Operators of a number of different Boeing models fitted with similar switches, including 787s, were advised to carry out simple inspections.

The investigation report says Air India did not carry out those inspections - prompting speculation that the accident could have been caused by faulty switches being flipped by accident.

However, in an internal note seen by the BBC, the FAA has since reiterated its belief that the issue did not compromise safety.

Engineering sources have also pointed out that the report says the throttle control module on the crashed aircraft was replaced on two occasions, most recently two years before the accident. This would have involved replacing the cut-off switches as well.

According to Bjorn Fehrm of Leeham News, the reference to the FAA's advice contained in the report was "totally irrelevant" in the context of the accident.

Nevertheless, India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation has asked the operators of all aircraft covered by the FAA's original bulletin to carry out inspections by 21 July.

For former accident investigator Tim Atkinson, the vagueness of the report may have been deliberate - in order to suggest an explanation for the crash, while avoiding being too explicit.

"The very worst reports are those written to be read 'between the lines', and if that is what we have here, then it does no credit to the investigators," he said.

Meanwhile those seeking firm answers to what happened on Flight 171 may well have to wait.

International protocols stipulate that a final report should be published within a year of the accident. However, in practice, it can take a lot longer than that.

Donald Trump has said that he is disappointed but not done with Vladimir Putin, in an exclusive phone call with the BBC.

The US president was pressed on whether he trusts the Russian leader, and replied: "I trust almost no-one."

Trump was speaking hours after he announced plans to send weapons to Ukraine and warned of severe tariffs on Russia if there was no ceasefire deal in 50 days.

In a wide-ranging interview from the Oval Office, the president also endorsed Nato, having once described it as obsolete, and affirmed his support for the organisation's common defence principle.

The president made the phone call, which lasted 20 minutes, to the BBC after conversations about a potential interview to mark one year on since the attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Asked about whether surviving the assassination attempt had changed him, Trump said he liked to think about it as little as possible.

"I don't like to think about if it did change me," Trump said. Dwelling on it, he added, "could be life-changing".

Having just met with Nato chief Mark Rutte at the White House, however, the president spent a significant portion of the interview expanding on his disappointment with the Russian leader.

Trump said that he had thought a deal was on the cards with Russia four different times.

When asked by the BBC if he was done with Putin, the president replied: "I'm disappointed in him, but I'm not done with him. But I'm disappointed in him."

Pressed on how Trump would get Putin to "stop the bloodshed" the US president said: "We're working it, Gary."

"We'll have a great conversation. I'll say: 'That's good, I'll think we're close to getting it done,' and then he'll knock down a building in Kyiv."

The conversation moved onto Nato, which Trump has previously criticised as "obsolete".

Asked if he still thought this was the case, he said: "No. I think Nato is now becoming the opposite of that" because the alliance was "paying their own bills".

He said he still believed in collective defence, because it meant smaller countries could defend themselves against larger ones.

President Trump was also asked about the UK's future in the world and said he thought it was a "great place - you know I own property there".

He spoke about how he was looking forward to an unprecedented second state visit to the UK in September this year.

On what he wanted to achieve during the visit, Trump said: "Have a good time and respect King Charles, because he's a great gentleman."

China's economy has slowed as trade turmoil triggered by US President Donald Trump's tariffs and a prolonged crisis in the property market weigh on growth.

Official figures show the world's second largest economy grew by 5.2% in the three months to the end of June, compared to the same time last year. That's down from 5.4% in the previous quarter.

But the country has so far avoided a sharp downturn, partly due to measures announced by Beijing to help support the economy and a fragile tariffs truce with Washington.

Trump has given China until 12 August to reach a long-term trade deal with the US to end a tit-for-tat trade war that saw their tariffs on each other soar to more than 100%.

Some economists expect China to miss its "around 5%" annual growth target this year.

"The real question is by how much. We believe it will defend a floor of 4%, which remains the minimum politically acceptable level," Dan Wang, director for China at consultancy Eurasia Group told the BBC.

A tariffs war between China's President Xi Jinping and Trump led to the US imposing a 145% levy on Chinese imports. In return, Beijing introduced a 125% duty on some US goods.

Washington has also hit countries with close economic ties to China with heavy levies.

Meta's founder Mark Zuckerberg has said the social media giant will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on building huge AI data centres in the US.

The first multi-gigawatt data centre, called Prometheus, is expected to come online in 2026, Zuckerberg said.

He said one of the sites would cover an area nearly the size of Manhattan (59.1 sq km/22.8 sq miles).

Meta has invested heavily in efforts to develop what it called "superintelligence" - technology that it said could out-think the smartest humans.

The company, which has made most of its money from online advertising, generated more than $160bn in revenue in 2024.

In a post on his social media platform, Threads, Zuckerberg said Meta was building several multi-gigawatt clusters, and that one cluster, called Hyperion, could scale up to five gigawatts over several years.

"We're building multiple more titan clusters as well. Just one of these covers a significant part of the footprint of Manhattan," he added.

Prometheus will be built in New Albany, Ohio, while Hyperion will be built in Louisiana and is expected to be fully online by 2030, Zuckerberg said.

He said Meta would "invest hundreds of billions of dollars... to build superintelligence" and that the centres had been given "names befitting their scale and impact".

Karl Freund, principal analyst at Cambrian AI Research, told the BBC, "clearly, Zuckerberg intends to spend his way to the top of the AI heap".

"The talent he is hiring will have access to some of the best AI Hardware in the world," Freund added.

Meta shares were trading 1% higher following the announcement, Reuters news agency reported. The stock has risen more than 20% so far this year.

There are at least 10,000 data centres around the world hosting the cloud - remote servers that store digital information - with most of them located in the US, followed by the UK and Germany.

AI-driven data centres are extremely energy and water intensive. One study estimates that these centres could consume 1.7 trillion gallons of water globally by 2027. A single AI query - for example, a request to ChatGPT - can use about as much water as a small bottle you'd buy from the corner shop.

China's economy has slowed as trade turmoil triggered by US President Donald Trump's tariffs and a prolonged crisis in the property market weigh on growth.

Official figures show the world's second largest economy grew by 5.2% in the three months to the end of June, compared to the same time last year. That's down from 5.4% in the previous quarter.

But the country has so far avoided a sharp downturn, partly due to measures announced by Beijing to help support the economy and a fragile tariffs truce with Washington.

Trump has given China until 12 August to reach a long-term trade deal with the US to end a tit-for-tat trade war that saw their tariffs on each other soar to more than 100%.

Some economists expect China to miss its "around 5%" annual growth target this year.

"The real question is by how much. We believe it will defend a floor of 4%, which remains the minimum politically acceptable level," Dan Wang, director for China at consultancy Eurasia Group told the BBC.

A tariffs war between China's President Xi Jinping and Trump led to the US imposing a 145% levy on Chinese imports. In return, Beijing introduced a 125% duty on some US goods.

Washington has also hit countries with close economic ties to China with heavy levies.

Animals react to sounds being made by plants, new research suggests, opening up the possibility that an invisible ecosystem might exist between them.

In the first ever such evidence, a team at Tel Aviv University found that female moths avoided laying their eggs on tomato plants if they made noises they associated with distress, indicating that they may be unhealthy.

The team was the first to show two years ago that plants scream when they are distressed or unhealthy.

The sounds are outside the range of human hearing, but can be perceived by many insects, bats and some mammals.

"This is the first demonstration ever of an animal responding to sounds produced by a plant," said Prof Yossi Yovel of Tel Aviv University.

"This is speculation at this stage, but it could be that all sorts of animals will make decisions based on the sounds they hear from plants, such as whether to pollinate or hide inside them or eat the plant."

The researchers did a series of carefully controlled experiments to ensure that the moths were responding to the sound and not the appearance of the plants.

They will now investigate the sounds different plants make and whether other species make decisions based on them, such as whether to pollinate or hide inside them or eat the plant.

"You can think that there could be many complicated interactions, and this is the first step," says Prof Yovel.

Another area of investigation is whether plants can pass information to each other through sound and act in response, such as conserving their water in drought conditions, according to Prof Lilach Hadany, also of Tel Aviv University.

"This is an exciting question," she told BBC News.

"If a plant is stressed the organism most concerned about it is other plants and they can respond in many ways."

The researchers stress that plants are not sentient. They sounds are produced through physical effects caused by a change in their local conditions. What today's discovery shows is that these sounds can be useful to other animals, and possibly plants, able to perceive these sounds.

If that is the case, then plants and animals have coevolved the ability to produce and listen to the sounds for their mutual benefit, according to Prof Hadany.

"Plants could evolve to make more sounds or louder ones if they were of benefit to it and the hearing of animals may evolve accordingly so they can take in this huge amount of information.

"This is a vast, unexplored field - an entire world waiting to be discovered."

In the experiment the researchers focused on female moths, which typically lay their eggs on tomato plants so that the larvae can feed on them once hatched.

The assumption was that the moths seek the best possible site to lay their eggs - a healthy plant that can properly nourish the larvae. So, when the plant signals that it is dehydrated and under stress, the question was whether the moths would heed the warning and avoid laying eggs on it?

The answer was that they didn't lay eggs, because of the sound the plants were producing.

The research has been published in the journal eLife.

Davy Crockett watched from miles away as the first small plumes of smoke began to rise in the Grand Canyon's North Rim.

It was not long before the small plumes transformed into huge flames. Mr Crockett, vice-president of the non-profit Grand Canyon Historical Society, went to bed but worries kept him up. The historic Grand Canyon Lodge, with its panoramic views of one of the natural wonders of the world, was in the path of those flames.

On Sunday, park officials confirmed the beloved lodge was destroyed in raging wildfires.

"It broke my heart," said Mr Crockett. "I was devastated."

Hundreds of people are sharing his sadness and posting tributes on social media to the stone lodge perched at 8,000 feet (2,438m), the only accommodation available within the national park's North Rim.

It was "stunning, a balm for my weary soul", one person wrote. "Heartbroken to hear the historic lodge, visitor center and more were destroyed."

Many of the dozens of cabins at the lodge were also lost in the Dragon Bravo Fire, which has burned over 5,000 acres.

Honeymooners, hikers and runners all treasured the lodge and its views, historians and locals said.

Karne Snickers has led tours in the North Rim for 24 years. She said the area sees fewer tourists than the South Rim because the view in parts is slightly obscured by "majestic" ponderosa trees.

But it was clear on the deck of the Grand Canyon Lodge, she said.

"It's very spiritual there," she said. "Sitting on the deck of that lodge, there isn't one dry eye from any trip that I've ever done when you turn away and have to go back to the van."

The destruction of the lodge has been like "losing an old friend".

"I shed many tears yesterday," Ms Snickers said.

The 61-year-old tour guide was there just before the fires began, when a lightning strike ignited a blaze on 4 July that officials initially thought would be containable.

But after the winds picked up, the fire exploded, Mr Crockett said.

Firefighters were there to protect the lodge, but when a water treatment plant burned down and released toxic chlorine gas into the air, they had to evacuate.

Along with the lodge, much of the surrounding nature has been lost too, including 400 year-old trees.

Ms Snickers believes one large tree she would have hikers on her tours hug is no longer there.

"Much of the beauty is gone," Mr Crockett said. "It'll take decades for things to grow back."

This was the second time the lodge burned down.

A version that opened in 1928, designed by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood, was lost four years later to a fire that started in its kitchen.

Building a new structure during the Great Depression took years and perseverance, repurposing much of the original building's stonework and lumber.

A smaller, temporary lodge that housed construction workers also burned down for unknown reasons, according to Mr Crockett.

Then, a massive snowstorm dropped 12 feet of snow in the area one winter, cutting the workers and their families off from food and the outside world for weeks, he said.

Finally, some of the workers hiked down to the trailhead in snow shoes to call for help, bringing in snow plows to rescue the rest of the group, Mr Crockett said.

After the lodge opened once again, in 1938, it became a "summer getaway that people have just cherished over the years", he said.

Lodge guests might encounter an occasional buffalo while walking beside tall pine trees. Inside, they could take in views from the massive windows in the lodge's sun room, or from their table in the dining room, with its high ceiling that was crossed with ponderosa beams.

Park officials have yet to say whether they plan to rebuild the iconic lodge, but many visitors and locals are holding out hope.

"We have to rebuild this place," Ms Snickers said. "It's going to take time, but it needs to come back. It was a part of history."

The UK is to start processing Syrian asylum claims again, more than seven months after decisions were paused following the fall of the Assad regime.

Asylum minister Dame Angela Eagle said the Home Office had "worked to lift the pause as soon as there was sufficient information to make accurate and well-evidenced determinations".

The government has published updated guidance for officials to make decisions on Syrian claims.

Dame Angela said claims could now be processed, and returns to Syria conducted in line with this.

The UK paused decisions on Syrian claims for asylum and permanent settlement in December, after President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown by a rebel offensive led by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), following years of civil war.

In a written statement, Dame Angela said the pause "was a necessary step while there was no stable, objective information available to make robust assessments of risk on return to Syria".

However, the move left more than 7,000 Syrians waiting for a decision on an asylum claim in limbo.

The majority of these are living in government-funded accommodation, such as hotels.

The pause also applied to Syrians who had already been granted refugee status and were initially given the right to stay in the UK for five years before being able to apply for permanent settlement.

Campaigners say being left with this temporary status makes it harder for people to secure a job or housing.

Welcoming the move, Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council charity, said: "We know the pause in decision making had left Syrian people trapped in further limbo, unable to work, move on with their lives and fearing for their future.

"However, the situation in Syria continues to be unstable, and we urge the government to ensure that every asylum application is assessed on a case-by-case basis, ensuring the safety and protection of Syrians who would face extreme risk if they are returned."

Figures affiliated with HTS - which is designated a terrorist group by the UK - now run the country, with HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa named as Syria's interim president earlier this year.

Under the United Nations Refugee Convention, an individual must have a "well-founded fear of persecution" to be granted asylum and refugee status.

The Home Office's updated guidance on Syria states that a "breakdown in law and order or uncertain security situations do not in themselves give rise to a well-founded fear of persecution".

"There are not substantial grounds for believing there is a real risk of serious harm in Syria because of a serious and individual threat to a civilian's life or person by reason of indiscriminate violence in a situation of international or internal armed conflict," it adds.

"All cases must be considered on their individual facts, with the onus on the person to demonstrate they face persecution or serious harm."

Ministers have previously suggested that the majority of Syrians who arrived in the UK before the fall of Assad were fleeing the regime, and some may now wish to return.

On the issue of returns, the guidance notes that following the change in government, opponents of the former Assad regime are "unlikely to be at risk upon return to Syria solely on that basis".

On the situation for religious minorities, it states that Kurds, Christians, Druze and Shia Muslims are "are unlikely to face a real risk of persecution or serious harm from the state" and "the onus is on the person to demonstrate otherwise".

However, it adds that Kurds in areas under de facto control of the Syrian National Army - a coalition of Turkish-backed rebel groups - "are likely to face a real risk of persecution or serious harm" based on their ethnicity or perceived political opinion.

It also says that although the new government has sought to assure members of the Alawite minority they will not be subject to violent reprisals, Alawites "are likely to face a real risk of persecution or serious harm from the state due to their religion and/or an imputed political opinion".

Many of the former Assad regime's political and military elite belonged to the Alawite sect.

The guidance notes that in March members of the Alawite minority were subject to a series of attacks which killed an estimated 800 people, with HTS-affiliated groups reported to have been involved.

Earlier this month, Foreign Secretary David Lammy met interim president al-Sharaa, as he became the first UK minister to visit Syria since the uprising that led to the country's civil war began 14 years ago.

The UK has also been gradually lifting sanctions on Syria.

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Unreleased music by Beyoncé was among several items stolen from a vehicle in Atlanta, just days before the singer's four-night Cowboy Carter tour stop in the city, authorities have confirmed.

Hard drives containing the unreleased songs, show plans, and past and future set-lists for her tour were among the items stolen from a rental car used by the singer's choreographer and one of her dancers, according to a police report.

The theft occurred on 8 July, two days before Beyoncé's first Atlanta performance.

Atlanta police say an arrest warrant has been issued, but the suspect's name has not been made public.

Choreographer Christopher Grant and dancer Diandre Blue told police they had parked the rented Black Jeep Wagoneer and gone inside a nearby food hall. When they returned, the vehicle's rear window had been smashed and two suitcases were missing, a police incident report states.

They told police they were "carrying some personal sensitive information for the musician Beyoncé" in the vehicle that was also stolen.

That included "five jump drives containing watermarked music, unreleased music, footage plans for shows past and future, and set list", the report states.

Other items reported stolen included a laptop, designer clothes and Apple AirPods. Authorities used tracking information on the laptop and headphones to track where the items may have gone, a police report notes.

Authorities also dusted the vehicle for any fingerprints and discovered "two very light prints".

It's unclear whether the stolen items have been recovered.

The BBC has contacted a representative for Beyoncé for comment.

Beyoncé is currently on tour in Atlanta as part of her Cowboy Carter stadium tour. She has been performing in the city since 10 July and her last show was set for Monday night.

Her husband, the rapper Jay Z, made a surprise appearance on the third night of her show.

Starbucks has told its corporate staff they must work in the office for four days a week or take a payment and quit.

Workers will be expected to be in the office between Monday and Thursday starting in October, up from a previous requirement that staff come in for three days.

The directive is the latest in a series from companies who are pushing to restrict remote working which expanded during the Covid pandemic.

Starbucks workers who choose not to comply with the new policy, which applies to the US and Canada, will be offered a one-time payout if they decide to leave.

Brian Niccol, chief executive at Starbucks who joined the business less than a year ago, said the change would help the firm do its "best work" as it faces falling sales and other challenges.

"We understand not everyone will agree with this approach," he wrote in a company blog.

"We've listened and thought carefully. But as a company built on human connection, and given the scale of the turnaround ahead, we believe this is the right path for Starbucks," he said.

As part of the move, the company will require certain managers to relocate to Seattle, where Starbucks is headquartered, or Toronto.

Mr Niccol's contract did not require him to relocate to Seattle while specifying that the firm would establish a small remote office near his hometown in California.

He has since bought a home in Seattle.

The new policy is part of a series of changes Mr Niccol has made to turn around Starbucks.

These include revamping its menus and coffee shops as well as reversing rules for its cafes in North America that allowed people to use their facilities even if they had not bought anything.

Previously, people were allowed to linger in Starbucks outlets and use their toilets without making a purchase.

Earlier this year, the firm cut 1,100 jobs.

Other companies have also been tightening their remote work policies, including the likes of Amazon and JP Morgan.

Surveys by researchers at Stanford, the Instituto Tecnogolico Autonomo de Mexico and the University of Chicago suggest that overall working practices in recent years have been fairly stable.

Their research has found that in the US, about about a third of staff who can perform their roles remotely have been recalled to the office full-time, while roughly a fifth are fully remote. About 45% enjoy a hybrid policy.