Senior Pentagon officials have arrived in Ukraine to "discuss efforts to end the war" with Russia, the US military has said.

The team, led by US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday when he returns from a trip to Turkey.

Reports began surfacing on Wednesday that the US and Russia had prepared a new peace plan, containing major concessions from Ukraine. Neither Washington nor Moscow has officially confirmed the plan.

Earlier in the day, at least 25 people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine's western city of Ternopil, officials there said. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In Kyiv, Driscoll is joined by the US Army's chief of staff Gen Randy George, top US army commander in Europe Gen Chris Donahue, and Srg Maj of the Army Michael Weimer.

"Secretary Driscoll and team arrived this morning in Kyiv on behalf of the administration on a factfinding mission to meet Ukrainian officials and discuss efforts to end the war," Army spokesman Col David Butler said in a statement.

Driscoll was pictured meeting Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday.

Driscoll and Gen George are the most senior US military officials to hold talks in the Ukrainian capital since President Donald Trump took office in January.

The Ukrainian authorities have not publicly commented on what issues are being discussed with the Americans.

However, one Ukrainian official told CBS, the BBC's US media partner, that the focus would be on the military situation on the ground - in addition to plans for a possible ceasefire.

The official - who was not named - said: "Presidents Zelensky and Trump have already agreed to stop the conflict along the existing lines of engagement, and there are agreements on granting security guarantees".

It comes as a number of outlets are reporting that the US and Russia have privately drawn up proposals on how to end the war.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Axios, the Financial Times and Reuters reported that the plans call for Kyiv to give up some territories and weapons, as well as to significantly cut Ukraine's Armed Forces.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian leader Vladimir Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev are believed to have been involved in working on the 28-point peace plan.

The BBC has asked the White House and a representative for Witkoff to comment.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to downplay the reports.

"In this case, we have no additional innovations to what we call 'the spirit of Anchorage'," he told Russia's state-run media on Wednesday - referring to the August summit between Putin and Trump in the US state of Alaska.

Any agreements reached during the one-day meeting have not been made public.

President Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Russia.

Kyiv and its Western allies, including the US, have been calling for an immediate ceasefire along the vast front line, but Moscow has ruled that out, repeating demands that Ukraine says amount to its de facto capitulation.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow's pre-conditions for a peace deal - including ceding territory, tough curbs on the size of Ukraine's military and the country's neutrality - had not changed since Putin laid them out two months before the full-scale invasion.

A portrait by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (£179m) in New York on Tuesday, making it the second most expensive piece ever sold at auction.

Six people took part in a 20-minute bidding battle for the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer which was painted between 1914 and 1916.

Auction house Sotheby's has not disclosed the buyer's identity.

The portrait was looted by the Nazis and almost destroyed in a fire in World War Two, but was rescued in 1948.

The artwork was returned to Lederer's brother, Erich, a friend and subject of Klimt's contemporary, Egon Schiele. The piece remained in Lederer's possession for most of his life, before he sold it in 1983, according to Sotheby's.

The painting shows Lederer, an heiress and the daughter of one of Klimt's patrons, wearing a white robe and stood in front of a blue tapestry covered in Asian motifs.

The Nazis, who annexed Austria in 1938, looted the Lederer art collection but left family portraits behind, says the National Gallery of Canada.

Estée Lauder heir Leonard A Lauder made it part of his private collection in 1985, where it was displayed in his Fifth Avenue home in New York.

Tuesday's sale shot past expectations, with the painting predicted to sell for $150m before the auction. The second highest sale for a Klimt on record was Lady with a Fan, which sold for $108.8m in 2023 in London.

Several other Klimt works in Lauder's collection were auctioned at the same event, including Flowering Meadow and Forest Slope at Unterach am Attersee, which fetched between $60m and $80m each.

The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction was Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which sold in 2017 for $450.3m.

Tuesday also saw a sculpture of a fully functioning gold toilet by the conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan picking up $12.1m just an hour after the record-breaking Klimt sale.

The 101-kg toilet received just one bid. Sotheby's said that the buyer was a famous American brand.

A South Korean passenger ferry carrying 246 passengers and 21 crew has run aground on rocks off the country's south-east coast.

The Queen Jenuvia 2 is stuck on a reef and unable to move, but there is currently no risk of sinking or capsizing, according to the Coast Guard. People are currently being moved to patrol boats, it said.

The accident happened near Jangsan Island in Sinan County on Wednesday evening local time. The vessel ran aground on rocks near the uninhabited island of Jogdo.

Local media reported that five people sustained minor injuries from the impact of the grounding, but there have been no other casualties.

South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok has ordered all available vessels to be mobilised to rescue the ferry.

"We have confirmed that there is currently no flooding. We are transferring passengers to patrol boats and moving them to a safe location," a Coast Guard official said, Chosun Ilbo newspaper reports.

The Coast Guard plans to move the vessel ashore at high tide.

The ferry was travelling to the port city of Mokpo after departing from the resort island of Jeju, carrying 246 passengers and 21 crew members, the Coast Guard.

The area is near the site of the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that killed more than 300 people, mostly school children heading for a school trip.

US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he has signed a bill ordering the release of all files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The bill requires the justice department to release all the information from its Epstein investigation "in a searchable and downloadable format" within 30 days.

Trump previously opposed releasing the files, but he changed course last week after facing pushback from Epstein's victims and members of his own Republican party.

With his support, the legislation overwhelmingly cleared both chambers of Congress, the House of Representatives and Senate, on Tuesday.

In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, the president accused Democrats of championing the issue to distract attention from the achievements of his administration.

"Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!" he wrote.

Lawmakers in the House passed the legislation with a 427-1 vote. The Senate gave unanimous consent to pass it upon its arrival.

Some 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein's estate, including some that directly mention Trump, were released last week.

They include 2018 messages from Epstein in which he said of Trump: "I am the one able to take him down" and "I know how dirty donald is".

Trump was a friend of Epstein's for years, but the president has said they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Speaking to reporters on Monday night, Trump said Republicans had "nothing to do with Epstein".

"It's really a Democrat problem," he said. "The Democrats were Epstein's friends, all of them."

Despite the president's signature, the release of the full Epstein files is not guaranteed. Based on the bill's text, portions could still be withheld if they are deemed to invade personal privacy or relate to an active investigation.

One of the bill's architects, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, said he had concerns about some files being withheld.

"I'm concerned that [Trump is] opening a flurry of investigations, and I believe they may be trying to use those investigations as a predicate for not releasing the files. That's my concern," he said.

The COP31 climate meeting is now expected to be held in Turkey after Australia dropped its bid to host the annual event.

Under the UN rules, the right to host the COP in 2026 falls to a group of countries made up of Western Europe, Australia and others.

A consensus must be reached but neither country had been willing to concede. Australia has now agreed to support the Turkish bid in return for their minister chairing the talks following negotiations at COP30, currently being held in Brazil.

This unusual arrangement has taken observers by surprise. It is normal for a COP president to be from the host country and how this new partnership will work in practice remains to be seen.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called the compromise with Turkey an "outstanding result" in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), noting Pacific issues would be "front and centre".

He added that he had spoken to Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and Prime Minister Rabuka of Fiji.

However, Papua New Guinea's Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told the AFP news agency "we are all not happy. And disappointed it's ended up like this".

Solomon Islands leader Jeremiah Manele earlier told the ABC he would be "disappointed" if Australia didn't secure the event.

Despite this, there will be relief among countries currently meeting at COP30 in the Brazilian city of Belém that a compromise has been reached as the lack of agreement on the venue was becoming an embarrassment for the UN.

Australia has pushed hard to have the climate summit in the city of Adelaide, arguing that they would co-host the meeting with Pacific island states who are seen as among the most vulnerable to climate change and rising sea levels.

Turkey, which has proposed hosting COP31 in the city of Antalya, felt that they had a good claim to be the host country as they had stood aside in 2021 and allowed the UK to hold the meeting in Glasgow.

If neither country was willing to compromise then the meeting would have been held in the German city of Bonn, the headquarters of the UN's climate body.

As a result of discussions at COP30, a compromise appears to have been reached.

This includes pre-COP meeting will be held on a Pacific island, while the main event is held in Turkey. Australia's climate minister Chris Bowen will be its president.

"Obviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all, but we can't have it all," Mr Bowen told reporters outside the Australian delegation offices here in Belém.

"This process works on consensus, and consensus means if someone objected to our bid, it would go to Bonn."

"That would mean 12 months with a lack of leadership, no COP president in place, no plan, that would be irresponsible for multilateralism in this challenging environment."

Mr Bowen believes having a COP president not from the host country will work and that he will have the considerable authority reserved for the president of these gatherings.

"As COP president of negotiations, I would have all the powers of the COP presidency to manage, to handle the negotiations, to appoint co-facilitators, to prepare draft text, to issue the cover decision," he said.

He also confirmed to the BBC that Turkey will also appoint a president who will run the venue, organise the meetings and schedules.

Australia's climbdown will be embarrassing for the government of Mr Albanese, after lobbying long and hard to win support among the other nations in the Western Europe group.

The compromise will have to be ratified by more than 190 countries gathered here for COP30.

Given the difficulties in getting to this compromise, there are unlikely to be any objections.

One of the world's first calculating machines will not go to auction as scheduled, France, after a Paris court provisionally blocked the historic item from being export.

Auction house Christie's has confirmed it will not proceed with a bid for the machine La Pascaline, developed by the French mathematician Blaise Pascal in 1642.

Valuations suggested the machine could fetch €2 to 3m (£1.77m to £2.65m). Christie's called it the "most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction".

Scientists and researchers made a legal appeal to grant heritage protections to the historic instrument, arguing it should be classified as a "national treasure".

Pascal was just 19 years old when he developed the earliest version of a calculator, Christie's said. There are only nine of these machines still in existence.

"It is the first attempt in history to substitute the human mind with a machine," the official collection description reads.

"Its invention marks a breakthrough, a 'quantum leap' whose importance and significance take on a very special meaning today".

La Pascaline was exhibited at Christie's venues in New York and Hong Kong throughout the year.

The machine was included in Christie's auction of the library of the late Catalonia collector Léon Parcé, which also featured Pascal's philosophical piece Pensées and the first printed version of "Pascal's wager".

On Wednesday, a Paris administrative court temporarily blocked an earlier export authorisation provided by France's culture minister in May. Two experts had signed off on the minister's certificate, including one from the Louvre Museum.

The judge concluded there were "serious doubts" over the legality of the certificate, a statement from the Paris court said, adding the decision was provisional until a final judgment is delivered.

In a statement to the AFP news agency, a Christie's spokesperson said: "Given the provisional nature of this decision and in accordance with the instructions of its client, Christie's is suspending the sale of La Pascaline".

The court noted La Pascaline's historic and scientific value could qualify as a "national treasure" guaranteeing protections under the France's heritage code.

French heritage group, Association Sites & Monuments, which was listed as an applicant, welcomed the decision.

with additional reporting by Sebastian Usher, Global Affairs reporter

Senior Pentagon officials have arrived in Ukraine to "discuss efforts to end the war" with Russia, the US military has said.

The team, led by US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday when he returns from a trip to Turkey.

Reports began surfacing on Wednesday that the US and Russia had prepared a new peace plan, containing major concessions from Ukraine. Neither Washington nor Moscow has officially confirmed the plan.

Earlier in the day, at least 25 people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine's western city of Ternopil, officials there said. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In Kyiv, Driscoll is joined by the US Army's chief of staff Gen Randy George, top US army commander in Europe Gen Chris Donahue, and Srg Maj of the Army Michael Weimer.

"Secretary Driscoll and team arrived this morning in Kyiv on behalf of the administration on a factfinding mission to meet Ukrainian officials and discuss efforts to end the war," Army spokesman Col David Butler said in a statement.

Driscoll was pictured meeting Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday.

Driscoll and Gen George are the most senior US military officials to hold talks in the Ukrainian capital since President Donald Trump took office in January.

The Ukrainian authorities have not publicly commented on what issues are being discussed with the Americans.

However, one Ukrainian official told CBS, the BBC's US media partner, that the focus would be on the military situation on the ground - in addition to plans for a possible ceasefire.

The official - who was not named - said: "Presidents Zelensky and Trump have already agreed to stop the conflict along the existing lines of engagement, and there are agreements on granting security guarantees".

It comes as a number of outlets are reporting that the US and Russia have privately drawn up proposals on how to end the war.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Axios, the Financial Times and Reuters reported that the plans call for Kyiv to give up some territories and weapons, as well as to significantly cut Ukraine's Armed Forces.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian leader Vladimir Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev are believed to have been involved in working on the 28-point peace plan.

The BBC has asked the White House and a representative for Witkoff to comment.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to downplay the reports.

"In this case, we have no additional innovations to what we call 'the spirit of Anchorage'," he told Russia's state-run media on Wednesday - referring to the August summit between Putin and Trump in the US state of Alaska.

Any agreements reached during the one-day meeting have not been made public.

President Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Russia.

Kyiv and its Western allies, including the US, have been calling for an immediate ceasefire along the vast front line, but Moscow has ruled that out, repeating demands that Ukraine says amount to its de facto capitulation.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow's pre-conditions for a peace deal - including ceding territory, tough curbs on the size of Ukraine's military and the country's neutrality - had not changed since Putin laid them out two months before the full-scale invasion.

The COP31 climate meeting is now expected to be held in Turkey after Australia dropped its bid to host the annual event.

Under the UN rules, the right to host the COP in 2026 falls to a group of countries made up of Western Europe, Australia and others.

A consensus must be reached but neither country had been willing to concede. Australia has now agreed to support the Turkish bid in return for their minister chairing the talks following negotiations at COP30, currently being held in Brazil.

This unusual arrangement has taken observers by surprise. It is normal for a COP president to be from the host country and how this new partnership will work in practice remains to be seen.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called the compromise with Turkey an "outstanding result" in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), noting Pacific issues would be "front and centre".

He added that he had spoken to Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and Prime Minister Rabuka of Fiji.

However, Papua New Guinea's Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko told the AFP news agency "we are all not happy. And disappointed it's ended up like this".

Solomon Islands leader Jeremiah Manele earlier told the ABC he would be "disappointed" if Australia didn't secure the event.

Despite this, there will be relief among countries currently meeting at COP30 in the Brazilian city of Belém that a compromise has been reached as the lack of agreement on the venue was becoming an embarrassment for the UN.

Australia has pushed hard to have the climate summit in the city of Adelaide, arguing that they would co-host the meeting with Pacific island states who are seen as among the most vulnerable to climate change and rising sea levels.

Turkey, which has proposed hosting COP31 in the city of Antalya, felt that they had a good claim to be the host country as they had stood aside in 2021 and allowed the UK to hold the meeting in Glasgow.

If neither country was willing to compromise then the meeting would have been held in the German city of Bonn, the headquarters of the UN's climate body.

As a result of discussions at COP30, a compromise appears to have been reached.

This includes pre-COP meeting will be held on a Pacific island, while the main event is held in Turkey. Australia's climate minister Chris Bowen will be its president.

"Obviously, it would be great if Australia could have it all, but we can't have it all," Mr Bowen told reporters outside the Australian delegation offices here in Belém.

"This process works on consensus, and consensus means if someone objected to our bid, it would go to Bonn."

"That would mean 12 months with a lack of leadership, no COP president in place, no plan, that would be irresponsible for multilateralism in this challenging environment."

Mr Bowen believes having a COP president not from the host country will work and that he will have the considerable authority reserved for the president of these gatherings.

"As COP president of negotiations, I would have all the powers of the COP presidency to manage, to handle the negotiations, to appoint co-facilitators, to prepare draft text, to issue the cover decision," he said.

He also confirmed to the BBC that Turkey will also appoint a president who will run the venue, organise the meetings and schedules.

Australia's climbdown will be embarrassing for the government of Mr Albanese, after lobbying long and hard to win support among the other nations in the Western Europe group.

The compromise will have to be ratified by more than 190 countries gathered here for COP30.

Given the difficulties in getting to this compromise, there are unlikely to be any objections.

Nine people have been killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Russia launched more than 470 drones and 47 missiles in the "brazen attack", he wrote in a post on Telegram.

Three districts of Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, were hit by a massive drone attack which injured more than 30 people, including children. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars ablaze.

Power cuts are affecting a number of regions across the country, Ukraine's energy ministry said.

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 25 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

Ten people, including a woman and a young girl, were killed when a ministry of religious endowments building in the eastern Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City was hit, according to rescuers.

The Israeli military said it had struck "Hamas terrorist targets" after it said gunmen had opened fire towards an area where its soldiers were operating in the southern city of Khan Younis, in violation of the five-week-old ceasefire agreement.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

The flare-up of violence comes after the UN Security Council passed a resolution that endorsed US President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan to end two years of devastating war.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, told the BBC that Israeli air, drone and artillery strikes hit several locations in Gaza City and Khan Younis shortly after sunset on Wednesday.

The attacks marked a sharp escalation after several days of relative calm, he said.

The Civil Defence reported that the strike in Zeitoun caused severe damage to the religious endowments ministry's building and surrounding structures, and posted a video showing its rescue workers appearing to find two people buried under rubble.

Photos published by the Anadolu news agency meanwhile showed the bodies of three young children reportedly recovered from the scene.

In a separate incident in Gaza City, one person was killed and several others were wounded when a drone struck a group of people at Shejaiya junction on Salah al-Din Street, Gaza's main north-south road, according to Mr Bassal.

He said another person was killed when a tank shell struck a house belonging to the Balboul family in Shejaiya's Mushtaha Street, which is also in eastern Gaza City.

In Khan Younis, three people were killed and a number were wounded in a strike on a group inside a sports club run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), he added.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that "several terrorists opened fire toward the area where IDF soldiers are operating in Khan Younis" earlier on Wednesday.

"This action constitutes a violation of the ceasefire agreement. No IDF injuries were reported," it added. "In response, the IDF began striking Hamas terrorist targets across the Gaza Strip."

Israeli public broadcaster Kan cited a security source as saying the targets of the strikes were the commander of the Zeitoun Battalion of Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and the commander of its naval force.

On Monday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution that sought to shore up the fragile ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October.

Member states authorised the creation of a transitional governance body called the Board of Peace, which will be chaired by President Trump, and a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF), which will be tasked with ensuring "the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip".

Trump hailed the resolution as "a moment of true historic proportion".

A Hamas statement reiterated that the group would not give up its weapons without a Palestinian state, arguing its fight against Israel was legitimate "resistance".

Israel's ambassador to the UN stressed the importance of disarmament, saying that his country would "not stop or let up" until Hamas no longer presented "a threat".

The Israeli military launched an offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 69,500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, including 280 during the ceasefire, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Thirty-five people and three institutions have gone on trial in North Macedonia over a devastating fire at a nightclub that killed 63, mainly young, people in March.

"I know about the pain of loved ones, we are all parents," Judge Diana Gruevska-Ilievska told the crowded courtroom, filled with defendants and dozens of victims' relatives. She promised the case would be conducted in a transparent and disciplined manner.

Club Pulse, in the eastern town of Kocani, was packed with young Macedonians attending a concert by a popular hip-hop duo when sparks from pyrotechnic devices set fire to the ceiling.

Prosecutors told the trial that years of failings had turned the club into a death trap.

Three former mayors of Kocani, the nightclub's owner and public licensing officials are among those charged.

They are accused of endangering public safety by allowing an unsafe venue to operate.

The judge warned the court that the trial could last for "five months or five years".

Defence lawyers attempted to delay the start of proceedings due to the charges being merged into a single case. The judge rebuffed them, ruling this did "not violate any rights of the parties".

At the time of the tragedy, authorities said only one proper exit was functioning at the club as the back door had been locked.

Sparks from the pyrotechnics spread quickly on the club's ceiling, which had been made of flammable material.

About 500 people were inside the club at the time, leaving 59 dead and some 200 others injured. Four of the injured died later. Many were unable to escape because of blocked exits.

Outrage after the fire prompted protests in the Macedonian capital Skopje and elsewhere, with victims' families organising local marches in Kocani itself.

Another protest entitled "March of the Angels" took place in Skopje days before the trial began, organised under a Macedonian social media campaign called "Who's Next?".

Prosecutors told the trial that the Kocani disaster was not the result of one person's actions or mistakes - rather it arose out of a series of institutional failures and a lack of responsibility.

None of the defendants had wanted to face up to the danger that had been there for years, according to prosecutor Borche Janev.

Prosecutors allege that licences for the club were issued unlawfully, inspections were not carried out and overcrowding was allowed at the venue.

Another allegation is that there was no permit for the band to set off the pyrotechnic devices that started the fire.

"If we remain silent and lose the truth... we will never have the strength as a society to embark on a path to healing," Janev was quoted by local media as telling the court.

A prominent French anti-drugs campaigner whose brother was killed by drugs criminals last week, five years after the murder of his elder brother, has vowed to stand up to intimidation and "keep telling the truth about drugs violence".

Amine Kessaci, 22, was writing in Le Monde newspaper a day after the funeral of his younger brother Mehdi, whose murder last week has been described by the government as a turning-point in France's drugs wars.

"Yesterday I lost my brother. Today I speak out," he wrote in his opinion piece.

"[The drugs-traffickers] strike at us in order to break, to tame, to subdue. They want to wipe out any resistance, to break any free spirit, to kill in the egg any embryo of revolt."

Mehdi Kessaci, 20, was shot dead last Wednesday as he parked his car in central Marseille in what appears to have been a warning or punishment aimed at his older brother, Amine, from the city's drugs gangs.

Speaking after a ministerial meeting on drugs crime at the Elysée palace on Tuesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said: "We all agreed that this premeditated murder was something totally new. It's clearly a crime of intimidation. It's a new level of violence."

Mehdi was the second Kessaci brother to be killed by drugs criminals. In 2020 the body of Brahim Kessaci, then 22, was found in a burnt-out car.

That murder prompted Amine to launch his association, Conscience, which aims to expose the damage to working-class communities caused by gangs.

Marseille is renowned for worsening drugs wars, and Amine Kessaci recently wrote a book called Marseille Wipe your Tears – Life and Death in a Land of Drugs.

In his Le Monde article, Amine revealed he was recently warned by police to leave Marseille because of threats to his life.

He attended his younger brother's funeral wearing a bullet-proof jacket and under heavy police protection.

"I speak because I have no choice but to fight if I don't want to die. I speak because I know that silence is the refuge of our enemies," he wrote, urging courage from citizens, and action from the government.

Mehdi Kessaci's murder has brought the national spotlight back on a drugs trafficking problem that French experts and ministers agree is reaching almost unmanageable proportions.

According to Senate member Étienne Blanc, author of a recent study, turnover in the drugs trade in France is now €7bn (£6bn) – or 70% of the entire budget of the justice ministry.

He said around 250,000 people drew a living from the trade in France – more than the entire number of police and gendarmes, which is 230,000. According to Le Monde, the country counts 1.1 million users of cocaine.

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday launched a broadside against such consumers, telling the weekly cabinet meeting that "sometimes it is the city-centre bourgeoisie that is funding the traffickers".

Macron had called a special drugs summit the day before in response to Amine's murder and in order to review progress on a new anti-drugs law that was passed in June.

It sets up a special prosecutor's office dedicated to organised crime - similar to the office that tackles terrorism - which will eventually have 30 specialised magistrates.

Under the law, senior drugs convicts are made to serve their terms in isolation in a specially converted prison where it is hoped it will be harder to continue running operations from behind bars.

According to Laurent Nuñez, there is evidence that the crackdown on drugs crime is having an effect - with the number of homicides in Marseille down from 49 in 2023 to 24 in 2024.

The number of dealing points in the city had halved from 160 to 80, he added.

"The war is not won, but we do have results."

According to the author of a recent book, Narcotraffic, Europe's poison, "France is at the heart of the geopolitics of drugs. With its two major ports of Marseille and Le Havre, it has an ideal geographical position in this Europe of free movement."

Mathieu Verboud said that the growth in world production of cocaine had triggered an "explosion of supply and demand. The market has gone through the roof and so have the profits."

The sheer wealth of drugs organisations meant they had the power to corrupt everyone from dock-workers to local politicians, the author warned, a process he said was already well-advanced in countries like the Netherlands and Belgium.

Several French politicians have said it is time to call in the army to deal with drugs-trafficking and the gangs which hold sway in many high-immigration city estates.

Christian Estrosi, mayor of the southern coastal city of Nice, said: "Narcotrafficking has transformed into narcoterrorism. Its aim now is to terrorise, subjugate and rule.

"We have already successfully deployed the means to fight terrorism. It's time to act with determination against narcoterrorism."

Estrosi was referring to wave of deadly jihadist attacks in the mid 2010s, when France deployed hundreds of soldiers on to the streets of many cities where they continue to patrol.

Italy's top appeals court has ruled that a Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany should be extradited to Berlin.

There, former Ukrainian military officer Serhiy Kuznetsov will face a charge of anti-constitutional sabotage. He is due to be removed from Italy under German police escort in the next few days.

Prosecutors believe Mr Kuznetsov coordinated and led a group that planted explosives on the pipes deep beneath the Baltic Sea in 2022, though they have not disclosed any evidence.

The case has serious implications for relations between Ukraine and Germany, which is the biggest source of military aid for Kyiv in Europe.

Mr Kuznetsov's lawyer said his client "feels like a scapegoat" and is "very sad" that his government has not spoken out in his defence, or even confirmed that he was a serving soldier at the time of the blasts.

"If he carried out the attack, then he did so because he was ordered to do so because he was for sure a captain of the Ukrainian army," Nicola Canestrini said after Wednesday's hearing.

The BBC has seen a copy of Mr Kuznetsov's military ID among the court papers. He has not commented publicly on whether he was involved in the explosions.

"The Ukrainian government knows exactly where he was every day of September 2022," his lawyer said. "So, if he's innocent, why don't they say it? If he did it, why don't they say it? That's his question."

The BBC has approached government and security sources in Kyiv, but they have not commented.

Mr Kuznetsov was arrested in northern Italy in late August, at a glamping site near the city of Rimini where he had booked in for a few nights with his wife and two of their children.

His passport details were entered online at check-in, and in Italy that information is automatically transferred to the carabinieri, the local police.

Later that night, officers came knocking at the family's door.

A month later, a second Ukrainian suspect was detained at his home close to Poland's capital Warsaw on another arrest warrant issued by Germany.

Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, an amateur deep-sea diver, has lived in Poland with his family since just before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

He was held in custody for 17 days, but a court then refused to extradite him.

The judge delivered a passionate speech, arguing that no Ukrainian could be prosecuted for what he characterised as a legitimate act of self-defence against Russia's "bloody and genocidal" invasion of Ukraine.

In Italy, further from Ukraine, the mood and the politics are very different.

Mr Canestrini described the Italian appeal court's ruling as a "great disappointment", but said the fight for his client would now move to Germany - with the aim of having Mr Kuznetsov acquitted on the same grounds.

Many Ukrainians consider whoever did destroy Nord Stream to be heroes for taking out an important revenue source for Russia, and struggle to understand why Germany - a key ally of Ukraine - is pursuing this prosecution.

On Wednesday, one man stood outside the palatial courthouse in Rome wrapped in a Ukrainian flag and holding a poster that read: "Serhiy Kuznetsov is a defender, not a criminal."

Younger Australian teenagers on Instagram, Facebook and Threads are being told their accounts will be shut down ahead of the country's social media ban for under-16s.

Meta, which owns the three brands, said it had begun notifying users it believes to be between 13 and 15 years old by text, email and in-app messages that their accounts would start being deactivated from 4 December.

The ban in Australia comes into force on 10 December. It affects a number of platforms which also include TikTok, YouTube, X and Reddit.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the "world-leading" ban was aimed at "letting kids be kids". Meta and other firms oppose the measure but said they would comply.

Australia's internet regulator has estimated there are 150,000 Facebook users and 350,000 teens on Instagram in the 13-15 age bracket.

From 4 December, children aged below 16 will not be able to create accounts on Meta's social media platforms.

The company said it was asking young users to update their contact details so they could be notified when they became eligible to open an account.

They can download and save their posts, videos and messages before their accounts are shut down.

Meta said that teens who said they were old enough to use Instagram, Facebook and Threads could challenge the restriction by taking a "video selfie" to be used in facial age scans.

They could also provide a driver's licence or other government issued-ID.

All these verification methods were tested by the UK-based Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) earlier this year, in a report commissioned by the Australian state.

While the ACCS said that all methods had their merits, it added: "We did not find a single ubiquitous solution that would suit all use cases, nor did we find solutions that were guaranteed to be effective in all deployments."

Social media platforms which fail to take "reasonable steps" to block under-16s face fines of up to A$50m (£25m).

"While we are working hard to remove all users who we understand to be under the age of 16 by 10 December, compliance with the law will be an ongoing and multi-layered process," Antigone Davis, vice-president and global head of safety at Meta, told Reuters Financial.

Meta wants to see a law where under-16s have to get parental approval before they download a social media app.

The firm told Australia's Seven News: "Teens are resourceful, and may attempt to circumvent age assurance measures to access restricted services."

But it said: "We're committed to meeting our compliance obligations and are taking the necessary steps to comply with the law."

Australia's e-Safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said the ban was aimed at proctecting teens "from pressures and risks they can be exposed to while logged in to social media accounts".

In a move seemingly to avoid being included in the ban, gaming platform Roblox this week announced that children under 16 would be unable to chat to adult strangers.

Mandatory age checks will be introduced for accounts using chat features, starting in December for Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, then the rest of the globe from January.

• Roblox blocks children from chatting to adult strangers
• Enforcing Australia's social media ban is possible but contains risks, report says

Which firms does Australia's social media ban apply to?

The e-safety commissioner has published a list of which social media platforms will be impacted by the age ban.

They are:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Kick
• Reddit
• Snapchat
• Threads
• TikTok
• X (formerly Twitter)
• YouTube

Platforms not included are:

• Discord
• GitHub
• Google Classroom
• LEGO Play
• Messenger
• Roblox
• Steam and Steam Chat
• WhatsApp
• YouTube Kids

Albania's prime minister accused Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood of "ethnic stereotyping" after she singled out Albanian families in a speech about abuses of the asylum system.

Edi Rama criticised Mahmood for telling MPs around 700 Albanian families were "living in taxpayer-funded accommodation having failed their asylum claims" as she announced major reforms on Monday.

Rama called the number a "statistical drop in the ocean of post-Brexit Britain's challenges".

Official data show the UK has deported more than 13,000 people to Albania since a returns deal was signed in 2022. Rama called the deal one of "Europe's most successful partnerships on illegal migration."

Mahmood's comments came as she announced major changes to the UK's "out of control and unfair" asylum system.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mahmood said: "If we fail to deal with this crisis, we will draw more people down a path that starts with anger and ends in hatred."

The reforms will make refugee status temporary, extend the wait for permanent settlement from five years to 20, and allow the removal of families with children who have no right to remain.

Alongside tightening access to refugee status, the UK would create new legal routes to the UK, with an annual cap on numbers.

As part of her speech, Mahmood told MPs "we must remove those who have failed asylum claims, regardless of who they are".

"There are, for instance, around 700 Albanian families living in taxpayer-funded accommodation having failed their asylum claims - despite an existing returns agreement, and Albania being a signatory to the European convention on human rights," she added.

Posting on social media, Rama said: "How can a Labour Home Secretary so poorly echo the rhetoric of the populist far-right – and single out 700 Albanian families, a statistical drop in the ocean of post-Brexit Britain's challenges – precisely at a moment when the UK and Albania have built one of Europe's most successful partnerships on illegal migration?"

"Let us also be clear: Albanians are net contributors to the British economy, and the number of Albanians receiving UK benefits is very low relative to other communities.

"To single them out again and again is not policy - it is a troubling and indecent exercise in demagoguery.

"Official policy should never be driven by ethnic stereotyping. That is the very least humanity expects from the great Great Britain."

Rama has repeatedly clashed with British politicians over their descriptions of Albanian nationals.

In May, Sir Keir Starmer travelled to the Albanian capital Tirana only to be told by Rama he would not host UK "return hubs" for failed asylum seekers from other countries.

During the same press conference, Rama accused the previous Conservative government of "stigmatising" Albanians and warning that "cursing the Albanians was not a good idea, because the curse went back and they are now out of the parliament".

A combative figure on social media, Rama has also previously invited Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to come to Albania to debate his claim one in 50 Albanians in Britain were in prison.

Rama dismissed the figure as "bonkers" and accused Farage of peddling "post-truth Brexit playbook" politics.

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A South Korean passenger ferry carrying 246 passengers and 21 crew has run aground on rocks off the country's south-east coast.

The Queen Jenuvia 2 is stuck on a reef and unable to move, but there is currently no risk of sinking or capsizing, according to the Coast Guard. People are currently being moved to patrol boats, it said.

The accident happened near Jangsan Island in Sinan County on Wednesday evening local time. The vessel ran aground on rocks near the uninhabited island of Jogdo.

Local media reported that five people sustained minor injuries from the impact of the grounding, but there have been no other casualties.

South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok has ordered all available vessels to be mobilised to rescue the ferry.

"We have confirmed that there is currently no flooding. We are transferring passengers to patrol boats and moving them to a safe location," a Coast Guard official said, Chosun Ilbo newspaper reports.

The Coast Guard plans to move the vessel ashore at high tide.

The ferry was travelling to the port city of Mokpo after departing from the resort island of Jeju, carrying 246 passengers and 21 crew members, the Coast Guard.

The area is near the site of the sinking of the Sewol ferry in 2014 that killed more than 300 people, mostly school children heading for a school trip.

Italy's top appeals court has ruled that a Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany should be extradited to Berlin.

There, former Ukrainian military officer Serhiy Kuznetsov will face a charge of anti-constitutional sabotage. He is due to be removed from Italy under German police escort in the next few days.

Prosecutors believe Mr Kuznetsov coordinated and led a group that planted explosives on the pipes deep beneath the Baltic Sea in 2022, though they have not disclosed any evidence.

The case has serious implications for relations between Ukraine and Germany, which is the biggest source of military aid for Kyiv in Europe.

Mr Kuznetsov's lawyer said his client "feels like a scapegoat" and is "very sad" that his government has not spoken out in his defence, or even confirmed that he was a serving soldier at the time of the blasts.

"If he carried out the attack, then he did so because he was ordered to do so because he was for sure a captain of the Ukrainian army," Nicola Canestrini said after Wednesday's hearing.

The BBC has seen a copy of Mr Kuznetsov's military ID among the court papers. He has not commented publicly on whether he was involved in the explosions.

"The Ukrainian government knows exactly where he was every day of September 2022," his lawyer said. "So, if he's innocent, why don't they say it? If he did it, why don't they say it? That's his question."

The BBC has approached government and security sources in Kyiv, but they have not commented.

Mr Kuznetsov was arrested in northern Italy in late August, at a glamping site near the city of Rimini where he had booked in for a few nights with his wife and two of their children.

His passport details were entered online at check-in, and in Italy that information is automatically transferred to the carabinieri, the local police.

Later that night, officers came knocking at the family's door.

A month later, a second Ukrainian suspect was detained at his home close to Poland's capital Warsaw on another arrest warrant issued by Germany.

Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, an amateur deep-sea diver, has lived in Poland with his family since just before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

He was held in custody for 17 days, but a court then refused to extradite him.

The judge delivered a passionate speech, arguing that no Ukrainian could be prosecuted for what he characterised as a legitimate act of self-defence against Russia's "bloody and genocidal" invasion of Ukraine.

In Italy, further from Ukraine, the mood and the politics are very different.

Mr Canestrini described the Italian appeal court's ruling as a "great disappointment", but said the fight for his client would now move to Germany - with the aim of having Mr Kuznetsov acquitted on the same grounds.

Many Ukrainians consider whoever did destroy Nord Stream to be heroes for taking out an important revenue source for Russia, and struggle to understand why Germany - a key ally of Ukraine - is pursuing this prosecution.

On Wednesday, one man stood outside the palatial courthouse in Rome wrapped in a Ukrainian flag and holding a poster that read: "Serhiy Kuznetsov is a defender, not a criminal."

At least 25 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

Ten people, including a woman and a young girl, were killed when a ministry of religious endowments building in the eastern Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City was hit, according to rescuers.

The Israeli military said it had struck "Hamas terrorist targets" after it said gunmen had opened fire towards an area where its soldiers were operating in the southern city of Khan Younis, in violation of the five-week-old ceasefire agreement.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

The flare-up of violence comes after the UN Security Council passed a resolution that endorsed US President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan to end two years of devastating war.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, told the BBC that Israeli air, drone and artillery strikes hit several locations in Gaza City and Khan Younis shortly after sunset on Wednesday.

The attacks marked a sharp escalation after several days of relative calm, he said.

The Civil Defence reported that the strike in Zeitoun caused severe damage to the religious endowments ministry's building and surrounding structures, and posted a video showing its rescue workers appearing to find two people buried under rubble.

Photos published by the Anadolu news agency meanwhile showed the bodies of three young children reportedly recovered from the scene.

In a separate incident in Gaza City, one person was killed and several others were wounded when a drone struck a group of people at Shejaiya junction on Salah al-Din Street, Gaza's main north-south road, according to Mr Bassal.

He said another person was killed when a tank shell struck a house belonging to the Balboul family in Shejaiya's Mushtaha Street, which is also in eastern Gaza City.

In Khan Younis, three people were killed and a number were wounded in a strike on a group inside a sports club run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), he added.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that "several terrorists opened fire toward the area where IDF soldiers are operating in Khan Younis" earlier on Wednesday.

"This action constitutes a violation of the ceasefire agreement. No IDF injuries were reported," it added. "In response, the IDF began striking Hamas terrorist targets across the Gaza Strip."

Israeli public broadcaster Kan cited a security source as saying the targets of the strikes were the commander of the Zeitoun Battalion of Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and the commander of its naval force.

On Monday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution that sought to shore up the fragile ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October.

Member states authorised the creation of a transitional governance body called the Board of Peace, which will be chaired by President Trump, and a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF), which will be tasked with ensuring "the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip".

Trump hailed the resolution as "a moment of true historic proportion".

A Hamas statement reiterated that the group would not give up its weapons without a Palestinian state, arguing its fight against Israel was legitimate "resistance".

Israel's ambassador to the UN stressed the importance of disarmament, saying that his country would "not stop or let up" until Hamas no longer presented "a threat".

The Israeli military launched an offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 69,500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, including 280 during the ceasefire, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Thirty-five people and three institutions have gone on trial in North Macedonia over a devastating fire at a nightclub that killed 63, mainly young, people in March.

"I know about the pain of loved ones, we are all parents," Judge Diana Gruevska-Ilievska told the crowded courtroom, filled with defendants and dozens of victims' relatives. She promised the case would be conducted in a transparent and disciplined manner.

Club Pulse, in the eastern town of Kocani, was packed with young Macedonians attending a concert by a popular hip-hop duo when sparks from pyrotechnic devices set fire to the ceiling.

Prosecutors told the trial that years of failings had turned the club into a death trap.

Three former mayors of Kocani, the nightclub's owner and public licensing officials are among those charged.

They are accused of endangering public safety by allowing an unsafe venue to operate.

The judge warned the court that the trial could last for "five months or five years".

Defence lawyers attempted to delay the start of proceedings due to the charges being merged into a single case. The judge rebuffed them, ruling this did "not violate any rights of the parties".

At the time of the tragedy, authorities said only one proper exit was functioning at the club as the back door had been locked.

Sparks from the pyrotechnics spread quickly on the club's ceiling, which had been made of flammable material.

About 500 people were inside the club at the time, leaving 59 dead and some 200 others injured. Four of the injured died later. Many were unable to escape because of blocked exits.

Outrage after the fire prompted protests in the Macedonian capital Skopje and elsewhere, with victims' families organising local marches in Kocani itself.

Another protest entitled "March of the Angels" took place in Skopje days before the trial began, organised under a Macedonian social media campaign called "Who's Next?".

Prosecutors told the trial that the Kocani disaster was not the result of one person's actions or mistakes - rather it arose out of a series of institutional failures and a lack of responsibility.

None of the defendants had wanted to face up to the danger that had been there for years, according to prosecutor Borche Janev.

Prosecutors allege that licences for the club were issued unlawfully, inspections were not carried out and overcrowding was allowed at the venue.

Another allegation is that there was no permit for the band to set off the pyrotechnic devices that started the fire.

"If we remain silent and lose the truth... we will never have the strength as a society to embark on a path to healing," Janev was quoted by local media as telling the court.

A prominent French anti-drugs campaigner whose brother was killed by drugs criminals last week, five years after the murder of his elder brother, has vowed to stand up to intimidation and "keep telling the truth about drugs violence".

Amine Kessaci, 22, was writing in Le Monde newspaper a day after the funeral of his younger brother Mehdi, whose murder last week has been described by the government as a turning-point in France's drugs wars.

"Yesterday I lost my brother. Today I speak out," he wrote in his opinion piece.

"[The drugs-traffickers] strike at us in order to break, to tame, to subdue. They want to wipe out any resistance, to break any free spirit, to kill in the egg any embryo of revolt."

Mehdi Kessaci, 20, was shot dead last Wednesday as he parked his car in central Marseille in what appears to have been a warning or punishment aimed at his older brother, Amine, from the city's drugs gangs.

Speaking after a ministerial meeting on drugs crime at the Elysée palace on Tuesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said: "We all agreed that this premeditated murder was something totally new. It's clearly a crime of intimidation. It's a new level of violence."

Mehdi was the second Kessaci brother to be killed by drugs criminals. In 2020 the body of Brahim Kessaci, then 22, was found in a burnt-out car.

That murder prompted Amine to launch his association, Conscience, which aims to expose the damage to working-class communities caused by gangs.

Marseille is renowned for worsening drugs wars, and Amine Kessaci recently wrote a book called Marseille Wipe your Tears – Life and Death in a Land of Drugs.

In his Le Monde article, Amine revealed he was recently warned by police to leave Marseille because of threats to his life.

He attended his younger brother's funeral wearing a bullet-proof jacket and under heavy police protection.

"I speak because I have no choice but to fight if I don't want to die. I speak because I know that silence is the refuge of our enemies," he wrote, urging courage from citizens, and action from the government.

Mehdi Kessaci's murder has brought the national spotlight back on a drugs trafficking problem that French experts and ministers agree is reaching almost unmanageable proportions.

According to Senate member Étienne Blanc, author of a recent study, turnover in the drugs trade in France is now €7bn (£6bn) – or 70% of the entire budget of the justice ministry.

He said around 250,000 people drew a living from the trade in France – more than the entire number of police and gendarmes, which is 230,000. According to Le Monde, the country counts 1.1 million users of cocaine.

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday launched a broadside against such consumers, telling the weekly cabinet meeting that "sometimes it is the city-centre bourgeoisie that is funding the traffickers".

Macron had called a special drugs summit the day before in response to Amine's murder and in order to review progress on a new anti-drugs law that was passed in June.

It sets up a special prosecutor's office dedicated to organised crime - similar to the office that tackles terrorism - which will eventually have 30 specialised magistrates.

Under the law, senior drugs convicts are made to serve their terms in isolation in a specially converted prison where it is hoped it will be harder to continue running operations from behind bars.

According to Laurent Nuñez, there is evidence that the crackdown on drugs crime is having an effect - with the number of homicides in Marseille down from 49 in 2023 to 24 in 2024.

The number of dealing points in the city had halved from 160 to 80, he added.

"The war is not won, but we do have results."

According to the author of a recent book, Narcotraffic, Europe's poison, "France is at the heart of the geopolitics of drugs. With its two major ports of Marseille and Le Havre, it has an ideal geographical position in this Europe of free movement."

Mathieu Verboud said that the growth in world production of cocaine had triggered an "explosion of supply and demand. The market has gone through the roof and so have the profits."

The sheer wealth of drugs organisations meant they had the power to corrupt everyone from dock-workers to local politicians, the author warned, a process he said was already well-advanced in countries like the Netherlands and Belgium.

Several French politicians have said it is time to call in the army to deal with drugs-trafficking and the gangs which hold sway in many high-immigration city estates.

Christian Estrosi, mayor of the southern coastal city of Nice, said: "Narcotrafficking has transformed into narcoterrorism. Its aim now is to terrorise, subjugate and rule.

"We have already successfully deployed the means to fight terrorism. It's time to act with determination against narcoterrorism."

Estrosi was referring to wave of deadly jihadist attacks in the mid 2010s, when France deployed hundreds of soldiers on to the streets of many cities where they continue to patrol.

Younger Australian teenagers on Instagram, Facebook and Threads are being told their accounts will be shut down ahead of the country's social media ban for under-16s.

Meta, which owns the three brands, said it had begun notifying users it believes to be between 13 and 15 years old by text, email and in-app messages that their accounts would start being deactivated from 4 December.

The ban in Australia comes into force on 10 December. It affects a number of platforms which also include TikTok, YouTube, X and Reddit.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the "world-leading" ban was aimed at "letting kids be kids". Meta and other firms oppose the measure but said they would comply.

Australia's internet regulator has estimated there are 150,000 Facebook users and 350,000 teens on Instagram in the 13-15 age bracket.

From 4 December, children aged below 16 will not be able to create accounts on Meta's social media platforms.

The company said it was asking young users to update their contact details so they could be notified when they became eligible to open an account.

They can download and save their posts, videos and messages before their accounts are shut down.

Meta said that teens who said they were old enough to use Instagram, Facebook and Threads could challenge the restriction by taking a "video selfie" to be used in facial age scans.

They could also provide a driver's licence or other government issued-ID.

All these verification methods were tested by the UK-based Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) earlier this year, in a report commissioned by the Australian state.

While the ACCS said that all methods had their merits, it added: "We did not find a single ubiquitous solution that would suit all use cases, nor did we find solutions that were guaranteed to be effective in all deployments."

Social media platforms which fail to take "reasonable steps" to block under-16s face fines of up to A$50m (£25m).

"While we are working hard to remove all users who we understand to be under the age of 16 by 10 December, compliance with the law will be an ongoing and multi-layered process," Antigone Davis, vice-president and global head of safety at Meta, told Reuters Financial.

Meta wants to see a law where under-16s have to get parental approval before they download a social media app.

The firm told Australia's Seven News: "Teens are resourceful, and may attempt to circumvent age assurance measures to access restricted services."

But it said: "We're committed to meeting our compliance obligations and are taking the necessary steps to comply with the law."

Australia's e-Safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said the ban was aimed at proctecting teens "from pressures and risks they can be exposed to while logged in to social media accounts".

In a move seemingly to avoid being included in the ban, gaming platform Roblox this week announced that children under 16 would be unable to chat to adult strangers.

Mandatory age checks will be introduced for accounts using chat features, starting in December for Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, then the rest of the globe from January.

• Roblox blocks children from chatting to adult strangers
• Enforcing Australia's social media ban is possible but contains risks, report says

Which firms does Australia's social media ban apply to?

The e-safety commissioner has published a list of which social media platforms will be impacted by the age ban.

They are:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Kick
• Reddit
• Snapchat
• Threads
• TikTok
• X (formerly Twitter)
• YouTube

Platforms not included are:

• Discord
• GitHub
• Google Classroom
• LEGO Play
• Messenger
• Roblox
• Steam and Steam Chat
• WhatsApp
• YouTube Kids

Nine people have been killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Russia launched more than 470 drones and 47 missiles in the "brazen attack", he wrote in a post on Telegram.

Three districts of Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, were hit by a massive drone attack which injured more than 30 people, including children. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars ablaze.

Power cuts are affecting a number of regions across the country, Ukraine's energy ministry said.

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.

A portrait by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt was sold for $236.4m (£179m) in New York on Tuesday, making it the second most expensive piece ever sold at auction.

Six people took part in a 20-minute bidding battle for the Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer which was painted between 1914 and 1916.

Auction house Sotheby's has not disclosed the buyer's identity.

The portrait was looted by the Nazis and almost destroyed in a fire in World War Two, but was rescued in 1948.

The artwork was returned to Lederer's brother, Erich, a friend and subject of Klimt's contemporary, Egon Schiele. The piece remained in Lederer's possession for most of his life, before he sold it in 1983, according to Sotheby's.

The painting shows Lederer, an heiress and the daughter of one of Klimt's patrons, wearing a white robe and stood in front of a blue tapestry covered in Asian motifs.

The Nazis, who annexed Austria in 1938, looted the Lederer art collection but left family portraits behind, says the National Gallery of Canada.

Estée Lauder heir Leonard A Lauder made it part of his private collection in 1985, where it was displayed in his Fifth Avenue home in New York.

Tuesday's sale shot past expectations, with the painting predicted to sell for $150m before the auction. The second highest sale for a Klimt on record was Lady with a Fan, which sold for $108.8m in 2023 in London.

Several other Klimt works in Lauder's collection were auctioned at the same event, including Flowering Meadow and Forest Slope at Unterach am Attersee, which fetched between $60m and $80m each.

The most expensive artwork ever sold at auction was Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, which sold in 2017 for $450.3m.

Tuesday also saw a sculpture of a fully functioning gold toilet by the conceptual artist Maurizio Cattelan picking up $12.1m just an hour after the record-breaking Klimt sale.

The 101-kg toilet received just one bid. Sotheby's said that the buyer was a famous American brand.

Both chambers of Congress agreed to order the US justice department to release its files on sex offender financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The House of Representatives overwhelming approved the measure in a 427-1 vote and the Senate unanimously fast-tracked it without a formal vote.

The moves come just days after President Donald Trump reversed his position and urged Congress to vote to disclose the records following public pushback from many of his supporters.

Last week, Trump and his ties to Epstein were thrust back into the headlines after more than 20,000 pages of documents - some mentioning the president - were released. The White House denied any wrongdoing.

Republican Clay Higgins, of Louisiana, was the sole House objector and cited his concern about “innocent people being hurt” with the release of the information.

Trump’s reversal from attacking those on Capitol Hill who wanted the files released to saying there was “nothing to hide” surprised some in Washington.

The Republican congressional leadership was caught off guard after aligning their message with the president for the past few weeks and opposing the release.

House Speaker Mike Johnson had repeatedly called the push to release the Epstein files a "Democrat hoax".

On Tuesday, he voted in support of release.

• What do we know about the Epstein files?
• Why the Epstein case looms large in MAGA world

The measure had been expected to take a few days to reach the US Senate, but after the resounding afternoon vote in the House, the timeline quickly sped up.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer brought up the bill on the floor of the Senate under a procedure called unanimous consent. Because no one objected, there was no debate and no amendments added to the bill.

It will head from the Senate to the president‘s desk, where he is expected to sign it into law.

A congressional vote was not required to release the files - Trump could have ordered the release on his own.

The bill requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell no later than 30 days after the law is enacted.

Those materials include internal justice department communications, flight logs and people and entities connected to Epstein.

But the bill also gives Bondi the power to withhold information that would jeopardise any active federal investigation or identifies any victims.

Epstein, a financier, was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019 in what a coroner ruled was a suicide.

He was being held on charges of sex trafficking, having previously been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.

During two criminal investigations into Epstein, thousands of documents were gathered, including transcripts of interviews with victims and witnesses.

Trump and Epstein previously socialised in similar circles, but the president said he cut ties with Epstein many years ago, before his 2008 conviction. The president also said he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal activity.

Last week, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee published three email chains, including correspondence between Epstein and Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.

Some of those make mention of Trump, including one email, sent in 2011, in which Epstein wrote to Maxwell: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.. [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him.”

The White House said last week that the victim referenced in the email was prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre.

Giuffre, who died in April, has said that she never saw Trump participate in any abuse and there is no implication of any wrongdoing by Trump in the emails.

Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the emails were "selectively leaked" by House Democrats to "liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump".

The push for the release of the investigative files held by the Department of Justice was led by Republican Thomas Massie, a Kentucky congressman who sometimes dissents from his party, and Democrat Ro Khanna, a California congressman, both of whom introduced the legislation.

Massie has faced criticism from Trump for his push to release the files, but has stood firm.

“In 2030, he’s not going to be the president,” Massie said to ABC News over the weekend. He added that fellow Republicans who voted against release "will have voted to protect paedophiles”.

Another Republican who has pushed for the release of the files is House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. She had been a staunch supporter of Trump before the two fell out over the issue, with the president now calling her a "traitor".

At a news conference earlier in the day on Tuesday, Greene said she is speaking up on behalf of Epstein's survivors. She also called out Trump directly.

"Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves; a patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me," Greene said.

She said that row over Epstein has been one of the "most destructive things" to Trump's Make America Great Again movement since his election in 2016.

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse also spoke at the news conference, urging lawmakers to release the files and pushing Trump to do the same.

Epstein survivor Annie Farmer said that keeping the files under wraps amounted to “institutional betrayal”.

“Because these crimes were not properly investigated, so many more girls and women were harmed,” Ms Farmer said.

US President Donald Trump has said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman "knew nothing" about the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as he welcomed the kingdom's de facto ruler to the White House.

Trump's comments appeared to contradict a US intelligence assessment in 2021 which determined the crown prince had approved the operation that led to Khashoggi's death at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

The crown prince, who has denied any wrongdoing, said at the White House that Saudi Arabia "did all the right things" to investigate Khashoggi's death.

It was his first visit to the US since the assassination, which sent shockwaves through the US-Saudi relationship.

In the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump shot back at a reporter who asked a question about the killing.

"You're mentioning someone that was extremely controversial," the US president said.

"A lot of people didn't like that gentleman that you're talking about. Whether you like him or didn't like him, things happen."

"But he [the Crown Prince] knew nothing about it," Trump added. "You don't have to embarrass our guests."

The crown prince added that Saudi Arabia "did all the right steps" to investigate the murder, which he called "painful" and a "huge mistake".

A US intelligence report made public in 2021 - under President Joe Biden's administration - determined that the crown prince had approved of a plan to "capture or kill" Khashoggi in Istanbul. During his first administration, Trump White House officials declined to release the report.

While dozens of Saudi officials faced sanctions in the wake of the assassination, none directly targeted the crown prince.

At the time, Saudi Arabia rejected the report as "negative, false and unacceptable".

On Tuesday, Khashoggi's widow called on the crown prince to apologise for her husband's murder, for which she said there was "no justification".

"The Crown Prince said he was sorry so he should meet me, apologize and compensate me for the murder of my husband @JKhashoggi," Hanan Elatr Khashoggi posted on X. Granted political asylum in the US, she lives in the Washington DC area.

Tuesday's meeting between Trump and Mohammed bin Salman was expected to include deals on civilian nuclear power, artificial intelligence and Saudi investment in the US, which the crown prince said was being upped to $1tr (£761bn) from $600bn pledged earlier this year.

Echoing Trump's own words, bin Salman said that the US was the "hottest country on the planet" and praised the US president for creating "long-term opportunity".

The two men also discussed the potential sale of advanced F-35 fighter aircraft to the Saudis.

Trump said that while export licences were still being announced, he expected a deal between the Saudis and US defence giant Lockheed Martin.

The potential sale has caused alarm among some Israeli officials, who have said that it could potentially hurt the country's "qualitative military edge" in the Middle East, where it is so far the only nation to have F-35s.

The US president said the model sold to the Saudis would be broadly similar to the one the Israelis operate.

"This [Saudi Arabia] is a great ally, and Israel is a great ally," Trump said. "I know they'd like you to get planes of reduced calibre.

"But as far as I'm concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top of the line," he added.

The crown prince's visit to Washington continues with a gala dinner on Tuesday night, followed by an investment summit on Wednesday.

Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo - who plays in the Saudi professional league - was also expected to be at the White House on Tuesday, a White House official confirmed to the BBC.

Biden did not host the crown prince and vowed to make Saudi Arabia a "pariah" over its human rights record. In 2022, however, Biden visited the kingdom to reach agreement on other issues.

The family of a Muslim man, who was lynched by a Hindu mob in India's Uttar Pradesh state in 2015, say they will continue fighting for justice after authorities recently moved to drop all charges against the accused.

Mohammad Akhlaq, then 50, was beaten to death after rumours spread that he had stored and consumed beef, a claim his family continues to deny.

Slaughter of cows is a sensitive issue in India as the animal is considered sacred by Hindus, who comprise 80% of the country's 1.2 billion people. Uttar Pradesh is among the 20 states of states with strict laws banning cow slaughter and the sale and consumption of beef.

The incident, which took place in Dadri - 49km (31 miles) from capital Delhi - was the first major and widely reported case of cow-related violence in India and had sparked widespread protests.

Akhlaq's family's lawyer told BBC Hindi that 18 people were charged for various offences, including murder and rioting. All of them are out on bail.

Now the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led state government of Uttar Pradesh has moved a local court, asking it to drop the charges against the men.

In an application filed last month, the public prosecutor argued there were "inconsistencies" in the witness testimonies in identifying the accused and asked the court to close the case.

The court is expected to decide on whether it would accept the application on 12 December.

The news has shocked Akhlaq's family, who say they are prepared to challenge the government's plea.

"We never thought that our fight of 10 years would be attempted to be closed off like this," his younger brother Jaan Mohammad told BBC Hindi.

The family left the village shortly after the killing and has not returned.

"Now, we are scared for our safety even more," Mr Mohammad said. "Will this [move to withdraw the case] not embolden the criminals?"

Mr Mohammad says he will never forget the night his brother was murdered.

Akhlaq had been sleeping with his 22-year-old son Danish on 28 September 2015, when a mob wielding sticks, swords and cheap pistols barged into their home, accusing the family of having slaughtered a cow and consuming it.

The family said it later found out that the mob attacked him after an announcement was made from a Hindu temple that someone had slaughtered and eaten a cow.

The accused men found some meat in the fridge that the family insists was mutton, and held it as proof. While Akhlaq died on the spot, his son was seriously injured in the attack.

The case sparked widespread outrage. Although initial arrests came within a week, the chargesheet took three months to file.

Many also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for speaking about the incident days after Akhlaq's death, while some BJP members, then in power at the federal level, were accused of defending the attackers.

One party leader had described the lynching as an "accident", while another said consuming beef was unacceptable.

The police, in its first chargesheet, named 15 main accused, including a juvenile and a local BJP leader's son, along with 25 witnesses. Four more accused were later added, bringing the total to 19; one died in 2016.

Last month, the Uttar Pradesh government argued that witnesses, including Akhlaq's family, had given conflicting statements during the investigation.

It noted that Akhlaq's wife initially named 10 people in her complaint, while his daughter Shaista cited 16, and his son Danish 19.

"Despite both the parties living in the same village, the witnesses have changed the number of accused," the application says.

Mohammad Yusuf Saifi, Akhlaq's family lawyer, said the "chaos and confusion" at the time of the incident made it understandable that not every witness saw all involved.

"The only thing to see is whether there is any evidence against the people who have been named," he said.

The application also noted that police seized five sticks, iron rods, and bricks from the accused, but found no firearms or swords, contrary to what Akhlaq's wife had stated in her complaint.

It further stated that officials had recovered cow meat from the spot. In 2016, a case was filed against Akhlaq's family under the cow slaughter law - and is still pending before a court in Uttar Pradesh.

The family has however has repeatedly denied the allegation.

Mr Saifi, alleged the case was meant to "pressurise" the family, noting that a local veterinary report identified the meat as goat, not cow.

As the family anxiously waits for the court's verdict, they are holding out hope.

"I still have faith in the court," Akhlaq's brother, Mr Mohammad, said. "I believe justice would be done one day."

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At least 13 people have been killed in an Israeli strike near a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, the country's health ministry says.

The Israeli military said it had targeted members of the Palestinian armed group Hamas "operating in a training compound... in the Ein el-Hilweh area".

It said the location was used by Hamas to plan and carry out attacks against Israel - but provided no evidence to support the claims. Hamas has not commented.

Israel has carried out regular air strikes on people and places in Lebanon since a deal to end the conflict with the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. Most strikes have targeted Hezbollah but Israel has also attacked Hamas in the country.

As well as those killed in the strike, Lebanon's health ministry said at least four people had been left wounded.

Images showed emergency workers at the entrance of Ein el-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

Footage online also showed ambulances rushing through the narrow streets of the crowded camp as a huge plume of smoke billowed from the location hit.

Initial reports say the attack struck an area outside a mosque that is usually busy at night. Palestinian factions are known to be present in the camp.

In its statement, the IDF said "measures were taken to reduce the chance of harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions, aerial observations, and additional intelligence information".

Hamas attacked southern Israel from Gaza on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others as hostages. Israel's military response has killed at least 69,169 Palestinians in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah escalated after the Lebanese group fired rockets at Israeli positions the day after 7 October 2023. Hezbollah said it was acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel and Hezbollah fought an escalating conflict for 13 months that culminated in an intense Israeli bombing campaign and ground incursion into southern Lebanon in October 2024.

Lebanese authorities said Israel's attacks killed about 4,000 people there - including many civilians - and led to the displacement of more than 1.2 million residents. Israeli authorities said more than 80 of its soldiers and 47 of its civilians were killed in the hostilities.

Two Miss Universe judges have resigned days before the annual beauty pageant, with one of them accusing organisers of rigging the selection process.

Lebanese-French musician Omar Harfouch, who announced his resignation from the eight-member jury on Instagram, alleged that an "impromptu jury" had pre-selected finalists ahead of the competition, set to be held on Friday in Thailand.

Hours later, French football manager Claude Makélélé also announced he'd pulled out, citing "unforeseen personal reasons".

The resignations come just weeks after several Miss Universe contestants walked out of a pre-pageant event over controversial comments made by an official from host nation Thailand.

"An impromptu jury has been formed to select 30 finalists from among the 136 participating countries, without the presence of any of the real [eight] members of the jury, including me," Mr Harfouch wrote in an Instagram post on Tuesday, saying he had discovered this via social media.

The unofficial jury comprises "individuals with a significant potential conflict of interest due to some personal relationships with some of the Miss Universe contestants", he claimed.

Mr Harfouch did not elaborate on how this "impromptu jury" would function, or how it would override the official jury's decision.

The Miss Universe Organisation on Tuesday put out a statement to rebuff Mr Harfouch's claims, saying that "no external group has been authorised to evaluate delegates or select finalists".

It suggested that Mr Harfouch may have been referring to the Beyond the Crown programme: a "social impact initiative" that operates independently from the Miss Universe competition, and has a separate selection committee.

The Miss Universe Organisation announced the Beyond the Crown selection committee on Monday. In its statement on Tuesday, the Organisation said that Mr Harfouch's allegations had "mischaracterised" the programme.

Mr Makélélé, who also announced his resignation via Instagram, described it as a "difficult decision".

"I hold Miss Universe in the highest regard. The platform represents empowerment, diversity, and excellence - values I have always championed throughout my career," he wrote.

The beauty pageant drew backlash earlier this month after its Thailand director Nawat Itsaragrisil publicly berated Miss Mexico, Fatima Bosch, at a pre-pageant event for not posting promotional content on her social media platforms.

In videos that have since gone viral, Ms Bosch and several other contestants could be seen walking out of the event, and some could be heard shouting at Mr Nawat.

Mr Nawat later claimed that some of his words were misunderstood - but his conduct nevertheless prompted a stern rebuke from Miss Universe Organisation, which has since sent a delegation of international executives to take over running the competition.

Nearly every Republican in the US House of Representatives voted on a bill to compel the release of documents tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The lone "nay" came from the Republican lawmaker from Louisiana, Clay Higgins, who defied his party saying his vote was a principled "NO".

"What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today," Higgins wrote on X. "It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America."

The resounding vote in favour of the Epstein bill, 427-1, marks a rare moment of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. Hours later, the US senate too approved the legislation, clearing the way for the final act - President Donald Trump's signature.

For Higgins, safeguarding the personal information of Epstein's many victims was the primary issue with the legislation.

"As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc," he wrote on X. "If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt."

Higgins said he would support the bill if it were to be amended by the Senate, which Republican majority leader John Thune had already suggested was unlikely.

"When a bill comes out of the House 427 to 1 and the president said he's going to sign it, I'm not sure that amending it is in the cards," Thune said before the Senate's unanimous approval for the bill on Tuesday.

Prior to the House passing the legislation, only four Republicans had joined all Democrats in signing a petition to force a vote - Thomas Massie, Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

But it achieved overwhelming Republican support after President Trump dropped his opposition to a vote.

Higgins has represented Louisiana's third district since 2017 and is widely regarded as one of the most conservative members of Congress, according to his website.

His holdout vote in the wake of 200-plus members of his party voting otherwise is not the first time he has taken an unorthodox stance.

In 2024, House Republicans voted to censure Higgins for offensive remarks he made on social media after he called Haiti "the nastiest country in the western hemisphere" and referred to Haitians as "eating pets" and "slapstick gangsters".

"All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th," Higgins wrote.

Facebook removed two posts from Higgins in 2020, after he wrote he would "drop any 10 of you where you stand", referring to any armed protesters that might attend a Louisiana demonstration against police brutality.

Facebook told Business Insider at the time the posts "were removed for violating our policies against inciting violence".

Before Congress, Higgins was a member of Louisiana's St Landry's Parish Sheriff's Office. He resigned in 2016 amid backlash about a controversial anti-crime video where he was seen holding a rifle and making threats against gang members.

The BBC has contacted Higgins's office for comment.