The Phoenix Suns arrived in Macau ahead of their two games against the Brooklyn Nets
The US National Basketball Association (NBA) will return to China this week for the first time since 2019.
Two pre-season games are scheduled for Friday and Sunday between the Brooklyn Nets and the Phoenix Suns at an arena in Macau's Venetian casino and hotel.
China effectively froze the NBA out six years ago when one of the organisation's managers wrote in support of pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, a former British colony that has seen a clampdown on civil liberties.
The games come after the NBA and Chinese technology giant Alibaba announced a multi-year partnership at the end of last year. The Brooklyn Nets are owned by the company's chair, Joseph Tsai.
It is the first time an NBA fixture has been played in Macau - a special administrative region like Hong Kong, known for its casinos - since 2007.
The NBA has cast the games as part of efforts to tap into a burgeoning viewership of American basketball in the country, with commissioner Adam Silver telling news agency AFP that there was "tremendous interest in the NBA throughout China".
Analysis by US sports broadcaster ESPN in 2022 suggested the value of NBA China, the arm that manages its operations in the country, was estimated at approximately $5bn (£3.7bn).
Basketball's popularity in the east Asian nation skyrocketed when Chinese player Yao Ming was drafted by the Houston Rockets in 2002.
The NBA estimated in 2019 that 300 million people in China played the sport.
The games could be interpreted as the culmination of a slow but steady reconciliation between the NBA and China, on a backdrop of tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade.
China suspended NBA broadcasts on Chinese TV channels and streaming platforms after the NBA refused to apologise or discipline then-manager of the Houston Rockets, Daryl Morey, who posted on social media: "Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong."
At the time, the city was engulfed in regular protests over the erosion of free speech and assembly rights, which culminated in China passing a security law to crack down on dissent. Beijing maintains this was necessary to maintain order.
Mr Morey backpedalled after a backlash from Chinese fans, while the NBA said it was "regrettable" that fans in China were upset and acknowledged he had "deeply offended many of our friends and fans in China".
Since then, NBA games have gradually returned to Chinese TV channels.
Chinese fans have expressed their excitement about the upcoming games.
"We'd been preparing and planning for this two months in advance," Lyu Yizhe, from Xiamen, told Reuters in Macau. "It feels extra special because we're long-time NBA fans - we've been watching since 1998, back in the Michael Jordan and Chicago Bulls era."
Mole Zeng, who travelled from Hangzhou, told the news agency: "I believe that in the future, as the NBA continues to grow in China, more and more star players will come here to meet us in person."
Adrian de Wet (L) told the court farm boss Zachariah Johannes Olivier (R) forced him to help get rid of two women's bodies
A South African farm worker has described to a court how he was forced by his boss to feed the bodies of two black women to pigs in an attempt to hide evidence after they were shot.
Adrian De Wet, 21, said he was told to throw the bodies inside a pig enclosure, explaining that "when pigs are hungry enough, they'll eat anything".
He admitted opening fire on the two women with his boss - farm owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier - before he ordered him to help dispose of their bodies.
Mr Olivier and another man, William Musora, are accused of murder after Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were killed while allegedly looking for food on a farm near Polokwane in South Africa's northern Limpopo province last year.
Farm supervisor Mr De Wet was also previously accused of murder, but charges were dropped by the prosecution when he turned state witness. He had argued he was under duress when he was forced to throw the bodies into the pig enclosure.
On Thursday, Mr De Wet told Polokwane High Court that he and Mr Olivier, 60, armed themselves with hunting rifles and waited for trespassers to enter the farm on the night of 17 August 2024.
He said after waiting for 30 minutes they heard voices of people talking and walking towards their direction.
They then opened fire and heard a person screaming, before inspecting the area and finding a person lying face down.
After leaving the area and going to sleep, they returned the next morning and found it was the body of a woman.
Mr De Wet said he was asked by Mr Olivier to help him throw the body inside the enclosure where eight to ten big adult pigs were kept.
The following day another body was found about 25 metres from where the first was found.
Mr Olivier, Mr De Wet and Mr Musora, 50, are said to have then thrown the second body inside the pigsty.
On the following Tuesday they returned to it and found that the pigs had bitten off large chunks of flesh on the women.
Pictures presented as exhibits in court show missing buttocks, face, thighs and shoulders.
State prosecutor Advocate George Sekhukhune asked Mr De Wet what the purpose of placing the bodies inside the pigsty was, to which he answered: "We were disposing the evidence because when pigs are hungry enough, they'll eat anything."
Mr De Wet also said Mr Olivier chopped up the hunting rifles with an angle grinder and burnt the wooden parts of the gun. They then threw away the cut up weapons including the spent cartridges inside a borehole.
The son of victim Ms Makgato cried repeatedly in court, while Mr Olivier was seen wiping away tears as Mr De Wet gave his evidence.
The case has sparked outrage across South Africa, exacerbating racial tensions between black and white people in the country.
This is especially rife in rural areas of the country, despite the end of the racist system of apartheid 30 years ago.
Most private farmland remains in the hands of the white minority, while most farm workers are black and poorly paid, fuelling resentment among the black population, while many white farmers complain of high crime rates.
Cross examination by defence lawyers of Mr Olivier and Mr Musora will resume next Wednesday.
Watch: Trump says Middle East deal ‘very close’ after being passed note by Marco Rubio
US President Donald Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas have "both signed off" on the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza.
"This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The announcement comes after three days of indirect talks in Egypt - mediated by officials from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US - aimed at bringing an end to the two-year conflict.
Both Israel and Hamas also confirmed an agreement had been reached.
However, Trump's post did not provide clarity on other known sticking points in negotiations - notably the disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza.
In a post on X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "great day", adding that he would "convene the government tomorrow to ratify the agreement and bring all of our precious hostages home".
Hamas confirmed that the agreement included an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a hostage-prisoner exchange.
The group also called on Trump, the guarantor countries and other Arab states to compel Israel "to fully implement the agreement's requirements".
A senior White House official told CBS, the BBC's US news partner, that "our assessment is that hostages will begin getting released on Monday".
Qatari Foreign Minister Majed al-Ansari said more details would be announced later, adding that the agreement would "lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid".
Earlier on Wednesday, expectations that a deal could be imminent were heightened after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered an event with Trump and handed him a note.
Trump said that note informed him that "we are very close to a deal". He exited the room shortly thereafter, saying he had to focus on the Middle East.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli fire had killed at least eight people over the previous 24 hours – the lowest death toll it has reported in the past week.
Hospitals said two people had been killed on Wednesday while trying to collect food from aid distribution centres in central and southern Gaza.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its troops had killed "several terrorists" who attempted to attack their position in Gaza City.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.
At least 67,183 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, according to the territory's health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies, although Israel disputes them.
The ministry has said another 460 people have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since a famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza and said Israel was facilitating deliveries of food and other aid.
Gisèle Pelicot told the court in Nîmes this week she was the "only victim" of rape
A court in southern France has increased by a year the jail term of the only man who challenged his conviction for raping Gisèle Pelicot.
The 72-year-old retired grandmother was drugged unconscious by her then-husband Dominique for over a decade and raped by dozens of men he recruited on the internet.
Husamettin Dogan, 44, had argued he was innocent, despite graphic video footage shown in court of him penetrating a motionless Gisèle Pelicot.
But the court of appeal in Nîmes rejected his argument and extended his original nine-year jail term to 10 years. He was convicted of aggravated rape last December, during a trial in which 50 other men were convicted.
Prosecutors had asked the court to impose a 12-year term on Dogan, who said he himself had been a victim, "trapped" by Dominique Pelicot.
Although Dogan did spent time in pre-trial detention ahead of last year's trial, he has not spent time in jail since.
Police were able to track down the men who raped Gisèle because of the videos that Dominique Pelicot filmed during the rapes.
Of the 51 men handed jail terms, 17 initially lodged appeals only to withdraw them soon after.
Husamettin Dogan - a Turkish-born married father - was the only one who decided to take his appeal to court.
GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO/EPA/Shutterstock
Husamettin Dogan had argued he was also a victim in the case and denied rape
Like many of the other men convicted last December, Dogan's defence was that he could not be guilty of raping Gisèle because he did not realise she had been drugged by her husband against her will.
Proceedings in Nîmes were effectively a retrial but, unlike the initial trial last December, this case was judged by a jury made up of nine members of the public and three professional judges.
Evidence from the first trial was shown again, including videos of the rapes in which an unconscious Gisèle could be heard snoring and having no reaction despite the abuse she was subjected to.
Nevertheless, Dogan again denied any intention to rape her even though he acknowledged she was clearly a victim of her husband.
"I performed a sexual act, I never raped anyone," he said. "For me, rape means forcing someone, tying them up, I don't know… I am a victim."
Gisèle Pelicot told the court this week "I am the only victim", denying she had ever given her consent.
In an attempt to shift the blame on to Dominique Pelicot, Dogan also said that while at one point he had "suspicions" that something about the situation was not quite right, Pelicot had put him at ease. "This guy is a manipulator," he said.
Pelicot - who was present in court as a witness - denied he had ever pretended his wife would be anything but unconscious.
All the men he recruited on chatrooms "were told she would be drugged", Pelicot said, adding he had explicitly told Dogan he was looking for "someone to abuse my sleeping wife without her knowledge".
Some people have been complaining that petrol prices have risen because of the shortage
Long queues have been snaking around petrol stations in Mali's capital a month after militants from an al-Qaeda affiliate imposed a fuel blockade by attacking tankers on major highways.
"Our business is at a standstill," one motorbike taxi driver told the BBC, as many others pushed their vehicles to join the petrol lines amidst chaotic scenes in Bamako.
Some of the garages forced to shut last week, paralysing the city, have now reopened after more 300 petrol tankers arrived under army escort from Ivory Coast on Tuesday.
The military government has assured residents it is only a temporary issue, but there are fears the new stock will quickly run out - as others complain about price hikes.
Other cities and areas have also been suffering from such shortages, power cuts and fuel inflation for several weeks.
"My business is dying," a vendor in the central town of Mopti told the AFP news agency about her problems keeping fish refrigerated.
Mali is landlocked, so all fuel supplies are brought into the country by road from neighbours such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.
The junta had popular support when it seized power five years ago, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.
The UN peacekeeping force and French counter-terror forces deployed in 2013 in the wake of the uprising have left and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries instead.
But the jihadist insurgency has continued, and has made much of the north and east of the country ungovernable.
The latest blockade by al-Qaeda linked Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) - which has seen lorries ambushed, some set alight and drivers kidnapped - points to the geographic expansion of its insurgency as its fighters are targeting highways linking Mali to its neighbours to the west and south.
Images widely shared on social media highlight the rowdy lines at petrol stations in Bamako, with people waiting for hours.
Those caught up in the queues spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity.
"I had to push my motorcycle from Djikoroni to Badalabougou, about 9km (nearly six miles) away, without fuel," said one rider.
"I had all the difficulties in the world [over the past two days]."
Another person told the BBC: "We are asking fuel traders to make things easier for the population. They have no reason to increase fuel prices because it does not help the country."
Community radio station Nostalgie reported that fuel prices in parts of Bamako have increased by more than 200%.
Following a crisis meeting chaired by Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga on Tuesday, the deputy director general of commerce said that an action plan had been adopted and, amongst other things, teams were being sent out to ensure state-capped prices were adhered to at garages.
"The situation will improve in the coming days," said Soumaïla Djitteye, thanking those involved in transporting the fuel for their "sacrifice and patriotism" and paying tribute to the security forces.
The situation is also reportedly exacerbating power cuts in Bamako. AFP quoted an official from the state-owned electricity firm as saying the supply had been reduced to just six hours a day in some areas, down from the usual 19 hours.
According to French public broadcaster Radio France Internationale (RFI), Malian officials are in "discreet" talks with the militants to lift the blockade.
It quoted a security source close to the negotiations as saying demands include the release of captured fighters and a relaxation of fuel restrictions.
There have been reports that JNIM began the blockade because of a ban on the sale of fuel at locations other than service stations in rural areas - a move intended to cut the jihadists' supplies.
RFI said another demand by the Islamist militants was that women wear veils on buses.
Tesla is being investigated by the US government after reports the firm's self-driving cars had broken traffic laws, including driving on the wrong side of the road and not stopping for red lights.
It said it was aware of 58 reports where the electric cars had committed such violations, according to a filing from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
An estimated 2.9 million cars equipped with full self-driving tech will fall under the investigation.
The NHTSA's preliminary evaluation will "assess the scope, frequency, and potential safety consequences" of the "Full Self-Driving (Supervised)" mode.
In this mode - which costs extra for Tesla owners - the cars can make lane changes and turns, but drivers must always be alert to take over at any time.
According to the NHTSA report, there were six crashes caused by cars stopping at a traffic light before setting off while the light was still red.
Four of the crashes resulted in injuries.
The traffic authority said Tesla had taken action "to address the issue" of cars going through red lights at a particular intersection in Maryland, where the problem repeatedly occurred.
The agency will also investigate reports of vehicles going into the opposite lane when making a turn.
It said some of the reported incidents gave "little notice to a driver or opportunity to intervene".
Tesla is already facing an investigation from the NHTSA over the cars' door locking mechanisms, after cases where children were reportedly trapped inside Model Y cars.
In some instances, car owners chose to smash the windows to let them out.
Tesla recently unveiled cheaper models of two of its most popular cars, as it tries to compete with cheaper electric vehicles often made by Chinese companies.
Its boss Elon Musk was formerly a close ally of President Donald Trump before a public falling-out earlier in the year.
In July, he announced the formation of a new political party, the America Party, in an attempt to rival the Republicans and Democrats.
Even for Donald Trump, a president who revels in his place at the centre of world events, it was a dramatic moment.
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio interrupted a televised meeting Trump was chairing in Washington DC on Wednesday. He handed over a message that the President needed to tell the world that they had a deal. Trump told the audience in the room – and millions more who have now seen the video – that he would have to leave.
"They're going to need me…" he said, interrupting the day's business. "I have to go now to try to solve some problems in the Middle East."
Israel and Hamas signed off the first phase of what Donald Trump intends to be a wider agreement after three days of indirect talks in Egypt.
EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
'I have to go now to try to solve some problems in the Middle East,' Trump announced after Rubio whispered to him
Mediators from Qatar and Egypt went between the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators who were on separate floors of a hotel in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
To add heft to the talks, and to keep the pressure on the Israelis, Donald Trump sent his son-in-law Jared Kushner and his envoy Steve Witkoff.
The prime minister of Qatar and the intelligence chiefs of Egypt and Turkey were there to do the same job for the Hamas delegation.
The agreement is a major breakthrough. It does not mean the war is over. But for the first time since the Hamas attacks on Israel, there is a realistic chance of ending the horrors of the last two years.
One big step - but more steps are needed
The plan is that a ceasefire will be followed by the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, in return for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The Israeli military, the IDF, will pull back from its current positions, leaving it in 53% of Gaza according to the government spokesperson.
Israel will lift enough of its restrictions on humanitarian aid entering Gaza to allow in 400 lorry loads a day, which would be distributed by the UN and other agencies.
The controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the discredited system which Israel wanted to replace the UN, is not mentioned in Donald Trump's 20-point plan.
The deal is a big step, but more need to be taken to get to the war's end. Trump's plan is a framework, with the details left to be negotiated. Serious obstacles lie ahead.
Reuters
The plan is that a ceasefire will be followed by the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, in return for Palestinian prisoners and detainees
Hamas wants Israel out of the Gaza Strip. Israel's prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that will not happen. Hamas is prepared to give up heavy weapons but wants to keep some armaments. Netanyahu wants the complete demilitarisation of Gaza.
He has defined victory for Israel as more than simply the return of the hostages. He has said many times that Hamas must be destroyed, with no chance of regenerating itself in Gaza as a danger to Israelis.
How the Biden plan measured up
In May 2024 President Joe Biden put a deal on the table that resembles Trump's plan. Then, Hamas agreed that it would release Israeli hostages if the IDF pulled out of the Gaza Strip and there were guarantees that Israel would not restart the war. Netanyahu was not prepared to agree.
Over the past two years he has said repeatedly that continuing the war was the only way to get the hostages back and to destroy Hamas.
Reuters
Biden never threatened to end US diplomatic, financial and military support to Israel, with only one exception
Perhaps the Biden plan was too early for both sides. The difference between what has happened now and what didn't happen in May of last year is that Trump has used the leverage America has over Israel to bring Netanyahu to the table.
Despite expressing concern about Israel's conduct of the war, Biden never threatened to end US diplomatic, financial and military support, with the exception of one consignment of 2,000 pound bombs. Israel could not have fought the war with US help. Biden was not prepared to exploit that dependence. Netanyahu was confident he could defy him.
Trump has kept up the military and political support, but he wants much more in return.
Knock-on effect of the Doha attack
A crucial event that led to a breakthrough was Israel's failed attempt to kill the Hamas leadership in Doha on 9 September.
Its main target, the senior leader Khalil al-Hayya and his top lieutenants were discussing the latest version of Trump's peace plan when the attack happened.
They survived but his son was among the dead. Al Hayya is leading the Hamas delegation in Egypt.
The Israelis did not tell the Americans in advance that they were going to hit Doha. Trump was furious.
Anadolu via Getty Images
An Israeli strike targeted Hamas leadership in Doha
When Netanyahu asked to meet him in the Oval Office at the White House, he forced him to ring the Qatari prime minister to make a fulsome apology.
As Netanyahu read out the apology he had prepared, the cable from the handset was at full stretch back to a scowling Donald Trump who held the phone in his lap.
The White House released photos that looked like a headmaster making an errant pupil say sorry.
Trump also issued an executive order giving unprecedented security guarantees to Qatar if it is attacked again. He needed that apology because Qatar is an American ally, hosting the biggest US military base in the Middle East, and is a key part of the wider plan he has for peace in the region.
At its heart is a grand bargain based on Saudi Arabia normalising relations with Israel.
Instead, the Israeli raid made the Americans look like an ally that cannot protect their friends.
Getty Images
Trump says that the deal could be the biggest thing in the Middle East for 3,000 years - hyperbole on a grand scale
Other things have changed: the IDF has killed many more Palestinians and destroyed much more of Gaza. Israel is as isolated as at any time since it became independent in 1948. Netanyahu's appearance at the speaker's podium at the UN General Assembly in New York in September sparked a mass walkout of diplomats.
America remains a powerful ally, but the polls in the US show that the Israelis cannot rely any more on the support of a majority of Americans. That reduces the political jeopardy of overruling the objections of Israel's prime minister.
Israel's European allies, led by the UK and France, have recognised an independent state of Palestine. Their public statements have expressed horror over the killing and destruction in Gaza, and the starvation and in places famine caused by Israel's blockades of aid.
The 9 September attack on Doha also created a new sense of urgency among Arab and Muslim majority countries. A rare united front pressed Donald Trump to get Israel to the table.
If the Trump 20-point plan is to end the war US, pressure on Israel will have to continue.
Getty Images
Could Benjamin Netanyahu find a way to resume the war after the hostages return home?
One major question is whether Benjamin Netanyahu will find a way to resume the war after the hostages come home. His ultra-nationalist allies in the cabinet want that to happen.
The rich gulf states - that Trump admires and wants to play a big role in a relaunch and redevelopment of Gaza - will keep the pressure on the US president to try to make sure that does not happen.
Bittersweet celebrations on both sides
The breakthrough in Sharm El-Sheikh was greeted by celebrations in Israel and inside the Gaza Strip, bittersweet on both sides after so much loss.
In Israel the families of hostages and their supporters have been waging a constant campaign of pressure and demonstrations to get their people out of Gaza.
Opinion polls have shown consistently that a majority of Israelis are prepared to end the Gaza war if the hostages, living and dead, come home.
It is thought 20 hostages may be alive. Hamas has also agreed to return the bodies of around 28 others, though it is not certain that all their graves can be located.
Palestinians celebrated in the ruins of Gaza. In return for the hostages Israel has agreed to free 250 prisoners serving life sentences and 1,700 detainees who have been taken by the IDF from Gaza in the last two years.
Palestinians will welcome them as heroes.
EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK
There were celebrations among Palestinians (pictured) and Israelis - bittersweet on both sides after so much loss
Israel has ruled out freeing Marwan Barghouti, who was arrested in 2002 and later given five life sentences plus 40 years for orchestrating attacks on Israelis. Many Palestinians see him as their Nelson Mandela, who served 27 years in prison for planning attacks on the apartheid regime in South Africa before he was released to win a democratic election.
Hamas wants freedom for some of their most prominent commanders who Israelis regard as dangerous terrorists. Releasing them will be controversial.
Yahya Sinwar, who led the 7 October attacks before he was killed by Israel, was freed in a prisoner exchange in 2011. The Hamas list is believed to include, among others, Abbas al Sayyed who is serving 35 life sentences plus 100 years for attacks, including one in 2002 that killed 35 Israelis celebrating Passover.
Another name mentioned is Hassam Salama who was given 46 life sentences for sending suicide bombers to blow up buses in Jerusalem in 1996, killing and wounding dozens of Israelis.
Reuters
Opinion polls have shown that most Israelis are prepared to end the war if the hostages return home
Donald Trump says that the deal could be the biggest thing in the Middle East for 3,000 years. That is Trumpian hyperbole on a grand scale.
But if the exchange of Israeli hostages for jailed Palestinians is followed by progress on the other points that need agreement in the Trump plan, there is a real chance that some of the agony on both sides will end.
Despite the risks ahead in a hugely challenging negotiation, optimists are already hoping that an end of the war in Gaza might kickstart a new era in the Middle East. That would take a level of application and consistency that Trump has not yet displayed.
A short sharp negotiation in Egypt suits his brash, bullying style. Finding a way to end the conflict that is well into its second century between Israelis and Palestinians for control of the land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean would require a wholly different set of skills.
BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. And we showcase thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. You can now sign up for notifications that will alert you whenever an InDepth story is published - click here to find out how.
Palestinians in Gaza have celebrated the agreement of a ceasefire and hostage release deal - but many fear confronting the grief that has built up over two years of war.
"This morning, when we heard the news about the truce, it brought both joy and pain," 38-year-old Umm Hassan, who lost his 16-year-old son during the war, told the BBC.
"Out of joy, both the young and the old began shouting," he said. "And those who had lost loved ones started remembering them and wondering how we would return home without them."
Mr Hassan added: "Every person who lost someone feels that sorrow deeply and wonders how they'll return home."
The deal announced by US President Donald Trump - which still must be agreed by Israel's war cabinet - will see the release of 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead hostages in return for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.
It is the first phase of a 20-point peace plan that could lead to an end to the war - though the latter phases still need to be negotiated.
"We, the civilians, are the ones who've suffered - truly suffered," Daniel Abu Tabeekh, from the Jabalia refugee camp, told the BBC.
"The factions don't feel our pain. Those leaders sitting comfortably abroad have no sense of the suffering we're enduring here in Gaza."
"I have no home," he said. "I've been living on the streets for a year and a half."
Israel launched the war in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and 251 others taken hostage.
Israel's offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, most of whom are civilians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies.
Watch: Palestinians react to Gaza peace deal announcement
More than 90% of Gaza's housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
"God rewarded us for our patience," said Umm Nader Kloub from northern Gaza, who lost seven relatives during the war, including her sons.
"God willing, he will help [the negotiators] and allow us all to return to our homes, and for their hostages to return safely," she said. "We don't want war."
Mousa, a doctor in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Strip, said: "We have lost a lot during the two years of war. The Gaza Strip is destroyed. A difficult time still awaits us, but the important thing is we hope to be safe."
As news of a possible ceasefire deal broke over the weekend, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, told the BBC: "The worst part in the last two years, is that while you are losing loved ones, your relatives, your friends, your neighbours, you are unable to allow yourself to grieve, or to feel the deep sadness and to process your human feelings.
"Because your main focus is to try and stop what's happening."
He added: "When our people and our families were being killed, the feeling was: how do you stop this? How do you bury your dead and how do you tend to your wounded?
"But after the event, which I hope to be very soon, the main feeling will be grief, mourning, and a deep, deep sense of loss. Because what we've lost is huge."
Initially sparked by water and electricity shortages, the protests have grown into broader public dissatisfaction
Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has asked for one year to fix the country's challenges, promising that if they persist, he will resign.
He said this during a town-hall style meeting at his palace with various groups of government supporters. Many attendees had the opportunity to ask the president questions or simply share their views - to which he responded.
"I don't want flattery. I want to hear the truth. It's the people who kept telling me that everything was fine who are responsible for our current situation," he said.
The movement behind the protest, known as Gen Z Mada, has been calling for the president to resign - and rejected an invitation to attend the talks.
They argue that they cannot engage a government that has been repressing them as they demand basic human rights. The group has called for new protests on Thursday.
"We refuse the president's invitation to talks. We will not engage in dialogue with a regime that represses, assaults, and humiliates its youth in the streets," they wrote on their Facebook page.
Rajoelina has been holding these meetings as part of his pledge to "listen more", emphasising that the challenges facing the Indian Ocean island nation can only be solved through honest conversations and not protests.
The president assured those at the dialogue that ongoing power projects would address the recurring outages by adding 265 megawatts to the national grid.
"I swear that if power cuts persist in the capital within a year, I will resign," he said.
The protests began on 25 September triggered by anger over persistent power and water shortages, and have escalated into broader dissatisfaction over corruption, high unemployment and the cost-of-living crisis.
Last week, Rajoelina sacked his entire government and appointed an army general as prime minister on Monday. The protest movement rejected the appointment and vowed to continue their struggle.
Rajoelina came to power in 2009 after leading mass protests that triggered military intervention and overthrew then-President Marc Ravalomanana.
Although the youth-led movement continues to demand his resignation, street protests appear to have weakened.
Life in most parts of the capital, Antananarivo, continues as normal, except in a few neighbourhoods with a heavy police presence, where some roads have been blocked or are being closely monitored.
At least 22 people have died in clashes with security forces and scores more have been injured, according to the United Nations. The authorities have disputed these figures.
Palestinians in Gaza have celebrated the agreement of a ceasefire and hostage release deal - but many fear confronting the grief that has built up over two years of war.
"This morning, when we heard the news about the truce, it brought both joy and pain," 38-year-old Umm Hassan, who lost his 16-year-old son during the war, told the BBC.
"Out of joy, both the young and the old began shouting," he said. "And those who had lost loved ones started remembering them and wondering how we would return home without them."
Mr Hassan added: "Every person who lost someone feels that sorrow deeply and wonders how they'll return home."
The deal announced by US President Donald Trump - which still must be agreed by Israel's war cabinet - will see the release of 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead hostages in return for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.
It is the first phase of a 20-point peace plan that could lead to an end to the war - though the latter phases still need to be negotiated.
"We, the civilians, are the ones who've suffered - truly suffered," Daniel Abu Tabeekh, from the Jabalia refugee camp, told the BBC.
"The factions don't feel our pain. Those leaders sitting comfortably abroad have no sense of the suffering we're enduring here in Gaza."
"I have no home," he said. "I've been living on the streets for a year and a half."
Israel launched the war in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and 251 others taken hostage.
Israel's offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, most of whom are civilians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies.
Watch: Palestinians react to Gaza peace deal announcement
More than 90% of Gaza's housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
"God rewarded us for our patience," said Umm Nader Kloub from northern Gaza, who lost seven relatives during the war, including her sons.
"God willing, he will help [the negotiators] and allow us all to return to our homes, and for their hostages to return safely," she said. "We don't want war."
Mousa, a doctor in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Strip, said: "We have lost a lot during the two years of war. The Gaza Strip is destroyed. A difficult time still awaits us, but the important thing is we hope to be safe."
As news of a possible ceasefire deal broke over the weekend, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, told the BBC: "The worst part in the last two years, is that while you are losing loved ones, your relatives, your friends, your neighbours, you are unable to allow yourself to grieve, or to feel the deep sadness and to process your human feelings.
"Because your main focus is to try and stop what's happening."
He added: "When our people and our families were being killed, the feeling was: how do you stop this? How do you bury your dead and how do you tend to your wounded?
"But after the event, which I hope to be very soon, the main feeling will be grief, mourning, and a deep, deep sense of loss. Because what we've lost is huge."
Harold Stringer's 10 hives were destroyed in a park in the Dutch city of Almere
A Dutch beekeeper has spoken of his shock after his 10 beehives were burned down in a park in the central city of Almere, with the loss of an estimated half a million bees.
Harold Stringer said each hive had a colony of 40-60,000 bees, and the thought that anyone could kill them was horrific.
"It really hurts that my 10 hives have died," he told local broadcaster Omroep Flevoland.
Police in Almere, which sits to the east of Amsterdam, have appealed for witnesses after the arson attack on Tuesday evening in the city's scenic Beatrixpark. They posted pictures of the fire on social media.
The Dutch government says more than half of the country's 360 species of bee are at risk of extinction, as the population of bees declines around the world.
Mr Stringer said police had told him an accelerant had been used to burn the hives, which were sitting on pallets in a wooded part of the park.
Barely any of the bees survived and he said that he had little faith the arsonist would be caught.
Fellow beekeeper Heleen Nieman told Dutch radio that she had three bee colonies and wanted to give him one of them.
For Mr Stringer, who looked after the bees for about nine years, the fire means starting a new colony in the park from scratch.
Many buildings in el-Fasher have been destroyed by the fighting (file photo)
At least 13 people have been killed after an attack on one of the last remaining hospitals in el-Fasher, a Sudanese city trapped under siege.
Sixteen others, including a doctor and nurse, were injured after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) shelled Saudi hospital several times on Tuesday night, a source there told the BBC.
Pictures showed shattered windows, cracks from shrapnel, a gaping hole in the mud-brick wall and twisted metal from hospital beds covering the floor.
A group of Sudanese medics has called the attack a war crime. The RSF has been besieging el-Fasher for more than 17 months, leaving hundreds of thousands of people stuck in the city facing starvation.
The paramilitary group is fighting the army for full control of el-Fasher, the last military stronghold in the vast Darfur region.
This is the second strike on the Saudi hospital this year - the first in January killed three children and injured three others.
The latest shelling ripped through part of the hospital, destroying wards.
In recent weeks, the RSF has intensified its assault on the city, leading experts to believe the city could soon fall unless the army receives immediate reinforcements.
The two sides have been engaged in a ferocious civil war for more than two years, causing the world's worst humanitarian crisis and tens of thousands of deaths.
The incessant fighting in el-Fasher has forced most health facilities to shut. Aid convoys carrying food and healthcare have been blocked from reaching civilians.
"After over 500 days of unremitting siege by the RSF and incessant fighting, El Fasher is on the precipice of an even greater catastrophe if urgent measures are not taken [to] loosen the armed vice upon the city and to protect civilians," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said last Thursday.
Watch: Trump says Middle East deal ‘very close’ after being passed note by Marco Rubio
US President Donald Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas have "both signed off" on the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza.
"This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The announcement comes after three days of indirect talks in Egypt - mediated by officials from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US - aimed at bringing an end to the two-year conflict.
Both Israel and Hamas also confirmed an agreement had been reached.
However, Trump's post did not provide clarity on other known sticking points in negotiations - notably the disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza.
In a post on X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "great day", adding that he would "convene the government tomorrow to ratify the agreement and bring all of our precious hostages home".
Hamas confirmed that the agreement included an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a hostage-prisoner exchange.
The group also called on Trump, the guarantor countries and other Arab states to compel Israel "to fully implement the agreement's requirements".
A senior White House official told CBS, the BBC's US news partner, that "our assessment is that hostages will begin getting released on Monday".
Qatari Foreign Minister Majed al-Ansari said more details would be announced later, adding that the agreement would "lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid".
Earlier on Wednesday, expectations that a deal could be imminent were heightened after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered an event with Trump and handed him a note.
Trump said that note informed him that "we are very close to a deal". He exited the room shortly thereafter, saying he had to focus on the Middle East.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli fire had killed at least eight people over the previous 24 hours – the lowest death toll it has reported in the past week.
Hospitals said two people had been killed on Wednesday while trying to collect food from aid distribution centres in central and southern Gaza.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its troops had killed "several terrorists" who attempted to attack their position in Gaza City.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.
At least 67,183 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, according to the territory's health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies, although Israel disputes them.
The ministry has said another 460 people have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since a famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza and said Israel was facilitating deliveries of food and other aid.
Palestinians in Gaza have celebrated the agreement of a ceasefire and hostage release deal - but many fear confronting the grief that has built up over two years of war.
"This morning, when we heard the news about the truce, it brought both joy and pain," 38-year-old Umm Hassan, who lost his 16-year-old son during the war, told the BBC.
"Out of joy, both the young and the old began shouting," he said. "And those who had lost loved ones started remembering them and wondering how we would return home without them."
Mr Hassan added: "Every person who lost someone feels that sorrow deeply and wonders how they'll return home."
The deal announced by US President Donald Trump - which still must be agreed by Israel's war cabinet - will see the release of 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead hostages in return for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.
It is the first phase of a 20-point peace plan that could lead to an end to the war - though the latter phases still need to be negotiated.
"We, the civilians, are the ones who've suffered - truly suffered," Daniel Abu Tabeekh, from the Jabalia refugee camp, told the BBC.
"The factions don't feel our pain. Those leaders sitting comfortably abroad have no sense of the suffering we're enduring here in Gaza."
"I have no home," he said. "I've been living on the streets for a year and a half."
Israel launched the war in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed and 251 others taken hostage.
Israel's offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, most of whom are civilians, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies.
Watch: Palestinians react to Gaza peace deal announcement
More than 90% of Gaza's housing has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
"God rewarded us for our patience," said Umm Nader Kloub from northern Gaza, who lost seven relatives during the war, including her sons.
"God willing, he will help [the negotiators] and allow us all to return to our homes, and for their hostages to return safely," she said. "We don't want war."
Mousa, a doctor in Deir al-Balah in the centre of the Strip, said: "We have lost a lot during the two years of war. The Gaza Strip is destroyed. A difficult time still awaits us, but the important thing is we hope to be safe."
As news of a possible ceasefire deal broke over the weekend, Husam Zomlot, the head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, told the BBC: "The worst part in the last two years, is that while you are losing loved ones, your relatives, your friends, your neighbours, you are unable to allow yourself to grieve, or to feel the deep sadness and to process your human feelings.
"Because your main focus is to try and stop what's happening."
He added: "When our people and our families were being killed, the feeling was: how do you stop this? How do you bury your dead and how do you tend to your wounded?
"But after the event, which I hope to be very soon, the main feeling will be grief, mourning, and a deep, deep sense of loss. Because what we've lost is huge."
US President Donald Trump's announcement of an agreement which is expected to result in the release of hostages being held in the Gaza Strip for more than two years has caused delight and relief across Israel.
The Hostages Families Forum, an organisation that has advocated for the return of Israeli captives in Gaza, expressed "profound gratitude" to Trump for what it called an "historic breakthrough".
The deal - which still must be agreed upon by Israel's war cabinet - will see the release of 20 living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead hostages in return for 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences in Israeli jails and 1,700 detainees from Gaza.
So far, 148 hostages have been returned - most as part of previous ceasefire deals - 51 bodies have been recovered and eight hostages have been rescued.
Jubilant scenes have unfolded in Hostages' Square in Tel Aviv as hundreds of people gathered ahead of the deal being signed.
A crowd began clapping and dancing under US and Israeli flags - one woman holding up a sign saying: "We love Trump."
"It's a magical day," the woman said.
Another, 50-year-old Yael, cried as she watched the crowd dancing.
"I'm very excited - it's such a relief," she said. "We need to see them come back home to their families."
The mother and sister of Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker lit fireworks in celebration of the news that he would be returned home.
"They're coming back!... Matan is coming home!" Einav Zangauker said as she held her daughter.
Viki Cohen, the mother of Israeli hostage Nimrod Cohen, posted on social media: "My child, you are coming home."
Reuters
The delight was palpable in the streets of Tel Aviv following the announcement
Former British-Israeli hostage Emily Damari celebrated with another freed hostage Romi Gonen, reciting prayers of gratitude, then toasting "L'chaim", meaning "to life". She has been campaigning for the release of her friends, twins Gali and Ziv Berman.
Their brother Liran Berman posted: "My Gali and Ziv, I love you so much. You're coming home."
Gil Dickman's cousin Carmel Gat was taken hostage on 7 October 2023, and her body recovered from a tunnel in Gaza almost a year later. He has been joining other hostage families in pushing for a deal that brings the return of all those still being held in Gaza.
"I can't quite believe this is actually happening. We've been waiting for so long and here it is," he said.
He said he felt "broken" that Carmel will not be among those returning home but was "glowing with joy for the families of the hostages who are finally coming back".
Reuters
Eitan Horn was seized from kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel along with his brother
Dalia Cusnir, whose brother-in-law Eitan Horn remains captive in Gaza, said she felt like she was living "in a dream".
"We're more than grateful to President Trump and everything he has done for us. We feel like it might be the beginning of the end of this nightmare, and hugging Eitan feels closer than ever," she said.
But she cautioned that it was still too soon to celebrate.
"Until the last hostage is here, we're not opening the champagne. We're going to keep fighting... until the end," she said.
"So many things can happen until the last moment so this is why we're being so, so careful. We just want to thank everyone who was involved in the efforts and make sure this agreement is done... We will celebrate only once we have the last hostage back home."
Eitan was taken from kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel along with his brother Iair, who was released from captivity in a ceasefire deal earlier this year.
Watch: Palestinians react to Gaza peace deal announcement
The ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, announced after intense negotiations in Egypt, is a long-awaited breakthrough that brings them closer to ending the two-year-old war in Gaza.
But, despite the momentum, there is no guarantee that this will happen.
The main difference in these efforts has been the personal involvement of President Donald Trump, who has put pressure not only on Hamas but also on Israel for an agreement. This is a major diplomatic victory for someone who wants to be seen as the man who ended the war – and, in the process, be rewarded for it.
Israel launched the war in Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, when around 1,200 people were killed, mostly Israeli civilians, and 251 were taken hostage.
Israel's military offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians and including more than 18,000 children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies. It has destroyed most of the territory and led to a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.
What has been agreed is the first phase of a plan the president announced at the White House last week alongside the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been accused of sabotaging efforts for a deal in the past.
This time, Trump, reportedly impatient and irritated with Netanyahu, appears to have used the power only the Americans have to influence Israel, leaving the prime minister with no option other than to engage with the process.
Threatened by Trump with "complete obliteration", Hamas was under intense pressure too. Arab and Muslim countries embraced the president's plan, and there was heavy involvement from Egypt, Qatar and Turkey in the negotiations.
Details of the deal have not yet been published but the outline is that the remaining hostages will be freed – the 20 believed to be alive at once, possibly as soon as Sunday, while the remains of up to 28 deceased captives will be returned in stages.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners will be released from Israeli jails, Israeli troops will withdraw from parts of Gaza, and there will be an increase in humanitarian aid entering the territory.
Trump has publicly expressed his desire to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced on Friday, a deadline that could have guided the negotiations. On social media, he employed his usual hyperbole, calling it a "historic and unprecedented event" and the "first steps toward a strong, durable and everlasting peace".
This is, without a doubt, a significant moment but it gives no certainty that a peace deal for Gaza will happen, as crucial details still need to be worked out. They include the key Israeli demand that Hamas must disarm, the extent of the Israeli withdrawal and a plan for who will govern Gaza.
In Gaza, Palestinians celebrated the announcement in the middle of the night, hoping that this will bring an end to their suffering. In Tel Aviv, people gathered in Hostages Square, which has become a symbol of the ordeal of the captives.
Hamas knows that, by releasing the hostages, it will lose the leverage it has in negotiations. It has demanded guarantees that Israel will not resume the fighting once they have been freed - but has reasons to be suspicious: in March, Israel broke down a ceasefire and returned to war with devastating air strikes.
In Israel, however, a country exhausted by the conflict, polls have consistently suggested that most people want the conflict to end.
But Netanyahu still faces political hurdles. He relies on the support of ultranationalist ministers who have threatened to quit the coalition in the case of a deal, which could lead to the government's collapse, a concern that many suspect has led him to prolong the war. He has promised to achieve "total victory" against Hamas, and any deal will have to allow him to say he has done that.
Netanyahu has called the announcement a "diplomatic and a national and moral victory for the State of Israel". Notably, unlike Hamas, his statement did not say it would end the war.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has said that a boat recently bombed by the US was "Colombian with Colombian citizens inside", an allegation the White House called "baseless".
The US has struck at least four vessels in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing 21 people. The US government has said the strikes in international waters were targeting "narco-traffickers".
But it has not provided evidence or details about who or what is aboard, and the strikes have attracted condemnation in countries in the region amid concerns they breach international law.
The US Senate rejected a measure on Wednesday that would have barred President Donald Trump from using military force against the boats.
Petro replied to a post on X by US Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat, who said he would vote to block strikes against vessels in the Caribbean as some lawmakers sought to challenge the use of the armed forces in Congress.
The Colombian president said that a "new war scenario has opened up: the Caribbean".
Petro added that "indications show that the last boat bombed was Colombian with Colombian citizens inside it.
"I hope their families come forward and report it. There is no war against smuggling; there is a war for oil and it must be stopped by the world. The aggression is against all of Latin America and the Caribbean."
Petro did not provide further details about the alleged identities of those on board. The US has not commented on the identities of the individuals killed in the strikes.
The White House said in a statement that it "looks forward to President Petro publicly retracting his baseless and reprehensible statement".
It said that while the two nations had "policy differences", the US remained "committed to close co-operation on a range of shared priorities, including regional security and stability".
The US says its strikes, which began on 2 September, had targeted vessels off the coast of Venezuela that it alleges were carrying illegal drugs.
The measure considered by the Senate on Wednesday, which would have required Trump to seek congressional approval for the strikes, was rejected in a 48-51 vote.
It had been introduced by Democratic Senators Schiff and Tim Kaine. The vote broke down mostly along partisan lines.
Earlier this month, a leaked memo sent to Congress said that the US was now categorising itself as being in a "non-international armed conflict".
Framing this as an active armed conflict is likely a way for the administration to justify the use of wartime powers, including killing "enemy fighters", even if they pose no violent threat.
Trump has already designated many cartels, including in Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela, as terrorist organisations – granting US authorities more powers in their response to them.
Neodymium is used to make the strong magnets used in loudspeakers, computer hard drives, electric car motors and jet engines
China has tightened its rules on the export of rare earths - the elements that are crucial to the manufacture of many high-tech products.
New regulations announced by the country's Ministry of Commerce formalise existing rules on processing technology and unauthorised overseas cooperation.
China is also likely to block exports to foreign arms manufacturers and some semiconductor firms.
Rare earth exports are a key sticking point in the months-long negotiations between Beijing and Washington over trade and tariffs. The announcement comes as China's President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Donald Trump are expected to meet later this month.
Technology used to mine and process rare earths, or to make magnets from rare earths, can only be exported with permission from the government, the Ministry of Commerce said.
Many of these technologies are already restricted. China had added several rare earths and related material to its export control list in April, which caused a major shortage back then.
But the new announcement makes clear that licenses are unlikely to be issued to arms manufacturers and certain companies in the chip industry.
Chinese firms are also banned from working with foreign companies on rare earths without government permission.
China has been accused by the US and other Western countries of aiding Russia's war on Ukraine by allowing dual technology exports - materials that can be used for either civilian or military purposes - to be sent to Moscow. Beijing has repeatedly denied this.
The latest announcement also clarifies the specific technologies and processes that are restricted.
These include mining, smelting and separation, magnetic material manufacturing, and recycling rare earths from other resources.
The assembly, debugging, maintenance, repair, and upgrading of production equipment are also prohibited from export without permission, the announcement added.
This could have an impact on the US, which has a significant rare earths mining industry but lacks processing facilities.
Rare earths are a group of 17 chemically similar elements that are crucial to the manufacture of many high-tech products.
Most are abundant in nature, but they are known as "rare" because it is very unusual to find them in a pure form, and they are very hazardous to extract.
Although you may not be familiar with the names of these rare earths - like neodymium, yttrium and europium - you will be very familiar with the products that they are used in.
For instance, neodymium is used to make the powerful magnets used in loudspeakers, computer hard drives, electric car motors and jet engines that enable them to be smaller and more efficient.
China has a near monopoly on extracting rare earths as well as on refining them - which is the process of separating them from other minerals.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that China accounts for about 61% of rare earth production and 92% of their processing.
Watch: Trump says Middle East deal ‘very close’ after being passed note by Marco Rubio
US President Donald Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas have "both signed off" on the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza.
"This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The announcement comes after three days of indirect talks in Egypt - mediated by officials from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US - aimed at bringing an end to the two-year conflict.
Both Israel and Hamas also confirmed an agreement had been reached.
However, Trump's post did not provide clarity on other known sticking points in negotiations - notably the disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza.
In a post on X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "great day", adding that he would "convene the government tomorrow to ratify the agreement and bring all of our precious hostages home".
Hamas confirmed that the agreement included an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a hostage-prisoner exchange.
The group also called on Trump, the guarantor countries and other Arab states to compel Israel "to fully implement the agreement's requirements".
A senior White House official told CBS, the BBC's US news partner, that "our assessment is that hostages will begin getting released on Monday".
Qatari Foreign Minister Majed al-Ansari said more details would be announced later, adding that the agreement would "lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid".
Earlier on Wednesday, expectations that a deal could be imminent were heightened after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered an event with Trump and handed him a note.
Trump said that note informed him that "we are very close to a deal". He exited the room shortly thereafter, saying he had to focus on the Middle East.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli fire had killed at least eight people over the previous 24 hours – the lowest death toll it has reported in the past week.
Hospitals said two people had been killed on Wednesday while trying to collect food from aid distribution centres in central and southern Gaza.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its troops had killed "several terrorists" who attempted to attack their position in Gaza City.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.
At least 67,183 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, according to the territory's health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies, although Israel disputes them.
The ministry has said another 460 people have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since a famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza and said Israel was facilitating deliveries of food and other aid.
Initially sparked by water and electricity shortages, the protests have grown into broader public dissatisfaction
Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has asked for one year to fix the country's challenges, promising that if they persist, he will resign.
He said this during a town-hall style meeting at his palace with various groups of government supporters. Many attendees had the opportunity to ask the president questions or simply share their views - to which he responded.
"I don't want flattery. I want to hear the truth. It's the people who kept telling me that everything was fine who are responsible for our current situation," he said.
The movement behind the protest, known as Gen Z Mada, has been calling for the president to resign - and rejected an invitation to attend the talks.
They argue that they cannot engage a government that has been repressing them as they demand basic human rights. The group has called for new protests on Thursday.
"We refuse the president's invitation to talks. We will not engage in dialogue with a regime that represses, assaults, and humiliates its youth in the streets," they wrote on their Facebook page.
Rajoelina has been holding these meetings as part of his pledge to "listen more", emphasising that the challenges facing the Indian Ocean island nation can only be solved through honest conversations and not protests.
The president assured those at the dialogue that ongoing power projects would address the recurring outages by adding 265 megawatts to the national grid.
"I swear that if power cuts persist in the capital within a year, I will resign," he said.
The protests began on 25 September triggered by anger over persistent power and water shortages, and have escalated into broader dissatisfaction over corruption, high unemployment and the cost-of-living crisis.
Last week, Rajoelina sacked his entire government and appointed an army general as prime minister on Monday. The protest movement rejected the appointment and vowed to continue their struggle.
Rajoelina came to power in 2009 after leading mass protests that triggered military intervention and overthrew then-President Marc Ravalomanana.
Although the youth-led movement continues to demand his resignation, street protests appear to have weakened.
Life in most parts of the capital, Antananarivo, continues as normal, except in a few neighbourhoods with a heavy police presence, where some roads have been blocked or are being closely monitored.
At least 22 people have died in clashes with security forces and scores more have been injured, according to the United Nations. The authorities have disputed these figures.
Discord, a messaging platform popular with gamers, says official ID photos of around 70,000 users have potentially been leaked after a cyber-attack.
The platform, which has more than 200 million users worldwide, says hackers had targeted a firm that helped to verify the ages of its users but the Discord platform itself was not breached.
People can provide ID photos to verify their age on Discord - a networking hub for players to chat and share files with others in the gaming community.
The leaked datamay involve personal information, partial credit card details and messages that were exchanged with Discord's customer service agents, the San-Francisco-based company says.
No full credit card details, passwords, or messages and activity beyond conversations with Discord's customer support agents were leaked, the firm said.
All impacted users have been contacted and Discord is working with law enforcement to investigate the matter, it added.
The platform said it has revoked the customer support provider's access to the system that was targeted in the breach. Discord did not name the third-party company involved.
A representative from Zendesk, a customer service software provider for Discord, told the BBC that its systems had not been compromised and that the breach did was not caused by a vulnerability within its platform.
Some online commentators have claimed that the data breach was bigger than Discord has revealed.
A spokesperson for Discord told the BBC that those claims are inaccurate and "part of an attempt to extort payment".
"We will not reward those responsible for their illegal actions," the spokesperson added.
Cybercriminals frequently target personal data, which can command a high price on the black market for use in scams.
Information like full names and official ID numbers is especially valuable because, unlike credit card details, it typically remains unchanged over time.
Discord has previously strengthened its age-verification measures in response to concerns that some servers on the platform were being used to distribute pornographic and extremist material.
Watch: 'I'm more worried than others about stock market fall', says JP Morgan boss
There is a higher risk of a serious fall in US stocks than is currently being reflected in the market, the head of JP Morgan has told the BBC.
Jamie Dimon, who leads America's largest bank, said he was "far more worried than others" about a serious market correction, which he said could come in the next six months to two years.
In a rare and wide-ranging interview, the bank boss also said that the US had become a "less reliable" partner on the world stage.
He cautioned he was still "a little worried" about inflation in the US, but insisted he thought the Federal Reserve would remain independent, despite repeated attacks by the Trump administration on its chair Jerome Powell.
Jamie Dimon was in Bournemouth, where he was announcing an investment of about £350m in JP Morgan's campus there, as well as a £3.5m philanthropic investment in local non-profits.
Commenting on the investment, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: "As one of Dorset's biggest private sector employers, JP Morgan Chase expanding their Bournemouth campus is fantastic news for the local economy and people who live here."
Ahead of the interview, Dimon appeared before a town hall on the campus - cutting a figure more akin to an off-duty rock star than bank CEO - wearing an open-collar shirt and jeans, and high-fiving staff on his way to the stage.
Opening with his take on the UK's economy, Dimon said he felt Rachel Reeves was doing a "terrific job", and he felt optimistic about some of the government's attempts to boost innovation and cut regulation.
However, in the broader economic picture, he felt there were increased risks US stock markets were overheated.
"I am far more worried about that than others," he said.
There were a "lot of things out there" creating an atmosphere of uncertainty, he added, pointing to risk factors like the geopolitical environment, fiscal spending and the remilitarisation of the world.
"All these things cause a lot of issues that we don't know how to answer," he said.
"So I say the level of uncertainty should be higher in most people's minds than what I would call normal."
Much of the rapid growth in the stock market in recent years has been driven by investment in AI.
On Wednesday, the Bank of England drew a comparison with the dot com boom (and subsequent bust) of the late 1990s - and warned that the value of AI tech companies "appear stretched" with a rising risk of a "sharp correction".
"The way I look at it is AI is real, AI in total will pay off," he said.
"Just like cars in total paid off, and TVs in total paid off, but most people involved in them didn't do well."
He added some of the money being invested in AI would "probably be lost".
Bullets, guns and bombs
Global security has been a recent focus for the JP Morgan boss, with his letter to shareholders earlier this year warning the US would run out of missiles in seven days of a South China Sea war.
Reflecting on how the world could combat risk factors, he pointed to greater military investment.
"People talk about stockpiling things like crypto, I always say we should be stockpiling bullets, guns and bombs.
"The world's a much more dangerous place, and I'd rather have safety than not."
Another risk factor which many in the global economy believe the US could be facing is pressure placed on the independence of the Federal Reserve, America's central bank.
On this, he said he thought central bank independence was important - but was willing to take Trump "at his word" that he would not interfere in Fed independence, despite the president describing current Fed chair Jerome Powell as a "moron" and a "numbskull" for failing to lower interest rates more quickly.
Dimon acknowledged the US had become a "little less reliable" but said that some of the Trump administration's action had pushed Europe to act over underinvestment in Nato and its lack of economic competitiveness.
Dimon also shared insights into a potential breakthrough in trade negotiations between India and the US.
He said he wanted to "bring India closer" and he believed a deal was close to reduce additional tariffs on India, which were imposed as a penalty for its continued trade with Russia, particularly its oil purchases.
"In fact, I've spoken to several of the Trump officials who say they want to do that, and I've been told that they are going to do that."
Jamie Dimon's name has been frequently mentioned among the big financial players capable of making a transition into politics.
Ahead of Trump's re-election last year, influential investor Bill Ackman said he would be an "incredible choice" as treasury secretary, and he has also been the subject of speculation about a potential presidential run.
Asked about his political ambitions, Dimon said it "wasn't on the cards", and his focus was on keeping JP Morgan as a "healthy and vibrant company".
"If you gave me the presidency, I'd take it," he joked. "I think I'd do a good job."
Tom Phillips, who went on the run for four years with his children, was killed by the police during a shoot-out in September
The parents of Tom Phillips, who vanished with his three children into the New Zealand wilderness in 2021, have made a public apology - their first comments since Phillips was shot dead by police on 8 September.
"We would like to send our sincere apology... for all the trouble, inconvenience, loss of privacy and property caused by Tom," Neville and Julia Phillips wrote in a letter published in King Country News, a small community newspaper, on Thursday.
"We in no way supported him or agreed with any of his actions in the past four years. We are truly sorry for all that you had to endure."
Phillips evaded capture for nearly four years, despite a nationwide search and multiple sightings.
He was killed in a shoot-out in September, in which a police officer was seriously injured.
The officer has since been discharged from hospital, local media reported.
One of his children had been with him during the shoot-out, and provided information to help locate Phillips' two other children later that day.
Before Phillips disappeared with his children, they had been living in Marokopa, a small rural town in the region of Waikato surrounded by dense bush and forested terrain.
"The vast area in which Phillips kept the children is difficult, steep terrain almost completely obscured from all angles by dense bush," Detective Superintendent Ross McKay said weeks after the deadly shoot-out.
The main goal of the police during the operation had been "locating and returning the children safely" he said. He added that they "knew Phillips had firearms and was motivated to use them".
Police said they could not provide further details amid ongoing investigations.
Phillips' family had previously made public appeals to him to return.
In a message to Phillips during a television interview, his sister Rozzi said "we're ready to help you walk through what you need to walk through".
Phillips' mother Julia also wrote him a letter - provided to New Zealand outlet Stuff - saying that everyday she hoped "today will be the day that you all come home".
A new law in California is aimed at stopping advertisements from pumping up the volume on streaming services.
The law, which says adverts cannot be louder than the primary video content being watched, builds on a federal one that sets the volume of ads on broadcast TV and cable stations to include streaming platforms.
Opponents, including the influential entertainment industry, had argued it would be difficult to implement because streaming services do not have the same control over ad volume as broadcasters.
California is home to the headquarters of streaming platforms Netflix and Hulu, and Amazon produces many of its Prime Video shows and movies there.
In 2010, Congress pass the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (CALM) Act to dial down the volume on TV and radio stations.
The law that California Governor Gavin Newsom signed on Monday forces streaming services to comply with the Obama-era federal law too.
The services were in their nascence when the CALM Act was passed but have since become the primary viewing option in many US households.
"We heard Californians loud and clear, and what's clear is that they don't want commercials at a volume any louder than the level at which they were previously enjoying a program," Newsom said upon signing the bill.
Existing federal law requires the federal regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), to develop regulations that require commercials to have the same average volume as the programs they accompany, according to the bill.
In February, the FCC said it had received thousands of complaints about loud commercials over past several years - many regarding streaming services.
This law, which takes effect on and after July 1, 2026, prohibits a video streaming service that serves consumers in the state from transmitting the audio of commercial advertisements louder than the video content the people are watching.
"This bill was inspired by baby Samantha and every exhausted parent who's finally gotten a baby to sleep, only to have a blaring streaming ad undo all that hard work," said State Senator Thomas Umberg, who introduced the bill.
Samantha is the daughter of Umberg's legislative director, Zach Keller, who told him about a noisy ad waking up his infant daughter while he was watching a streaming show.
However, the Motion Picture Association and the Streaming Innovation Alliance, which represent streaming services including Disney and Netflix, initially opposed the bill.
They said they do not have the ability to control volume settings on the devices on which their content is offered, unlike broadcast and cable TV providers.
Streaming ads come from several different sources and cannot necessarily or practically be controlled, the MPA's vice-president of state government affairs Melissa Patack said in June.
The bill was later amended with a legal provision that would bar individuals or private parties from suing streaming services for violating the law.
Both groups remained neutral on the amended bill as a result, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Watch: Trump says Middle East deal ‘very close’ after being passed note by Marco Rubio
US President Donald Trump has announced that Israel and Hamas have "both signed off" on the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza.
"This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The announcement comes after three days of indirect talks in Egypt - mediated by officials from Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and the US - aimed at bringing an end to the two-year conflict.
Both Israel and Hamas also confirmed an agreement had been reached.
However, Trump's post did not provide clarity on other known sticking points in negotiations - notably the disarmament of Hamas and the future governance of Gaza.
In a post on X, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it a "great day", adding that he would "convene the government tomorrow to ratify the agreement and bring all of our precious hostages home".
Hamas confirmed that the agreement included an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a hostage-prisoner exchange.
The group also called on Trump, the guarantor countries and other Arab states to compel Israel "to fully implement the agreement's requirements".
A senior White House official told CBS, the BBC's US news partner, that "our assessment is that hostages will begin getting released on Monday".
Qatari Foreign Minister Majed al-Ansari said more details would be announced later, adding that the agreement would "lead to ending the war, the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, and the entry of aid".
Earlier on Wednesday, expectations that a deal could be imminent were heightened after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio entered an event with Trump and handed him a note.
Trump said that note informed him that "we are very close to a deal". He exited the room shortly thereafter, saying he had to focus on the Middle East.
Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said on Wednesday that Israeli fire had killed at least eight people over the previous 24 hours – the lowest death toll it has reported in the past week.
Hospitals said two people had been killed on Wednesday while trying to collect food from aid distribution centres in central and southern Gaza.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, said its troops had killed "several terrorists" who attempted to attack their position in Gaza City.
Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.
At least 67,183 have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, including 20,179 children, according to the territory's health ministry. Its figures are seen as reliable by the UN and other international bodies, although Israel disputes them.
The ministry has said another 460 people have died from the effects of malnutrition since the start of the war, including 182 since a famine was confirmed in Gaza City in August by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied starvation is taking place in Gaza and said Israel was facilitating deliveries of food and other aid.
James Comey, the former director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, has pleaded not guilty to making false statements to lawmakers and obstructing a congressional proceeding.
Mr Comey's lawyer entered the plea on his behalf in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Wednesday morning.
Patrick Fitzgerald said he would seek to have the case dismissed for several reasons including that his client, a critic of President Donald Trump, was being targeted.
Mr Comey was indicted a few days after Trump urged his attorney general to take action against him.
A judge set a trial date of 5 January after Mr Comey's lawyers requested a speedy trial.
Watch: James Comey's brief, but significant court appearance
Both the prosecution and defence expected the trial to last just two to three days.
In court on Wednesday, Comey's lawyer Patrick Fitzgerald told the judge they planned to file several motions to dismiss the case before a trial, arguing the prosecution was vindictive and that a US attorney was unlawfully appointed to take over the case.
Mr Comey's case was originally overseen by Erik Siebert, a Virginia prosecutor who resigned under pressure from Trump after his investigation into another political adversary - New York Attorney General Letitia James - failed to bring criminal charges. Trump then appointed Lindsey Halligan to replace him.
Mr Comey appeared in good spirits as he entered the courtroom on Wednesday, chatting with his attorneys and making jokes. He was joined by his wife, Patrice Failor and daughter Maureen Comey, a federal prosecutor who the Trump administration recently fired.
After listening to the judge read his rights and the two counts against him in court on Wednesday, Mr Comey was asked if he understood the charges.
"I do your honour. Thank you very much," he told the court.
US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff said the two charges each carry a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to a $200,000 (£149,442).
Representing the government, Ms Halligan took over the role of top federal prosecutor in Virginia's eastern district in September.
In less than a week on the job, she secured a grand jury indictment against Mr Comey after prosecutors before her had declined to take on the case due to a lack of evidence.
The hasty turnaround was reflected in Wednesday's court proceedings, when defence lawyers complained they did not have access to classified documents that prosecutors intended to submit as evidence.
"We feel the cart has been put before the horse," Mr Fitzgerald said.
Judge Nachmanoff warned the government: "I will not slow this case down because the government does not promptly turn over information."
Mr Comey was the FBI Director from 2013 to 2017 and was fired about four months into Trump's first term as president. At the time, Mr Comey was leading an investigation into Russian election interference and whether there were any links between Moscow and Trump's campaign.
During his tenure, Mr Comey sparked a backlash from Democrats when he announced just days before the 2016 presidential election that he was investigating Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. Charges against Clinton were never brought, leading to criticism from Republicans as well.
Since leaving government, Mr Comey has been an ardent critic of the Trump administration.
The federal government alleges Mr Comey lied to Congress during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in September 2020 when he was being questioned about both the Clinton investigation as well as the Russia election probe. They say he misled the Senate by saying he had not authorised someone at the FBI to leak to news outlets information about the FBI investigations.
Prosecutors also accuse Mr Comey of "corruptly endeavor[ing] to influence, obstruct and impede" the panel by making false statements to it.
In a video Mr Comey posted to his Instagram after he was indicted, he said he was innocent and accused Trump of acting like a "tyrant".
"My family and I have know for years that there are costs to standing up to Donald Trump," he said. "We will not live on our knees."
"I'm innocent," he added. "So let's have a trial."
The charges against Mr Comey came after Trump posted on social media demanding his attorney general, Pam Bondi, prosecute Mr Comey and others.
The escaped inmate, 28-year-old Derrick Groves, was taken into custody in Atlanta, Georgia, after a brief stand-off, police said.
Police released several gas canisters into a house where Groves was believed to be hiding, and then found him hiding in a crawl space, CBS News, BBC's US partner, reported.
The 10 inmates, including Groves, had fled the Orleans Parish Justice Center in May by ripping a toilet from the wall and breaking metal bars around the hole in the wall before climbing down a hall and running across a highway.
Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office
The sheriff's office said the inmates broke the wall behind a toilet and slipped through a gap in the wall
The inmates had scrawled a few messages into the wall above the hole, including "To Easy LoL", a smiley face with its tongue sticking out, and another that appeared to tell officers to catch them if they can.
The inmates' escape was made easier by a "perfect storm" of staffing issues and building design flaws, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson told CBS News in August.
Three were found within 24 hours of their escape and several others were captured in the following weeks.
Deputy US Marshal Brian Fair, of the Eastern District of Louisiana, told CBS News that a tip led investigators to track Groves to the Atlanta area.
When police first approached the home, it appeared that there was no one there, he said.
"We did have concerns maybe he wasn't in the house," Fair told CBS. "But ultimately, they found him hiding in a crawl space. I believe that crawl space was in the basement … and he had put some thought and work into the hiding space he was in."
Groves was convicted of second degree murder in October 2024 after he fired an assault rifle into a Mardi Gras block party, killing two adults, CBS reported.
He was also convicted of attempted murder and a federal firearms charge, and had been sentenced to life imprisonment, according to the Atlanta Police Department.
Now, Groves faces additional charges for his role in the escape, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said.
"I will ensure that he is prosecuted to the full extent of the law," she added.
Groves will be extradited to Louisiana for processing, Atlanta police said.
Satellite images suggest the property in Zaporizhzhia has been occupied by Russian soldiers
It was another busy day at work.
Russian forces had attacked my home region of Zaporizhzhia again: a region in the south of Ukraine, split between the Russian invaders, who claim it all as theirs, and the defending Ukrainians.
Sitting in my office in central London, I was feeling nostalgic. I decided to take a quick look at the latest satellite images of my childhood village - the poetically titled Verkhnya Krynytsya (or Upper Spring in English), in the Russian-occupied part of the region, just a few kilometres from the front lines.
I could see the familiar dirt tracks, and the houses drowning in lush vegetation. But something caught my eye.
Amid all the apparent quiet of a small village that I remember so well, a new feature had appeared: a well-used road. And it led right to my childhood home.
Satellite images show a path first appearing in the summer of 2022, four months after the occupation began. Images from winter showed it reappearing and a car making use of it in January 2023.
I could think of only one group of people who could be using the path in an occupied village so close to the front line: Russian soldiers. Only they have reason to be out and about in a war zone.
Verkhnya Krynytsya
The truth is that my childhood village is not quiet anymore. Verkhnya Krynytsya was occupied by Russia shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
By that point, my old house was likely vacant. My family had sold it long ago, but I visited Verkhnya Krynytsya at least once a year before it was occupied, and saw the house sitting apparently abandoned, its garden overgrown.
Vitaly Shevchenko/BBC
A photo of Vitaly's childhood home back in 2017, before Russia's full-scale invasion
It was hardly surprising: the village was small and sleepy at the best of times, and for anyone still under retirement age, looking for work meant moving elsewhere.
But many stayed, and more than a thousand people were still there when Russia launched its invasion. Two days later, Ukrainian authorities handed out 43 Kalashnikov rifles to help the villagers fight off the Russians.
At a community gathering, residents decided not to use them against the invaders. A month later, village head Serhiy Yavorsky was captured by the Russians, who beat and tortured him with electricity, needles and acid, according to testimony given in a Ukrainian court.
The Russians also targeted a sewage treatment works outside the village and set up a command post there once the Ukrainians had abandoned the facility.
Even the village's surroundings have changed irreparably.
Before Russia's full-scale invasion, Verkhnya Krynytsya sat on the beautiful Kakhovka reservoir, which was so vast we used to call it "the Sea".
You could see it from pretty much anywhere in the village. It's where locals went swimming in the summer, and where visitors from across the region came in the winter to go ice-fishing. One of my earliest memories is of local women singing Ukrainian folk songs as the sun was setting into the Kakhovka on a warm summer evening.
The Sea disappeared after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed in June 2023, leading to devastating floods that ruined homes and farmland.
To find out what conditions in Verkhnya Krynytsya are like now, I tried reaching out to locals.
Predictably, obtaining answers was very difficult.
Many have left, and those who are still in the village - as is the case in the other occupied parts of Ukraine - are afraid of speaking to the media. Frontline locations are particularly lawless places, where retribution from Russian forces can be swift and brutal.
Social media groups about Verkhnya Krynytsya went silent after it was occupied, and the questions I posted there were left unanswered.
Asking someone to go and have a look at my house was out of the question. What used to be a peaceful, sleepy village has turned into a zone of fear.
The danger in Verkhnya Krynytsya also comes from the sky. The village's proximity to the front line means it is a dangerous location, exposed to frequent aerial attacks from the Ukrainians.
One acquaintance told me that locals preferred to stay indoors for fear of being hit by drones. "It's very dangerous there," I was told. "They are active, and they can target you, your house or your car. Our village has changed a lot, Vitaly."
New residents
So, given the danger and devastation caused to Verkhnya Krynytsya by the war, who could have possibly made the track marks leading to and from my old home?
It is highly unlikely anyone would choose to move to the village now - with the exception of Russian soldiers.
Many of them moved into vacant houses after capturing Verkhnya Krynytsya. In June 2022 authorities in Zaporizhzhia said they had information that Russian troops were staying in the village. This is when satellite images first show signs of the path at my old home.
To check if I was right in assuming that Russian soldiers had likely moved into my old house, I approached the Ukrainian 128th Detached Heavy Mechanised Brigade, which is involved in operations in the area.
"You're not wrong. It's extremely likely," its spokesman Oleksandr Kurbatov told me.
As locals have been fleeing frontline areas, they are being replaced with Russian military, he said.
"If there are not enough empty houses, demand is running high. Of course, it's usually military personnel from the occupation army," he told me.
Because nobody in the village was willing to take the risk of having a look at my house, I asked my BBC Verify colleague Richard Irvine-Brown to obtain and analyse recent satellite images. They showed a pattern of movement around the house where I grew up.
There was no sign of a path to the property in March 2022, a month into the invasion.
Aside from the faint path seen in two satellite images in June, the property seemed ignored. Then the path reappeared in December, and a car was seen using it in January 2023. We don't have any images for the property again until August, by when the track had become well established.
The path fades and reappears with the seasons, showing that whoever is using it only does so periodically.
It seems the property is being used during the winter - and likely by Russian soldiers, who have been moving into vacant properties. This is plausible, as biting Ukrainian winters can make it too cold for men or their supplies to stay in trenches, makeshift dwellings and storage.
The truth about what happened to my house may not become known for a long time yet - certainly not while the village is under occupation.
For now, it seems that my old home has become a tiny cog in the wider machine of Russia's war in Ukraine.
Sébastien Lecornu resigned as the French prime minister on Monday
French President Emmanuel Macron will name a new prime minister within 48 hours, the Elysee Palace has said, fending off speculation that fresh elections could be imminent.
Earlier on Wednesday, outgoing Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the possibility of dissolving parliament was beginning to fade following talks with political parties over the last two days.
"There is a majority in parliament and that is the majority that keen to avoid fresh elections," he said.
On Monday, Lecornu - a close ally of Macron - became the third French PM to leave his job in less than a year, driven out by a hung parliament deeply divided along ideological lines.
He was then asked by Macron to stay on for two days to form a consensus among parties on how to get out of the current political crisis.
In a much-awaited TV interview on Wednesday evening, Lecornu said that as well as not wanting fresh elections, most MPs also recognised the pressing need to pass a budget by the end of the year.
However, Lecornu recognised the path towards forming a government was still complicated due to the divisions within parliament and to politicians eyeing the next presidential election.
Whoever ends up in government "will need to be completely disconnected from any presidential ambition for 2027," Lecornu said.
Lecornu, a former armed forces minister, gave no indication about who the next prime minister would be, and although he said his mission was "finished" he also did not appear to rule himself out entirely.
France's political stalemate began following snap elections in July 2024. Since then no one party has had a majority, making it difficult to pass any laws or reforms including the yearly budget.
The big challenge facing Lecornu and his two predecessors has been how to tackle France's crippling national debt, which this year stood at €3.4tn (£2.9tn), or almost 114% of economic output (GDP), the third highest in the eurozone after Greece and Italy.
Previous prime Ministers Michel Barnier and Francois Bayrou were ousted in confidence votes after they presented austerity budgets.
Lecornu said his own draft budget would be presented next week, although it would be "open for debate".
"But the debate needs to begin... parties cannot say they'll vote it down without examining it," he added.
Similarly, Lecornu said, one big issue that has been plaguing French politics since 2023 will need to be revisited - Macron's highly contested pension reforms. "We have to find a way for the debate to take place," Lecornu said.
But some factions in parliament appear immovable from their positions.
Mathilde Panot of the radical left France Unbowed (LFI) said soon after Lecornu's TV interview that the only solution was "the resignation and departure of Emmanuel Macron".
Meanwhile, far right National Rally's leader Marine Le Pen, who has long been calling for fresh elections, stated on Wednesday that she would vote down any new government.
It is unclear, at this stage, which political forces would support a new government.
The so-called common platform of centrists and Republicans that have run the government since last year appears to have fallen apart.
The big question now is whether over the last 48 hours Lecornu was able to persuade the Socialists, who were part of that left bloc during the elections, to prop up a government in some way.
Asked about the calls by some political factions for Macron to resign, with even Macron's own former prime minister Edouard Philippe floating the idea earlier this week, Lecornu said France needed a stable, internationally recognised figure at its helm.
"This is not the time to change the president," Lecornu said.
However, Macron is appearing increasingly isolated, with even close allies beginning to distance themselves from him.
Earlier this week Gabriel Attal, widely seen as Macron's protégé, said he "no longer understood" Macron and called for the appointment of an independent negotiator to steer the government.
Macron has not yet spoken publicly since Lecornu's shock resignation on Monday morning. Lecornu promised the president would "address the French people in due course," without specifying when that may be.
Login
Getty Images
