The scale of devastation left by Hurricane Melissa is becoming clear after the record-setting storm tore through Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba, leaving at least 32 people dead.

Although downgraded from a Category 5 to a Category 1 storm, Melissa gathered speed as it swept through the Bahamas on Thursday and is expected to make landfall in Bermuda later.

The strongest storm to strike the Caribbean island in modern history, the hurricane sustained winds of 298 km/h (185 mph) at its peak - stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005, killing 1,392 people.

The US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) reported sustained winds of 165km/h at 09:00 GMT on Thursday.

It warned of possible coastal flooding as the storm accelerated northeastward.

Authorities in the Bahamas have since lifted hurricane warnings for the central and southern islands, as well as for the Turks and Caicos.

The country's Minister of State for Disaster Risk Management, Leon Lundy, urged residents to remain vigilant, saying: "Even a weakened hurricane retains the capacity to bring serious devastation."

Nearly 1,500 people were evacuated from vulnerable areas in what officials described as one of the largest operations in Bahamian history.

While flooding has disrupted parts of the archipelago, the ministry of tourism said the majority of the country - including Nassau, Freeport, Eleuthera and the Abacos - remained largely unaffected and open to visitors.

Across the wider Caribbean, Melissa's powerful winds have torn apart homes and buildings, uprooted trees and left tens of thousands without power.

In Cuba, residents of the country's second-largest city Santiago de Cuba worked with machetes to clear streets buried in debris. President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the hurricane had caused "considerable damage" but did not provide a casualty figure.

In Jamaica, the impact was most severe in the southwestern parish of St Elizabeth, where knee-deep mud and washed-out bridges left towns such as Black River cut off. On the road west out of the capital Kingston we saw minimal damage - some structures torn down, trees strewn across roads and gardens.

But once we arrived in central Jamaica we started to see how severely the island had been hit. The town of Mandeville has been, for want of a better word, flattened. A petrol station lost its roof and most of its pumps.

Dana Malcolm of the Jamaica Observer described "very, very slow progress" along roads still blocked by landslides when reaching St Elizabeth. She told the BBC: "I was standing in what used to be main street yesterday and I was knee-deep in mud where the road should have been."

Communication across Jamaica has been all but severed, with power lines and mobile networks down in much of the southwest. Many families have spent days unable to contact relatives in the hardest-hit parishes.

In Black River, the New York Times reported, the relative of one victim walked 15 miles (24km) to the police station to report their loved one dead.

Desmond McKenzie, the minister of local government, shared the news that "amidst all this, a baby was safely delivered under emergency conditions. So there is... a baby Melissa".

Haiti, already mired in gang violence and humanitarian crisis, suffered at least 23 deaths - 10 of them children - largely due to flooding after days of relentless rain, despite the country avoiding a direct hit.

The storm is also responsible for at least eight deaths in Jamaica and one in the Dominican Republic, officials have said.

The NHC said floodwaters across the Bahamas were expected to subside by Thursday, though conditions in Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola would remain hazardous for several days.

US President Donald Trump has hailed an "amazing" meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, amid rising hopes for a de-escalation of tensions between the world's two biggest economies.

Beijing was less effusive, saying the two side had reached a consensus to resolve "major trade issues" during the leaders' first face-to-face meeting in six years.

Trump's trade war had set off tit-for-tat tariffs that shot past 100% on both sides, but they agreed to a truce in May - although tensions remained high.

Thursday's talks did not lead to a formal agreement but the announcements suggest they are closer to a deal - the details of which have long been subject to behind-the-scenes negotiations.

Trade deals normally take years to negotiate, and countries around the world have been thrown into resolving differences with the current Trump administration within a matter of months.

One key win for Trump is that China has agreed to suspend export control measures it had placed on rare earths, crucial for the production of everything from smartphones to fighter jets.

A jubilant president told reporters on Air Force One that he had also got China to start immediately buying a "tremendous amounts of soybeans and other farm products". Retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans by Beijing had effectively halted imports from the US, harming US farmers - a key voting block for Trump.

There was, however, no mention of a breakthrough on TikTok. The US has sought to take the video-sharing app's US operations away from Chinese parent company ByteDance for national security reasons.

Meanwhile, the US has said it will drop part of the tariffs it has levied on Beijing over the flow of ingredients used in making fentanyl to the US. Trump has imposed severe tariffs on the US's top trade partners for their perceived failure to clamp down on the drug.

However, it seems other tariffs, or taxes on imported goods, will remain in place, meaning that goods arriving in the US from China are still being taxed at a rate of over 40% for US importers.

Beijing will also be able to speak to Jensen Huang, the head of US tech firm Nvidia - according to Trump. Nvidia is at the heart of the two countries' fight over AI chips: China wants high-end chips but the US wants to limit China's access, citing national security.

Beijing has also extended an invitation to Trump to visit China in April - yet another sign of thawing relations.

'A good start'

But the meeting also showed the gulf between the two leaders' approaches.

Xi was self-contained, and said only what he had prepared. He entered the meeting knowing he had a strong hand. China had learned from Trump's first term, leveraging its chokehold on rare earths, and diversifying its trade partners so it is less reliant on the US.

Afterwards, he was far more measured in his language than Trump. The two sides would be working on delivering outcomes that will serve as a "reassuring pill" for both countries' economies, he said.

Trump was - as always - more ad-lib. But the US president was also noticeably more tense than he had been for the rest of his whirlwind trip to South East Asia - a reflection of the high stakes in Thursday's meeting.

The glamour and pageantry on show since he arrived at his first stop in Malaysia just five days ago was also absent.

Gone were the gold-laden palaces of the sort he was welcomed to in Japan on Tuesday. Instead, a building at an airport, lying behind barbed wire and security checkpoints.

The military bands which welcomed Trump to South Korea on Wednesday were nowhere to be seen.

Instead, the only sign something important was going on inside was the heavy police and media presence.

But despite the quieter public face, what was happening inside was arguably the most significant hour and 20 minutes of the trip.

Henry Wang, a former adviser to China's State Council, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Trump and Xi's talks "went very well".

It may not have been a trade deal, but a "framework and structure has been laid", he added - calling it "a good start".

The leader of Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has declared an investigation into what he called violations committed by his soldiers during the capture of el-Fasher.

The announcement by Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti, came after escalating reports of mass civilian killings following the RSF takeover of the city in the Darfur region on Sunday.

The UN Security Council is expected to hold a meeting on Sudan, which is in its third year of civil war between the army and the paramilitary fighters.

The RSF leader spoke after international outrage about reports of mass killings in el-Fasher, apparently documented by his paramilitary fighters in social media videos.

• Reports of mass killings in Sudan have echoes of its dark past
• New videos show executions after RSF militia takes key Sudan city
• A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan

Hemedti said he was sorry for the disaster that had befallen the people of el-Fasher and admitted there had been violations by his forces, which would be investigated by a committee that has now arrived in the city.

However, observers have noted that similar promises made in the past - in response to accusations of a massacre in the Darfuri city of el-Geneina in 2023, and alleged atrocities during the group's control of the central state of Gezira - were never fulfilled.

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) has said it is appalled and deeply shocked by reports that more than 460 civilians, including patients and their companions, were shot dead, at the last partially functioning hospital in el-Fasher.

The RSF denies widespread allegations that the killings in el-Fasher are ethnically motivated and follow a pattern of the Arab paramilitaries targeting non-Arab populations.

Activists have also stepped-up demands for international pressure on the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is widely accused of providing military support to the RSF.

The UAE denies this despite evidence presented in UN reports.

El-Fasher had been the army's last stronghold in the western region of Darfur, and was captured by the RSF after an 18-month siege marked by starvation and heavy bombardment.

The takeover of el-Fasher reinforces the geographic split in the country, with the RSF now in control of western Sudan and much of neighbouring Kordofan to the south, and the army holding the capital, Khartoum, central and eastern regions along the Red Sea.

The two warring rivals had been allies - coming to power together in a coup in 2021 - but fell out over an internationally backed plan to move towards civilian rule.

More BBC stories about the el-Fasher siege:

• My son's whole body is full of shrapnel
• Rare footage shows plight of civilians in besieged Sudan city
• Last surgeons standing in city's only hospital
• BBC smuggles in phones to reveal hunger and fear

People outside the UK can watch the documentary on YouTube.

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

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

Israeli troops carried out an incursion into a south Lebanese town overnight, killing a municipal employee, state media report, amid an escalation of Israeli attacks in Lebanon.

The troops, accompanied by drones and light armoured vehicles, entered Blida and stormed the town hall, where the employee - named as Ibrahim Salameh - was sleeping, according to Lebanon's state-run National News Agency.

The Israeli military said its troops were conducting an operation to "dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure", without providing evidence that the building was being used by the group.

Israel's operation drew a furious response in Lebanon, where a ceasefire ended a war between them last November.

Israel's military says troops encountered a "suspect" inside the building and opened fire when an "immediate threat" was identified, it added. It was not clear whether Salameh had been the target of the operation.

Israel has stepped up its attacks on people and targets it says are linked to Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim group backed by Iran.

The Lebanese President, Joseph Aoun, instructed the commander of the Lebanese army to confront any Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam denounced the killing of Salameh and the incursion as a "flagrant violation of Lebanese institutions and sovereignty".

He said Lebanon would continue pressing the United Nations and ceasefire guarantors "to ensure a halt to the repeated violations and the implementation of a complete Israeli withdrawal from our lands".

Protests were held on Thursday morning in Blida and nearby towns, where residents blocked roads with burning tyres to denounce what they called a "blatant aggression" and the state's failure to protect civilians.

Over recent days, Israel intensified its strikes across Lebanon, saying it was targeting Hezbollah positions.

A second Israeli operation was reported overnight in the nearby village of Adaisseh, where residents say troops blew up a religious ceremonial hall.

Israeli warplanes also flew over parts of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley on Thursday, while drones were again seen circling low above Beirut's southern suburbs.

During a meeting of ceasefire monitors on Wednesday, US envoy Morgan Ortagus said Washington welcomed Lebanon's "decision to bring all weapons under state control by the end of the year", adding that the Lebanese army "must now fully implement its plan".

Under the ceasefire agreement, Israeli troops were to withdraw from southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah was to move its fighters north of the Litani river and dismantle its military infrastructure there - a plan the group and its allies strongly oppose.

Only the Lebanese army and the UN peacekeeping force, Unifil, are authorised to deploy armed personnel in the area south of the Litani, but Israel has maintained positions at several strategic border sites.

Almost one-third of the heatwave days India experienced in 2024 were driven by climate change, according to a new report by the medical journal The Lancet.

The report found that India recorded an average of 19.8 heatwave days last year, of which 6.6 days would not have occurred without human-induced climate change.

It also estimated that heat exposure in 2024 resulted in the loss of 247 billion potential labour hours, mostly in the agriculture and construction sectors. amounting to an economic loss of about $194bn (£151bn).

While heatwaves are not new to India, their frequency and intensity have been rising steadily over the past few decades because of global warming.

Prolonged exposure to extreme heat has serious repercussions on health. It can overwhelm the body's ability to regulate temperature, increasing the risk of dehydration, heatstroke, cardiovascular stress, and even death - particularly among the elderly, infants and outdoor workers.

And the 2025 Lancet Countdown report - which tracks the health impact of climate change and is widely regarded as a key scientific reference on the issue - warns that the health risks posed by rising global temperatures are now more severe than ever.

"Throughout last year,152 record-breaking extreme weather events were registered across 61 countries, and life-threatening, extreme heat events are becoming more intense than previously predicted," the report stated.

"The climate crisis is a health crisis. Every fraction of a degree of warming costs lives and livelihoods," said Jeremy Farrar, assistant director-general for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Care at the World Health Organization (WHO).

The report found that heat-related mortality has increased by 23% worldwide since the 1990s, with an average of around 546,000 deaths each year.

It also found that the average person worldwide was exposed to 16 days of extreme heat last year that would not have occurred without climate change.

"This [report] paints a bleak and undeniable picture of the devastating health harms reaching all corners of the world," said Dr Marina Romanello, of University College London, who led the report's analysis.

"The destruction to lives and livelihoods will continue to escalate until we end our fossil fuel addiction," she added.

Air Quality

The report also mentioned that India's air quality has worsened over the past few years.

Every year as the winter sets in, the air quality in the Indo-Gangetic plains turns toxic. This year too, the air quality has remained between poor and very poor category - at times, reaching hazardous - for almost a month now.

The report mentioned that 1.7 million deaths in 2022 were caused due to atmospheric pollution, particularly because of the tiny PM2.5 pollutants that can cause a host of serious health issues. Harmful emissions from burning fossil fuel led to 44% of these deaths.

It also noted that the heavy reliance on biofuels such as wood, dung and crop residue for cooking continues to silently claim thousands of lives across the country - especially among women and children in rural areas.

The report was released ahead of the COP30 summit, which is going to take place in Brazil next month.

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Five more suspects have been arrested over their involvement in the Louvre heist, Paris' public prosecutor has said.

They were arrested on Wednesday night in the Paris region, Laure Beccuau's office said.

A main suspect was among those arrested, AFP reported. The new arrests come after two men taken into custody in connection with the brazen theft "partially recognised" their involvement.

Items worth €88m (£76m; $102m) were taken from the world's most-visited museum on 19 October, when four thieves broke into the building in broad daylight.

The jewels had not been recovered yet, and the gang involved could be bigger than the four people caught on CCTV, Beccuau had said on Wednesday.

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Rob Jetten's achievement in dragging his socially liberal D66 party from fifth place to the top of Dutch politics in less than two years has been extraordinary.

But politically, all the stars were perfectly aligned for the 38-year-old to do so.

The result of Wednesday's election is too close to call, with Jetten vying with anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders for the most seats in parliament.

No other political leader commanded as much screen time during the campaign as Jetten and his smile and cheerful message resonated with voters, while his rivals sometimes struggled.

Hardly a night went by without him on TV. When Wilders cancelled an appearance because of security fears, Rob Jetten seized the moment and took his place. He even featured in a TV quiz show recorded months ago called The Smartest Person.

And his D66 party was untarnished by involvement in Wilders' ill-fated 11-month coalition, largely because Jetten had fared so poorly in the last election in 2023. The government collapsed last June when Wilders' party quit following a row over migration.

But perhaps more than anything else, he was able to convey a positive message summed up by the slogan Het kan wel - an optimistic phrase that borrows from Barack Obama's "Yes, we can".

It contrasted strongly with Wilders, who he accused of "sowing division".

If his party does come top, Rob Jetten could become the Netherlands' first openly gay prime minister.

A self-confessed politics nerd as a child, the young Jetten grew up in a small town in the southern province of Brabant and came out when he was young.

Jetten has not made his private life part of his political identity, but five years ago he posted a video in which he read out a long list of homophobic messages from his phone, to prove why an international day against homophobia was important.

Jetten is now engaged to Argentine hockey player, Nicolás Keenan, and they are due to marry next year.

He was an early supporter of the centrist D66, which describes itself as progressive and socially liberal party, and officials soon spotted his potential.

After a few years working for Dutch rail network ProRail, Jetten was elected as an MP in 2017 and had a couple of early experiences as leader before he served under long-serving prime minister Mark Rutte as climate minister.

But not everything has worked out smoothly in Jetten's career.

A parliamentary colleague complained he was "pushy" on the climate, and his big ambitions as minister were cut short when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine sent energy prices soaring.

He led D66's disastrous campaign in 2023 when the party came away with only nine seats, two years after his predecessor Sigrid Kaag managed second place after Rutte.

Jetten was not yet as fluent in front of the cameras. Some media appearances he gave were criticised as dull, and one critic labelled him "Robot Jetten".

"Robot Jetten is going to be prime minister!" one reporter said to him incredulously as his success became clear on Wednesday night.

"Sometimes it can work out really crazy in politics," Jetten replied with a broad grin.

Supporters see him as a kind of mini-Mark Rutte, who is now head of Nato.

And that comparison will suit Jetten fine, as many Dutch now look back warmly on the stability of the Rutte years, after two years of relative turmoil.

Both men always appear cheerful and pragmatic, and both are notorious for getting by on precious little sleep.

However, party colleague Roy Kramer noticed a difference: "Rutte is a chatterbox, Jetten is a bit quieter," he told Dutch newspaper Het Parool.

The liberal leader has big ambitions, and few challenges are more pressing than tackling the Netherlands' housing crisis, with a shortage of some 400,000 homes.

Jetten wants to build 10 cities and complains Dutch governments have not really achieved anything impressive for the past 10 to 15 years. He is making big promises and will come under pressure to deliver.

For Jetten to succeed he will need some of Rutte's teflon political coating that saw him through four governments.

He has already survived one awkward moment in the campaign, when a joke about Crown Princess Amalia fell flat in front of 2,000 students in Rotterdam,

"I think the best way of promoting work in the military is being able to end up training with the Crown Princess. I bet a few guys in this audience would be interested in that," he said.

The debate moderator hit back saying: "what kind of sexist remark is that?"

Jetten later admitted it was inappropriate, but it appears to have done him no harm.

Hurricane Melissa has continued its devastating sweep across the Caribbean, decimating homes and infrastructure, flooding neighbourhoods and leaving dozens dead.

The impact in Jamaica was clearer on Wednesday, after the island nation was targeted squarely by the category five monster - one of the most powerful hurricanes ever measured in the region. At least five people have been confirmed dead there.

At least another 20 died during flooding in Haiti as Melissa, now a category one storm, tears through the region.

In Jamaica, people remain stranded on roofs and without power. Prime Minister Andrew Holness noted the "total devastation" across the island-nation.

He added that "80-90% of roofs were destroyed", along with hospitals, libraries, police stations, port houses and other urban infrastructure.

King Charles, who is the head of state in Jamaica, said in a statement that he is "deeply concerned" and "profoundly saddened" at the damage caused by Melissa in Jamaica and across the Caribbean.

"This most dreadful of record-breaking storms reminds us of the increasingly urgent need to restore the balance and harmony of Nature for the sake of all those whose lives and livelihoods may have been shattered by this heartbreaking disaster," he said.

From Jamaica, where the storm also caused mudslides, and palm trees to be tossed like toothpicks, Melissa moved north to Cuba as a category three storm, bringing 115 mph winds and heavy rain, and battering the south east of the island.

• What makes Melissa such a dangerous storm?
• 'We are all terrified', say locals in path of Hurricane Melissa

Rovier Mesa Rodríguez, a video maker who lives in Santiago de Cuba, called the storm "terrifying" and described it sounding "like a tornado".

Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel asked residents to "not let their guard down" and said that the country prepared for a worst-case scenario, which helped its response.

The hurricane began moving north east towards The Bahamas on Wednesday. A dangerous storm surge is expected there before it moves further north toward Bermuda.

A tropical storm warning is in place for the Turks and Caicos Islands and the speed of the slow-moving hurricane is expected to increase in the coming days.

In Jamaica, three men and a woman were confirmed dead. They were discovered after being washed up by the flood waters in the storm, said Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica's minister of Local Government and Community Development.

About three-quarters of the country lost electricity overnight.

Richard Vernon, mayor of Montego Bay, told the BBC that half of the city had been cut off from the other by floods. He said the priority is to "check if everybody is alive".

A resident in St Elizabeth sheltering in her four-bedroom home described the moment her roof blew off.

Gordon Swaby, a businessman in Kingston, told the BBC that his first cousin's house was completely destroyed. His cousin - who he declined to name - recently moved from the United States to her "dream" house by the sea in the upscale Crane Road area. She lost the entire concrete structure and everything in it.

"She wanted a different kind of life," Gordon said. "She chose the area because she loves the sea, so this is really devastating."

Devastation was evident on Wednesday across central Jamaica. The city of Mandeville was flattened and the main road through town was littered with debris.

Foliage was stuck to everything, and bits of building material were scattered along the road. Clean-up is expected to take months.

Pia Chevallier, who is on holiday in Jamaica, said she felt "sick with worry" during the storm overnight. "The windows didn't stop vibrating."

In Haiti, at least 20 people - including 10 children - died in river floods, local authorities told AFP news agency.

The island, which the country shares with the Dominican Republic, was struck by catastrophic flash flooding and landslides, which forced 3,000 people into shelters.

"Many homes have been washed away on the coast," said Pascal Bimenyimana from the Christian NGO, World Relief, in Port au Prince. Structures also lost their roofing and people were clearing the debris with their bare hands, he said

Torrential winds, violent rain and flooding destroyed crops across the country's south.

The US is sending a disaster response team to Jamaica to assess the scale of need in the hurricane's aftermath. Formal requests for help came from Haiti and The Bahamas, according to senior State Department officials.

The assistance comes in the wake of the Trump administration's closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was the world's biggest aid agency, amid cuts to foreign assistance by billions of dollars.

Melissa is not expected to make landfall in North America, but will still be a formidable extratropical cyclone when it nears St Johns, Newfoundland, in Canada on Friday night.

K-pop group NewJeans has lost a legal battle to leave its record label Ador.

A South Korean court on Tuesday ruled that the act's contract with the label, which runs until 2029, remains valid.

The group's five members - Hanni, Hyein, Haerin, Danielle and Minji - announced last year that they were unilaterally leaving the agency, citing mistreatment and manipulation.

The group has said it will appeal the ruling, according to local media reports.

NewJeans said it is "impossible to return to Ador" and continue their activities as normal, the reports said.

The Seoul Central Disctrict Court rejected NewJeans' argument that the dismissal of former Ador CEO Min Hee-jin, who was also the group's mentor, constituted a breach of contract. NewJeans alleged that her dismissal broke their trust with the agency.

In a statement released after the ruling, Ador said it sincerely hopes that the judgment "will serve as an opportunity for the artists to calmly reflect on this matter".

The label added that the it is ready for the members' upcoming activities, including the release of an album, and is now "waiting".

The case stunned South Korea where record labels wield large amounts of power and tightly control their stars. It is highly unusual for artists to rebel against them.

Formed in July 2022, NewJeans, whose members are aged from 17 to 21, had enjoyed rapid success before their dramatic fallout with the agency.

Their first single Attention topped Korean charts right after their debut, while their hit song SuperShy made multiple "best of the year" lists at the end of 2023, including those compiled by Rolling Stone, NME and Billboard Magazine.

Critics had called them a "game-changer" as their blend of 1990s R&B and sugar-coated pop melodies broke through a K-pop scene dominated by electronic beats.

What led us here?

Tuesday's ruling follows a year-long standoff between the chart-topping group and its agency.

The group's announcement to split from Ador, which was made in November last year during a press conference, came after a long and public spat between Min Hee-jin, and Ador, as well as its parent company, Hybe - South Korea's biggest music label, whose client list includes K-pop royalty such as BTS and Seventeen.

Tensions between Min and Hybe started in April 2024, when Hybe launched audits into Ador, which was then managed by Min, while calling her to step down.

Min rejected Hybe's allegations that she was plotting to go independent. In August, she was dismissed as the CEO of Ador.

The band soon issued an ultimatum demanding that Min be reinstated. When Hybe refused, the members went public with a series of complaints against the label, including claims it had deliberately undermined their careers.

One of the group's members, Hanni, also alleged that she suffered workplace harassment while working with the label.

In December, Ador filed a lawsuit asking the court to confirm the validity of their contract with the group.

As the disputes continued, the group's five members attemped to rebrand themselves as NJZ in February. They planned to release a new song, but the promotions were halted by a court order.

The group still performed it at a show in Hong Kong, where they announced a hiatus.

Back in March, after the court injunction was issued, the group described the court's decision as "a shock", but said the five of them would "go through it" together.

The daughter of a woman who was left behind by a cruise ship on a remote island and later died has accused the operator of a "failure of care and common sense".

The body of Suzanne Rees, 80, was found by rescue workers on Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef on Sunday. The day before, she had been hiking on the island with her fellow passengers but was not on the ship when it left hours later.

Katherine Rees said she was "shocked and saddened" that the Coral Adventurer left "without my mum", whom she described as healthy, active, a keen gardener and bushwalker.

"From the little we have been told, it seems that there was a failure of care and common sense," she said on Thursday.

It's understood that Suzanne Rees, from New South Wales, was on the first stop of a 60-day cruise around Australia, which had left Cairns earlier this week.

Passengers, who pay tens of thousands of dollars to join the cruise, were transported to the exclusive island for a day trip with the option of hiking or snorkelling.

Suzanne joined a group hike to the island's highest peak, Cook's Look, but broke away from the others as she needed to rest.

"We understand from the police that it was a very hot day, and mum fell ill on the hill climb," Katherine said.

"She was asked to head down, unescorted. Then the ship left, apparently without doing a passenger count.

"At some stage in that sequence, or shortly after, mum died, alone."

Katherine said she hoped a coronial inquiry would "find out what the company should have done that might have saved Mum's life".

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said it was investigating the death and would meet the ship's crew when it is due to dock in Darwin later this week.

A spokesperson for Amsa said it was first alerted to the missing woman at around 21:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Saturday by the ship's captain.

A search party returned to the island a few hours later but efforts to find Suzanne were called off in the early hours of Sunday before a helicopter returned in the morning and found her body.

On Wednesday, the chief executive of Coral Expeditions said the company was "deeply sorry" for the death and were offering their support to the Rees family.

"We are working closely with Queensland Police and other authorities to support their investigation. We are unable to comment further while this process is under way," Mark Fifield said.

The Coral Adventurer caters for up to 120 guests with 46 crew, according to the company's website. It was purpose-built to access remote areas of Australia's coast and is equipped with "tenders" - small boats used to take passengers on day excursions.

Incidents like this are rare, and cruise ships have systems to record which passengers are embarking or disembarking, Harriet Mallinson, cruise editor of travel website Sailawaze told the BBC.

"Sneaking ashore or [back] onboard just isn't an option," she said.

Cruise lines take these procedures very seriously and have "clever tech in place to prevent such incidents from happening. This is most likely a shocking - and tragic - one-off," Ms Mallinson added.

An Australian teenager has died after he was hit by a cricket ball during a practice session in Melbourne.

Ben Austin, 17, was training - with a helmet but no neck guard - in cricket nets in Ferntree Gully on Tuesday when he was hit in the neck by a ball thrown using a handheld ball launcher.

Emergency workers attended the scene around 17:00 local time (06:00 GMT) before Ben was rushed to hospital in critical condition. He was put on life support but died on Thursday.

Ben's dad Jace Austin said the family was "utterly devastated" by the death of "our beautiful Ben" while Cricket Victoria said the cricketing community across the country would be mourning the teenager's death.

In a statement, Jace Austin shared details of his family's loss.

"For Tracey and I, Ben was an adored son, deeply loved brother to Cooper and Zach and a shining light in the lives of our family and friends," he said.

"This tragedy has taken Ben from us, but we find some comfort that he was doing something he did for so many summers - going down to the nets with mates to play cricket.

"He loved cricket and it was one of the joys of his life."

Mr Austin said the family was also supporting Ben's teammate who was bowling in the nets when the accident happened.

"This accident has impacted two young men and our thoughts are with he and his family as well," he said.

He also thanked the local cricketing community for their support since the accident and praised the first responders and medical staff who helped his son.

Cricket Victoria chief executive officer Nick Cummins said it was an "extremely challenging time" for all involved.

"The ball hit him in the neck in a similar accident that Phil Hughes suffered 10 years ago," Mr Cummins said, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

In 2014, Australian cricketer Phillip Hughes died after being struck on the neck by a ball while batting in the Sheffield Shield in 2014.

His death, for which a coroner ultimately found no-one was to blame, sparked improvements to safety equipment for those playing the sport.

The ball that hit Ben was apparently launched by a thrower using a handheld device, commonly used to accelerate the speed of the ball and ease the strain of bowling on the shoulders.

In a statement, Cummins said: "The entire cricketing community in Victoria - and nationally - is mourning this loss and it will be something that will stay with us for a long time."

He described Ben as a talented player, popular teammate and captain who was well- known in under-18 circles in Melbourne's south east.

"It is heartbreaking to see a young life cut so short, while Ben was doing something that he loved so much," Mr Cummins said.

Ben played for the Ferntree Gully Cricket Club who, in a social media post, paid tribute to the youngster as someone who brought joy to many.

The club also called on friends and supporters to "put your bats out for Benny", mirroring a similar gesture that was made for Hughes.

The Waverley Park Hawks Junior Football Club, for which Ben played more than 100 games, said he was "kind", "respectful" and a "fantastic footballer".

"Our club and community have lost a truly great young person who was developing into a fine young adult and his loss will be felt keenly by our club for many years to come."

Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of executions.

Fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have executed a number of unarmed people after capturing the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, new videos analysed by BBC Verify show.

The RSF, which has engaged in a brutal war with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) for more than two years, seized a key military base in the city over the weekend after an extended siege.

Several videos have since emerged showing men wearing military fatigues with some wearing what appear to be RSF patches carrying out extreme acts of violence around el-Fasher. The UN's Sudan coordinator said it had received "credible reports of summary executions" in the city during an interview with the BBC on Wednesday.

BBC Verify has approached the RSF for comment. Imran Abdullah, an adviser to the RSF, denied the group's fighters were targeting civilians in an interview with the BBC on Monday.

Sudan has been ravaged by war since the conflict broke out in 2023, prompted by the collapse of the SAF and the RSF's fragile ruling coalition. More than 150,000 people have died across the country and about 12 million have fled their homes since then.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Denise Brown - the UN's Sudan coordinator - said she had received reports of executions against "unarmed men in particular" since the RSF entered the city. Killings of unarmed civilians or surrendering combatants is a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

Most of the clips reviewed by BBC Verify are in dusty and sandy rural locations, making it hard to say where exactly they took place. However, we did geolocate one video showing the summary shooting of an unarmed man at a university building in el-Fasher.

The clip showed the unarmed man sitting amid dozens of dead bodies in a hallway. As the video progressed, he was seen turning towards the camera which followed an armed man who was descending the stairs. The fighter then raised his rifle and fired a single shot knocking the unarmed man to the ground, where he lay motionless.

A number of similarly distressing clips are circulating online, but are difficult to geolocate as they are recorded outside the city itself where there are very few visible landmarks. But BBC Verify has managed to place one of the fighters who appeared in multiple execution videos in the area around el-Fasher in recent days.

The fighter, who goes by the name of Abu Lulu, has long had his activities with the RSF documented on a social media profile viewed by BBC Verify.

A video which first appeared online over the weekend showed him amidst dead bodies in an area north-west of the city. Working with the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR), BBC Verify has been able to confirm the location of this footage, but it's difficult to say whether the dead in the clip are civilians or SAF troops killed in fighting due to the quality of the video.

But Abu Lulu has also appeared in at least two videos which show him participating in the execution of unarmed men who are kneeling and under armed guard. Reverse image searches show all the videos have appeared online since the weekend.

In one video he was seen addressing an injured man lying on the ground, berating him for not sharing information before threatening to rape him. The RSF fighter then shot the captive several times using an automatic rifle.

A separate video shows Abu Lulu standing alongside several RSF troops carrying AK-style assault rifles and guarding a group of at least nine unarmed captives. After addressing the men, Abu Lulu aimed his rifle at the group and opened fire. In the aftermath the other armed men raised their arms and cheered.

In another clip the fighter was seen standing alongside several other armed men with dozens of dead bodies visible in the background. Some of the fighters were wearing RSF style uniforms, one of which has a circular patch with a black line running around the circumference - consistent with the paramilitary's insignia.

In August the RSF said it would investigate Abu Lulu after he was accused of executing a captive. A statement said "if it is proven that the perpetrator is indeed a member of our ranks, he will be held accountable without delay".

The videos come after US-based researchers said that satellite images taken of el-Fasher since the city fell appear to show the aftermath of mass killings carried out in the streets of the city itself.

Analysts with the Human Rights Laboratory at Yale University highlighted large "clusters" visible in the images, which they said were "consistent with the size range of adult human bodies and are not present in previous imagery".

In the report issued on Monday, Yale said that its analysts' observations were "consistent with reports of executions" shared online and by the UN and human rights groups in recent days and also highlighted "discoloration" which the analysts said may be human blood.

Without on-the-ground footage from that location, BBC Verify cannot independently confirm Yale's findings.

Other satellite images viewed by BBC Verify appeared to show vehicles parked at each end of several streets. Yale analysts noted that their positioning appeared to suggest that the paramilitary was carrying out house-to-house clearance operations. In some areas, clusters that Yale identified as human bodies were seen near the vehicles.

• Sudan's military expels top UN food aid officials as conflict escalates
• UN pleads for safe passage for civilians trapped in war-hit Sudan city
• Fear of mass killings as thousands trapped in besieged Sudan city taken by militia group

Michael Jones, an analyst with the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), said the RSF has a track record of carrying out ethnically-based summary killings which could be partially attributed to the paramilitary's "decentralised composition".

"The bulk of the group's manpower comes from a messy confederation of rented militia, local allies and economic opportunists, who are often motivated by interests or grievances that pre-date the April 2023 conflict," he told BBC Verify.

"Although likely playing out under the umbrella of RSF policy, the violence can sometimes be decentralised, with perpetrators settling personal or communal vendettas, seizing assets or land, and participating in ethnic cleansing to consolidate their own political power."

In recent months the SAF has made several major gains against the RSF, including recapturing the capital Khartoum, so that the army now controls most of the north and the east of the country.

By contrast the RSF controls almost all of Darfur in the west and much of the neighbouring Kordofan region - the traditional base of its predecessor, the Janjaweed paramilitary which carried out ethnic killings in Darfur between 2003 and 2005. Many of those who fought with the Janjaweed are believed to have joined the RSF.

Until now el-Fasher was the last major urban centre in Darfur still held by government forces and its allies. The RSF has previously said that it hopes to form a rival government in the city when it had assumed control there.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes since the conflict began and in the closing days of President Joe Biden's administration the US said the RSF had carried out acts of genocide. BBC Verify has previously documented mass killings carried out by the RSF following the defection of a senior commander.

Additional reporting by Benedict Garman, Richard Irvine-Brown and Thomas Copeland.

President Donald Trump called on US military leaders to resume testing US nuclear weapons in order to keep pace with other countries such as Russia and China.

"Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis," he wrote on social media just before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.

The US has more nuclear weapons than any other country, Trump said, with Russia second and China a "distant third". It has not conducted nuclear weapons testing since 1992.

It comes just days after Trump denounced Russia for testing a nuclear-powered missile, which reportedly has an unlimited range.

Trump's post on Wednesday night acknowledges the "tremendous destructive power" of nuclear weapons, but said he had "no choice" but to update and renovate the US arsenal during his first term in office.

He also said that China's nuclear programme "will be even within 5 years".

Trump's post did not include details of how the tests would occur, but wrote the "process will begin immediately".

It marks an apparent reversal of a long-standing US policy. The last US nuclear weapons test was in 1992, before former Republican President George HW Bush issued a moratorium as the Cold War ended.

Trump's post came just before Xi landed in South Korea for his first face-to-face meeting with Trump since 2019. The post appeared as he was aboard a helicopter, Marine One, while en route to meet Xi at Gimhae International Airport.

The last time the US tested a nuclear bomb was 23 September 1992. The test took place at an underground facility in the western state of Nevada.

The project, code named Divider, was the 1,054th nuclear weapons test conducted by the US, according to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which played a central role in helping develop the world's first atomic bomb.

The Nevada Test Site, 65 miles (105km) north of Las Vegas is known, is still operated by the US government.

"If deemed necessary, the site could be authorized again for nuclear weapons testing," according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, which is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

The centrist liberals under Rob Jetten have taken a shock lead in the Dutch election, according to the main exit poll, two years after his party languished in sixth place in the last vote.

Jetten staged a remarkable campaign in recent weeks, and the Ipsos I&O exit poll suggests his D66 liberals have won 27 seats, two more than anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders who won the last election.

The final result is too close to call, even though Dutch exit polls are generally considered reliable.

Three other parties are close behind, including the conservative liberals, the left-wing Green-Labour party and the Christian Democrats.

Wilders led the polls throughout the election campaign, but after he pulled the plug on his own coalition in June, all the mainstream leaders made clear they did not wish to work with him again.

Jetten's party, meanwhile, staged a highly successful campaign, capitalising on his polished performances during TV debates. The fact the 38-year-old liberal leader had appeared in a game show during the campaign added to his profile.

There was palpable excitement as party supporters gathered for the results at a hall in Leiden, a city between Amsterdam and The Hague.

The centrist liberals under Rob Jetten have taken a shock lead in the Dutch election, according to the main exit poll, two years after his party languished in sixth place in the last vote.

Jetten staged a remarkable campaign in recent weeks, and the Ipsos I&O exit poll suggests his D66 liberals have won 27 seats, two more than anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders who won the last election.

The final result is too close to call, even though Dutch exit polls are generally considered reliable.

Three other parties are close behind, including the conservative liberals, the left-wing Green-Labour party and the Christian Democrats.

Wilders led the polls throughout the election campaign, but after he pulled the plug on his own coalition in June, all the mainstream leaders made clear they did not wish to work with him again.

Jetten's party, meanwhile, staged a highly successful campaign, capitalising on his polished performances during TV debates. The fact the 38-year-old liberal leader had appeared in a game show during the campaign added to his profile.

There was palpable excitement as party supporters gathered for the results at a hall in Leiden, a city between Amsterdam and The Hague.

The centrist liberals under Rob Jetten have taken a shock lead in the Dutch election, according to the main exit poll, two years after his party languished in sixth place in the last vote.

Jetten staged a remarkable campaign in recent weeks, and the Ipsos I&O exit poll suggests his D66 liberals have won 27 seats, two more than anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders who won the last election.

The final result is too close to call, even though Dutch exit polls are generally considered reliable.

Three other parties are close behind, including the conservative liberals, the left-wing Green-Labour party and the Christian Democrats.

Wilders led the polls throughout the election campaign, but after he pulled the plug on his own coalition in June, all the mainstream leaders made clear they did not wish to work with him again.

Jetten's party, meanwhile, staged a highly successful campaign, capitalising on his polished performances during TV debates. The fact the 38-year-old liberal leader had appeared in a game show during the campaign added to his profile.

There was palpable excitement as party supporters gathered for the results at a hall in Leiden, a city between Amsterdam and The Hague.

The normal soundtrack that accompanies Jamaican life is silent this morning as many have woken to no electricity.

About three-quarters of the island is without power and many parts of its western side are under water, with homes destroyed by strong winds after Hurricane Melissa tore across the island with catastrophic force.

As wind and rain lashed through the night, one local official said the destruction resembled "the scene of an apocalypse movie."

With communications crippled, the true scale of the disaster remains unknown. Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the island a "disaster area" late Tuesday, warning of "devastating impacts" and "significant damage" to hospitals, homes and businesses.

Although no deaths have yet been confirmed, Montego Bay's mayor Richard Vernon told the BBC his first task at daybreak would be "to check if everybody is alive."

Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to strike Jamaica in modern history, barrelled across the country on Tuesday, leaving behind a trail of ruin.

At its peak, the hurricane sustained winds of 298 km/h (185 mph) - stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005 and killed 1,392 people.

"It resembled the scene of an apocalypse movie", an MP in western Jamaica told Kingston-based journalist Kimone Francis of The Jamaica Gleaner.

Francis described the night as "stressful" and "intense", marked by relentless heavy wind and rain.

"You don't have a connection. You can't speak to the people you normally speak to," she told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.

Across Jamaica's central parishes, Francis said, floodwaters rose to the roofs of two-storey homes.

One anonymous woman told the BBC: "There is water coming in through the roof of my house. I am not okay."

While no fatalities had been confirmed, Jamaica's prime minister told CNN he feared "there would be some loss of life." Damage, he said, was widespread - hitting hospitals, schools, homes and businesses.

Local government minister Desmond Mckenzie said on Tuesday afternoon that the southwestern parish of St Elizabeth was "under water", with at least three families trapped in their homes in the community of Black River.

"Rescue teams are struggling to reach them because of the dangerous conditions", he said at a news conference.

Verna Genus was sheltering from the storm at her four bedroom home in the village of Carlisle, St Elizabeth, when the hurricane ripped the zinc roof off her house.

The 73-year-old vegetable farmer was in the house with her sons and baby grandchild when the hurricane made landfall over the area.

Verna has lost communications due to the power lines being down. But her UK-based sister, June Powell, spoke to the BBC about what happened.

"She was crying on the phone," June said, adding: "You are huddled up inside and then you look up then the roof is gone. I have never heard her like that - she was wailing 'we are all finished.'"

She is anxiously waiting for the communications networks to be restored so she can talk to her sister.

St Elizabeth, known as Jamaica's breadbasket, produces much of the island's produce. With crops submerged and fields destroyed, many farmers will struggle to financially recover.

On the north coast, Montego Bay - the heart of Jamaica's tourism industry and home to its main airport - will also take time to get back on its feet. This hurricane has put a hand around the neck of the Jamaican economy.

Montego city was split in two by floodwaters, Mayor Vernon said. He told BBC Breakfast: "Once the wind subsided, we started to get a lot of heavy rain and that has led to massive floods right across the city. One side of the city is now cut off from the other due to roads being inundated by flood water."

His immediate concern, he added, was simple: "Check if everybody is alive."

In rural Jamaica, the storm has left people shaken. Tamisha Lee, president of the Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers, said: "Right now, what I'm seeing is heavy rain, powerful wind, a lot of things flying all over the place, and trees uprooted. There is no electricity. I am feeling anxious and tense. The damage will be enormous."

Meteorologists said Hurricane Melissa intensified at a speed rarely seen, its rapid strengthening fuelled by abnormally warm Caribbean waters - part of a broader trend linked to climate change.

By the time it struck Jamaica, the storm had reached Category 5 strength, with gusts fierce enough to tear roofs from concrete homes, uproot trees and snap power poles.

Health officials even issued a crocodile warning, cautioning that floodwaters could drive the reptiles into residential areas.

For thousands of tourists caught on the island, the storm brought terror and uncertainty.

"I've never heard anything like it," said Pia Chevallier from Cambridge, who travelled to Jamaica with her 15-year-old son on Saturday.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live from her darkened hotel room, she said: "The glass in the windows and patio doors was all vibrating. The doors sounded like they were slamming, even though they were closed. It was horrendous."

She added: "There's debris everywhere - palm trees, coconuts, branches, all over the place. The big palm trees with all the roots are up. That's how strong the winds have been."

On the north coast, Wayne Gibson, a British tourist from Kent holidaying in Ocho Rios with his wife and two teenage daughters, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that they were sheltering in a communal hall.

Kyle Holmes from Bolton, visiting Lucea in the north west, described the hotel as "a disaster zone" and said he had no idea when they will be able to get home.

Hurricane Melissa had moved on to make landfall in Cuba by early Wednesday morning, leaving Jamaica paralysed and silent. Though it has since weakened to a Category 3 hurricane, it remains powerful with wind speeds of over 200km/h (124mph).

Jamaica has a catastrophe bond - a type of insurance for the country - which will hopefully allow people to get back on their feet, but the issue is what's done in the interim.

Additional reporting by Gabriela Pomeroy

Two men arrested in connection with the Louvre theft two weeks ago have "partially recognised" their involvement in the brazen heist, according to officials.

The pair in custody are suspected of being among those who broke into the museum's Apollon gallery and stole some of the French crown jewels.

Items worth €88m (£76m; $102m) were taken from the world's most-visited museum on 19 October, when four thieves wielding power tools broke into the building in broad daylight.

Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said that the jewels had not been recovered yet, and the gang involved could be bigger than the four people caught on CCTV.

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

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

The French parliament has ratified an amendment to add consent to the legal definition of sexual assault and rape law.

Previously, rape or sexual abuse in France had been defined as "any form of sexual penetration committed with the use of violence, coercion, threat or surprise".

Now, the law will say that all sexual acts done to another without consent constitute rape.

The change is the result of a cross-party, years-long debate which gained renewed urgency after last year's Pelicot rape trial, in which 50 men were found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she had been drugged unconscious by her husband Dominique.

The defence of many of the accused hinged on the fact they could not be guilty of rape because they were unaware Ms Pelicot was not in a position to give her consent.

Some defence lawyers in the Pelicot case had therefore argued that there could be no crime without the intention to commit it.

The new bill will make this argument more tenuous, as it says that consent must be "free and informed, specific, prior and revocable",

The law now says consent will have to be evaluated according to the circumstances, noting that it cannot be inferred from "silence or lack of reaction".

"There is no consent if the sexual act is committed through violence, coercion, threat or surprise, whatever their nature," it states.

The two MPs who drafted the amendment - the Greens' Marie-Charlotte Garin and centrist Véronique Riotton - said a "historic victory" had been achieved and hailed "a major step forward in the fight against sexual violence".

Some critics of the amendment had argued it would result in sexual relations turning into "contracts". Others were concerned that the changes could force victims of rape to prove they had not consented.

But France's highest administrative court, the Council of State (Conseil d'État) said in March that it was backing the amendment, saying that it would "clearly express... that sexual assaults infringe upon the fundamental principle of everyone's personal and sexual freedom".

An initial version was adopted by the National Assembly in April. Its progression was delayed by France's current political turmoil, but on Wednesday the Senate definitively adopted the bill, with 327 votes in favour and 15 abstentions. It then went back to parliament, which gave it final approval.

Last year Greens senator Mélanie Vogel argued that while society had "already accepted the fact that the difference between sex and rape is consent" but that criminal law had not kept up.

"This is a historic step forward, following in the footsteps of several other European countries," Lola Schulmann, advocacy officer at Amnesty International France, told AFP on Wednesday.

Sweden, Germany and Spain are among the European countries that already have consent-based rape laws.

The normal soundtrack that accompanies Jamaican life is silent this morning as many have woken to no electricity.

About three-quarters of the island is without power and many parts of its western side are under water, with homes destroyed by strong winds after Hurricane Melissa tore across the island with catastrophic force.

As wind and rain lashed through the night, one local official said the destruction resembled "the scene of an apocalypse movie."

With communications crippled, the true scale of the disaster remains unknown. Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the island a "disaster area" late Tuesday, warning of "devastating impacts" and "significant damage" to hospitals, homes and businesses.

Although no deaths have yet been confirmed, Montego Bay's mayor Richard Vernon told the BBC his first task at daybreak would be "to check if everybody is alive."

Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to strike Jamaica in modern history, barrelled across the country on Tuesday, leaving behind a trail of ruin.

At its peak, the hurricane sustained winds of 298 km/h (185 mph) - stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005 and killed 1,392 people.

"It resembled the scene of an apocalypse movie", an MP in western Jamaica told Kingston-based journalist Kimone Francis of The Jamaica Gleaner.

Francis described the night as "stressful" and "intense", marked by relentless heavy wind and rain.

"You don't have a connection. You can't speak to the people you normally speak to," she told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.

Across Jamaica's central parishes, Francis said, floodwaters rose to the roofs of two-storey homes.

One anonymous woman told the BBC: "There is water coming in through the roof of my house. I am not okay."

While no fatalities had been confirmed, Jamaica's prime minister told CNN he feared "there would be some loss of life." Damage, he said, was widespread - hitting hospitals, schools, homes and businesses.

Local government minister Desmond Mckenzie said on Tuesday afternoon that the southwestern parish of St Elizabeth was "under water", with at least three families trapped in their homes in the community of Black River.

"Rescue teams are struggling to reach them because of the dangerous conditions", he said at a news conference.

Verna Genus was sheltering from the storm at her four bedroom home in the village of Carlisle, St Elizabeth, when the hurricane ripped the zinc roof off her house.

The 73-year-old vegetable farmer was in the house with her sons and baby grandchild when the hurricane made landfall over the area.

Verna has lost communications due to the power lines being down. But her UK-based sister, June Powell, spoke to the BBC about what happened.

"She was crying on the phone," June said, adding: "You are huddled up inside and then you look up then the roof is gone. I have never heard her like that - she was wailing 'we are all finished.'"

She is anxiously waiting for the communications networks to be restored so she can talk to her sister.

St Elizabeth, known as Jamaica's breadbasket, produces much of the island's produce. With crops submerged and fields destroyed, many farmers will struggle to financially recover.

On the north coast, Montego Bay - the heart of Jamaica's tourism industry and home to its main airport - will also take time to get back on its feet. This hurricane has put a hand around the neck of the Jamaican economy.

Montego city was split in two by floodwaters, Mayor Vernon said. He told BBC Breakfast: "Once the wind subsided, we started to get a lot of heavy rain and that has led to massive floods right across the city. One side of the city is now cut off from the other due to roads being inundated by flood water."

His immediate concern, he added, was simple: "Check if everybody is alive."

In rural Jamaica, the storm has left people shaken. Tamisha Lee, president of the Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers, said: "Right now, what I'm seeing is heavy rain, powerful wind, a lot of things flying all over the place, and trees uprooted. There is no electricity. I am feeling anxious and tense. The damage will be enormous."

Meteorologists said Hurricane Melissa intensified at a speed rarely seen, its rapid strengthening fuelled by abnormally warm Caribbean waters - part of a broader trend linked to climate change.

By the time it struck Jamaica, the storm had reached Category 5 strength, with gusts fierce enough to tear roofs from concrete homes, uproot trees and snap power poles.

Health officials even issued a crocodile warning, cautioning that floodwaters could drive the reptiles into residential areas.

For thousands of tourists caught on the island, the storm brought terror and uncertainty.

"I've never heard anything like it," said Pia Chevallier from Cambridge, who travelled to Jamaica with her 15-year-old son on Saturday.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live from her darkened hotel room, she said: "The glass in the windows and patio doors was all vibrating. The doors sounded like they were slamming, even though they were closed. It was horrendous."

She added: "There's debris everywhere - palm trees, coconuts, branches, all over the place. The big palm trees with all the roots are up. That's how strong the winds have been."

On the north coast, Wayne Gibson, a British tourist from Kent holidaying in Ocho Rios with his wife and two teenage daughters, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that they were sheltering in a communal hall.

Kyle Holmes from Bolton, visiting Lucea in the north west, described the hotel as "a disaster zone" and said he had no idea when they will be able to get home.

Hurricane Melissa had moved on to make landfall in Cuba by early Wednesday morning, leaving Jamaica paralysed and silent. Though it has since weakened to a Category 3 hurricane, it remains powerful with wind speeds of over 200km/h (124mph).

Jamaica has a catastrophe bond - a type of insurance for the country - which will hopefully allow people to get back on their feet, but the issue is what's done in the interim.

Additional reporting by Gabriela Pomeroy

At least 64 people were killed in a police operation against the Red Command gang in Rio de Janeiro's northern suburbs - the largest and deadliest raid in the Brazilian state's history.

Four police officers were among those killed during Operation Containment in the Alemão and Penha districts, state Governor Cláudio Castro said. More than 80 people were arrested.

Fierce clashes erupted when about 2,500 security personnel moved in on Tuesday morning. The Red Command (Comando Vermelho) responded with gunfire, burning barricades and dropping bombs from drones, officials said.

The UN Human Rights Office said it was "horrified" by the police operation, urging "prompt and effective investigations".

The area of favelas near Rio's airport is considered to be the headquarters of one of Brazil's most powerful organised crime groups.

State officials said at least 50 of those killed were "indicated by police as suspected of being criminals".

Dozens of people were injured, including civilians caught in the crossfire.

Locals have likened the hillside area - home to about 300,000 people - to a "war zone" since the operation began.

Roads remain closed throughout the region.

The Red Command group have been expanding their territory across the Rio state, increasing drug trafficking routes and control of the hillside favelas.

Rio's police said more than 200kg (441lb) of drugs were seized in the raid, along with dozens of firearms.

The joint operation by civil and military police comes after a year-long investigation.

Dozens of the suspects are thought to be members of a faction from the Pará state who are currently hiding in Rio de Janeiro.

Large-scale police operations are not uncommon in Brazil ahead of major international events in the South American nation.

The UN climate summit COP30 is taking place in the northern city of Belem in November.

The US and South Korea have reached a broad trade deal, both countries have said following talks between their leaders.

South Korea's presidential aide, Kim Yong-beom, said the two sides had agreed to keep reciprocal tariffs at 15%, but that the taxes on car and car parts would be lowered.

South Korea will also invest $350bn in the US, including $200bn in cash investment and $150bn in shipbuilding, Kim said.

US President Donald Trump, who is currently on a week-long trip in Asia, said the deal was "pretty much finalised" at a dinner following the discussions, which lasted almost two hours. He did not give further details.

A trade deal had been announced in late July under which South Korea would avoid the worst of the tariffs by pumping $350bn (£264bn) of new investments into America. But talks over the structure of those investments have been deadlocked.

Both countries have historically been key allies - but tensions spiked after hundreds of South Koreans were detained in an immigration raid in the US last month.

Trump will next meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in on Thursday on the sidelines of a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) which is taking place in Gyeongju.

China's foreign ministry has confirmed the meeting, which will take place in the city of Busan on Thursday, a short flight away from Gyeongju.

This will be the two leaders' first face to face meeting since Trump assumed office in 2025 and imposed tariffs on every country in the world.

Addressing a group of CEOs in Gyeongju on Wednesday, Trump said that he believes the US is "going to have a deal" with China and it will be "a good deal for both".

He also praised the Apec countries for making the global trading system, which he said had been "broken" and "in urgent need of reform", fairer.

"Economic security is national security," Trump says. "That's for South Korea, that's for any country."

Golden crowns and grand orders

Ahead of Wednesday's talks with President Lee, Trump had been greeted by an honour guard and gifts that included a golden crown.

"I'd like to wear it right now," Trump had said of the crown.

He also received the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, South Korea's highest decoration.

He's the first US president to receive the award, which was given "in recognition of his contribution to peace on the Korean Peninsula", the South Korean presidential office said.

Both leaders took part in a working lunch - which was followed by a private meeting in the afternoon, though no concrete deal seems to have come of it.

Both sides had earlier played down the prospect of a breakthrough in talks - a fact that will disappoint many in South Korea's electronics, chip and auto industries, which had been hoping for some clarity amidst the tariff chaos.

Trump had slapped a tariff rate on Seoul of 25% earlier this year - which Lee managed to negotiate down to 15%, after Seoul said it would invest $350bn in the US and buy $100bn worth of liquified natural gas.

But the White House later increase its demands as part of the trade talks, with Trump pushing for cash investments in the US.

• Caught in the middle, South Korea hosts rival superpowers

Trump's arrival in South Korea had been preceded by North Korea test-firing surface-to-air cruise missiles.

The US president had expressed interest in meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but noted on Wednesday that his team had been unable to arrange this during his trip.

Noting the long-standing tensions between North and South Korea, Trump said "we will see what we can do to get that all straightened out".

And outside the summit venue where both leaders were meeting, a small anti-Trump group of protesters gathered on Wednesday afternoon, with some shouting anti-Trump slogans. Police could be seen forcibly dispersing the crowd and arresting some people.

However, hundreds more attended a pro-Trump rally - including those who shouted anti-Chinese rhetoric - also took places close to the summit venue.

Anti-Chinese sentiment in South Korea has also grown steadily in recent years. Chinese interference became a common trope in conspiracy theories about former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol.

During his trip to Japan on Tuesday, the US president signed an agreement on rare earth minerals with Tokyo, as well as a document heralding a new "golden age" of US-Japan relations. This reiterated the commitment of the two countries to implement deals struck earlier, including the 15% tariff deal negotiated earlier this year.

Prior to that, he attended a gathering of South East Asian leaders, known as Asean, in Malaysia. There he presided over a "peace deal" between Thailand and Cambodia, whose longstanding border dispute erupted into open conflict in July.

With additional reporting by Laura Bicker, China Correspondent and Suranjana Tewari, Asia Business Correspondent

Messages in a bottle written by two Australian soldiers in 1916 have been found more than a century later on the country's south-western coast.

The cheerful notes were penned just a few days into their voyage to join the battlefields of France during World War One.

One of the soldiers, Pte Malcolm Neville, told his mother that the food on board was "real good" and that they were "as happy as Larry". Months later, he was killed in action at the age of 28. The other soldier, 37-year-old Pte William Harley, survived the war and returned home.

The letters have been passed on to their descendants, who have been stunned by the discovery.

The bottle was found earlier this month on the remote Wharton Beach, near Esperance in Western Australia, by local resident Deb Brown and her family.

She was visiting the beach with her husband and daughter on one of their regular quad bike trips to clear up litter, when they spotted a thick glass bottle in the sand, she said on Tuesday.

"We do a lot of cleaning up on our beaches and so would never go past a piece of rubbish. So this little bottle was lying there waiting to be picked up," Ms Brown told the Associated Press news agency.

Though the paper was wet, both letters were still legible, so Ms Brown began tracking down the soldiers' families in order to pass them on.

Ms Brown located Pte Neville's great-nephew, Herbie Neville, by searching for the soldier's name and the town he was from online, as his mother's address was included in the note.

Mr Neville told ABC News the experience had been "unbelievable" for his family, especially for 101-year-old Marian Davies - Pte Neville's niece - who remembers her uncle leaving to go to war and never returning.

The second letter, written by Pte William Harley, was addressed simply to whoever found the bottle. His mother had died years earlier.

Pte Harley's granddaughter, Ann Turner, told ABC she and the soldier's four other surviving grandchildren were "absolutely stunned" by the message.

"It really does feel like a miracle and we do very much feel like our grandfather has reached out for us from the grave," she said.

"I feel very emotional when I see that the other young man had a mother to write to, and that message in the bottle was to his mother, whereas our grandfather long ago had lost his mother so he just writes it to the finder of the bottle."

The bottle was thrown overboard "somewhere in the Bight", Pte Harley's letter said, referring to the Great Australian Bight off the country's southern coast.

An oceanography professor told ABC it may only have been in the water for a few weeks before it landed at Wharton Beach, where it may have remained buried for 100 years.

Sudan's military government has ordered two senior officials at the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) to leave the country amid widespread famine sparked by a gruelling civil war that erupted in April 2023.

The WFP said directors of its Sudan operation were declared "personae non grata" and told to go within 72 hours, without explanation.

The decision comes days after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), captured the key city of el-Fasher in Darfur from the military after an 18-month siege, which included a food blockade.

The WFP said the expulsions came a "pivotal time" as humanitarian needs in Sudan had "never been greater with more than 24 million people facing acute food insecurity".

Although the military government has not given a reason for the expulsions, it has previously accused aid groups of breaking local laws and releasing misleading reports on famine conditions.

The government said the expulsion will not affect the country's cooperation with the WFP, state news agency Suna reported.

The WFP says it is engaging with Sudanese authorities to resolve the matter.

• A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan
• A pregnant woman's diary of escape from war zone

Two-and-a-half years of fighting between the army and the RSF escalated on Sunday, when the RSF seized el-Fasher in the western region of Darfur.

There are now fears for the fate of the estimated 250,000 people in the city, many from non-Arab communities. Reports of atrocities, including mass-killings, have been mounting since the city fell.

"The situation in el-Fasher is extremely dire and there are violations taking place on the roads, including looting and shooting, with no distinction made between young or old," one man who managed to escape el-Fasher told the BBC Arabic's Sudan Lifeline programme.

"We managed to reach Tawila, where humanitarian organisations are present. We are grateful that we arrived, even though we have been sleeping on the roads."

Tawila is a town about 60km (37 miles) west of el-Fasher and already hosts around 800,000 people - many of whom escaped from the vast Zamzam camp near el-Fasher when it was attacked by the RSF in April.

Since the conflict erupted, RSF fighters and allied Arab militia in Darfur have been accused of targeting people from non-Arab ethnic groups - allegations the RSF denies.

On Tuesday, the el-Fasher Resistance Committee, a group of local activists, accused the RSF of executing wounded people receiving treatment at the city's Saudi Hospital.

Researchers at Yale University supported this allegation, saying satellite images appear to show "clusters" of bodies within the hospital grounds.

International bodies such as the European Union and African Union have expressed alarm, while locals say the current situation is reminiscent of the region's darkest days.

Darfur experienced one of the world's gravest humanitarian disasters from 2003 to 2020.

The Janjaweed, a militia who were accused of genocide and ethnic cleansing during this time, morphed into what is now the RSF.

Sudanese-American poet Emtithal Mahmoud, who has family in el-Fasher and lost relatives in the previous Darfur conflict, said she felt a "genocide" was occurring once again as seen from social media footage being posted by the RSF.

"The only difference… is that now it's live streamed and video taped and sent around because the RSF understands that they can act with impunity," Ms Mahmoud told the BBC.

The RSF denies targeting civilians.

More about Sudan's war from the BBC:

• Sudan in danger of self-destructing as conflict and famine reign
• El-Fasher siege: My son's whole body is full of shrapnel'
• Sudan's fertile region where food is rotting amid famine and war

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

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

The normal soundtrack that accompanies Jamaican life is silent this morning as many have woken to no electricity.

About three-quarters of the island is without power and many parts of its western side are under water, with homes destroyed by strong winds after Hurricane Melissa tore across the island with catastrophic force.

As wind and rain lashed through the night, one local official said the destruction resembled "the scene of an apocalypse movie."

With communications crippled, the true scale of the disaster remains unknown. Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the island a "disaster area" late Tuesday, warning of "devastating impacts" and "significant damage" to hospitals, homes and businesses.

Although no deaths have yet been confirmed, Montego Bay's mayor Richard Vernon told the BBC his first task at daybreak would be "to check if everybody is alive."

Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm to strike Jamaica in modern history, barrelled across the country on Tuesday, leaving behind a trail of ruin.

At its peak, the hurricane sustained winds of 298 km/h (185 mph) - stronger than Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005 and killed 1,392 people.

"It resembled the scene of an apocalypse movie", an MP in western Jamaica told Kingston-based journalist Kimone Francis of The Jamaica Gleaner.

Francis described the night as "stressful" and "intense", marked by relentless heavy wind and rain.

"You don't have a connection. You can't speak to the people you normally speak to," she told the BBC World Service's Newsday programme.

Across Jamaica's central parishes, Francis said, floodwaters rose to the roofs of two-storey homes.

One anonymous woman told the BBC: "There is water coming in through the roof of my house. I am not okay."

While no fatalities had been confirmed, Jamaica's prime minister told CNN he feared "there would be some loss of life." Damage, he said, was widespread - hitting hospitals, schools, homes and businesses.

Local government minister Desmond Mckenzie said on Tuesday afternoon that the southwestern parish of St Elizabeth was "under water", with at least three families trapped in their homes in the community of Black River.

"Rescue teams are struggling to reach them because of the dangerous conditions", he said at a news conference.

Verna Genus was sheltering from the storm at her four bedroom home in the village of Carlisle, St Elizabeth, when the hurricane ripped the zinc roof off her house.

The 73-year-old vegetable farmer was in the house with her sons and baby grandchild when the hurricane made landfall over the area.

Verna has lost communications due to the power lines being down. But her UK-based sister, June Powell, spoke to the BBC about what happened.

"She was crying on the phone," June said, adding: "You are huddled up inside and then you look up then the roof is gone. I have never heard her like that - she was wailing 'we are all finished.'"

She is anxiously waiting for the communications networks to be restored so she can talk to her sister.

St Elizabeth, known as Jamaica's breadbasket, produces much of the island's produce. With crops submerged and fields destroyed, many farmers will struggle to financially recover.

On the north coast, Montego Bay - the heart of Jamaica's tourism industry and home to its main airport - will also take time to get back on its feet. This hurricane has put a hand around the neck of the Jamaican economy.

Montego city was split in two by floodwaters, Mayor Vernon said. He told BBC Breakfast: "Once the wind subsided, we started to get a lot of heavy rain and that has led to massive floods right across the city. One side of the city is now cut off from the other due to roads being inundated by flood water."

His immediate concern, he added, was simple: "Check if everybody is alive."

In rural Jamaica, the storm has left people shaken. Tamisha Lee, president of the Jamaica Network of Rural Women Producers, said: "Right now, what I'm seeing is heavy rain, powerful wind, a lot of things flying all over the place, and trees uprooted. There is no electricity. I am feeling anxious and tense. The damage will be enormous."

Meteorologists said Hurricane Melissa intensified at a speed rarely seen, its rapid strengthening fuelled by abnormally warm Caribbean waters - part of a broader trend linked to climate change.

By the time it struck Jamaica, the storm had reached Category 5 strength, with gusts fierce enough to tear roofs from concrete homes, uproot trees and snap power poles.

Health officials even issued a crocodile warning, cautioning that floodwaters could drive the reptiles into residential areas.

For thousands of tourists caught on the island, the storm brought terror and uncertainty.

"I've never heard anything like it," said Pia Chevallier from Cambridge, who travelled to Jamaica with her 15-year-old son on Saturday.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live from her darkened hotel room, she said: "The glass in the windows and patio doors was all vibrating. The doors sounded like they were slamming, even though they were closed. It was horrendous."

She added: "There's debris everywhere - palm trees, coconuts, branches, all over the place. The big palm trees with all the roots are up. That's how strong the winds have been."

On the north coast, Wayne Gibson, a British tourist from Kent holidaying in Ocho Rios with his wife and two teenage daughters, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that they were sheltering in a communal hall.

Kyle Holmes from Bolton, visiting Lucea in the north west, described the hotel as "a disaster zone" and said he had no idea when they will be able to get home.

Hurricane Melissa had moved on to make landfall in Cuba by early Wednesday morning, leaving Jamaica paralysed and silent. Though it has since weakened to a Category 3 hurricane, it remains powerful with wind speeds of over 200km/h (124mph).

Jamaica has a catastrophe bond - a type of insurance for the country - which will hopefully allow people to get back on their feet, but the issue is what's done in the interim.

Additional reporting by Gabriela Pomeroy

Romania's defence ministry has said the US intends to reduce some of its troops stationed on Nato's eastern flank.

Between 900 and 1,000 American troops will remain in Romania, Bucharest said - down from 1,700.

The ministry said the decision was expected and that the "resizing" of US forces was a result of the new priorities of the Trump presidential administration.

Defence Minister Ionut Mosteanu stated that his US counterpart Pete Hegseth had recently conveyed to the Europeans that they needed to pay more attention to their own defence and that the US was shifting its attention towards the Indo-Pacific region.

One US brigade at the Mihai Kogalniceanu airbase - set to be Nato's largest in Europe - would be rotated out and not replaced, Mosteanu said.

The brigade has "elements" in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary, Mosteanu said, although it was unclear whether US troops were going to be pulled out of these countries too.

Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Wednesday that Warsaw had "no information" about a possible reduction of US troops on its territory.

The BBC has approached the Pentagon for comment.

The presence of US troops at Romania's Deveselu and Campia Turzii bases would remain unchanged, Ionut Mosteanu added.

Since taking office in January US President Donald Trump has made no secret of his wish to shift the focus of US military commitment from Europe to the Indo-Pacific region, and has repeatedly urged European Nato members to take more responsibility for the continent's defence.

But the announcement of the US troop withdrawal from Romania will be concerning for Eastern European countries, many of which feel they have reason to fear a Russian attack in the future.

Shortly after the announcement from Bucharest, a Nato official stressed that Washington's commitment to the Nato alliance remained "clear" and adjustments were "not unusual".

"Even with this adjustment, the US force posture in Europe remains larger than it has been for many years, with many more US forces on the continent than before 2022," the official said in a statement.

The US has more than 100,000 military personnel deployed in Europe, according to figures from late last year.

Last month Nato announced the creation of a mission dubbed Eastern Sentry, which it said would enhance the alliance's vigilance along the entire eastern flank.

The decision came after a dozen Russian drones entered Polish airspace, in the most serious incident of its kind since the war began in February 2022. Days later, Romania reported that a Russian drone had breached its airspace, and Estonia said Russian warplanes had violated its airspace too.

Australian authorities are investigating after an 80-year-old woman who was left behind on a Great Barrier Reef island by a cruise ship was found dead.

The woman had been hiking on Lizard Island, 250 km (155 miles) north of Cairns, with fellow passengers from the Coral Adventurer cruise ship on Saturday but is believed to have broken off from the group to have a rest.

The ship left the island around sunset but returned several hours later after the crew realised the woman was missing. A major search operation found the woman's body on Sunday morning.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) said it is investigating and will meet the ship's crew when it docks in Darwin later this week.

A spokesperson for AMSA said it was first alerted to the missing woman at around 21:00 local time on Saturday (05:00 GMT on Friday) by the ship's captain.

The authority said it would work with other relevant agencies to investigate the case and that it takes the safety of passengers and crew onboard commercial vessels seriously.

Coral Expeditions chief executive Mark Fifield said staff have contacted the woman's family and were offering support over the "tragic death".

"While investigations into the incident are continuing, we are deeply sorry that this has occurred and are offering our full support to the woman's family," Fifield said.

The elderly Australian woman is understood to have joined a group hike to the island's highest peak, Cook's Look, before she decided she needed to rest, according to the Courier Mail.

Traci Ayris was sailing near the island last weekend and told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that she saw a helicopter using a spotlight to search a walking trail on the island at around midnight on Saturday.

She said about seven people with torches went to the island to search but it was called off at around 03:00 local time with a helicopter returning on Sunday morning when the body was found.

"We knew she was dead because they called everyone back from the search immediately," she told the ABC.

"And no-one went to the spot that the chopper was hovering over until later that day when the police arrived."

Ayris said the incident was clearly distressing for crew and passengers.

"It was very sad in this paradise to have this tragedy occur. It should have been a happy time for that lovely lady."

It is understood the woman was on the first stop of a 60-day cruise around Australia, with tickets costing in the tens of thousands of dollars for the journey.

The Coral Adventurer caters for up to 120 guests with 46 crew, according to the company's website. It was purpose built to access remote areas of Australia's coast and is equipped with "tenders" - small boats used to take passengers on day excursions.

Queensland police said a report will be prepared for the coroner in the "sudden and non-suspicious death" of the woman.

The US and South Korea have reached a broad trade deal, both countries have said following talks between their leaders.

South Korea's presidential aide, Kim Yong-beom, said the two sides had agreed to keep reciprocal tariffs at 15%, but that the taxes on car and car parts would be lowered.

South Korea will also invest $350bn in the US, including $200bn in cash investment and $150bn in shipbuilding, Kim said.

US President Donald Trump, who is currently on a week-long trip in Asia, said the deal was "pretty much finalised" at a dinner following the discussions, which lasted almost two hours. He did not give further details.

A trade deal had been announced in late July under which South Korea would avoid the worst of the tariffs by pumping $350bn (£264bn) of new investments into America. But talks over the structure of those investments have been deadlocked.

Both countries have historically been key allies - but tensions spiked after hundreds of South Koreans were detained in an immigration raid in the US last month.

Trump will next meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in on Thursday on the sidelines of a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) which is taking place in Gyeongju.

China's foreign ministry has confirmed the meeting, which will take place in the city of Busan on Thursday, a short flight away from Gyeongju.

This will be the two leaders' first face to face meeting since Trump assumed office in 2025 and imposed tariffs on every country in the world.

Addressing a group of CEOs in Gyeongju on Wednesday, Trump said that he believes the US is "going to have a deal" with China and it will be "a good deal for both".

He also praised the Apec countries for making the global trading system, which he said had been "broken" and "in urgent need of reform", fairer.

"Economic security is national security," Trump says. "That's for South Korea, that's for any country."

Golden crowns and grand orders

Ahead of Wednesday's talks with President Lee, Trump had been greeted by an honour guard and gifts that included a golden crown.

"I'd like to wear it right now," Trump had said of the crown.

He also received the Grand Order of Mugunghwa, South Korea's highest decoration.

He's the first US president to receive the award, which was given "in recognition of his contribution to peace on the Korean Peninsula", the South Korean presidential office said.

Both leaders took part in a working lunch - which was followed by a private meeting in the afternoon, though no concrete deal seems to have come of it.

Both sides had earlier played down the prospect of a breakthrough in talks - a fact that will disappoint many in South Korea's electronics, chip and auto industries, which had been hoping for some clarity amidst the tariff chaos.

Trump had slapped a tariff rate on Seoul of 25% earlier this year - which Lee managed to negotiate down to 15%, after Seoul said it would invest $350bn in the US and buy $100bn worth of liquified natural gas.

But the White House later increase its demands as part of the trade talks, with Trump pushing for cash investments in the US.

• Caught in the middle, South Korea hosts rival superpowers

Trump's arrival in South Korea had been preceded by North Korea test-firing surface-to-air cruise missiles.

The US president had expressed interest in meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but noted on Wednesday that his team had been unable to arrange this during his trip.

Noting the long-standing tensions between North and South Korea, Trump said "we will see what we can do to get that all straightened out".

And outside the summit venue where both leaders were meeting, a small anti-Trump group of protesters gathered on Wednesday afternoon, with some shouting anti-Trump slogans. Police could be seen forcibly dispersing the crowd and arresting some people.

However, hundreds more attended a pro-Trump rally - including those who shouted anti-Chinese rhetoric - also took places close to the summit venue.

Anti-Chinese sentiment in South Korea has also grown steadily in recent years. Chinese interference became a common trope in conspiracy theories about former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol.

During his trip to Japan on Tuesday, the US president signed an agreement on rare earth minerals with Tokyo, as well as a document heralding a new "golden age" of US-Japan relations. This reiterated the commitment of the two countries to implement deals struck earlier, including the 15% tariff deal negotiated earlier this year.

Prior to that, he attended a gathering of South East Asian leaders, known as Asean, in Malaysia. There he presided over a "peace deal" between Thailand and Cambodia, whose longstanding border dispute erupted into open conflict in July.

With additional reporting by Laura Bicker, China Correspondent and Suranjana Tewari, Asia Business Correspondent

Israel has carried out air strikes in Gaza, in response to what Israeli officials said were violations of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement.

Defence Minister Israel Katz accused Hamas of attacking Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Tuesday, and breaching the terms on returning the bodies of deceased hostages.

The Palestinian armed group claimed it had "no connection" to the attack and insisted it was committed to the ceasefire deal.

First responders in Gaza said at least nine Palestinians were killed in a wave of Israeli strikes across the territory on Tuesday evening.

Despite the flare-up, US Vice-President JD Vance said he believed the ceasefire was holding.

A brief statement put out by Prime Minister Netanyahu's office on Tuesday evening said he had ordered "forceful strikes" by the military but did not specify his reasons.

However, Defence Minister Katz said Hamas had crossed "a bright red line" by launching an attack on Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Tuesday.

"Hamas will pay many times over for attacking the soldiers and for violating the agreement to return the fallen hostages," he warned.

An Israeli military official said the attack took place "east of the Yellow Line", which demarcates Israeli-controlled territory inside Gaza under the ceasefire deal.

Israeli media reported that troops in the southern Gaza city of Rafah had come under anti-tank missile and sniper fire on Tuesday afternoon, while Palestinian media reported Israeli artillery shelling in the area at the same time.

After the Israeli military carried out air strikes in Gaza on Tuesday evening, witnesses reported powerful explosions in several parts of the territory, including Gaza City in the north and Khan Younis in the south.

A spokesman for the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency told the BBC that at least four people were killed, including three women, when a home belonging to the al-Banna family was bombed in the southern Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Strikes also reportedly hit a courtyard of al-Shifa hospital, in the western Rimal area.

The Civil Defence spokesman said another five people were killed, including two children and a woman, when a vehicle was hit on al-Qassam Street in Khan Younis.

Hamas put out a statement denying that its fighters had attacked Israeli troops and condemning the Israeli strikes.

"Hamas affirms that it has no connection to the shooting incident in Rafah and affirms its commitment to the ceasefire agreement," it said.

"The criminal bombardment carried out by the fascist occupation [Israeli] army on areas of the Gaza Strip represents a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement."

The group's military wing meanwhile said it would postpone the return of a hostage's body it had recovered on Tuesday due to what it called Israeli "violations".

US Vice-President Vance told reporters in Washington: "The ceasefire is holding. That doesn't mean that there aren't going to be little skirmishes here and there."

"We know that Hamas or somebody else within Gaza attacked an [Israeli] soldier. We expect the Israelis are going to respond, but I think the president's peace is going to hold despite that," he added.

Earlier, Israel's prime minister had pledged to take unspecified "steps" against Hamas after the group handed over a coffin containing human remains on Monday night that did not belong to one of the 13 deceased hostages still in Gaza.

Netanyahu's office said forensic tests showed they belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, an Israeli hostage whose body was recovered by Israeli forces in Gaza in late 2023, and that this constituted a "clear violation" of the ceasefire deal.

The Israeli military also released footage from a drone that it said showed Hamas operatives "removing body remains from a structure that had been prepared in advance and burying them nearby" in eastern Gaza City on Monday.

"Shortly afterwards," it added, the operatives "summoned representatives of the Red Cross and staged a false display of discovering a deceased hostage's body."

Hamas rejected what it called the "baseless allegations" and accused Israel of "seeking to fabricate false pretexts in preparation for taking new aggressive steps".

In a statement later the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) condemned what it called the "fake recovery", saying it had attended the scene "at the request of Hamas" and "in good faith".

It went on: "The ICRC team at this location were not aware that a deceased person had been placed there prior to their arrival, as seen in the footage – in general, our role as neutral intermediary does not include unearthing of the bodies of the deceased.

"Our team only observed what appeared to be the recovery of remains without prior knowledge of the circumstances leading up to it.

"It is unacceptable that a fake recovery was staged, when so much depends on this agreement being upheld and when so many families are still anxiously awaiting news of their loved ones."

The ceasefire agreement brokered by the US, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey is supposed to implement the first stage of President Donald Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan.

It said Hamas would return its 48 living and deceased hostages within 72 hours of the ceasefire taking effect on 10 October.

All 20 living Israeli hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.

Israel has also handed over the bodies of 195 Palestinians in exchange for the bodies of the 13 Israeli hostages so far returned by Hamas, along with those of two foreign hostages - one of them Thai and the other Nepalese.

Eleven of the dead hostages still in Gaza are Israelis, one is Tanzanian, and one is Thai.

On Saturday, Hamas's chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said the group was facing challenges because Israeli forces had "altered the terrain of Gaza". He also said that "some of those who buried the bodies have been martyred or no longer remember where they buried them".

However, the Israeli government insists Hamas knows the locations of all the bodies.

All but one of the dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people abducted during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 other people were killed.

Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 68,530 people have been killed, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.