At least 19 people have died in Jamaica as a result of Hurricane Melissa, Information Minister Dana Morris Dixon has said, as search and rescue efforts continue and authorities try to get aid to hard-hit areas.

The hurricane, one of the most powerful to strike the Caribbean, has also killed at least 30 people in Haiti, officials said.

In Jamaica, "there are entire communities that seem to be marooned and areas that seem to be flattened," Dixon said, adding there are "devastating" scenes in western regions.

Electricity remains out to most of the island and as people try to salvage damaged homes and belongings from floodwaters and mud, many thousands are growing increasingly desperate for aid.

There are parts of the country that have been without water for several days and food is growing increasingly scarce.

Aid supplies are starting to arrive more rapidly with the main airport in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, largely back to normal.

But smaller regional airports, some of which are located near to where humanitarian assistance is most needed, remain only partly operational.

As such, aid agencies and the military are bringing in the urgently needed supplies from Kingston via road, many of which remain unpassable in places.

Satellite imagery shows nearly all buildings in some Jamaican villages have been destroyed by the hurricane.

Residents of towns in western Jamaica told the BBC on Thursday that "words can't explain how devastating" the storm has been on the country.

"No one is able to get through to their loved ones," Trevor 'Zyanigh' Whyte told the BBC from the town of White House in Westmoreland parish.

"Everyone is just, you know, completely disconnected... Every tree is on the road, right, so you can't get too far with the cars, not even a bicycle," he said.

In Haiti, many of the victims in the storm died when a river overflowed in Petit-Goave. A full assessment is ongoing, as there are still areas that authorities have not been able to access.

Around 15,000 people were staying in more than 120 shelters in Haiti, interim UN co-ordinator for the country Gregoire Goodstein said.

In Cuba, more than 3 million people were "exposed to life-threatening conditions" during the hurricane, with 735,000 people "safely evacuated", according to the UN's resident co-ordinator for Cuba Francisco Pichon.

No fatalities have been reported so far in Cuba, but almost 240 communities have been cut off due to flooding and landslides, Cuban authorities said.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall on Tuesday in Jamaica as a category five storm, packing winds of up to 185 mph (295 km/h), before impacting other countries in the Caribbean.

Governments, humanitarian organisations and individuals around the world are pledging support for the nations hardest hit by the storm.

The World Food Programme said it is collaborating with partners to coordinate logistics, cash and emergency supplies across Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The US State Department said it is deploying a disaster response team to the region to help with search and rescue operations, and assisting in efforts to provide food, water, medical supplies, hygiene kits and temporary shelters.

The UK government said it is sending £2.5m ($3.36m) in emergency humanitarian funding to support recovery in the Caribbean.

While Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti assessed the damage left in Melissa's wake, Bermuda braced for impact.

The Bermuda Weather Service expected Melissa to be a category two hurricane when it passed the British overseas territory on Thursday night.

Government offices in Bermuda will close until Friday afternoon and all schools will shut on Friday.

"Until the official 'All Clear' is issued, residents are urged to stay off the roads so Government work crews can safely assess and clear debris," a public alert from the government said.

On Wednesday, over tea and cakes with veterans of the Ukraine war, President Vladimir Putin announced Russia had tested a new weapon.

"There is nothing like this," the Russian leader said of the Poseidon - a nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable underwater drone that can be fired like a torpedo and which a senior Russian MP said could "put entire states out of operation".

When it was first unveiled in 2018, Russian media said the Poseidon would be able to achieve a speed of 200km/h (120mph) and travel in a "constantly changing route" that would make it impossible to intercept.

Putin's claim came only days after the announcement that Moscow had conducted a test of its "unlimited-range" Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile.

It's "a unique product, unmatched in the world", Putin said of the Burevestnik, noting the missile was so new "we are yet to identify what it is, what class of weapons [it] belongs to".

It is not unusual for Russia to test and flaunt weapons.

And, despite the boisterous nature of Russian announcements, their military value is ambiguous.

"They are basically Armageddon weapons - too powerful to be used unless you're happy to destroy the world," Mark Galeotti, a Russia scholar and long-time observer of Russian politics, told the BBC.

Both the Poseidon and the Burevestnik are second-strike, retaliatory weapons, Mr Galeotti added - and not even the most rabid Kremlin propagandists are suggesting anyone is preparing to launch strikes on Russia.

It is also unclear whether the weapons are actually viable.

In 2019, five Russian nuclear engineers died in a rocket engine explosion which some Russian and Western experts said was linked to the Burevestnik.

Two years later, the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) - a London-based think tank specialising in global conflict and security - noted that Russia faced "considerable technical challenges" in ensuring "the reliable performance of the nuclear-propulsion unit" of the missile.

Neither the Poseidon nor the Burevestnik were entirely novel - both had first been presented to the world in 2018 as part of a new array of weapons that Putin called "invincible".

So it is the timing of the announcements - rather than their contents - which could be noteworthy.

After a whirlwind few months of tentative diplomacy by US President Donald Trump to try and bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table, Trump appears to have cooled off on the endeavour to end the war.

Last week, the White House cancelled a summit between Trump and Putin, apparently after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio realised the gulf between Moscow and Washington's positions was too great for a high-level meeting to achieve meaningful results.

Not only is there no suggestion of any further talks, but soon after the meeting was cancelled, Trump imposed sanctions on two of Russia's biggest oil producers as punishment for Moscow's failure to agree on a peace deal in Ukraine.

And while his relationship with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seems to still be fraught, it appears Trump is growing irritated with Moscow's intractability.

So Putin may be vying for Trump's attention.

"In the face of Trump blowing hot and cold with his support for Ukraine or sympathy to Russia, here is an element in which Moscow has bigger cards than Kyiv," Mr Galeotti argued.

"So in that context [successful weapons tests] are more about keeping him thinking Russia is indeed powerful."

Another clue could come from the battlefield in Ukraine.

Three-and-a-half years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour, its troops continue to merely grind on - at great cost in human life and resources - with no obvious breakthrough likely any time soon.

"We are getting towards the end of summer fighting season in Ukraine and it has not gone very well for the Russians," said David Heathcote, head of intelligence at McKenzie Intelligence Services.

The announcements about the Burevestnik and the Poseidon should be seen as a reflection of the weakness of their conventional forces, Mr Heathcote told the BBC.

Russia is not formally part of any military alliances that would serve as a deterrent if it is on the back foot, and its army is tied up and under pressure in Ukraine.

In these cases, Mr Heathcote says, "the Russians always react with unnecessary and overexaggerated sabre rattling".

While Moscow's decision to publicly announce the Burevestnik and Poseidon tests may have been influenced by this, it seems the claim has already had the tangible effect of provoking Trump into instructing its military to resume nuclear weapons testing.

Trump justified the move as a way of keeping pace with other countries such as Russia and China.

"With others doing testing, I think it's appropriate that we do also," Trump said - although it will likely take several months for the US to restart nuclear tests after a 33-year pause.

The Kremlin's reaction to Trump's statement was quick

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov questioned whether the US president had been correctly informed. The Russian tests "cannot in any way be interpreted as a nuclear test", Peskov said.

Trump did not elaborate on the kind of tests he wanted the US to resume.

It was likely, said Christopher Egerton of the Institute for Strategic Studies (IIS), that Trump's decision was a direct response to the Russian test of the Burevestnik and that the US could be planning to conduct similar flight tests of US Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

US space agency Nasa has rejected reality star Kim Kardashian's claim that the 1969 space mission to land the first man on the Moon was faked.

"Yes, we've been to the Moon before... 6 times!" Nasa acting administrator Sean Duffy wrote on social media.

Kardashian made the comments on the latest episode of her long-running TV series The Kardashians, telling co-star Sarah Paulson she thought the Moon landing "didn't happen".

Despite being consistently debunked, conspiracy theories as to whether humans actually reached the Moon have persisted for more than 50 years, particularly with the rise of social media.

In the episode, Kardashian can be seen showing Paulson an interview with astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who along with Neil Armstrong took the first steps on the lunar surface during the Apollo 11 mission.

"I'm sending you a million articles with both Buzz Aldrin and the other one," Kardashian says, before reading a quote allegedly from Aldrin responding to a question about the scariest moment of the expedition.

"There was no scary moment because it didn't happen. It could've been scary, but it wasn't because it didn't happen," she reads.

It is unclear which article Kardashian was reading from, or if the quotes were actually from Aldrin.

Moments later, the reality star is seen telling a producer "I centre conspiracies all the time", adding that she believes the Moon landing was fake.

"I think it was fake. I've seen a few videos on Buzz Aldrin talking about how it didn't happen. He says it all the time now, in interviews. Maybe we should find Buzz Aldrin," she says.

Following the broadcast, Duffy tagged Kardashian in a post on X, rebuffing her comments, and promoted Nasa's current moon exploration program Artemis, which is "going back under the leadership" of Donald Trump.

"We won the last space race and we will win this one too," he added.

In response, Kardashian wrote back asking about the interstellar object named 3I/Atlas, which astronomers said could be the oldest comet ever seen.

"Wait…. what's the tea on 3I Atlas?!?!!!!!!!?????" she replied.

Duffy later invited Kardashian to the Kennedy Space Center for the launch of the Artemis mission to the moon.

For decades, scientists and experts have rebutted conspiracy theories claiming the Apollo 11 mission was a hoax.

"Every single argument claiming that Nasa faked the Moon landings has been discredited," according to the Institute of Physics.

A South African court has ruled that Nobel laureate Albert Luthuli's 1967 death was the result of an "assault" by apartheid police, overturning decades of claims that it was an accident.

An inquest held under the apartheid government concluded that Luthuli, the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died after being struck by a freight train while walking along a railway line.

But activists and his family had long cast doubt on the findings, and South Africa's government reopened the case this year.

A judge on Thursday ruled that the anti-apartheid hero died as a result of a fractured skull and a cerebral haemorrhage associated with an assault. His family has welcomed the judgement.

Luthuli, who at the time of his death was the leader of the then-banned African National Congress (ANC), won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960 for spearheading the fight against apartheid.

• Ghosts of apartheid haunt South Africa as compensation anger brews
• South Africa's long wait for justice over apartheid crimes

The ANC went on to lead the struggle against white-minority rule and came to power in 1994, following the first democratic elections.

South Africa's National Prosecuting Authority in April reopened fresh investigations into Luthuli's death as family and activists suspected the apartheid authorities had killed him and covered it up.

Delivering the judgment on Thursday, Judge Nompumelelo Radebe said evidence presented at the reopened inquest did not support the 1967 inquest findings.

"It is found that the deceased died as a result of a fractured skull, cerebral haemorrhage and concussion of the brain associated with an assault," Judge Nompumelelo ruled.

The judge said Luthuli's death was attributable to "assault by members of the security special branch of the South African police, acting in concert and in common purpose with employees of the South African Railway Company".

She named seven men, whose whereabouts could "not be ascertained", as having committed or being complicit in the murder. If found, they could face criminal charges.

After the judgment was read out, the Luthuli family's spokesperson called it "the first part of finally getting justice".

ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu also welcomed the court's decision, which she said "corrected a long-standing distortion of history".

"This ruling brings justice, truth and dignity to the memory of one of South Africa's greatest sons and to all those who suffered under apartheid brutality," Bhengu added.

The case at the Pietermaritzburg High Court is the latest in renewed efforts by South African authorities to deliver justice for victims of apartheid-era crimes and closure for their families.

Last month, South Africa prosecutors reopened the inquest into the death of anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko, who died in police custody in 1977 after being tortured.

In May, President Cyril Ramaphosa established a judicial commission of inquiry to look into allegations of improper influence in delaying or hindering the investigation and prosecution of apartheid-era crimes.

More BBC stories on South Africa:

• Remembering anti-apartheid legend Steve Biko
• Timol inquest: Verdict gives hope to apartheid victims
• 'We have to prioritise South Africans': Anti-migrant movement blocks foreigners from healthcare
• South Africa debates changing name of world-famous Kruger park

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 Sagrada Família has become the tallest church in the world, after workers placed the first part of a cross at the top of its central tower.

Now measuring 162.91 metres tall, the Spanish basilica has officially pipped the record from the Ulm Minster in Germany, which has held the crown since 1890.

Designed by acclaimed architect Antoni Gaudí, the place of worship has been under construction in the centre of Barcelona for more than a century, with the main building due to be completed next year.

The central Tower of Jesus Christ will grow with the addition of the rest of the cross over the next few months, eventually standing at 172 metres tall.

The first stone of the Sagrada Família was placed in 1882, with up-and-coming architect Gaudí taking over the project the following year.

He transformed the original designs for the basilica into a far more ambitious proposal, which was initially funded by donations from repentant worshippers.

At the time of his unexpected death in 1926, just one of the planned 18 towers had been built.

In the years following, the construction of the architectural marvel was managed by the Sagrada Família foundation, and funded by contributions from tourists, visitors and private donors.

In addition to the death of its primary architect, the basilica has hit a number of roadblocks throughout its almost 150-year construction.

During the Spanish Civil War, Catalan anarchists set fire to the crypt, destroying plans and plaster models created by Gaudí that would guide future construction.

Most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic saw construction on the building halted, with members of the foundation attributing the pause to a lack of tourism, and the subsequent drop in funding for the project.

In September this year, Sagrada Família General Director Xavier Martínez told the Associated Press that the Tower of Jesus Christ would be completed in 2026, to coincide with the centenary of Gaudí's death.

The foundation will hold a series of events to commemorate the architect, who is buried in the church's crypt.

Work on decorative details, sculptures and a stairway leading to the building's main entrance is expected to continue over the next decade.

In a wood on the edge of St Petersburg they're reading out a list of names.

Each name is a victim of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's Great Terror.

In this part of Russia there are thousands of names to be read. Thousands of lives to remember on Russia's annual Remembrance Day for Victims of Political Repression.

Buried in the Levashovo Wasteland are believed to be at least 20,000 people - possibly as many as 45,000 - who were denounced, shot and disposed of in mass graves; individuals, as well as whole families destroyed in the dictator's purge in the 1930s.

Nailed to the trunks of pine trees are portraits of the executed. Standing here you can feel the ghosts of Russia's past.

But what of the present?

Today, Russian authorities speak less about Stalin's crimes against his own people, preferring to portray the dictator as a victorious wartime leader.

What's more, in recent years a string of repressive laws has been adopted here to punish dissent and silence criticism of the Kremlin and of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Kremlin critics might not be denounced as "enemies of the people" like under Stalin. But increasingly they are being designated "foreign agents".

The authorities claim the labelling helps to protect Russia from external threats.

More than three and a half years after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities have two main objectives: victory abroad and conformity at home.

Anyone here who publicly challenges, questions or even hints they doubt the official narrative that, in this war Russia is in the right, risks becoming a target.

At Leninsky District Courthouse, the stairwell outside Courtroom 11 is packed with journalists. There is barely room to move.

I get talking to Irina. Her daughter Diana is on her way here in a police car for a court appearance.

"This must be frightening for you," I say.

Irina nods.

"I never thought anything like this could happen," says Irina softly. "You can't imagine it. Until it happens to you."

Minutes later, 18-year-old Diana Loginova arrives in the building guarded by three police officers. She hugs her mother and is taken into court.

Diana has already spent 13 days in jail for "organising a mass public gathering of citizens resulting in a violation of public order".

But the charges keep coming.

The "mass gathering" was an improvised street concert which the authorities claim obstructed pedestrian access to a Metro station.

Diana Loginova is a music student and, under the name Naoko, lead singer with the band Stoptime.

On the streets of St Petersburg, Stoptime have been performing songs by exiled Russian artists like Noize MC and Monetochka, singer-songwriters fiercely critical of the Kremlin and of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Many of these prominent musicians, now abroad, have been officially designated foreign agents by Russian authorities.

Videos posted online show that Stoptime's street concerts have been attracting quite a crowd, with dozens of mainly young people singing along and dancing to the music.

Whilst it is not forbidden in Russia to sing or play songs by foreign agents, in May a Russian court banned Noize MC's track Swan Lake Cooperative, claiming it contained "propaganda for the violent change of the constitutional order".

Swan Lake is seen by many as a symbol of political change in Russia.

In the USSR, Soviet TV often showed the ballet following the death of Soviet leaders, and it was back on Soviet TV screens in 1991 during the failed coup by communist hardliners. Lake (Ozero in Russian) is also the name of a dacha co-operative widely associated with President Putin's inner circle.

A video clip of Stoptime performing the song went viral recently on social media.

Diana Loginova was detained on 15 October. Police also arrested her boyfriend, guitarist Alexander Orlov, and drummer, Vladislav Leontyev.

The three band members were sentenced to between 12 and 13 days behind bars.

In Courtroom 11 Diana is facing an additional charge: discrediting the Russian armed forces. It relates to one of the songs she sang: You're a Soldier by ("foreign agent") Monetochka.

"You're a soldier," begins the chorus.

"And whatever war you are fighting,

"I'm sorry, I'll be on the other side."

After a brief hearing the judge finds Diana guilty of discrediting Russia's army and fines her 30,000 roubles (£285).

But she is not free to go. The police take Diana back to the police station and prepare more charges.

The next day she and her boyfriend Alexander are brought to Smolninsky District Court. I manage to have a word with them before they enter the courtroom.

"I'm very pleased, and it's important, that people have been supporting us, that many people are on our side, on the side of truth," Diana tells me.

"I'm surprised by how things have been exaggerated. We've been accused of lots of things we didn't do. All we were doing was bringing the music we like to a mass audience. The power of music is very important. What's happening now proves that."

"I think it's not the words, it's the music that is most important," guitarist Alexander Orlov tells me. "Music says everything for people. It always has."

Alexander reveals he proposed to Diana when the police van they were being transported in stopped at a petrol station.

"I made a ring out of a tissue," he tells me. "I had time to get on my knees, and she said yes."

"We hope we'll be back home soon," says Diana. "That's what we're dreaming of most."

They won't be going home yet. At this latest court hearing the judge sends Diana and Alexander back to jail for another 13 days for more public order offences.

Civil society in Russia is under intense pressure. Yet supporters of Diana Loginova and Stoptime are trying to make their voices heard.

"I was on the street when Diana was singing and people were singing along so beautifully," says Alla outside the courthouse. "For me it was important to be here to support Diana and show her some people do care. This should not be happening."

To another of Diana's supporters I suggest that, in Russia now, displaying solidarity for anyone accused of discrediting the Russian army requires a degree of courage.

"It's people like Diana who are the brave ones," says Sasha. "We're cowards. Some people are heroes. Others just follow behind."

"Some people [in Russia] are scared," continues Sasha. "But others here do support the authorities and what's going on. Unfortunately, I know people like this. It came as a blow when I discovered that people I've been friends with for 40 years support what's happening. For years they've been watching Russian TV. I haven't."

In the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Mikhailov expressed his solidarity through music. The street musician performed songs in support of Diana Loginova. He was detained and jailed for 14 days for "petty hooliganism".

Despite the crackdown, young street musicians in St Petersburg continue to perform music by artists labelled foreign agents by Russian authorities.

It's a chilly autumn evening. But passers-by have stopped to listen to a teenage band outside a St Petersburg Metro station. Among the songs they're performing are compositions by "foreign agents" Noize MC and Morgenshtern.

Suddenly the police turn up. The concert is over.

I look on as three band members are taken away in a police car.

I go to meet someone else in St Petersburg accused of "discreditation".

Ludmila Vasilyeva, 84, was born two months before Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.

She survived the Nazi siege of Leningrad (then the name for St Petersburg) and has carried with her all her life how devastating war can be.

So, when Vladimir Putin ordered a mass invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ludmila was deeply shocked.

Earlier this year, on the third anniversary of Russia's "special military operation", Ludmila went on to the street to express her anti-war stance.

"I wrote on my placard: 'People! Let's stop the war. We bear responsibility for peace on Planet Earth!'"

Following her personal protest Ludmila received a letter from the police instructing her to report to the police station.

"They told me that I had discredited our soldiers. How? By calling for peace? I let them know that everything I'd wanted to say I'd already made quite clear on my placard and that I wouldn't be going down to the station. They threatened to take me to court. And in the end that's what they did."

Ludmila was fined 10,000 roubles (£95) for "discrediting the Russian armed forces".

She has no regrets and seemingly, despite the growing repression around her, no fear.

"Why should I be scared?" Ludmila asks me. "Of what and of whom should I be frightened? I'm not scared of anyone. I speak the truth. And they know that."

She believes that increasing authoritarianism stems from those in power fearing the public.

"People are scared. But [the authorities] are more scared. That's why they're tightening the screws."

Ludmila Vasilyeva's outspokenness is an exception, not the rule. Today few Russians engage in public protest. I ask Ludmila why that is: is it fear, indifference, or because of support for the authorities?

"Most people are focused on their own lives, on just surviving," Ludmila replies.

But she claims that when she speaks her mind publicly many people agree with her.

"When I go to the shops, I always strike up a conversation. No one has ever sneaked on me or put in a complaint about me.

"Once I was saying something down at the post office. Someone turned to me and said: 'Quiet, keep it down.' I replied: 'Why should I be quiet? What I'm saying, isn't it the truth? Truth must be spoken loudly.'"

Not everyone agrees.

"When I was standing with my placard and talking to a policeman, a man in his 50s came up to us. He leant forward and said: 'Just strangle her.'"

Five people have been charged in connection with the 2023 overdose death of Robert De Niro's grandson and two other 19 year olds.

New York authorities accuse the suspects, Bruce Epperson, Eddie Barreto, Grant McIver, John Nicolas, and Roy Nicolas, of running a fentanyl distribution network that sold counterfeit prescription opioid pills through social media to teenagers and young adults in the city.

Authorities link the network to the overdose deaths of Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, Akira Stein - daughter of Blondie co-founder Chris Stein - and a third unnamed victim.

The five are each charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute.

"Through their alleged actions, these defendants left behind a trail of irreversible loss that cut short the lives of three teenagers who held boundless potential and who had already made profound, immeasurable impacts on those who knew them," said Homeland Security Investigations New York special agent in charge Ricky Patel in a statement on Thursday.

Prosecutors allege the five used social media and encrypted messaging apps to sell thousands fentanyl-laced pills in New York between January and July 2023.

They allege that over that summer, the drugs they sold led to at least three deaths.

Stein was found dead 30 May after taking fentanyl-laced pills she allegedly purchased from John and Roy Nicolas. The unnamed victim, who died 13 June, allegedly purchased pills through an intermediary from Mr McIver.

Authorities say De Niro-Rodriguez, who died 2 July, got pills from a dealer who allegedly obtained them from Mr McIver, Mr Epperson, and Mr Barreto.

Separatedly in 2023, a woman was arrested for allegedly selling De Niro-Rodriguez three counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl - the drugs believed to have led to his death - and tablets of Xanax.

In a statement after the death of his grandson, Academy-Award winner De Niro said he was "deeply distressed" by the passing of his "beloved grandson", who was the only child of his daughter Drena.

In a statement on Instagram on Thursday, Chris Stein noted the arrests in his daughter's case and thanked officials "for this hope of some justice for her".

If found guilty, the charges carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison, officials said.

Shirley Chung was just a year old when she was adopted by a US family in 1966.

Born in South Korea, her birthfather was a member of the American military, who returned home soon after Shirley was born. Unable to cope, her birth mother placed her in an orphanage in the South Korean capital, Seoul.

"He abandoned us, is the nicest way I can put it," says Shirley, now 61.

After around a year, Shirley was adopted by a US couple, who took her back to Texas.

Shirley grew up living a life similar to that of many young Americans. She went to school, got her driving licence and worked as a bartender.

"I moved and breathed and got in trouble like many teenage Americans of the 80s. I'm a child of the 80s," Shirley says.

Shirley had children, got married and became a piano teacher. Life carried on for decades with no reason to doubt her American identity.

But then in 2012, her world came crashing down.

She lost her Social Security card and needed a replacement. But when she went to her local Social Security office, Shirley was told she needed to prove her status in the country. Eventually she found out she did not have US citizenship.

"I had a little mental breakdown after finding out I wasn't a citizen," she says.

Shirley is not alone. Estimates of how many American adoptees lack citizenship range from 18,000 to 75,000. Some intercountry adoptees may not even know they lack US citizenship.

Dozens of adoptees have been deported to their countries of birth in recent years, according to the Adoptee Rights Law Center. A man born in South Korea and adopted as a child by an American family - only to be deported to his country of birth because of a criminal record - took his own life in 2017.

The reasons why so many US adoptees do not have citizenship are varied. Shirley blames her parents for failing to finalise the correct paperwork when she came to the US. She also blames the school system and the government for not highlighting that she did not have citizenship.

"I blame all the adults in my life that literally just dropped the ball and said: 'She's here in America now, she's going to be fine.'"

"Well, am I? Am I going to be fine?"

Another woman, who requested anonymity for fear of attracting the attention of authorities, was adopted by an American couple from Iran in 1973 when she was two years old.

Growing up in the US Midwest, she encountered some racism but generally had a happy upbringing.

"I settled into my life, always understanding that I was an American citizen. That's what I was told. I still believe that today," she says.

But that changed when she tried to get a passport at the age of 38 and discovered immigration authorities had lost critical documents that supported her claim to citizenship.

This has further complicated her feelings surrounding identity.

"I personally don't categorise myself as an immigrant. I didn't come here as an immigrant with a second language, a different culture, family members, ties to a country that I was born in… my culture was erased," she says.

"You are told that you have these rights as an American - to vote and to participate in democracy, to work, to go to school, to raise your family, to have freedoms - all these things that Americans have.

"And then all of a sudden they started pushing us into a category of immigrants, simply because they cut us from legislation. We should have all equally had citizenship rights because that was promised through adoption policies."

For decades, intercountry adoptions approved by courts and government agencies did not automatically guarantee US citizenship. Adoptive parents sometimes failed to secure legal status or naturalised citizenship for their children.

The Child Citizenship Act of 2000 made some headway in rectifying this, granting automatic citizenship to international adoptees. But the law only covered future adoptees or those born after February 1983. Those who arrived before then were not granted citizenship, leaving tens of thousands in limbo.

Advocates have been pushing for Congress to remove the age cut-off but these bills have failed to make it past the House.

Some, like Debbie Principe, whose two adopted children have special needs, have spent decades trying to secure citizenship for their dependents.

She adopted two children from an orphanage in Romania in the 1990s after watching them on Shame of a Nation - a documentary about the neglect of children in orphanages following the 1989 Romanian Revolution, that sent shockwaves around the world when it aired.

The most recent rejection of citizenship came in May, and was followed by a notice stating that if the decision was not appealed in 30 days, she would have to turn in her daughter to Homeland Security, she said.

"We'll just be lucky if they don't get picked up and deported to another country that isn't even their country of origin," Ms Principe said.

Those fears for adoptees and their families have risen even further since President Donald Trump returned to the White House, with a vow to remove "promptly all aliens who enter or remain in violation of federal law".

Last month, the Trump administration said "two million illegal aliens have left the United States in less than 250 days, including an estimated 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported and more than 400,000 deportations".

While many Americans support deportations of illegal migrants, there has been uproar over some incidents.

In one case, 238 Venezuelans were deported by the US to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. They were accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang despite most of them having no criminal records.

Last month, US officials detained 475 people - more than 300 of them South Korean nationals - who they said were working illegally at Hyundai's battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in Georgia. The workers were taken away in handcuffs and chains to be detained, sparking outrage in their home country.

Adoptee rights groups say they have been flooded with requests for help since Trump's return and some adoptees have gone into hiding.

"When the election results came in, it started to really cascade with requests for help," said Greg Luce, an attorney and founder of the Adoptee Rights Law Center, adding he's had more than 275 requests for help.

The adoptee who arrived from Iran in the 1970s said she has started avoiding certain areas, like her local Iranian supermarket, and shares an app with her friends so they always have access to her location, in case she is "swept up".

"At the end of the day, they don't care about your back story. They don't care that you're legally here and it's just a paperwork error. I always tell people this one single piece of paper has essentially just ruined my life," she said.

"As far as I'm concerned right now, I feel stateless."

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite adoptees being left in limbo for decades, Emily Howe, a civil and human rights attorney who has worked with adoptees across the US, believes it is just a case of political will that should unite people from across the political spectrum.

"It should be a straightforward fix: adopted children should be equal to their biological siblings of parents who were US citizens at the time of birth," Ms Howe said.

"The applicants have two, three, or four US citizen parents, and are now in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. We're talking about babies and toddlers who were shipped overseas through no fault of their own and lawfully admitted under US policy," she added.

"These are people who literally were promised that they were going to be Americans when they were two years old."

Shirley wishes she could get the US president into a room, so she and others like her could explain their stories.

"I would ask him to please have some compassion. We're not illegal aliens," she said.

"We were put on planes as little itty-bitty babies. Just please hear our story and please follow through with the promise that America gave each one of the babies that got on those planes: American citizenship."

Thousands of people displaced by ethnic clashes in India's north-eastern state of Manipur two years ago now face an uncertain future, as the government plans to shut down all temporary relief camps by December.

The violence, which erupted in May 2023 between the majority Meitei and the indigenous Kuki communities, was the worst the region had witnessed in decades.

It started after protests by the largely Christian Kuki community against the Meiteis, mostly Hindus, who were demanding official tribal status that would grant them access to the same government benefits and job quotas as other tribes, including Kukis.

At least 260 people were killed in the clashes and around 60,000 displaced people have since been living in temporary shelters.

Over the past two years, the government has made repeated promises to rehabilitate the displaced, but little has changed on the ground. Many say their lives remain in a limbo - effectively homeless and without a steady source of income.

Anxieties grew further in July when the state's then Chief Secretary Prashant Singh announced that all relief camps would be shut down by December and its residents would be resettled.

He added that those unable to return to their homes would be relocated to pre-fabricated housing units.

The government, however, did not clarify where these units would be - whether near the relief camps or near displaced people's original homes - worsening their concerns about future.

Uncertainty grew in September when Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his first visit to Manipur since the violence began, announced that 7,000 new homes would be built to resettle the displaced in "appropriate locations" without giving any other details.

On the ground, Manipur remains sharply divided: the Meiteis inhabit the Imphal Valley, while the Kukis live in the surrounding hill districts; and security forces continue to patrol the buffer zones that separate the two communities.

A security official deployed in the area told BBC Hindi that his mandate was to "ensure that Meiteis and Kukis remain in their respective areas and do not mix".

Experts say resettling people in their original neighbourhoods is crucial to prevent the violence from redrawing Manipur's social map.

"This is not good for a secular, democratic India. Resettling them in their original homes is most critical," said RK Nimai Singh, former secretary to the Manipur governor.

He added that many displaced people feared that if they left the relief camps and moved into temporary housing, they might never be able to return to their homes.

It's a thought that haunts Hatnu Haokip. For her, home means only one place - Imphal valley - and she yearns to go back.

"But that can't happen because our village is now surrounded by Meitei people," said the 22-year-old who is now living in a relief camp in the hilly Churachandpur region

Ms Haokip added that she would feel safer if Kuki leaders were given autonomy to set up a separate federally-administered territory for the community.

This sentiment was echoed by several other Kukis, who also feel apprehensive of returning to their homes.

On the other hand, most Meiteis BBC Hindi spoke to said they wanted to go back home.

Irom Abung, who once ran a water supply business in Churachandpur, now lives in a relief camp near a buffer zone.

His house was damaged during the violence, but Mr Abung says he will never give up on the place he once called home.

"My land remains. I will never sell it because I know I will return one day," he said. "Efforts must be made to bridge the gap between our two communities so people can go back to their lives."

The unease, coupled with uncertainty over where the new homes will be built, has raised doubts over whether the government would be able to close all relief camps by December.

Government officials, however, insist that the resettlement plan is on track.

"From about 290 camps initially, we've brought the number down to around 260," a senior Manipur government official said.

"Eventually, we want to resettle people in the areas from where they fled, once they feel safe to return."

The official added that while they understood people's concerns, it was also in the state's interest for them to return home - otherwise, the divisions would only grow deeper.

As tens of thousands of people continue to live in relief camps, many complain about not getting the facilities the government promised them.

Nemhoichong Lhungdim, a single mother, said her 11-year-old son had suffered a debilitating eye injury a few months back and has lost sight in one eye.

After government doctors failed to help, she borrowed money to take him to a private hospital, but was unable to afford the treatment.

"I was told it would cost about 300,000 rupees ($3,400; £2,600). I don't have that kind of money," she said.

Ms Lhungdim says the government sometimes organises health camps, but they have never treated her son. BBC Hindi has reached out to officials for a response.

Inside the camps, residents say prolonged displacement and uncertainty are also taking a toll on people's mental health.

Salam Monika, 25, says her uncle took his own life last year after being driven to despair by a lack of livelihood opportunities. She says the family could not access medical help.

"Some mental health workers visited our camp a few times since 2023, but this year, they haven't come at all," she said.

BBC Hindi has reached out to the government for comment.

Meanwhile, those moved from camps into temporary housing say that while they now have a roof over their heads, they still struggle to make ends meet as livelihood remains a concern.

Chingakham Radha, one of the newly resettled residents, said she learned to make crochet dolls while living in the camp and now earns a small income from selling them. "The money is very little, just enough to get by," she said.

Before the conflict, Ms Radha was a homemaker and her husband worked as a labourer. They were not wealthy, but had a happy life.

Thinking about those days, Ms Radha says life has become uncertain now.

"Some days my husband finds work, but other times weeks go by without any work," she said. "I want to return home to Churachandpur, but those hopes are fading with time."

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Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jewish Israelis are taking part in a protest in Jerusalem against changes to a legal exemption for religious students from conscription in the military.

Almost all sects and factions of the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, community are taking part in what has been dubbed the "march of the million".

Since the founding of Israel, students enrolled full-time at a religious school, or yeshiva, have been exempted from conscription, although some other members of the community do serve in the military.

Demands for them to play a bigger role have intensified during the war in Gaza.

Roads in and around Jerusalem were shut down before the start of one of the biggest anti-conscription protests by ultra-Orthodox Israelis in years.

It is bringing together disparate elements of the community, which makes up about 14% of the Israeli population.

What is uniting them is their opposition not only to moves to enforce conscription for more of their community, but also anger at hundreds of arrests in recent months of ultra-Orthodox men avoiding the draft.

The Haredi believe that their age-old way of life could be under threat.

But many in Israel feel they have not shared their fair burden in the war.

Bringing them into the military would help with a shortfall in manpower.

But there are also concerns in the military about conscripting large numbers of ultra-Orthodox - integration would be a difficult challenge, as well as accommodating the Haredi need to adhere to the strict code of their religious beliefs.

The latest iPhones have seen "a tremendous response" across the globe, said Apple boss Tim Cook as the tech giant released its latest financial results.

The firm unveiled its thinnest iPhone, the Air, in September, along with upgraded iPhone 17 models, proving a bumper crop for the firm.

It said it expects the upcoming Christmas and New Year's period to be a blockbuster, forecasting overall revenue to be up to 12% higher than the same period last year.

But Apple narrowly missed estimates for iPhone sales in its fourth quarter that ended in September, which boss Tim Cook blamed on supply constraints for several iPhone models along with a lag in shipments to China.

Despite that, during a call with analysts Mr Cook said Apple is heading into the holiday season "with our most powerful lineup ever".

The iPhone Air helped entice customers and boost sales.

If the company meets its sales forecast for the holiday season, it would be Apple's "best quarter ever", chief financial officer Kevan Parekh told analysts on Thursday.

Apple reported overall fourth quarter revenue of $102.5bn (£77bn), topping analysts' estimates and representing an 8% increase from the previous year. But iPhone revenue, specifically, came in slightly below expectations at $49bn (£37bn).

Mr Cook stressed that global demand for iPhone 16 and 17 models has been robust, despite constraints that led to the sales miss in the recent quarter.

"We're not predicting when the supply and demand will balance," Mr Cook said. "We're obviously working very hard to achieve that, because we want to get as many of these products out to customers as possible."

In the Chinese market, he said he "couldn't be more pleased with how things are going", citing strong reception to the new iPhone 17.

Data from Counterpoint, a technology market research firm, showed that the first 10 days of iPhone 17 sales in the US and China were up 14% compared with sales of the iPhone 16.

The effects of US President Donald Trump's tariffs also remain top of mind for Apple's investors. It manufactures many iPhones in China and its global supply chain leaves it vulnerable to trade wars - though a recent meeting between Trump and President Xi raised hopes for a de-escalation of tensions.

Mr Cook on Thursday told analysts that the company took at $1.1bn (£836m) hit from tariffs in the recently ended quarter. He said the hit will likely amount to another $1.4bn in the holiday quarter as Trump imposes taxes on those whom he sees as "unfavourable" to the US economy.

Amazon, which also reported quarterly results on Thursday, projected sales to land between $206bn (£156bn) and $213bn (£161bn) for the current quarter through December, largely in line with analysts' expectations.

"We're encouraged by the start of the peak season," Brian Olsavsky, Amazon's chief financial officer, told analysts.

Amazon also said that revenue from Amazon Web Services (AWS), its cloud computing business, rose 20% in the third quarter from the previous year - its fastest pace since 2022.

For investors, that AI-driven growth could come as a reassurance, as Apple faces fierce competition in the race to dominate the AI boom.

Apple's stock has lagged behind that of rivals Microsoft and Alphabet, both of whom on Wednesday reaffirmed their commitment to spending big on the technology. Those firms have reported even faster growth than Amazon in their cloud computing businesses.

"We continue to see strong demand in AI and core infrastructure, and we've been focused on accelerating capacity," Andy Jassy, Amazon's chief executive, said in a statement.

World leaders will soon gather for their annual meeting on how to tackle climate change.

COP30 is taking place ten years after the Paris climate agreement, in which countries pledged to try to restrict the rise in global temperatures to 1.5C.

What is COP30 and what does it stand for?

COP30 is the 30th annual UN climate meeting, where governments discuss how to limit and prepare for further climate change.

COP stands for "Conference of the Parties". "Parties" refers to the nearly 200 countries that signed up to the original UN climate agreement in 1992.

When is COP30?

COP30 officially runs from Monday 10 November to Friday 21 November.

World leaders will gather before the summit opens on Thursday 6 November and Friday 7 November.

The conference often overruns as a result of last-minute negotiations to secure a deal which is acceptable to all the participants.

Where is COP30 taking place?

The conference is being held in Brazil for the first time, in Belém in the Amazon rainforest.

The host nation is officially chosen by the participating countries after a nomination from the host region, which tends to rotate - similar to the way that the Fifa World Cup and the Olympic Games tend to jump between continents.

But the choice of Belém has caused significant logistical challenges, due to its poor transport links and lack of affordable hotels.

Some delegations have struggled to secure accommodation, leading to concerns that poorer nations could be priced out.

The decision to clear a section of Amazon rainforest to build a road, which will be used for the summit, has also proved controversial.

Brazil has also continued to grant new oil and gas licences in the run up to COP30. Oil and gas - alongside coal - are fossil fuels, the main cause of global warming.

Who is going to COP30 – and who isn't?

Representatives are expected from countries around the globe, but many world leaders are yet to confirm their attendance.

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will be there, as will Prince William, who will be there on behalf of King Charles.

It is unclear what form the US delegation will take.

Shortly after his inauguration in January 2025, President Trump vowed to withdraw from the Paris agreement which underpins the international commitment to tackle climate change.

It follows a similar move during his first administration in 2017, but that step was promptly reversed on former President Joe Biden's first day in office in 2021.

China, the world's biggest emitter of planet-warming gases, is expected to send a delegation, but President Xi Jinping is not likely to be there.

Politicians will be joined by diplomats, journalists and campaigners.

Previous summits have been criticised for the large number of attendees who are connected to the coal, oil and gas industries, which campaigners argue shows the ongoing influence of fossil fuel advocates.

Why is COP30 important?

COP30 is taking place at a crucial moment with global climate targets under significant strain.

In Paris in 2015, nearly 200 countries agreed to try to limit global temperature rises to 1.5C above "pre-industrial" levels of the late 1800s, and keep them "well below" 2C.

There is very strong scientific evidence that the impacts of climate change - from extreme heat to sea-level rise - would be far greater at 2C than at 1.5C.

But while the use of renewable energy - particularly solar power - is growing at a rapid pace, countries' climate plans have consistently fallen short of what is needed to meet the 1.5C goal.

Under the Paris agreement, countries were supposed to have submitted updated plans ahead of COP30 detailing how they will cut their emissions of planet-warming gases.

But only a third of countries have done so.

Given how close the target is and how high emissions remain, UN secretary general António Guterres has conceded that "overshooting" that 1.5C target is now inevitable.

He added that he hoped temperatures could still be brought back down to the 1.5C target by the end of the century.

The UN hopes that COP30 will demonstrate an increased commitment to the process set out in the Paris pact.

What will be discussed at COP30?

Brazil hopes to agree steps to deliver commitments made at previous COPs.

As well as countries' new carbon-cutting plans, several areas could come up for discussion.

Fossil fuels

At COP28 in 2023, countries agreed for the first time about the need to "transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems".

But that language was not strengthened at COP29 in 2024, as many had hoped.

Money

At COP29, richer countries committed to give developing nations at least $300bn (about £227bn) a year by 2035 to help them tackle climate change. But that is far less than poorer countries say they need.

That agreement also included an aspiration to raise this to $1.3tn from public and private sources, but there have been few concrete details about this will be achieved.

Renewables

At COP28, countries agreed to treble the global capacity of renewables - such as wind and solar - by 2030.

While renewables are forecast to grow rapidly, the International Energy Agency says the world is currently not on track to meet that goal.

Nature

One new development could be the launch of the "Tropical Forests Forever Facility" - a fund to prevent the loss of tropical forests.

Will COP30 make any difference?

A major step forward looks challenging this year, not least because of the effect of the Trump administration.

In a speech to the UN in September, the US President branded climate change the "greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world", and falsely attacked the overwhelming scientific evidence for rising temperatures.

He has also pledged to boost oil and gas drilling and roll back green initiatives put in place by his predecessors.

It has been difficult to reach consensus at other environmental talks in 2025, such as the attempts to reach a first global plastics treaty in August, which collapsed for a second time.

In October, a landmark deal to cut global shipping emissions was delayed following pressure from the US and some other countries.

Some observers, such as campaigner Greta Thunberg, have accused previous COPs of "greenwashing" - letting countries and businesses promote their climate credentials without actually making the changes needed.

But significant global agreements have been reached at COP sessions, allowing greater progress than national measures on their own.

Despite the difficulties of delivering the 1.5C warming limit agreed at COP21 in Paris, the commitment has driven "near-universal climate action", according to the UN.

This has helped bring down the level of anticipated warming - even though the world is still not acting at anywhere near the pace needed to achieve the Paris goals.

Sign up for our Future Earth newsletter to keep up with the latest climate and environment stories with the BBC's Justin Rowlatt. Outside the UK? Sign up to our international newsletter here.

Shaken, scratched and left with just the clothes he is wearing, Ezzeldin Hassan Musa describes the brutality of Sudan's Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the wake of the paramilitary group taking control of el-Fasher city in the Darfur region.

He says its fighters tortured and murdered men trying to flee.

Now in the town of Tawila, lying exhausted on a mat under a gazebo, Ezzeldin is one of several thousand people who have made it to relative safety after escaping what the UN has described as "horrific" violence.

On Wednesday, RSF leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo admitted to "violations" in el-Fasher and said they would be investigated. A day later a senior UN official said the RSF had given notice that they had arrested some suspects.

About an 80km (50-mile) journey from el-Fasher, Tawila is one of several places where those lucky enough to escape the RSF fighters are fleeing to.

"We left el-Fasher four days ago. The suffering we encountered on the way was unimaginable," Ezzeldin says.

"We were divided into groups and beaten. The scenes were extremely brutal. We saw people murdered in front of us. We saw people being beaten. It was really terrible.

"I myself was hit on the head, back, and legs. They beat me with sticks. They wanted to execute us completely. But when the opportunity arose, we ran, while others in front were detained."

Ezzeldin says he joined a group of escapees who took shelter in a building, moving by night and sometimes literally crawling along the ground in an effort to remain hidden.

"Our belongings were stolen," he says. "Phones, clothes - everything. Literally, even my shoes were stolen. Nothing was left.

"We went without food for three days while walking in the streets. By God's mercy, we made it through."

Those in Tawila told the BBC that men making the journey were particularly likely to be subjected to scrutiny by the RSF, with fighters targeting anyone suspected of being a soldier.

• 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

Ezzeldin is one of around 5,000 people thought to have arrived in Tawila since the fall of el-Fasher on Sunday.

Many have made the entire journey on foot, travelling for three or four days to flee the violence.

A freelance journalist based in Tawila, working for the BBC, has conducted among the first interviews with some of those who made the journey.

Near to Ezzeldin sits Ahmed Ismail Ibrahim, his body bandaged in several places.

He says his eye was injured in an artillery strike, and he left the city on Sunday after receiving treatment in hospital.

He and six other men were stopped by RSF fighters.

"Four of them - they killed them in front of us. Beat them and killed them," he says, adding that he was shot three times.

Ahmed describes how the fighters demanded to see the phones of the three who were left alive and went through them, searching their messages.

One fighter, he says, finally told them: "OK, get up and go." They fled into the scrub.

"My brothers," he adds, "they didn't leave me behind.

"We walked for about 10 minutes, then rested for 10 minutes, and we continued until we found peace now."

In the next tent in the clinic run by medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Yusra Ibrahim Mohamed describes making the decision to flee the city after her husband, a soldier with the Sudanese army, was killed.

"My husband was in the artillery," she says. "He was returning home and was killed during the attacks.

"We stayed patient. Then the clashes and attacks continued. We managed to escape.

"We left three days ago," she says, "moving in different directions from the artillery areas. The people guiding us didn't know what was happening.

"If someone resisted, they were beaten or robbed. They would take everything you had. People could even be executed. I saw dead bodies in the streets."

Alfadil Dukhan works in the MSF clinic.

He and his colleagues have been providing emergency care to those who arrive - among them, he says, are 500 in need of urgent medical treatment.

"Most of the new arrivals are elders and women or children," the medic says.

"The wounded are suffering, and some of them they already have amputations.

"So they are really suffering a lot. And we are trying to just give them some support and some medical care."

Those arriving this week in Tawila join hundreds of thousands there who fled previous rounds of violence in el-Fasher.

Before its seizure by the RSF on Sunday, the city had been besieged for 18 months.

Those trapped inside were bombarded by a barrage of deadly artillery and air strikes as the army and the paramilitaries battled for el-Fasher.

And they were plunged into a severe hunger crisis by an RSF blockade of supplies and aid.

Hundreds of thousands were displaced in April when the RSF seized control of the Zamzam camp close to the city, at the time one of the main sites housing people forced to flee fighting elsewhere.

Some experts have expressed concern at the relatively low numbers arriving at places like Tawila now.

"This is actually a point of worry for us," says Caroline Bouvoir, who works with refugees in neighbouring Chad for the aid agency Solidarités International

"In the past few days we have about 5,000 people who have arrived, which considering we believe there were about a quarter of a million people still in the city, that is obviously not that many," she says.

"We see the conditions that those who have arrived are in. They are highly malnourished, highly dehydrated, or sick or injured, and they are clearly traumatised with what they have seen either in the city or on the road.

"We believe that many people are stuck currently in different locations between Tawila and el-Fasher, and unable to move forward - either because of their physical condition or because of the insecurity on the road, where militias are unfortunately attacking people who are trying to find safe haven."

For Ezzeldin the relief of having reached safety is tempered by the fears for those still behind him on the journey.

"My message is that public roads should be secured for citizens," he pleads, "or humanitarian aid sent to the streets.

"People are in a critical state - they can't move, speak, or seek help.

"Aid should reach them, because many are missing and suffering."

More BBC stories on the conflict:

• Sudan's years of war - BBC smuggles in phones to reveal hunger and fear
• A pregnant woman's diary of escape from war zone
• 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

Donald Trump came away from his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping full of bombastic optimism.

He called it a "great success" and rated it 12, on a scale of 1 to 10. China was less enthusiastic. Beijing's initial statement sounds like an instruction manual, with Xi urging teams on both sides to "follow up as soon as possible".

Trump is after a deal that could happen "pretty soon", while Beijing, it appears, wants to keep talking because it's playing the long game.

There was a more detailed second Chinese statement that echoed what Trump had said on board Air Force One.

Among other things, the US would lower tariffs on Chinese imports, and China would suspend controls on the export of rare earths, critical minerals without which you cannot make smartphones, electric cars and, perhaps more crucially, military equipment.

There is no deal yet, and negotiators on both sides have already been talking for months to iron out the details. But Thursday's agreement is still a breakthrough.

It steadies what has become a rocky relationship between the world's two biggest economies and it assures global markets.

But it is only a temporary truce. It doesn't solve the differences at the heart of such a competitive relationship.

"The US and China are going in different directions," says Kelly Ann Shaw who was an economic advisor to President Trump in his first term.

"It's really about managing the breakup in a way that does a limited amount of damage, that preserves US interests, and I think from China's perspective, preserves their own interests. But this is not a relationship that is necessarily going to improve dramatically anytime soon."

'Struggle, but don't break'

There is an art to doing a deal with Donald Trump.

It involves flattery, and most countries have tried it, including on his trip to Asia so far. South Korea gave him an enormous golden crown, while Japan's prime minister nominated him for a Nobel Peace prize.

But the Chinese leader offered only a meeting at a South Korean air base, where he and Trump would cross paths - as one flew in to the country, and the other departed.

It didn't feel out of step with China's guarded but defiant response from the start of Trump's trade war. Just days after the American president increased tariffs on Chinese goods, Beijing retaliated with its own levies.

Chinese officials told the world that there would be no winners in a trade war. Like Trump, Xi too believed he had the upper hand – and he seemed to have a plan.

He decided to use the country's economic weight - as the world's factory, as a massive market for its goods - to push back.

Unlike Trump, he does not need to worry about elections or a worried vote base.

That doesn't mean that Xi faces no pressures - he certainly does. He needs China's economy to grow, and create jobs and wealth so the Chinese Communist Party's power is not challenged by instability or discontent.

And yet, despite the country's current challenges - a real estate crisis, high youth unemployment and weak consumer spending - China has shown it is willing to absorb the pain of Trump's tariffs.

Beijing would "fight until the bitter end" was the message from various ministries.

"China's main principle is struggle, but don't break," says Keyu Jin, author of The New China Playbook.

"And it has escalated to de-escalate, which is a very new tactic."

Xi had a plan

That is, China hit Trump where it hurt. For the first time it limited exports of rare earths to the US - and China processes around 90% of the world's rare earth metals.

"The nuance often missed in the rare earths debate is that China has an overwhelming position over the most strategic bit of the rare earth supply chain: the heavy rare earths used in advanced defence systems," says Jason Bedford, macroeconomics expert and investment analyst.

"That advantage is far harder to dislodge than other parts of the rare earths industry."

So getting China to relax those export controls became a priority for Washington - and that was a key bit of leverage for Xi when he sat down with Trump.

China had also stopped buying US soybeans, which was aimed at farmers in Republican states - Trump's base.

Reports this week say Beijing has already started buying soybeans from the US again.

"If the US thinks that it can dominate China, it can suppress China, I think has proven to be wrong," Ms Jin says.

"This is really signalling to the world, especially the United States, that China needs to be respected, that it will not kowtow or give too many political or economic concessions."

Trump's team has found itself dealing with a stronger China compared to his first term. Beijing has learnt lessons too.

It spent the last four years finding new trade partners and relying less on US exports - nearly a fifth of Chinese exports once went to the US but in the first half of this year that figure dropped to 11%.

Xi showed up in South Korea, after officially confirming the meeting with Trump just the day before, to take part in political theatre that seemed to underline a position of strength.

As usual, he was in front of Trump for the handshake. He stood unblinking as Trump leaned forward to whisper in his ear - the kind of ad lib moment China abhors.

At the end of the meeting Trump ushered Xi to his waiting car where the Chinese leader was immediately surrounded by his security team. The US President was then forced to wander off camera to find his vehicle alone.

And yet there are many positives to take away from this superpower summit, the first of Trump's second term in office.

"China wants to be in a position of strength when it comes to negotiations, but it won't break the relationship, because that is in nobody's interest, including China's, Ms Jin says.

For starters, businesses, the markets and other countries caught in between the rivals will welcome the calm. But observers are not sure it will last.

"I think over the medium to long-term, the US and China have very serious differences, and I would not be surprised to see some more destabilisation in the next three to six months," says Ms Shaw.

Has Trump got the bigger, better deal with China he always wanted? Not yet.

Even if he does get a deal, and the two sides put ink on paper, Beijing has now shown that it is not willing to bend to Washington - and that it is more resilient.

The rivalry between the two sides is likely to continue, if or even when there is ever a done deal.

Hamas has handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza two coffins which the Palestinian group says contain the bodies of hostages, according to the Israeli military.

They will be transferred to Israeli forces, who will take them to Israel's National Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification.

Hamas's armed wing announced earlier that it had recovered the bodies of Israeli hostages Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch.

On Tuesday, Israel accused Hamas of violating the Gaza ceasefire deal after the group handed over a coffin containing human remains that did not belong to one of the 13 deceased Israeli and foreign hostages still in Gaza.

The Israeli government said forensic tests showed they belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, a hostage whose body had been recovered by Israeli forces in Gaza in late 2023.

The Israeli military also released footage filmed by a drone that showed Hamas members removing a body bag containing the remains from a building in Gaza City, reburying it, and then staging the discovery in front of Red Cross staff.

The Red Cross said its staff were unaware that the body bag had been moved before their arrival and that the staged recovery was "unacceptable".

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

Hours later, the Israeli government accused Hamas of another ceasefire violation, saying the group's fighters had killed an Israeli soldier in an attack in an area of southern Gaza.

Hamas claimed it was not involved in the incident in the Rafah area, but Israel's prime minister ordered a wave of air strikes across Gaza on Tuesday night in response. The Israeli military said it attacked "dozens of terror targets and terrorists".

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said 104 Palestinians were killed, including 46 children and 20 women, making it the deadliest day since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October.

US President Donald Trump maintained "nothing" would jeopardise the ceasefire agreement, which his administration brokered along with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, but he added that Israel should "hit back" when its soldiers were targeted.

Under the deal, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living and 28 dead hostages it was holding within 72 hours.

All the 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 13 dead hostages still in Gaza are Israelis, one is Tanzanian, and one is Thai.

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, in which more than 68,600 people have been killed, including more than 200 since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory's health ministry.

President Donald Trump has announced the US will start testing nuclear weapons in what could be a radical shift in his nation's policy.

"Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis," Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social, as he was about to meet the Chinese president on Thursday.

"That process will begin immediately."

The world's nuclear-armed states - those acknowledged as belonging to the so-called nuclear club and those whose status is more ambiguous - regularly test their nuclear weapons' delivery systems, such as a missile that would carry a nuclear warhead.

Only North Korea has actually tested a nuclear weapon since the 1990s - and it has not done so since 2017.

The White House has not issued any clarifications to the commander-in-chief's announcement. So it remains unclear whether Trump means testing nuclear delivery systems or the destructive weapons themeselves. In comments after his post, he said nuclear test sites would be determined later.

Six policy experts have told the BBC that testing nuclear weapons would raise the stakes in an already dangerous moment where all signs showed the world was heading in the direction of a nuclear arms race - even though it has not yet begun.

One of the six did not agree that Trump's comments would have a major impact - and another did not think the US was provoking a race - but all said the world faced a rising nuclear threat.

"The concern here is that, because nuclear armed states have not conducted these nuclear tests in decades - setting North Korea aside - this could create a domino effect," said Jamie Kwong, fellow in the nuclear policy programme at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"We're at a very concerning moment where the US, Russia and China are potentially entering this moment that could very well become an arms race."

Darya Dolzikova, Senior Research Fellow for Proliferation and Nuclear Policy at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) - a London-based defence and security think tank - said Trump's comments would change the situation massively.

But, she added, "there are other dynamics globally that have raised the risks of nuclear exchange and further proliferation of nuclear weapons levels higher than they have been in decades".

Trump's message, she said, "is a drop in a much larger bucket, and there are some legitimate concerns of that bucket overfilling".

The experts pointed to escalating conflicts where one or more of the warring parties is a nuclear power - the war in Ukraine, for instance, in which Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened at times that he could use nuclear weapons.

And then there were flare-ups - if not full-fledged conflicts - such as the one between Pakistan and India this year, or Israel - which has a policy of neither confirming nor denying it has nuclear weapons - attacking Iran - a country the West accuses of trying to build nuclear weapons (a charge Tehran denies).

Tensions on the Korean peninsula and China's ambitions in Taiwan add to the overall picture.

The last existing nuclear treaty between the US and Russia that limits their amounts of deployed nuclear arsenals - warheads ready to go - is set to expire in February next year.

In his announcement, Trump said the US had more nuclear weapons than any other country - a statement that does not match figures updated regularly by another think tank that specialises in the field, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

According to Sipri, Russia has 5,459 nuclear warheadsm followed by the US with 5,177, an China coming a distant third with 600.

Other think tanks reported similar numbers.

Russia announced recently it had tested new nuclear weapons delivery systems - including a missile the Kremlin said could penetrate US defences and another that could go underwater to strike the US coast.

The latter claim may have led to Trump's announcement, some of the experts suspected, even though Russia said its tests "were not nuclear".

Meanwhile, the US has been watching China closely - with increasing concern that it will reach near-peer status, too, and posing a "two-peer nuclear risk", experts said.

So a resumption of US nuclear testing could prompt China and Russia to do the same.

A Kremlin spokesman said that "if someone departs from the moratorium, Russia will act accordingly".

In its response, China said it hoped the US would fulfil its obligations under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty - which both countries have signed but not ratified - and honour its commitment to suspend nuclear testing.

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said a US resumption of nuclear weapons testing would be "a mistake of historic international security proportions".

He said the risk of nuclear conflict "has been steadily rising" over several years and, unless the US and Russia "negotiate some form of new constraints on their arsenals, we're likely going to see an unconstained, dangerous, three-way arms race between the US, Russia and then China in the coming years".

Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, said the average person should be "very concerned" because there has been an increase over the past five years in nuclear warheads for the first time since the Cold War.

The last US nuclear weapons test - underground in Nevada - was in 1992.

Kimball said it would take at least 36 months to get the Nevada site ready for use again.

The US currently uses computer simulations and other non-explosive means to test its nuclear weapons, and therefore does not have a practical justification to detonate them, multiple experts said.

Kwong said there were inherent risks even with underground testing, because you must ensure there is not a radioactive leak above ground and it does not affect groundwater.

While blaming Russia and China for ratcheting up the rhetoric, Robert Peters, senior research fellow of strategic deterrence at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said that, while there may not be a scientific or technical reason for testing a warhead, "the primary reason is to send a political message for your opponents".

"It may be necessary for some president, whether it's Donald Trump or whomever, to test nuclear weapons as a demonstration of credibility", he said, arguing it was "not an unreasonable position to hold" to be prepared to test.

While many others the BBC spoke to disagreed, all offered a fairly dire assessment of the current situation.

"My sense is that, if the new nuclear arms race hasn't already begun, then we're currently heading towards the starting line," said Rhys Crilley, who writes on the subject at the University of Glasgow.

"I worry every day about the risks of a nuclear arms race and the increasing risk of nuclear war."

The US tested the first atomic bomb in July 1945 in the desert at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

It later became the only country in the world to use nuclear weapons in warfare after dropping two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of the same year during World War Two.

The US government shutdown has entered its fifth week and there is no clear end in sight.

With Democrats and Republicans deadlocked over passing a spending plan that would reopen federal agencies, millions of Americans are feeling economic pain that could soon grow worse.

The fiscal fight means millions of Americans may not receive food aid, thousands of troops could have to work without pay, and millions may go without heat.

Here’s how the shutdown has affected everyday people.

Food assistance

More than 40 million Americans use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) to feed themselves and their families.

While that programme had enough funding to survive the first four weeks of the shutdown, the Trump administration has said the money will run out on 1 November.

By Saturday, Snap benefits, also called food stamps, could lapse for the first time in the programme's history.

Snap is a critical lifeline that keeps families out of poverty, Hannah Garth, a Princeton University professor who studies food insecurity, told the BBC.

Groups that provide food for people in need are already under strain and the loss of Snap will make the situation worse, she added.

On Thursday, New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency so the state could “help the three million New Yorkers losing food assistance” because of the shutdown.

People enrolled in Snap have been stockpiling food and visiting aid organisations, as they wait for the impasse to lift on Capitol Hill.

Half the states and the District of Columbia have sued President Donald Trump's administration over the food aid freeze.

The administration, in turn, has blamed Democrats for the funding running dry and said it will only draw from a Snap contingency fund in an emergency such as a natural disaster.

The federal government distributes Snap benefits through programmes run by the states.

Some states, such as Virginia, have said they will be able to make up for any lack of funds in November, but others like Massachusetts have said they can't cover the shortfall.

Military pay

If the Trump administration does not intervene, more than a million members of the US military will miss their paycheques on Friday.

About a quarter of military families are considered food insecure, and 15% rely on Snap or food pantries, according to the research firm Rand. Meanwhile, the Military Family Advisory Network estimates that 27% of families have $500 (£380) or less in emergency savings.

The Pentagon says it has accepted a $130m gift from a wealthy donor to help pay salaries during the shutdown, but that only works out to $100 for each of the 1.3 million active-duty service members expecting to be paid.

The White House plans to pay the troops on 31 October by using money from a military housing fund, a research-and-development account, and a defence procurement fund, according to Axios, a political news outlet.

Earlier this month, the administration made payroll by moving $6.5bn from military research.

More than 160 families told the National Military Family Association, an advocacy group, that they have been underpaid during the shutdown, some by hundreds of dollars and others by thousands.

Heat amid the winter chill

Around six million Americans use a federal assistance initiative called the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (Liheap) for help paying utility bills.

The government usually sends Liheap funds directly to utility companies in mid-November.

The temperature is already dropping in northern areas, where Americans heat their homes with propane, electric and natural gas.

Many states bar natural gas and electric companies from cutting off service to people who do not pay their bills, but those rules do not apply to propane or heating oil.

Experts say thousands could face deadly conditions unless the government reopens or the government finds another resolution, such as a nationwide moratorium on cutting off heat in the shutdown.

Federal civilian workers

Thousands of Americans work for the federal government as civilian employees and many of those folks will miss a paycheque this week.

It has been a slow burn for many, with the side effects of the shutdown getting worse.

Some civilian employees were able to get a week or two of compensation, while others have not seen a dollar since 1 October.

Among those going without pay beginning this week are congressional aides on Capitol Hill.

Food banks and food pantries across the US have already said they have seen an increase in the number of federal workers asking for help - particularly in Washington, DC.

If the shutdown continues until 1 December, some 4.5 million paycheques will be withheld from federal civilian employees, making for about $21bn in missing wages, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Furloughed employees are typically paid after shutdowns end, although Trump has threatened to withhold pay and is currently trying to fire thousands of workers, which is being challenged in court.

Air traffic controllers

Thousands of air traffic controllers missed their first paycheques this week.

Because they are considered essential workers, they must continue to do their jobs without pay during the shutdown. Since 1 October, numerous controllers have called in sick and now many report they are getting second jobs.

In turn, thousands of US flyers have faced widespread delays.

“The problems are mounting daily,” Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said at a press conference this week.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said many of the flight delays in recent days and weeks have been the result of absence by air traffic controllers.

Duffy has warned controllers could be fired if they fail to show up for work.

Emerging evidence of systematic killings in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher have prompted human rights and aid activists to describe the civil war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the military as a "continuation of the Darfur genocide".

The fall of el-Fasher, in the Darfur region, after an 18-month RSF siege brings together the different layers of the country's conflict – with echoes of its dark past and the brutality of its present-day war.

The RSF emerged from the Janjaweed, Arab militias who massacred hundreds of thousands of Darfuris from non-Arab populations, in the early 2000s.

The paramilitary force has been accused of ethnic killings since its power struggle with the army erupted into violence in April 2023. The RSF leadership has consistently denied the accusations - although on Wednesday its leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo admitted to "violations" in el-Fasher.

The current charges are based on apparent evidence of atrocities provided by the RSF fighters themselves.

They have been sharing gruesome videos reportedly showing summary executions of mostly male civilians and ex-combatants, celebrating over dead bodies, and taunting and abusing people.

• New videos show executions after RSF militia takes key Sudan city
• A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan

Accounts from exhausted survivors also paint a picture of terror and violence.

"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 told the BBC Arabic service. He had escaped to the town of Tawila, a hub for those displaced from el-Fasher.

Another woman, Ikram Abdelhameed, told the Reuters news agency that RSF soldiers separated fleeing civilians at an earthen barrier around the city and shot the men.

And satellite images collected by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab show evidence of what seem to be massacre sites – clusters of bodies and reddish patches on the earth that the analysts believe could be blood stains.

El-Fasher "appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of… indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary execution", the Yale researchers say in a report.

There is a clear ethnic element to the battle for el-Fasher, because local armed groups from the dominant Zaghawa tribe, known as the Joint Force, have been fighting alongside the army.

The RSF fighters see Zaghawa civilians as legitimate targets.

That is what many survivors of the paramilitary takeover of the Zamzam displaced persons camp next to el-Fasher reported earlier this year, according to an investigation by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

The army has also been accused of targeting ethnic groups it sees as support bases for the RSF in areas it has recaptured, including the states of Sennar, Gezira and some parts of North Kordofan.

"Whether you're a civilian, wherever you are, it is not safe right now, even in Khartoum," says Emi Mahmoud, strategic director of the IDP Humanitarian Network which helps coordinate aid deliveries in Darfur.

"Because at the flip of a hat, the people in power who have the guns, they can and will continue to falsely imprison, disappear, kill, torture, everyone."

Both sides have been accused of war crimes - ethnically motivated revenge attacks are part of that.

It was Sudan's military government in 2003 that weaponised ethnicity – enlisting the Janjaweed to put down rebellions by black African groups in Darfur who accused Khartoum of politically and economically marginalising them.

The pattern of violence established then has been repeated in Darfur now, says Kate Ferguson, the co-founder of NGO Protection Approaches.

This was most evident in the 2023 massacre of members of the Masalit tribe in el-Geneina in West Darfur, which the UN says killed up to 15,000 people.

"For more than two years, the RSF have followed a very clear, practiced and predicted pattern," Ms Ferguson said at a press briefing.

"They first encircle their target town or city, they weaken it by cutting off access to food, to medicine, to power supplies, the internet. Then when it's weakened, they overwhelm the population with systematic arson, sexual violence, massacre and the destruction of vital infrastructure. This is a deliberate strategy to destroy and displace, and that's why I feel the appropriate word is genocide."

The RSF has denied involvement in what it has called "tribal conflicts", but Gen Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, appeared to be hearing expressions of mounting international outrage, including from the UN, the African Union, the European Union and the UK.

He released a video saying he was sorry for the disaster that had befallen the people of el-Fasher in a war that had been "forced upon us" and admitted there had been violations by his forces, promising they would be investigated by a committee that has now arrived in the city.

Any "soldier or any officer who committed a crime or crossed the lines against any person… will be immediately arrested and the result [of the investigation] to be announced immediately and in public in front of everyone," the general pledged.

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

It is also not clear how much control the RSF leadership has over its foot soldiers – a loose mix of hired militias, allied Arab groups, and regional mercenaries, many from Chad and South Sudan.

"The reality is that the way that the RSF is, it's very, very hard to believe that a command is going to be given by Hemedti, and then people on the ground are going to follow it," says aid co-ordinator Ms Mahmoud. "By that time, we'll have lost many, many people."

Aid groups and activists warn that if the pattern of the past two years is allowed to continue, it could happen again. They stress that the el-Fasher killings were entirely predictable, but the international community failed to act to protect civilians despite ample warning.

"The reality is that we laid these options out multiple times over six meetings with UN Security Council elements, with the US government, with the British government, with the French government, basically saying they had to be ready for a protection kinetic option [direct military action] in the summer of last year," says Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab.

"This cannot be something settled by a press conference. It has to be something settled by immediate action."

In particular, activists are urging pressure on the United Arab Emirates, which is widely accused of providing military support to the RSF. The UAE denies this despite evidence presented in UN reports and international media investigations.

"This is exactly like the siege of Sarajevo," says Ms Mahmoud, referring to the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnia war, which galvanised international action. "This is the Srebrenica moment."

More BBC stories on Sudan:

• Sudan's years of war - BBC smuggles in phones to reveal hunger and fear
• A pregnant woman's diary of escape from war zone
• 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

US presidential trips abroad have traditionally been an opportunity to display the power of the American nation on the world stage. Donald Trump's five-day swing through eastern Asia, on the other hand, has been a display of the power of Trump - but also, at times, of that power's limitations.

Trump's stops in Malaysia, Japan and South Korea over the course of the first four days were an exercise in pleasing a sometimes mercurial American president. It was an acknowledgement that Trump, with the flick of a pen, could impose tariffs and other measures that have the potential to devastate the economies of export-dependent nations.

His sit-down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday, however, was something entirely different.

It was a meeting of equals on the global stage, where the stakes for both nations – for their economies, for their international prestige, for the welfare of their people - were enormous.

With China, Trump may flick his pen, but such actions come with consequences. They come with a cost.

• Trump hails 'amazing' meeting with Xi but no trade deal agreed
• Xi and Trump find temporary truce as China plays longer game

For the first four days, Trump's most recent foray into global diplomacy was smooth sailing.

Each stop was punctuated by a blend of traditional trade negotiations – deals made under the shadow of Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs – and personal accommodations that at times bordered on the obsequious.

In Malaysia, Trump secured access to critical minerals and made progress toward finalising trade arrangements with south-east Asian nations. He also presided over a treaty that should ease border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia – the kind of "peace deal" the American president loves to tout.

In Japan, Trump's Marine One flew past a Tokyo Tower lit red, white and blue – with a top in Trumpian gold.

Newly elected Prime Minister Sanai Takaichi detailed $550bn in Japanese investments in the US and offered the American president a gift of 250 cherry trees for America's 250th birthday, and a golf club and bag that belonged to Shinzo Abe, the assassinated former prime minister who bonded with Trump in his first term.

She also became the latest foreign leader to nominate Trump for his much-desired Nobel Peace Prize.

Not to be outdone, South Korea welcomed Trump with artillery firing a 21-gun salute and a military band that played Hail to the Chief and YMCA – the Village People song that has become a Trump rally anthem.

President Lee Jae Myung held an "honour ceremony" for Trump during which he gave the American leader his nation's highest medal and a replica of an ancient Korean dynastic crown.

Lunch with Lee featured a "Peacemaker's Dessert" of gold-encrusted brownies. Later that day, the Koreans served Trump vineyard wine at an intimate dinner in Trump's honour with six world leaders attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit.

In the US, Trump may be the subject of "No Kings" demonstrations by Americans who disapprove of his boundary-testing expansions of presidential power, but during his East Asia swing he was treated like royalty.

And like the kings of old, Trump arrived in Korea seeking tribute – in the form of $200bn in cash payments, $20bn a year, from South Korea to the US, to be invested at the direction of Trump's government. Agreement on the terms of those payments helped ensure that the tariff rate on South Korean exports to the US would drop from 25% to 15%.

The main event of Trump's Asia trip came in its final hours, however, as he met with Xi.

There, the power dynamic between leaders of the world's two largest economies was decidedly different than the interactions Trump had with his foreign counterparts in previous days.

Missing were all the pomp and the pageantry. No military bands, no honour guards, no carefully crafted menus celebrating mutual national affection. Instead, the two leaders and their top aides sat across a long white negotiating table in a nondescript military building just off the runway of Busan's international airport.

It was perhaps a reflection of the high stakes that when Trump shook hands with Xi in Busan, he appeared tense. It was a far cry from his relaxed attitude when he told me the day before that he was optimistic he would have a good meeting.

"I know a little bit about what's going on because we have been talking to them," he said. "I'm not just walking into a meeting cold."

For months, Trump had been threatening higher tariffs on Chinese exports to the US – as a source of revenue for the American treasury as well as to pressure China to open its markets and control the export of chemicals used to make the drug fentanyl.

China, unlike many of America's other trading partners, responded with escalation, not concessions.

If tariffs were a source of economic hardship for China, then Beijing would target America's vulnerabilities. It suspended purchase of US agricultural products and proposed export controls on its large supply of critical minerals - resources that the US, and much of the world, rely on for high-tech manufacturing.

Trump's mood was upbeat after the meeting, which he described as "amazing" and graded a 12 on a scale of 1-10. The president appeared in a good mood even as the plane jostled from rough turbulence as it climbed into the sky.

But it was a battle of wills and economic pain set the two nations on a path that ultimately led to Thursday's meeting and an agreement on both sides to de-escalate.

The US lowered its tariffs, while China eased access to critical minerals, and pledged to resume importing US agricultural products and increase purchases of US oil and gas.

While it may not have been a breakthrough, it was an acknowledgement by both sides that the existing situation was unsustainable.

The international order that will take its place, however, is far from clear. As Xi acknowledged in his opening remarks at the bilateral meeting, China and the US "do not always see eye to eye with each other".

"It is normal for the two leading economies in the world to have frictions now and then," he said.

That may represent an improved outlook after months of tension, but it was also an sign that "frictions" are here to stay.

China has global and regional ambitions and a growing willingness to expand its influence.

Trump, for his part, has attempted to reorder American priorities abroad, using US economic might to pressure allies and adversaries alike. And it is those American allies – nations like Japan and South Korea that have long relied on American political, economic and military support - that are scrambling to adjust to the new reality.

Some of that scrambling comes in the form of a bend-backward willingness to accommodate Trump in forms large and small. Gifts and dinnertime honours are easy, but multibillion dollar payments, increased military spending and permanent tariffs take a toll.

And they could ultimately prompt a reevaluation of relations with America – and, as a result, with China.

Trump may have received a king's welcome in South Korea, but, in what could be viewed as a bit of on-point symbolism, as he departed, it was Xi who was arriving. And the Chinese leader's Korean hosts had promised a diplomatic reception equal to that received by the Americans.

Xi is fully participating in the Apec leaders meetings – proceedings that Trump chose to skip. If there is a vacuum created by America's international manoeuvres, it is a void China appears more than willing to fill.

Trump may be returning to America with everything he wanted from this trip. But, in a twist on the Rolling Stones song that he used to play at his political rallies, it's not yet clear that he got what America needs.

The Trump administration will limit the number of refugees admitted to the US to 7,500, and give priority to white South Africans.

The move, announced in a notice published on Thursday, will apply for the next fiscal year and marks a dramatic cut from the previous limit of 125,000 set by former President Joe Biden.

No reason was given for the cut, but the notice said it was "justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest".

In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order suspending the US Refugee Admissions Programme, or USRAP, which he said would allow US authorities to prioritise national security and public safety.

The notice posted to the website of the Federal Register said the 7,500 admissions would "primarily" be allocated to Afrikaner South Africans and "other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands".

In the Oval Office in May, Trump criticised South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and claimed white farmers in his nation were being killed and "persecuted".

The White House also played a video which they said showed burial sites for murdered white farmers. Trump said he did not know where in South Africa the scene was filmed.

The tense meeting came just days after the US granted asylum to 60 Afrikaners. It later emerged that the videos were scenes from a 2020 protest in which the crosses represented farmers killed over multiple years.

On his first day in office on 20 January, Trump said the US would suspend USRAP to reflect the US's lack of "ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans" and "protects their safety and security".

The US policy of accepting white South Africans has already prompted accusations of unfair treatment from refugee advocacy groups.

Some have argued the US is now effectively shut to other persecuted groups or people facing potential harm in their home country, and even former allies that helped US forces in Afghanistan or the Middle East.

"This decision doesn't just lower the refugee admissions ceiling," Global Refuge CEO and president Krish O'Mara Vignarajah said on Thursday. "It lowers our moral standing."

"At a time of crisis in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the programme's purpose as well as its credibility," she added.

The South African government has yet to respond to the latest announcement.

During the Oval Office meeting, President Ramaphosa said only that he hoped that Trump officials would listen to South Africans about the issue, and later said he believed there is "doubt and disbelief about all this in [Trump's] head".

The Trump administration will limit the number of refugees admitted to the US to 7,500, and give priority to white South Africans.

The move, announced in a notice published on Thursday, will apply for the next fiscal year and marks a dramatic cut from the previous limit of 125,000 set by former President Joe Biden.

No reason was given for the cut, but the notice said it was "justified by humanitarian concerns or is otherwise in the national interest".

In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order suspending the US Refugee Admissions Programme, or USRAP, which he said would allow US authorities to prioritise national security and public safety.

The notice posted to the website of the Federal Register said the 7,500 admissions would "primarily" be allocated to Afrikaner South Africans and "other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands".

In the Oval Office in May, Trump criticised South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and claimed white farmers in his nation were being killed and "persecuted".

The White House also played a video which they said showed burial sites for murdered white farmers. Trump said he did not know where in South Africa the scene was filmed.

The tense meeting came just days after the US granted asylum to 60 Afrikaners. It later emerged that the videos were scenes from a 2020 protest in which the crosses represented farmers killed over multiple years.

On his first day in office on 20 January, Trump said the US would suspend USRAP to reflect the US's lack of "ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities in a manner that does not compromise the availability of resources for Americans" and "protects their safety and security".

The US policy of accepting white South Africans has already prompted accusations of unfair treatment from refugee advocacy groups.

Some have argued the US is now effectively shut to other persecuted groups or people facing potential harm in their home country, and even former allies that helped US forces in Afghanistan or the Middle East.

"This decision doesn't just lower the refugee admissions ceiling," Global Refuge CEO and president Krish O'Mara Vignarajah said on Thursday. "It lowers our moral standing."

"At a time of crisis in countries ranging from Afghanistan to Venezuela to Sudan and beyond, concentrating the vast majority of admissions on one group undermines the programme's purpose as well as its credibility," she added.

The South African government has yet to respond to the latest announcement.

During the Oval Office meeting, President Ramaphosa said only that he hoped that Trump officials would listen to South Africans about the issue, and later said he believed there is "doubt and disbelief about all this in [Trump's] head".

A photographer who witnessed the aftermath of a massive Brazilian police operation in Rio de Janeiro has told the BBC of how residents came back with mutilated bodies of those who had died.

The bodies "kept coming: 25, 30, 35, 40, 45...", Bruno Itan told BBC Brasil. They included those of police officers.

One of the bodies had been decapitated - others were "totally disfigured", he said. Many also had what he says were stab wounds.

More than 120 people were killed during Tuesday's raid on a criminal gang - the deadliest such raid in the city.

Bruno Itan told BBC Brasil that he was first alerted to the raid early on Tuesday by residents of the Alemão neighbourhood, who sent him messages telling him there was a shoot-out.

The photographer made his way to the Getúlio Vargas hospital, where the bodies were arriving.

Itan says that the police stopped members of the press from entering the Penha neighboorhood, where the operation was under way.

"Police officers formed a line and said: 'The press doesn't get past here.'"

But Itan, who grew up in the area, says he was able to make his way into the cordoned-off area, where he remained until the next morning.

He says that Tuesday night, local residents began to search the hillside which divides Penha from the nearby Alemão neighbourhood for relatives who had been missing since the police raid.

Residents of the Penha neighbourhood proceeded to place the recovered bodies in a square - and Itan's photos show the reaction of the people there.

"The brutality of it all impacted me a lot: the sorrow of the families, mothers fainting, pregnant wives, crying, outraged parents," the photographer recalled.

The governor of Rio state said that the massive police operation involving around 2,500 security personnel was aimed at stopping a criminal group known as Comando Vermelho (Red Command) from expanding its territory.

Initially, the Rio state government maintained that "60 suspects and four police officers" had been killed in the operation.

They have since said that their "preliminary" count shows that 117 "suspects" have been killed.

Rio's public defender's office, which provides legal assistance to the poor, has put the total number of people killed at 132.

According to researchers, Red Command is the only criminal group which in recent years has managed to make territorial gains in the state of Rio de Janeiro.

It is widely considered one of the two largest gangs in the country, alongside First Capital Command (PCC), and has a history dating back more than 50 years.

According to Brazilian journalist Rafael Soares, who has been covering crime in Rio for years, Red Command "operates like a franchise" with local criminal leaders forming part of the gang and becoming "business partners".

The gang engages primarily in drug trafficking, but also smuggles guns, gold, fuel, alcohol and tobacco.

According to the authorities, gang members are well armed and police said that during the raid, they came under attack from explosive-laden drones.

The governor of Rio state, Cláudio Castro, described Red Command members as "narcoterrorists" and called the four police officers killed in the raid "heroes".

But the number of people killed in the operation has come in for criticism with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights saying it was "horrified".

At a news conference on Wednesday, Governor Castro defended the police force.

"It wasn't our intention to kill anyone. We wanted to arrest them all alive," he said.

He added that the situation had escalated because the suspects had retaliated: "It was a consequence of the retaliation they carried out and the disproportionate use of force by those criminals."

The governor also said that the bodies displayed by locals in Penha had been "manipulated".

In a post on X, he said that some of them had been stripped of the camouflage clothing he said they had been wearing "in order to shift blame onto the police".

Felipe Curi of Rio's civil police force also said that "camouflage clothing, vests, and weapons" had been removed from the bodies and showed footage appearing to show a man cutting camouflage clothing off a corpse.

Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has summoned Governor Castro to a hearing on Monday to explain the police actions "in detail".

With additional reporting by BBC Brasil's Carol Castro in Rio de Janeiro.

The commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces has warned Russian activity is increasing around the key frontline town of Pokrovsk, saying "the situation is difficult".

General Oleksandr Syrskyi admitted Russian infantry was massing in the area and said he had visited the frontline himself for talks with key commanders.

But he said reports that Ukrainian troops had been "blockaded" there by Russian forces was "untrue" propaganda.

There have been growing reports of Russian advances around the strategic town in the Donetsk region in the east of Ukraine. It forms a key transport and supply hub and its capture could unlock Russian efforts to seize the rest of the region.

In a statement on Telegram, General Syrskyi said: "In Pokrovsk, enemy infantry, avoiding combat, is amassing in the urban area and changing locations, so the primary objective is to identify and destroy them."

He added: "The situation is difficult, but Russian propaganda claims about the alleged 'blockade' of the Ukrainian Defence Forces in Pokrovsk, as well as in Kupiansk, are untrue."

He said commanders were having to maintain "a reasonable balance between goals and capabilities."

"The main priority is preserving the lives of our soldiers," he added.

Russian forces have been trying to seize Pokrovsk for more than a year. Taking it would give them a path towards taking the two biggest cities still controlled by Ukraine in the region - Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia's chief of general staff, Gen Valery Gerasimov, claimed earlier this week Ukrainian troops in Pokrovsk had been surrounded.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Pokrovsk was "the main target" for Russia whose forces there, he said, outnumbered Ukrainians by eight to one.

He told reporters Russia wanted to take the town to convince the United States that Ukraine was on the run.

"They do not have a result they can 'sell' to the Americans. We understand why they need Pokrovsk. They need it only to claim that Ukraine withdraws from the east and gives everything else they want," Zelensky said.

In its latest assessment, the defence intelligence firm, Sybelline, said the battle for Pokrovsk "has entered a highly dynamic and intense phase, as the Russian forces intensify their efforts to infiltrate the city and encircle Ukrainian defenders".

Deepstate, a Ukrainian monitoring group, said Russian forces were "gradually engulfing" Pokrovsk "with [their] sheer number of personnel".

It said Russian troops were infiltrating deeper into the town and disrupting Ukrainian supply routes.

"The situation in Pokrovsk is on the brink of crisis and continues to deteriorate, to the point where it may be too late to fix everything," the group concluded.

Hamas has handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza two coffins which the Palestinian group says contain the bodies of hostages, according to the Israeli military.

They will be transferred to Israeli forces, who will take them to Israel's National Institute of Forensic Medicine for identification.

Hamas's armed wing announced earlier that it had recovered the bodies of Israeli hostages Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch.

On Tuesday, Israel accused Hamas of violating the Gaza ceasefire deal after the group handed over a coffin containing human remains that did not belong to one of the 13 deceased Israeli and foreign hostages still in Gaza.

The Israeli government said forensic tests showed they belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, a hostage whose body had been recovered by Israeli forces in Gaza in late 2023.

The Israeli military also released footage filmed by a drone that showed Hamas members removing a body bag containing the remains from a building in Gaza City, reburying it, and then staging the discovery in front of Red Cross staff.

The Red Cross said its staff were unaware that the body bag had been moved before their arrival and that the staged recovery was "unacceptable".

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

Hours later, the Israeli government accused Hamas of another ceasefire violation, saying the group's fighters had killed an Israeli soldier in an attack in an area of southern Gaza.

Hamas claimed it was not involved in the incident in the Rafah area, but Israel's prime minister ordered a wave of air strikes across Gaza on Tuesday night in response. The Israeli military said it attacked "dozens of terror targets and terrorists".

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said 104 Palestinians were killed, including 46 children and 20 women, making it the deadliest day since the ceasefire took effect on 10 October.

US President Donald Trump maintained "nothing" would jeopardise the ceasefire agreement, which his administration brokered along with Qatar, Egypt and Turkey, but he added that Israel should "hit back" when its soldiers were targeted.

Under the deal, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living and 28 dead hostages it was holding within 72 hours.

All the 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 13 dead hostages still in Gaza are Israelis, one is Tanzanian, and one is Thai.

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, in which more than 68,600 people have been killed, including more than 200 since the ceasefire took effect, according to the territory's health ministry.

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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