Many are trying to reach the town of Tawila but face harassment, extortion and abuse from armed men along the way
More than 60,000 people have fled the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, which was captured by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over the weekend, according the UN refugee agency.
There have been reports of mass executions and crimes against humanity as the RSF fighters stormed the city after an 18-month siege marked by starvation and heavy bombardment.
The flow of those fleeing the violence towards the town of Tawila, about 80km (50 miles) west of el-Fasher, had increased in the past few days, the UNHCR's Eujin Byun told the BBC.
They were narrating horrendous stories of atrocities, including rape, and the agency was struggling to find enough shelter and food for them, she said.
Every child was suffering from malnutrition, she added.
It is estimated that more than 150,000 people are still trapped in el-Fasher, which had been the army's last stronghold in the western region of Darfur.
The RSF has denied widespread allegations that the killings in el-Fasher are ethnically motivated and follow a pattern of the Arab paramilitaries targeting non-Arab populations.
But the RSF has detained one of its militiamen, Abu Lulu, who has been accused of summary executions.
The group shared footage showing the fighter's arrest after BBC Verify identified him as being responsible for the execution of multiple unarmed men near el-Fasher.
TikTok has confirmed to the BBC that it has banned the account associated with Lulu. It is not clear whether he had controlled the account in his name.
Sudan was plunged into a civil war in April 2023 after a vicious struggle for power broke out between its army and the RSF.
It has led to a famine and claims of a genocide in the western Darfur region.
More than 150,000 people have died in the conflict across the country, and about 12 million have fled their homes in what the UN has called the world's largest humanitarian crisis.
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.
Additional reporting by Merlyn Thomas
Abu Lulu - Tracking an executioner in Sudan across social media
Gruesome images waved by President Trump back in May were not even taken in South Africa, it later emerged
The South African government has criticised the US's decision to prioritise refugee applications from white Afrikaners, saying claims of a white genocide have been widely discredited and lack reliable evidence.
It highlighted an open letter published by prominent members of the Afrikaner community earlier this week rejecting the narrative, with some signatories calling the relocation scheme racist.
The limited number of white South African Afrikaners signing up to relocate to the US was indication that they were not being persecuted, it added.
The exact figures of the number of white South Africans who have been admitted through the US scheme are not available.
South Africa's latest crime statistics do not indicate that more white people have fallen victim to violent crime than other racial groups.
Earlier this year President Trump offered refugee status to Afrikaners - who are mostly descendants of Dutch and French settlers - after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law allowing the government to seize land without compensation in rare instances.
Most private farmland is owned by white South Africans who make up just over 7% of the population.
Several months ago, South Africa's ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, was expelled after accusing Trump of "mobilising a supremacism" and trying to "project white victimhood as a dog whistle".
In the Oval Office in May, Trump confronted South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa and claimed white farmers in his nation were being killed and "persecuted".
Washington did not comment on the claim that they had misidentified the image.
The White House also played a video which they said showed burial sites for murdered white farmers. It later emerged that the videos were scenes from a 2020 protest in which the crosses represented farmers killed over multiple years.
After Carney's meeting with Xi, the two leaders directed their officials quickly "resolve outstanding trade issues and irritants" between Canada and China.
Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney accepted an invitation to visit China extended by President Xi Jinping, signalling a "turning point" in the countries' relationship.
The invite came after the two leaders met for 40 minutes on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit on Friday. It was the first meeting between a Canadian prime minister and the Chinese president since 2017.
The countries have had a strained relationship since a diplomatic row in 2018 and been locked in a trade dispute since 2024.
But as trade tensions between Canada and the US continue to rise, Carney has said the country will turn to strengthening its ties with other major economies.
He has signalled his desire to double Canada's non-US exports in the next decade, in response to President Donald Trump placing punishing tariffs on Canadian goods and some of its critical sectors.
That includes closer trade ties with "the economic giants of Asia", Carney said last week.
Speaking briefly to reporters after his meeting with Xi on Friday, Carney said he believes Canada and China have hit a "turning point" in relations that will yield positive developments for the Canadian economy.
"Distance is not the way to solve problems, not the way to serve our people," the prime minister said.
In his own remarks, Xi said "China is willing to work with Canada to push China-Canada relations back onto a healthy, stable, and sustainable correct track" that benefits both countries.
The two leaders directed their officials "to move quickly to resolve outstanding trade issues and irritants," according to a readout released by Carney's office after the meeting.
A 'two-front trade war' with China and the US
A trade dispute has been escalating since Canada placed a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) in October 2024, mirroring similar action by the US. Later that same month, Canada placed a 25% tariff on Chinese steel and aluminium.
China retaliated in March by imposing tariffs on several Canadian agricultural products, including a 76% levy on Canadian canola seed imports and a 100% levy on canola oil, meal and peas.
These measures have hurt farmers in the western part of the Canada, as China is by far the largest importer of the country's canola seeds.
Some western provincial premiers, including Wab Kinew of Manitoba and Scott Moe of Saskatchewan, have since called on the federal government to drop tariffs on Chinese EVs. Kinew said earlier this month that Canada has now found itself in a "two-front trade war" with its two largest trading partners — the US and China.
Separately, the US has imposed a 35% tariff on all Canadian goods not covered by an existing free trade agreement, as well as a 50% levy on steel and aluminium and a 25% levy on automobiles.
Last week, US-Canada relations hit a new low after Trump suspended all trade talks over an anti-tariff advertisement run by Ontario Premier Doug Ford that featured an address on free trade by former US president Ronald Reagan.
On Friday, Trump said the two countries will not restart trade talks.
Trump has also threatened to raise tariffs on Canada another 10%, though it is unclear if and when that would come into effect.
Prior to the tariffs, Canada-China relations were already reeling from a diplomatic row that resulted in Beijing detaining two Canadian citizens, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovring.
The two were accused by China of espionage and were taken into custody in 2018. Their arrest came days after Canada detained Meng Wanzhou, a Chinese technology executive and chief financial officer of Huawei, at the request of the US.
All three were subsequently released in 2021 after the US Department of Justice dropped an extradition request for Ms Wanzhou on charges of fraud.
China was also one of the countries called out for possibly meddling in Canada's 2019 and 2021 elections, prompting a Canadian public inquiry into foreign interference. That inquiry concluded that attempts by foreign states to meddle in recent elections were "troubling" but had "minimal impact".
China has denied any allegations of meddling.
Carney's APEC meeting with Xi in South Korea comes one day after the Chinese president met with Donald Trump - the first between the two in six years.
In that Thursday meeting, Xi and Trump agreed to dial back their countries' trade war. No formal agreement has been signed, but the two signalled they are closer to a deal that would lower tariffs.
The vote is a setback for Latvia's centre-right Prime Minister Evika Silina, who addressed protesters outside parliament this week
Latvian MPs have voted to withdraw from an international accord aimed at protecting women from violence, including domestic abuse, after a long and intense debate in parliament.
Several thousand people protested against the vote this week in Riga. It is now up to President Edgars Rinkevics to decide whether to approve the law or not.
Known as the Istanbul Convention, the 2011 treaty only came into force in Latvia last year, requiring governments to develop laws and support services to end all violence.
Latvia is the first EU country to move towards pulling out of the treaty. Turkey withdrew in 2021, a move described as a huge setback by top human rights body the Council of Europe.
The treaty was ratified by the EU in 2023, however ultra-conservative groups have argued that the accord's focus on gender equality undermines family values and promotes "gender ideology".
After a 13-hour debate in the Saeima, Latvian MPs voted by 56 to 32 to withdraw from the treaty, in a move sponsored by opposition parties but backed by politicians from one of the three coalition parties, the Union of Greens and Farmers.
The result is a setback for centre-right Prime Minister Evika Silina, who joined protesters outside parliament earlier this week. "We will not give up, we will fight so that violence does not win," she told them.
One of the main political groups behind the withdrawal is Latvia First, whose leader Ainars Slesers has called on Latvians to choose between a "natural family" and a "gender ideology with multiple sexes".
Latvia's ombudswoman Karina Palkova called for the treaty not to be politicised, and the group Equality Now said it was "not a threat to Latvian values, it was a tool to realise them".
Thursday's vote has prompted an outcry both within Latvia and beyond.
Twenty-two thousand people have signed a Latvian petition not to drop the treaty. Women's rights group Centrs Marta has called a protest next Thursday, accusing MPs of not listening to the Latvian people.
The head of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly, Theodoros Rousopoulos, said Latvia had made a hasty decision fuelled by disinformation. It was, he said, an "unprecedented and deeply worrying step backwards for women's rights and human rights in Europe".
Since Turkey abandoned the treaty four years ago, femicide and violence against women had risen sharply, he added.
As the vote did not win a two-thirds majority, it means the president could return the bill for another reading, if he has objections.
President Rinkevics said on X that he would assess the decision under the constitution, "taking into account state and legal, rather than ideological or political, considerations".
Last week another member of the ruling coalition, the Progressives, said it would not rule out appealing to the Constitutional Court.
The skull was returned to the cathedral in a cardboard box and accompanied by a letter
"It's not something you expect," says Franz Zehetner, who opened a parcel addressed to Vienna's St Stephen's Cathedral to discover a skull inside.
The cathedral archivist admits to being taken aback by the package, but alongside the skull was a letter of explanation.
A man in northern Germany said he had stolen the skull as a young tourist about 60 years before and now wanted to hand it back.
He had taken it while on a guided tour of the catacombs beneath St Stephen's which contain the remains of about 11,000 people buried during the 18th Century.
In his letter, the tourist with the guilty conscience described how he wanted to make peace with himself as he came towards the end of his life.
"After his clarification of the matter, it was touching that someone would wish to make amends for an act of youthful exuberance," Franz Zehetner told the BBC. "Also that he had carefully preserved the skull over the years - even it was not according to the rules - instead of carelessly getting rid of it."
It is unclear whose skull the tourist had taken home with him all those years ago, and it has now been re-interred.
Although many of the remains date back to a 40-year period in the 18th Century, members of high-ranking Viennese families were also buried beneath the Cathedral earlier.
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from halting food aid used by more than 40 million low-income Americans amid the ongoing US government shutdown.
A Rhode Island judge said on Friday that the plan to suspend the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or Snap, is likely unlawful, and issued a retraining order at the behest of the plaintiffs.
The US Department of Agriculture said this week that the food assistance money will not be distributed in November and moving forward due to the shutdown, arguing the "the well has run dry".
The Snap programme works by giving people reloadable debit cards that they can use to buy essential grocery items.
A family of four on average receives $715 (£540) per month, which breaks down to a little less than $6 (£4.50) per day, per person.
The states administer the programmes, with much of the funding coming from the federal government, which has been unfunded and shut down since the beginning of October.
Several states have pledged to use their own funds to cover any shortfall, however the federal government has warned that they will not be reimbursed.
Republicans and Democrats have traded blame for the federal shutdown, which will soon enter its second month, and there has not been any meaningful progress toward a deal.
YouTube TV viewers have lost access to ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels, as the two companies struggle to negotiate a licensing deal.
Subscribers to YouTube TV have lost access to ESPN, ABC and other Disney channels, as the two companies struggle to negotiate a licensing deal.
Disney said the online pay-TV platform, which is owned by the tech giant Google and available only in the US, had refused to pay fair rates for the content, which also include National Geographic and the Disney channel.
In its own statement, YouTube TV said that Disney's proposed terms "disadvantage our members while benefiting Disney's own live TV products".
After tense negotiations, the channels vanished from YouTube TV just before midnight on Thursday - the deadline to reach a new deal. The blackout affects roughly 10 million subscribers.
If Disney channels remain suspended for an "extend period of time", YouTube TV said it would offer subscribers a $20 credit.
YouTube and Disney-owned Hulu are among the biggest online TV platforms in the US.
Their stand-off follows similarly contentious talks this year between YouTube and other media companies, which had also threatened to limit the shows available to YouTube TV subscribers.
Google struck a deal at the last minute with Comcast-owned NBCUniversal earlier this month to keep shows like "Sunday Night Football" on YouTube TV. It has also reached agreements with Paramount and Fox in recent months.
In separate statements, both Google and Disney said they were working toward a resolution to restore Disney content to YouTube TV.
Still, the companies remain divided on fees.
"With a $3 trillion market cap, Google is using its market dominance to eliminate competition and undercut the industry-standard terms we've successfully negotiated with every other distributor," a Disney spokesperson said in a statement.
But YouTube said in a statement that Disney was proposing "costly economic terms" that would lead to higher prices for YouTube TV customers and limit their options for content, benefiting Disney's own live TV offerings like Hulu+ Live TV.
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.
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.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan took office in 2021 after the death of her predecessor and this is her first presidential election
Protesters have taken to the streets in Tanzania for a third day, defying warnings from the country's army chief to end the unrest.
Demonstrations have been taking place in major cities with young protesters denouncing Wednesday's election as unfair as key opposition figures were excluded from contesting against President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
An internet shutdown remains in place, making it difficult to confirm reports of deaths, and the authorities have extended a curfew in a bid to quell the protests.
The UN has called on the East African nation's security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force.
"We are alarmed by the deaths and injuries that have occurred in the ongoing election-related protests in Tanzania. Reports we have received indicate that at least 10 people were killed," Reuters quoted the UN human rights spokesperson Seif Magango as saying, citing "credible sources".
Amnesty International in Kenya told the BBC that with communications down in neighbouring Tanzania the rights group was not able to confirm reports of deaths.
Hospitals in the country are refusing to give information to journalists or human rights groups when asked about causalities.
The government has sought to play down the scale of the violence.
The electoral commission has announced results from more than half of the country's total 100 constituencies, the state broadcaster, TBC, shows.
President Samia is expected to win the vote under the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has governed the country since independence in 1961.
Official results are expected on Saturday.
Tanzania's chief Muslim cleric - Sheikh Abubakar Zubeir bin Ally - has urged Muslims to perform Friday prayers at home amid fears of escalating violence.
On Thursday, army chief Gen Jacob John Mkunda ordered the protesters off the streets, saying the military would work with other security agencies to contain the situation.
"Some people went to the streets on 29 October and committed criminal acts. These are criminals and the criminal acts should be stopped immediately," Gen Mkunda said on state TV, adding that the army had "controlled the situation".
But the protesters have again taken to the streets of the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.
On Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar - which elects its own government and leader - the CCM's Hussein Mwinyi, who is the incumbent president, has won with nearly 80% of the vote.
The opposition in Zanzibar said there had been "massive fraud", the AP news agency reported.
Tourists on the archipelago are also reported to be stranded at the airport, with flight delays because of the protests, which have been on the mainland.
The protesters accuse the government of undermining democracy, as the main opposition leader is in jail and another opposition figure was disqualified from the election, bolstering Samia's chances of winning.
Tundu Lissu, the main opposition leader, is in jail on treason charges, which he denies, and his party boycotted the vote.
The only other serious contender, Luhaga Mpina of the ACT-Wazalendo party, was disqualified on legal technicalities.
Sixteen fringe parties, none of whom have historically had significant public support, were cleared to contest the elections.
Samia took office in 2021 as Tanzania's first female president following the death of President John Magufuli.
She was initially praised for easing political repression, but the political space has since narrowed, with her government accused of targeting critics through arrests and a wave of abductions.
Rob Jetten, 38, is now tipped to become the youngest prime minister in modern Dutch history
The Dutch centrist liberal party of Rob Jetten has won Wednesday's neck-and-neck election race, according to vote analysis indicating it cannot be beaten by anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders.
Jetten's D66 currently has a narrow lead of 15,000 votes over Wilders' Freedom Party, and Dutch news agency ANP says even though the vote count is not complete, Wilders can no longer win.
Projections from almost 99% of the vote put both parties on 26 seats in the 150-seat parliament - but ANP says Jetten's centrists could win a 27th seat.
Victory will mean Jetten will be able to start work on forming a coalition.
Wilders had led opinion polls going into Wednesday's election, but Rob Jetten, 38, succeeded in winning in some of the main Dutch cities including Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht with a positive campaign using a catchphrase of "Yes, we can".
He has been careful not to declare victory until all votes are in, but ANP said based on figures from the postal voters he could now be declared the winner.
Although his path to forming a coalition is not straightforward, he is tipped to become the youngest prime minister in modern Dutch history.
The UN's human rights chief has condemned US military strikes on vessels allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean and Pacific, saying the lethal attacks violate international law and amount to "extrajudicial killing".
Volker Türk said on Friday that more than 60 people have reportedly been killed in US strikes since early September.
Calling the attacks "unacceptable", he said Washington must halt them immediately and conduct prompt, independent and transparent investigations.
The US has been defending its actions. President Donald Trump has said the strikes are necessary to stem the flow of drugs into the US and he has the legal authority to continue bombing boats in international waters.
Türk, while acknowledging the challenges of tackling drug trafficking, said in a statement that the circumstances for the deadly strikes "find no justification in international law".
"Countering the serious issue of illicit trafficking of drugs across international borders is - as has long been agreed among States - a law-enforcement matter, governed by the careful limits on lethal force set out in international human rights law."
Under law, the intentional use of lethal force "is only permissible as a last resort against individuals who pose an imminent threat to life", he said.
He added that based on "very sparse information provided publicly by the US authorities, none of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to lives of others".
He called on the US to use law enforcement methods including intercepting boats and detaining suspects, and if necessary, prosecuting individuals.
Watch: What we know about US strikes targeting alleged drug boats
Most strikes have taken place off the coast of South America in the Caribbean, though attacks in the Pacific this week killed at least 18 people, according to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In the Caribbean, the US has deployed troops, aircraft and naval vessels and last week ordered the world's largest warship - the USS Gerald R Ford - to the area.
The strikes have drawn condemnation in the region and experts have questioned their legality. Members of US Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, have also raised concerns and questioned the president's authority to order them.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government does not "agree with these attacks" and has called for meetings with the US ambassador, insisting that "all international treaties be respected."
BBC News
The US actions have also heightened tensions between Washington and the governments of Colombia and Venezuela.
The US has placed sanctions on Colombian president Gustavo Petro, accusing him of failing to curb drug trafficking and allowing cartels to "flourish". Petro has responded that he has been fighting drug trafficking "for decades".
Trump has also accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of leading a drug-trafficking organisation, which he denies.
Venezuela's attorney general told the BBC there is "no doubt" that Trump is trying to overthrow the Venezuelan government. He accused the US of hoping to seize the country's natural resources, including reserves of gold, oil and copper.
The US is among many nations that do not recognise Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate leader, after the last election in 2024 was widely dismissed as neither free nor fair. Opposition tallies from polling stations showed its candidate had won by a landslide.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan took office in 2021 after the death of her predecessor and this is her first presidential election
Protesters have taken to the streets in Tanzania for a third day, defying warnings from the country's army chief to end the unrest.
Demonstrations have been taking place in major cities with young protesters denouncing Wednesday's election as unfair as key opposition figures were excluded from contesting against President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
An internet shutdown remains in place, making it difficult to confirm reports of deaths, and the authorities have extended a curfew in a bid to quell the protests.
The UN has called on the East African nation's security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force.
"We are alarmed by the deaths and injuries that have occurred in the ongoing election-related protests in Tanzania. Reports we have received indicate that at least 10 people were killed," Reuters quoted the UN human rights spokesperson Seif Magango as saying, citing "credible sources".
Amnesty International in Kenya told the BBC that with communications down in neighbouring Tanzania the rights group was not able to confirm reports of deaths.
Hospitals in the country are refusing to give information to journalists or human rights groups when asked about causalities.
The government has sought to play down the scale of the violence.
The electoral commission has announced results from more than half of the country's total 100 constituencies, the state broadcaster, TBC, shows.
President Samia is expected to win the vote under the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which has governed the country since independence in 1961.
Official results are expected on Saturday.
Tanzania's chief Muslim cleric - Sheikh Abubakar Zubeir bin Ally - has urged Muslims to perform Friday prayers at home amid fears of escalating violence.
On Thursday, army chief Gen Jacob John Mkunda ordered the protesters off the streets, saying the military would work with other security agencies to contain the situation.
"Some people went to the streets on 29 October and committed criminal acts. These are criminals and the criminal acts should be stopped immediately," Gen Mkunda said on state TV, adding that the army had "controlled the situation".
But the protesters have again taken to the streets of the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam.
On Tanzania's semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar - which elects its own government and leader - the CCM's Hussein Mwinyi, who is the incumbent president, has won with nearly 80% of the vote.
The opposition in Zanzibar said there had been "massive fraud", the AP news agency reported.
Tourists on the archipelago are also reported to be stranded at the airport, with flight delays because of the protests, which have been on the mainland.
The protesters accuse the government of undermining democracy, as the main opposition leader is in jail and another opposition figure was disqualified from the election, bolstering Samia's chances of winning.
Tundu Lissu, the main opposition leader, is in jail on treason charges, which he denies, and his party boycotted the vote.
The only other serious contender, Luhaga Mpina of the ACT-Wazalendo party, was disqualified on legal technicalities.
Sixteen fringe parties, none of whom have historically had significant public support, were cleared to contest the elections.
Samia took office in 2021 as Tanzania's first female president following the death of President John Magufuli.
She was initially praised for easing political repression, but the political space has since narrowed, with her government accused of targeting critics through arrests and a wave of abductions.
Rob Jetten, 38, is now tipped to become the youngest prime minister in modern Dutch history
The Dutch centrist liberal party of Rob Jetten has won Wednesday's neck-and-neck election race, according to vote analysis indicating it cannot be beaten by anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders.
Jetten's D66 currently has a narrow lead of 15,000 votes over Wilders' Freedom Party, and Dutch news agency ANP says even though the vote count is not complete, Wilders can no longer win.
Projections from almost 99% of the vote put both parties on 26 seats in the 150-seat parliament - but ANP says Jetten's centrists could win a 27th seat.
Victory will mean Jetten will be able to start work on forming a coalition.
Wilders had led opinion polls going into Wednesday's election, but Rob Jetten, 38, succeeded in winning in some of the main Dutch cities including Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht with a positive campaign using a catchphrase of "Yes, we can".
He has been careful not to declare victory until all votes are in, but ANP said based on figures from the postal voters he could now be declared the winner.
Although his path to forming a coalition is not straightforward, he is tipped to become the youngest prime minister in modern Dutch history.
Nvidia this week became the first company to be valued at $5tn
US chip giant Nvidia will supply more than 260,000 of its most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips to South Korea's government, as well as Samsung, LG, and Hyundai.
The companies will all deploy AI chips in factories to make everything from robots to autonomous vehicles.
"Just as Korea's physical factories have inspired the world with sophisticated ships, cars, chips and electronics, the nation can now produce intelligence as a new export that will drive global transformation," Nvidia's chief executive Jensen Huang said, days after Nvidia became the first in the world to be valued at $5 trillion.
Mr Huang did not disclose the value of the deal or when the projects can be expected.
Speaking at a CEO summit on the sidelines of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) in Gyeongju, South Korea, Mr Huang added that with the chips, companies would be able to create "digital twins" with other factories around the world.
These deals form part of Nvidia's latest effort to expand AI infrastructure around the world, to further integrate AI into products and services.
South Korea - which is already home to major semiconductor companies and vehicle manufacturers - wants to become a regional AI hub.
President Lee Jae Myung said he would prioritise AI investment after coming into office in the face of US tariffs.
With the Nvidia deal, the South Korean government plans to build computing infrastructure that it will control, a term known as "sovereign AI".
More than 50,000 Nvidia chips will power data centres at the National AI Computing Center and facilities owned by South Korean companies like Kakao and Naver.
Caught in the middle
The South Korea deals come as Nvidia grapples with the fallout of the China-US trade war.
China made up for more than a tenth of Nvidia's revenue last year.
But Huang recently said tensions between the world's two largest economies had slashed Nvidia's AI market share in China to virtually zero.
The chip giant is dependent on the tightly knit supply chains that run through the Asia Pacific region.
It is primarily a chip designer, and so outsources most of its physical production to manufacturers like Samsung, SK Hynix and TSMC.
TSMC has been a critical partner for Nvidia, making the company's most advanced AI chips, including its flagship Blackwell series.
Samsung makes Nvidia's H20 chips, a scaled-down processor made for the Chinese market under US export rules.
National security experts and some lawmakers have long voiced concerns about the US selling AI chips to China, saying that Beijing could use them to gain an advantage in AI, as well as in military applications.
Analysts say that US efforts to block China's access to advanced computer chips have fostered innovation within China.
Both Huawei and Alibaba have unveiled their own chips that they say can rival Nvidia's products for the Chinese market.
Beijing has also reportedly prohibited local firms from buying from Nvidia, urging them to buy from Chinese chipmakers to give its domestic tech industry a boost.
Trump said the talks were between China and the US company, but that the US government will play the role of a "referee" of sorts.
Nvidia's share price was this week further boosted by a wave of new deals, including partnerships with the US Department of Energy, Nokia, Uber, and Stellantis - moves aimed at reassuring investors that AI investments will deliver returns.
Hopes of a revival in China sales, following trade talks between Presidents Trump and Xi, also lifted its share price.
The vote is a setback for Latvia's centre-right Prime Minister Evika Silina, who addressed protesters outside parliament this week
Latvian MPs have voted to withdraw from an international accord aimed at protecting women from violence, including domestic abuse, after a long and intense debate in parliament.
Several thousand people protested against the vote this week in Riga. It is now up to President Edgars Rinkevics to decide whether to approve the law or not.
Known as the Istanbul Convention, the 2011 treaty only came into force in Latvia last year, requiring governments to develop laws and support services to end all violence.
Latvia is the first EU country to move towards pulling out of the treaty. Turkey withdrew in 2021, a move described as a huge setback by top human rights body the Council of Europe.
The treaty was ratified by the EU in 2023, however ultra-conservative groups have argued that the accord's focus on gender equality undermines family values and promotes "gender ideology".
After a 13-hour debate in the Saeima, Latvian MPs voted by 56 to 32 to withdraw from the treaty, in a move sponsored by opposition parties but backed by politicians from one of the three coalition parties, the Union of Greens and Farmers.
The result is a setback for centre-right Prime Minister Evika Silina, who joined protesters outside parliament earlier this week. "We will not give up, we will fight so that violence does not win," she told them.
One of the main political groups behind the withdrawal is Latvia First, whose leader Ainars Slesers has called on Latvians to choose between a "natural family" and a "gender ideology with multiple sexes".
Latvia's ombudswoman Karina Palkova called for the treaty not to be politicised, and the group Equality Now said it was "not a threat to Latvian values, it was a tool to realise them".
Thursday's vote has prompted an outcry both within Latvia and beyond.
Twenty-two thousand people have signed a Latvian petition not to drop the treaty. Women's rights group Centrs Marta has called a protest next Thursday, accusing MPs of not listening to the Latvian people.
The head of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly, Theodoros Rousopoulos, said Latvia had made a hasty decision fuelled by disinformation. It was, he said, an "unprecedented and deeply worrying step backwards for women's rights and human rights in Europe".
Since Turkey abandoned the treaty four years ago, femicide and violence against women had risen sharply, he added.
As the vote did not win a two-thirds majority, it means the president could return the bill for another reading, if he has objections.
President Rinkevics said on X that he would assess the decision under the constitution, "taking into account state and legal, rather than ideological or political, considerations".
Last week another member of the ruling coalition, the Progressives, said it would not rule out appealing to the Constitutional Court.
The countries say the agreement will enhance coordination, information sharing and tech cooperation
India and the US have signed a framework agreement to expand defence cooperation over the next 10-years.
The pact was announced after a meeting between US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh in Kuala Lumpur.
The agreement will enhance "coordination, information sharing and tech cooperation" and advance "regional stability and deterrence", Hegseth said on X.
It comes as the two countries are trying to close a trade deal and tide over tense ties after US President Donald Trump slapped 50% tariffs on India, including a 25% penalty for buying Russian oil and arms.
The agreement is expected to provide policy direction to the entire spectrum of the India-US defence relationship.
"It is a signal of our growing strategic convergence and will herald a new decade of partnership. Defence will remain as a major pillar of our bilateral relations. Our partnership is critical for ensuring a free, open and rules-based Indo-Pacific region," Singh said, in a post on X.
According to Pramit Pal Chaudhuri of the Eurasia Group think tank, the agreement was supposed to have been concluded in July-August this year, but India's irritation at Trump's statements about his role in ending the conflict with Pakistan led to it getting delayed.
The pact is the latest in a series of agreements between the two countries that have made it "easier for the two militaries to achieve interoperability, India to access technology and the two defence sectors to work together", Mr Chaudhuri said.
"This provides for further potential in all three areas," he added.
India and the US have been steadily ramping up their defence ties recently.
Defence was a major talking point between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump on the former's visit to the US in February this year, withTrump saying the US would increase military equipment sales to India by many billions of dollars, ultimately paving the way to providing Delhi with F-35 stealth warplanes.
But since then, Delhi's dependence on discounted Russian oil as well as its long-standing defence relationship with Moscow have been a major point of irritation for the Trump administration.
While Russia continues to be a major supplier of arms to India, its share of Indian defence imports has been steadily falling as Delhi seeks to diversify its portfolio and boost domestic capacity.
The original Power Rangers aired on US TV in the 1990s and there have been multiple spin-offs
A Japanese superhero series that inspired the hugely popular Power Rangers TV and movie franchise from the 1990s is ending after 50 years, local media report.
Super Sentai will go off air as sales from merchandise and events have not been enough to cover production costs, reports say. Its broadcaster TV Asahi declined to comment on "future programming", according to the Asahi newspaper.
The series premiered in 1975 and its formula - five teens who transform into colourful masked fighters to battle aliens - served as the blueprint for Power Rangers in the US and many other superhero shows that aired in Asia.
It also served as a launchpad for the careers of many Japanese actors.
Super Sentai was much more than a TV series. The show that aired weekly was essentially an advertisement for toys, clothes, costumes and collectibles.
For animation and toy fans outside Japan, it served as a gateway to the country's colourful superhero and comic book culture.
Similar shows like Choudenshi Bioman and Hikari Sentai Maskman were dubbed in English and developed cult followings in the Philippines.
In the Super Sentai series, the superhero team, made up of three men and two women, is led by a fighter in a red suit - as in Power Rangers. The rest of team is colour-coded, green or black for the second-in-command, followed by blue, yellow and pink.
Every episode also followed the same sequence - starting with martial arts and swordfights and ending with a battle between their robot spaceship and a giant alien in the end. A large part of its appeal is the live-action animation, which in the 1980s and 1990s bordered on crude.
The original Power Rangers series aired on US TV from 1993 to 1996 and there have been multiple spin-offs. The episodes are now streamed on YouTube.
Producer Haim Saban, who adapted Power Rangers from the Japanese original, said in a 2017 interview with the LA Times that the concept was a tough sell at first.
"Every selling season, I would go out and offer it to the networks - and would get kicked out of the room... They told me how crazy I was," he said.
News of Super Sentai's demise drew sadness from fans and celebrities.
Popular actress Keiko Kitagawa re-posted a news article on the reported cancellation with the caption "despair". Her post on X was viewed 15 million times.
Yasuhisa Furuhara, an actor who played one of the Super Sentai fighters, noted how the series ran for half a century. "I'm proud to be a part of history," he said on X.
One fan on X said his parents had watched Super Sentai when they were children. And that he is watching the current series. "I'll miss it... What a shame."
"Super Sentai is coming to an end, so what should boys watch from now on?" another fan said.
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.
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.
"There is nothing like this," the Russian president said of one of the two nuclear weapons he flaunted this week
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.
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.
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.
Kim Kardashian recently told a producer on her reality TV show "I centre conspiracy theories all the time"
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.
Albert Luthuli was the first African to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1960
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.
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.
Watch: Moment Spain's Sagrada Familia crowned world's tallest church
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.
Getty Images
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.
Tens of thousands of Stalin's victims are buried in this wood outside St Petersburg
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.
Diana Loginova (centre), aged 18, faces charges for her band's public performances
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.
Telegram
Stoptime have taken down their videos from social media, but other videos are still online
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's boyfriend and bandmate Alexander Orlov also faces charges
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.
Diana tells the BBC that all her band have done is bring music to a big audience
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.
Alexander and Diana got engaged in a police van
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.
Ludmila Vasilyeva survived the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union - now she questions Russia's war in Ukraine
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.
EPA
Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia for a quarter of a century
"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, right, and an adoptee from Iran who requested anonymity
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 Chung
Shirley had an upbringing similar to that of many young Americans
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?"
Photo supplied
An adoptee from Iran, who requested anonymity, seen here bottom left as a child in the US Midwest
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."
AFP via Getty Images
Many of the adoptees fear immigration raids despite arriving in the US as children
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.
Reuters
Deportations have been a central theme of Donald Trump's second presidency
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.
Shirley Chung
Shirley, now in her 60s, urges the president to help finally grant her, and others like her, citizenship
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."
Chingakham Radha has moved to a temporary shelter but longs to return home
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.
Midhat Ullah Hasani
Thousands are still living in relief camps in the hilly Churachandpur region
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
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.
Midhat Ullah Hasani
Many women in the relief camps are crocheting and selling dolls to earn a little extra income to support their families
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."
Jerusalem: Footage shows scale of ultra-Orthodox protest against conscription
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.
Apple boss Tim Cook holds an iPhone 17 pro and an iPhone Air, as Apple holds an event at the Steve Jobs Theater on its campus in Cupertino, California, US September 9, 2025.
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.
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?
Getty Images
President Trump is not expected to attend COP30 after rolling back US commitments to tackling climate change
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.
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.
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.
Reuters
Global warming means that hurricanes like Melissa, which devastated the island of Jamaica, can bring stronger winds and heavier rainfall
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.
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.
Reuters
A healthy Amazon rainforest is a crucial buffer against rising temperatures
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.
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.
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