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Head into the basement of any bustling mall in Singapore and the chances are you will smell the sweetness of fresh, buttery baked goods.

Long lines of people swarm the counters of Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese and Singaporean bakeries – tray and tongs in hand, after picking out cream rolls and milk breads or filled croissants and fruity pastries from crowded display cabinets.

For Paris Baguette, its inspiration is clearly in the name, the outlets are also decorated with the colours of the tricolour, the signage shows the Eiffel Tower and the ambience seems to be aiming for something close to the charm of a Parisian cafe.

But it is 100% Korean.

“I wouldn’t limit our bread to everything from France. We are an international brand,” says Jin-soo Hur, president and chief executive of SPC Group, which owns Paris Baguette.

“Like croissants, could you say this is a European product? I would say it’s a universal product.”

SPC traces its roots back to a small family-owned bakery shop that opened 80 years ago.

It is now a key player in mass producing bread and pastries in South Korea, employing 20,000 people across all its brands. SPC says its sales hit $5.6bn (£4.26bn) last year.

In 1988, Paris Baguette was born becoming the first Korean bakery brand to open an international store in China, which continues to be a big market.

Today it has 4,000 stores across 14 countries including in Asia, Europe and the US.

Paris Baguette has big overseas expansion plans, setting a target of more than 1,000 new branches internationally by 2030 – many of them in the US.

It’s investing in a factory in Texas which will become its largest overseas production facility when it is completed in 2027, supplying the US, Canada and Latin America.

For Mr Hur, capturing the American market is a priority because it would mean Paris Baguette has succeeded internationally.

Sport is central to Paris Baguette’s strategy through a partnership with English Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur.

It had a similar deal with France’s Paris St Germain for two seasons, providing fans with its baked products and desserts on match days of home games.

“I think food is culture. Sports brings a lot of people into the stadium, and there’s always good vibes in London,” said Mr Hur.

The captain of South Korea’s national team was also the captain of Spurs. Son Heung-min led his team to victory in the Europa League last month, ending the club’s 17-year wait for a trophy.

It’s not about a Korean leading Spurs for Mr Hur though.

Tottenham is a “top club and Paris Baguette wants to be best in class too,” he says.

Workers don’t like to wake up early to knead dough by hand, Mr Hur says softly.

He credits his company’s system of delivering frozen dough to franchises around the world for improving efficiency and extending shelf life.

Asia has a strong heritage of baked goods, but with rapid urbanisation, and changing lifestyles demand for on-the-go convenience foods is growing steadily.

Bakeries across the region already offer a huge variety of items.

Staples like pain au chocolat and sandwiches are abundant, but they are also known for Asian-inspired flavours – be it pandan, durian, salted egg, red bean or matcha-filled croissants and pastries.

Paris Baguette is responding to the demand through a halal-certified plant in Malaysia, to supply customers in South East Asia and the Middle East.

With the fascination around Korean culture globally, experts say there could be an opportunity for Asian bakeries to see even more success.

Korean and Japanese culture is so popular around the world now that maybe they’re seeing things on their screen, and then they’re willing to try it as well, said Saverio Busato, a pastry and bakery chef at the Culinary Institute of America in Singapore.

“I just came back from a trip to Italy and I was quite surprised to see a lot of Asian bakery and pastry shops in Italy and I was super happy.

To see the local people, the Italian people, that they were kind of exploring.”

But can frozen dough produce the same quality of goods as an artisanal bakery?

I put Chef Busato to a blind taste test. He pulls apart a croissant made with frozen dough (although he doesn’t know it), inspecting the elasticity and smelling it.

“This is quite bad. There is no honeycomb inside, it’s totally hollow. The lamination doesn’t have much strength because the internal part collapses. There is no butter profile. It’s gluey and dense. There is no smell,” he tells me.

Chef Busato acknowledges that it isn’t practical to seek artisanal standards if you’re mass-producing baked goods, and so big players will have to rely on frozen dough.

What about the traditional Asian baked goods though? Chef Busato on tasting a Korean milk bread, a fluffy white bread filled with cream, said he thinks it would do well in Europe.

“It’s fantastic. It’s very good. The smell of milk is coming over is nice. It’s fluffy. It’s refreshing… Reminds me of some kind of snack when I was younger that I was bringing to school.”

The cost-of-living crisis is a major challenge for Paris Baguette – not least because of the US inflation rate as it seeks to push into the American market. A lot of companies are having to change their business because it’s not profitable for them, Mr Hur says.

One of Paris Baguette’s biggest competitors globally – Pret A Manger – has had to experiment with subscription services and expand dine-in options after Covid pushed the sandwich and coffee chain into loss, and it was forced to close dozens of outlets and cut more than 3,000 jobs.

The global economic environment weighs on Mr Hur too but he insists profit is not his only goal. “If we are only trying to make profit, we’ll just stay in Korea,” he says.

“We want to change the bread culture around the world. I want to find a way to keep opening up a lot of bakeries. It is good for my country, and good for people.”

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On the campaign trail, Donald Trump was crystal clear: “On day one, I will launch the largest deportation programme of criminals in the history of America.”

That promise, opinion polls suggested, proved broadly popular with the American people, including with legal immigrants, who felt that too many people were coming into the country the “wrong way”.

Since taking office, the president has widened the scope of his mission, targeting not just criminals, but migrant workers, some student activists and even tourists with visa issues.

For almost five months, these moves met little resistance. But now parts of Los Angeles have erupted in protests after immigrations officers intensified their raids at workplaces.

So who are the migrants caught up in these raids? And who else has the administration targeted?

Here’s a look at some of the people who have already been detained.

Since assuming office, the president has touted plummeting numbers of border crossings and record arrests under his administration.

About 51,000 undocumented migrants were in Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention as of early June – the highest on record since September 2019.

While accurate and up-to-date figures for the total number of immigration detentions since 20 January are not publicly available, White House officials have said they hope ICE can scale up to 3,000 arrests a day, from 660-or-so during the first 100 days of Trump’s presidency.

Initially, US officials insisted that the operations were “targeted” at criminals and potential public safety threats.

But a significant number of undocumented migrants detained by the Trump administration have otherwise clean records, according to one data tracker.

The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse – a project from Syracuse University that compiles immigration figures – estimates that of the 51,302 people in ICE detention facilities as of 1 June, about 44% had no criminal record aside from entering the US without permission.

The unrest in Los Angeles was sparked by a series of immigration arrests that netted a total of 118 people, which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said included five gang members.

ICE has characterised those arrested in LA as “the worst of the worst”. The agency identified a handful of people with criminal histories, including drug trafficking, assault, cruelty to children, domestic violence, robbery and alien smuggling.

How many have criminal histories, however, is unclear.

The parents of a 23-year-old undocumented migrant, a member of Mexico’s indigenous Zapotec community, told the Washington Post their son, who they said had no criminal history, was detained outside a clothing store. The BBC cannot independently confirm the details of this case.

Border tsar Tom Homan has justified these arrests as “collateral” damage, arguing that agents cannot legally justify encountering undocumented immigrants and not detaining them.

There have been several instances of tourists being arrested and held in detention centres, including British, European and Canadian citizens.

In April, for example, a 28-year-old Welsh tourist was held for 19 days in an ICE processing centre in Washington state after being denied entry to Canada over what she later termed a “visa mix-up”.

In another more recent incident in June, 25-year-old Italian citizen Khaby Lame – the world’s most popular TikTok star with 162m followers – was detained at Las Vegas airport for “immigration violations”.

ICE alleged that Mr Lame overstayed the terms of his visa after having entered the country on 30 April. Authorities later said he was granted “voluntary departure” and left the country.

Additionally, in March, Canadian actress Jasmine Mooney was held for nearly two weeks after being detained at the San Ysidro border crossing, where she was attempting to renew her visa to enter the US.

She later described the conditions of her detention as inhumane, and described being kept in a concrete cell with no blanket and limited access to a bathroom. She was later released without being charged with any crime.

Her case caught the attention of British Columbia Premier David Eby, who said the incident further inflamed Canadian anxieties about travelling to the US.

“The nature of our relationship is so fraught right now that this case makes us all wonder, what about our relatives who are working in the States?” he said in a statement to CBC.

Others, like 34-year-old German national Fabian Schmidt, were held at airports.

Schmidt, who had lived in the US since 2007, was detained on his way into the US from Luxembourg.

In an interview with WGBH, a New Hampshire news outlet, Mr Schmidt said he was asked about a drug misdemeanour charge that was later dismissed and a later DUI that resulted in fines and probation.

The DHS has largely avoided commenting on specific cases, but has repeatedly insisted it is operating lawfully.

Some of the most striking images of the Trump administration’s immigration overhaul have come from thousands of miles away, in the Central American nation of El Salvador.

There, over 250 people who the government claims are members of the gang Tren de Aragua have been transferred to a mega-prison.

Family members of some of those men, however, have disputed any gang ties, with some arguing that they were swept up as a result of innocent tattoos.

Dubbed “alien enemies”, they were removed under a 1798 act that gives authorities sweeping powers to order the detention and deportation of natives or citizens of an “enemy” nation.

“It is really disheartening,” Adalys Ferro, the executive director of the Venezuelan-American Caucus, an advocacy group, told the BBC. “All of these decisions are inhumane, cruel and also illegal.”

The most high-profile case is that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old from El Salvador and Maryland resident who was deported from the US in March.

Various judges – including those on the US Supreme Court – have ruled that Mr Abrego Garcia was deported in error and that the government should “facilitate” his return to the US and his family.

On 6 June, he was returned to the US to face federal criminal charges after being charged in an indictment alleging he illegally transported undocumented migrants while still in the US.

Foreign nationals who participate in political protests have also found themselves in the administration’s crosshairs, despite some having permanent residency or valid student visas in the US.

Anthony Enriquez, who leads advocacy efforts at Robert F Kennedy Human Rights, a non-profit organisation, told the BBC that there have been “more and more” green card holders detained since Trump returned to office.

“Immigration authorities feel empowered to conduct arrests that they’re legally not allowed to do,” he said.

Although the reasons for the decisions vary, over 1,600 international students have had their visas revoked, according to Nafsa, an organisation that focuses on international education.

Many of the arrests follow the White House’s crackdown on what it has classified as antisemitism on US campuses, including the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent figure during Gaza war protests at Columbia University last year.

The 30-year-old green card holder has been fighting to stop his deportation in court.

Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk also spent six weeks in custody before being released.

The university later said that it had been told that Ms Ozturk – a doctorate candidate who participated in pro-Palestinian protests – had had her student visa revoked. She continues to fight her deportation in court.

While these cases have been subject to fierce criticism, ICE has justified some of the arrests by saying that the students participated in activities “aligned” to Hamas.

“A visa is a privilege not a right,” US Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X.

The US defense secretary appeared to acknowledge incidental plans also exist for Panama, but avoided giving direct confirmation.

US Senator Alex Padilla was put in handcuffs after interrupting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a news update on the Los Angeles ICE raids.

The appointees have “committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data”, the vaccine sceptic said.

US President Donald Trump will oversee a huge military parade in Washington DC on the same day as nationwide protests are planned.

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, one of the world’s most active, erupted for the 25th time since 23 December 2024.

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On Wednesday, 12 New York jurors found disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein guilty of sexually assaulting Miriam Haley in 2006, after his previous sex crimes conviction in the state was overturned last year.

When Miriam Haley heard the news last year that a New York court had thrown out a rape conviction against Harvey Weinstein, the man she helped put behind bars four years before, she was shocked.

In 2020, Ms Haley told a Manhattan courtroom every detail of the time Weinstein sexually assaulted her in his New York apartment in 2006.

This time, she was planning to turn down prosecutors, not wanting to put herself through it all again. But just weeks before the retrial, she saw a link to a new podcast series aimed at “exonerating” Weinstein.

“I just thought, I have to stand up for myself. I have to stand up for the truth,” Ms Haley told the BBC.

She was one of three women to testify against Weinstein during his six-week retrial, accusing him of using his power as a Miramax Hollywood tycoon to sexually abuse young women.

Ultimately, the jury found Weinstein guilty of sexually assaulting only Ms Haley. They acquitted him of sexually assaulting another woman, and a mistrial was declared on a third rape count.

The verdict “gives me hope – hope that there is new awareness around sexual violence and that the myth of the perfect victim is fading”, Ms Haley said outside the Manhattan courthouse on Wednesday.

A court of appeals overturned Weinstein’s previous conviction for sex crimes in New York last April. The judges found Weinstein’s original trial was not fair because it included testimony from women who made allegations beyond the official charges against him.

In September, the 73-year-old was indicted on sexual assault charges for a new trial.

He pleaded not guilty and again vehemently denied the allegations. His lawyers argued at the retrial that his accusers were “friends with benefits” who had consensual sex with him in exchange for work opportunities.

Those portrayals were insulting, said Ms Haley, adding that Weinstein’s continued denial of the allegations pushed her to “keep showing up” in court.

Warning: This article contains distressing content

For this trial, Ms Haley spent four days on the stand – three more than she did the first time.

This trial, she could look straight at her assailant, who sat in a wheelchair next to the defence table, unlike during the first trial, when he was blocked by the judge’s booth.

Going in, she worried, as she had in the previous trial, about how she would feel.

“Would I feel intimidated? Would I maybe even feel sorry for him?” she said. “And then when I did see him, it was just like nothing.”

With Weinstein watching, Ms Haley told the court about their first meeting in France in 2006. She said she went to his hotel thinking they would discuss work opportunities, but Weinstein asked her to give him a massage. She declined and left in tears.

They remained in contact, and Weinstein later helped Ms Haley find work as a production assistant for the television show Project Runway.

Then, one night she accepted an invitation to his New York apartment, she said, because he had just asked her to attend a movie premiere in Los Angeles.

On that evening of 10 July 2006, the film mogul “lunged” at her from across a couch and kissed her. He pushed her into a bedroom, where he forcibly performed oral sex on her, Ms Haley testified.

“I couldn’t get away from his grip,” she told the court. “I realised, I’m getting raped, this is what this is.”

Recounting those intimate details to a room full of strangers for the second time was “exhausting”, Ms Haley later told the BBC.

“It’s just so invasive,” she said.

After direct questioning, Ms Haley faced cross-examination from Weinstein attorney Jennifer Bonjean, who is known for her combative style and has defended other major Hollywood figures accused of sexual assault, including Bill Cosby and R Kelly.

When Ms Bonjean grilled her about who removed her clothing on that July evening, Ms Haley answered through tears.

“He took my clothes off…I didn’t take my clothes off,” she said. “He was the one who raped me, not the other way around.”

“That is for the jury to decide,” Ms Bonjean replied.

The comment was disrespectful, said Ms Haley, who added that she could “feel my eyes balling up, and everything, just because it was just so deeply offensive in that moment”.

“Regardless of the verdict, it still happened, from my perspective,” she said. “I’m still the one who has to live with it.”

Ms Haley was followed on the stand by actress Jessica Mann, who was involved in Weinstein’s first New York trial, and former model Kaja Sokola, who testified for the first time, accusing Weinstein of sexually assaulting her when she was 19.

The jury found Weinstein not guilty of assaulting Ms Sokola, and a mistrial was declared on the rape count brought by Ms Mann, after one juror refused to continue deliberations.

Weinstein still must serve a separate 16-year sentence for sex crimes in California, meaning he was already expected to spend the rest of his life in prison regardless of the retrial’s outcome.

In total, he has been accused of sexual misconduct, assault and rape by more than 100 women.

Like many victims of sexual assault, Ms Haley did not come forward publicly about the abuse for years.

She said she adopted a strategy from her difficult childhood – one that included abuse – where she suppressed the traumatic memories and went on with life as usual.

Nonetheless, the assault had emotional consequences.

“I lost confidence in a lot of things,” Ms Haley said. “All I could see on the surface was all these people fawning over him. It was extremely humiliating and embarrassing.”

Ms Haley eventually decided to come forward after other women accused Weinstein of assault, helping to galvanise the #MeToo movement.

She was sent death threats – but also dozens of messages from women who said she had motivated them to speak out about their own abuse.

“It does have this ripple effect,” she said.

Ultimately, the verdict was evidence of the “lasting and real change” around sexual assault awareness, Ms Haley said, calling the conviction a “release”.

Now a freelance producer who spends time in Mexico, Ms Haley believes the end of the retrial will close a painful chapter, one she thought was already sealed with Weinstein’s first conviction.

“Even me showing up this time feels like a small victory,” she said. “I definitely wasn’t really doing it for myself. I was doing it for the sake of truth, and for other women.”

Weinstein was already found guilty of one sexual assault count, after an earlier conviction was overturned.

The jury found him not guilty of an additional sexual assault charge, and have yet to return a verdict on a charge of rape.

The foreperson also says some jurors are considering allegations outside of the realm of the case in their deliberations.

Production assistant Miriam Haley is the first accuser to testify at the disgraced Hollywood mogul’s retrial.

Shiori Ito became the face of Japan’s MeToo movement after she accused a prominent journalist of rape.

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Hundreds of thousands of people are “slowly starving” in Kenyan refugee camps after US funding cuts reduced food rations to their lowest ever levels, a United Nations official has told the BBC.

The impact is starkly visible at a hospital in the sprawling Kakuma camp in the north-west of the East African nation. It is home to roughly 300,000 refugees who have fled strife in countries across Africa and the Middle East.

Emaciated children fill a 30-bed ward at Kakuma’s Amusait Hospital, staring blankly at visitors as they receive treatment for severe acute malnutrition.

One baby, Hellen, barely moves. Parts of her skin are wrinkled and peeling, leaving angry patches of red – the result of malnutrition, a medic tells the BBC.

Across the aisle lies a nine-month-old baby, James, the eighth child of Agnes Awila, a refugee from northern Uganda.

“The food is not enough, my children eat only once a day. If there’s no food what do you feed them?” she asks.

James, Hellen and thousands of other refugees in Kakuma depend on the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) for vital sustenance.

But the agency had to drastically reduce its aid operations in many countries after President Donald Trump announced sweeping cuts to US foreign aid programmes earlier this year, as part of his “America First” policy.

The US had provided around 70% of the funding for the WFP’s operations in Kenya.

The WFP says that as a result of the cuts, the agency has had to slash the refugees’ rations to 30% of the minimum recommended amount a person should eat to stay healthy.

“If we have a protracted situation where this is what we can manage, then basically we have a slowly starving population,” says Felix Okech, the WFP’s head of refugee operations in Kenya.

Outside Kakuma’s food distribution centre, the sun beats down on the dry, dusty ground and security officers manage queues of refugees.

They are led into a holding centre and then a verification area. Aid workers scan the refugees’ identity cards and take their fingerprints, before taking them to collect their rations.

Mukuniwa Bililo Mami, a mother of two, has brought a jerrycan to collect cooking oil, along with sacks for lentils and rice.

“I am grateful to receive this little [food] but it is not enough,” says the 51-year-old, who arrived in the camp 13 years ago from South Kivu, a region in conflict-hit eastern Democratic Republic of Congo

Ms Mami says the refugees used to “eat well” – three meals a day. But now that rations are at 30% of their usual amount, the food she has been given is not enough to last one month, let alone the two that she has been asked to stretch it for.

She has also been affected by another casualty of the cuts – cash transfers.

Until this year, the UN was giving around $4m (£3m) in cash directly to refugees in Kenya’s camps each month, intended to allow families to buy basic supplies.

Ms Mami, who is diabetic, used the cash to buy food, like vegetables, which were more appropriate for her diet than the cereals handed out at the distribution centre.

Now, she is forced to eat whatever is available.

She also used the money to start a vegetable garden and rear chicken and ducks, which she sold to other refugees, at a market.

But the discontinuation of the cash transfers, locally known as “bamba chakula”, has meant that the market faces collapse.

Traders like Badaba Ibrahim, who is from the Nuba Mountains in Sudan, are no longer able to extend lines of credit to fellow refugees.

The 42-year-old runs a retail shop in the local shopping centre. He says his customers, now unable to purchase food, at times camp at his shop all day, begging for help.

“They will tell you, ‘My children have not eaten for a full day,'” Mr Ibrahim says.

Elsewhere in the Kakuma camp, 28-year-old Agnes Livio serves up food for her five young sons.

They live in a cubicle, which is roughly 2m (6ft 6in) by 2m made from corrugated iron sheets.

Ms Livio serves the food on one large plate for all to share. It is the family’s first meal of the day – at 1400.

“We used to get porridge for breakfast but not anymore. So, the children have to wait until the afternoon to have their first meal,” says Ms Livio, who fled from South Sudan.

Back at Amusait Hospital, medics are feeding a number of malnourished infants through tubes.

Three toddlers and their mothers are being discharged – back to the community where food is scarce and conditions are deteriorating.

And the prospect of more funding is not very promising and unless things change over the next two months, the refugees are staring at starvation come August.

“It is a really dire situation,” admits Mr Okech.

“We do have some signals from some one or two donors about support with that cash component.

“But remember, the very kind and generous US has been providing over 70% – so if you’re still missing 70%… those prospects are not good.”

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

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

People from Haiti, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela who had temporary permission to stay in the country are receiving emails telling them to go.

California senator Alex Padilla was pushed out of the news conference by authorities after he interrupted Noem.

The US defense secretary appeared to acknowledge incidental plans also exist for Panama, but avoided giving direct confirmation.

US Senator Alex Padilla was put in handcuffs after interrupting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a news update on the Los Angeles ICE raids.

The appointees have “committed to demanding definitive safety and efficacy data”, the vaccine sceptic said.

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The cry was frail but I could hear Siwar Ashour even before she was carried out of the coach.

It was the cry of a voice that won’t give up, of a child born in this war and who has now, for a while at least, managed to escape it.

In person six-month-old Siwar is tinier than any visual image can convey. She weighs 3kg (6.6lb) but should be twice that. Her mother, Najwa, 23, smiled as she described her feelings on crossing into Jordan on Wednesday, when her daughter was evacuated from Gaza with other Palestinian children. The first thing she noticed was the quiet.

“It feels like there is a truce,” she told me. “We will spend our night without rockets and bombing with God’s will.”

Siwar was also accompanied by her grandmother Reem and her father Saleh who is blind.

“The first and last goal of this trip is Siwar,” said Saleh. “We want to get her to a safe shore. I want to make sure she is safe and cured. She’s my daughter, my own flesh and blood. And I’m so deeply worried about her.”

It was Reem who carried Siwar off the bus onto Jordanian soil, forming her fingers into a V sign as she came.

“Until now I can’t believe that I have arrived in Jordan. I saw King’s Abdullah’s photo at the border and I felt so happy I got off the bus and made the sign of victory…for the sake of Siwar.”

Back in April when the BBC first filmed Siwar at Nasser hospital in southern Gaza, her mother and doctor said she was suffering from malnutrition because the special milk formula she needed could not be found in sufficient quantity. Her body was emaciated. Najwa said then she could not breastfeed Siwar because she herself was suffering from malnutrition.

Tins of milk formula were found and delivered by the Jordanian Field hospital and by private fundraisers. But with an Israeli blockade on aid, which was partially eased three weeks ago, and an escalating military offensive it was clear Siwar’s condition needed more comprehensive testing and treatment.

In a deal announced between King Abdullah and US President Donald Trump in February, Jordan offered to bring 2000 seriously ill children to Amman for treatment.

Gaza’s devastated medical system cannot cope with the level of sickness and war wounded. Since March, 57 children along with 113 family escorts have been evacuated. Sixteen children came on Wednesday, including Siwar.

Cradled in her grandmother’s arms, Siwar stared with her large eyes at the unfamiliar crowds of police, medical workers, and journalists gathered on the border.

She was taken to an air conditioned hall where Jordanian medics handed out drinks and food to the children. There was peace and plenty.

What was most obvious was the exhaustion of parents and children alike. In several months of covering these evacuations this latest was the most striking in terms of a sense of communal trauma.

All of these families know what it is to be driven from one area to another by Israeli evacuation orders, or to queue for hours in the hope of finding food. If they have not experienced death in their family, they will definitely know friends or relatives who have been killed.

Families are often separated by conflict as parents search for food or medical treatment. One day Najwa took Siwar to hospital and that was the last time husband Saleh was with them for two months.

“I thought she would be gone for just three or four days and then come back, a simple treatment and she’d return,” he recalled. “But I was shocked that it dragged on and took so long…and eventually I realised that her condition is very serious and difficult.”

We travelled from the border to Amman with Siwar and her family. Najwa is pregnant and fell into a deep sleep. Siwar remained awake in her grandmother’s arms. On the same ambulance were two boys suffering from cancer, along with their mothers and two younger siblings. One of the siblings, a boy of four, cried constantly. He was tired and scared.

After an hour we reached Amman and Siwar was transferred into the arms of a nurse and then to another ambulance. Over the next few days she will be tested and given the kind of treatment that is simply impossible under current conditions in Gaza. And her mother, father and grandmother – those who watch over her – will sleep without fear.

With additional reporting by Alice Doyard, Suha Kawar, Matthew Goddard and Malaak Hassouneh.

The killing of Mohammed Sinwar marks the end of the secretive group that planned the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

Their boat was intercepted on Monday as they attempted to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza and deliver a symbolic amount of aid.

Asif William Rahman used top security clearance to print and circulate documents over several months.

At least 39 reportedly die in three incidents near lorries transporting flour and aid distribution sites.

The Columbia University graduate had a key role in student protests over Gaza. Trump said his arrest was the first of “many to come”.

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Almost all those on board an Air India flight bound for London Gatwick Airport that crashed shortly after take-off in western India have died, the airline has confirmed.

There were 242 passengers and crew on board the plane, including 169 Indian nationals, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian.

Officials earlier said some local people would also have died, given the populated area of Ahmedabad where the plane came down.

One passenger, British national Vishwashkumar Ramesh, survived the crash and was treated in hospital for injuries.

Details are still emerging, but these are the people so far confirmed by the BBC to have died.

Three of the British nationals thought to have died in the incident were a family who lived in Gloucester.

Akeel Nanabawa, his wife Hannaa Vorajee and their four-year-old daughter Sara Nanabawa were all on board the flight.

A statement from Gloucester Muslim Society said it passed on its “most sincere and deepest condolences”.

“No words can truly ease the pain of such a profound loss, but we pray that the family may find solace in the tremendous outpouring of compassion and solidarity from communities across the world.

“May their cherished memories provide comfort, and may they rest in eternal peace.”

Adam Taju, 72, and his wife Hasina, 70, were flying back from Ahmedabad with their 51-year-old son-in-law, Altafhusen Patel. All three lived in London.

The couple’s granddaughter, Ammaarah Taju, spoke of her shock and disbelief at her parents home in Blackburn.

She said her father, Altaf Taju, had driven to London to be with his sister as they received updates about the crash from Air India and government officials.

Fiongal and Jamie Greenlaw-Meek, a married British couple, ran a spiritual wellness centre in London.

They posted on Instagram earlier on Thursday saying they were about to board the flight from Ahmedabad airport.

In the video, they were seen laughing and joking with each other about their trip to India.

Also on the plane were Javed Syed and his wife Mariam, from west London.

They were been onboard with their two young children.

Mrs Syed worked at Harrods and Mr Syed worked at a west London hotel.

Ajay Kumar Ramesh was on the flight, sat alongside his brother, the British surviving passenger Vishwashkumar Ramesh.

His cousin, Ajay Valgi, told the BBC that Vishwashkumar Ramesh had called his family to say he was “fine”, but he did not know the whereabouts of his brother.

Vijay Rupani, former chief minister of India’s Gujarat state, was killed in the crash, the country’s civil aviation minister told reporters.

Rupani served as the chief minister of the western Indian state from 2016-21.

He was a member of the governing BJP party.

Singson was a member of the cabin crew on board Air India flight 171, her family said.

Outside the Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad, her cousin, T. Thanglingo Haokip, told the BBC he was trying to get information about her but was unsuccessful.

He added that Singson had a mother and brother who were “wholly dependent on her” as she “was the only breadwinner” in her family.

Hindu temples in Harrow and Neasden are offering special prayers for the Air India crash victims.

Vishwashkumar Ramesh is only passenger to survive the Air India crash that killed 241 people.

India can’t grow enough apples to meet demand but farmers are struggling to raise production.

London-bound flight carrying 242 people crashed shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad, western India.

Experts told the BBC that a flap issue, engine failure or a bird strike are among the possible causes of the crash.

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South Korea’s military says it has suspended its loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border to North Korea, as part of a bid to “restore trust” between both countries.

The move comes a week after the country elected its new president Lee Jae-myung, who had campaigned on improving inter-Korean ties.

Pyongyang considers the loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts an act of war and has threatened to blow them up in the past.

They were paused for six years but resumed in June last year in response to Pyongyang’s campaign of sending rubbish-filled balloons across the border to the South.

In recent years, the broadcasts have included news from both Koreas and abroad as well as information on democracy and life in the South.

Ties between North and South Korea had deteriorated under previous president Yoon Suk Yeol, who was more hawkish towards Pyongyang.

Yoon was impeached and removed from his post for briefly placing South Korea under martial law in December, citing supposed threats from anti-state forces and North Korea sympathisers.

His successor, Lee, had campaigned on a series of pledges, including one to restart dialogue with Pyongyang and to reduce tensions between both countries.

The move aims to “restore trust in inter-Korean relations and achieve peace on the Korean Peninsula”, the military said in a statement.

But organisations advocating to improve the human rights of North Koreans have criticised the suspension.

“The loudspeakers were a vital bridge to the North Korean people, a reminder that they are not forgotten. By turning them off, we’ve only strengthened Kim Jong Un’s efforts to keep his people isolated,” said Hana Song, the executive director of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, based in Seoul.

“The fact that one of the new government’s first actions is to turn off the loudspeakers is a troubling sign,” she added. “It suggests we’re returning to the days of appeasing the North Korean regime.”

But residents living along the border have welcomed the move. They have for months complained that their lives have been blighted by the noise of the loudspeakers coming from both the South and North, sometimes in the middle of the night.

One border region, Ganghwa county, said in a statement: “We hope this decision will lead to an end to North Korea’s noise-based psychological warfare, allowing our residents to return to their normal daily lives.”

According to a report by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, the military’s decision also took into account the fact that the North has no longer been sending rubbish-filled balloons across the border.

However, by suspending instead of terminating the broadcasts, the military is signalling that the speakers could be fired up again if needed, adds Yonhap.

Seoul claims the broadcasts can be heard as much as 10km (6.2 miles) across the border in the day and up to 24km (15 miles) at night.

The suspension comes almost exactly a year after they were first resumed in June 2024 – when both countries had engaged in various retaliatory campaigns involving rubbish and propaganda balloons.

Reuniting with the South had always been a key, if increasingly unrealistic, part of the North’s ideology since the inception of the state – until Kim abandoned the idea earlier last year.

Both countries are technically still at war since the Korean War ended in 1953 without a peace treaty.

A woman was seen punching random passcodes outside Jungkook’s home the day he completed military service.

RM and V were discharged on Tuesday and all seven BTS members would have finished the requirement by the end of June.

The woman has also been ordered to complete eight hours of sexual violence prevention education.

The beloved musical won six awards at the top US honours for threatre.

The failed launch drew harsh criticism from Kim Jong Un and led to the arrest of four officials.

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At least 49 people, including several schoolchildren, have been killed in the floods that have swept through South Africa’s Eastern Cape province as torrential rain and snow have hit parts of the country.

“The numbers are just escalating hour after hour. The situation is so bad on the ground,” provincial premier Oscar Mabuyane said.

Among the bodies recovered are those of four children, a driver and a conductor who were on a bus that was carried away in flood waters as it was crossing a bridge in the town of Mthatha on Tuesday morning.

Mabuyane said rescue efforts were continuing to find four more children who had been in the vehicle that has since been found on a riverbank with no-one inside.

Earlier, an official had told private TV station Newzroom Afrika that eight bodies, including that of the bus driver, had been found.

Public broadcaster SABC reported that three children were rescued alive on Tuesday, found clinging to trees.

It is now known that there were 13 people on the bus, 11 of them schoolchildren.

On Wednesday morning, Mabuyane visited the scene to witness rescue efforts, and to meet affected communities in Decoligny, a village outside Mthatha.

Hundreds of residents had been left displaced, many spending the night in makeshift shelters, he said.

Mabuyane praised those who were assisting officials in locating the missing and for alerting their neighbours when the floods began.

Officials said 58 schools in Eastern Cape had been affected across three districts: OR Tambo, Amathole and Alfred Nzo.

“For all these years that I’ve lived, I’ve never seen something like this,” Mabuyane said.

In neighbouring KwaZulu-Natal, 68 schools across nine districts have been damaged but no fatalities have been recorded.

The heavy snow, rains and gale force winds have also left nearly 500,000 homes without electricity since Tuesday – and state-owned power provider Eskom says efforts are being made to restore connections.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has offered his condolences to the families of those who died as he urged citizens to “display caution, care and cooperation as the worst impacts of winter weather take effect across the country”.

The Eastern Cape – the birthplace of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela – has been worst-affected by the icy conditions, along with KwaZulu-Natal province.

The bad weather has forced the closure of some major roads in the two provinces to avoid further casualties.

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

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Burundi is set to have a one-party parliament following a poll that the opposition says was rigged.

Edgar Lungu’s family says he left instructions that President Hichilema should not come near his body.

The move comes as the continent’s exports face the possibility of high tariffs from the US.

A UN official warns that hundreds of thousands in the sprawling camp are “slowly starving”.

Albert Ojwang did not die of self-inflicted injuries, pathologists say, contradicting the police.

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A Palestinian doctor whose nine children and husband were killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza last month is being evacuated to Italy with her only surviving child.

Dr Alaa al-Najjar and her 11-year-old son Adam al-Najjar were scheduled to fly to Milan in northern Italy on Wednesday evening, Italy’s foreign ministry said. The boy will receive treatment for his injuries there.

Alaa’s husband, Dr Hamdi al-Najjar, and nine of their children were killed after their home in the southern city of Khan Younis was struck on 23 May.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said at the time the incident was being reviewed. The BBC has contacted the IDF for an updated comment.

Footage posted online by Palestinian journalists Mohammad Salama and Hala Asfour on Wednesday showed the boy and his mother getting into a Red Crescent ambulance and waving goodbye as they made their way out of Gaza.

In an interview with Italian newspaper la Repubblica published ahead of their evacuation, Alaa said Adam’s condition was stable but “his left arm is in bad shape, the bones are fractured and the nerves are damaged”.

The mother and son, along with 17 other injured Palestinians, plus their relatives, were set to cross the border to the Israeli city of Eilat on Wednesday, where they would then be flown to various cities in Italy on chartered flights by the Italian Air Force, the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

The flight carrying Adam was due to land at Milan’s Linate airport, the statement said.

Including Wednesday’s mission, 150 Palestinian patients have been evacuated from Gaza to Italy for medical treatment, as well as more than 450 accompanying family members, the foreign ministry added.

Alaa’s husband, Hamdi, had just returned from dropping his wife at Nasser Hospital where they both worked when the deadly attack on their home took place in May.

Hamdi was taken to hospital with brain and internal injuries but died days later.

Adam was severely injured but survived the attack.

A British surgeon who treated him said Adam’s “left arm was just about hanging off, he was covered in fragment injuries and he had several substantial lacerations” when he arrived at the hospital.

At the time, the IDF said in response to reports of the strike that “an aircraft struck several suspects identified by IDF forces as operating in a building near troops in the Khan Younis area, a dangerous combat zone that had been evacuated of civilians in advance for their protection. The claim of harm to uninvolved individuals is being reviewed.”

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 55,104 people have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The killing of Mohammed Sinwar marks the end of the secretive group that planned the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

Their boat was intercepted on Monday as they attempted to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza and deliver a symbolic amount of aid.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said the attack, which the BBC could not independently verify, came after days of threats from Hamas.

At least 39 reportedly die in three incidents near lorries transporting flour and aid distribution sites.

The BBC travels in an ambulance from the Gaza border to Amman with Siwar and her family

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Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has won a vote of confidence in his pro-EU government after his political camp narrowly lost the recent presidential election.

Some 243 parliamentarians voted in favour of the coalition government, with 210 voting against and no abstentions.

This vote has been seen by some as a piece of political theatre on the part of Tusk – a way of showing his broad coalition still has a mandate despite the presidential election defeat.

Wednesday’s vote was also a formality. Tusk’s coalition has a 12-seat majority in the lower house, the Sejm, and only a simple majority in the presence of half the 460 parliamentarians was required to win.

Ahead of the vote, Tusk told the house that they could not “close their eyes” to the reality that his government faces “greater challenges” thanks to the election of Karol Nawrocki, who is supported by the Law and Justice (PiS) opposition.

Poland’s president can veto legislation and Nawrocki – a socially conservative supporter of US President Donald Trump who opposes a federal Europe and Ukraine’s entry to Nato and the EU – is expected to continue to use this power as the conservative incumbent, Andrzej Duda, has done during the first 18 months of Tusk’s term in office.

Tusk’s coalition lacks a big enough parliamentary majority to overturn a presidential veto. Nothing can be done about that, but a reconfirmation by parliament puts Tusk’s government on the front foot again, at least for now.

He has also announced a cabinet reshuffle would take place in July.

“I’m asking you for a vote of confidence because I have the conviction, faith and certainty that we have a mandate to govern, to take full responsibility for what is happening in Poland,” Tusk said.

“We are facing two and a half years, in difficult conditions, of full mobilisation and full responsibility.”

He referred to Polish tennis star Iga Swiatek’s recent unsuccessful attempt to win a fourth straight French Open title at Roland Garros, quoting the Frenchman’s famous quote: “Victory belongs to the most tenacious.”

The opposition in parliament would likely say that Tusk will ultimately be as unsuccessful as Iga Swiatek was at retaining his title. A promise as empty, indeed, as the PiS benches were during Tusk’s speech.

Tusk said his government had been more effective on issues that PiS prides itself on – increased defence spending and tougher on migration.

He argued Poland had returned to Europe’s top table, citing a recently signed bilateral treaty with France in which both countries declared they would come to each other’s mutual aid in the event of an attack.

At the end, he received a standing ovation from his own benches.

Issues close to the government’s small left-wing coalition partner were largely absent from the speech.

There was no mention of his campaign promise to give Polish women legal abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy.

That promise has got nowhere in the face of opposition from conservatives within the coalition and the knowledge that Duda would veto it.

His government has also made little headway, thanks to Duda’s vetoes, on another campaign promise – removing political influence from Polish courts – which caused the European Commission to take legal action against Poland and withhold EU funds.

Brussels released the funds after Tusk’s government promised to undo PiS’s judicial reform, causing PiS to accuse the Commission of double standards.

Tusk said that no-one was as keen as he was to end Poland’s legal chaos, but he knows that President-elect Nawrocki will likely continue to use the veto.

Michal Probierz resigns as Poland manager in the wake of Robert Lewandowski saying he would not play for the country under him.

Poland’s record goalscorer Robert Lewandowski says he will not play for his country while Michal Probierz is manager after being replaced as the team’s captain.

Ute Smeed’s family was pulled apart the day after VE Day – now 83, she has written a book about her story.

Right-wing historian Karol Nawrocki is Poland’s new president, official results show.

Karol Nawrocki’s new role is largely ceremonial, but he could still have a profound impact on Poland, including an early election.

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