A drone hit a busy beach in southern Russia, killing seven people including three children, local authorities have said.

In social media footage verified by the BBC, a drone can be seen hurtling towards a cliffside before crashing into a fireball on the beach below as tourists look on from the shore and in the water.

The total number of injured reached 40, with 17 people hospitalised, said the governor of the Krasnodar region Veniamin Kondratyev.

He accused Ukraine of "a deliberate strike on civilians". Ukraine has not commented. Both sides deny targeting civilians deliberately.

It is unclear what the drone was targeting. Some Ukrainian Telegram channels have claimed it crashed onto the beach as a result of electronic warfare which jammed the drone's signal. Several eyewitnesses were quoted by Russian media as saying gunfire preceded the explosion, indicating that air defences may have tried to shoot the drone down.

The crash occurred on a beach near the village of Arkhipo-Osipovka on the Black Sea. With its warm climate, long beaches and developed tourist infrastructure it is a popular holiday destination for Russians, in particular since sanctions have curtailed international travel for many.

Tourists and residents of Arkhipo-Osipovka told local media outlets that no sirens sounded ahead of the drone attack.

"We covered ourselves with sun loungers, and didn't see where it exploded," said one holidaymaker. Another person said that while they did not see the drone hit they could hear "gunfire, like a machine gun" followed by an explosion.

"This all happened in front of my children. My child is having a nervous breakdown," said a third.

Over the course of the last year Ukraine has had increasing success in carrying out long-range strikes deep into Russia, hitting energy infrastructure and commercial warehouses it says are used for military purposes.

On several occasions these strikes have caused civilian deaths, with eight people in different Russian cities killed at the weekend.

Russia meanwhile has launched attacks on residential areas and cities from the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, killing and injuring thousands of civilians.

On Saturday, at least nine people were killed and dozens injured in Russian ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The city's mayor said a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district was partially destroyed, trapping people inside. Last week a strike on a building in Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih area killed a family of 10.

In recent weeks Ukrainian strikes have in particular targeted warehouses belonging to Wildberries – a large online retailer dubbed the "Russian Amazon".

The latest strike hit a warehouse in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow, overnight into Monday. Dozens of Wildberries warehouses dotted around Russia – many located thousands of kilometres from the Ukrainian border – have now been hit.

Kyiv says Wildberries depots are used to supply the Russian military, which Moscow denies. Yet the platform sold a variety of military-related goods such as body armour until recently, alongside items with both civilian and drone-production applications.

The River Rhine has fallen to record low levels in several locations in Germany and the Netherlands as prolonged heatwaves continue across Europe.

Last week, levels were measured in Cologne in western Germany and in Lobith, where the Rhine crosses from Germany into the Netherlands, that were lower than at any point since records began.

Other major European rivers with important transport, industrial and agricultural functions have also seen record low levels, including the Danube, which flows through 10 countries, and Italy's Po river.

Drought conditions remained stable and critical in most of Europe and worsened in central-western Europe in mid-July, according to the EU's Drought Observatories.

Renewed heatwave conditions are due to continue for at least another week, pushing temperatures above 40C in many central and southern European countries.

Germany's Low Water Information System (NIWIS) said that 44% of the Rhine measuring stations and 78% of those on the Danube had recorded extremely low water levels at the end of July.

The Rhine - which starts in the Swiss Alps and empties in the North Sea - is one of Europe's busiest waterways. Decreasing water levels have sparked concerns about the economic fallout of having to limit navigation and shipping.

On Friday, the navigable water depth at the chokepoint of Kaub near Koblenz hit the 2018 record low of 25cm, before recovering slightly on Monday.

The Kaub gauging station in western Germany is a key indicator of navigability on the Rhine because it measures how heavily cargo vessels can be loaded. Low water levels measured there can severely restrict inland shipping.

Martin Wolters of the Rhine Waterways and Shipping Authority told German outlet WDR that although shipping on the Rhine was unlikely to be suspended altogether, precautions would have to be taken, such as spreading out cargo among more vessels to make them less heavy.

In time, this can result in higher transport costs and supply bottlenecks, Wolters said.

"There comes a time when loads are too small to be worthwhile or vessel owners are worried about damaging their ships," one commodity trader told Reuters.

Last week, the waters of the Danube fell to the lowest levels for 30 years in several countries, including Serbia and Romania, leaving Hungary's only nuclear power plant on the brink of shutting down.

The facility is operating at a reduced capacity and officials are monitoring whether it may need to be taken offline completely.

The drought of the Danube is also causing serious disruption to power supplies in Serbia and Romania.

Serbia cut output at its coal-fired power plants due to the lack of water disrupting cooling systems, while Romania carried out a controlled explosion on a large rock on the banks of the Danube to increase waterflow to the Cernavoda nuclear power plant.

Two car plants in Romania run by Dacia and Ford have agreed to halt production for more than a fortnight to reduce electricity consumption.

Italy's longest river, the Po, hit a historic low near the northern city of Cremona in late July. Authorities raised the drought alert level to "high" across the entire Po Valley, while experts have issued warnings about potential disruption to the drinking water supply.

Lower river flows at the mouth of the Po have also pushed saltwater from the sea into the riverbed, disrupting the ecosystem and causing serious issues for farmers who use water from the Po to irrigate their crops.

A recent study by scientists at the World Weather Attribution group found that there had been no clear long-term trend towards lower rainfall across much of Europe.

But the researchers said that human-caused climate change was increasing evaporation of moisture through higher temperatures, making drought conditions more likely.

The hot, dry weather also increased the demand for water for household, agricultural and industrial use.

Prolonged periods of drought can also affect the water levels of lakes, impacting availability of freshwater resources.

The EU's Copernicus climate service said the 2022 drought in Europe contributed to increased wildfire activity - which in turn drove higher than average carbon emissions.

Additional reporting by Mark Poynting

Iran says it is negotiating with Oman to reach "an understanding" over a temporary route through the Strait of Hormuz to allow commercial shipping to resume.

The statement came after US President Donald Trump said new talks on ending the war in Iran would begin on Monday - and that he had called off "massive" strikes on the country for this purpose.

Trump did not specify who would take part in the talks. Iran, however, said it was not negotiating with the US - and had no plans to do so.

Tehran's denial appears to have enraged the US president, who later wrote on his Truth Social media platform that Iran's leadership was "unbelievably duplicitous".

"They ask for a meeting, some would say 'beg,' talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they're not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they're only dealing with 'Oman.'," Trump wrote.

At the weekend, Trump had said the "perimeters" of a deal had been agreed - and would include reopening Hormuz, the vital waterway whose closure by Iran has sent oil prices soaring.

Tehran has repeatedly closed off the strait since the US and Israel started attacks on the country in February.

But Trump insisted on Monday that the strait was controlled by the US and no ships would be allowed to reach Iran "unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished".

Speaking on board Air Force One on Sunday, he said Iran "knew the extent" of the planned US strikes "because they saw it forming", adding: "We're talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon."

Trump declined to outline a deadline for a deal to be struck with Tehran, adding: "We'll just see how it is. We're ready to go anytime we want... I'm not looking to kill people."

Trump added that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman - as well as US partners such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar - had urged him against conducting strikes over the weekend.

"We were all set to go," Trump said. "The reason they asked is [that] they think there's a deal," he said. "There's a deal on Hormuz, and there will be a deal on the nuclear."

Global oil prices fell on Monday morning in Asia trading after Trump's announcement. Brent Crude oil was down by 4.5% at $83.98 (£62.26), while US-traded oil was 4.6% lower at $80.74 (£59.85).

Energy prices have fluctuated since the conflict started on 28 February as traders reacted to disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Around 20% of the world's crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) usually flows through the strait.

Vessel-tracking data from trade intelligence company Kpler suggests commercial shipping through the strait has slowed - with 51 vessel crossings between 30 July and 2 August. This is a drop of around 28% compared to the previous 4 days, in which 71 crossings were recorded through the strait.

Talks to end the conflict - mostly facilitated by mediators - collapsed last month, ending a ceasefire agreed in April.

Trump has repeatedly vowed that a negotiated end to the war is near, only for tit-for-tat strikes to resume.

While it is unclear what negotiations may - or may not - be happening away from the public eye, Trump and the White House have often accused Iran of saying one thing privately and another publicly.

Back on 7 April, the US president warned that "a whole civilisation will die tonight" if Iran refused to engage in peace talks.

That threat did result in historic face-to-face talks in Pakistan, led by Vice-President JD Vance. However, those negotiations did not result in a deal.

The following month, he again said that he had withheld planned military operations at the behest of regional allies amid "serious negotiations", which he followed by a promise to hit Iran "very hard".

In the latter instance, he claimed that positive negotiations with Iranian leaders had prompted the operation to be called off.

At times, the White House has suggested that Iran's public statements are also aimed at a domestic audience that includes hardline members of the government and the powerful military who are opposed to making concessions to the US.

Any escalation could prove politically tricky for President Trump's Republican allies.

The Trump administration has been largely dismissive of data showing the war - and its economic impact - are broadly unpopular with Americans, including with many Republicans.

Polls showing widespread dissatisfaction with the handling of the war have prompted alarm among some conservative strategists ahead of the coming November midterms.

One poll, released by Reuters/Ipsos at the end of last week, found that only a third of Americans support the conflict, the lowest total since the war began, with the bulk of respondents pointing to unclear or shifting objectives.

With additional reporting from James Chater, Peter Hoskins, and BBC Verify's Kayleen Devlin and Becky Dale

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The threat to ships carrying oil in the Middle East is at its worst since the Iran war started, experts have said, after a spate of attacks on another key route in the region.

The warning comes after a number of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, an alternative waterway that some tankers had been using since Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has denied Donald Trump's claim that it was in talks with the US over reopening the strait, but said it was speaking to Oman about securing the shipping lane.

"In terms of threat to the trade of crude, we're at the worst period that we've been in since this since this crisis began," said Matthew Wright, an analyst at ship-tracking firm Kpler.

The number of ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz was just eight on Sunday and 11 on Saturday, compared with more than 100 per day before the war began, according to Kpler.

Before the conflict, about 20% of the world's oil and gas passed through the strait.

The temporary peace deal with the US struck in early June led to numbers rising again, but the resumption of strikes between the two countries roughly a month later have significantly reduced traffic.

Many ships have been "going dark" when crossing the strait, meaning they turn off their transponder to avoid detection.

For much of the war, some ships carrying oil from Saudi Arabia had instead passed through an alternative shipping lane in the Red Sea, between the kingdom and west Africa.

But a recent spate of attacks by Yemen's Houthi fighters on Saudi tankers using the alternative waterway has further heightened the risks.

The Iranian-backed Houthi militia announced what it called a blockade on Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports on 20 July and the UK Maritime Trade Operations ⁠agency has reported several attacks on ships in the past week.

"Not only is the ongoing situation in the Strait of Hormuz constraining oil flows, but now a big factor that was helping to balance the market is now also under threat. It's a problem stacked on top of a problem," Wright said.

Tim Wilkins, the managing director of Intertanko, a trade body representing tanker owners, said the industry was "facing a broadening, deteriorating, and increasingly complex security situation".

"We now have the high-risk area going up to Saudi Arabian waters and extending into parts of the Red Sea. So that's having another impact on the market, on freedom of navigation as well."

The number of commodity vessels that passed through the Bab el-Mandeb strait was 28 on Saturday and six of them had their transponders turned off, according to Kpler data, indicating that they were trying to avoid detection.

Not all vessels are deterred from passing through because the Houthi threat is only targeted at Saudi shipping, with the total number sitting at about 50% of pre-attack levels.

But the number of ships loading crude oil for export to Asia passing through has dropped to about four per day, Kpler added, the lowest point since the start of the war.

A spokesperson for Hapag-Lloyd, the global shipping giant, said some of its vessels were still passing through the Red Sea but that it would "monitor developments closely and will adjust the network if circumstances change".

"If the Strait of Hormuz reopened, most ships could probably leave the region fairly quickly. However, restoring normal cargo flows would take much longer.

"Services have been suspended and ships redeployed elsewhere, so a return to normal flows would most likely take three to four months."

Despite the talks with Oman, Iran has said that no deal is imminent that would reopen the strait to normal traffic.

Its foreign ministry ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said any agreement would not lift the current restrictions while US "aggression" continued.

Kpler's Wright said that while talks with Oman could be productive, any deal would need the involvement of the US and the fear is that current negotiations could be a "false start" without concessions on at least one side.

Nonetheless, oil prices fell sharply after Trump said he would cancel planned strikes on Iran based on the potential for upcoming talks.

Brent crude was trading 4.4% lower at $84.05 a barrel, after it fell as much as 7.3% to $81.55 a barrel earlier in the day.

Peter Sand, chief analyst at Xeneta, another ship-tracking company, said the fighting had taken the shipping industry "back to to square one" and that things were in "a terrible state, regardless of which shipping type you're you're looking at".

"The alternatives for getting cargo, whether that's hydrocarbons or container shipping, are really not great… it is really still troubling times with no clarity and no change of fortunes within sight."

Dr Anwar's makeshift clinic is not far from the main protest site in the city of Rawalakot in Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PAK). A spare bedroom acts as a medical supply cupboard, outside is a bed under a red stretched tarpaulin.

Lying across the bed is Shafqat Hussain, shot in the chest. The sheet he lies on is already stained with the blood of previously injured. He is dying.

In the last two months, dozens of people have been killed across the region in clashes between security officials and protesters from the group Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).

This region - home to about 4.5 million people - currently has elections taking place.

The BBC is the first media organisation to gain access to Rawalakot and speak to those at the heart of the protests.

Dr Anwar – whose name, like most of those in this report, has been changed to protect contributors – tells our team: "We have enough supplies to provide first aid. We can stop bleeding, clean and dress wounds, and remove superficial bullets. But patients with serious injuries to the chest, abdomen, head, or other vital organs need advanced hospitals."

Anwar adds: "Even major hospitals would struggle if many such patients arrived at the same time."

Since 27 July, the clinic has treated around 50 to 60 critically injured patients, the doctor says, adding that he personally treated 15 to 20 with gunshot wounds.

Protesters are scared to go to the main hospital because they fear they will be arrested or shot. The authorities have said that claim is inaccurate.

"Most of those who have been killed or seriously injured are young people between about 15-16 years old and 32-35 years old. I have seen very few patients over the age of 40."

At Hussain's bedside is his friend Ali. He wipes his tears away with his shawl.

"We only asked for affordable flour, electricity and our basic rights," he says, trying to steady his breath through his sobs. "Instead, our brothers are being killed. What was our crime? Why are live bullets being fired at us?"

Protesters from the JAAC say the demonstrations are about their rights, with concerns including electricity prices, education and health care. An agreement signed with the Pakistan and PAK governments back in October was meant to help. The JAAC says it's not been implemented.

The local government disagrees. They say the group is armed and that this is about disrupting the ongoing polls. And they are not willing to let the protesters march to the regional capital, Muzaffarabad.

The JAAC was banned in June; they have been labelled foreign-funded terrorists. They reject this characterisation, saying they are peaceful and - though funded from the PAK community abroad - not sponsored by India.

Rather than initiating violence, they say they are the victims and that Pakistan's security forces have been firing on them.

With the internet cut and roads blocked or guarded, getting information has been difficult.

Once in the city, the BBC spoke to multiple families who say they lost loved ones, shot at the protests.

Asma said she was at the protest herself when she heard her only son had been shot.

"We were only asking for our rights. We are not terrorists," she said. "No mother could ask for a better son."

"He knew there were risks, but he believed standing up for justice was important. He used to say that dying for a just cause was an honour."

Salman lost his brother.

"He was the youngest in the family and was loved by everyone. It is a great loss for us," he said.

"At the same time I feel proud that he gave his life while standing up for the rights of the people. He was not fighting or attacking anyone."

Ayub was formerly in the armed forces and lost his son. He did not blame the Pakistan government or military, but instead pointed to the government in PAK, saying they were the ones who called in the paramilitary forces.

"I am a retired soldier. I lived through the martial law periods of General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf," he said. "But I have never seen anything like what is happening now. In my opinion, it is extreme injustice."

"My son had done nothing wrong. None of the protesters had done anything wrong.

The government for PAK has said that it rejects the allegations the security forces fired indiscriminately upon peaceful protesters, saying that law enforcement acted against individuals who were involved in attacks on law enforcement personnel, threatened public safety or obstructed lawful authority.

The BBC witnessed food shortages, with many protesters sharing what they had with one another. Most shops were shuttered. Some told the BBC of efforts to smuggle in bags of rice on the backs of motorbikes.

Some roads into the city have been blocked by felled trees; the authorities say this was done by the JAAC. Other entry points on the main road now have security checkpoints. PAK's government said that it was false to suggest that they were preventing food or medical supplies from entering Rawalakot, saying instead that they were facilitating its entry.

The authorities have repeatedly said that the JAAC are a violent group and have shared drone shots of what they say are JAAC members carrying guns on rooftops.

At news conferences, police officials have displayed guns they say they have taken from the group, telling local media of the injuries and deaths of security officials. They said that under interrogation one man said he had been promised a reward of 10 million rupees (around £26,700) for every paramilitary officer killed.

This was denied by Umar Nazir, a member of the JAAC's core committee and currently in Rawalakot. But security officials have lost their lives.

"Look, perhaps such deaths did occur - I will not comment on that," he said.

"However, I believe that certain elements, who are under their control, were infiltrated into our ranks. Such people were certainly present among us."

"I believe they may have carried out such actions themselves in order to justify their own narrative. I am not making a definitive claim, but there is no evidence whatsoever that any such violence came from our side."

He provided no evidence to support this claim of an alleged infiltration and the authorities have said that the JAAC have engaged in a campaign of disinformation against them, particularly on social media.

At the JAAC protests we attended, the BBC saw no sign of weaponry or shooting, although overnight repeated gunshots were heard. It was unclear who was shooting or at what.

The atmosphere was tense and uncertain; no-one knows when the situation could escalate.

Nazir says that the group are willing to talk, but for now, more protests are planned.

An anti-war politician who tried to challenge Vladimir Putin at the last Russian presidential election says he has fled the country after Moscow declared him a "foreign agent" last month.

Boris Nadezhdin posted a video standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

He said: "Hi everyone. I have some good news. I'm alive and free. Unfortunately, I'm not in Russia at the moment."

Nadezhdin, 63, came to prominence two years ago when he tried to stand for the presidency on an anti-war platform, but was barred because electoral authorities ruled signatures he had submitted were flawed.

He was designated a "foreign agent" by the justice ministry last month after saying he would run as a candidate in September's Duma (parliamentary) elections.

Nadezhdin was accused of spreading false information about the Russian government and calling on people to take part in unauthorised rallies.

The label would have prevented him from taking part in the elections.

He was charged with "displaying extremist symbols" – a reference to an image of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which appeared for 10 seconds in a video reposted by Nadezhdin's social media accounts in November 2023. He called the charge ridiculous.

Last week, he told BBC Russian from an undisclosed location that his prospects were "vague" after he was forced to abandon his campaign to run for parliament.

"If you're a politician, you should participate in politics while you have the opportunity. How do you participate in politics? By participating in elections," he said.

Then on Monday he posted a video to Telegram filmed in Paris, saying: "Right now, I need to get my bearings and figure out what to do next. I'll write about my plans later."

In early 2024, Nadezhdin attempted to run as a presidential candidate on an anti-war manifesto, calling for an end to the hostilities in Ukraine.

At the time, he told the BBC that he was supported by "dozens of millions of people" who did not want "Russia to be in this track of authoritarianism and militarism".

He also said that if he was elected president his first task would be to "stop the conflict with Ukraine, and then to restore normal relations between Russia and the Western community".

However, his criticism of Putin remained measured, leading some to speculate the Kremlin would allow him to run so as to give the election the illusion of being fair.

Nadezhdin was eventually prevented from standing by the Russian electoral commission weeks before the vote took place, on the grounds that more than 15% of the signatures he submitted with his candidate application were flawed.

He contested this but was ultimately unable to run, as were any other credible opposition figures.

On 18 March 2024, Putin claimed a landslide victory which ushered in a fifth term in office.

The next presidential election is scheduled for 2030, when Putin will be 78. A constitutional amendment passed in 2020 reset his term limits, allowing him to remain in power until 2036.

Earlier this year, when the Kremlin began restricting internet access for millions across the country and Russia's economic crisis deepened, Nadezhdin told the BBC that people were "beginning to understand that there is a direct connection between their everyday problems, like healthcare, food prices, problems with internet and the politics of Vladimir Putin."

The Kremlin now wields near-total control over the Russian political landscape, and it is unlikely that anybody would be allowed to challenge Putin's rule.

The opposition figures who could have offered Russian voters an alternative are either in jail, in exile or dead.

Detained Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed to meet a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the first confirmed outside contact with her since a letter to her son two and a half years ago.

In photographs of the meeting released by the military government Suu Kyi appeared to be healthy.

She was detained shortly after the armed forces deposed her government in 2021, and sentenced her to 33 years in jail on what are widely viewed as trumped-up charges, though her sentence has been reduced and she has been moved to house arrest.

Despite repeated assurances from the military that Suu Kyi is alive and well, they have never provided convincing evidence of this.

Her son Kim Aris has in recent months mounted an international campaign demanding proof of life for the 81-year-old democracy icon.

Now a delegation from the ICRC has been allowed to meet her – her first confirmed meeting with anyone outside the government for nearly four years.

Photographs released of her with the ICRC team led by its representative Arnaud de Baecque show Suu Kyi looking relaxed and well, although no details of her state of health have been given, nor of what they talked about.

"The visit was carried out in accordance with the ICRC's standards and procedures for visiting people deprived of liberty. This included the opportunity to speak with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in private," the ICRC said in a short statement.

Kim Aris welcomed the news, saying the pictures appear real and his mother seemed to be in "good health".

"It takes quite a lot for me to say that because the military have spread a lot of disinformation and false news over the years, so I've learnt to ignore a large part of it, but on this occasion, I think we can believe what's been said," he told the BBC's Newshour programme.

The Myanmar government, still headed by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and dominated by the military despite an election held earlier this year, is trying to end its diplomatic isolation in a series of official visits to neighbouring countries.

Among the top demands being made of Myanmar's military leadership is that they end the aerial bombardment of opposition-held areas, start negotiations to end the civil war, and release Aung San Suu Kyi.

They have so far rejected those calls, but the publication of this morning's meeting suggests they may be willing to accede to the last demand.

Two workers who died in a shopping mall explosion that followed a powerful earthquake in Japan last week were asked by a boss to re-enter the building to secure cash.

Their employer, general goods store Habita, has apologised for the "loss of two precious lives".

The two were among 38 people who died in the magnitude 6.8 earthquake in Kumamoto prefecture on 28 July. Seven of the fatalities were from Aeon Mall.

"The instructions given at the time were inappropriate, and I truly regret them," Habita sales director Goji Yuse said, NHK reported.

One of two workers has been named as 22-year-old Kurumi Otake. The identity of the other deceased employee has not been made public.

Otake's family told local media that she ran into a relative outside the Aeon Mall after the earthquake.

She told the relative that she had to go back in because her company had asked her to move money from the cash register into a safe.

This was confirmed by two company representatives, who attended Otake'a wake on Sunday and apologised to her family.

He added that the company was considering how to proceed with the matter, NHK reported.

"Looking back now, it was not worth a life," Yuse told reporters at the wake, Kyodo reported.

Otake's relative described her as someone with a "strong sense of justice". She had supported her mother after her father died three years ago, Asahi Shimbun reported.

"If she hadn't gone back inside the store at that time, Kurumi would still be with her family today," the relative said.

While most people in Aeon mall had evacuated shortly after the earthquake, some employees were still in the building about an hour later, when an explosion ripped through the mall.

"My daughter is not coming back," local media reported her mother as saying.

Habita, founded in 1976 and operates more than ten stores across several prefectures.

Japan and the US have confirmed that they jointly intervened last week to halt a slide in the yen after it fell to a fresh 40-year low.

The joint intervention is the first since 2011, when both countries took coordinated action to weaken the yen after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit eastern Japan.

Both Japan's Ministry of Finance and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have said that they will not hesitate to conduct more joint interventions in the future.

It highlights both countries' efforts to prevent a sell-off in the yen and Japanese government bonds from having an impact on the global economy, including potentially helping to push up borrowing costs for Washington.

Bank of Japan data indicated that Tokyo may have sold almost $59bn of US dollars to buy yen when it intervened in New York markets on Thursday, before Friday's confirmed joint intervention with Washington.

The US has not confirmed the size of its intervention, but a Reuters photograph of a notepad in front of Bessent during a cabinet meeting on Friday read: "To Do: Buy Japanese Yen $5-10 bil".

Shigeto Nagai, head of Japan economics at Oxford Economics, told the BBC: "The United States agreed to participate in the coordinated intervention because it serves its national interests by offering the prospect of significant benefits at a low cost."

The two countries are expected to continue to intervene "intermittently in a coordinated manner for some time", he added.

"Even if the actual amount of intervention is not particularly large, the prolonged sense of vigilance regarding intervention will be effective in deterring speculators."

The yen is historically weak mainly due to Japan having much lower central bank interest rates than other major economies like the US. That makes the Japanese currency less attractive to international investors.

The Bank of Japan last raised interest rates in June, as it increased its main rate to 1% - the highest level since September 1995. In comparison, the US Federal Reserve's benchmark rate is in a range of 3.50% to 3.75%.

Japan also faces other issues including a decades-long slide in its working-age population, low productivity and a heavy reliance on energy imports that are priced in US dollars.

On Monday, Japan's finance ministry said Friday's intervention with the US Treasury Department "countered excessive volatility and disorderly movements in the Japanese yen in recent months".

The "coordinated foreign exchange actions countered disorderly yen movements," Bessent said in a social media post.

"We strongly support Japan's decisive market and monetary steps to correct the substantial undervaluation of the yen," he added.

"They have a weakening yen, and they wanted a little bit of help. And we're always there for Japan," US President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday.

The dollar fell by 0.2% to 157.07 yen after Trump's comments, well off the 40-year high of 164 last month, but rose back to 157.70 yen after the Japanese finance ministry's statement.

Additional reporting by Osmond Chia

Thirty-five people were killed in a drone strike by the Sudanese army on a traditional court session in the north of the Darfur region, a local rights organisation has said.

Dozens more were reported injured in Sunday afternoon's attack.

The Emergency Lawyers Group, which monitors violence against civilians, said the attack occurred in Ghara al-Zawiya village that is controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The army has not commented.

The RSF holds most of Darfur, in the west of the country, as the two sides continue to fight in the three-year-long civil war that has devastated the country, killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions from their homes.

Sunday's "court session was being held under a tree with the participation of local community leaders," a witness is quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

Four tribal leaders and two RSF commanders were among those killed in the attack, according to the witness.

The privately owned Darfur 24 website quoted a local resident who said that two drones flew over the town "before launching more than four missiles".

The Emergency Lawyers Group called for an investigation into the drone strike and condemned the targeting of the court saying that attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure are a "grave violation of international humanitarian law".

It also noted that drones are being increasingly used "to target civilian areas and gatherings, which exacerbates the risks faced by the population".

The RSF has also been accused of war crimes including drone attacks on civilians over the past three years.

The paramilitary group's siege and attack on el-Fasher, one of Darfur's main cities, last year bore the "hallmarks of genocide" according to a UN fact-finding mission.

The RSF has denied the accusations.

Additional reporting by BBC Monitoring

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Massive Attack have said they were "surprised and disappointed" by their treatment by Singaporean authorities after expressing pro-Palestine sentiments during a performance in the city-state.

The group wrote on Instagram on Sunday that its members were "detained by the police, isolated and separately questioned", with some subject to hotel room searches and temporary passport confiscation.

The band's two members held up a Palestinian flag during its 29 July show there and shouted "free Palestine" alongside members of the audience.

Singapore, which has stringent rules on public speech and assembly, subsequently said it had indefinitely banned Massive Attack from returning to the country.

A police spokeswoman told the BBC on Friday that the two band members would not be allowed to re-enter Singapore and were barred from performing there.

Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall were "given stern warnings" concerning alleged offences under two laws that restrict the public display of foreign flags and regulate political expressions at public events.

Massive Attack said that before the show and again at the end "large sections of the auditorium organically led chants of 'Free Palestine', presumably aware but undeterred that this spontaneous expression alone could violate their government's censorship laws".

The band did not address the ban directly, but described the situation as a "surreal experience" and said they "did not imagine that merely holding up the flag of a sovereign state recognised by 157 countries would violate any law".

They added that they were "proud to have made the impromptu expression" with fans in Singapore, who "clearly felt a moral imperative to show solidarity with the people of Palestine".

The band's Instagram post, which has been liked by 146,000 users, was flooded with supportive messages from fans.

"Many of us in Singapore have grown up learning to be careful with what we say, how loudly we say it, and when it's safer to stay silent," wrote one Instagram user.

"Thank you for standing with Palestine... and for showing us that integrity can still take centre stage."

Crystal Lim-Lange, a content creator in Singapore who attended the concert, wrote in an Instagram post that this was a "complex issue".

She said she believed "artists should respect the laws of the countries they perform in".

"However, I also believe art has always challenged ideas, reflected society and sparked difficult conversations. Trying to separate art from politics has never been straightforward."

Massive Attack are known for openly expressing their political stance on a range of issues, including the war in Gaza.

Del Naja was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of showing support for the proscribed organisation Palestine Action during a protest in London.

The 61-year-old sat among hundreds of fellow demonstrators with a sign that read "I Oppose Genocide, I Support Palestine Action".

Singapore has taken a strong stance on public statements on the Israel-Gaza war, with authorities in the multicultural country insisting this was necessary to preserve racial and social harmony.

The home affairs ministry put out a statement in 2023 advising against "the public display and wearing of articles" in relation to the Israel-Gaza war, including foreign national emblems.

Earlier this year, they fined several people for organising an unauthorised walk in support of the Palestinian cause.

"The peace and harmony between different races and religions in Singapore should not be taken for granted, and we must not let external events affect our society," a police spokeswoman had earlier told the BBC.

Massive Attack are currently on a world tour, with performances next week in Australia following the end of its Asia leg.

The BBC has contacted the Singaporean police for comment.

A letter from Morocco's King Mohammed VI has confirmed that the country has named a major highway after US President Donald Trump.

Last week, in a social media post, Trump thanked the king for the honour, but there was not a parallel announcement from the Moroccan authorities.

But Morocco's state press agency has published a letter the king wrote to the president telling him that the name-change was taking place as "a personal expression of my high regard".

Formerly the Tiznit-Dakhla highway, the road enters Western Sahara, most of which Morocco occupies and claims sovereignty over. But part is controlled by the Polisario Front, an armed group seeking independence for the local Sahrawi people.

In 2020, during the first Trump administration, the US recognised Morocco's claim over the disputed region as part of a deal whereby Morocco agreed to normalise relations with Israel.

In his letter, dated 2 July but published over the weekend, King Mohammed highlighted what he called the US president's "historic recognition... of Morocco's sovereignty over its Sahara" saying that it would "forever be etched in the memory of Moroccans, from generation to generation".

"Although our relations have always been rooted in close friendship and constant loyalty, they have never been as vigorous and fruitful as during your two presidential terms," the king added.

The monarch called the 1,055km (655 mile) highway a "strategic axis" linking "north and south of Morocco". Morocco calls Western Sahara its "southern provinces".

A former Spanish colony, Western Sahara - which is considered a "non-self-governing territory" by the UN - has been fought over for five decades in one of Africa's longest conflicts.

The UN has consistently pushed for a solution to the dispute, including a referendum, but the indigenous people of the area have never been able to vote for their own future.

The African Union recognises Western Sahara's independence.

European governments have until recently avoided taking sides. But some, including the UK and Spain have backed Morocco's plan to grant Western Sahara autonomy but deny it independence.

Trump's Truth Social post on the renaming last week also included a video about the road saying that it cost nearly $1bn (£740m) to build.

"I look forward to traveling the entire length of this great highway someday, hopefully soon!" the president wrote.

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

Three days before he was due to sit India's rescheduled medical entrance examination, 17-year-old Kahaan Patel jumped from the sixth floor of his family's apartment building in the western city of Ahmedabad.

When his family entered his bedroom after his death in the early hours of 18 June, it looked as though he might return at any moment.

His laptop was still open. Text books, notebooks, pens and markers lay scattered across his bed and study table. He was wearing his headphones when he jumped. In one corner stood his electric guitar, plugged into an amplifier. On the shelves were Harry Potter novels, a book on Elon Musk, a collection of Goosebumps horror novels and board games. There was a trophy for "consistent academic performance".

"The only thing missing," his father, Prashant Patel, says quietly, "was Kahaan."

Kahaan was one of at least 21 students who died by suicide allegedly upset after this year's National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) was cancelled because of a question paper leak, forcing nearly two million candidates to take the examination again.

Their deaths became the emotional core of an extraordinary youth uprising that spilled onto the streets of Delhi in July, where thousands demanded accountability for repeated exam failures. After days of protests led by the satirical Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), education minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned.

But behind the politics were families like Kahaan's – left trying to understand how an examination scandal had become a matter of life and death.

For Prashant Patel, the story begins not with his son's death but with a dream.

After scoring well in school leaving exams, Kahaan announced that he wanted to become a doctor. There were no doctors in the family. His parents reorganised their lives around that ambition.

They moved from Surat, a diamond and textile hub, to Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city, so Kahaan could attend a better school and prepare seriously. His father, a lawyer, bought a flat close to both the high court and Kahaan's school, commuting between the two cities while Kahaan lived with his mother Veena and younger brother Rihaan.

"He took that decision himself," his father says. "We only supported him."

Kahaan wasn't the sort of teenager consumed only by textbooks.

He played football for his school team, devoured Harry Potter and Percy Jackson novels, loved science-fiction films and spent hours teaching himself hard-rock guitar riffs. He had recently secured a US visitor visa and was excited about returning to Disneyland after the exam, revisiting a place he had first seen on a family holiday 12 years earlier.

He had already tasted success.

After the 2024 paper leak, he took NEET as a practice attempt. His performance convinced both him and his teachers that he was on track.

On 3 May, he emerged from the exam convinced he had done enough and called his father.

"Daddy, I am so happy. I am feeling free, relaxed. I'm going for dinner with my friends. I'm enjoying."

Prashant Patel remembers telling him: "This is your time. Enjoy."

Then came news that the paper had been leaked.

His parents tried to shield him from the reports, but it was impossible. Friends from his coaching classes were already discussing them. He rushed back from a farmhouse holiday with friends, scrambling to retrieve the notes and textbooks he had already given to younger students in case he had to sit the exam again.

Within days the government announced a retest.

"That was when he became angry," his father recalls.

"He kept asking me: 'Is this a system? Is this how it works? What is my fault? What is the fault of students who gave the exam honestly? Why is the government taking it so casually?'"

His father tried to reassure him. "I told him, 'This is the system. What can we do?'"

Now he wonders whether his words sounded like comfort or resignation.

"Maybe he was disappointed. Maybe he was suffering inside."

Nothing suggested a crisis.

On the evening of 17 June, the day before he died, Kahaan chatted cheerfully with his grandfather, who had just landed in Melbourne to be with his daughter, on a video call. Kahaan asked him to bring back Puma football boots, Levi's jeans and jackets.

Later that evening, he spoke to his father. As the call ended, his father offered one final reassurance: "I told him, 'You proved yourself once. You don't have to prove yourself again.'"

Hours later, he was dead.

Only afterwards did friends tell his father how deeply the examination scandal had unsettled him.

"He kept asking why the people responsible couldn't take the right decisions," his father says. "He used to say, 'Is this a joke for our ministers to conduct examinations like this?'"

Kahaan's family was not alone in asking those questions.

Some 770km away, in Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu district, another family was trying to understand an equally unimaginable loss.

Pradeep Kumar was 23.

His father, Rajesh Kumar, is a small farmer in a village where Pradeep was the only student preparing for NEET.

Rajesh, 45, had left school as a child. His wife had never been to school. Becoming a doctor would have made Pradeep one of the first in the family to climb into the professional middle class.

"He would tell me, 'I want to serve people so much that they will remember me,'" Rajesh says.

To finance that dream, he sold land and borrowed more than a million rupees ($10,480; £7,804) from a bank. Coaching in Sikar, one of India's biggest hubs for entrance exam coaching, cost a fortune.

In 2022, Pradeep moved to Sikar for coaching, sharing a rented room with his older sister, Babita Kumari who was preparing for police recruitment exams. Two NEET attempts steadily improved his rank, bringing a government medical college within reach.

Then came his third attempt in May this year. The paper was leaked, the examination was scrapped and a retest ordered – meaning Pradeep would have had to sit NEET for a fourth time.

By then, his life was a relentless 16-hour cycle: up at 4.30am, coaching, self-study until 9pm, sleep, and repeat. Everything else was stripped away.

Pradeep refused to own even a mobile phone.

"I'll buy one after I'm selected," he would tell his father. "Phones distract me."

His only indulgence was a collection of about 10 inexpensive wristwatches, bought from roadside shops on trips between Sikar and home.

After sitting the exam on 3 May, he emerged smiling.

"This time my selection is guaranteed," he told his father.

The family planned to leave Sikar, return to their village and celebrate. Instead, the paper leak surfaced.

"We'll have to prepare again," Pradeep told his father stoically.

On the morning of 15 May, Rajesh did what he had done almost every day for four years. He sent milk and homemade curd to Sikar on the morning bus.

Pradeep phoned to say it had arrived.

He bought fresh okra from a roadside vendor and told his sister, "Go and have your bath. When you come back, we'll cook."

When she returned half an hour later, the room was locked. In the time she had been away, her brother had taken his own life.

"He never told me anything," Rajesh says. "He seemed happy."

His voice hardens when he speaks about the leak.

"I sold my land to educate him. Those who have money buy question papers. Those who study honestly are left behind."

Then he says something that has consumed him ever since.

"The government snatched away my son. If the paper had not leaked, Pradeep would be alive today. He would have been celebrating."

Kahaand and Pradeep came from different Indias.

One was the son of a lawyer who split his week between two cities. The other was the son of a farmer who mortgaged his future for his child's education. One dreamed of Disneyland after NEET. The other postponed buying a mobile phone until he became a doctor.

Yet both fathers are left asking the same question: how did children who believed they had earned their future lose faith in the very system meant to reward them?

For weeks after Kahaan's funeral, Prashant Patel struggled to emerge from grief.

What finally drew him out was the students. He travelled to Delhi twice to join their protests in July.

"I wasn't there for compensation," he says. "I wanted accountability."

Weeks of protests forced education minister Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation on 25 July. The government expressed sympathy for the families of students who died by suicide and promised "maximum compensation in accordance with the rules and regulations".

But for Prashant Patel, the real legacy of the movement lay elsewhere.

He had watched students return to the streets after police action on 20 July.

"I wanted to thank them because they had become Kahaan's voice. If these children can come back after being beaten and still fight for justice," he says, "that gives me strength."

His son never found that voice.

"Kahaan didn't speak out," he says. "Instead, he took his own life."

He pauses.

"The other children spoke."

Then he says the words he wishes every parent – and every government – would hear.

"Our duty is to hear the voices of the young before they fall silent."

Tributes are pouring out across Nepal after an avalanche killed all 10 members of an expedition on Pakistan's Broad Peak, six of whom were Nepalese.

Among them was Nirmal Purja, also known as Nims, a British-Nepali climber most known for climbing the world's 14 tallest peaks in just over six months.

His death has sent shockwaves through the global mountaineering community and through Nepal, where he is a celebrated figure for giving a spotlight to Nepali climbing guides.

Nepal's Prime Minister Balendra Shah was among those who paid tribute, saying his "history of courage, dedication and contribution will always remain inspiring".

In a moving tribute on Facebook, Purja's brother Kamal wrote: "I feel as though I have lost my whole world. My brother was not only my younger brother - he was my heart."

"Although our hearts are broken, we are incredibly proud of you. Your legacy will live forever," he added.

At the Small Heaven School in Chitwan district, near Kathmandu, which Purja had once attended, students and staff lit candles and mourned his death.

Sarbagya Paudel, one of the students at the vigil, said Purja's "bravery has set a great example for our school. Not only has he made our school proud, but he has also brought pride to Nepal".

Purja is still fondly remembered by those who had known him from his schooling days. Shailendra Baral, his school hostel supervisor, told AFP that as a young boy Purja had been "fearless and committed to achieving something".

"He was honest and an obedient student, which made us happy. We found courage in him even when he was a child."

Bahadur Panta, Purja's school friend, said he had prayed for the mountaineer through "sleepless nights" after news broke of his disappearance.

"It was not only me and my friends. I think people all over the world who knew him... prayed for him. But it was his fate, no one could avoid it," he told AFP.

Social media was also awash with tributes to Purja, with many saying that Nepal was in mourning and that the country had lost a "legend" and "many great climbers".

"Their legacy will live on," said one comment.

Purja was catapulted into international stardom after his journey was documented in a 2021 Netflix documentary.

Among his 10-member expedition on Broad Peak, there were six Nepali climbers. The other four climbers were from the US, China, Oman, Pakistan.

They had gone missing after being caught in an avalanche last Thursday on the 8,047m (26,400ft) peak.

Broad Peak is regarded as one of the more challenging mountains for climbers. The first successful ascent was in 1957, when an Austrian expedition reached the summit.

Since then, many more have climbed the mountain, but dozens have lost their lives.

Purja served in the British military for 16 years, 10 of which were spent in the special forces, and he was awarded an MBE by the late Queen in 2018 for his achievements in extreme high-altitude mountaineering.

Purja, who lived with his wife and three-year-old daughter in Hampshire in southern England, said he was also the first Gurkha to climb Everest while serving in the British military.

But as he became more famous, troubling allegations emerged about his conduct.

In 2024, a New York Times article detailed sexual allegations two women made against Purja. One alleged that he had sexually assaulted her in a hotel room in 2023 and another said he had grabbed and propositioned her while guiding her on an expedition to K2 in 2022. He denied these claims through his lawyer.

But while Purja may be the most recognisable face, he was not the only famed climber in the disaster-hit expedition on Broad Peak. The 10-member team also consisted of big names in Nepal's climbing community.

There was Pur Bahadur Gurung - also known as Yukta - who summitted Everest 10 times. In 2024, he was part of the team that discovered a century-old shoe on the world's tallest peak, believed to be that of British climber Andrew Irvine, who vanished on Everest with George Mallory in 1924.

"Standing with you on the summit of Mount Everest is a memory I will cherish forever," fellow mountaineer and guide Uttam Lapraki wrote in a tribute to Yukta on social media.

"The Himalayas have lost one of their finest sons, but your courage, kindness, and legacy will continue to inspire generations of climbers."

Another member of the team, Kili Pemba Sherpa, was part of a historic 2021 expedition that summitted K2, the world's second-highest peak, in winter. That expedition was made up of all Nepali climbers, including Purja.

Imagine Nepal, an expedition company where Kili Pemba worked as a guide, wrote on Instagram that he had "stood with us from the very beginning, from the days we first started climbing together".

"He was humble in every way and never tired of helping climbers when they needed him. He was a foundation of our team and a part of every summit we have ever celebrated."

On Kudrinskaya Square the police cordon has been lifted outside the Balzi Rossi Italian restaurant. Investigators have left the scene.

On Saturday night it had been surrounded by heavily armed police; a string of ambulances and emergency services vehicles had been parked outside.

Standing next to the restaurant's summer terrace I spot signs of what happened here. A shattered window, pock-marked walls - a bomb had exploded with deadly consequences.

Russian state media reports at least three people were killed and 21 injured.

Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee believes that a woman with an improvised explosive device had tried to walk into the restaurant. Russian news outlets have suggested she may have been a courier trying to deliver a package to one of the guests at a private function; she may not have known the true contents of the parcel. A security guard prevented her from entering. Moments later the device detonated.

Since the attack there have been unconfirmed reports that a senior Russian military commander was at the restaurant that night. However, there is still no official confirmation of the guest list and who exactly had been attending the private dinner.

The Kremlin has yet to comment. But in a statement posted on Sunday, the Russian Embassy in Italy blamed the restaurant attack on Ukraine. There was no identification, though, of the Russian military as the potential target.

"It is clear that when planning a terrorist attack on one of the best Italian restaurants in Moscow, the Kyiv terrorists wanted to scare Italians working in Russia..." the embassy declared.

Most of the people I talk to on Kudrinskaya Square have no doubt that there is a direct connection between an explosion in a restaurant and the war in Ukraine.

After all, in the last couple of years there have been several bomb attacks on senior Russian military figures - Moscow has blamed those on Kyiv.

"The explosions, the deaths, they frighten me," Ludmila tells me. "It's probably linked to the war that's going on."

Then I speak to Galina.

"This is the work of Britain, this is your work," Galina says, angry at UK support for Ukraine.

At this point it gets personal.

"I've seen you asking our president nasty questions," Galina says, "It makes me want to come up and punch you."

Alexandra had been walking her dog near the restaurant when the bomb exploded.

"I heard a loud bang. I realised immediately that it was an explosion. I live here in the building. It's terrible."

A bomb in a restaurant is a major news story. Yet over the weekend it received minimal coverage on Russian TV.

The Sunday morning news bulletin on Russia-1 reported on Russian strikes on Ukraine, celebrations of Russian Paratroopers' Day (as well as Russian Railway Workers' Day), plus the latest developments regarding Donald Trump and Iran.

There was no mention of the explosion in the Moscow restaurant.

That may reflect the Russian authorities' desire to avoid a sense of alarm among the public.

For Alexandra, it may be too late.

"I can't get over this, I can't," Alexandra tells me, "Because it basically happened right in front of me. It was terrible. I just don't know how I'm going to get over this."

It's a Friday night. A young woman trudges back to her apartment after a day of work. She enters a spotless kitchen, unloads a bag of groceries, and unwraps a frozen pizza before sliding it in the oven.

What follows is a nightly routine that is almost meditative in its mundanity: she lights a candle and gazes briefly at the snow-covered landscape outside her window, piles a premade salad onto a plate with the pizza, and settles on her sofa to eat in front of the TV.

The tagline that accompanies the scene reads: "POV you're a childfree and single girl that has no friends and lives alone so this is how you spend your Friday night."

At the centre of the video – which has amassed seven million views on TikTok – is Lana Isa, a software sales manager in her 20s based in Toronto.

In addition to chronicling her nightly self-care routines, she takes her almost 400,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram on late-night fast food drives, reading sessions perched on a rock by the lake, even a saga of getting locked out of her apartment in the middle of the night.

Isa is part of a growing, albeit niche corner of the internet where content creators, many of them women, share their daily rituals of living alone, choosing to spotlight a lifestyle that prioritises peace and solitude - the antithesis of social media excess.

For Isa, unveiling the "no friends" aspect of her life was less of a tagline, but the "reality" she had been living for several years.

After switching several high schools, enduring Covid isolation during her college years and moving across the country following her first heartbreak, Isa found herself forced to adjust to living alone with no close friends.

"People don't talk about having no friends a lot... I think it's still what people would consider embarrassing or a little taboo," she says.

When she started sharing the friendlessness of her circumstances on social media, an audience began to connect. Her initial following of around 2,000 followers on TikTok swelled to more than 175,000 in the span of eight months.

"It was eye-opening to see other people who are living the same situation that I've been… and to feel like I could kind of relate to people for the first time in a while."

And relate they did. Isa's comments section filled with people bonding over similar experiences of living alone or having no friends, and finding comfort in "feeling seen".

As with most trends online, curiosity quickly turned to backlash. Isa and similar creators were dubbed "loneliness influencers", with some framing them as part of a new demographic of sad, lonely, childless women in crisis.

Others accused them of romanticising self isolation and encouraging an "air of cosy defeatism" by shunning social connections.

But their reels paint a lifestyle that may be more relatable than many would care to admit. These women take themselves on solo dates, embark on spontaneous road trips, and even push through the awkwardness of attending parties alone.

For Devon Noehring, a full-time content creator and self-proclaimed introvert based in Phoenix, Arizona, it's been "frustrating" to see her solo weekends cooking and lounging at home with her dog reduced to a symptom of female loneliness.

"It's the exact opposite intention of our videos," she says. "I just hate the stigma of alone equalling lonely."

While Noehring does have a close group of friends, growing up she always felt "ashamed" of being the quiet girl with social anxiety. It wasn't until she confessed her insecurities online that she discovered a following of fellow introverts who identified with her struggles.

"Being alone is where I feel my most free and most like myself," she says. "That's how I recharge, and I feel very proud of myself for being independent and doing things alone… I think it's something that should be celebrated."

Some health researchers have been working to "destigmatise loneliness" by differentiating between chronic loneliness forced by circumstance and those who have agency to choose to live and spend time alone.

"Everybody's lonely at some point, but some people are not OK admitting that," says Professor Melody Ding, an epidemiologist researching social connection and loneliness at the University of Sydney. "That can create this false expectation that you have to be socially happy and connected all the time."

But she cautions that while influencers can make being alone look "really appealing", humans still need social connection and it can be detrimental to one's mental and physical wellbeing to be stuck in a cycle of intense isolation.

"We're a social species," says Ding. "We survive better with companionship, with people around us."

She acknowledges that people's social needs vary at different stages of life, but Ding's hope for those who have lost relationships is that they can eventually "de-emphasise" the friendless aspect of their lives and forge new social bonds.

"It's important we have people in our life and it's important these relationships are positive and nourish our lives," Ding adds.

Even in moments when they do feel lonely, these women say loneliness doesn't define their lives, nor do they aspire to remain permanently friendless.

"We never describe ourselves as lonely," says SJ Hoadley, who works as a cleaner in the UK and began documenting her own solo living after discovering Isa's videos. "I think sometimes my lack of friends tends to bother the people around me more than it bothers me."

After leaving a seven-year abusive relationship, she moved to a new area where she knew no one and was confronted with having to rebuild her life. Despite the initial "shock", she eventually started "enjoying and embracing that independence" and "getting to feel comfortable with my own company".

In a social media ecosystem that thrives on flooding our feeds with aspirational living and a perennial state of FOMO (fear of missing out), the rise of solo living influencers can be validating for those who see themselves reflected in the lifestyle, says Dr Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch at the University of Connecticut who specialises in how humans build community online.

"There's been this kind of long growing backlash against the idea that we're seeing everybody's perfect life, their highlight reel," she says.

Oeldorf-Hirsch believes the appeal of solitude content is filling a social need for the creators and their audience, providing some "balance" against the dominance of hyper-glamourised influencer culture.

"We're kind of trending towards these influencers that are more authentic, living their true life," she says. "We just want to find people we relate to."

Hoadley has seen her following surge at times by tens of thousands per day, while Noehring's videos have garnered millions of views across her channels.

Those online connections have made Hoadley excited for a future where she finds a "little group of girlfriends". Noehring hopes to one day organise a real world meet-up with her virtual community, and Isa says the support has given her the "push" she needed to start thinking about making friends again.

"I think that what all the content is saying is: find your path," says Hoadley. "It doesn't have to be this one-size-fits-all that we keep getting pushed on social media."

For Kieran Dodds, photographing people with red hair has become something of an obsession over the past decade.

The 45-year-old, from Edinburgh, who is himself a "proud ginger", began taking pictures in his homeland in 2013 as part of a series examining Scottish identity.

His interest in the subject soon took him to other ginger hotspots such the Russian city of Perm and Jamaica's Treasure Beach.

His 2020 book Gingers spanned the world but after its release he noticed there was a "huge gap".

"I realised I didn't have any American citizens," Kieran told the BBC.

"Then all these people got in touch."

"I was like 'oh wow, of course, the whole world is in the States'," Kieran says. "It's a microcosm."

He says a message from a Native American man who had red hair instantly aroused his curiosity.

"I found it very interesting and it made me think, 'where on earth did it come from?'"

The cover of his latest book - Gingers of America - features Joshua Elliot from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma.

He told Kieran that some of his mother's relatives were German and on his dad's side there were people from England and Sweden, so that could explain where his ginger hair comes from.

"My mom's side has always been involved with the Muscogee tribe and traditions and I've grown up around it," he said.

Joshua knows he does not fit people's expectations of what a Native American should look like, but he said: "Our chief's wife told me it's about your involvement in your community and your tribe, the people around you and what you put back into it.

"Which I really took to heart."

Kieran spoke to a lot of Native Americans on his visits and most knew of a European ancestry which could explain their red hair.

"The thing that surprised me was how early on there were these Scots and Irish marrying Native Americans," he said.

Lottie Wahkinney, a Comanche girl from Oklahoma, has Scottish grandparents, from Hawick.

Her father Jared told Kieran his dad was Comanche but his mum was born and raised in Scotland.

"That's why my Lottie has a good mix of everything going on," Jared said.

"My Scottish grandparents would come over every summer.

"On my first visit to Scotland when I was 22, folks were like, 'Where are your moccasins? Where's your headdress?'.

"I explained 'I wear Nikes'."

While most Native Americans could explain where the ginger gene might have come from, there was one exception - a Cherokee girl called Lakia - whose family knew of no European ancestry.

"It is a totally different colour of red," Kieran said.

"It's deep ruby. That really intrigued me."

In the book, Lakia says that all her family, on both sides, have jet-black straight hair but hers turned red during her childhood.

"Everyone thought, since I was about eight, that I dyed my hair," she said.

"And still now everyone's like, 'what hair colour is that?'."

After meeting Native Americans, Kieran knew there was something in the US he could explore.

Over the next few years, he made seven lengthy trips, often linked to his full-time profession as an environmental photographer.

One state he found surprising was Alabama, a place many in the UK associate with racial segregation and the struggle for civil rights as well as its pioneering space exploration programmes.

"I knew it for racism and Nasa," Kieran said.

"In my head it was stuck in the 60s but Birmingham is an incredibly vibrant city.

"I met a lot of black Americans who had often married someone who is white."

Rachel Releford told Kieran that when she goes out with her daughter Liliana people think she is the nanny or the babysitter.

"I'm like, 'nope, she's mine'," Rachel said.

"I think you still get some people who grew up with the mindset that things need to be segregated.

"Some of my grandparents' friends were a little hesitant when they found out I was dating my husband. They said: 'You're really going to let her date someone of a different race?'

"But my grandparents were like, 'Go for it. He's a cool guy, he's a sweet one.' I love him for who he is. He's a great human being."

Also in Alabama, he met Henry Davis and his young son Henry Davis II.

The older man no longer has any red hair but he says he looked just like his son when he was the same age.

"We're not really sure where it comes from," Henry senior said.

"My dad is turning grey now. He'll get some red in his beard, and then it kind of goes grey.

"So I guess it's from his side."

As someone who grew up with red hair himself, Kieran says he is well aware that ginger can be used as an insult.

However, he says: "I use the word for its descriptive power because red is the colour of fire engines and blood whereas ginger has a golden tone to it.

"You can use it in a kind way."

He says the book uses ginger hair as "a golden thread" that weaves together America's diverse and difficult history in a way which shows a connection between people.

"That's my big idea," Kieran says.

"We are all made of the same stuff and with the ginger hair it shows."

According to Kieran no-one exemplifies this better than a young lad named Cali whom he met in Alabama.

"His background is everything - European, African-American, Hispanic and indigenous as well," he says.

"His gran is white but she was unable to get married to a black guy in Alabama - even after the courts had made it legal.

"She moved to Georgia and had a family there. It's an incredibly diverse family."

In Scotland, it is thought as many as 13% of the population - about 700,000 people - are natural redheads, a higher percentage than anywhere else in the world.

Globally, less than 2% of the population are thought to have red hair but Kieran's research lead him to believe the US figure is higher than that.

"We landed on about 4% for the genetic prevalence," he says.

"If all the gingers in America were gathered in one place, Gingertown would be about 14 million people.

"It's a big city. You would see it from space it would be so bright."

Kieran says the big difference between America and other places is that they tend to have really thought about where they come from.

"Everyone has self-consciously moved from somewhere," he says.

"And that includes the Native Americans, who have been moved from other parts of America.

"That's what makes it interesting."

He says his book is a road trip through the US trying to find out about the country through this unique trait.

For Kieran, the recent men's football World Cup got people excited about the US again in a way they haven't been over the past few years because of political divisions.

He says he was pleased to see people visiting the US and saying "it is not what I expected".

"There's such a lot of amazing people and communities there," he says.

"People you might connect with and agree with on a lot of things.

"I'm quite heartened that the football has revealed that.

"I feel quite patriotic for America now."

A drone hit a busy beach in southern Russia, killing seven people including three children, local authorities have said.

In social media footage verified by the BBC, a drone can be seen hurtling towards a cliffside before crashing into a fireball on the beach below as tourists look on from the shore and in the water.

The total number of injured reached 40, with 17 people hospitalised, said the governor of the Krasnodar region Veniamin Kondratyev.

He accused Ukraine of "a deliberate strike on civilians". Ukraine has not commented. Both sides deny targeting civilians deliberately.

It is unclear what the drone was targeting. Some Ukrainian Telegram channels have claimed it crashed onto the beach as a result of electronic warfare which jammed the drone's signal. Several eyewitnesses were quoted by Russian media as saying gunfire preceded the explosion, indicating that air defences may have tried to shoot the drone down.

The crash occurred on a beach near the village of Arkhipo-Osipovka on the Black Sea. With its warm climate, long beaches and developed tourist infrastructure it is a popular holiday destination for Russians, in particular since sanctions have curtailed international travel for many.

Tourists and residents of Arkhipo-Osipovka told local media outlets that no sirens sounded ahead of the drone attack.

"We covered ourselves with sun loungers, and didn't see where it exploded," said one holidaymaker. Another person said that while they did not see the drone hit they could hear "gunfire, like a machine gun" followed by an explosion.

"This all happened in front of my children. My child is having a nervous breakdown," said a third.

Over the course of the last year Ukraine has had increasing success in carrying out long-range strikes deep into Russia, hitting energy infrastructure and commercial warehouses it says are used for military purposes.

On several occasions these strikes have caused civilian deaths, with eight people in different Russian cities killed at the weekend.

Russia meanwhile has launched attacks on residential areas and cities from the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, killing and injuring thousands of civilians.

On Saturday, at least nine people were killed and dozens injured in Russian ballistic missile strikes on Kyiv, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The city's mayor said a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district was partially destroyed, trapping people inside. Last week a strike on a building in Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih area killed a family of 10.

In recent weeks Ukrainian strikes have in particular targeted warehouses belonging to Wildberries – a large online retailer dubbed the "Russian Amazon".

The latest strike hit a warehouse in the Vladimir region, east of Moscow, overnight into Monday. Dozens of Wildberries warehouses dotted around Russia – many located thousands of kilometres from the Ukrainian border – have now been hit.

Kyiv says Wildberries depots are used to supply the Russian military, which Moscow denies. Yet the platform sold a variety of military-related goods such as body armour until recently, alongside items with both civilian and drone-production applications.

Two Republican senators who had threatened to block Todd Blanche's confirmation as the next US attorney general, now say they are ready to offer their support.

The senators did so after Blanche, currently serving as the acting attorney general, formally withdrew President Donald Trump's plan for a fund that could have been used to compensate people prosecuted over the US Capitol riot by Trump's supporters in 2021.

"We are pleased that the Department of Justice has issued a formal order terminating the anti-weaponization fund," Thom Tillis and John Cornyn, the two holdout senators, said in a joint statement.

The move clears the way for Blanche to be confirmed to his job on a permanent basis.

The proposed $1.8bn "anti-weaponisation" fund was announced earlier this year to settle a lawsuit by Trump against the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) over the leak of his tax returns.

It would have allowed Trump allies to claim compensation for what they say were politically motivated prosecutions by previous administrations.

A second concern held by the two holdout senators was that the deal also shielded the president, his family and their businesses from IRS audits of their past tax returns. They wanted the scope of that to be narrowed.

The US Senate judiciary committee has a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, which could include a vote on Blanche's nomination.

"We look forward to voting to advance his nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee soon" Tillis said.

Trump's Republican Party previously lacked the votes for confirmation of his attorney general nominee happen because Tillis and Cornyn were not sufficiently satisfied by verbal assurances from Blanche that the planned fund was dead.

Tillis had expressed concern that administration will revive the fund and said the president was still harbouring a plan to set up a "payout pot for punks".

He said the political impasse was "unfortunate" because he did consider Blanche, who is Trump's former personal lawyer, to be qualified for the attorney general job.

In a post on X late on Sunday, Blanche said he had "met with committee members and Senators over the past several weeks and addressed any concerns or outstanding questions".

Attached to Blanche's post was a copy of the written order signed by Blanche. The text says: "This Order establishes, beyond any doubt, that there is no Fund."

It was also accompanied by an unsigned memo in which he said the IRS immunity would be limited to the "named parties in the lawsuit". The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Trump, his two sons Donald Jr and Eric, and the Trump Organization.

The fund plan and the tax audit provision prompted alarm among Democrats - and some Republicans - who argued it could result in payment to people who were prosecuted over the US Capitol riot on 6 January 2021, including those convicted of assaulting police officers.

Following the backlash, Blanche abandoned the plan. A federal judge also blocked the fund and expressed concerns that it breached ethical guidelines.

Prior to Blanche's two posts on Sunday, Trump himself gave conflicting statements on the future of both the fund and his nomination of Blanche to be America's top law enforcement official.

On Friday, he said the fund was "dead", but he subsequently threatened over the weekend to put the plan back on the table if members of his party did not move to approve Blanche.

Tillis and Cornyn are due to leave the US Senate when their terms expire in January.

In recent days, Trump had said he was considering withdrawing Blanche's nomination to be attorney general because the process was stalled and renominating him once the pair were out of office.

But there was also a concern, as analysts pointed out, that if Democrats won the majority in the senate during the November midterm elections, it would most certainly doom Blanche's chances of becoming the 88th US Attorney General.

More than 11,000 people have attended a public wake in Dublin for the Irish singer and songwriter Glen Hansard ahead of his funeral on Tuesday.

The Oscar winning musician died in a single vehicle motorbike crash last week.

The wake took place in the Baroque Chapel at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in Kilmainham, Dublin from 11:00 to 16:00 local time.

Trad musicians played under the stained glass window in the chapel, where Hansard's wicker coffin was laid on a table adorned with greenery and apples.

Two of his guitars were at the foot of the coffin, which some mourners laid their hands on as they passed. Others left flowers, cards and notes as a tribute to him.

A queue of hundreds of people who came to pay their respects snaked around the venue on Monday morning.

Among those paying their respects was Hansard's former partner and collaborator Markéta Irglová.

DJ Sinead Ni Mhorda, who was among the first in line on Monday, said Hansard had "a raw talent that is joyous and all-consuming and life-changing".

"He's done so much for Irish music. He really was a trailblazer for a lot of singer-songwriters, he brought people under his wing," she told the Press Association.

"He had such a generous spirit."

Singer songwriter Zoe Hayter met Hansard when she was 10 years old.

"I never, ever thought someone could change your life in the best way possible," she said.

"The whole world is crying, and there'll never be anyone like that, and I'll never stop loving him and I know no-one else will."

Ronan Buckley, who was joined by his wife Rebecca and their two children, Leah and Lily, had been to many of the musician's concerts.

He told BBC News NI that Hansard's outlook on life was "brilliant".

"We felt we had to be here.

"We have the kids here today and they're also fans through us."

"It's just a massive loss to Ireland," added Rebecca.

Danni Rohde is a big fan of Hansard's band, The Frames, and has been to about 50 of their concerts, including one of his final performances on 3 July in Trinity College Dublin.

"It's just such a big part of my late teens, early 20s," she told BBC News NI.

"That whole part of my life is just tied to Frames gigs, when they were playing more or less every weekend.

"It doesn't really feel real."

Her mother Miriam Rohde Joyce said they wanted to come to pay their respects.

Chris James said he saw Hansard busking for the first time 25 years ago in Dublin's Grafton Street.

He was near the top of the queue and said he had been waiting about half an hour.

"I thought it one of the most coolest things I'd ever seen and one of the reasons I picked up and started playing guitar. I met him a couple of times.

"Just a lovely fellow, totally unassuming, wanted the best for everybody, knew that there was an awful lot of hardship around and instead of giving out about it, he just wanted to bring people together."

Hansard's funeral is due to take place in St Patrick's Cathedral on Tuesday in central Dublin at 13:30 local time.

The news of his sudden death shocked the music world and fans alike, with tributes being paid from the likes of Ed Sheeran and Bruce Springsteen, who said he was "heartbroken".

Hansard had a storied career in music across more than three decades, including winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2008 with Marketa Irglova, which featured in the low-budget musical romance film Once.

He and Irglova released three albums as The Swell Season, while Hansard also encountered success as a solo artist with 2016 album Didn't He Ramble being nominated for a Grammy in 2016.

The River Rhine has fallen to record low levels in several locations in Germany and the Netherlands as prolonged heatwaves continue across Europe.

Last week, levels were measured in Cologne in western Germany and in Lobith, where the Rhine crosses from Germany into the Netherlands, that were lower than at any point since records began.

Other major European rivers with important transport, industrial and agricultural functions have also seen record low levels, including the Danube, which flows through 10 countries, and Italy's Po river.

Drought conditions remained stable and critical in most of Europe and worsened in central-western Europe in mid-July, according to the EU's Drought Observatories.

Renewed heatwave conditions are due to continue for at least another week, pushing temperatures above 40C in many central and southern European countries.

Germany's Low Water Information System (NIWIS) said that 44% of the Rhine measuring stations and 78% of those on the Danube had recorded extremely low water levels at the end of July.

The Rhine - which starts in the Swiss Alps and empties in the North Sea - is one of Europe's busiest waterways. Decreasing water levels have sparked concerns about the economic fallout of having to limit navigation and shipping.

On Friday, the navigable water depth at the chokepoint of Kaub near Koblenz hit the 2018 record low of 25cm, before recovering slightly on Monday.

The Kaub gauging station in western Germany is a key indicator of navigability on the Rhine because it measures how heavily cargo vessels can be loaded. Low water levels measured there can severely restrict inland shipping.

Martin Wolters of the Rhine Waterways and Shipping Authority told German outlet WDR that although shipping on the Rhine was unlikely to be suspended altogether, precautions would have to be taken, such as spreading out cargo among more vessels to make them less heavy.

In time, this can result in higher transport costs and supply bottlenecks, Wolters said.

"There comes a time when loads are too small to be worthwhile or vessel owners are worried about damaging their ships," one commodity trader told Reuters.

Last week, the waters of the Danube fell to the lowest levels for 30 years in several countries, including Serbia and Romania, leaving Hungary's only nuclear power plant on the brink of shutting down.

The facility is operating at a reduced capacity and officials are monitoring whether it may need to be taken offline completely.

The drought of the Danube is also causing serious disruption to power supplies in Serbia and Romania.

Serbia cut output at its coal-fired power plants due to the lack of water disrupting cooling systems, while Romania carried out a controlled explosion on a large rock on the banks of the Danube to increase waterflow to the Cernavoda nuclear power plant.

Two car plants in Romania run by Dacia and Ford have agreed to halt production for more than a fortnight to reduce electricity consumption.

Italy's longest river, the Po, hit a historic low near the northern city of Cremona in late July. Authorities raised the drought alert level to "high" across the entire Po Valley, while experts have issued warnings about potential disruption to the drinking water supply.

Lower river flows at the mouth of the Po have also pushed saltwater from the sea into the riverbed, disrupting the ecosystem and causing serious issues for farmers who use water from the Po to irrigate their crops.

A recent study by scientists at the World Weather Attribution group found that there had been no clear long-term trend towards lower rainfall across much of Europe.

But the researchers said that human-caused climate change was increasing evaporation of moisture through higher temperatures, making drought conditions more likely.

The hot, dry weather also increased the demand for water for household, agricultural and industrial use.

Prolonged periods of drought can also affect the water levels of lakes, impacting availability of freshwater resources.

The EU's Copernicus climate service said the 2022 drought in Europe contributed to increased wildfire activity - which in turn drove higher than average carbon emissions.

Additional reporting by Mark Poynting

US President Donald Trump is set to visit the Republic of Ireland next month.

Trump will spend two days at his golf course in Doonbeg, County Clare, where he will attend the Irish Open golfing tournament.

He is also expected to visit Dublin to turn the sod on the new US embassy. His visit will be a large security operation both in Clare, where he has visited before, and the Irish capital.

While the details of his itinerary are still being finalised, BBC News NI understands he will be flying into Dublin on Air Force One first and holding a bilateral meeting with the taoiseach (Irish prime minister) at his official residence, Farmleigh House in the Phoenix Park.

He is also expected to visit the Irish president Catherine Connolly at her official residence Aras an Uachtarain, also in the Phoenix Park, although this is yet to be confirmed.

President Connolly has been critical of President Trump in the past.

He will also turn the sod on the new US Embassy in Ballsbridge in south Dublin, before travelling to County Clare to attend the Irish Open.

An enthusiastic golf fan, Trump said last month that he hopes to travel to Doonbeg to watch the Irish Open.

In a special video message, he told the US Embassy's Fourth of July celebration event that he wants to see "Rory [McIlroy] and all the great players".

"There's nothing better than Irish-American friendship and I have a beautiful place over there - it's one of the best, most beautiful golf courses anywhere in the world," said Trump in his message, which was broadcast on a large screen.

"We have a place that's so top and we have the Irish Open going to be there. They call it Trump National, we sometimes use the name of the location, but it's Trump National Golf Club, and we're looking forward to it.

"We're going to have a tremendous celebration. I think I'm going to come over and I'm going to see it and watch. It'll be something very, very special."

Masters champion Rory McIlroy and fellow European Ryder Cup player Jon Rahm are among the high-profile players set to compete at Trump International Golf Links from 10-13 September.

McIlroy, who will be defending the title he won last year, played a round of golf with Trump in early 2025.

Trump last visited Ireland in June 2019, during his first term in office.

An anti-war politician who tried to challenge Vladimir Putin at the last Russian presidential election says he has fled the country after Moscow declared him a "foreign agent" last month.

Boris Nadezhdin posted a video standing in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

He said: "Hi everyone. I have some good news. I'm alive and free. Unfortunately, I'm not in Russia at the moment."

Nadezhdin, 63, came to prominence two years ago when he tried to stand for the presidency on an anti-war platform, but was barred because electoral authorities ruled signatures he had submitted were flawed.

He was designated a "foreign agent" by the justice ministry last month after saying he would run as a candidate in September's Duma (parliamentary) elections.

Nadezhdin was accused of spreading false information about the Russian government and calling on people to take part in unauthorised rallies.

The label would have prevented him from taking part in the elections.

He was charged with "displaying extremist symbols" – a reference to an image of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, which appeared for 10 seconds in a video reposted by Nadezhdin's social media accounts in November 2023. He called the charge ridiculous.

Last week, he told BBC Russian from an undisclosed location that his prospects were "vague" after he was forced to abandon his campaign to run for parliament.

"If you're a politician, you should participate in politics while you have the opportunity. How do you participate in politics? By participating in elections," he said.

Then on Monday he posted a video to Telegram filmed in Paris, saying: "Right now, I need to get my bearings and figure out what to do next. I'll write about my plans later."

In early 2024, Nadezhdin attempted to run as a presidential candidate on an anti-war manifesto, calling for an end to the hostilities in Ukraine.

At the time, he told the BBC that he was supported by "dozens of millions of people" who did not want "Russia to be in this track of authoritarianism and militarism".

He also said that if he was elected president his first task would be to "stop the conflict with Ukraine, and then to restore normal relations between Russia and the Western community".

However, his criticism of Putin remained measured, leading some to speculate the Kremlin would allow him to run so as to give the election the illusion of being fair.

Nadezhdin was eventually prevented from standing by the Russian electoral commission weeks before the vote took place, on the grounds that more than 15% of the signatures he submitted with his candidate application were flawed.

He contested this but was ultimately unable to run, as were any other credible opposition figures.

On 18 March 2024, Putin claimed a landslide victory which ushered in a fifth term in office.

The next presidential election is scheduled for 2030, when Putin will be 78. A constitutional amendment passed in 2020 reset his term limits, allowing him to remain in power until 2036.

Earlier this year, when the Kremlin began restricting internet access for millions across the country and Russia's economic crisis deepened, Nadezhdin told the BBC that people were "beginning to understand that there is a direct connection between their everyday problems, like healthcare, food prices, problems with internet and the politics of Vladimir Putin."

The Kremlin now wields near-total control over the Russian political landscape, and it is unlikely that anybody would be allowed to challenge Putin's rule.

The opposition figures who could have offered Russian voters an alternative are either in jail, in exile or dead.

Detained Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been allowed to meet a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross, the first confirmed outside contact with her since a letter to her son two and a half years ago.

In photographs of the meeting released by the military government Suu Kyi appeared to be healthy.

She was detained shortly after the armed forces deposed her government in 2021, and sentenced her to 33 years in jail on what are widely viewed as trumped-up charges, though her sentence has been reduced and she has been moved to house arrest.

Despite repeated assurances from the military that Suu Kyi is alive and well, they have never provided convincing evidence of this.

Her son Kim Aris has in recent months mounted an international campaign demanding proof of life for the 81-year-old democracy icon.

Now a delegation from the ICRC has been allowed to meet her – her first confirmed meeting with anyone outside the government for nearly four years.

Photographs released of her with the ICRC team led by its representative Arnaud de Baecque show Suu Kyi looking relaxed and well, although no details of her state of health have been given, nor of what they talked about.

"The visit was carried out in accordance with the ICRC's standards and procedures for visiting people deprived of liberty. This included the opportunity to speak with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in private," the ICRC said in a short statement.

Kim Aris welcomed the news, saying the pictures appear real and his mother seemed to be in "good health".

"It takes quite a lot for me to say that because the military have spread a lot of disinformation and false news over the years, so I've learnt to ignore a large part of it, but on this occasion, I think we can believe what's been said," he told the BBC's Newshour programme.

The Myanmar government, still headed by coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and dominated by the military despite an election held earlier this year, is trying to end its diplomatic isolation in a series of official visits to neighbouring countries.

Among the top demands being made of Myanmar's military leadership is that they end the aerial bombardment of opposition-held areas, start negotiations to end the civil war, and release Aung San Suu Kyi.

They have so far rejected those calls, but the publication of this morning's meeting suggests they may be willing to accede to the last demand.