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Bangladesh votes this week in its first election since a youth uprising overthrew the Awami League government.

Students rose up in 2024 and were met with a deadly crackdown that killed 1,400 people, according to the UN.

It forced the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India after 15 years of increasingly authoritarian rule.

Analysts say the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party is now moving to occupy the liberal-centrist space that Sheikh Hasina's Awami League vacated.

The main Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, has joined forces with a party born out of the student uprising.

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A Hong Kong court jailed pro-democracy tycoon Jimmy Lai for 20 years on Monday after he was found guilty of national security offences last December.

This is the harshest sentence under the controversial national security law, which China says is necessary for the city's stability.

Lai, who is a British citizen, was one of the loudest critics of Beijing, often wielding his pro-democracy paper, Apple Daily, as a tool of protest.

"Today is a dark day for anyone who believes in truth, freedom and justice," his son Sebastien says. "It signifies the total destruction of the Hong Kong legal system and the end of justice."

Lai's daughter Claire described it as a "heartbreakingly cruel" sentence, adding that she has seen her father's health deteriorate over the last five years.

"If this sentence is carried out, he will die a martyr behind bars," she says.

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The Prince and Princess of Wales have said they are "deeply concerned" by the latest revelations about Jeffrey Epstein in their first public statement on the scandal.

A Kensington Palace spokesperson said Prince William and Princess Catherine were "focused on the victims" in light of new information contained in documents related to the late sex offender released in the US.

The statement was released after more allegations against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor emerged, increasing the scrutiny on the former prince.

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Morgan McSweeney has quit as the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer's chief of staff.

In a statement, he took "full responsibility" for advising the PM to appoint Peter Mandelson as US ambassador last year, a decision he called "wrong”.

"Our party and I owe him a debt of gratitude, and I thank him for his service,” Starmer said.

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Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told the BBC the situation facing Sir Keir Starmer is "serious" and suggested he may have been "too slow to do the right things" concerning Lord Mandelson.

He also defended him as "a man of integrity" who "wants to do the right things".

He spoke to the Today programme on Radio 4 in his first interview since the latest Epstein files seemed to show Lord Mandelson gave Epstein advance notice of a €500bn bailout by the EU to save the ailing Euro in 2010.

Another included a 2009 memo in which Brown's policy adviser Nick Butler wrote about the UK's struggling economy and recommended selling off government-held assets to raise public funds.

Brown said this was "market-sensitive" information as people can make money from changes in the values of currencies.

Lord Mandelson has not given the BBC an official statement but his position is that he has not acted in any way criminally and that he was not motivated by financial gain.

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The US wants the war with Russia to end by June and both sides had been invited to the US for talks next week, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"America proposed for the first time that the two negotiating teams – Ukraine and Russia – meet in the United States of America, probably in Miami, in a week. We confirmed our participation," he said.

There was no immediate comment from Washington or Moscow, but US President Donald Trump has been pushing for an end for the conflict since he took office again more than a year ago.

Meanwhile, Russia has continued its attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure - causing further widespread blackouts during freezing conditions.

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US President Donald Trump has said he "didn't see" the part of a social media video which showed a racist clip depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.

The clip - set to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight - was at the end of a 62-second video he shared containing claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The video was later removed.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said "I didn't make a mistake" when asked whether he was going to apologise.

He added he had only seen the beginning of the video before it was posted by a staff member and didn't know it contained that depiction of the Obamas.

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As the Winter Olympics get under way, Tech Now visits the Olympic training centre in Oslo to find out how advances in technology are helping Norway compete at the highest level.

The small nation has won more medals at the Winter Olympics than any other country.

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The list of some of the world's most rich and powerful people with ties to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has lengthened, after the US government released millions of new files from its investigation into the disgraced financier.

The latest drop of material on 30 January included three million pages, 180,000 images, 2,000 videos, and a number of household names like Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Elon Musk.

There is no suggestion that appearing in the documents implies any wrongdoing. Many people who have featured in previous releases have denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Here is what we know so far and about the seismic impact they have had.

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Delegates from the US and Iran have met for indirect talks in Oman, amid continuing fears of a military confrontation between the two countries.

Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the talks were held in a "very positive atmosphere" and that the two countries have agreed to proceed with more negotiations.

He reiterated that Tehran was only prepared to discuss its nuclear programme; Washington has wanted to focus on the country's ballistic missiles and armed proxies as well.

Shortly after the talks ended in Muscat, Washington announced new sanctions to curb Iran's oil exports.

The meeting comes as Donald Trump's 'Armada' maintains its presence in the Middle East, in response to Iran's violent repression of nationwide anti-government protests last month.

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