By Tessa Wong Asia Digital Reporter A top US diplomat has questioned the absence of China’s defence minister Li Shangfu, renewing speculation of a possible corruption purge. General Li has been not seen in public for about two weeks and has reportedly missed several meetings. Rahm Emanuel, the US envoy to Japan, speculated on Mr…

By James Gallagher Health and science correspondent Scientists in the UK and Belgium think they have figured out how brain cells die in Alzheimer’s disease. It has been a mystery and a source of scientific debate for decades. But the team, writing in the journal Science, connect the abnormal proteins that build up in the…

By Peter Hoskins & Derek Cai BBC News Taiwan has told billionaire Elon Musk it is “not for sale” after he said the island was a part of China. “Listen up, Taiwan is not part of the PRC [People’s Republic of China] & certainly not for sale!,” foreign minister Joseph Wu said on Mr Musk’s…

By Tiffanie Turnbull BBC News, Sydney Former Australian star cricketer Stuart MacGill has been charged over his alleged role in a large cocaine supply plot. Police arrested the 52-year-old, who played 44 Test matches for Australia, in Sydney on Tuesday. Their investigation was sparked when MacGill was allegedly abducted and beaten in 2021. The former…

By Caroline Hawley BBC News A young woman walks down a street in Tehran, her hair uncovered, her jeans ripped, a bit of midriff exposed to the hot Iranian sun. An unmarried couple walk hand in hand. A woman holds her head high when asked by Iran’s once-feared morality police to put a hijab on,…

BBCCopyright: BBC As Sunday night wore on, the rain got heavier. Sirens sounded. “It really began about 2.30am,” Amna Al Ameen Absais, a 23-year-old medical student born and raised in Derna, said in a phone interview from the nearby city of Tobruk. “The noise was getting much louder. My brother said he could see water…

By Gary O’Donoghue Washington correspondent, BBC News Politically speaking, there are currently two Americas. One is outraged and horrified that the former president, Donald Trump, is facing 91 federal and state criminal charges in what they see as a deep state conspiracy orchestrated in part by Joe Biden’s Department of Justice. The other believes that…

By James Landale & Aoife Walsh BBC News The UK, France and Germany have announced they will retain sanctions on Iran in an attempt to deter the country from selling drones and missiles to Russia. In 2015 Iran agreed to a nuclear deal and, under the terms, some sanctions are due be lifted next month.…

Surveillance footage shows two Transportation Security Administration officers at Miami International Airport allegedly taking cash from bags at a security checkpoint. The officers were arrested in July and are facing charges of grand theft. They have pleaded not guilty.

A selection of the best photos from the African continent and beyond. Images subject to copyright Around the BBC Africa Today podcasts The Comb podcasts