Junaid Hafeez: Academic sentenced to death for blasphemy in Pakistan

Security was tightened around the jail where Junaid Hafeez, not pictured, was being sentenced 

A university lecturer in Pakistan has been sentenced to death for blasphemy.

Junaid Hafeez, 33, was arrested in March 2013 and accused of posting derogatory comments about the Prophet Mohammed on social media.

Allegations of blasphemy are taken very seriously in Pakistan, and even an accusation is often enough to make someone a target for hardliners.

Mr Hafeez's first lawyer, Rashid Rehman, was shot dead in 2014 after agreeing to take on the case.

The lecturer has also spent years in solitary confinement, after repeated attacks by other prisoners.

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The sentence was delivered by a court in the Central Jail in Multan, where Mr Hafeez was being held.

Mr Hafeez had studied a Master's degree in the US on a Fulbright Scholarship, specialising in American literature, photography and theatre.

After returning to Pakistan he took up a lecturer position at Bahauddin Zakariya University (BZU) in Multan, where he worked until his arrest.

Prosecution lawyers passed out sweets in celebration after the verdict was read out 

Mr Hafeez's current counsel Asad Jamal said the verdict was "most unfortunate", and told AFP news agency that they would appeal against the decision.

Prosecution lawyers, meanwhile, distributed sweets to their colleagues, who chanted "Allahu akbar" and "death to blasphemers".

Amnesty International said the verdict was "a gross miscarriage of justice" and described it as "extremely disappointing and surprising".

What are Pakistan's blasphemy laws?

Pakistan's blasphemy laws carry strict sentences, including death, for anyone who insults Islam.

The offences relating to religion were first codified by India's British rulers in 1860, and were expanded in 1927. Pakistan inherited these laws when it came into existence after the partition of India in 1947.

These early laws made it a crime to disturb a religious assembly, trespass on burial grounds, insult religious beliefs or to intentionally destroy or defile a place or an object of worship.

Under these laws, the maximum punishment ranged from one to 10 years in jail.

But between 1980 and 1986, a number of clauses were added by the military government of General Zia-ul Haq. 

Asia Bibi's escape from Pakistan death row

Gen Haq wanted to "Islamicise" them and also legally to separate the Ahmadi community, declared non-Muslim in 1973, from the main body of Pakistan's overwhelmingly Muslim population.

The new clauses made it illegal to make derogatory remarks against Islamic personages, introduced life sentences for "wilful" desecration of the Koran, and later, introduced the death penalty or life imprisonment for blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad.

About 40 people are currently on death row for blasphemy - although so far, no executions for blasphemy have been carried out.

The blasphemy laws have been under the spotlight internationally after Asia Bibi, a Pakistani Christian who spent eight years on death row, was freed from prison last year, following a Supreme Court decision which overturned her conviction.

Her release sparked riots, and she had to seek safety in another country.

Mali conflict: Macron says 33 'terrorists' killed by French troops

Emmanuel Macron has been visiting French troops in Ivory Coast 

French forces have killed 33 militants in an operation in Mali, according to President Emmanuel Macron.

Mr Macron made the announcement on a visit to Ivory Coast, where he reiterated France's commitment to fighting jihadists in the region.

It comes weeks after 13 French troops died in a helicopter collision in Mali in the biggest single-day loss of life for its military since the 1980s.

Thousands of French troops have been deployed in Mali since 2013.

Its involvement came after Islamist militants overran parts of the north. With the help of France, Mali's army has recaptured the territory, but insecurity continues and violence has spread to neighbouring countries.

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Some 4,500 French troops serve as part of Operation Barkhane in support of the forces of Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad.

What is the latest?

Mr Macron said the "terrorists" were killed in an operation on Saturday in Mali's Mopti region.

"This morning, thanks to an engagement by our soldiers and the Barkhane forces, we were able to neutralise 33 terrorists, take one prisoner and free two Malian gendarmes who had been held hostage," he said. 

France's army command said the operation took place overnight near the Mauritanian border.

Mr Macron made the announcement in a speech in Ivory Coast, where he has been celebrating an early Christmas with French troops.

He vowed on Friday to work to give "new force" to the fight against Islamist militants in Africa's Sahel - an arid region below the Sahara desert.

It came as West African leaders began a meeting in Nigeria to discuss combating the spread of jihadist violence, which Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari described as the greatest threat to the region.

The UN special representative for West Africa and the Sahel, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, told leaders at the summit that military action alone could not end the violence, as he called for more to be done to help develop the region.

The leaders of five Sahel nations are expected to attend a summit in Paris in January, when Mr Macron said they would clarify the "political and strategic framework" of the operation against militants in the region. 

Moqtada al-Sadr: The firebrand cleric who could calm Iraq

Moqtada al-Sadr has taken the side of anti-government protesters in Iraq 

When the Americans launched the invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003 and plunged Iraq into the violent chaos that continues today, few people outside the country had even heard of a little-qualified young Shia cleric called Moqtada al-Sadr.

Nearly 17 turbulent years later, he is probably Iraq's best-known figure and certainly one of its most powerful - instantly recognisable from his scowly features, yet elusively enigmatic.

Radical, firebrand, maverick, mercurial, quixotic - these are just some of the adjectives routinely attached to a man whose actions and positions have often seemed puzzling and contradictory.

Yet they have allowed him to achieve the extraordinary feat of surviving through years of upheavals during which his followers have battled the Americans and their allies, the Iraqi army, Sunni Islamic State group extremists, and rival Shia militias. 

His current political manifestation, a coalition known Saeroun (loosely translatable as "On The Move"), came out top of the polls in the 2018 general election, putting Moqtada al-Sadr in pole position in the inevitable jostling to form a coalition government (nobody wins an outright majority in Iraqi elections).

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As well as being a leading kingmaker, Moqtada al-Sadr is also a key player behind the upheavals currently shaking the country in protest against corruption and incompetence, themes he has been pursuing for years.

Long lineage

If he was obscure when the US-led invasion began, it was not long before he leapt into prominence.

As soon as Saddam Hussein's grip was loosened, he set about activating the networks and legacy bequeathed him by his esteemed clerical father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, in the teeming, deprived Shia quarters of Baghdad and the cities of southern Iraq.

It's impossible to understand Moqtada al-Sadr's undoubted appeal to the masses without reference to his eminent family clerical background. 

The US-led invasion and occupation in the early 2000s brought Sadr to prominence 

Both his father and his father-in-law, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr, were revered religious figures who cultivated strong social care networks among the Shia poor, and incurred the wrath of Saddam Hussein.

Both these illustrious forebears met violent deaths. Muhammad Baqer was executed by the regime in 1980 along with his sister Amina, and Muhammad Sadeq and two of Moqtada al-Sadr's brothers were cut down in a hail of bullets in 1999 by assassins believed to be agents of Saddam Hussein.

So the concepts of sacrifice, martyrdom and social service are integral elements of the legacy inherited by the young Moqtada al-Sadr, who was only 30 at the time of the invasion.

He is often pictured between images of these two eminences, all three black-turbanned to denote a lineage stretching back to the family of the Prophet Muhammad.

At times, Moqtada al-Sadr has donned a white shroud to signal that he too is ready for martyrdom. Powerful images for the devout Shia masses.

American foe

Barely had the Americans and their allies settled in than Moqtada al-Sadr shot to prominence as the loudest voice calling for their ouster.

Words were followed by action, as he mobilised his followers into the Mahdi Army (a name with messianic Islamic connotations) which US commanders rapidly came to see as their biggest threat in Iraq.

From 2004 onwards, the Mahdi Army clashed repeatedly with US-led coalition forces and was blamed for numerous roadside bombings and other attacks. Moqtada al-Sadr also lambasted Iraqi leaders co-operating with the Americans.

His followers were deeply involved in the Shia-Sunni sectarian atrocities and general gangsterism of 2006-7. In 2008 his men fought pitched battles with Iraqi army troops sent in to tame Basra by then Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. 

Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army has been rebranded as the Peace Companies 

Through successive phases of turmoil since then, Moqtada al-Sadr has been adept and pragmatic in both the military and political spheres.

The Mahdi Army has been through several mutations, and is currently labelled the Peace Companies.

Politically, the Saeroun is the latest morph produced by the broader Sadrist movement.

Such shake-ups have allowed Moqtada al-Sadr to keep a grip on both spheres and prevent complacency.

In the 2018 elections he forbade any of his 34 incumbent MPs from standing again and ran a successful list which, astonishing for a supposedly Shia clerical-based outfit, included communists, secularists and Sunnis.

Critical of Iran

His decisions have often seemed fickle and bizarre, not least when it comes to relations with outside powers.

While he has been consistently against American interference in Iraq, he has often criticised Iran too, for its interference both in Iraq and in Syria. In 2017 he even visited Saudi Arabia, Iran's regional arch-rival.

Yet he took refuge in Iran from 2007 until 2011, studying in the Qom seminaries to try to upgrade his clerical credentials; and in September this year, he was filmed sitting with the Iranian Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the mastermind of Iran's regional influence, Gen Qasem Soleimani - images that caused a frisson through much of Iraq.

For Patrick Cockburn, author of a biography of Moqtada al-Sadr, there is no real contradiction in all this. 

Moqtada al-Sadr's face is instantly recognisable 

"He and his father have pursued a pretty consistent line as populist nationalist religious leaders in the context of Iraqi politics with its multiple power centres at home and abroad. This means that nobody is a permanent friend or a permanent enemy."

"In Moqtada's case, political ambivalence is exacerbated because he is, at one and the same time, leader of the biggest party in parliament, while his followers are playing a central role in the protest movement.

"He is part of the post-2003 Shia political establishment - though the rest of it does not like him - and simultaneously its chief opponent."

As long ago as 2003, an aspiring Shia politician - the now-resigned Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi - was warned by a friend : "Watch out for Moqtada. He has the streets."

That remains the case today.

"If there is to be a resolution of the present crisis, then Moqtada would have to be at the heart of it," says Patrick Cockburn.

Jim Muir has covered the Middle East from the region since 1975, much of the time as a BBC correspondent.

ICC wants to open 'war crimes' investigation in West Bank and Gaza

The ICC has been examining the case brought by the Palestinians since 2015 

The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor says she wants to open an investigation into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian Territories.

Fatou Bensouda said "war crimes" had been or were being committed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, and asked for a ruling on the court's territorial jurisdiction.

The ICC has been examining a case brought by the Palestinians since 2015.

Israel said the move was "baseless".

In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the ICC, of which Israel is not a member, had "no jurisdiction in this case", and that the decision had turned the Hague-based court into a "political tool to delegitimize the State of Israel".

In her ruling, Ms Bensouda said a preliminary examination had gathered enough information to meet all criteria to open an investigation, and that she was "satisfied that there [was] a reasonable basis to proceed" with an inquiry.

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"[T]here are no substantial reasons to believe that an investigation would not serve the interests of justice," she said, adding that she had filed a request with judges to rule on what territory a future inquiry would cover because of the contested legal and factual issues of the territories.

Ms Bensouda did not specify the perpetrators of the alleged crimes but it is understood that in her preliminary inquiries she has been focused on issues like Israel's building of settlements and its military operations in Gaza, BBC Middle East analyst Alan Johnston reports. 

Fatou Bensouda asked for a ruling on the ICC's territorial jurisdiction 

The ICC has been examining what the Palestinians say are war crimes committed by Israel since June 2014, one month before a war between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. In the fighting, 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, were killed while 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed on the Israeli side.

The Palestinians brought the case under the State of Palestine.

Mr Netanyahu described the announcement as an "outrageous decision", saying: "The ICC only has jurisdiction over petitions submitted by sovereign states. But there has never been a Palestinian state."

Earlier, Israel's attorney general said the ICC had no jurisdiction in the West Bank or Gaza. Israel also considers East Jerusalem, which it regards as its sovereign territory, as outside the court's mandate.

Reacting to the ICC decision, B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, said: "Israel's legal acrobatics in an attempt to whitewash its crimes must not be allowed to stop international legal efforts to, at long last, hold it to account."

Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war.

There are some 140 Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which most of the international community consider illegal under international law. Israel disputes this, and last month the US reversed its position and declared it no longer considered the settlements invalid.

Palestinians claim the territories for a future state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Will Gompertz reviews Cats starring Taylor Swift and Jennifer Hudson

Will Gompertz Arts editor@WillGompertzBBC on Twitter

First things first, I want you to know this is a safe space, free from feline puns. There'll be no talk of fur-from-purrfect performances that don't scratch the character's surface or give you paws for thought. That's not happening, not in this review - not a cat-in-hell's chance.

Onward!

We all know about the social media hoo-ha the trailer caused when it was released in the summer. "Urgh!" was the general reaction. "Cats with furry breasts, that's gross! And the scaling, that's rubbish."

Well, those issues remain in the finished, full-length feature, although the director - Tom Hooper (The King's Speech, Les Misérables) - has spoken about throwing a large chunk of cash at fixing the more glaring problems made evident to him by the Twitterstorm.

Money has been spent. You can see that.

Cats the movie is a slick, computer-enhanced celeb-fest with meticulously choreographed set-pieces taking place in a version of London that sits somewhere between Dickensian squalor and Soho glamour. It is a shiny, colourful, sung-through piece with luxury hotel production values.

That the cats are still gendered and sexualised is not such a big deal. The geriatric bodies of the de-aged stars in Scorsese's film The Irishman are far more disconcerting and off-putting. Anyway, the figure-hugging outfits allow Francesca Hayward - a Principal Ballerina at the Royal Ballet - to treat us to her best moves playing Victoria, the white cat.

Francesca Hayward plays Victoria (centre), the white cat 

She is not exactly verbose, but her eyes talk plenty, wearing a nonplussed expression throughout as she tries to figure out what in the name of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats is going on.

Not much, is the answer.

This is a thin tale (see, I can resist) about a gang of feral cats called the Jellicles, who gather once a year to see which of their number will be given the opportunity to ascend to the Heaviside layer.

Dame Judi Dench, who plays wise Old Deuteronomy, has the task of making the Jellicle choice under heavy lobbying from pantomime baddie cat Macavity (Idris Elba).

That's it, basically.

A simple story based on the poems of T.S. Eliot, which Andrew Lloyd Webber illustrated with some very catchy numbers in his hit 1981 musical Cats. I saw that original production as a Clash-mad teenager and surprised my grumpy self by loving every single second. I really do have the T-shirt. Brian Blessed was wonderful as Old Deuteronomy.

More recently, I saw Nicole Scherzinger as Grizabella knock it out of the park in a 2014 revival, where she left absolutely everything in the auditorium with an unforgettable rendition of Memory.

Nicole Scherzinger as Grizabella (front left) starred in a West End production of Cats in 2014 

Jennifer Hudson gives a strong performance as Grizabella in the film 

That job falls to Jennifer Hudson in the film, who is convincing as the ostracised Grizabella, and - more importantly - nails the famous song with aplomb, as you would expect from such a talented individual.

It is a reflection of the singing throughout, which rarely dips below excellent, although both Dame Judi and Elba are clearly primarily actors not singers. That's fine, they know how to sell a song. As does Taylor Swift, who has a welcome cameo playing the mischievous Bombalurina.

Sir Ian McKellen rocks up for a turn as Gus the Theatre Cat, while Rebel Wilson and James Corden pitch in to bring a little light-hearted comedy to proceedings. Oh, and Ray Winstone makes an appearance too, just like he does in those betting ads. 

Singer Taylor Swift plays the mischievous Bombalurina 

Dame Judi Dench as Old Deuteronomy 

It is a roll-call of stars that's a testament to Hooper's well-deserved standing as a top-notch, Oscar-winning director.

But you can't always hit the bullseye, and the helmsman has missed the spot with Cats.

The sum is a great deal less than the parts, however famous and gifted the people playing them happen to be. The story takes forever to get going, and when it does - eventually - it lacks any real conviction or emotion.

The harsh truth is the film feels plastic, it has no heart or soul. That might well be a problem with the source material and its suitability for a transfer from stage to screen. Notwithstanding notable successes, the fact is not everything that is a hit in one medium works in another.

It's not terrible, it's certainly got more going for it than the trailer, but it is some way short of Lord Lloyd-Webber's original.

Citizenship Act protests: Thousands held across India for defying ban

Anti-citizenship law protests across Indian cities

Indian police have detained thousands who defied a ban on protests against a controversial new citizenship law.

The ban has been imposed in parts of the capital Delhi, and throughout the states of Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka.

Mobile data services are suspended in some parts of Delhi close to protest sites. There have been days of protests across India, some violent.

The new law offers citizenship to non-Muslim illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

The police order, based on a severely restrictive law, prohibits more than four people from gathering in a place.

Among those detained are Ramachandra Guha, a prominent historian and outspoken critic of the government, in the southern city of Bangalore; and political activist in Yogendra Yadav in Delhi.

But tens of thousands of people have still taken to the streets in Uttar Pradesh, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Patna, Chandigarh, Delhi and other cities - civil society groups, political parties, students, activists and ordinary citizens took to social media platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, asking people to turn up and protest peacefully.

Hundreds of students, activists and supporters of opposition parties - carrying flags and banners - have gathered in Mumbai's August Kranti Maidan. Bollywood actors and filmmakers are expected to join the demonstration. 

Violent clashes between protesters and police have been reported in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, and city buses have been burnt. 

Police also put up barricades on a major highway connecting Delhi and the city of Jaipur and are checking all vehicles entering the capital. This has led to massive gridlock and many commuters have missed their flights. Indigo, a leading airline, reportedly cancelled 19 flights because its crew members couldn't reach the airport.

A number of metro stations in Delhi have also been shut

The law - known as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) - has sharply divided opinions in India.

The federal government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), says it will protect people from persecution, but critics say it's part of a "Hindu nationalist" agenda to marginalise India's more than 200 million Muslims.

Police have been escorting students into buses and driving them away from the demonstrations 

What is the law about?

It expedites the path to Indian citizenship for members of six religious minority communities - Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian - if they can prove that they are from Muslim-majority Pakistan, Afghanistan or Bangladesh. They will now only have to live or work in India for six years - instead of 11 years - before becoming eligible to apply for citizenship.

The government says this will give sanctuary to people fleeing religious persecution. But critics say its actual agenda is to marginalise India's Muslim minority.

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The fears are compounded by the government's plan to conduct a nationwide register of citizens to ensure that "each and every infiltrator is identified and expelled from India" by 2024. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) has already been carried out in the north-eastern state of Assam and saw 1.9 million people effectively made stateless.

The NRC and the Citizenship Amendment Act are closely linked as the latter will help protect non-Muslims who are excluded from the register and face the threat of deportation or internment.

Why are people protesting against it?

Given that the exercise relies on extensive documentation to prove that their ancestors lived in India, many Muslim citizens fear that they could be made stateless.

Critics also say the law is exclusionary and violates the secular principles enshrined in India's constitution. They say faith should not be made a condition of citizenship.

However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the law "will have no effect on citizens of India, including Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Christians and Buddhists".

Home Minister Amit Shah has defended the law 

The prime minister also told his supporters at a rally on Tuesday that the opposition was "spreading lies and rumours", "instigating violence" and "used its full force to create an atmosphere of illusion and falsehood".

Home Minister Amit Shah told media that "both my government and I are firm like a rock that we will not budge or go back on the citizenship protests".

Europe's Cheops telescope launches to study far-off worlds

Cheops rode into space on a Russian Soyuz rocket flying out of French Guiana 

The European Cheops space telescope has launched to study planets outside our Solar System.

The observatory will follow up the discoveries of previous missions, endeavouring to reveal fresh insights on the nature of distant worlds: What are they made of? How did they form? And how have they changed through time?

The telescope was taken into orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket that set off from French Guiana at 08:54 GMT.

The ride to 700km lasted 145 minutes.

Cheops (short for CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite) is a joint endeavour of 11 member states of the European Space Agency (Esa), with Switzerland in the lead.

Prof Didier Queloz, who won this year's Physics Nobel for discovering the first planet orbiting a Sun-like star in 1995, was on hand to watch the launch.

"I think it's great. We started this project more than 10 years ago and now that's it - we're in the sky," said the chair of the Cheops science team.

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Kate Isaak: "We're a follow-up mission. We know when and where to point"

What will Cheops do?

The University of Bern, together with the University of Geneva, has provided a powerful photometer for the telescope.
The instrument will measure the tiny changes in light when a world passes in front of its host star.
This event, referred to as a transit, will betray a precise diameter for the planet because the changes in light are proportional to the surface of the world. When that information is combined with data about the mass of the object - obtained through other means - it will be possible for scientists to deduce a density.
"From that we can say something about the planet's composition and internal structure," said Esa project scientist Dr Kate Isaak. "And by measuring this for many different planets orbiting different types of stars, those close in and far out - we can also say something about the formation and evolution of planets," she told BBC News.

Didier Queloz: Cheops will prioritise planets for study by later, bigger telescopes

What's significant about this mission?

Some 4,500 planets have been discovered since the late 1990s using a variety of techniques. But there is a feeling now that the science has to move beyond just detection; beyond just counting planets. We need to profile the objects in a more sophisticated way. Do they have atmospheres and how thick are they? What kind of clouds? Do they possess oceans on their surface? Do they have rings and moons? Cheops ought to be able to address such questions just from looking for these tiny dips in light during a transit.
The mission has been given a list of 400-500 targets to look at over the next 3.5 years. Most of these worlds will be in the size range between Earth and Neptune, sometimes called "super Earths". From all the exoplanet surveys conducted to date, this grouping would seem to dominate the statistics. 

Cheops is a project of Esa and 11 of its member states, led by Switzerland 

How sensitive is Cheops?

It will be concentrating on bright stars, but even so - its observations will still be challenging.
When a Jupiter-sized planet passes in front of a Sun-like star, the drop in light as viewed by Cheops will be as little as 1% of the total signal. If an Earth-sized planet does the same thing, the drop-off will be a hundred times smaller again, at 0.01%.
"The difficulty was in building an optical system that is capable of measuring these minute light changes," recalled Prof Willy Benz, the Cheops consortium principal investigator.
"To give you an example, when we wanted to test this in the lab we didn't find a single light source in the world that was stable to this precision to allow us to test our telescope - so we had to build one."

JWST will have a huge mirror and instruments capable of probing the chemistry of atmospheres 

How does it fit with other missions?

The Americans are currently flying a space telescope called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (Tess), a follow-on to the highly successful Kepler observatory. Both are planet-finders and have had input into the candidates soon to be pursued by the 280kg Cheops observatory.
The Nasa ventures have, if you like, provided the shortlist for the European telescope. Its studies will now whittle the targets down still further to find the most promising subjects for the next generation of planet investigators. These missions will have the ability to analyse the chemistry of exoplanet atmospheres, looking for gases that might hint at the presence of life. The most eagerly awaited is the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) due for launch in 2021.
"It's very classic in astronomy that you use a small telescope 'to identify', and then a bigger telescope 'to understand' - and that's exactly the kind of process we plan to do," said Prof Queloz.
"Cheops will now pre-select the very best of the best candidates to apply to extraordinary equipment like very big telescopes on the ground and JWST. This is the chain we will operate."
The 30cm-aperture telescope was a secondary passenger on the Soyuz launch. The primary payload was an Italian radar satellite.
Cheops was released from the Soyuz' Fregat upper-stage at an altitude of 709km, moving at a speed of over 7.5km/s.
One of the early tasks for controllers, who are based in Spain, will be to open a protective door to the optics.
Dr Isaak said: "The next few days are going to be very interesting. We're going to be working at the mission operations centre to check out the spacecraft. And then once that's done, everybody will have a very well deserved Christmas break. And we're back in the New Year to exercise the instrument, to check it's survived the launch, to see how it performs, and look to see then how we're going to process the data which is the end product that we're all very much looking forward to."
Science operations will be run out of the University of Geneva.

Tokyo 2020: Women's Olympic marathon and all race walks rescheduled

Kenya's Jemima Sumgong won the women's marathon at Rio 2016

The women's marathon and all race walks at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics have been rescheduled following an earlier decision to relocate them to Sapporo.

Organisers have changed the dates to assist athletes who must now travel 500 miles north of Tokyo to compete.

The women's marathon has moved from 2 August to 8 August. The men's marathon will still take place on the final day of the Games, as is tradition.

Events were relocated from Tokyo, where peak summer temperatures can reach 30C.

The rescheduled races will take place on four consecutive days from 6-9 August, following consultations between Tokyo 2020 organisers the International Olympic Committee and World Athletics.

Both marathons will start at 07:00 local time (22:00 GMT).

The women's marathon at the recent World Championships in Doha saw 28 of the 68 starters withdraw, despite the race being run at midnight in a bid to negate the hot and humid conditions.

The men's 20km race walk will take place on 6 August, and the 50km event and women's 20km event on 7 August.

Olympic Manifesto: Speech that launched the modern Games to go on sale

The 32nd Olympic Games are to be held in Tokyo next year 

The original Olympic Game Manifesto, an 1892 speech by a French aristocrat outlining his vision for reviving the ancient Games, is to go on sale.

It is expected to fetch between $700,000 and $1m (£520,000-£765,000) at auction in New York.

Pierre de Coubertin argued that athletic endeavours could benefit individuals and society at large.

In 1894 he co-founded the International Olympic Committee and in 1896 the first modern Games were held in Athens.

The handwritten manuscript has never previously been shown in public, although a high-quality copy was exhibited in Copenhagen during the 2009 Olympic Congress.

In the 14-page speech, written in French, Mr De Coubertin says athletic pursuits should no longer be restricted to military training.

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"He wanted something that all nations could take part in, a way to compete against one another, but not in the way that we usually compete against one another, which is going to war," Richard Austin, head of Sotheby's Books & Manuscripts Department, told Reuters news agency.

"So he actually saw the Olympic Games, the re-establishment of them, as a way to promote peace among nations."

The pages also feature scribbled notes, crossings out and revisions as Mr De Coubertin honed his final version. He delivered the speech at the Sorbonne University in Paris at an event marking the fifth anniversary of the French Athletics Association.

"It's really what we'd like to see in original manuscripts. That immediacy of the thought process, it really sort of puts you in the moment," Mr Austin said.

"Really what we all enjoy every four years is a direct result of the manuscript," he added.

Adam Driver leaves interview 'because he can't stand listening to himself'

Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver star in Marriage Story 

Many of us can't bear to listen to or watch recordings of ourselves. But when you're the star of some of the year's biggest films, that can get difficult.

Adam Driver walked out of a US radio interview when they played a snippet of him singing in Netflix's acclaimed drama Marriage Story.

The actor left NPR's talk show Fresh Air during a clip of his performance, the show's executive producer said.

The Oscar-nominated American is also in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

He previously starred in BlacKkKlansman and recently earned praise for The Report, about an investigation into the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" after 9/11.

But despite his success, Driver has previously spoken about his aversion to revisiting his own performances - which was described as a "phobia" in a recent New Yorker profile.

That phobia apparently struck when NPR played a clip of him singing Being Alive - originally from the musical Company - in Marriage Story, according to The Daily Beast.

Executive producer Danny Miller told Variety in a statement: "We don't really understand why he left... We knew from our previous interview with Adam Driver that he does not enjoy listening back to clips of his movies (that isn't unusual, a lot of actors feel that way)."

Driver was in a studio in New York, with host Terry Gross in Philadelphia. Gross suggested he take off his headphones to avoid the pain of listening to the 20-second clip - the same arrangement they used in a 2015 interview.

"But this time around, after the clip concluded we were informed by our engineer in NY that he had walked out of the studio, and then left the building," Miller added. "We still don't understand why Adam Driver chose to leave the interview at that point."

Driver has not yet commented on the exchange.

Five other celebrity interview walk-outs

• Robert Downey Jr accused Channel 4's Krishnan Guru-Murthy of being "a bottom-feeding muckraker" after walking out of a 2015 interview for bringing up his past problems with drugs.
• Coldplay's Chris Martin left an appearance on BBC Radio 4's Front Row in 2008 because he was "not really enjoying this", adding: "I always say stupid things and I think Radio 4 is the place that will most remind me of that." He returned for one final question.
• Front Row had another walkout when Russell Crowe took umbrage with host Mark Lawson's suggestion in 2010 that the actor's accent made Robin Hood sound like "an Irishman who took frequent holidays in Australia".
• Jean Claude Van Damme walked out of a TV interview in Australia in 2017 after saying the questions he was being asked were "boring".
• The PR officer for pop group S Club (formerly 7) halted an interview on late lamented BBC Three showbiz show Liquid News in 2003 after host Claudia Winkleman asked about the amount of money they had made.

Adam Driver and wife Joanne Tucker at the premiere of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

In the 2015 interview, Gross asked Driver why he declined to listen to himself. "I don't want to hear the bad acting that probably was happening during that clip," he replied.

"I've watched myself or listened to myself before, then always hate it. And then wish I could change it, but you can't."

He has also spoken about feeling "like I had to puke" when he was obliged to sit through 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but hid in a green room during the Cannes premiere of BlacKkKlansman, for which he received an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor earlier this year.

Hernan Cortes: Conquistador anchors found off Mexico Gulf Coast

Marine archaeologists take measurements of the anchors - the biggest is almost 4m (13 ft) long 

Two 500-year-old iron ship anchors have been discovered on Mexico's Gulf Coast, potentially offering an insight into the Spanish invasion.

Archaeologists say they may have belonged to the fleet led by Spain's Hernán Cortés, who conquered the Aztec empire in the 16th Century.

Last year another anchor was discovered nearby, containing wood originating from a Spanish tree.

All three were found on the coast just north of the port city of Veracruz.

Originally known as Villa Rica, this was where Cortés' fleet landed in 1519. It became a bustling harbour town in the years following Spain's conquest over the Aztecs in 1521.

Divers located the anchors 10-15m (33-49ft) below the sea, under a thick layer of sediment.

Archaeologists hope the latest discovery will lead to the unearthing of more marine artefacts that can illustrate the history of the Spanish invasion. A further 15 potential sites containing anchors have been identified. 

One of the anchors recovered off the Velacruz coast 

"The Conquest of Mexico was a seminal event in human history, and these shipwrecks, if we can find them, will be symbols of the cultural collision that led to what is now the West," said marine archaeologist Frederick Hanselmann.

Cortés is thought to have destroyed the ships - either by burning, deliberate sinking or beaching - in order to prevent his men from abandoning the voyage.

Earlier this year, Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador asked Spain to apologise to indigenous Mexicans for abuses committed during the invasion.

Australia heatwave: Nation endures hottest day on record

Australia has experienced its hottest day on record with the national average temperature reaching a high of 40.9C (105.6F).

The Bureau of Meteorology (Bom) said "extensive" heat on Tuesday exceeded the previous record of 40.3C set on 7 January 2013.

Taking the average of maximum temperatures across the country is the most accurate measure of a heatwave.

The record comes as the nation battles a severe drought and bushfire crisis.

Forecasters had predicted the most intense heat would come later in the week, meaning the record could be broken again.

As hundreds of fires rage, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been criticised for his response to the natural disasters and his government's climate policies.

Why has this happened now?

Australia heated up this week as a mass of hot air swept east across the continent, with meteorologists forecasting "severe to extreme heatwave conditions".

• Why Australia will see a long and dangerous summer
• Why Australia's PM is facing anger over bushfires

Several individual heat records for towns and cities have already been shattered. On Tuesday, places across the nation's centre recorded temperatures above 45C.

At the start of the week, Perth, the capital of Western Australia, recorded three days in a row above 40C - a record for December.

The dominant climate driver behind the heat has been a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) - an event where sea surface temperatures are warmer in the western half of the ocean, cooler in the east.

• The climate phenomenon linking floods and bushfires

The difference between the two temperatures is currently the strongest in 60 years. The warmer waters cause higher-than-average rains in the western Indian Ocean region, leading to flooding, and drier conditions across South East Asia and Australia.

But Australia has been enduring a drought for a long time - several years in some places. Bom says the dry soil has meant less evaporation - which would normally exert a cooling influence on the landscape.

What is climate change doing to Australia?

According to Bom, Australia has warmed overall by just over 1C since 1910, with most of the heating occurring since 1950.

Nine of Australia's top 10 hottest years on record have all occurred since 2005.

Officials predict that 2019, on the temperatures recorded so far, will be among the four warmest years on record. Bom says it's expecting national mean temperatures to be at least 1.3C above the long-term average of 27.5C.

That heat has helped create the conditions for natural disasters like bushfires, droughts and floods - which have always happened in Australia - to be more frequent and more severe.

"Australia's climate is increasingly influenced by global warning and natural variability takes place on top of this background trend," says Bom.

Vast areas of the nation are struggling through a second and third year of drought. According to the measurements for 2019 so far, the year has been Australia's driest in over a century.

Australia's conservative government has been criticised both at home and internationally for what's seen as an inadequate climate record.

The country is one of the highest emitters of carbon pollution per capita, largely because it is still heavily reliant on coal-fired power. The UN has also said it is among the minority of G20 nations falling short on its emissions promises.

The government has been reluctant to talk about the role of climate change in exacerbating bushfires, a stance which has sparked protests.

• In pictures: Australia's drought seen from the air
• Climate emergency 'clear and unequivocal'
• Sydney protesters demand action on climate change

Critics have accused Mr Morrison of being "missing in action" on the issue. That pressure escalated this week after it emerged he was overseas on holiday.

After local media reported he was in Hawaii, phrases such as #WhereTheBloodyHellAreYou, #WhereisScoMo and #FireMorrison trended on Twitter.

How damaging can heatwaves be in Australia?

Heatwaves are Australia's deadliest natural disaster and have killed thousands more people than bushfires or floods.

Last summer (2018-2019) was recorded as the nation's hottest on record, as average temperatures soared past 30C (86F) for the first time.

At least five of the days were recorded among the nation's top 10 hottest on record.

The heat, which was concentrated over one fortnight in January, caused mass wildlife deaths, sparked bushfires and led to a rise in hospital admissions.

• Australia's deadly relationship with heat
• How Australians weathered the last heatwave
• How 'one-third' of a bat population died in two days

It also sparked furious political discussion about the nation's energy grid, after densely populated city areas were forced to endure blackouts amid the heat.

What does this mean for the fires?

More than 100 blazes are still burning across Australia's east coast - with the high temperatures escalating dangerous conditions.

Bom and fire authorities have warned that the record temperatures have made the fires more volatile and harder to fight.