Plus: Two years after a monkey was rescued from a global torture ring, she returns to the wild. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
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| Hello. Today, our undercover investigation unveils the "death trap" boats being traded by people smugglers from Germany for crossing the English Channel, showing that the network reaches far beyond French and British shores. Elsewhere, a Gaza paramedic who filmed an Israeli airstrike she was caught up in speaks to the BBC about what she witnessed. We're also reporting on the discovery of two Silk Road cities, tourists paying more to visit Venice and the Northern Lights that weren't. | |
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TOP OF THE AGENDA | ‘Death trap’ Channel boats traded by smugglers in German city |  | Germany has become a central location for the storage of boats and engines eventually used in Channel crossings. Credit: BBC
| A five-month-long BBC investigation has exposed the significant German connection to the lethal human smuggling trade across the English Channel. Essen, in the west of Germany, sees many migrants pass through it, and its location - a four or five-hour drive to Calais - makes it ideal for people smugglers. It is close enough to get boats there fast, but not too close to the more heavily monitored beaches of northern France. For £12,500 ($16,222), our undercover reporter posing as a Middle Eastern migrant is told that he'll be given an inflatable dinghy, with an outboard motor and 60 life jackets, to get across the English Channel. The smugglers boast that they have about 10 warehouses around Essen - and that they can deliver a boat to Calais within a morning or an afternoon. This year is already the deadliest for migrant Channel crossings, UN figures show, while more than 28,000 people have so far made the journey in small, dangerously packed boats.
- 'Merchants of death': A trial is underway in France. In the dock are the alleged members of a gang which is accused of controlling the lion’s share of all Channel crossings from the French coast.
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US ELECTION | All eyes on Texas: The two candidates vying for the White House are taking a break from targeting votes in battleground states today to campaign in the Lone star state.
Trump gains?: Just two months ago, for thousands of party faithful, Kamala Harris was the electoral saviour, writes North America editor Sarah Smith. But latest polls show the race has tightened and is now essentially a tie.
Election polls: Take a look at just how close the race to the White House has become with our poll tracker. |
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WORLD HEADLINES | - Menendez brothers: Two brothers who were convicted of murdering their parents in a case that shook the US more than three decades ago are a step closer to being released on parole, due to new evidence.
| | - Cities discovered: Our understanding of the fabled Silk Road could be about to change following the finding of two medieval cities in the grassy mountains of eastern Uzbekistan.
| - Venice entry fee: Venice is planning to double the number of days it charges an entrance fee, meaning more tourists will have to pay €10 (£8.34; $10.82) to visit the lagoon city next summer.
| - Bruce Springsteen: The Boss (but don't call him that, the BBC learnt) on touring, his wife's cancer diagnosis and why he'll play "until the wheels come off".
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| Gaza paramedic who filmed moments after Israeli strike describes chaos |  | Paramedic Nevine al Dawawi says Jabalia has been "besieged" by Israeli forces. Credit: BBC | Dozens of Palestinians are said to have been killed or wounded in the latest Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza, where Israeli forces say Hamas fighters have regrouped. Earlier this week, a school which was sheltering displaced civilians in Jabalia was hit. A video shot by Nevine al Dawawi, a paramedic, captures her running panic-stricken between the dead and dying as she attempts to tend to them. This story contains some distressing details. |
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| | Jeremy Bowen, International editor |
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| | In the footage, Nevine is agitated and scared, running between civilians lying in their own blood, next to dead bodies. “Calm down,” she screams at a badly hurt woman sitting in a pool of blood. “I swear I don’t have anything to stop the bleeding.” As she played the video back on her phone, she spoke about what she witnessed: “The video showed girls torn to pieces. It also shows men with their intestines protruding from stomach wounds… A 10-year-old boy had his bowels bulging outside his stomach. His mum was killed, injured in the heart.” She says that before the airstrike, they had been "besieged" at the school for 16 or 17 days, and then given an hour to leave. |
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| | - Lebanon: Three journalists have been killed in an Israeli airstrike on a building known to be housing reporters in the south-east of the country, witnesses have told the BBC.
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BEYOND THE HEADLINES | Watch: Tortured monkey returns to wild |
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| |  | Mini was rescued after a BBC investigation exposed a global online monkey torture ring.. Credit: BBC | Mini was taken from the forest in Indonesia as a baby to be tortured on camera. Her ordeal was filmed for the sadistic customers of a global monkey torture ring, exposed by a BBC investigation last year. At the end of two years of rehabilitation, and after her tormenter was convicted, she was finally freed by our reporter Rebecca Henschke. |
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SOMETHING DIFFERENT | New Zealand's 'vanished world' | A bike trail takes travellers on a 315km journey through the Zealandia and its ancient megafauna. | |
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And finally... | A UK woman says she was "slightly disappointed" after mistaking the bright colourful lights of a nearby tomato factory for a mystical aurora. Dee Harrison uploaded three photos showing a pink and red glow, which attracted attention online, before some users pointed out the error. Take a look at the pictures for yourself. | |
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Six Steps to Calm | Discover a calmer future with this course of six science-backed techniques, weekly to your inbox. | |
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