Israeli strikes in eastern Lebanon have killed 40 people, according to the country’s health ministry.

The strikes also wounded 53 more people around the eastern city of Baalbek in the Beqaa Valley on Wednesday, as Israel’s operation against the Hezbollah militant group continues.

The Israeli military has not commented.

More than 3,000 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon in the past year, but most deaths have happened over the past six weeks as violence between the Iran-backed militants and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) escalated.

Late on Wednesday and earlier on Thursday, further strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs, after the Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate several locations.

This morning, one large airstrike hit a site next to Lebanon’s only international airport. Israel said there were Hezbollah facilities there, without giving more details.

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Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a speech aired on Wednesday that the Lebanese militant group is open for ceasefire negotiations only once “the enemy stops its aggression”.

More attacks in northern Gaza

Meanwhile, what has been a year-long relentless military campaign on the besieged enclave of Gaza raged on with more attacks on the north.

Israel’s ground operation in the region – said to be aimed at stopping Hamas, the militant group ruling Gaza, from regrouping – has extended to a town that has been heavily bombed since the earliest days of the war.

The military said in a statement on Thursday that “troops started to operate” in the area of Beit Lahiya after intelligence indicated the presence of militants there.

Israel launched another major offensive in nearby Jabaliya, a decades-old urban refugee camp, in early October.

It has sharply restricted the amount of aid entering northern Gaza and ordered a full evacuation.

Tens of thousands have fled to nearby Gaza City in the latest mass displacement of the war.

‘Absolute despair’

The war in Gaza, launched on 8 October last year following Hamas’s attack into southern Israel, has so far claimed the lives of more than 43,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

Israel has been criticised by the Norwegian Refugee Council after its secretary general, Jan Egeland, visited northern and central Gaza and said the IDF’s campaign is “in no way a lawful” response to the 7 October attacks last year – when 1,200 people were killed in southern Israel and 250 were taken hostage by Hamas.

Mr Egeland described the situation as “worse than anything I could imagine as a long-time aid worker”.

“What I saw and heard in the north of Gaza was a population pushed beyond breaking point,” he added.

“Families torn apart, men and boys detained and separated from their loved ones, and families unable to even bury their dead. Some have gone days without food, drinking water is nowhere to be found.

“It is scene after scene of absolute despair.”

Mr Egeland continued: “The families, widows and children I have spoken to are enduring suffering almost unparalleled anywhere in recent history.

“There is no possible justification for continued war and destruction. To avert tens of thousands of additional innocent lives lost, we need an immediate cease-fire, release of the hostages and those arbitrarily detained and the start of a real peace process.”

The UK has sanctioned a Russian military officer accused of helping poison former double agent Sergei Skripal with novichok in Salisbury.

The Foreign Office has imposed 56 new sanctions on people and entities linked to Russia, including those in the Wagner mercenary group that operates unofficially on Vladimir Putin’s behalf, and companies based in China, Turkey and central Asia supplying parts to Russia.

Denis Sergeev, who the Met Police charged over the attempted murder of double agent Mr Skripal, has been sanctioned under the chemical weapons sanctions regime.

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“Sergeev provided support in the preparation and use of the chemical weapon novichok in Salisbury…and provided a coordinating role in London on the weekend of the attack,” the Foreign Office said.

Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury, Wiltshire, in March 2018.

Police said nerve agent novichok was applied to the front door of his home.

Three Russians, who police said are GRU military intelligence officers, have been charged in absentia over the incident.

Sergeev was the last to be charged after police said he was acting under the alias Sergey Fedotov.

A public inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, a woman unwittingly killed after coming across a sample perfume bottle containing novichok, heard Mr Skripal believed Mr Putin had ordered the attack on him.

Moscow has repeatedly rejected British accusations the Kremlin was involved.

The inquiry heard the amount of novichok in the perfume bottle was enough to kill thousands of people.

Also included in the latest sanctions round are companies supplying Russia with military equipment being used in its war against Ukraine.

Ten companies based in China, and a handful from Turkey, Estonia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, are on the list for supplying and producing machine tools, microelectronics and components for drones used by Russia in Ukraine.

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Russian-based mercenary groups operating in sub-Saharan Africa with links to the Kremlin are also on the list.

The Foreign Office said they have threatened peace and security in Libya, Mali and the Central African Republic, and have committed widespread human rights abuses across Africa.

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Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “Today’s measures will continue to push back on the Kremlin’s corrosive foreign policy, undermining Russia’s attempts to foster instability across Africa and disrupting the supply of vital equipment for Putin’s war machine.

“And smashing the illicit international networks that Russia has worked so hard to forge.

“Putin is nearly 1,000 days into a war he thought would only take a few. He will fail and I will continue to bear down on the Kremlin and support the Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom.”

Whoever picked up the keys to the White House, this was always going to be a historic election win.

A Kamala Harris victory would have made her the first female president. Donald Trump is the first convicted felon to become POTUS.

In May, Trump became the first former US president to be criminally convicted, for attempting to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign.

He was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to commit election fraud. As it stands, he is due to be sentenced in this case later in November.

Mr Trump, who is due to be inaugurated as president in January, has also been embroiled in other state and federal criminal cases, as well as civil cases. He has pleaded not guilty to charges against him and alleged prosecutions are politically motivated.

Experts say it is likely the federal cases at least will “go away”.

‘Hush money’ – state case

This is the case relating to Stormy Daniels, for which Trump was found guilty of covering up his then lawyer’s $130,000 (£99,000) payment for her silence before the 2016 election, about a sexual encounter she alleges they had a decade earlier.

Trump is due to be sentenced in New York on 26 November – and could face up to four years in prison. His lawyers are now expected to ask Justice Juan Merchan to delay the hearing.

Initially set for July, Judge Merchan has already twice postponed the sentencing. This is in part due to a US Supreme Court ruling made in July, finding that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution over their official acts.

Mr Trump argues the case should be dismissed based on this, which prosecutors dispute.

Election subversion – federal case

Donald Trump is also charged with attempting to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.

He has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges accusing him of a conspiracy to obstruct the process to collect and certify the results.

He was accused of using “dishonesty, fraud, and deceit” and spreading “pervasive and destabilising lies about election fraud”.

Again, this case has been slowed by the US Supreme Court ruling on presidents and immunity.

Election interference – state case

Mr Trump was formally booked at Georgia’s Fulton County jail in August 2023, charged over an alleged conspiracy to reverse his defeat specifically in the battleground state in the 2020 election.

While he was there, he had his mugshot and fingerprints taken before being released on bail. Speaking to media afterwards, he said: “What has taken place here is a travesty of justice. We did nothing wrong. I did nothing wrong and everybody knows that. I’ve never had such support.”

The election result in Georgia was memorably close, triggering two recounts, but ultimately Mr Biden won by 11,779 votes – or 0.23% of the five million cast.

It was certified by both Georgia’s Republican governor Brian Kemp and secretary of state Brad Raffensperger. But Mr Trump did not accept the result.

Prosecutors used state racketeering laws, developed to fight organised crime, to charge him and others, including his former lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Mr Trump and eight of his 14 co-defendants in the case are appealing. They are seeking to disqualify the lead prosecutor, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, over alleged misconduct.

Misuse of classified documents – federal case

Mr Trump had also faced charges over classified documents he allegedly took from the White House, including deleting CCTV footage of his staff moving boxes at his Florida home.

However, a judge threw out this case against him on 15 July.

Details on the US nuclear weapons programmes, potential vulnerabilities of the nation and its allies, and plans for retaliatory military attacks were in some of the documents, the federal indictment said.

Prosecutors are appealing.

Civil cases

He is also appealing several civil lawsuits totalling more than $500m (about £388m), which likely won’t be affected by his win.

These include a civil fraud case in New York state, and cases brought by writer E Jean Carroll, who sued him for allegedly sexually assaulting her in the 1990s, and defaming her while he was president the first time.

The appeals court is expected to rule in the sexual assault case first, with the ruling expected at any time, according to NBC.

Mr Trump is also facing eight pending civil suits related to the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, following his complaints of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

No trial date has been set, but with appeals these could take months or even longer to be determined, NBC reports.

So what happens now?

Experts say his election victory will essentially end the criminal cases brought against him, at least for the time he occupies the White House.

He has previously said that should he become president again, he would fire US Special Counsel Jack Smith – who led the federal prosecutions – “within two seconds” of being sworn in.

While he will indeed have the authority to fire Mr Smith and shut down the federal cases, he will not have the same control over state cases in New York and Georgia.

However, being the US president is a unique position, and means it is unlikely he will face legal consequences in either case during his term in office.

Does that mean he gets off?

Sky News US correspondent James Matthews says this is a possibility, although he adds that the two state cases “are more complicated”.

As president, Mr Trump would have the power “to appoint officials of his choice at the Department of Justice,” Matthews added, and it is “probably fair to say their brief would include dropping the two federal cases”.

Can Trump pardon himself?

This is also a possibility, Matthews said. It falls within the power of the president, although a self-pardon has never been tested legally.

The issue of a pardon doesn’t apply in state cases – however, the conviction and prosecution are weakened by the Supreme Court ruling.

“Nor can evidence of official acts be used in evidence to support the prosecution of a crime committed out of office,” Matthews said.

“In both the New York appeal and Georgia case, expect Trump’s lawyers to point to evidence used to convict him – phone calls and behaviour whilst in the role of president – and claim it relates to official acts and, under the Supreme Court ruling, should be ruled inadmissible.”

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Danny Cevallos, legal analyst for Sky News’ US partner NBC, said he could say with “a lot of confidence” that the federal cases “are going to go away”.

Mr Trump could appoint an attorney general “who will simply do his bidding and dismiss the case,” he said, or he could instruct the justice department “to not even bother with the appeal of the already dismissed federal case. Those cases are, for all intents and purposes, gone”.

Next up, the hush money case. Even if sentencing does happen on 26 November, “in all likelihood, it’s not a case that he’s going to get prison time”, Mr Cevallos said, due to a number of factors.

He added: “You have someone over 75 years old, no guns, no drugs, no violence… in the spectrum of criminals who might be able to get a probation-only or house arrest sentence, Donald Trump is in a high likelihood. That’s even if the case goes forward this month for sentencing, it might not.”

Finally, the case in Georgia is “mired in appeal”, Mr Cevallos said.

“In all likelihood, those cases will be put on pause. And four years from now, who knows what the political situation will be in Fulton County, Georgia.”

Fulton County is “not good at speedy trials in complex cases,” he added, so “Donald Trump’s case may never see the light of day in Georgia”.